les Davey de France

Over the brief years of my life I have been too often horrified by the way that preachers can live in a way that is deeply inconsistent with their calling and ministry. Like the bent copper, the abusive teacher, or the politician whose real interest is to line his own pocket, there's something specially abhorrent about it. My blogging about this is sparked by another scandal AND by the furore in the USA about Mike Pence's espousal of the Billy Graham rule - never to eat dinner alone with a woman who is not your wife. I got into a little conflict a couple of years ago with a colleague, a woman, who was fitting out a small office at the back fo the church building where we then were based. She looked forward to us sharing the office and working there together day by day. She was very disappointed when I told her that it wasn't going to happen. "You are very strict, too strict", she said. "My mission would never allow it", was my reply. When I spoke to ...

It was recently remarked that the 1000+ member church in Bordeaux has a better website than we do. I replied that the site had probably cost more an 1€ per member, and that good websites do not come cheap. Once a friend in the UK who is a website designer proposed to do us a good price. The excellent price he proposed was £500, which was, obviously, far too much for us to pay. Anyway it so happens that one of our students is doing a course in human-systems interfaces - kind of - and they have a sort of small business associated with their school of studies. So yesterday I met with another student to sketch out a projected website. We should get a quote for it this weekend! Maybe it will be within our means!

Well here I am back again. This morning's run was fresh!!! As in "running through the clouds of your own breath" fresh. And because the trees are still trying to sabotage me, I had to stop to use my inhaler twice. But apart from that it felt good. One drawback of these lighter mornings is that there are more people about. On Tuesday morning I passed someone running the other way. We waved to each other. This morning I passed various people and a somewhat gasped "bonjour" was necessary. I was a little perturbed recently to discover that regular running will add on average three years to your life. This all sounds great, except that you then remember that it adds the three years on to the end, the bit where you're ill and immobile and so on... If I could add three years onto my thirties, then that would be great. Except it's too late. But I suppose it doesn't work quite like that. I hope that as well as adding three years, it will make the last...

We got back from church at about 22:15 on Sunday to find the French door forced and several things missing, including our computers and cameras. The burglars were very clean and made no mess whatsoever. The police came round straight away and next morning the scene of crime unit came. The burglars wore latex gloves. Oh well. I was able to give the police the serial numbers of the computers and we have receipts for all the computers but nothing for the cameras. Thinks : must buy more by internet... We're OK. We don't feel violated or anything. We feel frustrated because, obviously, we use the computers for work. I think I can still prepare to preach on Sunday even though my office is my computer. It will just restrict the range of books I can refer to. Meanwhile someone in the church has offered to produce the song sheet, and who knows - maybe this will be a good way of bringing in delegation! And the police have all been charming, the insurance company have been sympathet...

after the Colloque (where I didn't take my running shoes, trews or sweatshirt). A gentle start this morning, sabotaged by the trees with their shedloads of pollen:

Easyjet flies to Lyon Saint-Exupéry airport, which is a LONG WAY out of the city. There's a special high-speed long distance tram that takes you from the airport into the city, called the RhonExpress. It's 16 euros per journey. On the way to the colloque I looked for a cheaper way - bus, coach, whatever - but there was nothing like that. There is a railway station, but the train fare was more expensive. Oh well.. Coming home was interesting. My flight went from Terminal 3 at 19:15, so I had lots of time to get to the airport. Paul Wells found someone to take us to the airport on his way to Switzerland, so that was great. When we got to the airport we saw signs for Terminal 1 and for Terminal 2, so we wandered into one of them at random. We were staring uncomprehendingly at a notice board when a member of staff greeted us. "Oh, Terminal 3 no longer exists, but Easyjet flies from this terminal." OK. Paul Wells' flight was leaving from Terminal 1a (?) so we sai...

This is lovely for just after Easter in the context of attacks by violent thugs and of a presidential election.

There were four main threads to the Colloque: 1) Alain Joly, from the Evangelical Lutherans, gave us an outline of Luther's life and thought. 2) Paul Wells, ex-Dean of John Calvin Seminary in Aix-en-Provence, gave a comparison of the thought of Luther and of Calvin with regard to Free Will 3) Edouard Nelson, Baptist pastor from Paris, preached from Luke's gospel 4) Charles Nicolas gave us a very warm and encouraging comparison of the pastoral role in the 16th and 21st centuries. It was a good, intensive time and super to spend time with friends and heroes.

