MONTREAL—North American Mission Board trustees, meeting in Montreal Oct. 6-7, toured the city, learned about the ministry challenges associated with reaching Canada, and conducted business in support of NAMB’s ministries.

After visiting with three local church planting missionaries Monday, a trip to nearby Mount Royal Park provided a sweeping view of Montreal’s skyline with the St. Lawrence River in the background. The deep spiritual need, though, overshadowed the beauty as trustees learned of Montreal’s unique challenges for church planters serving in a city marked by secularism and religious disaffiliation.

Once more than 80% of residents identified as Catholic. Then in the 1960s during a societal shift known as “The Quiet Revolution,” millions in the province of Quebec, where Montreal is located, left the church.

Today, fewer than 10% attend weekly mass. Fewer still—only 1%—of residents identify as evangelical Christians.

A deep distrust of organized religion remains. Local church planters describe Montreal residents as spiritual, but mostly uninterested in attending church.

At a Monday night dinner, Jeff Christopherson welcomed trustees and local missionaries. Christopherson serves as executive director of the Canadian National Baptist Convention, NAMB’s church planting partner in Canada.

Noting that in 2010 NAMB’s total budget for Canada was $300,000, Christopherson told NAMB President Kevin Ezell, “Thanks to your leadership and willingness to go to the mat, we are at 15 times that now. It’s humbling to recognize that there are a lot of people sacrificing, a lot of people doing without so that this could happen here.”

‘Something is going on right now’

David Pothier, who planted La Chapelle church in 2013, gave trustees a sense of the challenges churches face in Montreal. Most neighborhoods have laws preventing new religious zonings, making it next to impossible to start a new church unless that area is already zoned for religious gatherings.

“So for churches to find a place to meet is a big challenge,” Pothier said. “Especially if you have more than 200 people attending. For us, we were meeting in a school, and last November the government of Quebec kicked out all the churches that were meeting in schools. We had notice at 5 p.m. on a Friday night that said your contract is done, don’t come back to the school. That was Nov. 22, and it took four months to find another place.”

Pothier outlined several other proposed laws the government is currently considering. One would ban prayer in public spaces. Another would eliminate tax deductions for tithes to churches. Still another would require churches to pay taxes on their buildings, and another would remove the non-profit status of organizations that adhere to a pro-life position on the issue of abortion.

“Despite everything I said, something is going on right now,” Pothier sad. “We have a movement of church planting right now.”

Montreal has seen more than 70 church plants since 2008, and activity continues to grow.

“Despite everything here in Quebec, I believe we are on the verge of the greatest revival we have ever seen here in Quebec, but at the same time we are on the verge of the greatest persecution we have seen here in Quebec,” Pothier said. “But nothing will stop the kingdom of God, and thank you for being part of it.”

Obedience over outcomes

In his address to trustees, Ezell said, “What we are doing is no small thing. Can you believe we get to do this? God allows us to be a small part of all this. Thousands of churches started.”

Ezell challenged leaders to live with a faith that expects the unexplainable, trusting in God alone. “We have to expect God to do things only He can do, which means we won’t always be able to explain them,” he said.

He emphasized obedience to God over outcomes: “Our job is obedience. His job is the results.” Confidence, he noted, should come not from circumstances, but from God’s sovereign hand.

Reflecting on the rebuilding of the temple in the book of Ezra, Ezell pointed out that the people began with worship, not work. “Worship strengthens your courage and keeps you focused on God’s power, not your enemy’s pressure.”

Opposition, he said, is a sign you’re building something that matters.

Ezell told a story about Cuba under Fidel Castro. Though churches were suppressed, they adapted—multiplying house churches every time the regime imposed lower attendance limits.

“God started a church planting movement in Cuba and used a communist leader to do it,” a local pastor had told Ezell. “That’s something only God could do.”

This article was distributed by the North American Mission Board.

This July, TSA lines filled with students with passports in hand and a desire to learn about missions in their hearts. Volunteers from across the U.S. traveled to eight European countries to take part in the International Mission Board’s youth labs.

Youth labs are a five-day program for high schoolers to learn about missions alongside a longterm IMB missionary, a Journeyman, a local partner, and IMB summer interns. Youth labs are part of IMB’s Go Impact program, which offers one and two-week international mission trips for high school youth groups. A total of 109 NextGen volunteers served on Go Impact teams in Europe in July.

Chris Derry, the IMB’s director of church and campus engagement, joined a Go Impact team.

“The boldness and resilience of the next generation cannot be overstated,” he said. “I watched them knock on thousands of doors, minister to refugees and the homeless, prayer walk the neighborhoods around new church plants, cry after difficult conversations, study new places and cultures, and lead people to Jesus.

