our story
The Bless Network was registered as a UK charity in 2002, but its story begins back in september 1991 when Gerard and Chrissie Kelly were working with Youth for Christ and exploring the possibility of moving to France. the bless story begins on a ferry pulling into Ouistreham for an exploratory visit to Caen…
1991
Praying on deck as the sun rose, docking at the mouth of the ship canal that leads straight into the heart of the city, we read the words of Psalm 107:7 “He led them by a straight way to a city where they could settle.” This proved to be one of those rare moments of clarity; when the sense that God is speaking is unmistakable. We set our hearts, from that day, on establishing a mission in the heart of Caen.
Circumstances soon conspired to take us elsewhere and the road to Caen proved long and winding, but the dream remained, and through almost twenty years of ministry in The UK, France and the Netherlands, we always knew God would in time fulfil the promise to to settle us in Caen.
1999
The longing to do mission in France led to the establishment of “Cafe-net”, a UK-based agency sending mission teams to mainland Europe and and resourcing believers in the UK to pray for the continent. The early mission trips were to Rouen and Honfleur in Normandy and Pozega and Slavonski Brod in Croatia, supported by an intern programme in these same locations and by regular prayer weekends in France.
2002
Cafe-net became a registered charity, changing its name to The Bless Network.
2003
While looking for a place in Normandy to train our new interns, we came across Béthanie. We stayed for an amazing 5 days, little knowing it would one day be the heart and home of our work.
2009
After a season leading Crossroads International Church in Amsterdam and overseeing Bless alongside, we relocated to France to make Béthanie our home. The growth of Bless made the need for a missions hub very real, and Béthanie soon became the base for our three core programmes - internships, summer missions and prayer weekends.
2010
The summer programme became ‘Boot Camp’, with teams trained at Béthanie before travelling to locations in Croatia, France and Spain.
2012
The intention in coming to Béthanie was to establish a missional training base, continuing the Bless programmes of missions alongside local churches. This changed in 2012 when a new church emerged. A growing number of people were coming regularly to pray and worship at Béthanie and it became clear that they were forming a new faith community. We established Bless Church as a bi-lingual, ecumenical, missional community, initially meeting at Béthanie.
2014
We were able to make the final payment on the purchase of Béthanie. Our church gatherings were growing steadily with a number of families from Caen joining with those from the area around Livarot. We regularly travelled into Caen to pray for the city, and in time formed a house-group there.
2015
We began visiting the ‘Jungle’ refugee camp in Calais, to observe, pray and help where we could. We prayed in-depth about how we might do more for this refugee crisis all but on our doorstep. This resulted in the 2016 launch of ‘SOS Chai’, a tea-and-friendship ministry working out of a converted ambulance. Our teams remained at Calais until the demolition of the camp made it impossible to continue.
2016
After two years of preparation, planning and prayer-walking, Keys & Co opened its doors for the first time. This was the first ‘kingdom business’ to be planted out of Bless Church. Keys soon established itself as the go-to in Caen for great coffee, great food and great company!
Our Caen-based house group of Bless Church became a local congregation this year, meeting at first in Keys & Co and more recently in our own premises at ‘#3’ - a base for SOS Chai, a gathering place for the church and a prayer room for the city of Caen.
2017
On Easter Sunday, 2017, the ambulance (now returned to Béthanie) travelled to Caen, where we served a hot meal to around 100 Sudanese refugees living in a squat on the Presqu’ile. This soon became weekly and then led to twice-weekly visits and the SOS Chai ambulance has been a regular sight on the Presqu’ile ever since.
2018
The second kingdom business to grow from the church is L’Orangerie de Beauregard, a 5* campsite in Villedômer, near Tours. L’Orangerie opened for business in 2018 and has become a popular location for British, Dutch, Belgian and German campers. With a Chapel on site, L’Orangerie is also home to a new expression of Bless Church, which means that the church now gathers in three locations - Caen, Livarot and Villedômer. We hosted our first ‘Blesstival’ here in May 2018.
We consolidated the programmes of teaching that had shaped Bless over its lifetime and produced, from these, the ‘Seven Stories’ curriculum. This exploration of key biblical themes has been delivered in a range of settings, empowering individuals, families and churches to find their place in God’s mission in the world.
2020
We reviewed the ‘footprint’ of the Bless Network, expressed in church-planting, kingdom business developments, training programmes and the prayer and worship life of Béthanie. We examined the threads that run through these diverse activities and identified four core values: the Tent (worship), the Table (community) the Treasure (Kingdom growth) and the Towel (serving others).