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Thursday, November 13, 2014

Your right hand upholds me : Psalm 18:36

"My soul clings to you, your right hand upholds me." Psalm 63:8
HELD
She's 3 years old, strong-minded and with independent spirit. The trail is rough, broken up by stones and roots.  Her father wants to help her avoid falling and hurting herself and suggests she holds his hand. Categorical refusal! The inevitable happens: she falls, gets up and rubs her knees. When she receives the same invitation from her Dad, she gives the same clear reply: "No!"
Her foot gets caught under a tree root. She falls flat on her face. Scratches on hands and knees; eyes fill with tears. Her Dad, worried for her, lovingly says: "Let me hold your hand." Her reply is different this time: "No, but let me hold yours". She knows she needs help, but wants to keep control. It's not all that convincing, but "OK, you can."
Of course she trips over again, lets go of her Dad's hand to protect herself as she falls. This time she's really bleeding and calls out while crying: "Daddy, please hold my hand!" They walk on. She trips up again over and over, but each time her Dad grips her wrist and stops her from falling. He is fully able to protect her from further pain.
And what about us? Do we think we are so strong that we can face the future in our own strength and independently of all others? Or will we let the Lord take us by the hand and thus avoid many of the traps and disasters that life can bring?
"Father, I know that, without you, I couldn't get through this year. Take me by the hand and I will have nothing to fear!"

Recommended reading: Psalm 18: 32-37
Sylvano Perrotti
Thursday 3rd January 2013
Daily Readings Calendar.

French version.

TENU
Elle a 3 ans, le caractère fort et l'esprit indépendant. Le chemin est accidenté, jonché de pierres, et de racines. Son père, désireux de lui éviter chutes et blessures, propose de lui tenir la main. Refus catégorique.
L'inévitable se produit: elle tombe, se relève, se frotte les genoux. A la même proposition, nouvelle réponse claire: Non !
Son pied se coince sous une racine: elle s'affale. Egratignures aux mains et aux genoux: les yeux se remplissent de larmes. Papa, soucieux, dit avec amour: "Laisse-moi te tenir la main." La réponse a changé: "Non, mais laisse-moi tenir la tienne." Elle sait qu'elle a besoin d'aide, mais veut garder le contrôle. Ce ne sera pas concluant, mais "OK. Tu peux!"
Bien sûr, elle trébuche à nouveau, lâche la main du papa pour se protéger dans sa chute. Cette fois, elle saigne abondamment et dit en pleurant: "Papa, s'il te plaît, tiens ma main." Ils se remettent en route. Elle trébuche souvent, mais, chaque fois, lui serrant la poigne, il l'empêche de tomber, la protégeant efficacement.
Et nous? Nous croyons-nous assez forts pour affronter l'année nouvelle par nos propres moyens, ou bien laisserons-nous le Seigneur nous tenir fermement face aux pièges et écueils que nous ne manquerons pas de rencontrer?
"Père, je sais que, sans toi, je ne pourrai m'en sortir tout au long de l'année qui vient de s'ouvrir. Mais prends ma main. Alors, je n'aurai rien à craindre."

Lecture recommandée: Psaume 18: 32-37

Silvano Perotti
Jeudi 3 janvier 2013
Méditations Quotidiennes 2013
Eds CAEF

Last quote for a while ... I've run out.

"La sagesse, c'est d'avoir des rêves suffisamment grands pour ne pas les perdre de vue lorsqu'on les poursuit." Oscar Wilde

"Wisdom is having sufficiently big dreams so as not to lose sight of them as we are pursuing those dreams." Oscar Wilde.

I think God has sufficiently big dreams ... He just has trouble with convincing us to go along with them!

Big visions always begin with the small first steps.

In every human group there is at least one visionary who understands the big picture and who inspires the others to look toward the horizon. But each group also needs those who put their nose to the grindstone, those who pay attention to detail, who anticipate problems/difficulties. We need those who are creative, communicative, positive and those who are prudent, thoughtful, scientific.

Vitality is a very big vision for our Union of Churches and we are starting with a group of motivated leaders in the Evangelism Sub-committee taking small steps (in their very busy schedules) to transmit this vision. We are convinced that it is the right Pathway for our churches. We can only go further with this vision as the Holy Spirit leads and empowers us and the members of our churches.

