Although it has been an exciting week, I am going to write about the last 24 hours first. We arrived in Avignon yesterday after a 4 hour drive from the mission home with our last load of stuff. The traffic on the road was horrendous, most likely because of vacationers or those evacuating from fires. It normally takes 2 1/2. I had been preparing what I would say in a Sacrament Mtg prayer if asked today. It was based on an idea of Hugh Nibley who said we come to earth to learn two things: how to repent and how to forgive. Sr. Schow had her own interpretation - the same as the two great commandments, loving God (repentance) and loving your fellow men (forgiveness). I had figured out how to say what I wanted to say. This morning when reading the talk for RS, I shed a few tears for it said, in different words, what I would have been praying for. Sometimes the Lord is gracious and lets us know we are on the right track.
We made it to church in time to welcome and bisou branch members. It is about double the size of Chalon, with members from Spain, Ghana, DR Congo, Tahiti, and those were only the ones we met. Our branch president is young with two little girls under 3. I was struck with emotion as we sang the opening song ‘Enfant Jesus grandit dans la vérité ‘. I learned this hymn first in French and love the words, especially the last part of the chorus:
Il peut changer mon cœur et m’aider dans mes choix
Je marche avec Jesus, et il marche avec moi.
They did not ask us to pray but to bear our testimonies and tell a bit about ourselves.
While still in Lyon, Tom explored a different running route that includes the woods of Serre. Alongside the trail he noticed a stone marker with the words "An VIII" (Year 8) and the names of the two towns on either side. This was a boundary marker between the two communes (Ecully and Dardilly) erected in Year 8 of the 1st Republic, which would have been 1800.
We had two outings from Lyon this week. We explored a restored medieval city (1300s) about 40 kms away - Pérouge. Original hardly walkable cobblestone streets, tiled roofs, stunning rock wood buildings, gardens and windows boxes, Church and coat of arms of each family in the area, stunning scenery. It was a lovely morning.
Wednesday we drove to the high plateau beyond St. Etienne - a much longer trip looking for the villages and farms which sheltered so many, mostly children but some families, from the dangers of the Nazi régime of WWII. This was the protestant area of France and had experienced persecution for hundreds of years. On the lintel above the door to the church were the words LOVE ONE ANOTHER. The stories and records of what happened here during the Vichy régime are recorded in a book called ‘A Good Place to Hide’. The goal was to smuggle the Jews out of France at the peril of your life, either to Switzerland or Spain. Sobering, but they were successful thousands of times. Lyon was the headquarters of the Resistance.
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| The protestant church with the lintel |
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| The stream (Ligne) in Chambon-sur-Ligne |
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| The Gier aqueduct |
I am charmed with our accommodations. We open the shuttered doors and windows after the sun goes down and the evening breezes blow through. I think my favorite room today is our bedroom. The window sill is probably 14 plus inches deep. I love the foliage outside and hearing the church bells. We are testing the oven later today.
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| Outside our window: the blossoms close during the heat of the day |
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