NPR-style

Recently I started listening to parts of NPR podcasts in the morning. I never get through an entire podcast but the snippets I catch keep me a little more in touch with what’s going on back home. Between music and politics (elections!!!) there is always so much to learn. BUT ALSO, it has provided new inspiration for the blog. I’ve put my own spin on the content. Enjoy!

Weekend Edition Sunday
Thad and Joy McAuley and I spent Tuesday afternoon together in prayer during GEM’s Day of Prayer for Europe and broke the day’s fast together over a delicious bowl of potato soup. We prayed for the country of France, the church Thad and Joy serve here, ministry with students in GBU, and pastoral leadership. Ephesians 3:14-21 specifically has become my prayer for students here.

Life at Moulin (L’Arche) returned to normal on January 3rd and each day brings a new set of lessons to learn and praises to give. During prayer and share time on Tuesday morning, Francois, Moulin director, invited us all to consider the text of I John 3 and 4 for the year to come. Reflectively he encouraged all gathered to see God’s love for us as personal. He turned to Delphine and said, “God’s love for you has a different face than his love for Gerard,” as he turned to speak to him. Having just the night before read through I John and having been praying specifically for love for the French people, Francois’ word was particularly pointed as I consider ministry opportunities here.

I have begun meeting with two French tutors weekly—one for writing and pronunciation and another for conversation. Already I have seen the significant aid these two women have given as I become much more thoughtful and pointed with phrases and grammatical constructions I use in conversation. As Madame Bataille said during our first meeting before Christmas, “Oh! You have 7 months left here. We have time to do marvelous things in French.” She speaks often of the need to practice a high level of French and to understand it as a musical language without logic. Although difficult and tiring, I love learning it more exactly!

The community of L’Arche gathered this Thursday afternoon as it does once monthly for the Reunion Generale, basically a meeting for everyone who works in a branch of L’Arche. This was my first Reunion to attend and I have made it a goal to attend for the rest of my time here. More to come on L’Arche in another post…

GBU began 2008 as Sylvaine, one of the freshmen who is very engaged in his faith and church here and back home, led us in a meditation on God’s blessings. We then completed our time in prayer. Although we are not allowed to meet at the university, which at times can be discouraging, it provides us freedom to pray and worship, a trade-off I find particularly okay with which to deal. One of the questioning students who comes regularly was not present, which offered an opportunity for one student to suggest we all pull money together and buy her a Bible. She has a New Testament but not a complete one. As I sat there and listened, I thought, wow, God is moving in France. No one tell me otherwise.

JAO’s local Bible study gathered Friday night for a meal and study of Hebrews 4. The group was small, composed of six people, but the time together over dinner, during Bible study, and in prayer was rich. At one point our hostess for the evening Marie turned to Angelique upon regarding the clock and asked if the hour was okay (at 11pm we were only then commencing the study), did she need to go. Angelique murmured back, “It’s a good moment together. Don’t really want to rush it/leave it.” In that spirit our study began and prayer and sharing concluded the evening about 2:15 a.m.

All Songs Considered
On Saturday, January 12, 2008, the Eglise Baptiste de Compiegne (the church I attend) hosted Nicolas Farelly of Forum Culturel Protestant (check out new links to the right) for a conference entitled “L’Evangile au risque de la culture.” Farelly discussed the relationship of Christians to popular culture and how to think about and interact with it. When asked during the Q&A what his thoughts on Christian popular culture were, he admitted in general he found it to be poorly imitating what was being done well in secular popular culture. I laughed, however, when he referenced such artists as Over the Rhine, Pedro the Lion, and Sufjan Stevens as being Christian artists who have made significant good contributions within pop culture as Christians and have at the same time garnered a secular following. These are all American groups, their sort of which is missing in France.

I invited one of the French students in GBU to the event, as I knew it would provide a thoughtful and well-organized time of teaching but would not involve the sometimes deterring setting of a Sunday morning church service. This student in particular asks fantastic questions of Scripture and she definitely has a mind that is seeking to understand the Christian faith and the words of Scripture and Jesus. Thankfully this conference did indeed spark good conversation as we biked around together afterwards. I am thankful to the Compiegne church for being the kind that offers such events and for providing the occasion outside of GBU for teaching.

