After sending my last email newsletter, (don’t go looking for it, I only sent it in French)

I was seized by a terrible fear

-" arrgh! What happens if no-one gets the irony ?

They’ll think that I’ve gone off the straight and narrow, that I’m getting a fat head... or worse still, that I read Sonic the Hedgehog comics in secret!

Everyone will give up on me...! "

(I get like this sometimes)

 I went off into the deepest part of the forest

- " ...what would it be like if I lost my reputation as a good Christian... "

Silence...

- "...Ok Lord... you can have that reputation... as long as I can stay friends with you ".

The fragile branches that I cling to

My ministry, my children, my wife, my possessions, my health, my reputation, (the list isn’t in order of importance, by the way)

These are all branches that form my tree

If one day, the divine gardener were to lop one of them off:

It’s true, I’d suffer (no kidding),

but I wouldn’t die either!

Because the main trunk of my life are in my relationship with Jesus.

There, far from the hustle and bustle of the city,

I felt a great peace come over me,

It was Jesus, reassuring me...

What about you, how are you doing?

Have you lost an important branch of your life...(?)

Take courage, Jesus will never let you go, only He is invincible!

life, together with all the good things it’s got in store, will return, you can be sure of that...

Beware of one thing, however:

Make sure that Jesus is not just one branch amongst others in your life…..

If the axis upon which your life turns isn’t solid,

When it’s cut down...

(well...kabang! finito, kaput, sayonara...)

Mohamed

I was moving house and had loads of stuff.

- "Lord, could you send me some help, please? "

In the morning, I found a tall North African teenager (on vacation in the area) standing in the doorway :

- "Can I help you?! "

He asked, in a pleasant tone. I couldn’t believe it.

After we’d finished working, I told him about my prayer...

He froze, and told me:

- "I...I heard a voice that told me to go and help you, that’s why I came’’

How amazing is that? He’s from a non-practicing Muslim family...

but he still heard God’s voice

What about you? Are you careful to listen for God’s voice?

In his country, it’s a time of revolution, soldiers are firing live ammunition in the streets...

He recently wrote to my son, saying: "Ask your father to pray for me...

Yes, when I return to Switzerland I’d like to find out more about the faith of your father... "

Alain

A few years ago,

At the end of a talk I was giving in France,

A man came along and asked me a question:

-         ‘my son doesn’t want to come to church with me,

he spends all his time with his #*@#! computer games.

I’ve tried reasoning with him again and again: it’s like talking to a brick wall!

What should I do?!’

I looked into his soul and replied:

-         ‘play with him!’

As he was left open-mouthed by my comment, I went on:

-         ‘how do you expect him to be interested in you (and your church),

If you don’t take an interest in what he does?’

Pensive (and a little disappointed) he went on his way.

I expect he would have preferred it had I exorcised an evil spirit from his son's computer games …

Your sons will return

Another time, at the end of a talk,

(everyone will think that I only do the ends of talks!)

I was giving an elderly man a lift back to his house.

When I switched the engine on, the CD player came on automatically too.

It was the passage where Jacob, now very old, talks to his son Joseph, whom he’d given up for dead for so many years:

(no, Joseph hadn’t recorded a CD, it’s just an audio bible)

-         ‘I never expected to see your face again, and now God has allowed me to see your children too!’ (Gen 48:11)

Without stopping to think, I said to him:

-         ‘this is a message for you…’

And I don’t really know why,

but the Lord  prompted me to tell him the anecdote I told at the start of this email.

Lost in thought, the old man said:

-         ‘My kids and I used to make dens in their bedrooms with sheets and things. We made up this whole new world, full of adventures… ‘

-         ‘That’s great! I replied, you must have had loads of fun together… ‘

-         No, he said, bitterly, because instead of playing with them, I told them off and told them to tidy their bedroom…(pause)… You know, my children no longer want anything to do with our faith…

All was quiet for a while…

then I broke the silence:

-         ‘it’s not too late to tell them you’re sorry…’

I would have liked to have finished with ‘and they lived happily ever after’ (well…something along those lines)

But I don’t know if they did…

All I know is: that I’m going to go and play with my kid…

Bye!

Alain

www.auderset.com

PS: Big news!

It is now easy to buy one of my comic book in English in the US (or elsewhere),

you can simply go on this website:

http://www.christianpublishers.net/?page_id=628

Marching orders…

Being in an inquisitive frame of mind,

I sent off an email to ‘my’ personal prayer team, saying:

- “I feel that God is asking me to do stand-up in the non-church sector,

But I don’t know how to go about it…”

the sentence was barely written,

not even sent yet, when:

Driiiing!

I get an invitation to a comedy festival in the south of France

in two months’ time.

After the show:

Jesus’ garden

we don’t go into the forest much these days because my leg’s broken

(but I don’t hold that against it)

Surrounded by a thousand smells and birdsong, I’m sitting in the garden with Jesus. We listen to the plants growing, while the sunrays that he made for this little corner of the universe flood all we can see with a light that’s both cool and welcomingly warm at the same time.

(Wow, this dialogue is awesome!)

That day, I was talking to him about a show that

had had a real impact on the town’s teenagers,

but at the same time had disappointed some Christians,

who were expecting something better.

Discouraged, disheartened, dispirited, disdited (I know, that doesn’t make sense, but it rhymes )I just wanted to give up.  

Bang! a sudden thought came to me:

- “If I asked you to do this, it’s because I believe you’re capable of doing it…”

- “Tenthousandthunderingblunderingtyphoons! But of course!”

I got up, I revised it, I said ‘come on, shake a leg’(shake a leg, geddit?)

- “I can do it, I have to!”

The show was a complete success.

That day, in the garden,

I grew in maturity.

Alain

Keep Going…

The black wave