A Surprising Need: Bibles for France

A Unique Opportunity to Meet the Needs of the Global Church

Our ability to travel today is unlike any other time in history. In the short span of a day or two, you could be in a remote village on the other side of the world. This means that opportunities to take and share the gospel are greater than they have ever been before! That’s why Crossway, through our Equip program, is partnering with brothers and sisters in the United States to take resources to places in need of Bibles and theologically sound resources.

Through Crossway Equip, Dawn Stride, a member of Hope Community Church in Raleigh, North Carolina, received 80 ESV Concise Study Bibles to take with her on a mission trip to Grenoble, France. There, Pastor Blaine Vorster eagerly accepted these Bibles and, working together with Dawn and her team, distributed them to his congregation.

France may not be the first place that comes to mind when thinking of a great need for Bibles, but it is just that. There are an estimated 36 million people living in France who haven’t heard the gospel of Jesus.¹ We talked with both Blaine and Dawn about their experiences in giving and receiving these Bibles.

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How did you become involved with church ministry work in Grenoble?

Blaine: My wife and I are originally from South Africa and have been involved in ministry since before we were married. After we got married, we really had this growing desire to go to France. We didn’t know why—we had no reason for it. It came up one day in a conversation as we were driving. At the time we had no idea how unreached it is. We loved being in Africa and that’s where we wanted to be long-term, but we began to pray for the nation of France anyway. This burden continued to grow in our hearts, and for six years we prayed for France. We kept feeling this urgency to go. During those six years of praying we prepared by spending more time studying church planting and church management. We had two boys during those years, and as a step of faith, we spelled both of their names in French.

As we prayed for the country, we decided to look at the map of France and pick a random city to pray for, because we felt it was too broad to pray for the whole country, and we prayed for the city of Grenoble, which is where we are now. All of this happened about eight years ago. We took a step of faith and moved to Grenoble and came to minister in a very small church of about 14 members. We came in to revitalize and rebuild something of a congregation that had existed in the past but had been in decline for a while.

What is the religious landscape like in France and how has that affected your church?

Blaine: We would say that France, from an evangelical perspective, is unreached. Evangelicals make up less than 2% of the nation, though there is some access to faith. It is possible in some places throughout the country to go to a shop and buy a Bible, but the statistics say that about 70% of people have never owned a Bible in their lives.² The reason for this is that we are the fourth generation post-church, so people are highly secularized. They don’t have much knowledge of religion. All the knowledge they have is very negative.

There have recently been some laws passed to strengthen secularism in France. Sharing your faith is limited to a private space. They say that you have freedom of religion, but in the public space you need to keep that to yourself. And so there are ways and means in which you can do that, but there are some very serious challenges. As a church, it’s extremely difficult to do anything community-based. We are only allowed to have a religious service, and if we do anything outside of that religious service, we lose our status and are no longer allowed to operate as a church.

Despite this reality, there’s a window at the moment where the Lord is using the international church because there are so many people coming through Europe—including France—whether they be refugees, students, or expatriates. These people come in for a short time, so they are not learning the local language. They’re separated from their homes and pretty much anything familiar. These realities make them really open. They’re looking for community and relational connections. A lot of these people who come to church have never set foot in a church before.

How do you see this manifested in your church?

Blaine: We are right next to the campus of Université Grenoble Alpes. It’s a large university, about 65,000 students. Depending on the year, 7,000 to 10,000 are studying in English. The average person stays only for three to six months because of the way the university does their exchange programs—they’ll study for three months in one country and then three months in the next country. So they pass through very quickly.

Even though we’re located in France where the official language is French, we use English as the common language. It doesn't mean everyone’s first language is English, it just means it’s better than the alternative option of a French-speaking church because they likely don’t know any French. Because of this, we have people from all over the world. As of our last count, we had 38 nations represented in the room on a Sunday morning. I remember realizing one day while we were doing our Bible study that out of the 14 people present, we represented 13 countries.

Every Sunday we see a picture of every tribe and nation and tongue. We see different denominations coming together. The unifying factors are Christ and the English language. And it’s really been a fantastic opportunity to engage with many people in their first experience of faith.

You live in Europe where it seems like people should be able to access Bibles. Why has that been such a challenge?

Blaine: We have a Christian bookstore in downtown Grenoble, but there’s only one in the whole city. I can tell you that there is not going to be a store selling Bibles in every city throughout France though— most cities and towns don’t even have a church. Add to that the element of our English-speaking church in French-speaking France—we’re looking for English resources. It’s not that people cannot get Bibles or biblical resources; there are technically resources “available.” They are just very expensive and difficult to acquire.

Over the years we have found this to be a challenge particularly because we have a revolving door of people coming and going. We are constantly trying to recommend theologically sound resources, but often people can’t get a hold of them. These people have often never been exposed to Christianity, maybe never met a Christian before, and likely never owned a Bible. This is what makes the Bibles we received from Crossway so special, because we were able to give these people their very first Bible.

Dawn, you had the opportunity to respond to this need for Bibles by bringing some to Grenoble in your personal luggage. What was that experience like?

Dawn: A team from my church had the opportunity to take about 80 Bibles with us in our luggage. We came to that number by estimating how many people would attend their annual church retreat plus a few extras, knowing there would be other people coming through the church who would be in need of a Bible.

Of course, they’re Bibles, so they’re heavy. To get them over there from the States we used a lot of smaller carry-on bags to make sure they were the right weight. We were able to keep each of the bags to 50 pounds! Since we had five people on our team, we had enough luggage allowance to get all of the Bibles to Grenoble in one trip.

How have you seen the Bibles making a difference in the lives of individuals?

Blaine: Earlier this year, we had a Russian woman visit during a Sunday service. We gave her her first ever Bible and she could not believe it. She didn’t know it was a study Bible—she didn’t even know what a study Bible was—so when she opened the Bible she was so amazed by all the little notes and how the Bible is so helpfully put together to be easy to read, even for someone reading the Bible for the first time.

And we also had a refugee from South Sudan who came because he was fleeing the war there. One Sunday he asked if he could borrow a Bible from me because he’d lost his Bible on the boat coming across the Mediterranean. I said to him, “No, you don’t have to borrow it. I can give you one for you to have for yourself.” It was incredible to see how much it meant to him to have access to that because otherwise it was not something he would be able to get a hold of.

Dawn: For the Bible distribution at the retreat, Blaine and his wife put the Bibles on each person’s bed along with a handwritten note for when they arrived.There was an older couple who had just started coming to church. They weren’t Christians, but they came anyway. They were very thoughtful in their approach to asking questions, so for them to receive Bibles, and to read and be able to study for themselves, was huge. I loved watching them take it all in, especially the man. It was all so foreign to him because he had not been previously exposed.

Through the generosity of donor partners, these resources can be given to those like Dawn who want to help meet the needs of overseas ministry partners like Blaine. You can do this too! By applying for resources through Equip, we are inviting you to partner with us by taking Bibles and/or theological books to those places overseas where they are needed. You can learn more by visiting Crossway.org/Equip.

Pray for these 80 Bibles to continue to make a great impact on the lives of those who received them. And as many of these Bible recipients return to countries closed to the gospel, pray that the seeds planted would grow and cause more to come to faith in Jesus.

Pray for the Lord’s provision of a church building for this congregation who has outgrown the house they’re meeting in. Pray for patience and the Lord’s timing as they wait.