petty steve joni 1984 france

8/17/2019 Petty Steve Joni 1984 France

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"Canada has been a tremendous learning experience...writes Steve and Joni Petty, two of our first studentsto enroll in our Urban Ministries Program in September.Steve is a 1981 graduate of Kentucky Christian Collegeand Joni is a former student. They decided to enroll at

Ontario Christian Seminary in preparation for the missionfield. The Pettys plan to begin a work in France thisye ar.

The individualized program for the Pettys included: 5hours of French language instruction dai ly for 4 days aweek; hours of evangelism each Monday, both in classroom instruction and practical application; and another6 hours of classes in the study of culture and worldreligions. In addition they were involved in a Thursdayevening Bible study, and al l but four weekends in singing, preaching, mission or youth rallies. The Pettyswere featured at the Keele Youth Rally in November.

Steve writes:

Canada has been a tremendous learning experience. . . The whole idea of being in a "foreign"country has been the teacher. Not only mustJoni and I be ready to enter a foreign field,but our families must also be prepared. Thesep st three months have been good psychologicalpreparation for our move to France. There is an

element of the "unknown" in foreign countriesand we naturally tend to shy away from this.This effect is cal led cul ture shock. Joni and Iexperienced culture shock in Canada in a milderform than we will in France, but still it wasculture shock. Canada on the surface seems tobe very much like the U.S.A. and it is, but alonger period of time spent in Canada will bringto the surface many major differences.

Steve and Joni Petty

We were really pleased with the O.C.S. program,it proved to be beneficial training for us. OurFrench study at Hansa Language Institute wasalso very beneficial. We got to the poin t wherewe could watch "Grizzly Adams" on French T.V.with a general understanding. Communication isvery important in eva ngelism, si v o i i s ne pensezpas s i , alors essayez lire cette phrase. (I fyou don't think so, then try reading this sentence.) Even after we are in France we will needmore language study. We are learning mostly tospeak and read now...


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l ( i 0 ,( g o & ' a i F r l l o i u Slorkprs, 3nr. 1 7 \ ^ , 3 4

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God's F e l l o w Workers, Inc. / < £ / / ASteve Petty or l u i i iL u i I n i l ^ Yo t / ^ - 6K entucky Christian CollegeBoxGrayson, Ky. 41143^//^^.

Steve and Joni Petty are making preparations to enter

France for missionary service in 1984. The Pattys are presently

traveling and presenting their support program. They have entitled

their mission "God ' s Fellow Workers, Inc.", emphasizing the fact that

the missionaries and the supporters of a mission are fellow workers

for the Truth, 3rd J o h n 1:8 ". Our choice of France comes from somewhat of a special

"Macedonian Call", Steve says. worked a summer internship with D ennis Messimer

i n B e l g i u m i n 1980 a n d w e v i s i t e d t h e Petronelli f a m i l y i n F r a n c e . Mr. P e t r o n e l l i

said if I would come and help him, he would help me. Presently, the independent

Christian Churches have no works in France. We plan to begin new church evangelism

working toward indigenous congregations.

S t e v e Petty was b o r n F e b . 15. 1960 a n d g r e w u p i n t h e B l a c k O a k a r e a of L e w i s C o u n t y .

K e n t u c k y . A f t e r g r a d u a t i o n f r o m h i g h school, S t e v e e n r o l l e d a t K e n t u c k y C h r i s t i a n

C o l l e g e in G r a y s o n , K e n t u c k y . H e g r a d u a t e d M a y 8, 1981 w i t h a n A . B . d e g r e e a n d was

o r d a i n e d May 10, 1 9 8 1 a t t h e B l a c k O a k C h r i s t i a n C h u r c h w i t h d e f i n i t e p l a n s f o r f o r e i g n

m i s s i o n a r y s e r v i c e . S t e v e h a s p a r t i c i p a t e d i n s e v e r a l f a c e t s o f t h e m i n i s t r y s u c h a s

m u s i c , a p u b l i c c a m p g r o u n dc h a p l a i n c y , y o u t h w o r k , a m i s s i o n a r y i n t e r n h s i p , a n d t h e

teaching/preaching ministry.

