Europe – Restoring Hope

In partnership with the church, OM Europe seeks to use every opportunity to build friendships with Muslims and educate others to do the same by…

• Teaching Christians how to share their lives with Muslims through training in Holland.
• Sharing friendship over a cup of coffee and book in the UK.
• Offering language classes and after-care to immigrants and their children in Austria.
• Reaching out to Muslim neighbours in Albania.
• Running leadership camps for Muslim youth in Kosovo.
• Providing school bags, wheel chairs, walkers, a massage table and new shoes in Bosnia.
• Playing hula-hoop or play duck-duck-goose around the parachute with Muslim children in the UK.
• Participating in a one-year training programme to learn more about understanding Muslims, and how to build relationships with them in Holland.

In partnership with the church, OM Europe seeks to identify with the needy in society and provide them support wherever possible by…

• Taking food and winter fuel to the “poorest of the poor” in Bosnia-Hercegovina and Moldova.
• Helping drug addicts and alcoholics break free from their bondage in Switzerland, Poland and Russia.
• Giving a fresh start to women in Albania and Kosovo through practical skills training.
• Making friends among the Roma people in Slovakia, Montenegro and Romania.
• Befriending homeless people and offering them a hot drink, sleeping bag or simply a listening ear in the United Kingdom.
• In partnership with local organisations, restoring dignity and value to prostitutes in Greece and Switzerland.
• Showing Russian orphans and Albanian handicapped children that they are precious and loved.
• Providing a safe place and counselling for victims of domestic abuse in Spain.
• Sharing God’s love behind prison bars in Belgium and Greece.

In partnership with the church, OM Europe is restoring hope to youth and children and empowering, challenging and equipping them to share that hope with others. Right now you could be…

• Preparing action-packed children’s summer camps in Albania, Moldova, Romania, Kosovo and Ukraine.
• Presenting a radical Gospel message at youth events in Ireland and the Netherlands.
• Using puppets, drama and creative arts to explain the true meaning of Christmas and Easter to thousands of British school children.
• Seeing Jesus transform youth through coaching basketball and soccer in Ukraine, Italy, Hungary, Moldova, Spain and Bosnia-Hercegovina.
• Providing resource material for teaching children about world missions in the United Kingdom.
• Teaching gypsy children to read Bible stories and write in Romania and Montenegro.
• Encouraging thousands of European teenagers to love Jesus and reflect Him in their world through TeenStreet conferences in Germany.
• Running youth cafes in Holland, Germany and Montenegro.
• Equipping young Christians for world missions through training programmes in Eastern Europe, the Balkans and Scandinavia.

In partnership with the church, OM Europe seeks to restore hope to a “Christian” continent by…

• Sharing Jesus through drama, dance, fine arts, mime and music in the United Kingdom, Austria and Finland.
• Teaching national believers how to share their faith in Russia, Switzerland, Belgium, Moldova and United Kingdom.
• Organising prayer meetings and training for local Christians to share about Christ with their neighbours and colleagues in Norway and Ireland.
• Inviting churches in Sweden to visit orphanages and schools for handicapped children in the Ukraine.
• Developing resources for distribution on television, radio and magazines in the United Kingdom, Finland and Poland.
• Designing and producing Christian books for the former Soviet Union countries and Eastern Europe.
• Stepping out in faith to develop new fellowships in countries previously closed to the Gospel.
• Teaching English in Poland, Czech Republic, Russia and Kosovo.
• Providing Christian books and children’s programme at the ‘Lumen’ Music Festival in Slovakia.
• Running a Christian retreat centre for church groups and individuals in Italy.

In partnership with the church, OM Europe is challenging secular, atheistic Europeans to consider the truth about Jesus by…

• Inviting friends to encounter Jesus face-to-face through Bible study and discussion.
• Building friendships with Catholics in Portugal, Poland, Italy and Austria.
• Developing new fellowships in France, Poland, Spain and the Balkans.
• Recording ‘Word for Today’ Bible broadcasts for community radio in Ireland.
• Travelling through towns and villages in Hungary sharing the Gospel.
• Providing training for church and lay leaders in Greece, Ukraine, Romania, Russia and Moldova.
• Challenging youth to question God in Germany, Switzerland, Montenegro and Belgium.
• Inviting Swiss and Germans to dialogue about God through exposure trips to India.

A gathering was held for all believing women from five evangelical churches in Lushnje. Women’s ministry leaders met together afterwards, and identified a shared vision of promoting both women’s spiritual growth, and friendships between them; in the past, believers have passed each other on the street without knowing. We have since had a gathering every three months; in December, 85 packed into the hall for a varied programme. God is working in the lives of many Christian ladies in Lushnje. It’s great that we can be part of what He is doing in this town.

No costumes, no stage props. The text: Mark's gospel. The audience sits in a circle as Jesus and his disciples live out their experiences in the middle and the aisles. Ninety minutes of intense drama, ending with the women standing by the empty tomb, and the message clearly proclaimed, "He is risen—He lives!" Fifteen Christians from three different churches in the Melk area presented the gospel in this unique way. They booked a local restaurant as the venue for two evenings, and each night around 100 people turned up to watch. As they spoke with people in the audience afterwards, they realised that many had been moved, and were seeing a totally different Jesus from their traditional picture. To the average Austrian who rarely reads his Bible, this was quite a revelation.

