Quick update

Pat - in fine fettle! She likes nothing more, I think, than nursing the children. She and Catrin have done lots of things today. Catrin writes long stories and Pat has been helping her prepare one to send off to someone.

Gwilym - also in fine fettle. He had a nasty cough and lost his voice on Wednesday (it's an ill wind!) but he was fine by teatime.

Catrin - conjunctivitis clearing up nicely, with the help of two types of drops, medicine to take and eye patches! She'll be back to school on Monday.

Me - I am OK, though finding it all a struggle. Well, no - finding the language a struggle. I struggle on the phone. I struggle taking the Bible study. I struggle writing letters and e-mails. I sign things knowing that there's no way I could read or understand everything on every page. Thankfully the banks provide English translations, but they are non-contractual. Mind you, would I understand all the small print in Britain?

Still, I just took a quick dose of a Bach motet "Fürchte dich nicht, ich bin bei dir" (Fear not, I am with you), a setting of parts of Isaiah 41. I sang in this many years ago in the Aberystwyth Bach Society Choir. Brilliant.

Then you read Isaiah 41, and it puts a bit of backbone back into you...

Now I am listening to a sermon by Florent Varak (Lyon) and he's talking about Moses spending 40 years in the sticks talking to sheep.

Yes. It's OK, really, isn't it! In fact, when you think about 2 Corinthians 12 : 9 & 10 it's better than OK.

The week ahead: As well as one-to-one stuff, I am taking the English class today (top set!), the church midweek meeting on Wednesday, possibly a Bible Study on Thursday evening, English class next Saturday and then preaching on Sunday. That's more like it. Getting closer to a Deeside workload!

Comments

Anonymous said…
Thank you for your update. This life is a funny old thing isn't it with its ups and downs. It's wonderful that we can rely on God's faithfulness and the security that we have in Christ.
Just so that you know that you're not alone in your struggles. We took our youth group swimming last night, or not as the case was. The baths were closed and so were the other nearest ones. We took them for chips and brought them back to church for an hour to play games. Not the most efficient way to impress two of them who were new! It's just as well they behaved really well as we were only two leaders. Young people are very gracious sometimes - not one of them complained. (So not so much of a struggle really.)
So yes, on one level a bit of a disaster, but there again in the big scheme of things who knows?
10:03 am
Emmanuel said…
Glad to hear you are getting busier. Things are slowly falling into place.
10:05 am
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A bit about music exams in UK and France

They're really different. I think I have already mentioned that while in the UK people generally find a private teacher for their instrument, or do it through a school scheme, here there are municipal music school, conservatoires and so on. The situation is a little more complex than I had first understood, because the schools vary in the rigidity of their organisation: the most, the conservatoires, next the municipals, then the associations. Our music school is an association, but it tends to apply the standards of the municipal schools with its programme of cycles, etc. Britain - grade 1 to 8, grade 8 being roughly equivalent to A-level, pre university/conservatoire. France - 3 cycles, each taking about 4 years, with 3ème cycle being roughly equivalent to grade 8. Theory of music - UK to take grade 8 you need theory grade 5. In France you study theory alongside your instrumental studies, very slowly. Catrin's flute music is MUCH more difficult than the stuff she does in theor...
Read more

Good news from my sermon buddy

Yesterday we went over my script from August 13. There really wasn't much she had taken exception to. Once or twice she wondered quite what I was getting at (they had the same problem at Deeside, I think...) and I do have difficulties with the word " de ", but then she said "Who doesn't?" So I felt very encouraged. I also took the opportunity to ask her about one or two things: 1) Direct preaching. Like I used to in Britain, I preach saying you - using "vous" when I am talking to the whole wide world and "tu" when I want it to feel as if I am addressing each person individually. French preachers tend to say rather "What will we do, what will one do". So I asked her if she felt my way was too direct, too brutal for the French ear. She said "I think you can get away with it with your English accent". In fact several people have commented on how much they appreciated being spoken to directly in preaching. 2) Liaisons Last...
Read more

A brief sortie to North Wales

 Following the Great Keswick Debacle, when our volunteering at the Keswick café was sabotaged by our assorted indispositions, we had airline tickets to use up. Yes, we had not taken travel insurance, so we paid even more money to change our tickets to fly for a short visit to North Wales. This time we were able to go. We passed extremely slowly through a very crowded Bordeaux airport but in good time to get our plane. All seats in the terminal were taken so we leaned against whatever we could find while waiting to board. Hey, bags need seats, too! though sometimes pointing out to Pat, "No, that's a bag seat", makes the bag find a new refuge on the lap of the person sitting next to it... Once on the plane we quickly found our allocated seats - right at the back on the left hand side - stowed our bags and the flight was smooth and uneventful.  We had 30 minutes in Manchester to disembark, get through immigration , hustle off to the station and board our train for Shotton. I...
Read more