J o n i (Rice) Petty w a s b o r n M a r c h 1 , 1 9 6 2 a n d is a n a t i v e o f Z a n e s v i l l e , O h i o w h e r e

she attended the N o r t h Terrace C h u r c h of Christ. She h a d three years of french before

g r a d u a t i n g f o r m Z a n e s v i l l e H i g h S c h o o l . W h i l e a t t e n d i n g K . C . C . , J o n i a n d S t e v e

shared their interest for missions and continue to do so after their marriage in

O c t o b e r , 1 9 8 1 . J o n i h a s p a r t i c i p a t e d i n t h e B i b l e Bo w l p r o g r a m , t e a c h i n g , m u s i c ,

secre tar ia l services , and youth work.

The Pettys plan to enter France in June, 198 4

T h e i r s u p p o r t g o a l f o r a c o m b i n e dp e r s o n a l a n d m i s s i o n b u d g e t

i s $ 1 5 0 0 .t o$ 2 0 0 0 .p e rm o n t h . ^ l ^ ^ B f e y o f ^ ' t h eg o a li s p r e s e n t l yc o m m i t t e da n dt h e yhope that the full amount will be raised by

1 i iLimt) ' Your prayers and help toward this goal

w o u l d b e a p p r e c i a t e d . F u n d s m a y b e s e n t t o a n d i n f o r m a t i o n o b t a i n e d f r o m . G o d ' s

F e l l o w W o r k e r s ,I n c ., s f e t o P ^ S S f ' ^ o r S t e v eP e t t y, K e n t u c k y C h r i s t i a n C o l l e gB o x- a s e ,G r a y s o n , K y .4 1 1 4 3 - 1 1 9 9 , p h o n e : T o m B u r b r i n k( 6 0 6 )4 7 4 - 6 6 1 3 ^O r "£ r > / - 5

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p r c s e - n ^ / yr e f k u r ^ y p p o i ^ c L v v c t n ^ ^

^ i \ ( d̂ ^ e y -O r r , p v r . s ^ K s t s i L ^ t r < ^̂ z ^ i / a ^ ci - 3 r L l c ^t ^ of O r e ^ ^ c ^ y t i ; a ^ o r ^ p r -^ ^ p p D 9 ' - 6 .

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?4f x 11$^All Aboard or should it be All Abroad Yes, this Is our Bon Voyage letter Ournext letter will be prepared while we are in France. The departure date is se tfor May 30th. from Columbus, OH. with People 's Airlines. Soon all of the aggravation of traveling, living out of suitcases, not knowing if this shirt or thatpair of shoes is in the attic of my parents house, in our U-Haul trailor, or inone of the boxes in the bedroom, awaiting a response from many of the unansweredsupport letters, scheduling speaking engagements, and all of the other trialsfound in the life of a missionary recruit raising support will all be over. Ofcourse, there will still be the adjustment to the French culture and moving to aplace where we can finally put down some roots, but this 1s all a part of reaching the goal of two years prepa ration. We hope that through the update lettersyou have been able to share just some of these feelings with us.

I feel sure that you can imagine how hard it will be to say good-bye to familiesand friends and board the plane for France, but the blow for us will be softened somewhat since Bruce & Janet Duffy will be flying over with us. The Duffys

- w i l l - b e - i r t t e r n i - n g with the Messimers -in-Belgium and-we will fly into LondoF^—from there the Duffys will go on to Belgium and we will go to France. The fourof us will be able to spend a considerable amount of time together doing somesurvey work in southern France where we plan to begin full-time work. Bruce andJanet will be returning to the States in August. Janet will be finishing K.C.C.and they will be raising support for their return to Europe 1f all goes wellthis s u f i m e r with their internship. Our first furlough is scheduled for the 3summer months of 1986 and we hope the Duffys will be able to return to Francewith us to begin full-time work as fellow workers for the Truth.

Our p resent schedule Is pa cked Ev ery weekend Is booked except for ResurrectionSunday which we will be spending with our families. From Feb. to May 30th, wehave or will have visited our 20 supporting churches plus a few first time stopsto possible supporting churches. Some churches will be left out this time butwe promise to catch them during the '86 furlough. We are also using some of ou rtime to visit families and friends that we will not have the opportunity to seevery often after May 30 th .

