July Newsletter
- traciwatson
- Jul 11
- 4 min read
Dear Family and Friends
Happy Summer! I know this letter is coming to you late but if you remember in my last letter, I mentioned that this past month there would be lots of travelling and ministry in Europe!
On the 29th of May I flew to Marseille, France to help our Every Nation Church there with their Freedom Day. I don’t speak French, but I have loved helping them with this ministry day the past 2 years by serving in the background with catering and also praying with those who can speak English. They had 25 people go through the course this time and for a small church this is quite incredible! Below is a picture of the day:
After flying back to London and repacking my bags I then headed off to Rome, Italy to join a mission led by Grace Family Church in Florida. This church is actually my sending church from America and has partnered with me as a missionary since I was 19 years old! It was such a pleasure to be a part of their first mission in Europe!
This mission was also special because this year is called a Jubilee Year in Italy. For Catholics, this year is very significant because Rome opens Holy Doors in basilicas across the city that are only opened during a Jubilee Year. Catholics from all over Italy and the world are making a pilgrimage to walk through these doors and to do other rituals in the belief that their sins will be forgiven. Rome is expecting at least 35 million people to make this pilgrimage this year.
Our team partnered with Italy for Christ, One Hope and Forever Open to pass out guidebooks. These guidebooks were in Italian, Spanish, French and English telling people that God’s door is always open and ready to welcome you no matter who you are or where you are from. These books encouraged people on their spiritual journey, whether they
were just beginning their pilgrimage or have been on this path for years.
We even had the opportunity of going to serve at a halfway house for men and cleaning their building for them. One of Italy’s top reporters joined us and shared our story of what we were doing in different platforms of the news all across Italy.
This mission was truly an incredible experience and blessing for me because I got to spend an amazing week with people from Grace Family but also being a part of scattering 4000 seeds across Rome to the nations! We handed out 4000 guidebooks. Our host Hans is the result of someone scattering seed many years ago in Rome so his story stirred our faith every day. Even though we might not see immediate fruit from this trip, we know God is faithful and we know that some of those seeds have fallen on good soil!
After my return from Rome, I headed back to London with a few days to prepare for another trip to Marseille. This trip would include two full weeks of ministry. The first week was taking the Marseille staff through our Every Nation School of Ministry Campus Track. I was a part of this week because I was helping to teach some of the material but also, to see and learn from the current teacher that has been heading up the course so that I could be prepared to teach more of the course in the future if needed. The Marseille staff is a small team, but it was a great way to learn about the course and see how a team in another culture strategizes and works together on a plan to reach university students in their city! Here’s a pic of the team minus one person:
The course ended on Friday and 2 days later we headed up the mountain to start our annual ENC Leaders’ Camp! Campus missionaries, volunteer leaders and student leaders travelled from London, Oxford, Bournemouth (England) and Cardiff (Wales) and Edinburgh and Bathgate (Scotland), Paris and Marseille (France), Madrid (Spain), and Dublin (Ireland)!
We had such a wonderful week with first- and second-year students growing in leadership and learning how to not only be leaders themselves but how to develop leaders on their campuses. This is not only a week of intense teaching but also lots of fun building lasting relationships across Europe. As well as helping to put this week together, I also taught 3 sessions to our first years and 2 to our second years.
Thank you SO MUCH for allowing me to do what I do! You are reaching the nations with every prayer and your partnership!
I am back in London and in preparation mode again. Next week I will teach at our Follow Three Course and for the next few months I will be preparing to lead a mission team to Dublin, Ireland in September.
Please continue to pray for me – I need it! Please pray for my health, for energy and rest over the next month. I need to schedule some doctor’s appointments to check on a few things so please pray for favour and good reports!
Also, please continue to pray for my monthly support. I have not met my support goal yet and still need more monthly partners. If you know of anyone who would like to join our team, please let me know!
Blessings
Traci
PS – Below are more pictures on the Leaders’ Camp
Comments