first week in France...

We've officially been in France for one incredible week. I am in love with the culture; the friendly people, the little shops, fresh baguettes every morning, store fronts packed with colorful and yummy pastries. Also, its been really fun to use the little French I've stored up from many years of French classes. Oh yea, and how could I forget...if you walk to the top of the hill that we live on you can see the whole city of Paris, Eiffel tower and all.

 taking advantage of the artistic freedom in Paris...dancing at the park during worship on a beautiful sunny day :) (photo by Gahyun Lee)

It's been a pretty low-key week. We've spent a good amount of time praying and worshipping as a team. At the beginning of the week we went to the park close to our little abode, to play music, sing, and dance.
Sunday we led a kind of mini-church service at a small soup kitchen. I got to paint during one of the worship songs, which was a cool first-time experience. Afterward we had lunch and spent time talking with the homeless people that were there, it was a blessing to be able to bless them with our art, prayers, and homemade cookies :)
Last night we went to an open mic english poetry night at one of the bar/cafes in Belleville (the area in town where we are staying). That was probably my favorite thing we've done so far. The cafe was a classic Parisian-bohemian hole-in-the-wall. By the end of the night it was packed with people, anywhere from 20 to 70 years old; students, writers, actors...
Most of the people in our group shared their own work (being that I didn't share anything, I was the proud parent of the night, excited to see my loved ones up on stage).
The coolest thing was to see these people up on stage, listening to them pour their hearts out in various forms of art, knowing nothing about them except that Jesus loves them, and that because of that we, as His disciples, should too.

 Gabby singing one of her songs at the The Spoken Word poetry night

 In front of Notre Dame! 

I found a pink vespa...can I have one? please?

 the Notre Dame towers- so beautiful! (photo by gahyun lee)

God has spoken to me a lot in the past week about living out of love. When I left the cafe last night, I felt so full, because I knew that we had brought Jesus with us to love the unlovable. Its just so exciting to know that God calls us into the world- to be among ALL people, to see with His eyes, and feel with His heart. Dying to my own thoughts and preconceptions has never been so liberating! When we live from love, we further understand our amazing God for who He is: hope for the hopeless & love for the unloved.