Our guest this Sunday lunch time was Pastor Claude Broux. This gentleman started in the ministry in 1949. He has ministered in various places in Brittany before settling down in Guingamp in the early seventies where he planted the church we are now in. He is now 86 and lost his wife last June, after over 60 years of marriage. She was 19 when they met, and he was probably about the same age, or a little older. He is also one of the founding members of France mission in the fifties, and he knew Caradoc Jones who was still in Paimpol when he came to Brittany. He described him as very old school Englishman. Probably true although Caradoc Jones was a Welshman.
It was humbling to talk with this elderly brother who has got so much experience. We talked about many different things: his youth, the beginnings of the church, his children (he has got 8), his Grandchildren (33 of them), and great-grandchildren (8 altogether). He shared about his conversion, his time in a children home in Ferney-Voltaire (we lived there)… He doesn’t preach anymore, but attends faithfully the meetings of the church, seating on the front row every Sunday. He was glad of Esther’s arrival as until we came he was the only person who could play the piano, and did not feel very confident about it.
It is a great privilege to have him as an Elder in our church.