You can help end modern slavery in the UK

You can help end modern slavery in the UK

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Thousands of people are enslaved in our country. By learning to spot the signs, you can help to set them free.

You’ve probably met someone trapped in slavery. They might have washed your car, paved your driveway, or painted your nails. You might have passed them begging on the street, or avoided their gaze as you drove by them late at night. They couldn’t tell you they were being exploited and you would never have thought to ask. But they were there, and so were you.

The National Crime Agency previously estimated that there were 13,000 people being kept in modern slavery in the UK. It now says that number is the tip of the iceberg. Modern slavery and human trafficking are so widespread, ordinary people like you and I could unknowingly be crossing paths with victims every day.

Modern slavery is endemic in the UK. Those words should be shocking. Horrifying even. And they’re true. In our cities, towns and villages, vulnerable people are being exploited for the financial gain of others. They’re being forced to live in inhumane conditions and work extreme hours for little or no pay. They’re too afraid to speak to the police. And the rest of us don’t even know what to look for.

We sat down with former BMS World Mission worker Dan Pratt, who is tackling modern slavery in the UK head-on:

There’s so much we can do as churches and community centres

Christians should hate slavery – Jesus declared his mandate “to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and… to set the oppressed free” in Luke 4: 18, and he calls us to do the same. By supporting BMS, you’re already helping in the fight against modern day slavery in the UK and overseas. And the good news is, you can do even more.

Richard* is 56. He’s been homeless for 40 years. He lives on the streets of Southend and a few years ago he was picked up by a travelling family who offered him work. “I was walking down the street and a 4×4 pulled up and they said, ‘do you want a bit of work?’ So I went with them,” Richard says.

That’s how easy it is for someone to inadvertently walk into slavery. People are desperate. They’ll say yes to a job.

Thankfully, Richard’s exploitation only lasted for a few weeks, but other homeless men in Southend have spent years doing forced labour. “They were given accommodation, and spent 16 or 18 hours tarmacking people’s driveways,” says Rev Dan Pratt, minister at 57 West, a church and community centre in Southend. “Often if they weren’t paid then they would want to leave, but through physical abuse, mental abuse, or even threats to their families, they didn’t feel able to.

“Some of the people we’ve met worked for those families for 12, 15 or even 20 years.”

Dan, a former BMS mission worker, has come alongside many people who have escaped slavery in Southend. His passion to set the prisoners free developed when he was working with BMS in South Africa. Now, we’re helping to support his work in the UK. In partnership with the Baptist Union of Great Britain and the Eastern Baptist Association, BMS is helping to fund Dan as he heads up Together Free, a network aiming to raise awareness of modern slavery and to help churches across the country fight it. That means, as a BMS supporter, you’re helping to fight slavery in the UK. And in order to fight it more effectively, all of us need to understand what modern slavery is.

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We read reports of children carrying hard drugs, and of pop-up brothels – where trafficked women are made to work with little or no pay. People have been kept in slavery at car washes, construction sites, and in people’s homes. It’s happening everywhere.

Since attending a workshop run by Dan and Together Free, Baptist minister Emma Hunnable has been spurred to act against modern slavery. She’s started speaking with her local council and police officers to find ways the church and community can work together.

People who are being kept in slavery have a fundamental right to life in fullness

“If it’s happening in Southend, then it must be happening everywhere,” says Emma. “It’s happening right
on our doorsteps. And as churches, we need to know. We need to be contacting our local councillors and MPs and asking ‘what is going to be the policy on this? What are we going to do about it?’”

Uncovering modern slavery is like trying to piece together a jigsaw puzzle. No-one has all the information. But vulnerable people who are being exploited need to be helped and, while they are unlikely to talk to the police, they might speak to you. The traffickers and slave masters are smart, that’s why they can enslave so many people, and so we need to be smart too.

“There’s so much we can do as churches and community centres,” says Dan. “We’re often working with food banks, with homeless shelters, with crèches – we’re at the grassroots level in our community. We are the eyes and the ears, and we have the possibility of breaking the disconnection that lets modern slavery thrive.”

