La Klinka

For Polly, wife, mother, running legend, minister's wife (not an exhaustive list of titles). This made me think of the Porch, if the Porch met at the Ice House!
I met a nice American lady at the park this week from Wisconsin named Tiffany.  She came to France 10 years ago on a short term mission and never left. Her husband, Aaron (he was raised Methodist. That's probably why he is such a nice person) is from North Dakota and they met here and have no plans to return to the States. He is the national director of Cru, formerly known as Campus Crusades for Christ (who changed their name for obvious reasons- the Crusades weren't our finest moment, p.s. the founder is from Coweta and graduated from NSU on Tahlequah). They used to go to church with Lori and Florence (small world!) and they helped plant a new church across town and they invited us to go with them this week.
The church doesn't have it's own building, and they currently meet in a French Cabaret! Saturday nights they have dinner and a full bar and burlesque, topless, drag, etc. shows and Sunday mornings it is the house of the Lord. I love it! In the "sanctuary" part of the cabaret they turned the artwork backwards, but it was still showing in the lobby. The cabarets' full bar was still on display, but on Sundays they serve pastries and coffee.
As Tiffany and Aaron were introducing as to the door greeter, the young man leans in to kiss me and I totally knew thats how they greet but before I could even think I recoiled and stepped back that this man was trying to kiss me! They all had a good laugh and said he was a nice guy and the perfect one to teach me how to properly greet and he walked me though it in English. Basically just touch cheeks and make a kissing noise. Everyone inside greeted me that way. A man one time kissed me on my cheek to greet me at Speedy's in Inola and it was very wet but thats a whole other story.
Aaron said for his ministry he believes meeting in a cabaret helps some people to feel more comfortable, but they chose the space just because it is all they found. They're looking for a new space because they have outgrown the current location. They will only stay in their current neighborhood because it doesnt have any other protestant church.
The service was entirely in French although the guest pastor today was American. They have a lot of Americans in the church, as American missionaries started it. I sat next to an American from Iowa- just like I do in Inola!
They sang some songs in French that I recognized as American songs! They sang "Open the Eyes of my Heart Lord" and "Blessed be The Name" and I loved it. Hearing people worship in other languages gives me goose bumps! I recorded Blessed be the Name for both of my blog readers and I get chills when everyone starts clapping.
I'm not going to share every picture of the church that I took, as some were truly so inappropriate. Don't worry, Polly, Im keeping it as classy as I can be just for you! Let's just say pasties and leave it at that.
The drum was just a square box the drummer sat on but it was some kind of electronic drum set. They said most of the smaller French churches use them as a drum set would overpower the room. We need to get John one of these; our stage at home is so crowded. The drummer just returned from a month long US tour where he played Dollywood. Haha!
That's Tiffany in the hat and the blurry picture is of Aaron. I feel too awakard asking them to pose for me, so I'm a creeper for my blog fans. You're welcome. Curtis cut his finger on a piece of broken glass in his seat- things must get wild in the cabaret!
I loved it this morning,  but I should have known that I would because I like Jesus and because Moulin Rouge is my favorite musical.