“I know that you can do all things” Job admits to God in chapter 42 of the Old Testament epic that chronicles his struggle to understand the reasons behind his suffering. After 41 chapters of thinking that he knows best, he finally admits that God’s the only one who has any kind of sustainable design for his life – and that it is not his right to know what it is. “…No purpose of yours can be thwarted”, he continues. “Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me which I did not know”. Few, if any, Bible passages, so eloquently convey man’s complete insignificance when juxtaposed with the works and purposes of God. And if anything emerges from Job’s absolute submission to his Lord’s will, it’s the ultimate futility of his questioning God’s providence. God is in charge; and we need to accept that fact. It is with this (admittedly rather substantial) truth in mind that the Eglise Reformée du Marais has come to organise a series of three Tuesday evening devoted to ‘prayer for the authorities’. The idea of ‘praying for the authorities’ was to place in God’s hands the ‘powers that be’ of this world, whether in France, Europe or the International Community at large. The series has been divided into three thematic categories: prayer for medico-social, intellectual and educative authorities, on Tuesday 27th February; prayer for the political, legislative and judicial authorities on Tuesday 27th March; and prayer for religious authorities, which will take place on Tuesday 24th April. And so the last two months have seen us offering up to God in prayer not only this year’s presidential candidates – the ‘presidential race’ being France’s most pressing concern at the moment – but also the less conspicuous parts of the French and International establishment, including those areas in which members of the Church are professionally involved. We were memorably led in worship by the Choeur Gospel de Paris, which has its base here in the church. The Holy Spirit worked though both the wonderful voices and inspirational arrangements of some quite eclectic worship material in order to make His presence among us known. Georges – the choir’s energetic leader – reminded us all that meeting with God really is a fun, downright joyful experience. Following about half an hour of praising God to such exhortations as ‘Are there any ladies in the church tonight? If there are, I want to hear you praise God!’, we divided into small groups to pray. Our prayers were focused through the assignment of a fairly specific remit to each group. Last Tuesday, for example, one group was asked to pray for France’s executive authorities (the people who make the laws); another was asked to prayer for France’s legislative authorities (the people who pass the laws); and another still was given the task of praying for the judiciary (those who enforce the law). A fourth group dealt with prayer for the European Union, the United Nations and other international bodies. Even with these clear (and very helpful) guidelines, the task seemed daunting. Where to start? Fortunately (and as always), the Holy Spirit was there to guide us. Instead of praying in terms of vague generalities, we found ourselves directed – to my surprise – to specific matters: matters which reflected wider problems and more global issues, but which allowed a clear, sincere and impassioned dialogue with God. I was also surprised at the way in which we were all able to lay aside our partisan politics and prejudices, united in our single request that the Lord’s will be done in everything we prayed about. The result has, so far, been the passage of two very fruitful evenings. I have to admit to having been initially sceptical about the idea of ‘praying for the authorities’, seeing it rather as a case of a sling-less David taking on a behemoth Goliath. But God quickly changed my outlook. Our time of ‘prayer for the authorities’ has been an extremely rich one, actively directed by the Holy Spirit and filled with a real sense that prayer does work…on the largest possible scales as a well on the smallest ones. France needs prayer at the moment. The French people go to the polls for the first round of the Presidential elections in two weeks. Any predictions as to the result – clouded as they are by a recent riot at the Gare du Nord here in Paris – remain inconclusive. Pollsters paint a picture of a France in a skittish mood, and refuse to rule out the possibility of a repeat of 2002’s alarming outcome, in which the extreme rightist Jean-Marie Le Pen clinched second place. In spite of a tenacious attachment to the ‘French social model’ - one values community over individualism and solidarity over free-reign enterprise – there is a sense, in most corners of French society, that change of some kind is needed. The Presidency, it seems, has remained too detached from the French people for too long. In the economic sphere, a rate of unemployment that is only marginally shy of 10% continues to undermine social cohesion. France is faced with a quite bewildering array of candidates, advocating everything from a Trotskyist approach to employment legislation to neo-Thatcherist reform. Even as a bystander, I find political ideology and partisanship hard to avoid. But we worship a God Who is the ‘King of Kings’ and the ‘Lord of Lords’; the One who not only puts rulers on their thrones, but removes them when their designated time is up. He is a God who exists above and beyond everything, from grand, ‘world-changing’ ideas to petty party politics. With this in mind, our prayers for Paris need to focus, above and beyond everything, on God’s will being done, no matter how inexplicable or uncomfortable the outcome of the next few weeks might be. Above all, what the French people needs is not more employment or more social cohesion – these nevertheless being admirable things in themselves – but a living, real relationship with Jesus Christ and a life lived in the light of His Gospel. Pray that God would bless a country and a people which He loves – and, given that He gave an Israelite shepherd boy with a sling and a few stones the strength to defeat a Philistine giant, expect the unexpected.

