A team of AGWM personnel, recently sent out to the Czech Republic, taught and trained twenty youth leaders at a conference in that country.  Each couple taught a session and held individual coaching meetings with leadership teams of various youth groups from across the country.

One of the highlights of the week was the creative worship evening where attendees worshiped through engaging all of their senses.  In the “Immanence Room” youth leaders experienced the closeness of God through personal prayer tents, personal love letters to and from God, and dinner with God (personal communion).  In the “Transcendence Room” youth leaders were exposed to a large-scale video of stars and galaxies interlaced with facts about the vastness of the universe and verses from the Bible.  Everyone was then challenged to draw or paint immense pictures depicting what the transcendence of God would look like to them.

One powerful station in this room was a simple bowl of sand.  Each person was to take a pinch of sand and try to count all of the grains.  They then read the statistic that for every grain of sand on earth, there are an estimated 1000-3000 stars in the universe!  Participants were led to read Isaiah 40:26 where it is written “Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.”  He is indeed greater than our understanding.

Youth leaders who attended the conference agreed that the week was useful for their life and ministry.

From Newsletter of Jason and Andrea Morrison

AGWM Personnel, Czech Republic

Peter has a real history with drugs & crime, and has been on social welfare for 20 years. To get his benefits, the state requires that he applies for jobs. He’s been doing that for 20 years with no results. Interviews? Sure he’s had plenty. But they always led to a background check…well, with 21 prior arrests, he long ago gave up on really ever getting a job.

So now he just sends job applications to fancy hotels that would never hire him. But after his first visit to our church in May, one of those fancy hotels, the most expensive one in town to be exact, called him. And after his interview…they simply forgot to ask for the background check. They also skipped the usual 3 month trial period and just offered him the job full-time. Peter calls it a miracle. It’s hard to disagree with him.

From newsletter of Mike Tyler

AGWM Personnel in Germany

Children’s evangelist from America, Jay Risner, came to minister in the Czech Republic. A special program was planned in the Gypsy community in Chanov, an area that has the reputation for being the worst Gypsy ghetto in the country.

Over 100 children and about 20 adults filled the auditorium where the special program was to take place.  Using illustrations, skits, songs and illusions, Jay captured everyone’s attention for 90 minutes as he talked about God’s love and the importance of our choices. When the invitation was given to become a part of God’s family by asking Jesus to forgive their sins, IMMEDIATELY, with no hesitation, about 30 hands went up.  These children then came forward to give their lives to Jesus.

Jay led them in prayer and then in this confession of faith, “I am a child of God!  I now belong to God. I will make good choices each day and live my life for Jesus.”  Hearing that declaration from the children was very powerful and beautiful.

From newsletter of Jason and Andrea Morrison

AGWM Personnel in Czech Republic

A 17 person work team from the USA came to assist the Pentecostal church in Annaberg, Germany with its extensive building project. The team led by Pastor John Baich from Willard, Ohio, was made up of participants from a total of six different churches from Ohio, Tennessee, and Wisconsin.   It proved to be a wonderful time as everyone worked together as if they had been friends for years.

The local church members were amazed at how much work had been accomplished in just five days.  One of the leaders of the Annaberg church stated that the team had boosted their efforts by 1-2 years!! They now hope to complete the project by Spring 2012. At the closing “ceremony” the church´s leader shared how tired their people had become, having worked on the project for over four years. The Americans, he said, were such a blessing and encouragement that his people now feel re-inspired to complete the project.

It’s amazing what a giving spirit can produce for those on the receiving end.   A few tears were shed that last evening as the Germans hugged the Americans, and the Americans hugged their new German friends – brothers and sisters in the Lord.  Teams like this build such good will.   The blessings that follow cannot be counted in dollars and cents. This is a picture of  “the Kingdom of God”.

An Albanian student named Genci received a powerful vision from God calling him to ministry and directing him to forsake the temptation to emigrate to Greece. Genci was struck blind by the vision, but God in his mercy restored his sight. The following day, he attended a church service where he gave his heart to Christ. Now he is preparing for pastoral ministry at Evangelical Theological College in Albania. Genci is the only believer in his family and faces strong opposition, yet he is passionate and committed to fulfilling the call of God.

Genci relates more details of his story.  “At age 18, I tried to illegally cross the border to find work in Greece.  I was caught by the police and returned to my town in Albania.  I intended to try again, but that night the presence of God came upon me and spoke to me through a vision and said, ‘Don’t go back to Greece  I want you to stay here and serve.  I have a plan for your life.’  Afterwards I couldn’t see for at least a half an hour, but God healed my eyes.  The next day some believers witnessed to me and invited me to church.  After attending church and hearing the good news of Christ, I surrendered my life to him and knew that he was also calling me to his service.”

Genci presently serves with discipleship ministry for all ages, is one of the leaders of the worship team, preaches, evangelizes, and organizes activities for the young people in his church.  He feels called to pastoral ministry, to care for God’s people.

Genci recognizes his need for training and preparation for serving the Lord throughout his life.  He knows attending ETC is part of God’s plan for his life.

From Newsletter of Kurt Plangehoef

AGWM Personnel in Albania

Rick and Minna Boettiger, AGWM personnel for many years in Germany, recently returned there to begin another term of service.  Finding a home has been rather difficult but some awesome encounters have taken place during their home search.  They state:  “Each time we look at a place, it is either too expensive or too small or too far or…. “    The actual realtor appointments have been fairly short and then in the end Rick has started talking about the things of the Lord.

