A Blended Work

During this past year, there has been a desire to render the Lord our highest cooperation in view of the upcoming Summer Olympic Games being hosted in Paris and other cities across France. We believe that this is a golden opportunity given to us by the Lord, and we desire to seize it so that the Lord can gain whatever is on His heart during this time. The Lord is answering our prayer that our labor would be a blended work—a work of the Body for the Body. To this end, in the past six months the coordination has expanded across borders to include Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. This has been a great source of supply and encouragement to us.

Raising Up Churches

Recently, we have been touching the Lord’s heart and desire to raise up churches. This has been a turn in our consideration from merely distributing Bibles to raising up shining lampstands and strengthening the existing churches throughout French-speaking Europe. With this in view, we have designed the gospel trips to place an emphasis on shepherding the seeking believers that we will contact and also the local saints. During many of the trips there will be a designated house that will host a love feast every night, which will be open to the local saints and the seeking ones that we will contact. Our hope is that by the end of our time (in some cases 50 days), a group of believers will be raised up who will have gained a taste for the daily church life. As in the time of Acts chapter two, we earnestly pray that the Spirit would be poured out and that all the saints who participate would go out as living witnesses of Jesus in His work, death, resurrection and ascension; thus, this should issue in a church in every place that we visit.

Summer 2024

From May to September 2024, thousands of people will gather all throughout France to attend the Summer Olympic Games. The response in the Body has exceeded our thoughts and expectations: Many have set aside time to come, to pray, and to give. Teams of between 10 to 20 saints from 36 countries will go out this summer with the local saints as ambassadors of Christ to preach the gospel in French-speaking Europe. We will send teams to major cities in France and to the other major French-speaking countries in Europe: Belgium, Luxembourg, and Switzerland, with the view of raising up new lampstands and strengthening existing churches. All the gospel trips have been arranged to optimise blending and building with the local saints.

Torch Relay Gospel Trips (TR)

During the Olympic Torch Relay we are preparing to till the ground in many major cities along the route of the torch relay. Nine gospel trips are planned, starting on May 6 in Marseille and concluding on July 17 in Paris. We pray that during this time, Christ’s triumphal procession will move from city to city all over France (2 Cor. 2:14).

The Olympic and Paralympic Gospel Trips (OL)

During the Olympic and Paralympic Games, five gospel trips will simultaneously take place in cities across French-speaking Europe. In some places, there will be saints present for 50 days continuously. Saints in the neighboring European countries have entered into the burden with the local saints to labor in key cities before, during, and after the gospel trips. Lille is being supported by the saints in Belgium and Poland, Rouen by the UK, Strasbourg and Mertzig (Luxembourg) by Germany, Geneva by the other localities in Switzerland, and Toulouse by the saints in Spain. Our prayer is that the Lord will cast fire on the earth in French-speaking Europe in order to raise up entire households and groups to bear His testimony as bright golden shining lampstands.

Pre-Olympic Trips

Lille

There is a particular burden for a lampstand to be raised up in Lille, a city across the English Channel from the UK near the border of Belgium. This city at the crossroads of Europe has a population of about a quarter of a million. As the tenth largest city in France, nearly three quarters of the population of Lille is under the age of 45. Lille is also the location of a large warehouse where we store the Bibles for many European languages and all of the ministry books that have been published in French. Starting in the second week of April, nine gospel trips will take place in this city. The first team of seven FTT Moscow/Warsaw trainees came to blend with the local saints, and on their first day at the warehouse, they were able to pack 1,560 Bibles. Ten saints from the UK were planning to come from April 11-16 to help pack Bibles for the distributions that will begin in May.

Rouen

The saints in the UK have been entering into the burden of the saints in Dieppe for Rouen, the capital of Normandy, through weekly prayer and fellowship online. Six saints from the UK went to Dieppe on the first weekend of April to blend face to face and to visit the city of Rouen. Through the prayer, the Lord seems to have given us the best location for a rented home in Rouen that can be used for the 50 days of the Olympic gospel trips. It is centrally located and is ideally placed for inviting the locals for fellowship with the view of raising up a lampstand. For the local saints in Dieppe and Rouen, it is a huge encouragement to have saints from other countries entering into and bearing this burden together with them.

Prayer

Our service in prayer is crucial, and we believe the petition of the saints will release the bountiful supply throughout the whole summer. For those who are not able to come and be with us in person this summer, we ask you to join us in prayer.

Please pray for:

1. The granting of the final approval for the distributions in a timely manner.
2. The fresh and detailed consecrations of all the saints going out.
3. The Lord’s casting “fire” on French-speaking Europe—France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Switzerland.
4. The logistics of all the Bibles going out to the various cities, that they would arrive on time and at the right destinations.
5. Many divine appointments to take place for the Lord to gain local French speakers along with their families.
6. The Lord’s blessing of the homes that will be open for the gospel for 50 consecutive days in the key cities for the raising up of lampstands.
7. The migration of the saints after the gospel trips.

Giving

Saints who are burdened to give for the Bible distribution and other expenses can give through LME by following instructions at lordsmove.org/offerings.html. Designate offerings for “Paris Olympics.”

May we all receive Brother Lee’s burden for the churches in Europe:

Brothers, you all must be burdened for the churches in Europe. What is the use of merely studying the Bible, attending conferences, and listening to messages? The Lord needs churches. Young people, the Lord needs churches, and you must bear the burden for this…Oh, the Lord is calling! Who is willing to be burdened to go to a major city in Europe so that the Lord may have a church there? The Lord is calling! He is calling you and me to bear the burden for the major cities in Europe so that He may have churches built up in the territory of the coming Antichrist. Go and tell others that today the Lord needs churches!...Some may wonder how we can be used by the Lord for the spread of the churches. The only way is to consecrate yourself every morning and every evening, day after day. Again and again you need to pray, “Lord Jesus, I consecrate myself to You. I offer myself to You for Your church.” If you do this, the Lord will open the way. Something will happen. (The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1977, vol. 1, “The Kernel of the Bible,” pp. 335-336)