FRANCE

The assembly here is small but we are encouraged by the presence of three or four unsaved each week at the Gospel meeting. One attending is from the Congo and has a PhD in law. The subject of his thesis was tribal legislation in jungle districts. He was expecting to return to take up a teaching post but through civil war he had to stay in France. There is not much demand for this type of law here so he works as a security agent. He has recently professed to be saved and we trust that he will go on for God. We hold a conference, near Marseille, in May and November, which is a time of encouragement and fellowship as we don't see much of each other. At the last conference there were nearly thirty present so this was a little encouragement.

I have been maintaining my regular visits to north Africa and was there in June last year, which coincided with a wave of arrests. The authorities have decided that there has been too much "missionary" activity. A large number of foreigners, particularly American, are in the country under the cover of teaching and social work. In the last six months, over 130 foreign missionaries have been expelled. Whilst I was there the believers cancelled my meetings as the houses where I would have had them were under police surveillance. On my visit in October, I was able to make a number of private visits and at the same time take help for needy saints.

The latest development is that the police are now expelling foreign Christian women married to men from there. One brother is a doctor, married to a Swiss sister. She taught in an American financed school but was arrested and expelled for speaking to pupils about the Gospel so her husband was obliged to leave the country. Two weeks ago I was speaking to a brother in a large city there and he said that things are no easier so we need to pray for them.

We have just started a short series of tent meetings in the small town of Elne, about fifteen miles from Perpignan. Each year we get help from young brethren from Britain and we much appreciate their fellowship in this work. The weather has been unusually cold and very windy and this means that we have seen very few in to the tent. Then we hold an open air meetings in Perpignan in what is termed the gypsy quarter. Each year, over the last fourteen years, we have been able to hold these meetings and there is quite good interest. So we press on.