This story begins and ends with a vision. The shortest psalm in the Bible, Psalm 117, reads: “Praise the Lord, all nations! Extol him, all peoples! For great is his steadfast love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures for ever. Praise the Lord!”

Psalm 117 calls all nations to praise God. The gospel is to be proclaimed “to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and tongue and people” (Rev. 14:6–7). God calls us to witness in all kinds of roles, places, and languages. Looking back, we can see how He prepared us individually and as a couple for the work ahead.

God called my wife, Hélène, and me out of Roman Catholic backgrounds to the Reformed faith. Originally from Dublin (Republic of Ireland), I became a Christian during my university years. From early on, I have always had a love for cultures and languages, one being French. My work took me to several French-speaking countries, including two years as a U.N. diplomat in Rwanda. A common thread for more than 40 years has been work involving translation and computer software. As a Christian, I have a passion for Bible translation.

Hélène is the eleventh generation of her family to live in Québec. Her parents were first-generation Americans. One of 13 children, Hélène grew up on a dairy farm on the Québec/Vermont border. She became a Christian in her teen years and developed a zeal for missions. This led her to Reformed Bible College and an opportunity to stay with a Wycliffe Bible translator in Oaxaca, Mexico. She then attended Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich., where she became a teacher. This took her to teaching positions in Pittsburgh, France, Germany, Holland, and finally Philadelphia.

In 1989, we met at Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia and were married there on Sept. 1, 1990. Soon after, we joined Broomall RPC, just west of Philadelphia. In Aug. 1992, Hélène (then 7 months pregnant) and I emigrated to Québec with our first child, Laurent. We had four more children in Montréal: Étienne, Mireille, Guillaume, and Émile. We initially homeschooled all our children until they switched to a French secondary school. With few exceptions, all immigrants in Québec must attend French-language schools.

While we were at Broomall RPC, Pastor Christian Adjemian (now deceased) inspired us to move to Montréal. Our membership was transferred to his congregation in Ontario, and, shortly after our arrival in Montréal, we began RP mission work in the city. When Christian’s wife became ill and he could no longer preach and fellowship with our small group of 10, God detoured us to a small RP church in rural eastern Ontario, well over an hour from our home. In 1997, this small, English-speaking congregation relocated to St-Lazare (Québec), halfway between Montréal and rural eastern Ontario. In the fall of 1998, the congregation needed more space and moved to an Anglican Hall in Hudson, Québec. In 2001, Rev. Courtney Miller arrived and was the RP pastor until he returned to the U.S. in June 2013.

When the Anglicans asked for their hall back in Sept. 2005, the RP congregation moved to an afternoon service at Église Baptiste Évangelique de Vaudreuil, a French Baptist Church in Vaudreuil-Dorion, just west of the island of Montréal. This opened the door for us to be involved with and support both the RP and the Église réformée du Québec (ÉRQ) Churches. The ÉRQ is a small French Reformed denomination started in 1988 that currently has five congregations and about 700 members. Like the RPCNA, it is a member of NAPARC. We joined with a Psalm-singing ÉRQ mission church in Laval (north of Montréal) for two years until it ended. In addition to the RP church, we are now involved with and support the ÉRQ congregation in downtown Montréal.

In the autumn of 2019, the English-speaking RP church in Vaudreuil-Dorion, a bedroom community of Montréal, called Rev. Dan Dupuis from Ottawa, Ont., to be its pastor. A new chapter started for the RP church in Québec.

Over the years, we have found ourselves welcoming and ministering to a constant flow of people from Montréal’s many mixed and multiethnic neighborhoods. There are over 240 nationalities around our home. Our local French secondary school has students who speak 60 other languages. French is a top priority for Québec, which sees itself as an island of French in an ocean of English. The RP Church, which predates the founding of Canada in 1867, has a great opportunity to anchor the Reformed faith in Québec, where 83 percent speak French as their langue maternelle (mother tongue).

My wife and I could never have imagined a fraction of what has happened in our journey. These past 29 years in Montréal have been a real testimony of the mercy and grace of God in countless joys and trials. Among them was the sudden death of our son Laurent (age 19) in 2010. Why? To experience the outpouring of Christian love that followed? To remind us that God numbers our days? To discover a genetic heart condition (ARVC) in four of our five children? To teach the body of Christ about ministering to others?

In 2008, my full-time job suddenly ended. Over the next five years, God graciously provided three others that I never sought, including the translation of a book from 2009–2014 on Reformed pastor Jonathan Edwards for Yale University…to be published in 2021! In the providence of God, my current employer hired a French-speaking, Reformed friend from Québec. I am grateful to work and pray together with a brother in Christ. What a blessing! He and his family recently moved and joined Russell, Ont., RPC.

At the end of May 2019, one of Hélène’s younger brothers, Donat (age 55), died in a U.S. prison, yet by then as a professing Christian. On returning from his burial in Massachusetts, I learned that I had a life-threatening, bacterial infection that would have killed me in the next 24 hours. An immediate, emergency operation followed in June 2019, and God spared my life. Four Mexican boys (ages 16–18) homestaying with us witnessed the grace of God first-hand and went home with Spanish Bibles. During my two months in the hospital, God used Duties of Christian Fellowship by Puritan pastor John Owen and the love of fellow Christians to remind and show us how we are to care for and help one another (Rom. 12:15) to persevere and be complete, not lacking anything (Jas. 1:4).

Montréal is where God called us to live out our faith in Christ. Do we still have an interest in doing Bible translation? Yes. Do we still want to see French Reformed churches in Québec? Absolutely. All of this, of course, is in God’s timing. A well-known French proverb—L’homme propose, Dieu dispose (Man proposes, God disposes)—comes to mind. Scripture calls us to make our plans and entrust them to the Lord (Prov. 16:3).

We have a vision for French church work in Québec. But who are we? Only God’s servants (1 Cor. 3:5–9). Pray with us, please. Have you thought about God’s work in Québec? What is your vision? Where is God calling you?

Philip and Hélène Choinière-Shields and their four children live and work in Montréal, Québec.