2023 Prayer Guide

 

WELCOME

 

WEEK 1: April 16-22

Introduction to Discipleship Week

WEEK 2: April 23-29

Introduction to Leadership Week

WEEK 3: April 30-May 6

Introduction to Networking Week

Send Off

WELCOME

Dear friends,

Welcome to the 2023 Pray for France campaign!

If you haven’t gone through the prayer videos from Fabienne Pons, I would like to encourage you to do so before beginning the campaign. Why? Because this year is completely different than all the past years of this campaign, and we need you to be prepared!

This year, God has spoken to us clearly to “go deeper.” These three videos will allow you to join us in obedience to God by moving you through a solid set of teachings on prayer.

Introduction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHfTFEiCbvw

Praying in the Spirit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnOXLRHU6BA

Praying with the Bible: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnOXLRHU6BA

If you don’t understand French, simply click on the “CC” in the bottom right corner of the video screen for closed captions and then click on the gear icon to select the language.

This year, we want you to deepen and enhance how you pray by:

  • Spending more time with Jesus
  • Spending more time worshiping God and worshiping him in different/new ways
  • Having a deeper and more extensive dialogue with God
  • Experiencing more of His presence
  • Being transformed from the inside out and SEEING that change.
  • Having revelations of His knowledge
  • Understanding His will for your life and FRANCE.

How will this impact how I pray?

A lot! This isn’t a year where the primary objective is to learn about ministries and spend time praying for them. Each week will not have several different themes but only one theme per week which is what we believe God is speaking over the entire country – all ministries, everywhere in France.

We want you to go beyond who the ministries are and what they do and hear what they feel God saying to them and what God is doing through them in the following three areas:

  • Discipleship
  • Leadership
  • Networks

These areas are where we feel God is asking us to pray and stand in the gap and intercede. These are the areas where we see God working but where we also see major needs and obstacles. In short, these themes are where we are being called to spend our time in prayer.

Practically, that means each week will have the same theme for seven days. If you miss a day, you still know what to pray for! Also, when you catch up, it will be in the same area of prayer. By spending a week in prayer for the same theme, we can go deeper, hear more from the Lord, and purposefully push for breakthroughs in each of these areas through intercession!

Overarching Theme (Where we are spiritually)

Last year, our theme was “Be Strong and Courageous” because we felt strongly that we needed to pray for strength in the Lord. That the Church in France, more than ever, needs to be strengthened. He was preparing us (2020’s theme) to enter a new season (2021’s theme) and as we walked onto the spiritual battlefield, we sought the Lord again to ask what He wants to say to His people, in France, and all those who are called to lift them up. Therefore, our theme this year is:

God with us.

We also have a theme song (Emmanuel) by Joy Reichör: https://youtu.be/xnlSldjWbew

We want to proclaim, declare and speak over the people of God this WORD (Isaiah 41:8-14). This is the Word of the Lord:

  • to all who have entered the battlefield with us.
  • to all who stand with the people of God in France this year and for this season.
  • which is our theme, our clarion call, and our mandate – to cling to and declare!

“But you, Israel, my servant,
 Jacob, whom I have chosen,
 you descendants of Abraham my friend,
I took you from the ends of the earth,
 from its farthest corners I called you.
I said, ‘You are my servant’;
 I have chosen you and have not rejected you.
So do not fear, for I am with you;
 do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
 I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
“All who rage against you
 will surely be ashamed and disgraced;
those who oppose you
 will be as nothing and perish.
Though you search for your enemies,
 you will not find them.
Those who wage war against you
 will be as nothing at all.
For I am the Lord your God
 who takes hold of your right hand
and says to you, Do not fear;
 I will help you.
Do not be afraid, you worm Jacob,
 little Israel, do not fear,
for I myself will help you,” declares the Lord,
 your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.”

Thank you for joining us!

In Christ,

David Broussard, President
Impact France
Pray for France

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WEEK 1: April 16-22

Introduction to Discipleship Week

David Nolent – Director, TopChrétien

Discipleship

For several years, the Lord has radically refocused us and has shown us the need for tools and content that invites people to become disciples who make other disciples.

God has spoken many times through meetings with our partners and through supernatural events. For example, three times in April 2020, the Lord woke me from sleep with a clear and precise message that I summarize as: “Don’t make converts, make disciples; this is My commandment, clearly set forth in Matthew 28:19-20.”

Since then, God has brought us together with other ministries such as Disciples.fr and 10 minutes théologiques-10theo.com-(Theology in 10 Minutes) to develop shared discipleship strategies. For each project, we work with around fifteen partners, including the CNEF, the National Council of Evangelicals of France.

We see Christian groups everywhere developing new strategies. In 2022, several partners held the DiscipleShift conference “to build a culture focused on training disciples.”

Through discussing discipleship with many partners, we believe that a disciple after the heart of Jesus is “a person who reflects Christ’s character and who knows the disciples of His disciples by name.”

We are starting to see more and more Christians and churches transitioning from being consumers to being players, acting in tangible ways in their neighborhoods.This prophecy for TopChrétien encouraged us to put everything into efforts that support discipleship: “There will be an anointing that will reunite the children of God in this nation and from throughout the nations” says the Lord.

Yes, in this season the Lord is speaking, acting, and calling us all to become contagious disciples, disciples who advance the Kingdom of God with power and love!

Prayer Requests

  1. Pray that each Christian and leader would understand their duty to become disciples who make other disciples (Matthew 28:19-20).
  2. Pray for a love that grows in our hearts, that we may build relationships with those around us and in our neighborhoods.
  3. Pray for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit to call disciples of Christ and convince the masses of their need for salvation in Jesus Christ.

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Proclaiming the Gospel

Soucaneau Gabriel – Parcours Alpha France

God is acting in all areas of the Alpha ministry. He is acting through Parcours Alpha, gathering people who are far from God and helping them meet Christ. He is also acting through prayer, the foundation of every step we take; through volunteers who are called to the mission; and through gifts received from donors.

God speaks to us through the fruit we see from our work in churches—the testimony of people who are giving their lives to Christ; the pastors who, exhausted, come to Alpha for training and find the energy to turn their churches into missionary churches; and through the obstacles and setbacks that we meet and that force us to listen ever more to what God wants to tell us. We want to better understand what He wants to do with Alpha to build His Kingdom on earth.

God is sending us incredible volunteers, donors, and employees. He is transforming lives, especially through our Holy Spirit weekends. (We again heard powerful and touching testimonies.) He is taking us as we are, with our weaknesses and our talents. He is shaping us, not always as we had imagined. He is surprising us and teaching us to better listen to Him. He is showing us that Alphas who don’t pray enough bear little fruit and burn out quickly. On the other hand, He is showering fruit, such as conversions, on Alphas who put prayer at the heart of what they do.

Lives Transformed

During evening prayer trainings, we receive many words and images, but I couldn’t say that we’ve received a specific prophecy:

« Yesterday evening I was in Aisne. I share with you the testimony of a man who launched a Parcours Alpha in a retirement home in Soissons several years ago. One participant had suffered from aphasia for decades ever since he’d been a political prisoner in Poland, during the time of Wojciech Jaruzelski. He had been tortured and hadn’t uttered a word since. During a Holy Spirit weekend, they prayed for this man, and he started to speak. He was healed, and his healing lasted until his death, a couple of days ago.” (Tiffany – Alpha Regional Coordinator)

“I attended the training. I threw myself into it, and… I. Loved. It! This time, I played the game of inviting friends. I saw the guests thirsting for God, wanting to know Christ and wanting to live through the Holy Spirit. One of my friends even asked to be baptized afterwards. Other guests also took “one more step,” either getting baptized or confessing faith. “The Alpha Spirit,” meaning unconditional welcome through active listening and prayer, has become my means of proclaiming the Gospel. Next I took on management of a group home dedicated to teaching people who had followed the entirety of the Parcours Alpha program.” (Kristina, team member, Prayer at Parcours Alpha online, Marais Temple. Team member at Parcours Alpha in Besançon)

Prayer Requests

  1. Pray that the life of Jesus would be our greatest source of inspiration in our mission and our leadership.
  2. Pray that the network would be united so that the team may be strong in its diversity, that in our mission of evangelism our talents complement each other.
  3. Pray that the Lord would reveal disciples in our churches in France and show us how to help them grow and make more disciples.

Additional Information

    1. Parcours Alpha France: www.parcoursalpha.fr
    2. Pastoral Transformation: www.transformationpastorale.fr

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Prayer

René de Groot – Derek Prince Ministries France

Derek Prince Ministries France is one of the primary teaching ministries in France and in the French-speaking world. Our calling is to edify the body of Christ with good teaching, helping Christians to become true disciples of Christ.

In the times in which we live, with teaching often centered on well-being, prosperity, and the blessings of God, we want to also share the message of the cross, of true discipleship, of perseverance, of victory over the powers of evil, and of the imminent return of the Messiah, who is also the judge of all the Earth. God is opening more and more doors to us to encourage Christians to dive deeper into the Word of God and to truly know the Bible.

We regularly receive messages from readers telling us that they are fed and taught by DPM France. Readers tell us that the teachings in their local churches leave them wanting; in local churches teachings are often of low quality or entirely absent. Even though Derek Prince passed away nineteen years ago, the ministry continues to grow in France and throughout the world.

Prayer Requests

  1. Pray that leaders and directors would truly fear God and His Word in order to be examples.
  2. Pray that the people of God would have true discernment between what is true and what is false.
  3. Pray that Christians would realize that we are living in the end times and that we all must redeem time, to work now, before the sun sets.

Additional Information

Derek Prince Ministries France: www.derekprince.fr

Praying woman
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Youth Ministries

Xavier Dufour – Director, Master’s Commission Auch (32)

Master’s Commission is a discipleship training program for 18- to 25-year-olds, started in the early 90s in Spokane, Washington, USA. In 2002 Pastor Steven Allen, founder of this program, transferred leadership and the future of this incredible adventure to Pastor Norm Willis of CCK. Master’s Commission is part of the KMI network – Kingdom Ministries International. In 2003, Walter Dürr’s Jahu Church in Biel, Switzerland offered its first class with the support of CCK. In 2009, for the first time, we welcomed a group of students from Biel into our community in the Espace Bethesda (Bethesda Space). Since then, each year in the month of July, we organize a summer camp with the adolescent and preadolescent group, Jeunesse d’Espoir (Youth of Hope), from the church and Master’s Commission. The relationships that have been forged and the vision that we have always had of training, equipping, and raising the next generation of leaders led us to launch MCA – Master’s Commission Auch in September 2014. Management of this training program was entrusted to Xavier Dufour who, with his wife, Roxann, has a close personal knowledge of this program—how it functions and what it has at heart; Xavier and Roxann were students and team members in the 90s. Nathan Ladeveze joined the team at the end of his first year, first as a team member, then as operational director of the program.

