Paris, France and the Dream in our Hearts

PARIS - Right-winger Nicolas Sarkozy became president of France on Wednesday, officially taking over from his conservative predecessor Jacques Chirac. After a private lunch Sarkozy will ride in a motorcade up the Avenue des Champs Elysees, escorted by the mounted Republican Guard, and lay a floral tribute at the tomb of the unknown soldier beneath the Arc de Triomphe (Read entire story on MSN).

If you have ever been to Paris, this has to be one of those moments in time you would never forget. Riding up the Avenue des Champs Elysees (something you can see from all over Paris) and then laying flowers beneath the Arc de Triomphe (one of the most famous monuments in Paris).

The Arc de Triomphe is a monument in Paris that stands in the centre of the Place Charles de Gaulle, formerly the Place de l'Étoile, at the western end of the Champs-Élysées. It is the linchpin of the historic axis (L'Axe historique) leading from the courtyard of the Louvre Palace, a sequence of monuments and grand thoroughfares on a route leading out of Paris.

It attracts many tourists. It was commissioned in 1806 after the victory at Austerlitz by Emperor Napoleon I at the peak of his fortunes. Laying the foundations alone took two years, and in 1810 when Napoleon entered Paris from the west with his bride Archduchess Marie-Louise of Austria, he had a wooden mock-up of the completed arch constructed.

The monument stands over 51 meters (165 feet) in height and is 45 meters wide. It is the second largest triumphal arch in existence ^[1] Its design was inspired by the Roman Arch of Titus; The Arc de Triomphe is so colossal that in the Paris victory parade marking the end of hostilities in World War I, an early daredevil flew his biplane through it, and was caught in a newsreel.<sup>[2]

Just writing about this makes my stomach begin to churn and puts a lump in my throat. Is there anything you ever wanted to bad that it hurt not to have it yet. My heart and my husband's heart yearn so much for the people of France and Europe. We really do believe we have experienced something here in the states that can be applied in France and all over Europe. It is the new creative church movement that has inspired so many new church planters to try all sorts of new and innovative things.

Churches like the one we go to (C3 church) and others like New Spring church in S.C., Mosaic L.A., and Granger Community Church in In. have an amazing way of getting the unchurched in the door. We believe the organization of ARC has an amazing way of training up and providing for new church planters. We believe organizations like Catalyst</sup> and the many other conferences put on by these creative church planters (Exponential Conference, Origins, Buzz Conference, etc.) train, encourage, motivate, and simply light a fire under this movement for Christ.

We want to do this in France. Not because there is anything in ourselves that we think is special or talented, but just because God has put this burden and dream in our hearts that is so clear it sometimes hurts not being in France yet, and we are just willing vessels clueless enough to think God can do this through us and those He chooses to join us.