In over 10 years of ministry, my wife Emilie and I have given our lives to pastor and guide those God has sent us, both in China and Thailand. First as a single, I served in Hong Kong, and then in mainland China where I worked with local Chinese church leaders, lead people to the Lord sharing with them the gospel, baptising them and discipling them; planted house churches and spread the gospel in country side of China.
Then we moved to Thailand, there we trained Chinese missionaries and worked in several ministry areas. However, in 2016, a friend, pastor from France contacted me by phone, he wanted to share with me a dream about us moving to France, but I disregarded what his message. However, only few days later, another friend, an American pastor was in Thailand, and he felt led by the Holy Spirit to talked to me about France. I told him the same, it wasn’t in our plans to move to France. Although there were some factors; Emy’s mom got cancer again, for the third time, but we consider a trip, but never a longterm moving.
At first, I did not take those messages seriously, until one afternoon while driving my vehicle in Thailand, the voice of God came loudly in my head “I am sending you to France!” When that undeniable voice hit me, I bursted into tears. When I got home, I shared it with my wife and told her to pray. I new she did not have any intention to live in France, so God needed to speak to her directly. See, France is not an attractive nation spiritually speaking. It is not a popular destination for long-term missionaries! But when God calls, he opens the way, he provides, he make it happens no matter what challenges we may face.
In March 2017, finally we moved to France, not knowing what will await for us. The Lord has placed France in our hearts.
The past two years have been vital in acclimating to French life. Though that move included family reasons, Emilie and I knew that God was directing us and we approached this moving as missionaries. How can we separate ministry from normal life? We focused on building relationships, adapted our training and past experience to minister in this unique community, and essentially learned a new way of life.
Coming from Southeast Asia, where we were surrounded by a strong missionary force to a nation spiritually poor, very poor! We knew we couldn’t stay passive and therefore started sharing Jesus from the very first day. And we’ve seen so much fruits. We’ve started few Bible discovery groups, a house church has been launched, outreaches, trainings, and a great connection with other ministries have been made. A door to reach middle eastern refugees was also opened. Now, after 2 years of language improvement and settling as a family, we feel much ready for more!
The need for Christian workers has never been greater. As missionaries who deeply desire to make Christ known, our prayer is that you’ll be moved to take action in some way to support evangelistic efforts in France, either through intercessory prayer or a financial partnership.