Ministry leader Yernathan* previously shared his testimony and now shares with me and Regional Director for Europe Jaap how he got involved in ministry, eventually in Europe.
You can support missionaries like Yernathan at advancingnativemissions.com/missionaries.
Yernathan: The first group I started in my first years as a believer was called the Christs. People called us the Christs because that’s all we talked about. They didn’t know what else to call us.
We were a bunch of young teenagers meeting in the forest [of my home country in North Africa]. Sometimes we met where there were shepherds and they joined us and heard the Gospel. A lot of people who I went to school with, engineers that I studied with, became Christians.
The Methodists opened a clinic, then a center, in our area. I started going there to be with other Christians and eventually met a man from New Zealand from the Bible Society. He was asking for prayer for bringing Bibles into North Africa and at first I wasn’t interested.
Then one day, I met another Christian who just came back from Sweden and the Bible Society. I went with him to the local Bible Society and met other people who were involved in that work. They’d been praying for people who would help them locally and I finally offered to help.
I knew a customs official and asked for his help importing Bibles from France. He said yes, and we started bringing them in and distributing them. We would fill up a van with Bibles and take them around to different areas.
Police would stop me and I would hand them a Bible and pray for them. Some Christians wouldn’t go with me because I did things like that, I was too forward. But it was open. I didn’t have problems. I didn’t think of it as a risk, but as a joy.
Later, I started to have problems with Muslim fundamentalists. The Bible Society had to stop. I started another Christian group and one thing we did was cook during Ramadan. I still didn’t know much, but I was happy to share the Gospel and people were happy to hear about Jesus. Something would happen, like a dream or a vision of Jesus, and they were happy. Our prayers were simple, but whatever we prayed would happen. God honored His Word.
But then some of my friends who had been helping were killed. They threw a bomb at them and one died immediately. A Muslim fundamentalist was also looking for me specifically. I’d met him and answered questions about my faith. He was friendly and at first I didn’t know he was part of the Muslim fundamentalist agenda.
Then the Muslim fundamentalists came to my hometown. They met my best friend and tried to ask about me, using my first and last name. But there were other people with my first and last name in my hometown. In my area, you’re supposed to ask for me using my first name, my father’s first name, and my grandfather’s first name. When my best friend heard this person asking for me by my first and last name, he was concerned. He told me that I should go somewhere.
That was when I left my home country. I went to France and considered a recommended seminary in Paris, but it wasn’t a good fit. So then a friend recommended a seminary in the Netherlands and that was better.
I then spent one year in England as part of World Evangelization for Christ (WEC) and they sent me to France as a missionary. I started a local church and then started TV networks because I had seen the impact of the Jesus Film when I was still in my home country.
I didn’t know how to structure or build a church, but there were a lot of North Africans in a specific area [of France] and another missionary couple wanted me to work there. I did a lot of evangelism in different churches. I preached in different languages and worked with different organizations, often in departments for Arab speakers.
As I worked in media, I met another man who worked in media and was a missiologist. He was a genius and he worked with another man, who has since passed away, to do ministry in North Africa. They helped me a great deal. They’re my standards for clear work and clear vision. We did a lot of evangelism through TV networks.
Thousands of people came to know Jesus, but we didn’t have a plan to organize them. We needed church planting, but I didn’t really know what that was. So I learned from scripture what it is.
Church planting is preaching the Gospel and when people hear the Gospel, bring them together and continue to teach them the foundations of faith. Strengthen and structure them, then appoint elders to run the church and the meetings. As long as they have the four elements from Acts 2:42 (following the teachings of the apostles, fellowshipping, breaking bread together, praying together), then they’re a church.
I didn’t know in the beginning that that was what we needed to do. I wish I’d known sooner. As I’ve learned, it’s become part of my DNA and God’s plan. I realized that because I’m saved, I’m part of God’s plan. I’m not a passive person and you can’t be passive if you understand God’s will in your life. You can’t keep the Gospel for yourself.
So I started a church and we were meeting in a house, learning and worshipping, but I knew we needed to do more. We all had different ideas and a friend advised me to start over, start from scratch, so we could have a good structure and foundation. It worked! We started another church and I had the TV networks and it kept growing.
