There are a number of parts of the world that I don't know, having spent our missionary service in Asia, so I was very keen this year to go to Europe.

I went with Peter Blowes, Mission Personnel Secretary for CMS Australia, and the first place we visited was France. I think the thing that struck me, which I hadn't realised, was just how difficult ministry is in Europe. It's really quite difficult.

The legacy of Catholicism in the parts of Europe where we were means that many people have been turned away from the church and there is a deep secularism and a deep cynicism throughout many places. 

We have a number of missionaries in Strasbourg in the north, in Paris and Toulouse. 

In Toulouse the Chadwicks are involved in ministry.  I think in Toulouse, it [the realisation of the difficulty of Christian witness] hit me more than anywhere else. It was the beginning of the university year.  We were there outside the university, because you can't go on to the university campus, in the drizzle, with a very small book table. And the students walked pass with the excitement of enrolment in university, totally indifferent to our book table. Now that wouldn't happen in Australia, you'd get into a discussion with so many people, and it struck me how difficult that ministry is and yet how important it is. 

Spain

In Spain we have Ralph and Kylie Whitten.

Peter Blowes went to see the Whittens, but Peter and I met with Bishop Carlos Lopez Lozano, Bishop of the Spanish Reformed Episcopal Church (IERE)].  Bishop Carlos came to Australia a couple of years ago and, talking with him, there are great opportunities for ministry in Spain. 

Again, it's not an easy environment but there are opportunities for church planting.  The Anglican Church in Spain goes back about 150 years.  It was an indigenous church with a number of people who came to Christ.  The looked around for a denomination to fit in with and decided to become Anglicans.  Under Franco, many of the Christians were killed and persecuted and so the church was decimated but there are opportunities today to rebuild that church and to build on what is still there in many places and Bishop Carlos is very keen to see that happen.

Italy

Next we went to Italy.  I visited the Inghams in Milan.  Again, Milan is a difficult city and I think that Dean is finding it very difficult.  The Inghams are well-integrated into the community and the school and have good contacts but with the student ministry it has been quite hard and it's been great to see that there are a number of small groups that have started.  But each year the groups start and then at the end of the year the groups are scattered and Dean feels like he has to start again each year.  Will you pray for Dean and for Jo there in Milan?

The Lubbocks are in Florence.  They're attached to a much larger church and so their ministry a bigger one than the Inghams have, but we need to keep praying for them as well.

Slovenia

We went on then to Slovenia which is a beautiful country with buildings that go back to the communist era, so some are fairly austere.  It's a delightful country but again, it's a very difficult country.  A combination of the Catholic history and the secularism that runs through means that Protestant Christian congregations are pretty small.  We have people involved both in church ministry, in church planting and in student ministry. 

We have four couples there- in Ljubljana which is the capital, and in Maribor, where the Boxes are.  The student worker in Ljubljana is a man named Nenad and I had some time with him.  He was giving a series of talks which were about different religions and we sat and talked, over a pizza, about Islam. I was very impressed with him as a man, who has been working with Leon (surname deleted for security), as a man who has a significant ministry that we really need to support and encourage.

The other couple who are there are Peter and Lidija Novak who were in Australia as bursars.  They have gone back to pastor the church; the reformed church which is gathering in Ljubljana. David Shead has been looking after that church, and they are going through a transition and Mark Groombridge will be working alongside them. 

For many missionaries coming back to Australia, that is not easy.  Peter and Lidija, going back to Slovenia after a number of years in Australia has been a transition which has not been an easy one for them.  So please continue to pray for them, they are CMS bursars and are still noted in the CMS prayer diary for us to pray for.

Three Things about Ministry in Europe

Firstly, it is a difficult ministry. It's a hard place. People's hearts have been hardened and so we need to continue to pray for this situation. Secondly, I think we need to be encouraged that God is actually at work.  There are two students from the [Relay] ministry in Paris who are going to theological college.  It has taken a number of years for that to happen, but that is very exciting. 

We have people like Nenad, we have the Relay person, Fabienne, who is working with Owen Chadwick in Toulouse. Fabienne is a delightful person and if you have read Owen's latest prayer points he is so encouraged to be working alongside her and for Catherine to be nurturing her.

Thirdly, there are ongoing ministry opportunities among students.  We have a top heavy number of Australians in the student movement but talking to Owen Chadwick out of the six regions in France, only four of them have staff workers working those regions, and of those four, three of them have Australian CMS missionaries.  So a third of France is not being covered by any staff workers- with thousands of university students. 

Now I don't know how we move forward in that area but I think we need to pray our way to see more people come and the missionaries we've had have been there a long time now and there'll come a time when they will be coming back.  Are there new people coming to take up those jobs?

John Bales is General Secretary of CMS-NSW