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!