Dear Partners and Friends! A Threat from the enemy Hello to all of you who pray for and support us. We trust this letter finds you rejoicing in the Lord as you labor in His vineyard! The Lord has done many great things for us lately. Our support has now reached the 83% mark and November seems more and more certain as the weeks go by. God has brought new witnessing opportunities, in a young man named Samuel, a friend of Jean, the young man I have been working with for over a year. Pray for both of them that the Word would penetrate their hardened hearts. There is so much that we could share with you, but I have decided to focus in this letter on a law that was passed just a few weeks ago in France. I am sure many of you have heard about this and have questions. In the past years France has, as you may already know, been through many terrorist attacks and has suffered a great deal because of radical islam. In reaction to this, a law was passed recently that was meant to help address this issue. However the words Islam or Islamic are not found in this law; instead, all religions, all "faiths" are aimed at in this law. Secularists have taken this opportunity to push God out rather than the terrorists causing us and many others great concern. This law will impact us in many various ways, however I would like to emphasize three that bring us some concern. First donations from the US and any other country to a French church will have to go through a vetting process if they surpass $10,000.This means that funding for building projects will now be much more difficult. Secondly home schooling is now limited by a vetting process as well this will affect missionaries who desire to homeschool their kids. Thirdly, and this is the biggest issue for us. Every 5 years, every religious organization will have to go through a vetting process. If the local authorities consider that the organization is a threat to the country or to the "values of the republic", they will have the right to shut the organization down without a judge's consent. While such a decision can be appealed, it could force the organization to be legally closed during the entire judicial process, which can take several years. I do not see this being an issue in the next couple years. The criteria for those organizations to be closed are related to inciting violence, which we are not doing. However it is obvious that this law sets up a tool for persecution in the future. Will our stance on homosexuality or abortion be considered hateful and cause local authorities to shut us down? There is no doubt in my mind! Recently a high ranking political figure in France stated that Muslims would have to preach that homosexuals have the right to marry, she was instantly rebuked by all the political figures and journalists in the country. However this slip up reveals the intentions that these people have, they use Islam as their scarecrow to push secularism further and further. I do not write this letter to alarm anyone, but rather to ask you to pray for the believers in France. We believe the Lord is working in France and we are excited to see more come to Him, and we pray the enemies' threats and attempts to shut us up would only cause more to come to Christ. Thank you for your prayers and support. God Bless you all
Jonathan and Priscilla Laase