The big Christmas weekend
Christmas began on Saturday with the kids rehearsing for the "Fête de Noël". Gwilym and Catrin were taking part in various different things and so Saturday lunchtime saw us eating ham and cheese sandwiches and watching them practice.
We then proceeded to Anglade for the "Fête de Noël" there where we Daveys were making a musical contribution: singing in the streets and then helping the accompaniment in the little chapel. There followed a delicious collation. It was good to see a good number of visitors there, some simply through leaflets popped into mailboxes.
Sunday morning I preached on the shepherds going to Bethlehem, the sinful, hard, sad city and being transformed by finding purity, compassion and joy in the new-born Saviour. We sang lots of Christmas songs and concluded with the Lord's Supper "You can't begin to understand the crèche without the cross".
There followed a lunch together, largely pizzas, some home made and some shop-bought (like "duck and orange" and something else equally exotic). Struggling a little we got ready for the "Fête de Noël" where I was again bolstering the accompaniment. Did you know that in France there's a Christmas Song that goes to Llanfair, and that in Holland they have a Christmas Song that goes to the Ash Grove ? All went well and was followed by ... you guessed ... a collation. We delivered 1500 invitations around the area without any response yet.
For the English service all our folks come by tram and bus, so we cancelled because of the tram and bus strike, after waiting a while in case somebody arrived by car and surprised us !
Don't much feel like breakfast or lunch. Then this evening we have a Christmas meal with the Pessac Jazz Band, tomorrow a Christmas meal with some friends, Christmas Eve a Christmas meal with our neighbour (it sounds like the traditional French healthy option : lobster, salmon, etc...)... January will be porage morning, noon and night.
We then proceeded to Anglade for the "Fête de Noël" there where we Daveys were making a musical contribution: singing in the streets and then helping the accompaniment in the little chapel. There followed a delicious collation. It was good to see a good number of visitors there, some simply through leaflets popped into mailboxes.
Sunday morning I preached on the shepherds going to Bethlehem, the sinful, hard, sad city and being transformed by finding purity, compassion and joy in the new-born Saviour. We sang lots of Christmas songs and concluded with the Lord's Supper "You can't begin to understand the crèche without the cross".
There followed a lunch together, largely pizzas, some home made and some shop-bought (like "duck and orange" and something else equally exotic). Struggling a little we got ready for the "Fête de Noël" where I was again bolstering the accompaniment. Did you know that in France there's a Christmas Song that goes to Llanfair, and that in Holland they have a Christmas Song that goes to the Ash Grove ? All went well and was followed by ... you guessed ... a collation. We delivered 1500 invitations around the area without any response yet.
For the English service all our folks come by tram and bus, so we cancelled because of the tram and bus strike, after waiting a while in case somebody arrived by car and surprised us !
Don't much feel like breakfast or lunch. Then this evening we have a Christmas meal with the Pessac Jazz Band, tomorrow a Christmas meal with some friends, Christmas Eve a Christmas meal with our neighbour (it sounds like the traditional French healthy option : lobster, salmon, etc...)... January will be porage morning, noon and night.
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