The Sims
Mark, Joy & Gabriel Sims have been serving in France
since 1988 as
church-planting missionaries with Grace Brethren International Missions
(GBIM). Mark & Joy met in 1976 while students at Word of Life Bible
Institute in Schroon Lake, NY. They continued their biblical
education, graduating from Columbia International University (Columbia,
SC) in 1981.
They then attended a 6 week Euro-Missions Institute (a program with
GBIM) in France in 1982, at which time the French GBIM missionary team
encouraged them to return to France as missionaries with GBIM.
Believing this to be God's direction for their lives, Mark began
studies at Grace Theological Seminary in order to prepare for a career
in Europe as a church-planter. He graduated in 1986, they welcomed
Gabriel into their family in 1987 and then left for France in 1988.
Mark & Joy attended language school in Paris for 8 months,
then spent
two years working a church in Le Creusot as an internship, before going
to Mâcon for 8 years. They have been living in the Lyon are since 1999
and are currently living in the center of a charming medieval village,
St. Andéol Le Château, located 20 minutes southwest of Lyon.
They are
seeking to begin a new church, which will be a daughter church of the
French Grace Brethren Church of Greater Lyon and as such, are involved
in meeting people through varied activities and sharing the Gospel with
them. They also serve in various capacities in the Lyon church. After
10 years of teaching quilting in various French associations, in
September 2005, Joy began a quilting store, L'Atelier Des Cœurs with
a
French associate for the same purpose of contact-making and evangelism.
Contact email address for the Sims