Well, after an early night and somewhat light sleep I rose at about 4:15 to shower, eat my porage and hie me away to catch the 5:17 Number 4 bus to Bordeaux. My doubts about it coming were unjustified. It hove grandly into view and I was surprised by the number of people aboard. I was also surprised at Palais de Justice, where I had to change to the bus 1 for the airport, to find there wasn't one for almost half an hour. This put the whole project at risk. Last boarding was 6:35 and the bus didn't come till almost 6. The driver made a gallant effort and we got the the airport bus stop at 6:28. I walked smartly into the departure area to find a HUGE QUEUE for security. However we were encouraged to take our trays and fill up spaces in front, so I did. I had removed my belt and stowed everything at the bus stop so I was ready! I found myself behind another passenger for Lyon who was in a slight flap and was not ready. He had concealed large aerosols in his bag and wanted to...

After a HECTIC Easter weekend, yesterday we made the best of the beautiful sunshine by going for a nice walk over the new Pont Jacques Chaban-Delmas, along the right bank of the river and then back over the Pont de Pierre. It really was a beautiful day and we got rather hot, so we stopped off at a cafe for a cold drink. Today, my birthday, we spent making rolls, cakes and a trifle and eating on the terrace - at least until the wind chased us back indoors. Tomorrow I have to get up very early to get to the airport for an early flight to Lyon, so I'd better have a quiet early night, too.

Thursday we were in he centre of town with Ali and Pete and their sketchboard. It was a good time, one big crowd stayed to listen. Good chats. Happy people. Friday was Good Friday meal with message and songs at our house. Pizza, Psalm 22 and Christian Hymns. Saturday was preparation day. Pat was baking with some of the folk. I was reading, thinking and also watching some detective tv to relax the old brain muscle. Then in the evening up to the vineyard to watch the marathon runners pass. 14000 signed up to do the half-marathon round the quays. 3000 marathon runners came by us and we were delighted to spot: Firstly Jian, who came and gave us a great hug. Then Julien, who waved like a crazy man. Both looked in good form and were around the 4 hours 15" marker. Read about the marathon in French here . Note the word frisquette , in Bordeaux this means nippy, chilsome.

In either 1977 or 1978 I joined a choir in Aberystwyth, the Bach Society Choir. It was by audition. You had to sing for the conductor and there were three possible outcomes: you got to belong to the excellent and famed Madrigal Singers and to the Bach Society, to just the Bach Society, or not at all. I have an awkward voice. I'm not really a tenor and I'm not really a bass, so when I'm singing well I sing with the tenors and when I'm out of form - or I just can't be bothered - I sing with the basses. Nobody has ever told me which line to sing. I've always decided for myself. Anyway... I sang with the Bach Society Choir. So I got my copies and found a friendly bass and found we were singing two pieces: the Pergolesi Magnificat and Cantata no. 4 Christ lag in Todesbanden. I've loved both pieces ever since, but especially the Bach. A couple months ago I decided to join a choir. There's one that rehearses a 10 minute bus ride or 30 minute walk from us, a...

It wasn't the best plan ever made. They didn't know our address. We don't know their phone number. "We'll ring you when we get to Pessac." Came neither call nor caller. So at 1:30 we had nice bread, blue cheese, strong cheddar and little Bonne Maman cakes.

We reserved a Citiz car, my favourite Yaris hybrid, and planned to go on the razz to the lake. But first I had to run to the pharmacy because I had left only one dose of my life-giving compound. They have turned our pharmacy into a huge chemist-supermarket with high shelves stocked floor to ceiling with quack remedies of all sorts based on every kind of pseudoscience imaginable. I had a prescription for my life-giving compound, but to get it I had to sniff my way through the shelves like a rat in a maze. Eventually I found the counter and got what I needed. Ha! Another month of life, buses permitting! Then I collected Mrs Davey and we hied us off to Ikea. To begin with we sniffed our way through the upper floor like rats in a maze. I felt that the kitchens looked so clean and clinical that I would be scared to spend too much time in one in case someone appeared to give me an injection. Too shiny. We examined a marvellous rucksack that was on display but that had no price attached...

that the trees are out to get me. The birds cheer me on. The sun smiles down as I puff and pant. But the trees shower dust, carefully planned to shoot straight up my nose and set me wheezing. Still, a quick burst of the inhaler and off I go again.

it must be the trees

Phil A Newton helps us think it through here .

asks the BBC. Listen here .

