Informativo da Missão Zero - Dezembro 2017 / News December 2017
[ENGLISH TEXT BELOW]
Salut queridos amigos, parceiros e irmãos em Cristo!
Salut queridos amigos, parceiros e irmãos em Cristo!
Como trabalhamos na implantação de um projeto em um contexto transcultural, julgamos importante mencionar alguns detalhes de nossas atividades para que você como nosso parceiro e amigo possa compreender melhor nossa realidade:
→ Durante o mês de Dezembro 2017 ←
• Dia 1° do mês fomos junto com o padre Arnaud (capelão da Universidade Católica onde organizamos o Curso Alpha Campus) visitar 2 casas católicas de estudantes onde moram 570 alunos da universidade. Como o padre não tem tempo de propor nenhum trabalho espiritual nestes locais e ele gostaria muito que acontecesse alguma coisa evangelística por lá, ele então nos perguntou se não gostaríamos de propor alguma atividade regular para os moradores na casa, e nós aceitamos. Depois desta visita, já fizemos dois momentos espirituais na casa (um dia 8 e outro dia 13 na festa de Natal deles) – foram momentos de louvor, oração e leitura bíblica e ficamos positivamente impressionados com a participação dos jovens.
Estamos vendo este trabalho na casa de estudantes, assim como o Curso Alpha Campus, como duas grandes portas que Deus abriu para nós. É uma grande oportunidade de desenvolver o projeto com os universitários, pois temos a possibilidade de apresentar o Evangelho em um lugar onde recebemos toda a liberdade para trabalhar e podemos ter maior contato com os jovens, já que não somos mais estudantes universitários. E nestas três ocasiões já conversamos com alguns moradores da casa, que estão interessados em não somente participar das atividades, mas também em nos ajudar a organizá-las.
O que mais nos impressiona é que o padre Arnaud, que nos conhece há muito pouco tempo, tem confiado a nós tamanha responsabilidade e também tem nos dado total Liberdade para trabalhar; sem dúvidas é o agir de Deus!
• Neste mesmo dia, 1° de dezembro, fomos ao último encontro ecumênico oficial em celebração aos 500 anos da Reforma Protestante – que aconteceu na igreja católica São Irineu. A celebração começou normalmente no horário previsto, éramos cerca de 300 pessoas e contávamos com a presença do cardeal católico de Lyon, representantes da federação protestante da França e pastores protestantes e evangélicos da cidade. Tudo acontecia na maior tranqüilidade até que, de repente, durante um hino, alguém levantou a voz dizendo: PROTESTO! E continuou a gritar até que a música parou. No mesmo momento, alguns jovens rapazes passavam entregando um folheto aos participantes do evento explicando o tal protesto. Resumindo, era um grupo de em torno de 20 rapazes, jovens católicos, que são contra o ecumenismo e contra a unidade da igreja – seu argumento é que a única e verdadeira igreja de Cristo é a igreja católica. A celebração foi interrompida e a polícia foi chamada à intervir, cercando estes jovens católicos. Foram minutos tensos, alguns queriam continuar, outros choravam, outros tentavam convencê-los a sair, mas a maioria não sabia bem o que fazer diante da situação. Finalmente, foi decidido que continuaríamos a celebração na cripta, no subsolo da igreja (onde uma vez já esteve enterrado o pai da Igreja – Irineu de Lyon). Lá, um local pouco iluminado, sem espaço suficiente para todos e que mais parecia um dos lugares onde a antiga igreja perseguida se reunia, a celebração continuou. E o fato de muitos terem sentado no chão ou terem ficado em pé pela falta de espaço gerou um um espírito de unidade ainda mais forte entre os participantes. E por fim concluímos que o protesto em vez de atrapalhar a celebração auxiliou a fortalecer o sentido de unidade proposto pelo encontro.
