a week's worth of sharing...

1. Monday w/ Abbey
a. Lady in the church – singing Ave Maria with the organ – talked with us a long time – sings to God and her husband can hear her – he died 5 years ago – loved her playing music while he was still alive – invited us to hear her sing at a wedding at 4pm on July 4th

2. Tuesday w/ Holly
a. Two homeless men – Cyrille et Niko – they gave us an ashtray they made out of soda cans – I bought them each a chausson aux pommes - promised to return w/ a gift
b. Two working young ladies – the memorial statue at 50 Otages – Cecile and Sophie – couldn’t talk long but arranged to meet us again next Wednesday
c. A young man named David – a 34-year old travel salesman – Swiss – traveled to Australia and New Zealand – talk about the place God has in his life and in religion, religion’s place in France
d. Three nautical engineering students, two of whom were swimming in the Loire with boats – took their photos and emailed them so their professor could see – one is staying around for the summer and said she’d love to tell us about places to see and provide us with helpful information – also told us about a friend she had named Virginia staying here during the summer who might want to meet new people
e. Two protestors who took our photo on the wall by the river – they were protesting a second airport in Nantes when Nantes really needs a hospital – they were really friendly

3. Wednesday w/ Seth
a. Had an awkward 7-minute conversation with a girl – found out she’s 19 and with a boyfriend – that made everything feel quite awkward so we ended it soon and left – talked briefly about the beach, what we’re studying…
b. We toured the Jardin des Plantes for a while and took photos, enjoying the incredible beauty of the trees and flowers and bushes and water and birds and clouds and buildings… As we were about to leave, we encountered a German couple (Seth’s first chance to speak German!) – the girl (Juliane) spoke excellent English – had been studying here in Nantes for half a year – Jan (the guy) barely spoke English – works with metal back home – he and Seth were able to connect over music interests – we talked lightly in the park until it began to rain – we sought shelter in a nearby café and Seth bought everyone coffee – the conversation soon became deeply spiritual – my heart breaks that Juliane is too scared to believe there is a God of love and hope instead of a religious group who coerce the masses into doing things they do not desire – she said (after sharing about Jesus and forgiveness and love) that she really likes hearing that, when I put it that way, but she just can’t make that decision – I told her my words will never persuade her, that I knew my purpose was not to win her with an argument, and that only God would truly be able to convict her of the truth – please pray for Juliane, that God could break through her years of religious suppression and fear

4. Thursday - nothing – it poured so we all stayed inside and caught up with messaging our contacts, uploading photos, calling home, etc – I spent an hour or so with Jake and Face chez ils – then Seth joined us and we took a trip to LU and spent a few hours there before it was time to come back and get ready for dinner/Bibou

5. Friday w/ Jake – Eric and Andreas – Jake and I had to leave sharing early today to clean our host church at 2:30, so we prayed that God would give us at least one conversation – we went to the park at Hotel Dieu (the very first place I prayed for Nantes when I prayer walked the campuses with Yan and Claire – also the same place where the Marche Pour Jesus ended) – we both spotted two guys sitting on a bench so we joined them and introduced ourselves – they both spoke English (what a relief!) – they were from Sweden and were backpacking for 18 days through Europe – they had been to two other countries before this and had just arrived by train this morning – we talked about light things until Jake directly asked them what they thought about God and God led the way from there. Eric talked more than Andreas, but Andreas still added to the conversation, and had a surprising understanding of truth – he said Jesus Christ was the son of God who died on the cross for us – I asked him if Jesus died because he had to or wanted to – Andreas said “wanted to” – we were able to explore in great depth all that it meant to be forgiven of sins undeservedly because God loved us deeply enough to send his son Jesus to die so that we would have to – we talked about Heaven and Hell, Hell being completely absent of God – we talked about love and having a spirit that lives after our bodies die – we talked about having a purpose to living, that we’re more than just evolution and accidental biology, that our spirits are eternal and we’re given thoughts + emotions + dreams + talents by God – I really felt that Eric was open to hearing what we believed, even though he presented us with his own theory to life and how humans interact with one another without a need for God – I know that our words had the power of God behind them (which I shared as well – the same verse in 1 Corinthians 2 about wanting them to believe by faith in God’s power and not in the arguments of our words – please pray for Eric and Andreas’ friendship – I think God can work between the two of them, with Eric’s active mind and passion for understanding life and Andrea’s quietness of spirit and grasp of deep spiritual truths

6. Sorry this became progressively longer as I went on. It’s because the more recent my sharing experiences are, the easier it is to relive them. It just shows that if I tried to blog about everything that’s happening here, I’d have millions of words to type and not enough time in the day to share them.

7. God is good, God is powerful and God is love. The world needs to know this.