Penultimate report

There’s not as much to report on our time in Versailles as there was during our time in Izmir. (One of the joys of social media and the internet, is that we are kept in touch with the news from St John’s Church, and able to share in the joys of a birth to a refugee couple, and sadness at the death of a faithful retired minister, who had kept the worship going for some time.)

However, we continue to be blessed by our time here at St Mark’s. There have not been any big events. The return from holidays has begun; the congregation on Sunday was much larger than in previous weeks, and we look forward to quite a few more on our final Sunday. We’re working on planning that service, which is going to be full – the resumption of the children’s work, an adult baptism, farewells to some young people setting off for university, praying for the church members as the new year begins – and our own leave-taking! The last year or so have been quite difficult for the church here, with financial problems, and the upset of a minister leaving after less than twelve months. So we pray that there will be a healing of memories and a new vision for the way ahead.

August has been a busy month for us, with the usual Sunday services to prepare and lead, a number of pastoral contacts and a couple of home-groups to visit. On Saturday mornings, church members offer a breakfast for homeless people and others in a precarious state. It’s been interesting to join that when we’ve been able to. We have also been doing duty as tour-guides for visitors. This past week, we were taking our 12-year old grandson round the sights. Even doing that we experienced some of the frustrations of Paris in the summer. We planned a ‘batobus’ trip on the Seine. It’s one of the best ways to get a feeling for Paris. We paid for and booked tickets on line – but for some reason, the vouchers we printed off had to be exchanged for a boarding pass at the ticket booth at one of the stopping-points; and at the station we went to (nearest to our RER stop) the booth was not manned (despite what the web-site had said) so we had to get off at the next stop to exchange our vouchers for passes, and get back on the boat (just in time.) But apart from that, all went well, and we hope we have given Samuel some sense of Paris and its attractions.

We had another experience of the French tendency to complicate things when we went to the Gare du Nord for the return trip on Eurostar. We produced the authorisation form Daniel had sent with him, only to be told -  by two different people - that we needed to complete an additional form – which required a photocopy of the parent’s ID. A hasty phone call to UK produced an e-mailed attachment of a driving license; but then a third official told that, after all, we didn’t need any of that, as the form only applied to French children leaving the country!

Summer has returned (briefly), so we have managed a couple of weekend walks in some of the lovely wooded country around Versailles. France is often rich in way-marked circuits around its towns and villages, which means one can easily explore and return to one’s starting point, without need of a map. For the rest, we are enjoying our re-immersion in French life, as well as looking forward to our return to England, and seeing the rest of our family.

Please pray for our final service to go well, and cover the different needs of the congregation.

Pray too for our leave-taking and safe journey back home next week.

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