Salut!

We went away with the youth group to a youth event in Valence - 6hrs drive away!  It was fantastic!!  For those of you who know Soul Survivour, it was quite similar.  Big meetings morning and evening and workshops during the day.  There were 4000 young Chistians from all over France - it was really amazing.  French young people are very into rock music so a lot of the worship involved standing cramped together and jumping on the spot for a very long time!  It was very hot and sweaty but wonderful to see so many of our youth be part of something so big and exciting.  (The last meeting of this kind was in 2000, so none of them had experienced large scale modern worship.)

I never thought I would see such enthousiastic worship in France!  Praise God!  On the Saturday night 8 of our group of 11 gave or recommited their life to Jesus.  It was really awsome to be there and a huge priviledge to witness.  On Sunday night Matt Redman led the evening worship which was a such an almighty huge blessing for me.  Worshiping Jesus in English in such surroundings was so wonderful.  It was funny at times becuase he would shout, ’sing with me!’ and there was silence becuase nobody knew what he was saying!!  His little message was also lost in translation…but it didn’t really matter.

The youth are now planning to lead the service on the 1st July when 2 of them will be baptised.  Please pray that they keep the momentum and follow through on their plans.

We returned last night and I was ABSOLUTLY exhausted!  I have slept 13hrs already!  Here are some photos to give you an idea of how it was:

It was the Gospel concert last night and it was really fantastic!  There were about 700 people there, including the mayor and some other high-up official - Thank you for praying!  The group was really excellent and it was clear they were having so much fun simply praising God.  It was seriously weird though becuase the French were joining in, even the Mayor, when we were asked to lift our hands and say ‘Yes Lord’!!  No one knew what they were saying or listening to.  With the strict separation of church and state here is totally UNHEARD of!  In the second half they sang a few songs in French and then the leader gave a bit of his testimony and encouraged people to search for Jesus.  I heard somebody say, "Oh, that’s a nice sect then."  However, I was thourougly blessed to be part of such vibrant worship!

 

Today at church we had an evangelistic service led by a group of African ladies and followed by and international meal altogether.  There are many different nationalities at the church and there were some weird and wonderful offerings!

 

After the seriously hectic week I have had I am looking forward LOTS ANDS LOTS to tomorrow!  (My day off   )

Today Paul and I went and tried to sort out the lady’s car.  The product took the scuffed look away and made the scratches that are there shiny so they don’t stand out - but they are still there.  She seemed to be alright about it.  I hope she was.  I’m going to get the pastor to give her a ring just to make sure, otherwise it’s a respray for the bonnet - €€€

We also collected some cherries from her cherry tree, so that made her a bit happier too.

I went to give an English lesson to the muslim boy but he didn’t turn up so I spent 45 minutes talking to his dad about Jesus!  It was quite exciting but also difficult becuase he is Algerian and has a very direct way of talking that makes me quite scared!  He saaid he has watched the Jesus video so next time I think I’ll take a bible in Arabic and French.  Please pray for the preparation of his heart, that he would accept and read God’s words.

Tomorrow at 6.45am - yes, exactly! - I’m off to Paris for 3 days of the Baptist Union Congress.  If it is anything like the last one it will be a case of fantastic people, long meetings.  I’ve packed 2 books, lots of chocolate and my MP3 player…at least I’m prepared!      Bye for a while! 

Erghh, I hate this being responsable thing.  Arghhh!  We did a car wash yesterday and the girls washed a nice new shiny citroen.  Except now it is a nice new scratched Citroen.  I rang the lady up and she didn’t seem to mind.  She rang me back today and went crazy.  (Which I would too if it were my car.)  We have got some product which is ment to get rid of small scratchs.  Please please please somebody tell me that this will work.  Otherwise, what do we do?  Arghh!

I’ve asked to put out a prayer request for the little girl who was abducted in Portugal. 

For her protection and safe return and strength and encouragement for her parents and family.

