Salut!

All Christmas I had to listen to Leona Lewis ‘bleeding’.  And now she has decided to come to France and there is no escape - again!  Arghhhhh!!!  You would have thought she’d have given up by now or at least the clotting mechanism would have kicked in.  Biology is not on my side however…

Today, after a little lie-in, it was the youth event ‘Le Tribu’.  It went OK, not brilliant.  I had prepared an activity about self-image.  Using the celebrity gossip magazines and how they try to impose an idea of perfection on us…and then the Bible and who God says we really are, who we were created to be.  I had aimed it at a group of girls who are usually there, converted, mid-teens, struggling with this issue.  It turns out they weren’t there and the 2 people who turned up were 2 non-converted lads!  Hmm…it went down like a lead balloon!  It’s one thing to tell someone that ‘They are no longer slaves but children of the light’…another to tell someone ‘Well, if you gave your life to Jesus you would no longer be a slave etc etc. ’  Anyway, we quickly dropped the idea and luckily there was a male leader with me who managed to turn it into a conversation about Christian morality and why God tells us not to live a certain way. 

Anyway, that’s how it goes sometimes.  You win some, you lose some; as my dad would say.

One group did a really good sketch about the reality of the ressurection.  At least one of the workshops worked!

Easter in a church is busy!  And so it should be! 

Yesterday we had the Young Adults group - JEEP.  I think it was one of the best meetings we have had!  To begin with I laid out lots of rubbish in the table; newspaper, yoghurt pots, string, sellotape etc.  I put them in teams of 2 and gave each team an egg.  I told them we were going to throw them out of the church window - 2nd floor! - and the team who’s egg didn’t break was the winner.  They could use any of the rubbish on the table to protect their egg.  In the end me and Stephan won.  We sticky taped our egg together so it was impossible for the shell to break and then embedded it in shredded newspaper.  All good Easter fun!

  Chocks Away!    The Winner

 A laid-back Bible study followed a yummy meal of pizza and strawberry tart! 

Today was the Easter service which Jean-Marc and I put a lot of work into.  It seemed to go well and we had quite a few visiters who had responded to the distributed invitations.  Unfortuatly I was stuck at the front with the projector and couldn’t get to the back in time.  (New people always peg it out the door after a service while regulars stop you to moan about unwashed towels etc.)

This afternoon one of my neighbours invited my round for tea and cake.  It was very nice until he asked me if I wanted my cards read!!!  You can imagine my reply!!  Hee hee! 

And surprize surprize  - my go-slow croci (sp?!) are blooming!!  23rd of March - can you believe it?!

I had 2 nice moments last night.  One was reverse parking in the road!  It will sound silly to you but now I have feedom to park wherever I want to with no panic!!  Wonderful!  Ha ha!  The second, following closely on the heels of my parking success was putting on my rollerbaldes and making my way to the meeting point, to be greeted by the group with calls of, ‘Where’ve you been?  We’ve missed you!’  It was really nice!  What with one thing and another plus all the rain we’ve had recently I’ve not been out on a Friday with the group for about 6 weeks.  It was really nice to know that they had noticed my absence!

It’s funny, when I was absent from church last week people didn’t say ‘oh it’s great to have you back’ it was more like ‘Are you coming to the counsel meeting?’  ‘Are you going to catch up on this?’  ‘Sunday school had to be cancelled becuase you weren’t there.’ …….

Yesterday I had the pleasure of a visit from Michael and Margaret from Farnham.  They were on their way to their holiday home and popped in…and they brought home made Hot Cross Buns!!  Mmmmm!  They don’t sell them here so it was a real treat!

This afternoon I did my weekly English lesson at the community centre.  When we were finished there was a group of ladies making roses out of little beads…they encouraged me to stay and make one with them.  I have realised I need to get new glasses urgently!  Anyway, it was nice to sit with them and hear all their chatter - amazing how much you can learn from ladies natter!!  I invited a few of them to the Easter Sunday service…we’ll see if they come!  Anyway, I have created a rather garish multi-coloured rose and I’m not quite sure what to do with it!  Answers on a postcard…

On Thursday night I organised the church prayer meeting in the style of 24-7 prayer, ie arty.  It was a bit of a shock for most people who are used to praying with their eyes closed and their hands together - but I think they appreciated it!

