God is Answering Your Prayers
February 15, 2023
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
We are grateful to God for your faithful support for many years. Our Father is answering your prayers. The Church meetings in Tournefeuille and Bible studies in six different locations are going quite well. We are doing studies in Isaiah, John, Hebrews, Ruth and a couple of topical studies. Some of these studies are with believers who are growing in the faith and encouraging one another. Other studies are with lost people who are interested in learning about Christ.
The newest Bible Study in the city of L’Union is, besides the hostess, a meeting with seekers. The term seekers fits them well because they do not miss and have become increasingly more open. One lady, who drives about a dozen miles to the meetings, has noticeably become more open and touched by the Gospel. In the beginning she was quite confrontational. It now is obvious that she has encased herself in an armor to protect sentimental wounds that have accumulated over her 56 years of life. She has invited us and others in the group to come to her house tomorrow. Please continue to pray for these folks. Jesus said, “Seek and you will find.”
Our youth meetings have been very exciting. As I mentioned in my last letter, our present study series is about being a witness for Christ. One way to express our faith is to communicate to others how God has worked in our lives. It may be telling how Christ brought you to Himself or how He has worked in your life since you trusted Him. The youth have been enthusiastic about sharing their testimonies and hearing the testimonies of others.
By the time you read this, Judy and I will have celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary. It has been a wonderful life serving the Lord together on three different continents. She is a terrific teammate as well as a very loving spouse who has personally helped me grow spiritually. God has blessed us with four wonderful children, two wonderful daughters-in-law and a fine son-in-law. They are all serving the Lord in many different areas. We are really blessed to have 12 lovely grandchildren. Most recently God added a fine Christian grandson-in-law!
Many of you have been a part of our lives for many years and we thank God for you.
Serving our Savior together in France,
John and Judy
Contact Info:
John & Judy Hatcher
4, rue d’Aspin
31170 Tournefeuille, France
JMHatcher@aol.com
Present USA phone 1-812-416-1033
For ministry donations:
Pastor George Sledd, Treasurer of BFM
P.O. Box 471280 | Lake Monroe, FL 32747-1280
or click here to donate to BFM online.
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Fruitful Opportunities in New Friendships
January 15, 2023
Dear Fellow Disciples of Christ,
We hope your new calendar year is starting well. This is the first week of my 71st year and it doesn’t seem much different from last week. (LOL) It is good to remind myself that with the Lord “one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”
We are thankful and encouraged by the blessings from our Father this past year. He has given us fruitful opportunities in new friendships. Last week Judy was out walking and saw a lady who had stopped and was swinging her leg. Judy asked her if she was OK and this lady responded that she was fine but had recently had a hip replacement. This encounter led to a long walk together. The lady began sharing details of her life. She just turned 70 on December 25 and was impressed that she was the same age as Judy and I. She was widowed a couple years ago, is quite lonely, and strongly encouraged Judy to come and visit her! They have been texting each other. God has given us a number of similar encounters this year and the process of pursuing these friendships and sharing what He has done for us continues.
Our church meeting today was wonderful. We are studying through the letter to the Hebrews. The congregation is avidly attentive. Our Bible studies during the week are also going well. During the last three days we learned that two of the participants placed their faith in Christ. One is Kerwan, a young man who is now a High School Science teacher. We have had the joy of presenting the Gospel to him since he was in Elementary School. He regularly came to Youth meetings when he was in Middle School and High School. He will be getting baptized soon. He is one of the two believers besides Judy and me in the Bible study in L’Union. The participants in this Bible study show a great interest.
The other confession of faith is by Elliot, the oldest son of the couple who host the Bible study in their home in Campagne sur Arize. He trusted Christ on Christmas Day. The Parents led him to Christ when he expressed a desire to trust Jesus.
The youth meetings are also very encouraging. Most of the teenagers who come are believers. This year we are discussing how to express your faith and share the good news.
Thank you for your prayers and support. Please continue to pray for the believers and those who are seeking as the Light of God draws them. Give thanks with us for the new believers and the growth of the disciples.
May our Father’s love be evident to you today,
Judy and John Hatcher
Contact Info:
John & Judy Hatcher
4, rue d’Aspin
31170 Tournefeuille, France
JMHatcher@aol.com
Present USA phone 1-812-416-1033
For ministry donations:
Pastor George Sledd, Treasurer of BFM
P.O. Box 471280 | Lake Monroe, FL 32747-1280
or click here to donate to BFM online.
