Laughing in the gallery

I'm writing from le Pavé d'Orsay, where I usually am on Thursdays. I'm on welcome/security duty for the exposition of photos of the Arc de Triomphe by Simone Tavares. This week has flown by, as it already has been a week since the opening night "vernissage" here. Her photos still look beautiful.

One of my and my wife's prayers recently is "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done" in this person, in this place, in this situation, etc. We had our weekly leaders meeting here today and I'm really excited about potential ways that God's kingdom will come to this high class and artistic section of central Paris. From human eyes, this is an impossible place to start a faith community. However, God is opening doors and enlarging our faith and hope in what could happen here.

We had several interesting people pass through today.

One of our leadership committee members is Peggy, an American who worked as an actress in New York and now teaches theatre in Paris. While working in NY, she worked with Lucy Arnaz, the daughter or Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball. (I grew up watching the 2 Lucys on a situation comedy as a child). Lucy Arnaz's son came through le Pavé d'Orsay today to meet with Peggy.

An hour ago, a French pastor and painter named Vincent came through here. Le Pavé d'Orsay is likely to have an exposition of his work later this year. While Jim and I both imagined him to be 50ish, it turns out that he is in his early 30s. We are psyched about that, as we're really trying to target younger people.

Earlier this week a painter who lives in this neighborhood stopped by and left a published book with some of his works. This is thrilling, as we really would like to connect in the neighborhood. May God's kingdom come and will be done in this artistic neighborhood.

Had someone told me 20 years ago that I would be excited about sitting in an art gallery, I would have laughed. Sarah laughed when told that she would bear a son in at age 90. The name Isaac means "laughter." So here I sit laughing in the art gallery and loving it.