There will be times where we have our nose so close to the grindstone that we lose sight of the vision, but it's God's job to keep us going on this and to use all our talents to bring our churches into a more vital way of living out our faith in an amazing God.

May your Kingdom come ...

Here comes another one !!!

"L'âge auquel on partage tout est généralement l'âge où on n'a rien." Alphonse Daudet

"The age at which we share all things is generally the age at which we have nothing." Alphonse Daudet

Ever noticed how often those who have less are more willing to share?
There are a number of videos on Youtube or Facebook which illustrate this: a young guy asks several people to share their pizza because he's hungry. They refuse. He asks a homeless guy who has received some pizza from someone else and the homeless guy shares with him.
There are many similar stories from missionaries working in Asia, Africa and South America. It's the testimony of Soeur Emmanuelle who worked amongst the poorest Egyptian people living off the rubbish heaps.

When you know what it's like to not have much, you can sympathise more with others in the same predicament. Or you can choose to keep the little you have for yourself and refuse the other person's request or stay blind to his/her need.

Jesus gives a few examples of the right attitude:
1.  The poor widow who gives of her livelihood.  Luke 21:1
'As he looked up, Jesus saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. "I tell you the truth," he said, "this poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on." '
2. The parable of the talents.   Matthew 25: 14-30
' "For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him." ' (v.29)
3.  Kingdom values which turn traditional values upside down. Matthew 5:38-42
' "Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you." ' (v.42)

 May God inspire change and motivate commitment to justice and honesty during the G20 in Brisbane this week.
Thank you to all those who are actively seeking to promote Kingdom values in this context.

More pithy quotes !

My method is to transfer them onto the blog so I don't have to keep them on my notice board or desk!

"Dis-toi d'abord ce que tu veux être, puis fais ce qu'il faut pour le devenir." Epictète

"First tell yourself what you want to be, then do what is necessary to become what you want to be."

I grew up with this idea: expounded in our chic private girls' school, learned through models of successful women following the feminist era, absorbed as motivational life principles through an extensive study of literature (if only as a counter-example of being in control of one's life against the pressures of particular societies or social groups). This idea undergirds all Positive Thinking type seminars and teaching.

I think it can be applied to our Christian walk as well. Faith in Christ is a choice we make. When we first make a commitment to following Him it's a choice we make, or a positive response to an invitation we have received from God. Fairly soon after that commitment, we realise that we want to be as Christ-like as possible so we study up on Jesus and read the Scriptures (and other books!) to get the right ideas! But what is essentiel for a Christian in 'doing what is necessary to become what you want to be' is his/her understanding of the work and the role of the Holy Spirit. He's the one who interprets, teaches, enlightens, corrects, empowers, leads, whispers.... He the master of dealing with one-off situations, in applying faith principles to unexpected circumstances, and in the banality of everyday life ! 

So let's do what is necessary to become more and more Christ-like: open up to the Holy Spirit!

Please keep praying for our churches as we follow the Vitality Pathway.


Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Cultural differences: Encouragement

I thought of another difference which showed up during our Vitality Training session in Paris.

The French approach to encouragement and learning styles versus the American way.

Our enthusiastic American friend with such a heart for France would punctuate our comments and questions with "Excellent question !" and "Thank you for that comment. I'm going to use it straight away." "What a great answer!"

Our highly intellectual pastors present, trained in being unemotional and logical, looked at him sideways wondering if he was taking the mickey out of them! Over the week, they realised he was genuine and that it was part of his way of encouraging. We are simply not used to being encouraged by each other. And we certainly don't practise it in our everyday lives nor in our churches. French people are more likely to find fault: they are trained to do it in their quest for perfection. That's why it's hard for them to accept criticism - they put so much effort into getting it right.

But while there's life, there's hope! One of our pastors reported back last week that his wife pointed out the number of times he said "Excellent, thank you!" while explaining Vitality to his church council. Mind you, he's Belgian and she's American so maybe that doesn't count ... Of course it does!!! Change is in the air.

Church camps ... gotta love 'em!