Read more
Seekers in Bible Studies
December 16, 2022
Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
Judy and I are grateful for your support and the prayers. If you have prayed for the Bible study at L’Union, you will be glad to know that your prayers are being answered. We are very encouraged by the interest shown in the meetings. The hostess, Blandine and her son, Kerwan, are believers who know the Scriptures well. They are great participants helping their friends understand what we are reading. The others are not believers, have practically no knowledge of the Bible, but are clearly seeking. God has opened great doors of friendship with each of them. We started with the first few chapters of Genesis and are now slowly working our way through the Gospel of John. Please continue to pray for these studies and the seekers who are there.
The other Bible studies are also going quite well. The one at Mazere is made up of 10 individuals from very different backgrounds who all profess faith in Christ. They range in age from mid-forties to mid-seventies. We are presently studying the book of Ruth. The long-term plan is to study the Old Testament passages that tell about the women who are specifically mentioned in the genealogy of Christ in the opening verses of the Gospel of Matthew. This group is a mixture of people with an outstanding knowledge of the Bible and some who have a ways to go.
The Bible Study in Campagne-sur-Arize is four people from our church, and Laure and Henri, a couple who are believers with very little knowledge of the Scriptures. Judy teaches this couple’s children while the adults study.
We are also delighted with new contacts that God has given and we look forward to what He will do in the days ahead.
A bit of trivia to remind us that the time is short and that we “must work while it is yet day.” Judy and I met the parents of Blandine (lady who hosts the first Bible study mentioned above) when we first came to France. It dawned on me this week that she is the same age now as her parents were when we first met them. We have been here for an entire generation and there is still much to be done! So, keep praying!
Your co-laborers in Christ,
Judy and John
Contact Info:
John & Judy Hatcher
4, rue d’Aspin
31170 Tournefeuille, France
JMHatcher@aol.com
Present USA phone 1-812-416-1033
For ministry donations:
Pastor George Sledd, Treasurer of BFM
P.O. Box 471280 | Lake Monroe, FL 32747-1280
or click here to donate to BFM online.
Read more
Fellowship with Disciples, Meals & Studies with Seekers
November 14, 2022
Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
It’s Thanksgiving Season and we are very thankful to our Heavenly Father that He has given us many years of fellowship with you. Thank you for your faithful support.
Thanksgiving is not a holiday in France but we always celebrate it as close to the US National holiday as we can. This coming Saturday we will be having Thanksgiving dinner together with Philip, Amanda and their two younger daughters. Camille is in her first year at a University here and Emily is a Senior in High School. We have also invited two couples who have been friends for a long time. Neither of these are believers. The primary way we share the Good News is in encounters and meals together. One couple are parents of Pascaline who trusted the Lord and followed Him in baptism several years ago. She is now doing University studies in the city of Lyon.
Friday night we were surprised by the visit of Marie Theophile. She was a part of our assembly for about ten years along with her parents and siblings before going to University. She is now completing Law School in Northern France. Many young people from our congregation are now in Universities in other regions and countries. Thomas just moved to Italy this past Friday to attend Medical School. We hope and pray that each of these disciples will follow the Lord faithfully where they are.
If you have prayed for our newest Bible study in L’Union, we have encouraging news. God is definitely at work in these meetings. Attention and participation has been great. Please continue to pray for the salvation of the seekers who need Christ and are attending these Bible studies. Since the good majority are lost and have practically no familiarity with the Scriptures, we are reading and discussing the first few chapters of Genesis and then moving to the Gospel of John.
These are some of the highlights of what God is doing here. We thought you would like to know!
Serving Christ along with you,
John and Judy
Contact Info:
John & Judy Hatcher
4, rue d’Aspin
31170 Tournefeuille, France
JMHatcher@aol.com
Present USA phone 1-812-416-1033
For ministry donations:
Pastor George Sledd, Treasurer of BFM
P.O. Box 471280 | Lake Monroe, FL 32747-1280
or click here to donate to BFM online.
Read more
Informal Bible Studies in Full Swing
October 10, 2022
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Judy and I hope this finds you enjoying blessings from the Lord. We are very grateful for what He has done in and around us this month. When the school year begins, our regular activities increase. There are seven regularly scheduled Bible studies that take place apart from regular church services. I lead only four of these. Three of these Bible studies began recently. Judy has children’s Bible classes in the city of Campagne sur Arize while the adult study takes place. Meetings in this city began just a few months ago.
