Doug and Emilee Irwin
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Mission Contact Greater Europe Mission (GEM) 18950 Base Camp Road Monument, CO 80132 1-800-436-4488 info@gemission.com gemission.org
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Mission Focus
We are grateful to be a part of a new church plant in Paris. Doug is one of the teaching pastors (with his French partner – Guillaume Bourin) at Église de la Rive Droite (Church of the Right Bank) in southeast Paris. We are currently working with our core team and are looking to open our doors in December 2022/January 2023. Emilee is serving as the Arts Impact Zone leader for GEM missionaries throughout Europe, helping them to make disciples and grow Christ’s church through their unique gifts and friend groups. It is a major blessing to be working with such a dedicated core team. Pray that our young church will continue to glorify God in word and in deed.
Doug's Testimony
I was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, but grew up in St. Louis, Missouri. My dad was raised in a practicing Roman Catholic family, while my mom grew up in an Episcopal church. They both stopped going to church in college. When I was 16, my younger brother, Jeff, began attending a Wednesday night youth group rally at the invitation of his friend, where he prayed to receive Christ. The church reached out to my family and came to our home to share the gospel with the rest of us. My parents and younger twin brothers prayed to receive Christ then, but I was skeptical. Several times over the next few months, a college student from the church came over to play basketball and share the gospel with me. I began to see that my sin was great and that I had no ultimate purpose in my life. I asked for God’s forgiveness and asked Jesus to be my Lord and Savior. I had a wonderful youth pastor who discipled me very quickly. I attended a youth camp called Discipleship Now where I experienced a special call to ministry. God led me to continue to pursue this calling and to study the scriptures at Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, MO, where Emilee and I met. After college, we went to Fort Worth, TX, to Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Emilee and I sensed a call from the Lord to serve on two short-term teams in 2013 and 2014 to Lille to help Leroy and Debbie Zumack, and since then have felt God leading us long term to serve on a church-planting team in Paris.
Emilee's Testimony
I was blessed to grow up in a loving Christian home. My parents taught me about Christ’s love from the beginning. I prayed to receive Christ with my mom at home when I was 6. I grew up singing in church and knowing that Jesus died for my sins, but I had a time of real spiritual growth and renewed commitment to living a surrendered life to him the year before I entered college at Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, MO. Doug and I met my freshman year at SBU and were married before my senior year. Doug’s call to ministry was echoed in my life and we have been involved with several ministries, many of them church plants, through the years. We have both felt a call to serve in France as part of a church planting team.God’s not finished with me yet, as I am learning every day what a completely surrendered life is like, but he has shown me that his plans for me are good and that his love for me is greater than I could fathom!
We are grateful to be a part of a new church plant in Paris. Doug is one of the teaching pastors (with his French partner – Guillaume Bourin) at Église de la Rive Droite (Church of the Right Bank) in southeast Paris. We are currently working with our core team and are looking to open our doors in December 2022/January 2023. Emilee is serving as the Arts Impact Zone leader for GEM missionaries throughout Europe, helping them to make disciples and grow Christ’s church through their unique gifts and friend groups. It is a major blessing to be working with such a dedicated core team. Pray that our young church will continue to glorify God in word and in deed.
Doug's Testimony
I was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, but grew up in St. Louis, Missouri. My dad was raised in a practicing Roman Catholic family, while my mom grew up in an Episcopal church. They both stopped going to church in college. When I was 16, my younger brother, Jeff, began attending a Wednesday night youth group rally at the invitation of his friend, where he prayed to receive Christ. The church reached out to my family and came to our home to share the gospel with the rest of us. My parents and younger twin brothers prayed to receive Christ then, but I was skeptical. Several times over the next few months, a college student from the church came over to play basketball and share the gospel with me. I began to see that my sin was great and that I had no ultimate purpose in my life. I asked for God’s forgiveness and asked Jesus to be my Lord and Savior. I had a wonderful youth pastor who discipled me very quickly. I attended a youth camp called Discipleship Now where I experienced a special call to ministry. God led me to continue to pursue this calling and to study the scriptures at Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, MO, where Emilee and I met. After college, we went to Fort Worth, TX, to Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Emilee and I sensed a call from the Lord to serve on two short-term teams in 2013 and 2014 to Lille to help Leroy and Debbie Zumack, and since then have felt God leading us long term to serve on a church-planting team in Paris.
Emilee's Testimony
I was blessed to grow up in a loving Christian home. My parents taught me about Christ’s love from the beginning. I prayed to receive Christ with my mom at home when I was 6. I grew up singing in church and knowing that Jesus died for my sins, but I had a time of real spiritual growth and renewed commitment to living a surrendered life to him the year before I entered college at Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, MO. Doug and I met my freshman year at SBU and were married before my senior year. Doug’s call to ministry was echoed in my life and we have been involved with several ministries, many of them church plants, through the years. We have both felt a call to serve in France as part of a church planting team.God’s not finished with me yet, as I am learning every day what a completely surrendered life is like, but he has shown me that his plans for me are good and that his love for me is greater than I could fathom!