AGWM personnel in France, Edward Buck, relates some great encounters which occurred in their recent outreaches to various towns in France where there are new church planting efforts. The brightly painted bus brings attention in these towns, conversations are initiated with passers-by, and these contacts are brought on the bus for more intense protracted conversations with interested individuals in need of God and prayer. Brief summaries of these divine encounters show God at work in France.
An Imam (a Muslim religious leader) comes on the bus for discussion about God, and as a result, many other Muslims also hear the Gospel and receive the “Jesus” film in French and Arabic.
In the town of Mornant there were over 300 discussions and prayer with many people who have no hope. The home group continues to grow, and the believers are looking for a larger meeting place for the new church plant.
In Wasselonne a woman had prayed, asking God "If you exist, send someone to me!" Thirty minutes later a team knocks on her door, and she commits her life to Christ in her living room.
In Loudéac a witch doctor is convicted of his sin, and weeping kneels in the middle of a parking lot to repent and give his life to the true God. During an outreach concert, a man’s shoulders are healed. He begins dancing around the room, praising God.
AGWM personnel in France, Edward Buck, relates some great encounters which occurred in their recent outreaches to various towns in France where there are new church planting efforts. The brightly painted bus brings attention in these towns, conversations are initiated with passers-by, and these contacts are brought on the bus for more intense protracted conversations with interested individuals in need of God and prayer.
Brief summaries of these divine encounters show God at work in France.
An Imam (a Muslim religious leader) comes on the bus for discussion about God, and as a result, many other Muslims also hear the Gospel and receive the “Jesus” film in French and Arabic.
In the town of Mornant there were over 300 discussions and prayer with many people who have no hope. The home group continues to grow, and the believers are looking for a larger meeting place for the new church plant.
In Wasselonne a woman had prayed, asking God "If you exist, send someone to me!" Thirty minutes later a team knocks on her door, and she commits her life to Christ in her living room.
In Loudéac a witch doctor is convicted of his sin, and weeping kneels in the middle of a parking lot to repent and give his life to the true God. During an outreach concert, a man’s shoulders are healed. He begins dancing around the room, praising God.
To plant a church where there is no church we had a bus, a team, a town…and GOD! Ed Buck, AGWM Personnel in France, relates that “In April, we took ‘Ze Bus’ with a team to Mornant, a town in southern France. ‘Ze Bus’ is a bus converted into a café for coffeehouse ministry. The team included an evangelist, a pastor, some local believers, and a missionary (me). And God helped us.
On Thursday evening, Saturday evening and Sunday morning, about 30 to 35 people came to an evangelistic service in a rented meeting room. By the end of the week we had faith-building conversations with over 300 people, not counting those who turned away! Half of them requested prayer for serious needs, and many told us we were the first Christians that they had ever met. Light conversations often led quickly to deep discussions about loneliness and our need for God.
Our team has been journeying with one young man for the past two years. From when he came to a game night wanting nothing to do with religion, to shared moments of laughter in English classes, to frank discussion during an Alpha course, to answering his list of questions from reading through the Bible twice, and to praying with him to surrender to Christ, it has been a long journey.
From there, he came to our Mexican Fiesta celebration, and started to make friends with someone else in the English class, an Algerian student who was also new on campus. Because they saw each other in English class and hung out every Friday at Cafe Franglais to practice English, they started to become good friends and to become a part of our community. By December, they realized that there were other things going on, spiritual things like the Reverb Thursday night service for students, Refuge Sunday night church, small groups for girls and for guys - all things which they knew were going on because the people in our community were talking about them. But, they felt like these things weren't for them. The Algerian and this guy now were close friends, and hung out outside of our community. The Algerian celebrated Christmas with us, and it was impactful.
On a skiing trip with our community in February, someone on our team lost her phone. They prayed to find it. They were about to leave, and it got returned. A stranger found the phone in an impossible place. This young man "never felt so happy". He knew inside it was time to believe, that he already really did believe. But he also felt afraid that if he told us all, that we would stop being so concerned with him, stop paying him so much attention/love him less. Finally, he started going to the men's small group. Worried that he needed to get all of his life in order, become pure and clean and perfect so that he could fulfill a lifelong commitment to Jesus, we let him know that was what Jesus wanted to do IN him as they walked together. He gave his heart to Jesus during a small group in April. Now we continue to journey daily with him as he learns how to walk with Christ toward wholeness and abundant life.
Convoy of Hope Europe continues to work within the Jungle refugee camp of Calais, France. New police restrictions on the land that the refugees and migrants are allowed to occupy meant a large portion of the Christian community started in the camp needed to be moved. People in the newly restricted sections were given three days to move. With previous construction teams, basic wooden structures had been built to offer families some additional protection against the mud and the elements. Now, there was three days to move them before they would be destroyed.