Saints from Lille, France and Brussels, Belgium joined the gospel team (TR 8). Families living in Lille and the surrounding area meet in Brussels each Lord's Day. The church has not yet been raised up in Lille. But the expectation is that through the coming gospel trips the Lord will do something marvelous to raise up His testimony in this city!
Before the start of the official TR and OL trips, three gospel trips (8 April – 8 June), took place. The goal of these previous gospel trips was to till the soil, prepare the ground for the next stage, to strengthen the testimony there and to encourage and refresh the local saints. During this time, the saints were so impressed by the French people openness, especially the young people. Many young people prayed to receive the Lord. The Lord really wants to gain this generation of French people!
The Two Burdens for the TR 8 Gospel Trip were:
- To follow-up on ones who had been contacted during these three previous Lille gospel trips.
- To distribute the Bible and talk to ones so that Lord could gain more for His interest.
Because of the 1st burden, wanting to follow-up with those who were contacted previously, we sent seminar invitations to those we had previously met. We held two seminars the first two nights we were in Lille and four of the ones we invited came. We also had eight follow-up times with ones we had met previously with five additional follow-up times with the local saints the week after gospel team left Lille.
Here are some highlights:
We had lunch with a young student, and she opened up about her situation. She said that the day we met her she had been praying that God would put someone in her path to encourage her in her faith; then she met us! We were the answer to her prayer. We
shared that we can contain God since He created us with a human spirit. This simple
truth became a marvelous revelation to her.
Another young sister had stayed in contact with a sister in Lille since meeting us.
We spent the evening together in a saint’s home. She shared that she often reads the word and does not understand what it means, but after reading Jeremiah 15:16 together, she realized that even though she does not always understand the word, she can still enjoy it and eat it, because it is good for food, “Your words were found and I ate them and Your word became to me the gladness and joy of my heart"! Jeremiah 15:16
A sister whom we had stayed in contact with since previously meeting her, came to
a gathering in a saint’s home and she wanted to be baptized! Praise the Lord for a baptism in Lille! Our trips to Lille are producing FRUIT!
For our 2nd burden of the TR 8 trip, we had such a good time meeting new ones during our Bible distribution times in Lille and Brussels.
We felt that we were fishermen who did not need nets to catch fish because the fish were jumping into the boat! For example, even as we were setting up our distribution table, 6 young people came to get Bibles. They all prayed to receive the Lord!
We met a Spanish speaking couple interested in receiving Spanish Bibles but, we did not have any with us. They agreed to meet us later to receive a Spanish Bible, this gave us an opportunity have dinner together. We had a good time together; the husband shared his experience with the Lord and asked if the saints could come to his city to distribute Bibles. He even offered us to stay at their place!
A young man from Amsterdam came to us and was very interested in receiving a Bible. After sharing with him about the Bible and how Christ was revealed in it, this young man was led to pray to receive the Lord. We had lunch together at a nearby restaurant, He was very open and very affected by the sharing of the brothers and sisters. He shared how he recently was praying to God, instead of praying for things and matters for himself, he asked God what He wants. He was deeply moved as he shared. We could tell that he had had a very real experience with the Lord.
Later, we had coffee with another student in the afternoon. Our time together was a time of sharing, enjoying our Lord, and reading His word. At some point, she asked if we all believe in the Lord, why is there is so much division among Christians? We then, enjoyed reading together the verses that says Christ is unique and not divided. At the end, she shared that she doesn’t have any Christian friends and felt isolated but now was so moved because she felt that finally there was someone her age that she can pursue the Lord with (our local sister), one who calls on the Lord out of a pure heart.
A Christian woman came and told us how happy it made to see us distributing Bibles!
We also had 2 short distributions in Brussels. Even though our time was short we
enjoyed our time with the saints in Brussels.
