Pequeno relatório - Dezembro 2015
Um dos franceses que morou no apartamento conosco até fevereiro 2016 - chama-se Timothée que estava concluindo seu mestrado em arquitetura e também estava se preparando para ir morar na Hungria começo desse ano - era o assistente da pastora e tinha como responsabilidades principais a liderança dos grupos de jovens (adolescentes) e jovens adultos da igreja. Desde que chegamos, estabeleceu-se naturalmente entre nós um relacionamento de amizade que rendeu inúmeras e longas conversas sobre a cultura francesa, sobre Cristo e a Igreja e sobre vida de fé. (Ao lado - 2 de nossos companheiros de república: Guillaume na frente e Timothée de óculos ao fundo).
Como ele logo ele iria embora, nós o ajudamos a orar e pensar sobre as coisas e como os grupos funcionariam sem ele após sua partida. E, ao mesmo tempo em que pensamos qua poderíamos ajudar, sabíamos que não seria possível assumir todas as responsabilidades sozinhos, pois ainda não temos fluência na língua, temos inúmeras viagens agendadas no ano e também porque ficaremos em Nantes somente até outubro de 2016. Mas graças ao bondoso Deus, Timothée teve a excelente ideia de fazer o levantamento das tarefas/funções que ele tinha no grupo de jovens adultos e propôs ao grupo que cada pessoa de forma voluntária e conforme seus dons se comprometesse a assumir uma dessas tarefas/funções. E muito facilmente encontramos pessoas para assumir cada parte na liderança do grupo. E nós ficamos responsáveis pelo louvor e por pastorear a equipe de liderança e os demais participantes do grupo.
Destaques POSITIVOS do mês:
1) A igreja aqui em Nantes funciona como um espaço cultural e possui até um auditório em parceria com a prefeitura para a realização de eventos. Em um mês, tivemos o privilégio de assistir shows/concertos de música clássica, de música black/gospel e até um concerto de Natal com uma ex-participante do The Voice França – Alexia Rabé. Aliás, queremos destacar algo sobre ela: é uma moça muito simpática e de muito talento, que por sua participação no The Voice ganhou grande visibilidade aqui e nos países francófonos. Alexia poderia cantar e produzir qualquer gênero musical teria grande aceitação e poderia ganhar muito dinheiro. Mas ela escolheu cantar músicas cristãs (de adoração à Deus), em um país onde em geral as pessoas rejeitam qualquer expressão que seja ligada à religião. Oramos para que Deus continue capacitando e usando a vida dela como testemunho do Seu amor nesta nação.
2) Na metade do mês de dezembro viajamos à Paris para nossas primeiras reuniões com representantes da Sociedade Missionária Norueguesa (NMS) e da Igreja Protestante Unida da França. Falamos sobre esse tempo que vamos passar aqui e também uma pouco sobre as expectativas futuras. Também conhecemos uma das estagiárias norueguesas que trabalha em Lyon. Depois das reuniões, tivemos a oportunidade de passear e conhecer um pouco da linda cidade de Paris. (Abaixo - com Sarah, uma das estagiárias norueguesas em Lyon; Merete, responsável da NMS pelos projetos na Europa e no Brasil; Jean-Claude, missionário que trabalha há muitos anos em parceria com a NMS na região de Paris).
3) A noite de Natal (24/12) passamos na igreja. Tivemos culto e depois uma ceia compartilhada (cada um trouxe alguma coisa) e foi um tempo muito agradável. Observação: O prato principal da ceia de Natal tipicamente francesa (ao menos aqui na região da Bretanha) são frutos do mar. No dia 25, tivemos culto pela manhã e depois fomos almoçar na casa de uma das senhoras que trabalha conosco na distribuição alimentar, que é da igreja católica e nos convidou para cearmos com ela e sua família. Convidamos para ir conosco nossa amiga francesa Caroline (que vive longe da família), e no almoço nós éramos um total de 9 pessoas e passamos uma tarde agradabilíssima juntos! Depois que saímos, Caroline nos disse que tínhamos de fato vivido um verdadeiro Natal francês... que é passar um tempo tão íntimo com pessoas que não conhecemos.
