Category: Ministry

The summer mission finished a while ago now. It went well. The Lord blessed us with good weather, and a motivated team. 5 came from the UK, and they were joined by Lydie and Joseph, our pastor’s children.

We did things a bit differently this time. Instead of spending a lot of time putting leaflets in letterboxes, we were on the streets of Guingamp to try to make some contacts and talk with people. It was challenging. It’s not an exercise I am used to, but it was worthwhile. Some people were willing to talk, most weren’t though. Some people were even hostile. On man showed his middle finger to one of our team member. Another took a leaflet without a word, but immediately threw it scornfully on the floor. You could see the faces of many others close up when they saw who we were, or heard the name of Christ. French people are proud of their “freedom”. They have utterly rejected God’s sovereignty over them.

We projected the film “MOST” twice. Each time, some people attended. The children’s club was also well attended. We’re grateful for the team and all the work they’ve done. We now pray that God will work in our area, revive his church and save many.

This morning, I was in Lanvollon for the market. It’s a small town with a small market. We’ve had a few good conversations there in the past.

As I was standing with our little trolley, a man approached me. He first said he had tried to read the Bible but was never able to finish it. He added that he had to swear on the Bible when he was induced in a masonic lodge many years ago. We had an interesting chat. He was a very sad man. He was mourning the loss of his daughter and had also lost his wife. He said he was a Darwinist but seemed to be looking for hope by attending some spiritist meetings, going to see some mediums… he had also attended various occult movement and read a lot on the subject. I thought it was odd, and tried to point to him that Darwinism and believing in an afterlife were contradictory but he didn’t seem to catch what I said. We talked for a while and he left with a tract.

It was sad. He clearly was hopeless, and was aware of it.

The colloque Biblique Francophone started today in Lyon. I travelled through France on te TGV and had time to read the recent biography of John Newton in the bitesize biographies series (EP). I had received a review copy. I met my friend Andrew from Nantes who had travelled in the same train as me, but in another carriage.

We had two sessions today. One on occultism by Florent Varak, a French pastor in Lyon. I always find this subject difficult, but Florent Varak was quite balanced I found. For the second session, Samuel Foucachon exhorted us to follow Christ. The men who turned the world upside down in the first century didn’t follow methods or techniques but were disciples of Christ first.

Time for bed now, prayer meeting is at 7.15 am.

Last weekend, I had the great joy and privilege to speak to a group of about 35 students from various universities of the West of France. I was the main speaker and spoke on Romans 1:1-17 and Romans 3:21-32: “what is the gospel”, and “the Heart of the Gospel” It went well, I just hope that it will have helped some of the folks. There were a few questions, and I had some positive feedback.

There were some interesting people. One of them was a girl from Cardiff University who is spending a year in France as an “assistante”. I don’t know why, I was expecting to meet someone from Cardiff. Another one was a guy from New caledonia. I knew where he was from before even asking him. He didn’t look African. He was quite surprised I knew where he came from so I explained that I’ve got family in New Caledonia. I met a lot of new people, and some people I had met before.

I had a good time, some good discussions. The food was excellent, and the place comfortable. Thanks for your prayers.