Spirit Move.

Bonjour friends!

I am sure as you read posts from different students you realize that the Spirit is on the move. He is wrecking our worlds, and magnifying His glory and the beauty of His grace at work in us. This sanctifying process has been very tangible in my life as I have been here in Paris. God has humbled me and continues to do this day-by-day and moment-by-moment. One of the biggest desires I had coming into Project this summer was that I would learn what it means to walk by the Spirit. While I would have loved a list of steps to follow to become dependent upon the Holy Spirit that would actually contradict the heart of a life following the Spirit. Instead God has removed the places, ways, and strengths I seek to find confidence beside Him to show me that He is my Strength, Friend, Lover, Creator, Voice [literally, as I lost mine from sickness], the list goes on & on… It is a hard but beautiful thing to learn that I am not needed in this work God is doing but that He gives me the opportunity to be a broken vessel redeemed only through Him.

To share with you some specific examples of how God is clearly in control and at work here in Paris I want to share with you a little bit about someone who has become very, very special to me. About a week and a half ago Rhyan & I met a Japanese student, Yukiyo, who has been living in France for about 4 years during her university studies. Even meeting her was clearly God’s doing—we were talking to a girl named Tracy at lunch that day when Yukiyo, Tracy’s classmate, came up and joined us. We talked with both of them about their backgrounds, their lives, their beliefs, what we believe about God, and how our lives have been transformed by Him. I could go on and on about our conversations, but I will just say that from that day till now Rhyan, myself, and others on the team have gotten to spend time with Yukiyo almost every day since we met this incredible woman. We have dug into many, many great questions about God, Jesus, theology, why we can trust scripture, etc. that Yukiyo has had. We have dug into John 1 (or “Jean” in French) with her. We have brought her to French church with us twice, and even got to eat lunch with an incredible Japanese woman from the church.

My friend, Yukiyo, has not made a decision to trust Christ and is very honest to say that she is not sure she believes, but I can see God tearing down walls and opening her eyes to see Him for who He is more & more with each conversation we have. On Saturday we invited our friends to come hang out at the park for a picnic in the afternoon, as we do each week, and at this picnic that the Holy Spirit once again moved. I went into this picnic regretting leaving bed, voiceless from the cold I have, and without expectations for anything significant. As soon as I sat down next to Yukiyo I could speak, and we had a great time talking and enjoying the beautiful day. I hadn’t made any intentional effort to make the conversation spiritual when Yukiyo—looking at a tiny white wildflower in her hand—says something I was not prepared for. She told me that as she looks at the variety in plants, trees, and people she thinks that there must be a God who created all these things. WOW. A girl who didn’t believe in any god two weeks ago is now exploring who this “God” may be, asking questions, reading the Bible, and meeting up with these crazy American Christians again & again.

Please, please, please pray for my friend, Yukiyo. I care for her deeply and I know that God loves even more deeply & fully. Pray that she would continue to explore who God is, and that she would respond and give all that she is to the only One who is completely trustworthy. Also, as we are only able to be here with her for about a week longer pray that she stays connected to Christian community her in Paris. 

Thanks to all of you for your love, support, & prayers! You guys mean so much to us.

 Grace & Peace,

Ariel Currieo

broken vessels

What up friends and prayer partners?!

It’s great to be blogging today, because this evening our team is hosting a party with our French friends at our apartment! We are having a grilled cheese, tomato soup, Schweppes and baguette party that will hopefully be a super fun way to invite people into our community.

The last week has been quite a whirlwind for me personally, because the Lord has given me great joy in meeting new friends, feeding the homeless, exploring the Impressionist Museum, and revealing how powerful He really is. This week I realized that I have been putting God in a box my whole life, and that I greatly underestimate His superior power and love. When someone was injured or sick, we prayed for healing and God made them well on the spot multiple times. God used a vending machine malfunction to lead us into a spiritual conversation on campus. The Holy Spirit led us to meet a student who is a believer and wants to get involved in Agape, and that conversation started with me asking what kind of lunch meat I was eating. It’s obviously not my words or actions that will lead people to know Christ, because Christ is constantly pursuing people even in unconventional ways.

