Salut!

I have French lessons on Friday with a fairly excentric ex-college teacher who is very Catholic and struggles to understand how I can be a missionary in her country.  However, today she spent 15 minutes telling me about how she takes her cats to a faith healer who has magnetic hands and heals her cat’s asthma!  Bizarre!

I was zipping along the A roads in Fifi (my little car) to a town called Gien.  It’s a town where a new church plant is proposed, so me and Jean Marc (the pastor) were off on a little fact finding mission.  But lo!  Ahead of me are the national police waving me to pull over.  Arghh!

 

I pull over and open the door and try a cheery ‘bonjour’.  They grunt, ‘close the door and wind down the window’.  So I do, with shaking hands.  They order me to get out my lisence, tax papers, MOT and insurance.  It becomes a little farcical when I ask them if I can open my door again and get out becuase my bag is in the boot!  They examine the papers - no smile to be seen.  Remark on my unsigned insurance papers and give me a pen to do it there on the spot.  And that is it!  I am free to go!

 

Jelly legged I got back into the driver’s seat and asked Jean Marc what it was all about.  ‘Oh it’s just a standard check, they do it all the time’!!   

Do you remember I told you about Claire who came to visit me over the summer and prayed with me to give her heart to Jesus?  Well, I wanted to see her ‘new faith’ being outworked in her life before I got too excited…So, she has been coming to Alpha and a mid-week Bible study and she shared with us on Thursday how she has given her heart to Jesus and how her fear about living has gone!!!  Hurah!!!  How FANTASTIC to see Jesus work to liberate someone!!  Hurahh!!!! 

 

But…please continue to pray for Claire.  She has been without a real job for over 2 years and is, understandably, quite down about this.  We have seen God do wonders in her heart, we now want to see Him change around her practical situation.

 

2nd piece of good news:  I went to the inauguration of a new Baptist minister for France!  Hurah again!  A young guy called Samuel and his wife Valerie.  100% French!  Double hurah!  Please keep them in your prayers too.  They work in Sens. 

  Samuel is on the left.

(Side note:  I drove all the way there in Fifi!!  She did me proud!  200km.  Jean-Marc drove back as we were caught in the middle of a storm.)

 

While in Sens we had a look round the centre and the cathedral.  I thought you might find this interesting…if you can see it clearly enough.  (Click to enlarge)  It is above the entrance to the cathedral and during the revolution all the heads were chopped off the statues. 

Last weekend all the main-stream Protestant churches in Orleans (5), got together for a weekend of celebration.  It was great!  Saturday night was aimed at the youth with a professional theater piece followed by a concert.  It was fantastic to see so many young people there, many with their friends.  On Sunday morning we had a joint service - it was wonderful!  There were 440 adults and about 70 children.  The music was great.  It was just fantastic to praise God together like that.  I just wish it happened more often!  Afterwards we had a HUGE pot-luck / jacob’s join.  Lots of French cakes!!  MMMM.

  Not a great photo, but it gives you an idea. 

 

On a totally unconnected note:  I have just turned my heating on - and ohhhhh it’s lovely!!!  A cosy appartment at last!! 

It’s mushroom season!  Something which we ignore in the UK - generally.  The French are OBSESSED with food.  I really don’t understand.  Somethings, OK, like almond pain au chocolate or butter with salt crystals in - I get it - totally yummy!  But other things…they seem to get hyper-active about wild mushrooms and Thai rice, amongst other things - I really don’t see what all the fuss is about.  Give me mushy peas and trifle anyday.  (not all at once I hasten to add.)  Anyway, back to the mushrooms…Jean-Marc, the pastor, collected boxes of these giant ceps.  They do look quite amazing, that I will grant them.  But as far as taste goes, there isn’t much and they are all slimy.  Hmmm.  I still have a lot to learn!