After our arrival in London, we plan to spend a week with Fred Miller, a fellowmissionary serving in England. We will then go to Lille, France by boat andtrain to the Petronellis. The Duffys will be joining us in July for a survey

trip to the south. Later, we will join the Messimers and travel to Venice, Italyfor the European Christian Service Camp(July 17-26) which Is conducted by and formissionaries and military personnel in Europe each year. From Italy, we willreturn to the Messimers in B elgium. The Duffys and we will then attend theEuropean Lectureship (July 31-Aug. 4) which is conducted yearly by the non-instrumental missionaries. The Lectureship is held in Nantes, France. Thesemeetings will be great opportunities for us to meet the missionaries in Europeand to gather much advice and helpful information for beginning our work inFrance. A fter the Lectureship, the Duffys will be returning to the States and

d ll b d d hi di f h h i i


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ATTENTION ATTENTION ATTENTION ATTENTION

Our address is changing The present address is:God's Fellow Workers, Inc.Keith Groves Box 268Kentucky Christian CollegeGrayson, KY. 41143-1199.

Please take note that after MA Y 1st. , the above address will not be valid. A llcorrespondence and contributions should b e mailed to the following address sinceK e i t h & B e t h a n y Groves, our F o r w a r d i n g A g e n t s , w i l lb e g i n their f u l l - t i m e m i n i s t r yw i t h t h e M i n e r v a Pa r k C h u r c hof C h r i s t i n C o l u m b u s a f t e r K e i t h ' s g r a d u a t i o n .

- 1 . ^ od's Fellow Workers, Inc.

N E WA D D R E S S - ^ i Minerva Park Church of ChristI 9 3 8 We s t e r v i l l e R o a d^ o l u m b u s , O h i o . 4 3 2 2 9

The following is a financial summary for the Pettys' mission fund for France.Total income for 1983: $13567.19 (Note: one half of this amount came from

individuals so aga in we stress the pointnever to think my little bit won't matter)

$6954.93 (Expenses itemized below)$ 6 6 1 2 . 2 6

Total expenses for 1983:Net increase for 1983:

T o t a l a s s e t s at year end: $ 1 3 , 5 0 3 . 0 1 ( Y o uw i l l r e c a l l that w e h a d set a g o a l' or a $ 10,00 0.0 0 s tar ting fund, well

the Lord through youfes more than fulfilled that goal)

Our m o n t h l y c o m mi t t m e n t s s t a n dat $1250.00 a n d a g a i n our g o a l for this was $ 1 5 0 0 -$ 2 0 0 0 p e r m o n t h s o w e a r e just s h o r t of t h e m i n i m u m f i gu r e .We s t i l l h a v e a f e wmore churches to visit to present our program for support so we are confident thatH e w i l l p r o v i d e . F r o m o n e f e l l o w worker t o a n o t h e r , " T H A N K S "for your p a r t

I n a s m a l l b o o k l e t p u b l i s h e d b y C h r i s t i a n M i s s i o n a r y F e l l o w s h i p , C h r i s t o p h e r C a r t s ,age 7 , listed the steps to becoming a missionary and I would like to share thesew i t h you. 1 . Think, do I want to b e a missionary? 2.If so, where at? 3.A fter thisg o to a counselor. 4.Memorize scripture. 5 . Be sure you know t h e language. 6.Dec i d e w h a t g r o u p y o u w a n t t o w o r k w i t h . 7 . B e m a r r i e d .8.Let t h e p e o p l e s t u d y you.9 . B e s u r e t h e y u n d e r s t a n d G o d ' sw o r d . 1 0 . B a p t i z e . C h r i s t o p h e r i s the son ofD a v i d & Sylvia Corts, East 38th Street Christian Church, Indianapolis. At age 7I think we could learn m u c h from Christopher. The term "missionary" comes formthe Latin word for "apostle". Usually when we hear the term apostle, we tend tothink of the "twelve" and Paul and the magnificient, miraculous works recorded forus in the New Testament. But basically the term means,"one who is sent out top r e a c h the Gospel." France i s what church growth scholars c a l l a resistive field-