It’s a huge challenge. And it’s one that we, as Christians called to care for the least and the lost, need to seize. In the resource below you’ll find helpful advice for how to spot the signs of modern slavery and what to do if you suspect someone is being exploited. Your church doesn’t need to start a new initiative or raise loads of money to fight this – you’re already in the places where the people most at risk will be. We just need to be more aware. To be smart. To see.

“People who are being kept in slavery have a fundamental right to life in fullness, and this is what BMS is all about – going to the darkest places, to the hardest places, to the least evangelised, to the people who need to know God’s love the most,” says Dan.

We can break the disconnection that lets modern slavery thrive

That is what we’re about – everywhere we work. That’s why we’re working with people like Dan to raise awareness of modern slavery in the UK. And that’s why we’re asking you to help us. The Church is an army ready to be mobilised to fight slavery. We’re made up of doctors and rubbish collectors, teachers and food bank volunteers. If we all learn to spot the signs of slavery, together we can proclaim freedom for the prisoners.

*Names changed

This article appears in the new issue of Engage, the BMS magazine. Subscribe today by hitting the button on the right to read more about how your gifts are transforming lives around the world.

People are meeting Jesus in hospital

People are meeting Jesus in hospital

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Hospital patients become Christians in a Muslim-majority community. Thousands receive prayer and pastoral care. And the healing that only Jesus can provide is experienced by people for the first time. All of this happens at a BMS World Mission supported hospital in Chad, where the gospel is being spread in traditional and innovative ways.

Waiting rooms can often be the most terrifying place in a hospital. Anxiety thrives among the rigid rows of chairs. And sadly, for many, so does loneliness.

The waiting area at Guinebor II Hospital near Chad’s capital may appear different to those most of us are familiar with – there are benches, not chairs, and the space is open to the elements on three sides. But we’re all familiar with the feelings that people experience there.

BMS-supported chaplain Pastor Djibrine knows them well too. He sits with patients, talking to them as they wait to be seen by a doctor or nurse.

The Bibles available for people to read provide scope for discussion, as do the Christian films shown on the solar-powered television in the corner.

Pastor Djibrine also makes bedside visits, praying with people, comforting them, and answering questions about Jesus. And while some patients ask to keep the Bibles they find at the end of their beds, others receive Scripture through micro SD cards for use in their mobile phones.

People in the waiting area at Guinebor II Hospital.

The cards contain 35 Bible stories in four languages, and Pastor Djibrine gives them to people interested in the gospel. Your gifts pay for these cards, just as they do for the Bibles. And lives are being transformed.

Pastor Djibrine (right) talks to a man at a BMS-supported hospital in Chad.
Pastor Djibrine (right) shares tea and conversation outside a BMS-supported hospital in Chad.

Abdelhaziz* was at the hospital receiving treatment for cancer. While he was there, Pastor Djibrine spent time with him, chatting and explaining his faith. Through these conversations, Abdelhaziz met Jesus and decided to follow him. When he was well enough to go home, Pastor Djibrine gave Abdelhaziz an SD card and put him in touch with believers in his home town. Having gone into the hospital unwell and far from Christ, Abdelhaziz left with his faith placed in Jesus, and part of a new community.

Another person who wanted to know about Jesus was Hassan*, a young Muslim man studying religion at the University of N’Djamena. Not only did he leave the hospital with his own Bible, he also asked Pastor Djibrine for a copy for his friend. The Holy Spirit at work outside the hospital’s walls.

Healthcare excellence and God's love – BMS worker Kat on the work at Guinebor II Hospital

Look what you've achieved in 12 months:

• Over 5,000 patients at Guinebor II Hospital were touched by the love of God through prayer, conversation, and home visits – work that continues today.

• An average of 35 people a month were given a Bible or CD with narrated biblical stories.

• One hundred people received micro SD cards containing Bible stories.

• Almost 3,500 people watched a Christian film in the hospital’s waiting room, and the films are still being shown regularly.

