It’s been quite a week! On the outside looking in, it may not look like much, but dig a bit deeper and you’ll see that God has let us see his hand at work.
Above is a photo from Bible Study this week… but let’s start with last week:
Do you remember the old hymn “His eye is on the sparrow”? We’ve been a bit of a case study for that over the past week…
Transparency alert:
Do not read ANY of this post,
unless you commit to read ALL of this post… No skimming! Continue reading
“The sun had set, the last few sips of coffee had long since grown cold and there was nothing left to do but stroll… almost, but not quite …aimlessly. For that is what one must do in Paris if one is to truly appreciate this intoxicating place. Continue reading
Last week & this, I kind of wanted to run away and hide under a rock. I did… sort of… but I’m coming back out.
The month of January is flying by at an incredible pace and we have a lot of “fancy footwork” to do, if we can survive the bureaucracy! 🙂 Continue reading
Châtellerault is the LAST place I’d expect to find Toronto Maple Leafs memorabilia on public display…. but I did! Keep reading to find out where…
As you know from last week’s post, Liz’s parents were here visiting from Belgium.
It was their first time to visit us here in Western France and the first time that we’d had a bit more of a prolonged visit since our arrival in Europe last January. We visited Châtellerault, walked through Île Cognet and shared Thanksgiving dinner last Saturday.
Note re. Thanksgiving…
Canada = 2nd Monday of October
USA = 4th Thursday of November
Liz’s dad also helped me one afternoon down at the church doing some landscaping at the church to help “dress up” the front of the building. We planted a boxwood hedge accented with lavender in front, cypress trees on the ends and two miniature apple trees that we’ll train into standards. The bowed out center section will eventually be filled with roses or some other flowering shrub. (see photo)
Finally, we took them on a short jaunt to Angle-sur-l’Anglin. It was one of the warmer days during their visit and we walked down to the lower part of town (near the river) before gradually making our way back up. Tourist season is over, so the little village was pretty quiet.
While Liz’s parents were here, we also tried out a special little restaurant for the first time: Le Caribou Café.
The atmosphere is built around tons of Canadian icons… cedar strip canoes, a framed RCMP uniform, old Quebec license plates, skis, snowshoes… etc. And the bare wood walls & floor make it feel like a good ol’ fashioned cabane à sucre (maple sugar shack). Speaking of which… lots of their dishes feature maple syrup (like the tiramisu I had), and it’s the real-deal… O. my. word. …So good!!!
Three funnies we saw there:
It wasn’t so much a question of IF it would happen but rather WHEN; it was just a matter of working through the paperwork and red-tape. There were a few minor snags along the way but here’s how I felt on Thursday night:
https://twitter.com/RevMikeLong/status/657307211195092992
To be honest, there are times when I struggle with what to write you. A quick scan of social media gives instant access to great reports from across the globe; miracles that God is doing, new ones being baptized or filled with the Holy Ghost, etc. It is wonderful to experience, but when you’re looking on from the outside, it can be a bit intimidating due to the temptation to compare.
At this point in the life of our little church in western France, life is pretty quiet. We are not seeing the “highlights” mentioned above, and we deal with the challenges of a small congregation. On one hand I’m dissatisfied by this particular quiet but I also know that God does His work in His time, so we simply do our best, knowing that we’re in His will and avoid the temptation to compare.
Liz is off to a Tupperware party in Poitiers… bring on those bowls & lids! It’s being hosted by one of the ladies from our church and it’ll be a great chance to meet some new people.
Thank you for being a faithful reader.
Let what you read inform your prayers for us, for the church here and for France.
God bless your day today!
I used to think that “Big people must never be scared of ANY-thing!” … Now I know that to be hogwash, because I are one!
The propensity to experience fear is not, as I have learned, restricted to a certain age… (say “10 & under”, “11-19” or “20-24”), it’s just that our reason for fear changes depending on where we’re at in life… what we’re doing: fear is not as much age-related as it is stage-related.
One of the ways I’m tempted to fear, in this new stage, is in the area of “success” versus “failure”.
In North America, busyness is equated to success. If we are busy, we must be accomplishing something and conversely if we want to accomplish something… we must stay busy. So at those times where I find myself not particularly busy… I can fear that I will not accomplish; not meet the expectations of fellow missionaries or you… our supporters.
Ours is a small, home-missions type church where we’re more likely to be 12-15 than we are 25-30, especially during the summer holidays (when two families are missing… we lose 10 people). Since our desire is to not just maintain, but to see growth, if that growth doesn’t happen in the short term… are we succeeding? Can mere maintenance be considered success or does it represent failure?
