Pray for Montenegro

Pray for Montenegro

Total Evangelicals in the country: 286 people est.; 0.0005% of population – 

Montenegro is among the least evangelized countries on the world. There are only three churches and some small home groups. There are Orthodox and Catholic churches but the people are far from being spiritually taught and delivered from the power of sin.

Here is an amazing fact; There are more tourist visiting the Montenegrin coast each year than there are Montenegrins in the country. Population: 650,000 est. (CIA Factbook) As the Adriatic Coast becomes Europe’s number one vacation spot, Montenegro has a lot to gain.

Montenegro also has a strong relationship with Russia. Many of the tourist each year are Russians. Increasingly, Russian entrepreneurs are investing in Montenegro.

Prayer Points:
1)    Lord, we know it is in Your heart to reach the Montenegrin people. You desire to be lifted-up in Montenegro. Lord, show us how to pray and send help.
2)    Let us pray for intercessors and prayer-walkers to be burdened for the many Montenegrins that do not know Jesus. May they pray through to the point of dominion over the enemies’ territorial bondages. Lord, let the enemies’ days be numbered; we demand he release the people.
3)    Let us pray for laborers to be raised up to go to Montenegro. Holy Spirit, send out a Montenegrin Call and draw Christians to give their lives for this dry land.
4)    Lord, we ask for church planters to get a burden for the towns and villages of Montenegro. Lord, send Your “gatherers”.
5)    Let us pray for the few churches and the small home groups. Lord, let grace be their portion at this time, release hope and expectation in their midst.
6)    What if, Orthodox and Catholic priest started having dreams and visions of the Word replacing icons and statues. Let us honor the painter and sculpture for their skilled representation of the Gospel, but it is the Word that can set Montenegrins free.
7)    Pray for the establishing of an evangelical school in Montenegro that has a branch for training Russian Bible students. (I had this picture of students coming from Russia to a Holy Spirit school in Montenegro)
8)    May the Montenegrin believers seek His face and receive the spirit of boldness in order to reach the locals as well as vacationing tourists.

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Pray for Zagreb, CROATIA

Pray for Zagreb

Having lived in Zagreb for nearly three years, we have seen a city that looks good on the outside, but if you take a closer look at its inhabitants, they carry an underlying pain.

There are the elderly, who dig through the trash, hoping to find bottles to be redeemed for a voucher. Second, the middle aged generation that hustles from place to place with very little hope of enjoying their dreams. This group actually has this sadness on their face that will break your heart. Now the youth are really interesting; they try their best to stay upbeat enjoying their electronic toys, but underneath there is hopelessness. As for so many the only hope they see for their future is outside of Croatia as unemployment among young adults remains around 48%.

Of course we know that the solution is transformation through the presence of Jesus because when he shows up everything begins to change. Zagreb has seen some small, isolated revivals in the past, but nothing that could be measured as having impacted the culture.

There is hope! I (Jerry) attended a meeting of local pastors a few weeks ago. This meeting was organized by an international evangelical group that is seeking to unify pastors and churches to arise to the challenge of evangelizing their country. I was amazed at how many pastors were present. We had round-table discussions to isolate the hindrances of evangelism in Croatia and how to take steps to overcome those hindrances. There seemed to be a critical honesty there of what hasn’t worked, a desire to implement new ideas and most of all a brotherly love for one another.

George Otis, Jr, whom has studied spiritual revivals, outpourings and transformation, says that there are two elements that are first steps to spiritual renewal, first is desperate prayer and the second is unity of pastors (spiritual leaders). At this meeting, there was a hope of unity. At the Upper Room Zagreb, we consistently pray and foster unity and it is one of the core values of IST, so naturally we are very encouraged to see signs of forward movement.
 
Prayer Points:
1)    Let us pray for the city of Zagreb, asking the Lord for mercy to come for people who have not yet sought Him or don’t know where to find Him.
2)    Pray that there is relief for the many hurting and struggling in Zagreb and in Croatia. May the presence of God fall upon us as a blanket, transforming and bringing hope.
3)    The real hope of any culture is the Church of Jesus Christ. Let us pray for the church in Zagreb. This movement toward unity is a real positive sign.
4)    The above mentioned meeting is an initiative of the Lausanne Movement  https://www.lausanne.org. Pray that the spirit of love for one another grows and a desire to see this city and country evangelized catches on fire. May this take root and not be just another event in the minds of the spiritual leaders.
5)    Pray for desperate prayer to break out in Zagreb. We are seeing 10-13 Christians each week sacrifice their time to come to the Upper Room Zagreb House of Prayer to lift up Jesus and pray for this city and country. Pray that the Lord would take our bowls of prayer and pour them back on the city and country as blessings. May His presence overflow from the Upper Room into the streets of Zagreb!

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Pray for IST Group

Pray for Intentional Strategies for Transformation

We are so very grateful for each of you who so faithfully pray with us each week for this region and specifically for IST .

God has planted us in Croatia to raise up a ministry that is based and perpetuated out of prayer, thus IST Group was born with a vision to pioneer and resource redemptive transformation in Southeastern Europe. This vison begun to take shape through several values: Establishing a house of prayer, sustainable development among the underutilized, empowering the next generation of leaders, fostering unity in the body of Christ and discipleship. We believe this could be a model that would eventually be replicated across Southeast Europe.

One year ago, we clearly heard the Lord saying for us to spend 12 months focusing most of our efforts on prayer. We spend a year concentrating on raising up a house of prayer (HOP), hosting and teaching at prayer events, and Zuzanna completed a prayer walk through a strategic region of Croatia. As we approach the 1 year anniversary of our HOP, we are so in awe of what the Lord has done! This HOP, which we named Upper Room Zagreb (UR Zagreb), is going strong. Every week people are giving testimony of their lives being changed as they spend time in the presence of the Lord.

Our hearts continue to burn for redemptive transformation of lives, communities, cities and the nations of this region. While maintaining the UR Zagreb HOP, simultaneously the Lord is now directing our attention on an impoverished, war torn area of Croatia that has no evangelical churches or known believers. The Lika area is in the heart of Croatia; 5,000 Sq. Km or 2,000 Sq. miles, about the size of the state of Delaware. Throughout the past several months, the Lord brought us in contact with three families who have a very strong burden for Lika. Our approach will be a centralized farm that will serve as a base for establishing Upper Room Lika first as a house of prayer, which we believe will eventually become a church community. The Lord has given us further vision for this undertaking which we will share at a later time.
 
Prayer Points:
1)    The vision is broad and it is tailored specifically for this region. We are convinced that God has not forgotten the suffering of the Balkan people. Pray for us, that we will stay the course and execute His plan with excellence.
Habakkuk 2:2 Then the Lord answered me and said: “Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, That he may run who reads it.
2)    Thank you so much for praying with us this past year to see the house of prayer established. Now please join us in praying for the Lika project.
3)    Pray that the Lord would join to us financial partners to help carry the load. The need has been identified and the Lord is ready to assemble a team.
4)    Zuzanna is now in the US casting the vision. Pray for open doors.
5)    The people in Croatia are suffering physically and spiritually. Pray that we as IST Group would be always listening for the Lord’s next step.
6)    We are ready to run. Ephesians 6:15  And having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace;

Zuzanna will be in the Dallas/Fort Worth area off and on until Oct. 22nd. If you are in the area, call or text her @ 940.218.7093 and schedule a meeting so you can hear what God is doing. I know Zuzanna would love to hear form you.