les Davey de France

1) Pat's new sim card arrived and is installed in a slightly aging android phone that seems to be working OK. Phew ! 2) Gwilym's pc seems to be a Vista problem. Yeah, I know. Vista is the problem. We'll load Windows 7 or 8 on it. 3) Pat's Kindle is being replaced by Amazon. Should arrive Tuesday. 4) Family PC is over eight years old. It's time to replace it with a refurb mac mini. 5) Printer cartridges changed. Nozzles deep cleaned. Several times ! Now OK ! We're getting back to normal !

Woo hoo ! On the agenda - perhaps Kentucky Fried Chicken. Then the Cinema to see The Lone Ranger !

Thom Rainer  -  Seven Reasons Every Pastor Should Have a Blog Heavy doses of communication are vital in any relationship.  This reality is powerfully true in the pastor/congregation relationship. Healthy churches have healthy pastor/members relationships. Healthy relationships are enhanced through ongoing communication. And the blog is an incredible way to communicate regularly. For this reason, I am very grateful for the Internet age. The pastor is able to present those most important emphases or visionary matters.  The sermon just does not allow sufficient time to do all the communication a pastor needs to do. If done well, the blog can serve as an ongoing forum for communicating the most important matters in the church and to the church. No pastor can communicate with every member one-on-one.  Church members can feel neglected if they do not get some type of communication from their pastor. Admittedly, a blog does not replace in person communication, but ...

OK. We arrive home. 1) The printer prints funny colours. 2) Gwilym's computer won't boot 3) Pat's Kindle has funny lines on the screen after the x-ray machine at the airport 4) The family PC is too slow 5) Pat's phone has been lost Right. Breathe slowly and tackle things one at a time. 1) Pat's phone reported lost and sim-card blocked 2) Pat's Kindle reported faulty and a replacement is on the way 3) Cartridges ordered for printer, then we'll have to clean the nozzles 4) Gwilym's computer may have to go to a computer-fixer for fixing 5) The family PC will always be too slow till it ends up in the dump

Thanks, Challies, for pointing out this site . I did the test. This is what they said : Thank you for taking the EnChroma test for Color Vision Deficiency! You are a  STRONG PROTAN.  Protanomaly is a type of red-green color vision deficiency related to a genetic anomaly of the L-cone (i.e. the red cone). This information is not a certified medical diagnosis. Accuracy of the result may vary depending on test conditions such as the ambient light level, quality and calibration of your display device. Consult with an eye care professional for more information.

This bloke got on the bus today. I suppose he was about 60 and most definitely French and local. But he is not accustomed to using the bus ! Firstly he didn't know what to do with his ticket. You have to poke your ticket in the slot, white face up, in the direction of the arrow. So there's three ways of getting it wrong and one chance of getting it right. Many people take four goes. This bloke asked the driver and saved himself time and hassle. (Good thinking, bloke !) Then we approached his stop. He stood up. Just before the very steep speed humps. "Wow ! You need to be an acrobat!", he said as he landed from his brief but unexpected flight. The bus stopped. He looked at the door. Some people got on. He looked at the door. "You have to do something ?" There's a BIG RED BUTTON marked PUSH TO EXIT, but it's not on the door, where he was looking, but on a handrail behind him. Someone pushed it. He got off. Taking the bus is rea...

Kevin DeYoung reflects on Acts 14 and our calling in the world here .

Book review - Judges for you - Tim Keller When I read Prodigal God I was, as they say, blown away. It immediately became the book I recommend first to folk. My response to King's Cross was less unequivocal; there were certain parts that I found less helpful. So when I got Judges for You to review I was prepared for almost anything. Not only that, but I preached through Judges a few years ago, helped enormously by Dale Ralph Davis' book.  Judges is a wonderful book. It has everything : warfare, human interest, humour, heroic women and strong men - characters larger than life all set against a background of chaos and decline - and overarching it all, the covenant grace of the Saviour God. It's hard to really do justice to Judges ! Keller deals with the book very well indeed, and I think this could be the book of choice for small group Bible study.  He does enjoy the humour - witness the story of Ehud. He does face up to the more earthy details of the story. He ...

Hi there ! We have been on holiday ! Together ! As a family ! Sometimes. We spent just over three weeks in the UK, firstly in North Wales, in Deeside. Some friends loaned us their house while they were on holiday in low places so we had pretty total freedom. It was great to be with our home church and then to be invited to coffee, to lunch and to tea/dinner/supper pretty well every day. While there we rekindled our relationship with Asda, where I used to be on the team of chaplains, and I made what would prove to be the serendipitous discovery of the holidays, namely a moka pot coffee maker of unknown fabrication (it doesn't say made in China) at the very decent price of £5. It became my constant friend and companion and has accompanied me back to France. We met up with our friends, the Griffins, in Chester. We thought that they had deliberately crept up on us, but then discovered that four years in Burkina Faso turns a somewhat exuberant family into a rather quiet bunch. W...

We heard this on the radio and were astonished at how different and powerful it was :

It said "Gan bwyll a daliwch ati" : Keep Calm and Carry On

Look here !

What is a Christian ? What is the Church ? These are questions that face every pastor, preacher, Christian worker and everyone who professes to follow Jesus Christ. What is a Christian ? What is the Church ? Other questions flow from them. What is an evangelical ? What is the gospel ? What is salvation ? Is evangelicalism a style ? A culture ? A current ? A movement ? In this book Paul Washer takes us back to the Bible, and not just by quoting proof texts but by looking closely at what the Bible says when it speaks of salvation, of the Christian's nature and life and of the people of God. And it's a very good book. It deals with guilt, not just as feelings but as fact. It deals with repentance, not just as feelings of sorrow but as a radical change of heart and mind and life. It deals with the call to discipleship and to serve Christ as Lord. It deals with the believers incorporation into the people of God. It scratches us where we itch. It's a very wise book. Was...

The video is part of a series called "Meeting the Bordelais" and this time it's a woman who has written a book about her experience of unemployment.

More storms hit on Friday night, but this time mostly in the Dordogne. HAILSTONES (not golfballs...) the size of cherries fell, destroying acres of vineyard. Read in French here.

I went in the loft just now for the first time since the storm. I had been having kittens in case I saw big holes from missing tiles, but no. Our neighbour came and sawed up the branch of his tree that fell across our driveway. I had managed to get a pretty big car down there anyway, but it's good to have that sorted. Another neighbour said that she came home to find that water had flooded into her house under the doors and soaked her rugs. She's hung them outside in the hope of rescuing them. Our local library is closed and will be closed now till the end of August. Our local park, and the nicest through-cut to the shops, post-office and banks, is closed because of dangerous branches. It was quite a storm !