Easter Tuesday

In France, the Monday after Easter (le lundi de Pâques) is a big national holiday. My wife's parents arrived yesterday on the holiday. It's a convenient day to go to the airport, as there was hardly any traffic. They'll be with us for just over a week. Right now they and my wife & kids are all out at the Buttes-Chaumont Park, as it's a beautiful day.

I'm enjoying the quiet of home while they are away. Yesterday felt like one of those days after the end of an exhausting race. Between the 3 Easter egg coloring events and the guests we had for Easter lunch, it hasn't been a restful last week. My kids are off of school this week and next one and many Parisiens are away for at least this week.

We're realizing the importance of a weekly Sabbath. For us, this isn't necessarily the Sunday, as that sometimes is a busy ministry day. Yesterday was like a weekly Sabbath to us.

On Sunday we visited a church that we've known of for awhile. A major reason we went here was due to transport reasons, as there is a direct bus from our place that drops off close to this church. We had 2 guests with us and there just isn't room in our vehicle for everyone. With them and 2 other guests coming over for Easter lunch, it was just easier to be able to use public transport then have some of us in the car and some of us on public transport.

It was a joyful, colorful service of celebration. This church has a pastor who is also a musician. This church is attracting a number of artists, particularly musicians. The pastor and some of them put together a song and video for Christmas titled "Noel, No Hell." I recognized a couple of people in the congregation from the video clip.

The church had a kids Sunday school that apparently was good, as our kids seemed happy coming back. They have a children's gospel choir that was part of the "Noel, No Hell" video. One of the young girls from this choir sang a song in English, that I think was "This Little Light of Mine." After the service, we spoke to the choir director, whose daughter was one of the lead voice in "Noel, No Hell." They apparently are going to do an English version of this song for Christmas 2009.

I was excited to see a church that is attracting musicians and other artists. The pastor has started a support group for professional musicians.

The sermon was very interesting and given by a member of the congregation who worked as the chaplain of one of the Paris airports. The message was engaging and had lots of interesting points. It's primary focus was on the priority of intimacy with God and quickly went through a number of Jesus' teachings in the gospels.

In French, there is a saying that "Ceux qui se ressemblent s'assemblent." (Those who look alike end up gathering together). The preacher reversed this and said, "Ceux qui s'assemblent se ressemblent." (Those who gather together end up looking alike). Christians who gather together will end up looking alike. This isn't meant in the negative sense of everyone being vanilla or out of the same mold. However, the priorities and values will be passed on.

The church tries to be friendly to foreigners, especially English speakers. Except for the special music number in English by the little girl (a native French-speaker), the service was in French. However, at the bottom of the screen, there were some clues projected up. For example, during the introduction to the Lord's Supper, I saw the words "Jesus is Lord. If you can state it, you can partake it."

It was encouraging to see this church packed out on Easter Sunday. We'll probably be back there next week, as my in-laws will be with us, so we'll need public transport again. If our kids like it again and get interested in being in their weekly Wednesday children's gospel choir, then we'll have to consider further involvement there.