1 877-431-4276Calling All Evangelists | Global Evangelist Alliance
Daniel King & Siegfried Tomazsewski talk about the Global Evangelist Alliance and why every evangelists should be a part. We also talk about the online Evangelism Masterclass designed to train and inspire evangelists. Plus we invite every evangelist in the world to come to Amsterdam 2023 on June 21-24 for an amazing event that will launch a new era in evangelism.
Join the Global Evangelist Alliance: https://globalevangelistalliance.com/
Sign up for the Evangelism Masterclass: https://masterclass.globalevangelistalliance.com/
Register for Amsterdam 2023: https://amsterdam2023.com/
Transcript:
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:01):
Welcome to the Evangelism Podcast. I’m Daniel King, and I’m excited about telling people about Jesus. Today I’m with a very special friend, Siegfried Yes. Well, you are the director of the Global Evangelist Alliance, the GEA. Tell me a little bit about the GEA and what the purpose of it is.
Siegfried Tomazsewski (00:31):
Yeah. Well, this is something I’m, I’m getting excited about because, you know, as an evangelist, we have been focusing at individual places. We have been preaching. Now, suddenly there is the vision of the Global Evangelist Alliance. That means we are networking and trying to build a net with many evangelists. Actually, every evangelist from all around the world can join the ge, whether it’s a large crusade evangelist, a street evangelist, a church evangelist. We want every evangelist, actually everyone who has a heart and passion for the lost to join in so we can reach the globe for Jesus.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:10):
Amen. And so if an evangelist wants to join the GEA and be a part of what God is doing through the Global Evangelist Alliance, how can they join?
Siegfried Tomazsewski (01:20):
Well, number one, there’s no entrance fee. Because what we want to do, we want to offer help for every evangelist by networking with, with street evangelists, one on one evangelists, large crusade evangelists. So we can benefit from one another. We can learn from one another. We can pray together. We can encourage one another. We can collaborate, we can cooperate. Everyone knows what’s going on, where and when. And we can strategically plan also where nothing is happening. So joining is very simple. Go to the website, www.joinge.org or global evangelist alliance.com. It’s the same thing. And you will find the website and you will find how to join on your click on there, and you apply from membership.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:10):
All right. And so if you’re listening, I want to encourage you right now, go to joingea.Org. Join with us with the Global Evangelist Alliance. And together, I think that we can reach the world for Jesus. We must do it together. We cannot do it separately. Now, one of the very exciting things, which the GEA is doing, is a conference coming up in June of 2023 in the city of Amsterdam. What Yes. Will be happening in Amsterdam.
Siegfried Tomazsewski (02:45):
This is truly exciting because we not only want to network, but we want to really work together with every evangelist on the world. Now we are calling evangelists from all around the world, representatives from every nation, every region, every continent to come for four days, three days are in death conference. It’s not like the old day conference where there comes a speaker and we are all blessed, and then we go back home. No, we really want to sit together. We want to discuss, we want to pray. We want to seek the, the Lord, how we can reach every tribe, every culture group, every language group so that we can learn from those people from the different regions, and then we can see how we can work together and help those people who are out in the bush or out in a rural city, out in the major cities from around the world.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (03:34):
So this is going to be June 21, 22, 23. Yes. Of 2023 coming up very, very quickly. And we are calling all evangelists from all over the world. We’re going to have delegations that are coming from Africa. You have worked in Africa for many years, first with Reinhard Bonnke. Yes. And now through one God, one day, one Africa, and, and you have done so much building networks of evangelists and Africa. So we’re calling the Africans together. Yes, absolutely. Right now we are in South Korea and we have just finished a conference with the Pentecostal World Conference where we called the Asian evangelist to come. Yes. We also have a brother, Jean-Luc Trachsel. He is one of the leader of the Global Evangelist Alliance, and he is from Switzerland, and he is working so hard putting the invitations together for the evangelist of Europe, and of course, North America, Central America, South America, anyone who has a heart for evangelism, we’re calling them together.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:43):
Yes. Because we feel that this is going to launch a new era of evangelism. Yes. And what’s really significant about the conference in Amsterdam is it’s going to take place almost to the day. Exactly. 40 years after Billy Billy Graham went to Amsterdam in 1983. Yeah. And of course, I was just a small boy at that time, but I’ve read the transcripts, the books that they put out from that conference. And, and at that time, Billy Graham had thousands of evangelists come from all over the world. And it really set a focus for evangelism for this past generation Yeah. Of evangelists. I mean, for 40 years almost every evangelist that’s elderly that I know had some type of impact that came from Amsterdam. And so now God is calling us together as evangelist in Amsterdam to strategize and to plan and to think about what God is going to do in the next decade. And God has given Dr. Billy Wilson, who is the head of Empowered 21, they’re helping to sponsor this conference in Amsterdam. And he’s also the President of Oral Roberts University. God’s given Dr. Billy Wilson this vision that we could reach everyone on Earth before 2033. Yes. Which is the 2000 year anniversary of Pentecost.
Siegfried Tomazsewski (06:22):
Absolutely.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (06:23):
Yes. And the goal is to reach every person on earth with the gospel of Jesus Christ through the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit. Yes. What a great vision
Siegfried Tomazsewski (06:33):
It is. It is. You know, and, and what’s extra ordinary on that conference? You mentioned it three days collaborating, strategic planning, prayer and so on. But you have not mentioned the, the cherry on the cake. I mean, that, that’s the, the highlight because the last day, the 24th, the fourth day on Saturday, we are not only going to reach out to the city of Amsterdam and all over Holland, but this is going to be an impartation and anointing and sending or commissioning meeting in the stadium. There will be gospel preaching, there will be healing and everything. But we want to send everyone back to their nations filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, and then do what we are called to do so we can reach the globe by the year 2033, as you had said.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (07:20):
And I think this is going to be so significant for so many, especially young people who are looking for a calling. Yeah. They’re looking for what their assignment is for God. They’re crying out, say, God, I want to be used by you, but I don’t know where I’m supposed to go or how I’m supposed to be used. And if they will come to this conference and then to this great commissioning service in the stadium right there in Amsterdam, I think that question will be answered. Yes. And they will, they will have visions. They will see dreams. They will, God will speak to them. They will have the sense of calling to know that this is the time for the harvest, that Jesus is coming soon. We need to make every second count for God. And the greatest harvest of history will happen in this next decade. Yeah. And the Global Evangelist Alliance is going to be very involved in helping to strategize and plan ways of reaching every person on Earth. Can you talk
Siegfried Tomazsewski (08:26):
About that? Y yes. What what truly excites me is in the past there was some individual great men and women of God, and we honor them. We respect them. I mean, I love them. They are great examples for us. But there is a, a young generation, I tell you, there is a, a young generation on the horizon. They are standing up there rising up, but they don’t know what to do and how to do it and so on. And in the past, the individual in evangelists, they were doing their, their job wonderful and fruitful and everything. But what I see now in the conference and in the Global Evangelist Alliance, now suddenly the evangelists of the old are connecting with the young generation. We don’t want to stand there as the big teachers. We want to mentor, we want to encourage, we want to train. We want to be there to encourage and to, to send them ours expo, send them into the harvest, and then be with them every time they have a need. They can, we can have zoom calls, we can have regional meetings where we invest in the new generation so that the work of one evangelist is not only expanded, but it’s multiplied. And I believe in multiplication and investing in the new generation, in the young generation, in this generation to come. This is the, the secret of the revival of this decade.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:46):
Now, one of the resources that the Global Evangelist Alliance offers to those who join is a great training course online.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:57):
It’s called the Evangelism Masterclass. Yes. And already involved in the Global Evangelist Alliance. We have 30 of the leading evangelist from around the world, from many different continents and context that are really expert in telling people about Jesus to this new generation. Yeah. And so we gather them together and each one of them recorded a 45 minute training session with the very best of their anointing and their, their insight and their understanding. And we’ve put this together into the Evangelism Masterclass, which is available in, in two different versions. So we have one version, which is offered for free on the website for anybody who joins the Global Evangelist Alliance. Yeah. And, and they can have access to this. And it is on personal evangelism, learning how to witness one on one Yeah. To those who need Jesus. And then we also have the second part of it, which is a series of videos specifically recorded for those who feel like they’re called by God to the office of the Evangelist. Many people they know they’re called to be pastors or maybe they’re called to be a professor. But I think that in this day, God is raising up more and more people who will be called to be evangelist. And so we want to train them. And so that’s available for a very small fee for people who, who want that calling and, and want to learn the very best practices Yeah. In how to operate in their calling as evangelists. Yeah.
Siegfried Tomazsewski (11:38):
I, I need to add to that because this is something I believe the world has not seen before. Number one, because we know from statistics that the majority, I don’t wanna say a percentage, but the majority of the church people don’t know how to witness. That’s why they don’t witness, They go to church. But inside they would actually love to, but they don’t know. And that’s why nothing happens. They leave it to the evangelists. But here, for the first time, they have a tool they can learn. I, I don’t want to say, you know, gospel sharing for dummies, you know, forgive me. But, but that’s so simple. The barrier is so low because it is easy. And it’s not from some scholars teaching in the university from the, from the books. But what I see in both courses that are high experts from around the world, they are not coming from the pulpits. They are coming from the, from the fields. When we teach, for instance, about witchcraft, demonn possession, how to deal with different,religions and so on,those are people who not talk about what they have been doing. They are doing what they are talking about. So they are evangelists who are doing right now, what they teach. And from the,from the practical point of view, they are teaching. So everybody can identify with what they are doing. I truly say, I, I’m excited. I’m excited. <laugh>.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (12:59):
Amen. Well, if, if you have a heart for evangelism, I encourage you to join the Global Evangelist Alliance. Yes. Go and sign up for the Evangelism Masterclass. Yes. This will benefit you in great ways. You will learn so much. And another part of the vision is building networks of evangelists in each country. Now, I actually have many people who listen to the Evangelism podcast in Africa, in Asia, and in different parts of the world. And, and so there is a desire to, to build networks Yeah. In each of these countries of evangelists who will work together, who will encourage one another. And you have really been at the forefront of putting that together. Can you talk a little bit about how those networks are being set up?
Siegfried Tomazsewski (13:47):
Yes. Number one, it’s not only one network that we are aiming for, but there is already wonderful existing networks. They are many times not known. Some are known. There’s the African enterprise talking about Africa. There is the African network of evangelists with Dr. Steven Matura. There is the global network of evangelists. There’s the global evangelist network and, and so many networks already existing. And we want to get all those networks together, number one. Number two, I’m on my way to ka maroon right now. And in, in three weeks, I’m down in Africa again, seven countries. We want to join the evangelists to to come together as an a network. We have 24 regions in the globe. And, and every region has about 7, 8, 10, 12 countries under them. So we want representatives from in, from each country under the leadership of the, of the regional, under the leadership of the continental representative, and the whole ge a global executive team.
Siegfried Tomazsewski (14:52):
Now, it’s not a hierarchy, it’s that everyone can connect with everyone who is specialized in some field. Now, the, the beauty of it is we will have common zoom meetings where we can share, where we can encourage, where we can learn from one another. And since we are focusing on Africa, on Asia, on Europe of Latin America, so we can have groups specialized for those areas. And when we speak about networks, I’m not only talking about the evangelists, but if we really are serious about reaching everyone by the year 2033, the evangelist is kind of the body who, who carries the gospel out. But we need the wings. So we have connected with the world’s largest intercession and prayer networks, but also church prayer networks, because they need to prepare the ground. When the evangelists come, they need to pray. Why? While the evangelists are going out, we are connecting with the apostolic ministry, with the churches.
