Fixing our Gaze Upwards

In the midst of a month of sobering events such as war breaking out in Israel and a young Muslim extremist here in France stabbing several public school employees, it's been a blessing to recognize God's Spirit acting through believers here.  

In October, about 75 Christian high school students arrived here in Alsace for 10 days of service and outreach. They came from Australia, Germany, Hong Kong, and Lithuania as part of the Global Christian Schools Network's Youth on Mission program, accompanied by roughly 2 dozen Christian teachers. Our oldest daughter got to participate in the camp as both a student and a translator, since very few of the participants spoke any French.  

The students participated in a wide variety of service projects, including restoring a WWI memorial, working on a WWII trench site, serving locally housed refugees, and helping our school with improvement projects, among other acts of service.  

One of the activities was a Saturday night outreach on the streets of Mulhouse, a city in northeastern France, close to the German border. They invited strangers to have coffee and to discuss faith in Jesus. Sophia said that people were surprisingly willing to take the time to connect, and many of them were open to discussing the reality of who Jesus was and is.  

I'm grateful that our daughter had a chance to engage in these opportunities. She especially enjoyed the chance to play with refugee children. Overall, it was encouraging to converse individually with some of the teachers and to learn more about what it is like to be a Christian and a teacher in Australia, Germany, and Lithuania. It encouraged me to pray for Christian educators worldwide and to seek to understand how we can better support one another.