On Saturday night we had the first of our ‘youth worship’ eveings.  Quite a lot of us are complaining about feeling lilke we are in a spiritual desert.  So this was our response.  It was OK for a start.  I think as we continue to spend time together in God’s presence things will get better. Afterwards we ate crepes together - yum!

Sunday evening we had an inter-church young adults group.  It was OK.  I was a bit dissapointed with the turn out, we were about 20…but only 3 churches represented.  Shame. 

On Monday I miss-timed getting up and had a dramatic panic rushing around trying to get my stuff together for a 3 day training course on youth work in Paris.  As I stumbled towards the train station in the middle of the now infamous storms, regretting ever getting up, my umbrella simply snapped in half!  Not inside-out, not blew out of my hands…but in half!  I was left with the handle and half a metal stick in my hand while the other half blew off down the road…things were not boading well!

I managed to get there in one piece and the first few lectures were useful.  An American missionary couple who live literally across the road from the centre had offered to feed and lodge me, but with it being the first time on one of the courses I didn’t know about timings and things and told them ’no’ so that I could spend as much time as possible with the other participants.   But then came the shock…  To eat we had to go to a self-service cafe thing in a super market a 10 minute walk away.  All this in the middle of the storms!  Then the lodgings were in a monestary!  Arghhh!  Long, long corridoors, whistling wind, creaky floor boards and no locks on the cell doors.  It was very sparse and very scary.  I slept with a table pushed up against the door!

The rest of the 2 days were filled with lectures from pastors who had no idea about youth work!  It was sooooo frustrating.  One of them came to speak for a 2hr session with no notes.  One stood up and said he has nothing to do with the youth group but he’d share a few ideas with us.  Mostly I slept, when I managed to get through my feelings of frustration.  It’s true that no one has really seen a funtioning youth group here.  Materials for YGs don’t exist in French.  The idea that one of the church members might spend his precious time caring for the youth is generally unheard of, so usually it’s down to the pastor to do a bible study every 2 weeks with the youth.  Arghhhhh!

After 3 days of complete frustration, boredom and lack of vision I was DESPERATE to get home.  I got to the train station at 1.30pm only to be told becuase of a strke the next train was at 5pm.  ARGHHHHH.

I spent stupid amounts of money of Parisian tea and hot chocolate until I mananged to cram myself onto an overspilling train with lots of angry, bad breathed commuters.

I arrived home and quickly got off to bed.  Only to be woken up at 4am with a tummy bug!  Being ill on your own is no fun!  I was unable to walk more than 3 steps on Thursday without almost passing out.  I managed to make myself a first hot drink of the day at 6 in the evening!  Today I’m still feeling rough but I rang up an old lady who has brought me some soup and eggs.  It’s days like this when you miss your mum!

So - that’s the excitement in Orleans!  Oh and my retarded crocuses have still not bloomed!

I was at a France Mission training day yesterday in Paris.  It was the first one since last summer so it was nice to meet up with the other trainees after such a long time.  However, getting up at 5.30am and making a 3 hour journey to the North-East of the Paris suburbs wasn’t such a pleasent thing!

On the way home I was exhausted, cold and DESPERATE for a cup of tea.  I was sat on the train waiting for it to leave when there was an announcement that because of violence on the train we were going to be delayed until the police arrived.  The guy sat next to me started off on his soap box saying, ‘Violence happens, leaves fall…but why does the train have to be held up?’  I had tp try and keep the giggles inside!! 

I LOVE MONDAYS!  Weekends are always very busy, and this one was particularly busy.  On Saturday I was in Bourges for the AGM of the mission.  Sunday was the AGM of the church here in Orleans which always evokes lots of emotion.  Mondays are my day off and I do NOTHING!  I have spent most of today reading a book…my only movement was to walk down to the Loire to read my book there for an hour!

Tomorrow I’m up at 5.30am to get to Paris for a training session with France mission…so an early night before a long day ahead.