Europe

"The Berlin Conference from 17-19th November, 2005 was the climax of a six year process of relationship building between European and African Christian leaders," reports intercessor Brian Mills. In 1884, twelve European nations, the USA and Russia met to "cut up Africa like a cake". The process of reconciliation involved "uncovering the sins that contributed to and resulted from that 1884 Conference."
The November conference culminated in a statement drawn up by Roger Mitchell, Chris Seaton and Brian Mills: "It is our prayer that this will lead to many continuing acts of love and restitution from our nation towards those nations sinned against. We recognise that this is not the whole story. The Africans were gracious to remind us of the legacy of the Gospel that was brought by European missionaries, and of the contribution made to their well-being through education, medicine and certain infra-structures. In reference to the 1884 Conference which did not include any representative of any African nation, we confess:
"We as the nations of Great Britain & Ireland confess and repent of the sins we have committed against Africa and Africans from many nations, and against the Living God – Father, Son & Holy Spirit. We repent with a deep sense of guilt and shame of the following: Competition with our fellow European nations for imperial domination in the world; The imposition of the Empire Spirit upon Africa; Taking rather than giving; Dehumanising and degrading Africans, treating them as goods, calling them "black ivory", perpetrating the evil of the Transatlantic Slave Trade; Covenant breaking as we lied and deceived African leaders into signing away their rights to their lands for trivial returns; Imposing concentration camps in South Africa which created the ground for apartheid; Creating unjust trade patterns; Cultural domination through the imposition of the English language; Presenting the gospel to the African peoples without separating adequately the unholy alliance of the Church from the Empire and the Empire Spirit, which included imposing denominations, and failing to recognise that God had opened Africa to Britain for the expansion of the Kingdom of God."
Source: Brian Mills, (full report available)

Despite strict religious laws in Romania, a July 2005 outreach with David Hathaway was broadcast on national television. "That was the first time in Romanian history," says Hathaway, founder of the EuroVision movement. For the outreach in Bucharest's National Palace, Hathaway worked with pastor Daniel Matei and others. Matei used to be an evangelist, and is now pastor of a fast-growing church in Romania. Hundreds of people were saved, and many people were miraculously healed - all on national television. "That's a first!" says Hathaway.

Source: EuroVision, tel. (+44) 1924 453 693

"'Oh no!' I had quite a shock when I realised that I had lost my key during my morning jog," writes Corinne Kotzur from Cottbus, Germany, in the Josua Dienst mission agency's newsletter. "Retracing my steps to look for the key would take me at least an hour. Naturally, I prayed that God would lead me and that I would take the right route... So I turned around and retraced my steps. On the way, I had to pass a man with a large dog. He called out as I passed, 'Excuse me, are you looking for a key? My blind dog just found one!' Ecstatic and astonished that the tiny details of my life are so important to God, I made my way home. He had even used a blind dog, of which I used to be afraid, to find my key."

Source: Josua Bote, Corinne Kotzur

Staff of the international "Janz Team" based in Kandern, southern Germany, sought creative ways to communicate the gospel - and found them. One of those ways is to hold evangelistic English camps, called "LinGo", in Eastern European nations, including Moldavia. Many of the attendees come to faith in Jesus Christ. "Imagine your youth group or church tripling in size in a single week! Imagine how it is when the Christians are the minority in your youth group or church, because there are twice as many visitors who are not yet Christians, but come because they have seen Jesus in other Christians and now do not want to miss what happens when Christians gather! How would your church deal with that?" asks Jake Penner, a Canadian Janz Team missionary. "Many people in Belarus are open for the gospel - no, hungry is a better description!"

The Almost Christians Club
The camps draw many young people. 26-year-old Vladimir, for example "is a Tae Kwon Doe champion with a criminal record," says Penner. "Today, he leads the evangelistic Tae Kwon Doe project in one church. He brought his cousin, the astonishingly beautiful Oxana, a professional dancer and manager of a nightclub in Siberia. When we later asked her what she thought of the camp, she cried for a minute before answering 'Words cannot express what I have experienced this week. After the camp, I spoke with God all night, and I can feel how I am getting closer to him.' She didn't return to her nightclub. The church has since opened another club, for seekers who are not yet Christians, but seeking God so intensely that they are ready to attend such clubs - and sooner or later find Jesus there. Many, like Kalin, a tall young man who played in the national Handball team, bring 40 others to an improvised gathering in a local park. When asked what they think of these Christian gatherings, they say 'Ochin Kruta' - very cool."