Through your giving, you’re helping people who are sick and frightened find healing, comfort and strength in Christ. People are getting to read the Bible, hear its truth in their own language, and receive prayer from Pastor Djibrine. And some people, such as Abdelhaziz, have decided to follow Jesus for themselves and have been welcomed into a community of believers.

Thanks to your support, Guinebor II Hospital has become a shining beacon of hope in Jesus, and we think that’s amazing.

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* Names changed

Women around the world need you to pray

Women around the world need you to pray

Praying for this

Freeing women from the sex trade. Giving women a voice in Afghanistan. Equipping women to start their own businesses. These are just some of the ways that BMS World Mission is working to empower women around the world. And to thrive, these women and these projects need your prayers.

Empowering women to set up businesses in Guinea

Women in Guinea are underprivileged, often not having the same standard of living as men in society. BMS workers Caroline* and Victor* are helping these women to set up self-help groups, where around 20 women come together each Sunday to save money corporately, which can then be loaned to members of the group. This then lets women borrow money to set up small businesses, so they can provide for their families and the community around them.

Caroline and Victor’s prayer requests:

– Pray for the woman who is borrowing £80 every two months to finance a restaurant, so she can continue to provide for her family and those around her. Pray for success.

– We’re looking for four stakeholders to form a committee, who will then provide training so more self-help groups can be established. Pray that we would find the right people for the job.

Freeing women from the sex trade in Thailand

Paul and Sarah Brown are reaching out to survivors of sex trafficking and women who’ve been sexually exploited in Bangkok, Thailand. They’re empowering these women by teaching them how to make jewellery and cakes, as well as giving them opportunities to receive business training.

Their prayer requests:

– Pray for ways we can support, empower and enable women who are survivors of trafficking.

– Pray that more traffickers will be brought to justice and that Bangkok’s local authorities will become better equipped to find them.

Giving women a voice in Afghanistan

Women in Afghanistan often don’t have a say in what goes on in their village, where men are generally the key decision makers.

BMS partners in Afghanistan are working to change this by creating a women’s council in every village they work in. Making sure that the council is representative of all women in the village, it regularly meets alongside a men’s council which often already exists. This allows women to have a say in important decisions that will affect them, like where the water pipelines and latrines should be built.

BMS workers Catherine* and Rory* are part of our team in Afghanistan.

Their prayer requests:

– Pray for women-headed households in these villages, where men are away working and send money back when they can. Food shortages are predicted this year, and these families will be the ones hit the hardest.

– Give thanks for the local female staff that work with us in Afghanistan – they’re amazing role models. They are showing that women can work and empower people.

Empowering women in France

It’s dangerous to be a homeless woman in France, as many face abuse or are at risk of being forced into prostitution. Christine Kling, alongside a group of volunteers, set up a day shelter for these women. It gives homeless women a place to stay, rest and eat a meal, and it’s a place of dignity and respect.

As a pastor, Christine also wants to see more women in France step into Christian leadership. Through training and mentoring, more women are becoming confident in their gifts and calling.

Christine’s prayer requests:

– The homeless shelter requires many volunteers to keep it running. Give thanks for the people currently volunteering, and pray for new volunteers to come forward to join the project.

– Pray that more women in the new generation of Christians in France will feel confident and supported in their calling as pastors.

Providing employment for survivors of sex trafficking in India

Thousands of women from rural villages in India have been trafficked into Kolkata to work in the red light district. BMS works alongside local partners offering employment to those wanting to leave the sex trade. The women also receive training – including learning how to read and write – as well as one-to-one counselling.

Prayer requests:

– Pray for the health and safety of foreign staff in India, as they do what they can to help empower women in challenging conditions.

– Pray for wisdom and guidance as our partners look to create a further 200 jobs over the next three to four years for women wanting to leave the sex trade.

– Pray for BMS volunteers Annette and Ron Salmon as they work alongside vulnerable women in India.