Siegfried Tomazsewski (15:53):
Because Jesus never said go and count raised hands. He said, Make disciples. So we are very much after souls to be discipled. We work together with the church planting networks. So then when evangelists comes, there is no church. We plant churches, but not the evangelists. But together with the church planting and unreached people groups, I just was just on an email together with Wcl Associates. They are a part of it. They are doing Bible translations in areas where there is no Bible translation yet. So when the evangelist comes, we know that people are have the Bible ready for them. You see, I’m getting excited because when we are serious about reaching the globe, all the evangelists, small, big, known unknown, can come together, learn from one another, have the support of the intercessors, know the people who come to Christ will be followed up by the churches. I, I mean, it’s exciting.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (16:45):
<Laugh>. Wow. What a great blessing. All right. So if you’re listening, I want you, first of all to join the Global Evangelist Alliance. You can do www.joingea.org. Yes. Second, I want you to sign up for the Evangelism Masterclass. Yes. And you can get advanced level training in different areas of evangelism,
Siegfried Tomazsewski (17:05):
Really important.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (17:07):
Third, I want you to come to Amsterdam. 2023. Yeah. June 21st, 22nd and 23rd. Come to Amsterdam, there’s going to be thousands of evangelists and ministers that are going to come together for that. And the inspiration, the information that you get there, I think will help to launch you into the stratosphere with what God wants you to do. This really is a, a new era of evangelism. God is moving in a great way.
Siegfried Tomazsewski (17:39):
Absolutely is. And
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (17:39):
God is speaking to many different ministers and ministries around the world saying, This is the time to go after a harvest. Yes. This is the time there, There has never been an initiative before that really was able to reach every single person on Earth, Everyone. And that is the goal, everyone on earth to encounter Jesus Christ. Yeah. It almost seems impossible in human terms, but with God, all things are possible.
Siegfried Tomazsewski (18:09):
You know, somebody said to me once, If, if God tells you to do something that’s possible, you know, there is nothing needed, He doesn’t even need to tell us. But if I receive a vision from God, like this one, what Bill Wilson received, and we know it’s impossible. We know it’s from God. We know it’s from God. Because he would never tell us something that’s impossible. If we wouldn’t, He be in it and he is in
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (18:34):
It. Amen. Well, thank you for being on the Evangelism Podcast.
Siegfried Tomazsewski (18:37):
Thank you for allowing me to be here. Dr. King. I, I really love for everyone evangelist to join and to reach the globe with us. Amen. Amen.
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Shawn Brann | Ignite Europe & Flower Evangelism
Shawn Brann assisted the sports chaplain for the Dallas Cowboys and was the Dean of Students at The King’s University. But he left it all in order to become a missionary in Zürich, Switzerland. He started Ignite Europe. Today we talk about what God is doing in Europe and you will hear about an innovative evangelism method using flowers.
Learn More About Ignite Europe: https://igniteeurope.com/
Buy Shawn Brann’s book Go & Tell:
Transcript:
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:00):
Welcome to the Evangelism Podcast. I’m Daniel King. I’m excited about telling people about Jesus today. I have a very special guest, Sean Bran, and he is the author of Go And Tell. It’s a book about evangelism, and he is a missionary in Zurich, Switzerland. Thank you for being on the Evangelism Podcast,
Shawn Brann (00:20):
My honor to be here. I’m so glad to be part of this podcast.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:24):
So let’s just start out at the beginning of how you ended up in Zurich. Yes. Talk to me about how God got you There.
Shawn Brann (00:32):
Absolutely. So before I moved to Zurich six years ago, I was working at the Kings University at Gateway Church as a dean, the dean of students. And my wife kept telling me over and over that God was calling us to Europe to evangelize. And over and over I kept telling my wife, No way. I didn’t, I didn’t really fill the call to Europe. It wasn’t on my heart. It wasn’t burning on my heart to move to Europe. But over time, the Lord started making it very, very, very clear that this was what he wanted us to do. And so six years ago my wife and I took the step of faith. We gave away our cars, sold everything we own, bought one way tickets to Switzerland, and flew to Switzerland and said, Okay, let’s do this. And that’s where we’ve been for six years.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:14):
And in some ways, Europe has a very rich history of Christianity. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>, but in other ways it is really territory that is very unreached and there’s lots of challenges there. Yeah. So what are some of the greatest challenges of ministering in Europe?
Shawn Brann (01:32):
Yeah, so I can for sure speak about Switzerland, and we’ve been all over Europe as well. But what you find is people generally think that the church is something that’s archaic. It’s old, it’s, it’s, it’s not updated. It’s not relevant for today. And so when you start talking about the Bible, it’s almost like telling someone about a Shakespeare play and, and saying, Okay, turn to play number four on the seventh page. And they look at you like, What are you talking about? Like, Shakespeare is long gone and dead. And you see that oftentimes in, in Europe and especially in in Switzerland, you, when you talk about the Bible, people look at you like you’re crazy. And so they just need to know that Jesus is alive. The Bible is for today. And whenever you just share the simple message of the gospel of Jesus, lives are changed. And that’s what we do.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:25):
You told me about an innovative idea that God gave you for reaching your village and telling people about Jesus. Tell me about that.
Shawn Brann (02:33):
Yeah, so when my wife and I first moved to Switzerland, we were there for about two weeks, and I obviously was there to evangelize. And so I went to the main station and the main train station, and I started to evangelize this guy and he thought I was crazy. And he scooted over like 10 foot from me. And so I go back, obviously the conversation was over. I go back to my wife and I said, Babe, pack your bags. We’re moving back to Texas. And I just kind of licked my wounds for a couple weeks. Like, Oh, what am I doing in Switzerland? What am I doing in Europe? Well, two weeks later, I decided, I’m gonna try this again. So I go on this, on the streets, actually, I go to the train station that was selling the tickets in the ticket box area, and I start telling this person about Jesus.
Shawn Brann (03:17):
And again, it just wasn’t connecting as hard as I was trying, nothing was happening. And again, I’m driving home just feeling defeated. But having this passion to share the gospel, not only to people in Zurich, but really to my village, my little town of 600 homes. And I got home and I was just, I just was so discouraged. I said, Jesus what can I do? And in my prayer time, one of the things the Lord told me that night, he said, Sean, I want you to be a voice, not an echo. You’re copying people. And you know, when you go to like the Louv in Paris, you, you go to see them on Lisa, and it is worth $300. But when you go outside, they have all these copies of the Mona Lisa that are $1. And the Lord was just saying, You know, I I, I don’t want you to be a cheap copy.
Shawn Brann (04:05):
I want you to do what I’ve called you to do. And I said, Well, Jesus, what do you want me to do? And so the next morning I woke up and the Lord reminded me that when we first moved to Switzerland, someone gave us a bag of vegetables, and they put them on our front porch, didn’t ring the doorbell, didn’t knock, just left them there. And I asked my neighbors, Why did they do that? And my neighbor said, Well, that’s a sign of affection that, that they care for you. This is how they showed that they’re glad you’re in the neighborhood. And and then all of a sudden the Lord told me, I said, Sean, I want you to give everyone in your town a flower. I thought a flower, Are you kidding? I’m from Texas, you know, like, I, like, I’m going to Switzerland.
Shawn Brann (04:45):
I want to be bunky, you know, not, not a flower evangelist. You know, like, what is this? I’m from Texas. You wish me carry guns. No. So I said, Are you kidding me, Lord? And he said, No, this is what I want you to do. And I’ve learned that God has created us to create, we are creative to create. He’s a creative God. He gives us creative ideas to get his gospel out. And so I said, Okay, Jesus, if this is what you want. And so we bought these really nice flowers around 15 US dollars per flower, The the whole, the whole thing. And in the flower we put a card that said, just as a seed goes in the ground and dies and rose again to this beautiful flower. So Jesus came to the earth, died, went in the ground and rose again for you to have eternal life.
Shawn Brann (05:30):
And then we had a website link on the bottom that says, If you want to know more, go to this website. And we went to our village and we just sat ’em on everyone’s front porch. We had some really cool divine connections where we were able to pray for people to get healed. And that was really neat. But generally speaking, 600 of the flowers really were just sat on the people’s doorsteps right outside their front door. And what happened was amazing, within 24 hours for every 100 flowers, we put out 300 people in the village, went on the website and read the gospel message. And it was amazing. Like my heart, my desire was to share, share the message of Jesus. And it wasn’t the way I ever would’ve expected I ever would’ve done, but it’s what the Lord had us to do. And so we did that for all 600 homes, shared the gospel, Everyone got to read or hear or had a chance to hear the gospel of Jesus. And now there’s a village beside us that’s over 15,000 homes that were, we’re now doing this thing called the Seed Project to those homes.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (06:36):
And so you’ve heard of Holy Spirit power. Well, this is flower power with the Holy Spirit. Yes. And, and so people re they look at the, the website and you’re able to track that.
Shawn Brann (06:47):
Absolutely. Yeah.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (06:48):
Having a, a tremendous impact. That that’s amazing. Now, you wrote this book, it’s called Go And Tell, and it’s very innovative how you wrote it, because you, you went through the, the last 2000 years of church history and every century you pulled out a story in order to emphasize a little lesson Yes. On evangelism. Yes. Okay. So tell me some of your favorite stories,
Shawn Brann (07:16):
Facebook. Well, what started was, I was reading the, the gospels and Mark, Jesus said, Go into all the world and preach the gospel. And the Greek word for go is Pru. And Pru obviously means to go, but it, it’s also transfer. And it’s, and it’s a word that would be used whenever, like a runner’s transferring a baton, a runner’s baton to another runner. And so generally speaking, when Jesus was talking to these disciples and he looked at them and he said, Go into all the world, It wasn’t just, Hey, go, go, go. It was Jesus saying, I’m giving you a baton, like I’m now all authority and heaven and earth is being given to you. I am with you always to the end of end of the age. So God, Jesus was given us this baton to run with, and that baton has been, message has been passed down through all the centuries to where we are today.
Shawn Brann (08:07):
And so yeah. So I go through every Century 21 centuries, and I highlight a story and, and a need for evangelism, and then countering an excuse. So for example, you know, we say the Great Commission the, the early believers, they received the baton. And I talk about the Holy Spirit. It’s called the Great Commission. But if you really look at us, the Great Commission, it’s us doing ministry together with the Holy Spirit. And we can’t evangelize without the Holy Spirit working with us, doing it with us together. And so to be an effective gospel bringer, effective runner of the gospel baton, an effective deliverer, we must be men and women full of the Holy Spirit and fire. And you know, you look at the life of Peter, he, he couldn’t evangelize to, to three people around a fire when Jesus was being crucified.
Shawn Brann (09:01):
And yet, we read a few pages later, and he’s standing in front of crowds preaching the gospel. Well, what was the difference? It was the Holy Spirit living in him, equipping him, filling him, filling him up. And people say, Well, I don’t feel comfortable sharing the gospel. And as you and I both know, you know the Holy Spirit is a comforter. And so the, the second chapter here in the, in the first century, I believers, the very first thing they did was they were filled with the Holy Spirit and he comforts you and he goes with you. And so I go through all these different stories. Creativity is one. When the first bubonic plague hit the world the in, in, I think it was five, the five hundreds, the, generally speaking, the pastors and the leaders, they, they were afraid and closed the church doors.
