Joel's Culte Francais "French Devotion"

Hello Everyone,

When we first arrived here in France, it took a little getting used to using the word culte for a devotion or a religious service. I mean in the States if you were to hear the word culte, you think of cult which is not a good word in christian or even often times secular vocabulary. However, now after five and a half months here in France, we have come to know the word culte as our word for devotion or church service. It's kind of wierd to see how our thought process is changing and we often times think in french before thinking in english. Anyways, I guess that is the goal of our being here. We need to be able to clearly communicate the Gospel of Jesus Christ to those whom God has called us to. I will be honest, it has not for one second been as easy as I thought it would have been to learn french. In fact it has been very humbling! Sure I consider myself to be a fairly decent communicater on most subjects and I can get by quite easily when it comes to basic conversation in French. However, when it comes to really expressing myself and telling stories and expressing the spiritual aspects of my life in french, I often find myself at a roadblock with my vocabulary and some of the basic tools neccessary for clearly communicating what is on my heart. Kristen and I are learning that we cannot be too hard on ourselves and will just have to continue working everyday towards improving our french. One of the most important things that we can do besides working on our language study is working on it with the right attitude. It's not an easy task for most people, but in the end, every frustration and every bit of hard work put into it will be worth it! I guess you could really apply the same attitude to almost any aspect of life. When we go through those difficult days, weeks, months or even years, we have to remember what God has done for us and we have to continue working towards accomplishing those goals, visions and dreams that he has put in our hearts... Will it be easy?.. Probably not.. Will it be worth it?... I guarantee it will be...

Below are a couple of pics from the culte that I did in french for the school. I basically talked about the sacrifices involved in the lives of missionary's and tried to encourage to continue to follow after what God has put in their hearts.


Here I am translating a few words to help to the debutants (beginners) better understand the culte.

Yes, I do look pretty pale. But I promise it's not because I was nervous, but because I had been sick for a whole week and I was still sick when I had to deliver my message.


Believe it or not, I was not nervous here either. I don't consider myself self to be a great singer or guitarist by any stretch of the imagination, however I don't think it was too bad considering the condition of my throat at the time. Plus it was freezing in the room. I actually translated and sang "Love Song for a Savior" by Third Day.