France
Go into all the world and preach to all creation
June 2010
These Strange Ashes:
A year ago I sat in a hospital room with Leah on her Sixteenth birthday, waiting for the Dr to come by and give her a green light to go to America. He walked in and quietly, gently told her to lay down…and not to move. Dr Horvoka looked at us and said he needed to operate on her back on Thursday – I explained to him that wasn’t possible because she was leaving for the US on Wednesday. He persevered, telling us that she mustn’t move, as she risked being paralysed, I asked if we couldn’t take her home for the evening for her birthday party, as it was her 16th birthday….such patience and kindness… She really couldn’t move. So for 3 months she barely moved and then when she could move, there was(is) continual pain. Leah missed the better part of her school year, her Jr year. She was not able to pass her to the next cycle at the conservatory …. She is able to walk and only has a slight insensitivity on her legs. We are thankful ; she is thankful, but it was a strange year. We had so many things planned – her trip, a gathering of churchplants, a worship/evangelism festival… It simply wasn’t possible. We offer our lives as a living sacrifice – just doesn’t always look like we expected
On May 2 Elyssa graduated with honors from Pepperdine in Malibu. Amazing circumstances permitted everyone but Thomas and Christy to be present, and at my nieces wedding the next day. What a gift!
Elyssa has now joined Thomas and Christy in South Korea, teaching English. Justin is living in California.
Since our return from the States we have had several evenings with the youth – game nights and bar-b-ques. A Christian rock group from New Zealand came to serve and Alan was able to get them into the school he teaches at for the last day of school. Few students were still at school but the teachers and administration was profoundly touched by both the quality of the music and the spiritual content. A door has been opened – we hope to have other groups willing to serve in similar ways.
Alan will be spending two weeks in the Ivory Coast, the end of July, teaching African pastors, both English and French speaking from all over Africa. Samy from our church in Nice will accompany him. Please pray for him as well as he will be going to Capetown, South Africa in October to be on staff with the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelism. Go here to read more about this: http://vineyard.france.free.fr/PPP/Lausanne-Gage.pdf
Thank you so much for your love and support and prayers. They are so precious to us
Alan and Sandy Gage
Allen and Sandy Gage - Missionaries to France
mailto:alsangage@free.fr
Why France?
We wear many hats. That's because we are pioneers. America is known for it's pioneer spirit: new challenges, virgin territory, self-sufficiency. There is no more Frontier in America, but concerning missions, France is a "Frontier" it's virgin territory. The historical church is still represented by buildings and there are some signs of renewal, but only about 5% of French "Catholics" actually attend church. There is so much to do here, so much that needs to be done from scratch. But there is also the satisfaction of knowing you are not building on someone else's foundations, that you are not just moving Christians around from one Church to another, that you are truly reaching the unchurched, the lost! For all of the people that we have seen come to the Lord, we honestly don't know how they could have even heard the Gospel if we hadn't been there.
What do you do as a missionary?
Evangelize, Plant churches, train ( in: Worship, and worship leaders, House group leaders, Church planters, Biblical and theological studies, Evangelism, Prayer and healing, Basic holy survival in an unholy world).
