Month: March 2013

It’s always nice to see family and friends from home

On Monday afternoon, we had a visit from Esther’s cousin Gwilym and his family. They were visiting his brother in law who lives in Lannion. His wife Celine is French and the two children speak both Welsh and French (and English). I took the two boys with me to get Maxime and Jean-Baptiste, and I showed them one of the classrooms. There were many differences they said. For example, back in Wales, there are no individual desks in the classrooms, and they use an interactive board while in the French classroom, each pupil has a desk and faces the teacher. The board is still an old fashion black-board.

We had a nice time. And our boys were really excited to see their second-degree cousins.

GBU weekend in Dinan

Last weekend, I had the great joy and privilege to speak to a group of about 35 students from various universities of the West of France. I was the main speaker and spoke on Romans 1:1-17 and Romans 3:21-32: “what is the gospel”, and “the Heart of the Gospel” It went well, I just hope that it will have helped some of the folks. There were a few questions, and I had some positive feedback.

There were some interesting people. One of them was a girl from Cardiff University who is spending a year in France as an “assistante”. I don’t know why, I was expecting to meet someone from Cardiff. Another one was a guy from New caledonia. I knew where he was from before even asking him. He didn’t look African. He was quite surprised I knew where he came from so I explained that I’ve got family in New Caledonia. I met a lot of new people, and some people I had met before.

I had a good time, some good discussions. The food was excellent, and the place comfortable. Thanks for your prayers.

With the school to the seaside

hillion20130321Today, I went to the St-Brieuc Bay with Jean-Baptiste and his class. We had some rain, but it was a great day. There were 24 children and 3 adults (including me). They were very well behaved and eager to learn, no discipline problem. I admired the way the teacher was relating to the kids. You could sense a real bond and mutual respect.

In the morning, we spent some time on the beach, looking for animals hiding in the sand. The afternoon, we spent a bit of time inside before going out to watch some birds who eat the bugs we had looked for. For lunch we had our picnic. Just after eating I was amazed when the teacher told the children to tale a sheet of paper and draw something while we were waiting for our guide. I was amazed that most of them did it and everyone seemed to enjoy it.

It was a good experience. I am looking forward to the next day trip I can join.

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March snow storm

I cut the lawn on Saturday. It was quite warm and I couldn’t believe it when I heard some people saying it would snow on Monday and Tuesday. But I had some doubts: what if they were right? It started snowing at 9, just after I left for a ministers’ fellowship in Dinan, 60 miles away. I had told Esther to keep in touch with me in case it got worst. Not many people turned up at the fellowship, so we decided to do everything before lunch, so that we can go home before it gets too difficult. I was back home at 3, and the snow was starting sticking in the fields. I went out at 6:30pm for my Breton lesson, and by then, the snow had started sticking to the road. When I came home, the road was covered with snow. The wind is very strong, and it should snow heavily until tomorrow night. I am glad I came back from my meeting when I did. I’ve just read on the web that later in the afternoon, it has taken a driver 1h15 to come from St Brieuc, about 20 miles away.

The kids are back in school, But is it really worth sending them tomorrow? We’ll see.

A restful week

The week has been slow. I had a heavy cold on Sunday, and it took a few days to recover. Then, it was Esther’s turn to be hit, and she was out of action for a while. the kids are on holidays, so most things have been put on hold. We’re better today, so hopefully, we’ll be back on tracks on Monday.