Bixby Bulletin-- Spring 2009

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

The French Huguenots

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.

Church Family Time

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!

Ladies' Bible Study and Breakfast

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!)

We were down in number because of school vacation, but the seven of us who were there really enjoyed the fellowship and then the Bible study. Audrey taught us a great lesson on "the Women in Samson's Life." It was interesting, educational and challenging.

Bixby Bulletin-- Winter 2009

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

Teen Meeting

Last Wednesday, two of the families in the church organized a get-together for the teens of our church and the downtown church. It was a great success. They played games, Bob shared the Word with them, and they ate crepes! What was the most encouraging to us was that the initiative for the meeting was completely theirs. There are so few Christian teens that it was good to see them enjoying each other. On Sundays, David and Audrey Ascher teach their class.

Repas Agape 2009

Last night we had our annual "Repas Agape." We were very pleased with the effort the students made to invite friends. We served 39, had 5 teens serving, and 3 ladies in the kitchen. Mark Nelsen, missionary pastor in La Rochelle, was the speaker. About 14 years ago, Mark and his wife were here while they studied French. Everyone enjoyed the evening immensely and we are praying that some come back tomorrow.