les Davey de France

The King and the king. Now I am SO tired. For reasons I won't go into. Phew. Tomorrow we have our New Year's Eve Church Pie Social, with games and animations. We Daveys are organising it (!) and we're doing rice and assorted sludge §, including something called la daube . This seems to be a common name for boeuf bourguignon . Rice and sludge has been done before so it should be OK. We don't have much salad promised but I don't think that will be a huge problem. Pat, meanwhile, has a grave cold. French people take medicine for colds. Here's the conversation I had when I had my serious cold the other day... Oh, it's just a cold. Have you been to the doctor ? What ? For a cold ? Of course not. We never treat colds. In fact we say that if you treat a cold it will last a week, if you don't it will last seven days. But that's the same... oh.. But there are very good remedies for cold, and if you don't treat a cold you can have serious complications... ...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=FNOFOZ1J4Y52RQFIQMGSFFOAVCBQWIV0?xml=/news/2007/12/29/nabort129.xml#form

Just in case you don't know about Stanley Unwin, here's a fairly good introduction. There's an odd advert at the end but it ends immediately it begins.

No, not me, silly... It is very tempting to imagine that incomprehensible and profound are almost synonyms. Of course, they are not. A challenge for every Christian communicator is to take that which is difficult to understand and explain it simply. Anyone can take what is simple and make it difficult to understand. Nobody excelled at this more than the great Stanley Unwin. http://www.albertmohler.com/blog_read.php?id=1072

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7153642.stm What a great list. And look what it tells us : 1) technology is a good servant but a bad master. People don't want to get mastered by facebook, for example. 2) technology should make life more human, not less. People want to keep in touch, rejoice together, weep together. 3) technology should be as democratic and accessible as possible. The expensive iPhone doesn't figure, but the free-of-charge facebook and web applications are favourites. 4) and there's more yet to achieve - wireless power delivery. The future's electric, isn't it !

things go kind of quiet at the student centre, though I'll be seeing some of the chaps for one reason and another. I'm preaching on Sunday ( Ephesians 1 : 15 - 16, probably ! ) and we are spending some time with some of the church folk, too, while they are more available - off work, that is. It's a good opportunity for reading, too. John Stott's The incomparable Christ and Michael Crichton's Extrème urgence .

Why not read what Tim has to say ? http://www.challies.com/archives/articles/holiness-of-character.php

This article was published either in the Western Mail or in the South Wales Echo during the years I lived in Cardiff, and written by the doctor, Peter Ellwood. I have it stuck in the front of my favourite commentary on Luke and have long intended sharing it more widely. It is shared here with the permission of neither author nor newspaper, but I hope that no objection would be raised. Anyway, here we go. I can always delete it, can't I. Why I believe in the Virgin Birth, by Peter Elwood There has been much discussion recently as to whether or not the virgin birth of Jesus Christ is a traditional belief of the Christian Church, and as to whether or not it is a necessary belief for the Christian. Little attention seems to have been paid to the relevant historical documents and very few letters or statements in the controversy have claimed support, or even draw attention to, the Biblical record. As a scientist I have little concern for tradition, but I am enormously interested in ev...

http://www.oneyearbibleonline.com/readingplan/oneyearbiblereadingplan.pdf

The Gender-Neutral Bible Controversy: Muting the Masculinity of God's Words God Centered Biblical Interpretation The Returning King: A Guide to the Book of Revelation Redeeming Science: A God-Centered Approach Symphonic Theology Understanding Dispensationalists http://www.frame-poythress.org/poythress_books.htm

Catrin's Christmas has been somewhat overshadowed by the passing of Patch the rat during the night . The other rats ( Ratty and Black Beauty ) are unwell with large and growing tumours, though they seem quite at ease , relaxed and free from pain. Patch was simply a little arthritic in his back legs, but this morning we found him dead in the bottom of his cage. He was a happy , friendly , affectionate rat, the least ratty rat you could ever meet . He lived a happy and contented life and helped Catrin as she settled into her new country. He left his mother ( Ratty ) and sister (Black Beauty ).

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7150613.stm

Born to raise the sons of earth.. born to give the second birth...

llythrdy - postoffice cofnodiad - souvenirs

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/global/main.jhtml?xml=/global/2007/12/19/noindex/njoke119.xml

Oh, where was it ? In the bathroom... I wondered if it was, but I couldn't see it. Ho Ho Ho....

