Dimanche - words to go with the pictures

Sunday has been another full day - in a very different way. The service went very well with more people there than expected. Jean-Marc led the service & before the kids went out he invited us up to the front.

We introduced ourselves & the got the children up to help as we taught everyone "Our feet start a-tapping" which some how had become our unofficial theme song. Arnaud read from Ephesians 2 about being one body in Christ & said a few words about why we had come to Blois. We then showed a short video "Hello" from Ebe which went down really well.

Monica & Chloe went out to helped with the Sunday school during the rest of the service. Chloe was thrilled to be able to learn a new French song which the kids came back in to sing to everyone after the sermon. (Chloe has been having great fun teaching Matt various different French songs over the last few days.)

Michael did a sermon (in french but we did our best to follow with Tim & Arnaud's help) in which he made use of a Noise T-shirt & a stone as props. Talking about "showing God love in practical ways" and the meaning of Ebenezer among other things. He even managed to get Matt to participate...you'll have to ask Matt how....

After the service we joined the church in a Friendship meal & spent some time getting to meet more of the congregation. Good times & good food!

We went into Blois after lunch so that we could see bit more of the town, in daylight this time. There were lots of interesting things to see & pretty lanes to explore & anytime steps were found hopping races kept happening - How anyone had the energy to hop up huge flights of steps after the last few days I'll never know! Bertrand (Pingard) did a great job as our tour guide.

As dusk drew in we headed off to the Pingard's home (Shelley & the Melinard's host family) in Bracieux for a lovely meal & a nice relaxed evening all together. The Bergers came too as they wanted to spend as much time as possible with their "English people". Bertrand introduced some of us to the delights of Camembert on bread dipped into hot chocolate - his children assured us it wasn't a wind up, he really does do this normally. It was a great evening & no one wanted to head home, knowing we would be leaving in the morning (which explains the very short post that night).

We did eventually head off & during our drive back through the forest we saw a very impressive stag on standing on the verge next to the road. God's creation is amazing!

Dimanche

Today has been another full day - in a very different way. Too tired to do it justice but will put up a slideshow of pictures & do more writing later.

We plan to go to a chateaux tomorrow morning before heading back to Paris for an evening flight so please pray for a fun time & safety in travel.

Video of Thursday and Friday

This video was sent over from France and then merged with the text from the blog to create this "masterpiece"!!

Dinner with Host Families

We've had a really lovely evening out with our host families. After dinner we had a walk around the Chateau before heading home. Here are a couple of photos - oh & I've added a few more to the slide show from earlier in the day.



Please pray for the service tomorrow - the first in the building. Pray that it will be a good time of fellowship with our brothers & sisters in Blois.

Manual Labour All Done....

Well what a busy day!

We all got to the church soon after 10am again & after we had spent some time in prayer we hit the ground running. Four teams to begin with - one cracking on with the papering of the walls & one on papering the ceilings, and then one on painting the ceiling in the foyer & one starting on painting the walls of the hall. Sounds like madness but it was effective.

By lunchtime the foyer was complete & ready for cleaning. We had gone as far as we could with the papering due to finishing all the rolls of wall paper & completing the ceilings - Hurray!! Definately making progress. Lunch was good - more cheese & meat & salads in crunchy baggettes with fruit & yoghurt.

Once we were refueled the plan of attack was to start cleaning the floor in the foyer & continue painting as far as we could. The limiting factor being that the paper that had only just been hung needed time to dry.

The cleaning was hard work....with hoovering to remove the dust & then using scrapers to get the drips of paint & glue off & then a bit of scrubing. They had moved in to the main hall & done one third of it by the time we stopped for tea. The painting was complete by then too - as far as was possible anyway. So when we came back down it was a concerted effort to clear out the hall & get the floor clean. All very hard work espically when we are all now at the stage of feeling sore & tired.

There was still some fun going on...much singing during the day & things like racing along on the floor cloths.

We are now all trying to get clean before heading out with our hosts for a meal tonight.

I'll be back later this evening with more to say & more photos - so come back soon.

Oh - Soose, Matt said to say hi. Hope this is interesting enough :)

Second Day

The start of a new day meant meeting up again at the church building with Jean-Marc & Claude to think about another day's work...first things first though it was time to catch up & find out how everyone's evening had been.

