Salut!

On a Friday I have French lessons with a lady from the church and on my way home pop into the near-by organic shop for my weekly veg selection.  (It forces me to eat veg and isn’t any more expensive than buying small quantities in the local supermarket.)  Anyway, I usually have a little chat with the lady about life and things.  Today she asked me what I did, which led on to who are the baptists, which led on to the claims of Jesus, which led me to leaving her with a John’s Gospel and a evangelistc booklet about knowing God!!  Please pray for her that God touches her heart and shows her truth.

So I was all excited and was unlocking my door and the phone was ringing…oh no!  I know from experience now that break-throughs are very often followed by struggles.  I had someone on the phone telling me some very disturbing news about what went on in my house group while I was away.  Oh dear.  Please pray for wisdom and for protection for me as I deal with the situation.  I feel quite accutely the attacks at the moment.  (Somebody even posted a very evil remark on this blog, which I removed.)

Psalm 32 in the Bible: You are my hiding place, you will protect me from trouble, and surround me with songs of deliverance, you will instruct me and teach me the way I should go.  Many are the woes of the wicked, but the Lord’s unfailing love surrounds the person who trust in him.

Just been out doing some tract distribution and the birds are singing and the buds are growing and there are little yellow and pink flowers popping out everywhere!  It’s lovely!  (My crocuses are still only little green stumos however!)

On Thursday I was invited for the first time to visit a neighbour and have a cup of tea!!  I was praying in the morning to have an oppertunity to share with someone today and look what happens!  (Why am I surprized when God answers my prayers?)  Anyway, he had baked a cake and his sister-in-law came round, it was great.  He was Catholic but converted to Islam to marry his current wife.  It caused for some good conversation! 

Then on Thursday evening Ian Rees and a group of ladies from his church in Northampton arrived.  It is great to have them here.  Yeasterday we visited the city a bit and in the afternoon the ladies led a little cooking lesson at the church.  2 of them are scottish so they showed us how to make shortbread.  It was VERY yummy and deffinetly not good for my thighs! 

Each month I send out an update by email to anyone who is interested in what goes on here and wants to pray for the work. If you are not already on the list let me know by either email or leaving a comment on this blog and I’ll sort it out.

I headed off to Paris on Saturday in beautiful sunshine.  I spent an hour wandering round the town of Arceuil and visited an estate agents to ask a few preliminary questions.  Basicly, rent prices are HIGH - very high!  I then set off further down the RER B line to Massy to have tea with Karen and Frank, missionaries with GEM.  It was lovely to see them again and they shared lovely cake with me!  Yum!  Then back along the RER and and a short bus journey later and I arrived at Tom and Anna’s flat.  (Missionaries with IMB)  They are part of the church plant in Arceuil so I was able to ask them lots of questions and they were very helpful.  It was good to get to know them. 

Sunday morning it was over to the church in Arceuil - which is more like a house group!  Apart from the missionary families there were 3 people!  Obviously the church is in the embrionic stages and has a long exciting journey ahead of her.  After the service I was able to chat with people, drink cappacino and eat cake spread with Nutella - I like this church more and more! 

After the service the pastor Henri and his family invited me to a Vietnamese restaurant.  It was very yummy.  However, they are a Korean family so they all got stuck in with chop sticks and I was compelled to join them.  I did manage to get through the meal with no major disasters, but it did take me twice as long.

To top everything off, I found a butternut squash on a stall outside the RER stop.  It made my day! 

While I was with my sister and brother-in-law we made a trip to their allotment.  And for the first time in my life I picked up a spade a dug!  It was a lovely day in the sun, until my sister dropped me in the mud!    Anyway, I had a great time with them in Hereford…now I’m back in Orleans for the day!  I head off to Paris tomorrow on a fact finding mission weekend!

Today a friend invited me to her work canteen…with a difference!  She is doing a PA apprenteship scheme and in the same complex there is a catering school.  So for the tiny sum of €3.50 I ate salade, duck a l’orange and raspberry mouse.  Yum yum!  I met a lady there who is interested in learning English who promises she’ll come to my Tuesday night conversation classes. 

Today was also the birthday of one of the ladies who learns English with me.  So I invited her and the other lady round for tea and cake this afternoon.  She came with her little dog who was very cute!  Our conversation ranged from is Sadam Hussein in hell? to the possibilty of a virgin birth, to the spices they use on chicken.  Very varied!  The birthday girl told me she had no Bible - so I’ll see to that!  I offered a Bible in Arabic to the other lady but she said she already had one…

  Here she is with the cake and the dog!

Friday I head back to England for a week.  I’ll be participating in the ECM Northern Conference in Salford on Saturday and on Monday heading down to stay with my sister and brother-in-law for a couple of days. 

On Saturday we had the bi-monthly meeting of the pastors from the centre region of France.  This is a meeting that I like!  It involves tea, cake and prayer.  No bad thing! 

Afterwards I remarked that I travel around quite a bit for these meetings but I never actually get to see the town.  So after the meeting we stayed for an hour and saw the cathedral and a bit of the town.  I would deffinetly reccomend Bourges for a day trip.  The cathedral is very beautiful and the town centre very ‘French’.

Here are some modern day sculptures that we found hanging round the cathedral…