DUISBURG, Germany – Poisoned land, government opposition and even a police assault against the pastor have not prevented a unique German Church called Wera Forum from becoming the largest in the city of Duisburg. 

Wera means belief. 

The pastor, Alexander Epp told CBN News, “We always say, come to our building, touch it and listen to the story of how it was built. Then you’ll believe.”

Epp, an ethnic German who returned from Soviet Russia, says he never faced this kind of persecution from the KGB.

Obstacles, Denials, and Answered Prayer 

A German SWAT team raided the church last year and blew the door off his home, attacking him and breaking his nose.

Epp came to Duisburg as a truck mechanic in the 1980s, when the Lord put it on his heart to begin an outreach to the city’s Russian-German community. 

The congregation outgrew its old building and finally found land for a new one. 

Except the city would not allow them to build a church. Nor could they secure a bank loan, and they learned the soil at the building site was contaminated.

Epp said, “We had the expert assessment done, and the assessment showed that we’d have to invest a lot of money to remove all this soil here.” 

Instead of giving up, they decided to pray.

“We stood together with the whole congregation. We held each other’s hands. Prayed together, ‘God, heal the soil,'” Epp said.  “And then we called in another company. They did an assessment and said the soil is clean. No toxins, nothing.”

Unable to build a church on the site, they became a non-profit religious organization. Without a bank loan, they built the structure themselves.

Battling the German Perception that Wera Forum is a ‘Cult’

Wera Forum and its four satellite churches are now attended by more than a thousand people.  

Their services are in Russian and German. 

Sundays are an all-day event, with church members staying to eat a meal together, and enjoy fellowship. 

Since only five percent of Germans attend church, a successful church here can raise suspicions that it is a cult – using psychological pressure to force people to attend.

Wera Forum’s media department even produced a video explaining to Germans the church is not a “sect” or cult.

Their website states the church leadership is transparent and accountable, with no one being forced to attend.

A Brutal Police Raid

However, last summer the police used a former attendees false claim that the pastor possessed an illegal firearm to launch an early morning raid on the church and his home.

Epp recalled, “I was asleep and got up after I heard a bang when they blew the door open.”

Eighty to 100 masked officers surrounded the property, pointing machine guns at him.

Epp said, “I thought they were criminals. When I was beaten and thrown to the ground, I thought they were robbers trying to rob my house. I never thought they were the police.”

Because he thought they were criminals, Epp tried to defend himself, and that’s when a police officer punched him in the face, breaking his nose and leaving his right eye with internal bleeding.

He was forcibly thrown to floor, bloody and injured, while the SWAT team ransacked his home.

And then, Epp said, “I just shouted, ‘Jesus, help me!'”

Epp says one of the policemen answered, ‘Jesus is not going to help you.’

A machine guns was even pointed at his wife, Irina, who had to be taken to a hospital for medical complications.

Epp was then handcuffed and driven to the church, where the SWAT team entered with machine guns drawn, busting down doors, and ransacking offices and classrooms.

The police took all the churches’ computers. They apparently found nothing and returned them. Epp was charged with resisting the police.
 
Epp claims the SWAT operation was launched even though the man who said the pastor had a gun, admitted to a police officer before the raid that he had lied.

The Duisburg police have not apologized for Pastor Epp’s injuries or the damage to his home and car, and he’s not been compensated for his medical expenses. 

The authorities did not reply to our request for an explanation.

Epp’s son, Walter said, “It seems now like a big project just to intimidate us because we are the maybe the biggest church here in this city and the fastest growing, to take us down to make bad publicity for our church.”

Epp, who lived part of his life in the Soviet Union, calls it the worst persecution he’s ever experienced.

God Turns Trouble into Good

God would turn the opposition and violence against the church for good. News of the police raid has caused even more people to discover the church and start attending.

Epp says overcoming all the trouble and obstacles has only increased the church’s faith.  

Epp said, “We always had problems, and I kept asking myself, ‘God why?’  But I think it was all part of God’s plan, that we’d be under pressure and that we wouldn’t rely on ourselves, but on Him.”