Matt & Sam were staying with Claude & his wife Marguerite. Matt & Sam's knowledge of french is very limited & their hosts English is about the same so it was an interesting evening making use of a phrase book & sign language to communicate. One of Sam's new phrases yesterday was "J'ai faim!" (I'm hungry) which was an in joke this morning with Claude & meant Sam learnt the work for eating - "manger".

Monica, Arnaud & Shelley were with the Pingard family, the furthest from the church. Their evening meal yesterday included a large selection of local cheese & wines. They had a bit of education about where each of them were from in the region as well as lots of conversation. This morning there was a discussion about tea & which ones are traditionally drunk at what time of day in England...

Tim & Rachel are staying with the Berger family. It sound like they too had lots of fun & were even given a music lesson by Roch who is French Christian singer songwriter. Clémence has bought them some things to help make them feel at home including porridge oats. We know they also had a look at this Blog so - Hello Clemence & Roch!

The rest of us stayed with Tim's parents & had a good relaxing evening with good food. All 11 of us are please to say that we had some very good SLEEP!!!! last night and very much needed it was too after all that work & the late arrival the night before.

A common theme in many of the home we are staying in is dogs. The Bergers have five small terriers, the Pingards & Brooks something a little bigger....they have all been entertaining. Apparently, Tim Leigh had his toe gnawed all through dinner.

Back to work
Our task for the day was to continue with the papering & with only half of the ceiling in the foyer left to do it wasn't long before there were three teams of paperers working in the hall. Two on the walls & one on the ceiling. It took a fair bit of working out how to do the ceiling as it was much bigger lengths than they had been used to from yesterday. There was lots of singing & whistling to go along with the work & you could tell when things were going well as the volume increased or when the was something tricky to be worked on when it went quiet. There was at one point the suggestion that a Men United Choir should be formed & that they should wear robes & enter the X Factor...I kid you not - this was a suggestion from the guys in the group.


We stopped for some lunch at, well...lunchtime. The Brooks & Richard along with his wife Valérie & Jean-Marc joined us (Claude had gone home for lunch). We had baguettes with lots of interesting meat, pate & cheese to assemble in to sandwiches. We ate lots but then we needed the fuel. It seemed to get very loud as very one chatted & enjoyed.

After food everyone was keen to get back to work & as thirteen was a few too many even for the three team of paperers a few of us started to paint the foyer walls as the paper was nicely dried.

We had a really good incentive to see how far we could get...the Church have been unable to book their normal room for the Sunday service & were only offered a much smaller one a bit out of town so the decision has been made to use the church building for the first time this week - only a one off but very exciting so we'd all love to get as far along as possible.

We stopped tea at 4pm but it was difficult to get some people to stop!

By the 6pm we had the walls in the foyer painted (ceiling still to do), and in the hall only the end wall (a narrower sort) and the last section of ceiling to do - was very impressive progress!

Prayer Points:

• For Saturday, that we get lots done & can get the building into a reasonably usable state by then end of the day.
• For the team - for continued enthusiasm & energy
• There will be some more church members around helping tomorrow so pray that it would be a good time of working in fellowship with one another.

Tomorrow evening we will be going out for a meal with our host families - please pray that this is a really good evening for everyone.

Keep watching for more posts & photos - We'll have get some from our other photographers too!

First day

It has been an interesting day....the girls (Chloe, Shelley & Rachel) were first down for petit dejeuner (continental of course) followed by the Brooks, Melinards and then the boys. The general impression was that this was the natural order of things & would probably be repeated...& so it proved as we all turned up at the cars to head off for the day in the same order.

We made it to the Church building soon after 10am this morning to find out what we would be doing. Task number one was to put the mobile scaffold tower together - easier said than done but it got "Team Ebe" into the mood for work.

One of the main task that we are doing is putting textured paper up in the foyer & the main meeting hall. We got a good system going for cutting the sheets into the required lengths & once Jean-Marc (one of the Church members who was organising us) had done a demonstration two teams of three got to work pasting & papering the foyer. The rest of us were on painting & sanding down duties in the main room. I think some people got more paint on themselves than the walls despite the protective wear used....

By lunch we had half the walls in the foyer papered & the areas of wall in the hall that had needed a the base coat of paint done. Lunch was an opportunity to sit together and talk with Micheal & Catherine (Brooks), Jean-Marc & Richard Morris (another of the France Mission missionaries). Also this was the first pain au chocolat eating opportunity...very important.

