Distribution of invitations to our church has begun! During the next week, students will slide the pamphlets under the doors of thousands of rooms. Please pray that there will be many who respond and come to the church because of this effort. It is an exciting time and we miss being there!
August/September 2009
Dear Friends,
As I write this, we are in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, wishing we were about two weeks later to enjoy the even richer colors of autumn. The trees are changing and the leaves are falling, but not like it will be in a few short weeks. God’s creative ways are “infinitely interesting.” We are in our sending church in Stephenson, and will be leaving in a couple of hours for another supporting church way up on the banks of Lake Superior. Following that we will be heading for Minneapolis, then down to Charleston, IL. Then out to Arkansas and Mississippi, and finally back to Greenville for a week.
In just over six short weeks we have put over 9000 miles on our car. A good bit of that has been getting around to see our children scattered around the country. Tsiry, the teenage boy who came to the states with us, returned to France as planned after spending one month traveling with us. Little did I know that less than ten days after his return, I would be following him. Our dear Rene Rottier, age 86, went to be with the Lord. We were shocked to learn of his sudden death of a heart attack. Rene and Marcelle have been with us since day one of our Bordeaux ministry, and have faithfully stood by us and with us over these long years. I knew that my place was there beside his widow and son as we are the only “family” they have. We will miss him dearly. I was there eight days before returning to Boston where I had left Bonnie with Johanna and Brian during my absence. We returned the following day to Greenville and then headed out for meetings in the north mid-west.
One bonus from my quick trip to France was to spend some precious time with Tim and Ruth and bonding time with my two grandchildren. They are adapting so well in the ministry in France. We are so thrilled to have them on the field. Micaiah and Miriam started school last week. There was some apprehension on all of our parts as to how they would do going into a strange school where a foreign language they didn’t understand was spoken in a strange culture that they weren’t used to. Up to this time they’d only known home schooling. They are doing well – very well, in fact. They love it. Their teachers seem excited to have them. Ruth began the semester of French learning on Monday of this week. They are doing a wonderful job of “filling our shoes.”
Continue to pray for us as we travel. It has not been wearisome, although these aging joints need more stopping and stretching than before. That didn’t stop us from traveling non-stop 1010 miles last week (from Boston to Greenville) upon my return from the funeral in France. Who says we’re old?
We are looking forward to seeing many of you over the next 4 months before our return to France on February 2nd. We long to be a source of blessing and encouragement to whomever we meet along the way. We have been refreshed and encouraged already by those of you whom we’ve seen up to now.
Once again, thank you for your faithful love, prayers and support.
In Christ,
Bob and Bonnie Bixby
Grandchildren are definitely a wonderful gift from the Lord. We are so thankful for this time to see them. We were with Micaiah and Miriam (Tim's 6 and 4 year olds) for three weeks before leaving France and have now enjoyed a few precious moments with the rest of the gang. Starting at the top left-- Stefan (Johanna's 19 month old). Corban (Bob's 2 1/2 year old), Elise (Dan's 14 year old), Isabelle (Dan's almost 8 year old), Patience (Bob's 8 year old) and Ben (Dan's 12 year old). Great kids with great parents :-)
Thursday Tim and Ruth and Micaiah and Miriam arrived here in France. What a joy for us as parents to see our children here in France ready to serve the Lord! It was a great day for us ! Thank you so much for praying. The "turn-over" is now under way-- we leave July 14 and want to help them settle in as much as possible before then.
Today we had our annual Mother-Daughter Banquet. There were 35 who attended. The theme was "Hidden Treasures." We chose that theme to summarize the "choice nuggets" that we had learned in our Bible study this year. Several woman worked really hard to make it a success--the food, the program, the decorations, the clean-up etc.
We often have lots of company, but this week we had some special guests that we would like to tell you about. On Monday, Kristi Colas came to visit us. She has been in France for a year as a missionary working in Rouen. She is especially interested in working with music so she came to burrow through the music that we have here. She is in the right hand corner picture with two of the three people that she was able to give piano lessons to while she was here.
Last week we had the joy of participating in the Field conference of the German field. Bob was the speaker and shared insights from Colossians. We really enjoyed getting to know some fellow missionaries and learning about their works. We also got to see some of the beautiful German countryside. It was a wonderful week for us.
Spring 2009
Dear Friends,
It was a beautiful day here today. Spring is in the air and the weather has warmed up noticeably. Our church family enjoyed being together. Most of our people were here before 10:30 this morning and quite a few didn’t leave until six this evening! Our Sundays are long but full of wonderful fellowship.
Next Sunday will be even fuller than normal. It is Easter and we are starting with breakfast together. Then we will have our regular service. Bob has been working hard with a choir and they will be singing “The Love of God” (in French, of course). Our regular meal will be replaced with a special one – by that I mean that the menu is planned and it is not a “potluck.” Following the meal we are going to have a special Easter service. The young people and children have been working hard on special music for this service.
That should tire us out, but we won’t be finished!! We need to leave immediately after the afternoon service and travel at least four or five hours on our way to Germany. Bob is bringing the messages for BMM’s German field conference. It begins the next evening. We are looking forward to getting to know better our fellow co-laborers north of the border. Please pray for Bob who will be bringing eight messages during the 4 days.
