One month ago I tearfully waved goodbye to my family from the other side of security and boarded a plane to Atlanta. Then a week later, I found myself staring at the Eiffel Tower in Paris. I can’t believe we have been here for almost a month—and now we are heading on to our next stop: the Camino.
This month has been so good. It has been challenging, and good, and hard, and exciting, and exhausting, and amazing all at the same time. Being on the race was exactly what I expected and exactly not what I expected. There have been moments where I laughed so hard I felt like I was doing an ab workout and moments where I just couldn’t hold the tears back anymore.
Living in community is worth it, but I’ve learned we have to fight for it. I think I overlooked the work it would take to develop a healthy, sustainable community. After a few days of living life with my team, I was overcome with loneliness as I realized that the people around me did not really know me. I knew they loved Jesus, but we had so many differences. Some people loved to be constantly doing something whereas I prefer to have some down time (and alone time) throughout the day.
The biggest struggle for me was learning that it’s okay to trust people and let them into my life. Before coming on the race, I walked through a season of loneliness and feelings of betrayal as my life suddenly took a sharp turn when my church made some decisions that significantly affected me. Because of all that happened in that situation, I came to a place where I felt like I couldn’t trust people. At the same time, it was hard doing life with a group of people who knew nothing about me. They had no idea what these past few months had looked like—let alone anything else about my life. I learned to have grace for my teammates, but I also learned the importance of being intentional with each of them and getting to know them individually on a deeper level. It has taken work, but I can now say that I genuinely love my team. They have beautiful hearts for Jesus.
This past month was full of a variety of different ministries. We spent the majority of our time working with refugees at Porte de la Chapelle. Our time with the refugees looked like building relationships, teaching English, playing volleyball (and getting smacked in the face…), handing out coffee and tea, and using google translate to share the gospel. About a week ago, the French government transferred all the refugees to a new facility in South Paris and we got to help with the transition. We actually got to stay the night in the refugee camp the night before they brought in the refugees to help get the place set up. Since then, we have been going back to the facility with the refugees and have built relationships with some different ministry contacts we have here in Paris.
I can’t believe month one is almost done. Sometimes it still hits me—I’m actually on the race and I’m in Paris! How crazy is that? This past month I’ve seen the Lord do amazing things through the people we’ve met, through my teammates, and through me. Though this is not easy, I know that I am exactly where God has called me to be. And I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.
Ten New Things I Did This Month:
1. Rode on a metro by myself.
2. Built relationships with refugees.
3. Ate more cheese and bread than I ever have before. (Turns out eating lots of white bread causes stomach problems…)
4. Shared the gospel with people from Afghanistan and Sudan.
5. Lived life with six other people.
6. Pretended to know French.
7. Went swimming at Omaha Beach and saw where D-Day happened.
8. Ate authentic French crepes.
9. Worshiped on a hill with my squad overlooking the city of Paris.
10. Rented a bike and rode around the city.
Praises!
1. Tickets are purchased and we are heading to Southern France to start the Camino on Thursday!
2. God has moved in amazing ways here in Paris. Refugees and random people on the streets have come to know the Lord this month.
3. Our team is doing really well—God is building up an amazing community among us.
Prayer Requests:
1. Pray for our travel to Southern France. Pray also as we transition to this next month of walking the Camino de Santiago.
2. Pray for the people that we’ve spent time with here and that the Lord would continue to bring people into their lives to tell them about Jesus.
3. Continue to pray for the people of Paris. Many are asking questions about Jesus and are actively searching for the truth.
