A brief history of CLC France (by Ruth Williams)

It was in 1952 that CLC France was born. It was in a small town in the South of France, Marguerittes, near Nîmes, that Jean and Marcelle Tréboux started out.

It was in 1952 that CLC France was born. It was in a small town in the South of France, Marguerittes, near Nîmes, that Jean and Marcelle Tréboux started out. The Pastor of the town lent them what was known by the town's people as the 'Little Church' building (300 years old).

This Pastor's son and his wife, Etienne and Rosmarie Tholozan, have been helping the CLC in Strasbourg for many years. Etienne does book reviews for us at the local Christian radio station and Rosmarie is a very efficient helper at the Shop. There was rapid growth from the start. They set up mail-order with a catalogue containing only ten titles, door-to-door bookselling, bookstands at local markets, preaching at the local Protestant Church... Jean Treboux knew how to draw crowds with his violin playing!

The first bookshop in Rennes was opened in 1957. This was quite an event as Rennes was in one of the areas of France most 'closed' to the Gospel and it was the Gypsies, who at that time could not read, who welcomed us!

In the 1960s Jean Tréboux was convinced that the Lord would give some land to CLC on which to build the Headquarters. He even received a vision of the area where the land would be. Soon afterwards two Christian twin brothers gave some of their land to CLC, and as Jean Tréboux went to see the land, he saw the exact panorama he had seen in his vision!

So it was in 1965 that the move from Marguerittes to "La Colline" (near Montélimar) was made. A large hen house was bought and rebuilt on the land and converted into the warehouse! In 1985 several other buildings were built around the warehouse, under the leadership of the new director, Idris Davies. Over the years the work expanded, the bookshops increased in number (15 to date) and our premises started to get too small!

After several years of praying and looking for new premises, we moved to the South of Montélimar in 2007, to a very functional warehouse. We are very encouraged by this move and the added ministry of doing the logistics for Scripture Union France and Livr'Afrique (similar to Book Aid). The Lord has greatly blessed us!

Our new Director is Hervé Lessous who started with us in August 2008. Please pray for him as he takes up this responsibility.