Seeing God move

A message I sent to my team members November 23rd:

I'm coming home from visiting the english group and I have to give God a huge shout out. He's mind blowingly amazing! A guy who I met in St Quentin en Yvelines* at our stand** (I had seen him the week before) came with his friend. He is Muslim and so is his friend. It was a good discussion and everyone participated. Afterwards I told Alice (the student leader), she didn't know they were both Muslim. Afterwards, we had a quick debriefing to see how to make sure they felt included and welcomed even though I thought she did a great job. It's awesome because she was a bit discouraged because not many people were coming. I'm so amazed at how God brings people! You never know who will come!

*St Quentin en Yvelines, is another city in the Paris region about an hour from the center, which is where we were.
**Stands are set up on campus to invite students to the GBU group and also for us to talk about Jesus. We pass out Bibles and other information about the GBU.

Keep going

I'm waiting for this WOW moment with a student who reads the Bible with me every week. I want her to understand the Gospel, believe it and be saved. Today I felt like our discussion didn't go well because I didn't see any change. I speak of Jesus every time we meet hoping that this time she will get it. I love spending time with her I just want her to know Jesus so much. What am I doing wrong? How can I trust in God's timing and not my own? God was patient with me, why can't I be patient with her? I need to trust in God's timing and just keep planting as much seed as possible.

Busted!

Here's a funny story I shared with my friend Jen.

My heating pad busted in my bag today. I wear it like a fanny pack for cramp relief. Gel oozed out and got on my hand. I had to walk quite far in the RER B station to find a trash, which was disappointing. So I had to just deal with the gel on my hands hoping it wouldn't give me cancer because I didn't have tissues. I thought I should share my story with someone. I hope you're have à good day.

GBU Stands

Recently we have been doing a lot of stands on different campuses in Paris. Our aim is to talk to people about Jesus through the method of introducing the GBU. Most people are quite open to talking but every now and then, there is someone who will refuse to talk. Due to Laïcité, people claim that we shouldn't have religion in the campus. In fact, Laïcité means not choosing just one religion but allowing all to have their place. There has been a long history of conflict between the church and France, but we pray that students will have the freedom to choose what to believe and not let a law decide for them.

The photo below: I'm preparing some material to go talk to students on a campus north of the city. That day I ended talking to a Muslim student to about 2 hours about the validity of the Bible. He was very skeptical but we were able to have a good conversation and challenge one another's thinking. I have been able to remain in contact with him.

The photo on the bottom: Here's an example of the table.
-Bibles in French, English and Arabic
-Pens for writing down contact info
-Madelines, a tasty snack for students
-Motivated people for the stands

Beyond the doubt

Tonight I was not motivated to go to St Quentin and annoyed because I was once again late. I keep thinking people won't come and that I'm not very useful to this group. Sometimes it's nice to have little expectations, God still works even when we have little faith. So we had 3 new students who came to St Quentin, one through someone connected to the GBU and the 2 others from the stand. It was definitely not a typical GBU considering we were all Christians and all agreed to pray before and after the study. (Normally we don't pray because it excludes non-christians instead we pray before the group or at another time.) So we were mindful to explain that if there were non-chrétiens we don't normally pray and that people can come earlier and pray. The discussion went well and then went into a time of personal testimony and encouragement from the application question. At the end of the discussion, Sephora shared a verse to encourage Rosalie and then Sephora prayed and Rosalie was crying at the end. I was just observing and taking it all wondering what a normal GBU at St Quentin would be like. Robert (the student leader) and I are similar because we go with the flow. He did take a lot of initiative as a leader which I was impressed by and I just felt like I was interrupting. We need more time to get a regular group coming before we can work out the kinks, but I did send him encouragements and suggestion of somethings he could work on.

A beautiful work of God

Studying Christ's birth with Hong (14 Oct)

1-1: a time to read the Bible and pray with a student. I have been meeting with a student who enjoys reading and discussing the Bible. She is so curious and also very open to the Gospel. I invited her over to my apartment for dinner and to do our 1-1. Afterwards, I wrote this message to my team leader. (My phone is on auto-correct in french so that's why there are unnecessary accents.)

