WANTED: 20 (or more) committed people to pray for Christian needing clarification/guidance.
Essential Criteria: Christian, calls Jesus Lord & at least tries to live as if He is, attempts to make a daily habit of praying to God and/or reading His Word, willing to pray not just once about something but twice, thrice, continuously, patiently over long periods of time.
Desirable Criteria: Interest in praying & caring about overseas cross-cultural missions work in Third, Second AND First World nations. Or even in giving (if you have the means) or going (if you are sent).
How to apply: Register your interest by getting in touch by any means available.
And please would you pray the following? That I will..
* listen attentively to what God wants to tell me
* keep listening even if/when it's not something I want to hear
* obey God in what He directs me to do
* keep obeying even if/when it's not something I want to do
* seek God more & grow to love Him more,
so that I will want to listen to whatever He has to say & do whatever it is He wants me to do.
Positions will remain open until suitable applicants have volunteered.
L/T.
31 July, 2009
27 July, 2009
Plus d'images de Paris
One fine July morning in central Paris.. .. ..
A British IFES-UK staffworker (that's Kade*, far L) is ready to set up a Bible-stand with some of his team-members.
Who's the maniac holding the fold-up table? Oh, that's just Dovi*, a stagiaire - Parisian French, if I'm not mistaken. (No, the men of Paris are not all like that. Really.)
The [very] young man with the bags and the weight of the world on his shoulders hails from the land of the occasional vowel, Poland. Name: Matthew*. Age: Eighteen. Personality: Priceless.
And the token girl? That's Hannah*, who came from Strasbourg on the Franco-German border with two sister stagiaires to join the team. Yes, I'd look a dash embarrassed too, seeing how Dovi's dominating the picture!!
________________
But what's this?
Not so long ago, in a country really only 24 hours' flight away.. .. ..
Non-English-Speaking EUROPEAN WARS!!
Oh, hang on, it's just a mop war between the Netherlands and Poland.
(Jonah* vs. Matthew.)
________________
Meanwhile, the light shines in the darkness upon a Bible and a frisbee, but the darkness has not understood it.
Such an abstract photographic work. Who really needs to go to the Louvre when you've got access to a camera, a book, a piece of sport equipment and a portable lightweight table??!?
________________
Forget that ultimate frisbee.
Meet the ultimate chick magnet of the team. And yes, he's Australian. Mostly, anyway (born Cambridge, UK).
To misquote some famous Slim Dusty song lyrics:
"Love to have a chat with Jonty*, 'cause Jonty's me mate!"
As for my favourite international sisters, Liat* (GBR), Miriam* (FRA) & Claudia* (FRA), I was joking about the chick magnet thing. They've got more sense than that!!
________________
Absolument fou!
Regardez ses yeux - ils sont rouges!!
Oh, the humanity.
What was Asher* doing with that ice-cream cone?
Oh to heck with it - who cares, in the end? .. Just laugh. I did!!
;P
A British IFES-UK staffworker (that's Kade*, far L) is ready to set up a Bible-stand with some of his team-members.Who's the maniac holding the fold-up table? Oh, that's just Dovi*, a stagiaire - Parisian French, if I'm not mistaken. (No, the men of Paris are not all like that. Really.)
The [very] young man with the bags and the weight of the world on his shoulders hails from the land of the occasional vowel, Poland. Name: Matthew*. Age: Eighteen. Personality: Priceless.
And the token girl? That's Hannah*, who came from Strasbourg on the Franco-German border with two sister stagiaires to join the team. Yes, I'd look a dash embarrassed too, seeing how Dovi's dominating the picture!!
________________
But what's this?
Not so long ago, in a country really only 24 hours' flight away.. .. ..
Non-English-Speaking EUROPEAN WARS!!
Oh, hang on, it's just a mop war between the Netherlands and Poland.
(Jonah* vs. Matthew.)
________________
Meanwhile, the light shines in the darkness upon a Bible and a frisbee, but the darkness has not understood it.
Such an abstract photographic work. Who really needs to go to the Louvre when you've got access to a camera, a book, a piece of sport equipment and a portable lightweight table??!?
________________
Forget that ultimate frisbee.
Meet the ultimate chick magnet of the team. And yes, he's Australian. Mostly, anyway (born Cambridge, UK).
To misquote some famous Slim Dusty song lyrics:
"Love to have a chat with Jonty*, 'cause Jonty's me mate!"
As for my favourite international sisters, Liat* (GBR), Miriam* (FRA) & Claudia* (FRA), I was joking about the chick magnet thing. They've got more sense than that!!
________________
Absolument fou!
Regardez ses yeux - ils sont rouges!!
Oh, the humanity.
What was Asher* doing with that ice-cream cone?
Oh to heck with it - who cares, in the end? .. Just laugh. I did!!
;P
22 July, 2009
Images de Paris
Claudia* and Esther* pooled the photographs they took from our mission week in Paris.
I have chosen just one, for the simple reason that I want you to look very carefully at the expression on my face.
What you see epitomises the way I felt all through our "semaine d'évangelisation". I kid you not. It was one of the most meaningful weeks of my entire life.
Of course, the fact that Asher* (blue shirt) and Jonty* (black shirt) were being a bit silly at the time the shot was taken may have served to enhance my broad smile!
I've been viewing all the other pictures that Claudia compiled & sent to us, too. Am gradually updating the blog with some of these shots. Feel free to scroll down & look for illustrations on my previous posts. It's all coming back to me now; I laughed & laughed as I saw all of the photos!
I miss my team! I wish we'd done what we did for longer than a week.
L/T.
:]
I have chosen just one, for the simple reason that I want you to look very carefully at the expression on my face.
What you see epitomises the way I felt all through our "semaine d'évangelisation". I kid you not. It was one of the most meaningful weeks of my entire life.
Of course, the fact that Asher* (blue shirt) and Jonty* (black shirt) were being a bit silly at the time the shot was taken may have served to enhance my broad smile!
I've been viewing all the other pictures that Claudia compiled & sent to us, too. Am gradually updating the blog with some of these shots. Feel free to scroll down & look for illustrations on my previous posts. It's all coming back to me now; I laughed & laughed as I saw all of the photos!
I miss my team! I wish we'd done what we did for longer than a week.
L/T.
:]
17 July, 2009
31 rue Lutetia
And now, what?
________________
Note to future travellers planning overseas holidays:
Qantas A330 Airbuses CAN be trusted.
(Not like that Air France one last month..!)
I landed last night & was taken home by mother & step-father. Having spent 2 days around my dad - & I can say this freely here, because I've already said it TO him - I wish he'd been around for all of my growing-up. Or that I'd had someone like step-father (who has proven himself superior even in only 6 years) through all my growing-up.
I think life - AND the way I respond to it - might have been so different.
No sense sobbing into a handkerchief about the past anymore, though!
And so, to the future.. .. ..
________________
Where do I go from here?
I have now lived over 31 years, & feel like I'm standing under the Arc de Triomphe again.
Why?
..Well, the Arc sits at a huge roundabout, from which many roads trickle out to all parts of Paris. The issue, then, when you're done sightseeing at the Arc, is quelle rue/which road you'll choose to walk next.
Champs-Elysées
The most obvious of these roads starting from the Arc is the famous one called Champs-Elysées. A wide, flashy, fashionable route lined with tall green trees on both sides, ever twinkling in the sunlight reflecting off the masses of cars ambling up & down its lanes, ever buzzing with swarms of locusts, oops, I meant multicoloured tourists, devouring everything in sight with their cameras.
Parc Monceau
A less busy, less impressive route, give or take a few fork choices, will take you to the relative tranquility of the Parc Monceau. Like Sydney's Botanical Gardens, except that the pond waters are murkier, there are Roman-built ruins & statues scattered around it, & the grass areas are Off Limits - you are NOT supposed to sit on them (though picnicking Parisians flagrantly breached this ordinance the day I walked in the Parc).
Palais Garnier
Turning your face south-east of the Arc, you can walk until you find the opulent Palais Garnier (use a map to help). Home of the Paris Opera, & Opera Ballet. Style, substance, elegance, red-carpetedness, staffed by snooty reception & security guards whose default position is to look down their noses at you. (8 euros for the insider's tour.)
Out of these & other options - which road to take?
The Palais Garnier is like my teaching career. I began work as a paid professional classroom teacher in 2003. In some ways, teaching has been full of style & substance; plenty of snootiness, too, in that I've been knocked back on numerous occasions during times of unemployment. Will I take the 8-euro tour this time? Will I stick with a job whose prospects are, close-up, much less glamourous than most people outside of the teaching profession think? And in this time of global economic turmoil?
The Champs-Elysées seems the most obvious option - & also the most expensive. My Champs-Elysées would be further studies. As a high-school French & Music teacher (I'm only trained for up to Year 6)? As a TESOL teacher? In some completely different field? Yet further studies will expend time & money, where I can't earn much (if anything) while I'm studying full-time.
The way to the Parc Monceau - well, that's a bit like going back to Paris, to do more mission, only for much longer. Like 11 days, not eight. Or a year of it with IFES. Or maybe 3 or more years through CMS. Walking or running through this greater Parc of Paris - walking in a manner worthy of Christ, running the race marked out for me in a place with more squalor (=ponds), more oldness (=Roman ruins) & much less religious freedom (=not-on-the-grass) than in Sydney. More a mission field than a Parc.
And there are other roads I might take, too.
For now, there are people I'd like to talk to about the future (apart from God, whom I started talking to about all this as I flew home) - for example:
Alison Napier
CMS
Helen & Phillip Jensen
Leoni & Dave Painter (if the opportunity arises)
Pam Tow
Anyone who wants to give free insights on their own experiences (have withdrawn my request for advice until further notice), I'm very poor & welcome any offered freebies!!