According to a recent IPSOS study, the mental health of youth from 18 to 24 years old is, today, beyond worrying. Thirty-two percent of youth have mental health issues, and forty percent of youth under age 25 report generalized anxiety that makes day-to-day life difficult, whether at home or at work. Students have been faced with isolation and a lack of security, and they sometimes abandon their studies as a result.

Christian Youth Ministries has not been spared the fallout of the successive lockdowns and the impacts of the pandemic.

Generation Z is characterized by a strong desire for connection and authentic relationships where belonging to the group remains a very strong marker. The multi-layered crisis that we are living through has weakened social interactions but reinforced among the youth their search for ideals and freedom.

In the face of these problems, God has raised up many local and national programs to help youth and youth ministries that labor in the field in local churches or at work (psychologists, therapists, educators, coaches, etc.).

God is making new connections, a tight network of those with diverse but complementary expertise who share a common vision. This networked approach is taking shape everywhere in France in many forms, but it’s the same fire that ignites all those who are rising up during these times—the burning desire to see the Kingdom of God advance in France and reach the new generation.

This is how, for example, CNEF Youth launched a new youth-focused platform, the result of forty Christian organizations working together. The mission is to bring church groups, youth services, and CNEF partners together to meet the challenges facing youth today and in the future. To this end, the platform primarily targets generation Z-Alpha, a largely unreached group, and views transmission as a primary challenge.

In a time when all points of reference have been chipped away, God is touching the lives of young people that they may be prophetic voices to their own generation, young people who are rising up with a restored identity, with a profound desire to make a difference where they are—in media, social networks, arts, education, politics, small business, etc.

God is also raising up many working teams whose members span generations. This is a strength not only for organizations but also for our country, where it reinforces the apostolic approach and the heart of the Father is fully manifest. This growing desire to work and live together across the generations is a profound blessing.

Prayer Requests

  1. Pray for a renewal for all those who work among the youth, that they may be strengthened and that they may carry out their ministry with wisdom and discernment.
  2. Pray for novel efforts and creative, inspired projects—pertinent and adapted to the needs of the youth in our country.
  3. Pray that minds be changed; pray for a transformation in the negative outlook held by youth in the Christian world in general.

Additional Information

  1. Master’s Commission Auch: www.masterscommission.fr
  2. Réseau Nouvelles Connexions (New Connections Network) – RNC: www.reseaunouvellesconnexions.fr
  3. CNEF Youth Network: www.serviteurjeunesse.com

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Women’s Ministry

Solange Raby – Speaker, Writer

Editor’s note: With this testimony, we encourage you to pray for the disciples of Christ—especially the women—who need to see and believe in the calling of God in their lives, that they be finally free to hear, obey, and follow the path that God has opened-up for them, like Solange did!

I grew up and became a Christian in an organization that didn’t support women in ministry, especially in the field of preaching. It’s God who opened a path that I believed was impossible by calling us, my husband and me, to work with another ministry. So, I started by writing a book, and then I was led to preach.

God speaks in many ways. Most often, He does so by means of persistent thoughts, thoughts that are foreign to my normal way of thinking and/or are “disconcerting.” He also speaks through His Word, through circumstances, through Christians. God often closes wrong doors and opens the right ones. And then, suddenly, you are propelled into what God foresaw. But He never acts in the same way twice.

Most often, God needs to change my own ideas and my own thoughts before favorably arranging circumstances. And since I am pretty stubborn, He has to be patient with me. I have received prophecies. When I received my call to the ministry, God confirmed, from the mouth of a pastor, everything that He had just laid on my heart with surgical precision. In the following years, there have been other prophetic words, around five or six.

I remember a young woman who was living through painful times in her marriage. One of my messages impacted her so strongly that she gave up on the idea of divorce and fought for her marriage. Another saw her spiritual life totally transformed after a sermon. She still talks to me about this moment when everything changed, and she discovered God in a different way.

I have seen men and women be healed from past wounds, be liberated from wrong understandings of the Word, and be filled with joy. Others have been restored in their identity as daughters and sons of God. Many have been encouraged by the witness of my life and by my books.

Prayer Requests

  1. Pray for a powerful outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the women but also on the men of this country for the harmonious development of women in ministry.
  2. Pray that experienced women become mothers to those who are just beginning to answer the call of God in their lives.

Additional Information

  1. Solange Raby: www.solangeraby.com
  2. Événementielles (ShEvents): www.evenementielles.fr

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The Press and Publishing

Tim Kyle, President, and Nathalie Debaisieux, Assistant Director – BLF Éditions

At BLF Publishing, we have been blessed with an exceptional year of growth. Many books have been shipped and distributed through our store, more than twenty books published and perfected in 2022 by our editorial team, a team that successfully traversed the pitfalls of a rather complex software transition. We are grateful to see that God is with us in our mission to fuel a passion for God by publishing and distributing excellent, Gospel-focused books.

Many testimonies show the work of God in lives still today. It is such a joy! We share two of them with you:

  • One Sunday, as church let out, I met someone who introduced herself and quickly told me, “I’m not Christian, and I don’t want to get baptized.” A little surprising as an introduction! Later, she explained that she grew up in a former Soviet Union country and that she feared making choices and decisions. To commit, she needed to experience something with God, not just follow the advice or recommendations of a pastor. We invited her to eat at our house and played the Sermon on the Mount for her in her mother tongue. During the meal, we had good conversation about the Gospel. I offered her the book Vivre pour Jésus (Live for Jesus) by Raphaël Charrier (BLF Publishing October 2022). A few days later, she started reading it and sent me a message to tell me that she wanted to be baptized! Today, one month later, she is starting to read the Gospel of John with my wife, and she is sharing the Gospel with her adult children.
  • I met Florence sixteen years ago at the park in Paris. She did not have a Catholic background; she said she was an atheist. After four years of friendship and sharing, she moved to the Alpes; we kept in touch and saw each other regularly but with few opportunities to talk about the Gospel. When my husband died, she and her two daughters made the round-trip journey by train to come to the funeral. She was completely blown away by what she heard during the message, and she started to read BLF’s Gospel of John. Two months later, she asked me what Bible she should read to dig deeper. I gave her a beautiful Bible, sent by the team in Marpent, with a little note that really touched her. She kept reading but had science questions. A work colleague loaned her a book by Lennox that had just been published by BLF, and that answered her questions! She came with her daughter Louise to the Interaction Camp this summer, and both gave their lives to the Lord.

Thank you for this partnership. There are, I believe, many Florences and Louises. You will probably meet them in heaven.

Prayer Requests

  1. Pray for collaboration with pastors and churches so that our books may support their ministries and that we may be sensitive to their needs.
  2. Pray for the distribution of books in French-speaking Africa, that our partnership projects succeed in equipping the Christians there.
  3. Pray for a thirst to grow in the knowledge of God and in the understanding of the Gospel among French Christians.

Additional Information

BLF Éditions (BLF Publishing): www.blfeditions.com

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Music and the Arts

Dan Hoang – La Compagnie des Actes (The Acts Company)

When we speak of discipleship, it is absolutely necessary to speak of the youth. Our youth are often living their lives in complicated circumstances full of challenges, wounds, and discouragement. Becoming disciples of Christ opens the door to a life of abundance. Since 1998, the Acts Company’s mission has been to share the Gospel through storytelling. Our events, shows, audiovisual productions, podcasts, CDs, audiobooks, and artistic trainings, have transported tens of thousands of people into the heart of Biblical stories. Creating, inventing, daring: this is what drives us. The Company invites you to discover our universe and to share our dreams–dreams that, like imagination, are limitless.

The Lord has greatly blessed the first two seasons of our children’s podcast Mets tes écoute coeur (Put on your headsets/Listen from the heart). We passed the milestone of 40,000 listens across all listening platforms and are launching season three.

We also have the vision of bringing a message of truth to youth in the media where values contrary to ours are everywhere. By the grace of God, we have co-produced with Gran de Blé (Grain of Wheat) France and ISPIRTV the series Identité en Question (Identity in Question), which is currently scheduled to air in 2023. Identité en Question follows the daily life of a group of high schoolers and tackles the problems that they face—peer pressure, self-image, harassment, and addiction to pornography—through the light of the message of the Bible.

Challenges

  1. The great challenge is always to find financing for our productions. Unfortunately, they depend too much on volunteers and under-paid artistic work.
  2. The other challenge is to motivate churches to work on a shared project like our inter-youth meetings to talk about Identité en Question.
  3. A breakthrough will only be made in France when there is an awareness of the need to work together and a real willingness to financially support ministries so that they can pay artists and technicians what they are worth.

Additional Information

  1. La Compagnie des Actes (The Acts Company): www.lacompagniedesactes.fr
  2. Podcasts Mets tes écoute cœurs (Put on your headsets/Listen from the heart).: www.metstesecoutecoeur.com
  3. 3. Identité en Question (Identity in Question) – the series- trailer: youtu.be/IuzqGxw8b70

 

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Messianic Jews of France

François Blum – Juifs pour Jésus (Jews for Jesus)

Making disciples among the Jewish people in France has often been difficult since Jews more often oppose this than welcome it. However, for some time now, we have had the joy of seeing several people become disciples of Yeshoua (Jesus in Hebrew). We invite you to read these testimonies of the work of God in France among the Jewish people and to come before God so that the Holy Spirit would be further unleashed in this domain!

Christine (not her real name) is a Sephardic Jew, about fifty. Her parents had recently passed away, and she had decided to start a quest for the truth. A work colleague, though Muslim, had given her a postcard with a quote by a Catholic church father.

Her curiosity was piqued, and Christine started to watch several movies and stories online about the life of this man, then about the life of Jesus. She stumbled across a book of testimonies from Jews who had met Jesus, and she bought it. Then another colleague talked to her about the Juifs pour Jésus mission. After much hesitation, Christine finally called us, and we invited her to come to the office. She immediately accepted the Lord, with much emotion. After taking a discipleship program, she was baptized in a local church, and today she is taking theological courses in a Bible school in the Paris region. Hallelujah!

