Salut!

I’ve just got from the ECM French Prayer days in Gien.  I’m very tired, but mostly I’m thawing out!!  It was the coldest snap of the winter so far…we even had snow in Paris on Sunday.  You would expect that when you book a gite that the owner would make sure there is enough oil to heat the place.  BUT NO!  We froze to death - almost.  It was sooooooo cold!!

 Jody and Jan: Cold but still smiling

 me using Jan-Willem’s teddy bears to retain body heat. 

I just had a ’surprize’ tax bill today for 648€!  Christmas is cancelled for me as of this morning!  Also, do keep praying for the noise in the house becuase there is no way I can buy them a carpet now. 

I can’t really say noisey neighbours…becuase they aren’t, they’re just normal.  Only between the ceiling there is NO sound insulation.  It is really driving me crazy.  I hear EVERYTHING, every step, every word, every cough, I hear it all.  I have checked out the legislation and becuase the house was built before 1966 it is not covered.  (And no that doesn’t have anything to do with football…)

So my plan of action: 

Is to pray.  And to ask you all to pray with me. 

Then I am going to speak to my up stairs neighbours and see if they would be willing to accept a sound insulation and carpet that I would buy and cover up their lovely wooden floor boards.

Then I’ll ask the landlord if he will pay.

Then I’ll probably have to pray for the money!

Please join with me in this little offensive!  I don’t suppose they will be very happy to cover up their nice floor and move all their furniture for the fitting etc.  But God can change their hearts and make them well disposed to me.  I believe! 

Things are moving so fast at the moment that I don’t have time to blog and when I do, I can’t remember what’s been happening!!

The first week of December we are having a time of concentrated out reach to the community.  I’m busy sorting out church publicity.  I’ve had 1000 church into flyers printed and I’m drinking lots of tea while folding them all!  Church business cards have been ordered…  Lots to ‘create’ with a new church.

Monday was the annual ‘Centre Evangelique’ South East of Paris.  Everyone in the evangelical world gets together and puts up stands and there are conferences and stuff.  Usually I find it totally boring, but this year it wasn’t that bad!  I’m getting indoctrinated!  The main speaker was Donald Carson.  He spoke at 9am in a darkened room so I have to admit to missing the first half of the sermon!  But the second half was great!  He spoke about the ironies in the Passion.  I met up with lots of people I knew and made me realise how much I’ve done in the past 2 years and how I’m beginning to get to know many people in the church network.  It’s encouraging! 

I also bought a cookery book on cooking big for church events!    Watch out!

Returning to the source.  This was the name of the young adults conference that I took part in this weekend in a village outside Orleans.  It was what it said on the packet in more ways than one…

I left Paris before lunch on Friday to avoid the bank holiday traffic.  I tootled leisurly along the A roads listening to Jazz FM and generally enjoying the ride.  I arrived into Orleans at 1pm and payed a visit on Ester.  Do you remember the Nigerian refugee family that I supported?  Well, they are settled and doing well and a ’surprize’ baby number 3 was born a month ago.  After 2 boys Ester was thrilled to have a little girl!  And a beautiful little girl she certainly is, she takes after her mummy!

I then popped over to Jean-Aime’s where he had friends visiting.  I help them with translation of their evangelistic weekly cartoon video but I’ve never really had time to meet them in person.  It was lovely to chat with them, hear their vision and get to know them.  It will help a lot with the translation.  If you want to check out any of their videos go to  http://blog.unjourdeplus.com/

After another visit and more tea I headed off to the conference.  It was all about is the Gospel and the church plausable in todays society.  It was really interesting to hear what the speaker, David Brown, had to say.  He talked about getting into the public spaces of society…which in France is a touchy subject.  As it was an inter-church event I bumped into a lot of people from the Orleans church and it was SO great to see them.  I even handed over my set of church keys to the pastor.  A very significant time, as you can see!

The camp itself was north of Orleans in a rural area called ‘La Beauce’.  It is a totally flat area of France and is called the bread basket of the country becuase that’s where all the wheat is grown.  The landscape is FULL of wind turbines.  It is really a special sight.  I think they are so beautiful.  It was lovely to be surrounded by the autumn colours, frosty mornings and big open nature.  Here is a picture taken from the bathroom window of the family I stayed with

  As with all my photos click for a bigger picture.

Last night I hit the motorway at 10.30pm after dosing up on coffee and got home just before midnight.  I wanted to be back for this morning’s service.  I’m glad I did.  God is good.  I’m not going though the easiest of times emotionally at the moment.  But this weekend has really made me Return to the Source: my God who is Good.

Last night I held my first English lesson at the church.  It started small, we had three people from the church.  Really the idea is that they bring their friends.  But I guess they have to know what they are inviting people to.  So I will prepare some really good lessons and hopefully we will build into a little group.  Please pray for this new initiative.  Once we are off the groud I will be letting the town hall know and publicising it through them.

Today a car was blocked in by a lorry outside my house.  She honked, almost continually, for about 15mins until the driver of the lorry came back.  Something about city life that I’m not too keen on!

Tomorrow morning me and Fifi are off to Orleans.  There is a conference on ‘The Church’ for the whole weekend.  I’m looking forward to learning but also to catching up with old friends.  Please pray for safety on the roads as I will be clocking up a fair few kilometers in 48hrs!

Annette found a place to live and me and Scott helped lug her bags - it was fun!

  I realised that when I am on my own I am very sedate and grown up.  When I am with others I laugh far too loudly and have no shame!  It’s more fun being with people. 

My sister and brother-in-law came for the weekend.  It was great to spend time with them.  I got them addicted to Grey’s Anatomy - something I’m sure which will help them through the cold winter months!

Yesterday I re-pulled my neck muscles and spent most of the team day in pain.  Henri had to do all of the 7hrs of driving because I couldn’t turn my head.  I felt a bit guilty but I suppose better tired than dead…  This morning I went to the doctor’s.  I have found a very nice doctor now which is a huge relief!  I have always feared doctors in France, so to know I can just go without actually being in the process of dying is nice.  Anyway, he said I’ve done something to the cervical discs or something and gave me a neck brace to wear for a week!  I’ve had it on for 3hrs today I found, to my dismay, I can’t drink tea with it on.  So that didn’t last long!

Tomorrow is the first of my community English conversation classes…let’s see what happens!