Revival Europe Conference - Praying for France
The 2nd Revival Europe Conference, themed “A Flame with Revival Fire II” was successfully held in Paris, France. Europe up till now is dominated by the Roman Catholic and the Evangelical churches. Charismatic conferences like ours are rarely held in Europe. After the first revival conference in Paris last year, we received enthusiastic responses from people expressing their desire to attend similar meetings. Hence, this time we went for a bigger hall which doubled last year’s seating capacity to hold a thousand people. The conference was attended by nearly a thousand people from a dozen European countries. Many were first-timers to come to a joint charismatic conference. They felt the strong presence and great encouragement of God.
At the conference, representatives from different European countries shared experiences and prayed together regarding their home churches. The conference thus served as a useful platform for exchanging views on the Chinese churches in Europe. Some talked about the difficulties facing local churches due to the generation gap. Many local-born and local-bred Chinese, though of Chinese ancestry, have lost their cultural heritage including their written and spoken Chinese. The churches encounter conflicts and challenges in teaching and ministering to this generation of Chinese. European societies are troubled with high rates of divorce, illegitimate children, single-parent families and unwed couples. Broken homes and marital problems are threatening even the Christian families, impeding growth of next generation and leaving churches in a helpless situation. May God send revival to the Chinese churches in Europe, giving their leaders wisdom and direction as they encourage and care for one another.
We thank God for leading and providing us with all that we needed for this year’s revival conference held during 27th to 30th October 2015. We thank the conference speakers including Rev. Dennis Balcombe, Rev. Lawrence Khong, Brother Yun (The Heavenly Man), Rev. Bill Johnson as well as all the participating churches and members.
Postscript: Two weeks after the wonderful revival conference, the world was shattered by the terrorist attacks in Paris amid gunshots, explosions and the holding of hostages. More than 150 people perished in the carnages and many were injured. Many more remain shaken in fear and confusion. Meanwhile, Paris Revival Christian Church sent us the following prayer needs: 1. that the French leadership may have wisdom to counter terrorism effectively 2. that God may alleviate the pains of families of victims and eliminate their anger and hatred towards the Muslims 3. that God may remove the fear gripping across Europe and cause people to turn toward God 4. that churches may become the light for Jesus all over Europe resulting in a great spiritual harvest
