The gray minivan that saw Tim and Ruth through their deputation and that has seen us through several months of driving during our deputation has finally retired from pre-field mission work at 241,000 miles. Although gray seems to have some life left yet, we traded her out for a 2000 green Odysee that is being lent to us for deputation use free of charge. We are grateful for the Lord's provision of the gray van and its reliable service, but we are excited to begin traveling again in a newer, more modern vehicle.

MCole

MCole

September/October 2009

Dear Praying Friends and Ministry Partners,

I’ve been encouraged recently by meditating on the fact that God “thrusts” workers into the harvest (Matt. 9:38). Getting us to France is God’s business. Yet, in some way, God’s calling and commissioning of evangelists is a response to his people’s begging. Even though it’s difficult to comprehend this divine/human cooperation, please continue to ask God to thrust us across the Atlantic with the hope of the gospel. Because God is the one sending, no economy or government can stop us.

Staying Busy
In his goodness, the Lord has given us several weeks at home in Spartanburg to rest, settle into a new home (the church parsonage), make contacts for 2010, and prepare for an extended trip this Fall. We’ve stayed busy. We helped with our church’s VBS at the end of July (our third for the summer!). Michael had the opportunity to teach and preach multiple times at our home church. The Lord also gave us two opportunities to present our mission to churches in the upstate of SC: one in Spartanburg and the other in Anderson. We are grateful for these and many other opportunities to serve the Lord at home.

A Full Fall Schedule
We are also grateful for a full schedule for the Fall with an unbroken string of meetings between September 13 and November 15. We look forward to meeting these brothers and sisters and seeing how God will lead with regard to partners for the ministry. Presently, the Lord has given us 23% of our needed support. We trust that he will burden churches and individuals to partner with us in order to help send us out into the harvest.

Answered Prayer
God has been answering your prayers for us. First, we are thankful for the addition of a family to our support team. It is an encouragement to see God burden people to partner with the mission. Second, God has given us several meetings for this Fall and next year. Third, God has provided a van for our use. He caused several mechanical issues to be resolved the night before we left for our current trip in the Midwest, and we trust he will keep it running as long as he sees fit! Thank the Lord for his mercy and provision.
Please Pray for Us
“The Bible clearly reveals that believing prayer is essential for the advancement of the cause of Christ” (Hiebert, Working with God through Intercessory Prayer, 9). So please pray for us that…
1. God will mature us through the deputation process.
2. God will fill our meeting schedule for 2010.
3. God will use us to awaken Christians to the spiritual needs of the French and to Christ’s redemptive purposes for the world.
4. God will give us the skills we need for ministry in France.
5. God will materially bless his people and give them a heart to use their funds for missions.


Itinerary
September 13-Wichita, KS
September 16-Wichita, KS
September 20-Waverly, KS
September 23-Ottawa, KS
September 27-Clay Center, KS
October 4, am-Abilene, KS
October 4, pm-Wichita, KS
October 11-Houston, TX
October 18-Rockford, IL
October 25-Dekalb, IL
November 1-Sterling, IL
November 8-Naperville, IL
September 15-Shannon, IL

Exciting News
In the last letter, we announced that God has blessed us with our second child, and we now know that it’s another girl! She’s due around December 19. Please ask God to protect Liz and the baby as we travel.

Thank you for encouraging us through your prayers and giving. We thank God for you!

In Christ,
Michael, Liz, and Viviane
MLCole@HopeForFrance.org

MCole

July/August 2009

Dear Friends and Ministry Partners,

“This is a tough time to be on deputation.” I have heard this statement more than once from sympathetic pastors. And although it is true that scheduling meetings seems slow due to the economic slump, God has shown himself faithful by opening doors into churches and even enabling churches and individuals to partner with us in proclaiming the hope of the gospel in France.

