As we ended our semester her e in Montpellier, it was pretty apparent that all of us on the team were very ready for a break.After four solid months of doing ministry, we were all excited to have a little vacation!Before we ended the semester we had seen the kickoff of what is now an ongoing outreach called Thé-O Show, and we had a very successful Fête de Noël, where we shared many of our Christmas traditions with our friends, and most importantly shared about what the true origins of Christmas are.
A few days afterwards, we took off for the Alps, eager to find snow for Christmas and some R&R.We spent the week in the French Alps in a small little village tucked away way up in the mountains.There was snow in abundance.We spent time sleeping in, playing cards, eating together, and even went sledding in the middle of the night on old air mattresses that were basically dead already, and much more so after we sled on them!
One of the highlights of the vacation was the day before Christmas Eve, when we spent the day in 3 countries!We woke up and had breakfast in France, then drove to Geneva (Switzerland), where we enjoyed part of the afternoon and lunch, then we drove along the north side of the lake and eventually back into France to see and go through Mont Blanc, which is the highest mountain in Europe, and had dinner in Italy!Let me tell you, the pasta in Italy is worth the trip.Wow!We had a little trouble getting back into France, because after we had driven most of the way up the mountain on the border, we discovered that the mountain pass was totally closed!It was so snowed in that there was no way anything would get through, including the semi we found trying heroically to turn around at the top of this mountain pass.On our way back down we talked to a local who told us that the pass was closed 8 months out of the year.Thanks for letting us know before we drove all the way up the mountain!Oh well…
Christmas was a good celebration.We had a fairly traditional meal together and spent time reading and reflecting on the prophetic and gospel writings surrounding Christ’s birth.With no gifts, no tree, no lights, really nothing to remind me of “normal” Christmas, it was nice to be able to focus on why we actually celebrate this holiday.It was difficult to be away from family and from home, but I was also glad to be where I was.
Some pictures of the vacation:
Erin and I in Genève, Switzerland.
Here we are in a cute little town somewhere east of Genève. We think it looks like Stillwater!
One of my co-workers here in Agapé recently sent out this devotion to all of us working here in France. I thought it to be challenging and very insightful. I wanted to share it with you all.
“I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deeds of the LORD.” Psalm 118:17
Dear Friends,
We would like to offer this short devotion for 2009. May it be a source of inspiration for each of us every day of this New Year.
According to a recent study, witnessing is becoming more and more difficult for believers, notably in the West, where intolerance, under the guise of tolerance, has reached unimaginable proportions. The more we live in an environment hostile to the Gospel, the more we remain silent in order to hide behind the reigning political correctness. Those who evangelize have become a ‘rare breed’ to the extent that many Christians believe that witnessing is solely the work of pastors and evangelists who are ‘paid’ to witness and proclaim the works of the Lord.
Such thinking can cause our zeal for sharing the Good News to diminish or even to stealthily disappear. From time to time we may share what God is doing at church, in a prayer meeting or on very rare occasions. So it is not surprising that our fire for the Gospel goes out leaving behind a wisp of smoke without aroma.
In the verse 17 from Psalm 118, King David turns upside down our perspective and understanding. In singing: “I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deeds of the LORD,” he clearly linked life and witness. According to the Psalmist, this was a fact of life that needed no changing: “if a child of God lives, he must, therefore, sing and celebrate the works of the Lord.” To be alive simply means “to witness.” The interconnectedness between these two is so obvious that it leaves us no excuse, no justification for our following Jonah on his flight toward Tarsis and away from God’s will.
How often do we recount the works of God? Whenever we participate in the Lord’s Supper? Every once in a while? This verse reminds us of our “raison d’être,” (literally: "reason for being"), the true purpose for our existence on earth. May it not be a grudging necessity. May celebrating and sharing the works of the Lord become an integral part of our daily lives. Therefore, whether in groups, among family or by ourselves, let us all SING without ceasing. And during all the days of 2009, let us say: “If the Lord grants me life, I will proclaim his works and I will sing his praises!” It is a worthy goal and a beautiful expression of our faith!”
A week ago I was able to have the opportunity to visit a good family friend from the states, who was visiting the south of France for a few days on a pilgrimage that he was participating in, bringing him over to Spain and Portugal, and for a few days to the city of Lourdes in the south of France.
We spent only about 24 hours together, but it was a most wonderful 24 hours!I learned a lot about the history of the city and was able to ask him all sorts of questions to help me understand many things about the Catholic Church.This was especially helpful as the strong tradition in this part of the world is from the Roman Catholic Church, and it was helpful for me to understand a few more things as Fr. Jim was able to explain them to me.
