This podcast episode features a conversation between Evangelism Coach Daniel King and Titus Stevens, a young evangelist who has recently graduated from Oral Roberts University. Titus discusses his calling to help raise up a new generation of evangelists in Brazil, where he believes the country is becoming a training ground for missionaries. He shares insights from his time at ORU and encourages young people to step out in faith, trusting in God’s grace rather than their own abilities. Titus also promotes his father’s evangelism resources and invites listeners to connect with him on social media to continue learning about effective evangelism strategies.
Learn more about the Steven’s Family: https://gilesstevens.com/
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 with me, Titus Stevens. Welcome to the Evangelism Podcast.
Titus Stevens (00:10):
It’s a pleasure to be here with you.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:11):
Now we are in Brazil and you have just graduated from Oral Roberts University. Correct. And now you’re entering into another season in your life. But your father, Giles Stevens is a great evangelist. He is indeed. And now you have some big shoes to fill. So tell me, what is God doing in your life? What is God speaking to you? And as you’re coming off of graduating from ORU, what is God speaking to you about the next steps in your life?
Titus Stevens (00:44):
Amen. Well, I received a word of God some years ago that I really think has been the almost motto to the calling that he’s given me. When I was asking the Lord to use me to call me, I heard him say, I’m raising you up, but I’m also raising up with a generation. I don’t want just one or two great men of God. I want a generation of great men and women of God. So that really spoke to me and I’ve seen how the Lord has now aligned me in this way to I hope a kind of trailblazer for others. So like you said, I’ve got big shoes to fill because my dad is a great big trailblazer for me. I remember
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:22):
A few years ago I interviewed your father. At that time I think we were in Norway.
Titus Stevens (01:27):
Yes.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:28):
And I sat down with your father and I was so impressed. He was sharing with me what God is doing through the church here in Brazil. And your father has really been helping the church to grow, just teaching on evangelism, which I think is really beautiful that I think every evangelist should help local churches to
Titus Stevens (01:49):
Growly. Absolutely. That’s really what burns on my heart. I’m part of a youth network within the churches here called the Free Radical Movement. And we are radically a free for Jesus. That’s the goal that we can live radical lives for him. But the goal of me being in there is really to stir up the gift of the
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:03):
Evangelist
Titus Stevens (02:04):
Because we have young people around Brazil, literally in every corner and around the globe in this movement who are on fire for the Lord every week are being filled up with the word of God. And now all we’re doing is equipping them with the right tools for them to go, for them to call people from the streets to preach, for them to call people into their cell groups. So we’ve been seeing a great multiplication, and I went to OIU to really learn more about the word so that I can raise up others with me to learn more about evangelism so I could raise up others with me. And now I’m training thousands of leaders within the church to put on evangelistic events. And that’s my heart to go to a city, to go into the schools to do a youth event in the town squares like a youth crusade. But in that process to teach the leaders, this is how you can do it. I don’t need to come back anymore. You do it now. So that’s really the goal that’s been burning on my heart. But also we’ve been seeing so multiplication here in Brazil through these evangelistic strategies. So I believe this was going to grow and grow.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (03:05):
Now, I love Oral Roberts University. I have three degrees from ORU, and I love the leadership of Dr. Billy Wilson. He is a great visionary and there is really a spirit of revival on campus at ORU. Absolutely. Talk to me a little bit about some of the key lessons that you learned while you’re at ORU and what you’re carrying with you as you now launch into this next phase of your
Titus Stevens (03:32):
Life. I think one of the wonderful things about OU is it’s so diverse and there are people from every single background, and it’s amazing to see how the Lord is using each and every single one. I think an important lesson I learned from that was it’s not about you. It doesn’t matter where you came from, doesn’t matter your upbringing. Doesn’t matter if you’re rich or poor, you or Gentile. The purpose is the Lord has something to do here on the earth and he’s calling people to be a part of it. And if you want to be a part of it, he will gladly accept you in and throw you right into the deep end to get going. And that’s what I think I really saw at OYU, is that people from all different cultures, backgrounds, even denominations, but just with the same passion and hunger to be used by God. And I got to see all my people around me being used by God, and I thought, boy, that’s what I want to do. The message I want to share with the world doesn’t matter who you are, the Lord wants to use you.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:29):
Now as you graduated, God gave you several potential opportunities, but you really felt like God was calling you back to Brazil. Yeah, absolutely. Why Brazil? What is so special about what God is doing in this nation right now?
Titus Stevens (04:44):
I feel like Brazil, in 50 years time, people will talk about how Brazil was the training ground for the missionaries.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:51):
Wow.
Titus Stevens (04:52):
And I think we’re living that right now. And I had a clear word of God in my heart. Like you said, I had some wonderful opportunities in the United States, in Europe as well. But I had a clear word of God to come to Brazil to be trained. And that kind of seems weird because I’d just spent three years being trained. But I saw this opportunity as to become the man of God that God has dreamed of me being, that God has preparing me to be so that I can reach the nations. And I see Brazil prophetically as a place for that. I see young people coming to Brazil, young people in Brazil who the Lord is training and preparing to shoot out to spread out into the nations. So I really do believe that we’re going to look back, if the Lord hasn’t come back already, we’re going to look back and say, wow, Brazil was one of the key places that the Lord used to train up the next generation of evangelists. I really do see that.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:44):
And I believe God is raising up a young generation of evangelists. You’re still young yourself. What message would you give to young people who want to be used by God, that have to be used by God? What would you say to a young person?
Titus Stevens (06:00):
I would say that I think the number one issue that stops young people from being used by God is because they set some sort of condition for themselves to be used by God. And I want to tell you, I have a verse. That’s the verse that guides me. It’s Titus two. I know Tus, you have a great name. Yeah, great name. You got to go with Titus. I’ve always liked Daniel personally as a Bible character. Exactly.
(06:23):
But it’s in Titus two, verse 11, 12 and 13, and Titus two 11 says that the grace of God that appeared for salvation rule men, then verse 12 says, now, teaches us how to walk, teaches us how to resist the world, teaches us how to live a godly life, how to live a righteous life, but also a pies life for God. So I think a lot of young people, they get grace for salvation, but then they think that to work for God, it’s on them. But the truth of scripture is, is that actually it’s the Holy Spirit. Actually, it’s the grace of God in your life. That same grace that saved you, that same unconditional love is not going to teach you how to walk with God, going to teach you how to flow in your ministry. So don’t be afraid. Don’t think, oh, I’m not good enough.
(07:10):
I’m not holy enough. I’m not ready enough. You never will be. But as soon as you rest and trust in the grace of God to teach you, you’re going to see how the Lord is going to raise you up as a mighty man and a mighty woman of God who walks in his ways, who walks in his righteousness and can build the kingdom that he’s building here on the earth through your life. So that was the message that really broke me out of that space of bondage, of limiting, and just saying, Hey, it’s not because of me, it’s because of him. And that grace is what teaches me to move forward. So that’s the message I give to you. Don’t create conditions. It’s unconditional trust in the Lord and he will teach you.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (07:50):
Amen. Well, I know that your father has some great resources for evangelists. And so first I want you to share with me your father’s website, and then I want you to tell me how people can get in touch with you if you have an Instagram account, or what’s the best way for people to get connected to you?
Titus Stevens (08:10):
Absolutely. So my dad, he has some very strategic evangelistic material. Two of the most famous ones are the 11th question. In the last 20 years, we’ve probably given out over half a million of them.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:22):
Wow.
Titus Stevens (08:23):
And these are evangelistic booklets that are super easy for you to simply give to someone and they can read, and it will literally guide them through to a prayer of salvation, but also super easy for you to get to know and to preach. So you can sit down with a coffee with someone, get up on a stage and preach the booklet. And it always ends with an altar call and a call for salvation. The other one is a newer one called Seven Good Things that maybe you don’t know. And it’s just a really engaging way to start talking about the gospel through stories to a person who might be resistant, have a religious preconception against the gospel, and actually show them actually the Gospel’s full of good things that God has for you. He loves you, and it brings them into a relationship with Christ.
(09:08):
So you can get those books on Amazon, on Kindle, on my father’s website, giles stevens.org and myself. You can follow me on Instagram. You can follow me on YouTube. It’s literally just my name, Titus Stevens. You’ll find me there. My Instagram is a good picture of me graduating at OIU, which I’m very still very proud of. And it was a cool moment. So follow me there. I’m always posting about the evangelistic events that we’re doing, but also teaching people online how to use evangelistic material to preach. Amen. It’ll be a pleasure to be able to walk with you.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:40):
Well, let’s finish with a word of prayer. Would you pray for the young generation of evangelists that God is raising up? Absolutely.
Titus Stevens (09:48):
Absolutely. Hallelujah. Father, I thank you that you are doing a supernatural, wonderful, super abounding gracious work amongst our generation Lord.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:58):
Yes.
Titus Stevens (09:58):
A generation that had everything against it, Lord, that all the statistics said that would be the most difficult of the generations. But we’ve been seeing a great revival, and I believe, Lord, that is your grace and favor upon us Lord. So continue to raise up Lord. Ministers, I believe there are people watching this podcast right now who are like me, young, inexperienced, but have a heart to serve the Lord. Lord, make this fire burn faster and harder and greater in their hearts. Lord, continue to raise up ministers in our generation. And Lord, we believe that we will see the greatest harvest of souls through our generation. In Jesus mighty name, may you be greatly blessed. Amen. Thank you, Titus for being on the
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (10:45):
Evangelism podcast. It’s a wonderful
Titus Stevens (10:47):
Pleasure to be here.
Sergio Carriel is a Brazilian missionary who has been serving in Africa for 19 years, starting in Mozambique and then expanding to other African countries like Malawi, Uganda, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Kenya. He has experienced many miracles and conversions during his evangelistic crusades in Africa, including healings and deliverance from demonic oppression. Carriel believes God is raising up a missionary force from Brazil to go to other nations, and he wants to inspire and encourage more Brazilian youth to become evangelists and missionaries. He has faced challenges in getting financial support from churches in Brazil, who often focus more on local needs rather than global missions. Carriel hopes to see the Brazilian church invest more in sending missionaries worldwide.
Transcript:
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:01):
Welcome to the Evangelism Podcast. I’m Daniel King. I’m excited about telling people about Jesus today. I have a very special guest with me, Sergio Carriel from Brazil. It’s so nice to meet you. God bless you. Nice to meet
Sergio Carriel (00:14):
You, sir.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:15):
Thank you for being on the Evangelism Podcast. Now you are very unique because you are Brazilian and you are serving God right now in Africa, actually living in Nairobi, Kenya. And so talk to me about how you became a missionary from Brazil to Africa. Praise the Lord.
Sergio Carriel (00:39):
First of all, I want to say thank you Evangelist and Dr. Daniel King. It’s a big privilege for me, a great honor and privilege to be part of this podcast. So I’m Brazilian, and I’m born in Sao Paulo, the couch side of Sao Paulo. God called me to Africa in 2006, 2006, and I came to the first time in Africa and I start to preach the gospel in Mozambique, in Mozambique.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:24):
Now, Mozambique is unique in Africa because they were colonized by Portugal. So they speak Portuguese.
Sergio Carriel (01:33):
Yes.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:33):
And so that’s a good place for Brazilian missionaries to go.
Sergio Carriel (01:38):
In that time I could not speak English, nothing, and only Portuguese. Then I start in Mozambique, and then I faced many, many challenges, challenges there. And I came back to Brazil, and then I was praying to come back in Africa again, but I could not, because I had no money, no resources, no one trusted me like a missionary, and no one want to support me, even my church. But I was praying and fast and God gave me a vision. And I saw in that vision a prison. And behind the jail, behind the prison, I saw behind the barn, I saw many African people. And I was out of the prison with my Bible in my hands. And God told me, you must come back and continue to preach the gospel in Africa because you have the key to open the doors, to open the door of the prison and let these people go. So then I came back to Africa again in Mozambique again. Wow. Yeah. So then I was in the middle of the jungle in Mozambique, tried to preach for one man, but he doesn’t understand Portuguese. And he told me I’m speak English, but I could not speak English. And then I say, Lord, helping me to speak English. And then the Holy Spirit helping me and I start to speak English. Then I went in Malawi because they speak English there, Uganda, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Kenya,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:02):
Ethiopia. Wow. And so I’ve been to Ethiopia many times. And I know that you have been to Ethiopia doing crusades many times now. In fact, you have a crusade coming up very soon in Ethiopia. So tell me about some of the miracles that you’ve seen God do in Ethiopia. Wow.
Sergio Carriel (04:25):
There is a lot of miracles that Jesus did in Ethiopia, in Africa, but there is one of a miracle that I can’t forget the people in the Ade. They brought a woman. They brought a woman, she was mad, and she was captive by chains, and they throw her in the stage in the platform. And then they asked me to pray for her. And I start, I thought, oh my God, if this woman continue to be the same, if it’s nothing happened, what’s going to happen to me? My reputation as a evangelist,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:17):
She was held by physical chains. And you had some fears that were holding you as chains from doing what God
Sergio Carriel (05:25):
Wanted. Yes,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:25):
I
Sergio Carriel (05:26):
Feel some fear in my heart. And then I ask the pastors to join with me and pray with me. They refuse. They refuse. And then I say, oh Lord, I believe nothing is so hard for you. And then I prayed for that woman in Jesus’ name, and the demons left heart and she become free. She got healing and she gave her life to Jesus. And she started to testify in that big crowd, they realized that nothing is impossible with Jesus Christ. Wow. Hallelujah. And another miracle, there was another woman, she could not feed the baby because the milk stopped and she came for the crusade and Jesus started her and the milk started to come out. Wow. She could not feed the baby for one year, and then the milk start to come. And she testified in the cro and the multitude there, they believe Jesus. They gave their life to Jesus Christ.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (06:42):
Wow. Praise God. Amen. Many years ago, God spoke to me and he said that the mission field shall become a mission force. And so for many years from the West, they’ve looked at Brazil as a mission field and people send missionaries to Brazil. The missionaries come, they work here. But now if you look at the church in Brazil, the church in Brazil is very strong. The fire of God is very strong here. In fact, I would say that the fire of God is stronger in Brazil than we even see in America. And the Brazilian church, they know how to pray, they’re on fire. But now I believe that God wants to raise up a missionary force from Brazil to go to other nations. And you are one of those Brazilian evangelists sent out by Brazil as a missionary to Africa. And so what would you say to other Brazilians who are wondering if they maybe are called to be missionaries?
Sergio Carriel (07:54):
I can say to them that if God use me, I’m nothing. I am Mr. Zero. If God uses me, he can use everybody.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:06):
Everyone.
Sergio Carriel (08:09):
Yeah. God saved me. I was lost in alcohol and drugs, and Jesus saved my life. I was mechanic. I usually fix cars in my garage. And God called me to be evangelist. Wow. And evangelist Danielle King. I want to tell you something. You inspired my life and I’m very happy. I could not imagine to be this conversation with you because I saw you on tv, on YouTube. But now we are talking here. So I believe there is a lot of youth in Brazil. They have the calling of an evangelist. And I believe that we are going to see a big wave around the world with Brazilians evangelists. I believe that. Amen. And my goal is inspire them and pray for them and teach them and encourage them to come to Africa too. And to preach to the gospel in Africa. In Africa, around the world. Yeah.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:35):
Now there’s several African nations that speak. Portuguese. What are they? You have Mozambique, Angola, Guinea, Guinea,
Sergio Carriel (09:44):
Baal, some tome. Prince.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:48):
Okay.
Sergio Carriel (09:50):
And
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:51):
Ka. And so these are a great place for Brazilian missionaries to get started. Even if they don’t speak English, they can go to these places. They can build a ministry. And so I think it’s time for the Brazilian church to rise up and to send missionaries to many other countries, even to Portugal needs lots of good Brazilian missionaries. And even in the United States, we need some Brazilian of missionaries to come. So tell me, how is your ministry supported? You said that at the beginning even your own church did not want to support you. But now have some people started to support you?
Sergio Carriel (10:33):
Yes. I have sponsors now, some churches.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (10:43):
Has that been difficult? Yeah, it’s difficult for me. Why do you think that’s difficult in Brazil? Because what needs to change in the church of Brazil? So they support missionaries more. I
Sergio Carriel (10:57):
Think they need understand like America people, they do. They did like some other cultures. They did give priority to reach the lost and invest in missionaries and invest in evangelists. In Brazil, we have challenges. Most of the church, they think that the missionary work is give food for people. We can give of course, but it is not the goal that we need to reach. Jesus says, go, go, go and preach the gospel.
(11:48):
Preach the gospel, make disciples. So the challenge in Brazil is the church invest more locally, locally like build the temple broadcast tv. And they invest a lot of money locally, but they invest just few in mission. I believe that if the pastors, the leaders in Brazil, if they understand a hundred percent the purpose to preach, to reach the lost in cultures, that it’s until now unreachable and places that no one else have been before. If they understand and have compassions for souls and start to invest and send more missionaries to the field, we’re going to see the great commission of Jesus accomplish it in Jesus’ name. More quickly.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (12:58):
I think that your story will help to bring a consciousness for missions to Brazil churches. And it’s very important as people see your pictures, as they watch your videos, as they hear your stories, as you minister at churches here in Brazil, I think that the resources, money will follow vision. Amen. And so as you share the vision of the lost, you show people how Jesus sees those who are lost, and you help churches to see beyond their own walls out into the nations around the world. Amen. Because in Acts one, eight, Jesus says that you’ll receive power after the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you’ll be my witnesses in Jerusalem. But Jerusalem was the city of the disciples. But it doesn’t end there then it is in Judea, which is like their country. But then they go to Samaria, the next door country. And so God is going to raise up missionaries from Brazil that will go to Argentina, to Colombia, to the other nations that are nearby.
(14:09):
But then it says that you will go to the uttermost ends of the earth. This verse is not only for Americans, this verse is for Brazilians. The Brazilian church is called to go to the nations around the world and to bring many people to Jesus. And so I think that as you tell your story, as you show your pictures, as you show people the videos of what God is doing, then people say, wow, God can do that through a Brazilian. We must invest in that. And so God will use you to break heart for missions open
Sergio Carriel (14:51):
In Brazil. Can I testify a little bit about the challenges that I faced in the past? Yeah. I had a lot of supports and sponsors, and I did crusades by faith. Sometimes I didn’t have money to rent the PA system or the stage. And I remember it’s happened with me when I did the crusade.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:21):
Brother, I want to tell you, I also do crusades by faith. Whether you are small or big, you must do it by faith. Praise the Lord. That’s the only way to do it. Crusade. I went to
Sergio Carriel (15:32):
Uganda. I had no money, but I sold my car. Wow. I sold my car
(15:39):
And I did the crusade in Uganda. Wow. Yeah. Another crusade that I did in Mozambique. And I borrow money from the bank. I asked my sister-in-law helping me, and she asked the bank to borrow money for her, and she gave the money for me, but I could not pay her. But God raised one sponsor every month before the day before to pay the law. That money was in my account. Wow. Yeah. So now it’s not necessary. I am blessed because more people is helping me and trust in the vision that God gave me, believe in the dreams and the vision that God gave me. But still, I have some challenges, but I never give up. Amen. Never.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (16:49):
Amen. And I believe God will continue to give you more and more resources to use for his kingdom. Amen. Because now you have shown yourself faithful. So how many years have you been working in Africa now?
Sergio Carriel (17:03):
19 years. Wow. 19 years. Wow. Since 2006. I continue to trust in the Lord and feel compassion for soul and dreams about reach more cultures in Africa, more crusades, more seminars, more outreach, more evangelism, more training.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (17:29):
Amen. Well, let’s finish by saying a prayer for God to raise up more missionaries from Brazil. And instead of praying in English, why don’t you pray in Portuguese and pray that God will raise up many missionaries from Brazil to go to the nations of the world. Amen,
Sergio Carriel (19:12):
Man.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (19:14):
Brother, thank you so much for being on the Evangelism podcast. Welcome, sir.
Lucas Teodoro and his organization Aviva is focused on evangelism and youth outreach on university campuses in Brazil. Aviva has been active for 5 years, reaching over 9,000 university students in Brazil’s largest federal universities. They organize weekly “evangelism flows” led by students to continue the outreach efforts. They recently conducted their first large crusade event in Rio de Janeiro, which saw over 2,000 decisions for Christ. The core message they preach is the gospel of Jesus Christ, seeking to address the challenges facing Brazilian youth like depression, anxiety, and family problems. Despite facing opposition and threats on some campuses, the team remains committed to boldly sharing the gospel with university students across the country. The organization’s name “Aviva” means “revival” in English, and their vision is to expand these crusade and campus outreach efforts globally.
Learn more about Lucas Teodoro: https://www.instagram.com/lucasteodoroficial/
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. Have a very special guest with me. Lucas, thank you for being on the Evangelism Podcast.
Lucas Teodoro (00:14):
Lucas, thank you. Thank you. I’m very happy for to be here with you, with your friends. Now please
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:22):
Tell me your full name. My name is Lucas Teodoro. Okay. And we also have my friend who is a pastor and he’s going to help us translate. So can you tell me your full name as well?
Translator (00:36):
Yes, I’m Jas Carvallo. My pleasure to translate for you to be here.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:41):
You have been working on the university campuses here in Brazil and God is moving. Tell me, what have you seen God do on the
Translator (00:51):
University campuses in Brazil? We have started in three years in the universities, but for
Lucas Teodoro (01:09):
Five years
Translator (01:12):
We started first in the schools. I was a student myself
Lucas Teodoro (01:17):
And
Translator (01:17):
Now I am a college
Lucas Teodoro (01:18):
Student
Translator (01:22):
And we are very glad to lead this missionary organization called Aviva
Lucas Teodoro (01:28):
Scholars University Arts in to,
Translator (01:30):
We are preaching in schools and universities all over the country. Only this year
Lucas Teodoro (01:35):
In university,
Translator (01:36):
In services, in the universities
Lucas Teodoro (01:40):
University.
Translator (01:41):
We have United more than 9,000 university
Lucas Teodoro (01:45):
Students. NA University, that’s federalized
Translator (01:48):
In the biggest federal universities of the country,
Lucas Teodoro (01:52):
Jacket.
Translator (01:54):
But the truth is that all of this is started right there in so I was serious student back there. And today, besides that, we are implementing the flows in all over the country.
Lucas Teodoro (02:13):
Evangelism flows are weekly meetings of evangelism
Translator (02:19):
And they’re led by their own students
Lucas Teodoro (02:23):
Serve.
Translator (02:25):
So this big reunion is to encourage them and the flows are the continuation of this weekly.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:38):
And recently you did your first crusade and I saw a picture, it was inside a big tent and it was full of people. What did
Translator (02:49):
God do at the Crusade?
Lucas Teodoro (03:01):
This was our first crusade.
Translator (03:08):
Today we have a team where we have most of the volunteers, the members, they are all university students. We took 90 college students to Rio in Brazil.
Lucas Teodoro (03:26):
It
Translator (03:26):
Was six months to organize everything,
Lucas Teodoro (03:30):
Bringing
Translator (03:31):
All the churches of the city together. The city was, we reunited all these churches in two days of conference, preparing them to reach the loss. So in one week we entered in all the schools of the city to preach the gospel.
Lucas Teodoro (04:01):
And
Translator (04:01):
During the weekend we did the crusade and we had more than 2000 decisions for Christ. Praise Lord. Lord, praise
Lucas Teodoro (04:11):
Our first crusade.
Translator (04:13):
Your
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:13):
First crusade was a big success, but it’ll not be your last crusade. God will give you many more to come. What is the main message that God has given you as you go into the schools, as you go to the university, what is the message that you share with the young people?
Translator (04:43):
We preach
Lucas Teodoro (04:44):
Only the gospel.
Translator (04:48):
We speak about what Christ did on that cross. And when we look to the reality in Brazil today, we see a generation facing a lot of difficulties, depression, anxiety,
Lucas Teodoro (05:04):
Family
Translator (05:04):
Problems. So we bring the cross as an, we preach about Jesus and we invite these people to receive,
Lucas Teodoro (05:17):
To
Translator (05:18):
Repeat from their sins and to give their lives to Jesus
Lucas Teodoro (05:24):
Because
Translator (05:24):
He’s the only way in the truth in the lives. And then we see this big result. People are repenting. They’re giving their lives to Jesus.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:41):
In the United States, we just had a big tragedy happened. There was an organization called Turning Point that was going to the university campus led by Charlie Kirk. And Charlie Kirk was shot. And many people say that he was very controversial, but he was preaching the gospel. And are you ever worried that preaching the gospel could create controversy here in Brazil? And are you worried for your life?
Translator (06:37):
We are united multitudes. A lot of people crowd. Last university last week we had 3000 young people in one service in the college. My system, and people are
Lucas Teodoro (06:54):
Talking about this a lot here, but we believe God, we believe that
Translator (07:06):
He has appointed us to preach in college. The truth is that the risks are real. We are going in an environment where people don’t want to hear about.
Lucas Teodoro (07:24):
And
Translator (07:24):
We suffered some threats in universities.
Lucas Teodoro (07:27):
Mrs. At three months ago,
Translator (07:32):
A group of students just kicked us out of the university. We were just gathering around to restart
Lucas Teodoro (07:43):
This.
Translator (07:51):
So they created at that moment a kind of retaliation towards us and they went to the office of the university. And then when I got there,
Lucas Teodoro (08:04):
There
Translator (08:05):
Was a whole team, a whole crew there, ready to expel us. So we decided together in front of the university and also they just kicked us. And in the end of the story, we just went to the middle of the street and right there we had more than 700 college
Lucas Teodoro (08:33):
Students.
Translator (08:34):
They were thirsty to hear the gospel message. So we had the cars passing by and when they saw that we were gathering to have a service, some of them would just open the window and spit and they would say curse words, a lot of bad words.
Lucas Teodoro (08:59):
And
Translator (08:59):
In the middle of
Lucas Teodoro (09:00):
All this,
Translator (09:03):
My joy is to know that many people gave their lives to
Lucas Teodoro (09:06):
Jesus in
Translator (09:08):
The doors of hell will not prevail you against the church.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:12):
Amen. We are together in Brazil right now in the city of Ja del Norte Del. And we have just finished a conference called Everyone with the evangelist Rubens Kya, who’s a great evangelist here in Brazil and a good friend of mine. And last night he was preaching from the Book of Acts and he said that we should not pray to be comfortable, but we should pray for boldness to share the gospel. And I think that’s very true in these times that we need to pray that God would give us boldness. And so I pray for your protection, but I also pray that God will give you great boldness in sharing the gospel. And so you’ve been talking to Reuben’s Kya and he’s been talking to you. What are some of the things that you’ve been learning from him?
Translator (10:15):
Everyone conference, I mean, what’s the last question?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (10:35):
What are some of the lessons that you’ve been learning by being around? Rub
Lucas Teodoro (10:48):
Rubens
Translator (10:48):
Was a great gift from God for
Lucas Teodoro (10:50):
Me,
Translator (10:51):
And I have learned a lot with him and he has a very teachable heart. He loves teaching and I have learned, I have been learning this
Lucas Teodoro (11:05):
With,
Translator (11:08):
Which is to transfer, to teach others what God has taught me and then I can lead others. Rubens is humble, he’s organized, and his ministry creates a very organized structure. And I have learned from this a lot of things as a young person. So my ministry has only five years. I’m learning many things. I’m learning how to organize. I’m learning how to manage, how to lead these gospel events, but all of this with and always putting Jesus in front of
Lucas Teodoro (11:57):
Me.
Translator (12:00):
Yes, I am used to say that my job is not to get in the midst of Yes, of God’s work, let him do the work. He’s the one who does. Yes.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (12:11):
So you are very young, but God has already gifted you and given you many opportunities. But God has given you a vision for the future. And I believe that God will raise up a generation of young people here in Brazil who are on fire for God. What has God put on your heart for the future? What is the vision that God has given you for the years to come?
Translator (12:56):
Well, our hearts burns about doing crusades all over the world.
Lucas Teodoro (13:03):
Scholar University labs
Translator (13:04):
And also through the Crusades we’ll be able to reach schools and universities. God speaks to us a lot about education because we believe that education transforms our society. So we want to take this all over the world. We want to invest in schools and in universities doing great crusade gospel campaigns across the world.
Lucas Teodoro (13:38):
And
Translator (13:38):
I believe these in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (13:43):
If someone wants to find out more about your movement or learn more about you, what is the way for them to find you on Instagram?
Translator (14:00):
Instagram You can come and access my Instagram page,
Lucas Teodoro (14:06):
Lucas.
Translator (14:07):
It’s Lucas Ro official and in our organizational, our organization, missionary Institution, Instagram,
Lucas Teodoro (14:19):
Aviva Official,
Translator (14:20):
Which is called Aviva. That’s it.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (14:25):
And what does Aviva mean in
Translator (14:26):
English? Aviva means revival.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (14:29):
Revival. Rev. Amen. Revival. Well, let’s finish by praying for revival and I want to ask you to especially pray for the young people of Brazil. So pray on Portuguese, but give us a good, powerful prayer that God would send revival to the young people of
Translator (14:48):
Brazil. Transl.
Lucas Teodoro (15:03):
Yeah, that’s transl. Jesus.
Translator (15:06):
Jesus, thank you. Thank you for this generation. You have raisin. You know who is watching this video now,
Lucas Teodoro (15:17):
Jesus
Translator (15:18):
And I declare right now in Jesus’ name,
Lucas Teodoro (15:21):
A
Translator (15:21):
New portion of your presence.
Lucas Teodoro (15:25):
May
Translator (15:25):
They be bold feel of the Holy Spirit
Lucas Teodoro (15:30):
To
Translator (15:30):
Reach their school in their university. In Jesus name, we believe Lord. And we call out to you for a crown of students thirsty for your presence. In Jesus name, we are available for this mission. In Jesus name. Amen. Amen.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:55):
Lucas, thank you for being on the Evangelism podcast. I’m very happy. Do you want to say something in English? One last,
Lucas Teodoro (16:01):
Yes. I’m learning English and my dream, my dreams to preach in English. I believe that the next year I will preach in English.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (16:11):
I believe it’ll be true. I believe
Lucas Teodoro (16:12):
I’m learning.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (16:13):
You speak good English. Thank you. I’m learning. But I so love your spirit and what God is doing for you. It’s so beautiful.
Lucas Teodoro (16:21):
Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (16:23):
Thank you.
Lucas Teodoro (16:23):
I’m very happy to be here with you. Thank you for this opportunity and God bless you so much.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (16:30):
I look forward to seeing in the years to come what God will do through your ministry. It’ll be so beautiful to see. And so just keep running as hard as you can after God.
Translator (16:40):
Amen. Amen. You the,
Lucas Teodoro (16:49):
Come on. Come on, let’s go. Let’s go. Let’s go.
Lana Vasquez is a missionary in Thailand who runs an international organization that rescues and cares for sexually exploited children in Thailand and Brazil. Her organization, Life Impact International, rescues, protects, and provides long-term care for vulnerable children, while also sharing the gospel with them.
Learn more about Lana Vasquez: https://lifeimpactintl.org/
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 with me, Lana Vasquez. Thank you so much for being on the Evangelism Podcast.
Lana Vasquez (00:10):
Thank you for having me.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:12):
Now you and I are friends from Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Lana Vasquez (00:14):
Yes, sir.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:15):
And you know my wife Jessica?
Lana Vasquez (00:17):
Yes.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:17):
And you are living in Thailand?
Lana Vasquez (00:20):
Yes, sir.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:21):
And so tell me about how God took you to Thailand.
Lana Vasquez (00:26):
Yeah, so honestly I had never heard about Thailand before. I got radically saved at 19. I knew for the rest of my life that I was supposed to do two things. I was supposed to protect children internationally, vulnerable at risk, exploited children because what had happened to me in my childhood and that I was supposed to tell as many people about Jesus before the age 19 because nobody ever told me. I was born and raised in Southern California and I never heard the gospel. Nobody ever invited me to church until I was 19. So I knew that I was rescue to rescue. I knew that that would be my life. And God did a quick work and I went to Bible school in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and I went from California to the first ever of my family to leave California, go to Tulsa, was there.
(01:09):
While I was in Tulsa, I started hearing about children being trafficked in Thailand. I started hearing about eight year olds virginity going for as much as $3,000. I started hearing about children in the Red Light district of Bangkok and that being sold to businessmen and that businessmen would sleep with their children to bring good luck. Or if they had HIV, they believed that if you slept with a child that it could take away HIV or you couldn’t get HIV for a child. But I just heard these things and something in my heart broke and I knew I had to do something. Simultaneously, I heard a missionary from Sa Paulo, Brazil, talk about the street kids in Sao Paulo talk about five-year-olds walking around sniffing glue to kill the hunger pains because glue was cheaper than food and there’s more kids on the streets than food in the dumpsters.
(01:53):
And I just heard about how the store owners would pay off the lease to line ’em up, massacre, and you could smell the rotting bodies of children in the open sewages of South Paulo, Brazil. At that time, my heart just exploded. I knew I needed to do something and I knew that I was supposed to work with exploited children internationally. So while I was there, I was praying and God gave me a hundred Psalms 127 verses three through five as arrows in the hand of a mighty man. So children of the youth, they will not be ashamed, but they’ll subdue and conquer the enemy at the gate. And I knew God was speaking in my heart to do children’s homes in these countries and different countries that I was hearing all these exploitations and abuses with children. And I said, but God, I’m an evangelist.
(02:33):
I want to win hundreds, thousands, millions to you. I don’t want to just have a little daycare for a God daycare, a little children’s home and have 10 kids and float to heaven singing kumbaya. My Lord. When Jesus comes back, I said, I want to have maximum impact for you. And he spoke to me and said, in the Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu nations of the world, there are generations who don’t know me. You’ll raise up a generation to know me and that generation will make me known to their own nation. And I knew what I was supposed to do. I was supposed to go into different nations, close nations and reach that nation through the children that we would reach rescue and raise up a generation to know him. And that generation would make him known to their own nation and stop the evils of trafficking, exploitation, slavery in their own nation.
(03:17):
I knew that I had a picture of that. I was only 23 years old. I had never been on a missions trip. I was radically saved from the clubs of Hollywood. So I didn’t know what ministry was missions, I didn’t know any of these things. I just had this blueprint and this download and I knew what I was supposed to do. I knew I was rescue to rescue. And so in that time I was just praying it out. All of these pieces of the puzzle I say or like I connect the dots. All these dots were being connected in my life. And there came an opportunity to go on a mission trip to Thailand, and this is where I heard that eight year olds there, Virginia had been sold for $3,000 in the red light district to Bangkok. And so I knew I was supposed to go.
(03:54):
So I committed two months and then I was going to go end up in Brazil and be a missionary in Brazil with these three kids in Sao Paulo. I’d already planned I was going to go two months to Thailand and then I’d end up in Brazil. And so I got there, went to Thailand on this missions trip, and a little face came up to me, a 14-year-old girl and she said, I don’t have a mom. You don’t have a daughter from the state forth. I’m your mom and I’m your daughter and you’re my mom. And I couldn’t leave those kids. I became mama to 52 kids at 24 years old and the rest is history. I two months turned to six months, six months turned into a year and a half, a year and a half into it. I had went with other missionaries and they had said, children’s homes are expensive.
(04:33):
We do church planning, bible school planning where we can’t do homes anymore. It’s straining our budget. We’re going to hand these homes over. And I said, you can’t do this to these children. They don’t have anywhere to go. They don’t have any, but I’m their mom, they’re my children. We can’t do it. I said, would you pray about handing the home over to me, handing the homes? It was a boys and girls home over to me. And they said, how are you going to support? I said, I don’t know. And I was there with three other single missionary girls who put all our money together. We lived with the children and we took over the home. So at 24 I became mama to 52 kids, and at 25 and a half I became the responsible for two children’s homes and an international organization. And the rest is history.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:14):
How long have you been there now?
Lana Vasquez (05:15):
24 years. So two months turned into 24 years.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:18):
Wow. It’s so valuable what you’re doing. I’ve been back and forth to Thailand several times this year and we did an outreach in Patalia.
(05:27):
And so we were setting up our sound system in one night market, and as we were setting it up, an older woman drove up on a motorcycle. She had a little girl on the back of her motorcycle, probably 10 or 11 years old, and she sent this little girl over to talk to us because we were foreigners. And this little girl had her fingernails done super long full makeup and dressed in scanty clothing, and she was there to offer herself to us. And so we were there with several pastors who loved the women there and try to rescue women in Patalia. And we spent 20 minutes talking to this little girl and it broke my heart so much because she’s the age of my daughter. And for that to happen to a little girl is so horrific. And so what you’re doing is so valuable rescuing them and giving them a hope and a purpose for their life. Yeah. Thank you. So not only are you working in Thailand, but now God has brought you back to Brazil. So your vision for Brazil is coming to pass.
Lana Vasquez (06:45):
Yes.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (06:45):
And right now we’re actually in Brazil at a conference where we’re talking about reaching everyone in Brazil for Jesus. And so what are you doing here in Brazil
Lana Vasquez (06:54):
With Brazil? So Thailand, when I was there every year, I’d say, God is a time for Brazilian here. No, not yet. No, not yet. So every year I waited and I just put on the shelf and we got property from the Thai Chinese Burmese Mafia, actually it’s called the Promised Land. It was supposed to be a brothel gambling casino resort. And we got this land, and I remember signing for the land to be under the Thai foundation’s name to protect it from the mafia or trying to come back or anything happening. So I remember I had to make some big legal things. I had to set up a foundation and I had to be the chairman on the foundation to protect it and protect all of it. So remember signing my name, and that meant I had to stay in Thailand permanently. And I just said to the Lord, I guess Brazil was just what you used to get me to work with exploited children internationally.
(07:43):
That’s how you brought the mess of exploited children to my heart and broke my heart with that. So I just lay it down, I put it on the shelf, I just give it back to you. I lay my Isaac on the altar so to say, and I remember signing my name to be the chairman and then to stay in Thailand for the rest of my life and everything like that. And I signed that piece of paper. And not too long after somebody that I went to bible school with a Brazilian pastor, he contacted me. He said, I heard what you’re doing with the children of Thailand. The children of Brazil are calling out to you. The Brazil needs life impact. The children of Brazil needs you here. And I didn’t. Thailand’s number one, it’s known in the world for child exploitation, actually has the largest amount of children forced into prostitution, children being sexually exploited for sex. Slavery is Thailand. That was the number one number. And I didn’t realize that Brazil was right up there with Thailand. Nobody would ever think about that for Brazil. So anyways, he called me and said, wherever you’re at in the world, we’ll fly you here. So we came to Brazil and at that time we went from one side to the other, and Brazil’s a big country. It’s the size of America, minus Alaska
(08:51):
With different states just like America. And we went from the top to bottom looking for the next place or how we were going to help the children of Brazil. And every story that I heard was worse than the other. And we had already rescued, we had rescue homes. My youngest victim was a year and a half boy when we took off his diaper, he had been messed with. My first girl ate, my first rescue girl was an 8-year-old girl, sold for $24. And so we had experienced so much, but when I came to Brazil, the stories and what I heard, the stories were worse than the other. And I just knew we needed to do something. And so in that, when I landed, and I always say it like this, you be faithful with what got put in your hands. He gave me Thailand and he gave me Burma, the wars that were on the Thai Burma border. And we have homes both on the Thai side and the Burmese side and how human trafficking works. Whatever the poor nation is, the children are trafficked and sold into the more wealthier nation.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:46):
And right now many refugees are coming from Burma over into Thailand. And so they’re very vulnerable,
Lana Vasquez (09:52):
Very vulnerable. I mean, we have moms selling baby auction off babies even in their belly on the border right now. So we have babies. We’re the only ones that will rescue babies. And so babies are going, they go for as little as 500 Bob, which is $18 you can buy a baby. Twin girls are considered good luck. So they’re a little bit more, there’ll be about 10,000 bought, which is roughly $300, $350 around there. So at that time, I was faithful with what God put in my hands, which was Thailand and Burma, but I still carried Brazil in my heart. So we came here and once we saw all of this, I knew that now was the time for Brazil. So six years later, we’re in three locations, we’re in the Amazon in the interior. We’re the first safe home in the interior of the Amazon.
(10:38):
It’s a place that you have to fly very stealth. And in that area, because of the trafficking, we just rescued a two month old boy that was sold for 300 hays to the drug traffickers. Oh wow. That’s about $5. The mom had 12 kids we’re investigating. We’re trying to look for a boy who was sold at two, he’s now four. They brought us in for investigation. While we were there, we found a baby that she was already in negotiations with the drug traffickers. And then she was also auctioning off the baby in her belly. So we’re there. We just rescued a 12-year-old girl, 11-year-old boy, 7-year-old boy. And then I have another 13-year-old girl there right now, the first safe woman interior of the Amazon. The government has already come to us and they basically said, okay, will you do what you’re doing in now the capitol?
(11:23):
And the only question we’re going to have next, we guarantee you it will be filled in two months. And the only question that we have next is, will you start another home? So we’re working, and it’s a crucial area. People don’t realize this, but the Amazon is known for sex trafficking in the fishing boats, in the fishing industry. So there’s actually companies that go from Florida in Miami to leave out of Miami to the Amazon for this purpose of sex trafficking. What they’ll do is they go to the shores of the poor villages along the water, they send their kids out to these yachts. I was there, I saw a middle aged man come out in Speedos with a drink in his hand, and cat called to the 10, 11-year-old girls that were swimming in the little lagoon right there. So it’s known for this basically.
(12:07):
And what they’ll do is they’ll pull up to the shores, they’ll send their kids out, and these little rickety canoe boats, the kids will go onto that big yacht. They’ll have these big parties and if something goes wrong, they’ll tie something heavy around them and throw them on the other side into the water. They’ll send back that rickety canoe with a pile full of money to buy the parents silence. And then they’ll never know. Nobody will ever hear. I was actually there when that happened to one of the girls we were trying to rescue. And so they call it an epidemic in the Amazon. One out of every two children in some villages are being sexually exploited. And then my Tim took me into one room where all these 10, 11, 12, 13 year olds, they’re sitting with babies on their lap. And I’m used to it in Asia because the older brothers or sisters will take care of their little brother or sister.
(12:51):
And I asked them, is this their brothers and sisters? And they said, no, these are their children. One of the girls that I rescued right now that’s in our home, she’s 12 years old and she’s pregnant from her stepfather while her mom is pregnant by her stepfather as well. So she’s pregnant at the same time as her mom is, and it’s just an epidemic there of proportions. And so we’re there in the Amazon, we have a prevention project right next to the Red light district. We’re in Rio de Janero and we got a crack house and we turned it into a prevention center and one of the most dangerous faves in the world called City of God. There’s documentaries about it. I got to pray for the number three. Basically up in the rankings of the drug traffickers, they came, they saw what we were doing on our opening day.
(13:34):
We had 800 kids there. They came in, their kids come to our project too. And he walked in and he said, can I meet with you? And I went to the side and we start talking and all of a sudden the Lord told me to pray for him. I said, can I pray for you? And he got all serious and said yes. And I said, can I put my hand on your arm and pray for you? Got even more serious, said yes. So I started praying for him and I said, thank you, God, that the blood of your one and only son is more powerful than the blood that’s on our hands. And it can wash away any blood that’s on our hands, anything that we have committed that we have done with our hands. And the guy started to shake. So then I preached the gospel in prayer and I said, and whoever calls on the name of Jesus shall be saved, so Jesus will be call and you save us.
(14:14):
And all of a sudden he opened his eyes and I opened my eyes and I didn’t know what was going to happen. I thought he was going to kill me or something. And we looked at each other and his eyes were full of water. And he said, I’ve never seen anything like this before. He said, but if you continue doing what you’re doing with these children, I promise you you will never have a problem with us and we will continue to protect us. Two years later, they protect us. The drug traffickers protect us. There’s one way going in and going out. They know who we are. We have our life impact little minivan. And when we stop, a little 16-year-old with an AK 47 looks in and he hits our head and they say, hi auntie. Hi auntie. So they know we’re reaching 350 kids there, 250 in the Amazon.
(14:51):
And then lastly, in the place that we’re at right now, Jo Che, the Northeast, which is the capital for child exploitation in Brazil, it’s known it’s an oversexualization of a generation. And this is an area that is still has starvation, that is still destitute, that is still very much in poverty. And so kids will sell their bodies for rice and beans in Thailand, kids are traffic. But here, kids freely sell their bodies for rice and beans. It is just what they know. The little girls know that they can sell their bodies for a cell phone or cell phone minutes. So it’s this that they know that they can do in this region in the desperation. The poverty is so horrible that they know the only way that they can get these things is through their bodies. So we set up shop here, we got a flip-flop factory, turned it into a prevention center, and we’re seeing another 350 kids weekly in the prevention center here. We feed them two warm meals so they don’t have to sell their bodies for rice and beans. We give them Jesus, most of all. So we’re seeing a thousand children now weekly in Brazil alone.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:49):
Wow, that’s so amazing. Sex trafficking is a huge problem, and especially when it happens to the young girls and young boys, it really tears at your heart. But I’m so thankful that God has provided you to help give an answer to this horrible problem. If someone’s listening and they want to help to support you or hear more about what God is doing through your ministry, what is a good website where they can find out about you?
Lana Vasquez (16:20):
Yeah, so Life impact international.org, international INTL. They can go there. We’re on all the social media, but look us up there. We have a whole thing Prevent Rescue Heal so they can get involved in one of our prevention projects, support one of our prevention projects. They could support the rescuing of a new child, or they can provide long-term support for their healing and their aftercare in Thailand, Burma, and Brazil.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (16:45):
Awesome. Well, thank you so much for being on the Evangelism Podcast. Thank you.