that means as a whole the country w i l l not readily accept the Gospel. One of thegreatest reasons for this fact is Catholicism. Catholicism i s a big part ofF r e n c h history, i n fact the seat of the papacy was once moved from R o m eto Avignon, France in the late 1300 's . As "missionaries/apostles", Joni and I may notb e able to perform the great miracles that t h e Apostles did, but we w i l l p r e a c hthe G o s p e l and we also r e c a l l the words of Christ In John 14:12, "I t e l l you theTruth, anyone who h a s faith in me w i l l do what I h a v e b e e n doing. He w i l l doeven greater things than these, because I am going to the Father." Is there agreater work than preaching the Gospel, the power of God unto Salva tion, whichbrings those obedient to that G o s p e l into t h e N e w Covenant? That i s a wonderfulmiracle I hav& mentioned a l l this to make this point that we ask our supportersto consider and pray about. All of the European missionaries that we have beeni n contact w i t h h a v e warned u s against discouragement. Many h a v e served manyyears with only a few converts as opposed to Africa where hundreds may b e won inonly a few years. We are prayerfully aware of this matter and pray you w i l l b ealso. Pray for u s and for t h e F r e n c h people. Pray for u s as we communicate theG o s p e l a n d for them to hear and obey the Gospel. Pray that t h e Holy Spirit p r epares both Joni & I and the French.

Thanks again for your support and we invite your questions and comments.


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Qod's d ^ ^ ^ o w ^ ^ A j o t k e t s . ^ n c .

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DEC 1 1 1984

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"iVe^come to -dT^^AyiOS "A s we stopped along the highway to take this picture back in June,it seemed as if a new life was about to start for us. A n d it trulydid, a new life of a different style, language, and people. Thatwas five months ago and still the newness is presen t . I ' ve alwayswondered how a newborn.baby views the world around him and now Ithink I can identify somewha t with those feelings. The initial"culture shock" is over and we are adjusting more and more as welive, learn, and exper ience the french way of life.

France is just as you would picture it to be from the movies: crazydrivers, crowded streets, beautiful cathedrals, G othic archi tectureand rolling farmlands and vineyards. We have ccne to realize thoughthat the French see our homeland in much the same way- through theeyes of the T.V. or f i lms- the attractions are different but th efeelings are - t h e same. I t is for this very reason that we have alotof opportunities to share our faith because the number one q uestionis,"Why are you here?" People seem to be really interested in whatwe are doing, but for the most part , i t is still curiosity more thana genuine interest. Hopefully, time and understanding will turn thecuriosity into a heart felt desire to know Christ themselves.

During the month of July, we traveled with the Duffys to several ofthe major cities in F rance for meetings with the Church of Christnon-instrumental missionaries to get a better picture of their workand methods. We got a wide range of opinions as we went to Paris ,Nantes , Lyon, and Dijon . There were different approaches to evangelism and follow up and we hope to be able to incorporate them allin some way. The Nante group is using an indirect approach of contacting and converting people through conferences or seminars whichhave no religious tone. The subjects, for exa mp le, deal with lonel iness , divorce, or feeling good about yourself. In this way theyare able to introduce people to the Christian life in a pract icalmanner. They have had a great deal of success and seem to be the

fastest growing Church of the eight congregations in Franc e. Othersare using Bible correspondence courses and seem to be having" goodresults with this also. We plan to start with a course here whenthe material is ready. Some have taken the approach of reaching the


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"already interested in religion people" . This way there is alreadya knowledge and belief in Christ where> on the other hand, that barrier of unbelief or ignorance must be broken .down. Yet other workers don*t want to deal with correcting religious doctrine and wantto start with those people who have no religious background or knowledge.

