Church Joy

In some places in the world you can build a church more easily than in others. A church building that is. And these pictures show one that went up in 3 weeks. As yet there are no doors or windows, nor a floor, and when there are, the windows won't be glass. - In fact there will be glass one day I am told.

But that does not matter, it's always hot.

One Sunday in February the church was dedicated. There were 3 people baptised (in a barrel) and the church proper (that is the people) ate together afterwards.

And there was real joy in the worship!

Here are some (sometimes shaky) pictures.

Prayer Night

Prayer night is at one of the churches by the seaside. We arrive by tricycle after sundown.

The house is thatched, but not in the English village style. Most of the construction is concrete and bamboo. The floor and main walls are concrete, but the walls are not high- I find I have to duck a lot. The interior walls and rafters are bamboo, as is most of the furniture. It is all nicely done. And very comfortable.

There is electricity and lights, but also a television and, incongruously a 6500W sterio. On full blast it would undoubtedly shake the whole building.

But tonight the entertainment boxes are off. A few gather for prayer, partly because there is a funeral in the village. Since the meeting is in Tagalog, I understand little of what is said, but the pastor directs prayer subjects for each person present. Everyone takes part, which is always encouraging.

All too soon the meeting is over and we "bike" home. For the fist time since being here I feel a chill due to the wind.

Cordialement
Terry

Envoyé de mon iPhone

Gospel Rock

I found out why the "8 dead men" were so loud, they were in fact the "8 killers". Nearly right. These went on for over 20mins over their time, and then the stage needed to be stripped. So it was very nealy 11pm before the act I came to see could start. As usual in France this was a family occasion and everyone was talking so no one seemed to mind the wait.

The venu was closer than I thought. Just 9mins walk which could explain why I could hear the bands from my room!

Chimèbe Badi Gospel and Soul

When the Gospel band began they were "Gospel Rock" and not "Gospel Jazz" as I supposed. They were good. The lead singer appeared to be well known to the French, but not to me. But they did sing some Gospel songs, mostly in English, including "Joshua fought the battle of Jerico", " This is the day", and "No body knows (the trouble I've seen)". And they sang others, some I knew, like "Lord won't you buy me...", and others I did not.

But there is a difference between good singing and worship. These were good singers, they make their living at it. It was a good show. But I have been to gospel events where they worship and present the good news, highly entertaining, and evangelistic too. This evening was a good show.

So now I am home well after midnight having had a pleasant, if rather loud, evening! And only a short walk away.

Envoyé de mon iPhone et édité sur ma iMAC. Image comme avertisse touts au tour du ville.

Reunion Maison

It's right out in the countryside. About 20 minutes my SatNav said. So we should arrive just on time at 20:00. And we did.
But the village was quite dark and it was hard to see the house numbers. Like England that were odd on one side and even on the other. And like England, you could see the side you didn't want, but the other was much harder!
Neither were the numbers about the same on each side (eg 18 opposite 19).
So it was with a little relief that we found a door, knocked on it, and to have it opened by a lady we knew! We gladly came in out of the cold.
Now home groups appear to be new in France, at least in this area and with this church. They are not very regular and usually move from house to house. There appears to be an unwritten understanding that the host(ess) provides lovely food after the spiritual side is done. And so it was tonight.
But on this occasion, there were not many there. Half term holidays claimed some. Perhaps the remote location claimed others. It is no matter. Those who were there had a great evening.
For June and I, it is a usual experience that when God trims down a meeting to just a few, that those few have an unusual time. Something out of the ordinary happens. And this night was no exception. Rather than have a 'Word' prepared, the 'few' started just to talk and enjoy the Lord. We shared experiences, and the prepared Bible verses proved most useful. An evening of great encouragement, and so much so that the food arrived very much later than usual. Even then the discussions continued between mouthfuls. With some reluctance, we called a halt to go home (not least to avoid over eating) and the SatNav entered into the spirit of the unusual evening by taking us a different way home.
Tea and bed to round the evening off nicely.

The Mission

Not the film, we are in a 'mission church' and from time to time they have a mission.
That said, this is the first mission we have had here in the nearly 2 years we have been here. So we wondered what would happen.
We have had some early morning prayer meetings. It is not a big church so it was good that a few turned up for every meeting. Then on Saturday, we had the 'evangelisation'.
Evangelisation is when we meet and put out invitations to the 3 evening meetings (Monday to Wednesday) that comprise the mission. But it is not a big church, so just 4 of us were there.
Now June and the pastor's wife had nearly completed Vitry en Perthois, and June and I finished the last 2 roads on Saturday morning (see blog on St Genevieve, it is then that we had followed the trail).
So we split into 2s and did a village nearby each.
June went with Bernadette, I took Daniel with me. These villages can be much larger than you think. We each spent 2 and a half hours to go round them. The girls finished first and we caught up with them in the Irish bar near our home. A warming Irish coffee was just what was needed!
More deliveries on Sunday afternoon, and there is a team or two coming from other churches for the weekdays. We are going to need them!

Get the Word in you

Being familiar with the bible is a very good thing.
I am not sure if this is the right way though.

Psalms

Still, when you think about it, it could be for the best if you can't read.

Mulhouse

Pronounced 'mool-huss'.
It's a place, and we were invited to the conference by our pastor because our pastor from the UK was the guest speaker. He was speaking to pastors on leading the church by faith. A good title, as he himself said, because what is not of faith is sin - and leading the church in sin is not the right idea.
So he spoke of the need to follow the Bible in its directions and to have a close relationship with its author. For this you need to believe what it says, particularly for your daily lifestyle, and to have a good prayer life. Faith in the word, counselling by the Word, were key topics for which pastor Colin had many strong examples.
But this is France and the French like to debate. So included in these 2 days were other speakers who came from rather different angles. So much so that to introduce the speaker after pastor Colin's first talk, the host felt he had to say, "That was a great sermon on faith, but we have to live in the real world."
Now I very much doubt that pastor Colin heard this because he had already left. What is more it was said in French and pastor Colin speaks very little French (great for us because we could listen directly to him and others had to hear the translation). But the next day, after much of the night in prayer, he said some interesting things:
"This is not theory, this is a lifestyle."
"Try telling a Frenchman that his opinions don't matter. The good thing about your opinions is that they die with you, but the Word of God lives forever."
Overall we (June and I) were very uplifted by his messages. But we did come away with the impression that the French considered that he spoke well, but so did the others; and that whilst they had spotted the difference they were interested in the debate between them rather than having made a decision about their messages.
But I could be wrong about that.