Situation of Burtigny

Good morning,

So, before I refrain from posts till I return from the Middle East due to security confidentiality reasons, I thought that having not shown anyone where I actually live, that I would, with no further ado, do so.  So here is a scene of Burtigny looking westwards.  Burtigny is actually on the far left of the photo (looking minute here but it is there).  Burtigny sits on a sloping mountain in lovely countryside.  So I feel pretty at home here.  Having just got back from Paris though, it really is so very quiet and I do miss the shops being close by, of which there are none around here at all. 
We started our outreach part with two weeks in Paris.  It went really well.  Its good to be back here though briefly, living in a communal building than in a small room with one bed, a basin and one electric hob.  This was where Philipp and myself lived, and this was where we all met up as a group for devotion times, chatter and meal times.  Stayed in Belleville, North-East of the city.  A big change going from (lecture half) having loads of spiritual input and talks in a very relaxed environment to (outreach half) having hardly any of that and being in a big, bustling city.  We felt the city was more spiritually dry and had a very interesting lecture with someone who explained to us the spiritual situation of Paris.  How so much freemasonry and pagan gods are entwined and symbolised within the city.  Made me think what the real spiritual situation in London must be!  Is great to be spiritually aware of an area, and having that spiritual perspective. 

At first I enjoyed moving from highly organised Swiss to the far more relaxed Parisian traffic.  Though this joy increasingly lowered as I realised just how crazy some of the driving is!  I opened my front door one morning and was just about to step out when a scooter drove swiftly past on the pavement to overtake a car. 

I enjoyed being involved with part of the filming of a Christian Artists Conference (like Artisan).  Met some interesting people there.  Also attended two small group meetings, one of which was by the Seine which was great.  I thought how great it would be to have a homegroup by the Thames.  We had worship and Christine then led a devotion, small talk.  Waved away to countless boats passing by, never knew there were so many!  If you think there are many tourists in London, go to Paris!



My French is still really poor but I’m sure it would improve if I stayed long enough.  The same people who led this group, also lead evangelistic meetings in a cafe once a month.  One Sunday evening, friends and even people who were invited off the street, attended one such cafe time. Meredith and Philipp gave their testimonies.  I love the French open culture, yes I am bias to French Christians because it was they who were the main people I met but they were so hospitable.  I quite like the whole kissing people when meeting for the first time thing, even blokes, it like pulls any cold barriers down straight away.  At the end of the day though I prefer hugs, kisses feel less intimate and relational than hugs after a while. (Ok on this topic, I'm with Mark, who wrote a headline post on the about life website about 'being honest' here!).

I was interested to know how few strong active Christians there are in Paris, it seemed a lot less than in London.  I had a really good chat with Florent as we dropped off equipment round Paris from the Artists Conference and he was telling me how we need to seek how to get Parisians into church; not just foreigners and outsiders which is easy, but true Parisians, who typically think with much reason, logic and criticism than with their heart.  Continues to be fab how so many people know of Alpha and certainly it is pretty big in Paris which is good.  (I met Olivier, Alpha Suisse, in Burtigny and it was good to see the person who I had been sending stacks of tapes too when I worked at HTB after a few European Alpha Conferences). 

It was good lessons of loving.  A few days we had no plans and listened to God to what he wanted us to do in the city.  This was a new thing for me, just not having a schedule and listening, learning how to proactively love and be a steward for Paris, for a city.  I tried to chat to someone on the Metro but my French was so bad I didn't get very far.  We fed the homeless.  Philipp and I befriended an Egyptian whose store I'd often buy a drink from in the evening and we'd keep up with the footy scores.  There were some good chats in the Sunday cafe.  We prayed and worshipped and proclaimed scripture against a freemason/pagan monument near the Eiffel Tower.  Led surveys to get people thinking, one of which certainly was converted from at least an atheist to an agnostic.  Its hard to speak of how we have seen God move fully, but I can be sure that we sowed seeds, the fruit of which we may well not see but am sure will be produced.  I thought of that notion though of how active love can overcome all things, all hate and darkness. 

We also led a Christian school in games and songs.  It was a good starting point to what we will be doing much of in the Middle East.  I have only just learnt that we will be working with kids of different ages 5 days a week there than my presupposed, 3 days a week.  Its something that is not my best cup of tea and was not what I was hoping to do in the Middle East, but will be great to be pushed to meet the challenge. 

Was sad tonight to see German lose to Italy.  Great play by Italy to get a second goal so quickly.  Yes, of course I know this is only a football game but I have never watched the amount of football I have until now (aided by being a student with internationals around).  I did not know just how passionate people could be about football until I witnessed the outpourings of passion following the last two French victories on the Champs-Elysees Avenue.  Every French person wherever they were in Paris (& France I guess), were singing, shouting, chanting, hooting a horn, flying a flag.  Whatever they could do they were doing it.  And I thought, I'm sure we never do this in England (not to let English people down) but I'm sure we never go to the length of stopping a whole avenue so people can join together in a huge space and be free to display their utter passionate joy.  Then I realised that we never, or rarely make it past the quarter-final anyway, so there's less hope to sing and dance.  Better luck next time though lads.


The Champs Elysees in both directions



But as Christine was saying and challenged us, to see this people become so worshipful, so passionate and ecstatic about winning a football game, how so much more passionate we should be to our, and to the one and only true Almighty Awesome Creator God!!  It is hard though to battle on in our spirits in seeking his face and will, but it is the best way and is The Way.
Our tiny dts group continues to get on well and complement each other.  We are all very different and I am pleased there aren’t three of me or three Philipp’s or any of us, in the group, otherwise things would be rather boring and conflicting.  I occasionally miss people from my English culture when there is noone to back me up on such petty things as how you say something, or act in relation to something.  Or even when we lose to Portugal with not an English person (or British for that matter) in sight - just plenty of Portuguese! 

So off to the Middle East tomorrow, very exciting though there is just that concern of the unexpected.  What will be there, or even what will not be there. 

For those going to the world famous Home Focus have a great one, will be sad to miss it, the first time in 14 years!

Thanks also for your prayers.  As I said I probably will not be able to email or blog over the coming 2 ½ months due to where I will be.

Have a great Summer!