Snow, Service and the Spirit

Sunday, March 6, 2016

Another month has come and gone.  We are already in March which means winter is almost behind us.  I never thought of this being a big deal in France but after yesterday I think differently.

This is happening here right now.  Thanks Isabelle Biver for her amazing photography.

We have never seen snow in Charleville that has actually stayed on the ground but yesterday we did not have to get far out of Charleville until we ran into some snow that proved to be a driving hazard.  Ed had to bring all his acquired Canadian driving skills to the forefront to stay on the road at times.

We were driving with our two Elders and Florine from our Branch to Calais, a journey of three and a half hours.  Florine lives in L'Échelle, about 30 minutes from Charleville.  When we left Charleville it was raining but not snowing.  We had just about got to her place when it started snowing.  By the time we got there it was snowing heavily and the roads were covered with snow.  As we left on small back roads driving became a little tenuous.  We slipped a couple of times but stayed on the road.  We had decided that if things did not improve by the time we got to the town of La Capelle that we would turn back but things did get better and we we continued.

It doesn't look like much but the small roads between villages are only one lane and believe it or not, sometimes slanted, which makes for very tenuous driving.

Why were we risking life and limb out on the snowy highways and byways of France you might ask.  Actually we were on our way to take part in what would turn out to be a great stake project.  We were partnering with a stake from England to provide service to the large refugee camp (6000 people), in Calais.  The members from England had collected numerous items to distribute to the refugees.  Our stake was assisting in putting these materials together to distribute.  Each unit was asked to participate.  Our carload was the delegation from our Branch.

French working with the English

It was an awesome project.  There were about 100 of us at the church in Calais.  We put together boxes of food that contained a variety of things.  We also put together bags of hygiene projects containing soap, a face cloth, a tooth brush, bandaids and toothpaste.  We could feel that we were doing the work of the Lord.  We could feel his presence.  Everyone there was there to help the less fortunate.  What a great common goal.  We were so glad that we didn't turn back and that we were able to be part of a great  and uplifting project.

This is just a sampling.   As we filled boxes we kept bringing in more supplies.

Just a couple of km's off the freeway on our way home is Vimy Ridge.  We felt like it would be a good idea to take the Elders and Florine there.  So we did.   They were very tired on the way home from all their hard work.

World War 1 trench in Vimy

Totally wiped out!!  

This was only one of several uplifting events that happened this week.  On Wednesday we had a baptism in our Branch.  We traveled to Reims to use their baptismal font.  It was a special baptism for us because Immaculate, who was being baptised, was born on the exact same day as our son, Adam, who we lost at birth.  We had a wonderful service.  Lynn gave a talk on baptism.  Ed baptised her and welcomed her to the Branch.  We also had a talk on the Holy Ghost and a musical number.  We followed the program with a lunch.  It was a great day.  Immaculate was extremely happy.  We confirmed her a member of the church during our meetings this morning.

Thanks again to Isabelle for the wonderful pictures of the baptism and the Folk event below.

Taken from the mirror. just before the ordinance.  Hence the mirror-image.

On Thursday we headed back to Reims.  We were holding a "Consecration Day" with all the missionaries in our district.  Our goal was to spend the day finding.  This involved contacting in the streets and tracking door to door.  It also involved having an Open House at the church.  Lynn stayed at the church with members to man the Open House.  Ed hit the streets with the Young Elders looking for potential "Friends of the Church".  It was, again, a spiritual day.  We had lunch provided by the Bishop's wife.

Some packages that the Young Adults in Reims put together for us to give our at our open house there on Thursday.

A cool thing happened while we were there.  While Lynn was at the church she was doing some genealogy related things.  On one of her family lines she came across an ancestor named Gagnon from Normandy.  When our Elder Gagnon came back he looked on his lines and found the exact same ancestor.  It turns out that Elder Gagnon and Lynn are related.  Ed told him he doesn't have to call her Sister Wilson anymore.  He can call her "Auntie or Cousine Wilson".

On Thursday evening we went to folk dancing as usual.  But it was kind of a special folk dancing evening.  It was our last session before we hosted our "Bal Folk".  A Bal Folk is an open invitation to one and all who want to participate to come and dance.  It was a different  kind of service that we were offering other folk dancing aficionados from around the region.  The idea was that we opened the door to the château where we dance to the public.   We held this on Saturday after we got home from Calais.  There was a good response.  We had 4 musical groups and some soloists performing traditional folk music.  While they played the rest of us danced, visited or took advantage of the refreshments that were available for sale.  Each member of our folk group brought a pastry of some kind to be sold and drinks were also available.  It was a great night.  We had a lot of fun and enjoyed the cultural ambience that was there.  Lynn worked a shift at the entry table and Ed helped with set up.  We are sure that many of the visitors were wondering who the two people were that were running around with name tags on their chests.   In that way it was great for visibility.  We really feel welcomed within our Folk group.  They are amazing people.  We like them a lot and they seem to put up with us rather well too.

What a great week.  It was busy but it just whirred by as a result.  Of course we continued our regular missionary pursuits, as well but you already know what those are and nothing out of the ordinary happened in that domain.  However, we did have a good crowd at church today, including 3 new visitors that was quite nice. All of them indicated that they'd like to come again. What a great way to wind up a great week.

Thanks for reading our blog.  We hope you enjoy it.

Au revoir de la France.
Lyndi-lou and Eddie, too