Stories from Lyon, France
In October I was visiting our global personnel in the cities of Lyon and Paris. My visit began in Lyon where I was hosted by long time missionaries Ken and Adrienne Satterberg. Ken and Adrienne have a passion for coming alongside people on the margins of society. Adrienne is deeply involved with Hope Alliance, a Christian organization working with women who are sexually exploited in prostitution. We drove through an area of the city where run down vans are lined up on the street and function as mobile brothels. Several nights of the week Hope Alliance brings volunteers in their own van into this neighborhood, to build relationships, share healthy meals, and serve as advocates in securing health care, housing and employment. Hope International also networks with churches in Lyon to welcome and care for women who have been freed from human trafficking.
Ken is passionate about coming alongside immigrants and refugees in Lyon. He partners with several organizations and engages his local French church in efforts to include and welcome immigrants. We visited Secours Populaire where Ken joins the staff in offering free French education to unaccompanied minors. We met the director, a dedicated Christian woman who dedicates her life to this school as a volunteer! They receive over a hundred students in a week with each class session having a specific time slot. As we arrived a class was just finished and thirty teenage boys waited outside and formed a line up the stairs as they checked in for their class. Here they receive education that will prepare them to attend regular French schools and are invited to join in sports activities and cultural events. Ken shared that many of the teenagers make long journeys from temporary tent camps outside of the city to attend the school. It was inspiring to meet the teachers and see the eagerness on the boy’s faces to learn and to be there.
Pray for Ken an Adrienne as they continue to love and care for people on the margins, and for the organizations and church that they partner with. They both ask prayers for their upcoming service at a refugee camp on the island of Samos in Greece. They will spend a month there serving with Euro Relief.
Pray also for Rebecca Hodson, who is not pictured in this update but has recently settled in Lyon and part of the Serve Globally team. We had a lovely dinner together in her home and had a chance to share our faith stories and pray together. She is a professional choir director and is building connections with a local French church and praying for God’s leading and direction in this next year.
Outside Secours Populaire school
Ken in the class room just before a class was about to begin.
Singa is a French organization that focuses on welcoming and including immigrants. I was invited to join Ken and Fabio for an evening event centered around community building and the French language. I met wonderful people from Algeria, Sudan, Afghanistan, Iraq and many other places.
With Johnna Muniz in front of La Causerie, a cafe and multi purpose space owned by a local French free church.
Fabio Muniz serving as barista at the Cultural Fusion gathering which gathers people many cultures and backgrounds to build friendships, network and learn about opportunities to serve in Lyon.
It was 9.30am when I arrived at La Causerie and it was already bustling with people from a variety of nationalities and life situations. Fabio was busy making lattes and espressos while Johnna moved from group to group welcoming new people and speaking to regulars at the cafe. Their vision with Cultural Fusion is to welcome people into friendship and connection through a warm spirit of hospitality. With the Cafe as a central hub they invite people to join in a wide variety of activities and service opportunities in the city. Each week they host French and English conversation groups, classes on cross cultural living and parenting, and a weekly gathering for prayer and Scripture reading. One way they describe their work is “incarnational” in that they are seeking to bring the presence of Christ to people outside the walls of the church. They meet in parks, in a cafes and refugee centers around Lyon. Their friends include Muslims, seekers, people who have been hurt or are disillusioned with the church, all are welcome. For the past six years the ministry of Cultural Fusion has been growing. Fabio and Johnna connect with over 100 people per week and coordinate over 30 volunteers. God is at work!
At a Roman amphitheater in Lyon.
On the third day of my visit Fabio offered me a historical walking tour through Lyon where he guided me through the rich church history dating back to the second century. The early church Father Irenaeus was Bishop here and guided the fledging Christian community as it struggled through recurrent Roman persecution.
Fabio has seen that many French people are interested in joining his walking tours because they don’t know the church history of their city. He shared that it opens many opportunities for conversation about the Christian faith and the history of the church, both the inspiring and the destructive stories of the institutional church in France. From the humble beginnings of the church and courage of the early martyrs we move through the era of great popes, power, wealth and religious wars between Catholics and Protestants. The wars and the power and control exercised by the church are reasons that many French people stay far away from the church. Through hearing these inspiring and painful stories people are invited to reflect on the core Christian message and the simple and humble presence and teaching of Christ.
Fourth Century baptismal pool outside the cathedral in Lyon.
Pray for Johnna and Fabio as they meet with people from so many backgrounds and places in their spiritual lives. Pray that God’s love and welcome would be felt by the people they love and serve, and that lives will be transformed.