Prayer Letter

Closure of the Les Cèdres Language School

Sadly, after 53 years of faithful service, the Les Cèdres French language school in Massy will be closing its doors definitively at the end of June 2026. Why? Because the mission organisations that it serves have changed their models-of-working and, at the risk of over-simplifying, there is no longer the same need for the school.

Last summer, Philip personally contacted the fifty mission agencies that had been sending students to Massy. Those Zoom calls served to confirm that many organisations today are no longer sending mission workers from the Global North (Europe, North America, etc.), prioritising rather the 'mobilisation' of mission workers from the Global South.

The number of places required for language students at Les Cèdres has therefore, in the space of only a few short years, dropped from forty per year to just ten. That number is simply not sufficient to keep the school open.

Our hope, nevertheless, is that the closure of the Les Cèdres school in June might enable the other Christian language school in Albertville (in Southeastern France) to continue.

The Les Cèdres Building Project

You may remember us telling you about the ambitious and exciting building project in Massy, doubling the size of the worship-space for Massy Baptist Church and adding a good amount of living accommodation on the Les Cèdres site, to replace the rented accommodation around the town.

With the demise of the language school, however, the building project (designed some fifteen years ago and built over the past five years) has run into serious financial trouble. This is because the law in France imposes strict limits on what 'religious' organisations may do and so prohibits the French Baptists from renting out the newly built accommodation to anyone other than 'religious workers'.

There is no other choice than to sell the new accommodation (although not the new church building, thankfully) to reimburse the bank loans. We are in that process right now. Do pray for a successful sale in the coming months.

French Baptist Church-planters

It was good to bring together the Baptist church-planters from across France (50+ of us) for our annual two-day gathering at the end of January.

This year, there were more new faces than we've seen in a while, which is indicative of some new partnerships and of the continued priority of church-planting in a context as secular as ours.

Philip was particularly glad to be able to meet more of the Ukrainian Baptist pastors who have resettled in France over the past four years and, with help from the French Baptists and BMS, are planting new congregations.

Family News

We took a week's annual leave in February to visit our parents in Scotland.

Sadly, Rosemary's mum had had a fall and broken her arm. It was good to be able to support her, therefore.

The news of Philip's dad was brighter, as he celebrated his 92nd birthday with his sons and with the aid of two birthday cakes and a multitude of candles! 😉

Prayer Points

- Pray for the staff and students of the Les Cèdres language school, as they move toward the closure in June.

- Pray for a successful sale of the newly built living accommodation on the Les Cèdres site.

- Ask for God's blessing on the Ukrainian Baptist pastors who have resettled in France over the past four years and on the new congregations they are planting.

With our warm good wishes and our thanks for your ongoing support,

Philip & Rosemary.