The Apollos Team has been super busy these last few months! Thanks to everyone for their prayers and support. Please continue to pray for this ministry.
In November, we had the opportunity to attend the annual convention of the Alliance Baptiste de France in Paris. It included three days of meeting the pastors and members of churches from all over France. The Lord really blessed in that many of those pastors have asked us to come to their churches to help them with ministry projects.
After Paris we spent two days cleaning up the camp before heading out to Strasbourg where the father of Damaris, one of our team members, is a Pastor. We spent an entire week with their church doing mass distribution of tracts and bibles, as well as attending prayer meetings, classes with Pastor Olivier Bourrel and Pastor Thiery Jupiter, and the baptism of Damaris!
From Strasbourg we went straight to Lille where we have our “base of operations” for the winter months. After only three days in Lille, we left for Rouen to work for two weeks with Pastor Kim Fox. What a blessing that church is! It really has a heart for winning souls. They are forging ahead and growing as a church. While in Rouen, we got quite a bit of on-the-job training in evangelism that has helped very much in the rest of our ministries.
December was a little more laid back. . .not! We were able to help three churches (Somain, Laon and Lille) with Christmas celebrations and services and joined the choir at two of them. We also helped with the children’s aspect of each church, which involved a lot of evangelism. It is always a blessing to learn from the many people that we meet. Finally, on Dec. 20th, our Christmas break started!
During the Christmas break I was really glad to have my Dad there to keep me company and take part in the church activities. We went street caroling in the grand square at Lille with the Sirmons and a group from the church. Christmas day was spent with the Sirmons, who were very hospitable while we were there, and with several ladies from the church. There was a New Years dinner at the church which was very well attended and was a great time of fellowship for everyone.
The Program started up again on Jan 11th with classes from Amelie Coste on the subject of Child Evangelism. This has been a great course for all of us because it presents a lot of examples and ideas. We are finishing that course this weekend with a club in St Denis (Pastor Steve Barnes – North of Paris) where we will be serving for the weekend. Each of us will have a different activity to lead and children to watch over. I’m looking forward to it!
In January we stayed close to Lille working in the churches at Somain and Lille. February has started and we have a full schedule for the next couple of months. We started the first week in the church of Paris Centre with Pastor Andre Barnes doing street evangelism and a special service for people that wanted to know more about the Apollos program. We each gave our testimony, had a question/response time, and an afternoon fellowship with many people of the church.
Meetings and/or weekends are lined up for: St Denis, Orleans, La Rochelle, Bayeux, and Laon for the next month. Please pray for these meetings!
I have been progressing very well in the French language. Please pray that I will gain confidence in using the language, I still make MANY mistakes but am getting a little better each time I speak.
God bless you all!
Rachel Gostlin