Many of you are aware that Bible studies have been a major tool in our ministry here. I was motivated to use this approach years ago through the reference to Paul doing so in the Book of Acts. The Bible studies are informal, but the goal is for people to see from the Holy Scriptures what God says. This is how most of the disciples here have come to Christ. After they trust Christ, they continue to grow as they continue to read, examine and follow His revelation in the inspired written word.
A new Bible study began last Thursday evening in the city of L’Union. We have prayed for an opportunity to start a Bible study in this city for a long time. There were 8 people at the first meeting. Most of the folks have little or no familiarity with the Bible. Besides Judy and me, one or two of the participants profess to be believers. Three of the participants are originally from Iran. Your prayers for these meetings are greatly appreciated. The couple who hosts these meetings in their home are not members of our (or any) church. The lady made a profession of faith as a child and her husband has Muslim origins but makes no profession of faith.
We are also thankful for the blessings of God displayed in the regular church and youth meetings.
God answers prayer. I will close with an interesting answer to prayer shared by a family in our assembly 2 or 3 weeks ago. They and the church along with them have been praying that God would enable them to become acquainted with people from the neighborhood into which they recently moved. Their desire is to share the Good News of Jesus Christ with their neighbors. This summer has been extremely hot and dry. Grass and many plants have died. A fire started in a yard of the neighborhood and through underground dead roots spread into several yards. Neighbors from many homes came out to fight the fires and the Veuillets from our church got to meet many of their neighbors!
Your fellow laborers,
John and Judy
Contact Info:
John & Judy Hatcher
4, rue d’Aspin
31170 Tournefeuille, France
JMHatcher@aol.com
Present USA phone 1-812-416-1033
For ministry donations:
Pastor George Sledd, Treasurer of BFM
P.O. Box 471280 | Lake Monroe, FL 32747-1280
or click here to donate to BFM online.
Read more
Open Doors to Share the Gospel
September 9, 2022
Dear Co-Laborers,
Thank you for your faithful support in many different ways. Compared to last month this one has been relatively quiet. We enjoyed having Lydia and Adam (our daughter and son-in-law) along with their children with us for nearly a month. These rare moments with family are a great blessing.
One day when Judy was at the grocery store near our house along with one our granddaughters, she was stopped by a young lady who had heard them speaking in English. This lady has a son in grade school, and she wants him to become proficient in English. They set up a time to come by our house while our grandchildren were still here. Judy has had continuing contact and walks with this lady. God opens doors for us to have relationships with people with whom we can share the gospel.
One of the ladies in our church is a chiropractor and a people magnet. She called me the other day because one of her patients had approached her seeking information for her daughter’s sake. The patient said that her 12-year-old daughter wanted to get baptized. The family has no religious practice. The request is interesting considering the fact that only about 2% of French people are practicing Catholics, less than one half of a percent are evangelical believers. I do not yet know what instigated this desire in the girl. The mother told Anaelle, the chiropractor from our church, that she had approached her on the subject because she thought Protestants were more open than Catholics.
Anaelle called me to discuss the best way to talk to this lady and her daughter about baptism. The lady lives on the other side of the metropolitan area of Toulouse from us. Coming to meetings here would be quite a drive, but we are hoping to see her Sunday.
We are very encouraged with the Bible studies and hope to be starting a new one in a different city this month.
May God bless you and use you as His light where you are.
In His service with you,
John and Judy
Contact Info:
John & Judy Hatcher
4, rue d’Aspin
31170 Tournefeuille, France
JMHatcher@aol.com
Present USA phone 1-812-416-1033
For ministry donations:
Pastor George Sledd, Treasurer of BFM
P.O. Box 471280 | Lake Monroe, FL 32747-1280
or click here to donate to BFM online.
Read more
New Opportunities to Witness & Make Disciples
July 8, 2022
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Thank you for your prayers and support. We are very grateful for your faithful commitment for many years to the making of disciples here in France. Sometimes when things seem to be going slow God opens a new door that becomes an opportunity to witness and make disciples.
Let me tell you about a couple such events this month. At the time I received a message from my brother saying Dad had passed into the presence of the Lord, Judy and I were on the road returning from the home of Laure and Henri. Laure started coming to the Bible study at Mazere about 8 or 9 years ago. Henri started coming with her after they were married, and they hosted the Bible study at their place from time to time.
