Birthday parties

Yesterday I turned 45. To celebrate it, we had Anne and two of the Hope College students (Erin and Rebecca) over for crepes.

This afternoon my wife and I and all 3 children attended the 40th birthday celebration of Guillaume. While he and his wife live in southern Paris, the party was held in northern Paris. Getting to the event was quite an ordeal, as there often seems to be at least of the kids that slows us down. Despite the effort to get there, we were glad to go.

Guillaume and his wife Delali are both originally from Togo in West Africa. My wife and I were in the new members class at the Belleville Church with Guillaume in 2000. We also got to know Guillaume through working together in the Alpha Course. In 2001, Delali (now his wife) was an assistant group leader for an Alpha Course group that I led. Guillaume and Delali somehow got together that year and the next thing we knew, we were at their wedding in 2002, at which I was an unofficial photographer.

Like a number of other people dear to us in France, we have a hard time getting together with them. Had an meeting of la Fonderie not gotten cancelled for tonight, we probably wouldn't have been able to make today's party. One frustration about our current life situation with 3 young kids is that it's just hard to get together with people, unless they happen to live in our neighborhood and participate in the same activities that we do.

The party was a blast. Attended primarily by Africans, we were just among a handful on non-Africans present. The music and food (including a wonderful peanut sauce on rice) reminded me of my 2 years in Côte d'Ivoire. I am so glad that my family and I get to be part of multicultural events and friendships here.

The party was in Paris's 18th district, one that I don't know very well. We got a little lost trying to find parking, but a French woman was very helpful when I rolled down the window, showed her the map, and asked where we were. It turned out that where we had stopped was very close to the party, so we just got out the stroller and walked from there.

While walking, I realized that the street we were walking on was on Rue Belliard. This rang a bell in my memory, as the first time that I ever spent in Paris was 2 weeks in late July 1989 for a mission project called "Love Europe" that was organized by Operation Mobilization. 100+ of us from all around the world were part of 5 different teams that were all based of "Le Tabernacle," a church located on Rue Belliard.

We passed "Le Tabernacle" on the next block, as it is just around the corner from the party's location. I don't think that I've been back to that part of Paris since the 1989 project, which was over 17 years ago. Boy, was I green and young (age 27) back then. While the area in front of the church was calm as we walked by, I flashed back to the large number of vans that were in front of the church as we were deployed for different outreach initiatives in Paris. Little did I know then that I would end us working in Paris. We even have British friends named Andy and Lydia who met on that trip, eventually got married, and now support our work here.

Today was a good reminder that God's ways are best, even when we don't always know where they are leading (which is the majority of the time). In my weakness and ignorance, He can show Himself strong and guide my paths and smooth them out.