Ed, in Mostar, writes: “I shared the Gospel with a Roma man from Kosovo, who marveled at how well he and I could communicate and understand each other in broken Bosnian. He claimed that he had never understood the Bible like that. I invited him to church and he actually came the next Sunday. There are now local people in the church that have regular contact with him.”

The summer team handed out 1200 Gospels of Mark in three days; to their surprise, most passer-byers accepted it and some began reading on the spot. “I would look at the heaps of literature before our distribution time each day, and my heart would sing for joy!” remembers a team member, “We know that the Bible is the Word of God and that it has power to change people’s lives. Most people here have never held a Bible in their hands, much less read one! As Muslims, they have heard only changed stories about Jesus. Now 1200 of them have been given the chance to read the ‘original story’ of Jesus straight from the Bible!” A little leaflet was inserted into each Gospel, introducing the church as well as offer of a free New Testament. Quite a few have already responded.

Pierre* spent much of his life working with singers, songwriters and actors, but now lives an isolated, downtrodden existence. Mark* let Pierre know he was praying for him, instead of responding immediately with practical help. For some weeks, Mark told him that he was praying for him, bringing to God every difficulty Pierre faced, including unpaid bills, eviction threats, and personal hygiene and sight problems. Answers to these prayers soon became evident: vision in his right eye improved and the drop-in centre got him new glasses. He was exempted from local taxes and started making more effort with his appearance. Pierre responded, “He really does listen to prayer, this God of yours.”

Fourteen people helped the Evangelical Baptist Church of Bruay-la-Buissière and Auchel share God’s love with residents this month. Michael (Germany) and Maryvonne (France) met a group of 15–20 teenagers with beer cans in their hands. “Maryvonne invited them to do a survey,” says Michael. “At the end, she asked me to explain the gospel to the teenagers. In the end, all the teenagers, at first so mistrustful, seemed to have changed their attitude; they saluted us with their beer cans! I was surprised by the courage of this sister in Christ, but even more so in seeing the Holy Spirit touch the hearts of these young people who need Jesus so much.”

The message of the cross impacted the lives of 50 outreach participants from eleven nations, as well as hundreds of children, young people and adults. A team in Athlone held three children’s clubs daily. When Karen, from Scotland, saw a Muslim woman who had brought her son to join the kids’ club on the Big Red Bus, she talked to her and later visited her home. “She was really touched that we came to see her,” said Karen. “She knew that we were different because of the love shown to the children. The woman has been in the church and is now connected to the church members.” Another team carried a 12-foot wooden cross from the Logos Hope in Cork to Lacken House in County Roscommon, stopping along the way to talk with and pray for dozens of people. “It was amazing to see God move so powerfully during the walk,” shared Tim. “I’ve seen His heart for Ireland. The cross—not the wooden thing we carried, but the sacrifice Christ made for us—is powerful and life-changing.”

“A young man approached me and asked for money,” Mike shared. “We got talking and I asked his age. He had turned 20 the previous Thursday and on that day stood on a bridge and contemplated suicide. He felt no one loved him.” Mike told him, “I walked all the way from Cork to tell you God loves you and sent His son to die for you.” The young man gave his heart to the Lord.

Every Saturday evening, ten men gather in the OM Centre, many fathers of children that the team has reached in surrounding villages. The men come to examine differences between Orthodoxy, Islam, and Christianity. Nezir, now part of a local church, is a history teacher whose life was once full of addictions and terrible relationships. When he became the landlord of an OM house, his life slowly changed; God has done a redemptive work in Nezir’s heart and life, and he plans to be baptised soon. Pray for the other men gathering on Saturday evenings.

Jenya Turkin grew up on the streets of Novosibirsk. Drug addiction led to crime to fund his habit. He was thrown into prison, where twenty men lived in a room with eight beds; each of them had eight hours a day with a bed; the rest of the time was spent sitting against the wall, molding figures out of stale bread. After his release, Jenya made his way to a drug-rehab centre run by a church, where he gave his life to Jesus. He read The Challenge of Missions (Oswald Smith), translated by OM, and felt God’s call to become a full-time Christian worker.

OM’s Discipleship Centre course runs for six intensive months, giving young Christians a good knowledge of the Bible and the tools to teach, preach and share the Gospel. Jenya graduated from the Discipleship Centre (www.discipleshipcentre.org) and then married another student, Nina. His church sent them to a town of 50,000 with no evangelical church, eight hours away. They have been developing a new fellowship for two years and the congregation, with 12 members, has received church status from the Russian Union of Baptists.

Debora and I were with Mustafa*, the owner of a bar open practically round the clock, 365 days per year. During Gassenweihnacht (Street Christmas) nine people sang in the bar and it went well. I asked if we could bring in a team one Sunday. He replied, “You can come as often as you like; I strongly support that.” Will there be a church service in a Turkish owner’s bar? Let’s pray and see.