Church today
I thought I'd tell you a little about the services today, because they illustrate pretty well the challenges and opportunities that France affords.
This morning at the church in Bordeaux was a special "Profession of faith" service for two young people. One was a mainland Chinese student converted in his first year through doing the evangelistic Bible Studies first with Carol, then with Fiona. He's a great chap - bright, cheerful and energetic, and studying at the same language school as Pat, but in the next class up. The other young person was the pastor's daughter. The church (we meet in the basement of the pastor's rented house) was pretty full, and various friends and relatives had come along. The service was very encouraging and helpful. The music - well we had expert accompaniment, everything was well planned in advance, the hymns were projected onto the wall and all went pretty smoothly.
In the afternoon I drove the preacher to our mother-church 50 km north in a village just outside Blaye. I LOVE going to this church. The people are country people - there's a simplicity and transparency about them (me to an elderly lady, "Vous allez bien?", "Pas du tout!" Are you doing alright? Not at all!) We were a little late because of "tortoises in the road", but when we arrived everyone was stood outside the lovely little village church (temple) because nobody had brought their key. Thankfully after a few minutes the cavalry arrived with the key and we all went in. I guess we were almost 20 people, but the church was comfortably full because it would only hold about 30 anyway, even if you all squeezed up. Our preacher had chosen hymns, but it turned out nobody knew them and there was no accompanist, so people chose ones they knew instead as we went along. The service was much more ... rustic ... but it had its own charm and its importance. That community has been meeting there for over 100 years, and just across the road the foundations are being laid for a new housing estate (social housing). Interesting!
It was good to take the preacher up to Blaye, because it gave me a chance to get to know him a bit, as well, and to talk about a new men's group that we hope to start based in Pessac. It was the first time for me ever to get to know a narcoleptic. He didn't fall asleep during the sermon. And neither did anyone else as far as I know.
The only bad thing was that we didn't get back to Bordeaux till well after 7, which meant I was too late to go to the Sunday evening prayer meeting at the student centre.
This morning at the church in Bordeaux was a special "Profession of faith" service for two young people. One was a mainland Chinese student converted in his first year through doing the evangelistic Bible Studies first with Carol, then with Fiona. He's a great chap - bright, cheerful and energetic, and studying at the same language school as Pat, but in the next class up. The other young person was the pastor's daughter. The church (we meet in the basement of the pastor's rented house) was pretty full, and various friends and relatives had come along. The service was very encouraging and helpful. The music - well we had expert accompaniment, everything was well planned in advance, the hymns were projected onto the wall and all went pretty smoothly.
In the afternoon I drove the preacher to our mother-church 50 km north in a village just outside Blaye. I LOVE going to this church. The people are country people - there's a simplicity and transparency about them (me to an elderly lady, "Vous allez bien?", "Pas du tout!" Are you doing alright? Not at all!) We were a little late because of "tortoises in the road", but when we arrived everyone was stood outside the lovely little village church (temple) because nobody had brought their key. Thankfully after a few minutes the cavalry arrived with the key and we all went in. I guess we were almost 20 people, but the church was comfortably full because it would only hold about 30 anyway, even if you all squeezed up. Our preacher had chosen hymns, but it turned out nobody knew them and there was no accompanist, so people chose ones they knew instead as we went along. The service was much more ... rustic ... but it had its own charm and its importance. That community has been meeting there for over 100 years, and just across the road the foundations are being laid for a new housing estate (social housing). Interesting!
It was good to take the preacher up to Blaye, because it gave me a chance to get to know him a bit, as well, and to talk about a new men's group that we hope to start based in Pessac. It was the first time for me ever to get to know a narcoleptic. He didn't fall asleep during the sermon. And neither did anyone else as far as I know.
The only bad thing was that we didn't get back to Bordeaux till well after 7, which meant I was too late to go to the Sunday evening prayer meeting at the student centre.
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(Come to think of it, you certainly wouldn't want him driving - if you know what the treatment for narcolepsy consists of.)