Shady, Glen and Jessica – French Christian Mission – Nov 9 2015 Current Status

Current Status

The past few years have been all about preparing for France for the Shady family. We have read books on missionaries, watched French movies, had Elizabeth in some French language classes, have interviewed missionaries, and have continued to be heavily involved with Kingdom work whenever possible. All of this has been incredibly valuable, but the main source of preparation is through the MDiv in Theology that I have been working on at Cincinnati Christian University.

This fall semester has been especially wonderful as Dan Lang, Senior Minister, and the Western Hills Church of Christ (WHCC) have allowed me to complete my internship with them. As I look forward to graduating in May of this next year, it is already clear that this internship will be one of the most meaningful aspects of my education experience.

There are three main ways that this internship has already blessed our future ministry in France. First of all, I had the opportunity to help organize and lead Western Hills’ very first Mission HOPE event. On October 4, the entire church met for a brief church service, and then split into teams and went out to serve the community. Our teams painted fences and porches, mowed and trimmed yards, cut and chopped a huge tree, cleaned an area for a local ministry, and built a 35-foot wheelchair ramp, among other things. There were around 150 people involved, and this was truly one of the most rewarding Sunday church experiences of my entire life. For WHCC to entrust this incredibly important day to my guidance and allow me to run with ideas, corral great people, and try new things was incredibly important to my growth as a minister.

Additionally, I told Dan, our preacher, that I wanted to gain more experience preaching. He has been so gracious with his time and wisdom, and this part of my internship reached its peak in being able to share a sermon with the church this month. I preached on the power of corporate, church-wide prayer, and I can definitely say that very few of my own studies for sermons or lessons have motivated more than this one. If you see me, be warned. We might end up praying together! Again, Dan and the leadership’s willingness to allow me to take the stage and run with that opportunity is such a blessing.

This leads to my final takeaway and great area of blessing from this internship. I have benefited from great discipleship. I have once again been convinced that if we want to grow and gain experience and mature, we desperately need each other. Jesus knew what he was doing when he formed a community of believers rather than a bunch of faith-filled hermits.

Thank you again to the Western Hills Church of Church. You are part of a long line of people who have poured yourselves into our lives, and we could not be more grateful for any and all of you who have so selflessly done that for us. You have not only blessed us, but you have blessed people in France who we have not even met yet.