• Entre os dias 7 e 10 de dezembro aconteceu em Lyon a famosa Festa das Luzes (Fête de Lumières), que recebe em torno de 1 milhão de visitantes a cada ano. Na parte central da cidade acontecem projeções de vídeos utilizando grandes prédios como “telão”. Na oportunidade, recebemos dois amigos do grupo de jovens de Nantes que vieram nos visitar.
• No dia 14 de dezembro participamos da gravação de um programa de rádio na RCF – Rádio Cristã Francófona. O tema foi sobre a evangelização de jovens e estavam conosco o pastor anglicano que é nosso parceiro no Curso Alpha Campus, o pastor da igreja Hillsong de Lyon, um padre e outros 2 líderes de jovens da igreja católica e nós representamos a igreja Protestante. O programa teve duração de 30 minutos e discutimos sobre o desafio da igreja, a realidade de cada denominação e estratégias missionárias para alcançar os jovens franceses da atualidade.
• Dia 18 de dezembro tivemos duas surpresas, uma boa e outra muito ruim. A boa surpresa recebemos logo que acordamos, olhamos pela janela e vimos tudo coberto de neve. Foi a primeira vez que nevou em Lyon neste inverno, e numa quantidade suficiente para deixar tudo branco como vemos nos filmes. Já a má surpresa foi que tivemos um problema sério em um de nossos computadores, perdemos muitos dos arquivos criados em 2017 por causa de uma pane no HD. Com isso, foi necessário muito tempo para refazer coisas que já estavam prontas para as atividades que começaram em janeiro.
• Nosso Natal: Dia 24 fomos ao culto na igreja onde moramos – culto celebrado com a comunidade de malgaxes na França e depois jantamos só nós dois em casa. No dia 25 fomos almoçar na casa de uma senhora francesa que já morou no Brasil – o nome dela é Mônica (Ela faz parte da comunidade onde moramos, foi ela que coordenou toda a arrumação da casa onde moramos para nos receber). Foi um tempo muito especial em família, pois além de nós estavam presentes: sua filha, sua afilhada com seu filho, dois amigos dela e mais um jovem que é também nosso vizinho – depois do almoço cantamos hinos de Natal e tivemos a oportunidade de falar um pouco sobre Deus e fé com os presentes, já que nós, nosso vizinho e Mônica éramos os únicos cristãos presentes.
Curiosidade: Na França geralmente celebra-se o Natal no dia 25 e eles comem frutos do mar.
Além dessas atividades extras, continuamos com as atividades que desenvolvemos regularmente:
• Reunião com a equipe Pastoral da região: Tivemos 2 este mês (01 e 15/12);
• Curso Alpha Campus na Universidade Católica: Tivemos nosso ultimo encontro no dia 04 e foi super legal! Tivemos vários participantes durante os 9 encontros, alguns vieram somente em 1 ou 2 encontros, mas 3 participantes fizeram praticamente todo o curso e testemunharam mudança de vida a partir do Alpha. Isso nos deu animo para continuar, e durante este mês já fizemos uma reunião com a equipe antes do Natal para começarmos o próximo curso final de janeiro;
• Grupo Universitários e Jovens Profissionais de Lyon (18 - 35 anos): Tivemos nosso único encontro do mês (dia 11), quando fizemos nossa festa de Natal e alguns dos novos participantes, que haviam vindo pela primeira vez na noite de crepes, vieram novamente. E durante este mês começamos a preparar as coisas (divulgação pela internet, músicas, e temas para trabalhar com o grupo) para os encontros semanais que começarão em janeiro;
• Visitas nas igrejas para conhecer a realidade de Lyon: neste mês visitamos e participamos de 4 paróquias diferentes em atividades diferentes: 5 cultos, 1 reunião de presbitério, 1 grupo de jovens, 1 pequeno grupo nas casas e 1 ensino confirmatório.
