Kidsgames

Pentecost - Monday 13th June. A public holiday in France (yes, in secular France where religious practice is a private matter!)

380 kids from 5 to 14 years old gathered together for Kidsgames. This is a kind of Biblical Olympiade organised by the French Scripture Union (La Ligue pour la lecture de la Bible - LLB in French) and the Evangelical Alliance of Valence. The day consisted of team games, promoting Christian values and getting kids to know the Bible. It's particularly useful for inviting kids who don't regularly attend churches, giving a different impression of Christians.

We took a team of 11 down and again were proud of two of our teens who helped lead the group. It was a privileged time for getting to know other parents. We had a good fun day. Pray for these contacts that they bring people to a vibrant relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Cousins and other visitors

The first of our summer visitors arrived safely in Valence where we were finishing the Synod. Four quick days catching up on family news, showing them around, explaining French life-style, just enjoying being together as family. I really miss that.

Tomorrow Ruth arrives - a missionary friend working in Niger.

At the same time we are helping our English friends pack up more stuff so they can leave at the end of the month. We are grateful for every relationship - but it's hard to always say goodbye to those whose company we enjoy or whom we have come to love.

The Synod

At the beginning of June our Union of Churches held its two-yearly Synod. This year our church sent me along with another member to represent our local church. Pascal went along as Pastor and had nothing to do except catch up with friends and colleagues and follow the news and debates.

They announced my new status as a recognised worker for the Union and then proceeded to vote me in as Vice-Chairperson for the Synod. They seem to give jobs to all the new ones coming into the Union! I sent off an SOS to my prayer supporters and launched into an official role asking my co-chairers to take on all the procedural parts (they were much more competent at the rules and regulations for all that).

introducing Frédéric de Coninck

With Prof Blocher

I was privileged to introduce our two visiting speakers : both have significantly contributed to the French Evangelical world, Frédéric is a sociologist and elder in an Evangelical Mennonite Church. The same one Pascal and I attended while we were at the Bible Institute in the Paris region. Professor Blocher was also one of our lecturers while we were studying there and is one of the very few French theologians to be translated into English.

Our Union is not perfect and has its foibles, but Pascal and I appreciate it and are happy to be a part of it. In recent years there has been specific action to help churches grow and there is one church plant going on at Poitiers. Our Union juggles with modern evangelicalism and old-fashioned traditional churches.

This year we had an important vote to decide if our Union should join the new Conseil National des Evangéliques en France. (CNEF). The vote ended up being for an Associate membership instead of a full membership. We were disappointed because we believe we should be in full membership, but this status will allow the Union to suss out the Council and apply for full membership at a later date. We hope so anyway.

Cherry picking

Two weeks in advance the cherries are ready. We are allowed to pick them from the tree in the garden of the house where we rent a flat. Marc and Luc have been getting some training because they are being employed to pick them this summer once they have finished school. They may even do some over weekends. We are grateful for the man who is employing them. Because of their age they will only work half-days, but he is prepared to take them on because he thinks it's good for the young people to learn about the world of work, physical effort, financial reward ....

But we also have a testimony about jams (and the fruit that get made into jams!) Ever since Pascal and I have been married, we have never lacked for jam - mainly home made. It's become a symbol of the way in which God provides for our every need. At the Bible Institute people would give us gifts of jam; at Béziers we had a cherry, 2 abricot and an olive trees, so we made our own. At Lyon, people would give us fruit from their gardens and there were great food markets around to buy fruit on the cheap. Here in Lamastre we have cherries, pears, apples, plums.

So next time you visit us, you can try a real French breakfast with a bowl of coffee, tea or hot chocolate, and bread sticks lathered in Normandy butter and home made jams!

Bon appetit

The Ardéchoise bike event

Just to let you know that I've had to give up my plan to do the bike ride. I had too much trouble finding the time to do the training rides, got quite affected by hayfever this year, and was put off by the wind which seems particularly strong (but it might just be because I let myself get put off too easily!)

