Tom's Amazing Journey. Or, The best reason to throw a pool party.

Let me tell you about my friend Tom...

Tom is a French guy who started hanging out with the iccp community about 3 years ago. He got connected with us when he and a friend met two American girls in a bar one night, and these girls invited them to a thing called Aix Forum (a weekly dinner/discussion group hosted by iccp). Tom and his friend were eager to practice their English, and they thought these girls were cute, so they came to Aix Forum. They got to know some cool people, and kept coming...

When Tom first started hanging out with us, he made it very clear that he thought we were all a little crazy for our beliefs, and that he had absolutely no interest in our faith or anything God-related. He’d ask us questions to try and trap us, or aggressively debate us for hours. He tried his hardest to shock us or back us into corners, but we just kept being his friends and loving him...

Some time last year, Tom hit rock bottom in his life. He felt that life was completely hopeless and there was no point in living. He decided he had two options- he could end his life or he could give a life of hope a try. He had developed close friendships with Darrin, Andi, and Dominic by this point, and he had experienced firsthand that they led lives of hope, and he knew where this hope came from. So Tom called up Darrin and told him he knew he wanted more to life, and knew he needed Jesus.

Saturday afternoon a group of us gathered at the Jones’ home to witness Tom being baptized. Standing beside the pool, nervous and excited, Tom shared with us that as he had studied the Bible and met regularly with Darrin, Dom, and Andi over the past year, he had become convinced that this “hope thing” he was trying out was the real deal. He told us that he had invited each of us to his baptism that day, because we had each loved him and shown him with our lives what real faith was. He told us he was ready to proclaim his new life. Tom came out of the pool to lots of cheering, and we spent the rest of the afternoon in celebration at the Jones’ home.

It was so moving for me to see firsthand how Christ’s amazing power can make people whole and alive. It is evident to anyone who meets Tom that he is forever changed. Three years ago I met an angry, hardened man, and yesterday I celebrated with a man who is full of hope and joy.

A couple good reads. Or, A snapshot of the culture in postmodern France.

here are a couple of articles that i think are worth a read. they may seem unrelated, but i think together they do a good job of illustrating the culture i'm living in here in france.

http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB117631918714166684-lMyQjAxMDE3NzE2MzMxMTM5Wj.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6547881.stm

to me, these articles speak volumes about what i'm doing here as a church planter, and how we are doing what we are doing. there is such a great need for our expression of church here in aix en provence, france, to be completely different. we're not here to do something that is boxed in by the stereotypes of traditional religion, or is typically "american." we're here to create a community of Christ-followers who are not going through the motions of irrelevant traditions, but who are living out their relationships with God and each other in a real, vibrant way that is relevant in a postmodern world.