- Surpresa do mês: Entre os dias 26 e 29 conseguimos aproveitar alguns dias de descanso e fomos visitar a cidade de Annecy, que fica bem próxima aos Alpes. É uma linda cidade, com um grande lago em frente a uma montanha com neve, uma imagem digna de filme. Foi muito bom poder descansar um pouco depois de meses tão intensos de trabalho!
Salut dear friends, partners and brothers in Christ!
As we work on implementing a project in a cross-cultural context, we consider it important to mention some details of our activities so that you as our partner and friend can better understand our reality:
→ During the month of December 2017 ←
• On December 1st we went with Father Arnaud (chaplain of the Catholic University where we organize the Alpha Campus Course) to visit 2 Catholic student homes where 570 university students live. As the priest does not have time to propose any spiritual activity at these places and he would very much like something evangelistic happening there, he then asked us if we would like to propose some regular activity for the residents in the house, and we accepted it. After this visit, we already had two spiritual moments at the house (on December 8 and another on December 13, at their Christmas party) - they were moments of worship, prayer and biblical reading and we were positively impressed with the participation of the students.
We are seeing this work at the student house, as well as the Alpha Campus Course, as two great doors that God opened for us. It is a great opportunity to develop the project with the university students, because we have the possibility to present the Gospel in a place where we are free to work and we can have more contact with the young people, since we as missionaries are no longer university students. And on these occasions we have already spoken to some of the residents of the house, who are interested not only in participating in the activities, but also in helping us to organize them.
What most impresses us is that Father Arnaud, who has known us for a very short time, has entrusted to us such a responsibility and has also given us complete freedom to work; without doubt it is the action of God!
• On the same day, December 1st, we went to the last official ecumenical meeting in celebration of the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation - which took place at St. Irenaeus Catholic Church. The celebration began normally at the scheduled time, we were about 300 people and we had the presence of the Catholic cardinal of Lyon, representatives of the Protestant Federation of France and Protestant and Evangelical pastors of the city. Everything happened in the greatest tranquility until, suddenly, during a hymn, someone raised his voice saying: PROTEST! And he kept screaming until the music stopped. At the same time, some young men passed a leaflet to the attendees explaining the protest. In short, it was a group of about 20 young Catholic men who are against ecumenism and against the unity of the church - their argument is that the only true church of Christ is the Catholic church. The celebration was interrupted and the police were called in to intervene, surrounding these young men. They were tense minutes, some wanted to continue, others cried, others tried to persuade them to leave, but most were not quite sure what to do in the face of the situation. Finally, it was decided that we would continue the celebration in the crypt, in the basement of the church (where once the father of the Church - Irenaeus of Lyon was buried). There, a dimly lit place, with not enough room for everyone, and which looked more like one of the places where the old persecuted church met, the celebration continued. And the fact that many sat on the ground or stood for lack of space generated an even stronger spirit of unity among the participants. And finally we concluded that the protest instead of hindering the celebration helped to strengthen the sense of unity proposed by the meeting.
• Between 7 and 10 December, the famous Festival of Lights (Fête de Lumières) took place in Lyon, which receives around 1 million visitors each year. In the central part of the city there are video projections using large buildings as "big screens". In the opportunity, we received two friends from the group of young adults from Nantes, where we worked before.
• On December 14 we participated in the recording of a radio program on RCF - Francophone Christian Radio. The theme was about the evangelism of the youth and we were with the Anglican pastor who is our partner in the Alpha Campus Course, the pastor of Hillsong Church in Lyon, a priest and 2 other youth leaders from the Catholic Church and we represented the Protestant church. The program lasted 30 minutes and we discussed the challenges of the church, the reality of each denomination and missionary strategies to reach the French youth today.
• On December 18 we had two surprises, one good and one very bad. The good surprise we received as soon as we woke up, we looked out the window and saw everything covered with snow. It was the first time it snowed in Lyon this winter, and it was enough to make everything white as we see it in the movies. Yet the bad surprise was that we had a serious problem on one of our computers, we lost many of the files created in 2017 because of a crash in the HD. Thereby, it took a lot of time to redo things that were already ready for the activities that began in January.
