My Redeemer Lives!
Today, we sang this in a way we never have before! We sang, “Mon Redempteur Vit, Mon Redempteur Vit!” along with our French brothers and sisters in Christ! What a little taste of Heaven that was as I looked around thinking of how every tongue and tribe will sing this for eternity! What a treat it was for all of us to sense God’s unique presence when his body assembles. Although we couldn’t understand most of what was said, we could sense God’s spirit transcending cultural and language barriers!
Today was a big day for another reason. Today was the Quartier Libre BBQ. Quartier Libre is a multi-church effort in Grenoble to serve the children of the most impoverished neighborhoods of the city through a Vacation Bible School sort of program. With an industrial grill rented to cook and serve the merguez, games set up to entertain hundreds of North African immigrant children from the surround neighborhood of Mistral, and plenty of hands to help, we were well situated for a great afternoon of ministry and fellowship. While many from our team prepared the food, Roy shared the story of the prodigal son through a skit to exemplify to the children the love of our Heavenly Father. We were blessed with a beautiful, sunny day for this event and had a turn out of over 100 kids, some whose parents joined our time of fellowship. Our prayer following this BBQ is that between the story they heard and the love they were shown, that there would be eternal seeds planted and for good follow up in the short term.
Thank you all for praying with us during our time in France. Tomorrow will be very bittersweet as we board a plane in Lyon, France at 9:55am local time (3:55am Grand Rapids time) to return home. Pray for safe travels and favorable weather as we travel. If everything goes as planned, our flight into Grand Rapids is scheduled to arrive at 7:15pm.
The days and weeks following any short term mission trip can be one of the most important parts of the whole trip. Reason being, is that these next days and weeks as the experiences, sights, sounds, etc. of the trip set in and materialize. Pray for our team as we take all the experiences of the last 10 days and harness them to impact our daily lives as we further God’s Kingdom in our separate spheres of influence back home.
By: Paul Wiersma