Bonjour À Tous!
"Resister."
Today we had the second of a 2 part seminar on the Protestant Reformation in France. It was fascinating to see how the persecution of the church has shaped the agnostic spiritual climate in France today. The present distribution of Protestant churches reflects the relocation of Christian refugees to the outskirts of France under the oppression of King Louis the 14th.
It's amazing the effect one leader can have on a country.
It's a good reminder to pray for those in authority.
Praise the Lord our God is not bound by leaders!
"Resister," or "to resist" in English, is what many Christians did during this time of intense persecution. One such woman was Marie Durand. As an alternative to being killed or sentenced to row on a large boat indefinitely, Marie was imprisoned near Montpellier in the South of France (incidentally the town where I will take the Medical course in July).
She was told she would be freed if only she would renounce her faith.
Time after time the guards commanded her to surrender, but she never gave in.
38 years later, she was liberated when the time of persecution in France had ceased,
and on the stone wall of her cell, was carved,
"RESISTER."
Her carving can still be viewed to this day.
Marie Durand's story sticks with me.
 |
| The engraving on Marie's cell- old French for "resister" |
What is God calling you and I to "RESISTER" today?
As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered."
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8: 36-39
More information on the Protestant reformation in France can be found @
On Friday, we célibataires (singles) had a cookout and the weather was LOVELY. We hit 82 degrees! It was perfect to introduce our new friends to the joy of S'Mores!
 |
| S'more first timers! |
 |
| The sticky, gooey, "Yum"... =) |
Trip ups of the anglophone tongue...thought you might enjoy some of my errors of the day =)
- I was trying to tell Renate that I was going to put the sausage in the freezer, but couldn't remember off the top of my head the word for "freezer" in French, so I went for "the very, very cold fridge" instead. She figured it out while laughing...
- A little later the girls were wanting to do laundry and needed to dry their clothes, so I started saying in French, "I'll go take my clothes down off the line," they started laughing and I realized I had just said, "I'll take my clothes off for you."
Oh boy...many more to come I'm sure.
Thanking God for all of you!
With Love from France,
~Amanda
P.S. 38 days left of language school. As Christopher pointed out, that's about the same amount of time it rained while Noah was on the ark. So imagine it raining every day from now until June 22nd. Something to think about....
No comments:
Post a Comment