Interview with Philip and Jenny Adams

So Phillip and Jenny.

Good to see you guys.

Welcome home.

Have you gotten your accent back yet?

Are you able to spot to, to, to talk country or are you still...

Not, not quite, not quite.

Well, I wanted to start by just, maybe you guys could introduce yourselves and tell us how you're doing just as people before we talk about ministry.

Um, so Phillip and Jennifer, and, uh, how am I doing, um, as good as a father of grown children can do, whereas all we are parents forever.

Is that true?

and of, uh, walking with our children through the different things they're going through and, um, also of, uh, health wise doing well grateful for, for health.

Yes, because it allows us to continue doing the traveling and, um, airports, bullet trains, local trains, planes, trains, and automobiles.

.

you can only watch that movie if you watch it on VidAngel, but it's great.

It's hilarious.

But, uh, thank you.

And doing well.

Thank you.

Good morning.

And I'm in France.

I'm called Jennifer and call myself, Jennifer a lot.

So Philip you'll hear that, but I think you, many of you might know me by Jenny and, uh, so I, I go by any name you want to Jenny, Jennifer, it doesn't matter.

Um, we really are happy to be here this morning.

It just, uh, pulls on a lot of heartstrings to come back after for me after six years, I last was here in 2016 and Philip was here in 2018.

So you saw him some at that sum, I think may of that 2018.

And, um, and it's amazing how you can, uh, you know, it's not obviously the building, it's always the people.

So you come into the presence of the people that you have been connected bound to and have gone through a lot of life with, and you can feel that, uh, connection does not break in the body of Christ, uh, though it can be, uh, tried and, you know, and, and elasticized at times by, uh, by a lot of things.

But, uh, that's why we have, and I think this is part of what Philip and I do in France.

We have, um, you know, the heart of reconciliation in our, um, right front all the time with, uh, especially in these last few years that we've all lived from our experience in France and, um, and everything you've lived here and I am doing fine.

Um, uh, we have been back in France since 2000.

We moved into the apartment we're in, in west Paris in Gaelen in 2017.

And so, uh, we have been home...

If the Adams have had the same address for, uh, five years of summer, that's, uh,

Let's praise the Lord for that!

It's a miles.

And, uh, we have, we found ourselves and chose that place and felt like the Lord led us so that we were, we became part of a body that, uh, we are connected to right there, but Philip spends a lot of time traveling and he'll, he'll mention that more.

Um, Philip mentioned our children and yes, uh, we though we don't live near them.

Um, we have walked through some pathways in these last couple of years that we weren't planning on.

And so I just wanna end, how am I doing personally with the Charles Spurgeon quote that I feel like, um, so spoke to me in these past few years and maybe some of you will relate to it.

He says, I have learned to kiss the waves that throw me up against the rock of ages.

Wow.

So there's been a lot of learning to kiss the waves, they're his waves, and they place us at times right.

Smack into the rock of ages.

That's right.

And, um, so I would say these last few years have been about embracing and releasing.

Thank you.

Awesome.

Just while you have the, the mic there.

Okay.

Um, I know that the Lord's really put on your heart to help people yes.

Who have been through traumatic experiences and very difficult seasons.

And so I'm just curious how, how that has kind of played itself out as far as being

Yes.

Um, the, just up, up until this past year, um, we were limited in our movement in France by, uh, by confinement.

Uh, meaning we, we, we couldn't, I think we only started gathering as a body, um, in, in our space about five months ago, six months ago.

Yeah.

We've moved into a new space five months ago.

So, um, everybody's there, but it's been, uh, we've called it in Europe, the stop and go, and they say it that way in French Lu and go,

Right.

so, um, that real, yes, that's real.

Oh, that's Real.

That's real.

It's on the news.

The Stop and go

and right now we're go.

So, uh, we are go.

Um, but one of the things, uh, that there's something that's going to be unfolding in our new setting, that we, we have our local church and I don't travel with Philip very often.

So I'm, I'm often at home.