After lunch, it was straight back into the papering & painting. The painting was now on ceilings & then small side rooms & the papering meant finishing the walls in the foyer & starting on the ceiling....interesting....We now know that we have some very gifted wallpaperers amongst us...you'll have to ask who if you ever need a hand.

It must be admitted that the day couldn't pass with out at least one paste fight breaking out but I doubt it will be repeated...it resulted in very stiff hair & clothing which really wasn't very pleasant - ah well you live & learn.

We feel fairly happy with the amount of work we managed to get done in one day & recon that the skills acquired will mean faster progress tomorrow. We finished about 5:30 & did a bit of a tidy up as the families who various people are staying with were due at about 6pm. We had a short time of prayer together as a group before heading in different directions.

Please pray:

For all of the group who are staying with families -

• that they will be a blessing to them,
• that language would not be a barrier in getting to know them
  

For the team -

• that we would have a restful evening & a good nights sleep
• that we wouldn't be aching too much tomorrow
  
• for enthusiasm to continue tomorrow.
  

We've Made It

Well we've made it safely as far as Blois. We had to go between terminals, squeezing 11 of us into lifts, to get our hire cars (but got an upgrade on one of the cars).

Navagating Paris at night when there are main roads closed wasn't the easiest but we managed it & got to our hotel at 12:20 french time.

We've had breakfast & are now all ready for the day.

Bon Voyage

Well, the day has finally arrived & the bags are packed (hopefully). The team will be making our way to Bristol Airport this afternoon for a 6:35pm flight to Paris. We will be collecting hire cars in Paris & then driving down to Blois.

Please Pray:

• for safety in travel
• that the team will enjoy travelling together, getting to know one another a little better
  

Pictures from Le Petit Dejeuner

Prayer Points

Blois is a market town in the Loire Valley about 2 hours drive south of Paris.

The church is part of a network of three churches including one in Romorantin and one in Vendome looked after by France Mission.

Blois - the church has about 30 members. They bought a building to convert for church purposes on which work is continuing (we will be helping with this). They have been meeting in a Youth Hostel for Sunday services with very limited space & they can’t be guaranteed what room they will be able to use on a week to week basis.

Praise God for visible enthusiasm to work together in preparation for the Ebe team & pray that this continues into the future.
There is a need for some new lay leaders to come into the church please pray for this.


Vendome (25km north of Blois) church has a membership of about 10.

They have just bought the building they have been meeting in & need wisdom in making plans to renovate it, and the finance to complete the work.
They have a good leadership team, but all are overloaded with their jobs.
The Laubert family (France Mission missionaries) have not been able to do much for the past year due to family illness and will be leaving in June 2008. Replacements are needed.


Romorantin (50km south of Blois) there is no official membership list yet for this church but they have a core group of 9 adults.

Praise God for growth in numbers & pray for more new people, particularly for people with leadership potential to be trained for future leadership roles in the church.
There seems to be a need for a full time worker living in the Romorantin area to be available to follow up new contacts and care for present members. Please pray for wisdom in this.

Give praise for there trust in God!
Pray for continued growth
& that they be inspired to try new things.

On the Team:

Arnaud & Monica Melinard, Tim & Fiona Brooks, Tim Leigh, Shelley Rudge, Lucky, Rachel Bee, Matt Fisher, Sam Francis and Chloe Allan.



We will be staying with Church members & plan to do painting and decorating in the church building, gardening work, as well as participating in the Sunday service and hoping to be a blessing & encouragement to the church members in Blois.



Please pray:

• that we can be a blessing to the church in Blois
• that we succeed in drawing alongside those at the church and that we are able to encourage them in pursuing future initiatives.
• for safety in travel
• for safety in the work we are doing
• that we get to know the people that we are staying with
• that the language would not be a barrier
• for the weather - that it would be “co-operative”

Le Petit Dejeuner

Saturday 6th October
from 9am at Ebe

We expect to have lots of fun and games as well as a yummy French breakfast prepared by our resident Frenchman… Oh la la!

£4 in advance and £5 on the door (families £12) which will help to fund ‘Le Noise’ trip to Blois in October. See Arnaud and Monica Melinard for more information or contact the Church Office