Destaques POSITIVOS do mês:
1) A igreja aqui em Nantes funciona como um espaço cultural e possui até um auditório em parceria com a prefeitura para a realização de eventos. Em um mês, tivemos o privilégio de assistir shows/concertos de música clássica, de música black/gospel e até um concerto de Natal com uma ex-participante do The Voice França – Alexia Rabé. Aliás, queremos destacar algo sobre ela: é uma moça muito simpática e de muito talento, que por sua participação no The Voice ganhou grande visibilidade aqui e nos países francófonos. Alexia poderia cantar e produzir qualquer gênero musical teria grande aceitação e poderia ganhar muito dinheiro. Mas ela escolheu cantar músicas cristãs (de adoração à Deus), em um país onde em geral as pessoas rejeitam qualquer expressão que seja ligada à religião. Oramos para que Deus continue capacitando e usando a vida dela como testemunho do Seu amor nesta nação.
Destaques NEGATIVOS do mês:
1) Encontramos mais uma professora de francês, mas ela está grávida de gêmeos e por motivo de saúde não conseguirá mais nos dar aula. E por conta das festas do final de ano tivemos aula com a nossa outra professora só até 19/12.
2) Desde antes de chegarmos aqui o prédio da igreja tem passado por uma grande reforma. Está aumentando o número de salas para os encontros, reformando salas antigas e também estruturando o prédio para dar acesso às pessoas com mobilidade reduzida. Tudo isso é muito positivo! Mas como moramos no prédio da igreja, temos que lidar diariamente com MUITO barulho e poeira por todos os lados. O barulho atrapalha bastante nossas aulas e tarefas que temos que fazer durante o dia em casa.
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December 2015
In our second month in France there were more discoveries. Something that called our attention was that people deal with Christmas time differently than in Brazil. We saw that the image of Santa Claus is not so frequently seen and besides that Christmas sales and promotions start only at the end of November/beginning of December, and they are much more discret than in Brazil. Another thing that made us admired was that even France overtly emphasizing that it is a laic country, at many stores it was possible to find Advent Calendars, both for children and adults.
One of the French guys who lived with us until February, whose name is Timothée, was concluding his master's in architecture and also preparing himself to move to Hungary in March. He was the parish assistant and had as main responsibilities the leadership of youth group (teenagers) and young adults group. Since we arrived we got naturally very close and a very nice friendship was stablished. We had many conversations about French culture, about Christ, the church and Christian life.
Since he was leaving, we helped him to pray and think about things and how the groups would work without him after his depart. At the same time we felt that we could help, but could not hold all this responsibility alone, both because we didn't have a very good language level and because we had many trips planned on the way and also because we are not going to stay long in Nantes. But thank to the greaceful God, Timothée had the excelent idea to list all the different necessary points/tasks in order to keep the young adults group alive and proposed that each person in the group could be voluntary responsible for something according the their gifts. And easily we found the people to take up each task in the leadership of the group. We took the responsibility of helping in the worship and also help pastoring the group members.
Positive highlights of December:
1) The church temple in Nantes is also a cultural place, with an auditorium for events that is run in partnership with the City Hall. In one month we had the opportunty to attend concerts of classical music, black gospel music and even a concert with a ex-participant of The Voice France who is a christian girl.
2) In the middle of December we went to Paris for our first meeting with the representative of Norwegian Mission Society (NMS) and the representatives of the church in France (EPUdF). We talked about the time we are going to spend here and also our expectations for the future. We also met one of the interns who works in Lyon. After the meetings we had the opportunity to walk around and to get to know more of the beautiful Paris.
3) We spent the Christmas Eve (Dec 24th) at the church. There was a service and a shared meal (each person brought something) and it was a very nice time together. We discovered also that a typical French dish for Christmas is seafood. On the 25th there was also a service in the morning and after we went to have lunch at the place of a woman who is a Catholic and helps at the food distribution at the Protestant Church. She invited us to have lunch with her and her family. We invited together our French friend Caroline (the one who was helping us with the language studies, she lives far from her family), and there we were 9 people and we enjoyed a very pleasant afternoon together. When we left, Caroline told us that we had lived a real French Christmas, which is to spend such close time with people that you don't know much.
