I had been brought up as a Catholic and had followed the rites by the Book. In High School I even went as far as following Religion studies both in my own private school and in one of my friends state school. Back then I think I was a sincere believer without questioning too much the doctrine. And then I met up a girl who was agnostic and who started challenging me on my faith and on the Catholic Church. We made some researches together about the different religions. We eventually decided to try the Protestant Church. We thought it was more "authentic" than the Catholic and we went to a service in the main temple in Orléans. We quite liked it but were not entirely satisfied. Shortly afterwards my friend - I'll call her Marie-Rose here - got a flyer from the Baptist Church in her letter-box. She phoned in to meet the Minister. Mr P. was a very charismatic man and within a few days Marie-Rose was "converted to Jesus". I followed suit.
Let me tell you about Marie-Rose. We were in the same school but not in the same class. She was always on her own and since childhood I had always been good at making friends with lonely people. Besides MR was from a different back ground from mine. She had been raised with her younger brother by her divorced mum. That was as well one of my characteristic : to feel attracted to people from a different back ground. And then when she told me that she was born in Blida, Algeria, I fall in love. My best friend, Alfred, in Primary School went to live in Blida with his family. Alfred was without a bit of an ounce of a doubt my 1st love.
MR's mum, Agnès, was working in the offices of the General Hospital. When she heard I was going out with her daughter she asked to meet me at her job. She wanted to see if I was "un garçon comme il faut" - a nice bloke
The building of the Baptist Church in Orléans had been built originally by the Americans after WW II. MR & I we had indeed a very warm welcome in this small community. It was like a 2d family. We very soon became not only regulars but among the most devoted disciples. Eventually Agnes was converted as well. And we ended up the 3 of us - MR, Agnès & me - in the pool of the Baptist Church to get baptised. I qualified it at the time as "the best day of my life". My dad was there and was proud.
With MR we happened to be on a theater course together. I can't remember if I started to talk to her because of that or not. She was not really good looking and she was conviced that consequently the teacher didn't like her. MR might have been right. I had myself a silent crunch on a "play-boy" older than me. This theater colleague was the teacher favorite...
Obviously I wanted to "convert" everybody. I realise that I was a pain in the. neck. And I was often preaching what I couldn't achieve : to be happy. I was up & down all the time.
After the Bac (A Levels) I didn't know what to do. The director of my school said to my parents that it could be a good idea if I could follow my father's steps i.e. go into business. I went in a business school in Paris. It was great to be in the capital. The school was near Les Halles and I was living in an evangelical boarding home in the XVIth district. But I wasn't very keen on the studying and I was most of the time under the weather. I remember when I went back home at my parents on Fridays I used to read on the train a comic in the daily "La Croix" minutes before arriving to cheer up. I was only fooling myself.
Let me tell you about Marie-Rose. We were in the same school but not in the same class. She was always on her own and since childhood I had always been good at making friends with lonely people. Besides MR was from a different back ground from mine. She had been raised with her younger brother by her divorced mum. That was as well one of my characteristic : to feel attracted to people from a different back ground. And then when she told me that she was born in Blida, Algeria, I fall in love. My best friend, Alfred, in Primary School went to live in Blida with his family. Alfred was without a bit of an ounce of a doubt my 1st love.
MR's mum, Agnès, was working in the offices of the General Hospital. When she heard I was going out with her daughter she asked to meet me at her job. She wanted to see if I was "un garçon comme il faut" - a nice bloke
The building of the Baptist Church in Orléans had been built originally by the Americans after WW II. MR & I we had indeed a very warm welcome in this small community. It was like a 2d family. We very soon became not only regulars but among the most devoted disciples. Eventually Agnes was converted as well. And we ended up the 3 of us - MR, Agnès & me - in the pool of the Baptist Church to get baptised. I qualified it at the time as "the best day of my life". My dad was there and was proud.
With MR we happened to be on a theater course together. I can't remember if I started to talk to her because of that or not. She was not really good looking and she was conviced that consequently the teacher didn't like her. MR might have been right. I had myself a silent crunch on a "play-boy" older than me. This theater colleague was the teacher favorite...
Obviously I wanted to "convert" everybody. I realise that I was a pain in the. neck. And I was often preaching what I couldn't achieve : to be happy. I was up & down all the time.
After the Bac (A Levels) I didn't know what to do. The director of my school said to my parents that it could be a good idea if I could follow my father's steps i.e. go into business. I went in a business school in Paris. It was great to be in the capital. The school was near Les Halles and I was living in an evangelical boarding home in the XVIth district. But I wasn't very keen on the studying and I was most of the time under the weather. I remember when I went back home at my parents on Fridays I used to read on the train a comic in the daily "La Croix" minutes before arriving to cheer up. I was only fooling myself.
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