David & Rebecca Pater: Fall Update
A Church Weekend Caps Off a Splendid Start to Fall
Dear praying friends and family,
A Focus on Evangelism
Five years ago at the beginning of our church plant's life, we were desperate to evangelize the lost of Toulouse because we had to in order to survive and actually start a church. It was also the same story two year ago when we first launched our second site. We were again met with a need to evangelize in order to have enough members and leaders to support and to serve at each location. However, as we've now arrived at a rather stable place, our focus has dwindled ever so slightly. The handful of desperate believers seeking to share the gospel and praying that the Lord would move has now, thanks to the Lord's grace, become a church with over 100 adult members and around 140 adults in attendance each Sunday plus around 50 children. As a leadership team we praise the Lord for this growth, which is very rare in Western Europe! But when we think of the 99% of the residents of Toulouse who still don't know Christ, we have decided that we can't afford to lose focus of we are here: to glorify God be seeing His kingdom expand as more and more people repent of their sins and place their faith in His Son.
Culminating in a Wonderful Church Weekend
That's why we've decided to focus on evangelism, on sharing the good news of Jesus during this next season of our church's life. We had a members meeting in early September to cast this vision. In the following weeks, we hosted a number of events that welcomed many new people including a big picnic, a night-time tour of Toulouse, and a newcomers' class. However, what's even much more important than any event that we can host is the spirit of evangelism that we are seeking to cultivate in each of our church's members. It's crazy to think about, but if every member intentionally invested in only one relationship this year, the Lord may very well double the number of believers in our small community! To that end, we again pursued the theme of evangelism during our recent church weekend in October. David was blessed to bring two messages on 'Who evangelizes, God or us?' (Spoiler: it's both!) and 'Why evangelize?' (for the glory of God and the eternal good of others). God blessed this time mightily and we are looking preparing several followup workshops that we will host in the coming weeks on how to practically share one's faith. Lord willing, in our upcoming newsletters we will have some new stories of God at work as His people obey His call to make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:18-20)!
USA Visit Details: We're Headed Home for Thanksgiving!
In a little over a month, we will be traveling to visit the US for a couple weeks! We will be stopping in Chicago from November 21st-24th. And we will then be in Atlanta from November 25th-December 2nd. We are still looking for a place to stay in Chicago while we are there for the nights of November 21st-23rd. Please contact us if you would be able to host us or if you know of a good place where we might be able to stay 😀 We will also be reaching out to many of you in the coming weeks personally to organize a time to get together and to rejoice in all the Lord is doing in Toulouse. However, if you want to beat us to the chase, please respond to this email and let us know if/when you'll be in town so we can be sure to see you during our visit. We always cherish these times with you all, and we are looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible!
Praying with you that we never lose sight of the reason God has left us here on earth: to glorify Him by sharing the wondrous news of Christ with as many as possible,
David and Rebecca
Praises
For a great launch to our ministry season! (See photos below.) It was a hectic, but blessed couple of months.
For a good dynamic within our team! Jonathan, our new intern, has been a nice addition!
For Rémy who continues to advance in his understanding of the gospel.
For a fun and revitalizing church weekend, which helped us all be reminded of the glory of God and our role in sharing Him with everyone around us, even to the ends of the earth.
Prayer Requests
For the three upcoming workshop/training events which we pray will help equip our members to share the gospel more effectively.
For the 10 or so people between our two sites who are close to faith, but still on the fence as to whether to believe or not. Pray that God would remove the final barriers in their hearts so they might know Him!
For our upcoming trip to the US. That the Lord would be glorified as we recount all the wonderful things He's been up to this last year in France.
