On Sunday night I led the worship during the service. It has been a long time since I have done that. It was great. Well, I think it was great. ;-) Regardless of what others say, it felt great. The Lord really met with us there for the entire service. I went a little old school for the most part and did some of my favorites. Well, some of my favorites that went along with the message. Let me put it like that. We did Shout to the North, oldie but goodie. We did Chris Tomlin's Kindness, one of my absolute faves. We did Your Love oh Lord. You can't go wrong with a little Third Day in the mix. We also did, Grace Flows Down and Amazing Grace/My Chains are Gone to finish out the night. Good times. I have to give a shout out to my good friend Hilary, who joined me. It was a good night.

Jean Battini

We met Jean a little over 2 years ago, and we instantly fell in love with him.  He always had a smile on his face and a twinkle in his eye.  He was 92 years old when we met him.  He usually needed someone to help him get around, but he was always full of life.  The love of God just flowed out of him.  When I would greet him and ask him how he was doing the response was often the same.  "The Lord has given me another day.  I'm doing great!"

Jean passed away this last week.  He would have been 95 next month.  It's a sad time.  He will be greatly missed, but it is also a happy time because we know that he is heaven rejoicing and worshipping at the feet of his Savior and King.  Jean Battini lived his life for Jesus Christ, and anyone who had ever spent 5 minutes with him knew that fact.

Jean knew about our work here in France, and he was always encouraging us in our efforts to reach North Africans.  Almost every time I spoke with him, he would ask, "What are you doing this week to reach my North African countrymen?"  You see, Jean was born in Algeria, so this subject was very close to his heart.  In fact, he would often tell me, "You reach the Algerians first and they will help you tell the others."  Actually, there is some truth to that.  There is an unbelievable movement occuring among a certain people group in that country.  

I will miss Jean, his smile, and encouraging words.  But we will meet again one day, and I hope there will be plenty of his "countrymen" there to meet him too. 

People is not a newspaper.

Last week in English class the students had to write sentences about things that they usually do during the week.  For instance, On Fridays I have a chawarma for lunch.  Now that is just an example.  It is not true.  I try to have a chawarma two or three times a week.  ;-)

Well, one lady shared the following sentence with the class.  On Saturdays I read the newspaper people.  She could tell by our (the teachers) bewildered looks that something was not right.  After some explanation from her and from us, we figured out that she was talking about People Magazine.  Then the women beside her said, "Oh, I read that on Saturdays too."  So, we all had a good laugh.  We did not realize that we had such "celebrity junkies" in our class.  ;-)

After the laughter calmed down, the first woman's husband (also in class with us) said, "I told her that it was not a newspaper, but she wouldn't listen."  So, we all started laughing again.