In the midst of preparing for this summer’s European Conference, Jan and I decided to gather some inspiration for the coming year’s mission by looking through some of the old VHS ‘video of the month’ tapes. Word of Life was diligent in releasing these in the 90s to report on what was happening on the mission field. Suddenly we see reports from Albania and Bulgaria where stadiums were filled with people hungry for the gospel after the collapse of the former communist regime. People filled with joy at the good news of Jesus at the major campaigns spread even further through national television and right up to the highest leaders of the two Balkan states. Amazed at the miracles God had done in the 90s, a prayer and a longing began to grow within me ‘God, let this happen in Macedonia!’.
During the first month of the mission, we heard how a group of young Macedonian evangelists had started planning to organise the biggest evangelistic campaign Skopje had ever seen in the 21st century. Excited by the news, we jumped in to help volunteer for the four days of the campaign. Looking back, we can see how the whole campaign was one big step of faith for the churches in Skopje and the young evangelists. Among other things, we heard how they had stood in faith to get the permission to set up the stage in the city park, which they got just days before the worship band from Iceland would arrive and the stage would be set up! Not only was the stage licence a step of faith, but so was the weather. During one of the evenings, the rain poured down so hard that we all thought that no one could imagine being outside to hear the gospel that night. But despite the rain, the programme continued and during the evening a Turkish woman passed by while walking her dog in the pouring rain heard the Gospel and then came up to the stage at the evening’s salvation invitation!
Many other miracles and decisions to be saved and disciples of Jesus took place during the four days. Among the most precarious situations we experienced was when Jan and I were threatened and abducted by a group of black-clad orthodox hyper-nationalists who openly professed their faith in Jesus while threatening to beat us up if we continued to invite people to the campaign! But after the campaign, I could see how the Spirit of faith had risen in Macedonia. I could even see the answer to my prayer from the TV couch in Sweden when the Macedonian evangelists said: ‘We will have this campaign now three years in a row and in the third year we will have it in that building’ pointing to the huge national stadium that rose like a colossus, just behind the seemingly small evangelistic stage.
/Samuel Thoor
