OAC Publications
Borderlines
December 1997

ELISABETHVILLE EST EN FRANCE?

by Richard Kemp

A major aspect of the work of MEPA is to multiply our ministry, to train others to do open-air evangelism themselves. This September MEPA did what was for us an ideal training weekend. You may remember Kevin and Carol Bodsworth, who were seconded to MEPA for 15 months. They now work in a church situated in Elisabethville, a large residential area near the Renault factory downstream from Paris. Mark and I had the privilege of spending a weekend training a team of a dozen or so people from the church to do street evangelism.

We were amazed at the willingness of the team to take on the methods we were teaching them. After just a morning's practical training two of them were ready to preach on the street with a sketchboard and some of the others should soon be ready to follow.

On Saturday aftenoon we went to the nearby town of Poissy, where the team put on a marvellous series of open-air presentations. We were struck by the quality of the work they did. The team was received well by the local people and good numbers of people stopped to listen. We were pleased to see Gilles Vann again who had travelled out from central Paris to help. (Gilles has worked with us before in Avignon, and is looking at joining MEPA in the future.)

By the end of the aftenoon the team were keen to do more open-air work and the church is now organising a programme accordingly.