Now, we have over 500 churches in our network working together. They’re all in France, but we’re starting to stretch into Germany and possibly into Turkey.
Jaap: What type of people come to these churches?
Yernathan: Initially, we had mostly North Africans. The French wouldn’t come at first, but as missionaries joined us from other countries, as immigrants from French islands and French-speaking Africans came, the French came. We started fellowshipping and having meals, which drew them in too. A lot of people would come eat and have fellowship, and we would evangelize.
Jaap: What does a typical church day look like?
Yernathan: We start at 10am with worship and we worship in three different languages depending on who is there. We have a worship team and a pastoral team and the pastoral team takes turns. We teach scriptures and disciple and do evangelism.
It’s still small. There’s a lot more we can do. I can tell that these churches struggle because they come from different places and have been taught different things. We’re strategizing so that training can be consistent. We need 300 solid church leaders who can do six months to two years of training, and if we could do that, churches would be different. In ten to 20 years, all of France could be different.
We need a workforce who is capable of meeting the challenges and are convicted. One of the challenges in Europe is that many people feel drained by their jobs. They don’t want to do something after work. But serving the Lord is sacrifice. You can’t expect to serve the Lord and it not cost you anything.
It’s like when King David insisted on paying for the oxen to sacrifice. The farmer offered it for free, but King David wanted it to cost him. Everything I’ve done has cost me a lot.
Rebecca: What does your ministry look like on a daily basis?
Yernathan: Most of it is meeting with church leaders and encouraging them. Most are from Muslim backgrounds, specifically from North Africa.
Sometimes I also visit different places, even in North Africa. I do my administrative work too, like getting bills together. I’m recuperating the building I’m in now, which once belonged to me but was taken by other people in the ministry. Now I have it back and I’m working on turning it into a conference and training facility. We will be able to meet and discuss things like business as ministry and things like that.
Rebecca: How does working with ANM make a difference?
Yernathan: It’s nice to get to know people and to know you’re praying for us. We’re building a story together and you know that everything I do now is geared towards church planting, discipleship, and leadership development.
We have different projects, like this building. It’s a strategic spot for leadership training because it’s in a safe area of France. God has given us favor. I have most of the funds, $100,000, but I probably need another $20,000 to comply with the government, things like emergency exit doors and stuff.
We want to make sure that we bring the Gospel everywhere, even traditionally Christian places that are drifting away, like the U.S. We could meet with leaders here, even those who have security concerns like from countries that are at war or where Islam predominates.
That’s why we’re here. We’re hopeful and we believe that the Gospel has the power to change nations. That’s why we’re investing our time, our lives. Jesus said it and died for it and we want to honor Him with our lives.
Rebecca: What are you looking forward to in 2026?
Yernathan: Inaugurating this building, thanking God and all the contributors. Hopefully after that, more leaders. Eventually, I pray we’ll get to 3,000 leaders. Right now, we only have 83. There’s no way we can work in Europe and across the world if we don’t have strong, good leaders.
The ministry is growing. I hope the financial side will grow as the ministry grows quickly. It’s easier for me to bring imams to faith and disciple them than to persuade people to give sometimes. [He laughs.]
Something I’ve noticed in ministry is that if you start something among former Muslims, it attracts Westerners. If I go to a church that’s all former Muslims from North Africa and they’re dancing and stuff, then Western people see and are interested. They come and get saved. Or people who work together or are married or they’re friends, they’ll invite them and come. There’s a strategy there, to work with North Africans and attract more Westerners.
And to evangelize socially, like with a meal. People open up there.
Rebecca: What do you want the Western, especially American, church to know about your ministry? And how can we pray for you?
Yernathan: I wish that they would pray for us and for open doors, so we can train more leaders and reach more people. We are here and we’re here to win, so we need prayers for safety, for health, for God’s timing, for God’s provision and guidance.
They need to come alongside us seriously in prayer. The Muslim world is not fun to work with. And my kids are believers, but I want them to keep God first in their life. Please pray for that.
Rebecca: We will, thank you.
Yernathan’s church planting and leadership training ministry in Europe reaches immigrants like him, native French, and is growing to reach more nations. You can support missionaries like him through ANM.
*Name changed for security.
