Sunday encouragements
Sometimes I am tempted to think that the nay-sayers were right and coming to France was a fit of madness and that we threw away everything we had and did for nothing. Nothing.
After all, there we were in a biggish, happy church. I still miss them so much it hurts when I think of them. We would have carried on to retirement age, which for pastors in Wales is normally 87. We would have perhaps gone to conferences in the States eventually, if we could choose which microcurrent of US calvinism to identify with. Or we could have got involved with a mission and visited people working in Tahiti or something.
Instead here we are lighting the woodstove at 7am on our day off and working with small groups everywhere : in French, in English, with students, everything - small groups... We do have invitations to visit all over the world, so maybe one day we'll do that round the world trip on pushbikes...
Anyway then some things happen that just encourage you. Folks find you via the website. Our neighbour has started coming to church with us. And one guy who came to the international church last night. Every time I talk with him I learn something new that helps.
Last night he was recounting his first visit to Britain around 1970. He said, "I was amazed by all the different denominations : methodist, baptist, congregationalist. In Bordeaux in those days we had nothing at all. There was just the Roman Catholic church and the Eglise Réformée."
Suddenly I realised that, just like in Wales, God has been establishing churches here and there. Now there's perhaps 20 churches that would be able to explain the gospel to people and that are trying to reach the million Bordelais. We need more, of course, but in 30 years that's déjà pas mal.
And it's worth it.
After all, there we were in a biggish, happy church. I still miss them so much it hurts when I think of them. We would have carried on to retirement age, which for pastors in Wales is normally 87. We would have perhaps gone to conferences in the States eventually, if we could choose which microcurrent of US calvinism to identify with. Or we could have got involved with a mission and visited people working in Tahiti or something.
Instead here we are lighting the woodstove at 7am on our day off and working with small groups everywhere : in French, in English, with students, everything - small groups... We do have invitations to visit all over the world, so maybe one day we'll do that round the world trip on pushbikes...
Anyway then some things happen that just encourage you. Folks find you via the website. Our neighbour has started coming to church with us. And one guy who came to the international church last night. Every time I talk with him I learn something new that helps.
Last night he was recounting his first visit to Britain around 1970. He said, "I was amazed by all the different denominations : methodist, baptist, congregationalist. In Bordeaux in those days we had nothing at all. There was just the Roman Catholic church and the Eglise Réformée."
Suddenly I realised that, just like in Wales, God has been establishing churches here and there. Now there's perhaps 20 churches that would be able to explain the gospel to people and that are trying to reach the million Bordelais. We need more, of course, but in 30 years that's déjà pas mal.
And it's worth it.
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