Day 2

Day 2 – EricksonsinParis

Some difficulty getting into the blog tonight, so I will try just a Word Document for now. Today was Sunday/Dimanche, May 22nd. It was another lovely day. We slept very well last night, waking only briefly at 3:00 a.m. In fact, we barely got ourselves moving by 8:00 a.m. It had been our plan to have breakfast at McDonald’s on our way to church. That we did. The McDonald’s has two sections – one, McCafe, offers coffee and pastries and the other, a regular McDonald’s offers two breakfast meals. One is an egg Mcmuffin and the other is pancakes, both with coffee and orange juice. We placed our order for the Mcmuffins, received our food, and then looked around for a place to sit. All we could see was a spiral staircase and a glass elevator. It turned out that the tables were upstairs; in fact, there was a second and a third floor. It made for a very quiet eating environment in a room with a view.
When we finished, it was just after ten. Church was not until ten-thirty, but we decided to arrive early. Sure enough the door was open. From the street the building looks nothing like a church, just an apartment house, but inside is a sanctuary with a paneled front, a pulpit, a Scripture verse – “I was glad when they said to me, Let us go to the house of the Lord” and a large white movie-style screen ready for song lyrics to be displayed for the worship. We were greated warmly, which I am learning is a kiss on each cheek, by the pastor (Pablo) and his wife (Eve) and daughter (Naomi). We also met a few of the congregation, especially Daniel and Letitia, who spoke English and helped us very much during and after the service.

The service was begun by a layman who spoke briefly about Psalm 18 and introduced the hymns and songs, which were accompanied by a pianist and a clarinetist (Daniel). The church, it turns out, is Christian Missionary Alliance, and the hymns seemed to focus most on Jesus, His divinity and His sacrifice for us, and our response to Him. Certainly an appropriate emphasis. I liked the songs, one especially called Tout a toi (all of me). The sermon which Daniel translated for us and Letitia took notes on was from Isaiah 2 and 3 and then some assorted New Testament verses. It seemed to emphasize that God is sovereign; we have no excuse for arrogance or reliance on anyone or anything but Him. We should not be discouraged and we should keep on keeping on. Later, Pastor Pablo later told me that his favorite Bible character is the prophet Jeremiah because he ministered for 40 years with nary a convert. Progress is very slow in France. Pablo says that many pastors and many missionaries become discouraged and leave the field. Mission boards also are not impressed with the statistics. He says that he and his wife believe that they must keep relying on their faith and pray to God and trust that He will use them as He desires in His service.

After the service, we were invited to come upstairs to join the young people for lunch. It seems that Eve feeds these young singles every week, about a dozen. They also have a special Bible study just for their age group. They were lovely. Most did not speak English with us, although one who did said that all of them studied English at least seven years or more, but they did not really want to learn it so they didn’t. Sounds a lot like China. We had several courses – salad and bread with pate (I think the course that I ate yesterday with my fork at the restaurant was pate and should have been spread on my bread. Who knew?) Then noodles and a pastry with creamed chicken. And THEN strawberries and raspberries with real whipped cream. Delicious. We did not return to our hotel until 3:30 p.m.

After a rest we decided to walk to the Seine, which we had learned was not far from our hotel. There we walked along the river and saw many boat/barges that appeared to be either homes or restaurants or touring crafts. Later we crossed the monorail tracks and highway to enter a park that reminded us of Macedonia except for the mowed grass and trashless environment. Walking home around seven we decided to stop at the first restaurant that we came to which turned out to serve Greek/Eastern European style food and delicious Moroccan mint tea. One of the chefs was a young man from Egypt who was especially kind to us because he likes Christians, having had a wonderful Christian businessman friend in Egypt. Finally, back to the hotel. Another lovely day with absolutely perfect weather.

P.s. the word for “free” meaning “no charge” is related to “gratuity.”