left to right Kristi (Canada), Anna (Sweden), Stéphane (France), Grant (USA), Mirjam (Germany), Wiebke (Germany)
This team arrived in September 2003 and worked alongside a new church-plant in the town of Rezé, south Nantes. They built bridges with the local gypsy community:
“There are a lot of travelling people in Rezé. One day we had a lengthy chat with a gypsy lady and consequently invited her to share a meal at our flat. The conversation was difficult as she spoke neither French nor English! The following Sunday she turned up at church. It turns out she is an evangelical Christian from Romania. We have started giving her and her daughter regular French lessons. Thanks to this lady we have been introduced to the whole travelling community and recently held a children's club beside their homes. We have been invited to return on a regular basis.” (Mirjam, Germany)
“We held our first children’s club before Christmas. It involved a gospel story with sketchboard (a small boy translated into Romanian as French is a second language for most children), songs, games and sweeties. Around 15 children joined in and earnestly asked us to come again. We have therefore decided to do a club every fortnight. God has really changed my own attitude to ‘travelling people’. Where I come from, in the southwest of France, people tend to look down on them. I have begun to pray regularly with the children and bring them French Bibles to help their language learning. Please pray for these families who live in humble circumstances, and for myself as I seek to develop new ideas for the club.” (Stéphane, France)
The team also sold third-world artisan goods at a fair trade stall, situated at the entrance to a supermarket. This gave them a natural opportunity to meet people and explain what they were doing with the local church.
Quite a find!
“We were on our way to do distribution when we noticed a purse lying on the ground near our van. We quickly picked it up. It turned out that the purse belonged to someone living in the very district we were heading for!” Anna (Sweden) and Kristi (USA) knocked at the door and a woman answered, looking very surprised to see her purse in the hands of two 'foreigners' speaking in 'broken' French. She offered them 10 Euros as a thank-you, but the girls politely declined. A couple of French kisses would suffice! Thanks to this lost property the girls had a very natural opportunity to explain their activities with the Protestant church in Rezé. The same lady received a leaflet about the church in her letterbox and was curious to find out more about this new Christian community.