Intercessors' Reports - Vienna

Fourteen intercessors went to Vienna, Austria. Pr Almir, a Brazilian pastor living in Austria for about ten years, took care of the group while we were there. He and his wife Angelica, took half the group and the other half stayed with a Jamican pastor who had helped Pr. Almir plant their church in Vienna.

Austria has a population of about 7 938 000 people. It was once the centre of The Austro-Hungarian empire (1867-1916). Austria has many famous citizens Mozart, Bethoven, Franz Schubert, Johann Strauss, Sigmund Freud and one infamous Adolf Hitler. Vienna is located in Niederosterrich (the low Austria). This is the most populated area of the country (1.45 million people) and the least evangelized one. Graz is the second biggest city with 0.23 million people. Austria also has some minorities like Croatians, Slovenians, Hungarians etc. amongst her peoples.

After the collapse of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire due to World War I, Austria became 1/8th of its original size! there is a sad history of pain and war in Austria. They fought the Turkish, who tried to invade Austria many times. Austrian people fought Napolean, the communists, without speaking about Hitler's occupation during the second world war. In 1679 there was a big plague in Vienna when a great part of the population was affected. So there is a lot of suffering behind these people through the decades.

In general the population is a nominal Catholic one, but the majority are now getting involved with occultism (esoteric tendancies, New Age, Satanism etc), Christianity is known today as a sect, with only 0.5% of the population Christian. Austria is one of the places that has the greatest number of suicides, two in three marraiges end in divorce, one in five Austrians suffer from poor mental health. So Austria needs Jesus desperately!!

On Thursday evening we went to the highest hill in Vienna to pray for the city. Then on Friday morning we had a beautiful time with some local pastors. The Lord manifested Himself with the whole group of Brazilians praying for the pastors bringing words of encouragement and power. We also felt the resistance of our enemy, because other pastors that were supposed to participate didnt manage to make it due to illness and an accident!

From there we went to a concentration camp called Mauthausen about two hours drive from Vienna. There we saw the atrocities committed by man walking without God. There we felt the feeling of judgement that comes upon the nation and prayed for the sins of the nation (after the local pastors prayed for us and gave us the authority to pray). Inside the the crematorium, where many were killed we sang in Portugese a song of deliverance, declaring the power of the Lord of lords and giving our commitment to pray for Austria!

Then Pr Almir told us how last year the president of Austria went on an official visit to Israel last year to ask for forgiveness for Austria's part in the holocaust. We believe that this act brought openness in the spiritual realms to God, to begin renewing the Austrian people.

Saturday we went to the Christus Zentrum Wien, a church led by Pr Erich Schindler. Pr Erich is a medical doctor, however he has stopped working in medicine to be used full time by Jesus to heal souls through His power. He is pastoring two churches, one of them in Vienna where we participated in the service. We preached about the strongholds that exsist in our minds according to II Cor 10:4-5. The Lord moved with his soveriegn power there, praise the Lord! The Brazilian group prayed for couples, children and young people it was a great blessing!

Pr Richard from another church goes to the centre of the city near the Cathedral with his youth group every Sunday, so we helped a little by praying and talking to people. After that we had a service in the Christus Zentrum, the same building that we were in on the Saturday but this time with another fellowship group whom Pr Almir and a Jamican pastor care for, we experienced the joy of the Lord there in a fresh way. We preached on James 5:17, where it says that "Elijah was a man just like us" and they were encouraged by the Holy Spirit to seek the same deeds of Elijah in God's prophetic purposes to the Austrian church!