Sunday evening reflections

As water to the thirsty, as beauty to the eyes,

as strength that follows weakness, as truth instead of lies,

as songtime, and springtime, and summertime to be,

so is my Lord, my living Lord, so is my Lord to me.

Like calm instead of clamour, like peace that follows pain,

like meeting after parting, like sunshine after rain,

like moonlight and starlight and sunlight on the sea,

so is my Lord, my living Lord, so is my Lord to me.

As sleep that follows fever, as gold instead of grey,

as freedom after bondage, as sunshine to the day,

as home to the traveller, and all he longs to see,

so is my Lord, my living Lord, so is my Lord to me.

Timothy Dudley-Smith

OK, it's not "A debtor to mercy alone", but it does express well the sheer refreshment and satisfaction of faith in Christ.

Last night was an unusual experience. Daniel, Samy Foucachon's nephew, ex of Lyon but now living in Moscow, Idaho, married his beloved Lydia. And the marriage was webcast. Daniel and I have never met but we have corresponded by email, etc., so I looked in on the wedding - 11pm our time and it was all over by midnight. American weddings are brief ! They looked a splendid couple, Lydia gorgeous in her white gown with a colourful bouquet and Daniel imposing in his dark suit.

This morning we were meeting with the Eglise Libre de Pessac at the Bagatelle Hospital Social Centre. Samy preached on Bartimeus - faith, its content and its outworking.

It was a nice service, a little different from our usual format, and afterwards we ate together and chatted.

Emmanuel, the pastor at the Eglise Libre, came and sat at our table and we chatted about the weekly radio slots he does on RCF Bordeaux - a Christian Radio Station (broadly Christian, you understand). Emmanuel presents "Point de vue Evangélique" and usually speaks from a Bible passage but another time we presented the student work in Bordeaux. I told him about my experiences at BBC Radio Cymru, and the sheer fun of live broadcasting.

Then we talked about the anglophones and the project of the International English-language service. A lady in his congregation is Anglo-Française and she passed on her email address and phone number as she is interested in getting involved.

We talked about witness in the streets and on the quays of Bordeaux, too, and the special times when the city is out in the streets. Emmanuel is a good guy and is president of the French Protestant Federation here in Bordeaux.

It was good to see some of our students there and most of our young guys. A Brazilian student was with us for the first time - she's from Pat's French class and she wants to come to the Service in English next week and also to the English class on Saturday.

It was a useful time. And we always eat so well, too !