iConnect Monaco Missions Update

Christophe Sosso shares with us how our missions investment in making a difference with iConnect Monaco.

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It is always for me a privilege, really a privilege, to be able to come back and report regarding iConnect Monaco. The I don't like the word donation, because sometimes donation you donate, and sometimes you don't even know why you donate for and you don't know what happened. I I really prefer the word investment because when you invest you know what you are doing and also you expect a return. You want to know what happened. So here I am to report, and also when you invest with us, you invest in the life of the people, in the life of the people that we are, that the Lord is changing in using us as his tools, especially the children and the young generation, because we are uh our targets uh are the kids and the young generation. I connect Monaco. This is really what we are about. We are the connection between the people who make investments and the people who receive investment. And one of our specificities is that we don't send money and hope that everything will be fine. No, we we go there and we say we have 10 euros for this, I want to see this, and I want to see the bill of 10 euros. This is how we work because again, we receive investment from you, it has to be serious, and we want to be serious with uh what's the trust that you have uh in us. Um it's always a privilege to receive investment. Thank you, Lord. When it's when it's uh the investments are from Christians, it's even better. It's a blessing. But when the investment comes from my home church, oh it's a it's a privilege for me uh to be here, and really, really I want to thank the church and the in the individual also. There are individuals in this church who who contribute and who help. So so thank you. So about uh what two weeks ago we left. Um we uh on Wednesday, what we do is normally we live on Wednesday, we go to Istanbul because because this is the main city, and then either we take a car or uh the connection, uh the plane connections, the uh the domestic connections are very cheap in uh in Turkey. And so that uh allows us to do our stuff. So we we travel on Wednesday, we do operation on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, we come back here on Sunday and we're back to work on Monday. So we left uh uh two or three Wednesdays ago for Istanbul, and then our yes, just one thing. So the first mission was in a refugee camp. Here we are in the south of Adana, we are about a few hours by car from the border with Syria, and here we help the refugees from uh mainly Syria and a little bit also from Afghanistan because of the Talibans. There are a lot of uh, especially women and kids who who have to escape. Here, mainly it's uh Syrian people. Yep. You're always welcome every time by the children because it's uh it's great for them to see foreign years coming, it changed. School is forbidden for the refugees, work is forbidden, and they have nothing to do, they are just in camps. Turkey hosts them, and in exchange, Turkey receives funds from the European Union. So that's the that's why they are there. But once they are there, there is nothing you can do. And actually, one of our uh thinking is to try to start a school in in this camp. But so far, we are there to deliver uh food and water. The guy is re in red is the is the leader of the camp. He goes to he ha he travels to six or seven different camps. And uh so he that's this one. This is this is one of the boxes, so it's really stuff food from there. Olives, uh lentils, uh uh oil, uh things like this. Those people are Muslim, he's Christian, and so he teaches them that he teaches them that everything comes from Jesus, this person called Jesus. So we delivered the box, the water for each family, and it's a big deal for them because they receive almost nothing. And we work only with the local church who know the needs. That this is the only place in the camp where you can find water. And every time when we are here, we try to play with the kids and have them laugh and smile, because again, life is not really great over there. Always difficult to say goodbye for the children because they are really attaching, you know. Um, so uh we left the camp, we we rent a car, and we drove about eight hours, and we went to Aksarai, which is about in the center of the city. And in this uh mission, in this distribution, we are really in connection with the church, and through the church, we are trying to help the people. Um, a lot of them are Christians and they are from uh Iran, Iraq, uh, and uh and we try to give them not boxes but here alimentary cards that they can use to buy food and uh hygiene products. And every time there is also an opportunity to share our faith with the people. We work in coalition with some Americans, and so after the sharing, it's the time to give the cards to the people, or the people that we help are uh register on the refugees funds at the UN. And so that's those are the cards, the alimentary cards. And uh that shows you the kind of place, it's very cheap. You cannot find any alcohol or tobacco, so it's really, really for the the family. Uh can you stop? So so we had uh uh two distributions in