We will be glad to start with anyone that is willing and our mainoutreach right now, since we are still lacking in language skillsand can not truly share our faith effectively in this way, is thedining room table. We have no conversions to report but we aremaking contacts. We also have a home Bible study started in a homeof one of the members of the Lille congregation. I meet with threefellows my age every Monday to prepare the study and then one ofthem presents it the following Friday. Our French course keeps usbusy, also. We have three hours per day f ive days per week. Weespecially enjoy it because it gives us the opportuni ty to makemany contacts. We are trying to open our home to as many of theuniversity students as possible. Many young people we have con

tacted have been warned by their parents to watch out for thoseAmericans because they are with some cult or religious sect. Theydo so with reason. I mentioned earlier the number one question,well, the number two question is "Are you Mormons?" Lille justhappens to be the regional center for the Mormon Church in northern France, but in some ways that is to our benefit because we thusare able to explain the Church of Christ and who we are.

Notre voiture est une Peugeot 305 (en haut)Our car is a Peugeot 305 (above)Joni, Faisant signe de ta main du appartementJoni, waving from the apartment (right)

I*d like to share some of the funny thingsthat happen when one is learning and usinganother language. When we. first moved intoour apartment we didn't have any bedding soJoni asked the Petronellis if we could bor-

row their sleeping bags. It doesn't soundtoo funny that way but let me explain. In French sleeping bag istranslated "sac de couchage" but Joni asked for a "sac de cochon"which does have a similar pronunciation but actually means a sackof pigs. A nother time we had several people over and the topic of

discussion was "pets". I said I would like to have some fish. Nottoo funny again but the verb for to fish is "pecher" so I logic llyconcluded that it would work the same as english, we say I'm fishing and the thing we catch is fish -(fish- fishing) (peche-pecher)makes sense, right? Actually the noun for fish is "poisson" so Isaid I would like to have some "peaches" for pets. Both incidentsbrought the whole crowd to laughter. A nother instance, not qui te


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so funny*/ occured with an older man who we are witnessing to. H eand his wife are helping us with the language from time to t ime.We were working on some common ex pressions and slang words that on edoes not learn at school and he began to teach us some rather foulwords. ^ We tried to explain to him that i t might be necessary torecognize and understand those words but that* we would not includethem in our vocabulary. He got rather offended and said that itis necessary and acceptable in France for all people to use them.He told us about a fr iend of his who is a priest and he said thathe uses these words when they are speaking together. I guess thepriest has never read Col. 3:8.

G eneral D eG aulle once said/ "How do you govern a country that produces 400 different c heeses?" This respect for individuality hasits roots in french philosophy, a subject which has replaced religious education in F rench schools and , being largely atheist ic, hasmoulded the religious attitudes of the French nation. Jean-PaulSartre could declare, "Life is meaningless; God is dead; There isno moral law;" But what of Catholicism? Isn't France a catholic

na t ion? It would be more t rue to say that France was a catholicnation. Not only has atheism been a strong force in France^in recent years there has been a revival of the occult. It is estimated that in Fra nce today there are more voyants, fortune-tel lers,and spiritual healers than registered doctors.

This information really paints a B L A C K picture of France but it istaken from research done by major evangelicals in France. I'm surethe conditions mentioned above are true, but we have found the French people for the most par t jus t l iving from day to day not real iz ing their need for Christ- like many people in the States thatyou may know. The French are a people tired of "tired religion".Catholicism has long taught that God is reached through the Church.The problem is that the Church has ma de God unreachable, in factthe clergy has become almost unreachable. This imp ersonal ministryis one of the main reasons m any Catholics have stopped practicingtheir faith. They are now trying to break down this barrier and asis the case with many organizations of renewal it may be too late.Catholicism in France jus t has not given people the Hope that Christpromises and therefore they are angry with religion and G o d . P e ople are flabber-gasted when we share with them that they don' t needa preacher, pries t , or m an to reach God. H e is already reachingdown His hand for us personally to take hold of. They can not believe- that we study the Bible without a priest' s guidance. We praythat they will begin to study with us and find that Hope that isfound in J esus Christ and not a religion, men, work, or anythingthe world can offer.

Dale and Barb Mallory, missionaries in Berl in , West G ermany, havebeen doing some research concerning m issionary work in Europe. Ifound their findings very interesting and think that they wouldcertainly help Churches to understand and better perceive the needsof their Europea n missionaries. The following was taken from theMallory's newsletter (June 1984) .