Janio Cesar da Silva is a Brazilian evangelist who has been preaching the gospel in Brazil and around the world for over 25 years. Today we discuss what God is doing in Brazil.
Summary:
Connect with Janio: https://www.instagram.com/janiocesar/reels/
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 am in Brazil with a great Brazilian evangelist, Janio da Silva.
Janio da Silva (00:13):
Yes.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:13):
Can you say it the proper way? Jano Da Silva. Alright. And we are at In Everyone conference with our friend Rubens Cunha. And we have been here challenging evangelist s in Brazil to reach people for Jesus. And so let’s begin at the beginning. Tell me a little bit about yourself and what God has been doing in your life.
Janio da Silva (00:38):
Wow, this is a pleasure for me to stay here to, he’s like a legend for me because I love so much him. So my name is Jean DeSilva. I left here in the country in Brazil for many years, but today I’m living there in the US also Oklahoma. He’s my neighbor there. And we have some conference here in Brazil and around the world, around 50 country. I’ve been preaching in Crusades conferences, big churches, and as outdoor my books, I need to go to some places, school, Bible schools. That is just a little bit about me.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:18):
And so here in Brazil, you’ve been teaching at the RMA schools?
Janio da Silva (01:23):
Yes.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:24):
There are many thousands of RMA students across
Janio da Silva (01:27):
Brazil. I think they have more than 12,000 enrolled today. Wow. Here in Brazil or in 130 campuses all over the
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:37):
Country. And tell me the names of some of the books that you’ve written.
Janio da Silva (01:40):
Yes. I have one book that is used by a lot of Bible schools here in Portuguese. The name is Understanding God’s character In English. We put a different name, like Understand God’s Reveal Self. This is one of the most famous here. They said it is a bestseller here in Brazil.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:04):
Wow. Now, last night we were sitting together eating some pizza and you began to share your testimony of how God called you and how you gave your life to Jesus. Can you tell me some about that?
Janio da Silva (02:17):
Yes. When I was 17 years old, I think I was in depression. I don’t know that. But I was asking help for my soul and someone lent me, gave one New Testament. When I start to read that I felt my sins and I call out Jesus to save my life and he saved. And I said, I need to share with everyone. And someone lent me a book called You Are God’s Best.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:48):
By Dr. Tio Osborne, the great evangelist, great missionary evangelist.
Janio da Silva (02:51):
When I read that, I said, I need to share with the people. I need to share this gospel around the world. And I start to go, no money with nothing. Go to the street, go to the plazas, go to the parks to preach Jesus and Jesus start to heal the people. And after that we start to do in a different way, in gymnasiums doing some crusades, we start Church, planet Church. And after that they called me to be a Bible college professor. So it has been like 25 years ago when I started.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (03:26):
And so right now you are serving with the Osborne Ministries. Tell me about that and what you have learned from being around Dr. LaDonna Osborne.
Janio da Silva (03:37):
Yes. God called me to preach as I was reading the book, ebe from Dr. Thi Osborne. And after a while when I was there in the US I have this connection. I have the privilege to stay with Dr. LaDonna in several countries. They’re in the US in the same church. I’m working with them at the same church and abroad also. And for me, it’s a privilege to stay with the people who most I know that is the people who love people. They love people, they love nation’s culture. It’s a very pleasure for me because it’s like I’m returning to that place that one day got called me to preach by one of them. And right now I’m side by side with the daughter of the great t Osborn. And she’s amazing. One of the best preachers that I heard. She’s a teacher, one of the best.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:35):
Yeah. And I think what you said about how the Osborne family is known for loving people
Janio da Silva (04:41):
Yes.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:42):
Is such a key to being successful in ministry because sometimes you think ministry is about being on the platform, seeing lots of results. But really ministry comes down to bringing the love of God to one person. And if you can’t demonstrate it through your own
Janio da Silva (05:00):
Life,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:00):
Why are you preaching for Jesus? Like Jesus loves you, you should love others.
Janio da Silva (05:06):
When Dr. LaDonna asked me to stay with her, my English was terrible. Today is not 100%, but look at this. I was with her and she said, just tell something to me. I was saying to her, she said, no, no, no, no. You must say that word, another word to reach the people. You must say in this way. And he taught me how to speak English. This is love because was a foreigner. I was a guy from another place. She never knew about me. And right now, oh, I will help him even to preach in my own language. That is awesome. This is the love of God for something.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:46):
Wow. What are some other things that you’ve learned from being around the Osborn Ministries? Another
Janio da Silva (05:51):
Thing is they have never, you have nothing about one for bad news about them. They are people that you can trust. They are people that we can say, we will be like them without restrictions. It’s like a dream to stay with someone that will say, because sometimes we are with someone and said, oh, I want to have like that. But not that part with them, the character, the history, how they treat people. There’s, we have sometimes a king, a senator or someone very important and we have a beggar. She will treat them at the same love. With the same love because of that. For me, it’s very special. You can’t feel you are more than other people if you are walking with the family, Osborne family because they are very humble.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (06:57):
Now, we are here in Brazil right now, and I love the church in Brazil. The Church of Brazil is on fire for God. And I believe that God has great plans for the Church of Brazil. Tell me what you feel God is doing here in Brazil right now and what God wants to do in the next few years.
Janio da Silva (07:18):
I think Brazil, we have one of the greatest revival of the entire world. I know the US has the foundation of the gospel.
(07:29):
So you can see many people without the revival, but they are living a good life with Jesus. But here everything is very new because when I receive Jesus in my town, only 2% was Christian. Today half of the people are Christian like us, so it only in 27 years. So we have a burning fire revival here in Brazil. But I think the next step for Brazil is the foundation to have character, a good way of reli. I think it’s the next step because the foundation will keep you to stay on fire every time. I think it’s the foundation is the next step for Brazil. We need that.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:16):
Wow. Well, if someone wants to know more about your ministry or get connected to you, what is your Instagram if they want to find you? You can find me in two
Janio da Silva (08:26):
Different ways. On website is jc w.org jc w.org. But most of my information is they’re in my Instagram, just put their J-A-N-I-O, Cesar, C-E-S-A-R. And Deto on my Instagram you can see miracles where I’m preaching the big conferences and sometimes I’m preaching in English. I’m preaching in Spanish and in Portuguese. And you can’t just
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:58):
Follow. Well, let’s finish by praying for Brazil and why don’t you pray in Portuguese? Wow, that’s
Janio da Silva (09:07):
Easy for me
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:07):
Because I know you are three times as anointed in Portuguese.
Janio da Silva (09:12):
Yeah,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:13):
Because it just flows. So Yeah. But your English is, when I first met you, you didn’t speak any English at all. Yes, I was. We spoke in Spanish and now you speak a good English and God has blessed you and you are preaching in English. And I believe God will give you more and more voice in the English speaking
Janio da Silva (09:32):
World. Amen. Jesus name.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:34):
But let’s pray in Portuguese. Let’s pray in Portuguese.
Janio da Silva (09:36):
Okay. It’s everything. Very good for your life, Jesus. Amen.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (10:16):
Amen. Well, thank you for being on the Evangelism podcast. Thank you for having me. I love you, and I look forward to seeing what we can do together in Jesus. God has brought us together now, and I believe that together we could do something really great for
Janio da Silva (10:30):
God in Jesus mein. You.
Nick Hall leads Pulse Evangelism. His passion is leading people to Jesus and a few years ago his ministry launched the Pulse 100 to train young evangelists how to share the Gospel. Nick’s ministry has had a big impact here in America and around the world and on today’s episode of The Evangelism Podcast Nick Hall shares the story of how he was called to be an evangelist and some of his strategies for raising up a new generation of evangelists.
Nick Hall is the leader of Pulse evangelism, a ministry focused on training young evangelists to share the gospel. He received a call to evangelism as a teenager and has been pursuing this calling for over 25 years. Hall founded Pulse in 2006 with the goals of uniting the church, equipping people to share the gospel, and reaching the lost.
The key features of Pulse’s ministry are:
Hall sees a great need and opportunity for a new generation of evangelists to rise up and reach their peers and communities with the gospel. He believes God is pouring out an anointing and raising up a youth movement of evangelists in America and around the world.
Learn More About Nick Hall: https://www.nickhall.com/
Learn More About Pulse Evangelism: https://www.pulse.org/
Transcript:
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:00):
Nick Hall leads Pulse evangelism. His passion is leading people to Jesus. And a few years ago, his ministry launched the Pulse 100 to train young evangelists how to share the gospel. Nick’s ministry has had a big impact here in America and around the world. And on today’s episode of the Evangelism Podcast, Nick Hall shares the story of how he was called to be an evangelist and some of his strategies for raising up a new generation of evangelists.
(00:41):
Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Evangelism Podcast Host (00:46):
Welcome to the Evangelism Podcast with Dr. Daniel King, where Daniel interviews full-time evangelists, pastors, missionaries and normal everyday Christians to discover how they share their faith, their powerful testimonies and amazing stories that will inspire you to reach people with the good news. And now here’s your host, missionary, and evangelist
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:09):
Daniel King. Welcome to the Evangelism Podcast. I’m Daniel King. I’m excited about telling people about Jesus today. I have a very special guest with me, Nick Hall. Thank you so much for joining me on the Evangelism Podcast.
Nick Hall (01:22):
Hey Daniel, man, so glad to be here. Love the podcast and excited to be a part.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:28):
Well, thank you so much. You have been doing evangelism across America and around the world, and I’m really excited about how you’re training young evangelists through Pulse 100 and it’s really amazing what your ministry has been doing. I’ve had the privilege of attending several of your events that you’ve done in different parts of the United States, and it’s just so amazing to see the impact of your ministry. But I was thinking today we could start all the way back at the beginning and could you tell us a little bit about how you received your call from God to be an evangelist?
Nick Hall (02:08):
Yeah, man, it’s going down memory lane here. I love it. So my story as an evangelist goes way back to when I was a little kid. I prayed with my mom to receive Jesus and put my trust in him. And right away when I was a little kid, I just wanted everybody to know Jesus. So my joke is I had to go to church to learn not to share my faith. And the reason was I just always wanted people to know Jesus. I always wanted to share the gospel. And it wasn’t until I got around Christians that I realized that was kind of weird. So my story then was going to church, being involved in youth group, always wrestling with this passion and trying to fit in. And it was really when I was probably 14, 15 years old that I had a youth pastor that said to me, Nick, I think you’re called into evangelism.
(03:12):
And he just saw this boldness and this desire to share the gospel and he kind of called it out. So that’s the first time I can remember anybody affirming that in me. Fast forward a few years later, I’m 18, I’m a freshman in college and I was on a college basketball scholarship and God was just after my life in a way I hadn’t known before. And it really was for me, this crossroads moment of what am I going to live for? What am I going to be loud about? And really in a prayer chapel on this private university I was at, I really surrendered to this call that I’m on earth to tell people about Jesus. So I was 18 years old and that was really for me, the end of a lot of things that I was pursuing in the beginning of a new journey of just saying, God, wherever you want me to go, whatever you want me to do, I just want to be obedient. And so now I’m 43, so it’s been 25 years of running down this road, traveling the world. In the early days it was saying yes to any invitation and also going to learn from anyone who was doing it. So I would just travel my spring breaks, my summer breaks, any opportunity I had, if Billy Graham was somewhere, if Louis Pau was somewhere, if Josh McDowell was somewhere, I would just be there on their hip trying to learn. And so that’s kind of how I got into this.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:46):
And then talk me through what happened as you began to grow your ministry and developing the vision for what you’re doing today.
Nick Hall (04:59):
Yeah, so my context, again, all of us are coming from different places. Part of my call was I felt like I was supposed to transfer schools. So I transferred from this private school that had a more Christian foundation to a secular university back home. And when I did that, I was there trying to reach this campus, North Dakota State University. It was about 14,000 students. There was 25,000 college kids in our community. And of the 25,000, we counted somewhere around 700 that were involved in anything Christian. And so again, during this time, I’m traveling and learning under Billy Graham and learning under Luis Palau, and I’m traveling to preach in small towns, but this campus, these people that I’m around every day don’t know Jesus. And there’s this huge drop off. There’s a huge decline that happens in university where a lot of Christian kids who grow up in a home where they knew the Lord, a lot of them leave their faith in that 18 to 25-year-old window.
(06:05):
And so I ended up writing a paper in my English class in the fall of 2004, and the paper was really like this burning longing desire in my heart to reach my friends. And the paper was titled Pulse. And that paper really began a movement on our campus. We had 8,000 students come out to these different events, had 1200 students respond to the gospel and was really never trying to start an organization or a ministry. This was really about, man, how do we reach the people in our backyard? And so that paper though, and that initiative resulted in students all over America asking us for help. And so here I am, I just graduated with a business degree. I’m living in my parents’ basement, getting the pressure to go get a real job, normal things that you go in adulting, I guess. Yeah. And me and my friend were like, Hey, let’s go for it.
(07:07):
If God wants us to go, it’ll go. If he doesn’t, it won’t. And so in the fall of 2006, we incorporated Pulse, which is now known as Pulse Evangelism. And we just said, man, we’re going to try to reach our generation with the gospel. We really had three goals. One was to unite the church. Number two was to equip people to share the gospel, and number three was to reach the loss. And so we did this in small towns and in college campuses. And now the ministry has grown. We have about 50 full-time employees and do events around the world. And we really have boiled it down now into two pillars. One is to reach the loss, and that’s all things, evangelistic campaigns and outreach. How do we share the gospel? How do we raise up the church to be a voice for the good news? And then the second pillar is to unleash the evangelist. And so I’m super passionate about finding young men and women with the call of God on their life and helping them understand what it means to be an evangelist, that it’s possible to be an evangelist, and really raising them up and sending them out into varying spheres of influence where I believe we need evangelists active. And that’s partially in the marketplace, it’s partially in the church, and then it’s partially launching new evangelistic efforts and ministries.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:36):
Let’s talk about unleashing the evangelists. I really love that part of what you do. And I have some good reports because in my recent trip to Zimbabwe, there were several people on the trip that had gone through your Pulse 100 program, and I was asking some of them. I actually interviewed here on the Evangelism podcast, and then some of them I was just having conversations with and I was asking, what do you get out of being part of Pulse? And what did you learn being around Nick Hall? And their responses were just absolutely positive. They were talking about how it just revolutionized their life, changed their life. And then I saw that several of them had a chance to present the gospel and did a really beautiful job of sharing the gospel. And I could see that they had been trained well in how to share their faith with people. So kind of talk us through the equipping of the evangelists, identifying evangelists and then what your program looks like. And if someone’s listening and maybe they want to take part in one of the pulse 100 things that you’re doing, how would they be able to go about doing that?
Nick Hall (09:57):
Yeah, absolutely, Daniel. So all this started five years ago. So during the pandemic, everything shut down. And one of the things that happened during this time was a lot of the mentors and leaders I had from 2018 to 2020 passed away. So Billy Graham died, Luis Palau died. Robbie Zacharias was another mentor of mine died. And I think there was just this resounding question in my heart of where are the evangelists? And I’ve spent 20 years, 25 years traveling and doing this, and I would say largely for 25 years, I’ve kind of been known as the young guy, Nick, you’re the young evangelist. You’re doing the young things, what’s going on? And that makes sense when you’re in your twenties, but when you’re in your thirties, you’re not really the young guy anymore and certainly not in your forties. And so I think there’s just been this awareness in my heart and in my mind of where are these new expressions?
(11:00):
Where are the men and women called of God to reach their generation? How do we find them? How do we unleash ’em? Where are they? And I came across this quote from John Wesley and John Wesley had this prayer, and his prayer was that he said, God, would you give me a hundred? And he said, God, give me a hundred who hate nothing but sin and fear nothing but God, and I’ll shake the gates of hell. And so this was kind of Wesley’s prayer that started really the Methodist movement, the Wesleyan movement, and really what became known as the circuit writers. I mean, these were this group of young men that were going to go and change their generation with the gospel. And so I’d say for these five years that’s been like, my prayer is, God, would you give me a hundred? And it’s grown to the point, Daniel, that for me, there’s two parts of what I do.
(11:53):
One part is doing it, being an evangelist, but even that has shifted for me of I’m trying to be faithful as an evangelist, to be a role model, having a good marriage, having good relationship with my kids, loving the Lord more, keeping checks and balances on my health and the things that I’m not letting things become inappropriate or unhealthy in my private. Because we just see so many men and women of God, not just evangelists, but certainly evangelists, where there’s scandals that happen, marriages fall apart. There’s just this kind of track record of casualties, if you will. And every time an evangelist falls, it hurts everybody. Every time a Christian leader falls, it hurts everybody. And so when we started this pulse to a hundred, we said, we have two goals. One, we want to help men and women love Jesus with everything in such a way that what they speak of him is true.
(12:58):
So that’s just the first goal is really simple, that you would love Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. And that how you’re representing him, whether it’s on a stage or off a stage, that it’s consistent with the truths of scripture, right? Like good theology, good doctrine, not teaching things that are just not biblical. But then the second goal, which to me is equally important, is that you would last so that in 5, 10, 20, 30 years, you’re still in the game. You’re still loving the Lord, you’re still being faithful. And I’ll be honest, for me, I learned a lot of how to do it, like preaching, giving the gospel, giving a response, organizational tips. I learned barely anything about how to be healthy, how to be well, how to take care of your emotions and your ego and all of these things. And so that’s really then turned into this initiative and it’s grown every year.
(13:59):
When we started, I didn’t know that we would find a hundred. The goal was what if we could train a hundred in a year? And I didn’t know that a hundred would apply Now every year it’s grown. Every year more are coming every year more are being trained. But again, our desire in this is we’re coming behind them. We’re giving ’em a community of like-minded people. So you’re 18 to 30, you burn for the loss, you want to share the gospel. You’re weird. In most settings, you are weird. People don’t get you. They don’t understand. You’re always burdened. And when you share your burden with others, evangelists know this, look, you share it with others and they look at you like you’re a little bit nuts. And it’s one of the first things we say when we get the group together is to say, Hey, you are nuts.
(14:48):
You’re weird. That’s part of why you’re in the room, but you’re not alone anymore. So now you have other like-minded burning ones wanting to reach their generation. And from there it’s like there’s a community, but then it’s understanding the calling. What does it mean to be an evangelist? What does that look like? We have a certain set of curriculum we’re trying to help equip and educate them with tools and tactics to do it. But again, equally important is how are they living? What does their life look like? I mean, evangelists often don’t have a good relationship with the local church. Evangelists often are lone rangers and can get bitter at the body of Christ. And these are really toxic things that can be to the detriment of this calling. We’re here to serve the church. We’re not here to use the church. So it’s community, it’s curriculum, it’s calling, it’s character.
(15:45):
We’re building into them. We’re giving them mentors and small groups. Again, we’re trying to help them develop the right disciplines to be able to last. And then at the end of the program, it’s a commissioning. We’re wanting them to feel the sense of what it is to be sent that God believes in you and we believe in you. You have a family. So that’s really Pulse 100. It’s a nine, 10 month program. We have a hundred every year. We’re about to start our fifth cohort this fall. But then as that’s grown now we’re producing more offerings. We’ve purchased a housing center and also a training center to have an incubator space for men and women who have this dream, who have this passion or wanting to launch something. Where do you go? We’re wanting to provide a place where, Hey, you can figure this out.
(16:40):
How do I form a board? What’s my strategy? What’s it look like? How do I do this? And we just call it like we’re building a home for the evangelists and a place. And honestly, we’re pulse. We’re not trying to get other people to be pulse. We want to launch them to be who God has made them to be. And in some ways, I joke with our team, say, we’re raising up our competition and we want an army of men and women from every background to be bold and unleashed to do the work of the evangelists.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (17:16):
That’s awesome. So if you are between the ages of 18 and 30 and you want to get trained in evangelism, Nick, what would be the best way for them to find out more information?
Nick Hall (17:29):
Yeah, I mean online pulse.org. And then when you go to the website, you’ll find Pulse 100. So you could, if you entered it, it’d pulse.org/pulse 100, and there would be an application process there, but there’s a lot of other things available. We have a training resource that we keep developing called Make know, and that’s anybody can do it, it’s free. Almost everything we do is free. We’re not trying to make money, we’re trying to create avenues and resources. And as this training center opens, we’re also going to be planning and holding evangelism conferences for all ages. So we’ll be doing events for pastors, we’ll be doing events for parents, for teenagers, for grandparents. What does it look like for us to live out this calling in varying spheres of life? I mentioned earlier I really see this calling and these men and women coming in, they’re from three different arenas.
(18:31):
A third of ’em are from the marketplace, and God is calling them for the marketplace to be an evangelist at Target or General Mills or in the medical field. We need evangelists everywhere. We just need men and women who are burning to share the gospel and reach their friend, neighbor, family, everybody. The second bucket is in the local church. I believe we need evangelists on staff at churches. We need the church to understand what the evangelist is, and we need the evangelists to be committed to the local church. And so this is raising up men and women who are going to be youth pastors. They’re going to be teaching pastors, they’re going to be evangelism pastors. And their purpose within the church context is twofold. One, it’s to equip the people in every church, every person who comes to this church, we have a burden that they would know how to share the gospel.
(19:27):
And I find that that either exists or doesn’t exist based on whether there is an evangelist there. Where there is an evangelist, you’ll find that equipping of the saints taking place, which Paul talks about in Ephesians. But then the second goal in the local church is to help the church get outside the walls. How do we reach our neighbors? How do we reach our community? How do we plan intentional? That could be international, it could be domestic, but again, it’s just that heartbeat of the evangelist needs to be present. And then the third bucket, which is probably where I gravitate towards the most, is I’m looking for the men and women that have a God idea in their heart, in their mind, that I believe the world desperately needs. And they don’t know what to do. They don’t know how to start it. And again, my story is 20 some years ago I felt this burden.
(20:17):
I felt this passion got to launch this, got to do it, but who knows how to do it, who has done it? Who is doing it? It’s not a long list. A lot of it is you have to figure it out on your own. And so we are trying to help those men and women not have to do the same mistakes and go through the same hardship. We’re trying to soften it for them and give them a launching pad to do what God has put on them to do, whether it’s online, whether it’s stadiums, it could be anything. I just believe that we need a new generation of evangelism and evangelistic innovation to reach the world.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (20:59):
Amen. I agree with you totally. And I think it’s amazing that you’re doing that. Let’s finish by talking about America. You have invested a lot of blood, sweat, and tears and money into reaching people for Jesus here in America. And in some ways it looks like America there is growing darker and darker, but at the same time, there are amazing rays of light where God is breaking through and doing amazing things. It seems like just in the last little bit there has come a new hunger for the things of God. What do you see that God wants to do here in this nation? You’re very much a visionary. And so what do you see in the year and years to come, what God wants to do here?
Nick Hall (21:52):
Yeah, I think all around the world, this is true, but certainly in America it’s true. The last five years have been a season of breaking again from the pandemic to the racial and political unrest, instability to the economic instability. It seems that there’s not a lot of people that are able to just keep going with the status quo. I think our best efforts, if we’re honest, we have to say, man, they’re not working how we would like them to work. And I think that is a real gift from God, because as Americans, we have this kind of determination and pull yourself up by your bootstraps and work hard. And anybody who works hard can get it done. And just like anything, I think your strengths are your weaknesses. So our strength is that we’ll do it and our weaknesses will do it sometimes before the Lord.
(22:59):
This isn’t about doing, it’s about humility and repentance and admitting you can’t do it. Admitting you don’t have the answer. And that’s hard. It’s hard for leaders, it’s hard for evangelists. But I think we’re in this season of breaking where God is wanting to pour out a new level of anointing and blessing to those that are willing to be broken before him. And there is a desperation. And again, in the desperation, people are going to turn to different things. They’re going to grab on harder to money or they’re going to grab on harder to politics. They’re going to grab on harder to things where we can find safety and security, but also people are going to grab harder onto the things of God. And I think that’s where the change can and will happen. And there is a youth movement happening right now again, and we’ve seen revivals and we’re seeing revivals and mass baptisms and mass conversions.
(23:53):
And it’s happening right now. I mean, the last five years, we’ve seen more people come to Jesus in America than we had in our 15 years prior combined. So the fields are ripe for harvest, but I think we have to be willing to change and to adapt. And I would say specifically, we have to be willing to get behind this next generation. So we do an event every summer in Arkansas, and this summer we had people from 42 states come and they’re coming to be trained and galvanized in the gospel. So we had 50,000 people there, and we had thousands of people respond to the gospel, which is great. But more exciting for me is we had a dozen young evangelists on stage preaching the gospel, and we had people from 40 states being equipped. So we had more than 20,000 people go through vandalism training during this activity.
(24:51):
And again, I think that’s what God is doing is he’s equipping the saints, he’s raising us up, and I think he’s unleashing the church to get loud about what matters. I think for a long time the church in America has been loud about everything, but Jesus we’re loud about social issues, we’re loud about politics. But when it comes to the gospel, 90 plus percent of people never share it. Now those people share about everything else. They share about their views of vote for him or vote for her. They share about their views on vaccination. They share. I mean, we’re just loud. Social media has made us loud about many things. And I think we’re living in an age where God is waking us up to where does our help come from? And either our help comes from the Lord or it’s all fools gold. And so I really believe we’re living in a revival moment.
(25:45):
I think this is the dawning of the day of the Evangelist. I believe that the evangelist exists. I will often do this in our office. I’ll have a drum or a cajon or a mbe, and I’ll hit it. I’ll just hit it and I’ll just hit it and I’ll always hit it. I’ll hit it. And I’ll say, the role of the evangelist is to keep the beat. Keep the beat. Keep the beat. People need Jesus. People need Jesus. People need Jesus. People need make Jesus known, make Jesus known. And what I’ll say is that if nobody’s keeping the beat, then nobody has the beat. And in the midst of many voices and many things that are loud, people find themselves getting loud about the wrong things. And I think we need the evangelists more than ever to be holding up the North star to the church and saying, Hey, we are a good news people.
(26:34):
And until God changes the heart, nothing’s going to change. And that doesn’t mean the evangelist doesn’t care about politics and doesn’t care about education. We realize we need to pray and ask God for godly leaders and good legislation and good laws, but more than any office in the church, we’re the ones that realize that until a soul is saved, it’s just behavior modification. And so we need to see this heart change in the bride of Christ and in the masses. And so I think that’s what God is doing. Again, there’s an army rising up and I’ve never been more excited. And the good thing, Daniel, I think you and I are similar in this. I’m less excited about what I’m doing than I ever have. I mean, if people ask me, what are you excited about? I’m not talking about an event or a big dream I have, or let’s fill a stadium or fill them all and those will come and go.
(27:33):
What I’m most excited about is God is birthing a generation, and I think it’s time for us to get behind this next generation. Every leader. If you’re a leader and you’re watching this, I would challenge you. If your passion is just in what you are doing, I think you’re missing it. I think God wants us to be opening doors and raising up and giving away what we have. And this isn’t something that can wait until we’re 60, 70, 80. That’s normal. Somebody gets to be in their seventies and all of a sudden they really care about young people. And it’s kind of convenient at that point. You need to because you’re going to die soon. But I think we need to have this open, open-handed heart of saying, man, we need everybody. I can do what I can, but I can’t do enough. It’s not on me. It’s not about me. This is about the glory of God. This is about the gospel of Jesus. And we need a generation. And you know what? If people go further and do better than me, praise God. Praise God because I can’t do it. But God’s doing it. He’s raising him up, and now is the time.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (28:42):
Amen. Well, if you’re a leader or an evangelist, you want to know more about Nick, you can go to nick hall.com. You can also check out pulse.org and find out about the Pulse 100 and everything that Pulse evangelism is doing. Nick Hall, thank you so much for being on the Evangelism Podcast. It’s great to have you here.
Nick Hall (29:05):
Super thankful for you, Daniel.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (29:07):
Thank you.
Evangelism Podcast Host (29:08):
Is there evidence for God’s existence? How do we really know Jesus was raised from the dead? Can we trust the Bible? Do miracles happen? Does God care about me as an individual? In Dr. Daniel King’s book, proof God is real. You’ll find the answers to these three vital questions and more Is God there? Does God care? And do I dare to follow him? In his powerful, easy to read book, Daniel provides seven convincing proofs of God’s existence. You’ll learn about the evidence of cause. Design, logic, morality, scripture, miracles, and religious experience with proof God is real. You’ll read about topics like, was Jesus the son of God or just a crazy preacher? If God does exist, is he interested in your life? If God is there, why do bad things happen to good people? In proof, God is real. Daniel King shows you, God is there and he cares for you. Plus, how to take a leap of faith and start a relationship with a God who deeply loves you. Order proof God is real today by calling 1-877-431-FOUR 2 7 6 or find the book on Amazon.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (30:11):
Thanks so much for listening today. I am excited about telling people about Jesus, and I want to invite you to be a part of helping us to rescue people from Hell and take them with us to heaven. There’s two things you can do to help. First of all, can you go find the Evangelism podcast on Apple iTunes and leave us a positive review By giving a review, you will help other people find these valuable resources about sharing our faith. Second, would you become a financial partner with King Ministries? Every single dollar that people give us enables us to lead at least one person to Jesus. And so that means for only $1, you can help start a party in heaven. And so today I want to invite you to become a monthly partner. You can start out for just a dollar, but if God puts it on your heart to do more, of course you can do more. But please go to king ministries.com and become a monthly partner with us today to help us to lead more people to Jesus. Thank you so much, and God bless you.
Evangelism Podcast Host (31:32):
For more information about how to share your faith or to financially support our worldwide evangelistic outreaches, visit king ministries.com. Again, that’s king ministries.com.
At our Love Zimbabwe Festival in Gweru, Zimbabwe, our team with the Global Evangelists Network (GNE) proclaimed the Gospel in many creative ways. Clowns, musicians, dancers, jugglers, actors, and preachers all worked together to go fishing for people. The GNE tagline is simple yet powerful: “One message, many expressions.”
One memory from this festival will stay with me forever. On the very first night, I noticed a young brother and sister responding to the altar call. With tiny hands folded and heads bowed, they repeated the prayer of salvation with pure sincerity. Their simple, childlike faith was breathtaking—a reminder that the Gospel is for everyone, young and old alike.
At our Children’s Festival the field rang with laughter as we played games, sang songs, performed dramas, and danced together. Then I preached about how God created every boy and girl and how Jesus made a way for all to be saved. Just as I gave the altar call, the sound system suddenly failed. The roar of the generator drowned out my voice, and the sound team couldn’t fix it. So, I told them to shut it down. In that instant, a holy hush fell over the field. I lifted my voice and cried out, “If you want Jesus to be your Savior, repeat this prayer after me.” With no microphone, yet with heaven’s authority, hundreds of children echoed the prayer of salvation. It was a sacred moment I will never forget.
One memory from this festival will stay with me forever. On the very first night, I noticed a young brother and sister responding to the altar call. With tiny hands folded and heads bowed, they repeated the prayer of salvation with pure sincerity. Their simple, childlike faith was breathtaking—a reminder that the Gospel is for everyone, young and old alike.
On the final night, I preached on the three greatest miracles in the Bible:
Four actors joined me on stage to dramatize the story. God created Adam and Eve and walked with them daily, but when they sinned, fellowship was broken. A vast chasm opened between heaven and earth—impossible for man to cross by human effort. But God, in His love, sent Jesus. He walked and talked with His disciples, yet evil men nailed Him to a cross. He died—but death could not hold Him. Three days later, He rose again, and today Jesus is alive! I told the crowd: “Jesus wants to walk with you and talk with you every day. If you cry out to Him, your relationship with God will be restored.” That night, thousands responded to the altar call, surrendering their hearts to Jesus.
Every altar call is a reason for celebration. Whether it’s one little girl in a crowd, hundreds of children in a field, or thousands at a Gospel Festival, each decision is a miracle. Scripture tells us that heaven rejoices when even one sinner repents—and I rejoice too!
Friend, none of this would be possible without your prayers and generosity.
Every salvation story from Gweru is fruit that you share in. From the two little girls who bowed their heads in simple faith… to the hundreds of children who prayed without microphones… to the thousands who lifted their voices to Jesus on the final night—you were part of every single one. Thank you!
Normally on The Evangelism Podcast, I interview other evangelists, but on today’s episode, I am the one interviewed. Recently I sat down with Mark Thomas. His podcast is Evangelism by Fire. He had lots of questions for me and I thought you would be interested in hearing our conversation.
Learn More About Mark Thomas: https://evangelismonfire.com/
Transcript:
Evangelist Mark Thomas (00:00):
Welcome to today’s episode of the Evangelism on Fire podcast. I’m your host, Mark Thomas, and today we have a very, very special guest missionary evangelist Daniel King. Daniel has traveled over 70 nations preaching the gospel through massive gospel festivals, distributing literature and training leaders. His vision is bold and listen to this vision that Daniel has evangelism on fire listeners, his vision is to lead 1 million people to Jesus every year. Get ready to be inspired by his passion for souls and his heart for evangelism. Daniel King, how are you doing? My brother?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:51):
Hey, it is wonderful to be with you today. Mark, what a blessing to be on your podcast. Thank you for having me.
Evangelist Mark Thomas (01:00):
I am so excited that you made time to be on our podcast today, man, it is just a big, big deal to me. I want to talk about your personal journey. You traveled over 70 nations preaching the gospel. What sparked your passion for evangelism and how did God call you into this ministry?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:21):
Yeah, when I was five years old, my father pastored a small church in Cloudcroft, New Mexico, and one day he invited a prophetess to come and speak and God gave her a word that there’d be someone wearing a blue shirt and she was to prophesy, is called to be an evangelist. And so she came to church the next day. The only one wearing a blue shirt was this cute little five-year-old boy and that was me. And so she prophesied over me that I was called to be an evangelist and to go to nations all over the world, so I didn’t waste any time. I launched out a ministry right away. I preached my first sermon at the age of six and my parents still have that cassette tape. And even at the age of six, I sounded like an evangelist. One of the things I say is if you are saved, stay saved.
(02:06):
If you’re not saved, you need to get saved. And so when I was 10 years old, my parents became missionaries in the country of Mexico and we did lots of children’s evangelism on the streets of Sud Juarez right across the border from El Paso, Texas. But my heroes were always people like Oral Roberts, Billy Graham, Tia Osborne. I would read their books and I’d look at the pictures of them preaching to massive crowds of people and I would dream about doing that someday. And then when I was 15 years old, I was reading a success book that said, if you want to be successful, you need to write down your goals. And one of the goals they said would be good for young people is to try to become a millionaire by the age of 30. But I realized that because of my upbringing as a missionary in Mexico, that money was not what was important to what was important was souls.
(03:00):
And so at the age of 15, I wrote down I Daniel King want to lead 1 million people to Jesus before I turn 30 years of age. Instead of trying to become a millionaire, I wanted to lead a million heirs into the kingdom of God to become a soul millionaire. And so I went to Oral Roberts University and while I was still a student there, God opened the door for me to do my first big crusade down in Honduras. Then the next year I did two, and then the next year I did four. By the time I was 30 years of age, we’d preached face-to-face to over a million people, led over a million people in a salvation prayer. And I was praying like, God, what comes next? And I felt like God put it in my spirit to go for a million souls every single year.
(03:46):
And so that’s our focus, that’s our goal. And we haven’t hit the million and one year yet. Last year we preached about 350,000 people. But that’s the vision. That’s kind of the direction we’re headed. In the natural, it seems impossible, but with God all things are possible. And so if you want to learn more about some of the different countries that we went to or kind of hear the stories of what God has done, the miracles around the world, you can see that journey on our website@kingministries.com. A lot of great stories there all over the world. God has done amazing things.
Evangelist Mark Thomas (04:25):
Wow. You know what I’ve got to tell you, Daniel, I feel like a lightweight, my vision for evangelism on fire ministry and podcast is 1 million Souls within five years. So when I hear your vision, it just gets me excited and I’m like, man, I just need a step up my game a little bit.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:46):
Yeah, I think we all do. I think God’s heart is for souls. God’s heart is for people to be saved. And whether your vision is to reach a million people for Jesus or whether it’s to reach your next door neighbor, I think that is a vision that comes from God. And so God is calling every person in the body of Christ to be soul winners and all over the world there are people who are ready to give their lives to Jesus If someone will just go talk to them about Jesus and give them the opportunity.
Evangelist Mark Thomas (05:20):
Amen. My brother. And you know what I think people aren’t rejecting Jesus, they’re rejecting the silence of the church because God’s church, we’re not getting his gospel message out He designed us to do. What would you say to that?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:37):
Yeah, absolutely. I think sometimes the church gets stuck behind the doors of the church. They’re not going out to where all the lost sinners are. They’re praying for the lost, but lost people don’t really have any good reason to come to church because they’re lost. And so if we’re going to reach ’em, we have to leave the church and go out into the community. Jesus talked about going out into the highways and byways and compelling people to come into the kingdom of God. And so the church needs to get outside the church and out into the community. It’s time to take the salt out of the salt shaker and get out there where the people are that need Jesus.
Evangelist Mark Thomas (06:23):
Amen brother. Amen. In a moment, I’m going to ask about your first conversion experience, but how did you personally come to faith in Jesus Christ?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (06:35):
Well, I was so young that I don’t remember the exact moment that I gave my life to Jesus. I just remember my entire life serving Jesus, loving Jesus. And as I told you a little bit ago, I was called into the ministry at the age of five. So I was actually younger than that when I came to know Jesus as my Lord and Savior. And so now when I’m sharing my testimony, I like to tell people like God saved me from a life of crime. He saved me from a life of drug abuse. He saved me from alcoholism, he saved me from murder. He saved me from being in prison. Why? Because I was saved so young. I never had to go through any of that.
Evangelist Mark Thomas (07:19):
Yes, that’s the most powerful testimony that anyone could ever hear. Wow, that’s just so powerful. So let’s talk about your first conversion experience. Do you remember the very first time you led someone to Jesus and what impact did that moment have in your life?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (07:37):
That’s a great question, and I’ve never specifically thought about that before. I don’t remember the first person I led to Jesus, but my father told me a story when I was very young, when he was pastoring this church in New Mexico. One day he decided to have a revival in the church, and so it was kind of a tourist town. So we went downtown and we were passing out flyers, inviting people to come to the revival. And I was only five or six years old at the time, and my father found me sitting on a curb and there was a flyer torn up into pieces at my feet and I was crying and my father felt bad for me. He says, Daniel, are you crying? Did someone reject you? Did you get your feelings hurt because someone said something mean to you? And I was crying, but I was saying, no, I don’t have my feelings hurt.
(08:37):
I’m crying because I tried to give the flyer to a man. He tore it up and threw it at my feet and I’m crying because I don’t want him to go to hell. And so even at a very young age, God put a heart in me to pray for the lost and to have compassion for the lost. And that’s what Jesus had in Matthew chapter nine. It says, when Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion on them. And so Jesus put that compassion inside me. And I think that’s something that all of us can ask God for and say, God, I pray that my heartbeat would be the same as your heartbeat and that I would have compassion for those who are lost.
Evangelist Mark Thomas (09:24):
Yes. Yes. That is very powerful. Daniel, you’ve seen God moved powerfully across nations. Can you share one of the most memorable or miraculous moments you’ve witnessed at a gospel festival? I know you’ve seen many, but can you share one that really sticks out or a few that sticks out to you?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:49):
Yeah. Every single opportunity to share the gospel is special. Just last week I was in Zimbabwe and I was there with the global network of evangelists and we were doing a festival in the city of Bhu, which is the second largest city there in Zimbabwe. And we did a variety of different outreaches. We did a leadership meeting for all the business leaders in the community. So it was in the nicest hotel in the city. And so the mayor and the governor came and all these people came dressed up in their suits and we presented the gospel to them and many of them indicated their decision to follow Jesus. But then the thing that really was powerful to me was going out and doing a children’s festival in one of the neighborhoods, and we had probably about 95 kids that were there, and we had a truck with a little sound system on it and a generator.
(11:00):
And so we played music and to all the kids from the whole neighborhood came and then we began to play games with them. We had a little bouncy castle. They were jumping up and down in, and then we took them inside the church and presented the gospel to them. And I just presented a very simple form of the gospel using my hands. And so I told all the kids point up to heaven and say, God loves me. So all the kids repeated it. Then I had all the kids point to themselves with their thumbs and say, I am a sinner. Then they held up three fingers because Jesus died on a cross between two thieves. So the third finger stands for Jesus died for me. And then after three days, Jesus rose from the dead, and then this finger is the ring finger, which represents a commitment to my wife that I would love her forever and ever.
(11:58):
And so this finger stands for I receive Jesus, and then this finger means I may be small, but I will grow with God. So I took that little simple presentation of the gospel and all the kids repeating it, God loves me. I am a sinner. Jesus died for me after three days. Jesus rose from the dead. I received Jesus, and I may be small, but I can grow with God and they all repeat it. Then I asked the children, do you want Jesus to forgive your sins? Do you want Jesus to make you a new creation? And if you want Jesus to save you right now, just lift up your hand to heaven. And in that room there were 95 kids and 95 of them lifted their hands to receive salvation. And I wanted to make real sure they understood, do you want Jesus to forgive your sins?
(12:52):
And they all said yes. And so I led them all in a prayer and all 95 kids gave their lives to Jesus. And so sometimes we preach the gospel to tens of thousands of people, 50,000 people at a time. But in that room, those 95 kids just a few days ago, it really moved my heart because it doesn’t matter how old you are or how young you are, you need Jesus. And it is our privilege as evangelist to have the opportunity to share the gospel with those whether they’re young or old who need Jesus. And it was cool with those kids because the kids responded to the gospel and the business leaders of the community, they also responded to the gospel. And so for the business leaders, we dress up in suits and preach the gospel to them for the kids we’re playing games and doing juggling tricks and bouncing soccer balls and having fun with them. And there’s just different baits and different methods of getting people to listen to the gospel. But then once you present the gospel, it has the power to literally change someone’s eternal destiny forever and ever.
Evangelist Mark Thomas (14:07):
Absolutely, man, I love that story and as a father I can tell that that encounter just really was something special for you.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (14:18):
Yeah, absolutely.
Evangelist Mark Thomas (14:20):
I love you have children of your own, right?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (14:22):
Yeah. I have two kids. My son Caleb is 15 right now. My daughter Katie Grace is 13. And just recently I took my daughter with me to Thailand for a big evangelism conference. We had 167 evangelists that came together in the city of Piston Alo. It’s about halfway between Bangkok and Shanghai right in the middle of Thailand. And for five days we trained these evangelists in evangelism. I think my daughter, she’s 13, she was kind of bored during the preaching part of it, but she found a little girl her age and they had lots of fun together. But then my last day of the trip, we were in Bangkok and I got to take my daughter around to see some of the tourist sites. And the thing that she loved the most was going to a mall in Bangkok that had lots of cheap clothes for sale. I think the mall had seven different stories and it was selling all kinds of different cheap clothes, and she managed to buy something on every single floor. And she said that was her highlight from the mission trip.
Evangelist Mark Thomas (15:33):
Yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah, that’s true. True success there, right?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:38):
Yeah.
Evangelist Mark Thomas (15:39):
That’s awesome.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:40):
So
Evangelist Mark Thomas (15:40):
You’ve been around,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:42):
Let me just say this about kids. We’re trying to raise our kids to love God and to have a heart for the world the same as we do.
Evangelist Mark Thomas (15:50):
Yeah. And I know I’m certain that your children are being trained up by you and they know the heart of God through you, and I’m sure that they have that passion for evangelism as well like their father does. So you’ve been around many, many nations. You have shared the gospel of Jesus Christ with many people. Let’s talk about some of the places that are hard places. You’ve ministered in countries where Christianity is those environments.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (16:35):
We have gone to the hardest to reach nations in the world, and that’s really where my heart is to reach people. In the early years of our ministry, we really focused a lot on Central America and South America, the Spanish speaking countries. It was because of my upbringing in Mexico. I speak some Spanish, I can preach in Spanish. And so God opened up a lot of opportunities there. But as we matured in ministry, I started asking out where can my time be most effective? And I really started looking at the 10 40 window, which is on the map between the 10th and the 40th parallel lines. And so it extends from North Africa all the way through the Middle East, India, Pakistan, and then Southeast Asia. And if you are looking at where on reach people groups are, the vast majority of them are in the 10 40 window.
(17:44):
And unfortunately the church doesn’t invest high percentage of their resources into reaching people in that area. The church, especially here in America, they give money to missionaries, but a lot of the need is where the least money is given. And so I was looking at Pakistan and there’s one missionary for every million people in Pakistan. And compared to Latin America, there’s churches all over Latin America that many of them doing a great job reaching people for Jesus. And so we decided to start focusing on the hardest to reach nations of the earth. So India, Pakistan, Southeast Asia, these places where Islam is big, where Buddhism is big, where Hinduism is big, those are the areas where there is the most need. Sometimes it’s difficult to go to those areas. You don’t see as big a crowds as you would if you went to someplace. That might be easier, but I think that’s where you really see the most fruit. And I think as evangelists we’re called to go where no one else is going and to go to the hard to reach places. And God has called evangelists to be the special forces, the Navy Seals to go in and break open a new area for the kingdom of God.