Shawn Brann (09:48):
But it was the ordinary men and women who took the gospel out in, into the, the into Europe with creative ideas. And so God will give us creative ideas to share the gospel. And we all have giftings and talents that are needed and, and, and creativity that is needed. And, and God has given you these abilities to share the gospel that could be writing a poem and you put it on social media, you know, that that’s maybe the way God wants you to share the gospel. And so yeah. So we just go through, Yeah. 21 Centuries of Church History. It’s a, it’s a fun read. I think you’ll like it.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (10:25):
So the book is Go and Tell by Sean Bran. And I really like your metaphor of passing the baton down. Yeah. My pastor Billy Joe Doherty, he once had a vision where he saw that a race track, he saw that we were in a race and Jesus took the baton, passed it to the first generation of disciples. Wow. Peter, James, and John. And then they passed it on to the next generation, you know, Irans and Telian, and yes, those great men have gotten in. So from century to century it’s been passed down to, to Martin Luther and now coming down to us and the, the baton has been passed to us. Yes. And we’re running. And then he saw in his vision that we are close to the finish line, and that we’re actually in the last lap of this marathon that the church has been running for Yes.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (11:19):
For 2000 years now. And he saw that Jesus is coming soon and we need to make every single second count for God. And, and then the vision zoomed out. And he saw that surrounding the racetrack is a stadium. Yes. With all the saints who have died in gone to heaven. And he said that all of these saints, all these great men and women of God know Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and Peter, James and John, and all these great heroes of the faith like you write in your book about Saint Patrick, and you know, these great evangelists that have gone out into the world. And he said they, they weren’t sitting in their seats. They were standing up on their feet and they were clapping and applauding and say, Go run faster. Jesus is coming soon. This is the greatest hour of evangelists. And and if you think about it, we have so many opportunities here today to evangelize that people in centuries past never had there’s actually more people alive today than have ever been alive all throughout history.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (12:25):
And there’s actually more Christians in the church alive today Wow. Than if you add up over the last 2000 years. And so, so the, the church triumphant is actually smaller than the church militant here on Earth. Wow. And so that means that the greatest harvest of souls in history will happen in just the next few years. And we have the privilege of of being a part of that. And heaven is on its feet. Heaven is cheering for us and watching and saying, You’re, you’re, this is the greatest Come on of church history. Come on. You’re gonna see thousands and millions of people come into the kingdom of God. And I, and I think that’s true.
Shawn Brann (13:06):
So good. I I’m like on fire right now because Absolutely. Yes. if you could grab the, the curtains of eternity and just pull it back as, as the writer of Hebrew says, We are surrounded by this great cloud of witnesses and, and the, the Greek word cloud as the word that was used for like the nose bleed, bleacher seats of the, of the stadiums. And they’re standing there going run, run, run. And many of these people you’ll read about in this book, but many of these people, they died as a martyr. They gave their lives, they laid their life down for Jesus like they were killed because they told their neighbor or their friend about Jesus, and they’re in heaven. And they’re saying, Run, run, run. And the baton is now in our hands, the, the, the subtitles, This is your moment to run because this is your moment in history.
Shawn Brann (13:55):
This is it. And all of heaven is saying, Run, run, run, run, run. I went to a professional baseball game and it was the New York Yankees were playing the Texas Rangers. It was the first time the Rangers went to the, the World Series and it was the final game before the World Series. And the, the Rangers had played this great game all the way up to the ninth inning, and they bring in their, their closing pitcher. And I remember we all got on our feet and we were cheering cuz I was a Ranger fan and we was in Texas. I was cheering go Rangers. And this closer, he wound up through it, struck out Alex Rodriguez, the baseball player for the Yankees. And the stadium went crazy. And I was reminded about where we are in the timeline of world history, that we are closers, that we are on the final stretch.
Shawn Brann (14:42):
And they’re all saying, what? And it’s not about, it’s not about us. It it’s not like our generation is greater than any other generation. We just happen to have the privilege to have the baton in our hand, the ball in our hand when the game is coming to an end, the standing ovation. And one day we’re gonna stand before Jesus. And, and with all of our brothers and sisters who went on before us and let it be set of us that we ran, that we grabbed that gospel baton and that we, man, we gave, we gave it our very, very best because these men and women were not martyred for us to just have big churches and big social media channels. They were martyred. They lived their lives for the gospel so that we would push it through the, the finish line with the, with the good news of Jesus. And what an incredible time in world history to be alive. Amen. We, we are, we are, we are blessed. We are a generation. David Livingston installed in the future, this blessed generation who’s gonna reap this in time harvesting, I believe we’re that. I believe we’re that, that that generation. And man, what an honor, and I would just say run. And you’re running so hard, Daniel, we respect you and honor you for what you’re doing.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:59):
Well, if someone wants to know more about your ministry or to, to find the book, what is your website? What’s a good way for
Shawn Brann (16:07):
Someone to Yeah. The website is called igniteeurope.com. Or for the book, go and tell Go and tell.online. And you can buy it if you’re in the US at Walmart, Target Amazon, Barnes and Noble. If you’re in other places, maybe in Europe, you can go to Book Depository, You can go to any bookstore and and buy it. It’s in, in pretty much most bookstores around the world. So. Awesome.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (16:32):
Yeah. Well thank you so much for being on the Evangelism podcast. I appreciate it.
Shawn Brann (16:36):
My honor. Thank you, Daniel. God bless you all.
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Free Prayer Booth at the Tulsa State Fair
Revival in America?
We have seen God save thousands of people in over seventy nations around the world. But often when I visit churches here in North America, people ask me, “Do you think God could do something like that here at home?”
In Acts 1:8 Jesus told the disciples, “You shall receive power after the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem [the disciple’s own city], in all Judah [the region the disciples lived in], in Samaria [the country next door], and to the uttermost ends of the earth [everywhere else]. Jesus wants us to be a witness in our own cities, in our own regions and countries, in nearby nations, and ultimately, we are called to take the Gospel around the world.
That’s why I have been praying and asking God for opportunities to reach people for Jesus right in our own backyard. God wants to move overseas, but He also wants to move in North America. Even when traveling far and wide, we must not neglect our neighbors who need Jesus.
Free Prayer Booth at the Tulsa State Fair
We just finished hosting a Free Prayer booth at the Tulsa State Fair. The results were amazing! Here are some of the numbers that tell the story:
- 11 Days of Outreach
- 132 Hours of Ministry
- We engaged in a total of 1,001 conversations about God.
- Our team prayed with 1,844 people.
- We led 479 people in a prayer of salvation.
- 60 people testified they received a physical healing.
- A total of 318 volunteers came to help us pray.
- 2 Sunday morning church services for Carnival workers.
International volunteers at this outreach came from Peru, Russia, Myanmar, Nigeria, Uganda, Eretria, Canada, England, Germany, Puerto Rico, and Brazil. We also had people who came to volunteer from Colorado, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Kansas, Texas, New York, Florida, and of course, Oklahoma.
The Continuing Impact of the Free Prayer Booth
Many of our volunteers at the Free Prayer booth were teenagers or college students who had never had the opportunity to lead a person to Christ before. We used the Free Prayer booth as a way to train these young people how to share their faith. Now that they have seen God move through them, they will continue to be bold in telling people about Jesus.
Now that the Tulsa State Fair is over, I have a vision for this type of outreach to occur at State Fairs across America. We have proved this model of ministry works. We are in the process of writing a manual that we can use to inspire and train churches and ministries across America to do this same type of outreach.
Testimonies from the Tulsa State Fair
The first day Kevin Wagner saw Michael smoking drugs near the tent behind us. Two days later, he approached our booth with tears in his eyes. He started weeping and said, “My mother just died yesterday.” It turns out that he had been trying to mask his heartbreak by the use of drugs the day before she died. The team at our booth consoled Michael and shared the Gospel with him. We told him, “Jesus gives us hope in the midst of heartbreak.” We asked him
to give his life to Christ and he was eager to do so. We spent time ministering to him and he left with the hope of heaven in his heart and comfort from his mother’s death. By being out here, we were there when he faced a big need.
Across the street from our prayer booth was a bathroom. Robert, the bathroom attendant, heard our messages for eleven days. Several people from our team prayed with him. He asked us to pray for his wife who suffers from a stomach problem. That night he went home and laid hands on her stomach, and his wife was healed.
Jonathan Cowerd asked a man if he needed prayer. The man yelled, “No, I need to go to the bathroom” as he rushed towards the restrooms. Five minutes later the man came back and said, “Actually, I do need prayer, there is a lot of bad stuff going on in my life.” Jonathan prayed with him and he accepted Christ as his Savior.
Joshua Wagner shares, “Nate was the last person I prayed with on Friday night. Nate accepted Jesus as His Lord and Savior for the first time! Not only that, but he also got delivered from alcoholism. He had just bought a huge, overpriced beer that was completely full. After he got saved and delivered, I told him he didn’t need that beer any longer, and he happily agreed, and together we threw the full beer in the trash!”
Thank You!
It is because of your generosity we are able to do outreaches like the Free Prayer booth. Your gift this month will help us write a manual so we can empower other churches and ministries to do their own State Fair outreaches. Click here to give a financial gift today.
If you want to host your own Free Prayer booth, our team has written a manual to help you figure out all the details:
Download the Free Prayer Manual
Download the Free Prayer Follow Up Book
Download the Free Prayer Flyer
Download the Three Circles Witnessing Sticker
Download the Free Prayer Results Sheet
Download the Free Prayer Decision Card
Free Prayer Booth at the Tulsa State Fair | Daniel King & Joshua Wagner
Our ministry hosted a Free Prayer booth at the Tulsa State Fair. The results were amazing! In eleven days, we had 1,001 conversations about God. We prayed with a total of 1,844 people. We led 479 individuals in a prayer of salvation. 60 people testified they were healed by God of a pain or sickness. We had a total of 318 volunteers show up to help us pray with people. Many of these volunteers were teenagers or college students who had never had the opportunity to lead a person to Christ before.
Transcript:
Evangelist Daniel King (00:00):
Welcome to the Evangelism Podcast. I’m Daniel King, and I’m excited about telling people about Jesus. Today I am on location at the Tulsa State Fair at our free prayer booth, and my guest right now is Joshua Wagner. Thank you for being with me.
Josh Wagner (00:17):
Thank You, Daniel.
Evangelist Daniel King (00:18):
And so we have been out here praying with people. It is about the eighth or ninth day nine of the festival of the, the Tulsa State Fair. And we’ve been out here every single day praying with people talking to them about God leading them to Jesus. And we’ve already seen just tremendous fruit. Josh, what are some of the testimonies that stand out to you of what God’s done while we’ve been here?
Josh Wagner (00:49):
Well, thank you, Daniel. It’s been an amazing time of fruitful ministry. Each day, God has used us to pray with so many people. We’ve seen many people saved. I think about one young man yesterday, his name is Zian. He came and when he came up, at first he was so sad and he just had a forlorn look on his face. He’d not accepted Jesus. I got to tell him about the story of the gospel. He wanted to accept Jesus, his Lord. And if you could have seen the before and after picture between his demeanor when he first came up, and afterwards the smile he had on his face, you could noticeably see the difference in what Jesus had done in his life. He was so excited. He got his own Bible. He asked me, I took a picture with him. He says, Well, you send me the, that picture cuz I wanna show people about how I prayed to accept Jesus.
Josh Wagner (01:45):
And so he gave me his number. I sent him the picture, and he said, I’m gonna come by again later on and, and talk to you again. He was just so thrilled about the, the experience that he had had. We’ve had so many conversations like that. I also, we’ve seen not only people get saved, we’ve seen people get healed. One woman came to the fair, she complained about having pain in both her right leg and right foot. I prayed with her believing that Jesus would heal her. As of course we see him do in the scriptures and as he does at our crusades all over the world. And right there on the spot, she says, You know what? My leg pain at foot pain is gone. Jesus has healed her. One more testimony I’ll give you is this one young man came up to me last night.