• Our Christmas: On December 24 we went to the church where beside where we live - the worship service was celebrated with the Malagasy Congregation and then we had dinner only the two of us at home. On the 25th we went to lunch at the home of a French lady who lived in Brazil - her name is Monica (she is a member of the congregation where we live, she coordinated all the housekeeping where we live to receive us). It was a very special time for the family, as we were present: her daughter, her goddaughter with her son, two friends of her and another young man who is also our neighbor - after lunch we sang Christmas hymns and we had the opportunity to speak a little about God and faith with the presents, since we, our neighbor and Monica, are Christians.
Curiosity: In France people usually celebrate Christmas on the 25th and they eat seafood.
In addition to these extra activities, we continue with the activities we develop regularly:
• Meeting with the Pastoral team of the region: We had 2 this month (on the 1st and on the 15th);
• Alpha Campus Course at the Catholic University: We had our last meeting on the 4th and it was super cool! We had several participants during the 9 meetings, some came only in 1 or 2 meetings, but 3 participants did almost the entire course and witnessed a change of life from Alpha. This gave us the motivation to continue, and during this month we already had a meeting with the team before Christmas to begin the next course at the end of January;
• The Group of University Students and Young Professionals (18-35 years old): We had our only meeting of the month on the 11th, when we had our Christmas party and some of the new participants, who had come for the first time on the crepes evening in November, came again. And during this month we started to prepare things (internet advertising, songs, and themes to work with the group) for the weekly meetings that begin in January;
• Visits to the congregations to know the reality of the Church in Lyon: this month we visited and participated in 4 different parishes in different activities: 5 worship services, 1 council meeting, 1 youth group, 1 cell group meeting and 1 confirmation classes.
- Surprise of the month: Between the 26th and 29th we managed to enjoy some days of rest and we went to visit the city of Annecy, which is very close to the Alpes. It's a beautiful city, with a large lake in front of a snowy mountain, a film-worthy image. It was great to be able to rest a little after months of intense work!
_______________ _______________
Salut dear friends, partners and brothers in Christ!
As we work on implementing a project in a cross-cultural context, we consider it important to mention some details of our activities so that you as our partner and friend can better understand our reality:
→ During the month of December 2017 ←
• On December 1st we went with Father Arnaud (chaplain of the Catholic University where we organize the Alpha Campus Course) to visit 2 Catholic student homes where 570 university students live. As the priest does not have time to propose any spiritual activity at these places and he would very much like something evangelistic happening there, he then asked us if we would like to propose some regular activity for the residents in the house, and we accepted it. After this visit, we already had two spiritual moments at the house (on December 8 and another on December 13, at their Christmas party) - they were moments of worship, prayer and biblical reading and we were positively impressed with the participation of the students.
We are seeing this work at the student house, as well as the Alpha Campus Course, as two great doors that God opened for us. It is a great opportunity to develop the project with the university students, because we have the possibility to present the Gospel in a place where we are free to work and we can have more contact with the young people, since we as missionaries are no longer university students. And on these occasions we have already spoken to some of the residents of the house, who are interested not only in participating in the activities, but also in helping us to organize them.
What most impresses us is that Father Arnaud, who has known us for a very short time, has entrusted to us such a responsibility and has also given us complete freedom to work; without doubt it is the action of God!