Negative highlights of December:
1) We found another French teacher, however she was pregnant of twins and because of her health she was not able to keep the classes. And because of the end of the year holidays our classes stopped on December 19th.
2) Since we arrived the church building was going through a big renovating process. They were increasing the number of rooms, renovating some old rooms and also creating a better structure for receiving handicaped people. All this is very positive. However, as we live in the church building, daily we had to deal with a lot of noise and dust all around. The noise disturbed a lot since we had private classes at home.
1) Encontramos mais uma professora de francês, mas ela está grávida de gêmeos e por motivo de saúde não conseguirá mais nos dar aula. E por conta das festas do final de ano tivemos aula com a nossa outra professora só até 19/12.
2) Desde antes de chegarmos aqui o prédio da igreja tem passado por uma grande reforma. Está aumentando o número de salas para os encontros, reformando salas antigas e também estruturando o prédio para dar acesso às pessoas com mobilidade reduzida. Tudo isso é muito positivo! Mas como moramos no prédio da igreja, temos que lidar diariamente com MUITO barulho e poeira por todos os lados. O barulho atrapalha bastante nossas aulas e tarefas que temos que fazer durante o dia em casa.
___________________________________________________________________
December 2015
In our second month in France there were more discoveries. Something that called our attention was that people deal with Christmas time differently than in Brazil. We saw that the image of Santa Claus is not so frequently seen and besides that Christmas sales and promotions start only at the end of November/beginning of December, and they are much more discret than in Brazil. Another thing that made us admired was that even France overtly emphasizing that it is a laic country, at many stores it was possible to find Advent Calendars, both for children and adults.
One of the French guys who lived with us until February, whose name is Timothée, was concluding his master's in architecture and also preparing himself to move to Hungary in March. He was the parish assistant and had as main responsibilities the leadership of youth group (teenagers) and young adults group. Since we arrived we got naturally very close and a very nice friendship was stablished. We had many conversations about French culture, about Christ, the church and Christian life.
Since he was leaving, we helped him to pray and think about things and how the groups would work without him after his depart. At the same time we felt that we could help, but could not hold all this responsibility alone, both because we didn't have a very good language level and because we had many trips planned on the way and also because we are not going to stay long in Nantes. But thank to the greaceful God, Timothée had the excelent idea to list all the different necessary points/tasks in order to keep the young adults group alive and proposed that each person in the group could be voluntary responsible for something according the their gifts. And easily we found the people to take up each task in the leadership of the group. We took the responsibility of helping in the worship and also help pastoring the group members.
Positive highlights of December:
1) The church temple in Nantes is also a cultural place, with an auditorium for events that is run in partnership with the City Hall. In one month we had the opportunty to attend concerts of classical music, black gospel music and even a concert with a ex-participant of The Voice France who is a christian girl.
2) In the middle of December we went to Paris for our first meeting with the representative of Norwegian Mission Society (NMS) and the representatives of the church in France (EPUdF). We talked about the time we are going to spend here and also our expectations for the future. We also met one of the interns who works in Lyon. After the meetings we had the opportunity to walk around and to get to know more of the beautiful Paris.
3) We spent the Christmas Eve (Dec 24th) at the church. There was a service and a shared meal (each person brought something) and it was a very nice time together. We discovered also that a typical French dish for Christmas is seafood. On the 25th there was also a service in the morning and after we went to have lunch at the place of a woman who is a Catholic and helps at the food distribution at the Protestant Church. She invited us to have lunch with her and her family. We invited together our French friend Caroline (the one who was helping us with the language studies, she lives far from her family), and there we were 9 people and we enjoyed a very pleasant afternoon together. When we left, Caroline told us that we had lived a real French Christmas, which is to spend such close time with people that you don't know much.
Negative highlights of December:
1) We found another French teacher, however she was pregnant of twins and because of her health she was not able to keep the classes. And because of the end of the year holidays our classes stopped on December 19th.
2) Since we arrived the church building was going through a big renovating process. They were increasing the number of rooms, renovating some old rooms and also creating a better structure for receiving handicaped people. All this is very positive. However, as we live in the church building, daily we had to deal with a lot of noise and dust all around. The noise disturbed a lot since we had private classes at home.
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