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Teaching English and Art together, putting on the GospelCafé concerts, prayer, meeting with our new French friends. It's a good life!


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Thursday, January 15, 2015

Je suis Jesus

It has been almost a week since the aftermath of terrorism in Paris. We all sat riveted by whatever telecommuted device was handy. Since we don't have a television yet it was Russell's laptop for me while I was cooking.

Our friends in the states told us first what was unfolding. I was a news junkie in my former life. I do miss seeing the news in a more fluid way. Politics have definitely changed for me since moving to France. It is interesting to learn about the life political here.

I was able to live stream the horror of the last few days and so I live streamed my prayers upward. A couple of parents expressed their distress regarding the lockdown of their kid's schools. One mom also teaches some after-school English classes and was worried walking the children from the school to another building on the day of the hostage taking. They live farther away to the CDG airport area than we do, where all the drama was taking place by train. From our house on the train, it's an hour and 10 minutes. We are a 5 min. drive to the train station. Everyone in Paris was nervous and sick at heart. I suggested to this teacher friend to read Psalm 27.

One of our Book study small group friends was trying to come home from the airport on the day of the hostage siege. He saw the helicopters overhead, heard the radio and was traumatized on the freeway for 3 hrs at 4 - 7 pm in the afternoon as he headed back here to his house. We all needed to talk about what had been happening and encourage each other. It was book night but we decided to do a dinner and let everyone talk.

Life still goes on. School and work didn't stop for most of the schools and companies in this 10 million peopled city. One friend is coming every week to improve her English. This past week was no different. She is a new empty nester experiencing loneliness since her husband travels for business most weeks and her last child has gone off to college. Her parents both have dementia and still living at home. She's going crazy and trying to keep up with her work and keep her parents healthy. That's an impossibility now and so her search for a home for her parents is ongoing. "I can't take it any more! She said. I think I'm going to cry." I embraced her and said, can I pray for you? She said, " I would like that."

Sunday morning our town held a "Je suis Charlie" vigil to remember Charlie Hebdo, the police and for the hostage families. Some said this attack was very symbolic like France's 9/11 against our freedoms. But they won't forget or give them up. They brought their pens and pencils holding them high near the Town Hall memorial and stood there for a half an hour. We left to go to church with this on our minds.

We can relate to the terror that's happened here and truly empathize and a need to reach out is stronger than ever. The freedoms I have and the freedoms I want to share about go way beyond the freedom of speech. They are far more encompassing and everlasting. But, I have a calling to be like someone else.  Je suis Jesus.

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