Fresh Air
In other developments this week, I joined my neighbor Vincent and a friend of his for dinner at Le Palais Gourmand; four hours later I arrived home. He invited us as “a gift for the New Year.” He has been inviting me for coffee, tea, or a meal since we first met a couple months ago upon his relocation to Compiegne. But somehow the idea of dinner with a 40-something divorcee just has had no appeal, as with language and cultural barriers I couldn’t quite discern his intentions. As a friend told me sarcastically, “But you could be Jesus to him.” And that is where wisdom in ministry and living must be exercised. So this week I decided if we had dinner once he’d stop bothering me. Well, turns out, it was all fine and dandy, intentions to be friendly and make sure I’m not alone. His friend, I forget her name, is in her mid-thirties. Vincent himself wanted to provide an opportunity for people to meet and enjoy a meal. Somehow his reference to receiving a phone call during his Zen moment in yoga class really helped calm my nerves about it all. And as he himself said upon our return to the apartment building, “This was a good way to start the New Year off. It helps to know your neighbors, although, you know, I’m not going to tell you everything about my life.” Good, glad that’s understood because I wasn’t planning on divulging mine either. In short, what I was dreading turned out to be enjoyable, refreshing, and not shady at all.

Mahina and I had dinner last night at her apartment to recount our holidays. I live a three-minute bike ride from her and she said, you know, we must really do this more often. When I told her I had been out late the night before for a Bible study she said, Wow, I just had no idea the Bible could bring people together like that. Then she asked me what I thought of the Bible! What an excellent opportunity to talk about how others and I use the Bible in for study and living. Our meals together are always “rigolo” [funny, amusing, enjoyable] as she calls them and as I ate some of her father’s homemade pate and admitted that I do love all odd French foods she said, Oh, well, in the spring you have to come home with me. We’ve got it penciled in for March.

Talk of the Nation
It appears President Sarkozy, dubbed President Bling Bling for his rather showy style, has dropped to below 50% in approval ratings as of this week. Why? Several reasons—1) He has paraded his private life, embodied in his romantic liaison with Carla Bruni, around too freely for the French liking. 2) While he was off traveling with his new love in Egypt for the holidays, back home in France workers were striking again for benefits that he promised upon election. 3) His governing (not to mention personal) style is rather American. He’s all about action and change, he is not considered to be the intellectual French value in leaders, and the French in general are concerned that with the recent rise in personal life activity, he is abandoning the priority of being their “chef.”

In French class this week, mention of President Sarkozy’s first press conference of 2008 was made. Our professor looked reasonably shocked as we commented on the question asked of him about his personal life. She said, “This is unheard of, never done before. To talk about the president’s personal life as if it’s politics!” I laughed and said, “Maybe he’s becoming too American.” She looked at me in agreement. I explained that in the states one’s political life can only be counted as acceptable so much as one’s personal life is clean and presentable along with it. In France this is not the case. As I learned this week in a couple of conversations, President Francois Mitterrand (1981-1995, some crucial years in Europe!) had an illegitimate daughter by his mistress whose life was kept a secret even though the state of France financed her life. In a veiled reference to this incident, Sarkozy this week told the press he did not wish his private life to remain a hidden and secretive, although when he and Bruni will wed he did not say, just that they are serious.

Books
1) I have begun to read Jorgen Bukdahl’s Soren Kierkegaard and the Common Man as well as Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Kierkegaard, courtesy of Christmas presents. While I cannot provide reviews of either at this time, having been somewhat familiar with Kierkegaard and this thought since high school (thank you, Mrs. Sharon Mansfield), I can say this emphatically—KIERKEGAARD IS ESSENTIAL READING FOR ANY CHRISTIAN TAKING THEIR FAITH SERIOUSLY IN MATTERS NOT ONLY OF THOUGHT BUT OF LIVING AND ENGAGEMENT. I have turned to learn from him as I encounter young Christians and seeking students who desire a “big event” to grow their relationship with God or to believe Jesus. As Kierkegaard writes, “We must not support high and important things while ignoring the practical, daily stuff of life. Indeed, decision is something truly great; the life of eternity shines over decision. But the light of eternity does not shine on every decision. Decision may be once and for all; but decision itself is only the first thing…Decision gets us on our way…Decision lays its demanding hand on us from start to finish…It may well be that with great decisions others will marvel at you. All the same, you miss the one thing that is needful.” In light of such words, I am encouraged in how to speak with, pray for, and encourage the students with whom I meet. Decision is after all what “gets us on our way,” but there is an obedience and faithfulness to be cultivated in the life of the Christian. Ultimately, no intellectual or emotional reasons can bring us to Jesus; it is our need and weakness and yes, a decision to believe in such folly as grace and unconditional love that do.

2) I have read many personal memoirs on life in France and by far the best is Sarah Turnbull’s Almost French: Love and a New Life in France. Although she writes specifically of her Parisian life experiences, I find even in Compiegne her lessons in living with the French ring true. An easy and enjoyable must read!