HOPE GERMANY FESTIVAL 2013
Das Festival 2013 organized by HOPE Germany was held at a very big campsite outside the city of Leipzig on 17-20 May 2013. As per our theme “The Way is the Goal”, we used Paul’s letter to the church in Colossae to re-emphasize the importance of Jesus Christ as the way to God the Father and that being united with Jesus and being like him is the ultimate goal. On the first evening, the whole A-Team, HOPE Germany’s leadership team, was on stage together, praising God for the amazing work he has done among us over the last couple of years. This was highlighted by testimonies from the past 12 months, showing what could happen in the future.
Saturday morning saw Stefanie, Felix and Deborah on stage with a highly interactive description of how Paul values apostolic ministry, how that could be established in the house churches all over Europe and how to deal with unanswered questions. In the evening, Marcus preached a sermon about Colossians 1:12-23. Many people responded to come back to the Father, make Jesus first in their lives, recognising Him as the true God and were filled with the Holy Spirit.
On Sunday morning, Matthias, Lisa and Tobias taught the people how theological topics can be approached in house churches and taught to set people free instead of locking them in a doctrinal cage. After the many baptisms in the afternoon, Yvonne, only days away from delivering her third child, preached about how to live the new life in Christ. It was so powerful to see her use her life testimony and the truth of the Gospel to show what a difference God's grace makes. The A-Team was back on stage together on Monday morning, casting vision, leading communion and Kajin teaching important lessons out of the last verses of Colossians. The whole atmosphere was shaped by releasing the first generation of church-planters in Germany to a new and wider scope of work and bringing a new generation into their sphere of influence. That was reflected by new people leading worship on stage, preaching, teaching and leading workshops, forums, special teaching sessions, and ministering to one another during breaks and late at night at the "Wunderbar", the beloved hangout spot.
Besides the main meetings, there was the "Kinderland", the children's program. About 100 children and teenagers experienced a wide variety of biblical topics, fun activities and even self-written worship under the supervision of Diana Müller and her huge team of volunteers. There were sports activities with HOPE Czech Republic taking the winner’s bowl in the soccer competition for the second year running and lots of different playgrounds where parents, friends and whole families hung out in the afternoons.
Last year, God brought a new emphasis into our church movement. We wanted to see God's supernatural power as promised in Mark 16 stronger. Even before the festival started, different teams had experiences with deliverances. During the festival, we saw people being set free and being delivered. In one case, one of the leaders observed the gift of healing growing stronger in one young man's life. It is why he was asked to conduct a workshop about supernatural healing. In his workshop three people experienced spontaneous healings. In the team leaders' meeting at the end of the festival, Kajin asked the leaders to approach other leaders to ask them to be blessed to receive the anointing visible in their lives. The weeks after the festival have shown, a new freedom in the area of prophesy, apostolic work and other gifts have been released.
For a house church movement, meeting once a year for a joint celebration is probably even more important. Like the Israelites, the festival is used to communicate God's vision and the necessary steps to reach this vision. The people are reminded of the foundations of their faith and of details we had not understood or not needed so far, and truly celebrate the victories of the past year.
