Gill and I enjoyed an excellent weekend in Coventry with Jubilee Church last weekend and I have been reminded/encouraged that to post news on a blog only once every forty years isn't quite a real blog. Therefore...

Some of the things that really encouraged us last weekend were seeing how so many of our friends in the church had so evidently grown so much in the last year or two and to see that the church has virtually doubled in size in that time. Quite amazing.

In Paris, the church plant here continues to grow, albeit at a much slower pace. We have about 30 adult members and a further 10-15 who currently want to become members. Beyond that, there are quite a number more who, perhaps, have not yet got sufficiently involved in the church to think of being members, but who would, nevertheless, think of CVV as their church.

We have just started an exciting project which is effectively a much shortened version of the Alpha Course. It will essentially last four weeks. We felt that to reflect Parisian culture it would be fairly hopeless to expect friends to come to something they are not convinced about for ten consecutive weeks travelling up to an hour to get there! Four of our five life groups have started the course this week with a total of ten guests. Very good news. A neighbour of ours and one of my students are among the ten. We are praying for breakthrough.

I have just reduced my hours with Berlitz so that from next week I will only work there on Tuesday afternoons and Wednesday mornings and then all day Thursdays at a local law firm. The reason for this is that I am starting working for the church plant on a part time basis as a self employed person (in other words, I will bill the church for my services...ummmm... does that mean the longer the sermon, the more I should charge?).

Philip got married to Libby 7 weeks ago in Woking. It was, of course, a wonderful day which was wonderfully wet in the afternoon and evening. Given that the reception was in a tent you can imagine the consequences! Unforgettable.

Gill passed a French test recently and has graduated to the next level at her course run by the local town hall. She has clearly made quite a jump since the summer.

In the summer we loved doing the children's work at the Bible Week (Rendezvous) and then had two weeks in our caravan in three different places (Atlantic Pyrenees, Basque coast and Ile d'Oleron) all of which we loved.

Right, enough for now...