Source: Jake Penner, Janz Team, e-mail jpenner at janzteam.com, fax (+49) 7626-9160-99

The Greenbelt Festival held in Cheltenham, England every August, is experiencing a comeback. The annual festival, originally evangelically-focussed and arts-oriented, began in 1974 with only 2,000 visitors. Following a period of decline in the 90's, this year's festival attracted a record number of 20,000 visitors.
John Bell of the Iona Community, which follows Celtic spirituality, says "In a materialistic and anti-institutional age, in which churches are marginalised and ridiculed, Greenbelt stands out as a life-changing, faith-strengthening and politically involved experience. Many people are losing their traditional understanding of Church, and see festivals like Greenbelt as the expression of a new way of being church."

John Walker, Regional Vice President of FGBMFI Europe, a movement which aims to evangelise businesspeople, read a report by Peter Spreckley telling of an evangelistic revival in his movement in Nicaragua. "When I read that report, I felt a strong desire that a similar movement would pour out across the great continent of Europe, which has become so dark spiritually. I lay awake in bed in the early hours of Monday morning, thinking about the report. I sensed the Holy Spirit saying 'Revival will come to Europe, the glory of the Lord will cover the earth, as the waters cover the sea. Now is the time to remain strong, remain faithful and seek perfection in all you do. Now are the days of preparation. Do not remain lukewarm or self-contented, but remain strong as my faithful remnant in these days and this generation.'"

Learning from Nicaragua
The following excerpts from Peter Spreckley's report show what stirred John Walker:"What we saw and experienced was overwhelming. We were challenged out of our long held understanding of FGBMFI's vision, as it was initially formulated in the book 'The Happiest People on Earth': at the most, monthly outreaches, with one or two prayer meetings in between. Our Chapter meetings generally follow the pattern laid out in the Chapter manual. In the fellowship's 'glory days', we had a good spiritual harvest, but realistically, we have to accept that the harvest has been decreasing, as did the number of Chapters, members and regular meetings. There were one or two exceptions, of course, but I don't think anyone would challenge that assessment. And yet we are called to impact and change our nation!

275,600 attend evangelistic dinners
The following statistics give an impression of what we saw and heard in Nicaragua:
There are over 530 Chapters in Nicaragua, which has a little less than 6 million inhabitants. 130 of those Chapters are Women's Chapters. There are around 100 Chapters in the capital, Managua. They expect to open one new chapter each week. Every Chapter invites people to an evangelistic dinner each week, and each time, an average of ten new people attend. At one such dinner, 22 of the 40 guests were there for the first time. 530 (Chapters) x 52 (weeks) x 10 (new people) = 275,600 new guests each year. Every third weekend, a seminar is held from Friday Evening until Sunday midday for leaders and guests who react during the dinners. We attended one of these seminars, with 700 participants, 80% of which were there for the first time! The seminars cover many areas of the Christian life, such as marriage, giving, sanctification, being a good citizen etc..

94,500 respondents per year
Seminars for youths and women are held between these weekends, each with over 3,000 participants. Three or four times each year, various regions hold revival meetings. We took part in one such event in Ocotal in north-western Nicaragua. Over 700 men took holiday from work for at least a part of the week. In one year, there were some 2,500 events, at which 94,500 people are reported to have called on Jesus as their saviour. Miraculously, in our European eyes, there seemed to be no door closed to the men from the Fellowship. We went with them into schools, where every class stopped while a member gave testimony, restaurants, local radio, the police station, the bus station, the ministry of employment, the list is endless. Always the same formula, the vision of the Fellowship to explain why they are there, the testimony and the prayer. The hearers are then advised of the local chapter dinner dates. Sometimes there was individual prayer afterwards. We noted the authority and confidence with which the men spoke.
How can this be? Well the answer has to be "God". But there is a history leading up to this great move of the Spirit and beyond. It starts in 1991 (when the civil war had just ended) with a prophesy to Nicaragua, which is now being fulfilled.

Devoted fishing
How do they do it? We see three things: commitment, fishing, testimony. The commitment is clearly visible, from the leadership to the last member. Hence the rapid expansion of the Chapters, participation of the seminars etc.. There would be no 'fired up' new members if there were none inviting them. So the commitment is not to the fellowship but to reaching men, born out of a deep life-changing personal experience of Jesus, leading in turn to a deep desire to see others experience the same transfer from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. So they are fishing every day, and the results speak for themselves. The tool they use is exclusively testimony.

What does that mean for Europe?
Every attempt to analyse the situation must begin with the recognition that God is present (in Nicaragua) and is working out his purposes. However, we must ask ourselves "Why isn't this happening here?", "Can that happen here too?" and "Do we want it to happen here?"

