Week 2 Update

Hey friends! This has been a CRAZY week! We had an open air in a town called Provins (pronounced pro-vAAn, with the French sounding nasal vowel) on Thursday. We had prepared a bunch of stuff, and as often happens, things turned out completely differently than we had expected. There were heaps of kids in the square we were in, more than the base staff had ever seen before. We taught them Bambalela, a fun African praise song we do all the time at our base, and did a drum circle. Some of the kids came and played drums with us, while others played a game like musical chairs, but with scraps of paper instead of chairs. We handed out pieces of paper folded like hearts with scriptures and encouraging words on them to the kids afterward. It was really exciting for us, because God spoke to us before we got here about ministering to children and how they were going to be the key focus for our ministry.

Last night, we went to a house group run by some of the people from the base. We lead worship, and then another French person who has been at the base for a while shared his testimony. It was really fun to be able to meet with and bless some of the people from the community, as well as continue to build relationships with the family from the base.

Today, we had a crazy move of God's Spirit in our team time. The Lord brought up a lot of stuff for us to deal with, and there was a lot of healing that took place in relationships with each other and our relationship with God. God spent all week preparing us for this morning with different words and things he was speaking to us, and I think now that we've gotten rid of a lot of junk in our own lives, our ministry will be much more effective. I'm excited to see what God does at the Youth Group service/hang out time tonight at the baptism service we're helping with tomorrow!

In my last update, I mentioned that we were having trouble with our visas. Turns out, there's no way for us to get visas for the country we were going to, short of going back to each of our country of origins and applying at our local consulate (which for me, would have meant applying in person in Washington....DC!). The option we're exploring now is going to the other country in Africa that we were originally planning to go to but cut out of the plan because of finances and timing. If you're confused about which country I'm talking about now, e-mail me and I'll give you a hint... :-} We need mad prayer!!! Pray that our contact in Africa still has room for our team to come in June and pray that everything with finances and travel works out. We've had a lot of changes and disappointments with our travel plans so far on this team, and I think all of us are ready for a little stability! Pray that God would speak to us clearly about what we're supposed to do and where we're supposed to go. Pray that he will open up doors and provide contacts for us so that we can have effective ministry in the places he wants us to be. Pray for our team to be encouraged and strengthened by the Lord, and that these changes won't distract us from the plan he has for us while we're in France.

Thanks for all your prayers! Love you and miss you all!