Photo: Linda Oyer, with Mennonite Mission Network in Paris, speaks at a women’s leadership conference.

Linda Oyer describes her 27th year of ministry in France with Mennonite Mission Network as a mystery. Oyer planted, like seeds scattered on the ground, the concepts of God’s realm in many different teaching contexts.

She uses the verses found in Mark 4:26-27 to frame her past months: “The kingdom of God is as if someone scattered seed on the ground, then slept and rose night and day, and the seed sprouted and grew, and he does not know how.”

Oyer says the seeds grew as she went about her daily life of sleeping and rising.

“I was unaware,” Oyer says. “There was no coaxing of growth, no pushing or pulling. God was working in profound ways when I could not yet see it. And when I did become aware, it has remained a mystery as to how it all happened.”

When Oyer talks about not seeing, it has more than figurative meaning. For the past five years, she has lived with debilitating visual impairment due to parasites in her eyes. This summer, her focus will be on writing a book based on the insights she has gleaned from suffering. The book has been commissioned by Editions Mennonites, the French Mennonite publishing company.

In addition to authoring books, Oyer teaches Anabaptist theology and spiritual direction courses in seminaries in French-speaking Europe. She is also a much sought-after conference speaker and preacher.

This year, Lamorlaye Mennonite Church, Oyer’s home congregation, was searching for a way to help people prepare for Easter. Members have schedules that make attendance at midweek services impossible, some traveling extensively. A solution emerged—a daily blog could be sent to members and “friends of the church” (occasional attenders) consisting of a short Scripture passage and a reflection question that people could carry with them throughout the day.

Sometimes a song or a painting was added to the post. Readers could interact with each other through the blog, “Journeying Together Toward Easter,” whether they were at home in France, in Dubai or traveling anywhere in between.

In response to the Journeying blog, one of the friends of the church, a Reformed woman who attended church four or five times a year began coming more frequently. On Palm Sunday, she told Oyer, “These Scripture passages and questions have meant so much to me. I read them over and over. But today, I had a terrible thought, It is almost Easter and the emails will stop. I really don’t want them to end.”

Since that conversation, the friend of the church has become a more regular attender and is forming relationships with others in the Lamorlaye congregation.

“The seed grew. How it happened remains a mystery,” Oyer says.

Another example of mysterious growth emerged during the last session of a three-year Christian spirituality and spiritual direction program that Oyer led in Versailles. Church leaders shared the fruits of their experience. One Reformed pastor said what he learned had changed the way he preached. His emphasis was now on discipleship. Two other participants shared that they had been “reconciled to the church” during this time.

“I was amazed at what God had done in the three years,” Oyer says. “I had not been aware of the seeds growing nor did I understand the way it came about.”

In May, the Lamorlaye congregation joined with youth from other Mennonite congregations to scatter seeds throughout their town in an effort led by Mennonite Mission Network colleagues Brad and Brenna Steury Graber. The weekend featured a sale of fair trade articles at the town’s outdoor market, visits to a retirement home, picking up trash in the forest, and free tarte flambée” (similar to a very thin-crust pizza, topped with cream, bacon, onions and cheese) for all who strolled through the grounds of the Lamorlaye castle. The youth also organized games for the children on the castle lawns.

Oyer defines mission as partnering with God in scattering values that Jesus modeled, something we are all called to do.

“At the same time, in humility, we recognize how little we have to do with the growth [of God’s kingdom] and how ignorant we are of how the growth takes place,” Oyer says. “This ignorance is good, for if we did understand, we would probably put it in a box and market it with our name on it. Mystery is better than human attempts at control.”