Annecy, France

Bonjour! Since 2006 a group of us from Open Heaven Church in Loughborough have been meeting regularly to pray for France. We've felt led to pursue the possibility of church planting there, and the
place God has been speaking to us about is Annecy. Annecy is a beautiful town at the foothills of the Alps in the Haute Savoir region about 30 miles south of Geneva. So over the last 3 years or so we have done a number of trips to Annecy with various friends from our church and have began to build relationships and meet people over there.

We have built a team that is made up of Ali and Vicky Wilson, James and Anna Hewitt (who are expecting their baby in February!), Georgie Stafford (who got engaged at the beginning of December!), and Pete and Miri McKnight with their 3 boys Jonah (4), Levi (3) and Titus (9 months). We plan to move to Annecy next June to start looking for jobs and studying the language. Ali and Vicky are actually in France over the winter working in Montgenevre with 'Go-Montgenevre', a community based ski touring company. They will return to England in the Spring and move to Annecy at some point in the summer next year.

As a team we have looked into different models and methods of church planting, in preparation, and have arrived at the following distinctives by which we want to operate as a team:

1. We want to honour and love the people of Annecy, and part of this will be demonstrated by all of us being fluent in the language.

2. We want to saturate the place in prayer.

3. We want to meet, pray for, disciple and encourage key apostolic individuals who will be the backbone of any churches or small groups that are established.

4. We want to make disciples who will make disciples.

5. We want to settle down, live life, and integrate into the community whilst being very intentional about being missional.

6. We want to be Spirit filled and Spirit led, sharing the love and
story of Jesus we everyone we meet.

Please pray for us as we look for houses to live in, jobs to do and schools and play groups for our children! If you would like any more information, or if you could help us out in any way, please contact Pete at mcknight247@gmail.com

Merci!