He says,  “Wow, we have experienced amazing things just by meeting the various agents. Recently we were able to pray with a sharp lady agent, right on the street! Tears were running down her cheeks while praying and we realized then, that’s why we were there on that day, just for her, not for the apartments.  And, a house owner got gloriously saved, this after our appointment with her. Though the apartment was again not the right one for us, we were able to reach out to the heavens by touching a person for Jesus! We invited Dagmar to a special service on a Sunday evening as Dr. Paul Ai, our guest speaker, shared his powerful testimony of finding freedom ‘From Buddhism to Jesus’. Dagmar came and accepted Jesus into her heart!”

The teens from the International Churches in Padova and Rome gathered together in the Dolomite Mountains near Cortina, Italy for their first ever Teen Camp.  Thirty teens in all from ages 11-20 from ten different nations went to this camping event.  Many literally had a mountain-top experience.  Half of the teens had never camped before in their life. All electronic devices were outlawed for 5 days. (Some couldn’t handle the first day!)

The kids learned about God’s purpose in their lives through His Word coupled with actually listening to Him in their hearts while hiking which they did in the mountains daily.  They touched God through heartfelt worship and the wonder of His presence, and experiencing the beauty of His creation in that setting.

There were daily lesson sessions on teen relevant issues.  Many expressed that they will never forget how they met God that week. They also learned to minister to each other in deep, spiritual ways.  This was a week of great encounters with the heavenly Father for all – physically, mentally, and spiritually.  They can’t wait ‘til next year.  Some lives were changed for all eternity!

Information from Steve and Patti Gray

AGWM Personnel in Padova, Italy

Many long years of searching in all kinds of wrong places had brought Helene to a point of almost complete breakdown in all areas of her life. She was into just about everything one can imagine, searching for meaning. She had different personalities and her life was truly in a mess.

One day an “inner voice” told her to call a guy she knew to tell him he was on the wrong way. She did – however, this guy was a Christian and instead of turning away from his way, he and others showed her the way to Jesus. Over a period of time she got rid of many things she owned that tied her to her old lifestyle, such as occurred in Acts chapter 19.

The day she prayed and asked Jesus to be her Lord she couldn’t believe the freedom she experienced when her burden of sin fell away. She says she could literally breathe easier and felt like her lungs had much more volume. What a joy it was to baptize her at our church retreat in May. The old Helene is buried and the new Helene has been raised up with Christ to an eternal life with Him. She is following Jesus and He is changing her bit by bit.  Step by step she is growing in her life with Christ.

- Newsletter of Steve and Christina Walent

AGWM Personnel in Germany

]]> http://www.eyeoneurope.org/index.php/story/germany-helene-found-jesus/feed/ 0 http://www.eyeoneurope.org/index.php/story/montenegro-bible-school-students-in-active-ministry/ http://www.eyeoneurope.org/index.php/story/montenegro-bible-school-students-in-active-ministry/#comments Sat, 10 Dec 2011 17:48:07 +0000 admin http://www.eyeoneurope.org/?p=2086

AGWM Personnel in Albania, Kurt and Stephanie Plagenhoef report on some of the activities and results of the training of workers at the Bible School, ETC, there.  Three Spring Impact teams were sent to Montenegro, Kosovo, and Macedonia to share the gospel with unreached people through contact and personal evangelism.  Much prayer went into these outreaches.  The teams “plowed new ground” and planted seeds of the Gospel.  This was the first school ministry in Montenegro, the country most unreached by the Gospel in Europe.

An Albanian man from Montenegro immigrated to the U.S. where he found Christ in an Assemblies of God church.  After living in the U.S. for decades, he returned to his homeland but was distraught to find no church in his village or area.  One day his sister who was not a believer in Jesus went to Shkoder, Albania, just across the border from their village in Montenegero.  She passed a building where she heard singing like the kind her brother had described.  She immediately reported to her brother, “I found your church!”

The old man went straightaway to the church, met the pastor who is a graduate of ETC, and wept for joy to be reunited with his brothers and sisters in Christ.  This could be part of God’s providential plan to establish a beachhead for the gospel among Albanians in Montenegro.

ETC had another successful graduation on June 4.  What a blessing it is to see young people transition from school to ministry in Albania, Kosovo, and Macedonia.

Bill and Diane Jackson, AGWM personnel in Zamora, Spain take the Gospel to the streets in that city.  Besides verbally preaching, and witnessing one-on-one, their evangelism team hands out many tracts with the Good News of salvation in Jesus Christ.

Their tract distribution brings people to the church where they can hear more of the message.  For example, one Friday a young man went walking by reading a tract that he had received.  It was a tract of the testimony of how Bill Jackson himself came to know Jesus.  Diane Jackson was preaching.  Bill stopped him and told him, “You are reading about my life, my story.”  The tract was Bill’s own testimony.  The man walked away, continuing to read the tract.

After the evangelism activities were coming to a close that day, and the team were standing around talking with each other, the man came back asking where the church was and what time the services were.  That next Sunday he was in church and said he would be back again that night.  The printed testimony as well as the spoken testimony is effective when the glory is given to God.