Uh, and that's, uh, the opening up of, with the mayor's permission, uh, a safe space for women and children that will be a gathering place, uh, during the day and from the very simplest listening ear to possibly helping them connect with, um, the different resources in that are the city provides if they are in need.

So using one of the Susanna, the, the sister that, uh, had, has this burning in her heart, and some of us are joining in with her.

She, uh, is, is highly motivated and able to, uh, go from not just listening and the spiritual, but some practical help too.

That's and, uh, that's good.

But then I was, um, able into, in January to begin an internship at a hospital inside Paris.

It's about an hour on the train and the Metro and I, uh, am a volunteer, um, chaplain.

Wow.

Yeah.

In the hospital.

yeah.

And I'm learning the ropes.

It's, uh, not like nothing I imagined.

Yeah.

We have, um, several limitations and, um, uh, I I'm trying to, you know, understand how that, how it, what it means to be a chaplain and not have a lot of Liberty to do much, but, uh, listen, people do ask for prayer.

Some, um, I guess my, my greatest experience in that was, uh, I was sent to a room of a woman who's, it's, it's a hospital that has deals with blood cancer and leukemia.

And she had been in and out several times.

This is like her last time in, and she's from Congo, the Republic of Congo and her two, two daughters are not in France.

And when I got into the room, she, um, I was thinking, you know, Lord, I had to prayed, Lord just lead me.

And, uh, but she knew exactly what, where she was at because she sat me down kind of held court and, um, questioned me about, did I believe the words of Jesus about healing and how she was going to walk out of there.

And, um, I was, you know, I, she said scriptures.

I said, amen.

she said more.

I said, amen.

She did a little Bible study.

And, uh, at one point she looked at me in French, of course.

And she said, I don't think you're very convinced really I'm like, okay.

but I just prayed.

I said, Lord, there's just oth nothing.

I can offer this sister Madam quote today.

And, um, what, you know, but I'd love to be a blessing to her.

And so I had been having a little eye infection that was, and I needed some drops and was scratching away up my eye a bit.

And then it just came to me and I said, what I'm cool today?

I said, would you please pray for me?

Wow.

And she looked at me and she said, come over here.

and, uh, I got, I got to sit by her.

We had, um, masks on because of the COVID in the hospital.

And she just, you know, slammed her hand on my head.

And then I got prayed for, from up and down and my family and the, around the world.

And, um, it was, uh, just a, a beautiful moment.

And I realized that being a, a chaplain means you don't always come in with all of the, you know, that you're the one who has to have the blessing and the scripture that you can actually be there and have, and receive.

And I, I truly receive that day.

Awesome.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's great.

Great, great.

Yeah.

So Phillip just catches up on, on kind of what your, your side of things looks like from a ministry standpoint.

Yeah.

Um, the, we work with a fellowship of churches in France called this Baptist Federation of evangelical churches.

We're 118 churches.

Wow.

And, uh, don't the name frighten you?

Yeah.

Don't let the name Baptist frighten you because, oh, about 60% of those people.

You love Baptist people just exactly like church here, the Sunday morning.

There you go.

It's um, uh, Baptist does not limit what Christ can do in any way in France.

That's right.

That's good.

.

Yeah.

And, uh, but the reason we work with them is because we've known them for many years.

We have relationships and, um, I travel throughout the country.

Uh, I spend a lot of time on the phone a lot of time on zoom and, um, I'm sort of a pastor to the pastors.

That's one of my functions in this group of churches.

And then with a team of, uh, eight other people, we lead all the church plants that we're doing right now in France.

And we have 21 church plants going, wow.

So that's great.

Keeping those going with, obviously it's teamwork, you know, we all cover our geographical areas.

Um, and then, um, in this group of churches, um, I would say one of the things, a strong suit, the strong point, the DNA is relationship built network.

And so because of that, there's real close relationships.

And it's been precious for me to, to be a part of that and to have the privilege of ministering to pastors, but also, uh, going into churches and working with the leadership team of the church, helping develop.

