Our History
The work of God begun around the year of 1989.
At the time, there was a businessman and Diplomat at the same time, who was
living in Ekali and suffered from metastatic cancer. The doctors had told him, that
there were only a few months of life left for him.
Being in a stalemate,
the Diplomat decided to seek the Lord. Thus, he contacted three of our brothers,
who were bringing the good news of Gospel to him, not knowing at all three of them
were talking to the same person at the same time.
In those days, a brother
was ministering the Church of Athens as an elder. This man was George Korovesis,
and he was living in Marusi, an area very close to Ekali.
The Lord led the
three brothers, each one separately, to talk o brother Korovesis about the case
of the Diplomat.
Indeed when our brother Korovesis found out about this strange
coincidence, he concluded that the Lord was about to do something in that man's
house. He then thought it was reasonable to invite the three men to a prayer and
then visit the patient.
When they visited the man, what they saw was totally
disheartening since the incurable disease had gone too far.
Yet the Lord graced our brothers who spoke of God's love and
His power to heal "every disease and every illness". Later they prayed all together.
Ever since that prayer, the Lord began His magnificent work with this patient,
who burst into tears, became a born again Christian and took a firm decision to follow
Jesus Christ.
From the moment of his rebirth the Diplomat offered his house
to the brothers who would preach the Word of God there for the next few months every
Thursday night. There it started the Ekali's gathering which was to become the herald
of Kifissia's Church.
The Lord blessed this gathering, by adding new souls
and making signs and wonders, the highlight of them being the healing that the dying
Diplomat received, as the cancer has already spread out all over his body.
At
that time the Lord added a doctor to His Church. As the Lord had begotten him again,
he willfully offered his house at Dionysos, where the Word of God would be preached.
Hence in parallel to the Elali's gathering every Thursday night, the Lord has created
one more gathering at Dionysos which was taking place every Friday, and brother
Korovesis was responsible for both of them.
We should also stress the point
that the Lord manifested his glorious presence at the gathering of Dionysos, since
in no time at all, He baptized everyone with the Holy Spirit.
In 1990 the
Lord added many more souls to the Ekali's gathering and very soon the house that
used to host our brothers had become too small for them; consequently they started
praying and looking for a new place to be housed.
Towards the end of
1990, the Lord showed to our brothers a place in Kifissia, in Philosophon and Dios
street, and in the beginning of 1991 our brothers announced the inauguration of
the Church of Kifissia.
The new Church was instantly endowed by the Lord
with blessed and holy Gospel workers; that is brothers Patelis, Perakis, Kyrianakis,
Zafiroglou who actively supported George Korovesis as the pastor of the church.
At the
time, the Lord transferred our brother Andrew Piperis from the Church of Athens
to the Church of Kifissia. He was about to become the person whom the Lord would
trust with the youth of His Church.
The Lord's work was increasing day by
day while our brother's love and unity played the most important part in it. This
was constantly being built up by the fact that our brothers, every Sunday after
the Lord's Supper had fellowship with one another.
The insistence on fellowship
with one another strengthened the love of our brothers and soon this bore fruit.
As a result six months after the inauguration of the Church the houses were no longer
enough for our brothers as the Lord was continually adding souls to His Church.
As soon as the problem came up, our brothers prayed to the Lord to find
them a place, where they could eat together and have fellowship with each other;
so the Lord led them to the basement of brother Zafiroglou's house.
Amid
this atmosphere of love and unity, the Lord decided to adorn His Church with spiritual
gifts and ministries in order to edify and perfect His flock while he was adding
at the same time more and more souls.
Consequently the Church of Kifissia, started
facing capacity problems in the end of the year 1996.
By the year 1998, the
room where the Church was housed, had become overcrowded, especially on Sundays.
Facing the new facts that had emerged, the elders of the Church started thinking
about finding a larger space. They started praying to the Lord so that they may find
the best solution. In the meantime the market research had showed that it was quite
impossible for the Church to find the proper place given the fact that the Church
budgets were extremely constrained and the rents in the North Suburbs exceedingly
high.
