Nelson Family
Laura was born in Dorset and baptised at St John’s over 40 years ago. Edward, her husband of nearly 20 years, was half-French. They started their work in Paris in 2002, focussed on local evangelism, encouraging church-planting and training gospel workers. They planted Eglise Protestante Evangelique des Ternes (www.ternes.fr) in 2007,
in their area of central-west Paris – a wealthy, traditionally Catholic area with very little evangelical witness. Ternes Church has grown slowly from about 20 adults to about 80, with a good number coming from the local area. They have seen more than 25 baptisms and have been able to train many workers who have gone on to serve elsewhere, many in church plants.
Since Edward's death in 2020, Laura has continued working for Ternes Church, on the pastoral team, with an emphasis on local evangelism and training women. She is also on the board of directors of an evangelical French publishing house, and involved in some regional and national initiatives training women and teaching the bible at conferences. Her focus, and that of the children, remains sharing the gospel in a country where there are so few Christians or evangelical churches. As each year passes and relationships build, the Lord has kindly given more and more opportunities to open the bible with friends and neighbours, invite people to church and set up evangelistic bible study groups. Laura and Edward also shared a passion for training up French gospel workers and to this end, Laura has been involved in setting up and running a Trust Fund in Edward’s memory to encourage and fund internships and training of the younger generation. There were 10 interns in 2021, 25 in 2022 and 34 signed up for this year, thanks to money raised. Laura organises monthly training sessions, mentoring and an annual retreat for the interns. The website for the fund is http://www.2timothee22.fr
Nicolas (20), Samuel (18), Alexandre (16) and Lucie (13) are all keen to share the gospel with their friends at each of their different schools/universities and enjoy their church. Please pray for the Lord to use the 2T22 Fund to raise up faithful workers for his harvest field. Please pray for the Nelson children to grow and perevere with joy as they serve Jesus in different ways this year. And pray for the Eglise des Ternes and it's witness in the 17e arrondissement of Paris, that it might be used by God to draw many to Christ.
Click here to watch a video on the ministry of Laura Nelson.
Click here to see a summary of the talk given by Laura at a recent Women's Brunch: Liberté! What does the Bible say to revolutionary French and uptight Brits about real freedom?
Click here to see the latest news & prayer letter
Link person: Jane Ough 01202 881815 isabel142@btinternet.com