Save us, we pray, O LORD! O LORD, we pray, give us success!
Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.
Psalm 118:25-26

"Hosanna" is an appropriate prayer for missions.

Dear friends,

I'm writing this between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday. While encouraging our church recently to voice their celebratory "Hosannas," my thoughts were directed to Psalm 118:25 where we find the original “Hosanna” quoted by the crowds at Jerusalem : Save us, we pray, O LORD! O LORD, we pray, give us success! Combining the Old and New Testament usage, we discover that the expression is used both as an urgent cry on behalf of God's people for salvation and a shout of triumphant joy.

Thus, Hosanna continues to be an excellent motto, or prayer, for the church. Missions is a mix of both cries. As we look around, particularly in our French context, we have constant reason to say, "Save us, we pray!" Everywhere we look, we see huge needs of saving grace. Save our churches! Save our families! Save the French people! Give success to missions! Give success to struggling ministries and churches! Give success to evangelism!

And yet, we pray such things, not out of despair, but with all the joy and hope that Easter instills. God has sent his salvation. Jesus ("the Lord Saves") is God's ultimate response to our Hosannas ("Save us, O Lord!"). Jesus' coming, dying and rising guarantees salvation and (true) success to all who are His and to His Church. And so, in light of purchased salvation and impending victory, we joyfully exclaim, "Hosanna in the highest!" and say with those "standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, crying out with a loud voice, 'Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!'"

Therefore, not wanting to be outdone by a stone, I offer my Hosannas, some produced by recent events:

Hosanna! Prayer for salvation

• In the churches of Montauban and Muret which the church in Toulouse has been fostering for some time
  Growth and maturity come slowly. The workers are few. We continue to pray that God save: that He save those "other sheep" that belong to Christ and still need bringing in to grow the ranks of His flock, that He save entire families, that He save churches from error, that he save churches from bad ecclesiology and poor vision, that He save churches from bitterness and quarreling. Thankfully, the growth and stability and salvation that God has recently granted to the work in Toulouse allows us to invest our time and energy in other places.
  
  
• In hospitals, prisons and retirement homes
  We would love to see salvation brought to these places. Several Christians in the church are especially burdened and are seeking out possibilities for evangelism (via choir, literature, correspondence, etc). During the Easter season, we will have several opportunities to share the gospel.

Hosanna! Praise for Success
Realizing that everything we do this side of heaven is imperfect, we are nonetheless thankful that God has granted some measure of evangelical success.

• Bible Expo - this major project is finally seeing the light. The Bible Expo is a mobile museum (the French love museums, right?) of the Bible, inviting people to discover its origins, its authenticity and its message. Over the last year, we redid all the graphics for a dozen large display panels. Several weeks of exposition are already scheduled in various cities of south-west France. We pray that it would help people accept the Bible, "not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe." (1 Thess 2.13)
  
  
• Various projects and outings with the young people. In the last few weekends, they went downtown to share their faith, up to the mountains to have fun in the snow and out to the movies (actually, at church); we projected the well-known story of the 5 missionaries (Nate Saint, Jim Eliot) speared to death in Ecuador for the gospel's sake.
  

The family is doing well. As I write, Simeon and Etienne are smothering Lydia with hugs, and thereby putting an end to her nap time. Rebecca combines mothering, church involvement, and her studies in a healthy balance. We enjoyed having my sister Laura stop through on her way back from Ethiopia.

With grateful joy,

Sam

Toulouse, France