Horizons International Europe, Field Ministries, Global Locations, Kosovo

New Church Born in Kosovo, and Inspired with Creative Ministry Ideas.

B.U.M. Church, as many of you know, is a thriving Protestant church in Kosovo’s capital city of Prishtina. The church was founded in 1994, when Georges Houssney began mentoring three young Christians from Muslim backgrounds. Within the first five years, the church brought dozens of Muslims to faith in Christ, and it grew to over 55 members. Out of this small church, many leaders were sent out to plant churches and ministry centers throughout nearly every major city in Kosovo, prompting hundreds of Muslims to come to Christ!

41957121_1775424929241112_2506394239357681664_nLast December saw the fruition of over two decades of partnership between Horizons and B.U.M., as the church built and inaugurated a new building—the largest Protestant Church structure permitted to be built in Kosovo in over a decade! This 3-story building holds services for B.U.M.’s congregation, and serves as a gathering place for the entire Protestant Church network in Kosovo. It also houses Tenda Publishing, a cafe, classrooms, and more.

With joy and happiness, Pastor Femi of B.U.M. Church shared the exciting and recent news of the establishing of a new church, in Kosovo born of their ministry. The church is in a town outside of Prishtina with close to 40 thousand people living here. Until now there was not a single church in the area. B.U.M. Church had a group of people from there for many years, but now this group has grown considerably. Over the last six months they began a Bible Study group which is now 16 people.
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They have a new leader in this area named Lirim. After being converted in Norway, Lirim moved back to his home town in Kosovo and was beaten badly several times by his family because of his new faith in Christ. After this he started to check in google for a church to get help and google directed him to B.U.M. Church. This happened last January and from that time until now, Lirim has grown in faith and has moved to the aforementioned town to work as a taxi driver. In this new town, Lirim began telling all of his friend about Jesus, and all of his passengers during his work day. He would give them the New Testament and share the gospel, and because of his faithfulness, the group of believers in this town began to grow significantly and some of them were baptized at Christmas.
For six months the church has been meeting in restaurants. Today, B.U.M.’s church network includes 7 churches across Kosova. Two weeks ago, Lirim came up with the idea to start a Christian cafe-bookstore and they have already found a very good location for it along the main road of the town. This is going to be for business but also a place where the church can meet and invite more people.
The B.U.M. Church has developed a plan on how to move forward with this:
1. Qendrim, an elder in B.U.M. Church, has business experience from his work in a Bank, and he will help Lirim to run this business.
2. D, an elder and minister in B.U.M. Church, will help Lirim and the young church to do more evangelism, events, and talks. He will also encourage the group and help them with weekly Bible studies.
3. Pastor Femi of B.U.M. Church will spend 2 hours with Lirim every Thursday for three next years. The goal of these meetings will be to help Lirim grow in faith, teach him the Bible more in depth, pray together, and instruct and empower his ministry, so that he can be able to serve others effectively. They will also identify some other individuals that could be part of the team for this church plant. Pastor Femi will also train this team and in general, will be involved with helping the Bible study together with D.
4. Right now there is only one female in this new church, so B.U.M. has selected three sisters as a small team to assist with women’s ministry.
Please be praying for this new church to continue to grow and thrive. Pray also for the church to be a blessing to the community, and to bring many to faith in Christ. Pray for Lirim’s discipleship, and for him to grow into an even more powerful servant of the Lord. Pray for Pastor Femi, and the other leaders from B.U.M. Church who will be discipling and empowering this new church. Lastly be praying the cafe-bookstore, for the finances to come in and for it to be blessed.