in the city, different churches, and then the day after we went to um Kaiserie and other towns where we uh uh traveled also uh uh over there. And this project is very, very nice, very interesting. We have been partnering with those guys, uh this church for uh six, six, seven years now. They have a laundry mat that is used for free for the refugees. So the church operates the laundry mat. It's a way for the refugees to come and wash their uh clothes for free, and because it's a Christian place, it's also a way to witness them. In this country, you cannot witness them in the street or you end up in jail. So what they do is in a discreet way to mention that if it is free, it's because they love the refugees. But why do you love us? We don't know each other. Well, we love you because he first loved us, and and and the Lord always has uh opportunities, uh open doors to really be uh make the people be able to hear about Jesus. And that's also one of our specificities. It's a very holistic vision. So we we we know that if you um uh witness uh someone, if you tell someone about Christ, but the person is starving, uh the effect is going to be very limited. And on the other hand, if you uh provide food and clothes without mentioning Jesus, uh it's not complete because uh they think we help them uh because we are nice. It has nothing to do with that. We help them because of the Lord. And so it's there is always always in our projects the material uh aspect and the spiritual aspect. And so this is a great project because uh we we can really help them, and so we use the laundry mat to have a distribution of uh of boxes. Bernan, that you saw, actually came here a few years ago to preach. He's our uh facilitator, he's our intermediary between us and and the um and the local churches because he speaks Arabic, he speaks uh English, uh Turkish, he's a Turkigash, and Aramean. And he uh he's really he knows perfectly the country and the needs, and he has been our contact for the last uh we we have known him for the last uh 25 years, something like that. That's also one of our specificities. We uh we we we work uh by trust, and and you know, it takes many years to build a trust, it takes a few seconds to destroy the trust. So we have been with him now for the last uh 20 20 years. Uh yeah, yeah, go ahead. So those are the the pro the distribution started at 10. They arrived, they told me around 8:30 because the need is so big. And we give also energy bars for the kids. See all the people who are waiting outside. Sometimes the leader has to be a little bit a policeman to uh it's very difficult to talk to the women, they are very shy, and as a culture, they they don't talk to men. So this little girl is uh is a great use for us. For information, the distribution took place in about 40 minutes. The 400 box, and after when we were done, we had to close the door, and people were doing like this on the door because we were short about uh 150 uh boxes. We we didn't have for every uh for everybody. And so for your information to give you uh to give you a clear figure, um in the camp that you saw first, uh there were about uh 150 families. So we are talking about about 900 uh persons. Uh the uh two churches that where we were able to to help, you saw the um the the pictures regarding the the first uh one, there were uh about 200 people, and for uh the uh laundry mat, 400 boxes, it's about 2,400 people. So we're talking about a total of uh 3,500 people that you helped, you know, in giving food and and also comfort and and coin just. So I I really want to thank you because if you are not there, we we are not here. So thank you again for your for your generosity. And it is interesting because it's funny how the Lord opens doors every time to be able to talk together. Uh, a few days ago I was talking uh to a guy in in Monaco about iConnect, and he told me that he believes that people uh try to do good stuff for others, like iConnect, so that they can feel good about themselves and feel needed and feel important. So I thought, Lord, you you you sent me a tough guy. So uh I try to explain to him that uh uh we are the opposite of that, and I try to explain to him that we exist to serve the Lord. Um and because we serve the Lord, we want to love and serve people in need. And I mentioned to him, and obviously he was not familiar with that, I mentioned him uh James 220. Faith without works is dead. This verse shows that actually the most important is not works, it's the faith. Loving others, working for others, this is really important, this is good, this is great, but it is good only as a consequence of our faith as Christians, and it is always uh important to go back to the roots sometimes, which is our salvation is not by our works. We can work from morning to the evening, uh, we will not be saved by our works. Salvation is by grace through faith, and it's very clearly said in the Bible. If you go to Ephesians chapter 2, verse 8 to 9, for it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast. So you don't feel good because you go to Turkey, you feel humbled because you serve the Lord and therefore you serve others and you love them, because again, Ephesians says it is by grace you have been saved through faith and not by your works, so that you cannot