The biggest challenge last year for River church in Istanbul was that around 75 or 80 of our foreign members were forced to leave the country: either they had their residence permits canceled or some of them were trying to get extensions and didn't get them. We lost quite a few leaders and people that were established, so we had to rebuild a lot of our ministry teams, especially the worship team and French ministry.
But it is a huge milestone for us, that our church just celebrated its 25 year anniversary at our Eurasian camp meeting in December. It is a fantiastic achievement, especially since we operate in a very challenging area with Muslims.
The Lord spoke to me that 2025 is going to be the year of open doors for those that have been faithful, that have gone through this time of testing over the last several years, especially since COVID. We expect great things to happen.
Gospel of Christ church in Tirana has faced serious persecution during this year. This past year, our ministry has faced several significant challenges with the local government.While reconstructing our church building, the church experienced persecution from the municipality of Tirana.Even though every thing was done according to the building permit they issued us in order to reconstruct the church building, a dozen of police officer visited daily our church with orders to put down the church’s air conditioners, leaving the church auditorium without air. A legal case was opened against the pastor of the church with an attempt to imprison him for 2-3 years. The case was brought to the prosecutor of our district which decided that we have not violated the law and the judge dismissed the case giving us the victory.
Additionally, the ongoing depopulation in Albania, with many people leaving the country , has deeply impacted our nation , including the church. This trend has brought unique challenges as we work to raise leaders and make disciples.
On a broader scale, we have been actively fighting for the freedom of faith and speech in Albania, advocating for the rights of believers in the face of growing opposition ,the right of the parents to educate their children and standing for the biblical values against the woke agenda.
The winning of the court case which was closed in October was the greatest a testimony of God’s grace in 2024.
But I would highlight another as well. About 20 years ago, we met Katrina, at a tragic moment in her life, who was left alone with three small children and went through deep psychological, emotional and social trauma. Since then, although our resources were very limited, we decided that we would stay by her side by helping her on a regular monthly basis. With the help of God, we were able to build her and her orphans a small house, which the church believers equipped with all the necessities. Few weeks ago, the meeting with her was different. As she met me, she was very touched :
“I came to tell you that I no longer want material support from the church... God and you helped me get through my darkest years.”
Last year Judah 1:19 really spoke to us, where the Word of God talks about the spiritual people who don’t have the Spirit of God. Samson was a great man called by God . He was blessed with an extraordinary strength, and no evil could concur him as he walked with God. But in the moment when he did what was right in his eyes and not in God’s eyes he lost his eyesight and the power. We need to be obedient to God’s word ,to keep our eyes focused on Him and to be faithful to His call.
In 2025, we expect for the move of the God among the new generation. Our country has experienced some tragic fights among teenagers where some of them have lost their lives or have been seriously injured. We are praying for strategies to reach the teens and young generation with the Gospel.
Just recently, 6 cyclones battered the Philippines in just a month (lasy weeks of October to eary weeks of November) causing massive floodings and damages. Operation Blessing responded immediately and saw first hand the people's suffering. But in the midst of it all, I personally witnessed the application of neiborly love when I met Tess, a woman in her 60's who did not hesitate to open her home to accommodate neighbors who live near the ocean. During the cyclone, storm surges as high as 2-storey building ravaged the houses followed by strong winds.
Really, in the midst of disaster, the Lord reminds us that we are all capable of extending love and care even if we ourselves are in the midst of it.
Small or big thing, we can be part or extension of God's goodness.
Though things are getting worse, natural calamities, world issue, we hope and pray that this will be an opportunity for God’s grace and miracles to be seen more and many more people and areas will know him even those who remains to be unreached, even in 2025.
In 2024, we baptized 18 people, representing around 20% of our congregation. These people came to the church by invitation and were touched in different ways by the manifestation of God's presence in worship and ministry times. For us, such a percentage is a first and inspires us to continue to impact our world with the Gospel and the manifestation of God's power.