Aurore (not her real name) learned of her Jewish heritage during the burial ceremony of her grandmother several years ago. Having grown up in Catholicism, she already knew Jesus but didn’t have any real communion with Him. While looking to better understand her roots, she stumbled across our YouTube channel and contacted us. Like Christine, Aurore immediately agreed to follow the Lord Jesus, asking Him to forgive her sins. Since then, she has learned little by little to forgive those who have offended her, to forgive herself for the harm she has done to others, and to live in peace. We spend a lot of time each week answering her questions, reading the Bible, and praying together.

Rebecca (not her real name) is a young Jewish woman whose mom accepted the Lord more than ten years ago. At the time, Rebecca was furious with her mother and even told her that she wasn’t Jewish anymore! Then she got breast cancer and, little by little, her heart was opened to the truth of the Gospel. She also decided to accept Jesus as her Messiah. Today, Rebecca is healed and is on the path.

Prayer Requests

  1. Pray for all the people on the path, that they would have a perfect understanding of Jesus.
  2. Pray that more and more Jewish people turn toward their Messiah in France. Many are agnostic, Buddhist, atheist; some are religious, even very religious, and we long to see more Jews on a quest for the truth.
  3. Pray that there be openings for us to share the message of the Gospel with a liberal Jewish community with which we are in contact.

Additional Information

Juifs pour Jésus (Jews for Jesus): www.juifspourjesus.org


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Sports

Jean-Pierre Mihaljevic – Sport et Foi France (Sports and Faith France)

Making disciples requires a variety of methods. The message of the Gospel is better announced in ways targeted to the listener. This is what we do at Sport et Foi France, a ministry of Agapé France (CRU) whose vision is to “see the people who love sports, love God.” Sports is a remarkable, inclusive tool for experiencing the values of life and of faith! It’s also a remarkable way to bring people together to live out the realities of the Gospel.

Sport et Foi France continues to be very active in encouraging the churches of France to use sports as “a pertinent tool” to make disciples for Christ who will in turn make disciples. We see God blessing the initiative of the “GO+ France” coalition of missions and churches, which just keeps growing! The involvement of Sports and Faith in the chaplaincy of the 2024 Olympic games is official. The chaplaincy commission of the Protestant Federation of France is working on building ties with the National Council of Evangelicals of France with the goal of a far-reaching joint project. The goal of this project is to show that Christian Protestants will be present to share the hope that carries them (Jesus Christ) through the Olympic games under the same banner (chaplaincy and evangelism projects with the Churches of France).

We will also work with the Catholic Church. The way forward is not simple but sharing Christ’s love at the Olympic Games is an opportunity to test, in a limited but concrete way, the unity of Christians on the essential point: Salvation in Jesus Christ! May God be our rock!

Challenges

  1. Unity in the Christian world for the 2024 Olympic games on the essential point: Salvation is in Christ alone!
  2. The need to find sponsors to financially support the “Sports and Faith” and “Go+ France” missions. Between now and 2030, we want to mobilize 2,030 churches and 203,000 Christians to proclaim and live out the Gospel “thanks to” and “through” sports and leisure.

Prayer Requests

  1. Pray for unity in the Protestant world during the Olympic games 2024 project. French society is watching us, but more importantly, God is watching us.
  2. Pray for new workers in the harvest in the world of sports.
  3. Pray that God would lead us in discernment and wisdom, that He keep us in his ways, on the path of His will.

Additional Information

  1. Sport et Foi France (Sports and Faith France): www.sportetfoi.org
  2. Go+ France: www.goplusfrance.fr

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Christian Education

Joël Trefcon – École la Cévenole (Cévenole School)

Discipleship and Education

Transmission is the basis of Biblical culture. In Hebrew thought, the connection between discipleship and schooling is evident. It’s not a coincidence that there is only one Hebrew word for disciple and student: Talmid (תַלמִיד). Furthermore, one single word also served in French for the teacher of disciples and the teacher of children: le maître (master) or la maîtresse (mistress).

We need, therefore, to look to other philosophical influences to find the source of the separation between the idea of discipleship, which includes—or today is limited to—the spiritual dimension, and the idea of education, which excludes this dimension that is so essential to our children’s lives. As evidence of this separation—in today’s speech—disciples still have a master (or a coach!), but students now have teachers!

Thus, this separation in Christian thought is definitely a philosophical construction that seeks to slice human lives into different compartments without any ties uniting one compartment to another. But Biblically, discipleship and teaching are one united thing.

It is clearly not by chance that, for some time now, discipleship schools or classes and private schools are reappearing and multiplying in the French Evangelical landscape. In this we see the movement of the Spirit of God. They are answering the same need: the training up of mature men and women in Christ, capable of blooming and serving the common good in all aspects of church life and civil society. And this is happening against the backdrop of a society that is in ever greater contrast with the values of the Kingdom and is becoming sometimes hostile.

Discipleship and teaching touch all aspects of human life: physical (health and development), mental (psychological balance and relationships), and spiritual (a connection with the transcendent, hope, and purpose in life). So, for example, to choose a director or leader, in any domain, we shouldn’t just look first only at his natural or spiritual gifts, or his various skills, even if this is very important, but first at his character and his ability to adapt to others and at the environment in which he will develop.

To grow and develop, humans need to see models that invest in them. This could be masters or fathers (mothers).

Prayer Requests

  1. Pray for the creation and the increasing competence of discipleship training ministries (in particular within universities and theological training institutes).
  2. Pray for the creation and reinforcement of private evangelical schools that desperately need financial and human resources to grow.
  3. 3. Pray for an increase in models, masters, fathers and mothers, and pastors who invest in the next generation.

Additional Information

    1. École la Cévenole (Cévenole School): www.ecolelacevenole.fr
    2. AESPEF: www.aespef.org
    3. Education and Protestantism: www.educationprotestanteafp.com

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Women’s Ministries

Laurie Chiron – Agapé au Féminin

Hundreds of women saw their faith edified and transformed by the Word of God in our small groups, our meditation video series, as well as the PERLE course drawn from the work Vers une vie riche de sens (Toward a Meaning-Filled Life), a course that invites women to discover their gifts and understand their value in God. We also have the Papillon (Butterfly) seminar, a training course in leadership and discipleship that trained eleven women leaders over three years.

Shortly before the COVID-19 crisis, God led us to prepare meditation videos and discussion questions for women’s small groups to use in studying books of the Bible. When the material was ready, we found ourselves in the middle of the pandemic, with this communal thirst to gather and share. We bless God for His perfect timing! We are now on the fourth series of meditation videos. While preparing these series, we saw the Lord work: Women put a lot of effort, some for the first time, into preparing the study of one Biblical passage. Others learned how to do video editing, or even how to lead groups.

One woman was recently converted in an online group, and many others have renewed their faith and their identity in Christ. May God give all these women the desire to again study the Word together (with or without our tools!). We also encourage women to invest in the lives of other women and to dare to do work that is beyond them, in collaboration with the Lord.

Recently, one woman who participated in one of our study groups, realized that she could be saved only by the grace of God. She then took the step of accepting God into her life! Another woman, who was extremely hesitant to start leading her own group, is now doing a wonderful job leading a group (for the third series in a row!). We have observed a great number of good things in this group and faith has grown greatly.

  • A dozen other women have led a study group for the first time.
  • Over thirty women have filmed meditation videos on Bible passages, some for the first time.

Many challenges have been taken up, and in turn there has been great encouragement and beautiful spiritual growth, as the participants themselves attest:

“(Virtual) relationships have been transformed over the course of months into fellowship founded in passion for Jesus Christ.”

“This study has reinforced my desire to live out the Gospel in my daily life.”

“I discovered the infinite love of God.”

Challenges

  1. That women work with us, especially to help with social media.
  2. That God guide us toward a new plan of proclaiming the Gospel.
  3. Strengthening, organizing, and growing Agapé au Féminin so that each individual in France would have the opportunity to discover, live, and share the good news of Jesus, so that lives may be changed and France and the world be transformed.

Prayer Requests

  1. Pray for the roughly one hundred women who are studying Galatians in groups—online or in their respective churches! Pray that God may profoundly transform their lives through His Word.
  2. Pray that the participants, the volunteers, and all the women of France be even more motivated to talk about the manner in which God is transforming their lives and those of the people around them, so that others find salvation. Pray also that women work with us, especially in the field of social media.
  3. Pray for a new plan to proclaim the Gospel and, in a general way, for the strengthening, organization, and growth of Agapé au Féminin. Our goal is still that each individual in France will have the opportunity to discover, live, and share the good news of Jesus, so that lives are changed and France and the world be transformed.

Additional Information

Agapé au Féminin: www.agapeaufeminin.fr

 

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Universities

Marsha Koumbadinga – Le Foyer Évangélique Universitaire (Evangelical University Home) – FEU

One of the key elements that impacts our ability to make disciples is engagement with the Word of God. This is why the FEU in Lille is offering a series of Bible studies and fellowship.

“Eating and moving, that’s health!” This slogan from the famous publicity campaign put on by the State to encourage the French to stay in shape and take care of their bodies is the title of the first series of Bible studies put out by the Lille FEU (Foyer Évangélique Universitaire) this year. During these weekly studies on Tuesday evenings, we looked at the importance of properly “eating” and “moving” spiritually as disciples of Christ. To help us better understand Christ and become more like Him, we offered students a few avenues for putting into practice this “healthy” discipleship life…

Ways to eat well:

  • Be rigorous in reading and in their personal prayer life.
  • Encourage them to be active in their local church (rather than in FEU, if a choice has to be made between the two).
  • Participate in a growth group with other young Christians.
  • Participate in a father/son or mother/daughter relationship with someone older and more advanced in the faith in their church or on the FEU team.

Ways to move well:

  • Personal witness to those around you (classmates, roommates, friends, etc.).
  • Participate in our FEU events (run surveys in the dorms, participate in a faith discovery evening, serve in our language workshops for foreign students, etc.).
  • Serve with children in the church and with our church partners.

…all that and many other ways!

This year FEU is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary! We are grateful to see all that God has done throughout FEU during all these years and because He continues to use it today. We thank God also because He continues to call people to Him through FEU’s work for this next generation of disciples that is rising up for Him in France. We are also encouraged to see these disciples who are, in their turn, making disciples, witnessing to their classmates at school, their roommates, and their friends—whether this be through an invitation to FEU or a faith discovery evening, or even through reading the Bible together.

Prayer Requests

  1. Thank God for what He has done through FEU, and pray that He would continue to use it for His glory.
  2. Pray that Christian students would be encouraged in their faith and that they would have a desire to share with those around them.
  3. Pray that non-Christian students would see in Christians a real love for God that makes them different from others.

