Saturday, June 27 - God is Amazing

Here is a string of consciousness from Saturday night - I journaled as quickly as possible so I wouldn't forget anything from the day...


1. Woke up around 8:30 to see Abbey before the girls took off to faire du shopping.
2. I took a 20-minute run while waiting for my clothes to finally finish drying (2 more Euros!)
3. Was going to join the rest of the guys playing basketball near our home church near Boissiere, but when I got back to my mobile home, I put everything away and ate breakfast while reading the Word
a. Coffee, water, banana, amazing French granola cereal
b. Found Steve just waking up; he went to run and work out at Audencia
4. Continued reading 1st John and pressing forward with our weekly bible study
5. Had a short time of prayer that was a little difficult to focus on because my body and mind were tired
6. Got up and stretched, cleaned up a bit around the cabin, found Steve when he returned from working out
7. We decided to find the guys playing basketball, but as soon as we started walking down the path towards the entrance of the camping site, we found Seth, who told us most everyone was done and on their way back
8. Took a shower and got dressed to meet Abbey for lunch at the Chateau, but first Seth and I went to check our email at the café around the corner (La Carapete)
9. Jake was walking by and we invited him in to commune with us over free wifi
10. Around 1:15 I used Holly’s Skype to call Abbey, then headed out to the Chateau
11. I grabbed a 3E50 lunch formule at Mie Caline before meeting Abbey on the grass
a. Was accosted by a little gypsy girl asking for money or water or something
b. Had a nice conversation with the young man working there
12. We sat there and ate and talked, enjoying the fact that we were both together in beautiful France and catching up on the last few weeks.
13. We took a look around the Chateau to see the loups (c’est l’art?? Je ne pense pas)
14. We were going to traverse across le rue to visit LU, home of les Petites Ecoliers, and then explore the land on the other side of the fleuve (l’Elephant, les machines, les restaurants, l’art du cirques…) but we decided to visit the cathedrale instead
15. Which was a good thing, because we found le Marche Pour Jesus there! (or rather, I think it found us…)
16. It was the very first Marche Pour Jesus in Nantes in all of history!
17. Abbey and I joined the celebration and the march – we met up with David Gorell, some stinters, and several of the Agape university students whom we had met last night at the Friday soiree
a. Ina, Ai Ping, Adrien, Rhdze (? I still can’t say his name correctly), Halle, Thomas (from church), and many members of my church (my pastor’s family, the nice lady from Canada, the Agape student, another lady)
18. There were flags and singing (worship in French!) and mimes and acting and preaching and so many people! I carried a flag with a nice lady who didn’t speak any English at all
19. In the middle, Abbey and I left for a break and found a place to get gelato. The cart was located in the circle of buildings around the fountain, and when we were almost done, we saw the parade of people move into the circle there – it had found us again!
20. Everyone stopped to rest for a while as dancers performed with flags to several Christian songs. I was very overwhelmed with the presence of God. One guy from my church – Thomas, who helped organize the entire march – was one of the dancers – on his face was an expression of complete joy and adoration – so beautiful to see. Halle was a dancer too
21. When it was almost done, Abbey and I found Face, who had been there the whole time!
22. The entire march must have lasted for over 4 hours, plus a few more once it ended. Of course, I took a billion photos
23. At the end, I bought a bracelet, a t-shirt, and a French bible, which I soon gave to a homeless man named Frederic, with whom I talked for about three hours about God and His Son Jesus, and the gift of love and forgiveness we are undeservedly given. I told him God is the father of our hearts and that He never stops loving us, regardless of what we do. That’s because Jesus died so our sins could be forgiven. I told him that God would never leave him, even if some people so. He was very touched by the gift of the bible – near tears and wanted to give me money for it but I explained it was a free gift, like God giving us His Son Jesus – and by what I was able to say to him. He promised to find me again somewhere near Camping du Petit Port to talk again, but first he was going to read the Bible, all the scriptures I had listed for him and the gospels. I explained to him all about the bible and the witnesses who wrote the Gospels, and how the Old and New Testaments were structured. It was amazing to see that God is here in Nantes.
24. Everything I had written Saturday morning had been a foreshadowing of what would happen that evening. I was well prepared from my bible studies and my Saturday evening conversation with Joanne, another homeless man whom Greg and I had meet near the laverie.
a. We had talked for over an hour with Joanne and Mustafa, the owner of La Carapete. Mustafa is a Muslim, and was our translator for passing our message of the Gospel on to Joanne.
b. After that conversation, I purposed in my heart to buy a French bible as soon as possible. I also sat down and made a complete list of all the verses I had been finding lately to share with people I witness to. I then had the list and the bible to give to Frederic while we were talking.
25. When I felt it was time to leave, Abbey and Face and I left the park near Hotel Dieu where the march had ended (which was the very first place I started praying for Nantes when we had our prayer walks around the campuses).
26. We couldn’t find a bathroom (I wasted 50 centimes on a public restroom that didn’t work) so we kept walking and then ran right into a group of about 20 people from my project who were headed a block away to eat pizza – praise God for providing fellowship and food!
27. The three of us ate with Beth and Danielle – amazing pizza!!!! One veggie, one with l’ardone et crème, one with chicken and one with seafood – saumon, scallops, and three giant shrimp/crawfish creatures completely still in tact! Just like eating crawfish in New Orleans!
28. After that, the group walked to mangeons gelato (encore!) and then stood by the chateau talking for a while
29. Soon we all headed home in stages, came back to the camping site and played cards/checked email, etc
30. On the way back to my mobile home, I met the night watchman qui s’appelles Mohamed. He’s also Muslim. He is a student here at the University of Nantes. We are friends now.
31. Now it’s time for bed. I am exhausted.
32. Good night.
33. God is good.