What a wonderful welcome. I remember after many years in Indonesia coming through Canadian immigration and the officer saying “Bienvenue "– Welcome home. I was surprised how my heart leaped to be welcomed back to my Canadian home.
Those very same words met us as we whizzed through French immigration and were greeted by our dear friends Rachel and Eric.
“Bienvenue. Welcome to your new French home”.
We had asked many of you to pray for a smooth entry to France barely believing that it could be possible, and God has answered your prayers in impossible ways.
Immigration was seamless – they didn’t even ask us to remove our masks to check our identification. We were through in 30 seconds.
Rachel and Eric made it through the traffic and airport parking to be there to greet us. They said they have never made it so quickly before, nor had anyone come through immigration so quickly.
Our bags were there waiting for us when we arrived at baggage. When does that ever happen?
In the first 12 hours of arriving in France we both had a bank account, new phone cards and plans, started our house search, bought food, some cool European shoes for Warren and a car. Normally a foreigner cannot purchase a car for 3 months after arriving in Paris.
God smoothed the entry even down to the detail of an old hidden French deep down in my wallet that was somehow kept through the years. Low and behold that French coin got this girl a shopping cart! I have no idea where it came from or how long it had been in my wallet. They aren’t even in use anymore.
We just secured a little house outside of inner Paris, that has its own little green space, veranda, 3 bedrooms (2 of which are about the size of a walk-in closet!) and room enough for an art studio. The rental market is extremely difficult right now for apartments bigger than 650sq ft within our budget and it’s rare to find a house to rent. We were told that our greatest challenge in Paris would be to find a place to rent. The landlord not only pursued us but wanted us over two other renters even though we couldn’t provide all the documentation proof that we earned enough in a French wage. Plus he gave us a discount.
Wow. Isn’t God amazing? Thank you for your prayers.
Your prayers have made a huge difference.
We do face new and exciting challenges every day. Our heads are exploding with too much information but instead of my normal stress response of inconsolable weeping, I’ve found myself falling into spontaneous laughter. It’s just so bizarre that it all seems funny.
Weird I know. But it does the trick.
There is no doubt in our minds that God is going before us clearing the brush and smoothing the path.
Do you doubt that God answers prayer?
Even when “barely believing” God answered our prayers and our trust in God keeps growing. Sometimes it just takes fresh eyes to see the answers to a mustard seed prayer of faith.
May you have the faith of a mustard seed and fresh eyes to see how our amazing God wants to answer your prayers.
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