If you are still praying, please pray for my obedience to God as I try the handles of different doors to see which ones might open - for my desire to pursue what He wants for me as I consider the roads that could be taken. Most importantly for me to keep taking time regularly just to talk to Him & to listen to His Word on my own.
La bergère petite est retournée de Lutèce.
Mais que faire maintenant?
L/T.
________________
Note to future travellers planning overseas holidays:
Qantas A330 Airbuses CAN be trusted.
(Not like that Air France one last month..!)
I landed last night & was taken home by mother & step-father. Having spent 2 days around my dad - & I can say this freely here, because I've already said it TO him - I wish he'd been around for all of my growing-up. Or that I'd had someone like step-father (who has proven himself superior even in only 6 years) through all my growing-up.
I think life - AND the way I respond to it - might have been so different.
No sense sobbing into a handkerchief about the past anymore, though!
And so, to the future.. .. ..
________________
Where do I go from here?
I have now lived over 31 years, & feel like I'm standing under the Arc de Triomphe again.
Why?
..Well, the Arc sits at a huge roundabout, from which many roads trickle out to all parts of Paris. The issue, then, when you're done sightseeing at the Arc, is quelle rue/which road you'll choose to walk next.
Champs-Elysées
The most obvious of these roads starting from the Arc is the famous one called Champs-Elysées. A wide, flashy, fashionable route lined with tall green trees on both sides, ever twinkling in the sunlight reflecting off the masses of cars ambling up & down its lanes, ever buzzing with swarms of locusts, oops, I meant multicoloured tourists, devouring everything in sight with their cameras.
Parc Monceau
A less busy, less impressive route, give or take a few fork choices, will take you to the relative tranquility of the Parc Monceau. Like Sydney's Botanical Gardens, except that the pond waters are murkier, there are Roman-built ruins & statues scattered around it, & the grass areas are Off Limits - you are NOT supposed to sit on them (though picnicking Parisians flagrantly breached this ordinance the day I walked in the Parc).
Palais Garnier
Turning your face south-east of the Arc, you can walk until you find the opulent Palais Garnier (use a map to help). Home of the Paris Opera, & Opera Ballet. Style, substance, elegance, red-carpetedness, staffed by snooty reception & security guards whose default position is to look down their noses at you. (8 euros for the insider's tour.)
Out of these & other options - which road to take?
The Palais Garnier is like my teaching career. I began work as a paid professional classroom teacher in 2003. In some ways, teaching has been full of style & substance; plenty of snootiness, too, in that I've been knocked back on numerous occasions during times of unemployment. Will I take the 8-euro tour this time? Will I stick with a job whose prospects are, close-up, much less glamourous than most people outside of the teaching profession think? And in this time of global economic turmoil?
The Champs-Elysées seems the most obvious option - & also the most expensive. My Champs-Elysées would be further studies. As a high-school French & Music teacher (I'm only trained for up to Year 6)? As a TESOL teacher? In some completely different field? Yet further studies will expend time & money, where I can't earn much (if anything) while I'm studying full-time.
The way to the Parc Monceau - well, that's a bit like going back to Paris, to do more mission, only for much longer. Like 11 days, not eight. Or a year of it with IFES. Or maybe 3 or more years through CMS. Walking or running through this greater Parc of Paris - walking in a manner worthy of Christ, running the race marked out for me in a place with more squalor (=ponds), more oldness (=Roman ruins) & much less religious freedom (=not-on-the-grass) than in Sydney. More a mission field than a Parc.
And there are other roads I might take, too.
For now, there are people I'd like to talk to about the future (apart from God, whom I started talking to about all this as I flew home) - for example:
Alison Napier
CMS
Helen & Phillip Jensen
Leoni & Dave Painter (if the opportunity arises)
Pam Tow
Anyone who wants to give free insights on their own experiences (have withdrawn my request for advice until further notice), I'm very poor & welcome any offered freebies!!
If you are still praying, please pray for my obedience to God as I try the handles of different doors to see which ones might open - for my desire to pursue what He wants for me as I consider the roads that could be taken. Most importantly for me to keep taking time regularly just to talk to Him & to listen to His Word on my own.
La bergère petite est retournée de Lutèce.
Mais que faire maintenant?
L/T.
14 July, 2009
Je viens de partir de l'Europe
That's my team! (Remember all names are pseudonyms.)
(From L-R.)
Back: Matthew*, Esther*, Asher*, Dovi*, Jonty*, KADE*
Middle: CLAUDIA*, Miriam*, Hannah*, Sophie*, Avi*, Jonah*
Front: [me,] MIA*, Liat*, Nadia*
{To fast-track into my mission-week recaps., scroll down a bit.}
Yesterday flew away from Europe with much regret.
Arriving in HK today brought me much closer to home. To which I am not at all anxious to return, but for 3 reasons:
1. Family - blood/steps
2. Wednesday PM Bible study
3. Ballet
Understand that this does NOT mean I don't care about all the other people outside of these groups - especially any of my dear friends who have followed me & retraced my footsteps through Paris mission week. But only the 3 categories outlined above are grief-free for me; the rest causes me some degree of pain, though principally unwittingly.
Family
PLEASE take note!
Owing to a miscommunication, it was thought by some of you that my flight into HK arrived at 11 tonight, HK time. The real arrival time was 7 in the morning - 16 hours earlier than *somebody* told dad to pick me up. You can imagine I did not therefore have a sunny first few hours in this non-European city. HK Int'l airport had a horrid, stuffy & smoky smell (like Bangkok had, when my first flight in June stopped over there). I hated it.
My final flight, on, *dramatic pause* an A330 Airbus (Qantas), is scheduled to arrive in Sydney at 2025 hours, Th.16/7.
That's this coming Thursday, around eight-thirty in the evening on Thursday night, Sydney time. Try not to botch it up this time, please!! It's hard enough having left Europe so far behind me & not knowing whether I'll ever be able to return there.
Bee there or bee a Rectangular Thynge!!!!! (*Today's quote brought to you by Terry Pratchett.*)
________________
And now.. .. ..
More outreach-week recap.!
Behold, an example of a Bible-stand:
Bible-stand teams going to universities..(that I was allocated to) were as follows:
MO.29/6 ~ Cité Universitaire, with Kade* (GBR), Jonty* (AUS) & Sophie* (GUA)
For this session, I paired up with Sophie (whose family, incidentally, is from Guadeloupe) & in keeping with the more lenient policy at Cité U., we went walking about campus grounds, talking to people relaxing on the grass lawn areas. Sophie did most of the talking, as I felt initially quite rusty. Then we met a German girl who was willing to engage us in disussion, although for most of the converation I was a little lost because Sophie spoke quite fast. Rather like me in English. (Oh yes, go on, snigger, snigger..)
From Sophie's point of view it seemed like the German girl just wanted to keep on firing questions without listening too hard to the answers. But from what I heard/understood, it seemed like a good discussion.
TU.30/6 ~ La Sorbonne/Paris IV, with Mia* (KOR), Matthew* (POL),
also a student friend of Kade/GBU named Mikael
- he joined us for that day only, not part of team.
As with most universities, we couldn't go inside the gates at all. And people were hurrying back & forth, many not interested even in stopping long enough to receive a leaflet. Mia got into some great discussions with the nominally Muslim guards at the university gate - who had at first watched us set-up & begin our connection-attempts first with curiosity, then with increasing interest. They accepted Arabic New Testaments & talked for a long time with Mia.
As for the boys - Matthew, green but determined, bless him, posted himself diagonally opposite the guards' gate on a shop-corner with leaflets in hand & attempted to engage passers-by. Mikael walked back & forth in front of the main building - Greek-style pillars & all - & did the same with those walking up & down the road.
Meanwhile, I trotted across to the plaza in front of the university, flanked by shops on either side (incl. Matthew's corner), & approached those seated on the edge of the plaza fountains, or on benches placed nearby. Most of the people I tried to talk to were not native French speakers, in fact English or Spanish (including a girl from Argentina, studying in Italy but on holiday in Paris that day). Discourse with those I tried speaking to held:
a) a common thread about being Catholic; &
b) short-sentence, monosyllabic or non-committal answers to any questions I asked them about their personal faith.
A day of trusting that at the proper time a harvest might be reaped if we did not become weary in doing good this way.
WE.1/7 ~ Cité Universitaire, with Mia*, Matthew*
All I can remember of that Wednesday Bible-stand session was that tremendous opportunity I had to talk with the atheist girl for more than an hour. Scroll down to relevant previous post, containing French version of word "atheist", for more details!
TH.2/7 ~ Jussieu, with Claudia*, Esther* (SWI) & Avi*
[*NEW*]
Here's how we looked before heading out to the Jussieu campus:
L-R: Claudia, Avi, Esther & (of course) me.
This day felt a lot like Tuesday, in that we had to stay outside the university gates. It was the only time I ever saw Avi in solemn mode - at all other times he seemed so cheerful, lively & cheeky - but he & Claudia (him on our RH side, Claudia on the LH side) plugged relentlessly away at the task of walking up to students sitting/standing in the areas outside the gates & trying to engage them in converation. Esther & myself, on the other hand, had worsening headaches - I think this made the going doubly tough for us.
Yet in this 24-hour period God showed me the simple power of simple leafletting. During the opening of our scheduled night event for Thursday, a young Chinese student (ie. had only started university last September, a new arrival in France from China) arrived at our venue & made a beeline straight for me. Turns out I'd handed this child a leaflet on this very day & so, mere hours later, there he was at our evangelistic evening.