We have many more workers and partners who are involved in empowering women. From projects in Uganda and Mozambique that work to educate women on their legal rights, to workers in Nepal who provide teacher training, leading to better education for girls. Please continue to pray for our workers all over the world as they help women see their God-given value. Let us know you’re praying by hitting the big blue button!

*Names changed to protect identity

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Justice League

Christian Lawyers are speaking up for the poor and oppressed in Mozambique.

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In a small church, with an orange sand floor and iron-sheeted walls, the attention of 25 people is focused unwaveringly on a tall woman in her mid-fifties. An experienced Mozambican lawyer, speaking to them in their own language about their rights. One minute everyone is roaring with laughter, the next they’re silent. Lidia commands respect. She’s teaching them about gender based violence. About what Scripture says. What the law says. Giving them biblical keys to unlock answers. Is it okay to beat your partner? No. Is it okay to force a teenager to marry? No. People are answering. Nodding. Understanding. Some of them are visibly moved.

After the session, which lasts all morning, nine people come forward to ask Lidia questions. That’s Saturday, and on Tuesday morning two people arrive at the Christian lawyers’ office in Maputo to get advice about the family issues and domestic violence they’re experiencing. They’ve discovered that help exists.

This is what the Association of Mozambican Christian Lawyers (AMAC) is all about. Teaching people the law. Speaking up for the poor and needy. Defending the abused and oppressed. Christian lawyers coming together, in one of the least developed countries in the world, to share God’s heart for justice and see the vulnerable realise their rights.

Through your gifts, prayers and support, BMS World Mission has been walking with AMAC every step of the way. The association was born, in part, out of our legal work in Uganda with the Ugandan Christian Lawyers’ Fraternity; and over the last six years, we’ve seen AMAC grow from a dream into an established organisation educating churches, schools and communities on their rights and providing legal aid for some of the country’s most marginalised people. A small number of Christian lawyers – from Mozambique, Uganda and the UK – are demonstrating that the law is good, that much of it comes from the Bible, and that it’s for everyone. They’re gathering members and momentum. And they’re just getting started.

People with no money believe that there is no justice in the world

The challenges facing many Mozambicans are huge and varied, so the BMS-supported justice league has a lot of work to do.

For the poor and vulnerable here, the law is literally a foreign language. It is written in Portuguese and almost 50 per cent of the population, like many in the church Lidia was visiting, don’t speak it fluently. An added problem is that the laws, although good, are relatively new (with Mozambique only obtaining independence in 1975, and then suffering through civil war from 1977 to 1992) so they have not had long to become established.

Widespread poverty and a lack of opportunity mean that countless people are suffering injustices without even knowing there are laws in place to protect them. The justice system is simply inaccessible.

“People with no money believe that there is no justice in the world,” says Gervasio, a BMS-supported lawyer in Beira. Our team is working to show them that’s not true.

Legal education saved Aida* from a loveless, forced marriage. She was 16 when her parents demanded she marry a 40-year-old man or face a severe beating. Her sister, a preschool teacher, attended an AMAC legal education session and had one of her friends ask about child marriage. AMAC explained that it is illegal in Mozambique for anyone under the age of 18 to get married, and it is also illegal to beat a child.

Equipped with this knowledge, a group from the training went with Aida’s sister to her parents’ house and confronted them, explaining what they had learnt about the law. The parents confessed they hadn’t known it was wrong.

They were sorry and relented. That was a year ago. Now, Aida is living with her sister and is part of a church. She is free from fear of violence and forced marriage, and is thankful to the Christians who helped her.

Education is helping people trapped in abusive marriages too, by changing the minds of their pastors. In Mozambique, pastors are often called upon to mediate cases between church members, but many believe that when it comes to marriage, reunion is always the answer – even in the case of extreme domestic violence. This is changing. One pastor who was strongly against ever condoning separation when he first met with AMAC, stood up at the end of the legal education in his church and told his congregation: ‘if your partner hits you once, come to me. If it happens again, go to the police and I will support you.’