Additional Information

Le FEU de Lille (Lille FEU): www.lille.lefeu.org

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Proclaiming the Gospel

Nicolas Fouquet – Alliance Biblique Française (French Bible Alliance)

For over 200 years, the Alliance biblique française has existed to share the Bible in the country of Lights. In two centuries, the association has seen highs and lows, but one thing is certain: Its mission is more than ever necessary as we see a growing disinterest among the French for the Bible. In June 2022, a survey commissioned by the Alliance biblique française from an independent survey organization highlighted this sad news. Barely one quarter of the French people (27%) have a Bible today, while this number was 42% in 2001. And only 3% of the French people say they read the Bible at least once each week. The field is vast. Your prayers are essential!

ABF Projects

Against this backdrop, and to remedy it, the Alliance biblique française is leading different projects. Far from being crushed by the scale of the challenge, its team is encouraged by what God is accomplishing. Much beautiful fruit can be seen!

In 2022, thanks to the support of nearly 1,500 people, more than €150,000 have been collected to purchase Bibles for the homeless. The needs of people living on the street are many and go beyond strictly material needs. As Stéphane, a homeless man, said: “In the Bible, there are so many stories that resemble us. That does a body good.” This project is going to be realized, and it will “put a Bible within the reach of all,” as the Alliance biblique française slogan says.

The young are also at the heart of what the Alliance biblique française does. In 2022, the association launched its Twitch TV channel, titled ZeDirect, to reach generation Z. Each week, a variety of diverse programs dust off the Bible and break negative stereotypes that the young might have. “I believe that with ZeDirect, we are building an authentic and welcoming (digital) space where journeys and thirsting for spirituality find a natural home,” said Cédric Kessler, the leader and director of the show. Please pray that many young people would be reached and have the desire to learn more about the Bible.

Prayer Request

Pray that the homeless be receptive to this beautiful gift that they will receive in 2023.

Additional Information

ABF: www.alliancebiblique.fr
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French Families and Youth

Patrick Nussbaumer – Association Jeunesse Pour Christ (Youth for Christ Association) – JPC

In 2022, we saw God act in the lives of young girls through our program “Superwoman.” This is a life education program for young girls between twelve and fourteen years old. What a privilege to be able to spend time with them and to tell them that they are precious, and God loves them!

God told us to take care of them, to help them be daughters to their parents and sisters to their siblings and to take care of themselves in order to be responsible future adults. It’s beautiful to see the girls come back to life because they are loved and because they can, in turn, love their families. God is intervening in the lives of the young, and the waters of life flow from these young girls who are trusting themselves to God.

God has also asked us to make available to parents and grandparents resources to help them better understand and interact with their children and grandchildren. With the “DéfiZ” (Z Challenge) program, we broadcast a parent witness video. Our “Legacy” podcasts dealt with themes like adoption or blended families, to help adults understand and pray for the upcoming generation.

God told us to invest time individually with the youth to allow them to progress on the path of grace. This time spent with them allows them to experience things with God, to grow as disciples, and to do good in their own families.

Sihem, a thirteen-year-old with whom we spend time and who participates in our activities and listens to the Gospel, tells us: “Thank you for coming to see us, to make us participate; it gives me room to breathe!”

Illian who says, while we are hiking with young minor migrants: “I want to know more about your Christian faith; can you show it to me?”

Prayer Requests

  1. Pray for the workers who forge the link between the young and God to allow them to be disciples of Christ.
  2. Pray for adults who often struggle to understand their children, that God would enlighten their minds to nurture better relationships—without judgment, full of grace, and with trust in God.
  3. Pray that Christian families would be lights in society and salt to their neighborhoods and surroundings.

Additional Information

  1. Jeunesse pour Christ (Youth for Christ): www.jpcfrance.com
  2. DéfiZ (Z Challenge): www.jpcfrance.com/defiz
  3. Street Pasteur: www.streetpasteur.jpcfrance.com
  4. The JPC prayer movement: www.legacyfrance.com

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WEEK 2: April 23-30

Introduction to Leadership Week

Grégory Reyes – Coordinator, Réseau Dunamis (Dunamis Network)

In November 2022, with a collective made up of three leaders, we participated in the organization of a conference that gathered 200 leaders from Evangelical, Protestant, and Catholic organizations around the theme of multiplying disciples. We are preparing the next conference on the theme of leadership and mentorship. We are very encouraged by the mobilization and participation of all these church leaders from different Christian organizations in our country.

The evils and suffering of our society are much more complex than in the past. Consequently, the churches of this decade have a special position to minister not only to individuals but also to society and the nation. Most leaders lament the fact that the Church is experiencing a crisis of leadership. We can rely on many leaders with the ability to teach, but there are few leaders with the ability to lead.

For two years we have noticed the emergence of a new generation of leaders, a generation not characterized by their age, but by their definition of leadership. We call them relational leaders. Relational leaders can be recognized through what they live out, not solely through what they preach.

  • They follow God more than their dreams.
  • They prioritize love of one’s neighbor over love of plans.
  • They emphasize the spiritual, emotional, and relational health of the church and society.

Their Church model is not based solely on attracting members and driving participation, but also on the mission and their involvement in all spheres of society as well as in growing the number of disciples.

We support this movement by opening training centers in different regions. In these training centers, leaders are trained and equipped to increase the number of disciples, churches, compassion projects, and other projects serving society. In these training centers, leaders are made aware of the fact that if they want to build up, they will need to learn to dig deep. We are living in a culture that values only what is visible, while it’s what is invisible to the naked eye that guarantees success.

  • It’s what cannot be seen that gives symbolic buildings substance.
  • It’s what cannot be seen that nourishes forests.
  • It’s what cannot be seen that keeps structural integrity intact.

And solid foundations are vital if a leader wants to progress and grow. Leaders learn to place as much importance on digging as on building.

Encouragement

Recently, a collective of leaders came together with the vision of planting 1,000 new churches and compassion projects in France and in the French-speaking world!

Additional Information

  1. Réseau Dunamis (Dunamis Network): www.reseaudunamis.com
  2. Un potentiel (A Potential): www.unpotentiel.com
  3. Implanter une église (Plant a Church): www.implanteruneeglise.com
  4. Décider d’aimer (Decide to Love): www.deciderdaimer.com
  5. Une vie surnaturelle (A Supernatural Life): www.uneviesurnaturelle.com

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Work and Business

Anne-Marie Husson – Founder and Director, C-PROACTIF network for working Christians

Today, we are sharing a rather unique work that can be described as both discipleship and leadership: discipleship because C-PROACTIF serves everyone in the workforce and leadership because the leaders and directors of businesses are included. Their work allows Christians to “turn their professional lives into a faith adventure” by returning work to its rightful place in the Kingdom of God.

God is working in the different professional fields and in the business world in France. This is manifest in different ways:

  • Among individual Christians, a need for meaning: They no longer want their professional lives to be the forgotten part of their Christian lives. They want to return work to its rightful place in relation to their spiritual lives and are ready to get moving, at God’s direction, in their professional lives.
  • Among the churches, a call to no longer separate the “spiritual” ministries (within churches) from secular ministries carried out in civil society and the workplace. Many recent joint initiatives contribute to this:
    • The emphasis placed by the CNEF (National Council of Evangelicals of France) on the needs of “the scattered Church,” which means viewing the Church as being on a mission day-in-and-day-out in the world, through its members scattered through society.
    • A national survey in 2021—“Share and live out the Gospel at work”—revealed the conflict of Christians at work and their expectations of their churches.
    • Current economic and climate realities are weakening society—but also the Church—and oblige it therefore to take a renewed interest in these economic questions.
  • The growth of initiatives within the Church in France: Led by individuals and by Christian associations but also by churches, these initiatives all have the same goal—to find the motivation to serve God and society, like in the times of the Reformation and the Huguenot Revival. In November 2022, some fifteen of these networks met in Annecy under the coordination of the RED network (Réseau des Entrepreneurs Dynamiques – Network of Dynamic Entrepreneurs) to listen to God and see how to advance “together”!
  • Lives transformed: The Lord is at work. He is giving courage and revelations for daring to step out of the mainstream current and entering into the world with our Christian values to serve Him, in accordance with God’s economy!
  • Like the young engineer in agronomy who left his pesticide business to break new ground in an organic cooperative.
  • Or Patricia, who heard the call of God to start artistic engineering projects to encourage the depressed population and to celebrate the beauty of the Creator.
  • Or Luc, who is encouraging churches to act in their towns to provide short-term jobs to the abandoned people of their cities… These are new enterprises that are being created. People are radically reorienting their careers. Existing enterprises are taking on a new mission, in order to work differently. People are listening to God to bless society and see themselves as a solution to the current crises.
  • Actions of the Holy Spirit: The Holy Spirit is raising up service-oriented people in the economic sphere. They want to work side-by-side, with the slogan of being “humble but audacious.”
    • Humble in listening to God and walking according to His plan.
    • But at the same time, audacious in banishing the fear of conquering new markets and aiming high. (Example: The RED consensus conference organized in Annecy in November 2022 with some fifteen different Christian organizations engaged in an approach of community development and social work.) Another noticeable direction is returning France to her proper place within the world chorus, through her specific economic model which should be, at the same time, cutting- edge and innovative at the technical level, but also social and motherly–an economic model that doesn’t sacrifice human development on the altar of technology or profit.

Prayer Requests

  1. Pray that churches take seriously the mandate to equip Christians as servants of God in their professional fields and orient themselves in this direction.
  2. Pray that Christians hear the call of God for their professional lives and throw themselves into audacious and innovative projects that inspire them.
  3. Pray for a visible and structural unity between the different movements that are joining the mission so that the impact of Christians in society would be recognizable and tangible.

Additional Information

  1. 1. C-PROACTIF (Network for working Christians): c-proactif.org
  2. ICCC France (International Christian Chamber of Commerce): www.iccc-france.org
  3. Compass France: www.compass-fr.org
  4. Coop Connexion: www.coopconnexion.fr
  5. Mouvement ALER: www.mouvement-aler.com
  6. RED: www.reseau-red.org
  7. Prieres100%Business: www.prieres100business.com

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Theological Training

Étienne Lhermenault – Institut biblique de Nogent-sur-Marne (94) (Bible Institute of Nogent-sur-Marne)

Through their mandate to train church leaders, theological training institutions are on the front line in the growth of the Kingdom of God in France.

