87 Villages. 7 Valleys. 1 Church Plant.

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.

A La Miracles

From a Pioneers in Europe Field Worker in France

If I said the words “Madonna and Lourdes” you might start thinking about the controversial singer and her daughter.  But did you know that Lourdes is a town in France that is captivated by worship of The Madonna, the mother of Jesus?

Lourdes is a Catholic town with a population of around 15,000 people.  It hosts almost six million pilgrims every year, who come seeking the Virgin Mary for healing. It was here in Lourdes in 1858 that fourteen-year-old Bernadette Soubirous saw apparitions of a lady who declared herself to be the Immaculate Conception. Nearly 800 years before, the region had been given to the authority of the Virgin Mary. Today the town is filled with hotels and religious souvenir shops for pilgrims, and the entire economy of Lourdes is dependent on the business of Mary-worship.

There hasn't been a Protestant church in Lourdes for more than 35 years.  In 2015, a Pioneers team moved into town.  The team is led by Australian Pioneers worker Lauren, and they have been labouring through prayer and relationship building over many years towards the goal the Lord placed on their hearts: that Jesus would be worshipped by a body of believers in Lourdes.  This has required a battle in the heavenly realms, as they are facing an opposition that is felt, but often unseen.  But praise God, greater is he that is in us! We are excited to share that on the 10th December 2016 the new evangelical church was launched in Lourdes with a Christmas gathering.  Official services will begin in 2017.

Please pray for the new church in Lourdes, as they establish a light in the darkness. They will be coming across much opposition, so pray that their faith will stay strong and that they would be led by God's wisdom.  Pray too for another worker, Hannah, as she prepares to join the team.  She will be gathering a support network to pray for her and support her financially.