France

St. Paul, France is located on the outskirts of Nice. With breathtaking views and incredible architecture, St. Paul is a highly visited place by tourists in France. The old city sits on top of a mountain, with deep valleys on all sides. After spending 21 days straight in two third-world countries, we went from living among the poorest people in the world to living among the wealthiest. The people who live here have climbed the “financial success” latter to the top, and there’s one thing that’s a visible and common factor among almost all. They are still unhappy.

I was not prepared for the spiritual warfare we would see in France. A misunderstanding among many; just because they can afford to purchase a bible doesn’t mean they have heard the good news. The statistics are 1 in a 1,000 people truly know Christ as their savior.

Everyone worships something. God created us that way; we are worshiping beings. If we aren’t worshiping the Creator of the Universe, we worship things such as money, ourselves, success, fame, other people etc. This is everywhere, but you can visibly see an abundance of that here.

One theme for this country that God has really shown me-His grace is unimaginably grace. There’s not a cap, and He continuously gives us gifts that we don’t deserve. Gifts of forgiveness, the gift of love. This is how we should view each other. We give grace and mercy to His people, because He shows it to us daily. Praise Him.

“The Lord is compassionate and merciful, slow the get angry and filled with unfailing love. He will not constantly accuse us, nor remain angry forever. He does not punish us for al our sins; he does not deal harshly with us, as we deserve. For His unfailing love toward those who fear him is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth.” Psalm 103 8–11

During our time in France, Global Journey had the privilege of working with the International  Baptist Church. The church has two locations; one in St. Paul, and one in Nice. It has been an absolute blessing getting to know this specific church body that consists of many different original home nations represented.

We have done a variety of different things during the past ten days. First off, we stayed at a campsite (with tents and all), which I loved! When we first arrived, the church had organized a “half-day of prayer” that they do quarterly. The topic that day-the nations. We separated into five different groups and prayed for a total of about three hours, just simply giving to God what is already His. This was such a refreshing time for the team!

A few days later, we also passed out sandwiches in Nice to a few homeless people on the street. My teammates Hannah and Ryan and I went in a group together. We would ask to pray over them, and then provided a sandwich and water. What a humbling experience. Almost all were so thankful, kissing our hands with tears in their eyes. Random acts of kindness isn’t seen often, and it was an awesome opportunity to tell them that they are important and they are loved by their heavenly Father.

During the remainder of our time at Nice, we were helping the church set up for a “bilingual camp”, which was actually a VBS. They go all out and really want this to be a fun experience for the children, they want them to feel welcomed and at home during that week. For many of the children this is the first time they have ever heard about Christ. There are 55 children attending the camp this upcoming week-33 of which come from unbelieving homes. If you feel led to do so, you could pray that the Lord would change these children’s lives this week, and that they would feel encouraged to share with their parents what they have learned here. I’m excited to hear about what all the Lord does during that week!

Our time in France has absolutely flown by and I can’t believe we are already done with four countries! Please lift up my team as today we being the last leg of our journey. Pray that we would finish strong, relying on the Lord’s strength to carry us throughout the next ten days! Thank you again to all whom have been supporting my team and I in prayer!

“Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever.” -1 John 2:15-17