Evangelist Mark Thomas (19:19):
Yeah, amen. I love that. I love when you say that God is well, evangelists are like the special forces, like the Navy seals to get that word to where it needs to go, going into places, nations that most people they don’t want to go and won’t go. So you mentioned earlier about training leaders. You touched on that briefly. Beyond large events, you put a big emphasis on equipping leaders. Why is leadership so important to you and why is training so critical to long-term evangelism?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (20:03):
Yeah, absolutely. I think that in order for us to reach the whole world, we need to raise up leaders in every country that have a heart for evangelism. And so that’s why I am connected with different evangelistic groups, the global network of evangelists. Then another group I’m a part of is the Global Evangelist Alliance, and we are working hard to raise up evangelists that will leaders for reaching people in their community for Jesus. One of the ways I really love to train people is through a lot of the books that written, I have over 20 books that I’ve published. And so I wrote a book for evangelists called How to Preach the Gospel, and this book talks about how to present the gospel in a clear way, how to work with a translator. It’s a very practical book, how to pray for the Sick, what to do if a demon suddenly manifests in a meeting.
(21:11):
And so this book, how to Preach the Gospel, you can find it on Amazon. I’ve also got this book. You Can Become a Master Soul Winner, and I give this book away free to anybody who goes to my website, king ministries.com and gives me your email address. So if you go to my website and there’s a button there where you can sign up for our email newsletter list and I will email you an e-copy of this book absolutely free. And then I also want to train evangelists in apologetics for defending their faith in a modern world. And so I noticed that atheism and agnosticism is really big in the West, in America and in Europe a lot of people have questions about God. And so I wrote this apologetics book, proof God is real. And so if you want to know how to prove that Jesus really rose from the dead, whether Jesus really existed and different ways of knowing that there really is a God, this book will help you to defend your faith, which apologetics is pre evangelism.
(22:24):
First you got to prove that there’s a God before people realize that they have a need for God. And then if you want God to use you in the area of healing, I think that in the Bible you see that evangelism and healing is often very closely connected. And so this book, healing Power, experiencing the Miracle Touch of God will help you to begin to flow in seeing Healing miracles in your ministry. And so I have developed these different resources, these different books in order to share the gospel and in order to train leaders. And so we’re developing lots of different materials and resources because we want to do everything we can to get as many people out there sharing the gospel in as many places as they can. And so kind of a way to illustrate this is last week I was in Zimbabwe and I met an evangelist in Zimbabwe.
(23:24):
His name is Obey. And he actually was my translator on a radio program. So we went on a radio program and I got to preach for 20 minutes on the radio program and he was translating for me. And as he was translating, he’s like, Hey, I recognize your voice. And after we were done, he pulled up his phone and he showed me on his phone, he’s like, I’ve been listening to your Evangelism podcast. And he says, I downloaded many episodes of your Evangelism podcast and I’m learning so much from your Evangelism podcast. And he says, I even went to your website, I downloaded some of your books. And so he showed me and he is like, and now here you are in person. He said, I had no idea I would ever meet you, but I’ve already been learning from you. And so that was so neat to meet him.
(24:14):
And he’s going out, he’s done seven Crusades in the last two years in Zimbabwe going out into the little towns and villages, and he’s going to places that I could never go because I just don’t have the time or ability to go everywhere. But he is actively going and preaching the gospel. And he said his vision is to reach every town and village across Zimbabwe with the gospel. And so by training him, by giving him our resources, by doing our evangelism podcast, helping people to develop in the area of evangelism, we’re able to multiply the fruit of our ministry and go places that I’ll never be able to go myself.
Evangelist Mark Thomas (25:01):
Yes, absolutely. I like to say I tell people that, Hey, God is going to use you to reach people that no one else could reach on planet Earth except you. So I can relate to his story. You know what, I’ve been listening to your podcast for years now, and to have you on my podcast to interview is really an honor. It really is a tremendous honor for me. I’ve learned so much from you, your podcast, you’ve just so, so much into me and I’ve read some of your books, how to Become a Master Soul Winner. Absolutely love it. I think everyone should get that. I think everyone should get all of your books. And what I’m going to do is I’m going to include a hyperlink in Yes, that book will change your life and totally equip you on how to share the gospel message with people. And I’m going to conclude Daniel. I’m going to include a hyperlink to where people can get your books, your website, your podcast in today’s show notes. Yeah. Why would you encourage people to listen to your podcast in all the episodes that you put out?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (26:14):
Well, thank you so much and I want to compliment you on your podcast. I love the name of your podcast, evangelism on Fire, evangelism by Fire. My podcast is just called The Evangelism Podcast, and I started it just a few years ago during COVID. And the reason I started was because COVID Man COVID was an attack on evangelists because they said, you can’t travel and you can’t have big meetings with people in crowds, and that’s what an evangelist does. The evangelist travels and he does big meetings. So I was like, man, the devil is trying to attack my calling as an evangelist. What can I do to attack the devil back? And so I started the Evangelism podcast and just started talking to different evangelists and missionaries and pastors around the world that have a heart for evangelism. And so now we’ve recorded over 370 episodes from nations all over the world.
(27:21):
It really is a global podcast. And so if you listen to it, you’ll kind of get a sense of what God is doing all over the world. God is bigger than just one nation or one part of the world. God is actually doing amazing things in nations everywhere. And so it’s really inspiring to hear those stories. And usually for my podcast, I just ask questions and say, what is God doing in your country? And some of the stories have just been absolutely amazing. So yeah, if you are interested in an Evangelism podcast, which you must be because you’re listening to an evangelism podcast right now, make sure you check out the Evangelism Podcast with Daniel King. It’s on all the major platforms. And so find it and listen. And you might even want to go back through it. And if you’re interested in a particular part of the world, find some episodes from that part of the world and listen to some of the interviews.
Evangelist Mark Thomas (28:27):
Absolutely. And I’ll tell you how much, look everyone listening, you need to listen to his evangelism, the Evangelism podcast. You need to find that and subscribe right now. Right now, I’m telling you, I love his podcast so much. Look, September 22nd, 2020 was the first episode. Okay? That’s how much I love your podcast. It will really equip you on how to share your faith in Jesus with others. So yeah, you got to find his podcast and listen to it today. So one of the questions I get a lot, we just did an outreach this past Saturday and we go to all the government housing projects in our city where most people don’t want to go to. We go to the least of this past Saturday, we had an outreach in this place called Hillside Court, and praise God, we had 72 people give their life to Jesus.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (29:27):
And
Evangelist Mark Thomas (29:27):
We had 19 on the spot water baptisms. It was amazing. It was an amazing time. One of the first questions I get whenever God uses me to lead someone to Jesus is, well, what about follow up? You know exactly what I’m talking about. So question,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (29:45):
I’ve heard that the question once or
Evangelist Mark Thomas (29:46):
Twice, I’m sure you have. So let’s talk about the role of the local church. When people come to Christ at your festivals, what role does the local church play in ensuring the new believers are discipled and care for?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (30:04):
Yeah, absolutely. Follow up is extremely important. In Matthew 28, Jesus says, go make disciples. He didn’t say, just go make converts. He said, go make disciples. And so once someone indicates a decision to follow Christ, then it is our obligation to help them to begin to grow in Christ. And I think that the solution to follow up is by involving a variety of ministry gifts in the follow-up. And so the evangelist is especially anointed by God to go after souls. If you know anybody who has a calling for evangelism, they are always talking about how can we get people saved? What can we do? I heard about a place that needs Jesus. How can we go do an outreach over there? And so the evangelist has been gifted by God with this ability to go after the lost, and that’s a unique gifting, but there are other ministry gifts in the body of Christ that do a great job at follow up and discipleship.
(31:20):
And so pastors, they have been gifted by God to care for the sheep. They’re called as shepherds. And so their job is to care for the sheep. And then you have teachers in the body of Christ that take someone who might be a baby in Christ and begin to help them grow. And so in Ephesians chapter four, you have the fivefold ministry gifts, the apostle, the prophet, the evangelist, the pastor, the teacher, and we really need all five ministry gifts in order to properly follow up on the new believers. And so in Acts chapter eight, we really see a picture of how God wants us to do follow up. And in that chapter it’s about Philip the evangelist. He’s the only one in the whole Bible who specifically called an evangelist. And he goes to Samaria and he begins to preach, and there’s multitudes, there’s miracles, demons are being cast out, people are being baptized.
(32:22):
And it’s this amazing revival that Philip begins to see in Samaria. And then word goes to the church in Jerusalem and the church in Jerusalem, they send the apostles, Peter and John to Samaria and they pray for the people in Samaria to be filled with the Holy Spirit. So we see this partnership between Philip the evangelist and then these apostles, Peter and John who come and help with the revival that’s going on. And so that’s why it’s so important for the evangelists to be connected to the local church. We always work with the local church through the local church and for the local church. And I really like what Reinhard Bonnke used to say to the pastors when he would go to a city, he says, we are going fishing and I will bring my nets, but I ask you to give me your boats.
(33:26):
And he says, when I leave, I will leave all the fish for you. I’m not taking any of them with me. He says, but I need your boats, so please bring your boats so we can put the fish in your boats. And I think that’s a good picture of our partnership with the local church as an evangelist, we go out, we catch fish, and then we bring them to the church so the church can begin to clean the fish where we catch the sheep, and then the pastor can begin to give the dirty sheep a bath, help the sheep to become the pure sheep that we are all called to be. And so we need that partnership. And so every time someone asks me, what do you do about follow up? I always ask them, well, what can you do to help me with the follow up?
(34:21):
Because obviously I like that if they are asking that question, it’s something that God’s put on their heart. And so I’m like, Hey, we need Bibles to follow up. Can you help me buy Bibles? We need literature. Can you help me print some literature? We need to start a cell group or a Sunday school class. Can you help me with that? And so you just shared this amazing testimony of going to this low income housing area and you saw so many people get saved. Is there anybody that is partnering with your ministry that could go and start a weekly Bible study there or something? There are people that are gifted for that, that have a heart to disciple, that have a heart for training people. And so you usually the ones that have the heart are the ones that are asking, what do you do about follow-up? And I always turn it back on them and say, well, what can you do to help me with do it together?
Evangelist Mark Thomas (35:25):
Oh, I love that. I love that. You know what? I’ve just recently started doing that. I realized these people that are asking me that, they have a heart for that. And as you just said, I just recently, and I’m just talking about two weeks ago, Daniel, I started doing this, how can you help us out with the discipleship? So that is such great wisdom. So let me ask you this, Daniel. So what do you tell people who say that I don’t share the gospel of Jesus Christ, I don’t evangelize because I don’t have the gift of evangelism. How would you guide them through that?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (36:07):
Yeah, the great commission that Jesus gave to the disciples was given to every follower of Christ. And it was very important to Jesus because he repeats himself several different times and in several different ways, and it’s recorded at the end of each gospel. So Matthew 28, Jesus says, go make disciples, mark 16. He says, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Luke 24, he says, forgiveness of sins will be preaching his name to all nations. John 20, he says, as the Father sent me, now I am sending you. And then Acts one, eight, you’ll receive power after the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you’ll be my witnesses into Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, into the uttermost ends of the earth. And so those words commanding us to go and make disciples to go preach the gospel. Every creature were given to every single follower of Jesus, not just the evangelist.
(37:17):
Now the evangelist does have a special gift from God, and we find the purpose of the evangelist in Ephesians chapter four that I mentioned earlier, with a fivefold ministry gifts. Each of the fivefold ministry, the gifts are given to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. And so the evangelist, of course is called to preach the gospel, but then the evangelist is also called to equip the body of Christ to fulfill the great commission. And so the evangelist has a special gifting from God to get people involved in evangelism. And I think every single member of the body of Christ is called to be an evangelist. And so when Paul writes to Timothy in Second Timothy, he tells him, do the work of an evangelist. And at that time, Timothy was actually serving as a pastor in Ephesus. And so Paul had seen lots of people get saved in Ephesus.
(38:29):
He set Timothy there to pastor the churches of Ephesus. And so here he is, he’s a young man serving as a pastor, but yet Paul tells him to do the work of an evangelist. And so all of us are called to do evangelism. We’re all called to share our faith. Even if you don’t feel like you’re specifically gifted for it, know that God gives you his Holy Spirit power so that you can have a boldness to be a witness. You may not know what to say or how to say it, but if you’ll pray and say, holy Spirit, help me, give me the words to say, you may not be able to reach everyone, but there is someone that you can reach and bring them to Jesus. And then the job of the evangelist, I think God does call people specifically to be evangelists. I’m called to be an evangelist, and so I love preaching the gospel, but then I also love equipping the saints to do evangelism. And so that’s what the evangelist does.
Evangelist Mark Thomas (39:32):
Powerful answer. Thank you so much. I love that explanation. So you’ve interviewed evangelists from around the world. What’s one reoccurring principle or lesson you’ve heard that really just really resonates with you?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (39:51):
Well, they all get the question, what do you do about follow up?
Evangelist Mark Thomas (39:56):
I know that’s right.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (39:59):
The thing I love about interviewing evangelists is just their passion for the lost. Every evangelist that I interview, I come away from the interview thinking, wow, I need to be more excited myself about reaching people for Jesus. And I think that that is the uniqueness of all the different evangelists that I’ve talked to. They get excited about going and telling people about Jesus, and it’s this drive. People are dying and going to hell, and we don’t want them to go to hell. We want to take them with us to heaven. And so that drive, that passion is really what is so inspiring about so many different evangelists around the world. Some of them are preaching the gospel in areas. People have never heard the gospel, and then some people are going to places where there’s lots of people who know about God but have wandered away from God and it doesn’t even matter. They’re like, we want to get people into relationship with God.
Evangelist Mark Thomas (41:17):
Yeah, so powerful. So powerful. What do you think, Daniel, what do you think that we can do as evangelists to really, really inspire every born again believer that knows Christ that’s following Christ? How can we better get that message out to them that, hey, God has called you to engage in the mission of the Great commission? That’s my heart. When I got saved, I immediately started sharing the gospel. And then I learned as I started reading the Bible that God calls us to engage in the mission of great commission to go and preach the gospel to all the world. And then as I got saved and started attending church, I realized that most local churches don’t teach that to their congregation. And I couldn’t figure out why. That’s one of the reasons why I started teaching evangelism. But what do you think that the local churches in the West, what can we do better to train our congregations? Are people at the local church level? Number one, what evangelism is, what the great commission is, what it means to preach the gospel to the loss, the hurting the people who are going to hell. How can we better train and equip the local church pastors to do that
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (42:50):
As evangelists? I think number one, we can give people opportunities to be involved in evangelism. And if people have opportunities, then I think they will get involved. And I think every evangelist should be connected to a local church and be in that church serving a local church pastor. And even going to your pastor and saying, pastor, what can we do to reach out to the loss? What can our church do to reach more people about Jesus? Can we have some Sunday school classes to help equip people to be bold in sharing their faith, or can we schedule some outreaches? I think every church should do at least one evangelistic outreach to the community every quarter. And so at least four times a year, a church should have an opportunity for people to reach out to the community. And whether that is a fall school supply giveaway or a special event at Christmas time, a special Easter outreach, a 4th of July picnic in the park, like something every single quarter, churches should do something to reach out for the loss.
(44:15):
And I actually wrote a book on how to grow your church, and in that book I put 153 different outreach ideas that churches can do to reach out to the community. And there’s a bunch of, they’re all real ideas that have been used by real churches. And any church can take them and go through it and pick two or three or four outreaches to do in a year. And so as an evangelist, you can go to your pastor and say, pastor, what can we do to reach out to more people and offer to help lead some type of outreach or to train people in that? And I think every church wants to grow, and if we as an evangelist find a way to serve our local church to go with the heart of a servant, say, what can we do to help the church grow, to help us reach more people?
(45:13):
I think that there is a natural desire for pastors to reach out to the lost, and they don’t always know how to go about it. So God calls the evangelists to be part of the church to help out, but you have to do it with the heart of a servant, not going in and imposing, this is what we need to do, but go in really as a servant and say, let’s reach people for Jesus. And then as evangelists, I think just in our own ministries, often evangelists have a parachurch ministry, building a ministry that allows other people to be involved in the outreaches. And like we did a couple of years ago, we did a big outreach for the Tulsa State Fair here in Tulsa, and there are 1.1 million people that go through the Tulsa State Fair over an 11 day period. It happens every year.
(46:12):
And so I was praying, saying, God, how do we reach people in the United States because to do stadium events in the United States can be really expensive, really quick. And I said, man, that’s so expensive to try to fill a stadium full of people. But here at the Tulsa State Fair, people are just wandering around with a Coca-Cola in one hand and a Turkey leg in the other hand, looking for something to do. And I was like, that is a built-in audience. So what we did is we rented a booth at the state fair, and for 11 days we had people out there just offering to pray with people as they went by. And so say, Hey, we’re out here praying with people. Is there anything that you need prayer for? And then whatever they would say, my grandma needs healing, or just pray for world peace.
(46:59):
And we heard every different thing that you could imagine. We would pray with them and then say, Hey, I want to make real sure you’re going to heaven with me. Could I share a quick message from God with you? And then we’d share the gospel. And from that, we had hundreds of people that prayed with us for salvation, but it was a great opportunity to get a bunch of different churches from Tulsa involved. And so we are out there for 10 hours a day for 11 days. And so we had different churches sponsor each day of the outreach and send their people to come and help pray for people. And so that way it gave the churches an outlet to announce on Sunday morning, Hey, if you guys are interested in being involved in evangelistic outreach, our churches sponsoring Thursday at the Tulsa State Fair, anybody who wants to be involved.
(47:52):
And every day we would have people from the local churches send people out to help us. And then right there on the ground, we would train them and help them to become better at their sharing their faith. And so people would come for a couple hours, then at the beginning, they’d be too shy to talk to anyone and say, Hey, just come with me and we’ll pray together. And then by the end, they were like, Hey, should I run over to the other side of the fair there? I see some young teenagers over there that need Jesus. And so it was a great way to just train them, equip them. And over the course of 11 days, we trained hundreds of people from local churches, from a bunch of different churches in evangelism here in Tulsa.
Evangelist Mark Thomas (48:35):
You know what? I love that story. And a mutual friend of ours, Evan Herman, I think it was a part of that event with
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (48:43):
You, you and I saw you recently interviewed Evan. He is a great friend. And yes, we did it together. So we did it in partnership with Evan. So his ministry and our ministry and some other ministries partnered together for that outreach. And that’s how we do many of our outreaches. We do everything through partnership. And so God doesn’t call us to minister alone. He calls us to minister with other people.
Evangelist Mark Thomas (49:07):
Yeah, that’s so good. Immediately when I listened to that episode, that’s what I’m going to do here at my city of Richmond, Virginia State Fair. Here we come. That was an amazing outreach. So you would join together, different churches would join you, and then you would train them on evangelism in real time.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (49:27):
Yeah, we would be out there. Me and Evan and other evangelists were out there all day. And as people came and volunteered to help, we would just train ’em, say, Hey, come with me, watch what I do. And then after they see it a few times, they kind of begin to step out and I say, okay, you do it, and I’ll watch. And then finally, they were ready to start doing it on their own. By the way, as you begin to do it, Evan and I, we wrote a manual, which can be found on my website, on how to do a free prayer booth at a state fair. And if you want to go, we have the logo you can download to put on the t-shirt, put banners, a manual that you can use to put it all together, and all of that is offered free on my website@kingministries.com.
Evangelist Mark Thomas (50:21):
And it’s free to use king ministries.com.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (50:24):
And
Evangelist Mark Thomas (50:26):
That in our show notes for today’s episode, king ministries.com, make sure you go there and just check out Daniel his website, and he’s got a lot of free resources for us to take advantage of. So Daniel, thank you so much for taking the time. Really, I’ve said this several times, but man, I’m going to say it again. It is an honor to have you on Evangelism on Fire Podcast. I have one more question for you. For the everyday believer listening right now who feels nervous about sharing their faith, what’s one simple step they can take to start evangelizing today?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (51:12):
Yeah, one of the resources I offer on my website is little stickers called The Three Circles. And so I just take this sticker and put it on the back of my cell phone, and it’s a real simple way of sharing the gospel. And so if I’m standing in line at the coffee shop, I just ask the person who’s standing in line with me, Hey, have you ever seen this picture before? And they say, oh, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen it. It’s like, well, lemme tell you what it means. And so I start here with his heart. God loves you and he has a wonderful plan for your life, but this man is running away from God. When we run away from God, it’s called sin. And sin leads to a broken life. And when people’s lives are broken, they begin to look for change.
(51:58):
Some people look for change through relationships, but two broken people in a relationship have a broken relationship. Other people look for change by making money or by studying, but those still lead to brokenness. And the Bible has a word for change, and that word is repent. So this man is kneeling down, he’s crying out to God for help. And then this third circle is the good news. Circle the gospel circle. Jesus, the Son of God came from heaven down to earth. He died on the cross to pay the price for our sins, and then he rose from the dead and he became the king of the universe. And he wants to be the king of your heart. And the Bible says that everyone who calls on Jesus will be saved. So if you’ll call on Jesus right now, he’ll bring you back to God’s love and God’s perfect plan for your life. And so I love sharing this sticker with people who maybe haven’t been used to sharing the gospel everywhere they go, because it’s an easy way to remember what the gospel looks like. And so those stickers are free to download on my website@kingministries.com, and you can download it yourself, print lots of stickers, and you can give those away. But it’s a great way for people to share the gospel who are just starting out.
Evangelist Mark Thomas (53:19):
I absolutely love that simple, but a powerful tool. Anyone could use that for their gospel presentation.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (53:27):
Yeah.
Evangelist Mark Thomas (53:27):
Wow. I absolutely love that. Daniel, as we close today, this is a Christian podcast. Most of the people that are listening to Evangelism on Fire podcast, they’re hearing you talk about Jesus. They’re hearing us speak about evangelism, but with the audience the size that I have, there’s always going to be some people who are not believers in Jesus and they’re hearing about the good news of Jesus Christ. Could you first lead those people giving them opportunity to accept Jesus today? And then would you pray for all of my evangelism on fire listeners that God will empower them and equip them to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with people that they love, their friends, their family members, the people that they work and go to school with? Would you do that as we close out today’s episode?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (54:27):
Yeah, absolutely. As you’re listening today, I want you to know it’s not by accident that you’re listening right now. God loves you and he’s got a purpose and a plan for your life. And the problem is many of us have run away from God’s perfect plan, but Jesus, he died on the cross to pay the price for our sins. And the Bible says that if we repent, if we turn away from our sinful life and turn to Jesus, then Jesus will save us and give us a brand new life. So God wants to make you a new creation. Jesus wants to save you. He wants to wash away your sin right now. If you want Jesus to give you a brand new start and you want Jesus to wash away your sin, then I want you to pray with me. We’re going to cry out to Jesus, and Jesus is going to save you.
(55:23):
And so just say this prayer with me, say, dear God in heaven, I cry out to Jesus. Jesus saved me. I believe Jesus died on the cross for my sins. I believe Jesus rose from the dead. I turn away from every sin and I turn to Jesus in Jesus name. Amen. Now, if you just prayed that prayer with me, then I have a gift of a book I want to give you. It’s available on my website, king ministries.com. Just sign up for our email list and I’ll send you our book that I wrote for new believers to help you grow in God. And if you’re an evangelist, I have a book for you too on my website. So go sign up right now and get a copy of the, you can become a master soul winner. This will really help you. And I want to really encourage you as an evangelist to step out in faith and dream big, do big things for God.
(56:24):
And let me pray for you right now. If you feel like God’s calling you as an evangelist, I believe that that calling, that desire comes from God. And I’m going to pray that God would give you amazing fruit in your ministry. Dear heaven, father, I pray for my friend who’s called to be an evangelist. Lord, I pray that you would expand their thinking, expand their dreams, and Lord, I pray that they would see not just one or two people come to Jesus, but dozens and hundreds and even thousands of people. Lord, I pray for even international opportunities to go to different nations around the world and to preach the gospel to fulfill Mark 1615 to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Lord, I pray that you would release my friend out into the harvest fields and that as they’re ready to be a laborer. Lord, I pray that you give them a great harvest of souls. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Today the Evangelism Podcast features an interview with Jemimah Opati, a member of Kubamba, a ministry from Kenya. Kubamba uses creative arts like music, drama, and DJing to spread the gospel message to young people in schools and communities. The ministry has been doing outreach work in Zimbabwe for the past two months, going to schools and sharing the love of Jesus. The team has seen many young people respond to the Gospel and give their lives to Christ. Despite the challenges of living by faith, Jemimah finds great joy in the personal relationships and lives that are transformed through Kubamba’s ministry.
Learn more about Kubamba: https://www.kubamba.com/
Transcript:
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:00):
Welcome to the Evangelism Podcast. I’m Daniel King. I’m excited about telling people about Jesus.
(00:07):
So today I have a special guest with me from
Jemimah Opati (00:15):
Come
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:16):
From Mbba, which is a great ministry out of Kenya.
Jemimah Opati (00:21):
Thank
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:21):
You so much for joining me on the Evangelism Podcast.
Jemimah Opati (00:23):
Thank you for having me.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:25):
So we are in Africa together in Zimbabwe this week, and it has been wonderful to serve the Lord to together with you. And I am so impressed with the team of Ku Baba. Tell me a little bit, what is Ku Baba? What are you guys all about?
Jemimah Opati (00:48):
Well, KU Baba is Swahili slang. Well, it can pass for clean Swahili and it can pass for slang. So in the slang it means to have fun.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:07):
Okay.
Jemimah Opati (01:07):
Yes. And that’s what we adopt. And so we do this through creative arts ads that young people, stuff that young people would relate with so much like DJing, music, drama, and all sorts of creative ads that we have to just spread the gospel.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:34):
Now we’re here with a global network of evangelists, the g and e. And last week we did a festival in Guru and I got to preach one night at that. That was really amazing. And then this week we are in Bula. Why
Jemimah Opati (01:53):
Bula
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:55):
The second largest city here in Zimbabwe. And we’ve seen God do some great things here, but the Mbba team has actually been here much longer than two weeks. You’ve been here more like two months.
Jemimah Opati (02:08):
Yes.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:09):
And you’ve been going school to school, telling young people about the hope and purpose that they can find in Jesus. And so tell me some testimonies. What have you seen God do while you’ve been here in Zimbabwe?
Jemimah Opati (02:25):
Wow, it’s so overwhelming. I’ve seen God give hope, restore, and just affirm both myself and I think the team plus the students and even the teachers, just seeing how their students respond. Having not seen this ever in their schools or going around or such an opportunity, they really, really appreciate. And man, it’s been a full circle moment really for me as a person. I’ve seen God heal and just put together in his own way. Yeah. So I’m so blessed. I’m overwhelmed. I’m just like every other time excited and looking forward to see what he has in store for each and every one of us.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (03:32):
So paint a picture for me. When Ku Baba pulls up into a school, what happens? What is the team doing, and then what is the message you’re trying to convey to the young people?
Jemimah Opati (03:49):
Alright, so when we pull up in a school, definitely we have to lie us with the administration first to let them know we are there. Then them allow us set up. So we move around with our peer system, like our sound system and everything else that,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:10):
And you have your DJs that can do music?
Jemimah Opati (04:13):
Yes. So we put up our sound system in a span of very few minutes. Everyone knows what they need to do, and then the mics are on, the DJ kit is set, and I mean, the host is ready. They know what they need to do and they just begin.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:36):
And so you start with some hype?
Jemimah Opati (04:39):
No, no, no, not really. Of course some icebreakers. Then we do introduction of ourselves and then we also appreciate the teachers and then now just gel and make them feel comfortable, feel comfortable and comfortable. And then now we can stand and dance and then do a worship session after the dance, which is actually praise and worship, but in a fun way. Then worship, actually worship them, pray for themselves to their God. And then now we do the word, and then we have a skit and then do an altar call. And then just summarize if there’s any other thing that we need to do. We do. So we work with school programs so that we don’t also disrespect their time, their flow of the activities. So if we are given an hour, we work with that. If we are allowed to hours, we work with that. If we are given longer, we work with what we are given. Yes.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:51):
And what is the main message you’re trying to convey to the kids?
Jemimah Opati (05:57):
It’s just that Jesus loves each and everyone of us. Despite where you come from, it doesn’t matter your background, it doesn’t matter your color, it doesn’t matter, whatever. Jesus loves you and he wants that relationship with you. That’s just it. Salvation is the best gift.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (06:19):
And how do the young people respond? Have you seen a good response?
Jemimah Opati (06:24):
Absolutely. It’s always amazing. I think that’s one of the parts that really just melt my heart because I’m like, the word of God says when you lift praises, he draws men to himself. And just seeing him use us and then drawing so many to himself is, it just breaks my heart to just see the love of God over everyone. Yes.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (06:57):
One of the things I really admire about Ku Baba is that many of the team members are young professionals who were very successful in their jobs, but they decided to leave their jobs and to serve Jesus in this way full time. And then you’re actually raising money in Kenya from friends and people in order to do ministry. And so you’re living life by faith. You’re not paid to do this. You have to trust God to provide. So what is that like living by faith every single day?
Jemimah Opati (07:39):
I wouldn’t lie. It’s not easy, yo guys. It’s not easy because you like your plan A to Z is Jesus. It’s God all the way. We are not perfect. So sometimes you’re like, yo God, are you really going to pull through here? Are you really going to come through? It’s crazy at times because when you’d expect something and it doesn’t come and you feel discouraged, God shows up in another way. But during that season, it’s tough. It’s tough, but you still have to keep trusting. And actually just the word of God just encourages you. It reminds you that his promises are yes and amen. And he’s not a man to lie, nor a son or man to change his mind. So you hold onto that and he comes through in a different way. So unexpected. Then. Yeah,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:48):
KU Baba has a big team, especially in Kenya, and you’re going into the schools, but you’re also doing Bible studies and outreaches to young people. So tell me the role that you play in Mbba and then some of the different avenues that Mbba uses to minister to young people.
Jemimah Opati (09:12):
Well, yeah, we have a Bible study. Well, it started small, but now it’s huge. But we just maintained the name Bible study we made in a cinema in Nairobi called Nairobi Cinema. We host like 800 to a thousand probably plus every Wednesday from 5:30 PM to 8:30 PM or nine. And yeah, that’s just one of it. And then we have the missions team. We have the production team now on air because we now cover on land, on air digitally.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:51):
And you’re also doing a lot of social media,
Jemimah Opati (09:55):
So we have to go where they are, where young people are. We can’t just wait for them to come to us. So yeah, basically in the missions team that moves around. And I am in the discipleship department, which is also really growing. And we are still dreaming on avenues of how to do discipleship because we do ministry far, far, and wide. So how do we bring all these people on a platform that we can share in Bible study and camps and all these things, just part of discipleship. And yeah. I also help in the creatives department. I’ve done theater, so
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (10:49):
I really love the
Jemimah Opati (10:51):
Drama
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (10:52):
That you guys do every night at the Gospel Festival, the Mbba team has been doing a lot of hype and dancing, but then also the drama. The other night when I preached right after I finished preaching, immediately the drama began.
(11:10):
The drama begins with Jesus, with God creating someone. And he creates ’em with purpose, but then different sins and distraction and attacks from the devil come. And so some of the different things that she deals with is the temptation of being famous on social media. And then that doesn’t work out. And then a guy comes and they actually take her behind a sheet and throw clothes out over the top, and everyone’s like, ah. And her life just keeps getting worse and worse and worse. And there’s all these different signs that then you put around the
Jemimah Opati (11:53):
Actress’s
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (11:54):
Neck, and she becomes so burdened to the point where she goes to the witch doctor for help. And that doesn’t help, becomes tormented by demons until Jesus appears and rescues her. And the music is pretty intense. And Jesus just grabs the demons with the force
(12:24):
Knocks them to the ground. And he takes all of them, the depression, the sadness, all of the thoughts of suicide, the addictions, the witch doctors, curses, everything. And Jesus takes that, puts it on his own neck, and of course dies so that she can be free.
Jemimah Opati (12:47):
And
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (12:47):
Jesus comes back to life. And so it’s such a powerful drama. And I think young people connect when they can see something as well as just hearing someone preach about it.
Jemimah Opati (13:01):
Exactly. We learn with all our senses. And one of the most powerful senses sites, when you see something, it’s easy to remember even after a very long time. And because it is very dramatic, it etches in your heart and in your mind. So every other time, we’ll always just be remembering it. And that’s in summary, the story of redemption. The story of salvation, that God is constantly, because when you look at God in the whole picture, God is constantly calling this person to himself, no, please stop. Please come here. And the music says it all. And for me, it’s always been powerful. We’ve done it for so many years, but every other time it’s something different and it carries, it’s just fresh every other time. So it is just powerful.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (14:16):
Yeah.
Jemimah Opati (14:16):
Yeah.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (14:17):
So what is your favorite part about being in CU Baba?
Jemimah Opati (14:24):
Well, I think everything about it. Everything about it. And traveling. I love traveling and getting to do life with people one on one. I’m not a crusade evangelist. I’m not so good on the mic in a big stage. But just doing with people, speaking to them one-on-one, feeling their heart, seeing where they are at, and just speaking into their lives, pouring what I have into them is, I think it’s everything for me really. Cause I’m a very, lemme say, empathetic person.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:11):
Yeah.
Jemimah Opati (15:13):
And I love people. And I feel like even being in Zimbabwe, really, the relationships I’ve got to form with people personally, I really like in Guru some were just coming and crying like, yo, we’re going to miss you, this and that. Very personal relationships. We’ve become friends and family,
(15:40):
We’ve got to learn to disengage. In my mind, I have to do that because I know now I have to go back home. But the relationships will always be there.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:52):
Yeah.
Jemimah Opati (15:53):
Yes.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:54):
That’s wonderful. Well, if someone wants to find out more about Baba, what are some of social media platforms where Baba can be found and how can we find Kku Baba?
Jemimah Opati (16:09):
Alright. On Instagram at Ku Baba missions, if you just type at Ku Baba missions, it’ll come.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (16:17):
Maybe you better spell Kmb Baba for us.
Jemimah Opati (16:20):
K-U-B-A-M-B.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (16:24):
Aba. Okay. So Ku Baba missions
Jemimah Opati (16:26):
On Instagram? Yes. So at Ku Baba missions. Yeah. One word, then follow. Then we have a channel, a WhatsApp channel. Just type in Ku Baba. You’ll find it on TikTok. We also at, which is Ku Babababa.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (16:47):
Yeah, just look for Ku Baba. You’ll
Jemimah Opati (16:49):
Find Bamba. You’ll find it. Yeah. You’ll find our content there. And yeah, just keep on being blessed. We also have Aku Baba tv. Yeah, I think it’s still working as well.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (17:02):
That’s awesome.
Jemimah Opati (17:03):
Yeah. So everything is on there. And K Crew, BS K, crew, like double K-R-E-W-B-S, that’s K. Crew Bible Study. CU Bamba Crew Bible study. Yes.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (17:18):
That’s awesome.
Jemimah Opati (17:19):
Yes.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (17:20):
Well, thank you so much for being on the Evangelism Podcast.
Jemimah Opati (17:24):
Thank you so much for having me.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (17:26):
It’s been really wonderful to spend time with you and get to know you some this week.
Jemimah Opati (17:31):
Thank you so much, Mr. Daniel King.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (17:35):
Bless you.
Jemimah Opati (17:35):
Thank you. Pleasure.
Charlie Marq is from the ministry Forge. Today we discuss their work in equipping evangelists and everyday believers to share their faith and engage in missions work, particularly in reaching unreached people groups.
Learn more about Forge: https://www.forgeforward.org/
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 with me, Charlie Mark, from a ministry called Forge. Thank you for being on the Evangelism Podcast.
Charlie Marq – Forge (00:13):
Thank you so much. I’m so glad to be here with you. So appreciate it.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:16):
We are here in Zimbabwe together, we just met and it’s really been a lot of fun, ministering together. We’ve been out on the gospel
(00:27):
Truck for a few days, going out into the neighborhoods, preaching the gospel and ministering to people, praying for people out there. And we’ve seen God do good things. And then at the festival every night, thousands of people coming to hear the good news. And today we did a children’s event and you had a good illustration. You put two sticks on the ground and challenge kids to jump across the gap and then you widen it wide it until they couldn’t cross the gap. And you use that as an illustration to show that all of us need help in order to get to heaven, to get across the gap of sin. So Charlie, tell us a little bit about Forge and what you do.
Charlie Marq – Forge (01:16):
Sure. Well, forge started in 1986 as Kingdom Building Ministries. God had led my father-in-law, Dwight Robertson, to kind of launch the ministry. And our vision has been the same from the very beginning. It’s really to see a global movement of more kingdom laborers engaging every sphere of society for Christ. And we really believe that the type of people that Jesus called to follow him in the gospels were ordinary people. He didn’t go after the leading synagogue leaders and others who were highly especially trained, but fishermen, business people, tax collectors, working for the government, political revolutionaries, I mean people in everyday places in society. And these are the types of people that he called up close to him to change the world. And so we want to see those types of people sent out into harvest fields everywhere. So that’s really our big picture vision. And we do that through calling people up close to Christ and then equipping them to advance the kingdom in their everyday places through a team of evangelists or speakers, equipping opportunities and discipleship resources.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:18):
And so you are equipping evangelists to publicly share their faith, basically anybody that invites you or anywhere you can go to preach Jesus,
Charlie Marq – Forge (02:28):
Yes.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:28):
You’re training them up to go out. What does that training look like? How do you equip people?
Charlie Marq – Forge (02:34):
That’s a great question. So there’s a variety of equipping we do, but there’s really two kind of key different ones, or I’ll say three. One is for those who feel called to be an evangelist or an itinerant speaker from place to place, it’s a two year apprenticeship for those to say, Hey, how do I become an evangelist and do that?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:53):
So what does that two year apprenticeship look like?
Charlie Marq – Forge (02:57):
It’s a variety of things. Everything from reading books that are more practically based and going to build their faith and look at people throughout history, biographies or practical books on preaching, there are sermons that they have to write based on certain topics, so evangelistic sermons, camp sermons, and then also equipping sermons to equip believers. So they’ve got to write those and then they preach them at intensives throughout the year and get critiqued on them. So we’ll sit in a room, they’ll preach, they’ll do it. There’s other activities like they needed to do street preaching once they need to go speak for a church service or a camp, a variety of different ministry activities. So that’s kind of what that looks like. And then as far as the everyday believer, there’s a lot of training and focus in the Christian world, so to speak, globally on church leadership and pastors. But we find that the ordinary person church attendee feels ill-equipped. And so we really do exist also for them. And so we come alongside churches and ministries to say, Hey, we’ll provide equipping a life on purpose conference to train your church or a group of churches your everyday believers. And it’s incredible what God’s doing. We just simply say, Hey, I mean if you find forged content online, you’re going to see that we copyrighted most of it straight from Jesus. We just took it. He is like, alright. So we took that in. Jesus’s
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:19):
Copyright is like, if you’re going to copy it, make sure you copy it. Right,
Charlie Marq – Forge (04:23):
Exactly. So what did he model? He modeled a life up close to people. And we say in the mainstreams everyday places, one life at a time. He’s willing to stop all along the way, people this week here in Zimbabwe have said, Hey, we care about the one, we care about the one Jesus cared about the one. And so we equip people to say, Hey, do that. And what did Jesus do to fulfill that? He would see people stop and spend time. We would literally in the conference, see stop spend time with. And as you spend time with people, you have stories to share. We say, Hey, how has God shown up in your life? Share that. Just share, see, stop spend time and share your God story with people. In doing so, you can invite them also to have, Hey, you can have that in your life as well.
(05:05):
And so that’s kind of a very brief overview of that equipping. But what we found is believers being ignited and empowered. There was a CEO of seven different companies that he runs. Came to one of these trainings at the Billy Graham Library that we hosted and just ignited. Him and his wife went on vacation and they reported back like we’re leading people to Christ on vacation. We never thought we could do this. And he’s like, this is influencing my business. And I think all CEOs need to get this ingrained into their businesses, into their everyday spheres of influence. So it kind of looks like those kind of entities. And then we also have other programming for young adults intensive, like two week up to month and a half program where they can take these concepts but practice them together, put them into action in a variety of places.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:53):
How do people get connected to your program? You have these different apprentices that come. How do you find them and decide to a great question, decide to be discipled?
Charlie Marq – Forge (06:05):
Okay. So as far as, I guess it’s kind of the same whether somebody’s looking to be a speaker or somebody’s like, Hey, I’m a young adult, I want to get on fire for Jesus. Or I’m a church leader and I want my church to be equipped. They find us online or through relationship. We have a team of about 20 speakers. And so when we’re out on the road speaking for camps, retreats, conferences, evangelistic, crusades, you name it, people say, Hey, we like you guys, could you come here? Could you come there? And so really just word of mouth, since 1986 to now, 39 years has mostly been just word of mouth.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (06:42):
And you are also going into different nations around the world, and you’ve developed strategies for reaching into some very unreached places. Tell me some of where you’re working and what you’ve seen God do.
Charlie Marq – Forge (06:58):
Yeah, so we’ve been in many, many nations, probably well over a hundred throughout our history, but most recently really working in about 20 or so over the last five years. And seeing Jesus just blow our minds. I’m amazed thank him for what he’s doing. I think it’s a revival awakening season. But for example, in Pakistan, there are a high number of not just evangelized regions, but still ethnic people, groups that are 0% Christian, whole tribes, whole valleys, whole regions of people never heard of the gospel. And so God burned Pakistan in our hearts a number of years back about four or five years ago. And so we just went with this vision of raising up more kingdom laborers, ordinary people getting into the harvest. And also what about targeting the unreached people groups? And so God ignited a movement by casting this vision and equipping the churches and challenging them to get outside their four walls and into the everyday places where people don’t know Jesus and what’s really being effective in the Muslim world.
(08:04):
And some of these tough places like Somalia, like Pakistan, where we’re seeing a lot of people come to Christ out of Islam and out of strict, even terrorism. Islam is the love of Jesus. There are people who just see stop, spend time with them authentically care about their life, provide for their needs, meet them at their point of need as a labor saying, I’ll just roll up my sleeves and do what is in front of me. And they’re saying, we want to know about your Jesus now. And so for the sake of security, I’m not going to share exact regions or names of people groups on this, but there’s, I’ll say, scores of people, groups that were 0% Christian just a couple years ago now all have believers among ’em. One particular one went from 0% Christian to 28% Christian in six months.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:51):
Wow. Praise
Charlie Marq – Forge (08:52):
God. Just multiplied. We believe in every life from day one has the opportunity, like the woman at the well or the man with the legion of demons, they encounter Jesus. And from day one, Hey, you can go and share in your village and reach your people and reach your community. And just this ripple effect of dominoes, you may impact Juan, but what’s the next one that comes after?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:13):
Yeah. What are some of the other nations that you have personally visited and share with me some testimonies of what you’ve seen God do.
Charlie Marq – Forge (09:23):
Let’s see. I’ve been to about 30 some now.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:27):
What have you done this year? Let’s talk about,
Charlie Marq – Forge (09:29):
There we go. Yeah. What’s been happening recently, all. So a couple of recent things that have been really incredible in East Africa, we did an evangelistic outreach and had about 20,000 people come. And amazingly almost 4,900 gave their lives to Christ.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:45):
Wow.
Charlie Marq – Forge (09:46):
First time decisions.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:48):
Which country was that? In
Charlie Marq – Forge (09:49):
Kenya.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:49):
In Kenya. Wow.
Charlie Marq – Forge (09:50):
And yeah, I’m western Kenya. That’s amazing.
(09:53):
And I love the, we talk about one life, the individual testimonies. There was a gang member, his wife was killed, a bunch of his friends were gunned down by the police. He was going to commit suicide. And so he was on his way to go commit suicide, passed by the field where this event was happening and decided to stick around, gave his life to Christ, and now has led several other gang members to Christ. There was a girl, because of the shame, unmarried was going to go get an abortion, ended up at this event on the field, gave her life to Christ now has a baby.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (10:25):
Wow.
Charlie Marq – Forge (10:26):
And
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (10:27):
Incredible two lives there.
Charlie Marq – Forge (10:28):
Yeah. Hey, that works. And then the other noteworthy, one out of that would be a witch doctor went to that field ahead of time to put curses on the field for the event to fail. And so he came during the event to see how well his curses were working. Not too good, because lots of people came and I guess when I was preaching, he passed out, hit the ground, somebody drug him to a hospital, and he woke up in the hospital and said, I saw that preacher saying Jesus is the way. And so he’s like, I gave my life to Jesus. I’m in my six. I’ve done witchcraft my whole life. Pray for me that I could start a business to provide for my family now. And so that’s the type of thing that’s just incredible to see God do. And we’re seeing young adults across the US as well being ignited for Jesus and families restored at a revive outreach event. Recently, there was a mother and her son who responded, a teenage son, and they wanted to talk to us afterward. And both in tears, she said, I was at the end of myself. I didn’t know what to do. I saw an advertisement online for this event. So I drugg my son here and this is changing everything for us. And he was going, yes, yes, yes, yes. And so the effect of the gospel and people getting up close to Jesus is reuniting families and transforming regions.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (11:50):
Tell me about what you’ve been doing in the United States. What sense do you have among the young people in the United States for their engagement with the message of Jesus?
Charlie Marq – Forge (12:03):
I think well stats prove that the next generation is the most spiritually open generation that we’ve seen while simultaneously the most anxious generation. So what happens when the most spiritually open and the most anxious collide? I think it collides into a revival opportunity
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (12:19):
That is interesting. People are very anxious. They went through COVID economic turmoil. It seems like this generation has gone through more than its fair share of trauma and just challenges. And so you can see why there’s
Charlie Marq – Forge (12:37):
Anxiety.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (12:39):
And then they don’t have the religious hangups that maybe their parents did. Their parents probably maybe came from a religious background and rebelled against it. And a lot of kids these days have grown up with no exposure to much a traditional church.
