After a day in France, my list of new experiences is steadily growing larger. Today, I started it off by going to the church where Simon’s father, Jean-Luc Terrien, pastors. He pastors an interracial, multicultural congregation with a large immigrant population. It was a normal church service, just like back home; well, except for the language difference. We sang worship songs (in French), prayed (in French), and listened to a very good message (which was also in French). Fortunately, Dad’s two years of high school French came back to him, and Simon was able to act as translator to me. The message was about the contrast between Sampson and Moses; basically, Sampson knew his calling from the beginning and rejected it, while Moses embraced God’s call on his life, even though it took him a while to figure it out. It was a good thought to dwell on.
About two hours later, when I was invited by Simon to play chess, we walked instead of using a car. Because I live out more or less in the country, I never get to walk around in cities or suburbs anywhere, so it was nice to stretch my legs, feel the cool air against my face, and see the sights of Evry, France from the sidewalks. The leaves were falling from the trees, and the pavement was decorated with red, yellow and orange. If you live in the city and are reading this, don’t laugh; I just enjoy simple pleasures like that. I learned some French chess terms: Échecs is the word for Chess or Check. Échecs et mat is the phrase for Checkmate.
The third new thing I tried today was eating at an Italian restaurant (Lorenzo). Three other guys named Ab, Brad, and Allen joined Dad and me, so we had a fun time chatting and talking about past experiences in foreign countries and such. I ordered a pizza with thon on it. What I didn’t realize was that thon is tuna. Yum, tuna pizza… It was actually pretty good, though, and the crust was delicious. But the highlight of dinner was–you guessed it–dessert. I ordered mousse de chocolat (chocolate mousse), and wow! it was good. We finished off our meal with cups of tea for me and Dad, and coffee for the others. It was a scrumptious ending to my second day in Evry, France.
