Meet Daniel and Christine
My church in Bordeaux has baptisms every few months, and I always enjoy the testimonies of those who are being baptized. In November, a married couple was baptized together and their testimony was really special to our church. They were SDF or sans domicile fixe (homeless) and living in the downtown train station. They met an evangelism team from the church, who gave them some free food and invited them to the Sunday afternoon evangelistic meeting at the church. They came, were warmly welcomed, and got some more free food. So they came again. Within a few weeks, they accepted Christ. They started the class for new Christians, preparing for baptism. The church helped them go through some social aid programs so that they have some lodging now in a public shelter.
I got to know them better on January 1, because we were all invited together to a friend's home for the New Year's celebration. Sitting across from them over raw oysters and goose liver really forged a connection! I found out that Daniel was a DJ when he was a young man, and traveled extensively around the world, but that's where he got caught up in the drug culture. Eventually he lost everything but his wife.
Since our New Year’s meal, I greet them at the church every Sunday. They ask about my friend Christy (who was with us on Jan. 1) and I ask them how they're doing.
Today, because I was late to church, one of the ushers had to find an open seat for me, and I ended up right next to my friends. From the corner of my eye, I enjoyed watching their reactions to the sermon. They drank it all in, intent on both the message and every Bible verse the pastor mentioned. They each had trouble finding the first one mentioned: Ephesians 4:15. When I noticed, I flipped quickly to it and sort of tilted my Bible casually so they could see approximately where Ephesians was. They were flipping through the Old Testament at the time. After that I flipped as fast as I could every time so I could surrepticiously help them find the verses. Out of the corner of their eyes, they tried to read my sermon notes which are written in an unreadable hodge-podge of English and French.
I got to know them better on January 1, because we were all invited together to a friend's home for the New Year's celebration. Sitting across from them over raw oysters and goose liver really forged a connection! I found out that Daniel was a DJ when he was a young man, and traveled extensively around the world, but that's where he got caught up in the drug culture. Eventually he lost everything but his wife.
Since our New Year’s meal, I greet them at the church every Sunday. They ask about my friend Christy (who was with us on Jan. 1) and I ask them how they're doing.
Today, because I was late to church, one of the ushers had to find an open seat for me, and I ended up right next to my friends. From the corner of my eye, I enjoyed watching their reactions to the sermon. They drank it all in, intent on both the message and every Bible verse the pastor mentioned. They each had trouble finding the first one mentioned: Ephesians 4:15. When I noticed, I flipped quickly to it and sort of tilted my Bible casually so they could see approximately where Ephesians was. They were flipping through the Old Testament at the time. After that I flipped as fast as I could every time so I could surrepticiously help them find the verses. Out of the corner of their eyes, they tried to read my sermon notes which are written in an unreadable hodge-podge of English and French.