HOPE EUROPE CHURCHES
HOPE GERMANY FESTIVAL 
During the Pentecost weekend, more than 300 people from across Germany gathered at Reichenbach, in the middle of the country, to celebrate the Deutsch Festival. The topic in German was Heiss, which means hot.
I was amazed to see how an old factory building could be turned into such a nice meeting place with a tastefully decorated and wonderfully lit hall. Every morning, the campers spent their devotional time on the grass. After the meeting at night, many enjoyed fellowshipping with one another at the Wunderbar: a cosy, wonderful, candle-lit bar. [View Camp Video]
Every morning and evening, the campers were blessed with wonderful worship, followed by inspiring teachings by several leaders from Hope Germany, led by Pastor Marcus Rose.
There were many workshops for the campers, based on each camper’s needs or interests. I shared in a workshop entitled “Hope: Who Are We? What Do We Do? Where Are We Going?” It was about the history of Hope Church and how it grew from a tiny local church into an international movement.
If you joined the Hope Europe Convention last year, you might remember the play Cinderella and the Ugly Sisters. In this German Camp, the ugly sisters were back to claim many laughs from the audience.
One thing that characterises any Hope church camp is the Hope Games. This year the churches of Hope Germany competed with one another in a football match. The winner was none other than Hope Berlin.
I believe one of the most memorable moments at the camp was water baptism. All of us were so touched as each individual shared his or her moving testimony of how God was true and had blessed their lives before they stepped into the lake and received baptism. More than 10 people were water baptised on that beautiful afternoon.
I left the Festival with a heart full of joy and believe that the Lord our God will bring Hope Germany to a greater height in the years to come.
Pastor Prakich
Hope Europe Churches
www.hopechurches.eu
HOPE LONDON: MEN & WOMAN'S CONFERENCE 2008
Since 2007, Hope Church London organised MEN's conference for all the men of Hope Churches in the United Kingdom and West Europe. 'SEX - The Naked Truth' was the topic at this year's Men's Conference held on Saturday 31st of May.
- Pastor Marcus Rose from Hope Berlin was our guest speaker. He gave a talk on 'Sex, it is all God's fault?' and
- Pastor PK shared a teaching on 'Sex, Money and Power - The Triple Challenge'.
The ladies of Hope Church UK had a great time of sharing, learning and pampering (hand spa 7 make up) at the Ladies’ Conference 2008 called "The Perfect Blend". Stefanie Rose (Hope Berlin, Germany) was the guest speaker at this event.
HOPE NORWAY NEWS
- OUTDOOR BAPTISM IN 4 DEGREE
- NEW CARE GROUP IN HAUGESUND
A Filipino care group has started in Haugesund, Norway. Contact: Steve & Imee Mondala
HOPE HILDESHEIM, GERMANY
Hi, We are Joerg and Petra Nettelroth from Hildesheim, Germany (www.nettelroth.de & www.hoffnunghildesheim.de). We've been walking with God for a while. One day God told us we would be Gypsies, and we experienced something that is really like that. It has been (and still is) an exciting journey with God. We've experienced how everything around us, so it seemed, fell apart. We've had so many experiences with God that we could fill a book. For a long time we were part of the Vineyard family. After our last move (and there have been many), we arrived in Hildesheim.
There is no Vineyard church in this area. Even though planting a church is on our hearts, we didn't feel the call to start a Vineyard church here. Every time we attempted to join one of the local churches, God intervened through prophetic words He gave us or to others. We lived there for 4 ½ years without being a member of any church. God worked on our characters and in our lives during this time. We’ve had an interesting time making contacts with different people in different churches.
Our house is always open. We called it ‘Father's House’ and God kept sending us people here that he wanted us to minister to. During this time, God also put the idea of a cell church deep in our hearts. When we look back now, we can see how He clearly shaped and formed us. But what for? We had a very deep longing for a church that we could belong to. Our second eldest daughter met people from Hope Stuttgart and asked me what I thought about Hope. When I looked into it, I was amazed at how their vision really matched ours. Was this what God wanted from us?
In late 2007, we came in contact with Marcus Rose. During this time we've had many friends and dreams that confirmed to us that this was the right step.Our journey with God is still on-going. Now we are Hope Hildesheim and God is building His church through us. There is still the same excitement in walking with God. At Festival 2008 at Pentecost, we’ll have our first three baptisms: our first "newborn", my wife and I. Exciting?
Yes! His ways are higher than our ways and if we let him, He changes us more and more to conform to his image. We've learned to walk in His ways without having to discuss about them. It's not always comfortable but it's fascinating. It should be really easy to follow Him, shouldn't it? It's worth embarking on this journey, for God is great and it's a lot of fun to follow Him!
Joerg Nettelroth, Hope Hildesheim, Germany.
HOPE INTERNATIONAL FELLOWSHIP, UNITED KINGDOM
Hope IF (International Fellowship) UK planned a trip to Brighton for water baptism. It was forecast that May 26th (Bank Holiday) would see rain all day in Brighton. We checked the forecast again in the morning before leaving; it would rain until late evening. On Sunday, I texted everyone to pray really hard for a miracle and we prayed during the Empowerment Meeting at Hope Church Hatfield.
It was a really wet morning in London on May 26th. At Victoria, the total turnout for the outing was 30 people! As the train arrived in Brighton, the rain showed signs of stopping. During the two hours of sightseeing the sky started to clear! In time, rays of sunlight broke through the clouds. We decided to go the Seven Sisters cliff: a 45-minute bus ride from Brighton, for the baptism. As the bus left Brighton, the sky cleared and glorious sunshine appeared. The water was glittering, the sky was blue, and people were even starting to remove their outer clothing. We just couldn't stop praising God and thanking Him for answering our prayers!
We got off at a town called Seaford, as we learned that the Seven Sisters were still quite far away, and by faith went to the sea front. It was an awesome beach! We quickly got ourselves ready for the baptism. Five brothers and sisters: Samson, Gemmy, Susan, Nicole and Japheth (a new convert on Sunday at Hope Church Hatfield) were water baptised. It was so encouraging to listen to their testimonies. We then conducted the water baptism in an icy cold sea - one by one! As we reached the last one, I saw three lifeguards approaching us. In my heart I thought, “Are we doing this illegally? Let's quickly get this done and out of the water before we get a scolding!”
But guess what! The three of them (three English teens around 18 years old) wanted to be baptised! This was so surprising! This totally blew us away! With excitement and gladness I baptised them! God had a plan to bring us to Seaford beach!
We will keep in touch with them and hopefully see them at Hope IF Brighton soon. To end the story, when we arrived in London that evening, the rain returned!
Written by Eldos Then, Hope London