Meeting Report
We recently returned from another two weeks in Western PA. We had a great time participating in two different weeks of VBS as the visiting missionaries, and we are thankful for the opportunity to share the gospel with several unsaved children. We concluded our stay in PA by presenting our work to another church whose hospitality made our final day in that area an enjoyable one. After returning to SC, we spent a Sunday with the dear people of one of our supporting churches. We thank the Lord for the opportunity to report to them and to fellowship with them again.

Support
The Lord has answered your prayers concerning support for our mission! We are grateful that another church is partnering with us as their missionaries. Also, we were encouraged by an email we received from a couple expressing their interest in partnering with our mission. Thank you for praying about our support! Initially, our team set our monthly support need at $5,000 (US), but currently we are reevaluating that figure based on first-hand observations Tim and Ruth (our coworkers) are making in France. Due to the weak dollar and a better understanding of the cost of living in France, our monthly support level will need to be increased. We are grateful that God has provided more than 20% of what we need. Please continue to ask God to quickly bring in the remaining 80%. We trust that God will answer our prayers and provide support for this mission according to his will.

Please Pray for Us
Thank you for taking an interest in us and our mission. We are more convinced than ever that God will have to work for this mission to be successful. So please intercede on our behalf for these requests:
1. God will accomplish sanctification in us through the deputation process.
2. God will fill our meeting schedule for 2009 and 2010.
3. God will lead us to churches of a like mind who will partner with us by supporting us financially. We would like to be at the 30% level by the end of the summer.
4. God will use us to awaken Christians to the spiritual needs of the French and to Christ’s redemptive purposes for the world.
5. We will continue to grow and develop so that we will be useful tools for the Lord in France.
6. God will give us wisdom concerning a van for deputation travel.

Itinerary
August 23-Spartanburg, SC
August 30-Anderson, SC
September 13-Wichita, KS
September 16-Wichita, KS
September 20-Waverly, KS
September 27-Clay Center, KS
October 11-Houston, TX
October 18-Rockford, IL
October 25-Dekalb, IL
November 1-Sterling, IL
November 8-Naperville, IL

Exciting News
We’re excited to announce that God has blessed us with our second child! The baby is due sometime around December 19. Please ask God to protect Liz and the baby as we travel.


Thank you for encouraging us through your prayers and giving. We thank God for you!

In Christ,
Michael, Liz, and Viviane
MLCole@HopeForFrance.org

MCole

After eating lunch with the Hills on Sunday, we drove down to Pittsburgh to present our mission to Swissvale Baptist Church. An hour later we drove up to an imposing building that had been moved to that location in 1917. Pastor Strangman greeted us, helped us unload our luggage, showed us to our lodgings, and helped us get set up in the church's fellowship hall. The church's evening services are a little more casual on Sunday evenings, but I believe the primary reason for meeting in the lower floor was to avoid the heat (we were told that it has been unseasonably warm).

MCole

MCole

MCole

Dear Praying Friends and Ministry Partners,

We trust that our update finds you resting in the care of our Lord. He has blessed us over the past weeks with continual reminders of his grace in Christ toward us. We anticipate his work on our behalf over the next couple of months as we seek his will concerning ministry partners for our mission to France.

Meeting Report

The Lord allowed us to present our work at the end of January in Raleigh, NC, and at the beginning of February in Franklin, TN. We praise the Lord for the time we were able to spend with the dear believers in each of those churches. We’ve also had the privilege of presenting our mission to a couple of churches over the last few weeks. To our surprise, the Lord opened up a meeting for us at the last minute in a church located just down the road from us in Boiling Springs, SC. We had a good time of fellowship with the church and thank God for leading us to another group of believers who will intercede on our behalf. We participated in a missions conference in Asheboro, NC, the first week of March. The Lord blessed our time with that church as well.

Waiting to Hear

While we continue contacting churches for the purpose of setting up services, we are waiting to hear from other churches who are considering whether God will have them partner with our mission. We trust that the Lord will do his will in these matters. We thank God that we are very close to the 20% mark of our needed support. We know that he will increase that level as he sees fit.

