to organize an Evangelistic festival in Iraq if and when the time is right. Horizon International Ministries Director, Victor Najor, told BosNewsLife the church will go "anywhere God leads us," as it did in the last two decades. It comes at a time of ongoing persecution of Christians in Iraq, despite the recent handover of authority by the United States-led coalition to the interim government. (pictured: Festival of Life outreach)
At the same time, churches have reported spectacular growth and interest among Muslims in Christianity, BosNewsLife learned.
Najor, a Chaldean Christian whose parents and brothers came from Iraq, spoke after his church helped organize Poland’s first ever evangelistic Festival of Life, which he claimed was a result of prayers by Polish Christians, at least 350 years ago.
CHRISTIAN MOUNTAIN
"I just climbed a nearby mountain where Christians were hiding and held secret church meetings," said Najor, who is now in his early fifties but still looks like the Rambo-type bouncer persecuted believers may have welcomed to provide security in those troubled days.
They met underground "not to get killed, and prayed for a spiritual breakthrough," he explained. "You can still see the benches and other signs of assembly." He added that hundreds of years later people "in especially Poland" are receptive to the Gospel.
"The Eastern European mind and culture seems more open than in Western Europe," Najor claimed. "aybe because of the oppression that was here before, people seem more ready to receive the Good News," he said.
CULTURAL CHRISTIANITY
Najor warned that in mainly Catholic Poland "there seems to be a lot of ‘cultural Christianity", a reference to religious rituals present within traditional churches, without emphasize on what evangelicals call "a personal relationship with Christ."
"One of the things that seem to be lacking is the joy of the Lord," Najor noted. "So I think that the Festival gave a lot of joy to people and opened a lot of people up (for the Gospel)," he stressed. Organizers say roughly 500 people accepted Christ in their lives during the five-day Festival of Life, which ended Sunday.
"My family is from Iraq where is not such a thing as a Baptist or a Catholic, you are just a Christian. So I think the walls of tradition and denominationalisms have to be broken down. Obviously they can be very restrictive to allow the (Holy) Spirit to work."
FIRST CHURCHES
The Chaldean Christians are believed to be among the first churches that were founded by Christ’s followers. Najor recalled how Apostle Thomas on his way to India preached the Gospel to the Chaldean people in Babylon,” and that they became born again believers and "preached the Gospel to different parts of the world" including Mongolia, China and India.
"In Madras, India, there is still to this day a very large Chaldean church. We hope that this Festival has helped to ignite other people to become like Thomas and use their gifts for the kingdom of God.", Najor said.
Among the visible talents given to Najor is his love for cooking, which he found difficult to hide during Poland’s Festival of Life. "When I was about five years old I used to help my mother in the kitchen. She got married at the age of twelve in a pre-arranged Middle East marriage. Helping her was needed because I had seven other brothers and sisters and over a hundred first cousins. So we had a lot of parties."
COOKING EVANGELICAL
He later used his cooking experience not only to make his own wife and four children happy, but also thousands of other people during evangelistic outreaches of Horizon Christian Fellowship.
Najor said he started cooking meals for large crowds after concluding in the Bible that "Jesus barbecued on the beach". "So I thought: ‘okay if He barbecued, I am going to barbecue some time". He played a key role in the "Foods from Biblical Times" events that accompanied his church’s Festival of Life meetings around the world in the last decade.
"These are foods that are very similar to those they eat in the Middle East today, for example vegetarian type things and barbecue items. In some cases we have seen thousands of people breaking bread (like Jesus and his followers did)." In Poland, a similar food meeting was held, uniting at one point 200 Catholics and Protestants, Najor said.
"Let’s all start fresh on a different page of music," said Najor, smiling. "We learned it from Jesus who fed the five thousand. He broke bread with people in Mathews Gospel, so I think this is a wonderful labor of love."
UNITING CHURCHES
He hopes it will also encourage different churches in post-Communist Poland to work harder and closer together after the Festival of Life.
"I remember when I was a little boy my parents would make Middle East pastries together, which took us three or four days. Later my mom said why we just don’t buy these pastries in a Middle East store already made. And I believe that’s how a lot of Christians are. They want to buy other people’s experiences; they don’t want to labor together".
However several evangelical leaders in Poland say the Festival of Life was a clear sign that Catholics and Protestants are now prepared to unite in missions and evangelistic outreaches at a time of concern about social tensions in the nation, which joined the European Union, May 1, this year.
DEATH CAMP
The Festival of Life was held in Wisla, about 60 kilometers (37) miles from what was the Nazi death camp Auschwitz.
Last week Jewish youngsters carrying Israeli flags were seen praying and singing Hebrew songs at Auschwitz II-Birkenau, where up to one and a half million mainly Jewish people were massacred in gas chambers, or otherwise tortured or shot to death.
"It’s a long story" said one elderly lady who came to explain the youngsters what happened with their people in the 1940’s. The Jewish people were seen embracing each other after viewing horrific images of extermination. (Pictured: Jews comforting each other in Auschwitz).
Evangelicals said it was another reason to hold the Festifal of Life and encourage people to move away from what they call "demonic powers" who they say inspired Nazis and others willing to cooperate with them to carry out the world’s worst atrocities. "There is not one family in Poland that did not lose someone in the war," said Jerzy Marcol, Director of the Biblical Mission Association, who hopes the Festival encouraged people to choose "New Life" over death.