About two years into their marriage, we helped them move to a little town that is quite distant from our home and Mazere. He is a cabinet maker and she an elementary school teacher. Shortly after the move, their first child was born, and she stopped teaching to become a full-time mother. We remained in touch but his working hours at a distance from their home and caring for a child made it difficult for them to drive to a Bible study an hour away. There is no church close to them. Within 5 and half years they had four children. During a good part of this time, we were in Indiana caring for Judy’s sister who is now with the Lord. When we received notice of the birth of their fourth child we were back in France and made arrangements to visit them. Their home is a bit over an hour’s drive from us. This visit was the one from which we were returning when I got the news about Dad.
They were really concerned about their inability to be in Church and their children not being in Sunday School. We suggested to them what God had laid on our heart; starting a Bible study in their home including a time of Bible teaching for the children. They were thrilled with the idea, and we had the first meeting a couple of weeks ago. They invited Henri’s aunt and her husband, and they attended and showed a great interest. Please pray for God to use this Bible study for His Glory.
We have also gotten reconnected to a couple who were our neighbors years ago. They now live about one hour north of us. When they had dinner in our home a couple of days ago, she asked question after question about God and how to have a relationship with Him. She really seems driven to know God. When we first met them, she was an atheist.
These are only two of several incidents that we are very excited about. However, I think I had better stop for now.
Thank you for your prayer. Could you take a moment now to pray for God to speak to hearts here and give us the wisdom to pursue each opportunity that He gives us?
Your sister and brother in France,
Judy and John
Contact Info:
John & Judy Hatcher
4, rue d’Aspin
31170 Tournefeuille, France
JMHatcher@aol.com
Present USA phone 1-812-416-1033
For ministry donations:
Pastor George Sledd, Treasurer of BFM
P.O. Box 471280 | Lake Monroe, FL 32747-1280
or click here to donate to BFM online.
Read more
Rotating Bible Studies in Mazere, Sowing in Hope
Missionaries John Mark and Judy Hatcher have been serving the Lord in Tournefeuille, France since 1999. They define their ministry as “disciple-making.”
September 7, 2016
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
I hope this finds you well and enjoying the Lord’s faithfulness. It just dawned on me that I have not written a letter this month to update you on what God is doing here. I have been affected a bit by sciatica the last couple of months and it is difficult to type at the computer. So, I have gotten out of my regular routines. This is not all bad. God uses all things for His glory! Thank each of you for the regularity of your giving and praying for us. Each of you is also living life in a physical body on a fallen earth and it is not always “a piece of cake”. We really do appreciate your faithfulness and pray for you.
One of the things that I can do is walk. So, I walk and walk. Besides keeping me in shape it also opens up doors of opportunity. During the past few days I have had a number of good conversations about spiritual matters and about what we are doing here. These have been with people that we know and whose path I crossed as I walked or new people that God has brought into our lives.
During the month of August we have had unusually well attended meetings. Normally at this time of the year many are on vacation, but this year seems to have been different and we have had excellent services and Bible studies.
Normally we do not have youth outreach meeting in August because there are few young people at home. However, our granddaughters were in contact with many of their friends who were already back home so Philip and Amanda decided to host an “early” youth meeting. We were all thrilled by the 14 young people who came and participated. About half of these are unsaved and from homes where there are no Christians.
This Bible Study in Mazere started around 2004 when John & Judy started driving down about an hour from their home to have weekly Bible Study with Douceline.
In addition to this Bible Study, Douceline also now leads two evangelistic Bible Studies with other ladies.
I am enclosing a couple of pictures of the Bible Study last night at Mazere which is about an hour south of us. You will see that we are eating. Douceline, the young lady in whose home this outreach started turned 43 yesterday. In the last couple of years some of the folks who were invited by Douceline asked if they could host it in their homes. So, this Bible study now rotates among 4 homes. You might find this strange, but it actually is a blessing. When members of the group host, they take “ownership”. They are more likely to invite their friends to their home. This study first started about a dozen years ago when Judy and I started driving down weekly to have a Bible study with Douceline, a believer who had just moved from our area to a job in Mazere, who knew no other believers in the area and was very discouraged. In addition to this Bible study, this single lady now leads two evangelistic Bible studies with other ladies.
There are multitudes who need Christ so we just keep sowing; asking God for wisdom to do so effectively. Our church in Tournefeuille is now reaching out to 7 other communities. This is not much when you consider the fact that there are about 35,000 communities in France that need the Gospel. We sow in hope and God produces!
May the Lord richly bless you,
John and Judy
John and Judy Hatcher
4, rue d’Aspin
31170 Tournefeuille, France
JMHatcher[at]aol.com
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