Month: August 2010

J E McGoldrick: John Calvin and the Missionary Mandate

The current issue of the Banner of Truth Magazine (August/September 2010) has a very interesting article entitled: John Calvin and the Missionary Mandate. It is a very interesting read, and dispels any misconceived ideas people have about the Reformers view on mission.

He first tackles the critics of Calvin, showing that their negative opinion on Calvin and the Reformers is often based on prejudice rather than facts. He then demonstrates that Calvin had a concern for the losts, wherever they are. Finally, he gives some historical examples showing that Calvin and his followers had a concern for sending preachers to the lost. If you receive the Banner of Truth Magazine, it is worth reading. If you don’t, go out and buy it.

Our first Sunday in Guingamp

I did not know what to expect for our first Sunday in Brittany. Although I have been brought up in France, I had got used to busy Sundays in Cardiff, with two services, and Sunday school in the afternoon. What would we be doing? How would we make the most of the Lord’s day?

The building was full, which was an encouragement (there were a few visitors, including 9 people of Mr Higham’s family). We were blessed by Emmanuel Hartiel’s sermon on Luke 10:1-3. Then, we went home, had lunch, and went for a long walk behind the house. Our location is great. We are on a small estate, and the Breton countryside is right behind the house. So we did a loop, went throught some lovely wooded paths. On the way, a nice lady gave the children some raspberries. She had a lovely English accent, but I let her speak French for a while before telling her we’d lived in Britain until last week. Her name is Penny, she comes from the Isle of Wight. I am sure we’ll meet her again.

Then, we went home, had our tea and family worship before a quiet evening. Praise God for this first Sunday which went much better than expected.

Rencontres/meetings

I am sure you have had the same kind of experience as well. They are not unusual, but always take us by surprise.

On Saturday, I went to shop in Leclerc. Having seen a car on the car park with Cymru written on it, I tuned my ears to see if I would hear some Welsh. I quickly spotted a group of 9 people speaking Welsh. As I was pondering wether I would speak to them or not, I turned around to look at them, and saw a very familiar face. It was the Rev Vernon Higham together with his wife, his son Alun and his family. You can imagine my schock. It was great to see them. They were on their way to the second part of their Holiday, not too far from Guingamp. They took the address of the church for the service the next day.

They joined us for worship on Sunday morning. It was a pity they could not understand a word of French.
I will always be grateful for mr Higham’s ministry. The Heath Evangelical Church was the first church I joined in Cardiff, and I never moved from there. I was blessed by his preaching and grew a lot spiritually during the 2 1/2 years before his retirement. It was a privilege to see him again in Guingamp over the weekend.

On the same day, I met one of our neighbours, a lady. She has only recently moved in as well. When I told her what I was doing (an Evangelical Pastor sounds better than missionary in a French context), she told me that her son was also an evangelical christian. Praise God for bringing us to this part of town.

No need to say that after these meetings, I felt like we are in the right place in Guingamp.

We are in Guingamp

We have made it accross the channel and have safely arrived in Guingamp. We moved out on the 9th. About 12 people came to help us the lorry. It was really quick, and the drivers were able to be on their way at around 10 am. We stayed behind to do some cleaning, and some ladies from the church helped us. The journey to Portsmouth was uneventful, the night on the ferry short, as we did not have a cabin. We arrived in Guingamp on Tuesday morning, sorted out Insurance for the house and got the keys by lunchtime. The lorry arrived at around 4pm, and a van driven by my dad a bit latter. A few people from the church here came to help unloading, and we were glad to get to our beds that night.

So here we are, settling down. We were cut from the world for about a week with no phone or Internet. But we are now back online, much quicker than expected. Orange had told us it could take about two weeks, but we got the Internet much quicker than that, about 5 days. Keep checking the blog regularly in the next few days, there’s more to come.

Keeping in touch when we are not connected.

As you are reading this, it is unlikely that we will be connected to the internet at home, so the updates will be rare. But if you are on facebook, please have a look at our Facebook page (Link on the right hand side), or also on our Twitter feed: @keloumat (also found on the right hand side column). I’ll try to keep these updated from time to time through SMS. In the meantime, thank you for your prayers.