Today we did something a little bit different. We met in the basement of a local evangelical church. This is pretty rare, because in France, evangelical churches can be hard to come by. This was the first time on the trip that we all sat down to talk in a private setting. Ed talked about the importance of “every tongue” to our mission. Here’s a great quote: “(The Book of) Acts is Acts 1:8 happening in the power of Acts 2.”
We also had a great opportunity to hear from a French church planter, Jullian. I’ve never met a Frenchman who told “French-surrendermonkey” jokes before. But then again, how many French nationals have I met that studied theology in an African-American church in inner-city Oakland, CA before returning to France to be a one-man emerging church movement? Watch for the interview soon.
We spent lots of time today with French students who are studying English. The team here set up a round table discussion for us to ask them questions about matters of faith, values, and spirituality. The essence of the conversation would be this: “I’m okay with Jesus being a way, I just can’t bring myself to believe that he is the Only Way.” It was all some of our people could do to keep from launching into a “Lord, Liar, or Lunatic” rant.
If you ever get the chance to eat authentic Indian food in a foreign country (other than, say, India), you should do it. We did that for dinner tonight, and it was great. Ordering chunks of meat in spicy reddish-brown sauce served over rice in a language you don’t speak is really living on the edge.
