Here is where we have returned winter after
winter for ten years. For the opportunities to serve the living God, we
returned, sometimes with reluctance because of the sacrifices that we knew lay
before us, but always with gratitude for the beauty that He set before us and
for the warmth of the French people who could not understand that Californians
would love their wild, isolated island archipelago in the cold season.
From this deck, over the hill, past many steep
cliffs, across the water to Ile d’Entrée (you can see it there in the distance) the miles of sea stretch out
beyond the horizon, out into the bold depths of the Atlantic. Between the Gulf and the Ocean lie two islands that still belong to Europe, though they hug the shores
of Newfoundland. There is where I want
to go next, though I am thankful for this return to the Magdalen Islands. I am thankful that there is a presence,
however fragile or tiny it may be, of Christianity here, but there on those islands of France – where are
the believers? Where is the fellowship that one Christian can have with another?
The isolation of this place from the large churches of America is almost
palpable. We must be ever thankful for the fellowship we enjoy on the continent, and we must pray the Lord of the harvest that He will send more workers to His fields.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes:
"The prisoner, the sick person, the Christian
in exile sees in the companionship of a fellow Christian
a physical sign of the
gracious presence of the triune God.
Visitor and visited in loneliness
recognize in each other the Christ who is present in the body;
they receive and
meet each other as one meets the Lord,
in reverence, humility, and joy. . . .
It is true, of course, that what is an unspeakable gift of God for the lonely
individual is easily disregarded and trodden under foot by those who have the
gift every day.”
- Ems
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