Um, you probably know I'm a strength finders coach, and I use strength finders in all the churches I work in, in France to help them develop them, discover who they are.

For those of you who may not know strength finders is a, an evaluation tool that helps you to be able to understand how God made you, what strengths he gave you and how the, how you can use those strengths to fulfill the purpose of God wherever he has you serving.

And by the way, I'm the one who started Trinity on the journey back in 2007.

So wow.

Mark and I, and then I told Mark, I said, Mark, you need to go to get trained as a coach.

And he did.

And so the story continues.

Now my, my daughter is a part of it now, too.

She's part of the team.

So, so we, we work with strength finders with the teams.

And then also there's a lot of one-on-one mentoring of young leaders who are just becoming pastors.

Um, one church that I've been in for the last two years started out as a toxic church.

Relationships had become so toxic that it was close to literally splitting in.

I don't know how many pieces and by the grace of God, over this two year period going there about once a month, once every six weeks, God has become knitting them together.

And, um, I'm, I'm amazed to get the emails from the, the team leading the church on what they're doing, what they're doing in their city.

Wow.

And the relationships, and God has just changed the way the church is.

And that's part of his grace that's right.

Of, of what he does.

And, uh, it sure wasn't me, but I'm grateful that I was able to work with him to accomplish that in that church.

And I, I could go throughout other churches in particular, I'm looking at Chad and Sonya.

Uh, there's a Moroccan family in, that came to one of our churches back in 2018.

And, uh, the husband and the wife both were baptized, but the story doesn't end there, Malika the wife, um, truly became a follower of Christ, but the husband what's his name.

I can't remember hall haled hall.

And, um, he, there was something that wasn't right.

Wasn't true.

And, um, the daughter called the police because haled was beating Malika.

Oh, the 14 year old daughter could call the police in France, in Morocco.

She could not.

So he was arrested, sent to prison and in prison, we don't know how it happened, but then he got out of prison and he disappeared, completely disappeared.

The church Supported me.

And then the church kept supporting Malika.

The three kids went there to Sunday school.

Yeah.

They really, three kids became followers of Christ.

And, uh, little later in 2019, he came back and he tried to get her confidence again.

Wow.

But what we didn't realize it was a devious, there was a devious purpose behind it.

We believe he had been radicalized while he was gone.

Right.

And, uh, he tried to kill all three of his children.

He killed two of them and, uh, himself.

And then after the end of it, he poured gasoline on himself and lit himself.

But right before he lit himself on fire, his daughter who survived, heard him say, now I can go in peace.

You have what you deserve.

And so we were Jenny and I were part of with Susanna.

We went there during the year of 2019 walk in the church through the trauma of, um, losing such dear children.

And the church loved those kids.

And by the grace of God, Malika today is a nurse's aid in a hospital.

She's getting she's driving.

She has a life and she's rebuilding her life.

Little by little following Jesus.

But the devastation was very real for both of them.

And they're her daughters still remains, um, in a hospital where she's receiving the kind of care that she can get for now to, um, re rebuild what was utterly destroyed in her.

Yeah.

So, uh, but when you asked about the trauma, this was, um, this was a church in she book, which is like the one place in France you can take at fairy to Ireland.

And, um, Phillip, he, he knew that, you know, he was to go to be with Samuel, the pastor who was inundated.

Right.

But Phillip said, I'd like to bring my wife and I'd like to bring Susanna.

And we'd like to just set up for two days, uh, well, I guess we're there for two or three days and have hourly appointments and anyone who felt like they needed to talk and to come and they, they could, and that way Samuel was not so totally overwhelmed with, um, what had, and this was a new idea that when a church has a crisis, you know, a sister church, a connecting church could send a team to, to the, the, the, the, the body and need and give them some, some support in their trauma and some, uh, in present support being right there.

So that's amazing.

Yeah.

What a great testimony.

So, um, obviously we're, we're so grateful to be a part of your story and to be, um, you know, financially, uh, giving towards you.

And, um, also there are others here that do that.

We give on a monthly basis to the Adams, from our missions fund.