Thank you to those who were praying for me. I will keep cycling because I have enjoyed it, but will work on the Ardéchoise project longer term. We could always pray they reduce the circuit to 60 km instead of 80 km!! But we could be accused of misuse of privilege!!

Borrowed Creativity!

I'm just showing off, but I love decorating things using the paper serviette technique, because I don't need to be a real artist to achieve a satisfactory result!

I had had so many things to organise and needed to clear my head. Claire needed some ideas so we could make an end-of-year gift for her teacher, so I got out these projects that have been waiting for several YEARS! No joking! We made some shopping list notepads and then I kept going with these. It's fruit-picking time here so we used the basket to collect cherries off the tree in the garden of the house we live in.

Makes me feel very country-living! Just wish I could get enthusiastic about doing a vegie garden.

Can I turn this into a spiritual lesson ? Just try me!

I'm not a natural artist, but I know how to use what's around to produce something which has quite a pleasing effect. God uses us as we are to manifest His presence in this world and it can be quite wonderful to see how He makes the most of what we are prepared to offer Him of ourselves. His creativity is rather spectacular, so give Him the opportunity to put it into practice !

Easter decorations by Tatyana at our church

Here is the work of a real artist!

The School Trip

The teachers at our Primary School asked me to accompany 2 classes on a school trip to Lyon for 2 days. My own daughter wasn't in the group, so I saw this as a God-directed invitation. The teachers know and trust me to be a 'good accompany-er' inspite of any worries they might have about me being a practising Christian. I really like one of the teachers in particular but she is openly anti-Christian - the militantly secular type. So was this my chance to pursue the subject ?

Picture the scene. We are at the Gallo-Roman Museum in Lyon. The kids are gathered around the guide who is explaining the concept of 50 BC, talking about the Roman arenas, Christian martyrs (there were quite a few in First Century Lyon). "Jesus-Christ is an historical figure you know", she assures the children. "What is a martyr?"

"JC - Jean-Claude pour les intimes." mutters the teacher under her breath looking at me in a provocative way. She explained outside that when she has to mention Jesus Christ in her classes in an historical or artistic context, she jokes about the initials of his name being Jean-Claude for those who are close to him. "We are in a secular school - we don't promote religion here," she continues.

"So, you don't think Jesus Christ is an historical figure ?" I ask, taking the bait."Did you know that the existance of Jesus Christ is one of the most attested historical facts from that period?"

"I'll admit he existed during Roman times and he was considered a threat to the Roman Empire because he refused to worship their gods. But I won't go any further!"

"That was the reason the first Christian martyrs were killed," I replied," Jesus was crucified because he was a threat to the Jewish leaders of the time." She looked at me quizzically as if to say "well, we all know that you are going to defend him because of your views, but you aren't going to convince me that easily!"

Our conversation ended there as we moved onto the next exhibit, counted children and made sure nothing was left behind.

She's not going to get away with it!!! It was a good-humoured teasing, and I know she is respectful, but as soon as I'm no longer a parent in the school, she's going to receive "More than a Carpenter" by Josh and Sean McDowell or "This Jesus I never knew" by Philip Yancey.

 

Our Day Off

This is our day off. At least it was until I got on to the computer.

And how does a typical Frenchman spend his day off ???

The French students among you will recognise the famous French Grammar reference "le Bled". Pascal is checking what homework Claire has to do for tomorrow, has come across a new grammar exercise book and is comparing the terms and explanations with his own dim past school memories ! And loving it!

This may be just one example of the famous "exception française" - the French exception. They don't seem to do things the way others do, and they certainly don't like to conform to general rules and regulations. They have their own way of doing things. This term applies to culture, politics and general law issues. The French are very proud of it.

Speaking of Easter, I forgot to show you this at Christmas!

Christmas in France is very secular and public religious displays are very rare. One of the advantages of living in the country where Christian traditions are still accepted, is that you see manger scenes in shop windows and can have a Christian book stall at the Christmas market. This is the first time I have seen religious themes on the windows of supermarkets though. Worth a photograph.

