Category: Macedonia

In this service, there was a lady who had travelled from Albania she found the message was direct to her she received inner healing and deliverance. She said if the message was just for her then it was worth coming all the way from Albania to hear it. People made commitments to the Lord, and believers were so inspired to run with the gospel to their nation.

We learnt that the opening worship song the choir sang ‘You deserve the glory’ was written by one of the founders of the church Eva Lena Hellmark, while living in Macedonia. She and her husband are now working in Cyprus and Italy.

The church was just so encouraged by our being with them, we were so overwhelmed to see how we stepped out in faith, simply following the leading of the Holy Spirit and the Lord used us as His instruments to bring hope and encouragement to many.

On Saturday evening the 500 years celebration continued with a concert at Dijambaz.

Once again, we experienced the awesome presence of the Holy Spirit just sweeping through the building. A Christian doctor testified of praying and asking God to refresh her, she said she was crying out to God and tonight He answered her prayer. A praise and worship leader said that before we arrived she had lost hope, everything around her seemed hopeless and she was in such a low place, hearing Sincere Praise sing and Pastor Rosemary share the Word restored and empowered her to continue in serve the Lord with joy.

People were liberated, dancing jumping and praising God. Young people were inspired to continue to serve the Lord. A man whom we had invited from our street evangelism came with a friend he also posted the event on Facebook. He was overwhelmed by the love of God. He was sitting at the back of the concert hall then found himself standing right at the front. For Him the song ‘Oh Happy Day’ was a great blessing. He said that Gospel singers do not come to Macedonia, so hearing Sincere Praise was a tremendous blessing.

Everyone was truly blessed, the organisers of this event said it exceeded their expectations. There was such a liberty amongst the people as the Word went forth and as the choir sang lives were being transformed. It was reported back that a man who had been an atheist came to the realisation that there is a God, the convicting presence of the Holy Spirit and the power of the Gospel broke down the strongholds in his life, to God be all the glory. After the concert people came and testified of what the Lord had done in their lives.

 

Our journey begins the early hours of Thursday morning 24th August 17 at Stansted airport.

As we board the plane there is a tremendous air of excitement we are actually beginning our journey to Macedonia following in the footsteps of the Apostle Paul.

Our plane lands in Sofia Bulgaria, we clear immigration collect our luggage and board our transportation to begin our five hours drive to Skopje the capital city of Macedonia.

We do not have a clue of where we are going, never met the people we are going to yet we know that we are launching out in total faith with the Holy Spirit directing our steps. He never makes mistakes and we can have total confidence in Him knowing that we are embarking on a divine assignment.

Photos of landscape seen on journey from Bulgaria to Macedonia

We arrived safely at our destination and off loaded our luggage at the Kalonis hotel in Skopje, we were warmly welcomed by Boris the hotel owner

After checking in we were so excited we decided to explore our surroundings many of us were still pinching ourselves because it was so hard to believe that we were actually in a land named in the Bible. Had anyone told us at the beginning of the year that we would be in Macedonia we would probably have laughed because no such thought had even entered our wildest dreams.

Taking a walk to the city we began to explore Skopje by day

By night

Macedonia is celebrating 500 years of the Reformation and the establishing of Evangelical Christianity.

Throughout the summer the evangelical churches have come together to celebrate what God has done and Sincere Praise was invited to minister from Friday to Sunday holding a concert, leading praise and worship with Pastor Rosemary ministering the Word of God in church services.

What is the Macedonian Call?

The term Macedonian Call refers to a God-given vision that directed the route Paul took on his second missionary journey (Acts 15:39-18:22). Paul’s plan was to visit and strengthen the churches he had planted in the Asian province of Galatia during his first journey. After that he hoped to take the gospel to unchurched regions. Paul and his companions, Silas and Timothy, had plans to head directly west, but they were ‘kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the Word in the province of Asia’ (Acts 16:6-8). It isn’t known exactly what caused Paul and his team to shift their plans, but somehow the Holy Spirit made it plain to them that they were not to go to the south west portion of Asia Minor. They next tried heading north to Bithynia, located along the Southern coast of the Black Sea, but again, ‘the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to’ (Acts 16:6-7). So, the missionaries skirted the region of Mysia and came to the seaport city of Troas.

After being redirected twice, Paul was at a standstill in Troas, on the eastern coast of the Aegean Sea. There Paul received the Macedonian Call: During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, ‘come over to Macedonia and help us” (Acts 16:9). This vision was the clear direction they needed. “After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them’ (Acts 16:10).

Paul obeyed the vision. If the Macedonians needed help, they would go to Macedonia (the northern and central parts of modern- day Greece. The Macedonian Call resulted in Paul and his companions sailing from Troas to Neapolis, stopping for the night on the island of Samothrace. From Neapolis they continued to the Roman colony of Philippi, the leading city of the district of Macedonia (Acts 16:11-12). This area is known as the gateway to Europe.
Up to that point in history, the gospel had been limited to Asia, and many historians credit Paul’s heeding the Macedonian Call with the spread of Christianity into Europe and the western world.

Much happened in Macedonia:

Lydia’s conversion (Acts 16:14-15),
the deliverance of fortune-telling slave girl (Acts 16:16-18),
Paul and Silas’ imprisonment in Philippi (Acts 16:16-28),
the conversion of the jailer and his household (Acts 16:29-34), and Paul’s preaching in the Areopagus in Athens (Acts 17:16-34) are some of the highlights of the second missionary journey.

Paul planted several churches in Macedonian cities. Local bodies of believers were established in Philippi (Acts 17:4), Thessalonica (Acts 17:4), and Corinth (Acts 18:1-11). These churches were important in the growth of the early church and enjoyed a long-term relationship with the apostles. Five of the New Testament Epistles were written to those three churches.

The history of the church – and of the world-forever changed because of the God given dream known as the Macedonian Call.