Life's getting busier!

It is amazing to think that we have already been in Lyon for five months!

The weather is finally becoming colder and damper, the two rivers here in Lyon look like they may shortly flood the footpaths and cycleways along their banks, and there are many less tourists (although here in the Old Lyon they still wander through the narrow medieval streets and buy bread at our local bakery!). Having said that, the tourists will be back in force this time next month for the annual Festival of Lights when, apparently, 3-4 million people flood the streets for three nights! 



Gill has become quite deeply involved with several activities run by a local association (AVF) which was set up years ago to help welcome newcomers to the city. She, therefore, attends French conversation groups, cookery classes and has recently, via a friend she made at the association, joined a local choir which rehearses on Monday nights near the Olympique Lyon football stadium, 5-6 km from us (20-25 minutes by bike).



I have continued teaching English for the Chamber of Commerce and Industry and am currently doing around 10 hours teaching time per week. In addition, I have to do a little administration as I am self-employed. I am currently teaching students in the local government offices, in a large pharmaceutical company and will shortly be working in a doctor's surgery too.

As a church plant we had a lot of fun at the beginning of October when Farid, a friend of ours from the Newfrontiers church in Marguerittes near Nîmes, drove up for the day with three others to help us go onto the streets and pray for the sick. Now, I don't know about you, but I certainly find healing a real mystery! I know that God has healed the sick, does heal the sick and will continue healing the sick until Jesus comes again, but so far, in our experience, not everyone is healed! However, healing is real. The name of Jesus is mega powerful and of the 40 people we prayed for that day, 4 were healed instantaneously. Wow! Conclusion: God is so good, healing remains a mystery, but let's pray for lots of people!

We also had some amazing conversations with people there on the streets and, since then, I have had the absolute privilege of studying John's gospel on Wednesday afternoons with a young Iranian man who has indeed started coming to our prayer meetings! He brings his Farsi dictionary and his Farsi Bible and I have my French Bible. Somehow, we manage to communicate! He is bringing his wife this week too!

Our church planting group is slowly growing, so much so that we had 13 people in our lounge two weeks ago. Although we haven't launched regular Sunday meetings just yet, it does look like we must start looking for a venue as we are certainly outgrowing our apartments and houses! 

We also held a house warming party to which we invited all our neighbours of whom five came and stayed until well after midnight.

We have just spent with our children and their "other halves" a great week in the UK in a former hunting lodge in a deer forest in the eastern Lake District celebrating 30 wonderful years of marriage. The weather was standard (wild and wet) and, as the lodge has no central heating, it was bitterly cold. We absolutely loved it.