September 27, 2007
Dear Family and Friends,
Hello from Anthony and Rachel! We hope this letter finds you well! We want to share with you some new and exciting news about what God is doing in our lives.
We have been through a lot over the last five years! Although many things have been very difficult, we can see now that this phase has been a crucial time God has used to strengthen, encourage, train and grow us while blessing us with many deep relationships and an awesome church family. Throughout this time, we have fervently been seeking God to know his plan for us. We feel that we have come to an end, of sorts, in this period and are exploring an open door that has been set before us….
Before we let the cat out of the bag, we will start from the beginning of this story: As we mentioned above, we (along with many of our friends and our small group) have been praying about what God wants to do with us – with Rachel's classical music and Anthony's fine art education as well as our training in the arts, music, and outreach ministries we've been involved with – and where God wants to send us. We went along with friends to a Vineyard church planting seminar about a year ago, where our hearts began to stir with thoughts like, "Yeah, we could see ourselves planting a church." Then, around February or March, Rachel wanted to know more about Vineyard churches in France. For Rachel, a love of France began when she started singing French music and learning the language in high school. In fact, we traveled to France for a month after our first year of marriage in 1999 and both knew we could see ourselves living there. More recently, Anthony has begun to interact online with artists in Paris and the surrounding areas and feels very connected to the current happenings in urban street art there. So, Rachel's search put her in contact with Pastor Don Freeman at the Peninsula Vineyard Church in Virginia where they have a developing vision of a Vineyard church-planting movement in France.
Our excitement grew as we learned more about the current spiritual climate in France in addition to things that God is doing there! Statistically, France is 96% Catholic with about 4% actually practicing. The average age of a church-going Catholic is 70+. It is also not unusual these days for a priest to continue serving the church until he dies (literally). France is a secular country, so Catholicism is considered as irrelevant as any other religious body. The average French person has no 'God reference' - being so far removed from any connection to the church - that their need for God or salvation or even help, is drowned out by the intellectualism, sophistication and pride of culture. The ongoing statistic is that there are over 36,000 towns and villages in France with no evangelical witness at all. The population is around 61 million. Evangelical believers number about 0.5% of that total. However, in spite of the gloomy report, the Holy Spirit is sovereignly calling out individuals to serve Him! As Pastor Freeman puts it, "When a French person truly 'receives' the message of grace and mercy; they cling to it with great gusto! French believers are among the most passionate people I've ever had the privilege to know."
We are excited about this movement! We feel that this may be where God is directing us to use our skills and education in the classical arts, our passion to see the church become relevant in news ways, and the heart God has given us both for the French people and the respect and love of their culture.
Now for the fun part – In a little over a month we are going to France for a 10-day exploratory trip along with Pastor Freeman and his team. There are a couple purposes for this trip. For the first three days, the American team will be providing childcare for a conference of Vineyard people in Dijon, France. This will be a huge practical blessing for them and will allow everyone there to attend the conference. For the next seven days, the team will travel to Tour and Nice – both sites where church planting has already begun – as well as other surrounding areas in the south and east parts of France encouraging and building relationships. For us, this is a perfect opportunity to survey and explore what God is doing there – both for us personally as we search for long term direction, but also for our own church body, Vineyard Oak Park, to encourage and raise up others who may have a similar heart for France! We are so eager to learn more about God's heart for the French people and more about what God wants to do through us.
We have included you in our story in hopes that you will also be excited to see what God has next for us and to expand His Kingdom in the process!
Here's what we need:
- Financial Support You can help get us there! Will you consider giving whatever you can… $10, $100, $200 or more! We have faith that we will receive the $3500 that we need. All donations are needed by October 15th. (*Please make checks out to Anthony & Rachel Allen - mailing address: c/o Vineyard Oak Park Church, 705 Jackson Blvd, Oak Park, IL 60304. Or donate through PayPal... button on the side.)
- Prayer Support We pray that God will share more of His heart with us while we are there and that we will receive specific instruction / guidance in a supernatural way.
"Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name, make known among the nations what he has done! Sing to him, sing praises to him; tell of all his wonderful acts. Glory in his Holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice. Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always." Psalm 105:1-4
Thank you for spending the time to read over our story! We look forward to hearing from you!
Avec l'amour ... with love,
Anthony & Rachel Allen
