Over wine and cheese

Last night Jeremy, Evangeline and I had the opportunity to share with Ecclesia's Montrose small groups (there are two, they combined for the evening) the calling God has place on our lives to serve in sharing the Gospel in France. We're calling these "house parties," events with food, conversation and information to help gather prayer, financial, and other support inviting people to join us as ministry partners. This was only our second such gathering and it was truly beautiful. These two small groups are wonderful communities comprised of a diverse group of people pursuing to love as Christ loves. It was such an encouragement to us to spend the evening with them over wine and cheese. Our big girls enjoyed the evening with friends Houston and Christy and celebrated Earth Day taking in an Astros game.

I had intended to blog the raw, vegan pâté creation I made earlier this week but this isn't a cooking blog and that would be three recipes in a row. And we had such a wonderful time last night that I had to share that as well as some of the information we shared with the group.

Percentage of Believers per continent:

Africa: 20.39%
South America: 12.11%
Asia: 5.5%

How about Europe? Would you like to take a guess? 10%? 15%? More? Less? Here's what we've found: a staggering 1.1%. In France alone, it's even less: 0.82% Compare that to the 51% in the United States. (This information is primarily from international statistcs records and cross-checked with both faith and non-faith based organizations. Some sources had slightly different numbers but were within the same range. These numbers were gathered in 2007.)

Some continents and countries stand out with obvious need for food, water, education and the Gospel. Others are hidden behind the veil of materialism and influence. We would love to have a conversation with you exploring the state of the Christian Church in Europe, specifically France and the coming Global impact of this crisis. Few countries in the world have had France's global influence through the ages. For centuries, the Church provided the foundation of French society, and to this day, church buildings still hold the position of prominence in almost every city and village across the country. Unfortunately, those buildings are little more than relics of a time and a faith long since past.

Jeremy and I, along with our children, have been called by God to minister to the downtrodden, the artists, the sex workers, and the families of Paris, France. It will be our pleasure to share more with you about this call and if you would like more information, please don't hesitate to ask. We desire your prayers above all else as we continue to seek to follow God's will completely, with abandon. If you feel led to support us financially, through prayer, providing child care, with website design, graphic design, or in hosting a house party, we'd love to hear from you. Thanks for taking the time to read, this is our calling.