You don’t leave the A Rocha ship so easily!
Read about Priscille and Manon, the “new faces” at A Rocha France!
A real comeback ?
The complete Faure family!
That’s the question one might reasonably ask about my reintegration into the A Rocha France (ARF) team on 1 October 2021, after a decade of more or less complete absence, at the least in the background, and at best part-time!
But time is one thing, and convictions another, and my attachment to ARF and its work has remained intact. ARF was a profound revelation for me in 2003, when I finished my studies in ecology and was looking for coherence between my involvement in the evangelical world and my professional research. What a wonderful discovery to find these Christians concerned with the study and protection of natural environments!
This naturally led to a decade or so of full involvement in various ways (from updating the database, to carrying out transects for the monitoring of Rollers, to running workshops in the nature garden). I gradually found personal fulfilment in the work of raising awareness of the preservation of endangered ecosystems and issues related to environmental problems among young people.
A new page of life, still committed!
The meeting with my husband (within ARF itself!) and the foundation of our family opened a new page in my life, where the involvement within the ARF team was naturally less than total.
It is now an emotional return for me, with a disconcerting feeling of being back ‘at home’ in totally familiar territory, and at the same time the discovery of a new and truly phenomenal development over the last two years (I should point out that I had rejoined the team for three months at the beginning of 2020). I am very happy about these developments!
This time, I have a great challenge in front of me with the tasks that are now mine: to make known the scientific monitoring work and the actions for the preservation of natural areas carried out by ARF in the Vallée des Baux for 20 years. In particular, to make local churches aware of the relevance of ARF’s work in the Vallée des Baux, and to give everyone the opportunity to be a player in the continuation of ARF’s work on a larger scale.
Priscille Faure
‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’ Jeremiah 29:11
A bit of déjà vu
Manon at the lookout at Courmettes
For me neither, A Rocha isn’t a great leap into the unknown! In fact, I had the chance of a first experience with a civic service ‘Communication and Conservation’ at the Domaine des Courmettes, from May to July 2020, which I wrote about in this article (in French).
Today I am back after a year of professional reorientation in Master 2 ‘Ecosystems and Anthropisation’. This additional year of training has deepened my wonder for God through the beauty and complexity of his creation, as Coline says, everything is linked! It has also allowed me to see first-hand how much greater God is than us, his creatures, who are incapable of creating life and hardly capable of sustaining it on this planet we consider our own.
Having kept my volunteer status and contact with ARF during this student year, I was able to apply for a position in Toulouse. It just so happened that the growing network of A Rocha Ambassadors needed someone who could take on the project of forming a local group of Ambassadors in a major city.
So I applied for a second civic service with A Rocha, which I was able to start with a bang on 29 July 2021 with the event ‘Le Grand Kiff’ in Albi. Since then, I have been able to work with a great team on the development of the Ambassadors’ network, to train at the Domaine des Courmettes and to represent the association at events, each one more enriching than the last!
I could never have imagined that everything would have gone so well, thank you Lord!
“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:9
Manon Palminteri