Wherever, Whenever FRANCE | Nikki White
“My bags are always half-packed,” said Marcela Taquet, from her home in France, “because I have learned to be ready to go.” Her confidence and gracious demeanor can easily lead one to believe that she has lived there all her life. In reality, she has been transplanted to so many different cultures and countries over the years. Marcela is one of Multiply’s global workers living and ministering in the district of Montbéliard in eastern France. There, she and her husband, David, and their daughter, Louciana, are part of a small international team that partners with a local French Mennonite church.
we are all called to preach the Gospel to the nations, I asked them, ‘Me, too?’” “You, too,” she was told. “I rushed home and told my parents, ‘I’m going to be a missionary!’” Her parents nodded absently, not taking their daughter seriously. After all, she was only ten years old.
“For one year, they forbade me from going to church,” Marcela said.
“I was born and raised in Montevideo, Uruguay,” she related, “the most secular country in all of Latin America. We never spoke of God in my home.”
However, when she told them four years later that she wanted to be baptized, that was too much. They would not allow their sensible child to become a fanatic.
So, it was a surprise to her parents when, at age six, Marcela expressed her desire to attend a summer Bible camp at a newly planted Mennonite Brethren church nearby.
“For one year, they forbade me from going to church,” Marcela said. Then, unexpectedly, her grandfather had a heart attack and passed away at the age of sixty. Processing the shock and grief of sudden bereavement somehow softened and changed her parent’s hearts.
“A friend invited me, and it sounded like fun,” she explained, “and I was feeling adventurous even then, ready to go wherever, whenever.” At the camp, she heard about Jesus for the first time. Immediately, she grasped the concept of who he was and was excited that he wanted to be her friend. That summer, Marcela chose to begin a relationship with Jesus, and told her parents that she wanted to keep attending church. Because it was just down the street from where they lived, they allowed her to go, although they were confused by Marcela’s insistence that her little sister come with her each Sunday. They could not fathom what two little girls would find so interesting at a church.
“Not only did my parents allow me to go back to church,” she said, “but they said it was all right for me to be baptized!” After that, there was no holding her back. Each week she insistently told her pastor of her desire to be a missionary. Wisely, the pastor asked Marcela to wait until she was a little older, and suggested they meet to pray together about this once a month.
“I loved that there were always missionaries at the church,” Marcela explained, “sharing their stories from all over the world.”
Two years later, a ship from Operation Mobilization (OM) docked at the port of Montevideo, carrying a crew of young adults trained to reach communities all over the world with the Gospel. When some of the workers came to her church to ask for volunteers to serve on board, Marcela was first in line. She was ready to go; she had been ready since she was six years old.
One missionary couple in particular, John and Janice Goertz, had a significant impact on Marcela at a young age. “They had come from Canada, and were heading to Panama,” she said. “When they shared from Scripture how
That month of service and discipleship was life-changing and led to one year with OM in Mozambique. There, she met women from Iran and Iraq, and her heart was stirred with a desire to reach Muslims for Christ. It was then that she
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