Those are only a few examples of the ways God has been blowing my mind lately. Before now I thought I was letting God into all areas of my life by giving Him control of my schoolwork, relationships, future, etc., but I have recently found fault in my expectations of what God can and wants to do. I have attempted to trust God with my life by loving Him and loving others, but I have failed to expect Him to really do the impossible. God loves people SO much that he sent a bunch of broken vessels from America to reach out to the broken students of Paris. It’s very humbling, and quite overwhelming that He loves people so much and loves me so much. We have less than two weeks left, so please pray that God would deepen our relationships and conversations with friends and use us to show Christ’s love.

-Elise 

persistence in christ

Hello everybody, it’s Ryne.

Today the team finished our third week of ministry, and one thing the Lord is teaching me through this project is what it means to be persistent in Christ. 

In a mission field as difficult as Paris it is easy to get discouraged by the number of conversations that seem to make no difference or progress in the lives of the people we talk to. It is tempting for me to put too much weight on my role in sharing the gospel: to think that I am not as persuasive, loving, clear, or knowledgeable as I need to be. I begin to make the effectiveness of the gospel depend solely on my performance in a particular conversation.

Isaiah 55 is a passage that I cling to in order to not let the lie of performance discourage me. Verses 8-11 say:

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,


neither are your ways my ways,” 
declares the Lord.

“As the heavens are higher than the earth, 


so are my ways higher than your ways


and my thoughts than your thoughts.

As the rain and the snow


come down from heaven,
and do not return to it


without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish, 


so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,

so is my word that goes out from my mouth:


It will not return to me empty, 
but will accomplish what I desire


and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”

It is the most comforting thing to know that my role in sharing the gospel is to simply go and love those I speak with. I share what I believe about God, and the way He is working in my life. God does the rest. He is the truth. He is the one who changes hearts. He is more than powerful enough to cause His Word to accomplish what He desires. Knowing that truth enables me to go onto campus day after day proclaiming the truth of the gospel with boldness regardless of how much of a difference it seems like we are making.

And God is faithful to provide for those who persevere! Andrew, Davis, and I are scheduled to meet up for a second time with two Muslims students that we met at lunch today. They want to hear more about what we believe. After lunch we met two other agnostic students who after discussing the life of Jesus, told us they would read the book of John and were looking to meet up with us again to talk more about what we believe.

We did nothing new or different with those two conversations than with any of the other conversations we have had. We are only trusting that the Lord is powerful, and in that knowledge, we are going out into to world in humility and obedience to proclaim the gospel. And God is drawing His people to Himself.

One last verse that is so good:

2 Corinthians 12:9-10, ‘But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. ” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.’

and the greatest of these is love

Hey yall, it’s Amaris!

At this point, we’re just about half way through with project and I think it’s safe to say I’m the only one on the team who still cannot successfully order a pastry in correct French. My “Merci” almost always comes out “Mercy,” let’s hope I can master it by the end of our time hereJ It is insane how quickly the time is going by as we are sharing on campus, making friends, and LIVING IN PARIS.

 A focus of our training times this week has been how to love others. This is something the Lord has been teaching me since my arrival in Paris. Tuesday morning we looked at scripture to dive deeper into this topic. 1 Corinthians 13: 9-12 sparked conversation in my small group, and something just finally clicked for me.

 So many people, including myself, often just focus on the beginning part of this chapter. But what is Paul saying in these verses? He is telling us that we are to love, as it is the most important thing, but that our love is imperfect. Only the love that God has for us is perfect. “Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” How amazing are these words?! Today, we only know in part the love the Lord has for us and the resulting love we are able to give to others. When Jesus returns, we will fully know the extent of His love. The beauty, I think, is in that last little bit. Although we are unable to love perfectly and cannot even grasp the vastness of God’s love for us, we are fully known and fully loved by Him. What a good good God we serve!

