The Harvest is Plenty…

SixTen,

It has been a packed couple of days since we last posted.  Please continue to pray for Roubaix, France, the church leaders here, our health/bodies and that we would continue to strengthen and develop relationships that have now started.  Please read below for a brief synopsis of what we have been doing over the past two days.  There are even pictures!!! Thank you for your prayers and we look forward to seeing all of you soon.

Hun and Brock Pointing

Yesterday (July 3) we woke up around 8:00 Roubaix time.  The house where we are staying has a nice seating area and nice kitchen.  We ate a light breakfast and proceeded to sit in the family room (seating area).  We turned on a bit of worship music and simply read scripture that was striking to us as we listened to the music. It was a sweet time of worship together and was a great start to the day.  From there we left and went to church.  The church service was all in French, but the worship team was gracious enough to sing a few songs that we recognized (Open the Eyes of My Heart was one of the songs that we sang that is coming to my mind.)  We took communion as a team and Rich was able to share with the congregation (about 20 people) about what we are doing in Roubaix. After church we went down beneath the church and celebrated a birthday and ate cake (delicious cake) with the rest of the church.  We also had an opportunity to meet and talk with Louis (28 years old) who is French and is doing a pastoral internship in Paris, France.  Louis was a student at Hillsong Seminary in Australia before his time in Paris, but has lived in France his entire life. Louis has a heart for the lost of Paris and it was great to meet another young adult who has a heart for Jesus.  Around this time we left and went to the park where we would be ministering this week.  We spent some time as a group playing soccer and scoping out the park.  Finally, we came back to the church and had dinner. When we had returned back to the apartment we are staying in we spent some time sharing with one another what God has been doing in our lives.  Along with this we spent some time in prayer about what the future may hold for missions in Roubaix and/or North Africa for SixTen. It was a long day but a good day.

Today (July 4) we woke a bit earlier (7:30) and Rich cooked up some eggs.  For six guys this was a treat.  From here we went to the church (approximately 30 minute walk) and spent some time reading through Colossians specifically Colossians 1:9-14 and praying these verses over Roubaix. After we prayed these verses we finished the “pointing” that we had started which is filling in the gaps between bricks with cement to help hold the wall up.  We had started this on Saturday and wanted to finish this up today.  After a couple of hours we had lunch and then went back out to finish the pointing.

Rich the Pointing Expert

When we had finished the pointing we prepared to go out to the park where we would be playing soccer.  The park is approximately 15 minutes away when walking and because of the nature of the individuals at the park we would not be conducting a camp, but instead playing soccer with whomever was at the park. We were all a bit apprehensive at first when we stepped on the field.  The French players we were playing against looked very good.  However, after about 5 minutes it was 4-0 the good guys (us for those of you keeping score at home).

After our game...Final score 7-1 good guys.

Needless to say we had a great time and started to build some relationships that we are hoping we can nurture over the next couple of days. We are hoping that this first game was a stepping stone to being able to share and invite some of the guys back to the church that we played with. Finally we went back to the church, ate dinner and now Rich and I are sitting at the Quick (think McDonald’s) writing this.