Moving house

For a month now we have been working on the new manse :

* wall-papering

* painting

* setting new floors

* cleaning

* planning (where will we put this or that ? what colours should we use - given what we already have ? How can we modernize 2 bathrooms using the existing tiles, floor tiles (yukky!) and on a budget ?

* moving our stuff over from our flat to the house little by little, box by box (but not too much since if we haven't finished a room, we can't occupy it.

We've run out of heating fuel, the floor boards we had are broken so we had to purchase a whole new batch, one lot of wall-paper was awful to remove and took many people and hours to clean. The carpet we wanted for Claire's bedroom was not available in 2 shops .....

All of you who have launched into the housing adventure (and this isn't even our own house!!) will sympathise with the joys and woes we are experiencing. But one day, we will be settled in and this house is dedicated to the Lord's work, so it is worth it. We are very thankful to some of our church members for their valuable help and impressed by their tenacity and endurance. On the other hand, we are rather ashamed of our own lack of physical condition. We've been living with muscle stiffness for the last month!! Always look on the bright side of life .... we are losing weight !

Pascal still has major pain in his shoulders so each night we put heated cabbage leaves on and keep them there with bandages. It works really well helping to reduce pain and improve mobility. We used to recommend that for breast-feeding mums suffering from mastitis ! So keep using the old-fashioned methods. And it really doesn't smell bad - only at the cooking stage.

The Russian Club

Have you ever looked at the map to see where Lamastre really is? Honestly, it could be in the middle of nowhere! But would you believe that we have a Russian club here??

From L to R: Ljuba (Russian), Tetyana (Ukrainian), Jennie (Australian), Alina (Polish)

There are also 2 other ladies in the area who are Russian, but not attached to our club .... yet! What brings us together ? Write to me with your suggestions!!

Two of these women came to France to marry a French man and found themselves stranded. One is a widow, 2 are divorced. Of the 2 others, one is divorced and the other newly married to an older man. Can you guess the stories behind these situations ?

Christmas Countdown

4 of our teenage girls choreographing one of 2 dances for our Christmas Celebration

Sunday 11th December is our big day. 3 o'clock in the afternoon our church opens its doors to a hopefully big crowd prepared to laugh at the 1/2 hour play our teens are putting on about "who has the central role in the nativity play???", enjoy the 2 dances to Christian music, find the Primary-age kids really cute in their song and dance, and forgive any false notes in our adult choir (singing one modern French praise song, and one traditional Christmas Carol - translated from English to French last century - "Good Christian Men Rejoice" - you know it, right!)

There is a book stand, a gift package of afternoon tea, good atmosphere. We hope it will lead people to put Christ back into Christmas.

The invitation we are giving out to as many people as possible

The Kitchen

This is the kitchen emptied of its fittings, but showing what I hope to be able to have installed. It won't be big enough to eat in, except for counter drinks and breakfast in shifts, but I hope and pray it will be a meeting point for many women and me and the Lord.

Please pray with me for that to happen.

All those horrible mustard tiles have disappeared thanks to today's final effort by one of the ladies of our church.

Our new house

In the midst of the end of year Christmas preparations, we are renovating and moving house! The papers are not yet officially signed, but we have taken the risk of tearing off old wallpaper and preparing new walls ready to accommodate the tastes of 2 teenage boys and one teenage girl. To be honest, the other rooms are to accommodate the tastes (and current furniture) of a 50 year old missionary pastor's wife who's a bit tired of putting up with other people's tastes and economic management of her living space.

This is a beautiful and solid house with it's own closed in garden. Centrally located and with extra space on the second floor and a potential attic floor to be exploited, the Lord willing. It has the potential to be a major asset in ministry as well as being a lovely home to a pastoral family.

Please pray for a creative spirit in preparing a welcoming home with the material we have. Pray for the physical energy we need to get this done. We are such desk-bound workers we are finding it hard on our bodies! We thank the Lord so much for willing helpers in our church who have already done a great amount.

Pray the church's property in a nearby village will be sold so the purchase of this house will be neatly sown up.

We are right next to a bank! Where will we place our security???