Homecoming Days #6 - Reinhard Bonnke at SOS Church!

Monday August 30th 2010

Right now I'm in my car on my way home from our One Year Anniversary, where Reinhard Bonnke was guest of honor. In a few days I will have gathered all the facts, numbers and information about the whole weekend, and then I'll write a longer text to sum it all up. It is a bit too early for that just now.

We have loved Reinhard Bonnke and CfaN for a long time. Now, we love them more. What humility, love, passion, eagerness, honesty, boldness, longing, gratefulness and humility that radiates from Bonnke when the microphone is in his hand. I am well aware that I wrote humility twice. Not even that is enough.

He started by promising us all that he would give us the simple Gospel crystal clearly. Nobody should be able to walk away from there without having understood the message about Jesus. He kept his promise. The limited space in front of the stage was quickly filled up with people who wanted to say their yes to Jesus. I don't dare to guess how many they were, but they were many. I almost wanted to be one of them. But I stood in the rearmost row and was reminded about the feeling of standing on a festival site, watching the space below stage quickly going from empty to crowded. I enjoyed, smiled and wept, and I was not alone.

A few minutes later Bonnke took the microphone again and prayed for all the sick attendants. Many who got healed walked up front and told the ushers what had happened, and some of them went up on stage to let everybody know.

I'll spend the following days trying to right write a thorough report about the night and the weekend. I'm looking forward to hearing about all the miracles that have happened, finding out how many people that got saved, how many attendants we had and everything else that the following couple of days will reveal. But that will have to wait, at least until tomorrow. Tonight I'll just be sipping the aftertaste of a really good birthday party.

Jens Charlieson
Mission SOS

Homecoming Days - Pictures from Saturday

Monday August 30th 2010

Homecoming Days #5 - Saturday night with CfaN

Saturday August 28th 2010

It is usually quite difficult to describe a very good service. I will try. Siegfried Tomaszewski works in CfaN, the organization that was started and is led by Reinhard Bonnke. He showed us a short movie from their festivals, showing crowds of hundreds of thousands - even millions - of people at one place. One short scene showed a man who walked slowly and unsteadily on the stage. When he came close to Bonnke he let himself fall in his arms. In the background someone held the man's wheelchair up in the air, like a new world champion displaying his trophy.

The movie ends and Siegfried Tomaszewski tells us that the biggest festival meeting he has ever attended gathered 1,6 million people. All had come to know who Jesus is - and to be healed in their bodies. With these pictures in our minds Tomaszewski says:

"When we see the millions we must never forget that it's always one soul at a time."

Johannes Amritzer and Siegfried Tomaszewski

That sets the tone for the whole sermon - that it is always about one. About you. He told us about his navigator trying to guide him in the right direction, but in the end it is his own choice whether to follow the directions or not. He told us about how his son fell down a cliff and landed on a ledge only three feet down. He bent down to help his son, but in the end it was the son's own choice to lift up his hand and be rescued. God wants to rescue us, and then he wants to guide us. But it is always our own choice to be rescued, and our choice to follow the voice.

A rather rough estimation tells me that we were about 300 attendants. At the altar call hands were raised all over the church. As soon as I know the exact number of people who went forward and prayed the salvation prayer, I'll let you know!

"Imagine being able to see the entire earth, and it is completely empty. There is only one single person on the face of the earth, and it is you. We can hear Jesus saying: even if you were the only person on earth, I would still have come to die for you."

As we all expected, it was amazing to have CfaN with us tonight, and now we can't wait for 4 P.M. on Sunday 29 August 2010. Right now we are having another outreach at Medborgarplatsen - one last effort before our anniversary. We hope and believe that Stockholm City Conference Center will be packed out, and that many Stockholmers will give their lives to Jesus! How many will they be…?

It is usually quite difficult to describe a very good service. Tomorrow night I just might fail.

Jens Charlieson
Mission SOS

Homecoming Days #4 - Prayer and CfaN!

Saturday August 28th 2010

I'm sitting in one of the isles in church, watching the drama people's last preparations before this evening's service. I'm actually not sure which is louder; the drama music from the speakers or the sound of people chatting in the café…

A while ago a two-hour prayer meeting ended. We prayed for Stockholm, for tonight's service and for tomorrow's giant; our One Year Anniversary with Reinhard Bonnke.

Another thing that happened a while ago is that parts of the CfaN-team arrived, and with the team came products with the capacity to empty every wallet! How about these treasures:

- Living a life of Fire - Reinhard Bonnke's approximately 600 pages long autobiography, which no doubt is one of the best books ever written. Objectively speaking.
- A double-DVD with four services from Hillsong with Bonnke preaching.
- Full Flame Film Series with several DVDs where Bonnke teaches and illustrates the gospel and evangelization… Suddenly that Hollywood movie you bough last week seems a lot less interesting…

The drama people have now handed the stage over to the musicians who are getting ready for tonight's big party. Reinhard Bonnke's co-worker Siegfried Tomaszewski will preach, and then we'll return to Medborgarplatsen for yet another outreach!

We'll start in an hour!

Jens Charlieson
Mission SOS

Homecoming Days #3 - Outreach in Stockholm City!

Saturday August 28th 2010

Saturday morning. Most people here at Warfvinges väg in Stockholm have probably slept a few hours less than usual, after the late outreach at Medborgarplatsen.

From 10 P.M. the marketplace was filled with music, dancing, street theatre, a fire show, breakdance and the best message in the world! A small stage was arranged by placing out flags with the text "SOS Church", being lit up by two spotlights.

