Greg and Judy Sirmons
44 rue du faubourg de Bethune
59000 Lille, France
May 2013
Dear Friends and Supporters,
We pray that the Lord is blessing each of you. May His name be glorified in all we do.
Here in Lille, France, we would like to share some of what has been happening.
About a month ago, Mrs Dumetz when home to be with the Lord. Her health had been declining since just before Christmas. She, and her husband who was promoted to glory about a year ago, had been very much a part of this church since it’s beginning. They were always a blessing. There were about 100 people present for Mrs Dumetz’s funeral and I was able to share the certainty of eternal life. Please pray that the seeds of the gospel that were planted, will bring forth fruit.
We had a very bad April fools’ happening that was not a joke. About 1:30 am, we were in bed and heard a loud boom. When I looked out the window, I could see a car upside down in front of our place. I called the equivalent of 911, there were 2 guys getting the lady out of her car, and gas was pouring out of her car (that was upside down) and flowing under our car. When I got outside, I saw that she had run into our car that we had bought about 2 months earlier, and had damaged our rear left wheel. By the way, we found out later that she was drunk. Her insurance should give us what they have evaluated our car as worth. But, ... our church people here decided to buy a used car for the church and let us use it. We will donate whatever the insurance pays for our car to participate in this purchase. So, we now have a better car to use. The Lord changed this problem into a blessing.
We have a couple from Madagascar that are active members of our church here. Jenny’s brother came here to study in the fall. He came to church with Nilsen and Jenny and we had many opportunities to share the gospel with Rhav. A few months ago, in a conversation with him, it became clear that he has accepted the Lord as his Savior. Praise the Lord. The joy that now shines on his face is such a blessing.
Two different ladies that have been attending our church have asked for baptism. Judy has been doing a series of Bible studies that we like to do for preparation for baptism. Lord willing, they will soon be baptized.
Judy does a monthly ladies’ Bible Study. There have been several new ladies join the group. Please pray for Sandrine, the cleaning lady of one of our church ladies, that has been coming. She has brought her daughter and now she has also invited her younger sister. Judy has about 15 ladies that take part in this study. What a joy to see hearts being touched.
Of course we have our regular meetings each week: for our Sunday worship service, we are between 30 to 40 in attendance; we do a Sunday afternoon Bible study twice a month, an English afternoon church service once a month, Tuesday evenings prayer meeting, in homes of our church people, a Wednesday afternoon Bible study and a Thursday evening Bible study. Once a month, I do a Friday evening meal and study with some men of the church.
As for the Bible Institute this year, we have had the help of Mrs. Dominique Michaud with the secretarial work. The number of students following our online program has grown to around 20. We have new requests for information about every week. We work with Olivier Bourrel and we get together almost every Tuesday afternoon for this. I have been using our Wednesday afternoon Bible class at the church, to record the classes of Hermeneutics that had not already been recorded. Also, we have the students come here for some classes and exams in September, January and June. Please do pray that there will be many to train to serve the Lord in France.
I don’t know if you are aware, but the French government is in the process of legalizing homosexual marriage and this includes the possibility of adopting children by these couples. There have been massive manifestations against this, but the government has turned a deft ear and is proceeding with this change in the French law. Please do pray for France as this is another evidence of the moral decline of the country.
The ministry here in Lille was started by Olivier Bourrel in 1993 and our church moved to it’s present location in 2003. We are planning on a 20 and 10-year celebration in September. We plan on using this event to invite as many people as possible and to preach the gospel. Please pray for this special opportunity to invite many of our friends and contacts. Sometimes, special events are the only time some people will come.
Please pray for several other contacts with which we share the gospel message: Corintin, a guy in the neighborhood with his mother and sisters; Sandrine, another neighbor; Berezoug and his wife Souela, some muslim neighbors; Dominique, a man that comes and see me often to talk about the Lord; Isabel, a lady with some mental challenges that has been coming to our church; Jean-Luc, Lucette and Michel, the Dumetz’s children (they are our ages), that we will not loose contact with them now that their mother is gone; and the list could be much longer.
Thank you for your prayers and support. May the Lord bless,
Greg and Judy Sirmons
PS : You can get other updates of our ministry on our blog (http://sirmons.info) or with our Facebook page (find us with our email address, sirmons@bible.com.es)
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