les Davey de France

Our old big sofa was given to us in 1994, shortly after we moved into The Meadows, Shotton Lane. It's a big American three-seater sofa and came with its sister, a two-seater. Together they dominated our living room along with a swivelling, rocking armchair, which in the end went to live in my study and now is back in the living room. Anyway, now we have bought our first new sofa! It unfolds to make a really big bed. And the old sofa has gone to live temporarily on the patio. The smaller sister found a home about six months ago in a student flat, but although we advertised the bigger one nobody showed any interest. It's big, you see. Very big. And seriously worn. It needs re-covering, really. Anyway yesterday evening we were reminded of a student recycling project that takes old stuff, repairs it and finds it a good home. I contacted them via their Facebook page and they're coming to get the old sofa on Monday. Jolly good!

Morning in the bookshop, followed by shopping at Auchan on the way home. Then catching up on emails, cutting Gwilym's hair and preparation for the Maison de la Bible AGM in the evening. The AGM was a very happy affair and was followed by a super meal together. Pat and I declared a truce on our detox for one evening.

The agenda included: 1) going with Gwilym to Ikea, buying a sofa bed, hiring a van and getting the thing back to the flat. Mission accomplished. The VW transporter van, though fairly enthusiastically dented on all sides, ran well and we got the sofa home in its boxes. IT WAS VERY HEAVY INDEED. 2) returning the van within the time limit of the rental, which I did comfortably. 3) Meeting up with some folks who work with students and who hope to bring a team to Bordeaux. We looked at the city and discussed the various things that are going on. 4) Awaiting Pat's return from Geneva in the evening. We slept comfortably on our new sofa bed!

1) Day two of back to running - except I slept late. Very late. Oh well, there's always tomorrow. 2) Detox day. Detox means no caffeine, no chocolate, no fruit, no carbohydrates except porage first thing, no dairy. I have to do this for 5 days. 3) Gwilym comes home this evening! So I have to get ready by: 4) Washing bedding 5) Getting shopping (carbs, caffeine, fruit, chocolate, dairy, all for the others!) 6) Meanwhile Mrs Davey is in Geneva and returns tomorrow.

One of the rich and interesting challenges of Christian service is that Christians are people of conviction. Missionaries perhaps even more so. A certain determination and firm-mindedness is necessary to face up to the obstacles involved in cross-cultural ministry. This can, of course, lead to tension, because not every conviction is shared by all. What sometimes helps us is to see that not all convictions are equally important, and not all positions can be held or argued in the same way. For example, we make a serious mistake if we give musical style in worship the same importance that we give to the nature of God or the person of Christ. Neither Luther nor Calvin sang Isaac Watts. Augustine would not have recognised a Geneva jig. (Try singing a traditional French psalm one day and you'll find out why they had that nickname!) But all shared the same convictions about the trinity and about the hypostatic union. Some things change. Others stay the same. I want to venture, humb...

I thought, "Carte de Séjour". They can grant you a ten-year Carte de Séjour which will give the possibility of staying until retirement in the UK. So I started to research online. Where I found lots of helpful government websites... It transpires that after living five years in France you can apply for French nationality . This contrasts interestingly with the UK where, for non-europeans, after five years if you aren't earning over £30,000 a year, home you go. Well-loved teacher? Tough! Anyway, people applying for French nationality can retain other nationalities. So, since we have lived in France for 11 years, we can in theory become French, hence European for the remainder of the twilight of the European experiment, and still stay subjects of Her Britannic Majesty and watch her United Kingdom untied. This sounds like a plan.

and in principle if you have been resident in France for five years, working, paying your bills, etc, then you can obtain a permanent residency permit, permanent being ten years renewable. I'll need to amass quite a bit of documentation to prove five-years' residency, but it shouldn't be beyond the wit of man.