This was taken at our local supermarket in Lamastre.

Just to remind you of some figures taken from a survey 2011 to establish the big picture of Protestants in France. An estimated 1.7 million, of which 600,000 people regularly attend church and the majority being Evangelical.

The survey revealed a new growing group : non-practising Evangelicals ! An interesting paradox.

There are an estimated 4000 protestant church congregations in France including 2,600 Evangelical communities. When I was on home assignment last year, I mentioned that we would need to create 4000 more Evangelical Churches in France in order to reach the target of 1 Evangelical church per 10,000 people.

Tanya on the left in our ladies' group

Ben holding cup cakes representing French flag!

On a more local level, our church is losing one family (returning to England) and our Ukrainian friend, Tanya , a born evangelist!

Nathalie during the morning session of Kids'Club

The ladies group has just finished discussing Rebecca Pippert's 1980s classic "Out of the Saltshaker", so hopefully ideas are spawning. We have just finished a 3-day Kids' Club with a couple of outside children (ie. not from our church community). Will you pray with us that the Lord will bring 3 new families to our church and that we will be gaining new converts ?

Christ is risen!

I enjoyed checking out Google images to find this. Interesting collection of images available, including some publicity posters for a film called Halloween - The Resurrection.

We had a special time at Easter because Pascal was at our Lyon church, so we weren't together as a family. It can be at times like these that we feel the lack of our blood family, because we can't look forward to special holidays to have get togethers.

However, we had a special service at our church. Claire did a special number about Jesus' miracles with her Sunday School group. The boys were part of a tribunal reconstruction of the resurrection.

Then we were invited to our English friends' home for Easter lunch - so we were with our Christian family.

Sorting out stuff

Well, it's Spring time here and the world has turned green inspite of the lack of rain. The wind is blowing rather strongly and many of us are affected by hayfever. (NB 2 very good reasons for not doing any bike training ! However I did go out with Marc for a 40 km ride last week.)

So the ol' Spring fever has set in and I'm cleaning things and have got the urge to sort stuff out. Gotta make the most of it while it lasts !!! 

I need to get rid of things - always hard to do when you could think of a useful reconversion for many objects, and when you are quite 'green-spirited' and wish to recycle rather than throw out, and when you think you are going to run the best Kids' club in the area so you need all these things for potential art & craft activities, and when you worry that you wouldn't have enough money to buy another one later if you did need it .....

So what should I do with all my Bible Institute notes ? Three years of treasure stashed away in cardboard folders. It was all so wonderful to discover at the time and so much of what I had noted meant so much to me in my Christian growth. How I wanted to pass it all on - to my own children, to other children, to other women. But do I really need to keep it all and lug it around every time we move house (because, yes, we are going to be moving house in July and August - so much for real holidays!).

Then I started to take a look at the notes, thinking that my New Year's Resolution could be to re-read everything and do a refresher course. 

What sort of baggage do we drag along with us day-to-day, week-in-week-out, from year to year ??? How much do we hang on to things and let them weigh us down instead of heeding Paul's encouraging us to strive ahead, look forward and leaving behind us all that hinders, to run the race to its end.

Yet, looking through those notes I could only be encouraged. Wow ! So much of what was new and exciting in 1990 is now acquired knowledge. And even if I say it myself, I have been putting many things into practice in my personal and family life, in my ministry, in my understanding of the world today through a Christian perspective.  

So I figure I'm carrying some good baggage. And I can throw out a lot of those notes because what is written is now written in my heart and the Holy Spirit is there to remind me of it.

Mmm, I feel lighter already ! (But not light enough to get up those Ardèche hills! anyone know of a way to lose 10 kilos overnight without serious consequences to one's health ???)

Easter memorial

"It was now about the sixth hour and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour, for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Jesus called out with a loud voice, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." When he had said this, he breathed his last. ... But all those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things." Gospel of Luke, chapter 23 vv 44-46, 49.