Josh Wagner (02:28):
His name is Brian. Brian was already a Christian. But as I’m talking to Brian, I, I really felt the Lord was giving me a word of knowledge for Brian. That God had wanted to he wants to use him, that he has a call of God in his life, in ministry, specifically in evangelistic ministry. And so I shared with him, I said, Brian, I feel like God’s telling me that he wants to use you in full-time ministry and to be an evangelist. I love. And as I shared that with him, he said, I, that totally makes sense to me and I believe that and I want that. And so I was able to pray over the call of God in his life and he received this amazing word of knowledge. And it was just amazing to see God impacts so many different people impacting unbelievers, getting them saved, impacting the sick, getting them healed, impacting believers, speaking to the call of God in their lives and, and so many more interactions as well. So it’s just been an amazing time here at the Fair, Daniel.
Evangelist Daniel King (03:23):
Amen. This has been such a tremendous time. And going back to really the beginning of the story of what God did here. Yeah. My friend Evan Herman came out and had a prayer booth last year at the Tulsa State Fair. And over the course of a week, he prayed with about 700 people. And he was telling me about the fruit that he saw from this. And I really saw an opportunity because I’ve been praying about ways to reach people here in America. Yes. You know, people always ask me when I tell them about all the big miracles that God is doing overseas and, and we see thousands of people getting saved. They say like,
Josh Wagner (04:06):
Why
Evangelist Daniel King (04:06):
Don’t we see stuff like that happening here in the United States? Right. And, and they actually like, Why don’t you do big crusades here? Yeah. And, you know, I think that would be an an awesome idea. One of the challenges about doing things here in the United States is that things are a little bit more expensive here. Like we can go to the nation of Haiti. Yeah. And it, we can reach people at a very low cost comparatively, per person. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative> here in the United States, when you start talking about renting a venue, paying for sound system, professional gear and everything, it can very quickly add up to thousands of dollars in a very high cost per person. Plus the marketing side of it trying to, to get people to attend. And so I’ve, I’ve been praying like, God, how can we reach people here in America? And really doing a, a booth here at the Tulsa State Fair really isn’t that expensive. Right. We have three different ministries that are involved in it. My ministry, King Ministries International, you have Wagner Ministries. And then Evan Herman, his ministry is called Evangelism Now. And the three of us kind of partner together, and each of us put in a third of the cost towards renting the booth. Yep. And it really is not that expensive, but we are seeing
Evangelist Daniel King (05:26):
So many people who are so open That’s right. To God. That’s right. And we’ve just seen tremendous things that, and it actually took a little bit of a process to, to get here because we started asking them if we could do a booth and then have a little platform with the sound system. Back in November, last November started sending an email and, and asking the state fair if we could come and have permission to do this. And it took all away from November until February to get a meeting with them. And so finally in February we went, we sat down with them and, and presented the, the concept of, of what we could do. And then I didn’t hear back from them. We, we kept texting them and asking them, and we didn’t hear back from them until June. And, and so that all those months from February to June, I was thinking, well, they don’t really want people out there preaching to all the fair goers.
Evangelist Daniel King (06:23):
Right. And there really isn’t a a, a place that they would want for us to do that. But in June, when they called us back, we had just absolutely tremendous favor place God, because not only did they say, Yes, we want you to come, we want you to do a booth. We want you to have a, a platform to be able to have music groups and, and youth groups come and do dramas and stuff. But we also have a Sunday morning service for all the fair workers. Would you be willing to come and preach at the Sunday morning service on both Sundays while we’re here? And so, not only did they allow us to have the booth, but they also opened the door for us to have this Sunday morning service to minister to all these fair workers and, and, and carnival people and also vendors that are here. And so, you know, Josh, I I think it’s so important for the church to go out where people are, sometimes churches get so focused on getting people to come into the church and the people who aren’t saved, they really don’t have any reason to come to church. They don’t want to come to church. Yeah. And, and so I think that if the church, if the, if the world is not coming to the church, the church needs to go to the world.
Josh Wagner (07:45):
Well it’s, it’s totally a great point. And, you know, think about the first word of the great commission that Jesus gave us is go because he knows that it is not normal for an believer to approach you with asking how to be saved. That’s why we have to go out and find them. And so I’ll tell you here at the Tulsa State Fair are many lost people. And we have come to them. We are going into this part of the world, sharing the gospel with them. And God is rewarding our obedience because we have seen so many people impacted by the gospel. So we do praise God so much for what he has done through this ministry here. And Dana, one of the things that’s also amazing about this week is not only the many people we’ve been able to interact with here at the fair, but literally the now we’re approaching hundreds of volunteers that have come and helped us at the fair. People who are already Christians, believers, many of which have never maybe shared the gospel evangelistically before, many of which who have never led someone to Jesus. And we’re able to train them and help them to do this work. And now people who started out shy and timid are becoming emboldened to preach the gospel that they’re leading people to Jesus praying with complete strangers. And it’s been an amazing opportunity as well for the church to be trained and and grow in their evangelistic calling.
Evangelist Daniel King (09:15):
Yeah. So let’s celebrate some of the numbers here. For every person that we talk to, we, we keep a record of actually talking to them. Yep. And so here we are, ninth day in. Yes. And so far we’ve had 587 conversations about God. And so these are interactions with people who are interested, have some question about God or will stop for a moment to talk to us. And then for prayer, we’ve actually prayed with 1060 people so far who wanted to take that moment to have a connection with God. And then now here’s the exciting number. We have 288 people that we’ve prayed with for salvation, and today we will go over that 300 marks. So super excited about that. And then we’ve had 36 reports of people that were healed, that we’re touched by God and feel better amazing physically than when they arrived.
Evangelist Daniel King (10:17):
And then you’re right about the volunteers. We’ve had 201 volunteers. There you go. Who have been out here helping us pray with people. That’s fantastic. And this is such a, an important part of this outreach because many of these volunteers, they’ve been students from Victory College where you’re one of the teachers there. Yep. They’ve been students from, or Roberts University. Yep. We’ve had some from Rayma, we’ve had just some older people. We’ve had younger people. We had a homeschooling group that came out Yes. The other day. Yes. tomorrow all of Victory reach from Victory Church is gonna be out here. Youth groups. Youth groups. Yeah. And music groups. Music groups. We even had people come in for a long strength teams. Yeah. We had the, the team Extreme from Kansas City came down and did feats of Strength. And so all these different people have been here, and many of them have never had the opportunity to lead someone to the Lord before. And this fair outreach has given them the opportunity to lead someone to the Lord. That’s right. And I think they’re gonna take that with them going into the future where they will be bold with sharing their faith with others.
Josh Wagner (11:26):
And that’s, and that’s the, the one of the benefits of this event is not just the people that we are impacting who are coming to the fair, but those who are part of this opportunity that are being trained in evangelism. And so we praise God. And even the numbers you shared, which are already fantastic, we’ve still got two and a half days left, and those numbers will only increase over the course of this weekend. And so, and there’s no telling how many people that we impact, of course, will go home. Like the Samaritan woman who goes home to her family and her community and tells them all about what Jesus has done for her. Many we believe are, are going to do the same for you.
Evangelist Daniel King (12:07):
Yeah. And let’s talk a little bit about how we are following up on with people, because that’s one of the very important things about ministering to people. So, you know, follow up is always difficult in a situation like this for, for some people we’re able to get their phone numbers and Right. And be able to interact with them. But I made up a, a flyer here Yes. That says free prayer, do you know God? And then it has the four spiritual laws. Yeah. Usually when I talk to people, I talk these four spiritual truths that God wants you to know. Because law sounds a little tough. Yeah. But truth sounds good. So number one, God loves you. Sin separates us from God. Jesus died for our sins, and you can be safe. Amen. And then there’s a little salvation prayer here. Yep. Some people call it the Sinner’s Prayer, but I like to call it the Salvation Prayer because it’s a little positive. Yeah. but then we have a place where they can download their free ebook. So if they just point their cell phone camera at the QR code, they can download the book. This is
Josh Wagner (13:09):
That ebook in physical form.
Evangelist Daniel King (13:11):
Yeah. And so some people, they, they want the physical book. So we have the physical book ready to give to them. We also have bibles that we’ve been giving out to everyone. So we’ve got these, these cute little New Testaments Yep. That are just really beautiful. And I noticed that kids really like these are teenagers. Then we’ve got some complete Bibles that were donated to us. Yep. And we’ve got some Spanish Bibles. And That’s right. So I think over the course of this whole time, we’ll end up giving away over 160 Bibles, probably 250 books that will give away. And many, many flyers Yes. That point people to Jesus. Then for kids, we also have stickers for them. So this is the, the three circles illustration, which it’s a, a, a, a nice little way to show kids visually how they can get to God.
Evangelist Daniel King (14:03):
And, and it’s amazing we just, a few minutes ago, a couple of kids walked by. Yeah. And I, I first of all offer them a Tootsie role, which of course every kid wants candy. And so they, they get their Tootsie role, but then I say, Would, would you like a sticker and give him the sticker? And then start with the first circle, which has a heart on it, and say, This heart means that God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. And then there’s a picture of a man running away and I ask, What, what do you think this guy’s doing? And they say, Oh, he is running away. He’s like, That’s right. He’s running away from God. Is that good to run away from God? And the kids say, No. And, but then there’s another picture of a man praying. And so, so the kids quickly see that if you pray to Jesus that you can be restored in your fellowship with God. That’s right. And so those two kids gave their life to Jesus. Hallelujah. And, and praise God, they had an encounter with God today. They did.
Josh Wagner (14:54):
They
Evangelist Daniel King (14:54):
Did. And we’ve also just had such a tremendous time just praying for people. One of the testimon that really stands out to me last night Robbie Leaf or two nights ago. Yeah. My friend Robbie Leaf was out here preaching, and he was preaching for about 25 minutes. Yeah. Just sharing his testimony. He says, I used to be called Mad Dog because I was mad at everybody and I was crazy. And, but Jesus set me free. And so his testimony is really wonderful. And so he’s just sharing in a loving way, his testimony, Well, after about 25 minutes, this one man just comes walking over and kneels down right on the pavement in, in front here. He says, I need Jesus. I need God’s help. Yes. And so Robbie prayed with him then I, I spent some time talking to him. Good. And he, he was crying. He, he was having some issues and his marriage and he, he, he was a little bit drunk and but he was just so moved by God Yes. And saying, I need prayer. Could you please pray for me? I need God’s help. And, and right there on the pavement Yeah. Kneeling down, he had an encounter with God.
Josh Wagner (16:06):
And those sorts of things we believe are moments that they’ll take with them for the rest of their life. You know, one other thing I wanted to mention Daniel about follow up is on that flyer that we have there, you can scan the QR code and you can of course download the book, but you also get their name and their information and Yeah.
Evangelist Daniel King (16:26):
We’ll get their email address. And so then we’re going to be able to send them some follow up material, some videos and, and some ideas that will help them.
Josh Wagner (16:37):
And because we’re here in Tulsa, you know, we are familiar with many of the churches in Tulsa. We’ve been able to direct many people to attend good Bible teaching churches in this community. One other aspect of this too, that we’ve been able to minister in, in a way that we’ve been able to minister, is we are surrounded by different vendors, other people working at the fair. And we have been able to pray with so many of the people here at the fair who are working the fair. And they, they I believe have been very encouraged, many of them by our presence here, hearing us preach the gospel, seeing us pray with people. You know, even people that are working at the fair far distances from where we are when we walk around with our shirts and they’ll say, Oh, we’ve heard about your booth, You know, very positively. And so word is getting out, People are hearing the gospel, people are being saved, healed, and delivered and encouraged. And we just praise God for it.
