Let me introduce myself
Let me introduce myself - my name is Fiona Matier and I have been living in Marseille, France for 6 years working with our Every Nation church. Before that I served as a pastor on staff at Every Nation Faith City in Potchefstroom, South Africa for 10 years but actually originally came from our Every Nation church in Grahamstown, where I was a first a student and later joined the team in full-time campus ministry. I am passionate about Jesus and seeing His Kingdom advance in the nations. I am eternally grateful for the strong foundations that were laid in my life as a student, which I am now able to pass on as we make disciples here in France.
Some of my responsibilities
Some of my responsibilities are preaching, leading the worship ministry, teaching Leadership School which we have launched in French for the first time - this is an amazing step forward in working with our Every Nation global family to create French resources and material that will help disciple people and develop leaders in the French-speaking world. I am also involved with outreach events and discipleship. More recently I have become involved in ministering to student leaders from campus ministries all across Europe. The photo on the right was from a camp where we had students from all over our Every Nation churches in Europe - Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Poland, Iceland, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, England, and of course France.
One of the things that motivated me to come to Europe was a prophetic word I received while still living in Potchefstroom:
“Europe cannot save itself. It doesn’t have the courage. God wants to raise up kingdom warriors from Africa and launch them into Europe to save them. There is a roar of the Lion of Judah in Africans that Europe desperately needs. A faith, a strength, a passion. But it will cost everything.”
Some recent baptisms - it was freezing! One of the girls who was baptised - Louanne, aged 16 had a radical encounter with Jesus after being hooked on drugs. Please pray for her - for faith, boldness and courage to share her story with her friends, as well as a deeper revelation of God’s amazing love for her.
We recently had an Easter outreach in our community - reaching out to children by having a fun day of free games and activities at our church. We had over 80 kids and their parents join us, including many Muslim families. Please pray for grace and favour as we continue sharing the gospel.
Every Nation Marseille recently celebrated our 8th birthday!
This is Geneviève, one of the ladies I am mentoring. She is an artist. In October last year we did a series in church on Influence and I had the privilege of preaching on Media and the Arts. She cried her way through the whole message and later shared that for years she has felt a block in her creativity and her identity as a child of God. After the message she went home and painted something, and has painted something EVERY day since then and was recently invited to exhibit her work. I honestly believe that creativity and the arts is a key to unlocking salvation in this city - as people like Geneviève trust God to communicate His heart to people who might never set foot in church. Taking His love into the world through EVERY means possible!
With much love,
Fiona
Every Nation Marseille