France Day 6: May 22nd

Today we spent nearly all of the day in the center. We began by eating croissants for breakfast. It was a Sunday so we cleaned up and welcomed the members of the church into church. The service consisted of prayer and singing. We sang in French and Arabic, with some occasional English. During the service the church members would share what the Lord was doing in their lives, what the Lord was teaching them, and asking the others to pray for them. The group would then take time to pray for the individual members of the group. It was a sharp contrast to anything I have seen in America. This was one of the most authentic pictures of the Body of Christ I have ever seen. The church showed a very serious desire to be prayer warriors for one another. The man who was scheduled to preach the message had to leave at noon (we started at 11) so he was unable to preach. After church we had lunch at a Chinese restaurant (on a usual Sunday the whole church stayed and ate together at the center, but not on this week). After lunch we returned to the center and began reading a story of a 3rd century North-African martyr. In the middle of the story a Tunisian couple from the church came back to the center to talk to us. They shared their testimonies and answered our questions. After this we finished the story and had a long discussion with the pastor that ended in singing worship songs. We then had dinner. After we cleaned up dinner we watched a movie about an Arabic man who found Christ. It was a very eye opening and worship-filled day that left me with a lot to think about. (There was nothing that was picture worthy or that I was allowed to take pictures of today.)

France Day 5: May 21st

This morning we had bread and coffee for breakfast, shocking I know. After that we went to the beach…at the Mediterranean Sea! It was a beautiful beach day and I also got a few minutes of reading in. The beach did not have sand; instead it had rock/gravel. I was told that the water was going to be really cold; however, it felt the same to me as a typical day at Virginia Beach. It was a great morning.

After the beach we drove for a few hours to the city of Avignon. We took a tour of the Pope’s Palace there. For about 100 years (1309-1403) the papacy was actually located in Avignon. 9 Popes actually lived in Avignon, although the final two were actually during a schism and therefore there was actually a Pope in Rome during their ‘reign’ as Pope. We toured the palace and learned a lot about Catholic influence in France. It was interesting to see that many of the statues of statesmen, monarchs, and clergy had their heads chopped off. This was done during the French Revolution. The French Revolution was a time when the French common people stood up to their oppressors, namely, the monarchy and the state church. This was just another reminder of the darkness that has been a part of France for so long. After the palace we drove back to Lyon and checked back into the hotel.