Thoughts from the weekend

Thoughts from the weekend (actually the past week):

Debbie and I had a wonderful week of ministry in France this past week. We spend one session encouraging and coaching a group of missionaries who are starting a new church on the west side of Paris.

They were already running into the several roadblocks, the greatest being the French bureaucracy. It's difficult to obtain permits, etc.....

A week ago Sunday, our service was cancelled in Paris. We were disappointed about that. But…………

We contacted one of my missionary friends there who got us a service in a church that we helped start 22 years ago.

It was a very meaningful time for Debbie and I. We came in contact again with people who came to Christ while we were there, one woman, (who was a new Christian then) remembered how I visited her in the hospital 22 years ago. One of the little girls who was healed during that time is now 28 years old and still serving God.

The pastor at the church there – has now been married for 20 some years. While we were pastoring in Paris, on a Sunday morning, I announced their engagement. So….there is a lot of history between the church and us.

Again, I can’t emphasize how meaningful it was – to see the results of our efforts.....wow.....

The Holy Spirit worked it out. I spoke on healing, and the healing line was long……prayed for a little boy who has autism.

We also got to spend some time with George, our son.

It felt "real good" to see how great he is doing. One evening, we had dinner with his host family. Everything was in French. While my French (and Debbie's) wasn't the best, we had a great time sharing with them and getting to know them.

Yesterday, we baptized 3 people in water in our Sunday morning service here at Stone Church. There was a tremendous sense of God's presence. In spite of the fact that I was on jet lag, I felt like God really used the message (although at one point I had the two blind men that were healed by Jesus as lepers).

Having jet lag is just a weird feeling. It's like everything is in a kind of fog.

Michigan State is in the final four! Not having the best team, it shows how good of coach they have in Tom Izzo.

My prediction? Final Game: Duke - Michigan State.

Duke wins (unfortunately) 78 - 62.