Our heart is to let the world know that there is One so gracious with His love and generosity that He can make all the difference in their lives.

I remember going to one of the neighborhood coffee shops where we have taken the time to know the owner and her family members. For us it wasn’t so much about the coffee (though it is delicious) as getting to know our neighborhood! When I went in that day I noticed that she wasn’t her chipper self.

I said, “Where’s your smile, Emmi?”

“I can’t smile today,” she answered.

I found out that her uncle, still in his forties, had had a lung transplant.  He had been in a coma now for a number of days. He had small children. It didn’t look good.

I said, “Emmi, you know, I believe in prayer and we can do that right now, right here.” And so we went behind the coffee roaster and I said a prayer for her uncle. When I finished the prayer, she was weeping. I saw softness in her heart towards spiritual things.  A few days later I returned for a coffee and asked about her uncle. All smiles now, she told me her uncle was walking the halls of the hospital. She said, “Its because of your prayer, Peter!” I responded,“No, it’s because of God’s grace.”

It’s so crucial to get the message of God’s grace into the neighborhood. Our spiritual lives must be lived out ‘full of grace and truth’ everywhere we go. We have pastored and we have been missionaries for over thirty years. I think I can say that the four walls of a church building can easily become the four mirrors, where it becomes habit to simply look at ourselves in that comfortable setting. But what about the increasing number of people who don't look like us, think like us or believe like us? Are we not also called to love our neighbour?

We celebrated one year of participating in the life of our church, “Eglise Impulsion.” We have seen the church grow in different ways over the year.  As I do a quick count in my head, I thank God that ten new people have been added. The members are becoming more intentional in inviting friends. Over Christmas one person brought ten friends, all non-believers, to church! We are still building the culture of the church. That takes a long time! We are also trying to be a hybrid of an attractive model and at the same time an organic model. That means we must build relationships with people inside and outside the walls. Another way of saying it, we are a church without walls!

The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. (John 1:14 The Message)

The kind of glory that was so evident in the life of Jesus was his incredible generous spirit. As Patricia and I live out our lives here in Paris, we realize that so many Parisians have a distorted Picasso-like picture of God in their minds. Quite honestly, this was the great failure of the church that helped create the French Revolution. The church lost its true beauty and the message of grace was lost. Now, like never before, its time to show Paris -and beyond- the beauty of God’s face in Jesus!

To this end we look for ways, even create avenues, for that to happen both in and outside the walls of a building called church. I want to do a shout-out some of our Canadian friends; because of their love we now have a fantastic coffee machine for our gatherings. Only the BEST coffee for our Parisian visitors!

Allow me go a bit further; in our context, we know that the Parisians love to gather together in small groups, unafraid to chat with strangers. I’ve had some amazing encounters and conversations with the French outside the walls of church, perhaps more often than I had while in Thailand. And so we are attempting to create a few events that could be called outreach, but a better word is ‘in-reach.’ We are reaching in our community to build relationships with our neighbours.

We have two events planned, the first being this coming weekend. The next will be February 24^th. We have rented the space of two different Bistros in our 12^th ‘arrondissement’ (district where we live). These are a new style of gathering that we hope will even spill out into the sidewalks... There will be music, food, art and lots of intentional conversations. Yes, even French cheeses to somehow lead people to better see Jesus...right!

Prayer

Pray for us and think about supporting these efforts too. We could use some gifts of fifty dollars, 100 dollars to help us cover the rent and foods for these two events. We also could use, in the future, gifted musicians to help make these events impacting.

Thank you again for your love and support over the years. We need partnerships and you’ve been there for us. Again thank you.

Peter and Patricia, and Alycia-Rae DeWit