News & Updates.

​This past weekend we spent three days in Salto, Uruguay. We started Year 2 of the College of Prayer, "Lord, as Families, Teach Us to Pray!" Several weeks ago the pastor of the host church in Salto wrote and told me that people were signing up weeks in advance and were anticipating the weekend greatly. He said when we started the College of Prayer last July, he was scurrying last minute, trying to convince people to sign up. This time, basically the whole church signed up, without any campaign, weeks in advance. The anticipation was tremendous.  

The first evening we met from 8-11 PM and then again 8-11 on Saturday evening, and from 9-12 on Sunday morning. The place was full and it seemed the floorboards were rattling with anticipation as we began. Each meeting we met and enjoyed the manifest presence of Jesus. Everyone was open and receptive and responded at each and every opportunity. We saw the Spirit moving strongly. While teaching was in progress, people responded unprompted at times. We saw teenagers get up and walk the aisles unprompted, find their parents, and embrace them with tears flowing down their cheeks. We saw husbands and wives reconciled and recommitted. We saw single parents embraced by the church. We heard testimonies like "the environment in our house is different now" and "the way we treat our kids is different now." 

There was a lot of ground breaking and setting (or resetting) of foundations. There was death-to-self, healing of wounds, and shifting of atmospheres. And forgiveness--there was so much forgiveness! We saw a church deeply impacted. Relationships were reconciled, strongholds taken down, and homes dedicated to Christ. We were on holy ground.  

All glory goes to Jesus! He is building His church! Keep praying for the church in Salto as they contemplate and treasure the truths they have received and live out what God did throughout the weekend.

Praise God for the College of Prayer that took place on March 17-18 in Porto. People attended from 6 different churches in the area. We also streamed on Zoom and had Portuguese-speaking attendees from Paris, São Tomé e Principe (islands off the coast of Gabon), and a pastor from Mozambique. This is a direct answer to prayer! 

Each session was excellently delivered and activated prayer. At one point a 17 year old girl spontaneously shared scripture from Leviticus 6:8-13. It's about taking out the ashes daily, keeping the fire burning, and putting on fresh wood daily. As she spoke from her seat, people listened and their jaws dropped open. She was anointed. At the end of the day we had people come forward for prayer. There was such a moving of the Holy Spirit!

College of Prayer leaders from around the world gathered together February 7-11 in Atlanta, GA for their annual gathering. There were significant moments of Spirit-empowerment, repentance, worship, and testimonies.

The theme of the gathering was "Ask of Me" from Psalm 2:8. Much time was spent in intercession around the College of Prayer mandate to serve churches in every nation on earth by 2025 (currently we are working in 161 nations). Several leaders also testified to the impact the College of Prayer is having on entire denominations and church movements as well as whole communities where the spiritual atmosphere is shifting in response to prayer. Praise God as He continues to teach us to rebuild Upper Rooms that reach the nations.

Be encouraged by a few testimonies from 2022 and praise God for what He is doing around the world!

• A pastor and wife in Albania built their family upper room of prayer; in less than a year they led 48 M*slim neighbors to Christ and baptized them. All glory to Christ!
• As we preached on the Father's love and breaking off the orphan spirit to the Roma people in Europe, the translator was so deeply moved he started weeping. He sobbed so passionately he could hardly continue translation. The entire gathering was equally moved, and God poured out His love into the hearts of these precious people. All glory to Christ!
• One family began their family upper room of prayer in Africa (undisclosed nation) and within two years they have led 56 entire families to Christ. All glory to Christ!
• A pastor in El Paso reports that after attending the College of Prayer, his church is completely changed. It's like the Holy Spirit has taken over. All glory to Christ!
• A pastor in Baltimore says that the spiritual atmosphere in his church has shifted since they attended a College of Prayer training. They are more spiritually hungry than ever. All glory to Christ!
• A pastor in Washington, DC said, "I've been a pastor 20 years and I only wish I had learned these truths at the beginning of my ministry—it would have saved me a lot of time." All glory to Christ!
• In Pakistan the College of Prayer is now the largest organized prayer movement in the nation. We have over 100 campuses that are affecting the unity and power of local churches throughout the country. All glory to Christ!
• In Taiwan 31,000 pastors and church leaders attended College of Prayer training just last month. There was so much repentance that GoodTV (with an audience of 79 million) did a special broadcast that had the largest viewership in their history. All glory to Christ!
• We just completed three days of training for Roma pastors and leaders from 28 European nations, including many precious believers from war-torn Ukraine. These leaders will now be returning to their nations to implement the prayer training and mentorship. All glory to Christ!

Thank you for standing with us and for your partnership. We could never do this work without you and we love advancing Christ's kingdom together with you. On behalf of all the unreached people who will be reached because of your partnership, thank you! 

The College of Prayer continues to grow at an astounding rate throughout Pakistan. In the last 3 years more than 100 campuses have been planted across the entire nation. Our National Coordinator in Pakistan has gained significant influence and churches are being revived as prayer is spreading.

We also launched the College of Prayer in partnership with the Full Gospel Seminary in Lahore to serve their students. It was a powerful gathering with the second and third year students. We experienced times of repentance, freedom, and Spirit empowerment.

