Author: Emmanuel

Torino International Church

I spent the weekend in Torino. It was my first visit to Italy. It’s a shame because Chambéry and Torino have a lot of common history. They were both capital of Savoy. I was also surprised at how close they are from each other. It is only 200 km from Chambéry to Torino. The journey through the Alps is beautiful. Torino is a much bigger city than Chambéry though, probably 10 times bigger.

Huw and Alison are UFM missionaries. Huw pastors The International church of Torino. It was a joy to meet them and meet their church. There are a lot of Africans in the church, mainly from Ghana and Nigeria, but there are also a few Americans, and some other. Once the children’s went out, there were about 70-80. People were listening and I had some good discussions before and after the service.

It was good to discuss about the challenges of witnessing in Italy. It seems that the situationis quite similar on both sides of the Alps. We also talked about the advantages of ministering in an International church, but also of some of the specific challenges that International churches face.

I am now on my way back. I’ve just crossed the Alps and will soon be back in Chambéry.

If you ever go to Torino, it is worth paying a visit to Huw and Alison and the International church in Torino.

We did it before the chaos !

Saturday would have been chaotic on the roads leading to the Alps even if the weather would have been nice. But it snowed, and many tourists on their way to the sky resorts, or back from them got stuck for hours on the various motorways around where we live.
We wanted to avoid traffic jams at all cost, so we had decided we should be back home by Friday evening at the latest. That meant leaving Bala on Thursday morning.
We crossed England and experienced the worst of British motorways: 7 hours drive under the rain in heavy traffic.
We crossed the channel safely and slept in Calais before a long journey home: 860km to Chambéry. But we experience the best of French motorways: 10 hours drive with little traffic, and after a few hours we even saw the sun. We avoided the chaos of Saturday. It was quite fun to see pictures of the motorways we had been driving on a few hours earlier now covered in snow, and cars stuck.
But this journey has left us washed out. We are still feeling a little tired three days later.

That was a long drive

We are in Carmarthen, in West Wales. When we initially thought of coming to Wales for the winter holidays, we were still living in Brittany and we didn’t imagine we would move away so soon and so quickly. But now, we live a long way from Wales. It took us the most part of 2 days to do the 1380 km journey. We travelled through France to Calais on empty motorways. After crossing the channel, we crossed the south of England to Wales on not too busy motorways. We are glad to be here though. I’ve got a few meetings to take here, and two more in North Wales next week.

My problem with worship bands [Rant]

I am finding the whole worship bands emphasis difficult. Yesterday, we worshipped in a church with a good worship band. They played well, but I am still finding it difficult. Here is why:

  1. We hardly know the songs, therefore hardly anyone sings apart from the lead singer.
  2. When we know the songs, we still don’t know how they are going to be interpreted, which paragraphs are going to be sung when, and how many times, and what about the chorus, how many times are we going to sing it? The people controlling the projection are not sure either and get lost. Therefore, people give up singing.
  3. Then, the leader suddenly start praying. Hold on, how can I pray with you if you don’t warn me you are going to pray. I just stand there, looking stupid, wondering what is going on. When is this going to end?
  4. I’ve said it before, hardly anybody sings in the assembly. Why bother, the band is doing it for me, and they sing in tune. How am I taking part in the worship if I am not singing. I am passive, waiting to be told to sit down.
  5. In the end, I am just watching a nice performance. But wait, did I come to watch a performance, or to worship God? If I want to watch a performance, I might as well go to a concert and pay for it.

You don’t have to agree with me, but it feels the band is taking more and more space. The service was about 1 1/2 hour. Almost 1 hour was taken by the worship band, the rest was shared between the message and the communion. Is anyone going to say anything, or are we going to carry on until the space for the Word has shrunk to the point of disappearing?