Evangelist Daniel King (17:36):
Amen. And so I think this is an idea that churches across America should pick up and start doing. You know, there are fairs that go on all over the place. In fact, right in Broken Arrow they have a, a fair, they’re called Rooster Days. It’s been going since like 1918. Sure. And so we set up the same little tent out there for three days. Yeah. And in those three days we prayed with over 300 people. We had 56 people give their lives to Jesus. God. And so people are just walking by and, and out there we were giving away free water and stuff cuz it was really hot. Yeah. And it just had such a tremendous impact. But why shouldn’t Jesus be lifted up in these public venues? That’s right. They have every other type of thing that is being sold. I mean, you could buy a pickup here at the fair.
Evangelist Daniel King (18:26):
Right. You could buy an ice cream cone. Yes. You could buy a hot dog. Yeah. You can buy a, a running machine. You can buy yogurt. I mean, they’ve got all kind, You could buy a tornado shelter. Sure. I mean, they’ve got all kinds of booth here. Sure. But why shouldn’t Jesus be lifted up? Absolutely. And so I think that across America, if churches would look for outreach opportunities like this and say, you know, we’re gonna do a prayer booth. And this is a really easy way for people in the church to get involved in the outreach. Anybody can come out and pray and, and, and it’s it’s nonthreatening. Yep. We’re just offering to say, Hey, is there anything you need prayer for? That’s right. That’s right. It’s, you don’t have to be a theologian. That’s right. In order to do this, just a normal, everyday Christian can go out and pray. And then with a little bit of training and some simple tools, anybody can be equipped to go ahead and lead someone to the Lord.
Josh Wagner (19:19):
That’s right. A hundred percent. Not only is it something every church can do from the standpoint of logistics, but it’s also a very inexpensive thing comparatively to the work that we’re doing. Like you mentioned for us to do, crusades overseas is much less expensive than it is to do them here. But even this is less expensive than most of the crusades we do overseas. And so we just I I would echo what you’re saying. I encourage all churches to work evangelistically in your communities. This is a very simple way that you could create a schedule and have a rotation of your people coming and helping to man the booth, giving them opportunities to share the gospel. And it’s great practical way for people who are in the church to be able to exercise their their love for the Lord evangelistically.
Evangelist Daniel King (20:12):
Amen. And so if you’re listening, I want to encourage you to find a fair that’s going on near you. Yes. And think about doing a prayer booth at the fair and using this tool in order to lead people to Jesus. I think that if churches across America would do this, we would see revival. Yes. If the world is not coming to the church, the church must go to the world in what better place than to go to a fair where people are walking around Right. With a Turkey leg in one hand and a Coca-Cola on the other hand and they’re just looking for entertainment. Yeah. Something to do. Why shouldn’t they have an encounter with Jesus? That’s right at
Josh Wagner (20:52):
The fair. Amen. Amen. A hundred percent. And you know, not only is the fair bringing all sorts of centers from different backgrounds, even the nations of the world at the fair, there’s so many people wherever you live, you’ve got many immigrants from many nations to, to obey the commands of Jesus, to go into all the nations of the world and preach the gospel in many ways, you attend your local fair, you will get many nations of the world coming here. People of all different ethnicities and languages, all of ’em need Jesus. So go and do it. Yeah.
Evangelist Daniel King (21:26):
We we had a Hispanic concert here at the fair the other night. Yes. So there was lots of people that spoke Spanish here. And so we actually did one of our presentations in Spanish and prayed with many Spanish people, Spanish speaking people to receive Jesus. Yeah. And we’ve had some Burmese people out here praying with us. And, and it’s just been amazing to see what God has done.
Josh Wagner (21:49):
Amen. Well, we praise God for what he has done, what He’s yet to do, and what we believe God is going to inspire many of you to do as well in your given communities.
Evangelist Daniel King (21:59):
God bless you and thanks for listening to the Evangelism podcast.
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Jeri Hill | Together in the Harvest
Did you ever hear of the Brownsville Revival? It was one of the greatest revivals in the world in the past fifty years. Jeri Hill is the wife of the late Evangelist Steve Hill who was used by God in a powerful way at the Brownsville Revival. On today’s podcast she tells the story of the Brownsville Revival. You will learn how to activate a passion for souls in your heart and some secrets of revival.
Learn about Together in the Harvest: https://www.togetherintheharvest.com/
Enroll in the Steve Hill School of Evangelism: https://www.togetherintheharvest.com/soe
Support Ryan’s Hope: https://www.ryanshope.net/
Transcript:
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:00):
Welcome to the Evangelism Podcast. I’m Daniel King, and I’m excited about telling people about Jesus Today. I have a very special guest with me, Jeri Hill. Thank you for joining me today.
Jeri Hill (00:10):
Well, thank you for having me, and I’m excited about telling people about Jesus too. <Laugh>. That’s
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:16):
Awesome. Now you are leading together in the harvest. Yeah. A ministry that you started with your husband, Steve Hill. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. And you and your husband are well known because of the Brownsville revival. God moved in such a tremendous way. Can you kind of tell me a little bit about how the Brownsville revival got started and then what God did during that time?
Jeri Hill (00:45):
Well, it was pretty exciting for a whole year. Well, it, it’s hard to explain all of this. You know, how your hunger for God grows and how you keep going after God and how you want more of God and how you want him to have his way. And so you’re going along, you’re just trucking along, doing whatever you wanted, you wanna do for God, and you’re talking to people about Jesus. You’re going to services and, you know, and then all of a sudden here I am pregnant, I just gave birth to our, our last child. And I was two and a half. She was two and a half weeks old. And that Friday, it was not on the schedule for Steve to be at Brownsville, but he and John had just been talking and Steve’s schedule was totally booked up. He was gonna be in the Czech Republic in a couple of weeks after Father’s Day.
Jeri Hill (01:50):
He was gonna be in other parts of the country. He had been going to different places in the country, in the world. And he talked to John and he said, John, the only day I have open his father’s day. And he goes, I know you don’t want to have me come in to do a missions meeting and raise funds for the mission field on Father’s Day, so I know that’s off. And he goes, No, wait a minute, Steve. Wait, wait, It’s okay. He goes, Let’s do that Father’s Day. And so they put it on the calendar, and Steve’s plan was that we were gonna go on vacation the following week. So he was gonna go in for that one service. Kelsey was two and a half weeks old that Friday. I told Steve, I said, I believe the pastor’s gonna ask you to stay.
Jeri Hill (02:44):
And he said, Nope, I’m coming home. We’re gonna go on vacation. I’m going for one service and I’m coming home, and we will celebrate before I go to the Czech Republic vacation. I need a vacation. You need a vacation. I hadn’t been allowed to travel for the whole nine months of the pregnancy. And so he, I said, Well, I’m just telling you that the pastor’s gonna ask you to stay. And so he goes, That Saturday meets with John and Brenda, and they have supper that night, he didn’t even have Steve sit on the platform that Sunday morning Father’s Day. He didn’t want the people to be going, Oh, wait a minute. Somebody’s on the platform who, you know, this is different. What’s going on? So he had Steve set on the front pew, not even on the platform with him, and he invited Steve to come up to preach.
Jeri Hill (03:41):
He had just lost his mother. John Kirkpatrick had just lost his mother five weeks prior. So he wasn’t really feeling up to preaching or whatever. And he was excited to have Steve come in and Steve preached this message about the wonders of the Lord and all Heaven came down. And I didn’t hear from Steve till four o’clock in the afternoon. And he said, Honey, all heaven came down. And I said, I knew it would. God had been moving for a long time, been really pouring out his spirit. And when that call came at four o’clock, he said, John, kill Patrick would like for you to fly in tomorrow with a seven year old, a three year old, or four year old, and a three week old. And we’ll vacation here this week and I’ll preach in the evenings. And so it sounded like it was gonna be a one week service time. And I said, Well, that sounds like a fun vacation, <laugh>. That’s, that’s.
Jeri Hill
I said, Well, that sounds like a fun vacation, <laugh>. That’s, that’s the perfect vacation. Right. And so I flew in the next day, and five years later we never left. But the, not the first year, we did move nine times because we didn’t know how long we would be there.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:21):
And the revival was happening every night of the week? Yes. It broke out. People started coming from all over the world, all over the United States. They lined up for hours in order to get into the revival. Yeah. And people were repenting. Yes. Every single night. Every single night. And, and so what was that like for you as the wife of the evangelist and suddenly he is studying all day, preparing for his sermons, ministering every night. Yeah. People are getting saved. It must have been a glorious time, but what was that like for you as, as the evangelist wife?
Jeri Hill (01:03):
Well, because when I first got saved and I found out that my life was not my own, I wanted to do and be a part of whatever God wanted to do it, this revival was not manmade. It was not man planned. God showed up. God started touching people, and I was on board with whatever God wanted to do. From the time I got saved, that did not change whatever God wanted to do, that’s what I wanted to see done. And so, you know, staying in a hotel that first week, then the resident’s in for two months, a woman’s house. We rented for two months, another house we rented for two months, We go home for Christmas, Steve comes back saying, you know, going back for that Friday night to see if people were gonna show up. And he said, they’re showing up. It’s just as if we had never taken a Christmas break and they’re showing up.
Jeri Hill (02:08):
So there were certain times we did take breaks, and sure enough, we go back and we stayed there for a couple more months in somebody else’s house. Somebody else’s house for a couple months, because this, this was along the coast. So they had vacation homes that you could rent for a few, few months. We did that and moved nine times the first year. And then we decided to sell our house in Texas. And we felt like we were supposed to stay. And it felt like you were in the river and you were being floating in this river of God, and his presence was enveloped around you. These messages, I think it was because for six, we had been married 16 years. So I think for 16 years of staying in the word of God, staying in the presence of God, and wanting him that we wanted it then too.
Jeri Hill (03:15):
It didn’t change only it was like the desire of our heart to see God’s power, to see his presence, to sense his presence, to walk in his presence the whole time. And it, you know, I sat on the edge of my seat for me, watching Steve preach like that, I was like, I was blown away by the messages he preached. I was like, Go, baby, Go. Yeah. Come on. Come on, baby, Come on. You know, I would, That’s how I felt sitting there on the pew. But also I was praying for everybody who was listening to these messages that the message and the word would fall on the soil of the heart that was ready. God prepare their heart to receive, prepare their heart to want more of God, prepare them for. And so that’s how, even though I didn’t get a chance to speak, but I felt like I was there for Steve, there, for the kids, and there for the people, you know, that they would get right with God. Yeah. It was exciting. Five years. It was very, very exciting.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:33):
Right now, you are working on writing a book, telling the story behind the story. And I think your book is gonna be absolutely phenomenal once it is released. But let’s kind of go through the story of how you got to Brownsville and then what happened in your life after Brownsville. So the beginning is before Christ. B.C. Tell me a little bit about that and what that was like.
Jeri Hill (05:07):
Well, I was not raised in church, so I have no foundation like that. My mom was raped and I was born out of that rape. And, but my mom, she made me feel, she told me this as I was older. She goes, I was a good thing that happened in a, from a bad situation, but I still felt like I was not created by God, that I was created of the lust of man. And so, because of that being my foundation, I had a lot of issues to deal with. My mom married, had two sons in that marriage, divorced on welfare, social services, and food stamps, everything very poor. She was raising three kids all by herself. She was not a victorious woman. She, we went to church periodically, Generally. It was Eastern Christmas, so I knew about the birth of Christ and the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, but I didn’t know how that applied to me, had never had that come alive to me.