Moreover, at the end of the evening, having not understood some of the concepts of the Bible talk given, he was keen to find out more in a small group setting. Therefore he signed up to join the GBU's Bible-study meeting of Jussieu campus students (ie. for every university campus, GBU aims to have a Bible-study group composed of Christian or other interested students who attend that campus, although they can't meet on campus property.. .. ..am I confusing anybody??!?).
The point of this little episode? Somewhere, somehow, God can & will choose to work through your weak, seemingly insignificant actions of simply handing out leaflets. You just never know whether you'll see it happen or not.
In my case, one leaflet meant one unsaved student attending the evening activity, then wanting to join the GBU groups!
Hence that passage from Galatians, already inferred above, comes to mind:
Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
GALATIANS 6:9
FR.3/7 ~ Port-Royal with Claudia*, Nadia* (MAD) & Dovi*
[*NEW*]
Buoyed by what God had shown me the previous day, I continued handing out more leaflets. We gave Bibles away to interested students & older faculty members too. Claudia (again) & Dovi took more active roles, walking & talking with students sitting outside the university entrance doors. Nadia (of Madagascar, where French is a principal language) alternated between what Dovi & Claudia did, or what I was doing.
Unfortunately for me, I didn't manage to find out how things had gone for them, since later that day (during our pre-dinner discussion & prayer about Bible-stand time) Dovi spoke really, really fast as he told all the team what conversations he & Claudia had been involved in. So fast, in fact, that I couldn't catch one word he said!
So I have little idea of how the other members of my morning Bible-stand team really went that day!
Dovi got a taste of his own medicine after dinner, though.. .. ..Our final evening activity was volleyball & frisbee, interspersed with personal testimonies of a couple of our équipiers (including Asher*) at the Cité Universitaire lawns.
Was with Claudia, Sophie, Mia & Dovi at the start of the evening, running one last Bible-stand outside the Cité U. gate, from where we invited people to join the volleyball & frisbee happening inside the grounds (the Cité U. authorities had kindly permitted us to use their beautiful lawns for our games - provided that no fresh invitations were made to those on campus property).
Thus we were outside, as usual (the other 11 team members were already inside playing volleyball & frisbee). More conversations & more Bibles given away; out of one of those conversations, the speakers were English, so of course they needed me to handle it. As I chatted to the English-speakers, I turned to Dovi (who'd made the initial contact before handing over to me) & tried to explain to him what we had just said..
Dovi (in English):
"You're talking too fast for me!"
L/T.:
"Now you understand how WE feel!!"
Dovi was very subdued after that (*hehe*).
That final evening was the night Liat* (GBR) was crying for joy, the night Jonah* (NED) supplied great help by taking over-interested Asian students away from me, the night team-leader Kade* shouted us all ice-cream, & the night that Asher just had to try & find a beer!
(I know that last bit sounds dubious, but if you'd read a few posts ago where I recounted this incident, you'd understand it wasn't, really!)
Thus concludes the summary of our Bible-stands (with a few random anecdotes thrown in!).
L/T.
(From L-R.)
Back: Matthew*, Esther*, Asher*, Dovi*, Jonty*, KADE*
Middle: CLAUDIA*, Miriam*, Hannah*, Sophie*, Avi*, Jonah*
Front: [me,] MIA*, Liat*, Nadia*
{To fast-track into my mission-week recaps., scroll down a bit.}
Yesterday flew away from Europe with much regret.
Arriving in HK today brought me much closer to home. To which I am not at all anxious to return, but for 3 reasons:
1. Family - blood/steps
2. Wednesday PM Bible study
3. Ballet
Understand that this does NOT mean I don't care about all the other people outside of these groups - especially any of my dear friends who have followed me & retraced my footsteps through Paris mission week. But only the 3 categories outlined above are grief-free for me; the rest causes me some degree of pain, though principally unwittingly.
Family
PLEASE take note!
Owing to a miscommunication, it was thought by some of you that my flight into HK arrived at 11 tonight, HK time. The real arrival time was 7 in the morning - 16 hours earlier than *somebody* told dad to pick me up. You can imagine I did not therefore have a sunny first few hours in this non-European city. HK Int'l airport had a horrid, stuffy & smoky smell (like Bangkok had, when my first flight in June stopped over there). I hated it.
My final flight, on, *dramatic pause* an A330 Airbus (Qantas), is scheduled to arrive in Sydney at 2025 hours, Th.16/7.
That's this coming Thursday, around eight-thirty in the evening on Thursday night, Sydney time. Try not to botch it up this time, please!! It's hard enough having left Europe so far behind me & not knowing whether I'll ever be able to return there.
Bee there or bee a Rectangular Thynge!!!!! (*Today's quote brought to you by Terry Pratchett.*)
________________
And now.. .. ..
More outreach-week recap.!
Behold, an example of a Bible-stand:
Bible-stand teams going to universities..(that I was allocated to) were as follows:
MO.29/6 ~ Cité Universitaire, with Kade* (GBR), Jonty* (AUS) & Sophie* (GUA)
For this session, I paired up with Sophie (whose family, incidentally, is from Guadeloupe) & in keeping with the more lenient policy at Cité U., we went walking about campus grounds, talking to people relaxing on the grass lawn areas. Sophie did most of the talking, as I felt initially quite rusty. Then we met a German girl who was willing to engage us in disussion, although for most of the converation I was a little lost because Sophie spoke quite fast. Rather like me in English. (Oh yes, go on, snigger, snigger..)
From Sophie's point of view it seemed like the German girl just wanted to keep on firing questions without listening too hard to the answers. But from what I heard/understood, it seemed like a good discussion.
TU.30/6 ~ La Sorbonne/Paris IV, with Mia* (KOR), Matthew* (POL),
also a student friend of Kade/GBU named Mikael
- he joined us for that day only, not part of team.
As with most universities, we couldn't go inside the gates at all. And people were hurrying back & forth, many not interested even in stopping long enough to receive a leaflet. Mia got into some great discussions with the nominally Muslim guards at the university gate - who had at first watched us set-up & begin our connection-attempts first with curiosity, then with increasing interest. They accepted Arabic New Testaments & talked for a long time with Mia.
As for the boys - Matthew, green but determined, bless him, posted himself diagonally opposite the guards' gate on a shop-corner with leaflets in hand & attempted to engage passers-by. Mikael walked back & forth in front of the main building - Greek-style pillars & all - & did the same with those walking up & down the road.
Meanwhile, I trotted across to the plaza in front of the university, flanked by shops on either side (incl. Matthew's corner), & approached those seated on the edge of the plaza fountains, or on benches placed nearby. Most of the people I tried to talk to were not native French speakers, in fact English or Spanish (including a girl from Argentina, studying in Italy but on holiday in Paris that day). Discourse with those I tried speaking to held:
a) a common thread about being Catholic; &
b) short-sentence, monosyllabic or non-committal answers to any questions I asked them about their personal faith.
A day of trusting that at the proper time a harvest might be reaped if we did not become weary in doing good this way.
WE.1/7 ~ Cité Universitaire, with Mia*, Matthew*
All I can remember of that Wednesday Bible-stand session was that tremendous opportunity I had to talk with the atheist girl for more than an hour. Scroll down to relevant previous post, containing French version of word "atheist", for more details!
TH.2/7 ~ Jussieu, with Claudia*, Esther* (SWI) & Avi*
[*NEW*]
Here's how we looked before heading out to the Jussieu campus:
L-R: Claudia, Avi, Esther & (of course) me.This day felt a lot like Tuesday, in that we had to stay outside the university gates. It was the only time I ever saw Avi in solemn mode - at all other times he seemed so cheerful, lively & cheeky - but he & Claudia (him on our RH side, Claudia on the LH side) plugged relentlessly away at the task of walking up to students sitting/standing in the areas outside the gates & trying to engage them in converation. Esther & myself, on the other hand, had worsening headaches - I think this made the going doubly tough for us.
Yet in this 24-hour period God showed me the simple power of simple leafletting. During the opening of our scheduled night event for Thursday, a young Chinese student (ie. had only started university last September, a new arrival in France from China) arrived at our venue & made a beeline straight for me. Turns out I'd handed this child a leaflet on this very day & so, mere hours later, there he was at our evangelistic evening.
Moreover, at the end of the evening, having not understood some of the concepts of the Bible talk given, he was keen to find out more in a small group setting. Therefore he signed up to join the GBU's Bible-study meeting of Jussieu campus students (ie. for every university campus, GBU aims to have a Bible-study group composed of Christian or other interested students who attend that campus, although they can't meet on campus property.. .. ..am I confusing anybody??!?).
The point of this little episode? Somewhere, somehow, God can & will choose to work through your weak, seemingly insignificant actions of simply handing out leaflets. You just never know whether you'll see it happen or not.
In my case, one leaflet meant one unsaved student attending the evening activity, then wanting to join the GBU groups!
Hence that passage from Galatians, already inferred above, comes to mind:
Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
GALATIANS 6:9
FR.3/7 ~ Port-Royal with Claudia*, Nadia* (MAD) & Dovi*
[*NEW*]
Buoyed by what God had shown me the previous day, I continued handing out more leaflets. We gave Bibles away to interested students & older faculty members too. Claudia (again) & Dovi took more active roles, walking & talking with students sitting outside the university entrance doors. Nadia (of Madagascar, where French is a principal language) alternated between what Dovi & Claudia did, or what I was doing.
Unfortunately for me, I didn't manage to find out how things had gone for them, since later that day (during our pre-dinner discussion & prayer about Bible-stand time) Dovi spoke really, really fast as he told all the team what conversations he & Claudia had been involved in. So fast, in fact, that I couldn't catch one word he said!
So I have little idea of how the other members of my morning Bible-stand team really went that day!