They were shoulder to shoulder with older college students and seasoned long-term missionaries—watching, learning, and growing. If this is a glimpse of what’s coming over the next 10 years in missions, it will soon be our turn to keep up.”

This summer, three students and three adults from First Baptist Church Selma, Ala., were a part of this next generation when they traveled to Budapest to participate in the city’s youth lab.

“Our hope for the students was that that they would get a glimpse of what it means to be sent, and what the work of the church is, not just locally, but globally, and to have eyes for the Great Commission, not just here in our local context, but around the world,” said Caleb Newsom, the minister of students and sending at FBC.

While FBC has a long missions history and an active Woman’s Missionary Union who deeply value missions involvement, the church hadn’t been overseas on a mission trip since 2008.

When Tim Mathis was hired to be the lead pastor, he knew he couldn’t do it all, and Newsom was hired soon after. Mathis attended the IMB’s Senders Summit, which equipped him with practical ways to mobilize the church. They committed to three mission trips, including the youth lab in Budapest.

Budapest Bound

Lamar Schubert, an IMB missionary in Budapest, and his team hosted youth labs this summer and last summer. This summer, 70 volunteers and nine interns participated in the Budapest labs. The high schoolers received training in the elements of missionary living, including entering a culture, identifying yourself as a spiritual person and engaging people with your testimony and the gospel.

During the morning sessions, students spent time practicing their two-to-three-minute testimonies. Schubert encouraged the students to not think just of their testimonies of “before Christ and after Christ,” but how Jesus is sustaining them now.

In the afternoons, the students visited three different parks to practice what they learned. They asked people they met if they had any prayer needs. This was a segue to sharing their testimonies.

Leighton Grace Bennett, one of the FBC students, listened to a woman share how she grew up Catholic and went to church with her mom, but it felt forced. Bennett also grew up going to church, but once she made a personal decision to follow Jesus, it didn’t feel like an obligation. Praying and going to church filled her with joy. The woman began to cry as Bennett shared how a relationship with Jesus changes everything.

Bennett and her father, who was one of the adults on the team, also had the chance to pray and share the gospel with a drug dealer.

“He wanted Jesus, but he didn’t think that he could [become a Christian] because of how many bad things he’d done,” Bennett said.

Later, the same man approached members of another youth lab team, saying he wanted to hear more about the Holy Spirit. He’s now connected with IMB missionaries.

Bennett said the legacy of a football player inspired her to get involved in missions. Last year, a well-known and loved football player in Selma died after sustaining a head injury during a game.

A few days before his death, he told his youth pastor he wanted to see a revival in his school and in Selma. After his death, Bible studies started across town, including one among the football team.

“I felt led to go on this trip because he always showed Jesus to everybody, and everybody needs to do that, so I loved getting the opportunity to get to go share about Jesus with other people around the world,” Bennett said.

Red light, yellow light, green light, go

Every evening, the team celebrated red, yellow, and green lights in their conversations. A “red light” was a rejection or closed door to further conversation. A “yellow light” conversation meant the person hearing the gospel was not ready to decide but was open to follow up. A “green light” was a profession of faith.

“One of the key points that was driven home during the training every morning is that God wants our obedience,” Newsom said. “He wants us to share the gospel no matter what people say. The whole point of celebrating the rejections, was to say, ‘You were obedient, and this conversation may not have been pleasant, but the Lord was glorified in it.’”

Getting the first rejection was like “ripping a Band-Aid off,” he said.

“We know we planted seeds, and we did what the Lord wanted us to do. Even if we did get rejected, we were still doing the Lord’s work,” Bennett said. “The rejections at first seemed very heavy, but the minute you got that one person who wanted to pray or the one person who wanted to hear the gospel, it really changed your perspective.”

Though there were red lights, the FBC team, other youth lab teams and IMB missionaries are celebrating 10 green lights—10 people chose to make Jesus the Lord of their lives. Youth lab teams from several churches combined had almost 500 gospel conversations.

Schubert said most of the 10 new Christians have already been in contact with local believers and some have even started their discipleship journey.

From Budapest back to Selma

“All of what we trained is transferable at home, so their commitment time during the week was to write the names of five people they would share the gospel with at home and share that with their youth pastor so he could hold them accountable,” Schubert said.

The students reached out to their five contacts via social media while they were still in Budapest.

Schubert told the team that obedience is stepping out into a place where the outcome of what God will do is uncertain.

Newsom said the students were willing and obedient to go.

“By the end of the trip, they were unanimous and bought into the importance of getting the gospel out,” Newsom said.

They were also willing to be held accountable back home. Bennett was initially scared to approach strangers and share the gospel.

