A Prayer for the Twenty-first Century - John Marsden

I've been in Maleny, with my parents, enjoying Queensland winter sun, beautiful views, time with my parents. When you come 'home' for home assignment - missionary-speak for travelling back to your country of origin in order to catch up with family and friends and to share your missionary stories with all sorts of people and in all sorts of churches - you also have to catch up on the cultural references you missed out on while you were away. I'm now in Sunny Sydney to visit our National Office and my sister, staying with longtime friends.

I have watched much less TV this time around - some news and current affairs in order to understand today's Aussie issues, although there is a terrible sameness with the way things are done on French and British TV - the formats, the negative, fear-inducing reporting, the themes (political manoeuvring, immigration, stock exchanges), the  false social criticism that goes on. One main difference is the senses of humour ! Oh, and I forgot : THE OLYMPICS! (Well done, Britain!)

Have read 2 delightful novels : The Copper Beech by Maeva Binchy (small Irish village life and relationships), and Tuscan Holiday by Holly Chamberlin ( mother and daughter relationships and female identity in the context of relationships with the men in their lives). This is the advantage of staying in other people's houses for long enough!

Wish : that I could spend a year travelling from family member to friend and friend scanning and choosing from their libraries.

Here's a poem I discovered in one of those treasure troves (chez VdHengels), illustrated by modern Australian artists (Ed. Lothian Books, 1997):

May the road be free for the journey,

May it lead where it promised it would,

May the stars that gave ancient bearings

Be seen, still be understood.

May every aricraft fly safely,

May every traveller be found,

May sailors in crossing the ocean

Not hear the cries of the drowned.

May gardens be wild, like jungles,

May nature never be tamed,

May dangers create of us heroes,

May fears always have names.

May the mountains stand to remind us

Of what it means to be young,

May we be outlived by our daughters,

May we be outlived by our sons.

May the bombs rust away in the bunkers,

And the doomsday clock not be rewound,

May the solitary scientists, working,

Remember the holes in the ground.

May the knife remain in the holder,

May the bullet stay in the gun,

May those who live in the shadows

Be seen by those in the sun.

John Marsden - Prayer for the 21st century 

Hello again!

I've been off-line with family holidays and now in Australia (without my family - I'm missing them alot). 3 weeks with my parents - a valuable time together as several issues linked with ageing and my father's Parkinsons Disease mean they need support.

I will soon have to leave them, and head south to Sydney then Victoria.

Hoping to catch up with many friends, inform existing supporters and welcome new ones to the partnership.

Until we meet in person, God willing, here is an article which says many of the things I could and have said.

What Nobody is Saying about France

It's nearly holiday time!

Thank you for praying for these last few weeks. It has really helped us in our work. I've finished my doctrinal statement for the mission; Luc has finished his final exams and is now waiting for the results in order to see which institute he gets into; Pascal's medical treatment went well and we are hoping for an improvement; Claire has one more day of school left and she and I head to England; Pascal is working until 8th July, and Marc (our no.2 son) is the last one to finish school with 2 days of exams Thurs and Fri.

I've been winding up the year's activities and already preparing for next September's school year start. I find leaving the area is a good way of encouraging other women to develop their organisational and coordinating skills ! but many don't like to rise to the challenge. In the past, I was able to do it through maternity leave! If I can't encourage another 4 women to take over organising a combined women's group day early October, then Pascal will be named honorary female in order to do the coordinating until I get back!!

So, Claire and I are off to England to stay with the friends who were in this house before us, and to hear my parents' wonderful amateur choir sing in the high spots of England and Wales. We will see them singing at St Paul's Cathedral, at St Martins-in-the-field and then they go to Brighton, and Wales for the international eisteddford. They continue their tour to Belgium and into France - and the 5 Girards meet up in Paris to hear them sing at La Madeleine cathedral and at St Merri's church. So we turn into groupies!! The bonus is being in Paris for the 14th July Bastille Day celebrations. The 'unbonus' is that Luc won't see the Tour de France pass through our region or arrive on the Champs Elysée. Sorry, Luc, you can't have it all!!

This could be our last family holiday as our eldest reaches adult status and may decide to see the world differently! It's a golden opportunity for us to show them Paris and stay at the Bible Institute where we met.

My parents return to our quiet country town for a well-deserved 2 week rest before I join them on the flight back to Australia.

And so, maybe we'll catch up in Australia.

Femmes 2000 (Women in 2nd Millenium)

Blowing new life into our relationships : a positive theme with a whole new approach to talking about the Holy Spirit, the Breath of Life.

We had a very rich day and the feedback is extremely encouraging even though many women heard this type of approach for the first time and are digesting what they have heard.

Tatyana is naturally gifted artistically. She held her first exhibition. We asked several artistic women to have stands.

Pentecost

Poem by Bruce Prewer

Lord, you come

like the wind

and the earth grows

hale [healthy] at your breath.

You brood

over the face of the waters,

and in the Body of the Church,

shaping

the world that is to be.

You arrive --

like the wind filling a thousand sails

on Sydney Harbour --

and fill

our slack churches

with new power

and vision.