boast. So there is a consequence that is two consequences actually, is that number one, we do not work for our salvation. Actually, we cannot work for our salvation because we saw in the scripture, Ephesians, that it's very clear, God's salvation comes only by grace through faith. So there is nothing we can do. We can go to Turkey, we can go to China, we can go to many places, we can help a lot. It won't work if there is no salvation with grace through faith. And we cannot earn it and we don't have anything to do because he already did it. He died for our sins, he's resurrected, and he's offering us a new life. So we do not work for our salvation, but we work out our salvation, and again, this is very clear if you go to Philippians chapter 2, verse 12 to 13, therefore, work out it it doesn't say work for, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure, not for our good pleasure, for his good pleasure. So actually, when I talk to the guy, I instead of uh telling him stuff, I should have said, let's go to the Bible and I show you the verses so you can figure it out. We work out our salvation, and in this passage, Paul is addressing uh believers who are already saved, and he's telling us that uh uh God is supplying us the willingness, the power, and the pleasure in the doing of it to do for his good pleasure. So basically, we work out what has been worked in by God. And the important thing, it was said during a sharing at the church, the important thing is that when we are saved by his grace through our faith, then we can work for him and therefore for others, and we can be a light in the word. To be a light in the world, you don't need to go to Turkey, you can be a light in the world in Monaco, you don't need to help refugees, you can be in the a light in the world to work in Monaco and to serve the Lord when you take care of your family, your neighbors, your co-workers, people in the streets. At the end of the day, and it's very clear, uh Pastor Patrick knows better than me how many times the word love is in the Bible. It's amazing. And at the end of the day, it is only about loving, serving, and obeying to God who wants us to be a light in the word. And I'm not inventing anything. You you go back to Matthew chapter 5, verse 14 to 16. You are the light of the word. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, the Lord says, in the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your father in heaven. And so being a light in the word means reflecting Christ, basically, his love, his truth. And we reflect Christ, his love and his truth through the good works in order to bring glory, not to us, but to him, to the Lord. At the end of verse 16, it's very interesting. Let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. We want to glorify our Father in heaven, and as believers, we must we must be a light in the word for God means. And we must reflect Jesus' character with our daily actions, integrity and love. It doesn't make sense to come here from five to six and then be the worst of the worst from uh next Monday to next Sunday afternoon. It doesn't make sense. We reflect the character, the characteristic, uh we reflect uh uh Jesus Christ. And that means serving others, sharing faith in order to guide people towards God's love rather than drawing attention to ourselves. So again, uh going to Turkey and serving the Lord is the opposite of having fun and feeling importance. Actually, I I tell you what, when you go there, uh you rather than teaching, you learn. You learn from those people. You learn that actually, you know what, my my kids don't really need their PlayStation number five. When those kids here are so happy because they have a uh a lollipop, or because they can drink something, or because they have some olives tonight uh to eat. Uh we learn much more than we teach. And and when you leave those places, you're very humble. I said, being a light in the word. Why? In order to share the good news of Jesus Christ and make disciples. And I I agree, uh, maybe you're thinking this right now sharing the good news is not always easy. Amen. And maybe you heard some people saying, or even maybe you think I have my faith, but I don't really share. You know why? Because it's it's private, it's personal. I I try to do to be good with people, but I don't share. Because again, this is my faith. It's something very private and and personal. I I understand that because I used to think that way. And guess what? I I was wrong, I am wrong. Not only is it not biblical to think that way, but if you really think about it, it doesn't even make sense. Putting together personal and private is wrong because those two words have a different meaning. Personal is opposed to collective, private is opposed to public. So, yes, it is personal, it is not collective, it is a personal situation. Uh, Jesus died for us, not as a group, but as individuals, for each one of you and for me. And he offers a personal relationship to each one of us, individually, not collectively. And if we accept the offer of Jesus, we have a relationship with him. And guess what? We are a new creature in him, we are someone new. I'm not inventing again. Let's go back to the to the to the book. Uh 2 Corinthians 5 17. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. So there is a complete spiritual transformation, and we are recreated in union with Christ. So, yes. It is personal. But it is not private. It is public. Otherwise, how can we share the gospel? And Jesus wants us to share publicly our faith and the good news. So it is personal, it is not private. And keeping our faith private is not biblical. It's not biblical because exactly that's what God says. Again, He wants us to share the good news, He wants us to make disciples. It's not just words, that's a reality. This is really what He says. And you have many Bibles verses that emphasize this idea. Mark 60 16, 15. He said to them, Go into all the words and preach the gospel to all creation. I like that sentence. Go in all the words. He doesn't say, I have a suggestion for you. He doesn't say, hey, there is an idea. He doesn't say, huh, I've been thinking about it. What about? No, he doesn't care. He says, go. It's a command, it's not a suggestion. And I think that we should be serious about that. Go into all the word and preach. Go and preach. That's what he says. 2 Corinthians 5 20. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. Ambassadors, that's a strong word. We have some Italians, we have different nationalities. We have our brothers and sisters. The ambassador of Italy into France, he is going to represent Italy. He is going to be the Republic of Italy in France. That's how it works. And we are said, we are asked, we are therefore Christ's ambassadors. We represent Christ. Timothy 4 2, preach the word. Again, he doesn't say, hey, when you have five minutes, could you maybe think of preaching the word? No. Preach the word, be prepared in season and out of season. Correct, rebuke, and encourage with great patience and careful instruction. So preach the word and great patience, careful instruction. That means what? Preach the word with love. How many times when we receive a preaching, there is the true of the Bible, but there is no love. And we we really feel this absence of love. That's not what Jesus wants. He says, preach the word always with love. And even sometimes you hear about the hypocrisy of the Christians, you know, the love of Christ and the hate of the Christians. Well, not here, because we serve the Lord, we work for the Lord, we preach with love. Because if there is no love, forget about the preaching. It's so useless. Matthew 28, 19, 20, therefore, go. It doesn't say, man, maybe you want to go. Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely, that's important too, and surely I am with you always to the very end of the age. In John 20, 21, again Jesus said, Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, I am sending you. And that shows to me what how important our job as a Christian, as a servant of Christ is his command to preach the word and the promise that Jesus will help us because we are not alone. And so you might think, eh, I understand, it makes sense. But I don't really feel comfortable. I do not really know how to talk. I do not really know how to share. I'm shy. And words do not come easy. I feel alone in doing this. I don't. It's not true because you're not alone. Again, I I I just read it, Matthew 28, 19, 20. And surely I am with you always, always, to the very end of the age. So it's not true that we are alone. And by the way, it is not true that we must be the perfect person who speaks, the perfect, eloquent uh men or or women in order to work for the Lord. Uh, when we have an opportunity to share, and if we hesitate, well, we just need to remember Moses. Moses was not any guy, he was the great leader, he received the Ten Commandments from God, he led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. Well, guess what? He had difficulties to speak. In Exodus 4:10, Moses said to the Lord, Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue. And we interpreted it as he was stuttering, or at least he had difficulties with uh speaking, with expressing himself. So that's what he said to the Lord. Sorry, I I suck. I'm really bad at that. That's not that's not what I'm here for. I'm really bad and poor. That was Exodus 4.10. Now, what's the answer of God? Exodus 4.11. The Lord said to him, Hold on, who gave human beings their mouth? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord? And despite his problems, Moses became who we know Moses is and was, the great leader. So what does it mean? It means that God is in charge. We are not, again, it's not about us, forget about us. It's only about him because we are his servant. He is in charge. And the only thing that we need to do, actually, it's not that complicated. Just give your best. Give your best, forget the rest, because he's in charge. You succeed, it's not you, it's him. You fail, you don't know because he's in charge. Maybe it was the first step. Maybe there's going to be a second step and a third step, and maybe maybe this person who said, Oh, you you you're stupid. Maybe this person in six months is going to become a Christian. We don't know. He knows. So let's keep it, I would say, cool. We give our best, he's taking care of the rest. And then that's it. He is in charge, and we just need to try again to do our best and to aim for excellence, because I believe that God did not create us for being