Month: February 2012

It’s all worthwhile: a visit to the market in Guingamp

Our weekly market visit took us to Guingamp this morning. It was cloudy but fairly warm compared to last week. We set up in our usual space and stood in the cold. I was quietly praying that I would have at least one conversation with someone.

It wasn’t long before a young woman walked past me. She turned around and started talking to me about the pastor of the church. It took me a few seconds to realise she was in actual fact talking about the former pastor (and still elder with us), Claude Broux.

Here’s her story: Sandrine (that’s her name), is from Pabu, the village touching Guingamp (the village where we live). She went to high school in Guingamp town center. While she was in high school, she met Claude Broux who, at the time, had a stand on the market. He gave her the Bible and prayed for her. Later, while reading her Bible, she was converted. She’s remained in the catholic church but she was grateful for that day when she was given the Word of God and met Jesus as a result. She wants to thank Claude Broux and said she’d write to him. My suggestion to her was that she would come to one of  our services instead and thank him herself. I pray that this is what she will do.

Her encouragement to me was that the work we are doing is worth it. I was indeed excited and thank God for answering our prayers and giving me this conversation.

The oldest book on my shelves

The oldest book on my shelves is a French gospel of Luke. It is dated 1697. I think it is a Roman Catholic translation, with both latin and French in two columns, and comments from the church fathers. Inside the cover is a handwritten note with my grandfather’s name, Paris, 1929. I suppose that’s when he bought it, when he was living in Paris as a young man (he was 20 years old).

What’s more tragic than when a church disappears? [updated]

[update: Since writing the post below, I had more informations on the church mentioned, see the update here.]

Is there anything more tragic than when a church disappears? I happened to be doing some research on the Evangelical church in St Marcellin, a small town near Grenoble, in France. That’s where my mum was born and brought up, and my grand-parents were faithful members in that church for years. I think they were also influential in setting it up in the 50s.

I remember going to church with them when I was growing up. But I learned today that the church closed its doors in 2008.

There is no more evangelical witness in that town of about 8000. There are nearly 20000 people living in the villages around the town, and Grenoble is about 30 minutes drive on the motorway. Very sad.

July deputation visit to Britain

Our deputation visit is taking shape. There are now 22 meetings confirmed in 19 different churches. 2 of these churches are in England, the rest in Wales. One more church in Wales needs to confirm a meeting. that’s probably enough, and we will not accept more invitations at this stage, unless some meetings is cancelled. If we cannot visit your church, I am sure there will be a meeting somewhere near you, just get in touch.

Most meetings will be in English, but 5 are in Welsh. I will post all the dates later on a page rather than a blog post.

More thoughts on electronic books

The following is taken from the BibleWorks website:

Some Thoughts About Electronic Libraries

We continue to encourage our users to think carefully before building large electronic libraries, for two reasons:

1. There is no guarantee computers will, in as few as ten years, be able to read today’s electronic media. For example, read “At Libraries, Taking the (Really) Long View” from Inside Higher Ed, July 23, 2008 and “The Digital Ice Age” from Popular Mechanics, December 2006.

2. Even more significantly, almost all electronic libraries are in proprietary formats: there is no standard. Proprietary formats, and the software that reads them, come and go (remember DOS?). A recent article in Christian Computing, “Is It Time for a Second STEP?“, noted the unlikelihood of a standard format emerging. When an electronic library’s proprietary format is abandoned, one’s investment in the library is lost.

Books, on the other hand, are independent of computers. If you use certain reference works on a daily basis, it may make sense to purchase electronic editions, and, for this reason, we are providing (and will continue to provide) a limited collection of locked electronic resources for those who want them. But in our opinion it makes sense to buy print editions first, then electronic editions if you find you really need them.