Dovi got a taste of his own medicine after dinner, though.. .. ..Our final evening activity was volleyball & frisbee, interspersed with personal testimonies of a couple of our équipiers (including Asher*) at the Cité Universitaire lawns.
Was with Claudia, Sophie, Mia & Dovi at the start of the evening, running one last Bible-stand outside the Cité U. gate, from where we invited people to join the volleyball & frisbee happening inside the grounds (the Cité U. authorities had kindly permitted us to use their beautiful lawns for our games - provided that no fresh invitations were made to those on campus property).
Thus we were outside, as usual (the other 11 team members were already inside playing volleyball & frisbee). More conversations & more Bibles given away; out of one of those conversations, the speakers were English, so of course they needed me to handle it. As I chatted to the English-speakers, I turned to Dovi (who'd made the initial contact before handing over to me) & tried to explain to him what we had just said..
Dovi (in English):
"You're talking too fast for me!"
L/T.:
"Now you understand how WE feel!!"
Dovi was very subdued after that (*hehe*).
That final evening was the night Liat* (GBR) was crying for joy, the night Jonah* (NED) supplied great help by taking over-interested Asian students away from me, the night team-leader Kade* shouted us all ice-cream, & the night that Asher just had to try & find a beer!
(I know that last bit sounds dubious, but if you'd read a few posts ago where I recounted this incident, you'd understand it wasn't, really!)
Thus concludes the summary of our Bible-stands (with a few random anecdotes thrown in!).
L/T.
12 July, 2009
La semaine ADN (Annonce De la bonne Nouvelle)
What did we actually do during our week of outreach?
SA. 27/6
First team meeting (PM)
Settling into church lodgings, evening off (late PM)
SU. 28/6
Breakfast at church lodgings (AM)
Bible study & training for outreach at GBU office headquarters
[at rue Serpente nr. St-Michel metro]
[including overview of different religions & worldviews]
Lunch out near the Ile de la Cité
More training & dinner (PM)
MO. 29/6 => FR. 3/7
Breakfast (AM)
Opening in prayer; singing (in French) of older SIS choruses
- wow, that took me back to the early '90s!!
Bible study & prayer
Allocation of teams to be running Bible-stands outside Paris university campuses
More prayer (yay!!) in allocated teams
Collect lunch & leave for universities in teams
Teams arrive outside university entrance gates AND>
> Set up Bible-stands with:
Bibles in French, Arabic & English; invitation slips for nightly evangelistic events; sign-up forms for any interested students wanting to join the GBU Bible-study groups closest to their campuses; tracts explaining Christ & Christianity; survey on who contacted students thought Jesus was (with range of responses to be selected according to student beliefs)
>> Approach those near or passing by, attempting to
a) hand them invitations to our events
b) find out what they knew/thought of Jesus, using survey
c) share the good news of Jesus with them
>>> Where permitted, enter into university campus grounds & repeat previous step (>>)
This step was how I met & could talk to the native-French atheist (see relevant previous post).
Finish Bible-stands, pack up everything & return to GBU office (PM)
Free time
(ending by returning to church lodgings)
Many of the team slept (esp. Jonty*, who always seemed so tired that his sleepiness became a running gag for the team, particularly when Avi* had anything to say about it!!). Others did personal devotions/QTs, or prepared for evening activities. Matthew* went & did the mad Polish tourist thing, pursuing the Eiffel Tower & other sites touristiques. As for me, I have no idea where my time went each afternoon!! (Only I knew I wouldn't sleep.)
Preparation for dinner => Recap of Bible-stand happenings
(at church lodgings)
> All team members together sharing & praying about anyone they'd met who they were able to engage in conversation, or who had picked up tracts, Bibles, etc.
Dinner, then clean-up (faire la vaisselle)
Return to GBU office to set up & be ready for evening events.
Run evening events; tidy up afterwards; go back to church lodgings & sleep (late PM).
SA. 4/7
Breakfast (AM)
Final Bible-study together, evaluation, wrap-up.
Clean-up & farewells.
________________
Next post, I'm hoping to talk a little more about the Bible-stands I was involved in throughout the week.
By then, I may be in HK with my father - I fly out around 2115 hours tomorrow (that's Sydney time).
L/T.
SA. 27/6
First team meeting (PM)
Settling into church lodgings, evening off (late PM)
SU. 28/6
Breakfast at church lodgings (AM)
Bible study & training for outreach at GBU office headquarters
[at rue Serpente nr. St-Michel metro]
[including overview of different religions & worldviews]
Lunch out near the Ile de la Cité
More training & dinner (PM)
MO. 29/6 => FR. 3/7
Breakfast (AM)
Opening in prayer; singing (in French) of older SIS choruses
- wow, that took me back to the early '90s!!
Bible study & prayer
Allocation of teams to be running Bible-stands outside Paris university campuses
More prayer (yay!!) in allocated teams
Collect lunch & leave for universities in teams
Teams arrive outside university entrance gates AND>
> Set up Bible-stands with:
Bibles in French, Arabic & English; invitation slips for nightly evangelistic events; sign-up forms for any interested students wanting to join the GBU Bible-study groups closest to their campuses; tracts explaining Christ & Christianity; survey on who contacted students thought Jesus was (with range of responses to be selected according to student beliefs)
>> Approach those near or passing by, attempting to
a) hand them invitations to our events
b) find out what they knew/thought of Jesus, using survey
c) share the good news of Jesus with them
>>> Where permitted, enter into university campus grounds & repeat previous step (>>)
This step was how I met & could talk to the native-French atheist (see relevant previous post).
Finish Bible-stands, pack up everything & return to GBU office (PM)
Free time
(ending by returning to church lodgings)
Many of the team slept (esp. Jonty*, who always seemed so tired that his sleepiness became a running gag for the team, particularly when Avi* had anything to say about it!!). Others did personal devotions/QTs, or prepared for evening activities. Matthew* went & did the mad Polish tourist thing, pursuing the Eiffel Tower & other sites touristiques. As for me, I have no idea where my time went each afternoon!! (Only I knew I wouldn't sleep.)
Preparation for dinner => Recap of Bible-stand happenings
(at church lodgings)
> All team members together sharing & praying about anyone they'd met who they were able to engage in conversation, or who had picked up tracts, Bibles, etc.
Dinner, then clean-up (faire la vaisselle)
Return to GBU office to set up & be ready for evening events.
Run evening events; tidy up afterwards; go back to church lodgings & sleep (late PM).
SA. 4/7
Breakfast (AM)
Final Bible-study together, evaluation, wrap-up.
Clean-up & farewells.
________________
Next post, I'm hoping to talk a little more about the Bible-stands I was involved in throughout the week.
By then, I may be in HK with my father - I fly out around 2115 hours tomorrow (that's Sydney time).
L/T.
Mesage d'un équipier
{Went to Lord's cricket ground today, recommended if you don't think £14 is too much for an hour-long tour.
Next post - recap of outreach week activities..(hopefully)?}
{Speaking of our outreach week - again..}
Avi*, one of our native French team members (équipiers) sent this message through to myself, Liat*, Asher*, Jonty*, Jonah* & Matthew*:
Chers amis.. .. ..c'était une grande joie de passer une semaine plein de grâce et de communion fraternelle à Paris. Je salue en outre votre zèle pour la cause du Royaume de Dieu manifesté en Jésus-Christ notre Seigneur et Sauveur. A Lui soit la gloire!
Franchement, je me suis fais beaucoup du bien en ayant votre compagnie et je garde un très bon souvenir particulier pour chacun de vous. Haaa.. mes amis j'ai vraiment réalisé une fois de plus cette belle phrase de Psaumes 133 " Qu'il est beau pour les frères (et soeurs) de demeurer ensemble, ..." Encourageons nous donc à persévérer dans la foi et dans le témoignage de l'évangile, en attendant ce grand retour du Seigneur Jésus qui nous prendra avec lui pour toujours. Amen!
Je sais que mes amis de Paris vous l'ont déjà dis, mais je le répète une fois de plus merci pour votre participation à la semaine ADN de Paris cette année.
Dieu soit avec vous!
TRANSLATION (approx.) of what Avi said:
"Dear friends..it was a great joy to spend a full week of grace/thanksgiving & brotherly fellowship in Paris [with you all].. ..Your zeal for the cause of God's Kingdom manifested in Jesus Christ our Lord & Saviour was welcomed. To Him be the glory!
"Frankly, it did me much good having your company & I keep a very good memory particularly for each one of you. My friends, I have truly realised once more that beautiful line of PSA. 133, 'How beautiful it is when brothers (& sisters) live together [in peace]'. Let us encourage each other to persevere in faith & witness to the gospel as we await the great return of our Lord Jesus who will take us to be with Himself forever. Amen!..
"..I say one more thank you for your participation in this outreach week [lit. week of announcing the good news] this year.
"May God be with you!"
________________
:D
Looks like Avi got just as much out of our mission as I did!
L/T.
P.S. Family, am now in my London hotel, room 114 if you feel the need to call. We are 9 hours behind you.
+44 (0)20 7242 2828
(Park Inn)
Next post - recap of outreach week activities..(hopefully)?}
{Speaking of our outreach week - again..}
Avi*, one of our native French team members (équipiers) sent this message through to myself, Liat*, Asher*, Jonty*, Jonah* & Matthew*:
Chers amis.. .. ..c'était une grande joie de passer une semaine plein de grâce et de communion fraternelle à Paris. Je salue en outre votre zèle pour la cause du Royaume de Dieu manifesté en Jésus-Christ notre Seigneur et Sauveur. A Lui soit la gloire!