Here are the Pastors of the 4 main churches in Orleans.  (One is missing - so there are in fact 5!)  In a vast city like this it is amazing that there are only 5 main-stream churches.  The largest is the Pentecostal church which has an attendance of about 300.  They have 3 pastors on the photo.  Next is our Baptist church, with an attendance of about 100.  There are also 3 evangelical free churches, but they are quite small. (20 - 50) That means there are about 600 main-stream church attenders in a city of 250 000 inhabitants.  To give you an idea of scale, Aberystwyth, where I went to university, is a town of 11 000 - yet the Anglican church I went to there has an attandance of about 400, and that’s only 1 church in the town! 

 

Please pray for Orleans and France in general.  It is hard for UK believers to grasp how small the church in France is and how much it needs our support and our prayers.  But praise God for the unity there is amongst the different pastors and their churches in Orleans.  (We meet together every month for a LONG meeting!)  Do pray that this continues.

 

A new initiative has started at the church on Friday afternoons - a skills exchange.  Every first Friday there will be baking - Algerian style, yum!  It went really well today with a great mix of ladies.  3 older ladies, 3 younger - 2 of whom came with their little babies, and 3 high school age girls.  It was great fun!  It was also really encouraging for me because I have been praying about something a group for women and/or young mothers, and look what has happened!  Praise God!

  Before…

  During…

 

  and after!

Don’t know if i’ve spelt that right - so sorry any francophones who are reading!

 

I’ve had the most amazing birthday today!  I have had so may people singing on my answer machine it is uncanny!  I have a table full of cards and some really lovely presents.  I really feel your support and love.  Thank you!  It’s lovely to know I’m not forgotten!

 

This evening, one of the Alpha participants invited me and hilary and her husband - who are also doing Alpha - to listen to the stag mating calls in the forest and then est at his house.  I just though this was weird, but said yes to be polite!  But is was AMAZING!  We went into the forest at dusk and it was as if it were alive.  There were these incredibly loud noises which rang out from every direction.  It was a cross between the lowing of a cow with the force and ferocity of a lion.  At times it was quite

scary when they were particularly close.  We were looking into the grounds of a castle which was all white with little turrets - just like in fairy stories.  The sun was setting and it was beautiful.  The the moon came out and it was so bright it cast shadows!  We saw a stag and many deer before it became to dark, then we just stood in silence and listened to the noises around us.  It was very eerie but so amazing!  There were owls hooting but mostly this almighty bellowing….wow!

 

Then we went back to Henri’s house and had a meal and cake - with 27 candles!  (I’ve blown out 54 candles today!)  It was a really good time, we all had a great laugh and I felt almost comfortable making jokes in French.  A really good evening. 

A few subjects here for you…

Bayo, a refugee who lives here in the church has a wife and 4yr old daughter, whom he has never seen, in London.  Today he was granted a visa to visit the UK and see his family.  Hurahh!!

 

On the other hand, a Nigerian couple and their baby son, (OK, Ester and Samuel) have tried to claim refugee status here in France and have been refused.  They now have one month before they will be explulsed from the country.  Please pray for a miracle.  They are a wonderful Christian couple who fled their county after brutal persecution - of which OK bears MANY scars - they were not able, however, to provide enough paperwork to proove this persecution.  Please pray with me becuase they are so desperate and have nowhere to turn except to God and their family in Christ. 

Little Samuel.

The lady I lodged with had a birthday last week and she hadher party late so that I could join in with her!!  It was a lovely surprize!  We had a Raclette - That’s a guess at the spelling.  Each person has a little shovel type thing and you put cheese on it, maybe meat if you like that sort of thing, and then put it under this hot plate thing.  You then can pour the bubbly melty cheese on your potatoes.  Sort of like a bake potato with cheese but with a whole lot more fuss.  Very nice!

  Can you make it out?  It’s also worth noting that during the meal that lasted about 2.5hrs we used 4 different glasses!! 

 

  Candle blowing in full action mode…

 

  I had complained recently that I had no teddy and no boyfriend to buy me one…so Miriam and Jean-Aime thoughtfully gave me little Norbert. 

 

Oh, PS!  After careful consideration I have decided that my little banger is indeed a little Fifi!  The prize of having the joy of knowing you named a 16yr old French Citroen goes to Ian!