It was also splendid to have the feeling the whole time that I was hosting him in the south of France, my home for the year.I was thoroughly amused when I first arrived and joined the group he was traveling with for dinner.This was my first encounter with a group of Americans who had just arrived in France as tourists since I’ve been here, and it was rather amusing to me to suddenly discover what small French-isms I had unconsciously picked up already in my first two months here.I found myself wondering why all of the Americans were taking so much effort to cut something on their plate, set down the knife, transfer the fork to their primary hand and finally succeed in eating whatever they were cutting.I hadn’t realized that I was wielding fork and knife concurrently in left and right hands throughout the meal, which is the European way to eat.I was also enlightened when our server brought out bread, which I promptly took and set on the table (as makes perfect sense in France).I realized a little later that Fr. Jim had delicately balanced the bread on his plate so as not to place it on the table, and that he was lifting the whole mini-loaf and taking bites right out of it.I, on the other hand, was tearing off bite-sized portions of the bread, which is the custom here.Funny what little things you don’t realize you’ve started to do until you have someone from your normal culture show you what was normal back in the States.
In Lourdes we were able to visit the shrine and cathedral there, both of which were very cool.We celebrated mass, which pleasantly reminded me of our good old Lutheran liturgy back home (it never ceases to amaze me how similar the orders of service are between the Catholic and Lutheran churches).We toured the cathedral, which was so beautiful.It was interesting because a cathedral was first built there a long time ago, but then was found to be too small later, so they built another one just in front and below it.It was very cool how the two were incorporated, making it look as if they had always been designed together.
Fr. Jim and I spent much time on Saturday enjoying a café and at a sweet little restaurant just next to the river.It was in typical southern French style – sitting, enjoying, taking a coffee, basking in the gorgeous fall weather…It was in all a fantastic day.
I left Lourdes, my heart full from great conversation, and my bag full from gifts from my family that Jim amusingly carried in for me.I got to ride the train back and watch the sun set over the Pyrenees Mountains.Wow.Gorgeous.Unfortunately, I had a fearfully quick transfer that needed to be made in Toulouse, and my first train was late and my second train left early!This left me unexpectedly stranded overnight in…
Toulouse
Fortunately, Toulouse is probably the best city in Southern France for me to have been stuck in.After spending a good 45 minutes in an office with 7 other travelers who missed the same connection, the details were settled and since there were no more trains going to Montpellier that night, 4 of the travelers took a train to a different city, and were assured that the train company would pay for a taxi for them to get the rest of the way to Montpellier.The rest of us settled for first class tickets on a train the next morning, one person was put up in a hotel, one was going to stay with her uncle, and I had accommodations lining up for myself.One woman also informed them that we would need food, and so we were all given a non-perishable “this-meal-would-last-until-2010” lunch box.It was a nice touch.
I mentioned that Toulouse was a good city to be stuck in – this is because Toulouse is home to an ICS (International Campus Staff) team with Agapé.Toulouse was actually the partnership city from the Upper Midwest part of the states several years ago, and when a full-time team was established a few years ago they were able to open up the partnership with Montpellier for sending STINT teams like ours.We had met the team back in October for an in-country briefing, and enjoyed the time immensely.When I discovered myself stuck there, part of me was excited to hopefully spend some time with the team!
I was able to connect with them, and it happened that they lived just down the street from the gare (the train station).Aaron brought me over for dinner, and then I was able to see the city at night with Carrie and Tiffany.It was great!I had never been to Toulouse, and to see the city was really cool.It’s much bigger than Montpellier, and is known as the “pink city,” because many of its buildings are made out of brick, giving it a very predominantly red color.Later that night I was up late with Aaron and another friend of his, Felix, and then after only a few hours of sleep I was back on the train riding first class back home.It’s nice.
My travels were not over.Just three days after arriving back in Montpellier, I was again on a train headed right back in the direction I had just come, but this time stopping in…
Narbonne
Halfway between Toulouse and Montpellier is the city of Narbonne, and thus it was the site of our joint Fall Retreat, called week-end étudiant! (literally, student weekend).Yes, even in November it is still fall here.We don’t really believe in blizzards or cold weather.Any of you staunch Midwesterners, just think of me as you freeze your way to class or work.:-)The purpose of our Fall Retreat was to take a weekend and get away, build community within our Agapé movements and with each other, and spend time focusing on the theme for the weekend, which was faire des disciples (making disciples).It was admittedly stressful leading up to it as we tried to get everything planned very quickly, and suddenly the day that I left Toulouse Aaron had to take an emergency flight back to the states because of a family emergency, leaving them with one less staff person and their whole team pretty shook.