The Lord blessed our two training programs—l’Institut biblique de Nogent (translation) and the Faculté Libre de Théologie Évangélique (The Free Faculty of Evangelical Theology)—in their recruitment of new leaders to pursue their training work. In recent years, the faculty has had complete turnover, and one of the new professors, Alexandre Antoine, professor of Church History, successfully defended his doctoral thesis on the history of Pentecostalism in France. The institute also recruited a new professor—Matthieu Gangloff–full of dynamism and very appreciated by the students; an assistant—Tsing Hung—who was part of the second generation of Chinese churches; and a new pedagogical secretary—Damaris Gao. This arrival of a younger generation, dedicated and consecrated, is an answer to prayer and a blessing.

The conviction that drives us, and that we receive as coming from the Lord, rests on the need to develop our training abilities and tools in order to keep pace with the growth of the Evangelical movement in France, which has grown fifteen-fold in seventy years.

Lives Transformed

Each year, students are transformed through study of the Word of God in a community setting where devotion is encouraged. It’s a slow process because it takes months and years, but the result is, in the end, spectacular. A student arrived last year with the idea of staying a few months while waiting for a new door to open in his training program. Touched by what he learned and the intensity of the community life, he is today pursuing his training, and we see him flourishing as his sense of leadership asserts itself.

The Holy Spirit is manifest through the number and quality of the new students that have joined us. And He is manifest in the victories, large and small, that are being won: recognition of the need for help for internal healing, questioning of bad operating frameworks and vain projects, forgiveness given or received… He is also manifest through the generosity of our donors, who have made it possible for us to finance the construction of a new residence to house students.

Prayer Requests

    1. Pray to the Lord to call many men and women of the young generation to serve the Church and the Evangelical efforts.
    2. Pray that churches understand the importance of training their leaders.
    3. Pray to the Lord to raise up more donors to help us meet the financial challenge of growing and developing.

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Government

Franck Meyer – President du Comité Protestant Évangélique pour la Dignité Humaine (Evangelical Protestant Committee for Human Dignity) CPDH

When we hear leadership discussed in the context of the Kingdom of God, we often think of pastors, elders, and leaders in a church. And yet, God also works among leaders in political life. This is why the CPDH works with political and public powers to promote what God recommended to men in the Bible. “Flee sexual immorality.” 1 Corinthians 6:18

God acts through the brotherly bond that we maintain with other Christian associations. Working with political and public leaders is never easy. We can be perceived as a “Christian lobby” and so our message is refused, even violently attacked. Or what’s more, attempts are made to “win us over,” because we represent citizens, and consequently, voters. In 2022 we had marked success in the battle against human trafficking and the porn industry, but it’s far from over!

God with us!

With six other associations, including the Salvation Army and the Associations Familiales Protestantes (Protestant Family Associations), the Comité Protestant Évangélique pour la Dignité Humaine (Evangelical Protestant Committee for Human Dignity) CPDH, on April 8, 2020, warned twenty-five politicians of how scandalously easy it had become to access digital distribution platforms of pornographic content during the COVID 19 pandemic, including completely open access to minors. The letter addressed to the French President asked him to keep his promise to protect children from pornography, a promise he had made on the thirtieth anniversary of the International Convention of the Rights of the Child. On April 21, 2020, Dorcel Luxure threatened the CPDH, the Salvation Army, and the other associations that had denounced their practices: “You have attributed crimes to us, through association, purely defamatory and making you liable.” United in prayer, we not only answered the accusations brought against us, but also asked God to block the terrible trade practiced by the producers and distributors of content free from all morality.

God responded in an extraordinary way. On November 30, 2020, the newspaper Médiapart revealed that two French producers had been formally charged with “rape,” “aggravated procuring” (living on earnings from prostitution), and “aggravated human trafficking.” Right beside them were the leaders in the field—Dorcel and Jacquie & Michel—mentioned in the same article. One year later, according to the newspaper Le Parisien, “a wide-ranging investigation revealed the hell of the pornography industry.” On November 30, 2021, French law was changed to provide more protection to minors: “Creating, transporting, or distributing by any means a message of pornographic nature (…) is punished with three years of imprisonment and a fine of 75,000 euros when the message is likely to be seen or perceived by a minor.” (Article 227-24—1 of the French Penal Code) And on September 27, 2022, a Senate report denounced “a pornographic industry that generates systemic violence against women.” In this report, porn was deemed intolerable and, among the proposals made, the battle against pornographic violence and the commoditization of the body was proposed as a priority of public policy. Since then, the French government has also created a website to help parents protect their children from pornography.

Challenges

The French president wants to change French law on the subject of end of life. He wants to introduce “active assistance in dying,” in the words of the Conseil Consultatif National d’Éthique (National Consulting Council on Ethics). By the time this text is published, a “convention of citizens,” set up by Emmanuel Macron, will have issued its conclusions on the subject. The CPDH opposes all forms of euthanasia.

Gender dysphoria is also among the debates that are increasingly shaking western society. The Fabric of the Transgendered Child, a book by psychoanalysts Caroline Eliacheff and Céline Masson, highlights the health crises caused by early sexual transitions and is going to become a significant pain point for LGBTQ activists. The challenge is two-fold: protecting children and supporting all education professionals who risk being accused of being “transphobes” and suffering significant pressure from their academic superiors. The CPDH is working with others to support what is right and participate in the “common good” of society.

In this mission, depending on the subject, we partner:

  • With the Salvation Army and Secours Catholique (Catholic Help) for fighting against human trafficking.
  • With the Associations Familiales Catholiques et Protestantes (Catholic and Protestant Family Associations) on questions concerning respect for human dignity in families and in education.
  • With French and international lawyers’ associations in reference to respecting human rights and the right to life and to freedom of expression, worship, and conscience.

Prayer Requests

  1. Let us pray and thank God for the work carried out by associations to denounce the hell of the pornographic industry and for the way in which God has defended these associations by making the truth shine.
  2. Let us pray that the battle against pornographic violence and the commoditization of the body become a true public policy priority, that the legal authorities have the courage to condemn all promoters of pornography for the abuse they perpetrate.
  3. Let us pray that each church understands what is at stake and the need to educate against the dangers of pornography and to help parents educate their children.

Additional Information

  1. CPDH: www.cpdh.org
  2. CPDH/Euthanasia: www.cpdh.org/vie/fin-de-vie
  3. CNEF: www.lecnef.org
  4. Defense of freedom of expression and conscience: www.adfinternational.fr and www.eclj.org
  5. Against human trafficking: www.contrelatraite.org
  6. To pray for France and the laws concerning end of life: www.c-proactif.org
  7. Encouraging Christian engagement in civil life: www.mercidexister.com

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Culture and Radio

Jean-Luc Gadreau – Editorial Director and Host, Protestant programming – France Culture

In a secular country, discipleship often starts by creating awareness of the Gospel using culturally familiar and easily understood reference points.

Since September 2021, France Culture (the public French national cultural radio station for the Radio France group) has done just this. Each Sunday morning at 8:30, it offers a new Protestant show, un rendez-vous protestant (a Protestant encounter), based around the five solae. At the insistence of France Culture, our previous show had to be changed, due to the alarming drop in listeners. A considerable challenge!

In response to this challenge, SOLAE, le rendez-vous protestant (SOLAE, the Protestant Encounter) was born–an ambitious project, very expensive to produce. This program offers all listeners of France Culture a Protestant perspective on the world, on our society, and on our culture, which is becoming a real witness to faith. There is also the opportunity to reflect on a Biblical text with un rendez-vous avec la Parole (An Encounter with the Word), which, like a red cord through each of our shows, weaves together a space in which we can seek to understand what this Word can reveal to us and how it can inspire us still today.

In June 2022, almost one year after it was launched, an initial report validated the decisions made and demonstrated the powerful work of God. The programming heads of France Culture announced to us that the show had more than doubled its number of listeners, gaining more than 100,000 people. On average, 220,000 people listen to the 8:30 am broadcast and some 20,000 to the podcasts. The growing impact demonstrated by these figures is also reflected in the amount of feedback we get from listeners thanking us, asking questions, and often wanting to go deeper. A few months ago, a young listener wrote to us to express her gratitude, because the show that she listened to each week had led her to rejoin a local church in which she had just gotten baptized. Thanks be to the Lord for this opportunity that we have to be here, on one of the top radio stations in France, to be able to provide a place of witness, and to participate in proclaiming the good news to as many people as possible.

Challenges

This mission’s challenge always lies in the constant need to renew itself and requires the active participation of the Lord, the constant inspiration of His Spirit, and our remaining open to His grace.

Prayer Requests

  1. Pray for Solae, le rendez-vous protestant on France Culture, that God would continue to use this show, lead us in His work, and prepare people’s hearts each Sunday.
  2. Pray that more secular media would dare to allow Christian works to be broadcast on their networks.
  3. Pray that there would be more knowledgeable Christian communicators, that they be effective and aware of the strategic mission that exists at the heart of this generation.

Additional Information

Solaé, le rendez-vous protestant: www.radiofrance.fr/franceculture/podcasts

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Christian Education

Luc Bussière – Association des Établissements Scolaires Protestants Évangéliques en Francophonie (Association of Evangelical Protestant Schools in the French-Speaking World) – AESPEF

The following text describes the current situation of leaders in the field of Christian education—their challenges and their mandates—and how we can intercede in this field.

“For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him.” Genesis 18:19

Anatomy of a Crisis

The fulfillment of the promises made to Abraham is conditioned on transmission through what one teaches (“command…”) and through what one lives out (“that they keep…”). Without transmission, no fulfilled promises! It’s true for individuals; it’s also true for nations. Today we see a crisis of transmission in Western countries, in France in particular. These recurring questions are symptomatic of a sick society, at a loss for points of reference: what to transmit? Who can transmit? Do we have the right to transmit? Isn’t transmission manipulation? These questions reveal the immense spiritual battle raging today, a battle fed by the challenges of transmission and, consequently, education and teaching.

God is Working

It’s with this somewhat depressing diagnosis of a world lacking in reference points that God is raising builders, reformers, and “transmitters;” sages, “signs,” and bearers of hope, salt and light in all areas of life, including in education. How can we not remember that the word “education” itself comes from the Latin word “educit,” a word that is found in the Latin version of the parable of the good shepherd who “leads his flock outside” – “educit”? Aware of these stakes and challenges, the Christian school planting movement in France is one of God’s responses to this crisis. It shows an awareness, a willingness to transmit a different wisdom, other values, in accord with faith, truth, love, and hope—giving everything over to the shepherd who wants to lead and liberate potential. We must pray for the people who carry this project—the leaders—who are answering the call of God!