Here they are doing a sketch on what they
understand to be 'Vitality: before and after!'
Do you remember the Vitality Pathway I wrote about in the previous entry ?
Well, we did the first workshop with 2 of our more fragile churches from the Lyon area over a church camp weekend.
Two very different communities combined : one of their options is to become one single community, so getting to know each other was an important step.


At the end of the weekend, a very moving time of prayer and praise. We have a long road ahead, but we are open to the Spirit's leading and prepared to take one step at a time.
Here is the Vitality team who will get started on the different tasks needed to get a real picture of their spiritual health. A time of prayer for them

Vitally yours!

Sorry about the gap in entries ... been busy!

I've invented a new French word to end my emails and letters to colleagues! It's 'vitally yours'. No-one has told me it's daggy (Australian term for stupid)
or wrong, so I'm confident it will stick.

The French are very quick to point out mistakes in their beloved language ... and they are right to because it's an amazing language to use. Such precision in the terms. Complicated ideas can be expressed with finesse. Diplomacy was built on French language and mentality. Even swearing and insulting sounds more picturesque in French ! (Mind you, that can be just as hurtful as in any other language).

These are the reasons why anything translated in French takes more print space than in English.

This was recently proved, yet again, by our week-long training session for the Vitality Pathway, a process that we are introducing to our churches in the Free Evangelical Church of France. Shock! Horror! it's an American idea from the Covenant Church in the US of A (American readers, this is a tongue-in-cheek statement; please do not take offense). But, it must be said that the French are very suspicious of foreign ideas and don't believe these ideas can work for them. On the other hand, they are envious of the way things work successfully in the States, but that's part of the contradictory nature of the French (French readers, please don't be offended by this: it's true and you say it yourselves!!)

Anyway, to get back to my story, our week together in Paris was fantastic! An enthusiastic, loud, hugely organized American Director of Vitality Pathway from the Covenant Church came to take us through the process and won us all over. I helped translate the material with another hard-working French lady and we both found our sentences going on and on and on. We had 3 interpreters working with us as well as me to translate the exchanges between us. And our American friend peppered his speeches with punchy, memorable sayings often with assonance : "Failing to prepare is preparing to fail," John Wooden; "Prior planning prevents poor performance," John Foxjohn. How do you translate that in a punchy way in French???


Do you know what won us over ? Not his structured ppts, nor his '10 steps to ...', nor his anecdotes, but his Bible references and the way he interpreted several of Jesus' parables and ... when he cried. Yes, at times when talking about his own Federation of Churches, and when talking of the lukewarmness of Christians and their indifference to the eternal fate of the unsaved, he cried. His heart was so full of compassion for them that all his energy has gone into helping churches understand their real state of spiritual health, so that they could repent of it and turn back to the Lord and let the Spirit take his rightful place in the life of the church in order to put energy into reaching out to those who are lost.

And he made us cry; and we realised that, before God, we were not fulfilling our Christ-ordained mission. So this Vitality pathway is going to bring change. And we are going to make it relevant to French Churches because it's not a question of language, but of compassion and God's love for humankind.

Monday, August 25, 2014

Holiday snapshots!

Just because I'm proud of the result, here are two of our completed holiday family projects. Each one of us had a part to play - could extend this to an image of the Body of Christ .... but I won't ;)

Sanded down and repainted front and back doors. 
Colour now matches the stairs inside. Curtains clean, cobwebs gone; bit like spring-cleaning really!

In English: travel shapes youth: instead of buying heaps of souvenirs and being encumbered by too many things, we buy fridge magnets to remember the places we have visited. Used to use them to put notices on the fridge, but since we have an inbuilt one now we had to make our own memory board.  Claire painted the border and the leaves. We made it a blackboard.
There are a lot of Aussie magnets of course, then French ones, England and Scotland, Italy (just went there for one day a few years ago) and Spain (the kids' school trips when they were learning Spanish.) All three have been to England for school trips as well. The advantage of living in Europe!

Friday, August 22, 2014

Sex before the Sexual Revolution ....