Tonight (Friday) we have a combined service with the Reformed Church and the Catholic Church to remember how Christ gave his life for us. May all your memorial services be profoundly moving and inspire you to honour God in all you do.

What goes down must go up ....

If only I could be so joyful as this person as I'm riding along!

So how is my training going, you ask ?

I've now done more than 400 kms counting the exercise bike. But I'm supposed to do 1000 km before being really ready for the Ardéchoise. "Sigh!"  8 weeks to go so that makes 77 km per week to do !

Last week I decided to pedal to Annonay to attend a conference on Loss and Mourning. I arranged to stay overnight with Christian friends and to return "en vélo" the next day. It's 45 km one way.

Well ! whatever did I get myself into ??? I had bike bags to contain a change of clothes and some pick-me-ups. Pascal volunteered to be back-up team. I had 4 hours to get there, knowing that others before me with less weight and no bags had managed to do it in 2 1/2 hours.  Here are some of my reflections ...

- what goes down must go up! Never get too relieved when you have some downhill to do because you know you are going to have to go back up on the return trip!

- but make the most of the downhill to catch your breath, move your arms and shoulders, drink and stand up on the pedals to relieve a sore bottom!

- hold your tummy in when the cars and other bike riders go past!

- watch out for nettles when you make toilet stops.

- don't eat too much before leaving.

- don't expect to have time or energy or the balance to admire the country side as you pedal.

- how do you sit up straight on a bike, take your hands off the handle bars and ride along???

- God, it's now that you are supposed to get behind me and push ! 

- God, if you really want to encourage me, you'll give me angels' wings right now!

- God, do you know of a way to lose 10 kg in a short time without risk !???

A tip for missionaries in cross-cultural situations : you know you have fully adapted to your host country when you talk to yourself in your second language and not in your mother tongue during the most painful moments of climbing up those hills !! :)

To cut a long story short : I did 21 km of up hill and reached the highest point of the trip way over the time schedule, shaking and tired (did I mention I had a head wind as well ??). I phoned Pascal to come and transport me the next 10 km or so because I wasn't going to make it in time and he turned up 5 minutes later! He'd anticipated the need and had been stalking me in the car !

He let me off 7 km before my goal and I got to my host's house, a shower, a rest and a conference. A big night's sleep before heading back the next day. Same problem with added fatigue - got the the highest point, called Pascal, rendez-vous made and I launched into a 10 km downhill stretch - I DESERVED THAT 10 KM DOWNHILL STRETCH!!!! and Pascal was waiting with coffee at the start of the next climb.

I managed to do 70 km in 2 days and when I saw the climbs I had had to do I did feel some pride in my achievement, but I really don't think I'll make the 80 km ride for the Ardéchoise. I've just spent 5 days recovering!!!

Anyway, I'm going to keep training. I'm actually starting to enjoy riding. And I want to achieve something major for my 50th birthday. One of the fruits of the Spirit is PERSEVERANCE ! It's the same word in French! Paul was talking about persevering in the faith, but I think it can apply to my goal because it's a spiritual lesson for me. Think of all the images I can use when describing our spiritual walk !

Here is a cartoon by a famous Belgian personality Guy Deluck :

The Cat says "If I really had to ride at my own rhythm .... I wouldn't move at all !"

If we Christians weren't challenged to progress in our faith through teaching, life experiences and even through suffering, we would never advance. Thank God for the Holy Spirit who accompanies us through it all - our teacher, guide, comforter, encourager, prompter. We are called to continue the race, to advance in maturity, to serve the Kingdom's purposes. We must persevere. We have to rely on God to do it. We know we will get there in the end. Praise the Lord !!

Secularism

France is having identity problems again - these questions arise around election times. Religious expression has always been very difficult in a public setting, although religious freedom is a reality. 

