May news

Hi everyone

There has been a lot going on since my last update and it feels like time is moving really fast at the moment. Can’t believe we are already in June!

Freedom Day

One of my main focuses for the Month of May was taking a group of people through our Freedom Day preparation, which was a 5 week course leading up to the 31 May, our Freedom Day. What an amazing privilege to journey with this group and see God bring healing and freedom in so many areas.  This year we had 25 people complete this Freedom journey, which is extraordinary for our small church. This is one of my favourite days of the year, and I am always humbled by what God does, and reminded why we do what we do, as ministers of the Gospel.

As a result of the success of this day, I am going to put together a team of leaders who are trained and equipped to do this kind of ministry with people throughout the year.

Teaching at Freedom Day

Baptisms

About 2 weeks ago we had the joy of baptising 5 people at the beach! It’s always so special to see people take the plunge (literally) in their walk with Jesus :)

Me baptising Elisabeth

We thought we were only going to baptise 4 people, but while we were at the beach, a young lady called Soraya approached us and told us her story. She comes from a Muslim background, but she gave her life to Jesus and started going to a church. This church told her, however, that she could only get baptised in 2 years (!) A lot of traditional Churches have strict protocol of how they do baptisms, but Jesus simply said Repent and be baptised! No need to wait 2 years!
She told us that the night before she prayed and told God that she really wanted to get water baptised because that is what she sees in the Bible. Could He please make a way for her so she didn’t have to wait 2 years… And the very next day she ended up at the beach where we were baptising people! So after hearing her story, we decided to baptise her too! What a joy!

Soraya pictured next to me on the left, as well as the other 4 who got baptised - Niall, Elisabeth, Nathan and Laskia, along with some of our leaders.

Praying for Soraya afterwards. We were a whole crowd at the beach - the best way to declare your faith publicly!

Discipleship

I continue to meet one on one with quite a few ladies in our church, laying Biblical foundations as well as pursuing greater freedom in Christ. One of the young ladies I have been meeting with, Eva, has finally decided that she would like to be water baptised too - so we will do that in July as she wants her family to be with her. So I look forward to sharing photos of that!

Sofia update

Thanks so much to all of you for praying for Sofia. She has finished her chemotherapy and tomorrow she goes in for a PET scan so we can confirm (in faith) that there is no more cancer in her body.

I recently spent 2 weeks with Sofia (left) and her sister, Rylie (right) as Matt and Christy were in the States. So good to see her doing so much better! And she rocks that wig… it looks totally natural.

Unstoppable

For the past few weeks we have been in a sermon series on the book of Acts called Unstoppable, and I am preaching the last message on this series this coming Sunday. I have so enjoyed being in this incredible book the past few weeks -  leading up to Pentecost. I would encourage all of you to read it as a reminder of what it looks like to live a live empowered by the Holy Spirit!

Going forward

We have a few significant events in June coming up so I would appreciate your prayers for those. We have a week of campus ministry training, followed by our annual Student Leaders Camp for leaders across our campus ministries all over Europe, and after that I am taking a week of holiday to catch my breath! Yay!

New Venue

Please continue to pray that our church finds a new venue. We have looked at quite a few spaces, but so far we haven’t found anything that is suitable for what we need. We know God has the right space for us, so please pray with us both to find a space big enough, and for the finances necessary. We really need to move in the next month or 2 so this is a priority right now!

Thank You

Thank you so much for your faithful support - both financially and in prayer. It really makes all the difference and I am so, so grateful to do what I do full-time because of your generous partnership. Thank you for believing in the mission here in Marseille, and know that your seed has a multiplication impact in every life touched here in Europe, as we trust God to make disciples who, in turn, make disciples, expanding God’s Kingdom on this side of the world.

I do pray for you regularly, but please let me know if there is anything specific I can be praying for.

Blessings and lots of love,

Fiona

Every Nation Marseille