Mark and Anne Gostlin

European French Coordinator

View our October 2007 Prayer Letter

Learn more about the ministry of Mark & Anne Gostlin here

I thank God for someone who cared about the souls of children and invited me to attend a children’s day camp where I learned that Jesus Christ died in my place on the cross and paid the price for all of my sin.  When I lay down to bed that night and thought about what I had learned, I cried out to God in prayer and trusted Jesus Christ was my Savior.  I was 8 years old.  Church involvement was spotty and limited in my childhood and teens years, but God worked in my heart while I was in the US Army gave me a much clearer picture of His will for my life.   It was during this time, while we were stationed in Vicenza, Italy that my wife, Anne, was saved having come to a clear understanding of the gospel through the preaching at the Christian Servicemen Center’s ‘Hospitality House’.  Returning to civilian life, Anne and I were baptized and joined the Chippewa Lake Baptist Church in Chippewa Lake, Ohio.  

In 1984, God called me to preach.  We continued to serve in our church in various capacities while I trained at Heritage Baptist Institute in Cleveland, Ohio.  I worked as a church planter and an associate pastor prior to accepting the pastoral call to the First Baptist Church of Spencer, Ohio in 1991.   In April of 2006, God called me to pursue a ministry with French speaking people so I immediately conferred with Bro Paul Pritchard of PREACH Evangelistic Ministries and, in August of 2006, resigned the pastorate to begin a new ministry among the French speaking people.

Anne and I will locate in the country of France, which is the fountain head of French language and culture.   Our goal is to foster evangelism and church planting through mentoring relationships with key men and women who will be equipped to train others for the work of the ministry.  

Approximately 36,000 towns in France have no gospel witness at all.  90% of the French people are Roman Catholic and most of these do not actively practice their religion.  Muslim out-number Protestants 2 to 1.   In addition to this, there are more registered witches in France than there are Roman Catholic priests.  

In spite of this, we have already seen French people saved, and believe that as cultural and global turmoil is disturbing the ‘status quo’ in France, God may be ready to do a work in this historic nation.   Educated and mobile individuals from French speaking nations throughout the world, and primarily in Africa, can be reached and trained in France to minister to people in their homelands.   We are encouraged and excited about the possibilities to advance the Kingdom of God in the hearts of French speaking people.




Mark J. Gostlin
PREACH Evangelistic Ministries
European French Coordinator