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I was in Bordeaux this weekend to preach in the local Eglise Reformée Evangélique, in Cenon. It was a long train journey, but French trains are usually reliable and comfortable and I was able to do a lot of reading. I arrived in Bordaux just before 8pm on Saturday evening and was picked up by the family hosting me for the night.
Sunday was a good and busy day. I had three opportunities to speak, one of them in English. People were overall warm and welcoming. They seemed responsive to the message and several came to speak about it after the service. The response seemed overall positive.
Although I’ve known of the Eglises Réformées Evangéliques for a while, it was the first time I attended one. French churches all sing from the same books now, so there wasn’t anything different on the music side. But the whole service followed a clear liturgy.  Most French churches don’t seem to follow any order of service. It’s usually up to the person leading it to do what he wants. They are afraid that using an order of service or a liturgy would hinder the Spirit. This is debatable, I believe that we all use some sort of liturgy. In Bordeaux, the way the whole service was led was simple and the liturgy wasn’t in the way at all. I was only aware of it because I had been given a printed order of service. I think that people coming to the service for the first time wouldn’t notice the liturgy that structure it.
We had lunch in the church and a meeting afterwards where I was given the opportunity to share my testimony.
The English service was in the evening with about 20 people, mainly International students. Afterwards I stayed overnight with my friends and fellow missionaries the Daveys. It was good to catch up with the latest news.
I caught a train back on Monday morning and spent another day travelling through France. No need to say I was glad to arrive home and see my family. Thank you for your prayers.
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A big demonstration to defend the use of minority languages is organized  on 31st March in Quimper. There will also be similar demonstrations in other parts of France on the same day. French is the only officially recognised language in the country. An agressive promotion of the French Language over the 20th century has marginalised local languages. Until not so long ago, Breton children would have been punished if they spoke Breton at school. But many people today want to have the right to use their own local language. I think it’s fair. I would have been interested to attend, but I’ve got a commitment in the evening on the same day. Click on the picture to access the official website for more details.
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[/amazon_link]Reading Lloyd Jones on [amazon_link id=”0891074155″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Revival[/amazon_link] was a breath of fresh air. It was a good reminder that there is more to Christian experience than what we experience in our daily lives. We can know more of God than we do. One of the reasons that Christians don’t experience more of the joy of knowing Christ is that we are happy with what we have and don’t want more. To be honest most Christians don’t even know there is more to it, so they don’t look for anything better. But we can know God better. He can rend the heavens and come to meet with us, but we don’t ask for because we don’t know such a thing is possible.
Just after reading Lloyd Jones, I read a book called “[amazon_link id=”0385472099″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Lost in the Taiga[/amazon_link]”, by Russian author Vasily Peskov. I remember reading it when I was a teenager and it had quite en impact on me at the time. But it belonged to my Grandmother and probably got lost after she died. “Lost in the Taiga” is the true story of the Lykov Family. Continue reading ““Lost in the Taiga” (Vasily Peskov) and our Christian experience”