Quebec Alive moments

Last week (Moment #55) we shared a 1969 prayer asking God to do what was necessary to bring the Gospel to Quebec and to specifically ask for one new worker and one new church each year of the 70s.  In Quebec Alive Moment #48, we mentioned a group of women (pictured) from Trinity Baptist Church in Nashua, NH, who have coupled with some pastor’s wives in Quebec as prayer partners.  Recently, Lois Tessier (Moment #47) shared some of the answered prayers with this group and others who have also been praying.  Some of the answered prayers are given here with follow-up requests.

There was answered prayer for the formation of a Flamme (women’s group) sub-committee that would help promote support for the pastor’s wives.  The committee has been at work over the past year and encouraging results are being seen.  There is definitely more communication between these women.  Please pray for the committee as they organize a discussion forum on their website for pastor’s wives and as they organize a 24-hour conference for pastor’s wives this spring.  Pray for wisdom for Lois Tessier and Nathalie Turcotte as they answer the questions and comments on the forum.

There was answered prayer for women whose children have drifted away.  Over the past months there have been several accounts of young people who have come back to the Lord and who are rebuilding broken lives.  Please pray that the churches will have much love and discernment as they welcome these young people back into their midst.

There was answered prayer for more resources in French.  The Lord has closed the door as to having material translated and has given the idea of writing our own material more adapted to the needs and culture of Quebec.  Please pray that the right people will be found to write Bible Studies for pastor’s wives that will be used of God for His glory. 

There was answered prayer for support for the couple’s needs and we thank the Lord for SEMBEQ’s sensitivity to this need.  They have addressed the question in their coaching with the pastors.  Also, the weekend conferences for couples have helped.  Please pray for our couple’s weekend in February and for Pierre Denis and Francine, who are the speakers and who will be counseling in the afternoon.

There was answered prayer that pastor’s wives might acquire skills to help them support their husbands.  This year marks the beginning of a new program for women called “Formation Priscille” which will help a great deal.  Please pray for Monique Saulnier as she looks after the registration and is preparing to teach the course on the “Philosophy of the Christian woman“.  Pray also for the whole Flamme committee which is working with SEMBEQ for this training and for other initiatives taken in the past year.

These answered prayers demonstrate the power of prayer and its primary importance in proclaiming the Gospel and encouraging the saints.  Thanks for your past, present and future prayers.

In Acts 6:4, the Apostles stated what their priorities needed to be. “We will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word (NKJV)”.  Paul tell us to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17).  So the need for prayer is tantamount as the means to calling on the power of God for ministry.  In the recent biography, Servant for Jesus’ Sake (see Moment #37), of the ministry of her husband Bill Phillips, Blanche shares that in the Spring of 1969, a small group of workers met at Camp des Bouleaux to seek the Lord’s direction for evangelism in Quebec.  The work of the past 32 years had produced 542 people attending a French Baptist church in Quebec.  It seemed like so little had been accomplished for the Gospel.  So with tears flowing they prayed the following:

“Lord, here we are weak and really not knowing how to handle the open doors before us.  Lord, change us, unglue everything in our strategies, our priorities and our organization if that is necessary.  Please take absolute control of our lives in order that we may in no way hinder your plans from being realized in Quebec during the coming decade.  Lord, whatever, whenever, wherever, however…we want you to take control.  Quebec desperately needs Christ.  We beseech you to give us at least one new worker and one new church every year during the 70s.” (page 101)

The Lord heard their prayers and saw their humble and teachable hearts.  He gave them not 10, but 39 new workers and not 10, but 35 new churches in the decade of the 70s.  Prayer still needs to be the first step in all we do for the Lord.  May we still have humble and teachable hearts as we raise the needs of Quebec to the Lord.

Benoit Lavergne is the senior pastor at the Evangelical Baptist Church of Trois-Rivieres, a city located about half-way between Montreal and Quebec City and with a regional population of about 135,000.  The church has an attendence of around 350 and is very active in home Bible studies (over 80% involved) and reaching out to the community for Christ (see Quebec Alive Moments #18, #34 and #35).  One of Benoit’s passions, along with his wife Christina, is ministering to couples, particularly in the realm of marriage counseling.  Benoit has taught a SEMBEQ course for several years on The Taylor-JohnsonTemperament Analysis, which is a widely used personality assessment for individual, marital, premarital, and family counseling.  Most recently, he has been burdened to look at marriage counseling from an emotional perspective as well as an intellectual perspective.  Benoit states that, “this type of counseling deals not only with head issues, but also with heart issues, and ultimately heart issues bring us to a deeper relationship with Christ and with our spouse.”  Several years ago Benoit was exposed to the counseling principles of John Regier, which developed into the Caring for the Heart Ministries located in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

