Paris trip Reflections:)

Bonjour~

If I were to summarize my 10 days mission trip to Paris into 3 words, it would be tiring, grateful and amazing!

I would love to tell you more about my trip, but guess i will need more time coz these 10days had been AWESOME! God really opened our eyes to see what He can do, for His plans are far better than human plans. But just let me roughly tell you all what we did.

These were the warriors who went with me to Paris! A.k.A= D Family:)

(pic taken in one of our de-brief session. We have de-brief every night, to reflect how the day has been and give thanks for everything God has blessed us with. And we would pray for the following day to be as exciting and indeed, prayers move the hands of God, everything turned out far better than we expected:)

the church building we stayed, worked and had so much fun:) the location is really strategic, it's right in the centre of ChinaTown and just besides it, is a tall flat with a big Chinese community!

our bedroom during our stay. During the morning, it's our little office, during night, it'll transform to our bedroom:) comfy!

I didn’t expect it to be so exhausting initially because I thought we were very well prepared for it. We even had trainings few weeks before we departed. However, when we arrived, there were loads of changes made and needed spontaneous adjustments to adapt to the English level the students we had. Staying up late nights for preparation of work was tough for me because I’m so used to sleep early. Sunday was the heaviest day of all. We had to attend 2 French congregations, 1 Mandarin speaking congregation and a bible study in between! 4 meetings in one day..Thank God for His strength that sustained me throughout these 10 days, despitehaving to sleep about 4-5 hours only and had to teach from 10am to 5.30pm almost everyday. Not to forget, there were some talks going on at night as well which needed more preparation work.

I still came home in one piece. There is no way I could survive this stressful period if it wasn’t Him who gave me the energy:)

my morning class teenagers:)

and my afternoon class kiddos.

what we did was just teaching them basic English. Like for that afternoon class, i did body parts with them and asked them to label on me:) Quite fun ey...

and during my afternoon class, my other team members would be busy organising Youth Alpha for the youths! It's supposed to be a course to intro Jesus, but to our surprise, all who turned up were already Christians, so we spontaneously changed our initial plan and became a course to build stronger relationship with God and also among Christians. They did prayer walk, some talks n games! To our surprise, the youths from different churches grew closer and got to know each other better:)

This was kindly given by one of our students in class..If u know about the history of Macaroons, Pierre Herme makes the best macaroons across France! We were trully blessed:)

I'm very grateful for this opportunity to travel all the way to Paris and do His work. Many of my friends have doubts like..'WHY Paris of all countries?' Just cant link the need to evangelise there as people often see Paris as the posh place for romantic holidays and not Mission work. But this trip has trained me, to live out of my comfort zone( to shower in cold water one day when the hot shower wasn't working, to sleep on the floor and prep work till late nights), with just one vision in my mind, that is to serve the Lord in every way that I can, for instance to teach English to French born Chinese teenagers, to talk about Christ, and despite the limited TVB learned cantonese, I was asked to sing a cantonese worship song in front of a congregation. Not only that, since I grew up in English church, my biblical jargons in Mandarin are limited. But being the only person in team who can speak fluent Mandarin, I was put to translate a whole talk to parents who only speak mandarin/cantonese! They were all real challenges to me throughout the trip. But I realised, as long as we are made available to Him, He can use us mightily, just as how He used me in this trip to do things that I would not be doing. I'm now so challenged to do more I-M-posibble work for Him since I'm reminded again of the verse saying ' I can do everything through Him who gives me strength!'

and Sunday would be the most hectic day of the day. On our first Sunday, we had to attend 3 different congregations, 2 French services, 1 mandarin service and also a bible study in between. Starting from 9am till 6pm! Though I could hardly understand any of those French services, it's interesting to worship with believers who speaks in different languages and singing songs to worship the SAME God. *Aunt Kitty was our host! She is one woman of God who shows much love to all of us*

We had to perform sketch when we visited the 2 French services:) *stage fright me*

and the spontaneous Cantonese singing session..Lol!

We were very blessed by the church members there. Dr Jeremy and family are one of them:) This family is really dedicated to their church. Since the church just bought over the new building, much renovation work needs to be done. And the whole family would stayed up late till 3am in the morning, just to plaster the ceiling and clean up the church because manpower is very expensive, so the family took time off to tidy up the house of God! Really impressed by their love for the church. This is what we should learn. To love our church, just like our home.

This aunt was another God sent Angel to us one afternoon.

What happened was this afternoon, Shermaine(our co-leader) had to prepare us lunch because there were some leftovers dishes from the day before. But Matt(our leader) knew she is very tired and much work prep hasn't been done. All the others wise had to teach English. So he prayed that Shermaine would not need to do the chores and if she would have to, Matt will take over although cooking wasn't his love. So that very morning, as Matt informed Shermaine that she need not prepare the lunch and he will take over, this aunt came. She told us that when she woke up that morning, she felt God is asking her to cook something for us. She jumped out of bed and came to church early morning. She told us she didnt prepare much stuff to cook but guess what she prepared for us in the end...

it's ONE WHOLE pot of SEAFOOD! No joke, with squid, shrimps, and even SCALLOP! And this was what she said, NOT PREPARED! A servant of God like her really gave all she could. And God did perform a miracle here. Shermaine didn't need to cook and God's helper came to prepare us sumptuous lunch!

These aunt and popo are mother and daughter. They both were dedicated cooks of ours. Bear in mind, they stayed 2 hours tram ride away from church, but almost every day they came in to church bout 3pm, and start cooking dinner for us. They even made effort to boil nice Chinese soup for us! They would prepare the meal ready on the table for us, and took the 2 hour tram ride back home. That popo is now 94 years old and she can walk all around without any walking stick! Love both of them so much!!!

The typical us, in our PJs at night, preparing classes for tomorrow! Though we had to sleep late, we really enjoyed each other's accompany. The dynamic of my team was great, from teenagers of 18 year old to adult of 33 year old. We came from different fellowships, but D Family members worked really well together, as one body of Christ!

in this fallen world, we're called to be TRANSFORMED and NOT CONFORM.

*talk by Shermaine in French Student Fellowship*

And finally, the word ‘AMAZING’ described the many great things God has done throughout this trip. I love meeting God’s children from every part of the world and share how God has impacted their lives. It’s interesting that we all could click so well despite the different languages that we speak. Hopefully, the seeds that we’ve planted will grow on good soil and subsequently bring glory to God. This mission trip has taught me to let go and let God to take control, to trust Him fully and also expect the unexpected, why limit Him when there is no limitations in Him?

my Pastor in church put up this pic in service today as he talked about the Family of God! Yes, this is a lovely family that I met in Paris. Mostly students at their early twenties. May the seed we planted there continue to grow under the power and love of God!

Will I go again? definitely YES but i will be more prepared the next time:)

Why this Batman pose, Angie?

I started to love it more one day when I woke up one morning and I felt God was reminding about looking at this world at a different perspective. Look through His eyes. Batman always come to rescue in time of need. And Jesus did the same, He came to this world to save ALL of us, sinners. Look harder and be grateful with all the small little things God has done in your life. I'm learning to be optimistic and I believe God is blessing me in every minutes of my life. He is blessing yours too.

Of coz, by asking my friends to pose with me like this, they'll put on a big smiley face. That brings joy to me..

so spread the BATMAN love, guys!

*PLUS, the outcome of the pic is always good c:*

ta!

wasSup Doc: Mission trip is about letting God to stretch you without realising how elastic you are:)