I’m glad that success can be defined in several ways:
Of course we strive for growth, but until that happens, these are also measures of success. Lord… let me be successful in the most balanced of ways! These thoughts, along with the knowledge that we are exactly in the center of God’s will for our family, allow us to combat fear. I’m glad that fear is subject to the peace of God.
French National Holiday: This past Tuesday was the French National Holiday… July 14th. Oddly enough, it’s often referred to as “Bastille Day” in North America but not so here. It’s either “le 14 juillet” or “la fête nationale”. Pictured are some of the fireworks with the Henri IV bridge as backdrop. (Henri IV was King of France from 1589-1610 and promulgated the Edict of Nantes in 1598 – guaranteeing religious freedom to protestants)
Jayc: many of you saw our Facebook post last Monday about Jayc (pronounced Jake)… our beagle puppy. Well it’s been an eventful week! By Tuesday morning, his hind quarters (including legs) had inexplicably become paralyzed. The breeder retrieved him almost immediately and took him to the vet who felt it was an extremely rare adverse reaction to standard vaccinations. With no improvement after 4 days and an increasingly traumatized little pup, the vet suggested that the most compassionate route was to put him down. So… today we are going to pick up another puppy. It was a rough start to “Dog-dom” and there may have been a few tears shed.Please pray for Pierre, one of our members. He’s had a lot of health challenges of late and is in a 3-week treatment session to try to get under some of the issues.
Next Saturday I may tell you about Canoes in the Wind… stay tuned and see you then. Same time, same place.
Thank you for your prayers and support!
As I sit down to share with you our week, the sun is already high and there is a cool breeze coming through the open door behind me, causing the drapes to brush up against the back of the chair… this chair… the one in the photo. Usually I avoid laptopping in the living room but this morning I’m making an exception. I’ve spent a lot of time this week in the office upstairs and need a change.
What else is happening this morning?
Well… a blender is revving in the kitchen as Liz is making 6-week muffins: a recipe of my mom’s where the batter can stay in the fridge for up to six weeks (it never makes it that long) and you make up a pan as the fancy strikes. Sophie is helping her and the boys are slowly coming to life upstairs. There will undoubtedly be some YouTube videos and or Minecraft in their near future, although Dominic has also recently finished an audio-book… oops, I’m mistaken, he just came down to the dining room table to review math.
While the kids have finished their classes (the two older kids prior AYC and Timo this week) there are still tests to be written and research projects to be completed, so there has been a bit of extra “pushing, pulling and tutoring” this week. Liz carries the bulk of it but I’ve stepped in a few times to avoid disaster or breakdown! 🙂 The fact that temperatures have been in the mid to upper 30’s (high 90’s) hasn’t made things easier.
Liz & Soph had a mother-daughter date night last night at Pât-a-pain. The “pain” of still having school work to do is taking its toll, even on our most disciplined student and Liz wanted to ensure that their relationship had other aspects than just school & church. Balance is good, so a “girls’ night out” was in order.
As I mentioned above, I had a good deal of office time this week, which consisted of:
By the time Friday rolled around, I was ready for some people time.
Andy is one of two Bible School students from the Châtellerault church. He lives in Tours (45min away) and is a business student at the university there.
Between his year-end exam schedule, his work schedule and us being away for AYC, we had not gotten much “face time” of late… so we got to spend a little time together.
Do you help promote missions in your local church?If so… please download our latest Partner in Missions Newsletter. It will give an overview of our time with the General Youth Division’s Apostolic Youth Corps trip to France.
Your support allowed us to facilitate short-term missions experiences for 37 young people and their chaperones from all over North America; contributing to the future of Global Missions.
In the wake of the much excitement that was AYC, this was very much a catch-up week… a bit more of a normal week if I can put it like that.
Pray: If I could ask you to pray about 3 things this week it would be this:
Thank you for your prayers and your support. It allows us to fill the gap during Bro. & Sis. Brochu’s absence… ensuring that the work continues. God bless your day today & let what you read inform your prayers for France!
As I sit to share our week with you… I’m pretty much bubbling with excitement. I’ll get to the reason why somewhere between now and the end of the post, but let’s start at the beginning of the week…
After my three hours of teaching at Bible School last Saturday, I was able to get away and share some high-French cuisine (McDonald’s) with an old friend. Sylvain was my student marker when I taught French at UNBSJ some 14 years ago. He lives close to Melun so we’ve been able to see each other a few times already. Honestly… McD’s tastes better with old friends! We will also get to attend Sylvain & Camille’s wedding later this summer. Very excited to be able to be in France to share this special day with a good friend.