Like moist air

carrying refreshing rain

to the Flinders Ranges,

clothing the valleys with red hops,

carpeting the slopes with purple and gold,

so your Spirit

brings the colour of Christ

into drab communities.

You sweep in,

fresh as sea breezes across Port Phillip

bringing relief and restoration

to a hot and tired city,

dispersing the smog,

encouraging us to breathe deeply again

of the Breath of life.

Sometimes you roar

like a hurricane, tearing away

the flimsy structures

of our gaudy materialism,

demolishing us

to the Ground of our Being.

As strong as a summer wind

transporting a myriad of seeds

to impregnate distant plains

with new patterns of life,

so you seed us

with new faith,

fertile from the Teller of parables.

Warm as the breath

of a loved one

whispering forgiveness

and unearned respect,

so your Spirit

breathes renovating grace

into our dispirited souls.

Some days you spin

like a willy-willy [Aboriginal word for 'mini-tornado'],

startling, tearing, hurting,

uprooting us from apathy

and leaving us giddy

with new possibilites

in discipleship.

Like a soft breeze at dusk

soothing tired faces

at the end of a hard day,

so you visit us

in the evening of life

when all our work is done,

giving us Christ's peace at the last.

We believe

in the Holy Spirit,

Lord, and giver of life,

Poured out on all flesh,

Who with the Father

and the Son,

is worshipped and glorified!

Amen!

Taken from Australian Accents, Selections from Australian Psalms, Australian Prayers and Australian Images, by Bruce D. Prewer and Aub Podlich. 1988

What a week!

Busy, busy, busy!

We have friends praying for a special dose of energy at this time and we can testify that God is granting us that energy and the capacity to prioritize.

I had 8 different meetings and rendez-vous this week, but each one was a blessing.

How to blow a new breath into our loving relationships

Our last organisational meeting for our big conference day June 2nd was Tuesday evening. It's all systems go for a special day for around 500 women. We are particularly grateful to be  able to set up on Friday afternoon and evening - it was in doubt for a long time.

On our day off we finished burning the garden rubbish. There's something magic about fires - something primeval!

Pray for Murielle as she discovers more about the Bible. As for many people in the country, she is very busy now preparing her vegie gardens and caring for their sheep. She can't get to our regular meetings.

Pascal celebrates a 'mixed' wedding with the Catholic priest in our church last Saturday. We have very cordial relations with this man, who is a good pastor to his sheep and who speaks in truth. The wedding was the opportunity to meet other locals whom we don't see in church.

We visited Catherine whose long-time neighbour died recently. She was particularly sad because he hadn't wanted to find out more about Jesus. Keep praying for Catherine; she's the only Christian for miles around in her remote corner of Ardèche. Many others in the area are rather New Age in their beliefs.

 Other activities this week included 3 prayer and Bible Study meetings with different women's groups, 2 telephone consultations for counselling, a mammography (!), Youth Group (on Mission), and Teen Bible study (on how to explain one's faith). It's been a good week - full of interesting encounters. The Lord has given us the extra energy to cope with it all and still have some family time.

Monday is a public holiday for Pentecost. Rather ironic given France's secular standing!

Two trips

The pastors of our Union

There were around forty of us at our National Pastor's meeting representing 50 churches.

Our guest speaker reminded us of the history of the Lausanne conferences - the Evangelical Manifestos. He had the privilege of attending the Cape Town Lausanne III conference. He works for the French equivalent of Tear Fund.

His challenge to us was how we Christians within our churches put our faith into practice in our concerns for the needs of so many others in this world.

It was a great time of catching up and we were particularly interested in the mission of 3 of our 4 pastors present who are Army Chaplains.

One of the lovely bridges of Lyon

2 days later we headed off to Lyon. It was the only weekend where I was free to accompany Pascal as he pastors another of our churches. We had the luxury of having a hotel room to ourselves, so when he wasn't in meetings, it was like having a mini-holiday. The church has suffered these last few months with a kind of split. But Pascal is building up the leadership with special training sessions and they are young, energetic and on fire for the Lord.

The new kitchen

Realised I hadn't shown the end result, although we still have the tiling to do.

10 days of prayer with SIM

17th May - SIM-ers all over the world are going to try and find time to pray for the next 10 days about worldwide mission, the different aspects of SIM and its projects, their inspiration for their own ministries. Our first day starts with :

We've just finished the campaign 'Pray for France' and have got through one Presidential election. We have just had our National Pastors' Conference where we discussed the Cape Town Committment from the Lausanne 3 conference and whether our churches really consider their part in social action or social justice issues. In each situation we are confronted by the injustices of this world, the imbalances and power plays. We are reminded how much our country is in need of healing - perhaps not physically, because France has abundant resources, but in our relationships, in the balance of power and how decisions are made. We have to admit that not all people who live in this country are treated with respect.

So this verse is very relevant to France as well.

Please pray for these same subjects. I will apply the different points to our Femmes 2000 conference day on June 2nd (for unity in our organising team and for this action to bless many women); for our 2 local churches to be renewed by the Spirit and to seek God's leading for a more direct vision for future actions; that all we do will be for his glory in our Union of Free Churches as we pastor our churches to feed our generation and to communicate our faith to our contemporaries.