Intern #2 has arrived

On Tuesday Christina arrived in Paris from Michigan. Through some surprising circumstances in the past month, the Lord has opened the door for her to be in Paris from now through June 2006. She'll be involved primarily with the Reformed Church in the Marais section of Paris. This is a strategic church located very close to the Bastille Place. If you take a map of Paris, there is a straight line from the Place at Nation that extends through the Bastille Place, Hotel de Ville (the main city hall), the Louvre Museum, the Tuileries Gardens, the Concorde Place, the Champs-Elysées Avenue, the Arch of Triumphe, and La Defense (the Wall Street of Paris). This church's building is located right on that line.

Yesterday I had lunch with Christina and Pastor Serge Boucomont of the Marais church. He is a young (age 32), dynamic, visionary, and hard-working pastor. I'm pleased to be able to play a part in connecting quality interns with quality spiritual leaders. Ditto for Isaac and Pierre at Belleville.

Today we had Christina over for lunch and Isaac for supper. That's part of our role as surrogate uncle and aunt of them.

I worked on a mailing for the Fonderie this evening. The usual printing addresses on envelopes, stuffing and sealing them with brochures, stamping them, and dropping them off at the nearby post office. It's not an overly spiritual activity, although I enjoy remembering the faces that go with the names and addresses, as they represent some of the artists in Paris who are trying to follow Jesus. The ministry of the Fonderie is ultimately about trying to honor Jesus by discipling them.

Our son's teacher told my wife after school today that when she tries to tell him to do something in French that he doesn't understand (like putting on his shoes), then she gets a number of the children around him to show him what to do. I smile when trying to imagine 3-4 3 year olds standing around him and saying "chaussure" (shoe) to him. However, it seems to be working and he's learning lots of new French words everyday. Both he and our daughter seem to be sponges for information these days.