BEHOLD Europe 2019
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In November, we saw the launch of Behold Europe, a gathering of young evangelists across Europe. Though the heartbeat of the conference was gathering alumni and participants from the various EEI (training evangelists) groups across Europe, we welcomed many other young evangelists from different parts of Europe with the intention of being spurred on in what the Lord has called us to - reaching the lost people in our communities. We welcomed evangelists from 12 different countries for the weekend at the Nuba Hotel, just south of Barcelona.
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We were delighted to have Lindsay Brown, Peter Pereira, Julia Garschagen, Andy Wickham, and Emil Shehadeh with us as speakers. We also valued input with sessions from leaders Hélder Favarin and Martin Durham. There were interview sessions with the key speakers which provided an opportunity for participants to ask questions and glean from the wealth of experience each one brought. Leaders from the EEI countries also provided an update on the ‘state of the nation’ with the participants praying for each country in small groups. Thank you for praying for this event. We believe this was a strategic move for Europe which will result in Gospel transformation in the coming weeks and months!
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Speakers
We are thankful to God for the following speakers who invested their time and wisdom during our Behold Europe gathering in November 2019.
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Lindsay Brown
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Lindsay Brown was born in Wales and studied history at Oxford before going to Paris to study theology. He has been involved in student work for 30 years, completing 4 years as a student staff worker in Wales before becoming European Regional secretary of IFES for 9 years and then serving as General Secretary of IFES for 16 years. After acting as the international director for the Lausanne Movement for many years, he is currently serving as evangelist-at-large for the UK student movement and for IFES generally and also directs FEUER - (Fellowship of Evangelists in the Universities of EuRope), a loose-knit network of university evangelists which has as its goal the re-emphasis of public proclamation of the gospel in universities across Europe. The conviction of FEUER is that the defence and articulation of the gospel in a public forum is crucial to capturing the hearts and minds of the current and the next generation of leaders across Europe.
This is carried on through an expanding body of 50+university evangelists across around 30 European countries which holds regular week-long missions in key university cities, with a longer-term vision developing a team of at least 60 evangelists, with at least one in each European country, by the end of 2020. Lindsay travels all across Europe speaking at student and church conferences and at student mission week events. He is married to Ann and they have one grown-up son. |
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Rev. Dr Peter Pereira
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Rev. Dr Peter and Esther Pereira passionately love the LORD and serve in South Asia. Their ministry is three dimensional with one purpose… to build the Kingdom of GOD. The Ministry encompasses Leadership Development, Church Ministry and Compassion Ministries. Obeying God’s call, He gave up a bright career as an Engineer. Working as a Pastor in the United States, he continued his theological studies. He has a master’s degree in Urban Studies, Master of Divinity in Missions and Evangelism, and a Doctorate in Missiology. He is a member of the Northern Illinois Conference, currently serving under special appointment, under the Bishop of Northern Illinois Conference. He associates himself with Churches, Christian Organizations and Leaders, sharing identical spiritual concerns and vision. He travels across the United States, South Asia and many other countries, preaching the Word of God. His relationship with Dr Haqq, the Associate Evangelist of Dr Billy Graham, an ordained Minister of the Minnesota Conference has been instrumental in guiding him in conference-speaking, Bible-teaching and evangelism. He is a trained consultant for the Growth Plus Evangelism program.
Rev. Dr Peter is the Founder-Director of Hope for Today ministries, a Christian Organization working along with the churches in India and reaching the unreached areas with the Gospel. Another important aspect of the ministry is conducting seminars and conferences through the International Leadership Institute (ILI) for training and equipping Pastors and church leaders, to change history by accelerating the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ through leaders of leaders empowered by the Holy Spirit and to help them face the challenges of the 21st century. Rev. Dr Peter’s commitment and zeal towards fulfilling the “Great Commission” have earned him trust and recognition in South Asia as an Evangelist. Esther, his wife, ably supports him in his mission and is instrumental with the Compassion Ministries. His three children, Rebekah, Jonathan and Philip, also help with the Ministry though they are currently living in the U.S. The Pereira’s are based in South Asia. |
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Julia Garschagen
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Julia Garschagen is a speaker and apologist at the Zacharias Institute for Science, Culture and Faith based in Cologne, Germany. She frequently speaks in universities and at youth events across Germany and Europe on faith and apologetics, addressing societal and existential questions from a Christian perspective.
