The 'Bertrimoutier Challenge'

A year or so ago, I wrote here about my adventures some while ago in the Vosges, and reflected on my decision to ease gently into retirement whilst purchasing and getting to know the ins and outs of a small motor-caravan.  In examining my aims and aspirations as I should use this asset, I concluded that a definite challenge would be posed by talking to people and enjoying fellowship with them. I resolved that, while not taking myself too seriously, I should avoid foolish chit-chat and unsubstantiated criticism.  At the end of the post, I dared myself to report back here.  So now, a year later, I’m rising to my own challenge.  Has having the motor-caravan helped me overcome my perceived difficulty chatting to people? 

I undertook four expeditions during the summer, three each of two nights and a week during June comprising three more two-night stops.  The last two of these events fall broadly into the ‘failure’ box, as regards chatter.  In one situation I was the only camper there, and went purposely to eliminate distractions in order to complete a particular piece of work in a quiet, concentrated and deliberate manner.  In the other, although there were a number of other vehicles present, most of the other visitors spent the daytime away from the site.  That said, I did chat on the final morning with the couple on the adjacent pitch.  They only stayed for the one night there, and just beat me to the exit as they made their way home from France to Staffordshire.

My first trip, just after Easter, was a good initiation into the programme, and having deliberately set myself to smile and/or nod to each other camper I passed, I felt satisfied with the result.  The June trip was planned to incorporate a visit to the Bible Society’s recently opened visitor centre at Llanycil on the shores of Lake Bala, called Mary Jones World.  It commemorates the 26-mile walk by a fifteen-year-old girl in 1800 in order to buy her own copy of the Bible.  It was this feat that inspired the foundation four years later of what became the Bible Society.  I had made contact in advance with the manager, Nerys Siddall and after a brief chat with her during my visit, I felt confident to offer a single word of Welsh over the heads of other visitors as I took my leave. 

It was Nerys who had suggested the site where I stayed.  This was right next to the preserved railway, and I chatted one morning to one of the volunteers there, as he painted a signal post by the platform.  There were also two conversations on the site, one with the owner, as he rested from repairing a piece of the fence, and the other with one of the few other campers, as we walked back together from the shower block.

These specific camping incidences might seem trivial in themselves, but they form part of a broader pattern of increased involvement with others during the year, as I have made a conscious effort to recover the jovial interlocutor that I was in past times.  That’s not to say there isn’t still some way to go.  It was with some apprehension, for example, that a couple of weeks ago I put myself in the position of attending a social function where I had reason to believe that I would know no one else present.  I confess that I was glad to discover at least three others from my own church there, and one of them acted as a willing conduit enabling me to join in.

Even a personal post like this cannot pass without a look at Scripture, of course, and my first quotation is particularly apposite to that last experience.  Jesus spoke about sending His disciples out as sheep among wolves, and told them, inter alia, “do not worry about what to say or how to say it.  At that time you will be given what to say.” (Matt. 10:16-19).  More generally illustrative is God’s dealing with the reluctant Moses (Exodus ch.4), which culminates in Aaron being appointed as his mouthpiece, “I will help both of you speak, and will teach you what to do.” (v. 15).  And final encouragement comes as to Jeremiah, where God says to him, “Go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you.” (Jer. 1:7).

These verses are not only reassuring for me in my hesitation about speaking, but to us all, for from time to time we all come up against situations where we know we should say something, but aren’t quite sure how it might be received.  It’s then that we should take strength from such words as these, and remember that our Lord is with us - not just in heart, but also in mouth - whatever we’re faced with - for it’s on these occasions more than ever that we’re speaking for Him.