Charlie Marq – Forge (12:59):
The biblical literacy is also at an all time low. And so they don’t really know. But the cool part is if you’re willing to spend time to answer their tough questions or wrestle through their tough questions with them relationally, they’re in, they’ll listen. They’re all for it. But if you’re like, don’t have the time for it, they’ll move on to someone else or something else quickly. Kind of like social media. Oh, next thing, next thing, next thing. But if you’re that person that will answer their call, sit down at a meal table, say, yeah, let’s talk about your life. What’s your struggle? And love them. No matter what their struggle is, no matter where they’re at, they’re in, you’ve got ’em.
(13:35):
And we’re seeing young adults get set on fire for Jesus and fired up to go represent him wherever they go, wherever that looks like. And when that happens, a heart on fire and a life on purpose, we’re seeing ’em lead people to Christ left and right. It’s incredible. I think we’re going to, I mean right now stats are also, church attendance is higher than it’s been in 10 years. Commitment to Jesus is higher than it’s been in 10 years in the US and it’s all through Gen Z. And something else that’s shifted is it’s through males, former generations, females were leading the charge. Next generation males are leading the charge. And so it’s a really fascinating time of history for that.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (14:13):
Yeah, that’s awesome. Let’s talk about your personal testimony. How did you give your life to Jesus? And then how did you know that you were called to be an evangelist?
Charlie Marq – Forge (14:27):
Yeah, good question. So I grew up with really great godly parents taking us to church. They would share the gospel with us, share Bible stories with us. And so we knew, and they all said, you need to make a decision. Give your heart to Jesus. So I was five years old, walk out of school, get into the van with my mom picking me up from school, and I said, today’s the day, mom. I’m give my life to Jesus. Let’s pray. I’m going to pray with you right now in the car. I just wanted to prayed with her in the car, went home to my three-year-old brother and immediately told him his name is Will. If Jesus comes back today, you’re going to hell. You need to give your life to Jesus. Now, I changed my tactics slightly since then as a five-year-old, but immediately had to proclaim, and
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:11):
That’s very similar to my testimony. I was saved at a very young age, so young that I don’t remember. But I know that I was called to be an evangelist at the age of five, and I preached my first sermon at the age of six. I wish
Charlie Marq – Forge (15:24):
I could have heard that sermon.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:25):
My mom and dad actually kept a cassette tape for the sermon, and I put it up on YouTube a few years ago. I preached 45 minutes when I was six.
Charlie Marq – Forge (15:34):
What? No way.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:35):
And I knew way more back then than I know now. I talk about eschatology and the mark of the beast and don’t get the mark of the, and now I don’t know anything about end times, but apparently when I was six, I knew a lot. That
Charlie Marq – Forge (15:48):
Was it in with the times. I guess you’re watching left Behind, huh?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:53):
It was before left behind. Yeah. But one of the things I say is if you are saved, stay saved. If you’re not saved, you need to get saved. And so even at the age of six, I said like an evangelist. No
Charlie Marq – Forge (16:07):
Kidding.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (16:08):
Yeah. But it’s neat that God calls people young. So you were saved at a very young age.
Charlie Marq – Forge (16:12):
So that happened then grew up in a church, helping with youth ministry stuff, doing all the things the church family does. But over that kind of time of junior high and throughout high school, I became very arrogant, very confident in myself
(16:30):
In the vision I wanted for my life, I wanted to join the military for an entire career. Ended up being nominated by Vice President Senator for West Point Air Force Academy, full ride, ROTC, scholarships to leading engineering schools. And that’s what I was going to do. Nobody could stop me. My mom would say, are you sure this is what you want to give your whole life to? And I said, stop asking me. This is what I’m doing.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (16:49):
Wow.
Charlie Marq – Forge (16:49):
And then I ended up at a camp, a youth pastor at the church I was at, said, Hey, we got invited this camp. Could you come check it out with me to see if you’d be good for our church and youth ministry? I said, sure. So I went with him and I had just taken oath to defend the constitution, and it was right before military training would’ve started
(17:09):
End up at this camp, hearing these phenomenal messages by itinerant speakers and evangelists. They’re really exciting and compelling to me. Messages like getting up close to Jesus, what it looks like practically. And I thought, man, I really need to do that. That’s exciting. A message about passion for Christ and willing to suffer for him no matter what, and reach people. And hearing these stories of the book of Acts alive and present now, I was going, wow, I’m missing something here. And then I heard this message on reaching people all around the world, unreached people, and how for that speaker, it started with listening to God in prayer. And I went to the end of his invitation. At the end of the message was just in prayer, ask God if he has anything to show you or you have a question, ask him, go to prayer. And I literally thought, I have never heard about this side of prayer before. I don’t even know what I think about it. So I prayed, Lord, I don’t know what I think. This is kind of weird, but if you have something to speak to me, I’ll listen.
(18:02):
And immediately I saw this picture in my head of a field in darkness, and then fire and light came through the field. What is that? That wasn’t my idea, but it was just in my mind. I didn’t know what it meant. Until later, God was starting to show me, I want you to start fires in dark places. Your fire starter go bring my light to dark places. So I had that happen that same week as I was praying, this thought came into my mind, you’re willing to risk your life for your country. Would you do that for me?
(18:33):
And wrestled with that thought. So I came home from that camp and I heard that this ministry happens to be forge. I had a discipleship opportunity for young people, and I was like, man, I think I need more of this. God’s doing something in my life. So I think they didn’t want me to come. I did all these pranks at the camp. I caused them to write new rules. I caused all the problems, troublemaker. And so they’re like, ah, you can come if you can raise the $2,000 in the next two weeks. Done raise the money,
(19:01):
Came on the next 16 days of training. And while we were there, there was this cross and the team was praying at this cross. And I got down on my knees to pray. And again, these thoughts come. I felt like the Lord was saying, would you surrender the military and put me first in your life? It was an idol. I said, Lord, yeah. I mean, this is exciting. I will. And he said, if you mean it, get on your face. And my immediate thought was, oh, there’s ants and dirt. Who’s going to join the military? Who cares? There’s ants and dirt. And then I said, I don’t want to look like a freak Christian in front of these people who prays on their face.
(19:35):
I didn’t go to a church with that kind of dynamic. So growing up, so I’m going to prey on my face if you mean it. Get on your face. So I get on my face, Lord, I’m in. I surrender. You’re more important. Whatever you want to do with my life, I’m in this absolute surrender moment. And I started to notice a difference from that point of feeling empowered by the Holy Spirit to be a witness, to start to reach people, sharing Jesus with people. All of a sudden, people are coming to Christ. I feel compelled to do it. And I go home and I say, Lord, I don’t know what to do. I’m going to go to the military still unless you tell me there’s another plan. I have no other plan. Took my Bible to the woods, prayed that, and I felt like God said open to Romans one. So I open to Romans one, and all the words are jumping off the page and cutting me to the heart
(20:22):
Set apart for the gospel obligated to preach. I have to obligated to preach to the wise and the foolish. And God started putting in my mind, you’re going to do that. And those wise people are going to be those who know Christ, but could grow in their passion for him. And the foolish are going to be lost people and unreached places and dangerous places around the world. So I’m like, oh, I’m going to travel and preach and do that. And so I said, all right, that’s it. So I called up the military and said, Hey, I’m backing out of my scholarship. I’m backing out of everything. And they literally said, why? I mean, I hadn’t even started. Nobody would back out of that. I was like, well, God told me not to. So they probably said if he comes back, psychological evaluation. So I backed out. I had saved no money for college because the government was going to pay for everything. And I said, Lord, I’m going to have to fundraise the rest of my life. If this is what I’m called to, you’re going to have to provide. I don’t believe I should go into debt to just start that way.
(21:14):
So you’re going to have to provide for college. I applied for a Bible college on Friday and school started Monday, got in, graduated within a month debt free. God provided everything and haven’t looked back since. Been doing this now for about 14 years.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (21:29):
Wow. That’s awesome. Well, thank you so much for sharing on the Evangelism podcast. Oh, one other question I wanted to ask you. Tell me about how you met your wife.
Charlie Marq – Forge (21:41):
Hey, good question. So yeah, I had mentioned my father-in-law started Forge in 1986. So she was at that camp crazy enough, in the same room at the same time, the same message and invitation I was having my encounter with God, she was having one. She felt like God allowed her to hear children’s voices and laughter and putting a burden in her heart like, I’m calling you to be a mother. And so we had these significant spiritual moments in the same room without realizing what God would do in the future, we became acquaintances. Then for a time after that, I was a youth pastor and needed someone to do music. I knew she was gifted in music. So I called her through that. She said, yes, we became good friends. One thing led to another even where I was like, Lord, should I ask her on a date? I mean, I had put before God, I’m willing to be single my whole life and I surrender this to you, but if you want to give the gift, I’ll take the gift
(22:37):
That kind of prayer. So when that time came, I was like, Lord, is this a good idea? Should I ask her on a date? And I did. And I said, I want to talk with your dad first before we go, but I’d like to ask you. And then that same week, the pastors at the church where I was serving at the time, said, Hey, it was a Valentine’s Week. Are you going on a date with anybody for Valentine’s Day?
(22:57):
I said, no, there’s not really anybody to go with. And they’re like, come on man. What about all these girls that serve in the youth ministry and all the rest? I said, well, funny you ask. I’ve been thinking about Dara and asking her out this week and that same week when I was asking her, and the pastor looks at me and says, my wife and I have been praying about that for a long time. We think you should do it. So that one thing led to another, and we’ve been married now for about 10 years. And it’s a joy. She’s an incredible mother to our two kids. How
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (23:27):
Old are your kids?
Charlie Marq – Forge (23:28):
Five and almost three.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (23:30):
Wow.
Charlie Marq – Forge (23:31):
And she’s a great worship leader. Kind of holds down the fort often. It’s a hard behind the scenes job while we travel a lot. And so it’s a joy to be called and do it together in that way.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (23:44):
That’s awesome. So if someone wants to know more information about Forge, maybe learn more about your apprenticeship program and how to become effective at sharing their faith or even support you guys in the international missions that you do, what is a good website where they can find out more information?
Charlie Marq – Forge (24:06):
Yeah, it’s at forge.org. That’s F-O-R-G-E-F-O-R-W-A-R d.org. And people can go there if they want a discipleship resource, if they want to join us on any sort of trip or see where we’re preaching across the US in the globe and go to an event or say, Hey, we want to do equipping together. Can we collaborate and do an equipping opportunity? It’s all there.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (24:28):
And you guys have already developed a lot of discipleship material You’re working on more. Tell me a little bit about some of the resources that you have.
Charlie Marq – Forge (24:36):
Yeah, one of the primaries called Multiplying Movements, it’s on our website as well where you can go to multiplying movements.com. It’s basically a discipleship pathway or resource for every believer. Often as I know you’ve seen well around the world, believers are saying, Hey, I want to make disciples, but what do I actually do? Or as evangelist, okay, we’re there, but what’s next for those people when they make a decision? So it’s really designed to be relational, which is highly important, but also with an end goal and vision. And so it’s not only programmatic and it’s not only relational, it’s both designed for one-on-one mentoring or small groups to say every believer can grow in their depth on their heart, on fire, for Christ and their life on purpose. For him to then become a laborer who says, Hey, with my unique gifts, if it’s bacon cookies,
(25:26):
It’s riding a bike, if it’s fly fishing, I can use my gifts to reach others for Christ in my life and now train them to go and do the same.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (25:34):
That’s awesome. Well, Charlie, thank you so much for being on the evangel of
Charlie Marq – Forge (25:38):
The podcast. Hey, love being with you and just talking about all this.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (25:40):
Yes, sir.
Charlie Marq – Forge (25:40):
Appreciate it.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (25:41):
Thank you.
Paul Durham used to be a pastor, but God called him to be an evangelist. Today we talk about the importance of being faithful with the small things and how God will give us big things to do for His kingdom. We also explore how to battle pride and ego as an evangelist.
Learn more about Evangelist Paul Durham: https://proclaimgoodnews.org/
Summary:
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 special guest with me, evangelist Paul Durham. Thank you so much for being on the Evangelism Podcast.
Evangelist Paul Durham (00:12):
Thank you, Daniel. It’s an honor to be here with you, my brother.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:15):
So the name of your ministry is Proclaim Good News, That is a good mission to have. Tell me a little bit about how you became an evangelist.
Evangelist Paul Durham (00:25):
Okay. Well, I was pastoring a church in North Carolina, outside the Charlotte area back in, I started in 2003. Actually. Before that I was just traveling locally, preaching in churches and things. One of those churches ended up asking me to consider being their pastor. The first year I didn’t do it, they asked me again. I eventually prayed about it with my wife and we did. And I pastored a church for about six and a half, seven years. But I always felt called to evangelism. I had a heart to reach the lost, and I felt that pretty early when I first came to know Christ, because I came to know Christ through really listening to Greg Laurie’s ministry on the radio
(01:14):
Huge impact. And I think also God used that to put a passion in me, maybe for the gospel, for the loss for my friends family. So as a pastor, the church needs a good Bible teaching shepherd, and I did my best and God was gracious and kind to use me in that capacity. But I noticed I was kept pushing for the church to be more outreach oriented, more externally minded. But I felt what the people are needing or at least wanting and needing is more shepherding and more Bible studies and more growing in their knowledge of the word and their relationship with Christ. So there was that tension in me, and it wasn’t a large church with the staff or anything, so a lot of it depended on me. And there was that tension inside of me pastoring, shepherding, teaching an evangelist. And we made the decision actually through Jose Z, meeting Jose in Charlotte, learning about his ministry and went with him to Uganda in 2010.
(02:27):
Got a taste of the festival, crusade, evangelism, loved it, God praying about it. And I realized you have to take a step of faith like everything in life. So when God made the transition, he orchestrated the change. I stepped out of the pastoring to go full-time evangelism, big step of faith. I went from having a salary every week to trust in God. Father, please provide. And still to this day, same. So that’s kind of how it began. And that was 2011, we started the ministry. It was originally called Ripe for Life, but with my southern accent, people on the radio and on telephone calls, they couldn’t get ripe, RIPE number for life. It was always ripe for life, all kinds of things. So the board made a decision together. We believe it was the Lord to change the name, to proclaim good news, and we’ve just done that in the last couple of years.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (03:36):
And so tell me kind of the process of being an evangelist. What are some of the things you’ve done over the years that have really been impactful?
Evangelist Paul Durham (03:44):
Yeah, yeah. Well, we started, when I first started, I started in Africa, east African Nations, back to Uganda, partnered a lot still today our ministry is more a collaborative effort with other evangelists. And even from the beginning, I partnered with PJ Mad and his ministry quite a bit. I’ve learned so much. PJ’s really helped me a lot when I first got started as a mentor. So I would go with him and he and I would partner together and do these crusades or festivals. And it took off. I mean, we were seeing in Rwanda, Africa, in remote areas, they’d be 30, 40,000 people at some of these things. And I was just blown away. And I’m talking about no big stage, no big sound system. It’s like a wooden stage kind of rocking back and forth. Some speakers hanging out of a tree and maybe a light surrounded by mosquitoes we’re just preaching the gospel and folks we’re coming and coming and hungry for the word
(04:49):
Seeing God move. So that’s kind of how it started with this big explosion. And I was, I’m like hooked. Woo. But then reality started to settle in and we’ve done some things and what I have learned, and I think God is showing that it might be encouraging for some other evangelists, every soul matters. And so God allowed me to be a part of some really big things in the beginning. Then I does some things on our own with our ministry, much smaller. We’ve been in Eastern Europe doing affinity events. Maybe there’s a hundred people in a restaurant, but 40 out of a hundred receive Christ a high percentage of salvations, and then we
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:37):
That’s a great miracle in
Evangelist Paul Durham (05:39):
Eastern Europe. Yes. Yeah. Well, praise God, right? Every soul matters. And then we’ve done some things in Costa Rica where in the mountains of, I’ll never forget this, in the mountains of Costa Rica in the coffee country,
(05:53):
Very small town, Santa Maria, if I said that correctly, maybe 10 churches working together, big coffee factory. There was some of the best coffee in the world. But these 10 pastors or 10 churches or so, small festival, about 600 people. But to them, and they told me those pastors, we’ve never had anything like this, their little town square, to be filled up with people and to hear the gospel and see the response, it was amazing for them and for me, but on a much smaller scale than the big thing. So what I’ve learned, and I’m happy with it, small is significant, largest, significant. And you know, us evangelists, I like the big pictures and the video.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (06:45):
Sure.
Evangelist Paul Durham (06:45):
Small things are significant too, because that one person, I
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (06:49):
Think an order for God to open up the door for you to do the big things, you have to be willing to do the small things. Because if you can’t talk one-on-one to someone about Jesus, you don’t deserve to be on a platform talking to thousands of people. And God tests our faithfulness in some ways. And what I find often in my ministry is that right after we do a real big successful event and something that’s really great, then God will give me the opportunity to do some small, little, tiny event that nobody knows about. I really think it’s just God testing my heart. I want to make sure you’re still a servant, you’re still willing to serve the one or the few, and then you show yourself faithful and then God gives you another big opportunity Again.
Evangelist Paul Durham (07:37):
I agree. A
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (07:38):
Few months later,
Evangelist Paul Durham (07:39):
Brother, we are just alike. I concur everything you said. That is exactly my heart. Everything. I agree.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (07:46):
I mean, today we’re here in Zimbabwe and I was going out on one of the trucks, the mobile rallies, and so we just pull into a little station where there’s little shops and stuff, and I started preaching and no one was listening. I mean, they’re over there shopping, buying tomatoes, and we try to gather a crowd, but the sun is hot, so no one wants to come out of the shade. So they’re all way over in the shop in the shade and stuff. And I was preaching good. I know it’s a good sermon. It works good. I’ve used it a lot for thousands of people, but no one’s listening. I know. And here comes one guy walking along and he is got a beer in his hand. And I said, if no one else is listening, I’m going to talk to him. Talk to that guy. Said, Hey, listen to me. Like, hey. He stopped. He put down his beer, looked at me. He’s like, who are you? I said, Hey, come here, come here, come here. And just started preaching to that one
Evangelist Paul Durham (08:49):
Guy
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:50):
And shared the whole gospel with him. Jesus set you free. Put the beard down as are you ready to give your life to Jesus? He said, 100%, I’m ready. And so right there in the microphone, I had him, there’s one guy
Evangelist Paul Durham (09:06):
Share,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:07):
I mean say a salvation prayer with me. And so Jesus saved
Evangelist Paul Durham (09:11):
That
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:11):
One guy out there who was walking to get another beer today. And Jesus changed his life.
Evangelist Paul Durham (09:19):
Every soul matters. That’s right. Yeah. The 1 0 1, I love those times. We’ve even tried, this is new for our ministry, but I went up to the mountains and really right on the border of North Carolina, Georgia area, me and a friend, and did some one-on-one interviews with people. The challenge I learned, there wasn’t a whole lot of big crowd of people to talk to and was hard to get ’em to stop and talk. But the few that did, the culture, they grew up in the south, in the culture, if you ask them, Hey, what do you think about? Everybody knows Jesus, everybody’s saved, but you still share the gospel with them and end up praying with them and a young man there and a young lady both that we got to just spend time with and pray for them and they pray, I guess more of a recommitment to Christ. But those things matter. And even the one-on-one times in life with people, my dad, man, I remember he’s a hard, my whole life, tough guy, blue collar, southern, tough, exterior mental man. And when I was saying,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (10:31):
I’m glad you’re a Christian because I mean you’re smiling a lot, I think, man, if you didn’t have Jesus, I think you’d be kind of like
Evangelist Paul Durham (10:39):
That. I may have, well, I grew up in that environment, but my dad, he was hard, tough, may argue with you about anything and always have to be right. And I love him. I love my dad. And today we still have a great relationship. But he left when I was young just to live his life and all. But I got saved. I would try to talk to him. I remember he would just shut me down. It was hard. It was hard. I’d keep praying for him and praying for him. That man finally broke. God got his heart, tough heart, older in life, and God softened his heart and he came to Christ and he told me, now he’s going to church. And he’s
(11:22):
Older, took a while. And I wasn’t even the one that necessarily, I didn’t pray with him on the spot to receive Christ. But all those years of praying and having those conversations, it has an impact on our families. We need to be praying for and serving and loving our families. And anybody God puts in our space, if it’s the one person at work, school, wherever, or the crowd like here, thousands of people in front of you, love them, serve them. Share the gospel, the truth with them like we know Christ changes the life, softens the heart, saves the soul we had love people, serve people and proclaim good news of Jesus to
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (12:13):
Them. Amen. Let’s talk about the power of collaboration.
Evangelist Paul Durham (12:17):
So
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (12:18):
We’re here in Zimbabwe with the global network of evangelists, and you’ve done many events with the global network of evangelists. You’ve been in several different countries with them. And right now we’re in Zimbabwe. In a few weeks you’ll be in Argentina with them. And so that comes through collaboration. And I think there’s a principle that together we can accomplish more
Evangelist Paul Durham (12:43):
Than
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (12:43):
If we were separate. And when you don’t care who logo is on the poster and whose face is on the poster and give all the glory to Jesus, he’s the one who gets the glory
Evangelist Paul Durham (12:56):
Anyways,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (12:57):
But not care about your logo or your ego. You can accomplish far more for God. And so talk to me about how collaboration has helped your ministry.
Evangelist Paul Durham (13:09):
Oh wow, brother, you are right. I liked what you said. Well, if you don’t care about your logo or your ego, that’s pretty cool, man. I’ll just be quite frank about it. I believe God moves even. You read scripture, the body, we’re a body. It’s us. It isn’t me, it’s us.
(13:30):
And collaboration with evangelist, the factor of partnership and collaborating together, we can do more. Our ministry isn’t a large ministry, it’s like a small business. So if I do something on my own with our ministry, it’s still a significant, but you can do a small thing or only reach a few where if you collaborate together, you can go further and deeper and reach more. So why not pull our resources together? Why not? It takes humility, but pull our resources together. Be willing to say, when Daniel King’s on that stage preaching the gospel, I’m your biggest fan. I’m praying for you, brother. I know you. I love you. I want to see you do well for Jesus. And I want to see those people respond. And then when I’m preaching, it’s good to know these brothers understand the battle. It’s a spiritual battle
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (14:34):
Going on. Last night you were preaching at the festival and me and Reed Saunders and Jose Zia were on the side looking over the fence and watching you and praying for you while you were sharing the gospel. Thank you brother. And even I was watching the audience and some of the young people were losing interest, starting to get antsy and stuff. And I just started praying. He said, Lord, calm everybody down. Let the gospel hit their
Evangelist Paul Durham (15:06):
Heart.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:07):
Let every word that brother Paul says, come straight from the throne room of heaven.
Evangelist Paul Durham (15:12):
And
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:13):
After me and Reid and Jose started praying, I think it brought a change in the atmosphere.
Evangelist Paul Durham (15:20):
I think you’re right because last night this happens to all of us. Sometimes it’s like you’re just tracking with Jesus and everybody’s listening, this is going well and this it’s like, man, I’m running in
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:31):
Mud. And last night was the first night of the festival, so that’s always the toughest night. Anyway, they gave you the tough
Evangelist Paul Durham (15:38):
One. It was a little bit of a harder audience maybe, and there were a lot of movement. But the ones right up front. And I did sense your prayers, brother, because even as I was preaching, being faithful to the Lord, as much as I know how and give people the gospel, there was a moment there where it’s a lot of movement. This is people are, but the people right up front, all of a sudden there was a time it felt like the Holy Spirit kind of fell over that group right there. They were tuned in right in the middle and up the front and the distractions on the side or in the back didn’t even matter. It was like, God, you’re speaking to these people and those are the ones that responded at the invitation. They prayed, some of them raised their hands
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (16:27):
And we had a good response last night,
Evangelist Paul Durham (16:29):
But that’s what you said, God allowed me last night to have the honor to proclaim the gospel. And you guys were praying and doing spiritual battle. Sometimes he lets you have the honor preaching to God and the rest of us are there to lift you up,
(16:47):
Pray and help do that spiritual war going on because souls are on the line, man, the enemy if he wants to stop all that. So back to collaboration, we’re so much better together, not just in numbers, but in the spiritual battle and to be able to encourage one another. And if you have a hard night, something doesn’t go well, somebody, we are all people. Somebody might say something that hurt your feelings or whatever. We got each other because you understand, we all go through it, but we’re in it together for Jesus. But that ego thing, I’ll be quite frank, I have to battle that same time. I think
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (17:29):
It’s in every evangelist. I mean, there’s something, it takes a big ego to stand up in front of a big crowd and to proclaim. And sometimes it can go to your head like, wow, look at me. I’m the amazing man of God. But you got to remember on Palm Sunday when Jesus rode in, everyone was cheering for him and the donkey might’ve thought they were cheering for him.
Evangelist Paul Durham (17:54):
Yeah, that’s
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (17:54):
Right. It was the one he was carrying. That’s right. They were not really cheering for us. They’re cheering for the one we carry. We carry
Evangelist Paul Durham (18:00):
Jesus. Yeah, I’m the donkey, that’s for sure.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (18:05):
But it is beautiful to see collaboration. Collaboration gives you the opportunity to serve.
Evangelist Paul Durham (18:13):
And
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (18:14):
Really, Jesus said, the greatest in the kingdom is the servant of all.
Evangelist Paul Durham (18:18):
Jesus
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (18:18):
Said, I’ve come not to be served but to serve. He said that if your faith with the small things, I’ll put you in charge of many things.
Evangelist Paul Durham (18:26):
And
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (18:26):
So what collaboration does too is it allows you to serve and to be a part of something. And then as you’re faithful in the collaboration, then God will advance your ministry and give you more and more opportunities.
Evangelist Paul Durham (18:45):
And quite frankly too, from the beginning, my heart, I grew up in a small town in South Carolina with my accent. You may have thought I was from Brooklyn. No, I’m kidding. As a joke, small town, South Carolina, and I do have a heart for small towns. I would love if God ever made a way or opened a door through collaboration or on our own to reach some of those small towns like that, like a high school football stadium
(19:13):
And give them something that the cities get a lot, but they don’t get a lot of just like those guys in those mountains of Costa Rica to do that in America or anywhere in the world. I love that. My heart is there, but that’s how I grew up. I understand. You always have to drive an hour or more to get to anything. Nobody comes here. Somebody come here, minister to them. They got all the same challenges. The city, it’s drugs, there’s broken homes, there’s all the same challenges are there too. And people are there, and every person matters. Every town matters. And if God called me to reach those outskirts, fine with me. I love those people. But I love doing this too, and the collaboration and to work together and to be a part of some of the bigger things. It’s beautiful. I just thank God for any opportunity and Phil, use us it all. Amen. It is amazing. Right? It’s all his grace.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (20:17):
Amen.
Evangelist Paul Durham (20:17):
Yeah, brother.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (20:19):
Well, brother Paul, thank you so much for being on the Evangelism Podcast. If someone wants to find out more information about your ministry or help to support you and all the missions that you’re going on, what is a good website for them? They to find out more information about
Evangelist Paul Durham (20:34):
You. Well, thank you Daniel. It is proclaim good news.org. If you go there, you can find out everything.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (20:41):
Awesome. Well, thank you for being on the Evangelist Podcast. Thank
Evangelist Paul Durham (20:44):
You for having me, brother. God bless you.
Tara Hope Boehlke is an evangelist who has traveled to many countries sharing the gospel. She started as a volunteer helping to give away eye glasses at evangelistic events before being called into evangelistic ministry herself. Tara has developed a ministry of giving out customized aprons and bags to share the message that everyone has great value and is “kind of a big deal” in God’s eyes. She has also published a children’s book called “Petey the Pathetic Dump Truck” that teaches about finding one’s true identity in God. She encourages other women who feel called to evangelism to start small by sharing their personal testimonies and praying for others, and to trust that God will grow their ministry as they are faithful with what He gives them.
Learn more about Tara’s Ministry: https://iamkbd.com/
Transcript:
Evangelist 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 with me, Tara Hope Boehlke
Tara Hope Boehlke (00:12):
That’s a tough name.
Evangelist Daniel King (00:13):
Yeah. So Ms. Tara, thank you so much for being on the Evangelism Podcast.
Tara Hope Boehlke (00:17):
Yeah, it’s amazing to be here. We’re in Zimbabwe, which is just crazy. Who would ever check that on their list of places they wanted to go in a lifetime.
Evangelist Daniel King (00:25):
And you and I have actually been in several places together. I think we were in
Tara Hope Boehlke (00:29):
Zambia.
Evangelist Daniel King (00:30):
Zambia together. Did you go to Kenya?
Tara Hope Boehlke (00:32):
Yeah, Kenya.
Evangelist Daniel King (00:33):
And I think I’ve maybe even seen you in the Portland area before. So God has brought us here for the Love Zimbabwe Festival, and you preached a couple of nights ago
Tara Hope Boehlke (00:45):
And
Evangelist Daniel King (00:46):
It was so powerful when you gave the altar call, many people gave their lives to Jesus.
Tara Hope Boehlke (00:50):
That’s crazy. It’s amazing.
Evangelist Daniel King (00:51):
And so you are an evangelist and you’re a minister. And tell me a little bit about your ministry. You’re kind of a big deal. I don’t know if my listeners know just how big a deal you are, but you’re kind of a big deal. Tell me about your ministry.
Tara Hope Boehlke (01:08):
Well, that all started, I began a long time ago with Andrew Palau, and I worked in just the bunkers, getting people fitted with reading glasses. And that’s when I start learning the gospel. And I did so many countries with him and I had a couple of friends of stunt dudes that said, Hey, you should try Reed Saunders. And he was in Salem Morgan. I’m based out of Vancouver, Washington, and that’s just like an hour away. So I never even met him before I decided I would go to Myanmar with him. And when I went to Myanmar, which they just opened up the borders for that, I was still not an evangelist. I was just volunteering, carrying people’s suitcases and I’m golden with that. But just helping the whole process. After Reid and I met Reid decided he wanted to get me on stage. But when I was in Myanmar, I met this guy named Sonny, and he’s out of Chennai, India. And what a man of God, I mean truly a servant to the nines. And we saw each other in a couple of different countries. So what happened is when COVID hit, I had this crazy idea, God is a creative God and that creative God lives within us, so we should be creating all the time. So I got nicknamed KBD, I think it was in the Dominican Republic. I would pray for something and it would happen. And they’re like, Tara, how’d you do that? And I’m like, I’m kind of a big deal.
Evangelist Daniel King (02:35):
So KBD kind
Tara Hope Boehlke (02:36):
Of big deal. Big deal, a big deal. But what I did is everybody’s kind of a big deal, but they don’t know how valuable their life is. So I created, created a logo. I wish I had something with me. Actually, I have a hat back in my room. But I created a logo. I mean, I just drew it out on a random piece of tissue paper. And it was within three days I had a business license. Everything just happened so quickly. And I said, what I’m going to do is I’m going to create this logo and I’m going to put it on items. It’s going to be a brand name. I didn’t know, I’m not a business woman at all. But I decided what I’m going to do is I got a ahold of Sonny and I said, who has a garment factory in Chennai, India?
(03:21):
And he rescues women from the streets, orphans trafficking, you name it, rescues these women, teaches them to sow, teaches them English, but most importantly teaches them about their value, who they are in Christ, right? They’re kind of a big deal and now their life has great value. So I applied that. I started doing an apron ministry with Reed Saunders and where I would do women’s events and I would give them my testimony. I would give them the gospel, and then at the end of that, I would give them, I’d give them these aprons. I’ve given the story about Susanna Wesley, who would these, she would pray with her apron over her head. Many of you probably know the story of Susanna, but out of Susanna was she had, I dunno, 800 children, just a ton of kids. Some of them were severely disabled. Her husband was always in debtor’s prison and they always fought politically. I just thought that was a funny take on that, all that. But she would sit in her kitchen amongst the cacophony of noise. She had to be there. But she said, when mom was praying, you are going to know her aprons overhead, leave her alone unless you really need me. So out of that came John and Charles Wesley, which most of you know are two, the most prolific man in men in
Evangelist Daniel King (04:34):
Christian and started Methodism.
Tara Hope Boehlke (04:35):
Right? So that being said, that’s been a very, very successful ministry. The apron ministry. I got ’em on these cinch sacks that have gone all over the world where we would go in, we speak in schools and whatnot, we have really these beautiful ax with my logo on ’em. And we teach ’em, even though it doesn’t really translate to other languages, KBD, but it is knowing that they are kind of a big deal. Their life has great value. And I’ve done that with a homeless ministry all over Portland and Vancouver. They’ve been handed out letting people know, especially what’s really interesting is we handed them up to the American Indians up in Washington state. And I thought, well, the Indians in India made these bags and they’re blessed and prayed over and we handed out these cinch sacks that were filled with toothpaste, toothbrush, whatever these neat. And they would give them to the American Indians, say, Hey, you’re kind of a big deal. And it’s the best warm introduction. Their first question is, well, who said that? Well, I’m glad you asked, right? So that’s where the whole KBD thing started. And as it has evolved, I am now we’re at a new season in life. I’m an empty nester and I’m beginning to write and I’ve published my first children’s book.
Evangelist Daniel King (05:52):
Congratulations. So this is a beautiful book, Petey, the Pathetic dump truck.
Tara Hope Boehlke (05:57):
And as you can tell, that’s not a dump truck. But this story is all about this little firetruck that believes he’s a dump truck, but he thinks he’s pathetic and his journey to find out his true identity and what he was created to be.
Evangelist Daniel King (06:15):
He’s really a firetruck, but he thinks he’s a dump truck.
Tara Hope Boehlke (06:18):
And look, he’s all broken and he’s trying really, really hard to be a really good dump truck. He practices all the time and he grows bigger and bigger. You think a truck that big and hauls some dirt, but he’s so unhappy and he keeps on going to the truck maker and asking him over and over again, make me a better dump truck. But ultimately, when he comes to the end of his rope, he makes his last trip, he’s done. Everybody told him how nice the maker was. And at the end of it, he goes, he tells the maker off. He goes, if you just gave me what I wanted, I would be happy. But then something happened in the look of the maker’s face and PD finally asked the right question. He goes, okay, then what am I? And isn’t that what we all should be going to the creator? We spend our whole life trying to figure out who we are and we’re unhappy and we’re struggling and we’re tired and our lives are falling apart, et cetera. And we have failed to go to the creator to find out who we are. Now through all of this process, I’ve learned that I’m an evangelist. I didn’t even know what that was. Luis Palau in Canon Beach Conference Center. I didn’t know nothing about nothing. He goes, Tara, you’re an evangelist. I’m like, cool. What’s that? I had no idea. But that began
Evangelist Daniel King (07:35):
To evolve. That’s me how when you are around evangelists, you begin to see that gifting come out of you. And so being around Luis Palau, I mean he was a great evangelist. And just that word of encouragement, it was really prophetic because now you really are an evangelist. You have proven that he was right.
Tara Hope Boehlke (07:55):
And the more that I’ve learned about what an evangelist is, and it’s really interesting, is when you look through scripture and about, the first evangelist was a woman who was just a shameful, shameful woman, a Samaritan. And she was rejected. Nobody liked her, nobody. One wanted to touch her. And there the savior of the world is chatting her up and it was so profound to her. She had the loudest voice because there the savior, the Messiah who she’d known about and she’s one of the loudest voices. And then you think of,
Evangelist Daniel King (08:26):
And she runs into the village and says, come and see a man and told me everything I ever did. And they’re like, you’re the woman who stole half the men in the village. We don’t even like you, but we’ll come and follow
Tara Hope Boehlke (08:38):
You. That kind of
Evangelist Daniel King (08:38):
Courage. And the whole village came out to meet Jesus. And he stayed there two more days and she brought people to Jesus. I love that story. It’s so encouraging because it shows that if you can just reach one person, maybe someone who’s down and out broken has problems in their life, if you can reach one person, you have the potential to reach an entire village.
Tara Hope Boehlke (08:59):
Amen.
Evangelist Daniel King (08:59):
Their entire community. Amen.
Tara Hope Boehlke (09:00):
And what’s really interesting about this is I see the women and the other women that came out of the tomb, they were crushed. They were like our savior died. They were there to take care of his body and he had risen, he was there. And their excitement as women was so profound. So you have some of the first evangelists were women, right? And what’s even more incredible about that is they both have this encounter with God. And I think it’s that encounter is what is the manifestation that power within us that when we’re able to speak with such fervor and such absolute, I had an encounter with God. And it’s not like any other encounter in the world and it changes you. It makes you fearless, it makes you courageous. And I think, do you remember when the disciples were talking, they came to Jesus. Hey, there’s people over there preaching your name and they don’t even know you. And Jesus is like, if they’re using my name, that’s how powerful his name is. So whether you’re an official evangelist or not, you know what the truth is, you’re still able to tell the truth.
Evangelist Daniel King (10:02):
I like your point about how the women who saw the empty tomb became some of the first evangelists to go and tell people Jesus is a lie. We saw him
(10:14):
And he came back to life and no one believed them. And some people say, well, you can’t really believe that these reports of the resurrection are true. But apologists have pointed out that if you were trying to make up a story, like you’re an author, you write stories. If you’re trying to make up a story and you wanted it to be credible, this is good. You would never put the news in the mouth of a woman because back then they wouldn’t have been considered credible. No one would believe them. But yet we know that the gospel is true because it was these women who came and were the first to share the good news that Jesus is no longer in
Tara Hope Boehlke (10:56):
The tune. And they weren’t afraid, just like the shepherds weren’t afraid. They were fearless because there was something so incredible that happened to them that they could not keep it inside. So my crushing was when my husband had died and after he died, I decided to devote my life completely to Jesus. I still didn’t know what an evangelist was. And I got married a couple years later and we approached Luis Palau and I said, we want to serve God, but we don’t know what to do. And he goes, Tara, you should go with my son Andrew, to Tanzania, but it’s probably too late. But two weeks later, we had our five kids taken care of our dogs, our house. And he took two weeks off of work and we went to Tanzania and I had my first taste of what it was to tell people about Jesus. I was, there was no going back. There was no other life to live. There was nothing else for me to do. I had found out, just like when Pete, he found out at the end of this book, spoiler, the maker said, you’re not pd the pathetic dump truck. You’re Pedro. He gave him a new name. You’re Pedro, the fierce firetruck. I built you to save lives.
(12:07):
And to me, when I understood that I don’t have a lot of education, I don’t have a lot of academics in scripture, but the Lord still built me to save lives. And he proved his point with saying, he’s looking, his eyes roam the earth, looking for somebody that will believe in Him, that will believe what he has to say, that he may encourage them. He just wanting people to say, yes, it’s not about us, but will we say yes? Will we trust him? Will we obey him? And I’m like, I’ve got no place else to go. So I’m yours. What do you want to do? I will go. Who will go? I will go.
Evangelist Daniel King (12:43):
That’s awesome. What advice would you give to women who maybe feel called to be an evangelist who want to be used by God?
Tara Hope Boehlke (12:53):
That’s a really good question. And it is to go to Jesus, pray first. If this is what you’re called to do, start simply start with your family and understand the significance to repentance, turning away from this world and giving yourself fully to the Lord. Understand truly what the gospel is, but start with your family. And that’s the one thing about women. Start with your kids. That’s a big deal. And then you go to your neighbors, start small. And there’s very easy introductions is you just tell your story. Why do you love Jesus? Or just listening to people’s, their hearts are broken, they’re scared. You listen to them, you pray. It’s like, can I pray for you? And then you give your testimony. I used to be scared too. I used to think I was worthless too. I used to be have a disease, whatever it is, you’ve got your story and it’s such an easy introduction into introducing them to Jesus and what he has done for you and what he wants to do for them. There’s no accident that you ran into them, but start small. And when you are a good steward of the small, then all of a sudden there’s a little bit more and there’s a little bit more. I started, Daniel did an incredible devotional the other day about
Evangelist Daniel King (14:09):
Obed, Edem,
Tara Hope Boehlke (14:09):
Obed, I want to say obediah all the time, Obed.
Evangelist Daniel King (14:12):
But
Tara Hope Boehlke (14:12):
He started small and the more he took care of that little bit and it grew bigger and it grew bigger and it grew bigger and it grew bigger. I started, I started literally in these bunkers,
Evangelist Daniel King (14:23):
You’re just passing out eyeglasses.
Tara Hope Boehlke (14:25):
Yeah, reading glasses, practicing the gospel. Thousands of times. I think I about have my doctorates, I’m sure by now. And every time the Lord would win somebody to Christ through me, I was like, this is crazy. This is the best. It’s like the lottery a hundred times a day. And now I’ve had the,
Evangelist Daniel King (14:46):
It is the best job in the universe, isn’t it? To be able to share the gospel, to see people turn from hell to heaven, from sin to Jesus,
Tara Hope Boehlke (14:56):
From death to life,
Evangelist Daniel King (14:57):
From death to life. It is the greatest feeling in the world when you give an altar call and people give their lives to Jesus.
Tara Hope Boehlke (15:05):
And the profound thing is knowing who I was for 40 plus years, I think what’s really, I was talking to Daniel the other day about this book called A Pilgrim’s Progress, and there’s a follow up book called Christiana and
Evangelist Daniel King (15:17):
By John Bunion
Tara Hope Boehlke (15:17):
By John Bunion. And at the end of the book, when
Evangelist Daniel King (15:20):
Christian Classic, every Christian should read both of them.
Tara Hope Boehlke (15:22):
Both of them, because one of them focuses on the man in Ladies read Christiana, read Pilgrims Progress first, but read Christiana because at the end of this book, when she crosses over the river and goes into the celestial city, and she didn’t know the Lord. In fact, her husband got called. Christian got called out of the city of destruction to go on his pilgrimage and left his wife and his children behind because the wife said, I’m not going. That’s crazy. And she even had her sons mock him. And so how I identified with her is I rejected Christ. I rejected his people, I mocked them. I lived my own life. I was the Lord of my own life. And the fact that God called me that he forgave me for my sin was enough for me to just like, I don’t even know the gratitude in that alone.
(16:09):
But then he goes, Hey, you want to play? And I’m like, yeah. So then now I get to do this thing where I’ve been to 45 countries and I’ve got to bring my middle name is Hope. I get to bring the hope. He gave me that name, and I get to give that hope away and it’s the best job ever. I have such a heart and a desire. The other part of me is like I want to take revenge on the enemy for what he’s stolen from me and others. And I can see everybody who’s been lied to and deceived and distracted from their eternal salvation. I know how much the enemy hates us and he’s wicked. And when I get to come in with something as simple as loving them with the word of God, fearlessly, boldly, courageously, truthfully, authentically, humbly, all those amazing, even though kind of a big deal doesn’t sound humble, but still it is. You watch, watch the light enter their eyes. And my daddy did that through me. He chose me, he counted me. He counted me of amazing men and women. What’s the word I’m looking for? He counted me worthy. That’s the word worthy to do such a thing, to wake up my brothers and sisters all over the world. It’s the best life ever.
Evangelist Daniel King (17:23):
That’s awesome. Well, thank you so much for being on the Evangelism Podcast. If someone wants to find out more about your ministry, what’s your website?
Tara Hope Boehlke (17:31):
It is i the letter IAM kbd.com. So I am kbd.com. This is the first. In this next year, I’ll have four other books coming out along the line of this. I’ll have this and Livy the Lousy Cowboy Boot, Abby, the Awkward Turtle, come and see what’s going on. And it’s all about my influence was different children’s authors that were Christian, but you didn’t know that they were Christian. But you could read through their books, the message, like Narnia, for example. There was a message there and a teaching there that really is quality for the parent reading it and for the child receiving it. So go there.
Evangelist Daniel King (18:10):
Yeah. So you’ll be able to find pd, the pathetic dump truck on Amazon, on Amazon, Walmart,
Tara Hope Boehlke (18:17):
Barnes and Noble.
Evangelist Daniel King (18:18):
So it’ll be available everywhere,
Tara Hope Boehlke (18:20):
Everywhere on September 23rd, 2025, depending on when you watch this, it’ll be available there as well as on our website. And just my whole heart would say, whether you’re called to be an evangelist or not, you actually are called to tell people, everyone you know about Jesus, there are people burning because you’re not talking to the person next to you. That person will burn unless they know the truth. So be that one.
Evangelist Daniel King (18:44):
Speak one more word to the person who doesn’t think that they’re a big deal, but you know that God wants them to be a big deal. Just speak a word of encouragement.
Tara Hope Boehlke (18:59):
I know what it is to be rejected. I know what it is. The words that came out of my mouth regarding me was so destructive. And it drew me to the point of death several times, whether it was emotionally, mentally, physically, I know what that is. And now looking back on it, I could see where the enemy was trying to stop this from happening because he knew that I am a weapon that was forged in the crushing and in the fire against him and his just wickedness to try to destroy all of us who are made in God’s image. So my encouragement to you to know of your value is to spend time in the Word and find out what he says. I am the words. When you say the words I am, you will believe every word that comes out of your mouth when you say, I am kind of a big deal. I am fearfully and wonderfully made. I am saved. I am redeemed. I am a child of God. You’ll begin to believe that and know that and live that, and it’s contagious. So go out there and let people know that God is good and that they’re kind of a big deal.
