It’s an important time for Equithéo. The church has recently appointed their first pastor, rented their first building, and are celebrating a number of people come to know Jesus! It has been a season of joy for this small church plant, started by just two couples in the town of Castres in Southern France, and of fruit from many hours of hard work. Yet with those big steps come some interesting challenges.

One such challenge is that many within the group don’t really know what a ‘normal church’ is like. Despite being nearly five years old now, many of the group’s regular attendees are either new Christians or unbelievers, and have no previous experience of Christian community. Their idea of a church service is based heavily on previous encounters with lifeless Catholicism. Things that we take for granted at The Globe Church, like singing together, can seem strange and awkward. Imagine a Sunday at Globe where only 5 people sang along to the first few songs! Even with the best intentions, it’s not an easy transition.

You’ve probably heard by now that over the Easter holidays a group of 14 people from The Globe Church are heading over to Castres for a week long mission trip. The aim of the trip is not that we just descend on Castres for a week, bombarding the town with flyers and events, and then leave again. Instead we hope to lay some of the first building blocks that will underpin a long-term partnership between The Globe Church and Equithéo. We want to pray for them, resource them, and visit them lots more in years to come. And hopefully in time, some of them will come to visit us too!

During our trip we have a whole variety of things on the programme. We’ll spend hours chatting on the marketplace to raise awareness. We’ll paint and decorate their new space so that it’s ready to use. We’ll even have a “prayer and praise night” to help give the new Christians a vision for worship. We want to help the church take their next few steps forwards.

And this isn’t just something for the team who are going. Of course, we need your prayers, and there’ll be plenty of opportunity for that before we go. But it would be missing the point if you spent hours praying for the 14 of us without also praying for Equithéo! As The Globe Church, the people in Equithéo are our family. Together, we want to see them established and rooted in Christ, and working for His kingdom in Castres. As our partnership develops, we will share in their struggles and challenges, but also in their joys and victories.

Join in this partnership- take a minute right now to pray for our brothers and sisters there. Perhaps you could commit to praying for them regularly too- not just for April, but for the long term too.