This pastoral approach of biblical counseling deals with three main problems: (1) emotional issues resulting from emotional, physical, sexual or spiritual abuse; (2) spiritual problems resulting from pride, bitterness, rebellion, temporal values, hypocrisy, or moral failures; and (3) spiritual strongholds resulting from activities which allow the enemy to influence people, such as involvement in the occult, drugs, etc.  Using biblical principles and the Holy Spirit, the counselor assists the counselee to resolve these problems by truly giving everything to Jesus in prayer and trusting in Him to heal the heart, which will bring freedom from sinful habits and make him whole.  Each of the pastoral team at Trois-Rivieres has taken the week-long counseling session with their spouse, and Benoit and Christina have gone through a five-week training session.  The week-long counseling session was quite an eye-openner for Benoit and Christina as they dealt with heart issues they did not know existed, yet influenced the way they thought and responded to their own feelings and those of others.  Benoit shared that the process has made him more compassionate in dealing with others.  Benoit is now using what he has gained from this training in his own counseling time and pastoral ministry.  Christina is doing likewise.  Benoit is encouraging his leaders to take this same training so they can apply the same prinicples used by Caring for the Heart Ministries. 

In May 2010, Mr. Regier will be coming to Quebec for two week-long Caring for the Heart Ministries conferences in Quebec.  The first will be in Terrebonne-Mascouche and the second week will be in Trois-Rivieres (same conference) with the Ministere Coeur a Coeur du Quebec, which is the French version of Caring for the Heart Ministies.  Both weeks will be open to the general church members.  Benoit is very excited about sharing the principles used by Caring for the Heart Ministries with other people in Quebec.  Again, these principles have changed the way he deals with people he counsels and also the way he relates with his own wife and family.  Pray that God may use this conference to help people know themselves and others better by having a deeper and more trusting relationship with their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Information concerning this ministry can be found at www.caringfortheheart.com.

Last week’s Moment featured Gilles Lapierre, who has and still is wearing many different hats.  One of the most significant responsibilities he has had is in the realm of coaching: the development and implementation of the training process of coaching, the teaching of the coaches, the oversight of the coaching process, and the actual coaching of many proteges.  The Fall 2006 issue of Quebec Alive featured this coaching process, a process which is fundamental to the training philosophy of SEMBEQ.  Given here is a short summary of that issue.  Coaching is a structured training plan for the development of future leaders by experienced leaders in the local church.  It is a relational process where a mutual trust and understanding exists between the coach and the protege, and the protege has a teachable heart that hungers to be more like Christ.  The coach has a willingness to take his protege under his wing, spending time with him and training him with words, experience and example.  Gilles Lapierre summarized the process by several key principles. (1) The local church has the responsibility to train the next generation of leaders. (2) Even though the process involves a mutual personal relationship which grows with time, the actual coaching process is unidirectional, that is, the coach passes on his wisdom, knowledge, experience and example to his protege. (3) The process has a precise intention of improving the spiritual maturity and growth of the protege. (4) The process has a precise content of wisdom, truth and application for the Christian walk. (5) The process is passed on by experienced leaders.

This process of coaching has produced much fruit.  What Paul exhorts Timothy to do (2 Timothy 2:2) is what is being observed through this coaching process.  Just as Paul coached Timothy so that Timothy could coach others, who in turn would also coach others, we are seeing those who began to be coached are now coaching others, while still continuing to be coached themselves.  A few comments about the coaching process from students being coached will illustrate the value of coaching.

Hugo Ethier (picture 1, left with coach Gilles Lapierre) states that his coach “has the right to tell me everything he sees concerning my character.  At the same time, I feel free to ‘be myself’ and to pour out all my emotions or thoughts.”  Jean Sauvageau (picture 2, right with coach Gilles Paquin) states that, “I have never before been able to live such a life of learning and training and I really see it as a privilege.”  Finally, Donald Rodier (picture 3, left with coach Francois Turcotte) states, “coaching enables the Christian worker to live experiences helpful to his development in ways useful to his ministry [while being] supervised by his coach for adjustments and necessary correction.”  We all need those “adjustments and necessary corrections” and SEMBEQ’s coaching process is designed to accomplish that in its students.  May the Lord continue to bless the coaches and students alike.