This scripture is pure and straight forward, and yet I so easily miss it. All I can do for these students is love them well, but when relying on myself I am completely inadequate.  Daily, the team and I must rely on God and His Spirit to lead and guide us in conversations and friendships with the Parisians. He has been so faithful already to open doors, and I know He will continue to do so. The Lord keeps impressing on me that this is not over. Even for those students we meet once and never see again-the Lord is fighting for them.

Please pray for our remaining time here that we would love and serve well, both within our team and to the French people we encounter. Pray that we would see the Parisians the way God sees them and love them as He has loved us. Thank you to our family and friends who have sent us here-we love you, we miss you, and we are blessed to have you in our lives!

Love,

Amaris in Paris

God is moving

Bonjour! This is Andrew writing from the heart of Paris, France, on how the heart of God is moving in and through our group of students and Cru staff.

Since the moment our team walked off the plane and onto Parisian soil, it was evident that we were not sufficient to accomplish the mission God had set before us. Our general inability to read the directions on the signs all around us and understand the French words being spoken to us by airport security and staff was just a picture of our spiritual neediness. Just as we were in need of help to translate the words all around us, we have increasingly realized our need for the Holy Spirit in sharing the Gospel here in Paris.

As I have met with students from all over the world—France, Brazil, Tunisia, Portugal, and Switzerland to name a few—I have been struck with my dependency on the Holy Spirit. Even my most convincing argument for the sinfulness of Man and Jesus’ restoration of Man’s relationship with God or my most compelling evidence for the existence of God is essentially useless without Him. He, the Holy Spirit, is the only one who can change a man or woman’s heart, bringing them from spiritual death to life or opening their ears to truly hear the message of the Gospel.

This dependency on the Holy Spirit has been a major theme for our team this week and has brought a humble, excited attitude to our evangelism. We continue to see God divinely put us in contact with just the right students in the cafeteria at Sorbonne Nouvelle and at the campuses of Sorbonne Nouvelle and Jussieu. God is at work through our team, reaching atheists, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, those raised up in the Catholic church with no relationship with Christ, and everyone in-between with the love and good news of Jesus Christ.

As we head into this weekend, please pray that God would be at work in the hearts of the students we have met and that the time we spend with them would be Spirit-led toward the Gospel.

sola gratia.

Andrew Axsom

holy spirit move

Hey Friends and family!

This is Rhyan coming to you from Paris. So I really wanted to share with you how God has been working. The best way I know how to express that is through music. I wrote this song this past week. It is the best way I know to express what God has been teaching me, and us as a team. Most often I think of my relationship with God as a dance, swaying to the rhythm of our heart beats. When my sin gets in the way, however, that rhythm gets out of sync. This song is basically about what happens when I surrender all to God and allow Him to lead. Surrender is definitely something God has been teaching us thus far on Summer Project 2012. Without us daily dying to ourselves and living as sacrifices for Him and His gospel our efforts here are fruitless. He truly has to lead us in EVERYTHING. So….here it is. I know it’s 5 min long, but it’s a worship song so have grace. Haha  thanks you guys, and please continue praying for us, and the Parisians we’re able to share with. It’s already starting to get hard so please please please keep praying!! Love you all!!

Your fellow Tennessian sister in Christ,

-Rhyan K. Shirley-

a morning in the park

Bonjour! 

This is Becky here. We’re getting close to the end of our first week in Paris and to say that this has been crazy would be an understatement. Going into this trip I thought I was somewhat ready. Ready to go sharing on campus, ready for the cultural change, ready for what God had in store. But that was just the problem; I thought “I” was ready. 

Mission trips are interesting things. They put you in a state of total dependence like none other. They humble you and overwhelm you, at least this trip has done that for me. I have spent this week in turmoil with myself. Fighting my pride, fighting my fear, and fighting my anxiety about going on campus. 

