Friends on the journey

I found an excellent article on "spiritual formation and mission" on the blog of my former professor Jim Plueddemann. It's well worth a read.

One of the joys of the last 19 years of my journey in intercultural ministry has been the very interesting friends that God was woven in and out of my path throughout the voyage. With some of them, I have more face-to-face contact in this chapter in the journey. But I often think of others who aren't currently in my daily world in Paris, but whom have been a part of it. These include professors like Jim Plueddemann, John Gration, Jerry Root, Jim Wilhoit, and Lyle Dorsett.

Earlier today we had goûter with some newer friends named Mark and Beth. Goûter is a snack time between 3 and 6 p.m. that the French often have. It normally is something suggary, like the chocolate eclairs that we had. It helps hold someone over until supper, which is often after 8:00 p.m. In our home country, we notice that people often have supper early (around 5:00 p.m.), but then get hungry again before bed and have something suggary. In France, we switch the order.

Anyway, Mark and Beth are a married couple with lots of ministry experience. Mark has worked with music ministry and in administration with their denomination in the U.S. Beth studied French in Avignon as part of her undergrad French and Music double major. She then did theological training, got ordained, and has pastored several churches in recent years.

Interestingly, they found us through doing a web search on the Internet. They ended up coming to Paris 2 months ago and getting an apartment right by our church. They got to look around at some different ministries in Paris, as well as helping out with the 4 day Portes Ouvertes event in May and the arts consultation of last month.

They have done very well in Paris the last 2 months and would probably do well here if they came back for longer term. It was stimulating and encouraging to talk about how things could look in future shared ministry projects in the arts and other areas.

They go back to the U.S. this Thursday, where they'll seek the Lord's direction for their future. I look forward to keeping up with them and visiting them, no matter which side of the pond they end up settling into for the immediate future. Hopefully, that will be on this side of the pond.

Would we have met through normal circumstances? Probably not. But in the course of this cross-cultural ministry odyssey, God has brought our lives together. And I'm thankful for the colorful tapestry of people that God has woven into the picture of my life.