Jeri Hill (06:20):
So by the time I’m 10, she remarries 12. I’m smoking and drinking 15. I’m smoking pot 16, I’m doing and selling drugs. And at that same time, we moved from North Dakota to Michigan. And in Michigan as soon as we get there, this pastor comes and knocks on the door and invites us to his church. Well, I’m not interested. Okay, thank you. Goodbye. Shut the door. And then he came back the next Saturday. And to shorten the whole story, I was full of hate and bitterness towards men, ma hatred towards God. I thought if God was really real, then all these bad things wouldn’t have been happening. And there was a lot of hatred in the home, a lot of fighting, a lot of beatings and, you know, cursing and everything. It was just a horrific life. And this pastor’s showing up and saying, Jerry, Jesus loves you and has a plan for your life.
Jeri Hill (07:21):
Yeah, right. You know, I’d roll my eyes. He came for two years telling me that Jesus loved me and had a plan for my life. Kept coming back, leaving teen challenge tracks writing a note on the, on a piece of paper if I wasn’t there to let me know that he had come by. And I, I thought, This man is a pest. He just will not relent. He keeps coming back over and over and over. And I ended up in jail for selling drugs. And that started God showing him, showing up and making himself real during that time. And he spoke to me in jail and he said, Jarris, don’t you understand. Don’t you really understand? But it was my mom’s voice 25 miles away. And I hear it in jail, but I know that that was God, that would, God would be the only one who could do that.
Jeri Hill (08:26):
And I get outta jail and I ask my mom about it, and she said she’d been fasting for me because she had gotten saved in there. There was a change happening in my mom. And I think that that pastor was inan answer to her prayers. She knew I needed help. And so she kept praying for me, and she was very encouraged to hear that. I’d heard her voice in jail. But immediately I leave somebody shows up and I go off to Flint, Michigan. Well, there’s a billboard in Flint, Michigan that has John three 16 in it, on it. And I hear God, speak to me for I loved you. I was like, You might as well leave me alone. This is not, I, I’m not worth it. Give up everything. And I hear it for a whole week. Every time I pass that billboard for I to loved you, for I to loved you.
Jeri Hill (09:21):
I was like, God, leave me alone. I can’t change and I’m not worth it. So just give up. And then I go from there, and I’m staying in a farm, a farmhouse up in the attic, laying, sleeping on a mattress up in the attic. I’m a hippie back in the seventies, and I have a dream. And Jesus is standing at the foot of the bed and his hands out stretched blood dripping from his hands. And he said, For you, I died. And I sat up in the bed expecting to see Jesus there at the foot of the bed. And he wasn’t there. I started weeping. I grabbed my knees and I’m weeping. I’m saying, God, I cannot change. Give up on me. And then I go to a bar and end up with friends going to their house. And I’m there for 10 days and nothing’s going on.
Jeri Hill (10:14):
But for five weeks, every single day I’m hearing something from God. And then I’m in this mobile home and a knock comes at the door. And there was that pastor, I’m out in the country in Michigan, outside the city. He was doing his normal visitation rounds. He went to every house in every city that he ever pastored and knocked on every door, and only stopped knocking on that door if they were already involved in a church. He he was about to faint when he saw me. He said, Just this morning, I said, God, I’m not giving up on this girl. Where is she? And he goes out for his normal door knocking, and there I am.
Jeri Hill (11:03):
And he came in and talked to me. He was by himself. And he said, All I know is that Jesus loves you and has a plan for your life. And he leaves. And I’m standing there in the kitchen, and God says to me, If you don’t give in to me, I’m gonna give up on you. And that’s what I had been saying to him. So he did this reverse psychology on me. I don’t know what it was, but it made me call the pastor and tell, or call his house. He hadn’t even gotten home yet. But I called his house, talk to his wife, and said, if he could work it out for me to go into Teen Challenge, I was ready to go. And sure enough, he calls me the next day. He had, there was a bed at Teen Challenge. It would be available on Monday that my mom would pick me up and take me.
Jeri Hill (11:51):
I was so angry at Life. Bitter. God had to really get a hold of me and show me that he loved me. And it doesn’t do it the same way with every person, but he loves every single person. But because I didn’t believe I’d been created by God in the beginning, he had to show me that he did have a plan. And if I could manifest to you the anger and bitter bitterness that ruled and reigned in my life it would be the opposite of what I feel today. Totally. The opposite. Well, I went into Teen Challenge on that Monday, gave my heart to Jesus. Didn’t know what that was gonna look like. Didn’t know how that was, didn’t know anything. Didn’t even, I had opened the Bible once and I thought, nobody can understand this. And I closed it. And they, in that first year, unfolded the whole word of God for me, and showed me from Genesis to Revelation in the first year. And it taught it to me. And I, I thought, Oh my gosh, my eyes were opened and I knew that I was I was his and whatever he wanted, I was going to be a yes girl. I was gonna say, yes, God, whatever you want, that’s what I want. And oh, it was the most eye-opening thing. And my eyes have never been clouded over since. And it, they stayed.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (13:27):
And then at what point did you meet Steve?
Jeri Hill (13:31):
Well, I met him at Bible school. He had, at age 12 had been smoking, drinking, doing drugs and everything.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (13:39):
So was this when you were in Teen Challenge or This was after Teen Challenge.
Jeri Hill (13:43):
After Teen Challenge. Okay. But he had been doing drugs and Jim Summers had witnessed to him in 69. And then Steve ended up in jail in 75, and he had been arrested 13 times. He was facing 25 years in the penitentiary in 75. And he had an experience with God. And two weeks later he was arrested, put in jail. He gets he’s in jail until February. I’m in Teen Challenge, and God leads me to the altar to pray for my future husband in February. That weekend. He leads him, leads me to pray for him. God, something’s happening in my husband’s life. My future husband’s like this month or today. I felt like it was that day. And then come to find out later on in Bible school, when Steve and I met that it was in February, that February 8th, that his lawyer and judge had gone playing golf. And Jim Summers had asked for them to probate Steve Teen Challenge. And I know that I played a part in Steve getting probated.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (14:58):
God had you already interceding for him before you had even met. Yes. And so that was with, with David Wilkerson. Talked to me about the impact that, that David Wilkerson had on your
Jeri Hill (15:11):
Life. Well, after he went through Team Challenge, I went through Teen Challenge. We ended up in Bible school, David Wilkerson School in Texas, and
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:19):
The Twin Oaks
Jeri Hill (15:20):
Leadership Academy. He the 25 guys. 25 girls. I didn’t even notice Steve really until December. And then I got moved into the office. I’d been cleaning Brother Dave’s house, and they moved me into the office and Steve was the gopher. So he had to come into the office, get the list, and I noticed him really for the first time. There’s not very many students there, but he just didn’t stand out to me. But something happened. As soon as I started working in the office, my heart started beating out of my chest. And I said, I bind you Satan, in the name of Jesus, you are not gonna distract me. And I got up at three o’clock in the morning binding the enemy. I’d walk out of the, the <laugh> out of the prayer closet, and I’d see Steve. And again, my heart started beating outta my chest.
Jeri Hill (16:17):
I said, God, you’re not listening to me. I did this for two months. Finally, I went and talked to my advisor, told him that I was having an issue that I couldn’t get victory over. And it was Steve and I didn’t want to tell him who I just had. I wanted him to pray for me, but he wouldn’t pray for me until I told him who. And so then he prayed for me and Steve that right after I met with that person Steve came up and showed me something. And I just wanted to get away from him, just get away, You know, I wasn’t encouraging him at all. And Steve came after me and he goes, Jerry, what’s going on? What’s up? And I said, Nothing God can’t handle. And he goes, Well, tell me what it is so I can pray for you.
Jeri Hill (16:57):
I said, You don’t have to know what it is to pray. He goes, You’re right. It runs down to the dorm. And he goes in there to pray. And the next day he goes and talks to his advisor. He comes up into the, the office spins around in a secretarial chair, and he said, They know about us. And I’m like, What? I’m thinking to myself, there is no us and I’m having a combo with God. And I go, God, this is not how this was supposed to turn out. I was supposed to be delivered from these emotions. And I said, Do I not have a, a say in my life? And God said, No, I didn’t have a say. And Steve was twirling around in this secretarial chair, and come to find out Brother Dave, two months prior, he said, Be watching Steve and Jerry.
Jeri Hill (17:51):
God’s gonna put them together. And so the staff were already watching us. It started two months prior to that. And I’m binding the enemy. It started that way in Steve’s life two months prior. And Steve had been in his prayer closet raising his hands, going, Father, and thank you for Jerry Larson. You’re gonna give me her as my wife. And so here I was binding the enemy. He was thanking God. Brother Dave knew. He just, he told the staff to be watching. And I knew that it was a carryover from when God got ahold of me. I knew my life was not my own and he was in charge. But it took me a while to trust Steve. You know I trusted Brother Dave and I left everything else and his hands. But three weeks Steve asked me to marry him. We’d never had a date. We’d never held hands and we’d never kissed. And a year later we got married, but we did our internship with Twin Oaks at Outreach Ministries with Jim Summers.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (19:04):
And that’s in Alabama? Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. And talk to me about that time in Alabama.
Jeri Hill (19:09):
Well, that was our second year of the Bible School. It was on the job training. So we did all the we did homework, we had to send back in and God working on our character, changing things in us, and had one day that we could spend together. That was Monday. And we mowed lawns, painted houses, and save money for a wedding that was coming up in the following year. And we went out to Twin Oaks at the end of the year. We were married already. And went for the second graduation. And I worked at the girls home. Steve worked at the men’s home, and so he worked in the office as as well. But it was all part of, you know, just giving and speaking into these girls’ lives, I wanted to speak into girls’ lives because God had done something in me and I wanted to pass it on. But I wasn’t perfect <laugh>, you know, I was very young in the Lord, very, very young.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (20:14):
So then once you got married, you went right into ministry?
Jeri Hill (20:19):
Well, I had been involved in ministry,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (20:22):
It it, but together.
Jeri Hill (20:23):
Yes. Yes. The ironic thing was Jim Summers, when we came back from the honeymoon, he said, Jeri, I want you to take a step down from ministry for a year and get used to being married to Steve and becoming one with him. And I, I bowled my eyes out because I’d been involved in these girls’ lives. I just assumed that I would come back and be working at the girls’ home. I walked into the office actually and went reporting for duty. And then he calls us in the office and tells me that I need to stay, take a step down. And so that was all very challenging. We didn’t, we weren’t making very much money. They gave us housing. And that first year, I ended up getting a secular job, but I took it as a ministry, started leading people to the Lord on my job, opened a, started a a discipleship program before the doors were opened and ended up being invited to speak at different churches and things like that. So I still wanted to be, you know, in the secular world, you can really make a difference in the marketplace. That’s where you really meet people.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (21:40):
And when did you move to Panama City?
Jeri Hill (21:45):
I can’t remember the exact year, but it was I think we had been there a year and a half.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (21:52):
So you went from Alabama
Jeri Hill (21:53):
To Panama City?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (21:54):
Down to Panama City. And, and what’d you do in Panama City?
Jeri Hill (21:57):
We were youth pastors there, but that just how that happened. We were on vacation in a tent, and Steve, that Sunday morning said the pastor’s gonna ask us to come work with him. And I said, What do you mean? He goes, I, I just really believe the pastor’s going to ask us. And and sure enough, the pastor walked in the side door and walked up the center aisle and came right to a, shook a few hands on the way up, and then walked right up to Steve and said, What are you doing for God? Can you come work with me? And six weeks later, we were there in Panama City as youth pastors, but I really believe that it was a, God had to do it that way because Steve would never have left Jim. And because it was so supernatural and God spoke to him, and it actually happened we did it, but we really felt like it was a way for him to maneuver us through this.