I cut our grass last night, and the neighbour's, too. Her mower was stolen from her patio a couple of months ago after a car demolished the fence. Anyway this morning she popped round with some money in an envelope. She doesn't want to bu another mower for fear of it being stolen again, so she prefers to pay someone - me if I want the job - to mow her lawn. It's not a big lawn. It takes ten minutes, perhaps, to cut it. I'd happily cut it for nothing. For a piece of cake from time to time. For neighbourliness. Now comes the dilemma. Can you politely refuse payment like that here? Or should we save up the money and buy really nice food when we get the neighbours round for cake and coffee? (I suppose I could put it towards a trip to Evian in a couple of years' time!)

Shortly afterwards an email arrived from Vaughan inviting me to go to EMA and to take a friend at a special buddy rate. Time for quick reflection. Could we stay anywhere with friends in London? I messaged someone and the instant reply came back that we could. What about flights? Yes, three a day to Gattewycke. We booked quickly before we could think twice. Patricia is my "buddy".

I reflected and remembered that I decided not to go to the outstanding EMW Ministers' Conference this year because of the Evian conference, so I thought I would investigate the possibility of attending that. Ha! Flights to Liverpool are on Saturdays or Tuesdays. No good whatsoever. And frankly the idea of flying to Bristol and then somehow trying to get to Bala was most unappealing. Meanwhile Mrs Davey considers that I need to get away from Bordeaux a little. Hey! I'm trying!

There's a conference in June that Pat and I ought to go to. Two days in Evian-les-Bains, on the French side of Lake Geneva. We could prolong it by a day in an AirBnB, perhaps, and breathe the mountain air and gaze at the scenery. Easyjet would get us to Geneva slightly late for the start for 300 euros. There's no public transport from Geneva to Evian, so it would mean hiring a car. 250 euros. The conference fees come to another 300 euros for the two of us. So we're talking 850 euros for a two day conference. We have a little fund put aside, 100 a month, so that we can afford to go to conferences and pastorales. That gives us 1200 a year to play with. But we've already spent out for the colloque in Lyon and there's another conference in October which will take place in Germany. Plus we'll need to travel back and fore to Paris a little in the year ahead. We can't do it.

We were very kindly invited to a dinner thrown by the Gideons in the local Mercure hotel. What ho! I'd previously asked one of the Gideons what one wears. You know that in France we're not quite as formal as in the UK. I can still remember how shocked I was the first time I saw a funeral, where people in their 50s turn up in jeans and leather jacket. Now I'm so well adjusted that doing "formal" has become frankly rather a headache. "Oh no, whatever," was his reply. Yeak. OK. So Pat got out a nice dress and a kind of lacy long cardigan thing. I dug out my nicer black trousers and decided on a grey shirt. No tie. There is a limit. But I'd wear my navy blazer I got in Asda. Well it was AWFUL! The thing is now much too big for me. I look like I've had consumption or something. I just couldn't wear it. Instead I have an old leather jacket that I got over ten years ago and which was a much better fit. The meal was very nice. Ham with ...

Pat had her TCF ANF (Test de Connaissance de Français - Acquisition de Nationalité Française) at the Alliance Française yesterday. We decided to make it a little special by going into town for lunch. It would have to be a hurried lunch because she had to be there for 13:15. We messed up our plan by leaving the house too late and just missing a number 4 bus, so we arrived in town with just an hour to eat and get to the exam centre. OK. Subway it is. Two mega sandwiches eaten in the street later I waved her goodbye and went off to explore Bordeaux. Pat stared at cartoons and strained to hear recordings before ticking random boxes. Meanwhile I scoured two stores in Bordeaux looking for a pale yellow top for her before finally giving in and having an ice cream. After her "chat with a friend about preparing for a job interview" we met up and looked at the yellow tops I'd found. She bought a pale blue one as well as a surprise birthday present for me. We then went to on...

that I've had a busy week when the blog is quiet, very very quiet. Anyway it's been a busy week, but an OK week. Some highlights? Well an evening with the students talking evangelism and apologetics. Tried to emphasise a holistic approach - people need to believe with their hearts as well as their minds - they won't believe till they want to believe, till they choose to believe. An evening with our car share scheme hearing about their new plan for a "pick-up anywhere, drop off anywhere" fleet of shared cars in inner Bordeaux. Sounds great, though not too relevant to us, living in "outer Bordeaux". A morning distributing gospels in the big market in the middle of Bordeaux. Great people, very friendly. It was a nice time. Then yesterday we started the service VERY LATE INDEED because people had been held up by antifascist demonstrations (the full monty, broken windows and cash dispensers, tear gas, riot police and everything) that took place i...