With 5 - 10% of the French population (according to whose figures you use) being considered Muslim and with varying degrees of "practising", the French are confronted with the idea of identity. What is French ? Who are the French ? Sometimes I think the real question behind the commentaries about migrants and people who are French-born but of different origine is : to whom does this country belong ? A very pertinent question because you can be born here, but you don't necessarily have the right to be here in some people's eyes. If this country physically belongs to you, then you have the right (normally) to decide what happens to the land and in this land. That is what is called DEMOCRACY.  But many French are very possessive of their land and cultural inheritance and find it hard to share the responsibility of decision-making.

I'm still coming to an understanding of the mentality of people living here in our country area of Ardèche. I mix with people who have been here and whose families own land for generations and for centuries. They are very independant-minded and self-sufficient. I get the feeling that they were pretty much left to themselves for centuries (albeit under the control of local lords and ladies and often the Catholic Church), but in this last century, with the advent of modernisation, they can no longer stay 'hidden' in the hills. The outside world has caught up with them. People here are very slow to change, because they really need to be convinced of the benefit of the change and because their rhythm of life is so in tune with the seasons. 

I will probably never ask for French citizenship because of this idea of belonging to the land and the land belonging to my family. Pascal's family hasn't owned any land or property for a couple of generations. Do I feel more connected with Australian land ? Yes, even though I have no chance of owning any. But my family has been physically connected with the land since my great-great-grandfather John emigrated to Australia in 1850s. 

I won't enter into a discussion about Aboriginal Land Rights - I'm not up to date with any of it.

Sometimes I wonder where we should retire to ? Pascal would be willing to move to Australia, but doesn't it usually depend on where your children end up ???

It just brings home to me ('scuse the pun!) how much we Christians should have more of an eternal perspective on things. We are just pilgrims on this Earth for the time allotted to us. I often feel the lack of real roots in a country (although I do feel a link with Scotland through my Findlay family history) and I often admire the deep sense of belonging many Europeans have about their home land. I console myself with the image of a place being prepared for me in my Father's House. Yet in the here and now, my identity is rooted in that of Christ my Lord and Saviour. That's where I belong. That's where I am best.

In limbo

Three of my appointments with women were cancelled this week and I suddenly find myself in limbo. I get psyched up for each encounter, I prepare the material, I organise my family life and then anticipate the moment when we launch into the Word of God and get fed ! I love it when we explore what the Scriptures show of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. And I love it when we find some relevance to our lives today. Some of the most precious moments are when we pray together.

We often use the telephone for these meetings, but last Tuesday I took the bike to ride to Catherine's 18 km away. It's part of my "getting fit for the Ardèchoise" campaign. Nearly killed me ! Plus my chain was slipping. Catherine walked out to meet me (thank God for mobile phones, too!) and wheeled the bike to her house. She offered me a shower and a good meal. I recovered and we were able to talk about witnessing to our neighbours and had a great time of prayer outside on the grass in the sun. Spring is blossoming all around us at the moment.

Then back on the bike in fear and trembling, but it was like I had wings and made it back up the hills. Then there was a long down hill ride to Lamastre. Pascal was sending me encouraging SMS s but I didn't want to stop pedaling to read them!!

And here I am in limbo again - so I've caught up on my birthday e-cards, my address lists and now my blog. I am procrastinating a little because I really should get on to our newsletter. Oh well - next time someone cancels ....

ALPHA

The Alpha Course is going strong here in France. It is such an encouragement after years of trying different approaches to evangelism and witnessing in a strongly Catholic-culture country which is also militantly secular.

Yet, did you know that Alpha France was started by and is powered by the Catholic Revival movement ?

Thank God, He knew the best way to bring people back to Him. The Protestants wouldn't have had nearly the same impact and their efforts would have stayed marginal. However, right from the start of Alpha in France, more than half of the groups being created were in Protestant and Evangelical churches.

Alpha has now adapted the Marriage Course and the Youth Course to French context.  Apparently there were around 600 Alpha Courses operating during the year.

It's reviving the Catholic parishes and providing a much needed boost to many churches.

Recently there have been a number of calls to improve on the Christian concept of leadership (servant leadership) and to work on training and mentoring. Alpha France has started courses on that aspect also - a vital aspect of any church life and one that has been neglected in general in French churches.

