You said, "Lift up your eyes; the harvest is here, the kingdom is near." You said, "Ask and I'll give the nations to you." O Lord, that's the cry of my heart. Distant shores and the islands will see your light, as it rises on us. O Lord, I ask for the nations.

Monday, April 10, 2006

He’s got the whole world in His hands…

This morning I went to a special “Raumeux” (sp?), Palm Sunday, service at the cool pretty protestant church by the train station. It was all the local protestant churches in the area gathered together. It was really cool because it included churches of all different ethnicities. There was an African, Korean, M-something (North Africa) churches and even some people from Tahiti. The different churches had choirs sing and the pastors from all the churches switched off (some had French that was really hard to understand with their accents, but I got the gist of it). We sang lots of hymns with Hosanna in it. I was shocked to even hear one of the choirs sing what sounded like the French version of the Battle Hymn of the Republic (I recognized glory, glory, hallelu-jah!).

For the first time since I’ve been here the church has been packed. That brought me joy. It was cooler though, not because it was full, but because it was full of all sorts of people. I even caught them saying the verse about every knee shall bow, every tongue confess... It reminds you that middle class white Americans aren’t the only Christians out there (which I know you know but honestly how often do you really remember that??). In fact, we could use the spirit I saw in the Korean choir. They seemed so joyful as they sang about the love of their savior. I wish I understood more of the sermon, but I did follow fairly well. I just want to say that it felt really cool to be a part of that. I would love to go all over the world and worship with all types of people. To be so different yet still bonded into one body with one purpose just testifies to the majesty of our Lord. And once again my heart is bursting at the seams to go more countries, see more cultures. France isn’t enough, I want to see more…

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