Let me introduce to you Nicolas, Anaïs, Marianne, and Esther, four young friends from Nantes who will be leaving next week for South Africa where they will spend seven months learning what mission is all about in a context that is completely different to what they’re used to here in France. They will be joining a programme run by OM South Africa which combines Christian training with practical service. We got to know Marianne, Nicolas & Esther well during our time running the youth group at the Saint Sébastien church, particularly during our trip to Spain in 2006 to assist some churches in the Madrid area. Anaïs has also participated in an OM project in Portugal, and all four of them really inspire me. They all completed their high school diplomas last summer, and have all been working long hours ever since to fund their trip. It will be a great experience, but also a sacrifice as they will be living very simply, and have had to put their studies on hold. It has been great to see their single-mindedness and commitment to the cause. If anyone complains to me about the aimlessness of today’s younger generation, I just want to say “look at these guys”! Some would say they’re exceptional, but in fact we often see the same kind of spirit in many of our young friends in the churches here.
So, Nicolas, Anaïs, Marianne, and Esther, have a great time, and we look forward to reading your updates. Follow their progress at name4godfr.blogspot.com.
One of the commitments we’ve made recently is to learn to be led more by the Spirit than by our diaries, and when it comes to “ministry”, trying to get better at identifying those doors that God is opening, rather than being carried along by activity for activity’s sake. Well of course we have believed for a long time that this is what we are supposed to do, but when you’re a “ministry professional” there can be quite a gap between theory and practice.
One answer to our prayer, “God lead us to the right people” came in the form of a phone call from Camille*. Last time we had news from her she was very ill, but she is doing a lot better and wanted to see us. In the middle of the conversation she ventured that she couldn’t see how going to a church on a Sunday morning would ever work with her schedule, but that she would be very interested to find out more about what being a Christian is all about. She brought it up, not us! Open door! “Lets get together for a meal!”
The meal happened today, with Camille and her children. It just so happened that it was typically busy weekend with JCrois, a Christian youth gathering that happens each year in Nantes, so Sunday lunch was definitely not the most convenient. But we went for it, and we’re so glad we did.
We really wanted to do some “Acts 2:42 stuff” with our friends, to kind of model what Christians do (should do?) when they get together. Well, we didn’t do very well in the prayer department, mainly because we lost track of time. But we did manage to “break bread”, have fellowship and read through the first chapter of Mark together around the table – a first for our friend and her kids. Led to some interesting discussion on healing, and answered prayer. Not super in-depth, but probably just right for where our friend is at.
Was this church? Not quite, because we missed out the prayer bit. Definitely a step in the right direction though. We will it lead? We don’t know, but we’re really looking forward to finding out. Camille would like it to be at her place next time.
*You guessed it, that’s not her real name.
One of the most striking things about our return to France is what a different place we are in compared to August 2004 when we last came back from New Zealand. Last time we landed in the middle of a visit from the ship Doulos to Saint Nazaire (near Nantes), new interns joining us in our project to assist a church in the north of Nantes, various projects with Christian youth, and a whole bunch of meetings and conferences in the diary. We hit the ground running and didn’t stop to draw breath for several months.
This time we have arrived in a more typical French August: eerily quiet. If you didn’t know that everyone has head for the beach or the mountains, you would wonder whether you’d stumbled onto the set of Invasion of the Bodysnatchers.
But even so, many of the people we have most wanted to catch up with have been around, and the most meaningful things that have happened since our return 2 weeks ago has been renewing contact with friends. We’ve had a more or less constant stream of visitors, which has been both surprising and encouraging, and has really helped in dealing with the odd coup de blues* over leaving New Zealand.
We have not come back with a stack of new projects to launch into, but already we see the few ideas we have beginning to take shape. Some of them are not quite cooked enough to talk about them here, but we are really enjoying having the space to step off the ministry “roundabout”, and actually ask the question, “Lord, what do you have for us to do?”, and sensing the freedom to wait for him to answer before forging ahead.
Not sure that we’ve ever been in this place before.