Barbara and Dale have prepared a questionnaire which has been sentto 9 0 people - past and present missionaries in Europ e. Not all ofthe q uestionnaires are in yet and we still have some studying to do,but already a picture is forming. From the information that we have

at this point there seems to be four problem areas which have hampered the Christian Church/ Church of Christ Missionaries.

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1) C u l t u - J T S i lS o i T i ©l i a v © not b s c i n a b l © to adapt to t h © c u l t u i c a l d i f ~f©r©nc© s. Th©y came to E U r o p € twith a totally false impr©ssion ofwhat to expect. They b e c a m e ;f i ' u s t r a t e d when people did not respondas expected. 2) Preparation: Hany missionaries come with l i t t l e orno language training and, due to the pressure to "accomplish something" do not finish their language training on the field. A llE u r o p e a n s s t u d y f o r e i g nl a n g u a g e s from e a r l y s c h o o l y e a r s on a n dexpect missionaries to have e s c c e l l e n t control of the language oft h e i r h o s t c o u n t r y . ( 3 ) L a c k j o f S u p p o r t : P o s s i b l y d u et o t h e f a c tthat Europe is a slow, hard faeld, many missionaries have not beenable to get sufficient financial support to do an adequate job.Many missionaries also report that they have not had adequatespiritual support from s u p p o r t i n g congregations. (4) Independence:Due to our philosophy of independent missions, each missionary doesh i s o w n t h i n g w i t h l i t t l e c o m m u n i c a t i o n w i t h o t h e r m i s s i o n a r i e s .When one missionary needs h e l ] ? , either physical or spiritua l there

» every other miss ionary is equal lyitly, one becomes frustrated, burns outto carry on the work he was doing. In

: Y missionaries have come to Germany

been started and left to flounder: y leaves. This lack of continuity ha smission work here. The Germans find

; t in a Church that is here today and

i s - often no one to help sincebusy doing his work, cosequenand returns home with no onethe past fifteen years, thirtand returned home. Works hayand/or die when the missionatlimited the effectiveness ofit difficult to have any trusg o n e t o m o r r o w. T h a n k s t o B a : p ba n d D a l e , w e a w a i t m o r er e s u l t s .

It is true that the work inChurch of Christ (non-instrumand has been here over 30 yeahard but we have had over 10some have stopped coming hutquite some time before our fiChurch as His people continue

l i fe they live. Pray for E urwe continue to work with theto lead us as we prepare togregation, after our languag^

Europe is hard and slow. The largest~ental) in France numbers around 80

rs. The next numbers around 45. It isnon-christians in our Bible study,others continue to come. It may berst baptism but the Lord adds to H is

to witness by their words and the

ope and her workers. P ray for us asLille congregation. P ray for the LordI s e t t l e in a city where there is no c o n -

study .

In closing, it is always wonderful to celebrate the BIRTH of Jesuseach Christmas but it is muceach day and what our respondidn't leave us thinking ofgrave and this should be ourin service to God.

P.S . Several people have a s l ^ ymiss most from the States?"other than our families whica few of t h o s e things: b r o w r ^Koolaid, Peanut butter(cruncsaltines. Honey Roasted NutsMexican), cupcake liners, annumerous to mention. These iwe know them from home so r

id ,"What are some of the things you

j j e l l , t h a t is r a t h e r e a s y to a n s w e r ,1 we miss the most, here's a list ofLe & cake mixes, icing, crisco, Pam,ly) , own House crackers & regular

chocolate chips, tacoes(anythingi d other various "junk foods" tobems just don't exist in France like

ember Christmas is well on its waym

Steve & Joni Petty2 Rue Breve

Bat, 11, Appt. 56959650 Villeneuve D'AscqFRANCE

I Ii

more important to consider His DEATHe to that fact should be. Just as Heis death alone. He arose from theresponse also, to live a "risen" life

God's Fellow Workers, Inc.F.A.s Keith & Bethany GrovesMinerva Park Church of Christ4938 Wesrterville Road

Columbus, OHIO 43229.

petty steve joni 1984 france

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