Thought that would catch your eye ! ;)

It's actually the title of a book I finally finished reading this summer. Sex before the Sexual Revolution: Intimate Life in England 1918-1963, by Simon Szreter & Kate Fisher. (publisher: Cambridge University Press 2010).
A collection of oral histories recounting people's attitudes and experience of sexuality, usually in marriage relationships, up until the great social changes of the 1960s. It is a touching exercise: it wasn't easy for the people interviewed to express themselves because that sort of talk was simply not their preoccupation in life.
I really appreciated the conclusions, which readjust our assumptions that sexuality before contraception and 'freer' morality was a male-dominated female-submission, unfulfilling exercise.
These are the chapter titles. I will note what I appreciated and what I think.
Ch1- Introduction

Ch2- The Facts of Life: learning about sex in childhood and youth
Parents preferred that their children not be too knowledgeable about sex, and women valued their lack of knowledge as being a guarantee of their respectability. "The association of innocence with attractive femininity remained strongly ingrained ...for all respectable women." (p110) For men, however, it was a fun challenge to find out more about sex, and they saw it as their responsibility to be in charge in the bedroom.
You see these attitudes in so many films from that era.

Me: With the sexual freedom encouraged in our Western society, our kids have been exposed very early on to sexuality. I have always wanted my children to learn about sexuality from me first, knowing they would hear a lot more outside of the home as well. However, I've always regretted that they have had to be exposed so young. Recent findings about the maturation of the human brain have shown that the section which controls maturity and reflection is the last to be developped and the process can end around 25 years of age. That is a vital thing to know in looking at human sexuality, successful, balanced relationships, stable emotional health.

Ch3- Sexual intimacies before marriage.
"Thus gendered and class-based codes surrounding sexual knowledge and communication shaped different communities' premarital intimate behaviours." (p.162) Partly being respectable, partly negotiating how far the couple would go, which could also codify the seriousness and ultimate outcome (marriage) of their relationship, muchly fear of pregnancy. However, in general, men were expected to try, and women to refuse and control how far.

Me:  Contraception has radically changed our sexuality. No more fear of pregnancy (except that unwanted pregnancies amongst teenage girls is still considered a social problem here in France), and the individualistic and hedonistic view that our personal fulfillment depends on our experience of pleasure. This chapter makes me reflect on the idea of communication between the couple, and on what it means to get to know one another. I still consider sexual intimacy as being the ultimate gift to one's partner: and so the process of becoming intimate and appreciating the other is vital.
Another issue for me is that since marriage is no longer the only way to construct one's family life, and that couples are marrying far later, holding off on sexual relationships before marriage is difficult to advocate. We have that problem in our churches today. How do we deal with our sexuality as adults if we are not in a permanent relationship?

Ch4- Romance and love: finding a partner
"In talking of their decisions to get married interviewees constructed a balance between romance and realism, ... acknowledging the importance of love and intimacy, albeit within the practical context of the kind of hard-working partnership that would be necessary for a successful marriage." (p.195)
Remembering that this is between wars or just after.

Me: Right up until the 1950s, being practical and looking for a spouse with good housekeeping skills and good breadwinning skills, was a normal way to find one's partner. As this chapter points out, these criteria don't rule out attractiveness and compatibility nor falling in love. Our society places too much emphasis on romance and passion, especially sexual compatibility, and our marriages (or long-term commitments) suffer from unrealistic expectations. With the nuclear family system and both spouses working, we are becoming more and more isolated socially and relationships are suffering.

Ch5- Married love: caring and sharing
"It was important to most interviewees that caring for each other in reciprocal and complementary ways was combined with a sense of sharing, while carefully respecting the other partner's domain of authority. With such an understanding maintained, trust in each other and a capacity for generosity, give and take could all grow." (p.225)

Me : Probably my favorite section! What's the secret of a happy marriage ? Working out your roles and responsibilities within the couple, respecting those domains, building up trust, which then allows a healthy sexual life together. I'm not advocating specific roles for men and women as in the old days! Technology, education, equal opportunity etc have changed the face of gender roles and they can be negotiated by the couple. The New Man, the Millenium Man ... these terms reflect the way men behave and how they construct their identity in this new feminist era. I meet the term of 'companionate marriage' for the first time.