Jeri Hill (22:57):
Because the whole time we were there in Panama City, he was getting a phone call from Tallahassee, and that pastor was begging for Steve to come there and work. We had already been with that pastor during our first year. We were children’s pa, not children’s pastor. We were fifth and sixth grade teachers with that pastor in Huntsville. And it grew from six young people, fifth and sixth graders, to about 60. Wow. And we evangelized our neighborhood and filled up the bus, brought ’em in, taught him, and we had him in our backyard so that, that youth, that pastor moved to Tallahassee and wanted him there. But I don’t think Steve would ever have gone from here to there. God had move him from here to get him there.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (23:47):
So, So now everyone knows Steve Hill as a great evangelist, great revivalist but not everyone is at that place in,
Jeri Hill (23:57):
He was, he was big on evangelism.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (24:00):
Yeah. Do you feel he was called as an evangelist
Jeri Hill (24:04):
At that point? We felt like every single Christian was called to evangelism. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>, the evangelist part didn’t come till about 91.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (24:14):
So how, how did the evangelism manifest in those early years as, as youth pastors…
Jeri Hill (24:21):
It started that first year, evangelizing our neighborhood and having kids come to our backyard. Then we went to Panama City, and we started out with six young people, and we evangelized, and it grew to about a hundred, over a hundred in 10 months. And then we moved to Tallahassee. And there’s a whole nother story reason why we moved on to Tallahassee, but we started out with about 30 young people in three years. We had over 300, and then it was all evangelism. We did Tallahassee harvest festivals, and had Nikki Cruz come in and speak at the FSU campus. We set up a stage, we set up another stage, did another Tallahassee Harvest Festival. But Steve never preached it. He organized it. And so he brought in all these bands to sing, but then Mylan Lafa preached and even worked the tent until that two o’clock in the morning. But we did all the preparatory stuff. He loved to organize things like that. And so evangelizing and touching their lives like that and organizing things to make that happen, that was what he did. And he preached on Wednesday nights to the young people. <Laugh>,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (25:49):
When did he start using props to preach? Was that in that early days?
Jeri Hill (25:55):
No, that was
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (25:55):
A, Or that was much later.
Jeri Hill (25:57):
That’s a big jump. Brownsville.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (25:59):
All right, let’s, let’s, let’s wait until we get there. Okay. So, so then you’re in Tallahassee, and then you decided to go to Costa Rica for language school?
Jeri Hill (26:09):
No, we went to Mexico. Took
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (26:10):
Oh, you went to Mexico?
Jeri Hill (26:11):
Yeah. Took 10 kids to Mexico. Okay. We had never thought about missions ever.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (26:16):
Where’d you go in Mexico?
Jeri Hill (26:17):
Mexico City. Okay. And we took 10 kids there. We were handing out tracks and we, we were loving at people was standing in line for these tracks and things like that. And we mostly shared one on one our testimonies, you know, about the love of Jesus. We were only there for one week. And at the end, we were sitting on a bus, We were doing a tour of the, what do you call the pyramids? We were sitting behind another couple, and Steve’s talking to me, he goes, What do you think about going into missions? And he had just recently got his ordination. So he’d done all of his paperwork and everything to get his ordination and with the ag. And so he we’re just talking and I said, Okay, let’s do it. And the couple in front of us turn around, and they were in Mexico for one year from Argentina.
Jeri Hill (27:14):
And they said, We need missionaries in Argentina. If you’re thinking about the mission field, consider Argentina. And we went, Okay, God, what do you wanna do through all this? So when we left, we went back, we saw so many different little signs of things about Argentina, and he immediately resigned the church. We immediately had a, a garage sale and started selling everything. Then he applied permissions and they said, Whatever you do, don’t resign your position. Don’t sell all your possessions because you gotta get approved first. And so there’s a little, I’ve got a little paper in there about the whole story, but Steve took me to the beach in Jacksonville. We didn’t have enough money for both of us to go to fly. So he, I stayed. He goes, I’m gonna go up there for three days. You stay here and fast and pray. I’m gonna go up there and let them know my burden, our burden. And I go, Okay, I’ll stay here and I’ll fast and pray. And he went up there and within, I mean, it went very quickly. Within two months, we were approved as missionaries. They said it normally takes two years, and they said it could take another two years to raise your funds. And it, by August in Mexico, the following year, August in we were in Costa Rica. We had already been approved, raised all of our funds. We were in Costa Rica learning Spanish.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (28:44):
And so you learned Spanish. How, how long did that take?
Jeri Hill (28:47):
We were there for a year. Okay. And we moved in with a Costa Rican family.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (28:52):
And so did you become pretty fluent in Spanish or
Jeri Hill (28:57):
<Laugh>?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (28:59):
So then you went to Argentina.
Jeri Hill (29:07):
Yes. After language school. And they, you know, arg in Costa Rica, it’s at the end of every single word it seems like. And then we go to Argentina and they don’t even say that they speak Spanish. Alan a look at this. I know <laugh>. I go, No, You know, And, but I didn’t realize that Castano was Espanol, you
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (29:35):
Know, Just more proper.
Jeri Hill (29:37):
Yes. And so it took a while to develop that a little bit better, but you know, it’s been 20 years since then, or more, 30 years since being in Argentina. And it comes back, you know? Yeah. But I haven’t, I don’t get to use it all the time every day, but I can communicate.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (29:58):
So in Argentina, you were doing church planting? Yes. And, and so tell me what that looked like.
Jeri Hill (30:05):
Every six months we planted a new church. We would go into an area with flyers. We’d put up a, a banner across the street saying, Hey, su thema. And we’d pass out tracks. We’d have ma aim teams come in to hit the streets. We had maps teams come in to help build the building. Within six months, the church was full. We generally had a pastor that was already picked out for that church. We did eight churches in seven years and helped finish a children’s home. It wasn’t our children’s home, it was somebody else had started it, but they couldn’t complete their building. So we helped finish it with maps teams coming in, helped start a, a bible school. And, but in the bu, sitis area, three churches in the nail, Ken area down there, five more churches.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (31:01):
Now, when did you start having kids? Was that, did you have kids when you were in Argentina?
Jeri Hill (31:06):
We adopted Ryan. Okay. In 1987. Okay. Brought him home from the hospital. He was four pounds, four ounces. Wow. We had never put our name on a list or anything like that. They knew that we didn’t have kids, and we were open to whatever God wanted. So when we heard that there was a baby that needed parents, we said, they said, Do you want to adopt? And Steve and I talked about it, and we said, How can we say no when we hear of a need?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (31:33):
And Ryan was from Argentina. Argentina,
Jeri Hill (31:37):
Yeah. Wow. And then three and a half years later, or three years later, we get a call from somebody else saying, We know you adopted one. There’s a girl that’s 14, she’s pregnant and she can’t keep the baby. Would you be open to adopting this baby? And so we said, Yes. And we adopted again in Argentina. And it, they have a year to change their mind. And after a year, then you can complete the adoption. And then and in that time when Ryan was 10 months old, I lost twins. Almost died in Argentina. And then when Shelby was born when she was a year old, we had moved from Argentina to Spain, and I got pregnant in Spain and lost that baby as well. Be it, there were tubal pregnancies.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (32:28):
Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. Okay. So then there was a period where you were serving as missionary evangelist. And so it was, So you went from church planning. Yep. And then tell me about how the calling came to being evangelist. How did you know that, that that calling was, was on your lives?
Jeri Hill (32:51):
Well, it was pretty crazy that, you know, we could plant eight churches in seven years. And it was all because of evangelizing, passing out tracks and praying with people on the streets. It was all that In 91, Steve got missionary evangelist status, which meant he could go to any country in the world. And at that time, things were getting financially difficult in Argentina. Things, prices had gone up. And, and so we asked if we could move from Argentina. We actually stationed from the States. But when he was in his office and he was praying, and that in his journal somewhere, it says that God confirmed his calling to be an evangelist in 91. And to me, I felt like we had been evangelizing from the day I got saved. You know? And so
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (33:56):
I think he was called to be an evangelist since before the foundations of the world, and just starting to walk in that. And
Jeri Hill (34:04):
Then, well, in 91, I walked into the office and he was on his face praying, and he was crying out to God. It was different because every day I saw him on his face, me on my face, him on his face. But this day was different. And he said, God, I know how to do this and this and this, and this. Naming the things that he’d been doing as a missionary church planner. He said, But God, when he said that, But God, I felt like somebody punched me in the gut. I don’t wanna do it in my own strength. I want you to do it through me. And I stepped out. I didn’t want to interrupt his time with God. I didn’t wanna go over there. I was holding Shelby in my arms. I didn’t want interrupt it. I didn’t want to go in and, and join in on the prayer to detour what God was doing.
Jeri Hill (34:54):
Instead, I walked out, and this was the second floor. And I sat at the top of the stairs, and I started just going like this with my hands. Yes, God, do it through him. Jesus, do it through him. Jesus, do it through him. And I was weeping at the top of the stairs and something shifted. We had been working in the ministry like this together, but something shifted that day, and it intertwined like this. And I felt like we were one in the spirit. And I was, Yes, God, do it through him. Jesus. Do it through him. And everything shifted. Shelby was about six months old. Ryan was going on four, and he did his first trip to Kuo Chile. All heaven came down in Kuo, Chile. And he preached in the, the market square. And people were getting saved. People were, their feet were being frozen to the concrete.
Jeri Hill (35:50):
They couldn’t move. Cars were pulling in, and they didn’t know why they were pulling in. God was bringing them in. And he, Steve would get in the car and leave people to Jesus and then get out that next door and get in the next car. And he was going from car to car, leading people to Jesus. But it was like God was doing it through him. And from there, at the end of 91 is when we went to the States to raise some funds to go to Spain. We’re gonna plan a church in Spain. And, but we were in the States for six months, and I couldn’t go with him to Spain because Shelby needed her her passport. And it took a couple of weeks to get the passport. Then she gets the chicken pox. And so I had to get a letter from the doctor that couldn’t travel with her unless she was you know, she wasn’t contagious anymore.
Jeri Hill (36:49):
And then I had a battle with mice. Oh no. Have you heard this story? Mm-Hmm. No. Tell me the story of the mice. Well, Shelby was a great sleeper. One night, I’m on the floor in the living room. I’m reading my Bible. I’m eating some licorice, and she wakes up screaming. I went in and got her, pulled her out. She was claw to get out of me, out of the crib. She gets in my arms, I turn out the lights, I leave the lution, my Bible on the floor. I put her down in my room to go to sleep. The next morning, I noticed that the le bag had been attacked. And I called the maintenance people to come. They set traps the next morning for mice. Were in each of the four traps. They set, they set him again the next day, four more mice, set ’em again the next day, four more mice.
Jeri Hill (37:44):
And it’s getting close to the time, you know, where I’ve gotten the tickets, and I know I’m gonna be leaving, so I’ve gotta be cleaning up the apartment and getting it all done. And then I noticed that there was mice droppings all over her crib. She would not go back in her crib. There was mice droppings on the bed where Ryan used to sleep. And all of a sudden it blew up in my brain that they were chewing on my baby’s chicken fox store sores. Oh, I was freaking out. Totally freaked out. We didn’t talk every single day. Steve was in Spain. He took Ryan with him because we knew I was gonna be coming soon. And ha having to take care of just one child was easier than taking care of both. So Ryan went with Steve and one, after finding 12 mice and finding the mice droppings, and this is blowing up in my brain.