“A lot of change can be made through education,” says Kathy, a lawyer who has just finished four years of service with BMS in Mozambique.

“We’re empowering the Church to take justice seriously and to act.”

Not all injustice is obvious. Working in churches and communities, the BMS-supported legal teams based in Beira and Maputo regularly meet people who are unregistered citizens or who believe they are married when legally they are not. These legal misunderstanding can have big ramifications. By explaining simply how to register a baby (or in many cases an adult) or get married legally, AMAC is helping people learn when they are outside of the law and what to do about it.

On the outskirts of Beira, eight couples recently got married. Through AMAC training, these men and women discovered they weren’t legally husbands and wives. Now they have the protection marriage can bring – the women will no longer lose their homes and security as well as their partners if their husbands die. It’s all very biblical. Disputes over land. Widows and orphans.

All our legal education is focused on empowering the most vulnerable in society. AMAC runs sessions with rural, untrained pastors and with city street boys; with teenagers in schools and with preschool teachers working with disadvantaged children. Our lawyers have even started working with a deaf church, where the congregation struggles to understand or be understood by the community and is very vulnerable to abuse and injustice.

As well as teaching people about their rights, BMS-supported legal workers are advocating for the voiceless. We’re representing imprisoned street children to see that they get a fair trial and don’t remain in custody indefinitely. We’re helping single mothers to receive the child maintenance they’re entitled to. And we’re supporting survivors of domestic and sexual violence.

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We’re empowering the Church to take justice seriously and to act

Tiago* sits on a pew in First Baptist Church in Beira and quietly tells a story. A grown man raped his 12-year-old niece. It took nearly four years to get the culprit convicted. The man got two years for his crime – impersonating a police officer to scare a child into following him to an isolated place, sexually assaulting her and then running away. He is appealing his sentence.

The injustice is brutal. While Tiago’s niece still suffers, her attacker has never been imprisoned and despite being convicted, he will remain free until his appeal is heard and denied. “Here in Mozambique, rape is a crime. Yet the accused person was never arrested,” says Tiago. “It’s very difficult for [my niece] to forget what happened. It’s never left her mind.”

The AMAC team has been walking alongside Tiago’s niece since he brought the case to them. No-one is happy with the outcome, but Tiago has hope that some justice will be done. “Without doubt, AMAC should continue,” he says.

“They assist people without charge. They walk with the client step by step. They gave us good treatment, provided psychological assistance and accompanied us in court.”

Annet, our legal team leader in Mozambique, has been helping to support Tiago’s niece. She has more reason than most to empathise, having herself survived sexual violence as a child – an experience that motivated her to become a lawyer in the first place. “Justice is at the heart of God. It’s a mission from God himself,” she says. “If Mozambican lawyers can understand why it’s important for them as Christians to do justice for the poor, they will transform many lives.”

And Mozambican lawyers are doing just that.

But they need your support. There aren’t many lawyers here, let alone Christian lawyers willing to give up the lucrative career they’ve studied hard for to pursue justice for the vulnerable.

And yet those who have captured the vision are holding fast to AMAC’s mandate: “Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow” (Isaiah 1: 17).

Your gifts, your prayers and your partnership are vital. “Without BMS support, maybe we can’t survive,” says Luis Generoso, AMAC’s Executive Director and one of its founding members.

And it’s so important that AMAC survives, and thrives.

“If you don’t have justice, you feel like you are not valuable,” says Marie Josee, a BMS-supported lawyer in Maputo. “We exist and manage to do this work because of BMS. I want you to know that the money and the efforts you are giving are not in vain.”

In a small church, with an orange sand floor and iron-sheeted walls, the attention of 25 people is focused unwaveringly on a tall woman in her mid-fifties. She’s telling them about their rights. Telling them that the Bible and the law say that they have value. She’s handing them a set of keys. Giving them a way to unlock some of the doors they’ve been trapped behind.

She’s opening their minds. And the knowledge she is giving them is setting captives free.

