Since 1972, Paul and Agnès (ann-yes) Sanders have focused on leadership development and compassion ministry in French-speaking Europe and Africa, as well as in Lebanon and internationally.
The Sanders helped plant three churches in the Paris area by 1996. Paul was president of the Baptist Alliance of North and East Paris from its inception in 1984 until its merger with an indigenous Baptist denomination. He also promoted leadership development at the Nogent Bible Institute as church history professor, academic dean, and principal. Agnes ministered as a wife, mother, part-time industrial physician, conference speaker, and author. Her book La vie est un souffle (Life is but a Breath), which relates the long struggle for their daughter Anne’s life, won the 1993 French Evangelical Book of the Year award.
After 25 years of ministry in the Paris area, the Sanders were redeployed to Beirut, Lebanon. Paul served as academic dean and vice president of the Arab Baptist Theological Seminary (ABTS) for 14 years. In 2006, he transitioned into leadership of the Middle East North Africa Association for Theological Education (MENATE), a network of over 20 Arabic-language theological schools across the region. He also led two other networks of theological schools: the European Council for Theological Education (ECTE) and the International Council for Evangelical Theological Education (ICETE). He continues to teach, write, consult and mentor in his post-retirement years.
In 2023, he published his book on the history of the Reformation in 16th century Europe: Zwingli et Bullinger : quand la Réforme entre en Cène (La Cause publishing in France). Agnès served in Lebanon as medical director of Tahaddi (“challenge” in Arabic), a compassion ministry that provides medical care, literacy classes, and social assistance for those living in a refugee camp/shanty towns in south Beirut. Today Tahaddi (www.TahaddiLebanon.org) has a salaried staff of over 60, serving several thousand people with free medical care and education through a dispensary, an educational center and a psycho-social center. Agnès continues to serve on the board of trustees of Tahaddi.
While living in Beirut, Agnès also ministered to women as a prison chaplain. Agnès just published a new book in French and English Tahaddi, sacré défi (Hope in the Heart of a Beirut Slum) in 2021 and 2022. Paul and Agnès retired from career service in 2013 and are now WorldVenture Global Specialists. Based in Nantes, France, they are active members/leaders in the Evangelical Baptist Church in their city. They have been involved in translation and proofreading of several titles into French. They have three adult children and seven grandchildren living in the Paris area and in Casablanca.
