Great is Thy Faithfulness!

Great is Thy faithfulness!

Great is Thy faithfulness!

Morning by morning new mercies I see.

All I hath needed Thy hand hath provided;

Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

I can hardly believe that only one week has passed since I stood at First Baptist Church in Oxford, Mississippi and sang this song! The song struck a special chord with me last Sunday as the lyrics reminded me of God's unconditional promise to provide all we need. I really can't fear that much about a semester abroad with the knowledge that I will not lack anything I need for God to use this semester to fulfill His purpose in me. I have been very blessed and had far more than I needed the past two days!

I spent Saturday exploring the center of Lyon. The picture above is from the great square Bellecour looking towards Vieux Lyon, the oldest part of the city. I explored Bellecour for most of the day, enjoying the many streets of shopping that branch off the central square. I also visited the Museum of Fabric; apparently Lyon has been a center for luxury fabric manufacture for centuries. The museum was just the type of place that I found extraordinarily interesting, so I stayed for several hours. It was probably best I was alone - I don't think I know another person who would have wanted to look at ancient material for that long. For the record, the museum housed fabrics starting from 200 A.D. from ancient Egypt, and the central exhibit was the fabrics from the bedrooms of many kings and queens made in Lyon. Louis XIV, Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, Napoleon, Josephine de Beauharnais, and the emperors and czars of Russia all decorated with fabrics from Lyon. Nothing in the museum was translated, but I still managed to learn a decent amount about the weaving process of satin and taffeta and silk, the most celebrated Lyonnais fabric. I hope I didn't put anyone to sleep with that part of my blog.

Today I woke up and left early to find a church about which a friend in Amarillo had told me. L'Église Réformée Évangélique is a very small church in the center of Lyon started ten years ago by Mission to the World missionaries. Now, a daughter of the missionaries and her husband, Alex Sarran, run the church. The church met in the downstairs part of a house, and about 25 adults and 10 children were in attendance. After the service, everyone helped move the chairs to make room for tables, and the group ate lunch together. Though everyone spoke in French, the pastor's wife is American, and she spoke to me some in English. She understands the importance of me being surrounded by French, though, so even she addressed me in French most of the time during the meal.

The meal lasted until well after three in the afternoon, and after everyone began to leave, the Sarrons invited me to come with them to a service held mainly for all the mission families living in Lyon. The service provides an opportunity for them to speak to each other in English, sing in English, and hear a sermon in English. At this service there were about 20 more people. The group was very fun to be with - they all have an admirable joy and dedication to God, especially considering the slow mission field to which they have dedicated their efforts.

Suzanne Sarron explained to me the hardships of mission work in France, and Lyon in particular. In the French culture, it is nearly unacceptable to attend church and profess Christianity. They work often with people who cannot begin to see the value of Christianity, and even the French families in their churches often do not come because they still do not see church attendance as important. She said often missionaries are looking at years, rather than months, before a person will both choose to become a Christian and begin to attend church with some regularity. "You really can't produce any conversion figures here. The process is much too slow," she said. The other missionaries agreed, but all said that it is possible to do any work, no matter how discouraging it may seem, when it is the work to which God has called you.

I cannot believe that after spending months praying that I would get to speak with a few missionaries about their work in France that I met most of the evangelical missionaries in Lyon in a single afternoon. I cannot wait to get to know all of these people better; they were all so kind to me today, and they have so much to say about the kingdom in France. Today was a constant reminder to me of how faithful God is to meet our needs. My heart skipped a beat this morning when the French service concluded with a translated version of Great is Thy Faithfulness.

Dieu, ta fidélité,

Ton immense bonté

Se renouvellent envers moi chaque jour.

Tous mes besoins, c'est ta main qui les comble,

Dieu, ta fidélité dure à toujours!