les Davey de France

One of the students is going to be baptised tomorrow in the pool at the château. We're a bit twitchy about the weather. Today, for example, I went into Bordeaux after lunch wearing my cotton jacket and thinking how nice and warm it was in the sun, though not so hot in the shade. Everyone was in tee-shirts or lightweight things. As we wound our way through the campus on the tram I noticed that there were still huge puddles on the grass from the last downpour we had on Wednesday. I think the ground is pretty saturated ! I was due to come home a little earlier than normal because Pat was babysitting this evening. And at about 5:45 - a MASSIVE storm. It HOSED down. So much so that the trams were running through lakes in the city centre ( so the underground power system works even when flooded ! impressive !) and a friend got trapped in a supermarket when a drain burst and filled the whole place with water. The intrepid Bordelais won't let a small thing like a flood stop their shop...

I have blogged before about the eeePC I got and used for deputation. It worked beautifully. What I wanted from it was : 1) to do Powerpoint presentations, which it did via "Openoffice Impress" 2) to show the Bordeaux, Brittany and beyond video, which it did via VLC. 3) to keep on top of emails, especially when some people contacted me by email about visits etc. This it did via Firefox, Gmail and Macdonalds free wifi. 4) to Skype the family, using Macdonalds free wifi - we never did this because I never caught them online but I am pretty sure it would have worked fine. 5) to be light and easy to carry. And it is. The machine does have two drawbacks - the small ( 7 " ) screen and keyboard. However it remains incredibly useful. For example I take it on the tram to the student centre. It fits in my sacoche together with two or three paperback books, my diary, my notebook, my Gideons New Testament and other bits and bobs, and it is fine for the English class, for example, wh...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/brazil/2049750/Uncontacted-Amazonian-tribe-photographed.html?DCMP=EMC-new_30052008 It's a serious question. If they are people then we have the responsibility to share with them the riches of life as we live it "we, the civilised ones", as the spokesman puts it. To enable them to live long and comfortable lives. To become civilised, too. And to share the message of the Bible with them, of course. If they are animals then fine, we can leave them there, try to preserve their natural habitat (which we must do anyway, because it's a habitat created by God) and study them as unobtrusively as possible. Of course - that's the big question for us "the civilised ones" because we have swallowed the line that we are all just animals.

It's been a hard time lately for the folk back home in Deeside. Martin shares some of the things that have helped him as he accompanies the people through the deep waters. http://against-heresies.blogspot.com/2008/05/we-live-by-promises-not-explanations.html http://against-heresies.blogspot.com/2008/05/endless-boundless-grace-of-god-in-jesus.html

You know, it can't half rain here ! I thought it could rain in Cardiff, but Cardiff has got nothing on Bordeaux. I remember it raining so hard in Cardiff that the drains couldn't cope and the whole road was about an inch deep in water. Here it rains so hard that the ground in the garden can't soak it up fast enough and the whole garden is about an inch deep in water. Well, I don't think we'll die of thirst, anyway !

http://creideamh.blogspot.com/2008/05/better-gospel.html Yes ! With you all the way.

We had a brief flutter of excitement this weekend when we found a venue to buy - not a bad location, it would have worked ok and the price was OK, too. But we were pipped at the post by a swift buyer. Still, at least it shows that what we need to find is not absolutely impossible.