 

*Names changed

This article appears in the new issue of Engage, the BMS magazine. Subscribe today by hitting the button on the right to read more about how your gifts are transforming lives around the world.

Learn to do right; seek justice.

Real people are suffering injustices and abuse every day in Mozambique. We want to stop this, and you really can help us.

Invest in our justice mission in Africa. Commit to regularly praying for and giving to the work you have just read about by becoming a BMS 24:7 Justice Partner. For more information click here or phone 01235 517628.

Meet the Vokuhls

Nepal bound:

Meet the Vokuhls

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Pippa, Toby, Jakey, Ella and Millie Vokuhl fly to Nepal on Saturday with BMS World Mission. Find out why they feel called to mission and what they’ll be up to overseas.

After months of preparation, Pippa and Toby Vokuhl are ready to begin an exciting new chapter of their lives, serving God in Nepal. They are part of Headington Baptist Church in Oxford and have three children: Jakey (nine), Ella (seven) and Millie (three).

Amidst packing up their house, saying goodbyes and doing other last-minute tasks, Pippa and Toby sat down with us to talk about the adventure they’re getting ready to embark on.

Have you always wanted to work overseas?

“I would say yes for both of us – since our teenage years we’ve felt called to work overseas,” says Pippa. “We both worked in separate places overseas before we got married. I worked as a physiotherapist in Uganda and Toby worked as a carpenter in Nazareth.
“Toby and I actually met at All Nations Christian College,” Pippa continues. “So even from the start of our marriage, mission was very much on the agenda.”

How did you decide to move overseas?

“When we started to consider whether an overseas assignment might be right for us as a family and if that was something God might be calling us to,” says Toby, “it led us to start having conversations with BMS.”

“We had a Skype call with someone in Nepal telling us about the project and whether Toby would consider taking this role,” says Pippa. “As we got off the call, we both looked at each other and went, yes! This is the right one! So we both had a deep peace about this being the right thing to do.”

I’m looking forward to being able to encourage Nepali Christians and likewise them to encourage us

What will you be doing in Nepal?

“My background is in construction management,” says Toby. “I will be working with a local BMS partner as part of their disaster response and resilience department, based in Pokhara – there’s still a lot of ongoing work in terms of the reconstruction of housing that was damaged in the 2015 earthquakes.

“I’ll be working with local colleagues to help with the construction of houses, as well as training craftsmen, giving people the necessary skills to build a better future for themselves by teaching them how to improve the quality of their own homes.”

“For me, it’s a bit less clear at the moment,” says Pippa. “Initially when we get there it will be about settling the family in.

“We’ll both be doing some language study for a couple of months, and then after that I’ll be praying that God will give me the right role.”

How did your children react when they found out they were moving?

“We were really encouraged by their response – they were really up for it and excited,” says Toby. “They’re now working through the sort of thoughts of losing friendships and how they can maintain them in Nepal, but in general they took it really well.”

What are you looking forward to when you go?

“Getting to know local Nepalis,” says Pippa. “Getting to know Nepali Christians and learning from them, being able to encourage them and likewise for them to encourage us – to be part of that global Christian family. I’m also looking forward to seeing my kids having new cultural experiences as well.”

“For me,” says Toby, “I’m really looking forward to meeting local colleagues, meeting with local Christians and joining in with the ongoing relief efforts, as well as the cross-cultural experience and the chance to learn new things.”

Even from the start of our marriage, mission was very much on the agenda

What can people be praying for?

“If you could pray for the kids,” says Pippa. “Toby and I have had experience overseas, so we know what to expect. But if people could pray for them with the transition, that they would just feel really settled and happy.”

“I think pray for general health really, that would be great,” says Toby. “It would be a shame to catch the flu just as we’re getting ready to go out!

“You can get tired and weary with all the work involved in a move, so also pray for energy, calmness and for peace. And please pray for the journey to Nepal and our stay in Kathmandu, before our journey to Pokhara where we will then settle ourselves in.”

If you’re an individual and want to commit to giving regularly to support the Vokuhl family, you can become a 24:7 Partner by clicking the box on the right.