Ch6- Birth control, sex and abstinence
Inspite of increasing information and availability of contraceptive methods, couples tended to rely on withdrawal, moderation and abstinence to prevent pregnancy. There was a strong feeling that these practices were part of a loving and caring relationship. The authors note a difference between working and middle-class attitudes. They also point out that the responsibility for birth control evolved towards the women in the 1960s.  " ...part of the subsequent mass appeal of the oral contraceptive pill in the 1960s was that some men saw it as releasing them from taking responsibility for contraception, a hedonistic 'permissive' stance, promoted in the new brand of popular male pornographic magazines published from the mid-60s... [This] new sexual culture [] many of the interviewees found objectionable and antithetical to their own values ..." (p.267)

Me : I was brought up to consider it my responsibility to decide for my own body what was best: contraception is my domain. However, when deciding on the suitable type of contraception, it is the couple who should discuss it together. I'm particularly wary of oral contraception because it plays with our natural cycles. I'm against the 'morning after' pill because it's a form of abortion. Contraceptive practices can change over time as well.
I'm glad the authors pointed out that the interviewees didn't necessarily relate to the new social norms being adopted by younger generations, because I think the latter have lost out somewhere. Sexuality has become such a focus for us all that it has clouded other vital aspects of human life. These older generations weren't desperately unhappy ... (although obviously a certain number of marriages were unhappy and mistakes made.)

Ch7- Bodies

"Glamour has almost always been linked with artifice ... and often sexual-allure", Carol Dyhouse, quoted "This conflicted with the interviewees' core values in relation to the naturalness of their bodies and of sex.
In summary, ...most interviewees enjoyed a sexual relationship during their marriages without sexualising or eroticising particular physical aspects of their bodies. Many sought to maintain important standards of health and cleanliness where possible and to avoid impinging upon each other's sense of bodily privacy. ...this was also part of a positive aspiration for beautiful and respectable marital sex, as something natural and spontaneous. Bodies were viewed as natural -'givens'... By contrast, eroticised bodies or the use of artifice or cosmetics ... was viewed with suspicion ...as something linked to illicit or disreputable sex of a contrived, non-natural form." (p.316)

Me: And it took a social revolution to change and to bring in fashion, sexual attractiveness and make-up into the younger generations. The trend continues today with the addition of tatooing. I admit that I much prefer the above approach to sexual happiness in marriage; accepting the naturalness, enjoying intimacy and spontaneity, respecting the privacy of one's spouse, teaching children to be careful about their bodies, cleanliness. There is so much pressure on us all in today's world to perform, to 'improve' on what nature has given us, and eroticism is seen to be the key to sexual fulfillment. Appearances ... and yet, are we happier today with this so-called freedom ? How do we see ourselves ? How do we judge others ? Advertising and commerce have lead us to concentrating on the non-essential and people are now more and more disillusioned with who they are. They no longer trust others, and media influence is so strong that public opinion can be manipulated. We are living in a web of lies and artifice and our insecurity is our greatest handicap.

Ch8- Sex, love, duty, pleasure?
We have evidence that sexual fulfillment was not common for women before contraception took away the fear of unwanted pregnancies. However, this study reveals that "Cultures of silence and strict moral codes were not necessarily antithetical to the enjoyment of sexual intercourse.... For these generations, sex was viewed as fulfilling when part of a private relationship in which it was not discussed, when natural, spontaneous and free from cultural interference, when it represented the coming together of pure and clean bodies, and when couples used it to demonstate the giving, rather than the receiving, of pleasure. Discussions of sexual pleasure were thus intimately connected to codes of respectability, female sexual innocence, caring and sharing, duty and privacy." (pp.318,319)

Me: Discussing sexuality and the right of women to enjoy sex became more and more the topic of books and articles and investigation in the 30s right through to the social revolution of the 60s. But we'd be wrong to think that sexual activity was a disaster for women before that. This chapter points out how much the partners felt it was a way of showing love and looking after the spouse. It was a highly private matter. Today, the emphasis on sexual fulfillment has gone overboard and is almost like an addiction. It's become such a technical act and relies on varying practises to make it an erotic experience. I wonder if we can't return to promoting a quieter, more private matter which is enjoyable through spontaneity, naturalness, cleanliness, enjoyment given and received in mutual exploration. What image do our children have of sexuality and fulfillment in long-term relationships?

