In a few weeks time, we will be electing our new town and village councils. Not surprisingly, we saw two of the three candidates for the town of Guingamp on the market last Friday. They didn’t come to us but it would have been nice to chat with them so that they get to know the church.
Author: Emmanuel
Modern day Samaritans
Did you know that there are still Samaritans around ? There’s almost 800 in teh Land of Israel. Most of them still live in the same region as in Biblical time, around Mount  Gerizim. For those who read French, there’s a fascinating article on modern day Samaritans on the Rue89 website.
Le samaritain Moshé a dû payer 30 000 dollars pour trouver une femme – Le nouvel Observateur.
A tragedy in Guingamp
Last Friday night, a 16 year old girl disappeared. She was celebrating the school holidays. Her body was found in the river today. Not far from there another body, probably the one of a woman in her fifties was also found. She had disappeared a few weeks ago. It is tragic. The daughter of one of our members was in the same class as this teenager.
A weekend in Quimper
We spent the weekend in Quimper. I had been invited to preach in as mall evangelical church there. Saturday was lovely, dry for the most part. We visited a small village called Locronan before going to Quimper in the afternoon.
Quimper is a big town in Southern Brittany. The city centre has retained many old features: narrow cobbled streets, an old cathedral, old houses… There were many people in the narrow streets. I saw lot of young people. We wandered around the town centre and by the riverside. It’s not far from the see and the tide was high, so the water was almost at the street level. early the next morning, the tide was even higher and some of the streets were flooded.
We stayed in a hotel near the town centre.
We enjoyed our visit. It seems to be a pleasant place
Five days in England
Last night, I came back from five days in England. We have been in Guingamp for almost 4 years now, and I needed to meet the mission’s personnel Panel for an update n our situation. The meeting was on Monday, but I flew on Friday to avoid having to travel on Sunday. I stayed with a couple who lived in the Wiltshire countryside. He was a retired farmer, and the surroundings were peaceful and beautiful. The weekend went well. A meeting with the missions director on Saturday morning reassured me about the monday interviews.
All the meetings went well and were constructive.
I was supposed to leave Swindon on Wednesday morning but someone suggested I spend Tuesday in London and stay at A christian guest house there. It was great. the sun was shining, and I enjoyed walking around London, looking at people. It was just as well I was already in London on Wednesday morning. There was a tube strike, and I was able to get to Stansted, but had a bit of walking to do to reach the Stansted Express as some tube stations were closed. But I managed.
Nice to be home. I also avoided the worst of the storm and had a smooth flight.
New year, new goals
It seems that most people set themselves goals at the beginning of each new year only to give up after a few weeks. I had two main goals last year: read through Calvin’s Institutes and read more books than the previous year. I managed to reach both. It was so good to spend time with Calvin, that I have decided to read through the Institutes again this year. There are several reading plans that make it very easy, reading only a few pages a day.
What are your goals this year?