Why isn't this happening here?
It is hard to find an answer to this question which does not include excuses. Maybe it is not God's timing. But it is the same God and the same vision. How committed are we? And how seriously do we fish? Is our limited effort limiting God? Have we become 'religious' in the way we run our meetings? Should we put our rules and manuals aside and look at things through Nicaragua's eyes? We are tempted to make excuses: we are so busy at home, in our church and at work - but we can always find time to do what we want.
That brings us back to commitment. Do we really love those who are not yet in the Kingdom? Do we really understand the call on each Christian, "go and make disciples"? Do we understand that we will have to account for our obedience to this command?
"Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labour in vain". If we are to respond to what He seems, in my understanding, to be showing us then we need to hear from Him. We need His revelation and we need Him to go ahead of us.

Source: Report by John Walker/Peter Spreckley, Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship International

A Christian camp called "The Levites' camp" was held near Winterthur, Switzerland, at the end of July 2005. One of the speakers was Matthias Kuhn, better known as Kuno, a young evangelist and house church planter from Thun, Switzerland. This Friday Fax is an extract of journalist Peter Schmid's recording of his talk about reconciled generations.

The next generation
"We often hear prophetic words that it will be the coming generation, or the next generation, that will bring the breakthrough. In the passion rising among youth in the past few years, I also sense a pain. A pain, because I really do not believe that the coming generation will bring the breakthrough. I believe that only Jesus brings the breakthrough. Jesus does not glorify himself just through one generation, but through people uniting and joining in community, people in true relationship. A relationship and unity between the generations is definitely a part of that.

A key
I believe that Malachi 4:6, the last verse of the Old Testament, is immensely important for our days. God says that he will again turn the hearts of the fathers to their sons and mothers to their daughters, to protect the nation from a curse.

Holding hands
Friends, I don't believe that the next generation will reach our continent with the gospel, but I do believe that the blessing we so greatly desire will come when we humbly submit to one another and hold each others' hands. I believe that the glory of the Lord will break through when the younger generation takes their place in the line down from their elders and honours them.

The great lie
We have believed a great humanist lie: we believe that we only become mature by making ourselves independent. That is not true. The truth is that the true quality of God's Kingdom (Eph. 4:16) can only break through when we make ourselves dependent on one another. The word 'dependent' often gives us the shivers - myself included.

Leader, or father?
We have given the word 'dependent' a wrong meaning, understanding dependence on people exercising leadership, not fatherhood or motherhood. I do not believe that we should be dependent on leaders, but I do believe that we should depend on fathers and mothers. A leader desires to see the next generation continue his ministry; fathers, that the next generation comes with power.

A call to the younger generation
To the younger generation I say, if we do not return to the hearts of our fathers and mothers, there may be a few more stories and a few more books about us at the end of our lives, but the Kingdom of God will not break through in a new quality. We desperately need to return to the place of dependence on our fathers and mothers. For years, I thought that I and my generation would bring radical commitment. I made myself independent from my parents. Only recently, after preaching about it many times, did I realise that I have to put it into practice.

Honouring our fathers
I have wonderful parents. I called my father and said "I want to have a day of retreat with you". I wanted that once before, but I was also glad that he did not respond. Now I knew that the time had come. I had to again give my father his mandate to be my father. We sat together in silence. I knew inside that I had to lay down all my rebellion, pride, and the thought that my generation is the one, and say "Father, I need you."

Walking together
Fathers and mothers, my appeal to you is not to believe that we do not need you. Don't believe we don't need you just because you don't know what an MP3 is. We need you desperately, not in order to use you to become something better, but because we know that the Kingdom of God can only come in quality when we walk together. We have four children; I am my son's father and trainer. My son plays handball, as I used to. When I'm sitting on the trainer's bench, my son does not need a trainer, but a father. One day, he was not doing well. He was playing in a tournament, shooting again and again - and missing every time. I called him over and told him to pull his socks up, get his game in order. The trainer had spoken. He went back out and shot again - and missed. "I don't believe it!" I thought.

Trust and encourage
Then God spoke to me, saying "Timo doesn't need a trainer, he needs a father." I went to him, and knew: correcting him is not the right thing to do now. I think that is the pain keeping the generations apart in our hearts; we have been very good at criticising each other, telling each other where our place is. Friends, living in reconciliation means trusting one another. I told my son, "Timo, I trust you and believe in you." That also happened in the story of Elijah and Elisha. It is the key to God's Kingdom coming in a new quality in our nation.

Where God's beauty shines
If there is one thing I desire, it is that God reveals the beauty of mothers and fathers going forward in unity with their children, their hearts turned to one another. The time is ripe for a reformation in my heart. Let me no longer seek that which serves me and my generation, and how to become more radical, but how we as a young generation can seek to honour our fathers and mothers. That doesn't start up here on the stage, but in our own homes. I wish us courage.

Source: Peter Schmid.