All eyes on Paris

BMS World Mission workers John and Sue Wilson have spent 36 years supporting church planters in France and this summer, their church at Avenue du Maine in Paris is gearing up to welcome Olympic athletes, coaches and spectators from all over the world! Their church will be hosting a team from a church in the USA, and they’ll be hosting an open house where visitors can drop in, rest and find refreshment. They’re also planning on holding cross-cultural evenings where visitors can taste different cuisines, talk about their love of sport and hear the good news about Jesus.

To mark this historic event, special Olympic Games editions of the New Testament in English and French are being produced and distributed across Paris. The New Testaments contain twenty testimonies from Christian athletes, including the French handball player Joel Abati and the American sprinter, Alysson Felix. John and Sue are encouraging their church members to give these New Testaments to their friends, family and colleagues.

Outside of their Summer Olympics plans , Baptist churches in Paris are still seeking to minister to people on the margins of society. France-Lise, who is a member of the Wilsons’ church, regularly visits inmates as a prison chaplain. This past Easter, she invited John to come and preach at a service she was organising.

One of the inmates, Arlette, wanted to be baptised. Since immersion was not permitted by the authorities, she decided to give her testimony in anticipation of her baptism after she was released. Amazingly, fifty people from the men and women’s sections of the prison gathered in the gymnasium to hear John preach the gospel. Afterwards John and France-Lise were able to pray for some of the inmates and had several encouraging conversations over refreshments.

Whether it’s handing out Olympics-themed New Testaments or preaching the gospel inside a prison, Christians in France are finding creative ways of telling people the good news about Jesus. Please keep the Paris Olympics and Paralympics in your prayers this summer. We’re hoping to share more on how this ministry is going as the summer goes on, so look out for more updates coming soon!