SPECIAL FOCUS: EUROPE CHURCHES
The Hope Germany Festival in Stuttgart
For the first time in Hope Germany’s history, the Festival was hosted in the very south of Germany: Stuttgart. Hope Stuttgart was an excellent host and organiser for the participants who came from all over Germany, Switzerland, Czech Republic and other European countries. The Festival started with a casual get-together and barbeque.
It was a time for the delegates to exchange experiences at the yard of a local school. Throughout the whole festival, numerous members of Hope Germany had prepared workshops about various topics of spiritual life: practical living, learning, practical help and business workshops taught by the leaders using their experience and fields of expertise.
In the morning and evenings, the whole community gathered in a local theatre hall for workshops, teachings and in the evening, public preaching of the gospel by members of the German leadership team, the "D-Team".
In the morning sessions Matthias Keller spoke about communication, Ulrike Cornehl about finances and the blessing of a life of giving, Sebastian Unger about us being an example to our fellows in our everyday life, and Stefanie Rose about sexual purity.
The evenings were open for onlookers as well, filled with comedy, music, information, testimonies and worship. Saturday night, Marcus Rose explained why he considers Jesus the emotional, intellectual and practical most beautiful solution to mankinds problems. Sunday night, Kajin Teoh preached hilariously about a life striving for excellence.
During the week prior to the Festival the CityMonks-Teams shared the good news to the local people and invited them to the public sessions in the evening. It was a chance for local people to take a look into how to live a spiritual life, living in a Christian community and to be told about God.
Marcus Rose
Hope Germany Website
Hope London: Lighthouse Home Groups
The five Lighthouse Home Groups of Hope London are composed of mostly professionals and working adults. Their main vision is to reach out to working people in the city of London and to provide them with support, friendship and fellowship.
One of their main outreach programs is the Lighthouse Café (LHC), which normally takes place every 6-8 weeks throughout the year. It is an opportunity for all the five lighthouses to come together and most importantly, to invite our friends, work colleagues and other contacts to come and have a great time with us.
Hope London Video
LHC usually takes place on a Friday evening in a coffee shop, most of the time in a Starbucks, in the centre of London providing a lounge and relaxed atmosphere for our guests and ourselves to talk, laugh and play games over a cup of coffee and muffin.
The main highlight of the LHC is the game, which lasts for about 45 minutes. The people are divided into teams and play against each other to get the highest score and win prizes. The game host, who is also the host of the evening, will introduce all the Lighthouses to the guests before starting the game. So far the games that have been played at the past Lighthouse Cafés are bingo, pub quiz, countdown, board games and Pictionary amongst others.
The team game has been successful, proving to be a great icebreaker and keeping our guests entertained throughout the evening. At the end of the game, everyone will stick around for another 15 minutes to mingle around and get to know each other better before heading off for dinner.
The LHC outreach program is currently a success in getting new contacts and meeting people. The LHC program is also quite dynamic, for example during summer it sometimes takes place in the park where a late evening picnic is held.
Pastor PK & Kim Tse
Hope London, United Kingdom