 If you’ve been following my prayer letters and this blog, you will know that we are in the middle of a month long festival here in Orleans…in fact 2 festivals!  1 is a totally laic festival which serves as a bridge for the Chrstian festival.

A exhibition was comissioned and is into it’s second week now.  (It is rotating round different venues.)  Today was the official opening in the town centre…here are some photos of it:

Looks good, doesn’t it?!  It was a lot better than I imagined when the team explained it.  Please pray for Jean-Aime, who is the main organiser…he has a lot of responsibility and a lot of work and he is understandably really tired.

On another note…there were over 1000 cars burnt in the 2 evenings following the election results.  Mainly in Paris but there have been a few burnt in the blocks next to mine.  The media apparently don’t report on the disturbances, believing that if they do they will only add to the problem.

This week has been Joan of Arc week in Orleans, cumulating in a big celebration today (a bank holiday).  St Jeanne d’Arc liberated Orleans from the hands of the English in May 1429 which was the beginning of the end for the invaders!

Anyway, it was written 10am the first big procession of the day.  So Paul and I were there dutifully at 10am in the wind and the rain.  There were many flags, lots of crowd control barricades and some policemen - but no crowds or marching bands.  It was a bit eerie!  So at 10.15 I asked a policeman, "Have I got it wrong, I thought it all started at 10am".  "Yes, that’s right 10am."  "Here?"  "Yes, here at 10am"  (this was seriously weird!!!)  "but it’s 10.15…?"  "I know.  It starts at 10am."

From this completely surreal and bizarre conversation I gained a few more cultural insights.  The procession was due to start at 10am and the policeman thought nothing of it at 10.15 to tell me it started at 10, because starting times mean NOTHING in France!! 

So, being cold we wandered into the Cathedral where there was a huge mass in full flow with bishops, mayors, bells and whistles.  Somehow we ended up right at the front with the all the media and were too embarrassed to walk out again!!  We had an excellent view!

Then we sort of followed people out and ended up on the main stage outside the cathedral with everyone looking at us!!!  Ha ha!!  Right next to all the medieval dressed trumpet players and all the dignitaries!  Classic!  Anyway, we had a great view so we stayed there!

The city was full of medieval musicians and markets, it was really fun!

 

The boys even bought a sausage made from donkey!!  Ewww!

(The riots everyone was prepared for after the election results thankfully didn’t happen.  Just a few small skirmishes.  Fifi is alive and well!)

Well prayer works again!  I asked people this month to pray for my neighbours and today I’ve spent about 2 hours talking to various folk!!  Hilary and I went out to distribute flyers for the church events this month.  It was a sunny day so people were in their gardens and many people out walking or going to vote.  One lady said her and her husband called me ‘La grande blonde’ as I pass their house all the time to get to the church!

I also got talking to a rather rowdy group of North African girls.  It good to get to know them a bit but they warned me about the proposed violence tonight if Sarkozy wins…so I have hidden my car!!  it seems a bit drastic but apparently there were cars burnt here 18 months ago so I don’t want to run any risks with little Fifi!  It really is election fever here, I’ll be glued to the TV at 8 O’clock tonight.

This is the campaign we are holding during the month of May.  If you are a french speaker, or if you simply want to see what the exhabition looks like, use this link: http://paris-ile-de-france-centre.france3.fr/videojt/  Go to the 19/20 box and the editions locales, orleans-loiret.  The video is from mercredi 2 mai.  It is about 2 and a half minutes into the the video.

Left France Saturday morning and returned Wednesday night.  In between I visited 2 churches who actively support me and met up again with many friendly faces, travelled down to the High Leigh conference center and spent 3 days with the ECM British team, sang and prayed in English (!), listened to teaching from my old bible school principle, attended workshops, went to TESCOs - hurah! - was called Tracey a fair few times.

This is my food eaten list:

jelly babies - lots

Fish and Chips

Cream tea…while on a barge! 

Treacle pudding

Here are a few ‘typical’ UK photos…

I had an excellent time.  I met up with old friends, ate yummy food, was refreshed spirtually and gained about 1kg.  What more could I want?!