News & Updates.

The following report is from Rev. Fred Hartley, III, President of College of Prayer.

I and my team had significant ministry in Armenia, serving several churches in the capital city of Yerevan. The people were hungry for God, highly responsive, and ready for the College of Prayer training. We found Armenia to be a land of God's favor. Let me give a little background to this little known nation.

Armenia is a land of God's favor because the Gospel of Christ came to their land as early as the first century. History records that two of Jesus' apostles, Thaddeus and Bartholomew, traveled to Armenia to make disciples and plant churches before they were both martyred.

Armenia is a land of God's favor because it was the first Christian nation on earth. In 301 AD, Gregory, a Persian (Iranian) missionary, came to Armenia and had a significant impact, leading many to faith in Christ. The king resented the people's enthusiastic response to Gregory's message, persecuted him, and eventually threw him in a pit thinking he would die there. However, Gregory was miraculously sustained, thanks to an unknown woman who daily threw a piece of bread into his pit. When the king later grew deathly sick, the king's sister had a recurrent dream that, against all odds, Gregory was still alive. She told the king that if he would ask Gregory's forgiveness, Gregory would pray for his healing, and God would restore life to the king. Against his better judgment, when the king humbled himself and went to the pit, he found that Gregory was, in fact, miraculously alive. Gregory forgave the king for the years of persecution, and prayed for his recovery. God mercifully healed the king and he declared Armenia a Christian nation—the first fully Christian nation on earth. 

Armenia is a land of God's favor because their nation is still thriving although they were the victim of the first, and one of the worst, genocides in the twentieth century. In the early 1900s, the Ottoman Empire in Turkey initiated the genocide of the Armenian people, capturing the Armenian-owned land of Mount Ararat. They proceeded to mercilessly kill 1.5 million Armenian people.

Armenia is a land of God's favor because Armenia remains the only Christian nation full of peaceful people, surrounded on every side by adversity, with Iran on the south, Russia and Azerbaijan to the northeast, and Turkey on the east. It is an honor for the College of Prayer to serve the church in Armenia, a land of God's favor. Thank you for your prayer and financial support that makes possible our extended partnership with the church in Armenia.

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!

​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.

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. 

- Over the past 38 weeks, we have pioneered ministry in 38 new nations.
- We have begun ministry in some of the most persecuted nations on earth. For security reasons, we cannot mention names.
- We have utilized Zoom to rapidly expand ministry into new nations. By the grace of Christ, we have identified a number of key leaders with whom we have already begun mentoring relationships.
- We anticipate pioneering 20 more new nations in the next 20 weeks. Keep praying.
- Revival Now Media has launched well. Our new app and new small group series are getting traction.
- New campuses are set to launch this Fall in the US.
- We are scheduled to facilitate Encountering God Weekends in several great churches.
- We are developing new partnerships in the US with some exciting new church networks and other ministries.
​- We are adding a number of new pastors and leaders from across the US into mentoring groups within the Revival Prayer Institute.

Even despite restricted travel, God is moving in Spanish-speaking countries throughout the world. Our Regional Director, Rev. Luis Calderon, has been training church leaders globally through the use of Zoom. He has been to Italy, Spain, Chile, Peru, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Argentina, and Panama.

Luis has been mentoring a couple from Northern Italy (pictured here). They have translated our Year 1 Notebook into Italian and are working on Years 2 & 3. They also use our Year on Fire daily devotional to encourage people in their church and city. God is using them to build a praying church and God is manifesting His presence among them.

We are now training and mentoring church leaders in 19 Spanish-speaking countries. In addition, God has opened doors to training Hispanic leaders in several European countries. This month, we will train leaders in El Salvador, making it our newest nation where we have active ministry.