Easter Sunday

The Lord blessed us with a wonderful Easter Sunday. We had an encouraging celebration of the Resurrection during the morning service. Following the service, we had 11 people in our home for lunch. Ruth-Renée did a whole lot of work in preparation. (My entertaining Zacharie while peeling the carrots was only a small contribution.) Another family in the church co-hosted with us and helped quite a lot as well. We enjoyed a nice long meal and then a time of Bible study and sharing before we dug into Ruth's cheesecake (an American specialty which was unusual for the French, but appreciated).

We were especially pleased that Ruth's former classmate (and now mine) from Japan (seen holding Zacharie) came with her boyfriend from China. It was their first time to a Sunday service and they said they would like to start coming back regularly. Before we ate, I asked David (white shirt on left) to give his testimony. I spoke openly, saying that everyone there would call themselves disciples of Jesus Christ except for our two friends and that I thought it would be especially helpful for them to hear. Stating the obvious seemed to make them more comfortable. As they were leaving, our friend from China told me, "I'm not yet very believing or religious--whatever you say, but I would like to start reading the Bible and we will start coming regularly to church." Obviously, we were very encouraged and excited. Please pray for God to continue His work of drawing them to Christ.

Tomorrow (Easter Monday) is a national holiday in France, so we don't have school. On Wednesday after class we are leaving as a family to travel to Rouen to attend the church retreat of the Baptist Church in that city. I will be preaching four times at the retreat. We then plan to spend the Lord's day with them before heading back Sunday afternoon in time for school on Monday. It's more than a 6-hour drive, and will be the first time out of town for Zacharie.