On Saturday 17th February the Church played host to an event with ‘France en Feu.’ We had a six-hour worship marathon from 16h-22h! There were four groups who led us in worship, each with a different style which I found very refreshing. To start it all off we had the Gospel Choir of Paris, this time of worship was so jubilant! You couldn’t help but praise the Lord! The other groups were a mix of guitars, keyboards, and singers and were also very gifted in worship ministry, mixing the old with the new, French songs, English songs, American spirituals etc. One group introduced electronic sounds using a computer which brought a new and effective dimension to worship. I think this was quite a new technique for some people. Each group brought its own flavour of worship, allowing times for jubilation, meditation, prayer, reflection and for just simply singing your heart out for the Lord. Throughout the six hours there were some people who stayed for almost the whole time, some who stayed for an hour or two or just half an hour. I think the average number of people in the church was between 20 and 30. There were also many tourists who had popped in to have a look at the church and then stayed for a bit to see what was going on. I hope that they were touched by the presence of the Holy Spirit in this place and that perhaps they were given something to think about having seen people actively and charismatically praising God. This was a wonderful night and it was so great to spend hours freely singing the praises of and worshiping our Lord.

On Friday January 5th Robert and I opened up the church for tourists visits as usual. At around 2pm a large group of people came in, I thought they were just a group of tourists so I was merrily telling their leader about our services and the church open hours. But actually they weren’t really particularly interested because it turned out they were an association of asylum seekers who were protesting against Sarkozy! They were a group of about 50 men, women and children. They shut the front door of the church and barricaded other doors. I looked out the window and saw that the police were already outside. A journalist had managed to get in with us too and was asking Robert and me questions and trying to get hold of Gilles who was in Lyon. It was difficult trying to talk to her, knowing that she was writing down everything we said and seemed to be trying to put a negative spin on things. Most of the church council members were away from Paris and so there was only Robert and me as representatives. The asylum seekers were a bit disappointed to have only two clueless English students to discuss with. There weren’t any problems, all the people who had encamped in the church were peaceful and just put posters up and sat there talking. Gilles was in contact with us by mobile phone (whilst on a train back from Lyon) and gave us instructions to just wait it out - he was in contact with the authorities and everything was under control. In the end it all lasted about four hours. The police were let in a side door by one of the church members with a key. They were very professional and immediately gathered the protesters into a group. The policeman in charge came and told me what was happening and what they were going to do – just get the protesters out onto the street as the church council had decided not to press charges. The protesters left very easily, just with a lot of shouting and waving of banners. God most definitely had his hand on the situation, apparently these protests quite often end violently with a lot of things being broken. It was unusual that the protesters left so easily without leaving behind too much damage. Thank the Lord! It was definitely an experience. At first I was quite anxious because I didn’t know what was going on. But after realising that there wasn’t any threat and having talked to Gilles and knowing that everything was under control it wasn’t too bad – God was looking after us. This sort of thing definitely doesn’t happen back in my church in my little English village! It’s so difficult to know what to do in these situations, obviously the church council couldn’t discuss things with the asylum seekers at the time. The church agreed with some of the points that they made but certainly not all. When there is such a mix of people, situations and demands in one place it’s difficult to be able to act accordingly when you can’t agree with and support everybody. For the cases with which the church council agrees it is willing to do what it can to help and raise awareness. But hijacking a church is not really an appropriate way to do this. Gilles was in contact with the leader of the association in the days following the event.