If you’re a church and want to support the work they’ll be doing out in Nepal, you can become a Church Partner with us by clicking here.

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Could you be called to mission overseas?

Vive La Revolution

France:

Vive la revolution

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God is turning lives around in hyper-secular France, where evangelical Christians make up less than one per cent of the population. You are part of the revolution.

Twenty young people become Christians at a youth conference in October 2015. Another hundred go forward to be prayed for, desiring to step out in faith when they get back home. An angry man who has had a very difficult childhood and gets agonising stress migraines makes friends with some Christians. He meets Jesus, becomes part of a church community and finds peace. His headaches stop completely.

A man who believes in God but has never had a relationship with him has a physical, almost tangible encounter with the Holy Spirit while reading Romans 6 in a Bible study with a BMS World Mission worker. He sees himself completely differently. Sees his sin nailed to the cross. He gets baptised.

The gospel is shared, heard, encountered. The revolution has begun.
It’s not the revolution of a nation – huge, unmissable and hard-won with guillotines and bloodshed. It’s a revolution of lives. Of individual men and women, won and transformed by Christ’s love in one of the most fiercely secular nations in Europe. It’s happening in the whisper. It’s happening through your support. It’s happening right now.

French-ness and the gospel – a real explosive mix

Connexion 2017, a youth conference in France, is causing a revolution amongst young French Christians.

Statistics about the evangelical Church in France are pretty discouraging. While Muslims make up seven per cent of the population, evangelicals comprise less than one per cent. France prides itself on its secularism, and the French Church has a turbulent history, which doesn’t help. “There are two worlds in France,” says BMS pastor Christine Kling, “people who go to church, and people who have no contact at all with faith.”

And yet some stories defy the statistics. They’re miracles, really. Christine’s is one of them. Until a few years ago, Christine was in that other world she describes: she barely knew anything about Christianity.

It wasn’t until 2010, when she moved to Scotland following the death of her husband, that she came to hear the gospel message and have her life utterly transformed.

Six years later, Christine came back to France with BMS, ready to share Jesus with French people who are still as far from him as she once was. Now, she’s working to revitalise a dying church.

Understanding that broken relationships and loneliness are huge issues for the French, Christine is using her personal experiences to share Jesus. “I always speak about relationships to explain that in Jesus I feel accepted,” she says. “I feel loved. I never feel alone anymore. There’s this new sense of freedom. I was freed of my sadness.”

Christine’s call back to France is already having an impact.

A man and his wife pray and pray for a pastor to come and serve in their rapidly shrinking church, which has been without a leader for 15 years. Just months before he dies of cancer, Christine arrives to see if she can help. He calls her an answer to his prayers.

Homeless and refugee women of all religions and none gather in Massy at a day centre organised by Christine and the pastor of the local Reformed church. They find safety and rest. They find a place to share their stories. Some of them ask for prayer.

Flashes of light in the darkness. 

Even the fact that the evangelical Church is a minority within a minority in France (evangelicals = less than one per cent, Protestants = two per cent) is actually, in some ways, a strength. “Because we’re so small, there’s no hesitation about what our role is,” says BMS pastor Philip Halliday, who heads up the Home Mission Department of the French Baptist Federation (FEEBF).
“It’s obvious – it’s to live out the gospel and to find fresh ways of communicating the good news of Jesus.”

That’s what Christine is trying to do in Gif-sur-Yvette, near Paris. And it’s what BMS workers Claire-Lise and David Judkins are doing in Brive-la-Gaillarde – in the physical and social centre of France. They’ve moved away from a traditional church service model in order to better share the gospel with people who have not yet encountered Jesus.

They meet around a table, sharing food and stories, studying the Bible and praying together. The first Church Around the Table officially started in September 2016, and by January 2017 they’d grown large enough to split into two Tables, welcoming around 30 people altogether.

Six people have been baptised since the BMS church plant started.

Six people whose lives have been radically transformed. Who’ve seen the light.