We had permission to have the sound system there between 10-11 P.M. - and then we had all night to talk to people.

Except the stage we also built a small living room right at the marketplace. A few sofas and armchairs were placed on a big carpet was all it took to create a calm place where people could sit down to find out what we were the unexpected street show was all about.

Pelle Svernedal and Emma Gustafsson preached, Walter Zuniga tied things together, Julia Willkander, Linnea Hagenfors and Eli Solbakken sang, André Zackrisson and Fernan Santos did some breakdance.

Now it is time for reunion for our former Bible School students! Right now, I'm sitting in the café listening to the sound of people making new acquaintances… It's about to start!

Until next time; check out the pictures from our outreach in the Stockholm night!

Jens Charlieson
Mission SOS

Homecoming Days #2 - The Danish Lion!

Friday August 27th 2010

The first service of Homecoming Days has just ended and what we all thought has now been confirmed - it was not a soft start! Christian Hedegaard truly is, as Johannes puts it, a Danish lion!

A Norwegian worship team visited us tonight, and when they hade played a few songs, André Zackrisson showed some breakdance. André studied at SOS Mission Bible College a few years ago, and then he moved back to Örnsköldsvik. There, he has continued breakdancing and tonight he told us that he had just recently planted a new church in his hometown.

Hedegaard began by briefly telling us about who he is and about his youth:

"My dad was a pastor. I hated him. I hated everything that had to do with my parents' church and God". He fled from God until one day he gave up, went down on his knees and asked God to set him free from everything that had bound him. And that's the kind of prayers God likes to hear, says Hedegaard. God set him totally free and he tried to make us understand how much he loves freedom, and how deeply he hates the opposite.

"To me, freedom is like a cold coca-cola on a hot Summer's day - I love freedom!"

The service ended by several people giving their lives to Jesus! I'll give you more exact numbers as soon as I get them! The service just ended, and we're now headed out in the Stockholm night to meet people, pray for people and preach to people! Fire show, street theatre, dancing and preaching of the gospel awaits us at Medborgarplatsen on Södermalm, Stockholm, so I'll end this now and get back to you tomorrow morning with more reports - and with pictures!

Tomorrow we'll have a big reunion for all former Bible School students at SOS Mission Bible College! And then we'll pray for Stockholm for two hours before the evening service begins! Come, if you can! I hope I'll see you there!

Jens Charlieson
Mission SOS

Homecoming Days #1 - Here we go!

Friday August 27th 2010

"Homecoming Days" is finally here!

Right now we are just a few minutes away from the beginning of Homecoming Days! The singers and musicians have had their sound check, the sound technician looks pleased and all the extra chairs have been placed out, and the facility is being filled with familiar and, to me, not yet familiar faces! We are still a couple of minutes away from starting the service, but seeing the crowd in the lobby, I think the extra chairs were a good idea!

My name is Jens Charlieson and I will spend this weekend doing my very best to keep all of you who couldn't come posted on everything that happens! At least a couple of times a day, new information, new pictures, new victory reports will come right to your screen! All you need to do is to type www.missionsos.org on your computer - and I'll take care of the rest!

Welcome to join me and SOS church to Homecoming Days and SOS Church One Year Anniversary!

Jens Charlieson
Mission SOS

Miraculously healed from cancer

Bulgaria, Friday August 6th 2010

In March 2009 Signs & Wonders Church in Velingrad held a three day festival and Johannes Amritzer was invited to preach. One and a half years later it was time to do another festival and just as last time. the city cinema was packed with people. One of the visitors, a woman in her 40s, told us that her life got changed at the festival in March -09. "I was at that time diagnosed with cancer. The doctors said that my hope was gone, I had lost all my hair due to the chemo therapy and they didn't give me much longer to live."

She came to the festival in Velingrad in March, but tells us that she don't remember who prayed for her. "Later on, in October the same year, they tested me and then the results showed no traces of cancer in my body!". Now, approximatly nine months after the good news, she is back in the place where she believes the miraracle happened: "I dreamt about it later on, how they prayed for me, and that God healed me then." This time she stood on the platform praising God for her miracle.

Mission SOS Balkan

Sunday service at SOS Church

Saturday July 31st 2010

Tomorrow's Sunday Celebration, August 1, was supposed to be held at Rålambshovsparken in Stockholm. However, since the weather forecast shows rainy clouds we will instead meet at our Church premises at Warfvingesväg 26 at 4 pm.

Bring your own "fika" and we'll celebrate our church service together among cinnamon buns, cookies and juice!

See you there!

Miracles and salvations in Bulgaria!

Bulgaria, Saturday July 31st 2010

This weekend Velingrad exploded with salvation and healing miracles! Signs & Wonders Church in Velingrad arranged a festival in the city cinema. Janco Angelov, pastor in the church, preached all three nights and says about the result: "We have 157 names on decision cards, but I know that there were more, because when the healing prayer started people ran off to get intercession".

And the miracles came! More than twenty healings were reported, among them an 11 year old boy. Since the birth he had pain in his legs and trubles walking. After the laying on of hands and prayer, the next day he testified and said that the pain was completely gone and the legs worked properly.

Monika Angelova tells about some of the miracles: "One woman was not able to close one of her eye lid and while we were praying she began to close it more and more until she was capable to twinkle normally. Another woman had a herniated disc and when she began to try her healing, she started jumping and shouting: 'I doesn't hurt, I am healed!'."

Now the church has a lot of follow-up work to do and soon a new Bible school class will start: "The only problem we have is that our premises are too small, but that can be fixed!" Janko says tired, but thankful for a successful festival.

Maria From
Mission SOS