Month: November 2011

Passerelles vers Dieu, 2nd Session

Wednesday saw our second session of Passerelles vers Dieu. The same people came along appart from one. Everyone seems to enjoy coming ad sharing. We talked about God and creation this time. People felt at ease to speak. The feedback I’ve had so far is positive. There’s one thing I find difficult is that everyone seems to agree on most subjects discussed. Although not everyone is a christian, everyone believes there is a God and that there is a meaning to life. Nevertheless, when we discussed  man made in the image of God, we had some interesting suggestions. Next episode is next Wednesday when we will talk about the fall.

A good relaxing Sunday

We had a good Sunday.The sun was shinning. I was leading the service, and Emmanuel Hartiel was preaching. In the afternoon, the children played quietly in their bedroom when we were having a rest (that’s rather unusual). We than went for a walk and had waffles back home. The rest of the afternoon was spent as a family, watching Scooby Doo 2 on VOD (free of charge this month).
Maxime has had a cold and didn’t sleep very well, but that’s fine. He is with us today and I hope he can be back in school tomorrow.

Remembrance day, 11/11/11

To my shame, it was the first time in my life I went to see the remembrance day ceremonies. It has never been a habit when I grew up, but I wanted to be there and take the children with me. It was also an opportunity to give Esther a break.

It was interesting to be there. There were a lot of people, 100 maybe, or a bit less. French being a secular state, there were no mention of God, or any reference to religion (but there had been a mass prior to the ceremony). Yet, the ceremony itself seemed very religious. People were silent, listening to the different interventions. We were all facing the war memorial (there is one in every French village). We sang la Marseillaise (an hymn to the French nation really).

Someone read an adress that president Sarkozy had written. One sentence struck me:

La pérennité du culte qui est rendu quotidiennement sur la place de l’Étoile au souvenir du Soldat inconnu, incarnation même du sacrifice du combattant, permet d’établir une filiation directe entre les différentes générations du feu.

I won’t translate it, but what struck me was the use of the French word “culte”. It would be translated as worship in English. So in essence, the president was saying that we daily celebrate “un culte” (in essence: a service of worship), on the tomb of the unknown soldier under the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. French society is not a religionless society. Its main religion is the state, the institutions of the Republic. It worships reason. It worships France (whatever they mean by it).

An unknown God, Passerelles vers Dieu, first evening

We had a great evening for our first night of Passerelles vers Dieu. Passerelles vers Dieu is an evangelistic course, written by French people with French people in mind. It uses recorded video messages to introduce the gospel and fuel discussions. People come along and are free to share their opinion on what has been discussed. Their is food at the beginning to help people relax, and get to know each other.

It worked well. We started with ten people, and three others joined us late. They were mainly from the church, but there were four unbelievers amongst them. One is the son of one of our members. Another is a man who has been in contact with the church for many years and sometimes comes to the services. There was also a young man who has also been in touch with the church for the last 6 years and who I am following regularly. Finally, there was a man who has been coming to church with his son for the last 4 weeks. The son is a Christian, the dad a Roman Catholic I think.

The conversations went well. People were at ease to speak and share their thoughts. We now pray that these people will be coming for the next 5 weeks and that they will come to faith in our Saviour.