The plan was for me to go to Ikea in Brest with my parents to get a table. It was snowing a little and we left anyway as we thought it might be better on the way there. It didn’t, so we turned around after about 25 km. It was probably clear a bit further, but we can go another time. Thanks to Roger Durand for the Pictures.
It’s the kind of thing that you should expect, but you are always surprised and pleased when it happens. A week ago, when we were speaking on Skype with Emmanuel’s dad, he suddenly said “Je veux voir le chat” (I want to see the cat). And today at lunch he started speaking French to our visitor. We were the only ones to understand of course, but it was proper French. Now his Grandparents have arrived, and he babbles happily, going from one language to the other.
It was good to meet up with Jonathan today. Jonathan is a British missionary living near St Lunaire, about 120 km away. We were given his details before our move because he and his wife are supported by some churches in Cardiff (he studied in Cardiff and his wife is from Highfields free church). He was in Guingamp for the day and came around for lunch.
Emmanuel’s parents have also come for a long weekend. They travelled through France on the TGV today, and are leaving on Wednesday morning. No need to say that the children were very excited at the thought of seeing their Grandparents.
Children are great. yesterday, Maxime ran into a puddle only to discover that it was much deeper than he thought and he fell in it. Here is the result:
The Evangelical church in St Lunaire is celebrating this year the 100th anniversary of the building they worship in. It is an old Anglican chapel which they took over when the Evangelical church started. To celebrate the occasion, they are organising a series of conferences over the next few weeks. The first one was on Friday evening and the theme was: “Protestantism in the St Malo Area since the 16th Century”. The speaker is a lecturer in history in Brest university, a christian man. The theme of his PhD thesis was Protestantism in Brittany. This thesis has been summarised and published under the title: Protestants et Bretons.
The man was fascinating. He talked for about an hour and half, and yet it didn’t seem long. He confirmed two things for me: the Breton language was and obstacle to the progress of the gospel in Western Brittany, and the higher you were in society, the higher the chances were that you were a Protestant.
It was a long drive, and hour and half, but it was well worth the effort for me to get to know a bit more about Brittany. It was also a good excuse for me to get to meet a gentlemen called Jonathan Hanley who is an elder in the church in St Lunaire. His details had been given to us by several people in Cardiff, and we’d been in touch by email. He is English and studied in Cardiff for a few years, worshipping in Mackintosh Place. He also met his wife there, and he is one of Highfields Free Church misionaries.
