France Trip 2010

France Trip 2010
For my supporters (financially and prayer), friends, family, and anyone else who is interested:
France!!! How do I describe my trip that involved tons of prayer, evangelism, French soup, the Mona Lisa (which is actually not the size of a postage stamp as some have proclaimed), a stolen wallet, cleaning toilets, high speed train rides, and chocolate éclairs? Well, I suppose that is actually one brief way of doing it but perhaps I will go into a little more detail.

My team and I left on March 4th on a direct flight to Paris, France. I sat by myself on the plane which gave me time to sleep, watch a movie, and prepare myself for the trip. As we were about to land, I prayed a prayer that was quickly answered and not in a way I was expecting. “God, I can’t wait to find out what you are going to teach me on this trip.” An hour later, after getting our bags, buying metro tickets, exchanging American dollars for Euros, a couple shots of espresso, going up several flights of stairs (which I was carried by 4 amazing men who they began calling me Princess because of it all), several metro rides, and checking into our hostel….without my wallet which had my debit and credit card, passport, 120 Euros, and my Trinity room key. I frantically started looking through my bags when we were going to put them in our rooms and realized that my bright, pink, wallet was nowhere to be found. After several searches and even two team members looking through every train, we realized that it was gone for good. I am about 90 percent sure that it was stolen on the train by a person who was looking for money and I wasn’t paying attention.

After about an hour of being upset and feeling stupid, a wave of peace hit me that was only from God. I realized that it was gone, there was nothing I could do, and ultimately God was in control. It was an extremely tangible way of teaching me a greater lesson that I needed to learn for more aspects of my life.

After eating lunch, we decided to go to the Louvre, Notre Dame, and any other touristy thing we could do in one day. After being in Paris for a day and a half, we left on a high speed bullet train (we decided at this point that we would get my emergency passport one our way back) and made our way to Taize. Immediately as we entered into the Taize monastic community, we all felt a sense of simplicity and peace of God. We were welcomed with open arms, along with 70 or so other people from all over the world, to spend a week living with the Brothers of Taize.
Our six days we spent there were filled with specific times of prayer, eating simply, fellowshipping with people from almost anywhere, working in the afternoons, small groups, and having intentional conversations. When living in Taize, everyone partakes together in living, working, eating, and pretty much everything else. Our sleeping quarters were much like camp cabins except much colder as we were on a mountain and the only heat consisted of one small, faulty radiator. All of the meals were eaten together with simple food of French bread, butter, and dark chocolate after the Morning Prayer. Lunches and dinners were often some sort of rice or pasta dishes also served with bread and sometimes cheese.

In the afternoons, after prayer and lunch the young people all worked together to assist in the work which was needed to be done in Taize. I was assigned with a group of mainly other Trinity people to clean bathrooms. We cleaned toilets, washed sinks, mopped floors, and shined mirrors. The times of work offered amazing times of working together as a team and give back to a community which was giving us so much.
Between the times of work, eating, prayer, and sleep, we had a few more packed in activities during the morning of Bible Introduction and small group time. The Bible Introduction was an hour where one of the brothers spoke on a passage of the scripture. These times were actually kind of disappointing. The brother who was speaking that week had an extremely difficult time getting his point across without repeating himself over and over. David, our group leader, told us that the previous times he had been there had been much better. Even though they were not amazing, what happened after them was. We were split into small groups by age. My small group was with two other Trinity people, Jordan and Leslie, four Germans, and one girl from Japan. These small groups were only meant to be a half an hour long but we always ended up staying there until the next prayer time which was like an hour and a half. These times of fellowshipping with other people your same age from around the world were so amazing!! They ended up being times of discussing major issues from the Bible, Jesus’ life, and so much more. It ended up being we were all seeking out the answers even though I went in with the expectation of that I knew the answers. It also created moments of witness as these five other pseudo-adults were so drawn to love of Christ yet couldn’t fully commit. Not only did they learn, but we did too. Jordan, Leslie, and I all struggled to answer their difficult questions be we each took our turns to share how the love of God has worked in our lives. These small groups created some of the most difficult questions but left lasting impressions on all of us as we were all seeking God out more in Taize.

The prayer times all followed a routine and each had their own element. All of the prayers are sung in several different languages and together. The morning prayer time we took the Lord’s supper and read scripture. The afternoon one was shorter with just the prayers and times of silence. The evening prayer also had a scripture reading time and longer time of singing. Each of the prayer times involved a time of silence which was between eight and twelve minutes. These three prayer times surround the days while living at Taize. Initially the times of silence felt difficult to fill and singing in different languages posed to be a challenge. But as I went through the week, I realized that sometimes it was better to listen to the different languages and read the English translation and the times of silence became less cluttered with my own thoughts and moments of listening to what God wanted me to hear. These prayer times were moments of sitting and worshipping God in a beautiful and structured way. Even though it was much more liturgical then most of us were used to, they were beautiful and full of God’s presence and anointing. During our time in Taize, Jordan Devin, and I decided we wanted to host our own Taize prayer services at school which we did weekly for the rest of the year.

God worked on each of the team members in different ways in our lives throughout the week. It was so cool to see how He was doing it as we often did these daily “check-ins” which Dr. Matthias, another leader, suggest we do. Often times we expressed our frustration, difficulties, or even moments of peace which we were all going through. For me, one of the biggest things which God was teaching me was to give my control of my life to Him. I learned that through getting my passport stolen, prayer times, small group conversations, and other moments while at Taize.
On our way back to Paris, we had to rush to U.S. embassy in order to get an emergency passport but thankfully a call ahead resulted in them waiting for us no matter what. David and I were able to get the passport which was a beautiful thing since neither of us wanted to spend three more days there. Even though this is long, there was so much more that God taught and showed me while I was in France this spring break. I am still learning and processing through it all as it made a big impact on my spiritual walk, my passions for the lost, and living a life which is devoted to God.

Thank you for those who supported me emotional, prayerfully, and financially. If you want to hear more details, feel free to call, email, or text me. I love talking about my crazy trip to France. Bek