Jeri Hill (38:34):
Steve calls and he says, For we’ve been here five weeks, Nobody’s getting saved. Nobody wants God. Nobody is open. And that’s all he’s talking to me about. And in my mind, I, my mind is only on the mice. And Steve goes, You’re being really quiet. What’s the matter? Our baby’s been chewed on my mic, and I just blew up. He goes, Honey, get a grip. I told him the whole story, you know, He goes, Honey, get a grip. And I went, I hung up on him, and he called me back. He said, Please tell me you didn’t just take up, hang up on me, that we got disconnected. And I said, You don’t care about our child being tuned on my mic. And so we we’re on the same page. You know, he’s, he’s all of a sudden through the lines, you know, he is trying to comfort me that this is a pretty big deal. And we hang up and everything’s good. He’s, we’re on the same page. I went out, I had been reading Leonard Greg Hill’s book. I had left a marker in the book. And in the book it, when I opened it up, it said, Some of you are hunting mice while the lion devours the land.
Jeri Hill (39:53):
I fell on my face and started weeping on the carpet. Mm. And I, for tw, for the first 30 minutes, I was repenting first for being distracted. I was distracted by the passport. I was distracted by the chicken. Ps I was distracted by the mice. But that line, because I had just been battling the mice, it jumped off the page. And I knew that I hadn’t been distracted and not been praying for Steve. For the next two hours after I repented, I wailed before God for Spain, wet and wet and wet, and wet and wet. It exhausted me that I cried for the people of Spain, that their hearts would be softened, that they would be receiving the word that they would hear his heart. And I, I balled and squalled for two hours, and I got up off the chair, and immediately after I was done weeping, Leonard and Martha call me.
Jeri Hill (41:01):
They’re just down the street. Leonard and Martha, they’re both on the phone. And I, he calls me and I told him the whole story. And he goes, Oh, it wouldn’t even have spoken to you if you hadn’t been chasing mice. And Leonard, and Martha goes, Lynn, don’t discredit what God is doing in her. He goes, Oh, you’re right. You’re right. Yes, you’re right. <Laugh>. The next call I get from Steve, he goes, Honey, oh, the power of God came down in the park. I didn’t think anybody was listening once again. Nobody was gonna get saved. I remember speaking the message, dropping the mic, Ryan is standing next to me, picks up the mic, and then all of a sudden I cry out to God and I go, God, where are you? And he said, I’m right over there. And there was a guy in the crowd covering his face with his hands.
Jeri Hill (42:04):
He goes over to him and he goes, What’s going on with you? He goes, He starts shaking. And he said, I want what you’re talking about, but I don’t understand it. This is scary. This, this, this power of God that’s coming. That’s right here. It’s just, it’s scaring. He has his hands over his face, and he is just shaking. And Steve goes, Who else feels the same way? Who else is, is feeling this? And all the hands went up and they all started shaking under the power of God. And Steve was shaking, and he let him all to Jesus over a hundred people in that one group. And when it was all done, he said, After it was all done, honey, it was so super natural that it was too overwhelming for me that I had to run. And I sat down on a bench and I slumped down the bench and I said, God, what was that? And the power of God came down in that. And it, but I believe it went back to 91. And then in 92, God had to remind me that I’m supposed to be one in prayer, in, in spirit with him. Not He. He needed that.
Jeri Hill (43:23):
And all heaven came down and they planted the church, people got saved. And then few days later, I ended up in, in Spain with them, and the church got planted. It was gra
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (43:38):
What city was that in Spain.
Jeri Hill (43:41):
Granadas in Grata. Gra Spain. Yeah.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (43:43):
Okay. So during this period of being a, a missionary evangelist, you were in Spain, but then what other countries did you start to work in?
Jeri Hill (43:53):
We ended up going, we were stationed in the US going back and forth, but then he heard that, God, the doors were open in Russia. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>. And there was a pastor in Sweden that we had gone and been in his church, and he was sharing some things that he was doing in Russia, going, doing house churches. Every single place that the train stopped, they were doing house churches. And we felt like it was, that was our next step was Bar Viche Belarus. And went there and planted a church. And my English and Spanish didn’t work there. <Laugh>, we used translators a lot in,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (44:37):
But the Holy Spirit still worked there. Yes. Okay. So then, So the props, Yeah, the props
Jeri Hill (44:44):
Started at Brownsville. Okay. And so we had been going from 92, 91. Yeah. January of 92 until Brownsville broke out.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (44:57):
And so Brownsville started Father’s Day, 1995.
Jeri Hill (45:01):
Yes. And so we had been going all over to all these different countries. Steve, most of the time our kids were getting of school age, so I didn’t get to go on the trips all the time. The only time I got to go is if we were gonna go for three months more, three months or more. And so he did a lot of different countries and
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (45:20):
Okay, let’s talk about the props. How, how did that
Jeri Hill (45:23):
Happen? <Laugh>?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (45:24):
Because it was the props, but then it was also these powerful illustrated sermons. Yeah. That brought people to a point of repentance. Yeah. And people would come up and, and cry out to
Jeri Hill (45:36):
God. Oh, I know. He’d hold up a question mark, and he would preach a mess message on that, an exclamation mark. The word, if he’d hold up the word, if he made all of those props. Any of the, you know, the paper ones that, you know, things like that. He, he did those most of the time. And then antique stores the alarm clock he’d be, he’d get a message, he’d get a, a prop and he’d do a message from it, or he’d get a message and he’d search for a prop.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (46:11):
And which were your favorite?
Jeri Hill (46:13):
All of them. All of them. I mean, I went down the aisle in a wedding dress. The crown, the the alarm clock. I’ve got the, the scale, the balance, and I’ve got an huge hourglass. All things that he would use as props. The two dolls separated at birth, and he had these two dolls made up. And one’s a hippie doll and one’s a preacher doll. And he got that spiritual birth death of Mr. Me, which he had a tombstone made up for. Anybody else would’ve done a, you know, a styrofoam type tombstone. Not steam, No, it was granite and it’s heavy <laugh>. The camera one was pretty intense, where he’d pull out, he’d be, God’s taken pictures. And he’s, while he is doing that, he says, God saw you walk across the street and gives somebody some water. And just as he does it, he’s taken a picture of this girl. And later on, she said, I actually did that that day. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>, you know, and it was all those messages and all those props and everything that he did during that whole time, it, the best word I can describe it as is God. It was God.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (47:48):
So Brownsville went on for five years. It was phenomenal. People came, Steve’s
Jeri Hill (47:54):
Part was five
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (47:54):
Years from all over the world. And you went from obscurity beforehand. No one knew who you were. Right. And then afterwards, probably everybody knew who you were. What was that like?
Jeri Hill (48:11):
You know, some people said that he became like famous or something, and Steve would always say, There’s only one person that’s famous, and that’s Jesus. Everybody else is only well known in some circles. And that’s really, you know, you’re not well known to everybody in the world. But it did not change him. He would minister one on one. I mean, Wake Americas on the way to an awake America. The only job of that driver was to get Steve and myself to, from point A to point B. I saw somebody in the, in the alleyway, in the gutter. And I said, Turn to Steve. And I said, There’s somebody in the alley right there. I think they need to know Jesus loves them. He goes, Okay. And so I opened the door, I got out, Steve got out, he goes, We’ll walk to the arena. And he shut the door and told the guy to go on. And we went into the alley administered to this guy in the alley that was on the way to an awake America.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (49:21):
Wow. Okay. So after Brownsville finished, you went back to the nations. So you started to travel. Yes. And, and what, what were some of the nations that, that you worked in?
Jeri Hill (49:36):
I would say I’ve been to 60 different countries. And so I would say Steve had been in from before. And that time 200, I mean a hundred mm-hmm. <Affirmative>, a hundred different countries. Malaysia, Singapore, all of the Scandinavian countries, all of Europe. He was in Cape Town, South Africa. He was in all of Latin America, Canada. We didn’t do, if we were to just kind of narrow it down to the ones he didn’t do a lot in, you know were, were Iran and Iraq and places like that. But yeah, everywhere.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (50:17):
And you saw that same hunger for God everywhere, everywhere that you went. Yes. And people would come down to the altar. They would, Yes. They would pray, they would repent. They would,
Jeri Hill (50:30):
In Japan, in back in the green room, the pastors said, The people in Japan will not run to the altar. They are reserved, so don’t expect it. Yeah. And Steve goes, Okay, Alright. I won’t drag out the story on my end of it, but I ended up outside weeping and wailing outside. And I came back in and Steve preached the message, and they ran to the altar. And they were not even they, the pastors were in shock. And Steve called me up, you know, to pray with him, to walk around and pray with him. And all heaven came down. Yeah. In their lives, which I’m not gonna tell what I was doing out there. I was out actually evangelizing. And then when she went to go get more tracks, spirit of intercession came all over me, and I was bawling.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (51:30):
I think I’ve heard you tell that story before. Okay. So then you, you moved to Dallas and you started the Heartland World Ministries Church in Dallas?
Jeri Hill (51:41):
Yeah. Well, after we moved from Brownsville, we were in Dallas already traveling out from Dallas. Yeah. But while we were there, we started, Yes, Heartland. Yeah. And that was all focused around evangelism too, raising up teams to evangelize the city. And by the time we finally got a building, we were running three services Friday night, Saturday night, and Sunday morning, and only seated a thousand. So each night there was a thousand people in each one.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (52:14):
And then you also started working on an online school of evangelism. And lots of people have
Jeri Hill (52:20):
Gone through that, that when Steve came up with cancer, he thought, you know, he had been doing front lines. He had been doing only different websites and things, and serious about God. And he was also, you know, he is recording a lot of things in the, in the building. But then he started recording for soe the School of Evangelism. And he was not able to finish that, but he wanted to raise up people. We had at Heartland, we had the church, but we also had a Bible school, Heartland School of Ministry. And so we raised up a lot of people from the school there. And then he wanted to have something to leave behind. So he started preparing for soe and then we we were able to finish it. Me and my kids and their spouses worked on finishing it so that we’d have a, a pretty decent online school of evangelism that’s available for people in churches, because every disciple should be involved in evangelism. It, the Bible says to, you know, for the fivefold people, the pastor, the teacher, the evangelist, the prophet, and the apostle, that they should be training the saints to be doing the work of the ministry. And part of the work of the ministry is evangelism. Every single disciple should be involved in telling people about Jesus.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (53:48):
Yeah. Well, if you’re listening to the Evangelism podcast, you, you have a heart for evangelism. I want to encourage you to go and enroll in the Online School of Evangelism. What’s your website if somebody’s interested in,
Jeri Hill (54:06):
Together in the harvest.com
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (54:08):
Together in the harvest.com. So go there. You can find information about the School of Evangelism. It will be a tremendous blessing to you. And you can learn from so many different evangelists from Steve Hill and many other great evangelists that, that taught in the School of Evangelism. And it’s so amazing to hear the, this phenomenal story of how God used you and your husband. You know, God does not just call individuals. He calls families. And so the, the thousands of people that were saved, the people that repented, it wasn’t just a calling that was on Steve Hill’s life. It was the prayers and the support and the ministry that God called you to as well. And so, thank you so much for sharing and telling the story of the great miracles that God did. It’s amazing.
Jeri Hill (55:07):
I love it. I love what God’s doing, and he wants to raise up other people to do it. The Bible says the laborers are few and the harvest is ready. So let’s lay, raise up more laborers for it to be done. Pass it on.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (55:22):
Amen. Amen. Thank you for being on the Evangelism Podcast.
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