One young girl, who had experienced traumatic things when she was younger, had been severely depressed for several years, suicidal, drug-addicted, alcoholic, and hostile to the idea of God's existence. On top of all this, she had questioned her gender identity and chosen to be a boy rather than a girl, even changing her first name to Jack. Her parents had both accepted Jesus a few years earlier and joined our church. And despite all their attempts to bring the Gospel to their daughter's heart, it remained stubbornly closed.
In the spring of 2024, we baptized her brother. She was invited and agreed to come to please him. It was then that Jesus spoke directly to her; she heard his voice clearly during the service and was soothed. A week later,
after a conversation about God with her parents, she received the Lord and began to weep. The next day, the depression was gone, as were the addictions to drugs, alcohol and cigarettes.
Ten days later, convinced by God without anyone having said a word to her, she chose to return to her feminine gender identity, starting to wear make-up again, reconciling herself with a feminine style and giving up her masculine first name for good. We baptized her this summer, and she's been walking faithfully with the Lord ever since.
God really pointed out for us in 2024 the significance of walking in obediance with God and to make sacrifices. Galatians 3 tells us that, as believers, we are blessed with the blessing of Abraham. We enter this blessing through faith in Jesus, just as Abraham believed God, who then promised to bless him (Genesis 12:1-3). Subsequently, we see God renews his promise of blessing to Abraham several times, right up to the moment when Abraham agrees to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice. God then renews his promise of blessing one last time, saying: “I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you...”. (Genesis 22:16-18).
So we understand that faith introduced Abraham to his blessing, but that he had to walk in obedience to God, even to the point of sacrificing what was dearest to him, so that his blessing would be sealed.
For us, this teaches us that we enter into the blessing through faith in Jesus, but that we have to walk in obedience to God to continue in the blessing, and go all the way to sacrifice to seal our blessing and make it indisputable in the face of the dark world that wants to steal the blessing from us.
For 2025, we're hoping for a new stage in the church's growth. Our building is very regularly full on Sundays, so we're planning to hold two services a Sunday and find a bigger building that can accommodate everyone.
Our church in Munich, mainly made up of Hungarians, is trying to prepare itself to welcome and lead LGBT people to the Lord without compromising on the truths of the Word. Another challenge is to communicate to a welfare society that they need Jesus Christ. In the meantime, God is at work in our midst in a wonderful way. The father-in-law of one of our members in Transylvania was diagnosed with cancer in his lung, but after prayers he was completely healed. Also,
at a children's camp service last year, almost all the children came out crying to receive Jesus. We had never experienced anything like it.
I believe that churches in true fellowship (the type of churches defined in the Book of Revelations as Philadelphians) are most likely to survive the end times. Although many come to us emotionally and spiritually wounded, to distance themselves from the burdens of Hungary, thanks to our ministry, they can be renewed and then move back home to reintegrate into their communities. In the year 2025, we want to continue this reintegration and restoration work, actively spreading the good news of Jesus Christ, preparing to welcome converts from different backgrounds with love.
Our church in Târgu Mures says had a successful and good year, but we has lost some friends, friends and acquaintances who have been with us for decades. It's the hardest thing for me to come to terms with that, to get over it. With four elections this year, and a lot of prayer issues before the mayoral elections and the parliamentary elections. It had taken up a lot of energy and attention at the expense of evangelisation to some extent.
On a social level, we have encountered a division and a situation that was almost unknown in Romania before. Domestic policy, like foreign policy, has brought hairline fractures in society, but at the same time, by entering the Schengen area, a 100-year-old grievance has been remedied to some extent.
God has worked miraculously through our prayers this year: a lady was injured in a very serious house fire, was between life and death. It was then that her family approached the church and asked for help and prayer, as the doctors had given up on her. We prayed for her by name, and such a fantastic turn of events took place that she regained full consciousness, asked for food, was taken off the respirator and was discharged from the hospital. She has come to Jesus and is diligently attending church.
