Meeting God's people

This year in the Marais God has been giving me the great opportunity to meet his people. He’s showing me just how wide and diverse He is and I’m learning so much from meeting so many different people but who all share in the love of Christ.
Growing up in my home church in my village back in England has been wonderful, there is such a sense of family there and I’ve been so blessed to have such a great church and community to call home. But it is true that you can get stuck in your ‘church bubble’ of people and customs that you know, you might not get the opportunity to meet other Christians from different backgrounds and so grow in your knowledge and understanding of God and his works.
Going to University and becoming very involved in the Christian Union started me off in my meeting of more of God’s people. There I’ve met and made good friends with people from all different parts of Britain and from various denominations, people who perhaps have a different way of doing things and understanding things to me. It certainly opened my eyes up for the first time and I began to learn more and understand more about my own faith from meeting and talking with all these new people.
I think in this respect University was preparation for this year. Here in Paris God has introduced me so many people from a huge range of backgrounds. Even though, door to door, I am only a few hundred k/m from my home in England, meeting French Christians in l’Eglise Reformée du Marais has been so good for me. People in this church are so on fire for God and it is so inspiring and refreshing to see. There is so much going on and you can really see the passion that everyone involved has. Spiritually I have already learnt so much from talking and listening to Gilles and also other members of the church. I’ve been given new perspectives, new ways of looking at things which has helped in my understanding of God’s Word, his works and his love for us. Before coming out to Paris I’d been warned that Parisians can be a bit cold and unfriendly! But everyone in the church and at the Alpha office is universally lovely! Amongst the Christians of Paris that comment doesn’t have a foot to stand on - and that I find encouraging! I feel so welcome here and I am really feeling a part of the church, even though I’m a foreigner with a bit of an English accent!
I’ve also been blessed with meeting and interacting with all the different communities who meet in the church: ‘Les Bâtisseurs de la Cité’ who are of African origin, the Japanese community and the Arabic Christian community. I’ve had a few good and interesting chats to the Arabic Christians and I’ve been along to the ‘Batisseurs’ service which was very different to what I’m used to. At first I was a little anxious and sometimes I didn’t quite understand what was going on but all the same I felt so very welcome there and I learnt a lot. It helped me to open my eyes and be receptive to other ways of worshipping the Lord, to ask myself and God questions and simply to meet, talk to, learn from and worship alongside people who have a different background to me.
Personally I find it so refreshing and inspiring to see that God is at work in the diversity of his people. Obviously I knew that he hasn’t just touched the hearts of white middle-class Britons in South-East England, but to really see the love of God in so many different people and to experience and learn from the diversity and yet unity in the love of Christ has been amazing and such a valuable experience. I have already grown so much as a person and in my understanding of the Lord and my faith in him!