Quick Redirection for North Bay People

Hey NCCF friends! If you're getting bored with the British adventure and want to hear about Paige in Kenya, check out her new blog at http://thekenyanadventure2012.blogspot.com/ ! I'm a fan.

Bible Study

Hello!
Things are moving along and settling into a pretty nice little pace. We work most days of the week (or at least we work more than we don't work) and when we don't we either sit around the flat and watch old episodes of Big Bang Theory or we trot around the neighbourhood and sometimes further to take in as much of London as they'll let us see for free. Which - I'm always impressed to discover - is quite a lot of it.
One point of interest this week: my turn finally came up to lead bible study at our church home group. Or rather, I ought to say I volunteered. The official rota is allegedly being compiled this week, but I felt a little sheepish about how we mostly show up, eat other people's food and then listen to other people talk and wanted to contribute my fair bit. And since every week's delicacies make me more and more afraid of our trying to cook for these people, I thought a quick volunteering could buy us some time. Study is tonight (in a couple hours), though, and if any of you are glancing at this blog entry before 8pm GMT, then fire a prayer my way.
It's a bit funny, actually, my apprehensions about leading study tonight. Many of you will know that this isn't exactly my first rodeo, so to speak. But there are two vaguely interesting factors that I'm trying hard to keep in perspective. Namely, 1) this is kinda the first grownup-grownup bible study I've been in and they're all really smart. And 2) it's on the Parable of the Dishonest/Shrewd Manager. If you're not familiar, have a quick skim through Luke 16. It's arguably the most difficult-to-understand of all the parables. Luke's is the only version of it so there's no cross-referencing to shed some light on it. It's just a striking kind of anti-parable that seems to have a lot to do with money and, at first inspection, makes it seem like Jesus supports people who lie and cheat and steal. He doesn't, by the way, but it kinda looks like it at first.  My wrestling with the parable the last couple days has not done exactly yielded a solid and comfortable understanding of it (which I suppose ought not to have been my goal, but it would have been nicer) and so I'm walking in a little nervous.
When you're a teacher in a BEd program, it gets drilled into you that the essence of lesson planning is beginning with the end in mind. That is, you know what the students are supposed to now/do/think about and come up with a way to get them to do it. This is different. I've got questions and tools but no answers. And although that is probably by (Somebody's) design, it's scary. The mysteries of Gd really are mysterious and that wouldn't be so bad except wrestling with them and figuring them out also matters a whole lot more than physics or philosophy. So keep me in your thoughts tonight.
Also, if people are prayer-slinging anyway, Alyssa's a bit under the weather. She feels fine and I don't think she's contagious, but her voice has been disappearing on an off all day. She can't exactly control a classroom without her voice, so we're praying for it to come back soon.
Unless other plans or bad weather interferes, our tentative plan this weekend is to check out either Greenwich or Notting Hill as a bit of a mini day trip. Probably Notting Hill because there's an inconvenient train shutdown near Greenwich that would make it a bit trickier. And only a few more weeks until Greece! Lots happening here and not enough time for all of it.
As always, please email us every now and again. Our send us a link to a blog that you infrequently update like this one. :) Apparently some of you have snow back home? I've been trying to explain snow to the people here but it's kindof like explaining good hamburgers. They've seen it and maybe even experienced it firsthand it but it's not exactly a common part of their everyday life.

And finally...Paris #8 - Montmartre

On New Years day, Alyssa and I went with Mom and Dad up to Montmartre, a high elevation hill neighbourhood in Northern Paris; home of street performers, Sacre Couer Basilica, and a stone's throw from La Pigalle and Moulin Rouge (which we did not eventually go hunting for)

The view from our hotel room. If you *squint*, you can make out the tower. Cool, huh?

A very crowded and somewhat unsafe-feeling street at the base of the hill

The really cool thing about Sacre-Couer is not just that it's a gorgeous building, though it is. The top of the hill is one of THE places to take in the whole Paris skyline. Which means lots of stairs!

The whole thing is also a bit of a tourist trap. Complete with carnival stuff

The rail car to take us to the top. Because Mom and Alyssa weren't up for stairs.

At first, we thought these guys might have been playing worship music, but it turns out all pop music, popular worship included, is made of the same 4 chords. 

It was like a min Christmas/New Years festival at the top. We were definitely getting flashbacks of  "moneylenders in the temple courts"

The view from the church steps. I didn't take any photos inside 'cause it wasn't allowed.

Attention all of our friends who are nuts about 24 hour prayer: For 125 years there has been continuous prayer and worship in this building. Gives a place a certain kind of energy, I think. And the inside really was less classless; it felt like a worship space to me.

This guy's job looks a lot more dangerous than it actually is. It's really only about a 10 foot drop. On our way out, I saw him take his shirt off while balancing the ball on his face. 

Paris #7 - New Years' Eve

The 4 of us "kids" journeyed down for dessert (which ended up being just coffee) and New Years celebrations on the Champ de Mars at the base of the Eiffel Tower. To my mind, I think this is what real world travellers do; be French with French people. Do holidays in important places. I'm not super experienced in this kind of travelling, but this was a cool way to start.

Rue Cler, where we nearly found a cafe for dessert 

Even the "Keep dogs on leash" signs are epic in Paris

 People talk about the "Bonne Annee" fireworks but they don't mention that it's not a planned fireworks show. It's just people buying any old 'feu d'artifice' and setting them off from the grass. Or their hands. Usually pointed upwards.Every time a few cracks went off we could hear a big cheer rise up from the big crowds beneath the tower.

turns out I was using the wrong setting for fireworks photos

A couple of us got hungry and stopped for a bite before heading home on the hyper-crowded train

It's OK. She doesn't read the blog. She'll never know this photo is on the internet. 

There were a LOT of people out and about and dancing on parked cars as the evening wore on

Paris #6 - The Eiffel Tower and the Arc du Triomphe

We finally got around to seeing the tower up close on our third day in the city. The Tour Eiffel, much like the Pyramide, is just one in a long line of Parisian landmarks widely despised by Parisians when first built and gradually tolerated. I could understand why. The thing is a bit of a mess of metal trusses. But it's quite nicely painted and decorated, and the gardens on the Champ de Mars look like they'd be really nice in the summer time. 

Rick's room. The Rick Steve's Paris guide was like a clever and informative travelling partner, and the extra room we had (through an inscrutable hotel confusion) became his. He's reclining here on 'his' bed.

As for the Arch, it's big. Way bigger than the Marble Arch in Paris. And standing beneath it, you can see all the way down the Champs Elysees to the front door of the Louvre. Almost. If there weren't so many cars and signs and trees, anyway.

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

The lights at the far end are a circus fair thing that was running on the Jardin de Tuilieres; 2/3 of the way back to the Louvre.