Report on Cyprus Mission Trip

Here is a snippet of an email I recently received from Pastor George, the Greek Cypriot who oversees Sri Lankan churches in Cyprus.

Last week we had some testimonies about the Sunday that your Team was ministering:

• One woman had continuous headaches for about nine years. After prayer, since that Sunday, she has no symptoms of headache anymore.
• Another woman had great pain on her arms for about a month, which caused her difficulty in her everyday job. The pain has gone since Sunday, and now she can work normally.
• One of our worship leaders, was revived spiritually and touched greatly by a new understanding of the love of God. After the meeting, she went home, kissed the elderly woman she is taking care of (her employer) and showed great love to her. Then she started worshipping the Lord from 9:00 pm to 1:00 am.

Praise the Lord!

Did you know that there are over 25,000 Sri Lankans who live in Cyprus? Did you know that 90% of them are women? Well, that was news to me! We had the privilege to minister in a Sri Lankan church pastored by a Greek Cypriot on the Sunday after the main event – the Catch the Fire conference.

The Sri Lankans of Cyprus

It was a special meeting indeed. We truly felt a spirit of humility over the pastor and the church. They were very desperate and hungry for the things of God. The vast majority of the church was comprised of converts for less than three years. It is a church committed to training its people and it was wonderful and pleasing to learn that some of the former converts in this church had also started churches either back in Sri Lanka or even in places like Israel!

We were a team of five who went to minister in this church. We preached a message about the love of God our Father and then we spend the next hour or more praying for all those who wanted prayer.  We saw many receive their physical healing, others were released from emotional pain and a few were delivered from demonic oppression. It was wonderful to see the Holy Spirit minister to these hungry and needy people.  It was a very blessed day indeed. We also discovered that there were 5 such Sri Lankan fellowships on the island.

The Main Event – Catch the Fire

The Catch the Fire conference went very well indeed. In spite of some initial opposition to the event from some quarters there was a good turn out. What was especially wonderful was the variety of peoples and languages represented. There were Greek Cypriots, Lebanese, Syrians, Egyptians, Hebrews, Russians, all sorts of other Europeans, North Americans and even Australians! 

Our advance team of seven was there a week in advance of the conference. We were there to intercede and organize the conference. We spent time praying over the three locations in which the functions were held, plus interceding for the conference and the people attending. Lillian Brown, our TACF conference organizer did a great job of leading the organization of the conference. She and Norm were a huge blessing.

Heidi Baker was only there for one day but as usual she was passionate for Jesus and she conveyed that very effectively. Many people were impacted and filled with the energy of the Holy Spirit. Gordon Robertson did some practical workshops on spiritual gifts, helping people to activate the gifts of prophecy and words of knowledge. Karen Dunham was amazing with her stories of death-defying, self-sacrificial service, and God ordained miracles as she works in the Palestinian areas.  John did a great Importance of Forgiveness talk, which the Holy Spirit used to impact many hearts. 

There were lots of prayer ministry team and the fire of the Holy Spirit was given lots of room to flow and touch many people’s lives. The fire tunnels were the most wild and Spirit- filled than I have seen in the longest while! The people who came were very hungry for God and he met them in powerful ways!!

Cyprus – loaded with history

We had the opportunity to move about the island outside the conference. We soon realized that Cyprus is an island with acres of significant history. Every major civilization of note in that region of the world had its hands on that little, strategically located island. It is also rich in biblical and Christian significance. Cyprus was the first place that Paul and Barnabas went to on their first missionary journey. Barnabas himself was from Cyprus. It was on Cyprus that the first Roman governor was converted to Jesus. In fact, the early Christians of Cyprus were missionaries to that region of the world.

Many feel that once again in these last days the Spirit of God will use Cyprus again as a strategic missionary sending base to that region. We say, “Yes Lord! Do it again.”