Lives Transformed

The impact of such an education leaves a mark. It leaves a mark for life, like in the case of one former, grateful student who is today an urgent care doctor, and who tells us how his values and his practices, even in his work, were in large part forged in the Christian school. This is just one revealing testimony among hundreds of others.

The ministries and works that are rising-up in the service of families, so that they can fulfill their ministry to children, are also a sign of hope. I think in particular the beautiful proliferation of Associations Familiales Protestantes (Protestant Family Associations) in France.

God’s plans for peace, future, hope, healing, and restoration for our lives and our countries are still there, dependent on a transmission, an education, a teaching, bearers of meaning and life, nourished by the immutable Word of God.

Prayer Requests

  1. Pray for the strengthening and the stretching of ministry leaders and projects in service of the education of families.
  2. Pray for an awakening in the body of Christ to His mandate to teach the nations, a mandate that cannot be accomplished without schools and universities, a great lesson of history. Pray that leaders rise up to answer this call!
  3. Pray for freedom of education in France.

Additional Information

  1. AESPEF: www.aespef.org
  2. Mathurin Cordier Institute: www.mathurincordier.fr
  3. Associations Familiales Protestantes (Protestant Family Associations): www.afp-federation.org
  4. ACSI in the French-speaking world: www.acsieurope.org
  5. EDUCAVIE: www.educavie.fr

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Women’s Ministry

Rachel Miquel Dufour – Internationally renowned sexologist, counselor, speaker, pastor, and therapist

My ministry has led me to work alongside people of all origins, called by God to serve Him. It has been my privilege to help them discover the form and shape of what God is entrusting to them. The most crucial question is absolutely not about their gender, but about their calling.

Ministry isn’t defined by our gender, our skin color, or our background, but by God, by our identity hidden in Christ (Colossians 3:3b: “Your life is hidden with Christ in God.”).

The calling that God gives us does not depend on whether we are a woman or a man. What is important is to be exactly where God wants us. This is a refreshing reality.

The revolution that Jesus brought to humanity is an equality of calling and opportunity to serve, for men and women. During his earthly ministry, Jesus was surrounded by men and women who served at his side. One of my battles for this year is to allow women to live out this reality.

Challenges

  1. The challenge for women called to serve God through the ministry that He gives them is to not mistake their rightful battle. It’s absolutely not a feminist battle. Each of us, male and female, needs to be assured of serving God, exactly as He intended, to hold our place in the service of His Kingdom.
  2. The challenge for women called to serve God is that they grow in excellence in their calling, in the qualities and qualifications that God gave them. For the record, excellence is not perfection, but the promise to do the best possible with what we are, where we are, and in our season of life with our unique abilities.
  3. The challenge for the Christian community is to surround, encourage, and support the women called by God, that they be able to grow and flourish in an environment that contributes, for each woman, to the discovery and mastery without restriction of her gifts.

Prayer Requests

  1. Let us pray that each woman discovers her identity in Christ.
  2. Let us pray that each woman be healed of past wounds and difficulties.
  3. Let us pray that women further along in their lives and ministries transmit to younger women the desire to serve God and to discover and practice the gifts that He gave them toward this end.

Additional Information

Rachel Miquel Dufour: www.rachelmiqueldufour.com

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Government

Thierry Le Gall – CNEF Pastoral Service to Members of Parliament (SPP)

In 2022, I saw God act through a growing number of contacts with members of Parliament, through the encouragement given to churches during my speeches in public meetings in the provinces, and through the interest the media has in this ministry.

God acted in my ministry by giving me the ability to meet “key” people in the French Parliament, as well as the Minister responsible for the bill concerning end-of-life in France, and in enabling me to persevere, whatever the circumstances may be.

God provides for material needs, allows spiritually strategic meetings, and prepares the hearts of those with whom I speak.

I regularly receive prophecies. Brothers and sisters who don’t know my agenda text me Biblical passages, inspired and pertinent prophecies.

The Holy Spirit acts in consoling the hearts of many members of Parliament who are experiencing challenges, in arranging meetings with deputies and senators involved in foundational subjects that impact Christians, and in allowing me to publish my testimony Un avenir, une espérance (A Future, a Hope) with a large Christian publishing house.

We must face two challenges:

  • The rise of the extreme left and the extreme right in France.
  • The growing pressure on religious liberty.

Prayer Requests

  1. Pray that the bill on end-of-life in France will respect human dignity and Christian ethics.
  2. Pray for the preservation of religious freedom in France.
  3. Pray for the physical, material, and spiritual protection of my family.

Additional Information

  1. CNEF SPP: www.servicepastoralparlementaires.org
  2. Comité Protestant Évangélique pour la Dignité Humaine (Evangelical Protestant Committee for Human Dignity): www.cpdh.org

 

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WEEK 3: April 30-May 6

Introduction to Networking Week

Jean-Marc Potenti – President, Réseau Nouvelles Connexions (New Connections Network) – RNC

Apostolic Networks

The emergence of apostolic networks, on the international scale, and more recently, in French-speaking Europe, is a striking phenomenon of the early 21st century. By apostolic, what we mean here is networks that try to fulfill the missionary mandate by deploying ministers (Ephesians 4:11 and following).

The prophetic intuition that underpins this movement lies in the belief that this new method of relating and functioning is similar to the method we see in the early church. The book of Acts and the Epistles suggests that churches benefited from apostolic ministries working in teams around, primarily, the two principal figures—Peter and Paul.

Without neglecting church federations and unions, whose vocation is representation and visibility in the public sphere, apostolic networks are based on community relationships around apostolic teams destined to serve them and contribute to their edification through very different ministries that complement each other.

What’s more, these networks have the distinctive characteristic of integrating within themselves ministries and works of all kinds in the service of society, whether this be in education, economics, social issues, etc. in such a way as to incarnate the Gospel of the Kingdom of God in a manner pertinent and complementary to churches. Thus, church and social dimensions come together harmoniously, without fundamental distinction, all while respecting different forms of association (religious and cultural).

The commitment of the French-speaking apostolic networks is resolutely to spread out in a spirit of witness and service through society.

Finally, this is a different reality where church federations complement each other and must not be at odds amongst themselves.

It is important to prayerfully support what God is doing within this work because it:

  • Ventures away from the beaten path and can cause dissension.
  • Incarnates the news of the Holy Spirit and bears a promise of growing the Kingdom of God.
  • Relies on complementary, not institutional, relationships.
  • Frees up greater growth, thanks to ministerial diversity.

Additional Information

  1. Réseau Nouvelles Connexions (New Connections Network) – RNC: www.reseaunouvellesconnexions.fr
  2. RNC in the French-speaking world: www.rnc-francophonie.fr

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Church Renewal

Clément Diedrichs – Director, Conseil National des Évangéliques de France (National Council of Evangelicals of France) – CNEF

One of the major national players is the Conseil National des Évangéliques de France (National Council of Evangelicals of France) – CNEF. The CNEF brings together not only French churches and evangelical workers, but also networked efforts that multiply and gain strength in unity. We (Impact France) believe that this unity is a special mandate and anointing of the CNEF specifically.

There are more than 2,500 Evangelical churches in France that bring together 700,000 people. This number has multiplied by fourteen since 1950, but it represents only one percent of the French population. The majority of churches are united by denomination under one national body that represents them: le Conseil National des Évangéliques de France (National Council of Evangelicals of France)—CNEF.

As a result, the CNEF represents, but it also organizes several networks in service of sharing the Gospel in France. Here are two examples:

  • When denominations work together: What is more common between Evangelical denominations than the call of Christ to “go and make disciples of all the nations”?! It’s on this foundation that more than one hundred denominational and regional leaders gathered on December 6, 2022 to work together on a joint text on the theological arguments for each individual and each church to be “in the mission field” for Christ. A scattered, disorganized approach is common among Evangelicals! We believe that sharing the Gospel of our Lord, all together, in the same spirit, will have a different power! We have been amazed to see how God has blessed us during this meeting with a feeling of fellowship and joy in Christ and through open and deep conversations to clarify our shared goals. Here is the opinion of one participant: “It’s extraordinary–we didn’t even think anymore of asking each other what denomination we belonged to. We were all united for the Gospel!” We trust in God that He will allow us, for the first time in France, to write a shared declaration of the Gospel, so that the Evangelical world may be united on the same priorities, respecting the callings and methods of each.
  • When youth join forces: While youth are often the “private hunting ground” of each denomination, denomination and project youth leaders decided to network together to share ideas. For example: how to share tools to support young Christians disciples. Some small denominations don’t have specific tools, while others have tools for a specific audience. Why not share everything that exists and make it available to everyone? What is more Evangelical than sharing and helping each other? God truly worked on hearts to break any spirit of ownership or competition, so that, like in the early days of the Church, “all things be shared”! And so, the serviteurjeunesse.com tool was created!

The Holy Spirit is decidedly at work uniting us, so that each seeks not “his own interest but that of the other,” the “other” being, above all, French non-believers who need God like never before! And what joy this shared momentum has produced in everyone’s hearts!

Prayer Requests

  1. Pray that this work would achieve its goal, that the entire Evangelical world would claim the shared priority of sharing the Gospel.
  2. Pray that all methods of testimony be valued: proclamation, witnessing at work, united action, art, etc.
  3. Pray that the new generation would be welcomed by the preceding generations and be infused with encouragement, joy, conviction, and life.

Additional Information

  1. The CNEF: www.lecnef.org
  2. Libre de le dire (Free to say it): www.libredeledire.fr
  3. CNEF Youth Network: www.serviteurjeunesse.com

 

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Prayer

Emmanuel Duvieusart – La Sentinelle de Prière (The Prayer Sentinel)

We see God changing the minds of the organizational leaders with whom we work. Ideas of leadership, mentorship, and discipleship are developing, and hearts are changing. We rejoice to see this progress.

The Sentinel celebrated its 20-year anniversary at the beginning of 2023:

  • 20 years of reflection, research, creating unity, sharing, developing, battling, and praying
  • 20 years where we have seen the work of God develop here and in the French-speaking world
  • 20 years during which The Sentinel ministry united hundreds of projects and thousands of prayer warriors
  • 20 years where we sent out more than 150,000 letters and more than 200,000 prayer bulletins

For a few years, the Lord has warned us that we are going to pass the baton of the Prayer Department in order to enter a new season. But to whom, when, how… many details were unclear.

We are certain that this period through which we all are living is the right moment for even more intensive prayer; the passing of the baton must truly be directed by the Holy Spirit. In June 2022, after a meeting at the CNEF, God led me to contact two young people who had just launched a new app “prier-ensemble.com” (pray together). They are doing almost the same thing we are, but in a digital format. Excellent!

