This is complicated terrain. From 420m to 3298m altitude, this region in the mountains has no evangelical church. I'm not in the Himalayas or some obscure country in Africa. This is Europe. And yet it seems almost surreal to think that there are places in Europe where there is limited access to the Gospel.
These 87 villages and 7 valleys have never been considered reached. Not ever. Rife with sorcery and occultism and with local traditions & beliefs that run deeper than Catholicism ever will, the Pyrenees mountains in France remains a dark place in desperate need of the Light of the Gospel.
But how does one reach 87 villages and 7 valleys? "Les Cairns". Our loving Father gave our team this powerful image as we founded our church here 6 months ago. A "cairn" is a small pile of stones gathered on the side of a path, to show hikers where to go. And so we, the church, are called to be gatherings of Living Stones who show that Jesus is the Way.
Each valley needs a cairn, a gathering of believers that live out the Gospel together in their local community. And then, once a month all the cairns ("Les Cairns"), join together in celebration.
Right now we are one cairn. But our prayer is that every valley would have a cairn and every village a Gospel witness.
"The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few." Matthew 9:37.