Pascal and I have the desire to work on a Church council member information and training session to use within our Union (and our region). We lack the time to develop it, but Pascal has already worked on it for one of his churches. We have the blessing of our Regional Group, but we need time .... May God lead us in this also.

PRAY FOR FRANCE !!

JUST A REMINDER THAT THE "PRAY FOR FRANCE" CAMPAIGN HAS STARTED.


CHECK OUT www.prayforfrance.org

Hi, darling. How was your weekend ?

This is Pascal ! We are having morning coffee together with a croissant (note how we are nearly eating off the table ! That's very french!!) He's been helping out at his other church in the Lyon area and I picked him up from the station. We don't have that much sharing time together with all our comings and goings, but we try to have coffee once a week if we can to catch up uninterrupted (ie no children!), to coordinate our diaries and to discuss family.

Are we preparing others to replace us ?

Another long day - but I decided I would try and sort through all the emails that have banked up. I have quite a bit of reading material that comes through from SIM offices - International, Australian and French. Came across this link to a talk by Gbile Akanni, who is from Nigeria. If you can get past his strong accent, it's worthwhile listening - skip over the first 5 minutes or so and settle back for an hour. 

http://no8-wire.blogspot.com/2010/05/making-disciples.html
Nigel Webb
Director
SIM NZ
nz.director@gmail.com

Hear how God expects us to raise up others in the next generation to continue the work He set us to do. One word for it is DISCIPLING; another is MENTORING or ACCOMPANYING. In fact, Gbile Akanni says that Evangelising and discipling are part of the same order given by Jesus in The Great Commission ! He refers to Joshua 1: 1-4 and chapters 11 - 13.

It struck a deep chord with me. I try to put it into practice in my own situation - that's why I worked so hard to have missionary status and then recognition for my work in the local church by our Church Union. In our French context, these things seemed to be very important in order to have credibility. And it has worked ! Praise the Lord !

Gbile Akanni ends his talk by reminding us that people need to see us first, need to share our lives first, in order to see Jesus. I think we have forgotten that aspect of our commitment to follow Jesus. It's not easy to open up and share ourselves with others. But it is vital if they are to catch on to who Jesus is.  Think about how many Christians influenced your life, helping you to meet Jesus, to commit to Him and to follow His path ?? What are you doing to replace yourself in the work God has called you to ?

Local elections

Last week and next Sunday half of France is voting in local elections ; not Town Hall municipal elections, but "les cantonales" - local regional ones. As a European, I can vote in Municipal elections and in the European ones, but not the Cantonales or National ones. (Just a reminder that I have British and Australian nationalities).

I must admit I'm glad not to have to choose and vote - call me indecisive or slack ! But it brings home to me each election time how much we don't know about what goes on behind the scenes, how much our understanding of things can be clouded by our perspective and our preconceived notions. And who to believe these days ?

I actually know 3 of the different candidates : 3 women with whom I have spent time. One was on the High School Council with me, is in the Greens Party and practises Reiki. Another is the mother of my daughter's friend at school and on the Socialist ticket. The third does folk dancing with us, attends and teaches Sunday School at the Reformed Church (French equivalent of Uniting Church in many ways) and is standing with the United Left group which is predominantly Communist ! The outgoing candidate is standing for re-election, is on the political right, wins the majority of votes because he is a local whose parents worked for the Resistance during the war, and happens to be gay. None of the other candidates have any really defined projects, but there has been a distinct lack of debate of ideas since in the previous election the vote was such a majority that there was no real opposition. So what do you base your choice on ? Words, words, words ...Appearances ? Impression of the person's lifestyle and social class ? Past record ? Manner of treating people ? Which values do you admire in someone if religion is not allowed to be discussed or used ? How would you choose ??

In talking to others around town I hear contradictory opinions and feedback.

It is SO important to keep perspective and to pray for discernment. I know we all have to make choices and be responsibly involved, but sometimes, when I'm just a bit tired, I would really like Jesus to return and to take over control.