A day of dreaming, story-telling and sharing vision; Issy tells the story of her trip to our first Fusion France gathering in January!
Naomi, Steph and I visited Lyon to attend a conference with student workers from churches across France, to share with each other our vision of student churches.
The day was headed up by Fusion, who have recently felt God calling them to bring their focus to Europe. They teamed up with a local Catholic and Anglican church leader in Lyon to host the day. 7 different uni cities were represented, including Marseille, Nice, Paris, Lyon and Caen.
The set up of the day was casual, leaving lots of space for us to chat to one another about our cities, our churches, and what God’s been doing. For us it was a chance to share about our student group, Panoramic, and how we’ve seen a real sense of community grow over the last few months, fostering a place of encouragement, praying together and building friendships between international and French students. Steph also shared plans for opening a coffee shop as part of Bless reaching further into the heart of Caen (which we received a building for the following day!!). We also heard some amazing stories from churches whose student ministries are thriving, with students starting and leading their own Christian groups and Alpha courses, bringing church onto their campuses.
Personally, I found the day really encouraging to realise that our student group in Caen isn’t all that God is doing with students in France! Since arriving in France, I’ve heard the phrase ‘spiritually dry’ countless times describing the country compared to, for example, the UK. However this day was a reminder to be encouraged and stay hopeful in our actions and prayers around student ministry. While I’ve noticed that being a Christian student in France is more difficult than I’m used to in the UK university system, the Christian students I have met are clearly passionate about student mission, loving their cities, and being plugged into church.
It’s clear that God is on the move in France; His spirit is causing hearts to break for students that don’t yet know their heavenly Father, and stirring up excitement in people called to engage with and encourage young Christians. Fusion are committed to seeing more student work rise up across the country, and helping to provide links between churches to support one another. During this day of worshipping and praying together, we could see God planting even more seeds in people’s hearts for students in France. You can already sense the ripples of His spirit moving, and it’s exciting to imagine what might happen over the next few years in France, and to wait, pray, and act expectantly: how exciting to see God raising up students to be a generation of revival of the Church in France!
Issy is a student at Durham uni, serving Bless church on her year abroad in Caen. She likes exploring new places, and is loving having french pastries available on every corner.. and french wine!