And so I just want you to be aware of that, but they always have needs that come up to travel and to do the things that they need to do.

So if the Lord puts it on your heart to connect with them, how, how can they connect with you all to, to learn more, to, um, maybe set up an appointment with you, whatever.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You can just, um, um, probably get in touch with the office and they'll root it to us.

That way we can call you back.

Uh, we have French phones here, so you, you can't just call us you could, but you could, it would've cost you a dollar a minute.

.

so, so when you do call them, do they answer in French?

Or what is the, what makes'em a French phone?

Well, it's a French phone company and it's a French answering service.

That'll answer you and it'll say in French and you'll go, Ooh.

Oh, okay.

.

Yeah.

All right.

Yeah.

I, I just, I'm just picturing Derek getting that voicemail.

right now.

I love you Derek.

Come on home to his brother.

So, uh, but let's pray.

Let's pray for Philip and Jenny and the ministry that God's continuing to do through them.

I mean, they, I, I wish we had hours and days to spend with them because they're so, uh, they have such great richness, um, not just in the stories that they tell, but the, the experience of God being with them as they have dealt with so many different traumatic things throughout their life and ministry.

So father, we thank you for Philip and Janet, Jenny Lord, we pray in the name of Jesus that you would continue to strengthen them for the tasks that are at hand.

And Lord, I pray that they would be well in their spirit, in their soul and in their body and father.

I thank you that the work that you've called them to is very important.

We pray that you would keep the hand of the enemy from coming near them in any way to harm them or harass them.

We thank you for their extended family.

We ask you, bless them, encourage them and strengthen them as well.

We pray for provision in every way, father, that, that you would take care of the needs that are there.

And Lord, I pray that the, um, the extent that you desire for their ministry to, to reach, I pray Lord that nothing will stop them from going as deep and as wide as you desire for them too.

And Lord, I pray for their marriage.

I just pray you strengthen their marriage, help them to enjoy each other in these days and hours, even though they're pouring so much of themselves out to other people.

And Lord, we just thank you for the privilege of partnering with them as they do this great work of spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ in a place that has been very dark for a long, very long time.

We thank you that the light of Jesus is bursting forth in all of France and in the surrounding country, Lord in Jesus mighty name.

Amen.

Amen.

Thank you.

Can I bring up a prayer request?

Um, as you probably remember, we spent almost nine years in Afghanistan and, um, the work with Afghanistan actually continues right now because we're working on trying to get people out of Afghanistan that are in danger because of the present government.

Uh, I'm not gonna use certain words, so it won't be tagged, right.

Uh, but the present government is seeking out the people who used to work with us, the people who worked with our, even our troops and they're in danger.

And God's given us the privilege of being a part of working with that.

Right now, there's several networks of, uh, people who work there before and, uh, people who from America and other countries are getting involved.

Uh, last night I was on the phone with one of our families.

That's in a neighboring country and, um, they're, they were there, um, waiting to be gotten out, uh, probably to end up in the states.

So, um, this ongoing please pray.

And I'm thinking of one particular man who's, uh, who was a general in the previous government and he's also became a friend.

And, uh, we worked with him extensively while we were there in our last project and he needs to get out, uh, he is a high value target to the tea people.

So please pray for him and his family.

He's got a wife and, uh, three daughters.

And so please pray that, uh, we somehow God would provide a way out for this family.

And there are others too, obviously.

So if you want more information, I can give you more.

Um, but I don't like to say things like this, very veiled in public.

Lord, we pray for that right now.

We pray for those who are in harm's way, who need to be retrieved from those nations that were mentioned.

We pray Lord that you would open doors.

We pray for, uh, even angelic assistance, Lord, whatever is needed for this to be able to occur, preserve, and protect and keep those that your purpose is not complete with yet.

Lord, I thank you for giving them courage as they wait and search and that you would even make them somewhat invisible to the, to those that would try to harm them.

And we thank you for that father in Jesus name.

Amen.

All right.

Let's give these folks a great big hand.