There was a tram and bus strike. For me it meant that instead of taking me to Pessac Centre the tram stopped at Bougnard so Pat had to come out and get me there instead of at the centre. We had a happy time with tract distribution and then in the English class, though this week for the first time I had Fiona's group - so we worked on "the thing", and on tongue twisters, and on the entire conjugation of the present tense in regular English verbs (You must pronounce the s on "he /she/it walks"), and on reading aloud and I suggested they sing along to cds. But I have been bitten in the eye by a mosquito again. Brutes ! Me left eye again, and it is all puffy and swollen. I didn't have time to go to the doctor, so I've put some anti-histamine cream on it, but I think it will just take time to go down again. To begin with I wasn't sure it was a bite - I wondered if it was an allergic reaction, but I am told that there are still mosquitos around even now, ...

Ecoutez le chant des anges Vient d'éclater dans les airs, Joignons aussi nos louanges A leurs sublimes concerts: Gloire à Dieu! Paix sur terre, Aujourd'hui Christ est né Jésus s'est fait notre frère, Un Sauveur nous est donné. Son palais est une étable, Une crèche est son berceau Et pourtant, c'est l'admirable C'est le fils du Dieu très haut. Il vient à nous débonnaire Et de Grâce couronnée. Jésus s'est fait notre frère, Un Sauveur nous est donné. Avec vous, bergers et mages, Aux pieds de notre Seigneur, Nous déposons nos hommages, Nous lui donnons notre cœur. Tout son peuple sur la terre Dit, avec nous prosterné; Jésus s'est fait notre frère, Un Sauveur nous est donné.

We heard this today while hunting for a dressing-gown for me for Christmas, and it brought back powerful memories of thirteen years ago. We were living in a condemned house in what was known as Tintown on the Aston Hill. The house was condemned because of a Welsh Office plan to widen the road that ran about 50 yards from the house. It was a tiny house - two tiny bedrooms, one of which served as my office. The bedrooms were about 9 foot square. With our bed, two small wardrobes and two chests of drawers stacked one on top of the other when you came into the room you had to walk sideways to get through. And Pat was expecting Gwilym. When he was born we were negotiating to move house to Shotton Lane. He was born on Christmas Eve at about 4am (if I remember rightly). We brought him home in a carry cot and put the carry cot on top of the two stacked chests of drawers. We had to move before he grew out of his carry cot ! We moved on 31 January, into a house that must have been four times the...

I have the great English Class on Saturday afternoon but before that we are going to distribute tracts among the Christmas shoppers. There was a threatened tram and bus strike, but they have reached an agreement (I think - last time I read anyway) so the trams should be running fine. Saturday evening I have a final rehearsal with the lady who's going to sing the descant for "Adeste fideles" (Salut blanche étoile) on Sunday afternoon. I'll blast out the descant with her (an octave below, of course) and the congregation will be primed to sing that last verse with especial gusto. It has, as they say, two chances. Either it'll work or it won't. Then Sunday morning we'll visit one of the churches in Pessac, the Eglise Libre. I know the pastor fairly well from ministers' fellowships and so on, so it will be good to attend that church. Then Sunday afternoon the service at 4h30, with hot chocolate afterwards. Christmas Day is an important day at the student ce...

In Manchester !

http://www.linternaute.com/actualite/depeche/afp/30/440779/elizabeth_ii_devient_le_plus_vieux_monarque_britannique_de_l_histoire.shtml Here's an article talking about the moment (5 pm apparently) when the Queen became Britain's oldest ever reigning monarch.

Blessed is the man who fears the Lord. We sang this in the Aber Bach Soc Choir towards the end of the last century. This choir does nicely - they take it at a good lick. Strings a bit dodgy here and there though... I found this when I was looking for a piece of Bach Christmas Oratorio to post. Haven't found the Bach yet. Oh well...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7142424.stm

We'll have the Sarko saga soap opera now... At least in the British papers, we will... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/12/18/wsarkozy118.xml&DCMP=EMC-new_18122007

Our good friend Don Whitney, author of Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life (SDFTCL), looks splendidly seasonal in his Christmas newsletter. More to the point he suggests 10 questions to ask at a Christmas gathering, and makes it available in A4 format. http://www.biblicalspirituality.org/inserts/a4/xmasa4.pdf

Encroyable !

