Church visits drawing peacefully to a close

Well there we are!

Church visits for 2016 are almost over. Tomorrow I fly home from Bristol to Bordeaux.

I will say goodbye to my hire car, a pastel green Fiat 500 which I nicknamed The Flying Pistachio. I will also say goodbye to horribly congested motorways and to driving through torrential downpours. These farewells will fill me with joy.

I have absented myself from Facebook until after the EU referendum, mainly because the whole of my Facebook feed turned into what I can only describe as a bad issue fo the Daily Mail. We had scaremongering, of course, and the most immoderate language. "Don't trust a single word coming out of France or Germany about the referendum" was the last straw for me. I have already voted. You will see me on Facebook again once the vote is over and the shouting is over.

It is always humbling to visit our supporting churches. I am convinced that all the good things that have happened in Bordeaux have been direct answers to the prayers of many many people. You can see that very clearly in the way this year has unfolded.

Some of the churches I visited are burgeoning. Others less so. All are facing great challenges.

One big regret is that I haven't spent time visiting friends who support us personally, rather then through their churches. I wonder whether we can do something about that. Patricia and I must get our thinking caps on and see what we can come up with.

I have missed home life as usual. I miss my nice strong coffee. I miss my morning running. I miss Bordeaux. And, of course, above all I miss Catrin and Patricia.

Teg edrych tuag adref. It feels good to look homeward.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A bit about music exams in UK and France

They're really different. I think I have already mentioned that while in the UK people generally find a private teacher for their instrument, or do it through a school scheme, here there are municipal music school, conservatoires and so on. The situation is a little more complex than I had first understood, because the schools vary in the rigidity of their organisation: the most, the conservatoires, next the municipals, then the associations. Our music school is an association, but it tends to apply the standards of the municipal schools with its programme of cycles, etc. Britain - grade 1 to 8, grade 8 being roughly equivalent to A-level, pre university/conservatoire. France - 3 cycles, each taking about 4 years, with 3ème cycle being roughly equivalent to grade 8. Theory of music - UK to take grade 8 you need theory grade 5. In France you study theory alongside your instrumental studies, very slowly. Catrin's flute music is MUCH more difficult than the stuff she does in theor...
Read more

Good news from my sermon buddy

Yesterday we went over my script from August 13. There really wasn't much she had taken exception to. Once or twice she wondered quite what I was getting at (they had the same problem at Deeside, I think...) and I do have difficulties with the word " de ", but then she said "Who doesn't?" So I felt very encouraged. I also took the opportunity to ask her about one or two things: 1) Direct preaching. Like I used to in Britain, I preach saying you - using "vous" when I am talking to the whole wide world and "tu" when I want it to feel as if I am addressing each person individually. French preachers tend to say rather "What will we do, what will one do". So I asked her if she felt my way was too direct, too brutal for the French ear. She said "I think you can get away with it with your English accent". In fact several people have commented on how much they appreciated being spoken to directly in preaching. 2) Liaisons Last...
Read more

A brief sortie to North Wales

 Following the Great Keswick Debacle, when our volunteering at the Keswick café was sabotaged by our assorted indispositions, we had airline tickets to use up. Yes, we had not taken travel insurance, so we paid even more money to change our tickets to fly for a short visit to North Wales. This time we were able to go. We passed extremely slowly through a very crowded Bordeaux airport but in good time to get our plane. All seats in the terminal were taken so we leaned against whatever we could find while waiting to board. Hey, bags need seats, too! though sometimes pointing out to Pat, "No, that's a bag seat", makes the bag find a new refuge on the lap of the person sitting next to it... Once on the plane we quickly found our allocated seats - right at the back on the left hand side - stowed our bags and the flight was smooth and uneventful.  We had 30 minutes in Manchester to disembark, get through immigration , hustle off to the station and board our train for Shotton. I...
Read more