• On the same day, December 1st, we went to the last official ecumenical meeting in celebration of the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation - which took place at St. Irenaeus Catholic Church. The celebration began normally at the scheduled time, we were about 300 people and we had the presence of the Catholic cardinal of Lyon, representatives of the Protestant Federation of France and Protestant and Evangelical pastors of the city. Everything happened in the greatest tranquility until, suddenly, during a hymn, someone raised his voice saying: PROTEST! And he kept screaming until the music stopped. At the same time, some young men passed a leaflet to the attendees explaining the protest. In short, it was a group of about 20 young Catholic men who are against ecumenism and against the unity of the church - their argument is that the only true church of Christ is the Catholic church. The celebration was interrupted and the police were called in to intervene, surrounding these young men. They were tense minutes, some wanted to continue, others cried, others tried to persuade them to leave, but most were not quite sure what to do in the face of the situation. Finally, it was decided that we would continue the celebration in the crypt, in the basement of the church (where once the father of the Church - Irenaeus of Lyon was buried). There, a dimly lit place, with not enough room for everyone, and which looked more like one of the places where the old persecuted church met, the celebration continued. And the fact that many sat on the ground or stood for lack of space generated an even stronger spirit of unity among the participants. And finally we concluded that the protest instead of hindering the celebration helped to strengthen the sense of unity proposed by the meeting.
• Between 7 and 10 December, the famous Festival of Lights (Fête de Lumières) took place in Lyon, which receives around 1 million visitors each year. In the central part of the city there are video projections using large buildings as "big screens". In the opportunity, we received two friends from the group of young adults from Nantes, where we worked before.
• On December 14 we participated in the recording of a radio program on RCF - Francophone Christian Radio. The theme was about the evangelism of the youth and we were with the Anglican pastor who is our partner in the Alpha Campus Course, the pastor of Hillsong Church in Lyon, a priest and 2 other youth leaders from the Catholic Church and we represented the Protestant church. The program lasted 30 minutes and we discussed the challenges of the church, the reality of each denomination and missionary strategies to reach the French youth today.
• On December 18 we had two surprises, one good and one very bad. The good surprise we received as soon as we woke up, we looked out the window and saw everything covered with snow. It was the first time it snowed in Lyon this winter, and it was enough to make everything white as we see it in the movies. Yet the bad surprise was that we had a serious problem on one of our computers, we lost many of the files created in 2017 because of a crash in the HD. Thereby, it took a lot of time to redo things that were already ready for the activities that began in January.
• Our Christmas: On December 24 we went to the church where beside where we live - the worship service was celebrated with the Malagasy Congregation and then we had dinner only the two of us at home. On the 25th we went to lunch at the home of a French lady who lived in Brazil - her name is Monica (she is a member of the congregation where we live, she coordinated all the housekeeping where we live to receive us). It was a very special time for the family, as we were present: her daughter, her goddaughter with her son, two friends of her and another young man who is also our neighbor - after lunch we sang Christmas hymns and we had the opportunity to speak a little about God and faith with the presents, since we, our neighbor and Monica, are Christians.
Curiosity: In France people usually celebrate Christmas on the 25th and they eat seafood.
In addition to these extra activities, we continue with the activities we develop regularly:
• Meeting with the Pastoral team of the region: We had 2 this month (on the 1st and on the 15th);
• Alpha Campus Course at the Catholic University: We had our last meeting on the 4th and it was super cool! We had several participants during the 9 meetings, some came only in 1 or 2 meetings, but 3 participants did almost the entire course and witnessed a change of life from Alpha. This gave us the motivation to continue, and during this month we already had a meeting with the team before Christmas to begin the next course at the end of January;
• The Group of University Students and Young Professionals (18-35 years old): We had our only meeting of the month on the 11th, when we had our Christmas party and some of the new participants, who had come for the first time on the crepes evening in November, came again. And during this month we started to prepare things (internet advertising, songs, and themes to work with the group) for the weekly meetings that begin in January;
• Visits to the congregations to know the reality of the Church in Lyon: this month we visited and participated in 4 different parishes in different activities: 5 worship services, 1 council meeting, 1 youth group, 1 cell group meeting and 1 confirmation classes.
- Surprise of the month: Between the 26th and 29th we managed to enjoy some days of rest and we went to visit the city of Annecy, which is very close to the Alpes. It's a beautiful city, with a large lake in front of a snowy mountain, a film-worthy image. It was great to be able to rest a little after months of intense work!
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