OAC Publications
Borderlines
September 1998

Festival Outreach '98

by Mark Howe

Sipping Perrier water in a rather seedy Karaoke bar in downtown Avignon at 2am, it struck me once again that the life of a missionary in France is full of surprises.

On this occasion, Richard Kemp and I were waiting for the American contingent of the Festival Outreach team to arrive by train. Their flight had been delayed by three hours, they had missed their connection in Paris, and the train they did catch was delayed by a further ninety minutes. We finally met up at 2:45am.

Karaoke à la française is an interesting experience. The favourite choices were ballads from the '50s and '60s. With nothing better to do, we found ourselves reading the lyrics, which were a case study in depression and hopelessness: "I am sick, really really sick"; "In the evenings I dress up as a woman and sneak down to the bars"; "I wish I was like the little birds who live on water and fresh air, instead of being lost"... It was quite bizarre watching people who were purportedly out for a good time singing along!

The vision behind Festival Outreach is to bring a message of hope during an event that every year attracts over 120,000 people from all over the world. The weather, the carnival atmosphere and the wide variety of street acts all help to make the Avignon Festival one of the greatest opportunites for open-air evangelism in Europe.

For some team members, culture shock began before the evangelism had even started. The Americans missed air-conditioning and ice cubes - and who can blame them, bearing in mind that temperatures were in the mid-thirties (95°F). Some of the Brits would happily have exchanged French coffee for a decent cuppa, while the French found that their English progressed in leaps and bounds during the outreach.

The team included some extremely gifted musicians. The folk music medley proved popular with the crowds, as did the folk-rock renditions of choruses, accompanied by mandolin, banjo, accordian, violin, penny whistles, bongos...

Before long we had formed a gospel choir. At this point, the yellow MEPA T-shirts made their appearance. Our 'one size fits everyone' policy turned out to be a little optimistic: some of the team looked as if they were ready to begin their own personal tent ministry on the streets! But twenty people dressed in yellow certainly make an impression on the streets.

Every year, I am struck by the sheer number of people who congregate in the streets of Avignon. Crowds of 100 people are not unusual - and many stay throughout the preaching, and are open to talk afterwards. The French-speaking team members were kept busy, but there were also conversations in English every night, and I even heard one discussion in Mandarin!

We have found in the past that the highlight of the festival is Bastille Day. People come from all over the region to see the firework display. This year, the display was cancelled due to high winds, and most of the other street acts had stayed away because of the fireworks. The end result was that we had a large section of the festival to ourselves. At several points we got close to blocking the street. About halfway through the evening, the choir was surprised to find the crowd singing along. The singers turned out to be another evangelistic group, who were visiting Avignon on their day off. At this point, the open-air started to resemble a street party, as the two choirs performed together.

It is always hard to judge what is really happening in the open-air. We abandoned the evening open-air scheduled at the same time as the World Cup Final, and went out in the afternoon instead. It was hot, the crowds were restless, and the team found the experience hard going. Yet this was the open-air where we met a young man who was seeking God. A member of a local church later led him to Christ in his own home.

The party atmosphere on the streets tends to conceal the fact that Avignon has the same problems as any other city. There is a large population of street people. One of the team had all her money and papers stolen, which meant a late-night visit to the police station and a 160km round trip to the American consulate in Marseille.

Like an army, a team of evangelists marches on its stomach. Food was provided for the second year running by Mavis Heyman, who now flies around French supermarkets in an awe-inspiring manner.

We are very fortunate to be able to use the facilities of two churches on the outskirts of Avignon. Both buildings are new and relatively well-equipped, but neither are really set up to provide full board for forty people. The classrooms which served as dormitories were sometimes so hot that some of the team decided to sleep in the car park. And making do with one shower per building what was euphemistically described as a 'growing experience'.

Projects such as Festival Outreach can achieve a lot in a country like France. A large team can reach many thousands of people with the gospel in a couple of weeks, in ways that are beyond the means of most French evangelical churches. Local church members also find these outreaches encouraging: many joined us on the streets.

But those participating in the outreach usually gain from the experience too. One woman from Bristol said, "I've found it a lot easier to talk to complete strangers about the gospel than in my home town, but I'm hoping to take some of the confidence back with me."

When asked for his impressions of the outreach, one of the Californians said, "I thought that open-air evangelism just wouldn't work. I was interested to see what would happen. My honest opinion was that we were going to come here, give out one or two tracts, and nothing much would happen, but to my surprise there are big crowds every night. Lots of people take the tracts: lots of seeds are planted."

The daily programme included times of worship, teaching and prayer, as well as practical evangelistic training. Many of the team preached messages on the street for the first time. Even more encouraging is the news that at least two of them will be doing open-airs with OAC evangelists in their home area. In this sense, the impact of a summer outreach can continue for a lifetime.

One of the team has applied to join the MEPA team on a long-term basis, and others have asked about our year team programme. I joined OAC ten years ago as a result of a short-term outreach in Paris, and it always excites me to see others starting out on the same path. For all the undoubted good that these outreaches do, the effectiveness of workers is multiplied many times as they learn the language and culture, and build solid relationships with Christians in the area.

For me personally, the outreach was a reminder of what proclamation evangelism is all about. Getting an outreach off the ground takes a lot of planning, administration, meetings, printing, telephone calls, email..., and sometimes this aspect of our work can start to obscure the end goal. Several thousand people have heard the gospel for the first time through the work of our team, but many millions of Frenchmen have not yet had this opportunity. Please pray for all those who organise evangelistic activities in this very needy country.

Please pray as well for those who expressed an interest in following Christ, that they will find a place in one of the local fellowships.

And maybe you will be able to join us on the streets of Avignon in July 1999!

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