Rearranging Rooms

Today is lundi de Pentecôte (Pentecost Monday) in France. Until last year, this was a national holiday in recent times. But after the heat wave in July 2002 that speeded up the deaths of thousands of elderly people in France, the government made it a "day of solidarity" in which everyone must work, but all the income from the day goes toward helping support structures for older people. Many people in France don't like having this voluntary program imposed on them (and losing a holiday), so there were many strikes around the country today.

Monday is normally the off day at church, so it still was a lighter day. The pool was closed, so we didn't do baby swim class, which was a bummer. The afternoon park visit we scheduled got cancelled due to rain.

One "fun" activity for my wife is rearranging furniture. I'm not sure why she enjoys this, but she does. Part of this afternoon was spent moving the furniture in the children's room. Our goal for later this week is to move our daughter from her temporary bedroom (our large bathroom)into the kid's room. We'll need both kids to sleep through the night in order for this to happen.

This is a season in our lives where we're metaphorically having lots of our furniture being shifted around. I think that God's goal in this is to create space for new and different things.

Yesterday I had the impression that God said in my heart that revival would be coming to France in the near future. The Pentecost Sunday outdoor service in which our church went to the neighborhood (rather than waiting for the neighborhood to come to our church) played part of this. Even though I have the Bible, I find it so easy to live "faithlessly" the majority of the day. God wants His words (logos and rhema) accepted with faith and not with doubt or skepticism. I think that creating space is a faith step of allowing God to bring revival in whatever way He desires. Of course, if my lack of faith keeps revival from touching me, then He will still bring it, as He loves the peoples of Paris that much.

Early tomorrow morning the first team (from Florida) arrives to help, so I'll be at the airport to meet them.