Salut, tout le monde!
Monday was a busy day for our team. We began bright and early at 10:30 a.m. by meeting with Joe, our Agape France contact. He informed us about the purpose of Agape France, and gave us a lot of helpful insight about French students and the ideas that we might encounter in our conversations. There was a brief time of Q&A for our team, specifically regarding the next item on our agenda, which was going to a campus cafeteria and starting up conversations with French university students.
After taking the metro to Diderot University, we happened upon our first trip hiccup - the cafeteria was closed! Sacrebleu! But the ever-flexible Team Paris was not to be undone. Plan B went into action. We bought sandwiches at a nearby cafe and sat in some of the gardens where French students were also eating lunch. Thus began some fantastic conversations which resulted in swapping contact information in order to meet up later, or just getting acquainted with some friendly students.
Then, there was the Gazpacho Incident. There will be a full report on that soon, but for now let's stick to business since there's a lot to cover. Cliffhanger!
We departed from the campus and headed to the French Senate in the Luxembourg Palace for a tour. Not only were the gardens and the palace itself beautiful, but our tour guide Patrick was both extremely informative and hysterical. It was a fantastic tour.
It was also a long tour, which had us heading straight to our next (and final) event of the day. J'ai Faim is an ministry that works in partnership with Agape France to feed the homeless with physical and spiritual nourishment. Xavier, a friend of Joe's, met up with us and set us to work prepping bags of sandwiches, fruit, soup and hot chocolate to distribute among the neighborhoods. After praying together and splitting into four groups, we all headed out. Though the language barrier was a challenge for us, all of our groups came back reporting some truly interesting conversations. Assane, a man from Algeria, allowed his group to pray for him after discussing religion and politics in both the U.S. and France. Kristin spoke with an Iranian woman who was also handing out food, though she herself was homeless. Even when we didn't understand all that was being said, it was apparent that God is using Xavier and the ministry to show love to the homeless in Paris, and it was both inspiring and humbling to witness.
Most groups didn't finish handing out food until at least 10:00 p.m. so it was a full day of energy, but equally full in value. We learned a lot, and will continue learning. But for now, stay tuned! Until next time---
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