By Denys Blackmore

Finding the Hope is going global. This innovative strategy to place a printed Gospel message in every home within a targeted area has now launched in Europe. For the first time, this strategy, which incorporates follow-up via both the printed page and the Internet, is being successfully implemented outside of Canada. What began here two years ago is now spreading across France and soon to other European nations.

Dr Pierre Clement, EHC Regional Director for Europe, recently described the campaign launch as “a new breath of fresh air for EHC outreach in France.” This is significant because France today is a very secular nation with fewer than 500,000 evangelical believers in a nation of over 64 million people.

The Finding the Hope booklet has been translated into French, bearing the title, Trouver l’Espoir. Pierre tells us that ministry leaders and ministry partners alike are excited about the new materials and the breakthrough strategy. They have already exhausted their first French printing of 5,000 copies of the 7 Days With Jesus follow-up booklet.

Each summer, EHC France conducts an outreach program during the summer called Operation Villages. Villages are targeted, teams are trained and deployed to visit homes. This year, Operation Villages followed the Finding the Hope strategy and delivered the Good News to over 60,000 homes in more than 60 villages and suburban communities.

One EHC team that included Pierre’s wife, Françoise, experienced a humourous interchange in one village. Françoise was attempting to put the Finding the Hope booklet in a mailbox when she heard a loud shout from the lady of the house, leaning out her the window. The woman exclaimed, “Don’t put that in the mailbox! Bring it to me! There’s a nest in the mailbox and we don’t want anybody to disturb the birds!”

Reception of the Finding the Hope literature by the French people has been very positive. Pierre shared how that he and his wife visited one village near where they live. Over a period of several hours they visited 220 homes and had conversations with many people. Nearby they discovered a campsite where they were not only received warmly but were invited to come back in the evening to share their faith with all the campers. Many of the campers were Dutch tourists, so this will no doubt generate responses from Holland.

Several restaurant owners have taken quantities of the booklets to offer to their customers. Some hotel owners have asked for quantities to place in each guest room. Teams involved in hospital ministry are using the 7 Days With Jesus follow up booklet over a series of seven visits with interested patients.

Responses are coming not only from outreach within France but also from French territories on other continents. The island of New Caledonia in the South Pacific is one of many examples. And this is only the beginning!

The French website for evangelism and follow-up—www.trouverlespoir.com—will be of special help to us here in Canada as we work together to develop additional resources.

Finding the Hope booklets and follow-up materials are now being translated for other European countries including Germany, Belgium, Italy and Austria.

As these European brothers and sisters pray for our outreach in Canada let us continue to pray that they will have much fruit in reaching the needy mission fields of Europe.