Elihu comments on the current weather: Job 37:6-11

French first, English second

Car il dit à la neige de tomber sur la terre,
et il commande aux pluies, même aux pluies torrentielles.

Il paralyse ainsi l’activité humaine,

afin que tous les hommes sachent que c’est bien là son oeÂœuvre.

Les animaux eux-mêmes se terrent dans leurs gîtes
et ils s’abritent au fond de leurs repaires.

Des profondeurs australes surgit un ouragan,
et des vents d’aquilon amènent la froidure.

Sous le souffle de Dieu, l’eau se transforme en glace,
les étendues liquides se figent en un bloc.

Puis le beau temps revient, entraînant les nuages,
dispersant les nuées chargées de ses éclairs.

For to the snow he says, ‘Fall on the earth,’
likewise to the downpour, his mighty downpour.
He seals up the hand of every man,
that all men whom he made may know it.
Then the beasts go into their lairs,
and remain in their dens.
From its chamber comes the whirlwind,
and cold from the scattering winds.
By the breath of God ice is given,
and the broad waters are frozen fast.
He loads the thick cloud with moisture;
the clouds scatter his lightning.

L’institutrice/the teacher

We went to see Jean-Baptiste’s teacher yesterday. She had said we would meet and chat about Jean-Baptiste’s progress at some point. She was quite positive, impressed with his improvements in French. He has a lot of vocabulary to catch up, but that’s fine, some of the monolingual kids have done worst than him in the recent vocabulary tests. His understanding is also good, again , doing better that some. Writing is a bit more tricky, but she is not worried about it and is confident he will continue to improve. Numeracy is also coming slowly but he understands well.

On the behaviour side, she said that he is a boy, quite lively, mostly good, but can get carried away. For example when the children are instructed to walk calmly to the toilets, he is be the type to run rather than walk. But she usually only needs to look at him to bring him back on track.

On of our encouragements is that she understood our desire to bring Jean-Baptiste up bilingually and she understands the challenge it is. She did not discourage us to do it, and she’s had bilingual children before. She has observed that although bilingualism will be an advantage later, it can be a bit difficult at this stage. Good meeting, we were glad to meet up with her.

Francoscopie

Here is a good read if you are interested in French society. Everything you want to know about the French people. The chapter on values is very thought provoking. A good tool to try to understand French society and get thinking about how the gospel responds to its values.

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