les Davey de France

I am off tomorrow to the Annual Pastors' Conference of the Union Nationale des Eglises Protestantes Réformées Evangéliques de France, which will be held at a camps and conference centre shown on the map. You'll see that it is somewhat ... remote. Makes Bala look like Las Vegas.

Well the first thing I noticed was the unusual pallor on the two children. Then a young man further back on the bus seemed to have an oddly shaped mouth that extended on the left side almost to his ear in a somewhat grotesque manner. I tried to get a good look sideways without staring and slowly realized that at least three people on the bus were made up as for an amateur dramatics horror show. Nobody paid any attention, of course. They got off at the same stop as me, and I was careful to to brush against their arms - I didn't want grease-paint on my jacket. They got the tram, I got the Autocool car to take Catrin to the airport. Then later I read this .

Catrin's off to visit friends in Cardiff and Swansea and all points South Welsh this week, courtesy of our friends, the Woolleys. MUST NOT BE LATE AT THE AIRPORT !!!

One of our student friends is not European and needs a titre de séjour (permit) to stay in France and study. This has to be renewed every year and the student has to be quick in filling out the forms, then his university department has to be quick in counter-signing them, then the university has to be quick sending it off to the préfecture, then the préfecture has to be quick in issuing the titre de séjour. Because all these people are seldom all quick, when your request for a titre de séjour is received they give you an official receipt which works just like a titre de séjour, but which expires after a few months. As does that of our friend. Newt Thursday. And he wants to visit the UK. So he needed to chase up his application for a titre de séjour, but he's on work experience away from Bordeaux. I went to the office. We can't do anything just with his name. We need photocopies of his receipt. I went back the next day. We'll email the préfecture and phone the stud...

I was sat next to a friend who's a pastor in Bordeaux and is currently on medication for burn-out. He's gone back to work part-time but we shared notes and it's the same animal. He has a mild anti-depressant and a mild anti-anxiety pill. It was good to pray with him. We're trying to plan an Easter Monday united service under the auspices of the CNEF in Bordeaux, but the town hall doesn't have any meeting place big enough for us to use. All the biggest halls are privately run and cost thousands to hire per day. (That explains why concerts are so unreasonably expensive here) There is a hall in Pessac that would do. People are looking into it. Here's the passage that was shared for reflection : Isaiah 61:1-3 The year of the  Lord ’s favour 61  The Spirit of the Sovereign  Lord  is on me,      because the  Lord  has anointed me      to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the ...