Ch9- The morning after
Because the study was done in the 1990s, the interviewees were able to compare their experiences in the light of current attitudes towards sex. Interestingly, they still felt they had had the better deal because of the values outlined in Ch8. They felt that there is far too much emphasis on sexuality today to the detriment of longer-lasting, caring relationships. Privacy is paramount. They preferred their naturalness, spontaneity, and creativity.

Me: I guess I'm glad that we can be more open in discussing sexuality within the couple, and would even encourage it as part of the communication necessary within the couple necessary for a fruitful relationship. But I did appreciate reading these conclusions because they readjust our view of past generations and moderate our approach in this day and age. It's almost a relief to read this report and to feel less under pressure in assessing whether I have a happy marriage and sexual life compared to .... In fact, I don't have to compare at all, just snuggle up and enjoy my husband's company ....
But I am very concerned about what is being understood by our younger generations and how they are constructing their views of long-term relationships and sexuality. Dare I say that biblical values of keeping oneself for the chosen partner, of developing intimacy and emotional security within one relationship which we deliberately plan to be long-term, of the idea of caring, sharing and gift of oneself are values that I espouse ('scuse the pun!) and would want my children to adopt ?

I'M SELLING MY COPY IF ANYONE IS INTERESTED - CONTACT ME.

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Pithy sayings 6


"Les enfants n'ont ni passé ni avenir et, ce qui ne nous arrive guère, ils jouissent du présent." Jean de La Bruyère

"Children have neither past nor future and, something which rarely happens for us, they really enjoy the present."

One of the big lessons from our Personal Development sections of Christian Counselling was learning to live in the present and not only to survive the present, but to make the most of every second! And in spiritual development we talk about accepting the moment and allowing the presence of God to permeate every moment. So it is also a question of confidence and trust in an Almighty God. It's also a question of understanding what liberty is for us. And children are so free to live for the moment !

And yet, our young people do grow up and have to move into the adult world. Last Sunday we had a send off for ours and the whole service was in their favour. They are such great people - we shared our faith the best way we could, and we released them into the wider world to discover other ways of living and developing their faith. May they let themselves be surprised and amazed by our God.

We pray for our young people. Note how small our community is still.

More sayings/quotes

"Le contraire des bruits qui courent des affaires ou des personnes est souvent la vérité." Jean de La Bruyère

"The opposite of rumours about business or about people is often the truth (of the matter)." Jean de la Bruyere.

Jean de La Bruyère, né à Paris le 17 août 1645 et mort à Versailles le 10 mai 1696, est un moraliste français. La Bruyère est célèbre pour une œuvre unique, Les Caractères ou les Mœurs de ce siècle. Wikipédia

Several scandals are making the headlines in France at the moment: misuse of public funds, political party debts, who gets how much and for what - leading to strikes. Even in Christian circles there can be different interpretations of same issues. Truth, real truth, can be an elusive thing. It's our Christian duty to seek the truth of any matter, including in our understanding of the Word of God. Our first reflex should be to ask the Holy Spirit to enlighten us and lead us in our ruminations.

At the Summer University Christian Counselling course (a 3-day conference at the end of June), we had some very interesting, thought-provoking teaching on the Word of God. François Vouga, a Swiss German theologian talked about what the parables of Jesus tell us about the development of our unique identity. (The Subject, in psych terms.)
Then Valérie Duval-Poujol did a masterful paper on how people's cultural vision influences their translation of the Bible and gave examples. Understanding the word 'flesh' (which leads to a rejection of our body) or words which describe our emotions  (which can lead to suppressing valid emotions). Male/female relationships or understanding of skin colour which can lead to racist attitudes.

Conclusion: the Bible has to remain 'Good News' for all and not encourage us to inflict a certain legalism.

"10 things a missionary won't tell you"

Hello everybody.

With my Iphone (thanks to a special donor) I have access to F/Bk and getting a little hooked on it, inspite of my reluctance to be a pawn in the whole social network thing. And then there are interesting things that appear and which are worth sharing.