At present here almost everything is shut on Sundays. About the only things you see open are the petrol stations, the bakers and the oyster stalls by the side of the road. Oh - and some cafés and restaurants. Even articulated lorries are banned from the roads unless they are carrying refrigerated goods. They park up until Monday in big lines at the service stations on the rocade. Five Sundays a year all the shops are allowed to open and one of them was yesterday. It was noticeable that Pessac town centre was quite lively. Workers in Meublerama (a big furniture chain) get double time and time off in lieu for working Sunday. However Parliament is discussing changing the law to permit shops to open every Sunday from next year. I am not clear what shops are included in the law and whether it would result in France having a British-style Sunday trading pattern or not.

Oysters. The Arcachon oyster farmers have started their big push - over the next few weeks millions of the little knobbly critters will be slurped, still living, from their shells. "It's like eating the sea" , said one of the DEFLE lecturers. Strange to relate, I have never looked at the sea and thought "yum, yum...". Foie gras. A Christmas without foie gras is pretty unthinkable. Oysters and foie gras. Perfect. The ducks and geese have been despatched and their big yellow livers are everywhere. The anti-foie-gras lobbyists insist that it is cruel while the foie-gras producers say that foie-gras has been produced here since Roman times and that the geese and ducks come running up to be fed. Or at least they did. Until they were despatched. Bûches de Noël. In the absence of a Christmas pud or a good plum duff one eats a Christmas log - either a big cake-thing or a log made of ice-cream. Poultry. You need your dictionary and a book of edible birds when you go ...

semibreve = une ronde minim = une blanche (as in "J'ai pas fait la blanche") crochet = une noire quaver = une croche semi-quaver = une double-croche / une double... dotted minim = une blanche pointée dynamics = les nuances a bar = une mesure the beat = la pulsation the key = la tonalité intonation = l'intonation (phew ! at least one is the same ) c = do, d = re, e = mi, f = fa, g = sol, a = la, b = si sharp = dièse (this is also the gate/hash key on your phone) flat = bémol (but if someone were to sing flat that's not bémol , that's trop bas .)

The King has Come - James Montgomery Boice - I LOVE this book. I hope I find it again soon. The Glory of Christ - R C Sproul - the chapters on the birth of Christ are just wonderful ( Glory in the Fields, Glory in the Temple ). OK, it's not John Owen but it'll still do you good.

a complete strike of tram and bus drivers meant there was no English Class again - well, two stalwarts turned up. So that meant I was free to get my head round today more. This morning we have young people 10 - 12, except I have to leave at 11 to come home to fetch the family. Then a church lunch 12 - 2. Teaching the Wilcocks descant for "O come all ye faithful" to our coloratura soprano. A church meeting 2 till 4, approximately. Then the service at 4:30 at which I am preaching. I am going to preach a slightly beefed-up version of last week's message on Luke 1 : 5 - 25 - When Zechariah's prayer was answered. Can you imagine how VEXED the Bordeaux shopkeepers are to have NO PUBLIC TRANSPORT AT ALL the second Saturday before Christmas ?

http://www.e-n.org.uk/4045-God's-border-crossing.htm

This is a roundabout that we pass on the way to the centre of Pessac. There's no shops or anything nearby. It is simply a beautiful roundabout, and the trees have twinkling Christmas lights at the moment.

Some of the young folk at the church run an association which raises money to help an orphanage in Bulgaria . They arranged to do gift-wrapping at a sports equipment shop in central Bordeaux and were looking for volunteers to help out. Well Pat and I said we could do 2 till 4 this afternoon . There's a transport strike on, and yesterday there were no buses running at all , but the trams ran . Today sure enough we parked the car near Gwilym's school and the tram came to take us into town . We wrapped and then came time to come home. No trams. AAARGH ! Ben to the rescue ! He collected the kids from school and we hopped on the tram to Mérignac . ( there were no trams on line B to Pessac , and lines A and C were strongly perturbed ) We were very glad to see the Griffinmobile at the tram stop in Mérignac !

Martin Downes is reading Augustine's Confessions this Christmas. What are you going to read ? (I haven't decided yet. I may take my cue from you.)