After a few back-and-forths with them, we felt conviction from the Lord that they would continue what we have accomplished over the past twenty years. In December 2022, we moved all our partnerships and our hundreds of prayer warriors onto their system in order to pursue intercessory prayer and develop its reach.

We have so many examples of what God accomplished in twenty years. But this year more people have been renewed in their prayer lives. An awakening to the world-wide spiritual situation has called many Christians, encouraging them to renew their walk with God, their prayer lives, and their prophetic side.

During several conferences that the Sentinel organized this year by Zoom or in-person, we saw dozens of people renew their walk with God, sort out personal problems, and relaunch projects to serve the Kingdom, especially with training “to again become leaders in good emotional health.”

We need to develop training for leaders, managers, supervisors, mentors, etc. for better ministry and work with Christian couples who are particularly attacked by the enemy.

Prayer Requests

  1. Pray that the Prayer Sentinel prayer warriors (800 per week) remain mobilized and alert with sharp spiritual discernment. Pray that they adapt to this new system for intercessory prayer.
  2. Pray for the couples and families who are particularly targeted.
  3. Pray for the leaders who are discovering a new method of living out their ministry, daring to tackle change, and for those who don’t want to change and are living in frustration.

Additional Information

  1. La Sentinelle (The Sentinel): www.lasentinelle.info
  2. La Box, resources for churches: www.labox.church
  3. Equip France: www.equip-france.com

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The Press and Publishing

Christian Willi – President, Alliance Presse

We have participated in several initiatives to encourage dialogue, reflection, and joint projects in French-speaking media. Showings of The Chosen in cinemas have been organized in French-speaking Switzerland. At the same time, Régénération has put out newspaper articles and radio programs. In another media collaboration, un Quart d’heure pour l’essentiel (Fifteen minutes for what matters), a large circulation newspaper, will be published for Easter 2023. Networking and fellowship get-togethers have also taken place in France. And The Chosen was aired on television.

The current crises (energy, inflation, etc.) are going to limit media resources. This desire to collaborate, even though still imperfect, is doubtless inspired by God to maximize Christian media’s future impact.

Lives Transformed

Even if it isn’t easy to point to a specific life transformed by media, we regularly hear testimonies from people who have turned away from suicide or converted or made life changes thanks to a post on social media, a radio or TV show, or even while reading an online news story.

Christian presence in consumer media continues to be marginalized. But we pray that doors will be opened for new forms of Christian presence in the media. The Chosen on television and in cinemas is one example.

Prayer Requests

  1. Pray that media collaborations would be strengthened and have a greater impact on the French-speaking European population.
  2. Pray that media directors would be blessed with renewed vision of plans that God has prepared for them for the media in their countries and beyond. Pray that they would be protected from the spirit of power that is often a major obstacle to collaborations with great spiritual impact.
  3. Pray that today’s media leaders would be able to spot the next generation of media leaders, to invest in their training, and to understand when to give way to them.

Additional Information

  1. Alliance-Presse: www.alliance-presse.info
  2. DieuTV (GodTV): www.dieutv.com
  3. Phare FM (Lighthouse FM): www.pharefm.com
  4. Radio R: www.radioreveil.ch
  5. TopChrétien: www.topchretien.com
  6. Millenium Production: www.millenium-production.ch

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Sports

Joël Thibault – President, Holistic Sports France

The Holistic Sports France association pursues its two-fold mission to reach the French-speaking high-level sports world by working with several missions and partners in France:

  • Establishing sports chaplaincy in French clubs and large sporting events
  • Providing spiritual support to high-level athletes (a listening ear, mentorship, Bible studies, missions, etc.)

Holistic Sports will coordinate chaplaincy at the World Para Athletics championships in Paris 2023. Thank you for praying for unity and a spirit of service within the international team and for opportunities to bless the athletes there.

Challenges

  1. In partnership with Go+ France: expanding the annual Needs in Sports and Leisure—Church Awareness Day since September 2022 into a dozen local churches, totaling around one hundred churches mobilized by 2024
  2. Establishing the chaplaincy at the Paris 2024 Games—in partnership with the Fédération Protestante de France (Protestant Federation of France) and the Catholic Church
  3. Wisdom and creativity in producing new resources to share the Gospel with athletes—podcasts, books, and videos

Prayer Requests

  1. Pray that the Church would be visible and active in sharing the Good News at the Rugby World Cup 2023 France, the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games, and beyond.
  2. Pray for the good witness of brothers and sisters working in amateur, leisure, and professional sports clubs, that God may give them opportunities to share the Gospel and make disciples within their environments.
  3. Pray for opportunities to certify international chaplains to serve athletes during this stressful time.
  4. Pray for the Protestant chaplaincy service opened in a care and rehabilitation center in Brittany that welcomes high level athletes and disabled athletes, as well as for the development of sports chaplaincy in partnership with the sports federations and professional clubs.

Additional Information

  1. Plus que Sportifs (More than Athletes): www.plusquesportifs.org
  2. Holistic Sports France: www.holisticsports.fr
  3. Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games: www.paris2024.org

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Audiovisual Media

The ZeWatchers Team

We see the Lord working more and more through networks in France. A new era, where Christians of all labels are starting to work together (even if this happened in the past), is gaining momentum in several fields. ZeWatchers is uniquely positioned in media through their interdenominational (so, networked) work. The example par excellence is their role in launching The Chosen, and the Christian networks that are working on this project.

It was in 2020, during a time of fasting and prayer for the ZeWatchers board, that we first watched The Chosen. We all felt the anointing that flowed from these episodes to announce Jesus to our generation. We didn’t want to miss this divine opportunity, and together we designed a seven-year plan (one year per season) around this incredible tool. Then we submitted our plan to the Lord and prayed with faith that he would entrust this remarkable series to us so that it would bless the entire French-speaking world. And that is what God did in 2021 through two miracles:

  • First, He opened doors with the American production company, which granted rights over The Chosen to ZeWatchers.
  • Then He opened doors with the Canal+ group that financed French dubbing and guaranteed primetime distribution at Christmas time. This was unprecedented in the French-speaking world.

Of all the testimonies we received following the broadcast of The Chosen in France, it is probably Marie’s testimony that touched us the most.

Marie is a young woman without any religious background. While viewing an episode of Cyrille Hanouna’s Touche pas à mon poste (Don’t Touch My TV Set!), during a section about Jonathan Roumie, the actor playing the role of Jesus, her curiosity was piqued. Marie decided to watch the series, and it spoke to her from the very first episode, “I Have Called You by Name,” which tells of Mary (“Marie” in French) Magdalene’s conversion. Troubled, she decided to buy a Bible at FNAC; she opened it, and the verse from Isaiah jumped out at her: “I have called you by your name.” She felt that this message was for her, and she wanted to know more. As the episodes continued, Marie “fell in love” with Jesus, gave her life to God, and became an ambassador for The Chosen.

This first French television experiment so inspired the American producers that season one is now broadcast on secular channels worldwide, as well as on Netflix, in fifteen languages including French. It’s truly the Holy Spirit who is leading this work and who is miraculously growing our numbers. In France, since Christmas 2022, season two has been broadcast on C8 and Canal.

The crisis continues, and our society is plunging into heavy despair; proclamation of the Good News should now, more than ever, be our priority.

In 2022, we renewed the season two contract with C8, which has broadcast The Chosen since Christmas, while season one has been available on Netflix since November 2022.

Yes, through this remarkable tool that introduces Jesus in an accessible way to those around us today, we see God opening doors that were closed until now, acting powerfully in the French-speaking world. (Ephesians 2:10: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”

Challenges

The Chosen will air for over seven years—this is an unprecedented tool for evangelism and discipleship. While exposing secular society to the Gospels remains our primary challenge (especially through TV), our second—and not insignificant—challenge, is to support all those who, because of the show, take their first steps on the pathway of faith.

  1. Engaging Christians so they won’t just watch the show, but so they’ll become ambassadors to those around them.
  2. Creating home groups to watch episodes together with family, friends, neighbors, and more. We provide a discussion guide.
  3. Organizing showings in churches, cinemas, etc. The only condition is that there be no charge to attend. Showings can be followed with a message from the Gospel, debates, or testimony—it’s up to the organizers. A practical guide for showings and posters is available for organizers.
  4. Sharing Jesus through the free The Chosen app, but also over social networks by creating YouTube, Facebook, TikTok events, etc.; mobilizing an online community and offering personalized programs.
  5. Using The Chosen as a pedagogical tool in Sunday schools, catechism, or religious teachings in private schools to reach the young.

Prayer Requests

  1. Pray for the mobilization of everyone (Christians, churches, Church families, Christian organizations) around a common goal: bring the knowledge of Jesus everywhere throughout the French-speaking world.
  2. Pray that we find financing to effectively promote this new and innovative series in order to reach as many French-speakers as possible.
  3. Pray that we reach 10,000 ambassadors (4,800 ambassadors as of today) to share The Chosen and actively join this beautiful, shared adventure.

Additional Information

  1. Site The Chosen for ambassadors: www.thechosen.info
  2. The Chosen French-language site for the general public: www.thechosen.fr
  3. The Chosen Christian news: www.infochretienne.com
  4. The Chosen prayer groups: www.groupe de prière The Chosen
  5. A prayer a day: www.upcj

The Chosen Movie

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Prayer

Fabienne Pons – France en Feu (France on Fire)

France en Feu is a missionary network of people who love and pray on behalf of France and the French-speaking world whose vocation is to serve in the presence of God and the body of the Savior for the advancement of His Kingdom in France and in the French-speaking world. “The fire on the altar shall be kept burning on it; it shall not be put out,” Leviticus 6:12.

We believe that God is present in the midst of the worship of His people and that intensifying the adoration and prayer of the children of God, united before the throne, will allow His presence to increase in our country, to bring about a revival and a powerful manifestation of His Kingdom. (Psalms 22:4-6) To this end, we encourage Christians of all denominations to come together in unity and fervor for the King, to build praise altars and houses of prayer, and—together—to seek the prophetic word for our nation following the model of worship that we find in the book of Revelations (Revelations 4 and 5).

We believe that an atmosphere of praise and worship over our nation is the strategy that God is giving us to drench France in His presence and allow souls to be saved.

Visited by the Holy Spirit during a meeting in June 2022, the entire team sees a revival and a new season arriving. Each person received refreshment and a new anointing for the vision of France en Feu; all were united in this willingness to continue to carry the country in prayer and persevere in maintaining an atmosphere of praise over our country, now more than ever.