Evangelist Daniel King (20:20):
That’s awesome. Well, Ms. Tara, thank you so much for being on the Evangelism Podcast.
Tara Hope Boehlke (20:25):
Yeah, thank you for having me. Oh wait, this is a gift for Daniel.
Evangelist Daniel King (20:29):
Oh, thank you. I love books. I’ll put it in my library and I
Tara Hope Boehlke (20:33):
Or give it to somebody
Evangelist Daniel King (20:34):
Or give it to someone. I especially love books that have such a powerful message that will change people’s lives.
Tara Hope Boehlke (20:40):
All right. Thank you. God bless you guys.
Today we talk about how to use extreme sports to lead people to Jesus. On today’s episode of The Evangelism Podcast, we talk to a Brazilian BMX Biker for Jesus…Douglas Oliveira. He flips upside down on the bike, and he helps to turn people’s lives right side up with his preaching.
Learn More About Stunt Dudes for Jesus: https://www.stuntdudes.com/
Summary:
Douglas Oliveira is a BMX biker from Brazil who uses his talent to spread the gospel.
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 with me all the way from Brazil.
Douglas Oliveira – BMX Biker (00:09):
Amen.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:10):
Dougie, thank you for being on the Evangelism Podcast
Douglas Oliveira – BMX Biker (00:12):
King.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:13):
Now we are here in Zimbabwe for the Love Zimbabwe Festival, and you have come as a stunt bike rider and you have been absolutely amazing the crowd with some of your stunts. Tell me a little bit about how you learned how to do stunts on a bike.
Douglas Oliveira – BMX Biker (00:35):
Well, in Brazil, we lost soccer. Of course, we love skateboarding. And I got in touch with BMX because my friends in school and my cousin. And then I just got interested to see those guys doing tricks and the tv, I was like, oh, I want to do that. I used to love bikes. Anyway, so I just started riding my bike, getting better, and then I ended up going to a skate park where I saw other professional riders and they saw, they said I had talent. I said, all right. So they started supporting me, teaching me tricks, and I was just every day after school working and just trying every day little bit. And I started having this visions, watching TVs, seeing they’re doing tricks, just closing my eyes by faith, just believing I’m doing the tricks, seeing the visualization of the tricks. And then every time I go to skate park, I was learning these new tricks like natural. So kind of like I see that God was pushing me to a place that people are going to help me go up to the place I’m in right now. So it’s basically like you visualize what you’re doing and you
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:35):
Became a professional and have competed at a very high level and even won some prizes.
Douglas Oliveira – BMX Biker (01:41):
Yes, exactly. I had a dream to go. One of the biggest competitions in action sports is the X Games. X Games is the dream come true for any action sport riders. And I was in Brazil, I wasn’t not that good yet, but I had faith. Everybody asks me, what are you going to do in five years? Say, I don’t want to go to X Games, I want to go to the world championship. I want to travel my bike around the world to help my family and my friends. Actually five years after that, I ended up going to United States and I rode my first X Games and I did every straight for 10 years riding, making money. I always had this background with teaching kids and stuff. So yeah, got third place in the world championship in England. So all this stuff I spoke before came through after five years. So it’s pretty amazing how God can move through a specific way to train you to what’s coming next with the word of
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:35):
God. And one of the things I really love about you is that you have this amazing talent, but you’re using the talent to build the kingdom of God. And so not only are you a bike rider, but you are an evangelist. And you and I have been together in several different countries. I was trying to think how many countries we’ve been together in now. I think we were in Malawi together, Malawi, maybe Zambia,
Douglas Oliveira – BMX Biker (02:59):
Kenya.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (03:00):
Kenya. Oh yeah, Kenya,
Douglas Oliveira – BMX Biker (03:01):
So many others.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (03:02):
And now Zimbabwe.
Douglas Oliveira – BMX Biker (03:03):
Yes.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (03:03):
And so being around you, I’ve been so impressed that you have a heart for evangelism, and so you do the amazing trick, but then afterwards, when all the kids come over to talk to you, you start praying for them and ministering to them. And so tell me some of your testimony of what God has done in your life.
Douglas Oliveira – BMX Biker (03:25):
So basically I came from a background of my cousin’s family and Catholicism, but religious people that spoke about God and marry and Jesus, but act different. And I looked at this as a bad thing. Brazil have a problem with religion that kind of be evangelical in Brazil now is the kind of not good term to the worldly peoples, the peoples. So God showed me a different perspective because the first time somebody evangelize me, they come to me and say, do you want to serve Christ? I say, no. Oh, you’re going to go to hell. I was like, what? Right. Thank you. You want to come with me? So they never explained me. How are God that love me so much? You want to throw me hell? And that’s why he rejected the gospel. But going through so much, my brother was a religious man and I tried to prove my brother that I was trying to prove my brother that he was wrong and God placed a desire in my heart and now I know it’s God to why don’t you read the Bible, prove your brother he’s wrong.
(04:28):
And I was like you, right. So I started for eight years reading the word of God, praying the word, and applying the word of God in my life. And I started get a little weird because things started happening in my life changing for the good way. And I just like, no, no, no, no, no, this is not real. This is not real. For eight years I was trying to reject the true, but then one day I had this encounter with Jesus Christ is supernatural way. And the tree was so deep stuck in my heart that now I understand why God brought me into the situation. So I used the bike to break the religion, thinking about Christianity first. Oh, are you Christian? You have tattoos, you ride bikes? Yeah, I followed Jesus Christ and I started breaking through this. Jesus wasn’t a Christian, he was a Jew.
(05:15):
You Jesus wasn’t a white man. You know what I’m saying? So they started breaking this kind of religions thing of people. And then after like you say, I ride my bike like a normal person, my special gift, and then as soon I see the heart open, I’m able to preach the real gospel and God being so much faithful with me to giving me understanding and knowledge to help others because it’s hard here in Zambia, we have so much going on with the religion, with money, and people get away from God. The people blame Jesus Christ for the wrongdoing of man, but thank God I’m able to actually love them in a way that God loved me. And now understand that God do not send us to hell. We choose between hell and heaven. God loves us so much, they give us the free will. If you want to live eternity far away from God here, God will grant this to you. You’re going to live eternity far away from God. That’s hell. So it is a choice of matter. So learning those kind of techniques from the Holy Spirit helps me to break this down, this religion things, this sick mind of the people and help them come to Christ. Yeah.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (06:25):
We’re here with the global network of evangelists and their motto is one message, many expressions. And so this week in Zimbabwe, we’ve had the bike tricks, we’ve had the clown, we’ve had dancers, we’ve had singers, and then we’ve had evangelists preaching the gospel. And so you see many different expressions of the gospel and the young people really relate so well to some of the non-traditional methods. What would you say to a church that wants to reach young people?
Douglas Oliveira – BMX Biker (07:07):
Bible says that God give us a specific gift to which one individual of us. So we can use the gift to help others and be a great steward of the much form grace of God. And so we need to understand that I might be a hand, it might be an arm bride, might be the elbow we together, the body of Christ, the members and Christ the head. We can reach everybody because how you going to cut this off, right? Say it in Portuguese. How I would be able to minister to somebody that used to be a drunker or a drunker. If I’ve never been in this experience, I think God let we go to all this bad experiences because of our choices, but he let we learn the lesson and to be able to have different gifts and understanding help us reach everybody. So the message I give is do not be hard on the youth. First you need first you need to show them fun and love and let the grow in a church small. And then introducing the doctrine, the Bible, do not be rushing them that time. Build up and I see great young and
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:19):
Make it fun for the young
Douglas Oliveira – BMX Biker (08:21):
People. Yes, fun.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:22):
They want to have fun. They don’t want to sit there in a straight road.
Douglas Oliveira – BMX Biker (08:25):
The Bible has so many stars. The disciples having fun, smiling. I think we just need to understand that we know what’s coming after the end of the times, but we need to understand that if we don’t come nice and gentle with love, those kids, they’re going to reject the gospel early and we are going to be the ones that are going to face the judgment on that.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:45):
So what would you say to young people who have a skill, something like bike riding or maybe juggling? I like to juggle. What would you say to young people and how they can use their skills for the kingdom of God?
Douglas Oliveira – BMX Biker (09:01):
I tell my friends that in Brazil that it’s not such a thing or it’s one of the most important things I see in my life. It’s helping others. It doesn’t matter if you’re a bike rider, skateboarding, you’re a basketball player, dj, or if you are a construc or engineer or doctor trying to help people. And you’re going to see purpose in your life. I think the beginning of the fate, should we realize and understand what I am good for and who I do the best, how I can use my gifts to help others. And you can see the joy. So helping others with little thing can make a big change in their future. So just whatever you have God gave to you, just give to them, show them, teach them, let they receive and let them experience what you experience and let God use you as a vegetable. And I think the Holy Spirit will guide you and maybe show you some more gifts. Give you more gifts. Yeah.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:56):
Dougie, if someone wants to learn more about you, how can they find you on social media? What platforms are you on?
Douglas Oliveira – BMX Biker (10:02):
You can call me Instagram. It’s at O-G-O-G-U-E-T-E is a bmax writer, so you can go in there with Douglas Leyte Veda in Facebook. But we got stunned dudes. We got GE. You can reach out everywhere. Send me a message and I’ll be really happy to answer you and help you with anything I can.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (10:25):
Awesome. Thank you so much for being on the Evangelism Podcast.
Douglas Oliveira – BMX Biker (10:28):
Thank you, brother.
African Enterprise is a Christian organization that has been working in Africa for nearly 60 years, with a focus on evangelism, youth empowerment, and community development. Today on The Evangelism Podcast, Zweli Sokhela, an evangelist from South Africa, shared his personal testimony of how he came to know Jesus and became involved with African Enterprise’s Foxfire program, which trains and empowers young people to share the gospel through various creative means such as music, drama, and storytelling.
Learn more about African Enterprise: https://africanenterprise.org/
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 with me, Zweli Sokhela from South Africa.
(00:14):
Wonderful. And you are with African Enterprise is, which is working in many countries all over Africa, doing a phenomenal job telling people about Jesus. And I really like your t-shirt. It says, this is what an evangelist looks like. And so if you want to know what an evangelist looks like, this is the evangelist, the handsome South African evangelist. So let’s talk a little bit about African enterprise. Tell me about what African enterprise does and what the mission is.
Zweli Sokhela – African Enterprise (00:47):
Okay. So African enterprise is set up to do evangelism throughout Africa. We currently have 12 offices in Africa. Our main focus is going through different cities of Africa, preaching the gospel, proclaiming the good news that there is Jesus. And we have different pillars that we focus on, which is youth empowerment. That’s where Foxfire is. And then we have woman empowerment, which is more on the community development part of it. And then we also focus on developing leaders. We do believe that an empowered church can bring changed lives. So that’s why our mission is to evangelize the cities of Africa through word and deed, which where the community development comes in. And then also proclaiming the word to all the cities that we normally go and to missions.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:50):
And for how many years has African enterprise been working here in Africa?
Zweli Sokhela – African Enterprise (01:55):
It’s almost 60 years now because it started in 1961 where Dr. Michael Cassidy had this burden to, I would say God gave him the vision to reach Africa through the gospel. And it’s all started in South Africa in Peter Mabe where he, after when he was at university, but then God gave him the call, then he had to go to South Africa to sort of scout to the land. And that’s how it started. The first mission.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:26):
And let’s talk about your testimony and how you joined African Enterprise. Tell me what have you seen God been doing in your life? How did you come to know Jesus and then how did you become an evangelist?
Zweli Sokhela – African Enterprise (02:41):
Yeah, it’s not something that I would’ve chosen, but growing up in a non-Christian family, the reason I’m saying non-Christian, because I grew up going to church, but believe me, if I say there was nothing that was changing about my life
(03:01):
As much as I go in and out every Sunday, which I’m grateful to mom who will take us to church because I think the idea of God started then. But I realized that as I was growing up, I started to, when I was in high school, for me it was more questioning what is this life about? Because as a young person, a black African young person, a male in South Africa, I faced many challenges, even family wise where my dad is always away working to make sure that we are supported as a family. But as a man growing up, I needed him to be present, but most of the time he needed to be away from home so that he’s able to support his family. So then that’s way for me, I started questioning what is life about? And through questioning that, I had an encounter with women who were coming to our house to share the gospel. Obviously you don’t pay attention, you’re a church goer. They’re talking about prayer about the word of God. But something that intrigued me was when they said there is a Holy Spirit who is a person that lives inside you. For me, that was the first time hearing that.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:19):
Then
Zweli Sokhela – African Enterprise (04:19):
I pause a bit, then they invited me to their church, which I attended. And then the teachings were quite interesting because my other church was not doing as much teaching, but the preaching was happening. So then they also invited me for a Sunday where there was going to be a special Sunday, there was an evangelist from Texas. And I was like, okay, someone from overseas coming to preach preaching in English, I’m Zulu. Then I don’t think I was able to even speak words in English, but then I attended the church. So while he was preaching, there was something that happened while he was speaking where God gave me a picture of how my heart looks like without him and how my heart can look like with him. And I didn’t like what I saw about my life because I used to drink. I’ll sleep around at some point.
(05:18):
I used to fight with the gangs in the community and all of that. I don’t think my dad was even away until I received Christ. And I was able to talk about the things that I was suffering inside to say, this is what I’ve been going through in your absent, even though you were present in my life. So at that moment, I found myself in front at the call and that when I gave my life to Christ, and that’s how my journey started after high school, I didn’t have funds to go and study, decided to take a gap year, and that gap year led to the evangelists that you see today.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:59):
Wow, wonderful. And so in African enterprise you lead one area called Firefox Fire, Fox Fire. Fox Fire. Sorry, I got to get it right, Fox Fire. So explain to me what is Fox Fire and what do you do?
Zweli Sokhela – African Enterprise (06:19):
Okay, so then as I mentioned that I left school, I did a gap year, which I work in a ministry. So part of my work was doing afterschool support with young people. And that developed an understanding that this is what was lacking in my life. To have somebody that will take time to care for me, to develop me. And as I was doing that, something just spiked inside me to say, you know what? There’s a gap in our youth ministry. And that led into more of the studies I did because the organization where I did a gap here, I ended up staying until for about 13 years working for one organization. But they helped me to develop, to prepare myself for the season I’m in now, where African Enterprise was looking for somebody to lead the Foxfire program, which then I applied, they gave me the opportunity.
(07:25):
Foxfire is a youth empowerment program where we disciple young people for about one year and then they will graduate. So they come from when they finish diametric, which is grade 12, or you finish your university and you want to take a gap before you go and be employed. So we do a two month training with them before we go around South Africa and outside South Africa where we share the gospel, be. We share our life stories, how God have helped us, but we also visit schools where we do life skills. We have found out that especially with us in South Africa, a lot of young people will get a hundred percent in their life skills, but that is more like a subject. But what we bring is how do you apply those life skills in your life so that there’s change, which we are seeing immediate change from that.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:24):
And so right now we are in Zimbabwe. Beautiful. We’re here for the Zimbabwe Festival in Guru, and it’s been really wonderful to see what God has done. And you brought a team of young people with Fox Fire here to Zimbabwe and they’ve been ministering all week long. How many young people did you bring?
Zweli Sokhela – African Enterprise (08:49):
So there is five here,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:51):
But
Zweli Sokhela – African Enterprise (08:51):
We have six and team currently.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:53):
Okay. And they’ve been going around and ministering. I’ve been very impressed with them. Today we did a children’s festival. And so one of the young ladies who’s with your team, she shared her testimony and just really a horrible upbringing, very difficult. But then using that to show how Jesus has changed your life is really powerful. And so what type of impact have you seen in the lives of young people who have been a part of Fox
Zweli Sokhela – African Enterprise (09:29):
Fire? Sure. So the one I will highlight is for them to have a safe space to be themselves because in most cases they’ll have to perform to be approved by their peers. But what we have teach them is how to discover who you are in God so that you don’t get approval from anyone else, but you get it from God. Our program has four pillars that is drawn from the book of Luke chapter two, verse 52, where Jesus grew in wisdom, in favor with God and men. So from those four pillars, we can see that there’s a holistic approach in terms of how we nature our young people. So the moment we help them to create a space where they can be adventurous and they can discover themselves, but also on the training that I mentioned for two months, where we help them understand what missions look like, where they can open scriptures, where they can see God in their story, that the pain that you’ve been through is not a waste, but God was preparing you for a season like this. Because when people hear your story, something changed. People that are going through the same thing, people are changed by that. But also we helping them to discover the world outside them, which is why we are here in Zimbabwe. We are using music. The moment you play music, everyone can connect, everyone dance, even if you don’t speak the same,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (11:07):
The music is fun. Everyone starts dancing and the Foxfire team does some great dances. And then I saw you’re also using drama.
Zweli Sokhela – African Enterprise (11:16):
We do. We do. And that’s a way of portraying the message without speaking and people can see it. And most of our dramas, what we have found is that the moment you played on stage, people can identify themselves, but through the play, what we are bringing is how can God help you in the space where you are in? It doesn’t matter where you are at, God is able to reach you from where you are and bring light in your situation, which is why we are using the dramas and the music.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (11:51):
We’re here in Zimbabwe with Desmond Henry, who’s with the global network of evangelists. And one of the things that Desmond said the other day I thought was so good, he said, young people are not the future of the church. They are the church of today. That
Zweli Sokhela – African Enterprise (12:06):
Is so cool.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (12:06):
And it’s true when you think about the church, young people need to have opportunities to minister, to use their gifts for God to make a difference for the kingdom of God. And I think that the ministry that you’re doing is so vital to helping young people have an opportunity to use their talents and skills for
Zweli Sokhela – African Enterprise (12:31):
Jesus. Sure. No, definitely. I used to say the future of our country depends on the quality of the young people that we develop. So if we as a church can take time to look at our young people differently to say they are not the future, but they are now church, then we can start to invest properly in terms of developing them and also creating opportunities, which is what we are seeing even because it’s their first time to be in a festival. It’s another way also that is helping them to develop to say, okay, there are different ways to preach the gospel as you’ll know that G and E will say it’s one message, but different expressions.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (13:19):
Yeah. It’s so neat to hear that you are Zulu. I had the opportunity several years ago to do a crusade with some of the Zulu people. We were there at the invitation of the King of the Zulus, and we set up a tent and filled it every day full of people. And I remember we wanted to feed everyone, so we brought three cows live and they butchered the cows. And by after lunch there was nothing left of the cow. I mean, everything was eaten. We had several thousand people there, and every single piece of the cow was eaten. Sure. That’s amazing. But it was so neat learning about the Zulu culture. You have a very proud people, very warrior-like people, but it’s neat that you can take your warrior spirit and do big things for
Zweli Sokhela – African Enterprise (14:18):
Jesus. Amen.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (14:19):
Fight the devil.
Zweli Sokhela – African Enterprise (14:20):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think the kingdom has space for everyone. But as you say, because I mean as Zulus, sometimes we hold on to who we are and what we know, but what we sometimes forget is that who we are is who he created us to be in our differences then how do we come together as a family or as a community so that when God looks at us, it’s like, oh, my beautiful children. But sometimes we zulus are very good looking.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (14:59):
They’re very beautiful people. Creation of God.
Zweli Sokhela – African Enterprise (15:03):
Amen. I’ll check that as a country. Yeah,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:06):
Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for being on the Evangelism podcast. I really appreciate it.
Zweli Sokhela – African Enterprise (15:12):
No, thank you so much for having me. And it was amazing to meet you and the message that you’ve been also preaching has really been powerful and we thank God for people like you.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:22):
If someone wants to help to support Firefox or to help African enterprise, what would be a good website that they could go to find out more information about what you do?
Zweli Sokhela – African Enterprise (15:36):
Okay, so we do have a website. You just type African Enterprise, but on the website because an international website. So then they will find all the different countries that are part of the website. But our office is South Africa.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:54):
Wonderful.
Zweli Sokhela – African Enterprise (15:55):
And all the details and everything is in
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:57):
Well. I so love what African Enterprise is doing and the impact that you’re having all over Africa. It’s really wonderful.
Zweli Sokhela – African Enterprise (16:04):
Thank you so much.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (16:05):
Thank you for being on the Evangelism podcast.
Zweli Sokhela – African Enterprise (16:07):
Bless you. Thank you.
What is God doing in Zimbabwe? Today we talk to Obey Chinosengwa, an evangelistt from Gweru, Zimbabwe who leads Gospel to All Nations. Obey shares his vision to spread the gospel to every town and village in the country of Zimbabwe.
Connect with Obey Chinosengwa: https://www.facebook.com/obey.chinosengwa
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 with me. Obey Chinosengwa. And how do you say your last name?
Evangelist Obey Chinosengwa (00:13):
Obey Chinosengwa
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:14):
And we are in the nation of Zimbabwe. It is early in the morning here. We woke up very early and went and did a morning radio program and got to share the gospel on the radio program. And Obey is an evangelist from here in Zimbabwe and he has been helping us with the Love Zimbabwe Festival, with the global network of Evangelists. And I’m so excited to meet you because you have a ministry. It’s called Gospel to all Nations. So tell me a little bit about yourself and about the calling that God has on your life.
Evangelist Obey Chinosengwa (00:54):
Okay, thank you. Thank you. Evangelist Daniel is such an honor and a privilege to be sitting next to you and welcome to our beautiful Zimbabwe. It’s something that I really love to be cross-pollinating with other evangelist like you, and especially knowing that you have been evangelism for a long time
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:19):
Now. It was really cool. You just pulled out your phone and you showed me that you had downloaded some coaching resources from the Global Evangelist Alliance and I had done a coaching call a few months ago for them and you downloaded it and you’re listening to it right here in Zimbabwe. You say on the radio program, you say, ah, I recognize your voice. I heard it before and it’s the evangelist you were listening
Evangelist Obey Chinosengwa (01:45):
To. Yeah. God works in amazing ways. I downloaded this I think two weeks back. You did the podcast I think three months ago. So I was listening to it. He was talking about the calling of an evangelist and that was amazing stuff. Little did I know in just three weeks time I’ll be sitting next to this great man of God, evangelist Daniel. I’m so much thrilled to be seated next to you. So I’m occupational saying, well, like you said, and I am an evangelist. So I started off in 2017. It’s something that I knew when I was growing up that God has set me apart for some work, but I didn’t really know what it was. So around 2014, I started praying and praying, asking God, what is it? Oh Lord. So in 2014, the Lord did three things in my life. 2014. The first one was he sent another man of God to our city, a person who I never knew.
(02:48):
He came to our university. So in an honored prayer, he singled me out and spoke of this evangelistic calling on my life. Then I said, wow, I didn’t know much about evangelism. Then it steered something in me like Paul speaking to Timothy said, stir up the gift that is in you, which came on you by the lane on of hands by the elders. We have gone ahead of you. So I felt something dropped in me from that day, which resonated with what God has put in my heart. The second thing was after that, I went on a vacation. I started praying, praying, praying, praying. I was in a fasting. I prayed four days, I think I prayed in fasted. Then I went to a different city. When I got there, the first Sunday service I entered after the service, a certain lady walked to me, it’ll be amazing, Daniel.
(03:41):
Then he said, the Lord has spoken to me for you to pray for my son. He’s in China. I knew Zimbabwe. The son is in China, and he’s saying, yes, had a terrible skin disease, and he’s telling me he’s about to be brought back to our country. He’s going to abor his studies. Then I just said, can we pray about it in this week? And we see what God does. Friday, the skin condition was gone and I said to myself, God is doing something. It was just in the same season. So for me, 2014 stands out, Mr. Daniel.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:19):
Wow. And so you started to study the lives of great evangelists. You told me that you looked at Reinhard Bonnke’s books. You showed me last night you were reading a book by Oral Roberts, the great evangelist from Oklahoma.
Evangelist Obey Chinosengwa (04:35):
Yeah, sure.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:36):
And so you started feeding yourself on evangelism and then God started opening up doors for you to do evangelism, and in the last couple of years you’ve been doing crusades here in Zimbabwe. Tell me about those crusades. How do you organize them and what results have you seen God do?
Evangelist Obey Chinosengwa (04:54):
Alright, so like you highlighted, I started studying. I didn’t know how I’m going to do it. The first book I bumped into that is the same year, 2014 was a biography by Bill Graham, written by John Pollock. That’s
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:13):
A great
Evangelist Obey Chinosengwa (05:13):
Book. I started reading that book by John Pollock. Then I finished it in around the same year. Then the Lord started tearing something in me. I went on to study Renard Bon. I said this autobiography, and this year actually, I was studying orals from your state, from your city, and I could work in amazing ways. So I started now organizing. The first thing I started doing, I started going in the salons in restaurant preaching on lunch hours. I didn’t wait for people to come to me. I actually went to where the people are. So it was unconventional. People in here in Zimbabwe know evangelistic ministry just working on as a parachurch organization, sometimes it has a lot of challenges. So I had to go to the people like that’s evangelism. I think that’s what evangel, yeah,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (06:11):
That’s really the heart of evangelism. If you just stay in the church, people don’t have any reason to come to church. They don’t know Jesus. So you have to go outside the walls of the church to where they are, and that is one of the primary callings of the evangelist is to get the church to go outside of the church walls into the community. You got to get the salt out of the salt shaker.
Evangelist Obey Chinosengwa (06:35):
Sure, sure. That’s what makes the food test. So I always say men of God, this is what I always say. If the people don’t come to church, take the church to the people. That’s what we should do. So after that, COVID came, I took a step back. During the COVID season, I stopped this marketplace outreach network program that I was doing going in the marketplace. So when I was post COVID era, I then started organizing crusades. I called them yielding gospel crusades here in Zimbabwe.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (07:14):
And so you pray for the sick. Yeah,
Evangelist Obey Chinosengwa (07:16):
Sure,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (07:16):
Sure. And you’ve seen God do miracles.
Evangelist Obey Chinosengwa (07:18):
Yeah, yeah, definitely. Like the one that
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (07:20):
Was studied. Tell me about the miracle. Yeah, the woman in China.
Evangelist Obey Chinosengwa (07:23):
Yeah, the woman had a son in China.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (07:26):
Wow.
Evangelist Obey Chinosengwa (07:27):
He was having a terrible skin condition,
(07:30):
And the skin was said to have thin, and it was now very thin, and they wanted to bring the child back before he finished these studies. So this lady walks to me, we are here in Zimbabwe. Then this lady walks to me, then she say, the Lord has told me you should pray for me. Then I said, oh God, what have I done now? So you see, I’ve always three ways that really resonated with me in looking on Jesus’ ministry. And I believe Jesus was full-time evangelist because he was always on the marketplace. He was always in the villages in the cities and the Bible that is always recurring. He went to the cities and villages and preached in their synagogue, not in his synagogue. So I think he was doing evangelism more. But what? Yeah,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:26):
I’m thinking of Matthew chapter four, verse 23. It says that Jesus went teaching in the synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every sickness and every disease.
Evangelist Obey Chinosengwa (08:38):
And
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:38):
So you have those three parts of the ministry of Jesus, the preaching, the teaching, and the healing.
Evangelist Obey Chinosengwa (08:43):
Sure, sure. If actually you look on our profile, Daniel, this is our profile, the three terms that really stand out for me. It’s reach, teach, and preach. This is what Jesus was doing, and now we go the 41, we do a yielding crusade. He was going teaching, preaching, yielding,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:03):
And he went to every town and village.
Evangelist Obey Chinosengwa (09:05):
Every town and village. So it’s like that is what Jesus, I
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:09):
Think God wants you to go to every town and village in Zimbabwe.
Evangelist Obey Chinosengwa (09:13):
Sure, sure,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:14):
Definitely. What are some of the places that you’ve gone to here in Zimbabwe?
Evangelist Obey Chinosengwa (09:18):
Okay, so I’ve gone to ge. Gezi is around zit area, mano, that’s mano. I’ve done guru as well. And we are going to VMA just two weeks from now. We are going to Buma from the 10th of September to the 13th of September. We are having a healing gospel crusade there, and I’m believing God for amazing miracles. Marriages will be restored, people will be heal. Jesus is going to do it again because we believe we evangelist Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:56):
It’s so wonderful to meet you because I believe that God wants us to go to everyone on earth. Every single person needs to have a chance to hear the message of Jesus Christ. And if we’re going to go to everyone, we need to have evangelists that are raised up in every single country. And so it’s so neat to see that God is raising you up here in Zimbabwe,
Evangelist Obey Chinosengwa (10:23):
Thank God.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (10:24):
And Zimbabwe is a big country. There’s a lot of people here. And so I think it’d be so cool for your ministry to develop a plan. How are we going to reach every town, every village, every city in Zimbabwe. And I believe that as you begin to go, God’s going to give you the finances. God’s going to give you the team
Evangelist Obey Chinosengwa (10:49):
Members.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (10:50):
God is going to give you the creative ideas, the ways to reach people here in Zimbabwe. And God is even going to take you beyond Zimbabwe. God’s going to take you to other countries as well. But I think it begins here in Zimbabwe and you say, we can reach everyone in Zimbabwe with the
Evangelist Obey Chinosengwa (11:08):
Gospel. Sure. You actually mentioned something that is very important. When Jesus was talking to his disciples, he was about to leave. Ye said this, it’ll begin in Jerusalem where they were.
(11:20):
It’ll go to Judea to summary Maria and to the rest, to the Atmos parts of the world. So it always begins at home. That is what my grandmother always told me. She always told me that charity begins at home. So actually we have a vision like the term itself of the vision says gospel to all nations. I took it from Mark chapter 13, verse 10. It says, end the gospel must first the preach. And when it says first, it points out on priority. It’s a priority to God. Before Jesus comes back and establishes his ministry, he established his kingdom here on earth for us to preach the gospel or nation. So I took it upon myself to fulfill scriptures. One of the things that I noticed when I was reading through all the gospels, this always comes out this and this so happened that it may be fulfilled. So Jesus fulfilled a lot of prophecies. It was intentional. It was deliberate. Even when he was young, they were moving from place, place, fulfilling scriptures. So I challenge fellowmen of God’s fellow evangelist. Let’s fulfill the word which was spoken of Mark chapter 13, investor in says, end the gospel must first preach to all the nations. So we are going to work in Zimbabwe. One of the ways that I’ve been thinking recently, evangelist is like there must be young evangelists coming up. We form teams around because sometimes I believe in networks.
(13:03):
Maybe we are coming to this province. We are Midlands province right now in guru in Zimbabwe. So we come in Midlands, then we have a set of evangelists. Another one is going to that village. Another one is going to that town, another one is going to, then we eat that province. Maybe in the only four days we eat that province. We move to another province. We do the same thing. Villages. So I believe in networks because at one time Jesus said to them, go into all the cities and villages in which he himself was about to go. So we move. Then Jesus comes there, he said in the cities in which he was about to do something. So when you see an evangelist like Daniel is now in Zimbabwe, I believe God is about to do something in Zimbabwe. And I pray God touches your heart to do things in Zimbabwe.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (13:58):
Amen. Well, this is my first time in Zimbabwe, but it won’t be my last.
Evangelist Obey Chinosengwa (14:02):
Wow.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (14:03):
And I like what you’re saying about networks. Jesus told us to be fishers of men and fishers. In the days of Jesus, they use nets to go catch the fish.
Evangelist Obey Chinosengwa (14:14):
Definitely.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (14:14):
So you need a net that works to be a fisher of men.
Evangelist Obey Chinosengwa (14:17):
Wow. I never thought it that way. So it’s a net that works. Wow.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (14:23):
You have a network so that you can be a fisher for men. Wow. Now one of the things I really like here in your, you have such a beautiful vision, like a brochure that you’ve put together here for your ministry gospel to all nations. And one of the things that you have here is that with the healing gospel crusade, you want to do students to Christ, youth to Christ leaders to Christ ladies to Christ, men to Christ. And so not only are you trying to target many different towns and villages, but you’re targeting different levels of society. So you have some outreaches to students, some to the young people, some to the women, some to the men. And so you’re targeting these different layers of society to bring the gospel to everyone.
Evangelist Obey Chinosengwa (15:17):
Okay. So you see the gospel is actually, we approach it holistically. We don’t want to target the other area, and the other area is lagging. So we have students in colleges, we have to think future. We have to look into the future. What seed are we planting? It’ll amaze you that God, when he was creating everything, he put seeds in them because you are thinking of the future. That’s why I was talking of other young evangelists, catching the mantle, catching them, getting the seed in them of this evangelistic movement that is about to cover the whole globe. So we target the students. They are in colleges. There’s a lot happening in colleges. Say drugs, you see them, you see pornography. People are doing things in the young people are doing a lot of things. So as you look at it, students, they are special group we have to really focus on. Then youth as well. They are those we have gone out of school who are just experimenting with whole lot of things. Whereas maybe they get their life destroyed In that process. We have people whom we have lost to drugs. You know that
(16:41):
Even Oklahoma, you know that.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (16:43):
Yeah.
Evangelist Obey Chinosengwa (16:43):
Then we also go to women, ladies, sometimes we want to take off this Delilah spirit from you can be men of God anointed doing well, but Delilah comes. But we think no one was created. A Delilah. God never makes people bad. He makes them good. They start making choices. So we move and we try to guide in a godly way by being spirit led. Then one important group that is very important, Paul speaking to Timothy. He says, pray for leaders that you may live a peaceable life. So if we do everything, John C. Maxwell, he said, everything rises and falls on leadership. So if we leave out the leaders, I tell you it’ll not go well. Even if you want to reach the world, they may close their borders, they may close their things. But thank God, God has given us grace to raise leaders who are God fearing leaders who change the face of the world, making decisions that are so inclined to the kingdom of God.
(17:56):
So this is how we approach the healing gospel. Cru said, because I believe, like you’re saying on radio this morning, 98.4 fm, you spoke of the spirit, you spoke of the soul, you spoke of the body, and you said, God is interested in all. So when we go on a healing gospel crusade, it’s not me healing. It’s not me as a man of God. It’s the gospel. If you look in Luke chapter number six and 7, 5, 4, 6, and seven, it says you went, people came all around to hear him and to be healed. So what begins first is the healing and the healing follows. So it is something that you first approaches your soul. Then the healing manifest is in the natural. Then you are forgiven of your sins, like you were saying. But have you ever noticed these four letters, H-E-A-L-U? We just remove the L and put an error. It’s year in saw in year in hearing. God is ying our healing. But it depends with what you are going to hear. So our crusades used to be holistic. They have to approach the soul, the spirit, and the body.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (19:17):
Amen. That’s so good. Let’s talk about the Love Zimbabwe Festival.
Evangelist Obey Chinosengwa (19:22):
Wow.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (19:23):
You have been helping to organize this from the very beginning. Tell me a little bit about what has already been happening here and then what the expectation is for this week during the Love Zimbabwe Festival in Guro, or how do you say the name of this
Evangelist Obey Chinosengwa (19:41):
Guru?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (19:42):
Yeah.
Evangelist Obey Chinosengwa (19:43):
You see, I think God is doing amazing things in this world and he’s bringing people together in love. God is love. Anyway. I think if anyone says who is God? God is love. So God has brought love Zimbabwe Festival to Guru. This is my city. This is where I stay. So God has brought Love Zimbabwe Festival to Guru. We are so much excited. It’s coming for free. Everyone is going to hear the gospel for free. So there’s been a lot of activities targeting the students. We had the schools ministry with co babababa from Kenya. Kenya is here. We have him from the United States. Then we have people from Latin America.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (20:27):
We have people from Brazil, from Puerto Rico, from the United States, from South Africa, from Kenya. There’s people from all over the world that have come here for this
Evangelist Obey Chinosengwa (20:39):
Love. So Daniel, there is this spirit of unity that we are seeing that is being brought about by this festival. The churches in Guru are united from all France, mainline churches, Pentecostals, they are all together. The churches you think they are, they don’t blend so well. You have brought us all together. So that’s one thing. I’m thanking the GNE for coming to Zimbabwe for coming to Guru. It’s such a wonderful moment and guru will be transformed. Amen, amen. Amen. Amen.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (21:19):
Well, we’re excited about what God is going to do this week and it’s so wonderful to get to meet you. If someone wants to know more about your ministry, what’s a good way for them to connect with you? Is it through Facebook?
Evangelist Obey Chinosengwa (21:34):
Okay. Yeah. I am on Facebook or bes, that’s my,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (21:39):
Maybe you better spell your last name so they can know how to find
Evangelist Obey Chinosengwa (21:42):
You. Alright, that’s fine. So it’s Obe, OBEY. Then my surname is C-H-I-N-O-S-E-N-G-W-N-G-W-A. So Obe, let me spell the second name again. CHIN or S-E-N-G-W-A.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (22:12):
Well, it’s so wonderful to meet you. I love your vision. Thank you, sir. And I believe that God is going to do amazing things through your ministry. Thank you so, so much. Thank you. Obey for being on the Evangelism podcast.
Evangelist Obey Chinosengwa (22:25):
Thank you. Thank you so much. Evangelist. I’m going to, you have this mini request from you. You have been in the field, you have been speaking to nations. It’s over 70 nations. We have traveled only, I think I haven’t traveled as much as you have done, and we are young and you are old. And the Bible says we don’t despise the elderly. So maybe I want you to speak to ask young evangelists before we leave. I was watching you on YouTube, but today we are seated next to each other. So I believe when God brings people together, Paul was praying there, Anas was there. Then the Lord instructed them to be together so that he Anas can release the grace that God had sent him with Cornelius there, Peter there they were connected. So when you have come to Zimbabwe, I believe you have really brought something for young evangelists, not only me, but even for the upcoming evangelists in Zimbabwe. So I’m going to ask you to speak to us and pray for us.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (23:35):
Yeah. I was called to be an evangelist at a very young age, and that has been a primary focus of my life ever since. And there are many distractions in life. Satan tries to get you to go away from your calling and sometimes he gives a distraction. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s a distraction. But you have to stay focused on the purpose that God has called you to. And if you feel that you’re called to be an evangelist, then make a commitment to God that you are going to be the best evangelist that you can possibly be and tell God, it doesn’t matter what distraction comes or what life brings, I’m going to stay faithful to the calling that you have on my life. In my life, there’s been many opportunities to go in different directions, but that commitment to fulfilling God’s calling in my life has what has helped me to continue in my calling and to continue to reach people for Jesus. And I think that if you will continue in what God has called you to do, to obey, to be obedient to the calling on your life. If
Evangelist Obey Chinosengwa (24:57):
The Bible says
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (24:57):
Obey, must obey. If
Evangelist Obey Chinosengwa (24:59):
You, you’re willing and obedient, if you’re willing and obedient
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (25:02):
And just tell God that sink or swim, no matter what happens, I’m going to fulfill this calling of God upon my life. And if you don’t give up, you’ll make it. There’s so many opportunities to get discouraged or to give up or to wonder why it’s not happening faster. But if you just continue to do what God has called you to do in big ways and in small ways, then the time will come where God will give you great success. I think one of the greatest secrets of the kingdom of God is faithfulness, just being faithful to the calling that God has on your life. So let me pray for you and pray for all the young evangelists of Zimbabwe dearly. Father, I pray for evangelist obey. Thank you for the calling that is on his life, Lord. Together we lift up Zimbabwe to you, Lord. I pray that Zimbabwe would come to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior, that Jesus would be lifted up in this nation. And Lord, I pray that you would raise up a generation of young evangelists that would evangelize all of Zimbabwe, every town, every village, and then be sent from here to other nations around the world. In Jesus’ name, amen. Amen. Thank you so much for giving
Evangelist Obey Chinosengwa (26:17):
Me such an honor. Such an honor.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (26:20):
Amen. God bless
Evangelist Obey Chinosengwa (26:22):
You. Thank you for being on the Evangelism podcast. Thank you. Thank you so much, sir. Okay.
Daniel Kolenda is the successor to Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke and he leads Christ for All Nations. Their ministry has now recorded over 100 million documented decisions for Christ. Today on the Evangelism Podcast, we talk about his new book titled “Furious” about Paul’s epistle to the Galatians. This book contains a powerful revelation of the Gospel that has the power to revolutionize your life.
Learn more about Christ for All Nations: https://cfan.org/
Notes:
This interview with Evangelist Daniel Kolenda of Christ for All Nations (CFAN) covers several key topics:
Transcript:
Evangelist Daniel King (00:00):
Daniel Kolinda is the successor to Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke and he leads Christ for All Nations. Their ministry has now recorded over 100 million documented decisions for Jesus Christ. Today on the Evangelism podcast, we talk about Daniel Coda’s new book titled Furious. It’s about Paul’s epistle to the Galatians. This book contains a powerful revelation of the gospel that has the power to revolutionize your life. Jesus said,
Evangelism Podcast Host (00:43):
Welcome to the Evangelism Podcast with Dr. Daniel King, where Daniel interviews full-time evangelists, pastors, missionaries and normal everyday Christians to discover how they share their faith, their powerful testimonies and amazing stories that will inspire you to reach people with the good news. And now here’s your host, missionary, and evangelist
Evangelist Daniel King (01:05):
Daniel King. 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, Daniel Kolinda from Christ for All Nations. Thank you for being on the Evangelism Podcast.
Evangelist Daniel Kolenda (01:20):
Thank you. From one Daniel to another. It’s great to be with you today.
Evangelist Daniel King (01:24):
Well, you are a wonderful friend and it is so exciting to see what Christ for All Nations is doing around the world. And C Fan just recently passed a major milestone. Tell me about that.
Evangelist Daniel Kolenda (01:40):
Yeah, I’d love to. First, I just want to say to you, Daniel, thank you for the work that you do as well because we’re both evangelists and we share a heart for the nations, and you’ve been going for many years preaching the gospel around the world. And I’m really thankful for what God has done through your ministry. You’ve actually helped us here in training of evangelists. You’ve been one of the trainers that’s come into our bootcamp and helped impart to the next generation. So thank you for that and love and appreciate you very much. Yeah, our ministry, Christ for All Nations, founded by the late Evangelist Bonnke back in 1974. So we are now a 50-year-old ministry. We just passed the 50th birthday and we also just surpassed as of a couple of weeks ago, the landmark of 100 million documented salvations since the founding of the ministry. So that averages out to 2 million people a year coming to Christ, which is something that I’ve never heard of it before. It’s not, I don’t take any credit for it. It was very much a team effort and of course Evangelist Bonky for many, many years before I even came along. But we are celebrating and so thankful for what God has done. We’re really living in the greatest harvest of all time.
Evangelist Daniel King (02:58):
It really is an amazing milestone. When Reinhard Bonnke passed away, I remember that there was an average of about 1 million people who had given their lives to Jesus every year of his life. And then you have continued the Harvest. CFAN as not slowed down or slacked off ever since. Reinhard went on to heaven. CFAN has been aggressively going after souls. You haven’t lost the purpose. So tell me a little bit about what that was like going from being under Reinhardt’s leadership to now you leading Christ for All nations.
Evangelist Daniel Kolenda (03:35):
Yeah. Evangelist Bonnke passed away in 2019. He was 79 years old and at that time we had seen 79 million documented decisions for Christ. So you can kind of do the math and see how it’s increased, but actually I became the president of the ministry 10 years before he died. And so I was very firmly in the captain’s chair, but Evangelist Bonnke and I worked together very closely over those 10 years. And he was more than just a mentor to me or a good example. He was really like a father in many ways. And when he passed away, it felt like losing a father. It had that kind of impact on me. I don’t know that I can say that I’ve even now fully processed the difficulty of that loss, but because of his incredible wisdom in the way that he structured transition, and he chose me for successor long before he passed and worked with me to see that transition happen very smoothly in terms of the ministry impact we have not ceased after he passed away or slowed down.
(04:45):
In fact, we have increased. And the Lord began to speak to me in 2017 about the upcoming decade that we’re living in right now. And the Lord told me it would be a decade of double harvest. And the reason that it would be that way was because we would not just be adding, we would be multiplying. And so we really began to put emphasis and intention into investing into the next generation and multiplying laborers and evangelists for the sake of the harvest. And at this moment, there are over 5,000 evangelists that have been trained through Christ for All nations. They are literally spread out all over the world and they’re working very much together with each other and with us to see exponential impact all over the world, which is why we’ve seen these numbers just continue to skyrocket. And I believe that actually we’ve only touched to the very, very beginning of this, just the tip of the iceberg.
(05:37):
I believe that we’ll see by the end of this decade we’ll see 150 million salvations. And then I believe that’s just again the priming for an even greater harvest. Because imagine with these thousands of evangelists now spread out all over the world with their own ministries and their own influence, and God is blessing them and using them. I we’re in for the following decade to be a billion soul harvest decade. And I don’t say that just as wishful thinking or grand faithful talking. I mean based on the numbers that we’re seeing on the ground and the fruit that’s already coming in, if we just project forward, it looks like we’re in for an even greater season of harvest yet to come.
Evangelist Daniel King (06:16):
This is one of the greatest harvest of souls in history. And heaven will record what is happening during this decade of time. The decade of Double Harvest. Heaven will celebrate the millions of people that are coming into a relationship with God. I’ve had the privilege of teaching many of the C fan evangelists with the Evangelism Bootcamp, and it was such a tremendous privilege to be able to pour into them and to be a part of that, to come down to your headquarters there in Orlando. And just recently I have been with some of the CFAN evangelists in different parts of the world, and it’s absolutely amazing to see what God is doing through them. Just a couple months ago I was in Finland and there’s a group of evangelists there that went through the Evangelism bootcamp that now are doing crusades and outreaches in Finland.