Few people like Mondays in general and many pastors say that it’s even perhaps a bit worse in the ministry. As much as Sunday services involve both a spiritual and an emotional high, the physically drained Christian is sometimes more prone to spiritual attack or simply just negative feelings on Monday. I’ve experienced it a few times myself so this week I decided to meet Monday on my terms.
La Mairie de Targé
I spent a couple of hours out in the community. I prayer-walked through a neighbourhood that we didn’t get to finish on our church prayer walk two weeks ago. After that, I also drove out to the village of Targé (about 10min from Châtellerault). This is the town hall (also known as “La Mairie”). This is fairly typical of village municipal offices here… small & quaint. Lord, let your Spirit move in Targé!
Fear is quite a thing! What I’ll call positive fear can push us to be cautious in unfamiliar situations but negative fear can almost paralyze us (taken to the extreme, irrational fear often does)… even in relatively normal circumstances. This week I have faced both. Not only is there fear associated with not being in the will of God, there is also fear associated with being in His will. It can be the simple fact of being placed outside of your comfort zone and dealing with the unfamiliar on a regular basis and it can also be a case of wondering “what next?”. We are currently, for all intents and purposes, homeless; having sold our home in Canada and living in a “borrowed home” in France… What happens when the Brochus return and what are the implications on our future, our kids, etc.? (This might have something to do with “Dreaded Monday”)
If I think too much about it, it becomes un-nerving but it’s always there in the background. In those times I am thankful that I can put both my present and my future in God’s hands and know that if we’re in His will, then He is working for our good. Matthew 6.34 says not to “worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow has worries of its own.” The previous verse, 6.33, says to “seek first the Kingdom of God (His priorities) and all these other things (my own worries & concerns) will be added unto me.”
Thank you Lord that your word and your presence calms my fear!
We tried something new this week. Several of the major grocery chains have a “Drive-thru” version of themselves where you place and pay for your order online, then specify a time for pick up. At the appointed time, you drive to the depot, where a friendly staff member loads it into your open trunk. Time on the road: 15 min.
I could get used to this kind of grocery shopping. One fringe benefit is that there are fewer “impulse purchases” as you walk down the chocolate or chips & dip aisles. (…mixed blessing?)
As I write this post, the patio doors are open on a shady side-yard and many sounds are flooding in from around the neighbourhood… the distant barking dog or revving chain-saw, but closer still… the sound of many birds. The sound of mourning doves is very common and takes me back to living in Acamac, on the edge of the woods; a sound I missed when living right in Saint John. There are a number of smaller songbirds as well. Yesterday, however, I heard something I’d never heard before, although it was immediately recognizable… I heard a cuckoo (you know… as in the “cuckoo clock”?). How cool is that?!
Last night was an awesome, unplanned blessing!
Our “Church Prayer Meeting” can vary in location and format. Up until late fall it was mainly prayer walks through Châtellerault, but with the onset of winter it moved inside, generally on Fridays. Two weeks ago we took it back out into the city and this week I was unsure about what to do… prayer walk on Saturday morning or meet at the church Friday night. I was waiting to see what weather would do. The deciding factor, however, was that the nephew and niece of one of our church members expressed an interest in attending on Friday night. Decision made.
I was aware of a situation that was happening in their life and so in addition to spending time in prayer, we also sang a couple of songs and I shared a passage of scripture. They were quite engaged during the prayer meeting.
In an attempt to prolong our time together and get to know them more, I suggested that we have a bonfire since the evening was fine. (Remember the trimming I’d being doing on the property? The trimmings made for great firewood). We made a call to another family that wasn’t in prayer and by the end of it, there were 21 of us.
Do you see the size of that flame?!
(no gasoline added)
We had an incredible time together and stayed at church until about 10:30pm. Our guests tasted toasted marshmallow for the very first time and quite loved it. (There may also have been some roasting of “Ferrero Rochers” involved… it may or may not have been delectable!) They thoroughly enjoyed the evening and a great connection was made. Lord, add to your Kingdom.
I quite enjoy preparing these posts… not only do I get to share with you what life is like in our world, but it’s also a time when I think of many of you… (those we’ve “birdwatched” with, those we’ve “bonfired” with, those we’ve “feared” and “overcome fear” with), and that makes me feel good. The knowledge of friendship, despite the miles, is both a comfort and a joy.
Let what you read inform your prayers for us and for the church in western France.
AIM Long 