Report on Kirchentag in Berlin, Germany
“And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole inhabited earth for a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come” (Matthew 24:14).
The German Protestant Kirchentag is a huge event that occurs every two years in the summer in a different major German city. From Wednesday, May 24, 2017, through Saturday, May 27, 2017, 100,000 full-time particpants from all over Germany and other countries were expected to attend the 36th German Protestant Kirchentag in Berlin as a part of the celebration of the Reformation. The opening event on Wednesday evening was expected to have about 300,000 participants. Based on past experience, most of the visitors were expected to be under 30 years old, and many of them would be university students. This event is attended by seeking Christians. Since we recently learned about this event, the saints in Berlin have seen this as a tremendous opportunity afforded by the Lord for the distribution of the Recovery Version of the New Testament and The Mystery of Human Life. The co-workers in Germany felt good about opening this burden to the saints in the other cities in Germany. In the prayer meeting of the church we prayed that the service of the saints would be like the four living creatures and that the Lord’s move would be like lightning.
Based on our previous experience of doing Bible distributions on campus, we expected that a few hundred Bibles would be all that we would need. By faith we prepared 1500 Bibles. Thirty-eight saints from Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Dusseldorf, Munich, Halle, Aachen and other places in Germany joined with forty-one saints from Berlin in a time of being nourished in the Word and the ministry and a time of prayer, followed by distribution in teams at strategic locations at the appropriate times. The one accord and the diligent service of many saints under the Lord’s blessing resulted in the following results by Saturday early evening:
On Thursday 935 Bibles were distributed
On Friday 1184 German Bibles and 97 English Bibles were distributed On Saturday 1445 German Bibles and 23 English Bibles were distributed
The concluding events of the Kirchentag were scheduled to take place in Wittenberg on the Lord’s Day, May We had originally planned that around 15 – 20 saints would go there. We had 608 Bibles left. On Saturday some brothers fellowshipped that the Wittenberg events would be attended by 200,000 Christians from all over Germany and that this one day was the most significant opportunity in the whole year to distribute Bibles. The saints rose up, and some saints from Dusseldorf drove 1,000 Bibles to Berlin through the night, and the saints in Frankfurt drove 2,000 Bibles to Wittenberg. Around 40 saints joined the Bible distribution and distributed 912 German Bibles and 20 English Bibles.
During the entire event a total of 4,795 New Testaments (4,655 in German, 140 in English) were distributed to recipients from at least 95 German cities and towns.
The saints were bubbling over with joy for an hour and a half as they shared their experiences. There were ones who received the Lord as well as young people who came back and thanked the saints for the Bible after they had read it. One young person brought another two friends and told them about the Bible. Some who received the Bible the day before came back the following day and asked for more explanation. We were concerned when we saw a policeman approach one of the saints who was passing out Bibles, but he just asked if he could have a Bible. Thank the Lord for His sovereign arrangement to gather believers from all over Germany to receive the Recovery Version.
Please pray for the prompt follow-up, that the Lord would gain at least 100 solid, seeking remaining fruits, and for the planting of “church trees” as golden lampstands all over Germany.
Source: http://lordsmove.org/information.html