Franchement, je me suis fais beaucoup du bien en ayant votre compagnie et je garde un très bon souvenir particulier pour chacun de vous. Haaa.. mes amis j'ai vraiment réalisé une fois de plus cette belle phrase de Psaumes 133 " Qu'il est beau pour les frères (et soeurs) de demeurer ensemble, ..." Encourageons nous donc à persévérer dans la foi et dans le témoignage de l'évangile, en attendant ce grand retour du Seigneur Jésus qui nous prendra avec lui pour toujours. Amen!
Je sais que mes amis de Paris vous l'ont déjà dis, mais je le répète une fois de plus merci pour votre participation à la semaine ADN de Paris cette année.
Dieu soit avec vous!
TRANSLATION (approx.) of what Avi said:
"Dear friends..it was a great joy to spend a full week of grace/thanksgiving & brotherly fellowship in Paris [with you all].. ..Your zeal for the cause of God's Kingdom manifested in Jesus Christ our Lord & Saviour was welcomed. To Him be the glory!
"Frankly, it did me much good having your company & I keep a very good memory particularly for each one of you. My friends, I have truly realised once more that beautiful line of PSA. 133, 'How beautiful it is when brothers (& sisters) live together [in peace]'. Let us encourage each other to persevere in faith & witness to the gospel as we await the great return of our Lord Jesus who will take us to be with Himself forever. Amen!..
"..I say one more thank you for your participation in this outreach week [lit. week of announcing the good news] this year.
"May God be with you!"
________________
:D
Looks like Avi got just as much out of our mission as I did!
L/T.
P.S. Family, am now in my London hotel, room 114 if you feel the need to call. We are 9 hours behind you.
+44 (0)20 7242 2828
(Park Inn)
11 July, 2009
Le top dix (10)
10 things I loved about mission
#1. Being compelled to step out of my comfort zone & attempt deep conversations about the Lord Jesus with complete strangers in their mother tongue (but my 2nd language).
#2. The high value the team had for prayer - & the difficulties of praying to God in French!!
#3. God graciously honouring our dependence on Him through the prayers we prayed in our morning Bible studies & pre-dinner sharing.
#4. Being part of a team of many..
..nations (Australia, DR Congo, France, Guadeloupe, South Korea, Switzerland, Madagascar, the Netherlands (no longer called Holland), Poland, United Kingdom) AND..
..languages (Dutch, English, French, Korean, Polish) - a shadow-snapshot of the great multitude from the book of Revelation & the reversal of the Genesis curse on the Babel builders. It was COOL.
#5. Breakfasts (petit déj.), where with the exception of Avi* & Asher* (them 2 being ever bright-eyed & bushy-tailed), our brothers always looked as if someone had dragged them out of bed & propped them upright in their chairs. Without opening their eyes or brushing their hair. Avi, of course, made the most of their inalertness..!
#6. Walking back to the metro with Liat* after the team's final evangelistic soirée & sharing her evident joy at the salvation of the lost.
#7. The boys singing the famous tenor aria "Nessun dorma" as they got ready to leave for Bible stand set-up at the universities. (One of Asher, Dovi* or Jonty* started it; it then snowballed, to much amusement!!)
#8. Listening to Miriam*, who'd come straight out of high-school, sharing about how she wanted to find out ways to serve God during & after her upcoming veterinary science studies.
#9. Realising that serving on the overseas harvest field is still possible for me in the future.
#10. Knowing that God had opened doors for us to sow the seed of His Word in the hearts of the unbelieving students we connected with, & that He had accomplished everything for us during mission week.
________________
Today went to Natural History Museum {followed by trot through Hyde Pk. & Serpentine lake - so many different duck (& geese) species that my friend Lucy Chik would have been in poultry heaven, past Buckingham Palace, through St. James' Pk. & then to the National Gallery}.
Spent nearly 5 hours at the 1st museum (nat. hist.)., reflecting on the displays of God's power & wonder in creation - looking at & reading about the Earth, its vertebrate sea-creatures, its delicately poised ecosystems, minerals, rocks, volcanoes & earthquakes. And yet there is also a big section on the theory of evolution, how we descended from the apes, blah, blah, etc. I didn't want to look at it too hard in case it made me too angry!
Creation has such complexity, shows such creativity, balance, delicacy..
..& all because of He who made not only the earth but the heavens.
Still I felt widespread rejection of His existence in the way the displays had been organised. How can humanity show in a museum the might & awe of created things/forces & ignore the fact that God rules over it all..controls it all..has made Jesus Lord of it all?
________________
Next up - Lord's, the home of cricket?
L/T.
#1. Being compelled to step out of my comfort zone & attempt deep conversations about the Lord Jesus with complete strangers in their mother tongue (but my 2nd language).
#2. The high value the team had for prayer - & the difficulties of praying to God in French!!
#3. God graciously honouring our dependence on Him through the prayers we prayed in our morning Bible studies & pre-dinner sharing.
#4. Being part of a team of many..
..nations (Australia, DR Congo, France, Guadeloupe, South Korea, Switzerland, Madagascar, the Netherlands (no longer called Holland), Poland, United Kingdom) AND..
..languages (Dutch, English, French, Korean, Polish) - a shadow-snapshot of the great multitude from the book of Revelation & the reversal of the Genesis curse on the Babel builders. It was COOL.
#5. Breakfasts (petit déj.), where with the exception of Avi* & Asher* (them 2 being ever bright-eyed & bushy-tailed), our brothers always looked as if someone had dragged them out of bed & propped them upright in their chairs. Without opening their eyes or brushing their hair. Avi, of course, made the most of their inalertness..!
#6. Walking back to the metro with Liat* after the team's final evangelistic soirée & sharing her evident joy at the salvation of the lost.
#7. The boys singing the famous tenor aria "Nessun dorma" as they got ready to leave for Bible stand set-up at the universities. (One of Asher, Dovi* or Jonty* started it; it then snowballed, to much amusement!!)
#8. Listening to Miriam*, who'd come straight out of high-school, sharing about how she wanted to find out ways to serve God during & after her upcoming veterinary science studies.
#9. Realising that serving on the overseas harvest field is still possible for me in the future.
#10. Knowing that God had opened doors for us to sow the seed of His Word in the hearts of the unbelieving students we connected with, & that He had accomplished everything for us during mission week.
________________
Today went to Natural History Museum {followed by trot through Hyde Pk. & Serpentine lake - so many different duck (& geese) species that my friend Lucy Chik would have been in poultry heaven, past Buckingham Palace, through St. James' Pk. & then to the National Gallery}.
Spent nearly 5 hours at the 1st museum (nat. hist.)., reflecting on the displays of God's power & wonder in creation - looking at & reading about the Earth, its vertebrate sea-creatures, its delicately poised ecosystems, minerals, rocks, volcanoes & earthquakes. And yet there is also a big section on the theory of evolution, how we descended from the apes, blah, blah, etc. I didn't want to look at it too hard in case it made me too angry!
Creation has such complexity, shows such creativity, balance, delicacy..
..& all because of He who made not only the earth but the heavens.
Still I felt widespread rejection of His existence in the way the displays had been organised. How can humanity show in a museum the might & awe of created things/forces & ignore the fact that God rules over it all..controls it all..has made Jesus Lord of it all?
________________
Next up - Lord's, the home of cricket?
L/T.
10 July, 2009
Je rends grâces pour PARIS
I have come to realise that the 1st week I spent in Paris was one of the best weeks of my life.
Not because I really loved, or even liked the city itself
- I honestly think that Sydney's version is wider, cleaner (excepting Chinatown) & prettier.
Yet from Sat. 27/06 to Sat. 04/07, I had such a great week.
A great week because it was full of challenging experiences that pushed myself & my team towards entrusting all we did to our heavenly Father.
A great week because it was a privilege to see God actively at work in our weak & feeble attempts to offer the good news of our risen Saviour & LORD Jesus.
A great week because unlike so many others in the past 15 months, I barely ever cried for sorrow - it was so distant from me, for the first time in a long time.
A great week because I learned that in spite of my many faults & failings, God was pleased to make me useful for the sake of His Name in a foreign-language & cross-cultural context.
..Feels like I'm somewhere on the might-you-become-missionary spectrum between the Wait and the Yes extreme (as opposed to being between the Wait and the No extreme, or merely sitting on Wait).
Therefore I thank God that I could go to Paris.
________________
And for my team - je rends grâces pour mon équipe:
Asher* (GBR)
..whose testimony of coming to Christ later but giving himself up for the truth much earlier fuelled his trailblazing, yet respectful, attitude to walk-ups..
Avi* (DRC)
..who brought us mirth and laughter even as he made us the targets of his antics..
Dovi* (FRA) & Jonah* (NED)
..who sang & played, persevered in difficult walk-ups & prayed, showed spirit & were staid; I will not forget the kindness of Jonah when he unwittingly took my place in a tricky situation in one of our evening activities, thus providing me with a much-needed escape route!!
Jonty* (AUS)
..who was so classically like my Australian brothers that I was never, ever homesick - & moreover proved himself loyal in helping lug my baggage not just to the station, but the airport too - such a great help..like his eldest brother whom I knew well during my EU days!!
Kade* ## (GBR)
..who led us with gentleness, wisdom, humility, patience & forbearance - and all in French less advanced than mine..
Matthew* (POL)
..whose willingness to proclaim Christ strongly overrode his struggles to communicate it in not his 2nd, but his 3rd language..
Claudia* ## (FRA)
..who cared & prayed more than many of the others, who showed so acutely the heartfelt love of Christ, & whose fellowship, along with Jonty's, I continued to enjoy even after our mission week was over..
Esther*(SWI), Hannah*(FRA), Nadia*(MAD) & Sophie*(GUA)
..who plodded on in outreach even when the going felt tough..
Liat* (GBR)
..a shepherdess after my own heart, who was passionate about helping find lost sheep..
