Let Your Light Shine: Stories of Salvation and Discipleship in Mazère
July 22, 2025
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
We hope you are enjoying your life in Christ and seeing Him at work around you. As I was finishing an online live Bible study a few minutes ago, it dawned on me that I had not yet communicated with you about God’s work here during the past month.
A couple of weeks ago, a young man who participates in the Bible study at Mazère followed the Lord in baptism. He was touched by friends and enthusiastically expresses his faith in Christ. This is the way it works: Friends, family and fellow workers touching the lives of others with whom they have contact and relationships; bringing to Christ those who are searching.
A couple of months ago, as Judy and I were getting on the plane to be in the USA for a month, I received a wonderful surprise. Christopher, a paratrooper in the same company as the young man whose baptism I just mentioned, sent me a text asking me about the possibility of getting baptized. He just recently started coming to the Mazère Bible study. He has expressed his faith in Christ clearly during the Bible studies. He will not be baptized immediately because he is with his troop on a training mission in New Caledonia for four months.
It is wonderful to witness God at work in the lives of those who have trusted Him. Roxanne, one of the very active believers in our college-age group was saved and baptized two years ago. She is in the pictures included with last month’s newsletter (also shown below). She is an active reader and student of the Bible. She has been having Bible studies with a couple of friends who were seeking God. In a Bible study last week with our granddaughters, Camille and Emily, along with Roxane, Léonie expressed faith in Christ and a desire to follow Christ in baptism. She is one of the friends with whom Roxane has been having investigative Bible studies for the past few months.
These believers did not come to Christ through our witness alone. Most people trust Jesus as Savior through the witness of a number of His disciples. We don’t have to do it all. You don’t have to do it all. We do need to ask our Father to enable us to live out our calling, “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:14-16 – Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount)
May God bless you and use His light through you. Thank you for serving with us.
John and Judy Hatcher
Contact Info:
John Mark & Judy Hatcher
2 T Impasse de la Picardie
31830 Plaisance du Touch
France
jmhatcher@aol.com
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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Disciples in France Sharing the Gospel with Others!
February 17, 2025
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Greetings from Southern France which is far north of where most of you live. Plaisance du Touch is about the same distance from the North Pole as Toronto, Canada. However, our winters are not extremely cold due to the Gulf Stream that warms western Europe.
God continues to touch lives around us. It is wonderful to be sharers of the Good News here and to be used by God to disciple those who have trusted Christ as Lord and Savior. Yesterday, Rose, a lady who was diagnosed with cancer a couple of years ago, told us excitedly about a door that God opened for her to share the Good News. She was waiting for minor surgery to remove the chemotherapy port that had been used for her treatment. A conversation with another lady awaiting the same procedure began and God guided her to be able to give her testimony and share about her faith as the other lady asked questions.
Roxane, a young lady who is a member of our congregation, studying to be an engineer, shared how God had given her the opportunity to share the Gospel with a friend for whom she had been praying. Roxane trusted the Lord and followed Him in baptism less than two years ago. She is the only believer in her family, but a flame of fire for the Lord in her gentle way of passionately seeking the lost and sharing the Good News.
We have regular Bible studies in six different locations in addition to the regular church meetings. Some of these are groups of saved people growing in the Lord and encouraging each other and some are groups of seekers meeting in the home of a believer with whom they are friends.
Several of those who were seekers have trusted Christ in the last year and are reading through their Bibles. It is exciting to receive phone calls or text messages from these new believers asking questions from their reading. Here are a couple of questions I received this past Saturday: “How come prophet Nahum proclaims condemnation of Nineveh when Jonah tells about their repentance and forgiveness?” “How were Pharaoh’s men able to do some of the same signs as Moses?” How would you answer these questions? If you need help, ask one of your spiritual leaders.
We are very grateful for your contribution to what God is doing here.
Your Fellow Servants in France,
John and Judy
Contact Info:
John & Judy Hatcher
2 T Impasse de la Picardie
31830 Plaisance du Touch
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