It's because I have been very ill with a cold. A nasty cold. I am gravement enrhumé . I hope to be better soon, but at the moment it is touch and go.

It will be sometime during the period 24 March to 17 April, depending on how that suits the churches.

Pat dropped me off at the tram stop and drove away. It was 15h50. The English Class starts at 16h30. Easy. "Next tram in 56 minutes, after that more than an hour" , said the board. What ? Oh, the board's telling lies again. Hang on, the tannoy is saying something. "Because of a demonstration in the centre of town there are no trams and no replacement buses." OK. I phoned the centre, then phoned Pat, then settled down in the drizzle to wait for her return to pick me up. No candied peel in the fruitcake of this weekend.

Just today I was reading the weblog of a good friend of mine who is doing missionary work in France . For those of you unfamiliar with this term, a weblog is a kind of diary that is kept on the internet. In my friend’s blog as well as writing about what he is doing, he often includes interesting things about the French and their culture. Today he wrote about an interesting website that was playing French carols, twenty four hours a day. Out of curiosity I decided to visit this sight and sure enough it was playing the most delightful French carols, many of which were instantly recognisable by their tunes. They were beautifully sung and had the right mix of the simple, sober and jolly that you would expect at this time of year. After a while it dawned on me that though I was enjoying listening to these carols I did not have a clue what they were actually singing about. Sure I could understand, ‘O Holy Night’ and ‘O Come All Ye Faithful’ but only because I recognised the tunes. Th...

Today Catrin has the éclaireurs évangélique (Scouts) Christmas extravaganza - we all go along this evening. Gwilym has the church club for collégiens this afternoon. I have the English Class this afternoon. Pat has taxi duty. For me the biggie is tomorrow where I begin the day at Blaye with preaching at Anglade ( Luc 1 : 5 - 25 ), then straight to the groupe de jeunes for Christianity Explored, then collect the family for church at 16h30.

Non-stop Christmas music in French (well, non-stop except for the adverts)

For the last two years, because of global warming, we have had quite harsh winters. The first winter we were here was amazing - frost to the tops of the trees ! This year, because of global warming, so far the winter has been quite mild. So much so that on Tuesday night Pat and I were both bitten by a mosquito. He got me on the elbow and yesterday my whole arm was sore. Meanwhile in Britain, because of global warming, the number of wind storms has risen dramatically over the last twenty years to reach the level of the beginning of the 1900s ! http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/12/07/eaclimate107.xml&DCMP=EMC-new_07122007 Where's the mozzy-killer stuff ?

Aulx. What's an aulx ? It's obviously something you eat because the Israelites were nostalgic about the food in Egypt, the melons, leeks, cucumbers and the aulx. Anyway it's garlics. un ail, des aulx. Pronounced unnaye (like "aye" for yes) and dézo (sounds like eaux, or "oh!"). It took me six months to discover how to say one garlic and two years to discover the plural. I am just not right for this job, am I !

I want to tell you about the Thursday evening Bible study last night. Last year we did evangelistic Bible studies all year and everyone who came was already a Christian. So this year we are doing Bible Studies through Acts aimed at equipping the Christians and there's a guy who comes most weeks who isn't yet converted. OK. Anyway Acts includes Acts 2, so we're doing that in four sessions. Last week's was the most important part - the point of Pentecost being the firstfruits of the gospel. Incidentally, it's not all that easy in France to hold on to the fruitfulness of the gospel. This week was what the tongues signified. Verse 12 - What does this mean ? Before the study I was talking with one of our French guys and we were grumbling a bit about how hard it is to reach the French (though the Chinese students are very responsive !) Anyway for the study we were six. Me and five French guys aged between 19 and 35. Ha ha ! That'll teach me ! The study went well - we ...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/12/06/wpope106.xml&DCMP=EMC-new_06122007

I don't know about you, but they scare me witless. Strange to relate, while discussing what to call our children Guto and Rhydderch were rejected in favour of Gwilym (he's glad) and Flosshilde and Woglinde in favour of Catrin (she's ecstatic).

http://cowboyology.blogspot.com/2007/12/explaining-streams-of-calvinistic.html In the UK in the absence of the fundamentalist movement, neo-evangelical is sometimes used as a term of contrast against an older, more doctrinally focused evangelicalism. An example of faux-amis within two branches of the same language !