(07:21):
And it’s not just first generation, it’s second and third generation evangelists that have gone through the CFAN training system. And then just last week I was in Thailand with evangelist Daniel Es. We were doing a Jesus camp together and we had 176 evangelists come from 15 different provinces across Thailand to be trained. And we took them out to do outreaches. And in the outreaches we did, we had 607 people give their lives to Jesus. And then some of those that have been trained just this week I got a report, they have been doing youth events and over 9,000 young people have given their lives to Jesus, God. And this is all a fruit of what CFAN is doing to train these evangelists. Talk to me a little bit about this strategy of going beyond being just one evangelist on the platform to training many evangelists.
Evangelist Daniel Kolenda (08:24):
Well, I really do believe in the principle of impartation. When you look at the story for example of Elijah and Elijah or Moses and Joshua or Jesus and the disciples, which would be the greatest example, you see this emphasis on not simply doing the work of the ministry but passing it on. And in fact, Jesus, what’s interesting with the ministry of Jesus, the very first thing that you read about in the gospels that he does as he launches his public ministry, as he chooses 12 disciples, these are the ones that will on after he’s gone. Now, I mean in our time, usually succession plans are saved for the deathbed. A preacher or a minister or a leader doesn’t think about who’s going to take on the ministry after they’re gone until they’re dying. But with Jesus, that was the very first thing that he did.
(09:11):
He chose the ones that would carry on because he understood that this would be, I mean, think about it. If Jesus hadn’t picked 12 disciples, we probably wouldn’t know who Jesus was because who would’ve written the gospels, who would’ve taken the witness of what they saw to the nations of the world? And so I really felt coming in to Christ for All Nations. I was 28 years old when I became the leader of the ministry. Evangelist Bonnke was still very much around, but I felt myself often asking the Lord, why me? Why did you pick me for this? I’m not a great preacher like Evangelist Bonnke. If you knew Reinhard, he was just a very, very special man. And I never felt like I was in his league in any way, and I still don’t. But I felt like what the Lord told me my assignment would be was not simply to carry on the ministry, although I am doing that and I continue to preach in the Crusades and carry the baton that he passed to me.
(10:04):
But also I felt like the Lord said that my job was to utilize that platform that had been built by Evangelist Bonnke and so many others to launch not only my own ministry but a whole generation of others to give it away. It’s the parable of the feeding of the 4,000 or the 5,000 where Jesus takes these pieces of bread and fish and he puts them in the hands of the disciples and he tells them to give them away. And you might think you can imagine those disciples, they’re all hungry. There’s thousands of people there, and they’ve got just a few crumbs of bread and a little piece of a fish in their hand and they’re thinking themselves, this isn’t enough for me. How is this going to be enough for the multitudes? But they found this amazing secret that as they gave away what they had been given, it began to grow and they actually never ran out and actually had baskets full of food left over at the end. And I think this is a spiritual principle. It says that when Jesus took that bread, it says he blessed it and then he broke it. And I think that God only blesses what he breaks and when he breaks, it’s for the sake of multiplication and distribution. As we give away what we have, he gives us more. And that’s been my experience and the experience of the ministry. And I think that the best years of our ministry and of our lives are ahead of us still because of this incredible thing of multiplication.
Evangelist Daniel King (11:28):
Now, if someone’s listening and they feel a calling to evangelism, what are some ways that they can get trained? I know you’re launching a brand new school of ministry. Are there still opportunities for people to get trained through that? And what are some of the other things that CFAN is offering?
Evangelist Daniel Kolenda (11:47):
Yeah, of course the Christ for All Nations School of Ministry is an incredible opportunity to be raised up and trained. We still have the bootcamp, it’s not running right now, but if you come to the School of Ministry, you’ll be in the line for the bootcamp as well. Also, we have schools of fire. We have the fire camps. Jesus Camps is a derivative of the fire camps, as you know, which is like a one week long intensive where you get linked with the Christ for All Nation’s family. We call it the Evangelism Alliance, which has thousands of evangelists linked together, working together. And really what we do, we have different levels of training. Some are very in depth, some are customized for people that want to do gospel crusades like Chan is known for. We have a training called One-to-One, which is designed just to help people share the gospel with their neighbor and their friends in a one-on-one way.
(12:37):
It’s a one day training. So we’ve got all these different levels. But I found that the great thing is that I remember early when I first started doing evangelism and I was trying to do gospel crusades, I saw what Evangel Bonnke was doing. This was before I was working with him. And I looked at these super massive gospel crusades and I thought to myself, how do you even get started doing something like that? It just seems overwhelming, it seems impossible. Where would you begin? And I found that by just giving people the tools and the resources to be able to begin, then that ability to take the first step results in God just blessing the steps and providing more. Like Evangelist Bonnke said, even God can’t steer a parked car. So on some level, you’ve got to be able to get busy and take the first step.
(13:26):
And we have been able to do that very effectively for many of these evangelists. And now some of the guys that we’ve trained, as you said, they are quickly becoming and sometimes already are in different places of the world, the leaders of evangelism in their respective regions and countries. And like you just said, everywhere we go in the world, we see them and God is raising them up and using them. I think that in many ways, they have themselves become heirs of the legacy and the heritage that God has entrusted us here with at Christ for all nations. They’ve become carriers of that same torch and that same fire, and it just goes on and on. And it will outlive both of us, Daniel and I believe it will continue until Jesus comes.
Evangelist Daniel King (14:08):
Amen. Not only are you leading Christ for All Nations, but you’re also pastoring nation’s church, which is a local expression of the Global Sea fan vision in the Orlando area. And you’re also writing books, and you’ve just recently written a brand new book called Furious. Tell me a little bit about this new book that you’ve just about to come out.
Evangelist Daniel Kolenda (14:35):
Well, that’s a perfect segue, Daniel, because the evangelistic ministry and the pastoral ministry kind of come together at this point because as evangelists, we love the gospel as every believer should. But for us, it is where we live. We live in the revelation of the gospel and in the preaching of the gospel. And as a pastor, I don’t preach as evangelistically in my church Sunday after Sunday, as you can imagine, but I still always find a way to slip the gospel in there no matter what we’re doing. And that was especially easy recently when I decided to do an expository series preaching verse by verse through the Book of Galatians. Now, the book of Galatians is one of the most fascinating books in the entire Bible. It was written by the apostle Paul. It is a fiery book. It is a raw book. It is a book that seeds with emotion and passion.
(15:30):
And Paul is fighting for the gospel against these people call the Judaizers that are trying to convince new believers, gentile believers in Galatia to go back under the law of Moses. And he’s refuting their doctrine and debating with them. And there’s just a lot of interesting backstory and there’s a lot of context to Galatians that’s very important for somebody to grasp it. If you don’t grasp it, you might read Galatians and not even really understand what’s going on. I was enjoying preaching expositorily verse by verse through Galatians in my church every week people were coming up to me and just telling me how much it was transforming them and changing them and opening their eyes, and people asked me to write something. So when I got to the end of the series, I thought, I’ll just take my sermon notes and I’ll put ’em together in sort of a casual commentary, nothing scholarly, but just to help people guide them through the book of Galatians.
(16:24):
And as I was working on it, I just felt frustrated and I didn’t really grasp why do I feel this way? And then it occurred to me just expository book, like a commentary going through Galatians, doesn’t do it justice. It’s so much more dynamic than that. And I began to think about how can I really help somebody to understand at a very deep level what’s happening in the book of Galatians? And then suddenly I felt like the Holy Spirit just touched me. I really do believe the idea came from the Lord. And I suddenly saw it was a vision of this scene where the Apostle Paul is sitting in a room and he’s dictating the book of Galatians to a scribe. Because if you know how Paul wrote his letters, he very often utilized a scribe. He would dictate, the scribe would write down what he was saying, and I imagined what would it be like if you could sit in that room where Paul is dictating the book of Galatians and hear this conversation unfold between him and his scribe and have Paul himself telling the backstories in dramatic flare and in really engaging fashion, what would it be like if you could absorb not just what he was saying but why he was saying it, and the logic behind his words and the heartbeat that drove him to write the book of Galatians?
(17:42):
And so that’s where I started, and I just began writing this book not really knowing if I could even finish it or if it would have the continuity needed to bring it out. And as I was writing, I just felt like the Holy Spirit kept helping me page by page, chapter by chapter. And what we ended up here with is something that is really unique. I’ve never read another book like it. When you read the book, you will literally go through the entire book of Galatians verse by verse, because Paul’s dictating it throughout the course of the book, but you don’t feel like you’re reading the Bible. You feel like you’re reading a novel. It’s a story, and it’s exciting and it’s colorful, and you will naturally absorb all of these things, the logic and the context of the book of Galatians. And by the end, I think you’ll have a deep revelation, not only of what Galatians itself is saying, but the gospel understanding the gospel and the importance of the gospel on a totally new level. I think it will be very transformative to people who read it.
Evangelist Daniel King (18:38):
So bring it forward for us from the Galatians who read this letter over 2000 years ago to today. What do Christians today need to understand about the gospel that you can find in the Book of Galatians?
Evangelist Daniel Kolenda (18:55):
Well, there’s so many things, and the reason that the Galatians still speaks to us so much today is because it touches on, there was a very specific issue in the Galatian church, but the underlying layer to that is something that it is characteristic of all human nature, and it is this desire and this attempt to constantly take the wheel. It’s kind of like, well, Jesus saved me by grace through faith. There’s nothing I could do to earn it. But then there’s this temptation to grab the wheel and say, okay, Lord, now I can take it from here. And we may not think of it that way consciously. We wouldn’t express it that way with our words. But at the same time, there’s this tendency to feel like, well, I’ve got to add something. I’ve got to do something. If I can just be a little bit better, then God will love me a little bit more.
(19:46):
If I can just pray more, if I just read my Bible more, if I just live a holier life, then God is going to really accept me, then I’m really going to be part of his family. And again, for the Galatians, they were being tempted to supplement the work of the cross by going back to the law of Moses. Now, that’s not the biggest issue now, although I don’t know if you know this Daniel, but there is a big movement right now where people are being drawn back into. Some of ’em will call it like Hebrew roots theology. There’s different names for it. I’m not talking about Messianic Jewish believers. That’s a different thing. But this is people who are trying to persuade even today gentile believers in Jesus that if they really want to be pleasing to God, what they have to do is observe the law of Moses.
(20:31):
And you see people returning to the feasts and the fasts. And I’ve even seen people go so far as they stopped wearing clothes with mixed fabrics in them. I had one friend that I heard that he was getting into some of this Hebrew roots stuff, and he was, again, is a gentile believer. And then we pulled up to his house one day and he came out, and I was shocked when I saw him come out of the house and he was wearing a black coat and a black top hat, and he’d grown his beard out and the sides of his side burns were curled, and he was dressed like an Orthodox Jew because he literally believed that God wanted him to fulfill the law of Moses in order to be more pleasing to him. And it’s interesting because Orthodox Judaism didn’t even emerge until hundreds of years after Christ.
(21:17):
So this wasn’t even something that was around in the time of Jesus. And yet you can see how insidious this temptation to slip back into law and into performance and into the work of our own hands is not just for those following Hebrew roots theology, but for every believer. The Book of Galatians, it’s one of those books, Galatians and Romans are what sparked the Protestant reformation in some ways. Many of us, I would say probably the majority of your audience is a product of the Protestant Reformation. But I believe that we need constantly to have a fresh reformation in our own hearts, which is turning away from the work of our hands and our striving and our efforts to please God and putting our focus back on the cross, the finished work of Christ and the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
Evangelist Daniel King (22:04):
So one side is people going back to the law, and then there’s another movement where people take grace to the extreme and say, we can do anything and say, we’re not subject to any of the laws. We don’t have to obey anything. We can do anything we want and live any way we want, and God will still love us. So how do we as Christians stay holy, but also walk in the knowledge of what God’s grace has done for us?
Evangelist Daniel Kolenda (22:39):
Well, this is something that Paul addresses in the Book of Galatians because again, you can imagine that one of the things that the Judaizers were accusing Paul of is being lawless and promoting some sort of a lawless approach to the gospel, maybe to win the approval of people. And Paul addresses this after he lays out very clearly the gospel he gets into in chapters three and four, and especially near the end of the book, he really begins to focus on how do we live a life that is pleasing to God? So it’s not just that, oh, Jesus died for you now go do whatever you want, just live any way that you want. No, the power of the gospel is that Jesus died so that we could become children of God. And now that we are children of God, the Holy Spirit comes to live and dwell on the inside of us, and the Holy Spirit changes us from the inside so that we, by our new natures in Christ naturally live lives that are pleasing to God, and we naturally bear the fruit of the Spirit. By the way, you know that whole passage on the fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, long suffering, yet all these things that comes from the book of Galatians where Paul is describing to these Gentiles, how you can actually live a life that is pleasing to God, and you cannot do that. This is the crux of the matter. You cannot do this apart from the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit in your life.
Evangelist Daniel King (24:04):
It sounds like this book really makes the Bible come alive in a very real way. And so I hope that everyone who’s listening will get a copy of it. How can they order a copy of your new book Furious?
Evangelist Daniel Kolenda (24:19):
Well, it’s available everywhere where you buy books. If you get ’em on Amazon or I don’t know what’s out these days, Barnes and Noble, but we also have it available on our ministry website. You can go to CA n.org that stands for Christ for All Nations CA n.org, and you can find it there as well and anywhere else that you buy your books.
Evangelist Daniel King (24:42):
And I’d really encourage you, if you’re listening to go to the CAN website, CA n.org, and on there you can find out about all the opportunities to be trained in evangelism. And if you want to help support an evangelistic ministry that is making a difference around the world and has an amazing track record of over a hundred million souls, I’d really encourage you to become a supporter of C Fan and help them on a monthly basis, give them a gift to help them with one of their crusades. It will be a huge blessing.
Evangelist Daniel Kolenda (25:19):
Thank you, Daniel.
Evangelist Daniel King (25:21):
Yeah. Well, tell us kind of what comes next for CA. What are some of the big plans that you guys have coming up?
Evangelist Daniel Kolenda (25:30):
Well, again, our big focus the next five years, we we’re doing crusades all over the world, expanding territory into new regions, and really focusing on training up new evangelists. And that really is the heart of the ministry and the vision that God has given us. I believe that we’ll see over the next five years, over a million Africans become part of the Evangelism Alliance. We have a strategy for this, and I’m just looking forward to the greatest season of harvest that we’ve ever seen coming up just ahead.
Evangelist Daniel King (26:02):
Amen. Well, Daniel, thank you so much for being on the Evangelism Podcast. I appreciate it.
Evangelist Daniel Kolenda (26:08):
Thanks, Daniel. God bless you.
Evangelism Podcast Host (26:09):
Are you called by God to be an evangelist? Do you want to lead millions of people to Jesus? Do you desire to be trained in the practical side of building a ministry? Then check out the Daniel King School of Evangelism. Learn how to be an effective evangelist from Dr. Daniel King’s 20 plus years of experience. Daniel King has done crusades all over the world in over 70 nations and is seen over 2 million people give their lives to Jesus. But it wasn’t easy. There was no crusade school. So Daniel traveled the world learning from and observing top evangelists, noticing how they successfully won souls for Christ. Now he wants to share decades of knowledge and experience with you. Topics of the Daniel King School of Evangelism include what is an evangelist, how to be a master soul winner, how to give an altar call, how to organize a crusade, how to raise money for your ministry, and much more. If you want to be an evangelist, but don’t know where to start, the Daniel King School of Evangelism is for you. Enroll today in the School of Evangelism by going to Daniel King ministries.com/evangelism. Thanks
Evangelist Daniel King (27:12):
So much for listening today. I am excited about telling people about Jesus, and I want to invite you to be a part of helping us to rescue people from Hell and take them with us to heaven. There’s two things you can do to help. First of all, can you go find the Evangelism podcast on Apple iTunes and leave us a positive review by giving a review, you will help other people find these valuable resources about sharing our faith. And second, would you become a financial partner with King Ministries. Every single dollar that people give us enables us to lead at least one person to Jesus. And so that means for only $1, you can help start a party in heaven. And so today I want to invite you to become a monthly partner. You can start out for just a dollar, but if God puts it on your heart to do more, of course you can do more. But please go to king ministries.com and become a monthly partner with us today to help us to lead more people to Jesus. Thank you so much, and God bless you.
Evangelism Podcast Host (28:32):
For more information about how to share your faith or to financially support our worldwide evangelistic outreaches, visit king ministries.com. Again, that’s www.kingministries.com.
On today’s episode of The Evangelism Podcast, Evangelist Daniel King and Pastor Phumiwanet Methiakrakul of Thailand about the “Everyone Thailand” vision to reach 7 million people in Thailand with the gospel, which would be 10% of the country’s 70 million population. They discuss the strategic location of the city of Pitsanulok (where Daniel King is doing a crusade) as a crossroads of Indochina, with China building infrastructure like roads and railways connecting the region. We are targeting a strategic location for our upcoming crusade in the middle of Southeast Asia.
Learn More About Pastor Phumiwanet Methiakrakul: https://www.sadudee.org/
Transcript:
Evangelist Daniel King (00:00):
Welcome to the Evangelism Podcast. I’m Daniel King, and I’m excited about telling people about Jesus. I’m so excited to be here in the nation of Thailand with Pastor Pu. Can you say your full name, please?
Pastor Phumiwanet Methiakrakul (00:13):
Yeah, my full name is Pastor Poom. I serve the Lord as Pastor in the prayer church, Bangkok, Thailand.
Evangelist Daniel King (00:23):
And you are part of the National Committee for Everyone Thailand.
Pastor Phumiwanet Methiakrakul (00:30):
Yes.
Evangelist Daniel King (00:30):
Tell me a little bit about the vision of Everyone Thailand.
Pastor Phumiwanet Methiakrakul (00:35):
Yeah. The vision from everyone. Thailand. We would like to bring the gospel to the unsaved people. At least 7 million in the whole country in Thailand? Yes.
Evangelist Daniel King (00:48):
What’s the total population of Thailand?
Pastor Phumiwanet Methiakrakul (00:51):
The population is 70 plus.
Evangelist Daniel King (00:54):
70 million people.
Pastor Phumiwanet Methiakrakul (00:56):
Yeah, 70 million.
Evangelist Daniel King (00:57):
And so the goal is to reach at least
Pastor Phumiwanet Methiakrakul (01:00):
10%. 10%,
Evangelist Daniel King (01:01):
And to see at least 7 million people come to Jesus. And this would be a huge miracle because of course at this time, Christianity is, I’ve heard one or 2% of the
Pastor Phumiwanet Methiakrakul (01:13):
Nation in the Christianity is lesser than 1%. If you in include with the Catholic, yeah. Is a little bit 1% plus a little bit.
Evangelist Daniel King (01:26):
And so the goal is that at least 10% of the nation
Pastor Phumiwanet Methiakrakul (01:30):
Would
Evangelist Daniel King (01:30):
Hear about Jesus and respond with faith in Jesus.
Pastor Phumiwanet Methiakrakul (01:35):
Yes.
Evangelist Daniel King (01:36):
What a great vision. It comes from the Lord and it’s so beautiful to see what God is doing in many different provinces and areas around Thailand. Today we are in the city of Piston law, which is a region right in the middle of Thailand.
Pastor Phumiwanet Methiakrakul (01:57):
Yes.
Evangelist Daniel King (01:58):
And so many different evangelists are coming and each evangelist is assigned to a different area of Thailand,
Pastor Phumiwanet Methiakrakul (02:03):
Of
Evangelist Daniel King (02:04):
Course. But my assignment is this city of
Pastor Phumiwanet Methiakrakul (02:08):
Pilo
Evangelist Daniel King (02:08):
And we’ve been having a Jesus camp and it’s so beautiful to see all the people
Pastor Phumiwanet Methiakrakul (02:14):
That
Evangelist Daniel King (02:14):
Have come that are hungry to learn how to share about Jesus. What do you see that God is doing here in Piston low this week?
Pastor Phumiwanet Methiakrakul (02:21):
It’s amazing. You see, piston law is a strategic province. Is a province is like the Indochina intersection.
Evangelist Daniel King (02:34):
It’s the intersection
Pastor Phumiwanet Methiakrakul (02:35):
Intersection
Evangelist Daniel King (02:36):
Of Indochina
Pastor Phumiwanet Methiakrakul (02:37):
Indochina. So that is mean that the mainland China, the Chinese, they will built up the road from the China cross to this city and then from the China down to Malaysia and Singapore, and they will build up one more line from Vietnam, Cambodia across this city to Myanmar and to India.
Evangelist Daniel King (03:07):
Wow. So really this is a very strategic place. The city of PIs Lo. So you’re saying that the Chinese government is building roads and infrastructure from China
Pastor Phumiwanet Methiakrakul (03:20):
And also railway
Evangelist Daniel King (03:21):
In a railway down through Lao Laos, the nation of Laos. Into
Pastor Phumiwanet Methiakrakul (03:28):
Thailand. Into Thailand,
Evangelist Daniel King (03:29):
All the way down to Bangkok and then onto Malaysia.
Pastor Phumiwanet Methiakrakul (03:33):
Yes, of course.
Evangelist Daniel King (03:34):
And then with the harbor and Malaysia, then you have access to Singapore, to Indonesia.
Pastor Phumiwanet Methiakrakul (03:39):
Indonesia.
Evangelist Daniel King (03:40):
And then from Cambodia
Pastor Phumiwanet Methiakrakul (03:42):
And
Evangelist Daniel King (03:43):
Vietnam. So Vietnam come through Cambodia
Pastor Phumiwanet Methiakrakul (03:46):
To
Evangelist Daniel King (03:47):
Piston law and then onto Myanmar in India.
Pastor Phumiwanet Methiakrakul (03:50):
India.
Evangelist Daniel King (03:51):
And so this city is very strategic. It’s the crossroads of Indochina. And I think it’s so special that God has assigned me to come here. The committee was praying which evangelists was supposed to go to which place, and God brought me here to this city. And I really believe that we will see a spark of revival here in this place that is going to spread all over Southeast Asia.
Pastor Phumiwanet Methiakrakul (04:21):
Yes, yes. It’s really amazing. You see, since that we have Dr. T Osborn came to Thailand two, three times. The last one that I was the director Cru for.
Evangelist Daniel King (04:35):
So you were the director,
Pastor Phumiwanet Methiakrakul (04:37):
Director for
Evangelist Daniel King (04:37):
Dr. TL O Osborne, the great missionary evangelist. Yes. He came to
Pastor Phumiwanet Methiakrakul (04:42):
Thailand. Yes. Yes. He came to Thailand the last time that he came to Bangkok on the 2003 after the Cru, then he finished in Bangkok. We brought him to go to the Northeast Conan province and he make the two province for the crusade. And each cru is filled with over 20 20,000 in the
Evangelist Daniel King (05:10):
Ade. And
Pastor Phumiwanet Methiakrakul (05:10):
The people got saved and people got healing. And the people, so many people, it’s amazing on those times.
Evangelist Daniel King (05:18):
Well, I remember when I was a young man,
Pastor Phumiwanet Methiakrakul (05:21):
I
Evangelist Daniel King (05:21):
Was going to victory Bible college in Tulsa, Oklahoma. And TL Osborne was one of our teachers. And he came and he talked about Thailand and he talked about all the miracles that God had done here in Thailand. He told one story about a man who was a leper, who was healed many years ago in the late 1950s, early 1960s. And then he became a pastor and planted many churches. And it was so neat here at the Jesus camp yesterday, the son of the leper who was healed at a Tia Osborne crusade. He was my translator. And so Tia Osborne, he told that story. And I remember when he told it, I began to pray and say, God, I pray that someday that you would send me to preach the gospel in Thailand. And I began to pray for Thailand. And now here I am. Yeah. It’s amazing. Yeah. God has sent me here. And it’s so neat with that one miracle that God did in the life of the leper many years ago, it now extended into the next generation, in the next generation. And even that story inspired me to be an evangelist. And so that shows the power of one miracle. When God does a miracle in someone’s life, it can change the entire family. Of course it can change the entire destiny
(06:51):
Of an entire region. And God can bless multiple generations, all because of one miracle,
Pastor Phumiwanet Methiakrakul (06:58):
Praise God. And we will believe that the Lord will do more, not just only for this event that you coming to this event this time. So the cruise said here in the city of epi, the law, it’ll go on and on and on and on. Last night when I got back to my hotel and I keep praying and the Lord saying to me is so many words, one of the confirmation that he going to use this piece of the law inside a strategic province. That many, many speaker, many evangelists will come to this place. It is over and over many years in the next 10 years, many, many times. And they will bring the people from this city and the city, the unserved people from the outside country, they will come and see what happened in this area. And then they will bring the good news from this city back to their own country as well. So last night, I keep praying, Lord made you do it in your ma way. Yeah.
Evangelist Daniel King (08:10):
Amen.
Pastor Phumiwanet Methiakrakul (08:11):
Amen.
Evangelist Daniel King (08:11):
Well, you are one of the key pastors here in the nation that has invited everyone Thailand. And it’s so beautiful because different nations from around the world are sending evangelists and pastors
Pastor Phumiwanet Methiakrakul (08:26):
And
Evangelist Daniel King (08:27):
People to help disciple
Pastor Phumiwanet Methiakrakul (08:29):
Here
Evangelist Daniel King (08:29):
In Thailand. And really this vision of everyone, Thailand is to call the entire body of Christ from around the world to pray for Thailand
Pastor Phumiwanet Methiakrakul (08:38):
Praise,
Evangelist Daniel King (08:39):
To come to Thailand, to join with the church of Thailand in the vision that God has given you to reach people for Jesus here. And so we are very honored to be a part. It is such a privilege to join with the churches of Thailand. You have been praying for so many years
Pastor Phumiwanet Methiakrakul (09:00):
For
Evangelist Daniel King (09:00):
Thailand to be saved, for Thailand to come to Jesus. And God has heard your prayers. And now he is sending people from all over the world to participate. And so I am very grateful to the Lord, to be one of the evangelists who is participating in this. And we are going to be having a gospel truck for this province of piston low. It arrives today. It’s God has provided the money for the gospel truck, and we are going to send it from village to village, from place to place doing gospel truck outreaches. And we’re going to be doing youth campaigns and music festivals, and then we’ll have a big crusade here. And so we believe that many thousands of people will come to Jesus through these efforts.
Pastor Phumiwanet Methiakrakul (09:53):
Yes. So I would like to ask many of your team and also the leader and the pastor and also the church member in your city, Oklahoma, and also everywhere in SA or any country in the world keep praying for Thailand. So we would like to see the believer will increase from the very little bit percentage will growing up more than 10% or 20% and 30%. So our goal is if the Lord will, we would like to have seen Thai people God saved in South Africa. Yeah. We would like to see on that. So that why we keep praying. Please keep praying for us for the next 10 years. Yeah, please.
Evangelist Daniel King (10:41):
Amen. Tell me again the story of Tal Osborn when he first come.
Pastor Phumiwanet Methiakrakul (10:46):
Oh,
Evangelist Daniel King (10:48):
Just tell me.
Pastor Phumiwanet Methiakrakul (10:52):
So
Evangelist Daniel King (10:52):
When Tia Osborne first came to Thailand, the people saw Jesus. Tell me about
Pastor Phumiwanet Methiakrakul (10:57):
That. Okay, so the first time Dr. T Osborne came to Thailand at the South City name is drunk. On those time that during that he pushed on the nighttime, the Lord Jesus appeared himself on the top, on the loop of the church, close to the coconut tree,
Evangelist Daniel King (11:17):
Next to the coconut tree,
Pastor Phumiwanet Methiakrakul (11:18):
Next to the coconut tree, and the people that saw the Lord Jesus and the new bar, and they cry for help. That is a marvelous thing that the Lord appear himself for them.
Evangelist Daniel King (11:30):
Wow. What a great testimony. Thank you for sharing. Thank you. Well, let’s finish with a word of prayer for Thailand and let’s pray that God would pour out his spirit upon this nation
Pastor Phumiwanet Methiakrakul (11:44):
And
Evangelist Daniel King (11:44):
We would see a great harvest.
Pastor Phumiwanet Methiakrakul (11:45):
Thank
Evangelist Daniel King (11:45):
You. Would you lead us in a prayer for the nation of Thailand?
Pastor Phumiwanet Methiakrakul (11:49):
Yeah, please. Yeah. Okay. May I pray in Thailand?
Evangelist Daniel King (11:52):
Yes, please pray under
Pastor Phumiwanet Methiakrakul (11:54):
Language. Every Father, right now, I pray you made send your mighty power of the Holy Spirit through every area, every province, and every soul, every heart, Lord made you open their eye that they can see open their eye. Hope opened their eyes at the as Dr. T Osborn, that he came to Thailand on the first time in the beginning that he start ministry at the south. The people they can see you at the coconut tree and the people that knew down and they cry and they ask for help. Lord Jesus, may you live yourself to the whole country, every province, every city. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Lord, I believe that the new believer will come up and rise up, hallelujah. From the very little of the percentage, maybe just only one percentage. Lord, will you increase to five percentage, 10 percentage, 30 percentage and 60% percentage. And Lord, and more and more increase up, hallelujah, until before that you come in. Thank you Jesus. We pray in your mighty power name, in the name of God Jesus. Amen.
Evangelist Daniel King (13:40):
Amen. And so please pray with us for the nation of Thailand. Pray that God would pour out his spirit on this nation. Thank you so much for being on the Evangelism podcast. Praise a lot. Thank you. Amen.
Pastor Richard Sangwien’s father was healed of leprosy and jaundice after attending a crusade led by evangelist T.L. Osborn in Thailand. After his miraculous healing, Richard’s father became a pastor and planted several churches, leading many people to Christ. This miracle has now impacted multiple generations. On this episode of the Evangelism Podcast you will learn how one miracle can have a ripple effect that changes lives for many years to come.
Transcript:
Evangelist Daniel King (00:00):
Welcome to the Evangelism Podcast. My name is Daniel King. I’m excited about telling people about Jesus today. I have a very special guest with me, pastor Richard, thank you for being with me on the Evangelism Podcast.
Pastor Richard Sangwien (00:14):
Thank you so much for inviting me to join with the Evangelism Podcast.
Evangelist Daniel King (00:18):
Now you have been my translator for the last couple of days here at the Jesus camp in Phitsanulok, Thailand.
Pastor Richard Sangwien (00:27):
Yes.
Evangelist Daniel King (00:27):
And I was so happy to meet you because your story is part of the reason that I have come to Thailand. Wow. So many years ago, pastor Richard, I was a student at Victory Bible College in Tulsa, Oklahoma. And the great evangelist, Dr. TL Osborn, he came to teach at the school and I remember that he talked about Thailand and he shared stories about what God had done in Thailand. And one story he told was about a man who was a leper. And this leper came to one of Teal Osborne’s crusades many years ago, late 1950s, early 1960s, somewhere in there. And Jesus healed the leper and then he became a pastor. And when Dr. Osborne came back, he met the man who had been a leper, who is now a pastor. And so he shared this story and I remember that story impacted my life so much and I decided that I would pray and ask God to send me to Thailand to preach the gospel. Now, many years later, I’ve been praying for Thailand and asking God to provide an opportunity for me to preach here and now, here I am, I’m in Thailand. We came to this conference and I discovered that you are the translator
(01:56):
And the leper, the miracle story, the miraculous story of the leper. I found out that story is your father.
Pastor Richard Sangwien (02:06):
Yes.
Evangelist Daniel King (02:06):
And so now tell me the story from your father’s perspective. What did God do in his life?
Pastor Richard Sangwien (02:14):
Yes. When I was young, he told me that he used to be the monk in the Buddhist temple is the monk. And he got saved through something that is very special because he want to kill himself because he very shameful. And then he lost his hope so that he said that because I am got this disease, I cannot be in front of the people. And I lost everything. He lost everything actually, because he want to get healed. That’s why he went to see, that’s long, long time ago. Thailand is medical treatment is not like now this. That’s why he went to many of witch crab doctor and he lost everything until he said that I am going to make a decision that I want to kill myself. So that he tried to kill himself three time. Wow. Yes. And then first time is not success. The second time, not success, but third time almost success,
(03:37):
He went down from my village because my village is in province, northern of Thailand. And he came down from his province and came to city of Xang Mai, one of the city of Xang. They have the big river there across the city and they have bridge. Many people came to that bridge and jumped to the river, kill themselves. And my dad also, he make decision, this is the last time, last choice. So he came down and then he want to jump, but he came from the village late. He arrived the city at night. And then he said, oh, I need to stay overnight here. And then he stay in the market, the market because no hotel, he stay in market. And then in the market, people keep talking about one of the hospital we call Western Hospital that our kings donate, gave the land to the missionary and to set the start hotel there. No, no hospital, special hospital for the labor. And then he also, when he heard this, because at those time Thai people don’t trust the western medicine
Evangelist Daniel King (05:23):
Because
Pastor Richard Sangwien (05:23):
It’s something is news, but it’s something that click, it’s his heart change his mind. What another choice. Maybe my last choice because I went to many doctors, which doctor? Witch graft doctor. And then he said, ah, I might go to western doctor, something like that. In the morning he crossed that bridge, the bridge that he want to jump. And he crossed that. And then he went to the hospital that is a missionary hospital. And then he got saved in that hospital. He gave his life to Jesus at the missionaries,
Evangelist Daniel King (06:10):
Told him about
Pastor Richard Sangwien (06:11):
Jesus. And one of the key, his changes his life is he feel the love of the doctor and nurse who are missionary. They’re not European, but they’re so kind and they’re so gentle and love him and do everything because his hand is like this. And his
Evangelist Daniel King (06:40):
Fingers, the leprosy had caused his fingers to fall off. Yeah, fall off like
Pastor Richard Sangwien (06:44):
This. And then also he got some wool and smell, but the doctor and nurse took care of him very well.
Evangelist Daniel King (06:55):
Wow.
Pastor Richard Sangwien (06:55):
So I said that, wow, why these people, Christian, he heard Christian, but bad name, but why? They are just good person full of love like this. And then it starting open his heart for the gospel. And then the missionary keep continued to share the love in action and also share the gospel. So finally he opened his heart to receive Jesus
Evangelist Daniel King (07:27):
Christ. So then at what point did he go to the Tal Osborne? C.
Pastor Richard Sangwien (07:32):
And then after that he still have lepers and then
Evangelist Daniel King (07:38):
He still had leprosy, still have.
Pastor Richard Sangwien (07:43):
And also he have another disease. He have jaundice.
Evangelist Daniel King (07:46):
Jaundice. It makes your skin to become very yellow.
Pastor Richard Sangwien (07:48):
Very yellow.
Evangelist Daniel King (07:50):
Even
Pastor Richard Sangwien (07:50):
Your eyes turned
Evangelist Daniel King (07:51):
Yellow. Yes.
Pastor Richard Sangwien (07:52):
His eye. And he got very serious until he’s so weak and he almost died. So that’s why he made one of missionary over there send him down to T Osborne far away from Chiang Mai to Bangkok. Yeah. That’s a lovely way by train. And also because he’s sick, my mom have to come together with him. And so that my mom and my dad have to brought me together with them and with my brothers. And we came down as a family. This is the first time that I met t Osborn and also,
Evangelist Daniel King (08:33):
Wow. How old were you at that time?
Pastor Richard Sangwien (08:36):
About seven
Evangelist Daniel King (08:37):
Years old. A little boy.
Pastor Richard Sangwien (08:38):
Little boy. A little boy.
Evangelist Daniel King (08:39):
And so you came with your father down to the crusade. And at crusade Jesus
Pastor Richard Sangwien (08:45):
Did a miracle. That is the first miracle in our family. And the Lord is saved his life. He almost died very weak. And then my wife carried him to the crusade. And then at that first night in the crusade, his Steve yellow have lepers. And that night, the Lord is did a great miracle in his life and my family.
Evangelist Daniel King (09:17):
Wow.
Pastor Richard Sangwien (09:18):
Yeah. Because when he finished the crusade and he stay in that area, and then when he woke up in the morning, my mom just turned her face to see his face. Saw his face. She surprised. Wow, what’s happening? You look like not yellow. You’re not yellow, and you’re not yellow. The jaundice has been healed, be healed. And she checked with his eye and because his guilt is come back normal, it’s totally, completely healed. And he get the strain come back. And then the leprosy also, the Lord healed him. Totally. And he checked because they have to check the blood. Right. Normal. And so
Evangelist Daniel King (10:08):
After your father was healed of leprosy, he became a pastor.
Pastor Richard Sangwien (10:12):
Then he became a pastor, and actually he became the pastor. And he worked among the leprosy people, the lepers.
Evangelist Daniel King (10:25):
And he planted several churches
Pastor Richard Sangwien (10:27):
Through working with them and then take care of them. And then at that time, he worked with the Finnish mission, full Gospel Finn Mission. And then he shared the gospel and he, whatever, that he got the love from the visionary he learns. And he very impressed at that moment. He did the same thing with all the lepers.
Evangelist Daniel King (10:55):
That’s
Pastor Richard Sangwien (10:55):
Why he planned more than seven churches in two district in northern of Chiang Mai.
Evangelist Daniel King (11:03):
And now you continue the legacy
Pastor Richard Sangwien (11:06):
And
Evangelist Daniel King (11:06):
You are a pastor. What’s the name of your church?
Pastor Richard Sangwien (11:10):
My church name is
Evangelist Daniel King (11:12):
The Be a Blessing church. And tell me about your family because now God is blessing the entire family because of what God did in your father’s life.
Pastor Richard Sangwien (11:20):
Wow. That is great blessing. When I look back, because my dad, his labors, he’s poor, but he have heart for God and he very faithful to serve the Lord. And he has the man of faith and he plant the churches and he keep telling us and toss us about Jesus because we are just only one family in our village to be Christian. Sometime I feel that I am stranger among the friends, but I have seen his faith and his faithfulness to the Lord Jesus and his love is impressed me so much. Well, one day I come and pray to the Lord because I want to see Jesus. I said, I still believe, I still remember that I was 11 years old. I said that, Jesus, if you are real, if you are God, could you please show yourself to me? I can see if I see you.
(12:25):
And now I know that Jesus the same. You’re the God that my father believe I can have experience. So that at that night he don’t show me as I expect, but the holy spirits come to me. I feel with the love of the Lord, and I feel with peace and I totally surrender my life to him. And then I cry and I said that, yes, no, now I know you are real. And then I submit my life to serve the Lord. Because my dad, he always pray that all his kids should be serving God to be the God’s servants. So the Lord answer his prayer.
(13:18):
And from that day until now, more than 50 years ago, I follow Christ and serve the Lord. My church. We have organization. I am taking care about 30 more than 30 churches in Thailand now. And also my family, one of my brother, he’s a pastor, one of the church in my organization and also my dad before he became to be Christian, he have a wife already, but he, because he want to commit himself to die, he want to make the suicide and he throw everything out from his life. So he have one daughter there, daughter with that’s wife. And then when he got saved, he come back and try to converse his ex-wife and his daughter. And finally his daughter got saved. Wow. And then he tried to pray. He told me that he prayed for his daughter seven years. Wow. He prayed for his son-in-law altogether nine year. And then whole family got saved. And this family have one son now. He’s one of the pastor. He’s a great pastor. I think he have one big church here in Thailand. Pastor Liberty Church. At Liberty Church. Yeah. We were there
Evangelist Daniel King (15:12):
For the everyone Thailand conference Conference in February. And it was so beautiful to see what God is doing there. They have such a beautiful building, beautiful facility. God has blessed them in a great
Pastor Richard Sangwien (15:23):
Way.
Evangelist Daniel King (15:24):
And so the miracle that God did in the life of your father has continued down through the generations. Even his story impacting my life. And so I think it’s so neat that now you and I are here together and you are translating when I get to preach the gospel in Thailand, and I believe that this generation that we will see many miracles that will continue for many years to come. Now you also lead a team of intercessors for Thailand. What’s the name of the team?
Pastor Richard Sangwien (15:54):
This team we call intercessor for Thailand.
Evangelist Daniel King (15:58):
Okay. So on my evangelism podcast, I’m asking people to pray for Thailand. Oh,
Pastor Richard Sangwien (16:03):
Wonderful.
Evangelist Daniel King (16:04):
Can you give us some of the key things that people should be praying for as we pray for Thailand?
Pastor Richard Sangwien (16:12):
As everyone know around the word that Christians came, URI came to Thailand for a long, long time. Somebody said, that is a great yacht, the graveyard of missionaries. Yeah. I know that. You pay the price everything. Almost 200 years next on the year of 2028 Easter 200 year, we will celebrate that. But we have just only less than 1% Christianity here in Thailand. So the main key, and we would like every one of you to pray for us in Thailand, is we want to see this nation change. Actually, we have national goal together among the Christian in Protestant in the year of 2028. We want to see 1 million Christians and one and 10,000 churches and 10,000 pastor. Now we have about 600 something plus Christian here. So we need you to pray for us, and we want to see by the year of 2030 2030, we want to see more than 10% of the Thai people become to be Christian.
Evangelist Daniel King (17:36):
Amen.
Pastor Richard Sangwien (17:36):
This is the intercessor in Thailand. We mobilize and we teach them. We encourage them to pray for our nation that the Lord will do. Great thing among us is we want to see that the great revival and Thailand shall be saved and many people will come back to the Lord. So we put our heart and food of faith, we pray for our nation. This is, we want you to order intercessor everywhere in the world. You can pray for us of our national goal. And we want to see, it’s not just only Taal, but we want to see that we break through.
Evangelist Daniel King (18:22):
Amen. Yeah. Well, let’s finish the interview with a prayer for Thailand. Wonderful. We have just one minute left, but can you pray in the Thai language for Thailand to come to
Pastor Richard Sangwien (18:34):
Jesus? Yes. Shall we pray to generation out? Amen. Amen. Hallelujah.
Evangelist Daniel King (20:01):
Thank you Pastor Richard for being on the Evangelism podcast.
Pastor Richard Sangwien (20:04):
You’re welcome. Thank you so much. God bless you.
Europe has often been called a post-Christian continent… but I believe we’re stepping into a new era—because God is beginning to move in a mighty way!
This summer, I had the incredible privilege of ministering at my first Gospel crusade in Europe!
It started at a Jesus Night in Helsinki, the capital of Finland. I’m calling it “From Helsinki to Heaven,” because people were rescued from darkness and given the pathway to eternal life in Christ!
But that was just the beginning.
Our team traveled to Tampere, Finland’s second-largest city. There, we witnessed the Holy Spirit move in power!
Tampere is Finland’s second-largest urban area, known as the “Sauna Capital of the World” because it has more saunas per capita than any other city on earth. But beneath the surface of this modern city—known for technology, education, and design—lies a deep spiritual hunger.
Over 230,000 people live in Tampere, and many have never experienced a real encounter with the living God.
We hosted an Empowerment Night and an Evangelism Training for local believers—equipping the Finnish Church to reach their cities and nation. I believe God is raising them up to “Finnish the Great Commission!”
A passionate team of 20 evangelists from America joined us, linking arms with Finnish believers for one-on-one evangelism on the streets. Some rejected the message, yes—but many more were curious, open, and hungry for the truth.
During the eight-day mission trip, our witnessing team from Houston Faith Church spoke to a total of 2,199 people. On one witnessing day in Helsinki at Narinkkatori Square, our team gave away 380 slices of pizza, 480 water bottles, and 755 tracts. Of the people we approached, 242 prayed for salvation, 54 received the Holy Spirit, 44 were healed, 674 of these was a conversational encounter where a seed was planted, and 1,002 people completely rejected having a conversation about God.
I was witnessing in a park in Tampere. There was a man named Timo (diminutive of Timothy). He was covered in tattoos, drinking cheap wine from a water bottle and listening to rock music on a battery powered speaker. I shared the Gospel with him for thirty minutes. At first, he did not want to listen, but after a while, he turned down his music and paid attention to what I was saying about Jesus. Finally, I asked him if he would pray with me for salvation. He repeated a salvation prayer after me and afterward he had tears in his eyes. He wiped the tears away and said, “That was F&$%^#@ amazing! I have never felt that way before.”
Then came the main outreach event—Jesus Night in the Central Square in Tampere.
I had the honor of preaching the Gospel in the open air, and God did what only He can do:
One woman came forward on crutches… but after prayer in Jesus’ name—she walked without them!
This is why we go. This is why we preach. Because Europe shall be saved.
Will you join me in continuing to pray for Finland and the entire continent of Europe? I believe a fresh wave of revival is beginning to stir.
This is just the beginning.From Helsinki to Heaven—Jesus is Lord over Finland!
With joy in the harvest,
Daniel King
Today on The Evangelism Podcast we talk about crypto with Shawn Wilderom & Crypto Will. What do ministries need to know about crypto? What are the advantages to ministries using crypto? If a ministry wants to accept crypto donations, what platform is best for doing so? Is crypto a good way to transfer money to other nations? If someone wants to invest in crypto what is a good way to get started? All this and more…
Learn More About Shawn Wilderom and Crypto: https://www.digitalassetconsultants.co/
Learn More About EnGiven: https://www.engiven.com/
Summary:
How ministries can utilize cryptocurrency to accept donations, transfer money internationally, and invest in crypto assets.
Key points:
Transcript:
Evangelist Daniel King (00:00):
Today on the Evangelism Podcast, we talk about crypto with Sean Rim and crypto will, what do ministries need to know about crypto? What are the advantages to ministries using crypto? If a ministry wants to accept crypto donations, what platform is best for doing so? Is crypto a good way to transfer money to other nations? If someone wants to invest in crypto, what is the best way to get started all this and more. Let’s go.
