Category: Daily life

A day in Lannion

I was invited to preach in Lannion on Sunday. So we went along as a family and joined the church for Sunday worship. We had a warm welcome and a good time. I preached on Titus 2:11-14: we need the gospel daily because it is the foundation of all Christian life.

The service was followed by a fellowship lunch in a building that the church had borrowed for the occasion, just outside Lannion. It was great. The sun was shinning and it was like a summer day, in October.

Later, we went to the seaside with some friends from the church. Again, it felt like we were in June. the beach was packed with people. When we left around 6pm, there were still people in the water, and some people were still making their way to the beach. I have a few pictures on my phone and will try to post them for you to see.

A cross cultural experience: the pheasant (caution, graphic images)

The dad of one of the girls in Jean-Baptiste’s class goes hunting. The hunting season opened on Sunday, and on Tuesday, his wife brought us a pigeon and a pheasant (their children don’t like game, so they tend to give away everything he catches). She cleaned and plucked the pigeon for Esther and left us with the pheasant to prepare. I was in a Bible study when she came. We feel very privileged to have received this gift.

Now, that’s a whole new experience to me. I never thought I would have to clean and pluck a freshly killed wild bird. Having watched the butchers do that when I worked in a French supermarket, I had an idea of what to do. But I phoned my dad to check with him how to do it. It was easy enough. So, Esther plucked the bird and I emptied it. It is now cooking and we are looking forward to taste it later today. Esther cooked the pigeon in a soup last night and we will taste it today also. I am including a few pictures below. if you are sensitive, look away.

First Breton Lesson

My first Breton lesson was on Monday night. I had at first hesitated between learning Breton or starting rock climbing again. My friend Alan convinced me that I should live dangerously and get started on the Breton.

Well, that was an experience… There were quite a lot of people (12-15 I think), but I expect some will drop out in the coming weeks. It was very unstructured and difficult to follow, but we managed to learn to count up to 30, and the teacher got started on telling the time. Some in the group have already done some Breton, so there are different levels in the class, which won’t help. Anyway, I’ll give it a try. It might require some extra work on my own, but once I understand how things work, it should ve fine. I’ve been told there are similarities with Welsh, which will help.

Love your neighbour, indicate when you change directions.

We all forget to indicate when we change directions, don’t we? Most of the time, we don’t even think about it, and some of us never indicate.

One incident reminded me of the importance of indicating when we change direction. I was approaching a stop sign at a crossing, and the car in front of me had already stopped. The road was wide, and although the other car wasn’t indicating, he was bearing right and he seemed to be turning right. So I went onwards and stopped on his left side, since I was going straight. I looked around and started to cross the road. The guy on my right did the same, but instead of turning right, started turning left (no indicators on). We were going slowly, and looked at each other. He let me go before him and turned. No accident, the guy didn’t look angry or upset that I had gone forward at the same time as him. But it made me think: isn’t indicating where I am going a way to show love to my neighbour? So, if you truly love your neighbour,  next time you change direction or if you are going to take a car over on the motorway, please, put your indicators on.