New friends and trail blazers

This past weekend our church had some missionaries that we partner with visiting with us. Joe and Karen have been in Chambéry, France for 27 years. Ryan and I are 28 years old, so they have been in France almost as long as we have been alive… pretty wild isn’t it. 

A map of France with Chambéry highlighted

In their time in France they have been a part of planting a church, doing University work (which is Joe’s main focus), volunteering at a Christian publishing organization to widely distribute vital resources and teaching tools throughout France and French-speaking African countries (Karen’s main focus), and for decades have been organizing and running summer camps for missionary kids. 

We had a great time picking their brains and listening to stories about their many adventures. I am beginning to see a trend, which is that people who are in full-time ministry often seem to stay young at heart (especially if they do work with youth) and they all have countless stories to share. It may be a road less traveled, but it seems to be anything but boring. Please pray for Joe and Karen as they visit with family and their [existing and potential] ministry partners for the next few weeks.

Their organization CrossWorld has some great videos and I wanted to share one with you today. From Where You Stand: The Odds Are from Crossworld on Vimeo.