Louise* is going through a difficult separation when she meets Claire-Lise and David. She’s into Buddhism, and when she finds out Claire-Lise is a pastor she tells her she is wrong. Louise is totally against Christianity. But then God touches her heart, and she starts asking questions. Amazingly, she asks for a Bible. She reads it, believes it, gives her life to Christ. She finds peace, forgives and accepts herself and reconciles with her husband. She gets baptised.

And she gets sick with cancer.

Louise’s non-Christian husband prays for her to get better and, by prayer and radiotherapy, she is healed. He gives his life to Christ and is baptised too.

“Their whole family is transformed,” says David. “He is somebody who’s struggled with depression, and now we’re struggling to control him in the group because he’s such a goofball, making jokes all the time.”

Beyond the local church, in the very centre of the Federation, BMS workers have helped to instil a hunger for mission that is permeating the life of French Baptists. “They have given their fire and passion for mission to others at the heart of the Federation,” says FEEBF General Secretary Mark Deroeux. “People are now able to say that, yes, as Christians, it’s possible to give your life to Christ and not be afraid of being a witness.”

In a mining village in the north of France, a struggling young pastor called Thierry Auguste receives a BMS grant to pay his salary. Fifteen years later he is the President of the Baptist Federation, helping to drive the vision of churches across the nation. He says he has never forgotten the gift. Says that, “When I had nothing and BMS helped me, I felt very rich all of a sudden.” Says that the gospel is worth all the sacrifices he now makes to volunteer for the Federation, that “the fruits we receive from the ministry are most precious – they’re men and women who give their lives to Christ.”

When I had nothing, BMS helped me – I felt rich

Following a terror attack in Paris, 200 people gather together for an ecumenical service in Brive, organised by BMS workers and their church planting team. In the midst of tragedy, non-Christians come into a church to pray.

The evangelical Church in France is small, but it’s not weak. At its heart is this fire to share the good news. To reach more people. To save more hearts. And the Christians here are a tiny minority, but they are strong. They believe what they profess – if they didn’t, they’d walk away from the Church and never come back. Because it’s not normal to be an evangelical Christian, it’s hard.

And yet, there is so much in France and the French that is already a reflection of the image of God. As church planter David says: “in their creativity, hospitality, and relationships, there’s so much there that is reflective of God’s plan and desire.

“If the two could go together – this core French-ness and the gospel that’s embodied in that –then you’d have a real explosive mix.”

Fifteen new Baptist churches are being planted across France.

The number of evangelicals here is nine times greater than it was 60 years ago.

The revolution has begun. It’s not the revolution of a nation, not yet. But it’s a revolution of individual lives. It’s people coming to life. The challenge for the French Church is to dare and to keep on daring. To be bold and to speak out for the gospel. The challenge for us, France’s neighbour, with a larger, stronger, better-resourced Church, is to keep helping them to shine.

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Beaux Guests

They’re shining God’s light in France, with your support.

Philip and Rosemary Halliday

Philip is President of the French Baptist Federation’s (FEEBF) Home Mission Department, overseeing the 15 church plants across the country and encouraging FEEBF churches to be more outward looking. He and Rosemary travel across France offering pastoral support and vision to pastors. Rosemary is also involved in a local church’s young adults’ ministry.

John and Sue Wilson

John and Sue are breathing new life into Avenue du Maine Baptist Church in the heart of Paris. John also leads FEEBF’s Ministry Commission, while Sue heads up the Federation’s Youth Committee, which includes organising the national youth conference.

Christine Kling

Christine is the pastor of the Baptist church in Gif-sur-Yvette, near Paris, working to replant and grow the congregation. She also helps run a day shelter for homeless women, works as chaplain at a residential home in Gif and does project management for FEEBF.

Claire-Lise and David Judkins

Claire-Lise and David are pioneering Church Around the Table in Brive-la-Gaillarde. They’re building relationships and sharing Christ as they lead the church plant, which they hope will become a movement of disciples who make disciples who make disciples.