The International Christian Consulate started in 2016, barely three years ago, but it really began with a vision received over 22 years ago. After my baptism at age 14, the Lord gave me a vision which I held privately in my heart for almost two decades. I believe it was a vision of the end of this age, the time just before Jesus’ return.
He showed me scenes in the Middle East of his people being persecuted and killed. At the time I didn’t know what a Muslim was, but I saw radical Muslims doing horrific things to believers. I saw Middle Eastern Christians being hunted and beheaded, taken into captivity, or running from place to place and hiding. I saw believers being hauled before authorities and condemned to death. I was aware of a great, deep darkness that had filled the earth.
In the midst of that, God was calling me to do something important in preparation for Jesus’ return. I knew that one day I would leave Britain and head east, although how that could ever happen was beyond me.
Vision Becomes Reality
Many years passed and much ‘water under the bridge’, and I began to doubt what God had shown me. Yet through every trial and circumstance, I couldn’t shake this vision. It was etched deeply into my very being.
In 2014, the Middle East was beginning to explode. Saddam Hussein had been removed from power in Iraq and in the power vacuum left behind, a militant Islamist group began to take over, which became known as Islamic State.
Suddenly, our televisions were flooded with the same horrific scenes I had seen as a 14-year-old: the same types of people destroying churches and homes, beheading believers who refused to convert to Islam, taking women and children into captivity. Suddenly things God had shown me all those years ago were beginning to happen before our very eyes.
I knew it was time, even though I was nobody and I had nothing. Still, when the Most High asks you to do something, you don’t get to question his wisdom! You step out in faith and try to be obedient.
When the Most High asks you to do something, you don’t get to question his wisdom!
God’s ‘Consulate’
I asked God to give me some words to help explain to others what I needed to start doing. His response was clear and immediate: “Establish my consulate for my people from the Middle East”.
This described what he had shown me perfectly. As God’s people, we are citizens of his Kingdom - not of this world’s kingdoms. A consulate is an official representation of one state in the territory of another, existing to protect the interests of its citizens in that foreign land. It is a piece of state territory on foreign soil. Therefore, a consulate for the Kingdom of God is a piece of heaven’s territory in a foreign world: a place of sanctuary and provision for citizens of God’s Kingdom in need of help.
The world has always hated us and, as we get closer to the return of our King, it will despise us more and more. I fervently believe that before the King returns to establish his Kingdom over all the earth, persecution will get much worse. Multitudes of believers will die, but the Bible also speaks of places of safety in the wilderness, prepared by God for his people. This consulate was to be a safe place in the day of trouble.
The Work Begins
I began to share the vision with other believers around me. This was a testing and discouraging time as many did not accept it: I was told “You can’t do that!”, "You can’t do that as a woman…!”, “You cannot call it a consulate!”, “You won’t find any Christians amongst the refugees!”, etc. But some faithful people gave a donation here and there and, in April 2016, God sent me to Greece on an exploratory mission.
Schisto refugee camp, outside Athens.Refugees were flooding in by their tens of thousands, fleeing the horrors in the Middle East. There were of course Christians in their midst, but they were in hiding, afraid and exhausted. Persecution had followed them into the refugee camps, which were full of ISIS supporters and other Islamist groups, actively hunting the Christians among them.
Believers were being beaten, their tents slashed with knives or set on fire. Women and children were told they would be beheaded. Others were raped and all of them were harassed daily. And as a tiny minority, they were ignored and despised, including by official agencies like UNHCR who were supposed to protect them. Even the translators they were using to ask officials for help were deliberately mistranslating to punish them for converting to Christianity. These people, who had suffered so much already for their faith, were exhausted and out of hope. They needed a safe place, help and support.
After that first trip, God moved mountains and performed miracles. By the end of 2016, the International Christian Consulate was registered as a charity, with no question or dispute about the use of the word ‘consulate’, or its object “to advance the Christian faith, anywhere in the world, by whatever means the charity sees fit”. Before we were even registered, we received a couple of large grant pledges - enough to get us established, with safe houses and a centre: a consulate. God even granted us miraculous favour with the Greek Orthodox Church in Athens, which rarely recognises Christian groups outside their denomination.
When God ordains something, no-one and nothing can prevent it from coming to pass. And so it has been with the International Christian Consulate. The work has begun.
A consulate for the Kingdom of God is a piece of heaven’s territory in a foreign world: a place of sanctuary and provision for citizens of God’s Kingdom in need of help.
Kingdom ‘Boot Camp’
The ICC currently consists of a safe house programme housing persecuted Middle Eastern believers in need of protection, as well as a central hub called the ‘House of Faith’, which is a day centre providing practical help, pastoral care, language classes, integration support, fellowship and (most importantly) discipleship.
The consulate also now owns a piece of remote rural land in Greece which is in the early stages of preparation as a healing retreat.
The believers who come to us have been tested in the fires of persecution. Many are very recent converts from Islam. Their faith is strong and they are hungry for the truth of God’s word. Many did not even have a Bible until they came to us. What God is doing in their lives is nothing short of a miracle.
The ICC is like a Kingdom ‘boot camp’, training believers to follow Christ. People from nations that hate Israel are learning Hebrew and understanding God’s purposes. They are learning Kingdom ways, producing the fruits and gifts of the Spirit, and already surpassing many Western believers in their knowledge and understanding. We teach them the whole Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, equipping them so that they will be ready to stand firm and bring others into the Kingdom, whatever comes.
Prophetic Mission
Some have been with us for a year or so and then moved on to other countries, taking with them all they have learnt. They have gone out like emissaries with the Gospel message and are making disciples.
The Consulate is a prophetic mission which is already having a reach across many nations, despite its small size and lack of resources. We do experience opposition from the kingdom of this world, from Satan and, I’m sad to say, also from those within the Church. But I pray that the Holy Spirit will wake people up and stir hearts to help their brothers and sisters, as they are able. Worse persecution than ISIS is coming, and the UK will not be exempt from that.
Ultimately, the cry of my heart is for all people to hear the Gospel of the Kingdom, and for the Church to wake up to what is coming on this earth. My heart’s cry is also a plea to Western believers who have far more than I do, to join this work of God by contributing in whatever measure and way our King asks of you.
Jesus said “the Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached to all nations, and then the end will come”. A consulate speaks on behalf of its kingdom. This consulate will preach the Gospel of the Kingdom to many nations. The King is coming!
Yochana Darling is Head of Mission at the International Christian Consulate in Greece. You can find out more about the ICC on its website, https://www.internationalchristianconsulate.com/ and can donate towards its work by following this link.
Find the ICC on Facebook and Instagram. Read more of Yochana’s personal testimony in her interview with Jesus Wired.