Julia also serves on the leadership of two large youth missions in Germany - Jesus House, organized by ProChrist, and the Christival. She is passionate about listening and responding to the questions and concerns of young people, and will be co-leading the next series of Jesus House events in 2020, which in 2017 were attended by 85,000 people across Germany as well as in Austria and Croatia. Before joining the Zacharias Institut, Julia worked for many years as a regional coordinator with the SMD (Intervarsity Germany), a network of Christians in schools, at universities and in workplaces. She also served, for a year, as an associate at the Michael Ots Evangelistic Trust in England, speaking at university missions both in the UK and in Europe. After graduating from secondary school in Germany, Julia spent a year in Lima (Peru), working with people living in extreme poverty. She studied theology in Wuppertal, Germany, and earned her MA in theology at King's College London. Key areas of Julia’s research included, among others, the question of suffering (theodicy) and the cross of Jesus. |
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Andy Wickham
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Regional Director for Europe and host of the "Las razones de la fe" podcast, Andy speaks to showcase the truth, beauty and relevance of the gospel to secular Spanish society. After studying Theology in Austria and at the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics, Andy earned his MTh in Old Testament Theology from UNISA in 2009. With his background in student ministry, Andy has spoken on the Christian faith and engaged in Q&A sessions in multiple contexts across the country, most often with audiences of sceptic university students, for more than a decade. He started Proclama in 2013, a mentorship initiative to raise a generation able to communicate the Christian message in the public arena, concretely in the Spanish academic context. Despite Andy’s British surname, his first language is Spanish. He lives in Madrid with his wife, Elizabeth, and their three children.
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Dr Emil Shehadeh
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Born in Nazareth, Israel, to Arabic-speaking evangelical parents who were committed evangelists, Emil studied medicine in the UK, where he continues to practice as a semi-retired GP. Emil’s conversion occurred in childhood, whilst living in Israel where he had served God with his parents who travelled throughout Galilee witnessing to Muslims and Jews alike. He also served with OM and CEF. He has maintained an interest in evangelism with a heart for the Muslim world.
Since his retirement from medicine, he has obtained a PhD in Islamic studies and is doing a second with the London School of Theology on factors influencing Muslim conversions to Christianity. He has published five books, mainly on Islam and witnessing to Muslims. Apart from being a lay preacher, he has been giving seminars throughout Europe, usually with Lindsay Brown, to Christians on how to witness to Muslims. Emil is married to Carol and they have five children. His long term vision is based on the belief that the big wave of immigration from Muslim countries to Europe is a unique evangelistic opportunity, regardless of any political implications. He aims, by God’s grace, to continue to support the evangelism of Muslims worldwide by publishing and giving talks wherever God calls him. |
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Hélder Favarin
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Hélder is married to Ana and they have four little children. He's an evangelist, pastor and missionary. Hélder is the founding pastor of the church "C29" in Granada, a prominent university city in Spain, and founder/leader of “Festival 180º”. He's one of the founding leaders of “RedTimoteo”, a pioneer program for young evangelists in Spain and serves as a board member of Mission-Net, a European-wide youth movement and congress. He's part of OC Global Alliance, an interdenominational missionary organization and a member of the young leaders leadership team of the Spanish Evangelical Alliance. He is the author of the booklet “Algo Más” (Something Else), as well as numerous articles. He holds degrees in Business Administration and in Theology. He has a master’s degree in Biblical Interpretation from the London School of Theology and is currently undergoing a doctorate in preaching at the Talbot School of Theology, Biola University. He has worked for a number of companies, including HSBC bank and General Motors, before devoting to full-time evangelistic, missionary and pastoral ministry since his early twenties. Hélder was born in Brazil but also holds an Italian nationality. He preaches and teaches regularly in different countries in Spanish, Portuguese and English. He has lived in Brazil, Mexico, England, Scotland and now in Spain.
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Rev. Martin Durham
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After spending 15 years employed by Barclays Bank PLC, Rev. Martin Durham received a clear call to leave banking and pursue the office of evangelist, becoming the founding director of Kerygma180 (K180) in May 2001. Complementing his call to actively proclaim the gospel ‘on the streets’ and to equip young evangelists and leaders, Martin presently chairs the UK 'Emerging Evangelists' Institute' (an initiative of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association), and is the European Director of the 'International Leadership Institute', of which History Makers is a part. Martin is ordained as a Baptist Minister (Evangelist) by the Baptist Union of Great Britain, and lives in London with his wife Rachel, and daughters, Annie & Eliza.
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The next Behold Europe central gathering will be from 14-17 January 2022
(More details to come)
(More details to come)