mediocre, for mediocrity. I think he created us for being excellent, being the best. I'm not talking about a competition. It's not you against me, it's it's me against me. It's it's me about trying to do my best because I want to honor him, because I want to serve him, and because I love him, and as a consequence, I love and I want to serve others in Monaco, in Turkey, in China, in the great country of Ukraine. So he is in charge. And we work for the Lord, and we have the best equipment as soldiers, we have the best shield, we have the best equipment, our faith, our mind, and his words. With that, how can you lose? How can you be defeated? We give him our best in everything that we do, and by the way, also in everything that we say, because we know that our tongue can be a serious weapon. So we want to pay attention to our behavior, but also to what we say to others. So we want to give him our best and he takes care of the rest. So we stay patient with people. The guy who said, Oh, by the way, if you go to Turkey, it's just for you to please yourself. Cool. We stay patient with those people. If they say something stupid to the point that uh you might get upset, if they attack you, hey, just remind that uh, or just keep in mind that Jesus also died for them. He also died for them, and therefore we love them. We don't love our friends, we love everybody, not only our friends, everybody. That's what the command is. We must love them because at the end of the day, again, it's not about us. There is no reason to be upset or to be mad. Again, when I am attacked, it's not me. It's him. I have um at the office uh daily verses little book, you know. So every day when I come, I go to the office, I read that, so it uh encouraged me to uh to not hit the clients and uh to try to be nice with them, you know. Uh and uh um Friday it was about Matthew uh 5:10. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. I I really thought about it. I I thought, have we ever been mocked, persecuted? Those people in Turkey, in uh from from Syria, from Iran, they some of them they had to escape from Iran because because of their Christianity, they could be killed. Uh in Syria, uh some guys were telling me there is no way for me to go back and see my family because for them I am dead, because I am not a Muslim anymore. I accept Christ in my life. If I go back there, I am dead. We are so fortunate, we live in a country where you know what? Nobody's gonna kill you because you're a Christian, but still they could mock at you, they could make fun of you, they could say bad things about you. Have we ever been mocked for sharing our faith in Christ? In other words, has our faith cost us anything? And if not, maybe we should re-examine our faith. Some of us here are not believers. You know what? God bless you. Because you're in a situation where there is an opportunity for you. You can read the Bible, you can talk to some believers, you can investigate, you know. This book, does it make sense? Is it a religious book which cost uh 20 or 30 euros? Or is it the truth? If it costs 20 or 30 euros because it's just a religion, we're we're wasting our time here. We should be uh watching uh uh the Juventus of Torino playing uh playing football, or we should play playing tennis, or we should go to the bar because it's a waste of time. But if it's not religion, if it's much more important than that, if it's not philosophy, if it's not religion, but if it is the truth, ha, you know what, then it makes sense to be here, it's worth it. So if you are not a believer, you can ask yourself those questions. God gave you a heart, but he also gave you a brain, a mind. And it's totally fine. Uh um a guy, a friend of mine, was saying, uh, Muslims in Islam, you're not supposed to ask questions. If you ask questions, it means that you don't believe, it means that you uh you are not respecting the faith, and you really can be uh in jail and and uh you know go to true trial. Well, guess what? In our thinking, it's not a religion, in our thinking, in our spirituality things, it is okay to ask questions. Because again, we are not saved by our works. It uh you can pray every morning and you can come to church every single day. It's so insignificant. We are saved through him, the faith and his grace. So if you are not a believer, God bless you, work on it, and there is an opportunity for you to accept Christ and have a relationship with him. If you are a believer, if we are believers, God bless you too. Because we have to be a light in the word. We have to be a light in the word to be a faithful servant. And so, again, it's easy. Tomorrow morning we wake up and you say, God, ha, I am alive, I didn't die during my sleep. It means that you give me one more day, 24 more hours. How can I serve you? How can I love you, and can I show to the people outside the love that you have for them? And I tell you what, if you really think this way, it's it can be four or five in the morning, you don't want to stay in bed anymore because you have so much things to do, you're so busy. And so, in this situation, we want to give the best in everything we do, in and in everything we say. And again, at the end of the day, who cares? He is in charge. It's not about us, uh, it's about him. Amen. Let's pray.