She said that the day we prayed for her, someone appeared to her in the ward, a dream-like, vision-like something that she would be healed.
The fervent prayer of the righteous is very helpful. God worked a miracle and saved this man.
God has showed me this year the need to get as many young people as possible into ministry and to elegantly and gently take the younger ones alongside us to do God's work together. Every year brings surprises, but the cyber world, the world of the internet, has brought so much progress in all areas that young people are much more at home in it than older people.
In 2025 I expect a bipolar world. On the one hand, I foresee a proliferation of financial problems and political problems, including war conflicts. On the other hand, I think people will be more open to the gospel than they feel now. The misery and insecurity in the world today is turning many people in some way towards God. The remaining time we should focus our energy even more on saving people, because where sin increases, grace increases. Sin is also advancing at a very great pace, but I also sense God's grace and believe that it will surround them in the future. In preparation, we will begin the year with fasting and prayer.
The biggest challenge in 2024 for our church in Chisinau was to stop the dropout of young people, to keep people close to God.
We also experienced, however, that many who had drifted away from the Lord in the past, who drew a definitive line between the church and themselves, were turning back to God. We were talking with several of them and their lives were taking a positive direction. Among the young people, we see that summer camps can be very throwing, passive young people are getting into active ministry, returning to the fire of God's first love.
I feel led by the Holy Spirit to renew prayers and vigils, as they can serve as a bulwark against spiritual attacks and provide stability for the church.
We look to the coming year with hope. It will be a difficult year, seeing the direction politics has taken, both in Romania and internationally, but we are confident and know that we must continue to do God's work, and God is with us. The Bible also says: who can be against us if the Lord is with us. We also want to throw themselves into street evangelism with all our might, because the city needs to hear the word of God in the streets.
For our church in Oradea 2024 has started well, with several prayer meetings and community events held at the beginning of the year to lay the foundations for it on a spiritual level. At the same time, the past year has been challenging both at the congregational and public level because of the war in our neighbourhood, which has brought spiritual warfare and burdens with all the bad news and difficulties. We see it not only as a natural war, but also as a war in the spiritual world, which we, as children of God, have tried to contain through intercession and prayer. We also prayed that Romania would not be drawn deeper into the conflict.
Another challenge was the elections in Romania at the end of the year, which made the end of the year quite busy. As born-again Christians, we tried to win the day and to endure the challenges and temptations that came with it, but it was not easy. We are grateful that in the region, in Oradea and in the region, national conflicts did not develop. There are good relations between the Romanian and Hungarian communities.
God has given the church the wisdom to unite. We see that unity is very important, as Apostle Paul says in his letter to the Galatians, to care more about "those above" rather than the misunderstandings on the ground. What is needed is not hostility or incitement against those who disagree, but unity, which the actual message of the Word and the Holy Spirit can create.
In relation to 2025, I feel we will have to be much more concerned with the Kingdom of God. It may be a more difficult year because there is a denser spiritual world, there are not easy situations. But we are constantly trying to listen to the Word and to the Holy Spirit as to where to go from here.
Our church in Sfântu Gheorghe is still experiencing the negative impact of the Covid pandemic in 2024, which has weakened the integrity and unity of the community. Restoring this and grounding the community in faith has been a challenge even in the past year.
And on a public level, 2024 was a pivotal year for us, as they sublet their compound, but the building was purchased by the municipality. In the end, this did not jeopardise the uninterrupted continuation of the services, after the mayor had become aware of the social and community activities of the congregation over the years. Our church is about to construct a new building, and he assured us that the permit applications would be dealt with quickly.
Another blessing of recent years has been the mass movement started by a pastor in Bucharest, which in 2022 attracted 10,000 people, including the entire congregation, to stand against LGBT legislation and abortion.
