We first arrived in Paris after an eight hour bus ride for their independence day. We stayed at a church that is connected with YWAM and quickly learned a couple of important phrases, "Un pain chocolat" (chocolate crossiant) and "Merci" (thank you). Although we had learned some French before we arrived, it was a whole different world when I was actually in front of French people but soon I began to relax into the language and my limited knowledge of what to say. We were very lucky that we did have two French speakers to get us through the subway and around the city without much of a problem.
With a lack of fireworks on the fourth of July, a fireworks show from the Eiffel Tower happened on the fourteenth for their Independence day as well as a real Parisan picnic of bagettes, cheese, and meat. It was quite surreal to be honest.
But we soon put the wonderful bagettes and crossiants away, and got down to work. We continued to work on some covers and the tracks we had written. We teamed up with a YWAM camp, Paris Je-taime (Paris, I love you), to go out on outreach and perform. We were joined by a team from Korea who were hip hop dancers. They were amazing and you could feel the difference they brought to the area the minute they began to perform. Jesus was so evident on their faces. There was also a dancer from Seattle and a guy who rapped. The first time we began our performance, we were moved by the police after our first song but began again and a couple of our team members got a chance to talk to some people about Jesus. We also had the chance to perform in some of the poorer sections of Paris which was amazing. One place had a group of kids we interacted with and were able to share Jesus with. In one of the other places, we had a guy come up to us who told us he was touched by the performance and was in absolute shock when we told him Jesus loved him. We gave him a Bible and a list of churches. We were also able to pray for him as well. We were prayed with another lady who was really wishing for more of God and we prayed that God would show himself real to her.
For one of the girls and I, we were often on the subway or walking the streets in heavy face paint. People were taking pictures of us but it was such an awesome opening to share what we were doing and why we were doing it. The language was definitely rough at first but we did have people translating which did make it easier and we did find people who spoke English as well.
Although, not everything went as planned while we were in Paris, we did see God move and speak to people which was so cool. As we left Paris, we had a ten hour overnight bus ride, which included going through customs, and a ferry ride. We arrived back in London to change over our bags and pack for Scotland.
Arriving in Scotland, I was struck by the beauty of it and how much like Washington it was. The people were so friendly. We joined up with another camp to do street evangelism during the Commonwealth Games which is basically like the Olympics but only for the nations that are a part of the Commonwealth of England. At the camp, there were all ages there from five years old all the way up to adults. There was also a Christian theatre company who performed. We got to talk to people, perform, and pray with people. We saw people come to Christ and experienced great times of worship. We had the opportunity to perform in a park and along one of the main streets. One of the days we were in a skate park where our graffiti artists set up their graffiti and some great conversations happened. Glasgow is a beautiful city but it was also extremely exhausting as we were with a lot of young kids. But seeing them find Jesus and share Jesus with others was awesome!
Our last stop was Edinburgh where we performed at the Fringe Festival which is a huge festival with tons of theatre, comedy, and other performance pieces. Although we were only able to perform two times, we spent most afternoons doing evangelism along the "Royal Mile" which is were a lot of the performers are. We prayed with people and we saw the impact prayer had. One of the guys we talked with was Agnostic and when we asked him if we could pray for him, he was so surprised. After we did, there was a real sense of Joy and Peace that came over him. As he left, he told us he hoped we blessed other people the way we blessed him. On one of the other days, two of the girls and I had gone to see a show. The next day during evangelism, we found some of the actors of the show and were able to pray with them. We found some people really open and others not as much. Most of the people we talked with were not Christians and many of them had little faith. We also got into conversations in Starbucks and along the street when we weren't intending on doing evangelism but God brought people into our path. There is a heaviness that resides over the Fringe as dark things happen but God is so good and is our shield and protector. He protected us and he made his name famous. People stopped, they listened, and we could see the change that God made.
I could go on for much longer about all the cool things God did while we were away from London. But he's also done some cool things in the hearts and lives of our team. For me, it was on a roof top in Paris that God began to speak truth to me and introduced himself to me in a whole new way. We often say God loves us and he does but to fully understand what that means, sometimes we miss the point or just don't quite understand it completely in our hearts. Yet God made his love so real to me, it has been practically bursting forth in a way that I never imagined. It's given me a peace like never before and it's really, really quite beautiful. I fell in love with God and have begun to understand in a much deeper way then before just what that means. It's amazing!
So now we are back in London for the last bit of the internship. This week we prepare the house for the new students that are coming for the next school in a couple of weeks and for the camp that we were be putting on, Bones, which leads up to the Notting Hill Carnival.
I know I keep on saying it but God is so good and it has been so amazing to meet God and see how he can move. God's been breaking down walls and just doing a massive transformation, encouraging me to relinquish control and let him take control. As we head into the last part of my time here, I would love prayer for endurance and for God to continue to move in awesome ways.
