France, faith, family…
My now 7-year-old son had his birthday this week and as usual put in an exceedingly complicated request for his birthday cake. “Mum, last year I asked for a fighter plane, but you made me a passenger-plane cake (!!). This year can I have a fighter plane?”
Here’s what he ended up with: not just any fighter plane, but a camouflaged stealth bomber!!! Bravo Mum!
In the weekend we saw our eldest daughter (on the left) baptised with 3 of her friends. So how does a (nearly) 14-year old come to the decision to be baptised? Listening to their stories we heard how during a summer camp a couple of years ago, sleeping in the open air on a starry night, they were all really impressed by the beauty of the night sky. Someone asked the question, if you were to die tonight, do you know where you’d end up? A big question, but one which, is a question teenagers ask much more than we might think. This question really got them thinking, and led these four girls to a real encounter with God that night, which they demonstrated by taking the plunge to mark the beginning of their big adventure in faith. Awesome!
Happy New Year! Our family New Year’s Eve involved a trip to an outdoor skating rink which the city of Nantes puts on for the festive season, a nice meal which didn’t quite work out (Simon cooking!), some games and a movie. We also talked around the table about our favourite memories from 2007. I am experiencing the usual disorientation of wondering where the year went. I generally approach the new year with a vague sense of a number of decisions that need to be made, new habits that need to be formed, and then when the first of January rolls around I don’t feel ready. Then I remind myself that it’s silly to get hung up about a change of digit in the year, which is, after all, a completely arbritrary way of dividing time. There’s nothing sacred about the calendar. But it is a reminder of the ever-accelerating passage of time, and the fact that we are not getting any younger. I’m getting ready to teach a series on the Jesus’ teaching on the end times in Matthew 24, and have been struck again by the many references to time in the prophetic Scriptures, and the signs that are to help us get ready for the events of the end - whether they come in our lifetime or not. It is a good reminder that time is going in a specific direction - forward! The calendar may be arbitrary, but the passage of time has specific purpose as we head towards the fulfillment of all God had in mind when he created the world: the establishment of a kingdom on earth with Christ as its king.
Sometimes people ask us what a “normal” week looks like. It’s always such a difficult question to answer, as a week rarely ends up looking like what we expected or planned.
Monday I spoke to a group of visiting Americans about French church history - I think that if I ever had to change jobs I would quite happily be a history teacher.
That evening I joined in with a series of seminars one of the churches here is running on house church/simple church. This church is in the very unique situation of preparing to merge with two other churches, and making home meetings the centre of their activity. One of the really fascinating things is that the ethnic makeup of these three churches is very diverse.
Tuesday morning Dad took school with the children while Mum helped out at La Maison - a drop-in centre for local homeless people. It is a reality check for both of us to know what some of these people go through.
Thursday evening there is a fledgling home meeting happening on the island in Nantes where we heard the great news that one of the group has just got engaged, and got into some good discussions around Genesis 1 & 2.
Friday I have 7 hours of English classes, back to back.
Saturday we had the second installment of the language café in our new venue. After much searching we found a suitable café that opens on Saturday mornings. It’s actually in the centre of town, which may have turned some people off. Nice atmosphere though, and I think we will keep it going to see what develops.
We have been to very few Sunday morning meetings since getting back from NZ, and have been enjoying the strangeness of this (after 20+ years). However, being a special day with a meal and baptisms, we spent the day with all our St. Sébastien church friends on Sunday.
And now it’s Monday again - the beginning of another week, at the end of which we will probably wonder, as usual, where the days have gone.
Today we have been back in France for 2 weeks. About time I got back to the blog. But before getting into anything more consequential, I just have to share this photo with you. We spent two days in Hong Kong on our way back to France, and, wanting to give the children as authentic an experience as possible, we ate one of the meals in a local noodle bar. Very little English was spoken. The facial expressions speak volumes about how our children deal with culture shock. 
Needless to say, the other patrons found us very entertaining.
We’re on the road again, now in Auckland visiting friends, family and various church groups. Our planned Sunday morning meeting was moved to Sunday evening, and when we realised we had a free morning with friends, we decided to stay at home and be church rather than go to church. Had a lovely time just discussing a few passages of Scripture that have been meaningful for us recently, and praying together.
We decided to leave it open so that the children could participate or not, depending on what they were happiest with. This is one of the issues that comes up with the whole house-church idea - what do you do with the children? In this case, the younger ones just played quietly, and the older ones sat and listened, just joining in for the prayer.
Not having Sunday School might seem like heresy in some quarters, but I think it’s only a problem if we believe that Sunday mornings are the only time that children get any spiritual input. If that is happening just as a regular part of family life, when we gather together as believers we can be quite relaxed about how much the children are involved. As long as they know they are welcome, that their participation is welcomed to the level they feel comfortable with, they benefit. Simply observing the natural way that their parents share their life of faith with friends is of value. Some of the adult discussion may be over their heads, but some of it will take root and perhaps be discussed at a later stage around the family meal table. It was lovely having the children join us, rather than being “sent out” as is normally the case.
Having been a parent for 13 years (we have just become parents of a teenager!), I should have learned a thing or two about prayer for and with my children. Sadly, one of the biggest lessons is that I don’t do it often enough.
You’d think it would just come naturally - I pray on my own, so why not with my kids. But it actually takes practice, perseverance, and a bit of training (for the parent as much as the child). I find it kind of hard to pray with a kid who has been bouncing off the walls only seconds earlier, but I must acknowledge that the problem is mostly in my head. I think of prayer too much as a sober, spiritual activity, and not enough as a natural conversation with the One who knows me more intimately than anyone. I don’t think that Jesus is at all phased by the exuberance of children, so why should I be?
Last night with some friends we prayed for my 6 year old son who has a persistent stutter for which speech therapy has been ineffective. We’ve tried lots of different approaches to help him get over it, but looking back, the times when there has been improvement have been directly linked with times of specific prayer for the problem.
It was really amazing to see how my son responded. Continue reading ‘How to pray for your kids.’
Don’t know if you ever saw that ghastly film called “Fargo” - well in real life it’s quite a fun place. We discovered this when we spent the day here with our friends and their six children. More photos at Flickr (click on the photo).
It’s already been a week since we left Nantes. We are enjoying every moment of being back in the US , visiting friends from when we lived here to years ago at Bethany Fellowship, Bloomington Minnesota. It was such a formative time in our lives, and it’s been great showing the children all the old haunts. Even after such a long absence, as we reconnect with old friends it’s almost like we never left.
Right now we are enjoying sub-zero temperatures and snow in Valley City, North Dakota. There are a few photos at Flickr - I will try and add to this regularly.
Have you ever tried to take a half decent family photo with 6 people? We just had a friend take some pics. She took about 30 of them - hilarious. What with tongues poking out, fingers up noses, closed eyes, grumpy faces, there weren’t too many useable ones. Here’s one that’s reasonably respectable. Thanks Phoenicia for those latent photography skills 
(Simon, Laura - 10, Elise - 8, Isaac - 5, Heather, Maria - 12)
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