I survived!

Today, I went to the Paris Chinese Church in Chinatown in the 13th district. I thought I was going alone but I bumped into the Swedes from the conference and they were attending as well. My first impression of the church is that it is like a typical Chinese European church - lack of space, cramped, lack of resources. We are talking maybe 5 rooms (size of an MCAC classroom and some are half that size), possibly six at the most. The sanctuary is about the same size as the MCAC fellowship hall, maybe half that size. You will see it on my youtube video.

So what was my mission project? I had to teach Sunday School in French to the kids.

Task: Teach an English kid's song, go through the "Wordless Book" (Yellow means heaven, Black means sin, Red means Jesus' death and resurection, White means purity and cleanliness, Green means new life), tell the story of Zacchaeus' encounter with Jesus, and then to a craft involving constructing caterpillar and butterfly to demonstrate the transformation that Zacchaeus goes through after he meets Jesus.

Time: 1 hr

# of students: around 20, and their parents also sat in, ranging in age from 3 to 10

I assume it went well because the kids answered my questions. They even remembered my name. I found them more well behaved than the Canadian students ... et ils sont tellement mignons. (and they are so cute!) This is a picture of them doing the craft on the benches - there is not enough room in the classroom for tables so the kids sit ont he ground and work off of their benches. I am happy to say that my french did not fail me so THANK YOU for ALL your prayers.

In the afternoon, I attended a music evangelistic event held at the church. The choir actually had quite a few pastors and pastor's wives and they were singing loudly - it was a very humbling experience as I looked around and saw that despite the lack of resources, they still manage to pull off an amazing special music evangelism event. I mean, some of the singers in the choir were classically trained, and some are normal people who sing off key.... but you could tell that they were all singing loudly for the Lord. It was beautiful.

Tomorrow is my free day and then I start working for the pastors on Tuesday.

One other thing to note is that languages are starting to get very mixed up in my head. I have to think of who I am speaking to before a word pops out of my mouth. For the Swedes, I speak to them in English, or Cantonese or some ugly hybrid of Chinglish. For the French Aunties and Uncles at the church, I use French, Cantonese, or some ugly hybrid of CantoFrench. For the 2nd generation French at the conference, I use English, French, Cantonese, Frenglish, CantoFrench, Canto-English.