The Women’s World Day of Prayer meeting will be held on Friday 1st March. This year, we will be praying for France and the theme of the service is ‘I was a stranger and you welcomed me.’
The local service will be held at the Salvation Army church on Straight Lane in Goldthorpe and will start at 6 p.m. Representatives from all the local churches will be sharing the readings and there will be refreshments served after the service. All are welcome to attend – including men and children!
Further information on WWDP can be found here and further information about France can be found on the France Mission website here. As always, it’s good to have real people to pray for; France Mission supports a number of missionaries working in evangelical churches in France, so if you want to personalise your prayers, this is a good place to start!
France Mission was founded in 1957 and now has over 60 churches in nine regions of France. France Mission’s churches tend to be small (under 100 people), democratic in structure, informal in style, and distinctly non-ecclesiastical in their premises, with converted shops, banks, garages and factories pressed into service. Of France Mission’s 125 missionaries, 14 come from the UK. Since 1970, when there were around 900 evangelical congregations, church growth in France has been spectacular, with over 1,400 new churches being added in the last 40 years. A new evangelical church is now planted somewhere in France every ten days!
As with many European countries, immigration is high on the political agenda. Because of its links with North Africa, there are many North Africans living in France and the Muslim population is growing there, often resulting in tensions and unrest. This year’s WWDP service looks at the diversity of the church and at Christ’s command to love all people, no matter what the nationality, so is very relevant to the women living in that country.