wfn.org | Workers in France strive for identity

[Beth Hawn]

Microsoft Mail v3.0 (MAPI 1.0 Transport) IPM.Microsoft Mail.Note
To:  'Worldwide Faith News'
Date: 1998-08-19 13:51
Priority: 3
Message ID: B51960203C37D211AAB0006008075ABF
Conversation ID: Workers in France strive for identity 

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August 19, 1998
Mennonite Board of Missions
Beth Hawn
219-294-7523
<NEWS@MBM.org>

Mennonite workers in France strive for identity

ELKHART, Ind. (MBM) - Linda Oyer was scrambling between classes at the
European Bible Institute in Lamorlaye, France, when she received an
unexpected phone call. The woman on the other end said, "I'm searching   
for God
 - how can you help me?"

"You don't get phone calls like that every day," said Oyer, a long-time
Mennonite Board of Missions worker in Paris now on North American
assignment. Marie-Jose, the caller, had seen a television program about
Protestants, and she had never met one. In her search for a Protestant,   
she
received Oyer's name and number.

After several months of Bible study, Marie-Jose became a Christian.   
Today,
she is one of the founding members of a French Mennonite congregation   
that
Oyer helped to plant in Paris in September 1997.

Most mission workers dream about having such stories to tell at   
supporting
churches or put into newsletters. Those opportunities do not, however,   
come
without hard work and dedication.

But hard work and dedication are nothing new to Linda Oyer and Janie and   
Neal
Blough, MBM workers in Paris on North American assignment. All three have   

spent more than 20 years working in post-Christian France to share their
faith with Christians and non-Christians alike.
Oyer serves as the academic dean and professor of New Testament at the
European Bible Institute. Although her primary love is teaching, she has
acted as academic dean for the past two years. A new director will start   
in
January, freeing Oyer to devote more time to teaching and church work.   
The
institute now has an enrollment of 43 students from several different
European countries. The school's purpose is twofold: to provide education   

leading to a degree in theology and to minister to the lives of its   
students.
"In the last few years, I've seen many broken people coming in," Oyer   
said.
"We're doing more than giving theology. We're healing relationships. It's   

more about restoring people to go out in ministry."
The school itself is in desperate need of restoration. A February   
security
check showed that its buildings don't meet the French safety codes.   
 While
the mayor allowed the school to remain open until August, it is now   
closed
until repairs can be made. Although the bank refuses a loan, the school's   

administrators hope to start school again in October. Until then, the   
plight
of the school affects the church as well - there is nowhere else for the
congregation to meet.
Oyer participates very directly in the work of the church.  She is on the   
five
member leadership team of the new church, started as the merger of a   
small
evangelical church and a group that met regularly to discuss Anabaptist
issues and theology. She preaches there once a month. The 34-member
congregation joined the French Mennonite Conference in May.
Neal and Janie Blough, who live and work in St. Maurice, a suburb   
southeast
of Paris, serve as the directors of the St. Maurice Mennonite Center, a   
place
where Anabaptist concerns are addressed and discussed in the context of   
the
larger church.
The center is now working on a three-pronged project concerning Mennonite   

theology, history and conflict resolution/mediation. The center also has
an extensive library, which serves as a source of information about
Anabaptists for a variety of people.
The Mennonite center is a busy place. It is the Blough's house, the   
Mennonite
Center, and the meeting place for the church. "There are three things
happening here [in the building] right now, but there's room for maybe   
two,"
Neal said. Consequently, the church is looking for a new place to meet.
As the congregation, which has a 20-year history, grows in membership, it   
is
outgrowing its small meeting space. "If you come late to church," Janie   
said,
"be prepared to wait for half an hour before you get a seat." They are   
squeezing
70 to 80 people into a 40 square-meter area (131 square feet).
Finding a new location, however, is not proving easy. "Anything we could   
do
would be expensive," Neal said. The church hopes to build a new building   
but is
having trouble finding the amount of money needed.
Another reason to move the church's location is to lessen its "claims" on   
the
center. "We want the center to be related to all three of [the Mennonite
congregations in Paris] - not just one," Neal said. "That's hard if   
they're in
the same building."
The French Mennonite conference has committed itself to help churches   
fund
new building projects, and some money does come in from North America.
According to Neal, North American financial help, while "only 10 percent   
of
what is needed, is a precious 10 percent - but it shouldn't be to the   
detriment
of the French Mennonite churches."
In addition to their duties at the Mennonite center, Janie and Neal work
part-time elsewhere. Janie is a part-time employee of the city of St.
Maurice, teaching five classes of English to students between the ages of   
25
and 80. Janie has been able to develop close relationships with many of   
her
students, and spends a lot of time on the phone with them or visiting   
them in
their houses.
"Janie is the one who spends the most time with non-Christians," said   
Neal.
"I think she's a 'secular pastor' - there are no conversions, but she   
brings
hope."
Neal, who has done much research and writing on Anabaptism, teaches   
church
history at Vaux sur Seine, a local evangelical seminary, and lectures on
16th-century Anabaptism at an Institute of Higher Studies related to the
Sorbonne.   Such education is necessary in France. Oyer and the Bloughs   
all
commented on the French suspicion about anything other than religious   
norm,
Catholicism. "Anything in France like us is swimming upstream," Neal   
said.
Oyer related seeing a book in the supermarket called 101 Sects -   
Mennonites
were included.  "The French are suspicious of anything that is not   
Catholic or
Reformed," Neal said.  "They think we're a cult, and French don't like   
any
group that swallows up your individual religious identity."
The Mennonite church has a long history in France, but it was for many   
years
located only in the Alsace region - far away both geographically and   
socially
from Paris and its suburbs. Among other small evangelical groups,
"Mennonites have the advantage of having a history," Neal said. "But it   
isn't a
 positive history according to the history books. We want to get the   
history
books straight. Mennonites are only a footnote, but let's get the   
footnote
right."
The Bloughs and Oyer will continue to serve and to educate, not only   
through
their lessons, but through their lives and friendships - and perhaps   
through
the occasional phone call from someone just "searching for God."
* * *
Rachel Lewis       PHOTO AVAILABLE