"Our 1-1 was awesome! We ate well and then read about the birth of Jésus. Somehow we got into à conversation about marriage and she asked when I wanted to get married. I just said when God sends the right person. After I prayed for her and then she quickly prayed and asked God to give me a boyfriend, I said amen to that :-) I'm still wondering how we got there, but it was sweet of her to pray without me asking. I walked with her to the tram content to feel like I have à little Chinese sister which I think is awesome. And I was moved to pray with even more faith for her salvation."

God keeps us humble

Doing ministry doesn’t always mean that you have everything figured out. God keeps us humble. Here’ s message that I send after a 1-1* with a student:

*A 1-1 is a when we meet with another student to study the Bible. We choose a book to study each week and also share life together and pray. The goal is to equip the students to do a 1-1 with another student after they have seen how’s it done. Many students meet with their friends either another Christian or non-christian to read the Bible. It’s one of the best ways to encourage other and grow deeper in our faith.

Hi! I just met with Hong and we talked about Luke. We went through the first 2 parts of the series of I love LA with the booklet. Then she just read and asked questions. I was amazed by her curiosity. I tried to explain certain concepts: sin, the Old Testament prophets, etc, but it seemed like I gave her complicated responses. I am going to try and see how I can simplify these concepts yet still be true to the Bible. I found a book at the GBU, Basic Christianity by John Stott. I figure I should get some resources.

Photos of Memories

Starting my year off by praying for France

Team IFES Paris 

My friend Christina from Boston came to visit 

My church, my pastor, the children

My kitchen, I love cooking for all occasions

Ministry=Work

Doing Ministry is an interior work

I came to help. I wanted to be apart of what God was doing in France. I thought that I could come to France and make a difference, but the difference ended up being in my heart and spirit. The work that happened was usually behind my back and I had nothing to do with it. Glory to God!

Letting other lead

After 6 months of leading English group, I realized that if students were going to get involved, I would have to stop doing everything. Not that I was trying to take over and control everything, but the students didn’t really volunteer to do much. There was progress with those who brought food but other than that people were not too excited to take charge. When March came, I had had enough. The students would lead studies and I was going to help them prepare. My new goal was to not lead any more studies because they had enough practice participating. All that needed to happen was another formation OIA (training on how to lead a bible study) with the few students who hadn’t done it before. To my surprise, it worked. Each week someone else was leading a study and when people didn’t volunteer, I asked someone directly. I was thankful for my first volunteer who had led studies while she was in Cameroon, and I think that when the others saw her bravery, they followed her lead.

Martin leading

I finally got Martin to lead a bible study. He seemed very uncertain that he would be able to the first time I asked but I asked again a couple months later, and to my surprise he said yes. We met before the study to discussed how it would go. I gave him a couple days to write down some questions and to my surprise he hadn’t prepared much. So we went through the passage together to plan out the study. All his thoughts were disorganized and not clear. He wanted to apply the passage to our lives before we even had a chance to understand it. So I went through with him so that he could be more organized and ask his questions in a logical order. When he did the study it seemed a bit rough. I didn’t intervene because I knew he could handle it, and I wanted him to learn. It wasn’t that complicated and I knew that if I really had to, I would chime in when necessary. At the end, I was thankful even though I knew that there was room for improvement. To my surprise, a non-Christian in the group said that she understood. For the first time, she was able to see what the passage was trying to say. I didn’t even realize how God used Martin to talk to her.

Here’s a typical conversation with someone I meet here in Paris

Someone: What are you doing in France?

Nia: I work for the GBU, Groupes Bibliques Universitaires. I support and help students who lead bible studies here in Paris.

Someone: So what are you studying?

Nia: I’m not a student.

Someone: So where do you work?

Nia: I work full time for the GBU. I work with students. I was sent by an organization from the US that is associated with the same group. I was involved as a student.

Someone: Oh.

Nia: It’s like being a missionary for students.

Someone: Ok…

Either from there I go into more detail about my job or the subject changes.