Christian Unity

"Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace." Ephesians 4:1

The past 2 weeks, I have been meeting more of the Church in Marseille.
The Friday I got back, I went to a lecture hosted by a local church, entitled "A Brief History of the End of the World", given by a Professor at the Theologoical seminary at Aixe.

That Wednesday, the CEMistes were invited by a young-adults group from the Parish of Merlan. The Catholic Parish of Merlan includes the University where Constantin lives, so the group is largely composed of students. We ate a 3 course meal, about 40 of us around the table, and after we did the dishes together. Doing the dishes was my highlight of the week. About half of their group and half of our group came into the kitchen to help with the dishes, and while we worked we sang joyous songs.
After the dishes, we all sat together in their lounge and prepared 3 songs together for the "Prayers for Unity" service the following week. Then the youth of Merlan sang us some of their choral songs from a variety of African countries and languages. One fellow drummed along with all of our singing.
The CEMistes loved being with the Merlan group; they are so full of life and love for the Lord. Most of the students are from Africa and are shocked to arrive in "Christian" France and find hardly anyone who believes in God. Some of the students at the Merlan church aren't Catholic, but find the Merlan Parish youth group their best refuge on the faithless campus.

The "Prayers for Unity" service was Wednesday, January 23. There were 4 nuns there, at least 2 priests, members of the Syriac church, the students from the Merlan parish (who brought their drums and guitar to lead the singing), an Indian family, Catholics, Protestants, some folks from Britain and many others that I didn't get a chance to meet. Our small chapel was pretty well packed.
Praying for unity is the best way to achieve it. Churches have been "discussing," arguing for ages over doctrinal/vision differences, splitting and splitting. Rather than discussing with eachother our differences, we bring our differences before God and ask Him to bring us together. If we supplicate at the same time and the same place, we are already together! Praying for unity is the win-win solution to our disunity.

Second Trimester

The second trimester is underway!
It began with a 3-day seminar on the book of Hebrews, taught by Charles White, a preacher at the Lyons Church who has written a commentary on the subject.
Our regular classes are:
The Old Testament: The Prophets
Mission and Marriage
Romans
The Gospel of Luke-continued from the Fall
Apologetics-defending the christian faith

We'll continue with the same afternoon activities. We're all looking forward to traveling this trimester. February 8-10 is the women's retreat in Lille, France. March 1-17 is our Missionary Voyage in Madagascar. We will spend 5 days working with a medical mission campaign, 5 days at an orphanage that our church supports, and 5 days participating in an evangelical campaign on the nearby island of Mauritius.

Lisbon, Portugal

A cheery welcome to Portugal!

I had the chance to fly TAP, Portugal's Airline, to and fro New Jersey. "Had the chance" meaning getting the cheapest flight available which happened to come with a large layover in Lisbon each way!

On the way from Marseille to NYC, I had a 17 hour overnight layover. I booked a hostel and in the morning, walked along the Rio Teho and by the World's Fair '98 grounds. This is the Vasca del Gama bridge across the river.

On my TAP flight back to Marseille, I had a 7 hour layover in Lisbon. I kept my city map from my last trip there, so immediately upon my plane’s half-hour early arrival at 5:30 AM I walked out of the airport, across the parking lot, and onto some street of Lisbon. About 5 minutes later I found a street sign and was navigating myself in the direction of the river. The walk to the river was rather depressing: I walked along highways and passed alot of apartment buildings with peeling paint. I reached the river a few blocks south of the furthest distance I’d walked the last time I was in Portugal, which had been a lovely park with interesting art, sculptures and museums along the way. The part that I hadn’t reached is, apparently, where it starts to get more industrial, so I quickly gave up on traveling along the river.
I walked along some uprooted railroad tracks for a while, then along a main highway, and finally into a more residential part of the city. At first, I thought the buildings were wall-papered on the outside but then I realized that they were tiled. Even the buildings in the snobbiest center of Lisbon have peeling paint; I realize that this gives it its charm and character.

By around 9 I started hitting the touristy area: I passed the Convento do Beato, the Museu do Azulejo, some Military building, the Museu de Artes Decorativas Poruguesas etc. I went by the Panteao Nacional and went in two large Cathedrals where I stopped in and thanked God that I was surviving my walk.

I ended my trip to Lisbon at the Praca do Comercio, the “largest Square in Europe.” It’s certainly the largest square that I’ve been to thus far. There’s a very impressive statue of the King in the center that is currently under wraps. I stopped at Café Aura for a cappuccino com gelado, to rest my feet and shoulders, and to write my postcards. Today’s my Dad’s Birthday; I just missed being home for it.

I finally got the great view of the River I was looking for from the Praca do Comercio!

I took the subway back to the airport, unfortunately rushing through another fancy touristy part of Lisbon to get to the Station in time. Now I know where to walk to if I have another long layover.
Google Maps says I only walked 12 km and that I could have driven my 5 hour walking route in 20 minutes. That is discouraging. But I have covered an impressive portion of my tourist map of Lisbon.
Now I’m back in Marseille and ready to start up classes again tomorrow. I’ll be glad to see the other CEMistes again.

A warm welcome and "see you later!" from some public art at the Praco do Municipio.