We were also afraid that none of our students would come, but at the last minute two of our students had other things change so they could make it, and we brought four of our students to the weekend!With all of us staff and the students in Toulouse and Montpellier we were around 20 people, and we had an awesome weekend!We did a lot of relaxing, we connected with each other and heard messages about and studied together what it means to both be a disciple and to make disciples.
The weekend started out with a game where we divided up into four teams, each a team of four people.Each person on the team was given a handicap, and each team was charged with having to complete five simple tasks.The handicaps were simple, one person on each team was blind, one person couldn’t speak, one person had their hands bound and one their feet bound.The tasks were also simple:to be sure people knew each other, each team had to write their names on one wall (and you couldn’t write your own name!), each team had to successfully get each team member underneath an ad-hoc limbo setup, each team had to get each member successfully across a room following a narrow path (try doing that blind or with bound legs), each team had to correctly finish and identify the beginning of a bible verse, and each team had to get one member to successfully perform a handstand, and prove it by having Katie take a picture of them doing it.It was a lot of fun and helped us to see in a very real way what it looks like to function as the body of Christ – we need each other and because we bring different strengths (and weaknesses) to the table, it is important to work together to accomplish the tasks that are set before us as believers.
Day two of the retreat started with a session with worship and a speaker from Toulouse.We heard about the importance of being filled by God and allowing that overflow to reach out to others in the body of Christ and then also to the rest of the world.We followed the time with some personal time with the Lord, a picnic lunch and then free time in the afternoon.This was really super.We hit the town to see the sights, and we were not disappointed.There were two cathedrals we visited, one was Cathédrale St-Just St-Pasteur and the other was the Basilique St Paul-Serge.The first was a monstrous cathedral, attached to the Hôtel de Ville and right across the street from the place we were staying.
It was incredible, and probably one of the biggest cathedrals I’ve yet be in (at least that I can remember).Part of it was actually outside, which I think maybe was because part of it was ruins, but I couldn’t quite figure it out.Either way, it made the character of the place very very cool.
The second cathedral that we visited took a little while to get to, but one of our students, Josias, had done some research and especially wanted to see this cathedral.It is one of the oldest in Europe, and when we went inside, we could see that it was ancient.In fact, the cathedral was first build in the 3rd century, and so our guide of the church (the caretaker we think) said that it was basically as old as Christianity, especially in that part of the world.The building as it stands we think dates from the 12th century (still ancient), and was absolutely stunning.
We got a tour of the whole church, and it ended with a tour of the crypt, which was attached to the church, and was the crypt from the 3rd century.In fact, inside the crypt there were remains of an old Roman mosaic that dated from the 2nd century.All of these ancient artifacts were incredible to see, and we were amused and a little shocked as the guide giving us the tour nonchalantly pointed things out with a giant key that he was carrying, usually striking whatever sculpture, painting or artifact he was talking about with it.At one point he hit something in the 3rd century crypt that started to wobble.Yikes.We freaked out.
After that amazing piece of history we also checked out the canal in town, saw the first lock-and-dam system to be ever built in France, and returned to the place where we were staying.
That night we had first a snack, then another session, dinner and time to pray for each campus/city.It was a wonderful time just to celebrate things that the Lord was doing in each of our ministries, and also time to pray for things that we are dreaming about for the future.Afterwards, as one must do because of being on retreat, we stayed up late playing games.We taught two of the students from Toulouse how to play Nertz with us.It was pretty wild.We already have an outstanding challenge for our Christmas Conference, Camp Nouvel An.
One of my favorite moments from the weekend came the last morning of the retreat.We had a time of looking at the Bible together, and then a time of worship.Our worship for the weekend was led by one of the Toulouse students, Bahri, and the first morning he was joined by another girl who had brought her violin.That morning at breakfast she had asked me if I wanted to play along using her violin.I said “of course” as long as it was ok with her.When we had a time of worship I joined Bahri (he was playing guitar), and it was one of those moments when things really clicked.It was fantastic!Afterwards, we had a time of getting together with one or two other people and sharing about what we learned over the weekend and praying together.Bahri and I paired up, which made me pretty nervous, since he really didn’t speak English.What followed was one of the coolest conversations I have had yet this fall.I suggested that we start by praying, and since Bahri really only spoke French, I even prayed in French for the first time!I prayed some in English too, but it was still a big moment for me.Bahri then shared about how he had really been challenged that weekend to set aside other things that were distracting him from focusing on God as being the most important in his life.Wow!I was able to encourage him as well (remember – this was all in French – yikes!) that I had appreciated not only that he led us in worship all weekend, but that I had really seen his heart as he played and led us in song.I learned that some of the songs we had sung and he had shared he had actually written himself, which was so cool.As musicians we connected over the subject of worship and how much we express our hearts through song and worship.It was beautiful to make that connection.Earlier in the weekend, I had thanked him for playing after the first session, and his response was similar to responses that I myself have given to so many people, which was expressing just that it is such a joy to lead and to play.
