THE DREAM:

We dream of starting a Church in Odessa, in Ukraine, that will at least  win 1% of the city  to Jesus.

We dream of a church that will be known for its many  miracles  not only among the poor, but through them.

We dream of a church that will completely restore the lost biblical role of  evangelists.

We dream of a "city-church" that will be unified in a  decentralized network  of semi-autonomous churches all over the city.

We dream of a church that will be known as a blessing and a refuge for the Jews.

We dream of a church that will "place the lonely in families" (Ps. 68:6) as over 15% of the city is oppressed and forgotten (5000 street children, 10 000 prostitutes, 100 000 drugs addicts and 150 000 people who have AIDS!)

Finally, we dream of a church where our 9 core values will radically transform the character of every single member into the likeness of Jesus. This means growing in a passionate, truth-seeking and cross-embracing relationship with God, a totally transparent, truth-telling and yet graceful accountability to each other, and a radical commitment to win and disciple every unbeliever through the miraculous power of the Holy Spirit.

THE KEY VERSE FOR THE ODESSA CHURCH:

 " The Spirit of the Lord is upon me and because of this, He has anointed me to proclaim a good news to the poor; He has sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, vision to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed and to announce the year of the Lord's favour, the jubilee" (Luke 4:18-19)

THE STRATEGY:

As of today, we already have 3 couples-leaders, 4 evangelists and over 20 mature Christians who are ready to start the Odessa Church if we move there. In the first 4-5 years, we will all remain together and grow the church to a couple of hundred people while Yves trains all the present and future evangelists.

After this, we will send them to start other churches of various sizes all over Odessa. All our evangelists will have strong gifts of healing, miracles and faith, but especially of leadership. Their 2 main goals will be to bring strong numerical growth and training at least 2 potential leaders for each church they started. Once those local leaders have enough maturity to lead the church themselves, the evangelists will appoint them and start other churches in the city while maintaining a mentoring relationship with them. 

If they strongly implement our 9 core values in each church they have started, and if they work well between them, evangelists will maintain the unity of our ever growing network of semi-autonomous congregations. This large decentralized movement will form the Odessa Church, and any church will be able to join us if they adhere to our 9 core values. Initially, money will first be given to evangelists, who will lead a very frugal and a blameless lifestyle, so that the Odessa Church will have an ongoing numerical growth, and then all the remaining money will go to the poor. Over time, as the Odessa Church becomes larger, financial resources will be available for part-time pastors, teachers and itinerant prophets.

Those churches will all gather 2-3 times a month in a rented facility for a powerful and emotional worship service of 500-700 persons, where all kinds of supernatural manifestations will be expected every time. Healings, deliverances or prophetic words will happen on a regular basis because we will often invite blameless-no-wackos ministers from outside, and from our midst we will only use Christians who have first been trained within the smaller format of our local churches.  

When all the churches meet, we will mix all kinds of musical genres, whether rap, classical music, hillsong, acapella or any other contemporary genre, and we will only use a simple and non-religious language so as to create an atmosphere that will attract and at the same time challenge unbelievers.

HUGE NEEDS:

 -15% are dying of AIDS (yes, over 150 000 people!!!!! )

-10% of the city is taking drugs (over 100 000 people!)

-3000 to 5000 homeless children survive on the streets

  -10 000 prostitutes are being exploited locally and/or sold abroad

HUGE CHALLENGES and DANGERS:

-It has the most powerful Mafia of Eastern Europe, which has "exported" the best organized crime groups in the United States.

-the entire city is corrupted at every level (because of the mafia, the prostitution and the drug cartel)

-it is the most attractive city for sex tourism in Europe

-It is a stronghold for Satanists in Ukraine.

-This may explain why Odessa is by far the least evangelized city in Ukraine           (only 0, 3 %, and this include all protestant denominations!).

HUGE OPPORTUNITIES:

-It has 1, 2 million people, such that only one percent of righteous would make all the difference!

-It has more than 50 000 Jews who keep strong ties with Israel.

-100 000 Muslims students study in Odessa and they all return after their graduation to the Middle-east.

-It has thousands of Turks, Moldavians, Azeri, Tatars, and ethnic minorities from central Asia and all over the world, such that the potential for missions is huge.