The march took place along a central route in Bucharest, with loud praises, prayers and repentance on behalf of the nation for the many babies who have been sacrificed. This year, 20,000 people have already marched, resulting in the postponement of legislation aggressively pushed by the EU and the rejection of abortion by entire hospital communities. At the national level, no churches were initially represented in this nationalist rally except the Szekelys, which came as a great surprise to the people of Bucharest. Since then they have been considered us main ally and are constantly held up as a good example to the world.
the presidential elections expected in the spring is a challenge for 2025. We are interceding for the nation and for God's intervention.
If the church is able to recognize its power and dominance over the spiritual forces that it can wield in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth and is able to mobilize itself, it will buy time before the judgment of the world, but if not, it is likely to accelerate the apocalyptic conditions. From the perspective of God's work, although the outlook is increasingly bleak, we continue to believe and hope for a national revival for which we have been crying out to God for many years.
It was important for our church, Milost to get through the Covid period successfully, and when it was over, the work was back in full swing. In 2024, we reaped the harvest, and we can say that this year was one of the best years ever. Opportunities have opened up for us to minister abroad, where we planted more churches last year, and we want to continue in this direction in the coming year.
We would like to preach the Gospel, plant churches and raise up believers to navigate the current geopolitical changes and at the same time resist the progressive-liberal pressures that European society is facing.
The biggest challenge for our church, Church of Glory in 2024 was the preparation and ushering of the entire movement into a new phase of God's operation that involved a shift in mindset towards an apostolic perspective and a transformation in lifestyle. This transition encompasses moving the entire church from the old movement to the new one.
In 2024, we have seen profound, substantive changes in the hearts of individuals. God has supernaturally granted us new spiritual connections and local churches, along with His favor. New leaders, who were actively seeking the apostolic anointing, have joined us. Moreover, we have witnessed the activation of a new generation breakthrough leaders within our community.
I received a vision from God regarding the restoration of the apostolic movement in Europe, to become a dominant force within the continent with implement apostolic principles for building the church based on New Testament blueprints. The apostolic voice in Europe must be heard and cannot be silenced.
I firmly believe that the apostolic movement will lead to an awakening in society, and in 2025 we will see the first signs of it.
The biggest challenge for our community of course is the ongoing war and its consequences, but I have two special testimonies to share from 2024. Every Sunday and also in our prayer groups we pray over the pictures of members of our church who are on the frontlines.
So far the Lord has kept every one of our members and we are very grateful. No one has been seriously injured or killed.
Although some of them have been in very dangerous situations, their units have come under missile attack, heavy artillery fire. About two days ago our granddaughter was born in one of the hospitals in Vinnytsia (our city). Just about an hour or two after her birth she and her mom and dad had to move to the hospital bomb shelter with all the new born babies and mothers there because of missile attacks by Russia. They spent a few hours there. This happened several times during the three days after her birth. This situation reminded us of the kindness of the Lord:
despite the evil around, babies are being born and He is giving new lives and new hope to our country in the midst of the darkness and chaos.
The greatest revelation I have had for the past 3 years of war and also for this year: The Light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it. The darker it becomes in the world, the greater the opportunity for the Church to shine. To me it seems that these times has been the greatest moment for our church , (ever since our church was established in Ukraine) in showing the love of God to our community.
In 2025 we are praying for the end of the war and peace in Ukraine. We are also praying for wisdom to be able to face new challenges and help our country heal.
The biggest challenge for us has been finances. With the war against terrorist groups ongoing on seven sides of our small country, it has greatly disrupted our lifestyle and the economy. It is reported that 40,000 companies will close by the end or 2024 as a result of the war. 10% of our able bodied workforce is away fighting. With the rapid increase of Jewish immigration to Israel as a result of growing global anti-semitism, there are not enough workers to build apartments and homes fast enough to keep up with the population growth and demand. This has resulted in an aggressive rise in rental and home prices, further increasing the financial challenge both for families and for ministries.