Evangelism Podcast Host (00:48):
Welcome to the Evangelism Podcast with Dr. Daniel King, where Daniel interviews full-time evangelists, pastors, missionaries and normal everyday Christians to discover how they share their faith, their powerful testimonies and amazing stories that will inspire you to reach people with the good news. And now here’s your host, missionary, and evangelist,
Evangelist Daniel King (01:11):
Daniel King. Welcome to the Evangelism Podcast. I’m Daniel King. I’m excited about telling people about Jesus today. I have two very special guests with me, Shawn Wilderom and Spencer (Crypto Will), and both of you are crypto geniuses. Shawn, you’ve been a friend for a long time and actually your wife is on the board of King Ministries.
Shawn Wilderom (01:36):
That is correct.
Evangelist Daniel King (01:36):
And so we’re so grateful for you being part of the ministry. You have gone with me on several mission trips. We’ve been in the Philippines together and we’ve been in Belize together and so appreciate you. You are an expert on crypto.
Shawn Wilderom (01:56):
That is correct.
Evangelist Daniel King (01:57):
And so on today’s episode, we’re going to talk about how ministers can use crypto to do what God has called them to do.
Shawn Wilderom (02:06):
Let’s get after it. I’m excited.
Evangelist Daniel King (02:08):
Alright. So the first thing I think everyone needs to know is if they have a website and someone comes to the website and wants to make a donation so they can give with credit card, they can find the information to wire money to the bank. But a lot of people now are investing in crypto and I think it’s important for ministries to be able to accept donations with crypto. Is there a way that people can make donations with crypto?
Shawn Wilderom (02:40):
Absolutely Daniel. And one of the best ways is a vehicle called Engiven a lot of companies do partner with and given. So they will be able to get with and given, go to the website and get signed. That’s the quickest way. There is no upfront fee and the fees are just ongoing, very minimal, just like doing and processing the PayPal or a credit card whenever someone does give to their ministry.
Evangelist Daniel King (03:04):
Okay. So you have a lot of crypto. Do you give to any ministries using crypto?
Shawn Wilderom (03:10):
I do, but only whenever at a certain point of the cycle. And I can get into that later or in another podcast, but right now I’m investing heavily into crypto. But I will eventually and do when the timing is right, give a lot of percentage of my gains each year into ministries that do offer crypto.
Evangelist Daniel King (03:34):
So talk to me a little bit about your giving philosophy. Really, one of your gifts is entrepreneurship. You’re very much an entrepreneur. Ever since I’ve known you, you’ve always looked for business deals, been really good at getting into a bunch of different businesses, and God brought you to crypto. And your goal is to make a lot of money in crypto because along with your entrepreneur gift, you also have a gift for giving. And so your goal is to help ministries around the world to do what God has called them to do. And so talk to me a little bit about what crypto can do for you to reach your goals of being the giver God has called you to be.
Shawn Wilderom (04:19):
I feel like Lou Gehrig, Lou Gehrig talked about he consider himself the luckiest man in the world because of baseball. Crypto is that way. To me, it has opened up so many avenues and ways to give more because the Bible says given all given to every give work, and not just Daniel King Ministries and a few other ministries and a couple of churches, but to give to every good work. And whenever we give to every good work, that means that we have to be successful and live a life significance that is far and above what we can never ask, think, or dream. And so we have to really ask the Lord what we are going to do with what he has given us. Too much is given, much is required. And so every time that there’s a new crypto or a new project that is in the crypto space, the Lord put that in someone’s mind. And I’m asked the Lord every day about what the next project, the next big thing is going to be because I want to be that guy. It has to be somebody might as well be me.
Evangelist Daniel King (05:19):
Now, when you first got into crypto, you kept asking me, Hey Daniel, do you accept Bitcoin? I was always like, sure, I’ll take a Bitcoin. And at that time Bitcoin was about $20,000. And I said, Sean, you can give me a Bitcoin. If you want to give me a Bitcoin, I’ll accept it. And you didn’t give me a Bitcoin, you should have given a Bitcoin because now to give me a Bitcoin, it was worth a lot more because Bitcoin recently went to its highest mark. What’s Bitcoin doing these days?
Shawn Wilderom (05:50):
It’s 107,000 at the moment.
Evangelist Daniel King (05:52):
So now it’s a much bigger gift. If you want to give me a Bitcoin,
Shawn Wilderom (05:55):
That is correct.
Evangelist Daniel King (05:56):
You should have given it to me then it would’ve been,
Shawn Wilderom (05:58):
I think I offered that to you on April Fool’s Day.
Evangelist Daniel King (06:01):
Oh, it was April. Now you and I actually you love April Fool’s jokes. It’s my
Shawn Wilderom (06:08):
Favorite holiday.
Evangelist Daniel King (06:08):
You try to get me every year. And so I’ve stopped responding to your text messages in early April. One time I sent you a text with a picture of me in the Denver airport, it’s like, Hey, can you come pick me up? And I wasn’t there. But it didn’t fool you at all? Nope.
Shawn Wilderom (06:26):
I don’t listen or I don’t have any phone calls I receive or I don’t reply to text messages.
Evangelist Daniel King (06:30):
Yeah, I don’t think your promise to give me a Bitcoin wasn’t April fool’s joke. I really think that that was a prophecy.
Shawn Wilderom (06:37):
Well, we can show you how to put a button on your website and get you started with that right away.
Evangelist Daniel King (06:43):
Alright. So Spencer, you are a business partner with Sean.
William “Spencer” Jared – Crypto Will (06:49):
Yes.
Evangelist Daniel King (06:49):
Tell me a little bit about how Sean helped you get into crypto and your story of how that’s helped you.
William “Spencer” Jared – Crypto Will (06:56):
Yeah, so crypto for me has really been a lifesaver in a lot of ways. And when I initially wanted to get into crypto, like all things that I’ve done previously in life, whether it’s sports or music or any of the other hobbies that I’ve had throughout life, I’ve wanted to learn from someone who’s already doing it at a high level. And so I initially, when I was reaching out to contacts and we had a mutual connection that was able to put me in touch with Sean. And at the time Sean had already had extreme levels of success trading crypto and navigating that market. Well, at the time I was actually going through a really extreme health battle. I had a severe cervical spine injury. I’ve had 12 medical procedures in the last three and a half or so years. And crypto and good financial planning has allowed me to really afford the care that I need has put an amazing gift into my life.
(07:54):
And so being able to experience success in the crypto market for myself to work with an amazing mentor that has turned into a brother who has turned into a business partner that been extraordinary. And my big why on why we wanted to start our business and start this consulting firm is my eventual goal. And something that God has put on my heart is to be able to sponsor other people who have had similar spine injuries that can’t afford or can’t have access to the care that has allowed me to even be here today. And I’ve had platelet rich plasma injections into muscle and ligament tears. I’ve had stem cells taken out of my bone marrow and injected into different injury sites and nerve hydro dissections. And none of that type of care is covered by insurance. And so crypto literally in a way has saved my life and God’s put it on my heart to pay it forward and through the successes of our ventures, that is going to be my next step. And the next thing that I really want to do is to be able to help and sponsor those who need that kind of care that don’t have access to it today.
Evangelist Daniel King (09:03):
Now you’ve really become somewhat of a crypto expert and you have a YouTube channel.
William “Spencer” Jared – Crypto Will (09:10):
Yes sir.
Evangelist Daniel King (09:10):
How does someone find your YouTube channel and get some of your wisdom in the crypto world?
William “Spencer” Jared – Crypto Will (09:14):
Yeah, absolutely. So my full God-given name is William Spencer Jared. I go online by crypto will and my YouTube channel is called Fresh Prince of Crypto. It’s spelled P-R-I-N-T-S. It was named after my great-grandfather always wanted to do something with that name given that my parents called me Spencer from day one. So to find me, if you’re looking for market analysis, fundamental or technical analysis about crypto, ongoing education about the crypto market, you can find me on YouTube at Fresh Prince of Crypto and then across other socials as well.
Evangelist Daniel King (09:47):
So just give me a crash course in crypto. Everyone’s talking about it on the news, but a lot of people maybe don’t fully understand what it’s all about, how it works. Just kind of walk us through the very basics. I’m not much of an expert in crypto, so you’re going to have to keep it really simple, but just walk me through the basics of how crypto works and how it can help people.
William “Spencer” Jared – Crypto Will (10:13):
Yeah, absolutely. So at its root, it is the blockchain technology that powers cryptocurrency and simply put, it is a public distributed ledger that records transactions. And there’s a technology called nodes. We don’t need to get into that today that actually solve mathematical equations and algorithms to generate different cryptocurrencies. There’s other mechanisms, but that very simply put is the basis of crypto. It’s a digital form of money that is protected by cryptography, which is codes and algorithms that protect the currency itself as far as why, and that’s really the big thing that I think people want to understand is what is the use case of crypto? And there’s many, the easiest ones to recognize are a store of value. Bitcoin is the most widely known and it is considered a sound store of value and it’s considered very hard money.
Evangelist Daniel King (11:15):
So historically, people have used different things to store value. In the beginning you would have a barn full of grain and you would get a little seal in Babylon and they’d signify that you had this barn full of grain. So it was like real grain that had real value. And then later people started using shells or different things as currency, and then they would use gold, something that’s rare in order to exchange value. Gold doesn’t have much value in itself unless you’re buying jewelry for your wife, but as a store of value. And so then you have fiat currencies like the US dollar that is a government backing a particular currency. And the problem we have with the dollar right now is extremely high inflation. And so a dollar in your pocket is only worth 50 cents compared to what it was worth five years ago. I mean, that’s how bad inflation has become. And so basically crypto, as I understand it, is a way to store value that people trust. Now why do people trust crypto to be a store of value?
William “Spencer” Jared – Crypto Will (12:27):
Yeah, absolutely.
Evangelist Daniel King (12:28):
Is that a good question?
William “Spencer” Jared – Crypto Will (12:29):
That’s a fantastic question. I’m happy to answer it. So the core value proposition of Bitcoin itself as one of many cryptocurrencies is it has a finite max supply of 21 million. And once the 21 million have been created, 95% of which have already been mined are in existence today. Once 21 million are created, no more will be created. So as a hard fixed supply, unlike the US dollar, which we can print infinitely. And the other piece of it is it has a deflationary mechanism. So every four years, the new Bitcoin that gets mined or released into the market goes down by 50%. So you have a desirable asset with a hard fixed supply that goes down in the available supply by 50% every four years. So it has become an extraordinarily sought after asset that has utility value to do things like payments and transactions. And yet also because of the fact that once 21 million hit you can’t make any more, it has become a sound store of value. It’s actually become the highest, I should say, the fastest growing ETF in the history of ETFs due to its value storage capabilities.
Evangelist Daniel King (13:46):
So Bitcoin is the crypto that most people have heard the most about, but there are way more coins than just Bitcoin. Sean, what are some of your favorite coins and which ones have you been able to make a profit in?
Shawn Wilderom (14:03):
Well, there’s been quite a few. I’ve made some profits in, one of them is on my shirt right here. It’s XRP. It is not like Bitcoin. It’s not peer to peer like Bitcoin was created, this is what banks are going to use. And they have a lot of contracts with banks to replace the SWIFT payment system because it is so much faster and so much cheaper to send money all around the world.
Evangelist Daniel King (14:30):
Now, that’s something I wanted to talk about is being able to send money to different places because this is really valuable for evangelistic ministries like my ministry. In fact, this coming week I need to send money to Thailand. We’re going to be doing an evangelism conference coming up in Thailand. And so I need to wire some money. It goes through my bank using the SWIFT code, which was, I don’t remember when it was invented, but back in the fifties. In the fifties. And so it’s a little bit slow. It takes a few days for it to get into someone’s account. And with crypto, tell me what advantages crypto might have for sending money to different places.
Shawn Wilderom (15:17):
Well, the Swift payment system, the reason it takes several days is because it goes through every central bank, every country you’re sending money to, and sometimes it’s a central bank that’s not even the end country. And every time the central bank gets their hands on it, they take their fee. And so it’s very, not just laborsome, but it also takes a lot of money.
Evangelist Daniel King (15:37):
I think it usually takes me, it costs $45 to send a wire usually.
Shawn Wilderom (15:42):
And so with XRP, it should cost you less than a penny and it will be there in seconds. And it depends on what type of wallet that you’re sending it to, what country. They have to also have a wallet or an exchange that they are receiving the XRP on and then it’ll be that quick. It’s instantaneous. It’s amazing technology.
Evangelist Daniel King (16:04):
And then some different governments around the world are, they’re against Christianity. And so they actually track money because they don’t want Christian ministries sending money into help bring people to Jesus. And so do you think crypto could be used by ministries to get resources to sensitive areas around the world?
Shawn Wilderom (16:32):
I think if ministries are going to be using crypto, they’re going to be a lot more welcomed in those countries because every country is going to follow the us, which we are now seeing a lot of regulation that has coming up and has already been approved, especially with the Genius Act that got approved two weeks ago through the Senate. And so every country follows the us. It’s still the world reserve currency. And so they will want to follow, all the countries will want to follow the US and what they’re doing. And so I believe if ministries in the future now and in the future start using crypto, they’ll be much more received in these countries you are wanting to minister in.
Evangelist Daniel King (17:15):
Okay. So Spencer, walk me through the basics. If someone wanted to put some of their money into crypto from very beginning, they’ve never done it before, how would they go about doing that?
William “Spencer” Jared – Crypto Will (17:28):
Yeah, absolutely. So depending on where they are in the world, the first thing that they’re going to have to have access to is an exchange. There’s decentralized exchanges, they’re centralized exchanges, centralized exchanges worldwide. Like Binance is the largest one globally here in the us the most popular is Coinbase. That’s really kind of ground zero. That’s the foundation is to have a platform to buy and hold cryptocurrency. And is that as simple as putting an app on your phone? It can be. We actually don’t always use apps on the phone just for our security reasons. Things like sim card swapping and things like that. In our experience, doing it on a laptop or other device can actually be a little more secure. So that’s something to pay attention to. But it is as simple as going to the website, making sure you have the right one.
(18:23):
There are going to be some copycats. So there are some things security wise to make sure that are taken care of and boxes to check. But once you get to that point, it is a simple process. It’s as simple as if you can sign up for a Facebook account, you can sign up for a crypto account. Once you have your account, whether it’s Binance or Coinbase, you can usually, in the case of Coinbase, that’s what we use here primarily in the us you can connect it right to your bank account, send dollars to the Coinbase exchange, and then buy crypto from there.
Evangelist Daniel King (18:55):
And so on that exchange, then you could have access to doing many different types of coins.
William “Spencer” Jared – Crypto Will (19:03):
Yes.
Evangelist Daniel King (19:03):
And so let’s go back to Sean. You were about to tell me some of the different coins that you like and what you’ve invested in.
Shawn Wilderom (19:10):
Well, the ones I like the most are the ones I make the most money on. And the most money I have made the most on is Sheba. And Sheba was a 400000% return in nine months. That’s a 4,000 x.
Evangelist Daniel King (19:22):
That’s amazing because no one gets that type of returns anywhere else.
Shawn Wilderom (19:26):
It is absolutely amazing. That’s why I’m in crypto. People ask me why I’m invested in crypto and not other asset classes is because this one is the smallest. It’s not just the newest, but the smallest has the highest demand and has the potential to be at or near or even surpass other asset classes that are several hundred trillion in the future.
Evangelist Daniel King (19:47):
So if someone wants to invest in crypto and they need some coaching to get started, that’s something that you guys do. Tell me a little bit about how someone can get connected to you if they want to be coached through the process of what to invest in, what to look for. I know to me it seems a little bit like the wild wild west. It can be kind of crazy out there. And so it would be really valuable to have an expert like Sean. How many hours do you think you’ve put into studying crypto over the last few
Shawn Wilderom (20:21):
Years? Over 20,000 hours. And they say you’re an expert on anything if you have at least 10,000 hours of,
Evangelist Daniel King (20:27):
So you’ve put a lot of time into becoming an expert, and I’m an evangelist. I don’t have time to put 20,000 hours into crypto, but with maybe hooking up with you guys, it could help shorten that experience level that I would need and even help to get me started to know what to do, what to invest in what not to invest in mistakes. Okay. So what’s your website if people want to get coaching from both of you?
Shawn Wilderom (20:59):
It’s digital asset consultants.co. So digital asset consultants, one word.co. And then we also can be found on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram Digital asset consultants or our personal pages, which is Spencer, Jared and the crypto mentor, Sean Wilder.
Evangelist Daniel King (21:18):
And so Spencer, tell me a little bit if someone does need mentoring or they need more information about crypto, tell me about some of the different options that you offer and different levels of, I know you have a newsletter, you have some different things that you’re offering. What can people learn from you guys?
William “Spencer” Jared – Crypto Will (21:34):
Yeah, absolutely. So to your point, we do a monthly newsletter. The next iteration of that, we’ll go out in July. And then from our core book of services, we work with financial advisory firms and then we work with personal investors as well. For a personal investor, we offer either one-on-one consultation and coaching, and we’ll meet someone where they are in their current crypto journey. We’ll work with someone who’s an absolute beginner, who’s maybe heard of Bitcoin, heard of crypto, understands the opportunity, but has no experience. And then we’ll also work with seasoned investors and traders. And so we’ll work with anyone with any skillset in between. And then we also do a group, a small group where we actually do things like live market analysis, either once or twice a week. We have chat access, we’ll share the things that we’re doing, our strategies, how we analyze the market.
(22:30):
We help to really, we just don’t want to give a fish. We want to teach how to fish too, if that makes sense. So it’s ongoing education, market analysis. We share our plays and we really want to educate people to do this for themselves and not solely rely on us forever. And so we want to add value in both ways. It’s kind of two levers at the same time, if you will. And then we’re also getting ready to launch, this will be out in the next two to three weeks, a webinar series as well for absolute beginners. We’re going to be doing a cryptocurrency and blockchain 1 0 1, and that’s going to be once a month. And then we’re going to do live market updates twice a month where we go through several super popular cryptocurrency, some of the larger market cap crypto projects. And we wanted to launch those to be a little more accessible from price point for anyone who wants to really get their feet wet and decide, Hey, is this something I really want to invest in? So that way it’s kind of a little teaser, if you will. So we have something for everyone regardless of where they’re at in their crypto journey. Today,
Evangelist Daniel King (23:34):
I have a friend who’s an evangelist. He has invested in crypto and some of his investments have done really well. And so every time he needs to do a crusade, he liquidates a little bit of his crypto and puts it into doing a crusade. And so I’m like, that is awesome. Praise God that you’re able to do that. And so Sean, let’s just finish. Give me the best reasons why people should get involved in crypto. I usually don’t do investment advice on my podcast. And if you’re listening, you need to pray about this, see if this is right for you, if you have the capacity to play in this area. But Sean, why do you think someone should get into crypto?
Shawn Wilderom (24:23):
The entire crypto digital asset space is only $3 trillion. There are most of the asset classes in the world, and there’s not that many, there’s just a few. Most of them are over a hundred trillion dollars. You’re talking about the Dow Jones, the s and p, the QQQ, that foreign exchanges, that bond market, the real estate market. And gold for instance, is 10 times more valuable than right now than the digital asset space, which is over $20 trillion.
Evangelist Daniel King (24:50):
And so you’re anticipating that there’s going to be enormous growth potential in the digital asset market in the next
Shawn Wilderom (24:58):
Five to 10 years. Absolutely. And so if you want to make the most money, you want to get into the fastest moving car, you do not want to be in the slowest car when you’re in a race. We’re in the race for just so many things here in the world, but we are in the race. You’re in the race for winning souls. And so whenever you’re wanting, not just necessarily to get rich quick, but also to just live a life in significance and able to give to every good work and make generational wealth for your family so you can get out of the rat race, because that’s one of the biggest races that people have. And if that is more than enough reason, I think that we should be able, please contact us soon if that’s interesting.
Evangelist Daniel King (25:57):
So Spencer, same question. Why should someone get into crypto?
William “Spencer” Jared – Crypto Will (26:00):
Yeah, so like Sean said, I think there’s tremendous growth upside for this entire industry. I believe that most financial markets will either in part be traded on blockchain technology, if not more than, and we’re seeing developments already to where the treasuries, the bond market and where tokenized stocks, equities are starting to hit crypto rails as these kinds of use cases grow. And I think we’re at the infancy. I kind of attune where we are in the crypto market today to where the internet was in the mid to late nineties where it’s already growing, but Bitcoin is actually growing at a faster rate right now at this stage in the game than the mobile phone or the internet. So this is a rapid growing technology that has tremendous upside. And right now, personally, we always have to understand what the risk is. It is a volatile asset class. There’ll be some winners, there’ll be some losers. But when it comes to crypto exposure as a whole, my personal framework is it’s riskier to be out than in right now because of where we think this market is going because
Evangelist Daniel King (27:06):
You miss the opportunity of this potential growth. Yes, sir. Alright, Sean, one more question. If I get on Coinbase, get a wallet, get set up to accept donations, when can I expect you to give your first Bitcoin to King Ministries?
Shawn Wilderom (27:27):
Whenever you get that set up, just let me know. Send me a link.
Evangelist Daniel King (27:30):
Alright, that’s awesome. I’m going to get it done today. You’re like, I was expecting you to say next April 1st for sure. Alright, thank you guys so much for being on the Evangelism podcast. Really appreciate it. Thank you for your wisdom. I think this can really help us out in the ministry to start thinking about the crypto space. We need to be wise in what’s happening in the world. And this is one of the biggest things that’s happening right now. So thank you, Spencer. Thank you Sean for being on the Evangelism Podcast. It was fun. Thank you, Daniel.
William “Spencer” Jared – Crypto Will (28:03):
Thank you for having us.
Evangelism Podcast Host (28:04):
Are you called by God to be an evangelist? Do you want to lead millions of people to Jesus? Do you desire to be trained in the practical side of building a ministry? Then check out the Daniel King School of Evangelism. Learn how to be an effective evangelist from Dr. Daniel King’s 20 plus years of experience. Daniel King has done crusades all over the world in over 70 nations and is seen over 2 million people give their lives to Jesus. But it wasn’t easy. There was no crusade school. So Daniel traveled the world learning from and observing top evangelists, noticing how they successfully won souls for Christ. Now he wants to share decades of knowledge and experience with you. Topics of the Daniel King School of Evangelism include what is an evangelist, how to be a master soul winner, how to give an altar call, how to organize a crusade, how to raise money for your ministry and much more. If you want to be an evangelist but don’t know where to start. The Daniel King School of Evangelism is for you. Enroll today in the School of Evangelism by going to Daniel King ministries.com/evangelism.
Evangelist Daniel King (29:06):
Thanks so much for listening today. I am excited about telling people about Jesus and I want to invite you to be a part of helping us to rescue people from Hell and take them with us to heaven. There’s two things you can do to help. First of all, can you go find the Evangelism podcast on Apple iTunes and leave us a positive review by giving a review. You will help other people find these valuable resources about sharing our faith. And second, would you become a financial partner with King Ministries. Every single dollar that people give us enables us to lead at least one person to Jesus. And so that means for only $1, you can help start a party in heaven. And so today I want to invite you to become a monthly partner. You can start out for just a dollar, but if God puts it on your heart to do more, of course you can do more. But please go to king ministries.com and become a monthly partner with us today to help us to lead more people to Jesus. Thank you so much, and God bless you.
Evangelism Podcast Host (30:27):
For more information about how to share your faith or to financially support our worldwide evangelistic outreaches, visit king ministries.com. Again, that’s king ministries.com.
Pastor Anniina is the outreach pastor at the oldest Free Church in Finland, which was established back in 1884. She is passionate about church planting and evangelism, and on today’s episode of The Evangelism Podcast, she shares some of the ways they reach people for Jesus in Finland. One of her favorite methods is an Evangelism Explosion course, where they teach people how to have spiritual conversations with their friends and family. Anniina is also in the process of planting a new church. They started with just 7 people two and a half years ago, and now they have around 30 adults and 10 kids. Today you will be blessed as you hear about what God is doing in Europe!
Transcript:
Evangelist 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 with me, pastor Anina here in Tampere, Finland. Thank you for being on the Evangelism Podcast.
Anniina Halonen (00:14):
Yeah, such a privilege.
Evangelist Daniel King (00:16):
First, I want to say thank you so much for hosting our team here. We have been at your church each day this week, and you have fed us such delicious meals and opened up the church, and thank you so much for your hospitality.
Anniina Halonen (00:32):
You’re welcome. And we really enjoyed having you guys.
Evangelist Daniel King (00:36):
So tell me a little bit about yourself and what you do at the church.
Anniina Halonen (00:43):
Yeah, well, first of all, I’m a mom, three kids and I have a husband and we live here in ra and I work for the Evangelical Free Church here. And I’m the outreach pastor. So my responsibilities are church planting and evangelism, which both are things I love so much.
Evangelist Daniel King (01:04):
What a great job to have. That’s wonderful. Now tell me a little bit about the history of the free church, because it is here right in the center of the city and it has been here for many years. When was it first begun?
Anniina Halonen (01:18):
Yeah, it’s actually the oldest free church in Finland and it was established 1884.
Evangelist Daniel King (01:25):
So it’s very historic.
Anniina Halonen (01:26):
Yeah, it was a really long history.
Evangelist Daniel King (01:29):
So as an outreach pastor, you want to reach people for Jesus.
Anniina Halonen (01:34):
Yes.
Evangelist Daniel King (01:35):
How do you do that? What are some of the ways that you reach out to people here in Finland?
Anniina Halonen (01:40):
Yeah, great question. Well, one of my favorites is an EE course. I get to teach people how to have evangelize and every week we meet someone like our friends or relatives and we have spiritual conversations. We get to share the gospel and we see a lot of people come to Christ through that. So that’s really special because things don’t like that much to talk to strangers, so that’s really easy to talk to someone they already know. So things are sometimes shy and they don’t like to talk to strangers. So we found out that it’s a very easy way to talk to the people they actually know and invite them into spiritual conversations. So that’s wonderful and it’s a great way to reach people.
Evangelist Daniel King (02:24):
That’s wonderful. And so you are currently planting a church nearby here. Talk to me about that process of planting a church.
Anniina Halonen (02:33):
Yeah. Yes. We are planting a church. It’s my first church plant.
Evangelist Daniel King (02:38):
Congratulations.
Anniina Halonen (02:39):
Third church plant of our church. So we are being a mother church and planting many churches. And now we’ve been like, our church plant is two and a half years old and we started with seven people and now we’re about 30. So we have 30 adults and about 10 kids. Most of them have been already believers, but we have few that have come to know Christ and we’re dreaming that we’re going to reach a lot of new people because when we started God said that the harvest is ripe and we should take courage. So we’re hoping to reach limb palace for Christ. That’s where I’m planted.
Evangelist Daniel King (03:15):
The other day, my wife Jessica went out witnessing with you and she told me that she was even learning from you about some of how you were approaching people. And one of the things she said is that people would say, no, I don’t want to talk about it. And you would ask them, where are you on your journey with God and are you at the beginning? Are you at the middle? And people would begin to respond to that and answer. And my wife says, oh, that is such a good way to reach people for Jesus because then they could open a conversation and start to
Anniina Halonen (03:50):
Talk. Yeah. And we do street evangelism also. Once a month we have a tent here at the Center Square and we offer coffee and tea for people. And that’s also a great way to interact with people. But once you’re offering something to eat or drink and people, they are actually interested in spiritual things though many times we have this feeling that they’re not, but they actually are.
Evangelist Daniel King (04:14):
What do you feel is the spiritual atmosphere here in Finland? And for the people who are listening, how can they pray for the Church of Finland?
Anniina Halonen (04:24):
Yes, we need prayer. I think things are open. We’re open nowadays since because of the wars that are going on in the world and the pandemic and everything. But one thing we are lacking is a great discipleship culture. The things are pretty lonely and pretty. You have to survive on your own. So at my church plan, I’m trying to create this culture where the church is like a family. They actually get to know other people and invite them into your lives. And you want to share your life and learn together how to follow Christ. So I think you can pray for spiritual mothers and fathers and mother and fatherhood would rise up and the Church of Finland. And also that we would have more courage and boldness to share the gospel. And I’ve love to have you guys here to support us and go together to the streets. That has been so amazing and such a big blessing. That’s been also our prayers.
Evangelist Daniel King (05:26):
It’s been really wonderful to see that the team of Americans and the team of Fins going out together and really seeing God do great things.
Anniina Halonen (05:34):
That’s true. I’ll be so excited about that too.
Evangelist Daniel King (05:37):
Well, thank you so much for your hospitality and again, thank you so much for inviting us here and it’s beautiful to see what God is doing in Tamara.
Anniina Halonen (05:47):
Yeah, thank you so much.
Matias Toivainen is an evangelist from Finland. Matias and his team have been doing incredible work across Finland, traveling the country with a “Jesus truck” and holding powerful gospel campaigns that have led many to give their lives to Christ. On today’s episode of The Evangelism Podcast, we will hear about the amazing testimonies and salvations they’ve witnessed, as well as Matias’ involvement in the Global Evangelist Alliance and his heart for pioneer missions to unreached people groups around the world.This episode will inspire you to be a bold witness for the gospel, wherever God has called you. Let’s dive in!
Learn More About Matias Toivainen: https://www.armofgrace.com/team/matias-toivainen
Transcript:
Evangelist Daniel King (00:00):
Welcome to the Evangelism Podcast. I’m Daniel King and I am very excited to have with me a special guest today, Mattias from Finland. Thank you so much for being on the Evangelism Podcast.
Matias Toivainen (00:10):
Yes, thank you for having me, and thank you for being in our country
Evangelist Daniel King (00:13):
Now. It’s very exciting what God is doing in your nation and over the last two months, your team has been working very hard to do multiple outreaches in multiple countries. Tell me about that.
Matias Toivainen (00:27):
Basically what you see behind us is something that we’re calling the Jesus truck. And so we had an idea, our dear friend Henry is here, he’s been leading the Send Finland and we’ve been doing an evangelism campaign, a crusade in Helsinki, our capital city. And so we had an idea, we got together last autumn and we just decided, hey, a lot of the different cities are starting to ask for evangelism in their town. What can we do? And so the send had touring teams and we had this kind of crusade ecosystem that we had been kind of pioneering here in Finland. And so we decided, let’s join forces, let’s go on a tour around the country. They send touring teams come, they mobilize the churches, they activate them, especially the young people. They’ve been doing a great job with that. And then we bring the truck and set up in the middle of the city and do kind of a crusade style proclamation gospel campaign. And so this is our, I believe, 11th stop. We started on the last day of April and through the very cold finished spring, we’ve been going until now in the middle of May we finish here in tame with you.
Evangelist Daniel King (01:33):
Well, tonight was just such a beautiful night. Many people were here, many people gave their lives to Jesus, and you’ve been seeing Jesus do really wonderful things in Finland. What are some of the testimonies of what has happened while you’ve been doing this evangelism across Finland?
Matias Toivainen (01:50):
Well, I must say I was really impressed by God in my own native town in lti. This is a town where I lived for five, well, I lived for many years, but for five or six years I preach the gospel every day with some exceptions. I’m traveling and sometimes not. But about approximately every day I was preaching for five or six days and five or six years. And in all that time I got to lead one person to Christ.
(02:16):
And so now we came with the Jesus truck after all those seeds being sewn in the past, we came back now five years later with the Jesus truck and we set up our preaching. And until tamper lofty, my native town was the biggest city. We had multiple churches working together. The biggest catches coming. And I remember one guy, he was walking through the market square where we had the campaign and he was walking with a book in his hands. He was on his way to the library to return a book that he was holding in his hands called What Is Christianity? And he was on his way to return this. He said, he has been seeking God, he’s been trying to find the truth. And as he was walking to the library, he saw the big sign with the Jesus tour and said to himself, nobody in my life has been talking about Jesus here on this square. And so he stopped to listen. He heard the clear gospel being preached. He saw people getting healed and he decided to surrender his whole life to Jesus. And I remember the pastor was crying with him, praying with him for like five minutes, and this guy was so impressed by how his life changed. And so we see this happening in our country now where people are searching for God, they’re seeking after him, God is drawing them. And so obviously we know our role to just go and tell them
(03:31):
About who Jesus is and call them to follow.
Evangelist Daniel King (03:33):
Now you’re a graduate of the Christ for All Nations Evangelism Bootcamp with Daniel Kolenda, and I had the privilege of being one of the teachers for that camp. And it is so beautiful to see what you and some of the other bootcamp grads are doing here in Finland and around the world. It is really amazing. And so I’m just so excited that those seeds that were planted in your heart are now bearing fruit in so many different places. You look at what God is doing through the Evangelism Bootcamp and it’s in Africa and in Asia and now in Europe and in Central and South America and in North America, the whole world in Australia too, the whole world is being shaken by the gospel. And so where before there was one or two evangelists, now there is teams of 10 or 15
Matias Toivainen (04:25):
Evangelists.
Evangelist Daniel King (04:26):
Now you have started an organization here and you are particularly focused on pioneer missions and doing evangelism in difficult to reach places. Tell me a little bit about what God has been doing in Gambia.
Matias Toivainen (04:42):
Well, first of all, I must say thank you so much for teaching us in the bootcamp. We all remember very well. You took a whole week and then I think another week to teach us about gospel messages and crusade organizing and things like this. And so we were very blessed. And like you say, all over the world now, we are working
Evangelist Daniel King (04:59):
Now you teach your own class, now you see the it’s work to do a crusade.
Matias Toivainen (05:03):
It’s true, it’s true. Actually, we just had people preaching now who went through our training two months ago
(05:09):
And now she was preaching to her whole or to her own hometown, the gospel. And so we’ve been actually raising up our kind of vision is to do our part in finishing the great commission, specifically like you say in the unreached nations, unreached people groups where there is no church, there are no believers. 40% of the world live in unreached people groups, and so we want to go after them. You mentioned Gambia, it’s a Muslim country in Africa, it’s only about 2 million people, 96 to 98% Muslim. And so the great opportunity though is it’s a small country and they all speak English. It’s a young population and there’s full freedom of religion to share the gospel. There aren’t major issues with persecution against Christians. And so we share the gospel to the youth. We organize these youth campaigns where the children and the young people come and hear about Jesus.
(06:07):
They experience healing the Holy Spirit. Also, we are doing something called Jesus camps. And so our heart is to kind of go where we’re most needed and make ourselves useless. And so we say the power is not in the white skin, the power is in the gospel. And so we want to raise up the local people and just pass on to them what we’ve received from Daniel Kolenda and yourself and other teachers to pass it on to them and release them to run with the gospel. And so that’s what we’ve been doing in Gambia and in about 40 other countries, 45 other countries with like you say, a focus in the unreached world. And we’re also doing a crusade this year in Gambia with another bootcamp graduate and his team, Jacob Ebersol, you may have had,
Evangelist Daniel King (06:51):
Yeah, Jacob’s a good friend. I’ve had him on the podcast before and he’s a great evangelist.
Matias Toivainen (06:56):
Yes, definitely
Evangelist Daniel King (06:57):
Full of faith.
Matias Toivainen (06:59):
And so the guys are around now. Five years ago the bootcamp started and imagine what can happen in the next five years.
Evangelist Daniel King (07:07):
Yeah, I remember in Tanzania I was doing one of the Capitalis crusades with Christ for all nations, and there was a man who had been Muslim, but he came to Jesus. Jacob Ebersol had led him to
Matias Toivainen (07:25):
Jesus. Oh, I remember.
Evangelist Daniel King (07:26):
And he got baptized. It was such a beautiful story of what Jesus can do.
Matias Toivainen (07:31):
Yes. In Khama. And he was about to become an imam and deep in the Islamic process and world. But yeah, Jacob went and pulled him to
Evangelist Daniel King (07:43):
Christ. Yeah. So tell me a little bit about some of the other countries that you’re looking at.
Matias Toivainen (07:51):
Yeah, so one of the things that, so we have an organization registered in Finland called Arm of Grace International. And so it’s kind of a Finn team doing pioneer missions. We do India, we do Bangladesh, we do Thailand, also some disaster relief, Ukraine, Bangladesh. We help some children get rescued from the sex trafficking and be taken into a safe home. One of the things we also do is we’re hosting kind of an international ministry called Jesus Camps. And this is an equipping ministry where our goal, again is to raise up local national people in their own country to preach the gospel in their own city, in their own language to their own people. And so this is our first calendar year doing that. We’re working in about 50 countries all the way from Russia, Israel, Pakistan, India, Thailand, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Indonesia, and most of Latin America.
(08:58):
And so yeah, there’s just something that God is doing with raising up an entire generation to preach the gospel. The way we think about it is traditionally missions has worked kind of like a pyramid where the man of God comes and everything is gathered around them to support their ministry. And so what we see God doing is kind of flipping the pyramid upside down where he brings the servants or the ministers to come low and just build what the rest of the church ought to be doing. So that’s where we kind of see our place in a lot of places. And some places, like in some countries in South Asia, there is no evangelism, there are no evangelists. And so then we want to be the first ones to kind of just come alongside the local believers and believe with them for a new breakthrough in evangelism. And so we’ve seen that happen in Bangladesh, in India, and just places where traditionally it was thought of as impossible. And we’ve been told for 10 years that you can’t even get into the country to try, but God is doing something supernatural.
Evangelist Daniel King (10:03):
God is opening the door. Let’s talk about the Global Evangelist Alliance.
Matias Toivainen (10:08):
We
Evangelist Daniel King (10:09):
Just completed here in Finland, the World Pentecostal Conference, and many Pentecostal leaders from around the world came here to Finland for that. And it was hosted by Dr. Billy Wilson, who also leads Empowered 21. And so under Empowered 21, there is a group of evangelists called the Global Evangelist Alliance. And we had a meeting and there were so many Finnish evangelists that are excited about evangelism. And so you want to empower evangelists from here in Finland to go around the world. And so talk to me a little bit about if someone wants to be part of the Finn Evangelism Group, what shall they do?
Matias Toivainen (10:51):
Well, yeah, God is doing that here in our country too, which makes me rejoice. I’m looking behind me. There’s Consta, 19 years old, there’s family, 25 years old. There’s all these people. Most of these people, they have received training from us and also been sent to the Mission Field Consta. I found him as a 17-year-old, and I could see God has a calling for him as an evangelist. And so when he was 18, I brought him with me to Asia and he was preaching to hundreds of Muslims and seeing the Sikh healed.
Evangelist Daniel King (11:25):
And
Matias Toivainen (11:25):
Now he’s been actually leading missions and equipping others.
(11:29):
And this is something that God is doing in Finland. He’s raising up the goers again. And like you mentioned, we have the Global Evangelist Alliance Network, also very fresh, started here in Finland with about 70 people on the first call. Lucas Stein is leading that group with myself and some others. And yeah, you can just find Lucas Stein or myself, Mattias to, I’m sure it’ll be written somewhere here on the episode. And just send us a text. Hey, you have a network of evangelists in Finland. How can I be a part of that? And we’ll connect with you.
Evangelist Daniel King (12:05):
If someone has a heart for Pioneer missions and wants to help you to reach some of these nations that are on reach that have such a huge number of people that need Jesus, how can they find out more about your ministry and even support you with what you’re called to do?
Matias Toivainen (12:22):
Definitely. You can go to our website, arm of grace.com or you can go to our Instagram page, arm of Grace International. And so we definitely need the help to go and bring the gospel to the people who have never heard it before. And also I recognize there are some people who God is calling to go and come with us. And so we definitely, it’s only a matter of laborers. The harvest is out there, the harvest is open, the harvest is ready. Send us a message, we’ll find a way for you to get to the field. Most likely this autumn, this November, we’re bringing a group of Finnish people who answered the call in the sand to come to Cambodia with us. And we’re there with other bootcamp graduates, Dario Justina and others just go to the unre, tell them about Jesus and even planting churches
Evangelist Daniel King (13:14):
And
Matias Toivainen (13:14):
Just come
Evangelist Daniel King (13:16):
In the past, there’s been a great move of Finn missionaries,
Matias Toivainen (13:21):
And
Evangelist Daniel King (13:22):
As I’ve traveled around the world, I’ve met Finnish missionaries. My wife was a missionary in Papua New Guinea for a year, and she met finished missionaries there that were helping to translate the Bible. And she said, even in the hot tropical nation, they were finished missionaries because they all had a sauna in their house, proper Finn missionaries. But I believe that God is now raising up a new generation of fins that will have an impact on the world.
Matias Toivainen (13:50):
Yes, it’s true. I have lived on the mission field for about 26 years. So when I was nine months old, my family moved to Kosovo.
Evangelist Daniel King (14:02):
Wow.
Matias Toivainen (14:02):
They were the first Finnish missionaries, I believe, to be in Kosovo where Christianity, as we know it is only about 30, 40 years old. And so I’ve grown up kind of in the missions world on a few continents in many countries. And what I saw was a very different kind of approach to missions. It was very kind of humanitarian development aid, a bit political, social. There was a reluctance to kind of take risk in terms of preaching the gospel or making disciples in areas where it’s not so where it’s a bit more hostile. And so when I answered the call for myself as a 15-year-old and I went, God sent me to all these places where things haven’t really been going that much in the recent past with the gospel message, I was always alone. Nobody would come with me. I was alone. It was hard. I didn’t see any fruit. People were discouraging me from going. But now something has happened in the past few years where wherever I want to go, I’m never alone. And a lot of the times it’ll be fins around me. It’ll always be people from sea fans somehow.
(15:17):
But a lot of the times it’ll be fins also.
Evangelist Daniel King (15:21):
Amen.
Matias Toivainen (15:22):
Well,
Evangelist Daniel King (15:22):
May God raise up a mighty army of Finnish evangelists and always, if I had a ministry in Finland, I’d name it, finish the great commission, or it is finished. But praise the Lord. God is using fins to do great things for his kingdom. So Mattias, thank you for being on the Evangelism podcast. I appreciate
Matias Toivainen (15:41):
It. Thank you, Daniel. And thank you for pitching the gospel to our people,
Evangelist Daniel King (15:44):
And thank you for helping to organize this great event here and all the different events that you’re doing around Finland. It’s so beautiful to see what God’s been doing.
Matias Toivainen (15:54):
Thank you. Yes. Well, really it’s our team, brother, pat and others. But
Evangelist Daniel King (15:58):
Yes,
Matias Toivainen (15:58):
We’re with you. Thank you. Come back to Europe.
Evangelist Daniel King (16:01):
Thank you. God bless you.
Today on The Evangelism Podcast, I talk with Aaro Kumpulainen who recently led an evangelism training workshop in Tampere, Finland. We talk about the core elements of the gospel message: the problem of sin, the solution of Jesus’ sacrifice, and the choice to put one’s faith in Jesus. We also cover the importance of presenting the gospel clearly and directly, without forgetting to talk about Jesus. You will be blessed as you listen today.
Learn more about Aaro: https://www.armofgrace.com/team/kumpulaiset
Transcript:
Evangelist 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 with me. Aaro, thank you for being on the Evangelism Podcast.
Aaro Kumpulainen (00:11):
It’s a pleasure. Thank you for having me
Evangelist Daniel King (00:13):
Now say your full name.
Aaro Kumpulainen (00:14):
My name is Aaro Kumpulainen . Try to say it with me Aaro.
Evangelist Daniel King (00:20):
Well, thank you for being on the Evangelism Podcast and today we are in Tamara, Finland and we have just completed in evangelism training in how to witness one-on-one. And you were the instructor and you did an excellent job. We filled the room, packed jam full of people. Some of them were some of my team members from the United States, but there were many, many finished people that came. And let’s talk a little bit about what you covered in this workshop today. What do you feel is the most important thing that you told
Aaro Kumpulainen (01:02):
Everyone? Well, obviously at the evangelism training, the most important thing is to get the gospel correct When you share people about Jesus, don’t forget to share about Jesus.
Evangelist Daniel King (01:15):
Something you said was really good. You said that evangelism is not just about debating. It’s more than just smiling at people. It’s more than feeding the poor. Of course, all that is very good. It’s more than just saying Jesus loves you, but it’s actually leading people to a point of decision. And so you present the gospel, you talk about Jesus, and then you bring people to that point where they either says, yes, I want to receive Jesus, or they reject him and walk away. And we can’t make them make the choice, but we can present Jesus to them. And one of the things you said just now that I thought was so good is that when we tell them about Jesus, you have to make sure that you tell them about Jesus. And you said, when you make chicken soup, make sure you don’t forget the chicken.
(02:06):
Amen. And so Jesus is the most important thing when we must make sure. I had a really wonderful interview with Aaro in Finland, but unfortunately one of the cords on my microphone had a short in it. And because of that there was lots of hisses, crackles and pops, which I’m sure that you have heard on this recording. And so I really apologize for that. And part of my interview was not usable. It was impossible to understand, but I still wanted to present the teaching that Aaro did on evangelism because I thought it was really good. And so I’m going to give you his notes that he taught in Finland, and then we will continue with the rest of the interview with him where the audio was a little bit better, not perfect, but still I apologize for the problem. So in this workshop, Otto broke down the gospel into three essential parts.
(03:17):
The problem, the solution, and then the choice. The problem is sin. God created us to be his friend, but then sin separates us from God. It leads to a broken relationship. Sin is breaking the will of God. And sin is things like lying, lust, stealing. It leads to bitterness, brokenness, guilt, shame, fear, emptiness, and ultimately eternal destruction. But the solution is Jesus. Jesus lived a sinless life. He died on the cross because of his love for all of humanity. He suffered the punishment for our sins. He was buried. He rose from the dead and is now alive. And he invites you to freedom. And so after you present the problem and the solution, then you leave the person with the choice. And the choice is to put your faith in Jesus and come to a place of repentance where you turn away from your sin.