At some point, it was expressed that maybe the Church should purchase some land for her needs. However, this idea seemed too daring
and thus was quickly abandoned. Nevertheless,
the Lord had a different opinion proving that He is the God of miracles. So during
a prayer, He filled a prophet with the Holy Spirit, who did not know anything about
the elders ideas and thoughts. And so it was prophesied that "in this church the Lord
will manifest signs and wonders, heal incurable diseases and a sign is given to confirm
this that land will be bought and contracts will be signed and a
building will be built".
Upon the hearing of this message the elders were
astonished by what was uttered and were wondering about the next steps.
A little later, the pastor of the church George Korovesis
assembled the elders asking how they should proceed.
According to brother Korovesi's confession, he had requested
a personal sign from the Lord offsetting his greatest concern: if the elders were unanimous on building a new church building
then undoubtedly this was God's will. Meanwhile there was an aged elder brother Nikos Grivas who was
renowned for his holiness and devotion but also his strong conservative stance.
Brother George Korovesis knew right from the beginning that he would have to cope
with his resistance too.
Indeed, as soon as the subject came up during a
meeting, brother Grivas totally disagreed with the idea of building a new Church.
However during his argumentation, he was filled with the Holy Spirit and
prophecied saying: "Behold, I am before you, do not be afraid but proceed" thus
negating his previous arguments and conviction. So this prophecy gave the green light to the
elders to go ahead with the purchase of the land and the construction of the Church.
The following day brother George Korovesis announced the elders decision to the congregation.
Meanwhile, he narrated all the miraculous events that had taken
place.
When they heard the news they were all surprised as they couldn't
understand how it would be possible for a handful of low income people,
to undertake such an effort.
But the Lord stirred
up our brothers who rushed to offer whatever they could and some even applying for bank
loans in order to contribute to God"s work.
The overall experience was so powerful
that the congregation thought they were reliving the first Apostolic days as our brothers' willingness
to help was so great that we all felt the Word of God was being fulfilled in their lives as depicted in
the Book of Acts …. "
Now the multitude of those who believed were of one
heart and one soul"
Shortly afterwards, the Lord showed us the
land in which the new building was to be built; so they purchased it and in
March 1999 the construction of the new building started up. The brethren faced severe difficulties
during the construction but the Lord was always there for us.
He always acted miraculously by coming "in the fourth watch of the night".
We should also underscore the fact that the Lord had set our hearts for
the construction of the building at the right time.
This happened because
later, on September 9th 1999, there was a disastrous earthquake in Athens, during
which the Church in Philosophon and Dios street collapsed. Nevertheless the construction
of the building had already proceeded, hence in two weeks time after the earthquake
the Church could be housed in the basement of the newly-built building. The Lord
who knows the future had prompted us to proceed with the construction, thus manifesting
His true Love to us once more.
Also, among many other miraculous events was
the sign that took place around that time proving that He was always with us.
This was the fact that in two weeks’
time the Lord had added many more souls to His flock and the Church had almost
doubled.
During that fortnight, the Lord massively saved many young people,
delivering them from drugs and dissolute life. Meanwhile He also called to His flock
whole families as well as solitary people.
Finally the construction
completed by God’s grace at the end of December 1999 and by the beginning of
year 2000, we found ourselves in the new church building.
Nevertheless,
the increasing work of God goes on and on with the Holy Spirit opening the way
to spread Christ’s Gospel everywhere. These days by God’s grace a
new and very important work has begun. It concerns
the preaching of the Gospel in Greece and worldwide through the Internet. In order to support
this work the Lord added to His Church highly trained brothers at the right timing.
By God’s grace we hope that soon the preaching of the Gospel is broadcasted
live globally, in up to seven different languages.
Only gratitude can come out
of our heart for our Lord as He empowers us to experience His great work in our
lives.
The Church of Kifisia started many years ago with six families, however
today the Church’s youth numbers 100 people while the whole Church is numbered in
400 people. Back in 1989, there was only one deacon brother Stathis Zafeiroglou,
to support the Church’s pastor. Today the Lord has endowed His Church with seven elders
and twelve deacons while in the foreseeable future there will be an ordainment of
new elders and deacons.