Mia* ## (KOR/FRA)
..open, considerate, courageous & bold in approaching so many students throughout the week..
Miriam* (FRA)
..who, just like Matthew, & just as tender in years, flung herself with dogged determination out on the evangelism limb, seeking to know so much earlier in life than me what God might do with her skills & talents..
.. ..I am so thankful & blessed to have known them & worked alongside them in taking la bonne nouvelle de Christ to the students of Paris.
So thankful.
So blessed.
________________
But Paris is behind me now - I left with regret this morning. If God wills it, I'd love to be back doing more outreach soon.
I am now in London with the Lu ladies, Jenn & B'lu. Walked down the river from Big Ben until Tower Bridge, then crossed over & walked other way. Cleaner than Paris, more like Sydney - but if God made it clear He wanted me not in beautiful Sydney or prettyish London but in slightly more overrated Paris, of course I would go..
..Wouldn't I..?
Haven't had real time to be still & reflect about it all yet. Hope to, very soon.
Love to all,
L/T.
Not because I really loved, or even liked the city itself
- I honestly think that Sydney's version is wider, cleaner (excepting Chinatown) & prettier.
Yet from Sat. 27/06 to Sat. 04/07, I had such a great week.
A great week because it was full of challenging experiences that pushed myself & my team towards entrusting all we did to our heavenly Father.
A great week because it was a privilege to see God actively at work in our weak & feeble attempts to offer the good news of our risen Saviour & LORD Jesus.
A great week because unlike so many others in the past 15 months, I barely ever cried for sorrow - it was so distant from me, for the first time in a long time.
A great week because I learned that in spite of my many faults & failings, God was pleased to make me useful for the sake of His Name in a foreign-language & cross-cultural context.
..Feels like I'm somewhere on the might-you-become-missionary spectrum between the Wait and the Yes extreme (as opposed to being between the Wait and the No extreme, or merely sitting on Wait).
Therefore I thank God that I could go to Paris.
________________
And for my team - je rends grâces pour mon équipe:
Asher* (GBR)
..whose testimony of coming to Christ later but giving himself up for the truth much earlier fuelled his trailblazing, yet respectful, attitude to walk-ups..
Avi* (DRC)
..who brought us mirth and laughter even as he made us the targets of his antics..
Dovi* (FRA) & Jonah* (NED)
..who sang & played, persevered in difficult walk-ups & prayed, showed spirit & were staid; I will not forget the kindness of Jonah when he unwittingly took my place in a tricky situation in one of our evening activities, thus providing me with a much-needed escape route!!
Jonty* (AUS)
..who was so classically like my Australian brothers that I was never, ever homesick - & moreover proved himself loyal in helping lug my baggage not just to the station, but the airport too - such a great help..like his eldest brother whom I knew well during my EU days!!
Kade* ## (GBR)
..who led us with gentleness, wisdom, humility, patience & forbearance - and all in French less advanced than mine..
Matthew* (POL)
..whose willingness to proclaim Christ strongly overrode his struggles to communicate it in not his 2nd, but his 3rd language..
Claudia* ## (FRA)
..who cared & prayed more than many of the others, who showed so acutely the heartfelt love of Christ, & whose fellowship, along with Jonty's, I continued to enjoy even after our mission week was over..
Esther*(SWI), Hannah*(FRA), Nadia*(MAD) & Sophie*(GUA)
..who plodded on in outreach even when the going felt tough..
Liat* (GBR)
..a shepherdess after my own heart, who was passionate about helping find lost sheep..
Mia* ## (KOR/FRA)
..open, considerate, courageous & bold in approaching so many students throughout the week..
Miriam* (FRA)
..who, just like Matthew, & just as tender in years, flung herself with dogged determination out on the evangelism limb, seeking to know so much earlier in life than me what God might do with her skills & talents..
.. ..I am so thankful & blessed to have known them & worked alongside them in taking la bonne nouvelle de Christ to the students of Paris.
So thankful.
So blessed.
________________
But Paris is behind me now - I left with regret this morning. If God wills it, I'd love to be back doing more outreach soon.
I am now in London with the Lu ladies, Jenn & B'lu. Walked down the river from Big Ben until Tower Bridge, then crossed over & walked other way. Cleaner than Paris, more like Sydney - but if God made it clear He wanted me not in beautiful Sydney or prettyish London but in slightly more overrated Paris, of course I would go..
..Wouldn't I..?
Haven't had real time to be still & reflect about it all yet. Hope to, very soon.
Love to all,
L/T.
07 July, 2009
MISSion
I MISS being around my team!
Most likely it's because overnight I went from staying with 3 other girls in one room, breakfasting with them and 5 of the boys as well, and doing almost everything else with various combinations of them & everyone else on team!
And now, while it's incredibly convenient to be running (or, in my case, walking briskly) around Paris - & I've covered a lot of ground - it's also very weird to be flying solo. I think I understand what Jonty*, my Aussie brother, was talking about when he mentioned the isolation-loneliness issues!
Today, the highlight was climbing around 300 steps up inside the dome of the Sacre-Coeur Basilica in Montmartre. Actually the real highlight was getting near the top & seeing Paris spread out across the horizon, with most (if not all) major landmarks in view. It was a partly cloudy & not-too-hot day, & the view was pretty clear. Plus, it had cost me less to see Paris from high up (5 euros = AUD$10) than it would have done to see Sydney from the Harbour Br. or Centrepoint!!
I wanted to stay up there all day, but since I'd spent a while trotting around the St-Ouen flea-markets just for the heck of it, I needed to get down and hunt sepulchres in the Montmartre cemetery. Walked around & around looking for graves of composers Adam, Delibes, Dumas, Offenbach..& dancer Nijinsky. After a long time, had found only Offenbach (& because he wrote ballet music I curtseyed to his tombstone). Then, after more fruitless searching, a bit of rain started, so I gave up & headed for the metro.
From the metro I caught a train to find Canal St. Martin. It was COOL. (Or "mental", as my English mission friends Liat* or Asher* would have said.)
A real canal!
With working locks!
And I got to see the locks in motion!
FREE of charge!!
Then I pitched the idea of the Edith Piaf museum (since I realised it was closed), & also gave up on Pere Lachaise cemetery (because it would take so long to find tombstones of composers or dancers I'd have wanted to see). Caught another metro across to the Bastille/Marais area of Paris. But did not bother seeing the Bastille itself. Did, however, bother to wander down into the Jewish quarter in rue des Rosiers. Fascinating - similar elegant food outlets, patisseries, etc., and all kosher! Had fun surprising shopkeepers I bought little foodstuffs from by thanking them in Hebrew ("toda", or "toda-rabah" if really thankful).
A few more blocks brought me to some nice fountains at the Hotel de Ville, across the river from the Notre-Dame cathedral.
I walked past both, and was subsequently even less impressed with the exteriors & artwork of the cathedral than I was with Sacre-Coeur. So many statues of apostles, saints, the Virgin Mary and of course Jesus.
And for what?
Even though the view from Sacre-Coeur in Montmartre had been so beautiful, the building itself, esp. interior, really made my evangelical Bible-based blood BOIL. All this "write-a-prayer-to-a-saint-and you-can-be-sure-God-will-hear-it" trash.. .. ..Anyone could know from reading Scriptures properly that we don't need saints/apostles/Virgin Mary to pray for us!!
All we'll ever need is to pray to God ourselves, approaching His throne of grace with confidence by the blood of Jesus.
But I digress. Other sites visited yesterday (by combination of walking, then metro when my legs grew tired) included:
Arc de Triomphe
Jardin de Tuileries
Louvre Carrousel
Place de la Concorde
My hotel, the Littre, is rather nice; if another opportunity arises to return to Paris in future, I may stay again. The pure French breakfast foods on the buffet are great; they have the best jams I've ever tasted!! No Nutella, which surprises me; Nutella is everywhere, in restaurants, cafes, on common takeaway stands & the humble home breakfast table (judging by our team breakfasts last week during mission).
Team?
Speaking of team, probably the first person I miss, for pure hysterical value, is Avi*.
Avi comes from a huge family living in the DR Congo (official language French), & displayed a cheeky sense of humour throughout mission week. Though lively & full of fun, he was also very understanding with us international members (foreigners) on team when we didn't understand what was said, or when we struggled to express ourselves in French. He was called back to Orleans an afternoon before the week ended, & things were a lot quieter without his unique input!!
I also really miss Liat*, the only English girl on team.
She's the one with the blue jumper draped over one shoulder (well, obviously, the only girl in this shot) - that's Jonty* behind (with the frisbee on his head) & Matthew* in the foreground.
After our final evangelistic evening-activity, I found Liat crying - because one of the students who'd accepted our invitations during the week (a Mexican whom Jonty hopes to follow up), had expressed a desire to become Christian. Liat's response to this was so like mine in that respect. She was also really kind, & really driven for the sake of the gospel. Which is fantastic, seeing she works for the English version of IFES under the guidance of Asher*.
An English-born Leedsman whose mother was French, Asher is depicted here taking care of a volleyball while talking with Jonah* of the Netherlands.
Asher, by the way, is one of those brilliant types - the ones who studied law at UK university. Highly intelligent with a wry sense of humour. On the last night of mission he went on a quest for a not-ruinously-expensive beer (but failed), taking Jonty, myself & some others with him. The other team members were so exhausted (well, OK, it was one-thirty in the morning!) that when we passed by our church lodgings in rue de Sevres they turned aside & went to bed.
The three of us, accompanied by two rather clingy young Asian students (who'd been with us for the evangelistic event), continued down the street. Down another street, too. Eventually we found an Italian chain place willing to serve the single beer that Asher & Jonty were looking for - though sadly, what they each ordered came to around 7 euros. They sat and talked at length about music, & I practised my listening skills and said very little.