Here are two:

http://www.trinitykenya.com/10-things-missionaries-wont-tell/

You may know I have another blog at MissionsHub. But I decided not to give the above link on that site: why? Although I agree with everything said in the article, I can't bring myself to repeat it on a specific missions blog. So I'm compromising with it being on my personal blog. Merits reflection ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IjaZ2g-21E

Ocean Clean-up

This really encourages me: we and previous generations have left rather a mess of our world with our selfish and excessive use of resources. I'm as much to blame as anyone - look at all the technology I use. Yet our young people should be encouraged to use their intelligence and creativity and they will help come up with solutions like this guy. Bravo!

Saturday, June 14, 2014

The big wide world

Who is reading my blog from the Ukraine, Russia, China and Turkey ????????

Friday, May 16, 2014

Our young people

Our regional youth group camp was at the end of March, but I'd forgotten about this poem that was written during one of the workshops. The theme of the weekend was: Use your gifts in serving the Lord. There were workshops on: gospel singing, leading the worship, a graffiti representation of our gifts, making Polynesian arrows, setting up a camp fire, cooking for afternoon teas, making decorative frames out of scraps and what nature has to offer, making a special tree on which to pin our leaves of talents and writing. Here is the poem that came out of that workshop.

J'ai écrit quelques rêves
Sur les cieux endormis
J'ai espéré une trêve
Dans mes cauchemars de minuit
Où tout était permis
Un bout de rêve s'achève
Et laisse place à d'autres rêves
Pleins de tourments et de folies
Des songes bruyants dans le silence de la nuit
M'ont changé la vie
Un chant s'élève
Chant d'espoir et d'ennui
Alors le firmament du ciel
Frôlé par cette musique éternelle
Tout était parallèle
Onde de vie
L'aube se pointe, l'aurore luit
Tout se rejoint, tout se lie

Cindy, Noélie, Benoît, Sophie

And here is a picture of the tree - it's been doing the rounds and I took it to the National Pastors' conference to share how precious our young people are.

Making the tree
The tree of talents
Decorative frames




Testing the polynesian arrows 
God gives. Use your gifts.

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Pithy sayings 5

"L'art de l'écrivain consiste surtout à nous faire oublier qu'il emploie des mots." Henri Bergson

"The writer's art mainly consists in making us forget that he is using words." Henri Bergson

Ever got so caught up in a story that you forget you are actually doing the mechanical action of reading words and making connections in your brain?

The words become instant images in our imagination; we create the film of the story in our own head. But our interpretation of the story is always influenced by what we already know and have experienced or seen. 

I've come across a number of articles, documentaries and films on the capacity of the human brain to note everything, to the smallest detail and to store that information away. Quite an amazing machine, our brain.
Have you seen "What the bleep do we know...?" or "Limitless" ? Do you watch any of these new police series : the modern "Elementary" or the older "Sherlock", "Perception", "Numbers" ??? Even good ol' Gibbs from NCIS is as successful as he is because he has that capacity to notice things and to keep those things in his consciousness.

It's the most powerful argument I have for encouraging people to watch what they feed their brain through literature or media, songs, music, films,etc. I'm not being ultra conservative in saying this: I just know that the Holy Spirit renews our intelligence and it would probably take longer for Him if we keep filling up our brains with rubbish! Next step - define what I mean by rubbish!

We read the Bible and hear sermons and read books on Christian themes with all of this info in the sub-conscious part of our brain. It takes time to filter out the rubbish and to perceive the truth of what God wants us to understand about Him, about life and love.

Another challenge would be that all that is stocked in our brain could be used to honour and serve God. It's probably fortuitous that we only use 5% of what is stocked! It's also in our favour that we live as long as we do ! Why ? because a priori we get older and wiser and have sorted a lot of things out through experience and understanding. If we are Christians and growing in the Lord, then we have the added benefit of the wisdom of the Holy Spirit to enlighten us.

Something else I tend to beef about: we live in a society which drowns us in noise, information, activism. Our brains need quiet times and rest in order to process information and to discern truth. Is it so surprising that more and more people explore meditation?

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Reading is an adventure

"A novel is a mirror that one takes for a walk along the pathway." Stendhal

"Un roman, c'est un miroir qu'on promène le long du chemin." Stendhal

We are having trouble getting our kids off the TV, easy entertainment diet, and into reading. I have always loved reading and this year joined a Book Club with 4 other women. I read a lot for the ministry, but have to have a diet of novels as well. It's been a lovely experience so far sharing books that have meant something to these women. It's not always easy reading either! Their choices can be quite intellectual and require a high level of Western and Greek Antique culture.

