News of some revival meetings in Czech Republic - July 2009
The Summer Camp.....
The flight to Prague from Luton by Sky Europe on Saturday 25th July was uneventful despite the fact that a few weeks earlier the airline had been placed into receivership! We only found this out when we arrived and then as you might expect we prayed hard that there would be a plane to bring us home!! Our trip was not to Prague but essentially to Bechyne, some 2hrs drive south of Prague, to the summer camp owned by the Czech Methodist Church. We arrived in the late evening by car having been met at the airport by our host Pastor Jan Zajic and 'George' one of our brilliant translators. Ben and Thomas got on well with George, admiring his 'off the road' driving skills and particularly his stop off at McDonalds on the way there, still arriving before Jan, Andrew, Pauline and Rosemary!! Despite the lateness of the hour, ministry requests had already been made, and one family received prayer and ministry in their chalet, before Andrew could retire to his room for the night.......Praise the Lord that the next morning brought news of healing for dad and son from severe fever and aches.
At daylight the camp was revealed. It was in a dense wooded area overlooking the River Luznice near the Spa town of Bechyne. The camp consisted of a series of chalets for family and guest accommodation. These had bunk beds and were mainly 'semi-detached! The camp had communal toilet and shower blocks. The site was originally a Catholic retreat and small monastic centre, but had at some stage been used by the Moravians, before, very fittingly; the Methodist Church bought it in the 1970's. Since communism ended it had been used every year during the summer months by various local churches and youth groups for their summer camps and retreats.
Moravian Chapel
On Sunday morning at 7.00am Andrew left with Jan for a 90 minute drive due east to his church in the town of Jihlava (see map). Here revival broke out in the morning service as the congregation of nearly 70 (about half the membership) queued for nearly two hours for ministry with many receiving healing there and then. Ministry time gave way to lunch and then a teaching session on the Holy Spirit. The spiritual hunger of young and old was evident and again prayer ministry for healing and the gifts went on for over an hour and a half, until it was time to leave for the return journey to Bechyne.
I was very impressed with Jan's energy and stamina as he was involved in so much of the practical aspects of his church family as well as being the chauffeur. We returned to the camp at 8pm at which point Jan drove off back to the airport at Prague to collect another UK team member who and flown in from Manchester. She was shown into Pauline and Rosemary's chalet in the early hours of the morning and by Monday we were complete. Whilst I was in Jihlava, Pauline and Rosemary, Ben and Thomas got to know the church family at the camp and relationships formed that would lead to ministry for the rest of the time there.
Monday morning began with teaching from a Czech Methodist pastor named Pavel (Paul), a friend of Jan's. This was followed by teaching on the gifts of the Spirit given by Andrew followed by prayer ministry. After lunch there was more ministry and lots of conversations. The evening service was wonderful with Jan preaching powerfully on Ezekiel's river following which the Holy Spirit moved powerfully through the whole congregation, and we saw a wonderful response to the challenge to go deeper in the river of the Spirit. Words of knowledge were shared and translated and the meeting continued well into the late evening. This set the tone for Tuesday and Wednesday. On Tuesday a German Methodist minister, Reiner, arrived and he taught in the morning with Andrew.
During the afternoon we found time to relax and make a quick visit to the ubiquitous "Tesco" in Bechyne itself. Ice creams were the order of the day as wit was so hot. Thomas and Ben found a good pulpit from which to share their faith!
On the Tuesday evening Rosemary and the team led the worship and Andrew preached on "The principles of revival" based on Luke
10:1-11 and again there was a wonderful move of the Spirit as people responded to a call for the gift of healing and intercession. The result was that we left the church with a ministry team of about eight (young and old) and a small team of intercessors. We prayed over and anointed them. God is so good. He released the gifts and gave the church more workers to collect in the harvest.
Wednesday was our last day and after the morning worship and teaching we had an afternoon off to visit the historic town of Tabor with Jan and Solinka, George , his wife and baby. We saw a beautiful Catholic Church in the square and a lake named Jordan. We fried in the heat, despite ice creams! Reiner, Andrew, Jan, Ben and Thomas climbed to the top of the tower for the amazing views of Tabor. The history as the Hussite city established in 1415 as the stronghold of the Hussite reformation was very interesting. The area has a very mixed political history having been fought over by the Catholic church and the neighbouring countries over the centuries.
Our final service on Wednesday was led by one of the small groups with Pavel preaching. God moved again and words of knowledge were shared by Rosemary and Margaret leading to some lovely ministry. It was a wonderful end to such a blessed time.
Thoughts on the trip
The people were lovely and so hospitable. They do not have the wealth that we enjoy but they are sincere in their faith and desire for more of the Lord. They have a huge harvest field as over 50% of the population are atheists and appx 25% of Catholic background.
Jan's wife, Olinka ( from the Polish name Olga) catered for the whole camp. Olinka a trained nurse and mother of two teenage daughters blessed us in hospitality and friendship. The whole experience was wonderfully uplifting for me and a confirmation of the ministry that God has called me into in 'retirement'!. Andrew