At the end of the weekend, we all were saying goodbye as people departed, and I received my first bise from a guy from Bahri (the French kiss on the cheek greeting or farewell).This doesn’t happen between guys unless it’s with someone who is a close friend (between most guys you just shake hands).It meant a lot to me.In fact, the whole weekend did.To see the body of Christ working, to encourage one another, pray together, have fun together: this is why ministry excites me.To bring more people into the life that we lead as Christians and to encourage and build into people who are already in the body of Christ, this brings me great excitement.In the spiritual darkness and hopelessness that we see every day as we talk with students, taking a weekend to minister within the body of Christ filled me with great hope and energy to keep going, to keep moving forward, to remind myself that the cause is worth the difficulty of doing missions overseas.
Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,
fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.
(from Heb 12:1-2)
The whole group!
Our group from Montpellier!
That leads me to the last city,
Lyon
Just north of Montpellier about 2 hours, Lyon is the second largest city in France (depending sort of on how you count – people from Marsailles say that they live in the second largest city in France).I visited Lyon yesterday (Wednesday), completing my quad-city tour.I went up for a violin lesson with a violinist who plays in the Lyon Opéra, who is a colleague of a colleague of my teacher back in Minneapolis.It was awesome.It felt so good to have a lesson again, and our personalities blended quite well.He was pleased with my level of playing (his first comment was on my great intonation – yes!), and we were able to get a lot of work done on the music that I’m learning.He even invited me to play in a masterclass that he is doing in a few weeks.I’ll be excited to keep going back and continue to have a chance to not just maintain my level of playing, but grow from working with a new teacher.
I was also able to connect with some friends from the Agapé ministry in Lyon.I got to see their offices and spend a few hours with them and have lunch.It was super fun!After my lesson too, I had a little extra time before going back to the gare to catch my train, so I stopped for a little treat – just a little taste of America that you can’t get in Montpellier to make the rest of my team jealous.
“Though you have not seen [Christ], you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”
--1 Peter 1:8-9
I spent time this afternoon in 1 Peter 1, particularly in the first nine verses.It was encouraging to me as he outlines in verses 3-7 that we have been given such hope in the resurrection of Christ and that we have been given an inheritance in heaven that will never spoil or fade.He talks of the truth that we by faith are shielded by God until the “last times” and that because of this we can rejoice, even though for now (“a little while”) we endure grief in all kinds of trials.These trials are given to us to refine our faith, that it would be proved genuine and that in the end it would result in the praise, glory and honor of Jesus.
I can’t tell you how much this is encouraging to me today, as I reflect on the trials we have seen here.I would be not truthful if I did not say that we have indeed seen the Lord provide for us in many ways (see post about answers to prayer in October).I would also be painting a falsely perfect picture by leaving it at only those joys.Especially as the weather has gotten cooler here and we have settled into the rhythm and grind of ministry, our rose-tinted glasses have come off.It is easier to get discouraged when then trials of living overseas and doing ministry in a part of the world which is so spiritually cold have worn down on you for two months.Living in a small community, you start to realize what things about each of your team members wear on you.Struggling with a foreign language, you realize that even by the end of the year you will probably still have moments when you feel like there is no way to express some of the things that you want to.Pouring into ministry in a dry place, it seems as if it will be years and years before any real fruit is seen here.
And then Peter talks to us about faith.In verse 7 he states that our faith is “of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire.”Because of our faith in Jesus Christ, we love him, and this fills us with “inexpressible and glorious joy.” (vs. 8).When I read that phrase, I had to stop and ask myself, “are you filled with inexpressible and glorious joy?”The best response I could give myself was a resounding “um…”So I asked the question: “what prompts this kind of joy?”I found the answer at the beginning of the same verse: love.It seems as if love for Christ and faith in Christ are somehow linked and result in the joy of which Peter writes.
So how does one experience the “inexpressible and glorious joy” promised to us by these words?How does one endure trials with the same joy as great triumphs?How does one live like Paul, who states that “I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.I consider them rubbish (literally: dung) that I may gain Christ and be found in him…” (from Philippians 3:7-10)How does one live a life “full of faith?”