The books I appreciate the most are the ones which use words in original ways and which describe with insightful imagery experiences or feelings or ideas that I have had. I'm quite blown away by some of them! And these moments of empathy illustrate perfectly Stendhal's quote. The novels we get the most out of do reflect something of ourselves and what we have lived or hope to experience. They mirror the way we understand life and the world. They reinforce our connection with each other and with our humanity. Our shared humanity.

I'm grateful for Christian authors who write real novels and write about real faith questions and dilemmas.

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Pithy sayings 3

"Toute ascension vers un endroit merveilleux se fait par un escalier en spirale." Francis Bacon

"All goings-up towards a wonderful place pass by a spiral staircase." 

When we talk about getting somewhere, reaching goals, putting something into place, there's always that sense of climbing up and reaching for the heights. We often use mountain images, the sky, the heavens...
When we are young we usually think it's a matter of just getting on to it and getting there pretty directly. We older ones now realize that life is really full of spirals!
'Two steps forward; one step back' is the optimistic version.
'One step forward; two steps back' is the pessimistic version!
I think spirals are pretty. And, honestly, when you have heaps of stairs to climb, spirals are less taxing; the steps are often smaller and you can't see the end so you live in perpetual hope of arriving at the top just around the next bend! In France there are millions of spiral staircases. I can speak of the real ones in high fortified towers and gracious castles. Or I could speak of the metaphorical ones, which are hard work and difficult to be motivated for.
France is a difficult country when it comes to achieving anything from education to job creation to changing attitudes and developing productive relationships. It's not impossible, but it takes a lot of energy.

In our church union, we are introducing a new process which we hope will bring maturity and growth to those churches that decide to commit to this pathway. It's called Vitality. We have already talked about spirals and how to encourage them to advance rather that to go backwards. I'll let you know how we get on when the process really gets underway. Please pray for optimism and energy. We are aiming high on this one!

Thursday, April 10, 2014

Pithy sayings 2

"L'amitié est l'amour sans ailes." Lord Byron

"Friendship is love without wings."

Often we think of love as being a feeling we don't control. We fall in love, we are struck by love (as in 'lightning'), love at first sight and so on. It happens with potential partners; it happens when we first set eyes on our newborn baby; it can happen for places as well.

A deeper form of love, however, is something we choose to feel and to put into practice. And it can be, and SHOULD BE, the most wonderful feeling in the world: love has wings.

But it's also a hard road to choose because our decision to love doesn't depend on how we feel, but on how much we want the other, the object of our love, to be in a good place, and on what we really appreciate of the essence of that person. Real, deep love is less about us than about the other. But it is rewarding for us as well.

Friendship allows us to choose whom we love. We recognise our affinities, our common interests, a shared sense of values, humour, tastes .... In a normal, healthy friendship, we get back as much as we give. With love, we take the risk that the other doesn't return our love, or not at the same level.

One of the hard aspects of my life as a pastor's wife, a missionary, a foreigner is not being able to develop friendships over a longer period of time. When I'm in Australia, I'm always having to move on and to say goodbye to potential friendships with the most wonderful women I meet as I travel around.

Modern means of communication can allow me to keep in touch, but it's not the same as being together physically and sharing life experiences even in the banality of everyday life.

In France, the problem is more because of my 'status' as co-leader in the church. It's often said that leadership is a lonely position to hold. Some advice to future pastors includes the idea of not becoming too friendly with any parishioners because that can cause problems with the rest of the congregation. I find that difficult to maintain, because it's a fact of life that you feel more at ease with certain people than with others. It also goes against my idea of what church community should be: each one has their rightful place in the community and should be appreciated for whom he/she is regardless of the rôle he/she plays in the structure of the community. Australians are good at that side of things - much more egalitarian ;)
It's also true that leaders have to be careful about what they can share with friends within the same community.
The nature of our work/calling means we know we have to move on as well.
So friendship is an enormous blessing, not to be taken for granted. I'm learning to accept the friendships I have for the time I can have them, but it's not easy...
I discovered that for one of my children it has also been hard. Please pray for them as we face another move in 2015.