Through our War Relief Fund, we have been able to provide for 145 projects to serve the homeless, the hungry, displaced families, wounded soldiers, destroyed homes, destroyed bomb shelters, children forced to be out of school and more. This has provided the opportunity to bring the love of God in a practical way and to invite those we serve to our small groups, counseling centers and into other spaces where we can share the message of salvation with them.
We believe the Lord has called us as a Body of Messiah in Israel to be active in building our relationships and prayer connections with our international friends in a deeper way. We want to move from the traditional model of having our international friends pray FOR Israel into a model where they can pray WITH Israel. We have done that with live prayer times overseas, welcoming visiting groups to spend time in our prayer centers and to do online teachings for various countries that are hungry to join with us in prayer and ministry.
In 2025, we will be opening two additional congregation locations in Israel.
We will also be opening an additional counseling center for those that have been traumatized by the war and devastation. Our expectation is that with additional ways to bless the Jewish People in Israel and with the increase of immigration, we will see more people come to faith, both Jew and Arab, than ever before.
Ever increasingly, we are seeing the consequences in our community, in our nation and in the nations of the world of the spirit of fear. One of the biggest challenges that I believe every person has to face in their own hearts is the challenge of fearlessly pursuing God, His Word and His ways without being subdued into quitting or compromise. It’s one of the oldest tactics of the enemy and is unfortunately rife and rampant in our world today. With...just as what the Bible says there would be in the last days…wars and rumours of wars, hatred between nationalities, pestilence and plagues, many have found themselves struck by fear. Fear is demobilizing. It causes people to want to freeze and hide. It has caused conflict between loved ones, division between families, causes chaos where there should be order, has been the catalyst to causing people to live in loneliness and hopelessness, and has caused devastation too large to list. We however, are blessed in that
we have the Prince of Peace Himself, not only FOR us but WITHIN us. This is too great a Gospel to keep to ourselves, and one of the greatest opportunities to reach those that are lost.
We felt The Lord lay it on our hearts to sow everything that we had in our accounts into an initiative for the UK from a ministry that we know, love and trust, that has an anointing and a passion for souls and revival that is unrivalled on a global scale. Not only did we sow financially, but we sowed our entire ministry staff to partner with them and believe God to do something unprecedented in our nation. It was a big test of faith for us as a ministry, because we know that the devil comes to tempt us to see us to see our demise… but that God tests us for our perfecting and promotion.
We have learnt by now to be joyful when our faith is tested by fire, knowing the invaluable lessons to learn, but also that as the Word says, we believe that God is Who He says He is and that He is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him.
Aside from the thousands upon thousands of people that were mobilised to win souls, set on fire for the Lord, personally, our ministry was given a building with not only zero debt on it but a rich hundred year-old heritage of revival. This in a part of our nation that has a great deal of those in significant need. We are beyond grateful, blessed and privileged to have launched Revivall Church on this landmark territory, and in the centre of a community who desperately need Jesus.
The greatest revelation you received this year was the power of the prophetic word in action! We not only have the written Word to lead us and guide us, but we have The Holy Spirit Himself, still speaking, still leading, still revealing to us Jesus and the Rhema, “now” Word of God. God is the same yesterday, today and forever… but He is never stale or stagnant. It is so important that we are ready and willing to hear and act on every spoken instruction God gives us. This last year we felt the Holy Spirit move to rebrand our ministry...a first for us… and a great and daunting task! We however were quick to obey and expectant for what God was going to unveil to us in accordance with this fresh vision. We very quickly became six campuses from the one we started with! It is imperative that we remain immovable in our faith, unwavering in our mission, unshakeable in our message BUT flexible in our approach and being ready to move at any and every given instruction from God.
