"I am a new creation in Christ": God at work with refugees in France

Pastor Hassan*, who baptised these new believers, came to faith in Iran after his cousin handed him a Bible. After fleeing to France to escape from people who were persecuting him for believing in Jesus, he found himself homeless on the streets of Marseille. He started attending a Baptist church, where he received financial support, a place to stay and help with his official paperwork. He soon began to share the gospel with Farsi-speaking Afghans and Iranians. After moving to the east of France, Pastor Hassan started a church in the local park, where Iranians and Afghans met to pray, read the Bible and worship together.

Encouraged by the church’s growth, Pastor Hassan wanted the new church to connect with the wider family of French churches, so he reached out to the French Baptist Federation for help. The leaders of the Federation and BMS World Mission worker Philip Halliday encouraged Pastor Hassan and connected the Farsi-speaking church to a nearby French Baptist church.  Every Thursday, the Farsi-speaking church plant meets in a café where members can talk to Afghans and Iranians from the neighbourhood who would find it difficult to walk into a church building. As friendships develop, believers share the gospel and meet to read the Bible with other people from their community who are exploring faith in Jesus.

 “Of the 39 people we’ve seen profess faith in our town over the past five years, almost all of them have remained in Christian community,” Pastor Hassan said. He longs to see the new believers become lifelong disciples of Jesus Christ. “Our disciples exhibit zeal for Jesus with little to no biblical grounding,” he said. “Teaching the basics of the faith before baptism allows them to more fully count the cost, resulting in a long-term commitment.”

An Iranian father and daughter who were baptised in the lake this summer came to faith after a miraculous escape from the religious police. “The night her family fled, the wife spent the entire night in prayer,” Pastor Hassan said. “At the moment of their exit, the security system of the main airport shut down, allowing the husband and daughter to board a direct flight to Europe. Sitting among believers the next day, the daughter joyfully announced, ‘I believe in Jesus. I am a new creation in Christ!’ The father counted the cost and professed faith shortly after.”

BMS mission workers Philip and Rosemary Halliday are deeply encouraged by what God is doing through the Farsi-speaking church plant. “It’s amazing to see God at work, because we can do so many things, and then we see God at work through something we’ve not done at all,” said Philip. “They have a lot of baptisms, and people come and it’s just amazing. I think it’s a really great thing.”

*Name changed for security reasons.