France and Germany Upcoming
From the Field April 20, ’16
The CLC Mission Board has approved my going to France and Germany some time after the June CLC Convention. My trips in 2013 and 2014 were assisted by my friend Pastor Horst Gutsche, who acted in the capacity of translator and tour guide. In addition to CLC members who came over in 2014 and 2015, we now have a member in Germany, David Weiss, who hopes to enter the Immanuel Lutheran Seminary. God-willing I will travel in late July. I invite your prayers for this upcoming trip.
France
In August 2013 we reestablished contact with Pastor Jean Pierre Blanchard and rejoiced that we found we were in fellowship. We met again with him and his wife in 2014 and had a communion service. This was repeated in 2015 when they came to the Free Conference in Grebenhain, Germany.
He is 65 and considering what he can be doing in the next years: continue in Paris with his street ministry, move to Strassburg and try to do some work with refugees from Syria, or if his health fails retire to the south of France. He wanted our opinion on his possible work in Strassburg and to inform us since we are in fellowship. Of course in the back of Blanchard’s mind is also the possibility of publicizing orthodox Lutheranism in his effort and letting the people know about it that he would work with. The ones coming would be persecuted Christians. We should pray for God’s blessing on Jean Pierre’s efforts.
We will meet in Strassburg July 27-29.
Germany
We have had Free Conferences in Grebenhain for two years seeking to have open discussions on the differences among participants. This year the CLC will not host a free conference, choosing instead to make visits to individuals visited previously and with others who may be interested in our church body and its teachings.
This outreach in Germany is the exploration of individual visits to contacts that has gone on for two weeks each for three consecutive years. In these visits we have tried to present the CLC and its position to individuals of a Lutheran background who are very conservative and/or independent. Materials are sent to a variety of men and our prayers are offered to God that in the land of Luther we might find individuals and groups who share our teachings and we might work together to reach out to those in a land of increasing liberalism and departure from God’s Word. Correspondence has been carried on with individuals and doctrinal materials have been sent over.