What do we expect for 2025? Our God only works on one trajectory, Faith to Faith, Strength to Strength and Glory to Glory. We are expecting no less than God’s very best this year! Not because of anything we’ve done or who we are but because that’s who He is! Even in our ever increasingly broken world where sin abounds, how much more does Grace abound. I believe
it is important for all of us to position ourselves to be able to receive and ready to receive all that God has on His agenda for us, firstly by letting go of the former things.
Whether it’s been a great year… and praise the Lord if it has, or if it’s been a difficult one. It’s important that we don’t carry out disappointments, our mistakes and unanswered questions from the past into the next chapter. Equally, it’s important not to put God in a box even by the mountain tops that we may have experienced. We begin every year the same way with our 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting where we wait to hear what’s on the Lord‘s heart for us for this next year and we submit all things and all plans to Him with childlike faith and great expectation. He is the Greatest Author and it’s imperative that we give Him the pencil and the page before we fill it up, and trust Him to set the schedule for every detail.
A Christian minister, who lives in Conakry, the capital of an almost entirely Muslim country, told us, his church started 2024 with a collective 21-day fast and intense prayer. "I was constantly in the congregation. I felt inspired by God to learn English. I didn't understand why this was necessary in a French-speaking country, but I went to Freetown, the capital of neighbouring Sierra Leone, for two months to learn English.
During my time away, several people in our church were converted. When I returned, I was confronted with the fact that half of the new members were English speakers who had left their country precisely because of the political tensions in Sierra Leone, and their numbers have been growing ever since. With my refreshed language skills I can effectively help them in their Christian life.
Another benefit of this study trip was that my friends in Freetown decided to invite me during our Lent. During my stay there,
I not only learned the language, but was also invited to start a church there, and a small plot of land was offered to me for this purpose.
The period before Easter was difficult: the electricity company cut the power several times because our prayer nights disturbed the people in the area.
Our goal this year was to grow the church to 250 people (not counting children). To achieve this, we held several evangelistic meetings, combined with social activities. By this is meant personal conversation and sustained contact with interested people, counselling. At the first service in December we had already three hundred people. We are grateful to a Hungarian family who supported us in buying chairs and pews. On the evening of the 24th we have a prayer night, and on one of the following days we organise a communal meal so that our brothers and sisters who live in difficult circumstances can rejoice with a full meal. Our aim is to reach as many people as possible in the new year."
The biggest challenge in the church and in the country is security, or lack of it. We have been struggling with the problem of terrorism since 2014," he continues. Unfortunately, since last year, the capital has again been under threat. Terrorists have been known to infiltrate, and fear has been spreading in public spaces and in churches. When new people come to worship, caution is needed, even reporting suspicious behaviour to the police. There have been several occasions when a pastor has been unable to attend a wedding in the countryside for security reasons.
As terrorists have slaughtered everyone in attacks, regardless of religion,
the majority of recent converts are, in a peculiar way, disillusioned Muslims who do not understand and cannot accept these terrible acts.
Christian aid organisations and our church regularly help refugees with clothes and toiletries, and of course we share the Gospel. This solidarity also often touches Muslims. In our church, too, there are more and more of them, mostly women.
As for Christmas, we spend the evening of the 24th in the church. We sing a lot, we act out biblical scenes around the birth of Jesus, we buy chickens as gifts for the lead pastor. On the following days we visit the extended family, only the children receive gifts.
Albert, who lives and works in the West Côte d'Ivoire rainforest, is concerned that this rainy season has seen far above normal rainfall, making roads impassable and visits to churches in the rainforest villages impossible. The situation is further complicated by migration. Young people are migrating en masse to the economic capital Abidjan in search of a better life, and most of them are heading for Europe. The phenomenon is not sparing the churches.
But the difficulties have not broken their ambitions. They are preparing for a fasting period at the beginning of January to take advantage of the dry season until April. People from the villages in the area will be called together for a joint worship service and the donations will be used for the "One Village, One Church" campaign. The aim is to plant churches in ten villages in the surrounding area where none existed before. Preachers will be trained and deployed to ensure success.