“I have been a full time pastor for 5 years, and before that I was an evangelist. The first time when I heard the message on the Upper Room that message not only changed my own life, it changed my entire church. That was the first time I felt the presence of God. When I heard that message I received the power of the Holy Spirit and went back to my church and preached the fullness of the Holy Spirit and my entire church was filled. God has changed our hearts and minds. I have enjoyed these last 3 days also. I have learned that there are people doing worship and doing preaching, but they are not actually encountering Christ because there is no prayer and fasting. For four months after first attending the College of Prayer we stayed in fasting and praying in our church. The College of Prayer has put this into our hearts. Wherever we preach these messages, the people are changed.” ~ Pakistani Pastor

What an amazing time we had at the 2022 Ignite gathering in Atlanta. Pastors and church leaders from around the country came for 3 Christ-encountering days. Watch this recap from Jon Mitchell.

Video Song: "As We Pray" featuring Thomas Miller
Producer: Walker Beach
Copyright: Gateway Worship, October 9, 2012

​As day two began, Craig spoke on the "Power of Forgiveness." In response, everyone wrote down on a piece of paper the things that they needed to be forgiven of. Then on the other side they wrote down the names of anyone that they needed to forgive. Then we threw the papers into a fire pit, symbolic of course of Christ's total forgiveness. This seemed to open the floodgates. That evening the atmosphere was different. God's presence was tangible even as you simply walked into the room. 

That night after I preached we called for a response and people responded in mass. As we stood there before the Father, I quietly prayed back to God something that He had spoken to me prior to the trip: "Ok Father, you told me to make room for you and you would fill it. Here it is." Soon after, one young man began to weep uncontrollably as he poured out his heart to God. Many other prayers followed. There was repentance. There was hunger. And there was a wonderful, peaceful sense of the Father's presence and love. There was a hunger and faith in the room as the Lord's presence was so tangible. After the meeting reached the 2 hour mark I made an announcement that we were dismissed but that anyone who wanted to stay before the Lord was welcomed to stay. Only a handful of people trickled out. The others would keep worshipping, praying, and calling out to the Lord for another hour and a half. The meeting belonged to the Lord and His Spirit was leading people close to His heart. My heart was so peaceful and full as we left the retreat center that night.

As I processed before the Lord that night and the following morning, I wondered, "Now what?" We had one more session, "Holy Spirit Fill Me" and I had a good, long, biblically rich message that I was joyfully ready to preach. But I also had the sense that maybe it was time to let them testify to what the Lord was doing. During worship, a young man approached Craig and said, "I have a testimony I want to share." As I prayed about what we should do I heard the Father say, "Let him share." His testimony was needed and it began a domino effect of people telling the stories of what God was doing. One girl even opened up that she had planned to take her own life just a couple days before coming to Betania. We were able to bring some ladies around her to embrace her and pray for her. I was so grateful for her courage and her vulnerability to share.

We prayed, worshipped, and prophesied for I'm not sure how long. God was there and there was no hurry to be anywhere else. Everyone who came forward was ministered to by God in unique and profound ways. It was a holy and beautiful mess as the Father poured out grace upon grace.

At the end of July, Jimbo Hull traveled to Salto, Uruguay and led a three-day module of the College of Prayer. A young pastor from a church plant four hours from Salto met Jimbo for the weekend and did some of the teaching.  On Friday evening God's presence came and He "introduced" Himself as Father to the 40 or so gathered. From that introduction people heard His tender voice and received His Fatherly love as He realigned hearts to the way they were created to beat—close to His, knowing and receiving His touch; hearing His whisper. Men embraced each other and women embraced each other as they were channels of the Father's love to each other. There was much weeping as many received physical and emotional attention from the Father. The floor was dotted with puddles of tears. Several said that they had never been hugged by anyone like that in their lives. They didn't grow up in a home where affection was given and where words of affirmation flowed and where blessing was released. During the College of Prayer, the Father touched them, spoke to them, and blessed them in ways and with words they understood. It was beautiful.  

On the last day, those attending were encouraged to "freely give" what they had "freely received"—the love of the Father!

In June Jon Mitchell and Joshua Bencomo kicked off a partnership with a denominational district in the southwest. Several churches from the El Paso area gathered for a two-day deeper life conference. There was a tremendous amount of repentance and significant times of prayer and worship. One pastor wrote us and said, “This gathering had an amazing impact at our church. Several people have deleted their social media accounts and this Sunday we had...the best service we’ve ever had. Holy Spirit showed up and took over. Thanks for sharing such eye-opening revelation. [Our church] is committed to being an upper room praying church!”

The spiritual ground of Europe is well known; it is hard and dry. What you may not realize is that God is plowing the ground and readying the church for revival in the middle of a difficult days. God is using the horrific war in Ukraine to sound the alarm in the church. 

One of the fastest growing churches in Europe is among the Roma people. We trained three influential Roma pastors in November 2022 via Zoom. Now, our President, Fred Hartley, just returned from Serbia where he trained hundreds more this month, including three of the six primary leaders of the Roma church network in all of Europe. Pray with us that God uses this training to significantly serve the precious Roma church. 

In November we also trained leaders from the Balkans. We have received reports from Bosnia and Herzegovina that 25% of the body of Christ in their nation are now using our curriculum with effective results. Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Albania are all seeing a dramatic impact of the gospel of Christ building the church in new ways. All glory to Christ!

Continue to pray with us for new doors of opportunity to serve the church in every nation in Europe. God is making a way in the wilderness.