Today has been about preparing for the weekend, for Christianity Explored on Sunday afternoon and preaching Sunday morning. Here's some Vaughan Williams. See ! I DO love England. Vaughan Williams was English, isn't it ? Don't look at the video. Don't read the young guy's blurb. Just listen.

We haven't had no culture on the blog for a long time have we ?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/global/main.jhtml?xml=/global/2007/12/03/noindex/nrsarko102.xml&page=1

Devant le trône du très Haut mon défenseur saura plaider, cet avocat s'appelle amour, il intercède pour moi toujours. Mon nom est gravé sur ses mains, mon nom est inscrit sur son coeur, puisqu'il défend ma cause au ciel nul ne pourra me condamner. Et quand Satan me fait douter, vient me tenter et m'accuser, je lève les yeux vers celui qui a payé pour mon péché. Mon Sauveur était innocent, sa mort me rend la liberté, oui, Dieu le juste est satisfait et il pardonne mon péché. Voyez l'Agneau ressuscité. Il est le Roi plein de bonté. Non, il ne changera jamais, lui ma justice, mon bien, ma paix. En lui j'ai la vie éternelle, par son sang il m'a racheté, pour toujours ma vie est cachée en Jésus, mon Sauveur, mon Dieu.

There were thirty photo-montages to print for the choir members, and my printer does it quite well ( thankfully ! Otherwise I'd have had to have done it at the student centre ! ) So I started them printing. The yellow cartridge was almost empty so I'd bought another. However about 10 from the end the printer told me the cyan was nearly empty too. Oh dear ! This is one of the hazards of my colour vision - no matter how I stare I cannot see the level of cyan on the computer screen. Anyway, it lasted till all the photos were done. Then I scuttled off to the Eglise Baptiste de Caudéran where I discovered that "Before the throne of God above" exists in French. Then home to collect everything for the afternoon (computer, etc.) and off to the Griffins for lunch. We were taking desserts and we had a four seasons fruit tarte I found in the supermarket and a huge chocolate and raisin tarte that someone had given Pat at the Christmas bazaar. Then to the centre for 3 to prepare f...

Here are recordings, chapter by chapter, of the Bible in French. Thanks, Joy, for pointing out the site. http://worldwide.familyradio.org/fr/mp3/bible/

It looks as if we have settled into a happy pattern of frantic weekends. Saturday began gently but then accelerated. The morning I updated the blog, then prepared for the English Class and I also tried to suss out Audacity, because I think I am going to have to start editing MP3 files. As well I tried to reduce some sermon sound-files down to a size that can be emailed. It's just dawned on me that I sent some of these to my deeside.org.uk address, which redirects to gmail, but they haven't arrived yet ! Then Pat had told a friend that she'd help her on the tea stall of the Bordeaux Anglican Chaplaincy's Christmas Bazaar, so we delivered them there for 2pm. I had a brief talk with a few people, including the vicar, especially about church premises. It's a constant headache for newish churches in France. Then off to the student centre for the English class. It's lovely driving through central Bordeaux at the moment because there are lights everywhere. The trees al...

with star

I don't know why the riot police always park at the end of our road. Well, I know why they were there - the judges and barristers were demonstrating against the rationalisation of the courts of assizes. ( The demo closed six tram stations of line B ! ) But why always our street ?

Cillit BANG

I am fairly sure I have posted this before, but it is worth another look as a suitable Saturday subject. ( OK, that's enough ! Stop the stupid alliteration )

http://cowboyology.blogspot.com/2007/11/reformed-renewal.html I was thinking the other day about Dr. A...w and his comments on taxonomy. He talked about lumpers and splitters. The splitters are the taxonomists who say "These two populations of creature are clearly different, we'll split them into two different subspecies, or even species." The lumpers say "These are obviously two types of the same beast. They belong together in the same species." § I often think of lumpers and splitters in the church. Calgary Cowboy Clint has classified American calvinistic baptists into several streams. Here in France when you say "Baptiste " and " réformé " or " calviniste " in the same sentence it elevates the eyebrows of those who hear and evokes the exclamation " Tiens ! " As for me I wonder if neo-evangelical has the same negative connotation in the US as it does in the UK ? § incidentally to show you how fascinating and controversi...