Church

I was at church this afternoon. Every Tuesday since November, our pastor's wife gets together with women in the neighborhood to knit, chat, and drink coffee. Most of the women are from north Africa.

I was invited to bring the kids and come along for a baking day (I would have had to refuse knitting). School is out for two weeks here--most everyone's least favorite school holiday of the year. It's not a good time of year for outside activities. 

Not too many ladies came--just two at the beginning.  Then a couple more.  Sometimes there are as many as ten.  A young French student came in who had set up to talk with Scott about the Christian faith, so he waited while we peeled and cored apples for the apple crumble.  Scott arrived with Anna, who worked on the topping for the apple crumble.

A French woman came in with her toddler son.  She had made an appointment to receive a parcel of food.  While she was waiting, she had coffee.

While she was waiting, another woman came in with a shy teenager.  I assumed this was her daughter, though she talked about her coming to get help.  It turns out that the girl is homeless and has been since being kicked out of the house a few years ago.  She's only nineteen.  She had coffee and oatmeal squares and apple crumble.  And they spent time with our pastor talking about next steps.

Somewhere in there Scott and the young student came back from their chat.  Both had apple crumble.  Did I mention there was creme anglaise on the side?  Scott headed home and the young student stayed and chatted until evening.

We cleaned up while the kids played.  A very down and out man barged in exclaiming that he was cold and needed coffee.  He had coffee with our pastor and the man in charge of the church's social services.  He came into the kitchen to give us his cup before going back out.