| THE DIFFICULT HARVEST OF FRANCE
Recently I was having a chat with my brother, Craig, about France. I had sent him a file with some recently released statistics about the evangelical churches in France. At one point Craig asked me, “Now did I read correctly that there is only 1 evangelical church for every 10,000 people there?” I hastily replied, “NO! That’s the goal. There’s actually only 1 evangelical church for every 30,000 people!”
This conversation interested me for two reasons. First, it reminded me of how powerful the information is on the spiritual depravity of France. Second, it struck me that I had most certainly shared this information with Craig before, but it was easily over a year ago, and he had just forgotten the numbers. So maybe it has been a while since either Jessica or I shared with you details about the situation in France, or maybe you have yet to hear the specifics. Either way, I want to share with you about the great needs of this country.
As you might imagine, around 61% of the 66 million people who live in France claim to be Catholic. There are some problems with this, though. To start on any given week less than 5% of the total population of France attend any service of Mass. In fact, out of the people who claim to be Catholic, around 31% also claim to be atheists! When you extend this to the entire population, the percentage of atheism jumps to about 44%.
Unless you have been living in a hole for the past few years, you know that there are tensions between the traditionally French and the Muslim residents here. Well here in France around 1 in 10 people are Muslim, and I would say that this percentage is certainly higher where we live now.
No matter their background, only about 13% of the people in France feel that religion (any religion!) is important to them in any way. This is shocking, and it must change! Even though this country is beautiful and wonderful in many ways, and even though we keep meeting kind, loving French people, they absolutely need Jesus. While only 1% of the population identify as evangelical Christian, we truly sense that the tide is turning, and these churches are making steady headway against the pressures of post-Christianity. We are so thankful for the many, faithful believers who are working tirelessly as God uses them to extend his kingdom. Multiplication is a funny thing; it only needs to happen in small parts to become large very quickly.
We are certain that the Lord has called us here to help. For years, we have wondered if our ministry here would be a simple seed-planting ministry in a country with very tough soil. Since arriving, we no longer feel that we will be limited to this. The harvest is plentiful, people have prayed to the Lord of the harvest, and we are so glad to be here.
MEMORIAL DAY
It was quite fun, and truly meaningful, to see many posts from back home on Memorial Day this past week. In so many ways, France has a shared past in these U.S. holidays which honor and remember those who have served our country. From the Revolutionary War to WWI and WWII, there is very much a shared history between us. Pictured here is a memorial that we pass every time we walk to our big grocery store. We live in Massy, just south of Paris, and this memorial commemorates the liberation of Massy from German control on August 24, 1944. There is another one in Massy as well commemorating the same event. Clearly it is a meaningful memory for the people here.
In His Service,
Glen and Jessica
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