Distribution at the Seine
On Thursday, August 1, our group ventured to a location along the historic Seine River and teamed up with a couple of other groups. Alyssa decided to keep the kids back at the monastery where our team was staying because one of the kids was sick, and we had not slept much for a couple of nights.
We positioned ourselves at the end of a bridge, across the street from the park that housed the iconic Olympic cauldron. This was a great location because many people would cross the river there before entering the park.
As I (Joshua) walked around and took pictures and video of my teammates, I particularly enjoyed watching my first college roommate, Tyler Betz. He and his wife are now missionaries in France, and he did what he’s good at doing- talking to people. But it was fun to watch because he did it in French, something I never imagined him doing many years ago.
Eventually, we ran out of all our English and French booklets; most tourists in the area were English and French speakers, so our booklets in the other languages were less useful. One lady in our group started to hand out Chinese and Arabic booklets to everyone, and shortly thereafter, we decided it was just best to pack up for the day.
A Reminder from God
The next day, God had a great lesson to teach us!
We went to the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur de Montmartre on Friday after another group told us that it was a great spot for handing out the booklets; I didn’t realize until we arrived that this was such a popular tourist destination! The walk to get there was quite long, and we opted for a route that avoided the famous flights of stairs leading up to the basilica since we had a couple of strollers.
When we arrived, we struggled mightily to find people interested in taking booklets or engaging in conversations. Most visitors seemed focused on touring the basilica and taking pictures.
Eventually, Alyssa and I found a promising spot partway down the hill, while our youth group kids positioned themselves at the top of the stairs.
But a couple of hours later, one of the ladies in our group told us in a distraught tone of voice, “We have to leave.”
She told us that a police officer asked her to put away her booklets, so she closed the suitcase that had all of the booklets in it.
But the officer returned later and also asked for her ID, telling her to leave.
In France, we had the freedom to distribute literature, and we were not doing it on private property. But for her sake, I told everyone that we needed to leave before something else happened.
We were a bit discouraged as we walked back toward the train station, especially since we had not had the success that the other groups reported earlier in the week.
But God had better plans! As we walked back, I started handing out booklets to local French people along the way. Two blocks before the train station, I told everyone, “Let’s stop here on the sidewalk for half an hour and see how many booklets we can distribute.”
We ended up staying for over 45 minutes because almost everyone who walked by reached out to take a booklet from us! Before long, we ran out of all our French booklets and several of our English ones.
It was one of those moments when God reminded us that His plans are different from ours, and His plans are always better.
What had started as a discouraging trip turned into an exciting one!