Looking Ahead

We are grateful to report that the Lord has opened up some meetings for us. Many are for the latter part of the year, but in the near future, we have meetings in Pennsylvania April 19 and May 3 and a meeting in Tennessee May 24. We are also continuing our strategy of visiting churches in the Greenville-Spartanburg area in order to make personal contacts with the hope that God will open up meetings for us close to home as we wait for him to fill up our travel schedule.

Please Pray for Us

Writing this letter reminds us of the privilege it is to have fellow believers like you who are concerned for us and our mission. We thank God for the privilege of having met you and look forward to that time when we will spend eternity together in bliss. Until then, please continue to intercede for us. Please pray that . . .

1. God will accomplish sanctification in us through the deputation process.
2. We will trust God for his timing and have his wisdom concerning deputation. We need direction especially concerning how much longer Michael should work at UPS.
3. God will fill our meeting schedule for 2009 and 2010.
4. God will lead us to churches of a like mind who will partner with us by supporting us financially. We would like to be at the 25% level by the end of March.
5. God will use us to awaken Christians to the spiritual needs of the French and to Christ’s redemptive purposes for the world.
6. We will continue to grow and develop so that we will be useful tools for the Lord in France.
7. God will direct us to the right van for us to purchase in the near future.

Thank you for your encouragement and support both spiritually and financially. We thank God
for you!

MCole

Dear Praying Friends and Ministry Partners,

It’s hard to believe we’re already halfway through September! The summer days have passed by quickly, leaving us with memories of what the Lord has done and with anticipation of what He will do in the coming months. We truly appreciate your interest in our mission to Proclaim the Hope of the Gospel in France and your desire to stay tuned in to what the Lord is doing in our lives to prepare us for that ministry. In order to provide more frequent insights into how God is working in us, we are posting thoughts about mission philosophy, facts about France, and deputation news on our blog. You can access the blog by clicking “Cole News” at http://www.hopeforfrance.org/.

The End of an Era
As we mentioned in our last letter, Michael successfully defended his doctoral dissertation on July 7, and we are praising God for his mercy and sustaining strength. Following the defense, there were a couple more rounds of corrections for Michael to complete, but we have now officially witnessed the end of the “Ph.D. Era” in our lives: Michael handed over the final draft of his dissertation to the Records Office at BJU! We look forward to the conferral of the degree in May, 2009. It is our desire that God will allow us to use what Michael has learned over the past decade to make and mature disciples for Christ in France.

Moving On
Turning the corner on the dissertation process has allowed Michael to devote more time to contacting pastors to schedule meetings. In our last letter, we asked you to pray that God would provide meetings for this Fall. In the Lord’s wise providence, we have not yet been able to schedule meetings for the remainder of this year (with the exception of two missions conferences we had previously scheduled). God has provided some meetings for 2009, and Michael continues to contact pastors about meetings for this Fall. Please pray for God’s will to be done. We are currently considering several options for how to best use these last few months of 2008 if God does not provide meetings. Whatever we do, we desire to follow the Lord in faith.

Our Supporters
We are happy to report that the Lord has moved two churches and two families to help support us! The sacrifices these people are making humble us and motivate us to work hard on deputation and in our future ministry in France so that their support is well used. With the current support coming in as well as a support increase starting in January from our sending church, our support level will be $490 per month—almost 10% of our estimated need. Hitting the Road for a Short Trip Mid-October, we will have the privilege of participating in a missions conference in Rockford, IL. We’re excited about the opportunity to present our mission and spend several days with the church people getting to know them and letting them get to know us. Following the conference, we’ll jump back into writing and calling pastors. At this point, we have contacted pastors in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Tennessee, Illinois, Wisconsin, Arizona, and California. Although we know that we need to labor diligently in the work the Lord has given us, we realize that God alone can produce fruit from our labors.

MCole