“If He wants you to do it, there’s a purpose for it,” Bennett said. “Whatever I was doing, He already was in front of me preparing the way.”

Bennett said her desire now that she’s back home is to be more comfortable and intentional about sharing the gospel with the people she sees every day. That can be harder than approaching random people on the street, because she’ll most likely never see them again. During the trip, she reached out to the five friends she identified during the training session and invited them to an upcoming youth outreach event at FBC.

Schubert said it was a blessing to watch the team grow in cross-cultural evangelism.

This article was first published by the IMB.

Editor’s note: Some names have been changed for security reasons.

When Ruth visited Fran in summer 2023, Ruth didn’t expect to end up in the hospital, fighting for her life.

International Mission Board missionaries Wade and Catherine Hampton have seen God work in Southeast Asia, but they don’t always see Him work through an attempted murder. This story is one they shared with Southern Baptists, asking for prayer.

Ruth met Fran at a park earlier that year, and despite Fran’s initial friendliness, their relationship became complicated when Fran discovered Ruth was a Christian. Raised in radical Islam, Fran grew up hating Christians, and she began avoiding Ruth.

However, Ruth didn’t give up. She still occasionally saw Fran, always trying to steer their conversations toward God. Eventually Fran invited Ruth to her home, an opportunity Ruth approached with caution and prayer.

While visiting Fran’s home, Ruth felt nervous, but her husband, Matt, encouraged her to pray and trust God. The visit went smoothly, and Ruth shared more about the gospel with Fran. Days later, Ruth and her family stopped by Fran’s for an evening visit. As they were leaving, Fran offered them tea. Ruth, not wanting to reject Fran’s hospitality, accepted.

Three hours later, Ruth awoke with sharp pains in her stomach that kept getting worse. The pain made her dizzy and she could barely walk. At daybreak, Matt rented a car and took her to the hospital. Before they left, he asked other Christians to pray.

The first hospital wouldn’t serve Ruth because she was a Christian. Same for the second. This is unfortunately common for Southeast Asians who are living boldly for Jesus in a region hostile to the gospel.

Ruth was unconscious when her husband rushed her to a third hospital. Thankfully, they accepted her.

After three days in a coma, Ruth woke up in the hospital to sounds of her family praising God. They didn’t think she would live.

“The doctor was confident I was poisoned,” Ruth said.

The type of poison they found in Ruth’s body is commonly used in murder among a local tribe. The doctor asked if they knew anyone who wanted to poison her.

“Jesus taught to forgive and pray for our enemies … God had forgiven me so I could show love to others.”

Ruth was shocked. That was Fran’s tribe. The tea—it had almost killed her. And the woman had even offered some to Matt and their 2-year-old daughter. The girl’s small body wouldn’t have survived had she accepted it. Ruth was filled with anger.

“However, I remembered Jesus taught to forgive and pray for our enemies,” Ruth said. “I knew God had forgiven me and saved me so I could show love to others.”

Ruth contacted IMB missionaries, asking them to pray for her and for Fran. They shared Ruth’s prayer request with Southern Baptists in fall 2023 through IMB’s prayer channels, and soon, people from around the world prayed for Fran’s salvation.

As Ruth recovered, she and Matt struggled with doubts about staying on the island. They experienced persecution before, but this was different. They prayed with other Christians and ultimately felt led to stay, trusting God would strengthen them and provide for their needs. Ruth forgave Fran, but it wasn’t easy.

“At times things are still hard,” Ruth said. “I have side effects from the poisoning that will last a lifetime.”

Ruth’s forgiveness came from her love for Jesus. Over time, she became increasingly burdened for Fran, asking God to grant her salvation so Fran would know God’s love. Ruth was confident that if Fran knew such a love, her heart would break for her sin.

Over a year later, Fran’s adult daughter reached out to Ruth and Matt, asking for prayer because her mom was sick in the hospital.

Ruth and her family spent two days with Fran and her family, sharing the gospel. Fran seemed different. She eventually admitted to trying to kill Ruth. Fran also acknowledged that God healed Ruth. However, Fran still didn’t choose to follow Christ.

The next day, Fran’s daughter texted Ruth, saying Fran wanted to be cleansed of her sin and darkness. She wanted to follow Jesus. Fran’s daughter asked if Ruth could return quickly and bring a Bible because Fran’s son wanted to read it.

Ruth and her family rushed to Fran’s bedside, eager to share the gospel one final time. On the way, Ruth asked Christians around the world to pray for Fran to trust in Christ once and for all. The Hamptons shared the request with their prayer partners.

Fran died the next day, but not before repenting of her sin and placing her faith in Jesus. Like the thief on the cross in Luke 23, Fran entered paradise that very day.

This article first appeared on IMB’s website.