(Try not to be too surprised! Hopefully these aural skills will be much improved if I ever return to Australia.)
Once we'd left - and they'd only had one drink each so they were quite sober in case you wondered - and we'd sent the Asian kids home (they were only 1st-year students after all), Asher and Jonty sang most of the way back to our lodgings. Which brings Avi back into the equation, because they, and Avi, and native French staffworker/"stagiaire" Dovi*, were almost always singing, or playing music - & mainly the classical kind!! Jonah* (of the Netherlands), would sometimes join them, and possibly the little Pole Matthew* as well.
I'll close by talking about Matthew*, as well as Korean-French team-leader Mia*. Matthew was so funny and awkward.. .. ..
Barely eighteen, just finished school, trying to speak French & English as well as Polish. He reminded me of my Cranbrook & St. Andrew's students as they are now - still a little boy but trying hard to be grown up. (Guessed my age as being 22, which certainly sounds better than being 31.) Yet, this kid is so far ahead of me - putting himself out to share the gospel through walk-up evangelism - & in French, too - his weakest language!!
And now on to Mia*:
As with Liat, I discovered Mia & myself had more than a bit in common. Asian background, but grown up in Western country. Broken family. Early thirties. Due to stuff at home this year, I have not been very fond of people of Korean descent thus far - but Mia is an outstanding exception. Like Avi, she was always so supportive & helpful, ever willing to clarify when help was needed. She is, in fact, a very good reason to return to Paris in the future - that's how much I liked her!!
Hope to post again before heading for the UK, but we shall see!
L/T.
P.S. To my FAMILY - if you urgently need or want to get in touch, I am in room 403 at the Littre until Wednesday morning (4PM Sydney time).
Best time to call is 6AM Sydney time, which is 10PM previous night in Paris time - I'm in my room by then. Last night at Littre will be Tue. 7th; will be in airport hotel by evening of Wed. 8th.
How did the B1 interview go?
Much love,
B2.
Most likely it's because overnight I went from staying with 3 other girls in one room, breakfasting with them and 5 of the boys as well, and doing almost everything else with various combinations of them & everyone else on team!
And now, while it's incredibly convenient to be running (or, in my case, walking briskly) around Paris - & I've covered a lot of ground - it's also very weird to be flying solo. I think I understand what Jonty*, my Aussie brother, was talking about when he mentioned the isolation-loneliness issues!
Today, the highlight was climbing around 300 steps up inside the dome of the Sacre-Coeur Basilica in Montmartre. Actually the real highlight was getting near the top & seeing Paris spread out across the horizon, with most (if not all) major landmarks in view. It was a partly cloudy & not-too-hot day, & the view was pretty clear. Plus, it had cost me less to see Paris from high up (5 euros = AUD$10) than it would have done to see Sydney from the Harbour Br. or Centrepoint!!
I wanted to stay up there all day, but since I'd spent a while trotting around the St-Ouen flea-markets just for the heck of it, I needed to get down and hunt sepulchres in the Montmartre cemetery. Walked around & around looking for graves of composers Adam, Delibes, Dumas, Offenbach..& dancer Nijinsky. After a long time, had found only Offenbach (& because he wrote ballet music I curtseyed to his tombstone). Then, after more fruitless searching, a bit of rain started, so I gave up & headed for the metro.
From the metro I caught a train to find Canal St. Martin. It was COOL. (Or "mental", as my English mission friends Liat* or Asher* would have said.)
A real canal!
With working locks!
And I got to see the locks in motion!
FREE of charge!!
Then I pitched the idea of the Edith Piaf museum (since I realised it was closed), & also gave up on Pere Lachaise cemetery (because it would take so long to find tombstones of composers or dancers I'd have wanted to see). Caught another metro across to the Bastille/Marais area of Paris. But did not bother seeing the Bastille itself. Did, however, bother to wander down into the Jewish quarter in rue des Rosiers. Fascinating - similar elegant food outlets, patisseries, etc., and all kosher! Had fun surprising shopkeepers I bought little foodstuffs from by thanking them in Hebrew ("toda", or "toda-rabah" if really thankful).
A few more blocks brought me to some nice fountains at the Hotel de Ville, across the river from the Notre-Dame cathedral.
I walked past both, and was subsequently even less impressed with the exteriors & artwork of the cathedral than I was with Sacre-Coeur. So many statues of apostles, saints, the Virgin Mary and of course Jesus.
And for what?
Even though the view from Sacre-Coeur in Montmartre had been so beautiful, the building itself, esp. interior, really made my evangelical Bible-based blood BOIL. All this "write-a-prayer-to-a-saint-and you-can-be-sure-God-will-hear-it" trash.. .. ..Anyone could know from reading Scriptures properly that we don't need saints/apostles/Virgin Mary to pray for us!!
All we'll ever need is to pray to God ourselves, approaching His throne of grace with confidence by the blood of Jesus.
But I digress. Other sites visited yesterday (by combination of walking, then metro when my legs grew tired) included:
Arc de Triomphe
Jardin de Tuileries
Louvre Carrousel
Place de la Concorde
My hotel, the Littre, is rather nice; if another opportunity arises to return to Paris in future, I may stay again. The pure French breakfast foods on the buffet are great; they have the best jams I've ever tasted!! No Nutella, which surprises me; Nutella is everywhere, in restaurants, cafes, on common takeaway stands & the humble home breakfast table (judging by our team breakfasts last week during mission).
Team?
Speaking of team, probably the first person I miss, for pure hysterical value, is Avi*.
Avi comes from a huge family living in the DR Congo (official language French), & displayed a cheeky sense of humour throughout mission week. Though lively & full of fun, he was also very understanding with us international members (foreigners) on team when we didn't understand what was said, or when we struggled to express ourselves in French. He was called back to Orleans an afternoon before the week ended, & things were a lot quieter without his unique input!!
I also really miss Liat*, the only English girl on team.
She's the one with the blue jumper draped over one shoulder (well, obviously, the only girl in this shot) - that's Jonty* behind (with the frisbee on his head) & Matthew* in the foreground.
After our final evangelistic evening-activity, I found Liat crying - because one of the students who'd accepted our invitations during the week (a Mexican whom Jonty hopes to follow up), had expressed a desire to become Christian. Liat's response to this was so like mine in that respect. She was also really kind, & really driven for the sake of the gospel. Which is fantastic, seeing she works for the English version of IFES under the guidance of Asher*.
An English-born Leedsman whose mother was French, Asher is depicted here taking care of a volleyball while talking with Jonah* of the Netherlands.
Asher, by the way, is one of those brilliant types - the ones who studied law at UK university. Highly intelligent with a wry sense of humour. On the last night of mission he went on a quest for a not-ruinously-expensive beer (but failed), taking Jonty, myself & some others with him. The other team members were so exhausted (well, OK, it was one-thirty in the morning!) that when we passed by our church lodgings in rue de Sevres they turned aside & went to bed.
The three of us, accompanied by two rather clingy young Asian students (who'd been with us for the evangelistic event), continued down the street. Down another street, too. Eventually we found an Italian chain place willing to serve the single beer that Asher & Jonty were looking for - though sadly, what they each ordered came to around 7 euros. They sat and talked at length about music, & I practised my listening skills and said very little.
(Try not to be too surprised! Hopefully these aural skills will be much improved if I ever return to Australia.)
Once we'd left - and they'd only had one drink each so they were quite sober in case you wondered - and we'd sent the Asian kids home (they were only 1st-year students after all), Asher and Jonty sang most of the way back to our lodgings. Which brings Avi back into the equation, because they, and Avi, and native French staffworker/"stagiaire" Dovi*, were almost always singing, or playing music - & mainly the classical kind!! Jonah* (of the Netherlands), would sometimes join them, and possibly the little Pole Matthew* as well.
I'll close by talking about Matthew*, as well as Korean-French team-leader Mia*. Matthew was so funny and awkward.. .. ..
Barely eighteen, just finished school, trying to speak French & English as well as Polish. He reminded me of my Cranbrook & St. Andrew's students as they are now - still a little boy but trying hard to be grown up. (Guessed my age as being 22, which certainly sounds better than being 31.) Yet, this kid is so far ahead of me - putting himself out to share the gospel through walk-up evangelism - & in French, too - his weakest language!!
And now on to Mia*:
As with Liat, I discovered Mia & myself had more than a bit in common. Asian background, but grown up in Western country. Broken family. Early thirties. Due to stuff at home this year, I have not been very fond of people of Korean descent thus far - but Mia is an outstanding exception. Like Avi, she was always so supportive & helpful, ever willing to clarify when help was needed. She is, in fact, a very good reason to return to Paris in the future - that's how much I liked her!!
Hope to post again before heading for the UK, but we shall see!
L/T.
P.S. To my FAMILY - if you urgently need or want to get in touch, I am in room 403 at the Littre until Wednesday morning (4PM Sydney time).
Best time to call is 6AM Sydney time, which is 10PM previous night in Paris time - I'm in my room by then. Last night at Littre will be Tue. 7th; will be in airport hotel by evening of Wed. 8th.
How did the B1 interview go?
Much love,
B2.
04 July, 2009
Mission - accomplie?
This morning (Saturday/samedi) we had our wrap-up before the team members went separate ways.
Non-Christians (students & some others) we met throughout the week included:
Agnostics
- whose belief in the existence of God ranged from "probably" to "definitely", but didn't think it made a difference
Atheists
- some open (like the girl I met), some hostile or resistant
Contacts
- students who signed up to join Bible study groups on their local campuses - even though not Christian!!
Freebie-fans
- who took free gospels (ie. books of MT., MK., LK. or JN.), or free New Testaments with Psalms, or even sometimes complete Bibles to read!
