Reformed Baptist Family Conference

From 20th to the 24th of July, we were in Gap, in the Southern Alps for the annual Reformed Baptist Family conference. Each year, this conference gathers Reformed Baptist churches from Franc and Switzerland. It has changed location over the years and has been slowly growing. But the vast majority of people represented were the Swiss as there are only a handful reformed Baptist churches in France.

It was good to be back there. last time we attended was 11 years ago, before we had children.

The fellowship was good. We had a conference each morning on various themes and a gospel sermon each night. The children had a great time and want to go back. Gap seems to be a nice place, but it was hot, too hot. The place where the conference was held was OK, not the most comfortable, but we had a good welcome and there was plenty of space for the children to run around.

Some old friends from the GBU live in Gap. We went to see them one evening. It was the first time in about 15 years. Another couple from my GBU years live nearby but were away that week.

Everybody was sad to leave after 5 days together, but we had to go. pray for this camp. It is an important event for those of us of Reformed Baptist convictions who can’t attend a Reformed Baptist Church.

The longest weekend of the year

The past weekend was for us the longest weekend of the year. The previous one had been busy with Benjamin’s school fair most of the day, Tennis Club end of year party in the afternoon and Fête de la musique on Sunday afternoon in Cognin. But this weekend beats them all.

We warmed up on Friday evening with a tale evening in the square behind of building. It was organized by the local library, and was great fun. On Saturday, we were in the primary school from about 9am to 5:30pm. I helped setting up for the show prepared by the children. The show was at 11, followed by a shared lunch. In the afternoon, there was the school fair. I was on duty at the bar but was able to walk around. We had some brilliant chats with people wanting to know more about what we believe. After clearing up, we went back home and relaxed until I went out again with 2 of the boys.

The village I come from organises a festival of St John each year to celebrate the summer. I had never been but wanted to go and see if I could meet some people I used to know in the past. I saw my mum’s neighbour and spent time with the lady who used to be our nanny and her family. Two of her daughters were there. They are older than me so I can’t say I really know them. But it was good to catch up. They gave chips to the boys and we had a drink. At the end, two of them said they’d like to hear me preach one day. I gave them the date of the next time I preach in Cognin.

On Sunday, three people were baptised in the lake. It was a good time but a nightmare to get to the lakeside. There were dozens cars queueing to drop their boats in the lake. In the end, I parked the French way and we walked to the sit. This was followed by lunch at church. We had many visitors for the occasions, most of them unbelievers. One of them was a young woman who had done a work placement in Jean-Baptiste’s classroom.

In the afternoon, we went to my mum’s. She had visitors we wanted to see and we spent the afternoon chatting in the shade.

Today should be quiet. I wanted to go hiking but couldn’t get up. It will be very hot, and the temperatures should go up as the week goes on.

Le plan d’eau

Le plan d’eau is an open air pool in Cognin. It has been there for a very long time. I remember going there as a child. It is on the outskirt of the town, surrounded by a big park. In the summer, it is packed with people. We spent yesterday afternoon there. The children were in the water for over 2 hours. It is our closest ‘beach’. We could go to the lake also, but we’d need the car.1-DSC02620 2-DSC02624

Brittany holiday

We spent ten days in Brittany for the spring holiday. The weather was gorgeous: warm and sunny but the cold water reminded us that it was not summer yet. We rented a cottage in Pommerit-Le-Vicomte, a few minutes drive from Guingamp. It is a lovely place, in the countryside, quiet without being too remote.

We wanted to go in ordre to keep in touch with the place and the people before they forget about us. We had not told anyone appart from some former neighbours who were going on holidays. But we managed to see them before they left.

It was good to be there. We visited some people, and each time we went out, we bumped into people we knew. I went to the football with the boys. Guingamp was playing Evian Thonon Gaillard which is our local premier league team. Strange: we drove 1000 km in order to see Guingamp meet a team that plays 40 minutes down the road from us.

We also went all the way to Quimper in order to visit a couple from the Quimper church. If you get our newsletter you may remember that the church in Quimper folded up at the beginning of November. It was sad and we wanted to see how these folks were coping.

We had a happy time. It was restful as well. It was a proper holiday at last. We’ve been back for a few days now and the children are going back to school tomorrow.

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.