From Mexico City to Paris: How Tea and Providence Led One Family to Serve a Community of Artists
- Timarie Friesen
- 12 minutes ago
- 4 min read
By Timarie Friesen
Karla says the word “Loss” in fluent French. The rented theater near the Notre Dame cathedral quiets down as the audience leans forward in their seats. It was hobby, not religion, that brought this crowd of tea aficionados to the cultural event. Yet loss is at the center of Karla’s story.
Who is God and how does he meet us in our sufferings? The unexpected question stuns an audience that came to learn where to find the best tea leaves, and how to brew an exquisite cup of tea.
The journey from her native Mexico City to Paris is paved with grief, grace, and surprise. Karla holds a handmade ceramic teacup crafted by her husband, David. Previously an architect, David, now works as an artist. Karla is a musician and a former teahouse owner. After a series of losses, the couple left Mexico City. They visited Asia to explore the tea industry and considered opening a tea house there. Instead, tea and providence led them to Paris.
The downtown Parisian theater is filled with Asian-culture enthusiasts. Some wear kimonos. Some speak Japanese or Mandarin. Amidst the kaleidoscope of color and sound, Karla, speaks to them in French (her third language) as a tea-industry expert.
This expertise dovetails well with the ministry of the local church in Paris that Karla and David attend. The church hosts a session at the twice-a-year cultural event. The session gathers a large number of tea hobbyists hoping to find healing powers in special leaves and meditation. Instead, Karla, a respected speaker, shares how God nurtured her during intense seasons of grief.
Events like the earthquake that struck her hometown in Mexico City. In the aftermath, her teahouse became a place of refuge where her neighborhood church held regular services. Church members came there to pray and gave locals free cups of tea and emergency assistance.
Still, deeper traumas befell Karla years before, when she suffered a series of tragic losses. First, when her three-month-old daughter died suddenly. Then sometime later, when Karla’s second baby died of a heart defect within a week of her birth. Church friends sat with Karla through many hours crocheting, talking, and providing room for Karla to process the grief when all felt impossible.
Encouraged by these friends, Karla began to play her music and practice hospitality at the teahouse. This tight-knit community echoed the call to weep with those who weep; their care reflected Christ and carried Karla through the difficult time. She saw the church and the teahouse as instruments of God’s kindness and provision for her and David.
God continues to display his kindness in the Paris art district, where Karla connects with tea drinkers. She shares her past, infused with both loss and healing, as an illustration for listeners to contemplate their own stories. Perhaps they’ll imagine they too are seen by the same triune God—a loving Father to the destitute, a Savior through his son Christ Jesus, and a comforter through the indwelling of his Holy Spirit.
In a city where less than two percent identify as believers, Karla and David intentionally engage with their local Parisian community. With their six-year-old son, they live in an apartment near the theater, which is also the place their local church meets. David is known for his well-crafted ceramic cups and bowls, and Karla, for her guitar skills. She teaches lessons to a growing number of Parisians.
Among their friends are the tea aficionados. Karla and David hope these friends will venture someday to the rented theater on a Sunday and experience their church—a meaningful community that emulates their Mexico City neighborhood church. The warmth they shared with the church in Mexico is what compelled Karla and David to relocate to Paris and join a team of missionaries and church planters serving there.
In a city where church attendance is rare, artists search for significance and a place to belong. The church Karla and David attend welcomes these people, combining hospitality and community alongside a neighborhood church. In addition to the cultural events, the church participates in seasonal jazz concerts.
Karla spends much of her free time giving guitar lessons and performing in small coffee-shop concerts. David spends time crafting ceramic art and studying for his seminary classes to become a pastor in France.
Karla is grateful she can talk about her losses and the providence that led her to Paris. The unexpected path includes her love for tea, for music, for her church community, and most of all, her love for Christ. Karla and David are foreigners living in Paris, with their hearts anchored in their true home. A place where suffering and loss will not exist. A place where God will dwell with his people from every nation and language, and Karla wants her Parisian neighbors to be among those people.
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Developmental edits and versions in French and Spanish by Paola Barrera.
Photo of Paris on Unsplash by Jose Teiga.