David & Rebecca Pater: Updates from France - January & February 2021
Curfew, Baptisms, and the (Official) Launch of our Third Site
Dear praying friends and family,
The Changes Brought About by a Nation-wide Curfew
After emerging from a nation-wide lockdown in mid-December, the good times didn't last long as the French government decided to institute a 6PM curfew about a month later. The situation brings back memories of being a teenager, though instead of getting a stern talk from our parents if we didn't get home in time, we risk getting a rather large fine from the Police! In order to avoir these fines, we've had to be creative in adapting our activities. Many small groupes have started meeting as early as 6AM, and our evening service (more information below) has also become an afternoon service, meeting at 4PM instead of 6PM. Despite the complications, we are very thankful to be able to meet up on Sundays and during the day with others, and we continue to pray for wisdom for our authorities as they navigate this next phase of the crisis.
The Joy of Baptizing 4 New Believers
The curfew was put in place just several days before our latest baptism service. As a result, we had to scramble to change the service time and to get everything set up and torn down before 6PM. By God's grace, we were able to surmount this difficulty and the overall sentiment to describe the day was one of joy as 4 new brothers and sisters shared their testimonies and obeyed Christ's command to be baptized. This baptism service was the first since the beginning of the COVID crisis, and it was particularly encouraging to be reminded that even though our ministry was limited and changed all throughout last year, nothing can stop God's power to save! We praise the Lord for his grace towards us in Christ!
Our Church Officially Has Three Locations!
In our last newsletter, we shared how we were leaning as a Church towards establishing a core group for an official launch of a third site. This was something that we were hoping to undertake in 2021 even before the arrival of the virus as we figured numerical growth would force us to consider a third meeting site. However, while numerical growth has not advanced much this last year, the capacity of our current meeting locations has decreased with all of the various restrictions. As such, we have been renting a big location in the evening in the heart of downtown Toulouse. Seeing how God had opened this door, we prayerfully decided to consider putting together a team of 25 members from our two other locations to go out and launch this project officially. We (David and Rebecca) are leading this project and it's been quite a crazy past two months. We recruited the 25 members (all of whom said 'Yes'), we had a launch Sunday where we were sent out by the other members of the church, and we have been meeting regularly for the last 6 weeks. We are very humbled to have been entrusted with this responsibility, and we are blessed to be surrounded by a wonderful and talented team. It's tough to not see certain friends as much as we would like, but we know that we are here in France for a reason: to spread the gospel of Jesus-Christ with as many people as possible. So far, our evening services have provided us opportunities to do just that. Last week we had over 50 people in attendance, many of whom are new to the church. Please be praying that the Lord would continue to glorify himself mightily here in the heart of Toulouse!
Praying you all have had a blessed start to 2021,
David and Rebecca
Praises
For the possibility to continue to meet together on Sundays, despite the continuing restrictions.
For the baptisms of Fabio, Luc, Lucie and Marco!
For the 25 members of our church who were ready to respond positively to the call to plant a third service location!
For the many new people who continue to come and discover the good news of Jesus-Christ!
Prayer Requests
For David and Rebecca as they learn how to humbly lead this new project.
For the many members of the core-group who are all serving more often and in new ways. Pray that God would give them great joy as they serve him!
For Rémy a member of our small group for whom we have been praying for some time. It seems God is really at work in his heart. Pray that he would be able to repent and believe very soon!