Please would you pray that they'll read what they took, & that, AS they read, God's Spirit will change their hearts.
Muslims
- who were generally happy to discuss religion, though some tried to evangelise our team members themselves, & argued a lot for their own faith..
Others
- when our French team members spoke about people they'd met, there were many cases where I just did not understand what they were talking about at all!
Please pray with us that, wherever these people were up to in their thinking (since I personally had no idea), God might guide them into all truth through further contact with His Word & His people.
Seekers
- who really did want to know the truth!
Pray for their assurance of salvation, that they'll be led into the Kingdom.
The other Aussie on team (Jonty*) hopes to meet with one of these enthusiastic seekers, since they're both staying on in Paris for at least a month. Please pray for effective, God honouring meetings - this young Aussie brother has been finding living alone in Paris a tad difficult because it's a new experience for him (he's from a family of 7 children, never alone before)!
Please pray generally for everyone we met (as detailed above) who does not yet know Jesus as Lord & Saviour. For God's mercy, that they might not perish without responding to Him the way He deserves - through faith in Jesus, and Jesus alone!
MISSION - ACCOMPLISHED?
We came together in Paris for a week (semaine) of telling the good news (annonce de la bonne nouvelle) - about our Lord & Saviour Jesus.
Did we succeed?
By God's grace, it seems like we did.
Because each of us had opportunities to tell the people we met about God's saving work in Jesus. Opportunities given, of course, by God - because no-one wants the salvation of humanity quite as much as He does! He was so gracious & merciful in opening doors for His message, & in some cases, hearts as well. So kind & good in answering so many of our prayers about those we met. So generous in all that He provided for us. Many thanks need to be given to Him - esp. for His love & grace to us on team & to those we met this week.
So I guess we can say, yes, mission accomplished. And yet, as a new song I learned this year goes:
"There is still more work to do.."
Thank you so much to all you lovely people who have upheld us in prayer.
Has this week changed my life?
Hopefully, even more than I will ever know this side of eternity.
Personal reflections about me and God forthcoming.. ..
I plan to follow up, very soon, with some lighter anecdotes about my fellow team members. Even now I'm still grinning at their antics. I'd love to share about them with you. I'll miss a few of them very much indeed, because we live on such far-flung continents! I feel like I want to come back to Europe & visit them.
But as God wills it.
One thing I know for sure.. ..
Seek the LORD while he may be found;
call on him while he is near.
Let the wicked forsake his way
and the evil man his thoughts.
Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him,
and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
"For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,"
declares the LORD.
"As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
ISAIAH chapter 55, verses 6-11.
Non-Christians (students & some others) we met throughout the week included:
Agnostics
- whose belief in the existence of God ranged from "probably" to "definitely", but didn't think it made a difference
Atheists
- some open (like the girl I met), some hostile or resistant
Contacts
- students who signed up to join Bible study groups on their local campuses - even though not Christian!!
Freebie-fans
- who took free gospels (ie. books of MT., MK., LK. or JN.), or free New Testaments with Psalms, or even sometimes complete Bibles to read!
Please would you pray that they'll read what they took, & that, AS they read, God's Spirit will change their hearts.
Muslims
- who were generally happy to discuss religion, though some tried to evangelise our team members themselves, & argued a lot for their own faith..
Others
- when our French team members spoke about people they'd met, there were many cases where I just did not understand what they were talking about at all!
Please pray with us that, wherever these people were up to in their thinking (since I personally had no idea), God might guide them into all truth through further contact with His Word & His people.
Seekers
- who really did want to know the truth!
Pray for their assurance of salvation, that they'll be led into the Kingdom.
The other Aussie on team (Jonty*) hopes to meet with one of these enthusiastic seekers, since they're both staying on in Paris for at least a month. Please pray for effective, God honouring meetings - this young Aussie brother has been finding living alone in Paris a tad difficult because it's a new experience for him (he's from a family of 7 children, never alone before)!
Please pray generally for everyone we met (as detailed above) who does not yet know Jesus as Lord & Saviour. For God's mercy, that they might not perish without responding to Him the way He deserves - through faith in Jesus, and Jesus alone!
MISSION - ACCOMPLISHED?
We came together in Paris for a week (semaine) of telling the good news (annonce de la bonne nouvelle) - about our Lord & Saviour Jesus.
Did we succeed?
By God's grace, it seems like we did.
Because each of us had opportunities to tell the people we met about God's saving work in Jesus. Opportunities given, of course, by God - because no-one wants the salvation of humanity quite as much as He does! He was so gracious & merciful in opening doors for His message, & in some cases, hearts as well. So kind & good in answering so many of our prayers about those we met. So generous in all that He provided for us. Many thanks need to be given to Him - esp. for His love & grace to us on team & to those we met this week.
So I guess we can say, yes, mission accomplished. And yet, as a new song I learned this year goes:
"There is still more work to do.."
Thank you so much to all you lovely people who have upheld us in prayer.
Has this week changed my life?
Hopefully, even more than I will ever know this side of eternity.
Personal reflections about me and God forthcoming.. ..
I plan to follow up, very soon, with some lighter anecdotes about my fellow team members. Even now I'm still grinning at their antics. I'd love to share about them with you. I'll miss a few of them very much indeed, because we live on such far-flung continents! I feel like I want to come back to Europe & visit them.
But as God wills it.
One thing I know for sure.. ..
Seek the LORD while he may be found;
call on him while he is near.
Let the wicked forsake his way
and the evil man his thoughts.
Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him,
and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
"For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,"
declares the LORD.
"As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
ISAIAH chapter 55, verses 6-11.
01 July, 2009
Une CONVERSATION: fille athéiste
This morning, as with the last two, our team split into groups of 3 or 4, heading for several different universities around Paris. There we set up our Bible stands before walking around trying to talk to people/invite them along to our evening events/both.
My little group, with Polish teenager Matthew* and Korean-French stagiaire Mia* as well as myself, were at Cité Universitaire. I had but one conversation - yet a definite point for prayer:
I met one student, native French, who was sunbaking on the grass but quite happy to talk to me. I think we must have conversed (in French) for at least an hour! She said she was an atheist, but had a good number of comments & questions to ask. We talked about the existence & actions of God, the Bible, suffering, poverty, life, quite deep issues really. I did not wave Deux Façons de Vivre (ie. 2 Ways to Live) at her, although by God's grace & kindness, He enabled me to talk a little about most of the issues raised in boxes 1-5 of that tract.
PRAISE God
^for the conversation;
^for her openness in discussion;
^for His work in me His unworthy servant;
^for His answers to such prayers as we've prayed this week!
I am really thankful for that opportunity to converse for so long - 1st time, in fact, that I've experienced that level of discussion! (And yes, in case you wondered, she did pretty much an equal share of the talking, thanks be to God!)
Please would you PRAY
^for the salvation of this girl;
^that God will continue to work in her heart;
^that she will think about the Biblical truths raised in our discussion;
^that she remain open to Biblical ideas, even if she doesn't personally agree with them (which, of course, she didn't - that's why you're reading this!)
Please continue in prayer for the unity of the team. Sometimes it feels like a few of the native-speakers (even 1 or 2 of the stagiaires, shock, horror!) keep to themselves a bit much, in that they spend lots of time chatting to each other - not so bad, really, except that we foreign members of the team can have difficulty attending since
(a) they're not really addressing their comments to us
(b) they're not talking slow enough for us to understand anyway.
(I'm sure they don't mean to do this, it's not deliberate; but it's starting to rankle just a TINY little bit.)
We can also be thankful for the steady trickle of non-Christians connecting with the team this week, in our evening activities so far. Pray for God's name to be honoured & glorified in our witness to them - AND in our relationships with one another within the team!
Love to all & thanks for your partnership in prayer,
L/T.
My little group, with Polish teenager Matthew* and Korean-French stagiaire Mia* as well as myself, were at Cité Universitaire. I had but one conversation - yet a definite point for prayer:
I met one student, native French, who was sunbaking on the grass but quite happy to talk to me. I think we must have conversed (in French) for at least an hour! She said she was an atheist, but had a good number of comments & questions to ask. We talked about the existence & actions of God, the Bible, suffering, poverty, life, quite deep issues really. I did not wave Deux Façons de Vivre (ie. 2 Ways to Live) at her, although by God's grace & kindness, He enabled me to talk a little about most of the issues raised in boxes 1-5 of that tract.
PRAISE God
^for the conversation;
^for her openness in discussion;
^for His work in me His unworthy servant;
^for His answers to such prayers as we've prayed this week!
I am really thankful for that opportunity to converse for so long - 1st time, in fact, that I've experienced that level of discussion! (And yes, in case you wondered, she did pretty much an equal share of the talking, thanks be to God!)
Please would you PRAY
^for the salvation of this girl;
^that God will continue to work in her heart;
^that she will think about the Biblical truths raised in our discussion;
^that she remain open to Biblical ideas, even if she doesn't personally agree with them (which, of course, she didn't - that's why you're reading this!)
Please continue in prayer for the unity of the team. Sometimes it feels like a few of the native-speakers (even 1 or 2 of the stagiaires, shock, horror!) keep to themselves a bit much, in that they spend lots of time chatting to each other - not so bad, really, except that we foreign members of the team can have difficulty attending since
(a) they're not really addressing their comments to us
(b) they're not talking slow enough for us to understand anyway.
(I'm sure they don't mean to do this, it's not deliberate; but it's starting to rankle just a TINY little bit.)
We can also be thankful for the steady trickle of non-Christians connecting with the team this week, in our evening activities so far. Pray for God's name to be honoured & glorified in our witness to them - AND in our relationships with one another within the team!
Love to all & thanks for your partnership in prayer,
L/T.
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