HOPE CHICAGO CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION: After Much Prayer

Hope Chicago Church celebrated Christmas on Dec 15th, 2013, with the theme "The Meaning of Christmas". Our guest speaker for this event was Pastor Ben and Pastor Dinah from Singapore who came to visit us once again. God touched many lives to join our event. We had 104 people at our celebration. At the response, 10 persons came forward to accept Christ as their Saviour and Lord that day. 


It all started with prayer. In early September, the Lord stirred up the hearts of our brothers and sisters to seek more of His face. Since then we devoted more of our ministry time to prayer. Several prayer campaigns were launched in our church. This includes 21-day Daniel Fast, prayer walk, prayer drive, and our intercessory prayer on Sat mornings (Upper Room Team).

Through prayer, the atmosphere in the church started to shift. We began to experience more of God's presence in our worship service, our life groups, and our intercessory prayer sessions. God also released visions and word of prophecy through our Upper Room team. We also witnessed healings in our midst. One sister in the church had uneven arm lengths which caused chronic back pain. Her right arm was a half-inch shorter than her left arm. When we laid hands on her and prayed, her right arm began to visibly extend until it was even.

Evangelism was ignited in our church. As we planned for the Christmas celebration in November, we set the goal of 100 attenders. This was far beyond our past Christmas services highest attendance of 50 people. So this was a step of faith. Our team passionately invited friends to come. Our new believer whom God healed her uneven arms had 23 guests present.

Our brothers and sisters literally prayed for each guest a week before the event. On Sat morning the Dec 14th, Pastors Ben and Dinah joined in prayer with our Upper Room Team. During intercession, Pastor Dinah encouraged us through the scripture in Ephesians 3:20 -"Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us". Our team were encouraged by the Word and believed that Christ is able to do more than what we ask of Him.

Our Christmas celebration on Dec 15th was so special as we reached new heights of overcoming the 100-people barrier for the first time. Our prayer had been answered. The majority of guests came at 10:30 am for the service and two-thirds stayed till almost 5 pm for lunch and afternoon programme. Many non-believer guests responded to the powerful and clear Christmas message by Pastor Ben. Ten persons committed their lives to Christ. A couple who are supervisors at Thai Consulate Chicago told us they were impacted by the Christmas message and now want to explore Christianity.

It also brought us joy knowing that our 50 non-believer guests had the opportunity to hear the Gospel message for the first time. We believe that the seed of the Word of God will not return to Him empty. Glory be to the Lord. Thanks Pastors Ben and Dinah for coming to visit and bless Hope Chicago Church

Pastor David Nattawut (Hope Chicago Church)