*coup de blues – you can probably guess: a time of feeling down.
One thing about living on the other side of the world to a large number of friends and family members is that you tend to live in two parrallel universes which never intersect. This is why we so enjoy receiving NZ visitors in France. But until this weekend we had never had anyone from France visit us in New Zealand.
François is a young friend from Nantes, an engineering student who, instead of fulfilling his foreign work placement requirement somewhere sensible like England, he came all the way to NZ where he ended up working in a pulp and paper mill in the exotic (ahem!) little town of Tokoroa. If you read French you can find out here about his NZ adventure.
It was an ideal weekend as we had a dinner to get together with old friends, and gave a presentation in church on Sunday morning, part of which was an interview with François about his life in Nantes and what it’s like being a full-on Christian in such a secular educational environment. François is very active in Agape Campus – a student Christian movement in Nantes. It was great hearing his impressions of our homeland – seeing it through French eyes.
We are safely back in Hamilton for the final two weeks of our New Zealand trip. Too much movement and not enough Internet over the last couple of weeks for regular posts, but overall the last 3 weeks in Auckland, Whangarei & Hamilton have left us marvelling at how many amazing people we know, and what a privilege it is to spend time tripping around the country visiting them all! We’ve spoken in three different churches – each very different from the other.
The first has the intriguingly descriptive title of His International Mission, a dynamic AG church in which we were the only white faces in a big group of brown. 
Great to see the passion for God and for mission amongst our Polynesian brothers and sistas. The second was Pakuranga Christian Fellowship, a church with a long contact with OM, and had the great bonus of being the church of our friends Greg & Joanne who were helping lead churches in the north of France for many years. As a kiwi family with four children, they were our “inspiration” – when we met them, we thought well if they can do it, maybe we could too! They’re still very active in ministry, currently church-planting amongst international students in south Auckland.
The third was West Hamilton Anglican, which we wrote about in another post on reinterpreting traditions. Our friends here have done such a marvellous job of facilitating our stay in New Zealand. As a teenager I left an Anglican church in which if you wanted to learn about Jesus you had to really dig deep, and it’s like I’ve gone full circle as our Hamilton church family is also an Anglican church, but one in which the gospel is preached loud and 
clear.
It was a relief to finish the message on Sunday morning, after 5 straight weeks of preaching, and now we begin to set our sights on the long trip home. Can’t believe it’s gone so quickly.
I haven’t been writing so much lately – actually I’ve spent more time on the technical side of this blog than writing it. Shame about the lack of photos too, but the Internet here is table-thumpingly slow. I’m trying to get my head around how web sites work as I’m planning to move this thing onto another server. You will notice that the url www.bournagain.com now works – no need for the “WordPress” bit. I’m making use of this time in New Zealand to learn a few new skills.
Otherwise this visit to New Zealand is all about people! We’ve spent a lot of time on the phone and in and out of people’s homes. It’s another reminder of how rich and diverse this thing we call Church is. In the last few days we have been with friends who are all involved with kingdom stuff, but in such different ways.
After travelling to places as diverse as Ethiopia, Lebanon and Portugal, Keith, Carolyn have teamed up with Richard to establish A Rocha in New Zealand. It’s a Christian conservation organisation. Carolyn put it very succinctly when she said that A Rocha is about “the greening of the church and the churching of the greens”. I used to raise my eyebrows at Christians involved in things environmental. Couldn’t really see the point as my eschatology centred very much around the “new heavens and the new earth” that would replace this tired old earth. But somewhere along the way I realised that the earth always has been and always will be central to God’s purposes, and when we look after it we’re doing what God does. It is actually a “missional” thing in and of itself, not to mention the fact that there are so many greenies out there who have been turned off by Christian’s lack of concern for the environment. We should be leading the charge – go for it, guys!