Since our French field conference is the following week in the eastern part of France, we will not come home in between. We plan to go to Switzerland to see some of our special kids – former students and younger brothers and sisters in Christ . You probably remember hearing about Nati who lived with us for almost a year, Gina who was saved here three years ago and Laetitia who is one of those extra special students who leaves a mark on everyone. We will go to church with her. At the present time, she is working at a Bible School in Geneva.
Please pray for our conference. Our field has suffered the loss of some godly missionaries to cancer in the last couple of years and we have others who are very ill. Pray that the time together will be encouraging for all.
Also continue to pray for our travels in the states. We have still many “holes” that need to be filled with meetings to report back to faithful supporters. If you would like us to visit your church during the months of August to December would you please contact us? Our email is still rbixbysr@aol.com .
We mentioned in our last letter a young lady who grew up in the church and then completely left and was living in the world. She has really changed since her salvation. What a joy! She is having regular Bible studies with Bob now and we hope to see her baptized before we leave in July. There are a couple of others that should be ready to take this step, too. Pray that we will be able to have a baptism service and for faithfulness in the lives of these young Christians.
Thank you so much for your prayer support and your financial support. We know that it is a difficult time for all. One final request—pray that Tim and Ruth will be granted their visas quickly so they can come in June as planned.
In Christ,
Bob and Bonnie Bixby
This week we had a short vacation. It was fun to get away and to see some of the beautiful sites here in France. It was sobering, however, to visit the "Desert Museum" which is a tribute to all of the French Huguenots who were martyred, imprisoned or deported during the time in history when France wanted "one king, one law and one religion." The price they paid for there faith is great, but the price that France paid for persecuting them is even greater. The left picture is the Tower of Constance where women were imprisoned. You can see scratched in the wall "Resistez"--resist! The top right is the entrance into the Desert Museum which is actually the home of one of the main Protestant leaders of the time. The bottom right is Les Baux, a city built on a limestone mountain, where the Huguenots resisted the king's soldiers until they starved and ran out of water. You can't help but wonder what France would be like today if she had not had this sad period in her history.
Sunday afternoon we did something a little different for our Bible classes. Two of our teachers were gone ministering in another church, so we kept the whole church family together. Bob has been urging everyone to get more "acquainted" with his Bible. So we had a "Sword Drill" and then learned the French song that has ALL the books of the Bible in it. A couple of young ladies who had learned the song as children helped out and then the kids chimed in. We divided the room in two and everyone participated in the Bible sword drill. We also spent some time singing some of the choruses that are in our hymnbook. It was a very enjoyable time for all-- and we hope that it sparked some interest in everyone to memorize the books of the Bible!
This morning was our monthly ladies' meeting. The student girls were in charge of the breakfast this time. They came early to use my kitchen. I was amazed as they made "American" pancakes. They had never done it before and they didn't have a recipe, but the pancakes came out perfect. (After 40 years and literally thousands of pancakes, I still look at my recipe!)Dear Co-laborers,
Thank God for financial crises. They are so good for us. They help to show our true colors and values. As a small missionary church across the waters from you, our travels through Colossians during the last several months, have underscored the completeness of our lives, if they are found in the Lord Jesus Christ. With Christ we have absolutely everything we need; without Him we are totally destitute – we have nothing. The international economic crunch only makes that light shine all the more brighter. Those whose eyes are fixed on Him, with eternity’s values in view, do not lose their joy as they seek the ways and means to make up the material difference. God has never yet been baffled by finances, and He will be up to this one too.
Having said that, I must also add that up to this point we have not noticed a huge difference, although like everyone else we have tried to tighten our belts, and be extra prudent and discretionary in our handling of the financial support that you and others have entrusted us with. Once again we thank you for your faithfulness in these matters. Some of you probably have to sacrifice more than we in order to insure that our support continues, and we are deeply humbled and grateful. May we be worthy of every cent, and stretch every cent even farther than we have in gratitude to you and our Lord.
Last Saturday we had a very encouraging meeting with 12 selected faithful members of our Pessac Baptist Church. I say selected because we do not have an official member list yet, so I invited 12 mature adult faithful Christians to prayerfully seek together the Lord’s direction as to immediate and longer term direction for our assembly. The enthusiasm, humility, and Christian love expressed was so encouraging and stimulating, that even though we met for 2 ½ hours, all wanted to schedule another meeting very soon (within the month) to tie some of the loose ends together, and to get some things rolling – for instance, we may be a tiny church, still pastored by a missionary, but we need to support a missionary ourselves.
Our Annual Repas Agape went over very well. There were right at 40 university students present, at least half of whom were lost and unchurched. They heard an excellent message by fellow missionary Mark Nelsen. Mark pastors in La Rochelle about two hours north of us.
One of our young people who had gone far from the Lord and left the church years ago, was born again just before Christmas and is excited about being baptized soon. Hopefully sometime in the next two months we should have three people ready to follow the Lord in baptism.
And so the work goes on. We hear from students from time to time who have gone on in their studies elsewhere, or who are installed in their careers, and who are faithfully walking with the Lord and serving in local churches where they are, and that is always so encouraging.
We are still working on our itinerary for our time in the states. We look forward to seeing many of you soon.
Yours in His wonderful service,
Bob and Bonnie Bixby
Contact information:
Email: rbixbysr@aol.com
Blog : www. bixbys.blogspot.com