During our last meeting in June 2022, the Holy Spirit acted powerfully during a time of worship. There were profound emotional healings, a level of communion with Christ that some among us had never experienced before, and one person who didn’t know God had a vision of Jesus and surrendered to him. Our meeting in June 2022 was encouraging, and we feel that we need to pursue this vision that the Lord has revived in us in these recent months.

Our challenge is to find finances for a room for our November 2023 meeting, where we can gather prayer warriors and do combat in prayer and in worship for the fate of our country. We believe that these moments of gathering are always strong and determinative times for France’s spiritual climate.

Prayer Requests

  1. Pray for renewal of strength in prayer for the entire France en Feu family.
  2. Pray that the Lord further reveal His heart and His plans for our country.
  3. Pray for finances.

Additional Information

France en Feu (France on Fire): www.franceenfeu.com

 

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The Homeless in France

Gilles Boucomont – President, Mission Évangélique Parmi Les Sans-Logis (Evangelical Mission among the Homeless) – MEPSL

La Mission Évangélique parmi les Sans-Logis has worked for over 50 years to bless people in the street by having teams from very different churches and denominations work together—teams from the extreme edges of the Protestant world clear through to the borders of the Evangelical world. With Entraide et Partage avec les Sans-Logis (Mutual Aid and Sharing with the Homeless), our mission provides for many needs for the homeless in the 10th arrondissement in Paris.

When the Salvationists work hand-in-hand with the neo-pentecostalists to feed the homeless, that leads to years with 90,000 hot meals, served in an open building every day of the week, all year long.

When the Reformed collaborate with the Baptists to establish a registered mailing address service, 800 people are provided with a mailing address for their official forms, their only contact point with the rest of society, and importantly, the ability to collect their welfare payments.

When the Lutherans work with the Plymouth Brethren, weekly medical support services, teams of hairdressers, literacy hours, etc. are launched—adapting month-to-month in response to changes within the marginalized population.

When Protestants unite with Evangelicals, Bible studies, church services, and a complete ministry of testimony are deployed among the high-risk population. Even last year, a baptism preparation course was offered. There are very few works so concretely involved in the unity of the Church, putting the goodness and generosity of God, and Christ’s preference for the poor, first.

With its three employees and its fifty regular volunteers, the MEPSL works, free of liabilities that would require public financing, to be able to give both “the Word and the Bread.” God is with us simply every day. We lack for nothing when it comes to blessing those who lack everything. Each week there are miracles small and large, because we don’t have the ability to stockpile more than three or four days of food. And security procedures are becoming always stricter; the technical nature of collective cooking forces us to make many investments.

We don’t want our material work to take precedence over evangelism. For news to be good, the Good News of Christ must be accompanied with a concrete provision that goes to the heart of the problems of the poorest in our societies.

Prayer Requests

  1. Pray for the growing number of homeless and the decreasing number of resources, increased by the economic crisis and booming energy costs.
  2. Pray that we remain free to share the Gospel of the Living Christ in a sometimes-hardening secular culture.
  3. Pray for discernment for administrators and for influence with governmental authorities and other partner organizations.

Additional Information

Site MEPSL: www.mission-evangelique-parmi-les-sans-logis.fr

 

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Solidarity in France

Luc Maroni – Conseil National des Évangéliques de France Solidarité (National Council of Evangelicals of France – Solidarity) – CNEF Solidarité

CNEF Solidarité is successor to the ASEV (Action Sociale Évangélique/Evangelical Social Action), renamed in 2016, and is totally dependent on the general direction of the CNEF. Our goal is to promote evangelical social engagement with many partners that (informally) make up a “network.”

Our three missions are:

  • Awaken churches to act together in society,
  • Support local projects and joint efforts,
  • Highlight the Church’s involvement in society.

Our mission is to work across sectors with Evangelical church networks and to coordinate inter-church social action.

What God tells us:

  • If evangelism, teaching, prayer, fellowship, and breaking bread are considered pillars of Christian life, it is necessary to (re)centralize love in action (Matthew 7:12; James 1:22; 1 John 3:18).
  • It seems to us that God is inviting us, especially in this time of crisis, to embody our love for others. Verbally declaring our willingness to do good should be accompanied by visible actions taken collectively.
  • We have put together a directory of nearly 300 Evangelical programs working in the social, medical, and humanitarian fields in Metropolitan France. We first acted to awaken people through masterclasses (A Word and Acts) and conferences (migrants, poverty, and solitude).
  • We are now in an experimentation phase in which the CNEF and the Associations Familiales Protestantes (Protestant Families Associations) are working together. Over several months, this new stage will establish a local model that can be duplicated throughout the country.

Prayer Requests

  1. Pray that churches understand the need to develop collective efforts to show our love through action.
  2. Pray that this experimentation phase would find a favorable response among local players and grow through collaboration.
  3. Pray that unity between the partners would solidify through this social project (coordination, support, implementation, fundraising, etc.).
  4. Pray that we would find the financial means to carry out this work and to maintain permanent paid employees.

Additional Information

  1. CNEF Solidartité: www.cnef-solidarite.fr
  2. The CNEF: www.lecnef.org
  3. Fédération Nationale des Associations Familiales Protestantes (National Federation of Protestant Family Association): www.federation-afp.fr

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Universities

Sophie Delay and Aaron Robinson – Agapé France and Agapé Campus

The CNEF Youth Network: Agapé Campus has participated in this network since its creation. Since 2019, we have met two times each year for two days to dialogue, share good ideas, pray for our shared challenges, and build a network of members, projects, and church groups that want to invest in youth. Thanks to these relationships, we now know the various projects better, and we are regularly invited to share our skills, tools, and methods to train and mobilize youth to witness in youth gatherings organized by our partners. This also makes it possible to get a variety of guests on the Nos 2 Centimes (Our 2 Cents) podcast, where we seek to have inspiring conversations to exhort students in their emotional and relational lives by presenting the Christian vision of the world.

Daniella’s story (not her real name): accompanying students throughout their walk with God

Daniella is a Christian student who joined Agapé Campus Rennes after finding the group on social media in 2021. Strongly encouraged by Stéphanie, a team member, she agreed to participate in the summer project “Camino 22,” where students from all of France gathered to walk for six days along the same path as Saint-Jacques de Compostelle. It was a big step of faith for her just to undertake this athletic challenge with eight strangers. Thanks to discussions with other participants during the hours of walking, particularly talking about the Bible, Daniella gained assurance in her walk with God. At the start of the next school year, Stéphanie found Daniella and challenged her to join the student leadership group for the Rennes group, and she accepted! This was another step of faith for her, which shows the importance of following the path and being supported throughout our walk with God.

Marianne’s story (not her real name): the importance of relationships for sharing Jesus

Marianne, a medical student from the Catholic tradition, contacted Jeannette, a team member from Montpellier, following some talks with a friend about spirituality. When Jeannette met Marianne (after first meeting on the Agapé website, following the advice of a friend), they discussed the message of the Gospels using the Agapé Connaître Dieu Personnellement (Knowing God Personally) pamphlet. Marianne prayed to accept Christ as her savior during this conversation. After a few weeks of meeting for Bible studies, Marianne has already started sharing her faith with those around her!

Prayer Requests

  1. Pray that God would help us to always be more relevant and daring in meeting students who are seeking meaning and hope, online and on campus.
  2. Pray that French youth under thirty would reinforce our team in more towns.
  3. Pray that God would strengthen student leaders so that they radiate Him in their lives and among the students facing big identity questions and very delicate mental health.

Additional Information

  1. Agapé Campus: www.agapecampus.fr
  2. Site questions2vie: www.questions2vie.com
  3. Nos 2 Centimes (Our 2 Cents) Instagram: www.nos2centimespodcast

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Prayer

Henning Schikora – Jeunesse en Mission Cévennes (Youth on a Mission, Cévennes, France)

We live in France, in the Cévennes, with a rich heritage from the prophetic movement. We have worked for twenty-seven years to see this prophetic spring flow again, which it is now doing. In six years, we have created ten prophetic three-month schools, and we were able to continue during COVID. There were more physical healings over the last two years. With the restoration of this prophetic well, God put it in our hearts to create connections with all countries where the Huguenots took refuge. Toward this end, last year, we went to Switzerland four times, Germany four times, and the Netherlands twice.

We have run five-day prophecy trainings in French-speaking Switzerland, in Germanic Switzerland, and in Germany. Our goal is to be able to help these communities experience prophecy through individualized teaching and training. And we are seeing very good results, above and beyond our expectations. We are now in contact with many churches and programs in every European country. This year, June 5-9, we are also organizing a prophecy gathering, like a new stage in the strategy, with the goal of restoring the prophetic heritage by inviting Christians from Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, England, the United States, and South Africa.

Challenges

We are at a very difficult stage of growth. More and more people want to come here to help in God’s work. We need more housing and His grace to accomplish this.

Prayer Requests

  1. Pray that God’s glory would continue to touch our work and that the blessings would continue to flow.
  2. Pray that we would continue to be able to welcome new people to this beautiful part of France.
  3. Pray that all the people who come to see us would grow in spiritual maturity.

Additional Information

  1. JEM Cévennes: www.jem-cevennes.com
  2. Prophetic paths of the Huguenots: www.voies-prophetique-huguenotes

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SEND OFF

Thank you for joining us as we have gone and continue to go deeper into intercession for those areas that are going to be critical for God’s Kingdom in France!

We know prayer is an essential weapon against the powers of darkness – mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds and barriers to hear the truth of the Gospel. This year particularly, your participation in this campaign has made a difference by praying into the specific areas that are needed for a breakthrough in France: discipleship, leadership, and networks. Thank you for being a part of the movement of the Holy Spirit to bring this nation to faith in Christ!

As you have read, there is a great deal of Kingdom work in France and we want to encourage you to keep praying for strength and perseverance for these ministries.

At Impact France, we believe in year-long support for our French brothers and sisters! This is why our mission is to mobilize prayer for and facilitate giving to our French partners. We believe that each gift, paired with faithful prayer, multiplies the impact of each ministry partner. This is where the kindling of our prayers is set ablaze with the generosity of our hearts.

Besides, if we encourage one form of worship (prayer), why would we not encourage all forms (giving, singing, testifying, etc.)? If you feel God is leading you to financially support any of the ministries listed in this guide, please visit https://impactfrance.org/min-partners/

Finally, to learn more about Impact France, please visit our website at www.impactfrance.org.

 

In Christ,

David Broussard, President
Impact France

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