Georgian and Winnie Banov
Short Biography
‘Joy Apostles’ Georgian and Winnie Banov are a radical power team. Their exuberant childlike praise and deep intimate worship ushers in a breaker anointing for an open heaven atmosphere through which they deliver life-changing revelations and prophetic insights from the Word of God. Boldly declaring the finished work of Calvary they minister freedom, joy, supernatural healing and wholeness by exerting the divine labor: Christ the hope of Glory be fully formed in you! They also hold a special anointing for the release of creative miracles including supernatural blessings for finances, land and houses.
The Banovs travel extensively holding apostolic renewal meetings and conferences worldwide. Charged with a heart of compassion for the poorest of the poor, they also host lavish evangelistic feeding crusades throughout the third world. Although the sounds, flavors and spices of these kingdom celebration feasts’ vary from nation to nation, they find the River of God’s extravagant love is always the same deep, passionate, all consuming, and irresistible.
Long Biography
Georgian Banov was born in communist Bulgaria. As a teenager, he was a founding member of the first official rock ‘n roll band in the country. He escaped the iron curtain and was mightily saved after coming to the United States. It was during the tale end of the Jesus Movement in 1974 that he had a powerful encounter with Christ in Southern California.
Soon after getting saved, he became a leader of a contemporary Christian band called Silverwind in the 1980’s. He was also the co-writer and co-producer of famous children classics such as Music Machine and Bullfrogs and Butterflies which sold over 3.5 million copies worldwide and earned Dove Awards and Grammy nominations.
Georgian and Winnie have been ordained ministers, serving as missionary evangelists for over 30 years – since 1979. They have traveled worldwide doing meetings from churches to stadium-size crusades in the United States Africa, East and West Europe, the Philippines, Australia and New Zealand. Since 2001, the Lord has increased their ministry’s focus and attention towards the poorest of the poor throughout the third world. So far, they’ve targeted South East Africa hardest hit by famine, the rejected Gypsies of Eastern Europe, and the impoverished of Central America. All of their crusades include Jesus Celebrations and Love Feasts, where they feed the local people their favorite food. Although the sounds, flavors and spices of these international crusades vary from nation to nation, the River of God’s extravagant love is always the same – deep, passionate, all consuming and irresistible. The Banovs are excited to be alive at a time where the church will see the Lord’s largest harvest in history!
Current
With a fresh touch of God on their lives, Georgian & Winnie travel extensively conducting daily revival meetings as well as conferences throughout churches in North America and overseas. There is a strong anointing and tangible sense of the presence of God during their exuberant, joyful praise and deep, intimate worship. They deliver a powerful message to the Body of Christ, based on fresh revelations and prophetic insights from the Epistles of Paul. Their presentation of the Gospel is with rare clarity and depth, causing life changes, healing and freedom from the past and religious bondages. Signs, wonders, and impartation of the manifest presence of Christ in the heart of the believers, always accompany their preaching of the Word.
Outreach
The Global Praise 2000 Tour is currently one of their most noted outreach with international effect. They led a group of 50 people, among whom were worship leaders and pastors from different churches and nations in a prophetic journey around the world with the sole purpose of lifting up the name of Jesus in public praise on the streets of major international cities like Jerusalem, Cairo, Rome, London, Hong Kong, Manila and others. Souls were led to the Lord spontaneously in airports, planes, buses, and subways and even in hotel lobbies like the one in Muslim Abu Dhabi, where a group of 20 Communist Chinese were led in a public prayer to receive Jesus as Lord.
Church Network
Georgian and his wife Winnie have a major influence in a fellowship of 35 churches in his native Bulgaria, many of whom are Gypsies. Twice a year they host a Leaders Retreat, providing refreshing and encouragement to Pastors and their spouses. Plans are already in progress to train and send Turkish-speaking Christian Gypsies as missionaries to plant churches in neighboring Muslim Turkey. Two fresh works among Gypsy neighborhoods in Turkey have just been planted, and they look forward to more.
Bulgarian Bible Translation
After the fall of Communism, Georgian responded to the lack of Bibles in Bulgaria by organizing the printing of the first official shipment of 40,000 New Testaments in the Bulgarian language; followed by another container of 30,000 complete Bibles. For the past seven years, Georgian & Winnie have been spearheading the fundraising for the unique project of refreshing of the Bulgarian Bible, as well as creating a complete dictionary with numbers identical to Strong’s Concordance. The goal is to produce a Greek-Bulgarian Linear New Testament and other vitally needed Bible study literature and software for the education and equipping of the new Christian generation in Bulgaria.
Benevolence
On the benevolent front, their ministry Global Celebration has always been involved with helping the orphans and the poor in the Third world, as well as other former Communist countries. Working along concerned individual and humanitarian Christian organizations like CBN’s Operation Blessing they have been instrumental in helping the needy in different crises in Bulgaria. They love to organize some sort of hot meals during their Gospel crusades. During one of their visits to Mozambique, they had planned to feed 1200 orphans with a fried chicken dinner. Over 2300 people showed up for the dinner and the Lord multiplied the chicken. Every person was fed, all the way down to the last person.