And then we spent an afternoon with Cor and Ria. Not sure if they’re Dutch kiwis or Kiwi dutchies, but they are very special people. Cor is an expressionist painter and if you want to be blessed you should take a look at his work. Our house would be full of his paintings if we could afford it 
Many of his paintings express the things he’s been learning in his walk with God, although he’s very down to earth about the artistic process. It’s 10 % inspiration and 90 % perspiration. We spent the afternoon talking about our love for the church and our frustration with it. As Queen Victoria put it so beautifully, “If all the people who fall asleep in church were laid end to end, they would be a lot more comfortable.”
A big part of what we do here is training interns who come to France for 6 months to two years to work with us in OM alongside local churches. Have had a great time catching up with a few former interns lately.
Grant (USA - 2002-2004) came to stay for New Year with his wife Miho (Japan) whom he met during an OM outreach in Clermont Ferrand in 2003. They have been completing theological studies in the US and are seriously considering the possibility of returning to France longer term, amongst other options.
I just caught up with Anita (D – 1999-2000) in Heidelberg last weekend (see below for why I was in Germany). She’s working in event management/hospitality, and is doing a great job in her church if the service I went to is anything to go by. She led the service the night I was there and I found it quite moving.
Salome (D) & Jonathan (GB – 2001-2002) are also in Germany at the moment, although not for long. They weren’t together back during their time with OM France, but met up again sometime later and now they’re married. Had a lovely meal with them just before returning home, and they’re in the last stages of planning to move to Toulouse, where Jonathan will be taking up a position working with IFES down there (student ministry). I guess France just got into their blood while they were here.
The reason for the trip to Germany was to meet our new interns joining this month at the January orientation conference in Mosbach (near Heidelberg). Rich & Rachel (US) and Leslie (US) will be with us for 2 years and 1 year respectively. They will be joining Esther (D). Looking forward to see what doors God is going to open for them. Having met them I’m sure they’re going to fit in really well.
Welcome to our blog for those who have just linked in from our newsletter which went out today. Hope you enjoy your visit.
We just had our new neighbours over for “goûter” – it’s the same kind of idea as afternoon tea, and it’s a pretty common way of inviting people for the first time, especially if they have children. They’ve moved into the house next door which had been empty for 30 years! Good thing they have time off work to get some work done on it. They have two children, including a boy a bit older than Isaac, and they seem to get on well.
Like so many people we have met in Nantes, they have fled the rat race of Paris for a change of lifestyle out in the provinces. What a life they had – 3 hours in the car each day, on top of an up-to-10 hour day. Interesting jobs, well paid, but at the cost of seeing their son for about half an hour a day for the first six years of his life. They have very bravely taken the plunge into a change of geography, in the hope that it will lead to a change of lifestyle.
It made us think of our major change of geography 7 years ago when we came here. And we have changed, but in hindsight it was nothing to do with geography. Just changing the externals of life doesn’t necessarily change who we are inside. I can move wherever I like in the world, but my priorities, my patterns of relating, my blind spots, they way I define myself, all come with me. Real change is “from the inside out”, and often involves the painful giving up of things in my life which take the place of God.
Nice family – hope we can get to know them better. We miss our friends from across the road who have moved to Bordeaux – another example of someone desperately seeking change but not really knowing where to look for it. We are still in touch – had a visit from them during the November school holidays.
Esther is coming over to babysit tonight so we can go out for our birthday treat. Esther is from Germany, from a little village right on the Polish border, and she has been working with us since September. There have been years when we have had up to 12 interns working with us in various OM projects, so it’s quite different having just one. She has been quite busy helping out with various activities: Flambeaux (Christian scouts), youth groups, Agapé – a Christian student association, not to mention being a great help in the office. Her French has come on in leaps and bounds, partly thanks to the family she’s living with.
Leslie from the US will be joining her in January, and there is also a new couple on the way once they get their visas. We’re looking forward to having an international “team” again, and the search for accomodation and sorting out their programme for next year is high on the priority list at the moment.
The children think it’s great having someone to help them with their German! It’s Maria’s favourite subject, and at the moment we have little pieces of paper stuck up all over the house with words and phrases that Laura is trying to learn.
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