Today (Thursday) is a French holiday so no one will be on campus which means we have the day to get situated and focus on spending time with the Lord as well as shopping for groceries and life group time. Honestly, this could not have come at a better time. We’ve only been to campus two times so far, but I could already tell that I needed to escape and get with the Lord and get focused because I have been trying to do this all on my own. This morning our roommates went to a nearby park and sat in an absolutely perfect and picturesque day in Paris with open Bibles, journals, and hearts. It was there that God began to make it very clear that this is not about me. This trip, going to campus, even my testimony is not about me. We are not here for ourselves, we are not here for Crusade or even for our families, we are here to proclaim Christ and because He called us here and to bring glory to His holy name. But even more than this trip, this life isn’t about us. It’s not about what I want to do, or where I want to go, or who I want to be. It’s all about, as a child of God, what God wants me to do, where God wants me to go, and who God wants me to be. 

I can honestly say that this week, in the two days we’ve been on campus, we have seen God move. We have had the privilege of speaking to students of all types and all nationalities from a sundry of backgrounds and God is moving here already. People are willing to talk to us, even though talking about God or religion, in the words of one young woman named Claire, is taboo. I know I speak for the team when I say that we cannot wait to go back to campus tomorrow and see God continue to work and open the hearts of these students. We know that nothing is impossible for God, and because of that we know that there are no hearts that are too cold or souls too hard or sins too great to keep someone from knowing Christ. 

Please join us as we pray over this trip. Pray that we would be humble and broken before God, that we would remember our place, but that God would move mightily through us. We’re asking God to save at least 8 people this project. Pray for big things. Pray that God would revive the land. Pray that God would use us, just broken earthen vessels, to bring glory to His name and to point people to salvation through faith in Christ alone. 

“But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the Gospel of the grace of God.” Acts 20:24

“Such confidence we have through Christ towards God, not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God.” II Corinthians 3:4-5

Bienvenue á Paris!

Hey guys! This is Kayla speaking...We're finally in Paris! I know I speak for the rest of the team when I say it has been an overwhelming couple of days. I am so excited to be here, but kinda nervous at the same time as we prepare our hearts to share the gospel with the students of Paris. It's definitely been a culture shock for a lot of us. Aside from the language barrier, Parisians just have a certain way of doing things, keeping quiet, not taking up too much space, and walking EVERYWHERE (including up and down several flights of stairs to get to our elevator-less apartments). So it's been an interesting adjustment.


Just a little background for y'all, I came into this trip having studied French from 8th grade through high school, plus a semester in college, so it's been really cool getting to apply that for real here in France. I've enjoyed helping the team so far too, ordering food, asking for directions and what-not. I feel really blessed that God led me to study French when I did, because now I get to use it on project!

In the midst of all that, we've already breezed by and seen the outside of the Louvre, Notre Dame, various iconic landmarks on our 3-hour bike tour, and of course, the Eiffle Tower. I know I was amazed at the magnitude and beauty of all these places. For the French, art and human intellect have enormous meaning, and it's becoming my heart's desire to see these things reflect on them the magnitude and beauty of our Creator, the supreme creator of beauty itself, and for that to hold meaning and purpose in the lives of the Parisians.

As overwhelming as the culture has been, the prospect of taking the next step, going to a French college campus, and initiating coversations and friendships with Parisian students is also a little nerve-wracking. At this point a lot of us agree that we don't really know what to expect or even how to approach these students. The norms are so different from when some of us go sharing in the United States, and some of us hardly have experience with this kind of evangelism. With that in mind, we are reminded that we are completely inadequate without the Lord. One of the challenges our team leader Chris set before us is to place ourselves in situations where we have to be completely dependent on the Spirit to guide us...so this is it! I'm looking forward to getting briefed by the STINT (Short Term International) team about the campus and how to approach students there.

We may be tired and maybe even a little scared, but our small group of 12 is mighty and on fire for the Lord. Jesus commanded that we "make disciples of -all- nations" (Matt. 28:19). We've answered the call, we're here in France. I'm excited to see what God does in and through us now!

Peace and Love,
Kayla