(04:27):
And so faith in Jesus means that you trust Jesus for salvation. You turn away from your old life, you turn to Jesus. And so you give people the choice. Do you want to follow Jesus? Jesus is the king of the world. He wants to be the king of your life. Do you want your sin forgiven? Do you want new life? Do you want to be filled with the Holy Ghost? And so the reason that you present the problem first is that if you don’t know you have cancer, you don’t want to take cancer medication. But once you find out that there’s a problem, then suddenly the cancer medicine becomes a lifesaver. And so then when you present people with a choice, you tell people that it’s not about trying harder, it’s about trusting in Jesus. And we should ask people which direction they want to go.
(05:21):
Do you want to follow Jesus or do you want to go away from Jesus? And the more we show people that we care about them, the more we can talk about sin. And so he also had a great thought. That is if you see yourself as a soul winner, then you’ll be disappointed when you minister to someone and they don’t get saved. But instead of thinking of yourself as a soul winner, think of yourself as a sower, someone who’s planting seeds. Because when you plant a seed, you will feel successful every time you share, whether it immediately produces a harvest or not. And so we’re looking for open hearts. We’re not looking to have arguments with people, but in order to start a conversation, we go out witnessing. We don’t apologize. We’re children of the king of kings, we’re God’s representatives. And then one other thought that he had that I thought was really good, he said, evangelists are not born brave.
(06:26):
But you become brave with practice. And that’s true because the more that you talk to others about Jesus, the easier it becomes. And so the first time you go out witnessing, you might feel kind of hesitant. You might feel unsure about yourself, a little nervous, not sure what you’re going to say. And so you’re not born brave. But after you go out a hundred times a thousand times and you’ve had many, many conversations with people about Jesus, the easier it gets. And you become brave because now you have practiced. And you know that sometimes you’ll be rejected, sometimes you’ll be accepted. Sometimes you’ll find an open heart. Sometimes you just plant a seed. But you become brave because you know that the Holy Spirit is working through you, that the Holy Spirit will give you words to say God will help you in ministering to people.
(07:21):
And so those are some of the great ideas that were presented at our witnessing workshop in Finland. And now let’s go back to the finish of my interview with Otto. And hopefully despite the hisses cracks and pops that was caused by a bad wire, you still can get the gist of his spirit and what he’s trying to say. Otto is a great evangelist, and I was so impressed with his patience in witnessing one-on-one. Him and I ministered to one person in the park that when we finished praying for him, he had tears in his eyes. He was a drug addict, addict, a man who was cussing, playing rock music, but yet took a moment to have a spiritual conversation. And by the end of this conversation, this man was crying and said, I don’t know. I’ve never felt this way. I don’t know what I’m feeling, but I feel something different when he prayed the prayer of salvation with us. And so let’s go back to the interview. Here we go. Now you’re a graduate of the Christ for All Nations Evangelism Bootcamp. Tell me, what are some of the things that you learned in the bootcamp that you are putting to work in your ministry that God’s called you to now? I had the privilege of being one of the instructors for the bootcamp,
(08:49):
And it’s so amazing to see what God is doing around the world through people that have gone through the C Fan bootcamp.
Aaro Kumpulainen (08:56):
Yeah, absolutely. The Christ For All Nations Evangelism Bootcamp has helped me a lot, and I’m very grateful to evangelist Daniel Kolenda and other instructuctors like even Daniel King for teaching me a lot about just even the relationship with God. We cannot just be evangelists who just do do, but we need to be in the place of receiving from the Lord and seeing God and ourselves correctly. So even the foundational things I learned there, but the greater things that I could not find anywhere else other than from s and so far, how to put into words this beautiful mystery of the gospel.
Evangelist Daniel King (09:40):
Well, we’re here in Tamara, and we’re going to be doing several days of evangelism here in just a few minutes. We’re taking teams of people actually out on the street. We are not just teaching them in the classroom. We are going to go out and talk to people. What do you hope to see God do here in Tamara?
Aaro Kumpulainen (10:03):
Well, I hope to see what God has promised to do so we have a great trust that he will do it. So we want to see people have not just conversations and not just make decisions for Christ, but really to have an encounter with the living God, even on the streets during some short prayer moments or during while they listen to the gospel. That’s something will really change in their heart, that they will become part of this new wave of people who are on fire for God and that they would want it in such a way that they will come to the gatherings of believers here, even the Jesus tour events, the campaign nights, and to become disciples, to come into relationship with disciple makers and really go in the things of God and really even become missionaries or pastors or whatever their calling is as businessman, sharing the gospel wherever they go. Thank you so much for having me here.
In this episode of the Evangelism Podcast, I interview Christopher-Kullervo Jõgi, a long-time listener of the Evangelism Podcast, He is a young and passionate evangelist from Finland. We discuss the spiritual climate in Finland and the growing movement of young Finns who are boldly preaching the gospel. We talk about our outreach in the central square of Tampere, Finland, which Christopher believes is a significant moment of public proclamation of the gospel in the nation. We highlight the powerful work God is doing to revive the gospel message in Finland through Spirit-filled evangelism.
Learn more about the ministry Christopher is with: https://www.armofgrace.com/team/christopher
Transcript:
Evangelist Daniel King (00:00):
Welcome to the Evangelism Podcast. I’m Daniel King. I’m excited about telling people about Jesus today. I am in the nation of Finland and I have a very special guest with me. Christopher, thank you for joining me on the Evangelism Podcast.
Christopher-Kullervo Jõgi (00:15):
What an honor to be here. Thank you for inviting me.
Evangelist Daniel King (00:18):
And you have already been listening to the Evangelism podcast for a long time. Tell me, what are some of the things that you’ve liked about listening to the episodes of the Evangelism podcast?
Christopher-Kullervo Jõgi (00:32):
Well, you have Sir Daniel, you have a lot of expertise and you really shine for Jesus and you’re really excited about telling about Jesus and you’re doing it really well. So practical fix things like giving an outer call, how to do it. You speak straight about deliverance and stuff like that. We need the fire of the Lord and you’re really releasing it through your podcast for many to see like wow, God can move when we fully surrender to him. And he wants to use people like me, people like you. It’s not for just like crusade evangelists who have adult together, but normal believers can get it and go with it when they just listen to the podcast and they can preach.
Evangelist Daniel King (01:21):
Well, that’s the purpose of the podcast, is to tell the stories about what Jesus is doing around the world to talk about evangelism and then to expose people to these great testimonies of what Jesus is doing around the world. And so today we are in the city of Tamara in Finland. I heard that it is the fourth largest city in the country. Someone told me. Second largest city, do you know?
Christopher-Kullervo Jõgi (01:49):
It’s the second.
Evangelist Daniel King (01:50):
It’s the second. So this is the second city of Finland, and we are going to be doing an outreach right in the Central Plaza in downtown Tamara. Tell me a little bit about what we will see Jesus do there.
Christopher-Kullervo Jõgi (02:07):
So I’ll tell you a little backstory. So we were doing an outreach with some of my friends and after that we spoke that what has God spoken to us? And I shared a burden that’s been on my heart since I did as if I’m fire camp, that we need to proclaim the gospel. So the words I said was that the gospel must become public. And
Evangelist Daniel King (02:33):
So you felt like God spoke those words to you? Oh yes. That the gospel must become public.
Christopher-Kullervo Jõgi (02:39):
It was like a team with the Holy Spirit, really hard conviction. And I had some struggle. I decided to see it. But when I came home from fire camp Daddy was easy. We all like this crazy culture. We preached together, hallelujah. And people were getting saved, the Lord and Holy Spirit was moving so powerful. But here I was asking like, Lord, would you open? And God stops me here and there like, Hey Christopher, I have a crusade gospel campaign ready for you. Preach to them. And then I was like running
Evangelist Daniel King (03:10):
Away. You’re from here in Tamara
Christopher-Kullervo Jõgi (03:12):
Or
Evangelist Daniel King (03:13):
You’re from nearby?
Christopher-Kullervo Jõgi (03:14):
I’m originally from Thailand, Estonia, but I live here in Tampa.
Evangelist Daniel King (03:17):
You live here? Yes. So when God started to speak to you about the gospel must be public, this is about this city that you’re living in, God placed it on your heart.
Christopher-Kullervo Jõgi (03:27):
Oh yes. So what I really feel like is that this, what we are going to do, this campaign is really prophetic declaration that we will release the sound of the gospel here because so many in this generation, they heard about Jesus, maybe by name, they know religion, but they never even heard the real gospel and especially what it means to have a personal relationship with Jesus. So people actually, many are getting really, really hungry. No one is teaching in the religion classes anymore, know this kind of barrier that, oh, we’ve seen this thing. But people are really getting more and more like, okay, someone needs to teach. What is this all about? Who is Jesus? And so
Evangelist Daniel King (04:13):
After you went to the Christ for All nations fire camp, then you just got on fire for sharing the gospel and you’ve been traveling to different places. Tell me where you’ve been.
Christopher-Kullervo Jõgi (04:26):
I’ve been to Kenya for youth campaigns also in Cambodia, which is a Buddhist nation and The Gambia, which is still a Muslim nation, but
Evangelist Daniel King (04:35):
Not soon. And so now you’re right here. Now a lot of people they say, why do you go so far away when there’s people right at home that need Jesus? And I like to say that the light that shines farthest shines brightest near at home. And so it’s wonderful to see God do something in Kenya and Cambodia and Gambia, but you must also be a witness in your hometown. And so that’s what we’re doing this week.
Christopher-Kullervo Jõgi (05:00):
Yes, sir. So I really feel like God has spoken to me because he has called me into many places outside and the word of God says, we have to preach to all. So many people have never even heard the name of Jesus. How could we not let them know? But God has really spoken that while I’m there, he’s also taking care of the home. Of course, we have to obey in here. We have to take care of our friends who preach the gospel to them boldly and share the love of Christ with them. But God has really grown me in this trust that he has to handle when we obey, when we go, he loves us so much and he wants to take care of our own nation and bring revival in here. And as my friend had a saying, what he heard from the Holy Spirit that as I saw into crusades into big gospel campaigns, we were as a nation rep also in gospel campaigns.
(06:02):
So I really believe the blessings and the boldness that God is growing in this mission field, for example, preaching to Muslims, which is crazy thing to do when we come back, we receive the Holy Spirit, what he has done in us, and we can be so much bolder. And even though we less time in here, we can bring the fire of the Holy Spirit. And we’re so much more effective in here since the fire camp. I’ve been traveling much more outside, but it actually has made some ways and equipping for me to have so much more harvest in here. And yes.
Evangelist Daniel King (06:40):
Yeah. So we’ve been watching on Facebook, the Jesus Tour, and this is a group of the Christ for all nations evangelism bootcamp students that have come together and said, we must reach Finland for Jesus. And I’ve seen in city after city with a big gospel truck going and preaching the gospel. And so you’ve been helping out with a few of the different events you helped out in Helsinki and here in Tamara. Tell me a little bit about what you’ve seen happen in the Jesus tour.
Christopher-Kullervo Jõgi (07:16):
Well, one of the most remarkable things was in Korea. I wasn’t there myself, but it was a small town and we put in the city square, the gospel truck, and we preached the gospel and we were thinking, is any people coming here? Because there was very little. But then it happened that in the outreach before the actually event, our team met a person, a young man who had metal in his heart because of problems held and they prayed and he started to test his chest and everything. And the problem, the metal was stopping and hurting, it was gone. And I don’t know exactly what happened, but seems to me like metal is gone and this guy is going all over and he shares to all his friends around. And they came as a group like here in Finland, a group of young people coming to a gospel campaign. And then they give their life to Jesus, most of them there. And then they come for discipleship in the evening. And local youth pastors got to really connect with them. And some of them are still following Jesus today and going with the gospel.
Evangelist Daniel King (08:36):
So what is the spiritual climate here in Finland when you begin to share the gospel with someone? How do people respond?
Christopher-Kullervo Jõgi (08:46):
I think people want to see something real in here. And we have to be really honest as we preach and sincere that this what we carry. We have to know that the gospel we’re preaching is good news. And when people see that in us, they’re also open. What on earth is this? We heard about religion and stuff. We don’t want to deal with the empty things, but okay, you carry something real, you really met Jesus. And when we speak to gospel and we go in boldness in faith, we pray for healings and stuff and people are like, I didn’t know that there was a God who can do that. And there is lots of reaction.
(09:31):
Someone’s, for example, ankle gets healed, whoa, this can happen to me. And this really surprising stir up hunger. And I believe that even though there’s a lots of secularism and there is also a lots of depression, all kinds of bad stuff and lots of speaking that into this generation and in this nations also, that they’re rejected Christ. But when we actually preach the gospel and come in the power of Jesus, so many people are actually open, open and it’s getting even more and more open. And especially the young teens, I’d say like 13 to 15 year olds, they’re so open. I’m not even surprised when we stopped by a group of five or six people maybe. And we just do a mini gospel campaign to them. We share the quick gospel and we give an altar call like, Hey, do you want to receive Jesus? And they answer. And oftentimes many of them want to give their life to Jesus. And it doesn’t even surprise me anymore.
Evangelist Daniel King (10:36):
Yeah. Last night we were with our team from Houston, Texas. We brought 20 people here with us and we’re at McDonald’s and there were a group of teenage girls there, and one of our team members started to share with them about Jesus and said, would you like to pray a prayer of salvation? They said, I’ve never heard of that before, but yes, I want to. And so the girls prayed, they repeated the prayer of salvation and then afterwards she says, wow, I feel so good now. I feel so good. And she’s like, this feels so good. I have to go tell my friends about this. This is crazy. She’s so excited. And then she ran off and grabbed her friends and brought them back and says, you have to also pray this prayer. It makes you feel so good. And it was so neat to see how open they were, because at first they asked, are you Christian?
(11:25):
He says, yes, I was born a Christian. But of course, you also must make a choice to follow Jesus. And I think that’s probably a common thought here in Finland that people think, because I’m part of a traditional church, then I go to church on Easter and on my wedding day that I’m a Christian. But then every person must make a choice to follow Jesus. And when she prayed that prayer and made that choice to follow, Jesus felt so good on the inside and immediately she became an evangelist. I mean, it was just like the woman at the well in John chapter four. She rushed off and she got her friends and brought them back and says, you have to pray this prayer too.
Christopher-Kullervo Jõgi (12:06):
Amen. And what you mentioned that she went out to preach to others. We’ve seen when people have come with the fire of God and they’ve been preaching the gospel and people have got touched, that those who actually want to follow Jesus, many of them, they want to go and preach forward. This is really actually really radical culture shift in Finland right now. Before there was, let’s say 3, 4, 5 years ago, there wasn’t so many who were going, but now we had circuit writers coming in here like, Hey, we are not ashamed of the gospel. We have the fire comes in Finland, like hallelujah. And people are raising in such boldness that I myself, even as I’m teaching them, well, I might have both. They’re going, going with the gospel and it’s going from disciple disciple generation to generation like new believers and new believers. They preach the gospel and we have this culture.
(13:04):
And one example is I shared the gospel in a Bible study with my friends. We shared to one guy and he got saved in there radically. And he started preaching everywhere. And many of his friends got saved and they started preaching forward and people started getting many, many, many saved. And some of them now are preaching through rap, even in the gospel campaigns in Jesus store, one of his friends has been sharing the gospel with the power of the Holy Spirit. You can really sense the Holy Spirit on these guys. And their friends have been having this culture where they preach in YouTube and suddenly there’s 1 million views on video here in Finland where there’s only 8 million people. And this really radical, I will preach the gospel. I’m not ashamed of the gospel culture as really writing here. Like the lady, Hey, I got share for this is what I experienced. It’s not my personal thing or something, but it’s kind of automatic in this culture that of course we preach. So that’s been a really big shift. I’m so grateful for.
Evangelist Daniel King (14:14):
Yeah. So God began to speak to you about preaching the gospel publicly.
Christopher-Kullervo Jõgi (14:19):
Oh yes.
Evangelist Daniel King (14:20):
And now we are here. We are doing the Jesus tour. We will be in the central square preaching the gospel publicly. Amen. That word that you began to pray for is now coming to pass. It’s a real miracle because God brought the Jesus tour after 11 cities. This is the last city. And so we’re expecting God to do the greatest here at the last. And God brought our team all the way from the United States to come and partner with it. And so it’s a really miracle. What do you believe in God for here on Tamar? What would you like to see God do in the next couple of nights?
Christopher-Kullervo Jõgi (14:59):
His holy presence coming upon us? And we have here 15 churches involved. So I really dream that all of these churches and people who come here would get a taste of the gospel and the power of the simple clear gospel. And they would take the torch to everywhere. And I believe in Jesus culture, what is normal, for example, in Helsinki, two hours from here, there’s a metro. Okay? We didn’t metro, we will preach, we will worship, preach, and I believe this. We’re going to worship. We’re going to fill the city with the noise of Jesus in the middle of pride and all the other noises. And this is going to be everywhere. That’s what I believe.
Evangelist Daniel King (15:41):
Yes. If sin can be lifted up loud, why can’t we lift up Jesus loud?
Christopher-Kullervo Jõgi (15:45):
We got to have to.
Evangelist Daniel King (15:48):
Amen. Well, let’s finish by praying for God to send his fire to Finland. And if you could pray, but don’t pray in English, pray and finish that God would send his fire to this nation.
Christopher-Kullervo Jõgi (16:03):
Yo. Yes.
Evangelist Daniel King (16:55):
Ah man.
Christopher-Kullervo Jõgi (16:55):
Amen.
Evangelist Daniel King (16:56):
Well, thank you so much for being on the Evangelism Podcast.
Christopher-Kullervo Jõgi (16:59):
Thank you so much, brother. We’re
Evangelist Daniel King (17:01):
Glad to have you here.
Welcome to The Evangelism Podcast, where we explore the joy and power of sharing the gospel with the world. Today, we have a special guest – Pastor Ostranuel Kamara from Monrovia, Liberia. He was born a Muslim and today Pastor Kamara shares his incredible testimony of coming to faith in Jesus after a miraculous encounter, and how God is now using him to reach his own Muslim village with the good news. Tune in as we discuss the importance of evangelism and how God is opening doors for the gospel, even in the most unexpected places.
Connect with Pastor Kamara on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pstostranuel.kamara
Summary:
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, Pastor Kamara from Monrovia, Liberia. Thank you for being on the Evangelism Podcast. Thank you so much.
Pastor Ostranuel Kamara (00:16):
It’s a privilege being with you
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:18):
This week. Now you and I have known each other for almost 10 years now. You came to my house in Tulsa, Oklahoma 10 years ago, and you asked me to come to Liberia
(00:33):
And you began to pray that God would send me to Liberia. And now because of your prayers, here I am and so excited that you are able to join us for a crusade here in Hun Liberia. And tell me a little bit about how we got connected. We’re both members of the International Convention of Faith Ministries ICFM. And we’ve met each other several times at the conferences that they often have. And one of my good friends, pastor Tom Brown from El Paso, Texas, he actually ordained you. How did that come about? How did you meet Pastor Tom Brown?
Pastor Ostranuel Kamara (01:13):
It’s a friend of mine that were following Pastor Tom Brown on to Pastor Tom Brown website. And he loved the teaching of Pastor Tom Brown. And within that time he told me that, look, I see this bishop, I mean pastor at the time, he was not a bishop yet. And then he told me that I think he would like to be connected to him. And then I had opportunity and I just got my visa to go to the US. And then I arrived and it was a senior year, the ordained Bishop Toran as a bishop. And then he sent for me and he received me. And then he said, the law is asking him to ordain me. I was trying to hesitate, but then, and the law told me yes. And then since Tom Brown ordained me, it took a new ship of my ministry.
(02:02):
And then he also introduced me to our CFA International Convention of Faith Ministry. And while we were discussing, because I had a plane and I be praying because I came from Lofa County here district at that time it was a district a time, just maybe 20 minutes to 15 minute drive from here. And it is a Muslim time dominated, no church had ever been dead. And I’ve been praying, oh God, I need men to come and help like a miss call. And then when I was telling Tom Bryan, I said, look, my heart is to take the gospel back to my people. And he said, oh, I got an evangelist that I know. I want to introduce him. And at the time your mom was at his church, your mom and died?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:50):
Yeah, my mother and father were at his church.
Pastor Ostranuel Kamara (02:52):
They went to visit there and so it was high. He connected us. And you opened an arm to me and you invited me and I flew to Taw and you took me, you took me to your house, you took me to or university. You came in a lot of places to give me some sizing and we discussed and I told you that I want you to come to Li and said we should pray about it. But then the eboard, I came and then Coronavirus came and we couldn’t connect again. But here today you are in and my prayer is,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (03:27):
Well, it shows that your prayers are powerful even though it took some years for me to make it. My desire is to come to every nation and to preach the gospel. And I’m so happy that God has finally brought me here to Liberia. And so I actually didn’t give you any warning that I was coming on Sunday night. I landed at the airport and I remembered that you were in Monrovia. And so I just sent you a text message and called you on the phone and you answered and you said, oh, Daniel King, it’s so good to hear from you. And I told you I was coming here to hon and you decided to come with us.
Pastor Ostranuel Kamara (04:10):
Yeah, when I saw your text, the first, there was a jaw that hit me because this is what I’ve been praying for. And then later when we did a call and you say, can you come over? Maybe we have lunch, breakfast together. Then we can discuss. And then I was able to get to you the next one. So when you told me about coming to Calon, in fact without plan, I knew it was God timing. So I don’t need to put anything in place because this is what I’ve been praying for all this year. And you are telling me tomorrow morning we’re leaving and I just went to my wife, I said, look, we are soldier. When the loss goes right dead, it remind me of what the scripture talk about, the raptured, when Jesus come, when Jesus come, we’re in you. The Bible said the one that is on the hot stop, we not come down. Yes, we not come down. We not come down. You remediate two will be lying on the bed and one will be taken and so forth. So we are already it. So I told the world that if Jesus will come to rapture his church and I’m on the street, I’m not going to go back to make no plane. So I just thought about, I said, okay, I’m going with
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:28):
Now. It’s really special that you’re here with us helping to do this crusade in this place because you were actually born in a village very near to where we’re doing the crusade. And you were born a Muslim.
Pastor Ostranuel Kamara (05:43):
Yeah.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:44):
Tell me a little bit of your testimony. How did you come to know Jesus as your Lord and Savior?
Pastor Ostranuel Kamara (05:49):
Okay, about 30 years ago, maybe 32, 33 years ago. I remember when I was 17 years, 17 to 18 years ago when the war was here, we have the classes and the first thing that happened to me in four year district, I’ve not explained it to you yet. In four year discipline, when you came in and they drove the rebel and I came to see a brother, what was there, we were sitting like this and this guy had an arm. One of the rebel had an arm, and then we were, they said up, but we have some civilian here, where are you with arm? He said there was no rhyme was in the arm. And he removed the magazine, we could see no rhyme and he put it back. We were playing with it, but then I was sitting opposite to him. And then I don’t know, his hand touched a trick out and the gun fired going to hold the sun. And where I was sitting right to my stomach and then I don’t know, I can’t explain up to my, he
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (06:48):
Shot the gun right at you?
Pastor Ostranuel Kamara (06:50):
Yes. And you weren’t injured. And I saw the chair wore, had a mac, but then actually my spirit left me like I was dead and everybody rushed to me, but they are looking in my stomach. They can’t see no arm. And I’m just waiting to forward and died and I’m looking like that. And I had a trauma for good three months every time I think about it. And I was not safe at that time.
(07:14):
And even the God who God spared your life, and even the rebel God who did that shooting, literally walked to me and said, you are not an honor man. God have you for the purpose. Can you imagine? He was saying that. And then I have to go back to my hometown assembly home from full foia. And then one evening I sat at the back porch of the house and I was just thinking about life. This is a war to country. No school. I was not going to school. Things were difficult. And I started thinking how this life is going to be. And then I heard the voice audibly, if you die, what will you spend eternity. So I turned to see that maybe someone was speaking to me, but I saw nobody and the word repeat the second time and I become trouble. And immediately when I become trouble, then I started talking, okay, but then I think I need to be serious in saving God.
(08:07):
But I thought it was a Muslim way, so I wanted to maybe I was not committed as a Muslim to a certain level so that I went to my uncle. I said, I think I need to be more committed because the voice that I heard, what will you expect in eternity? Hell or heaven. But then just within that time I heard and inward it were leading me. Leave, go back to Monrovia, leave, go back to Monrovia. And the road was black. The rebel was on the window with the gold. So I walked from here almost to Monrovia. Wow. It took me five to six days walking in
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:43):
The forest. Yeah, even driving the other day it took us over eight hours driving. So you were just walking through the
Pastor Ostranuel Kamara (08:48):
Forest. I’m just walking through the forest wherever there will be a night we sleep. The next day we continue along with my brother that they just threw you down there. One of my brother, the other one, I said, he’s the head of brother. We walked together and my mind was actually going back to Monrovia that since there is war here and then I can go to school, I need to go to school. So let me get to Monroy, go to school. And then when I got to Monrovia, I met my father because my father had already left from, he was living innoVi, my biological father. His brother was here. And then he told me, he said, I’m glad that you came. I want you to go to see Mary. That was a Kelly school and that was a bigger school. Then there’s a lady that told me, no, my church have a school.
(09:32):
Can you attend the school? But then they had a school in the church building on Sunday they have service. On Monday they remove the chair and they do the partition and they had classes. So my father said, that is not a school to the standard. I want to send you to a best school of standard. But I told he said no, because I’ve been convinced. But I think that God orchestrated it that way. And when I went to school, none together was talking to me. She already told the pastor that this guy is a Muslim, he’s coming. So I started going to the school, which was a Christian school, and then she was teaching the Bible and I was not interesting. I don’t want to take the Bible. And she said that you Muslim? I said, yes, I am. And she use the same word.
(10:17):
If you die, where will you spend eternity? Have you ever thought about that? Then it came to me. When I went home, I was trouble the whole night. And the whole night I was trouble. So I became confused like the Bible’s a multi to M in the divided of decision, but the law is near the body’s of decision. So my prayer that I did, that was the best prayer that I ever could do. I said, I want to know if Muhammad is the way of Jesus is the way. That was what was pond in my mind because I was not in the midst of this to I’m a Christian or a Muslim, and then that night is a fair to sleep. And Jesus appeared to me in a dream. He came almost to the cloud and on the open feet and he said, I am the way the two and the alive.
(11:02):
But one of the things that discovered when I look at his face, I could see love and clear for his eyes. And then he said tongue. When I turned him, he said, I saw the wide open feet and I saw people were being tortured, was suffering. And he said, preach to them. And when I opened my mouth to preach, I saw a lot of people were being heal. And I wake up that morning and I went to school and we had a chapel and the cover for and I gave my life, and there’s a peace that came into my heart and the peace I’ve never experienced in my life, all in me was trouble. But I see the peace and the kind. And then I said to Jesus, when I came, I was so excited and tell him, my father said, guess what, today I accepted Jesus.
(11:57):
I’m going to church on Sunday. He said, look, look, look, you may have been deceived by those white people who brought this gospel here. I said, no. So he just left it. He thought I was joking. The next morning I went to church. When I came back, he said, what did you from? I said, I went to church. He said, I told you not to go to church. So we had one of our uncle that live around the, and that Sunday evening they called me and they said, your dad said you went to church? I said, yes. He said, do you know that you’re not supposed to go to church? You are a Muslim. What are you doing? I said, I have seen the truth and the truth will set me free. And he beat me on my head, slapped me on my head. I don’t know where the bone came from. And I said, you can kill me right now. But I have seen the truth and the truth. And Jesus had revealed himself to me and he told me He’s the way, the truth and the life.
(12:54):
And then that high, I will curse out of the house. My father said he was not going to take care of me the game pay my school fee. But Jesus did everything. But the good part about it, after 15 years, my father finally accepted Jesus Christ. And when I asked him, because he walked to my church at the time, I started the church. And then I asked him, I said, what brought you here? He said, something just told me God. And I asked him about, he said, I believe the God. He said, I said, what make you to believe? He said, from the day you walk out of the house and you told me that you are going to serve Jesus, I’ve been watching your life and I see your life. And then there what I know that the scripture will said that you are episo written on our heart, read by every man that when we become a living bible, when people look at the kind of life you live. And I say, I believe because they live, you live. And then my father accepted Jesus Christ as a Lord and personal savior. Then all my sister that was in Monrovia, we had a meeting and he said, anyone want to become a Christian? Follow him. And my father had two wives and I began to talk to him. Now you accept Jesus Christ as a Lord person, savior, you need to marry one wife. And he left the other wife and he married
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (14:18):
The other wife in the church. And we officiated the wedding of my father. I preach and officially the wedding of my father.
Pastor Ostranuel Kamara (14:29):
And the good part about it, everything he had, he give it with Brenda, all the charm.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (14:36):
He was tying charms around his waist.
Pastor Ostranuel Kamara (14:38):
Yes. For protection. Because where he was working, they fought each order for power.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (14:44):
So he cut off all the
Pastor Ostranuel Kamara (14:45):
Charms, all the juju beads. Yes, all those beads cut it up and I burned it.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (14:50):
You burned
Pastor Ostranuel Kamara (14:51):
It?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (14:51):
Yes. Wow. And so Monday night we had a pastor’s conference in Monrovia
(15:01):
And you brought a group of ICFM pastors that you’ve gathered together. And I preached on evangelism in the importance of going everywhere and telling everyone about Jesus. And then we began to pray for people. And God gave me a prophecy for you. And I don’t prophesy often, but when I hear the voice of God, I speak it out. And so I just felt that God was saying that in your village, that you were born in, that you would start a church in that place. And I prophesied that, expand your vision. You have a wonderful church in Monrovia, and we started talking about the village that you were born in and you haven’t been to the village for 30 years. Yes. Plus. Plus 30 years plus. And so I said, God wants you to plant a church in that place that you were born in because the village that you were born is a Muslim
Pastor Ostranuel Kamara (16:04):
Village.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (16:05):
Everyone there is Muslim, Liberia
Pastor Ostranuel Kamara (16:07):
Has today. There is no church there. As we’re speaking now,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (16:11):
Liberia has many Christians, but there are pockets of Islam all over Liberia. There are whole villages that have no churches. No
Pastor Ostranuel Kamara (16:20):
Churches.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (16:21):
And so even though some people look at the demographics and say, oh, most of Liberia is Christian, there are still many Muslims that need Jesus here in Liberia. And so your village is a Muslim village. And so you hopped in the car, came with us up here to Calon, which is just very near your village. And you immediately started calling your family member saying, Hey, I’m going to be in the area. Can you come to the crusade? Tell us what happened.
Pastor Ostranuel Kamara (16:52):
Some of them, the first thing that started, I called my sister while we were on the way and I said, I will be in VMA in the next two hours. And she came, she was so excited. She said, I’m going with you to the crusade. Wow. And the next day she followed. And then when I got there, I called my uncle and I called some of my friends and read the tape. And then they were so excited and I told them, this is the emergency trip. I did not plan to come to the village, but I’m going to be to the village. I mean to just maybe a 15 to 20 minute drive. But what happened yesterday? And you prophesied. So when my uncle came, he was so excited. When you pray for him,
(17:39):
He said he fear something that you have never feared before. And when you left, he told me, he said, from today I will be called Pastor Peter, because his name is Peter. He is not even a Christian yet. But he says, I will be called Pastor Peter. He have not yet even said, but when you pray for him. And then he said, I will be Pastor Peter. And I brought Joe to me. And last night when we came back to the crusade, why you were ministering. And I walked down the aisle and behind the profile I call him and we started talking and he told me not, I’m ready now to accept Jesus Christ and his wife. And he accepted Jesus Christ. And
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (18:24):
After the crusade last night.
Pastor Ostranuel Kamara (18:25):
Yes. And I led him to Christ also world by word. And he told me that right now, if you’re ready to play in a church in ma, our hometown, I’m going to be the first man to be the disciple of Jesus Christ. And then we talk a lot. He was so excited. I could see a joy and happiness on his face that, I mean, I have never seen him. These are people you don’t tell them about Christianity before. And I’ve been praying over 30 years for this village.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (19:00):
Wow.
Pastor Ostranuel Kamara (19:02):
I go,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (19:03):
This is the younger brother of your father?
Pastor Ostranuel Kamara (19:05):
Yes, the younger brother of my father. From one mother and one father. Wow. So you’ve been praying for this village. I’ve been praying for the village for over 20 some old years that Jesus, if I, this morning I received a call from one of the friend that we grew up together and he said, you in, but we heard that you’re supposed to be coming here, but we are waiting to work to do anything you going to do. You want to be part of it
(19:40):
And God have opened the door. I read a scripture yesterday from Psalm 60 verses eight and nine, and God said, who will bring me to a strong city who will lead me to either? And there are strong city taken by the strong men, demon, the strong men, but God is looking for people. So I mean you just an answer, God bring you. This has been the first of it. Come over a decade to have a crusade in Koala. I know foia, it been happening, but in this is the first. So you broke the hatch, you break the stronghold over the ceiling. You have been the first for over decades, even when I was a little child growing up here, we have not seen no crusade like this here. This is the first of his car.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (20:37):
And you were at the crusade last night. Tell us what you saw. What impact do you feel the crusade had?
Pastor Ostranuel Kamara (20:43):
In fact, the first thing I saw, the hunger of the people,
(20:47):
The cry was just increasing and increasing. And lastly, when you minister, I could see from the people, they were so hungry. But one of the things that happened is that when a lady came up who been blind, could see for several years, nine could see, and even he was trying to touch your nose. The whole place went, wow. I mean, this is the doing of the Lord. And we believe that you are sin by God. It is our prayer that you come back again because you are just started the fire. You need to come back and keep fleeing the fire. Amen. I’m so happy I’m one of the happiest person on the face of the island. Now I’ve been praying for my village to know Jesus Christ. And now they are telling me if my brother and I, we were discussing, he said He going to give my number to one of my uncle who have access to the learning, that they would make an arrangement to give a land to start a church. Wow. Praise God. It’s a miracle. It’s a miracle. And this is a city, and this is a village that when we were growing up, every missionary that come, they will not accept the missionary. The missionary will go to the next village,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (22:11):
But they
Pastor Ostranuel Kamara (22:12):
Will accept you
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (22:13):
Because you’re a son of the village.
Pastor Ostranuel Kamara (22:14):
They have already accepted me. I’ve been receiving a lot of call that they are ready to accept me. It means that Jesus had opened the door. And guess what? This year when we started the beginning of the year before the watch night, I was praying, and the Lord said to me, 2025 is a year of open doors. I was not looking at either side. I was looking at maybe open door to other nations, other continent. But now I know it’s an open door to my hometown. Hallelujah. Amen.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (22:53):
Well, it’s so exciting to be here. It’s so exciting to be a part of this miracle bringing Jesus to this Muslim village in Liberia. And I believe that the church that you plant will grow strong and powerful and you will be able to disciple your uncle and he will be Pastor Peter. He spoke the prophecy even out of his own mouth before he even became a Christian. But then last night, he gave his life to Jesus. And so God is working here. Let’s just finish by taking a moment to pray for all the Muslims in Liberia. Jesus loves Muslims.
Pastor Ostranuel Kamara (23:38):
Yes,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (23:39):
Jesus died for Muslims. And Muslims have great respect for Jesus. They call him the prophet Issa, and they know that Issa does miracles in the Quran. Jesus does many miracles, and I’ve seen all over the world that Muslims will come to Jesus when they see him do miracles. And so let’s just take a moment to pray for the Muslims of Liberia that they would see Jesus not only as a prophet, but also as their Savior. Go ahead and pray.
Pastor Ostranuel Kamara (24:12):
Father, in the name of Jesus, you said, who will bring me to the strong city? Who will bring me? Father, we make ourselves available. Lord, we thank you for the testimony that Muslims are coming to Jesus Christ. We thank you for this ing. We thank you for your seven Daniel King that you are sent. Father, we know that this is a Macedonia call that will been calling, Hey, we need you. And today here is he. We thank you for using to break the stronghold over the city that today the fire has spread above. Father, I thank you that today my own people are calling for the church for Jesus to be in the Muslim lion. Father, we thank you, oh God, because you have opened the doors and no man will shut the door. I thank you for many who are already hot, been softened because you said the heart of the king is in your hand. You are already soft in your heart. We thank you that my will be saved, my will be delivered. My will be liberated. In the name of Jesus, we pray for all the Muslim in Liberia. We pray for all the Muslim in the world that day. We come to know Jesus. Lord, as you appear to me, appear to them one by one in the name of Jesus. Thank you, father, for saving my people. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (25:51):
Amen. Thank you Pastor Ku for being on the Evangelism podcast. I’m so glad,
Pastor Ostranuel Kamara (25:59):
And I want to say this is one of the greatest thing that ever happened in my life to see my people being saved. I’ve been praying. Praise God. Amen.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (26:13):
Thank you Pastor Kuma.
Pastor Ostranuel Kamara (26:14):
So keep praying for us. We need your prayer. Amen. Amen.
On this episode of The Evangelism Podcast, I connect with my old friend Apostle Orenta J.S. Macauley, (I call him Solomon) from Sierra Leone. We talk about what God is doing in West Africa. Prepare to be inspired as was talk about how to catch, keep, and spread the fire of revival. One note before we get started. I had a problem with a bad microphone when I recorded this and there are lots of hisses, crackles, and pops. Please forgive the bad sound.
Connect with Pastor Orenta J.S. Macauley on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/omacauley
Summary:
Transcript:
Evangelist 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 with me, pastor Solomon from the Nation of Sierra Leone, and it’s so good to have you with me today. And not only are you a pastor, you’re also an apostle. So tell me your full name.
Orenta J.S. Macauley (00:50):
Well, I’m Orenta J.S. Macauley. And tell me the name of your church. I’m as Mission of Hope International Church. And you are in Freetown? I’m in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone East part of Freetown. Wonderful. Well, I love Sierra Leone. We’ve been there. We’ve done a crusade in Sierra Leone and we want to go back. And so you and I have been friends for many years. Yes. Tell us, where did we meet? How did we meet?
You Had a friend called Trey. Trey Twyman, yeah. Yes. Who was a missionary when he was in ORU University.
(00:56):
So they came from missions in Ghana. I was in Ghana already as a missionary pastor under Reverend Doctor said, so we went for missionary trips in then he said a lot about you that he has a friend who loves missions. He loves reaching out to the law souls. And he said, the way I saw your drive, I want to connect you and Solomon, so you and Daniel so that you can reach out to the world. Then we spoke, I think he reached out to you. Then the following year you had an opportunity to come with Born to Ghana. So
Evangelist Daniel King (01:31):
We
Orenta J.S. Macauley (01:31):
Met,
Evangelist Daniel King (01:32):
Both of us. Were very young at that time.
Orenta J.S. Macauley (01:34):
You were very young.
Evangelist Daniel King (01:35):
And I came and stayed a couple of days With you. In Ghana? Yes, in Ghana. And we were talking about doing crusades in Ghana, doing crusades since Sierra Leone, other parts of Africa. And we were just dreaming together as two young men, two young men, wondering what God would do with our lives. And so I had the opportunity to introduce you to Dr. Tia Osborne, the great missionary evangelist. And what did you see with
Orenta J.S. Macauley (01:58):
Dr. Osborne
Evangelist Daniel King (01:59):
There?
Orenta J.S. Macauley (02:00):
Well, that really motivated me and gave me a fresh fire by God and not turn him back. That’s why we still in the race.
Evangelist Daniel King (02:06):
Amen.
Orenta J.S. Macauley (02:07):
Yeah.
Evangelist Daniel King (02:07):
And so after some years in Ghana, then God sent you to Sierra Leone?
Orenta J.S. Macauley (02:14):
Yes. Back to
Evangelist Daniel King (02:15):
And you planted a church there. Church, yes. Tell me about that
Orenta J.S. Macauley (02:18):
Process. It’s a tough process. Looking at the community where God sent me is a dominating community of Muslims. The first year of the church, six months we went down. Yes. And we told our ourself, come today, come tomorrow, the gospel of Jesus who be preached there. Because when I listened to The Osborn, he said a lot of things about the challenges or going to places where there are domination of people that are against the faith. So the trials will be there. So we started again after a year, another attack came again to the church. And the community rules up that they don’t want the church in that community. They don’t want the church. It’s an Islamic area. Everybody there is a Muslim, but God’s so good by the grace of God and prayer, like you said, catch the fire. Keep the fire, spread the fire. So the
Evangelist Daniel King (03:14):
Fire, yeah, that was the message yesterday at the fire conference here in Liberia. I told the people catch the fire and then you need to keep the fire because some people lose the fire. So you’ve got to keep it bright and then you have to spread the fire. And you said something very good today. In your message, you said that fire always changes what it touches. How did you say that?
Orenta J.S. Macauley (03:42):
I said that whatever fire touches changes completely,
Evangelist Daniel King (03:45):
Completely.
Orenta J.S. Macauley (03:46):
It
Evangelist Daniel King (03:47):
Makes
Orenta J.S. Macauley (03:47):
Everything
Evangelist Daniel King (03:47):
Different. And that’s what God has done in your life. You got touched by the fire of God, it completely changed you. And here many years later, you’re serving the Lord. Now I remember back many years ago, in 2007, we were doing a crusade in Guatemala. Guatemala. And you wanted to come and we had plans. You were going to come to the crusading, Guatemala, see how the crusade took place. And then we were planning to sit down and talk about the next step for doing something in Africa, coming to Ghana. And tell me what happened. It was a tragedy. Really. Tell me about it.
Orenta J.S. Macauley (04:27):
What happened? You sent me the visa for Guatemala and I never knew I have to take a transit visa for Mexico. So bought the plane, came to Amsterdam, and then transited to Mexico. Then from Mexico I was stopped at the airport that I need a Mexican transit visa before I coast to
Evangelist Daniel King (04:46):
Guatemala. And you didn’t know that? We didn’t know that. You didn’t know that? I didn’t know that. And so I remember you were calling on the phone, can you help me? Is there anything you can do? And we were busy with the crusading Guatemala, and we didn’t have any contacts in Mexico. And so you stayed there for two days under arrest at the airport. They wanted you to get a transit visa. And it was so sad because you were just trying to come to the crusade. And so they sent you back home.
Orenta J.S. Macauley (05:15):
Back
Evangelist Daniel King (05:15):
Home, and you never made it to that crusade. And so now 19 years later,
Orenta J.S. Macauley (05:23):
19 years later,
Evangelist Daniel King (05:24):
You have come to a crusade that I’m doing here in Liberia. And so you’re 19 years late, where were you?
Orenta J.S. Macauley (05:32):
Well, I was still doing the Lord’s work coming back in Sierra. Leon. Sierra. Leon need it needs to done because it’s a population with Muslims. And the Muslims are going rapidly. The church is diverting from evangelism to socialism. Yeah. The churches are diverting from evangelism to socialism.
Evangelist Daniel King (05:56):
And so how that work in the churches, instead
Orenta J.S. Macauley (05:59):
Of preaching the gospel gospel, they’re preaching another gospel. They’re not preaching about winning souls running after the lost. And we are losing many people. Wow. Yeah. Going back to Islam. Wow. Yeah, because when the Muslim, a Christian, it forces you not to go to church. It stops you completely. We had those things come on, but in my church, we break the rules. I have a pastor whose husband is a Muslim. He’s anal, but he comes to church. Wow. Yeah. We’re dragging into church gradually. And
Evangelist Daniel King (06:34):
So God is working in his life. God is working. He’s really, really
Orenta J.S. Macauley (06:37):
Working.
Evangelist Daniel King (06:37):
Wow. What a miracle. Well, the last time I was in Sierra Leone, we had a cameraman who came from the TV news station
Orenta J.S. Macauley (06:52):
And
Evangelist Daniel King (06:52):
We hired him to come with us to take pictures because it said he would be good at taking pictures. And on the first day he told us that he was a member of the Mandingo tribe. And the Mandingo tribe is like 99% Muslim to be Mandingo is to be Muslim. And they’re very proud people. They’re very strong, very proud. And so he came and he was taking pictures every day. And that was during the time of COVID. And so the big crusade was actually canceled because one week before we came, they made a rule. No large gatherings. So we decided instead of doing the big crusade, we would go from village to village. So instead of bringing many villages to the crusade
Orenta J.S. Macauley (07:40):
Location,
Evangelist Daniel King (07:41):
Every day we went to seven villages and we’re preaching. And so I was there with my friend, he’s an evangelist, his name is Will Jones, he’s got a great ministry. And me and brother Will, were going from village to village. We were preaching and in every village, many of them were Muslim villages. We saw miracles. Jesus was healing so many Muslim people. And so this man from the Mandingo Trap, he was taking pictures of every person that was getting healed. And so then on the last day, we had a big baptism service in a river. And we invited everyone from all the villages who had given their lives to Jesus. And they all came to the river and we baptized them. I think it was over 300 people. And the night before this cameraman, he came to us and he says, tomorrow I want to be baptized. Wow. We said, wow. He said, do you know what that means? That means that you are turning away from Islam and you’re turning to Jesus. You’re becoming a follower of Jesus. He says, yes. He says, all week I’ve seen Jesus do so many miracles. He says, I must become a follower of Jesus. And so we baptized him. It was a huge
Orenta J.S. Macauley (08:54):
Miracle.
Evangelist Daniel King (08:55):
And then when we went back to Freetown, we sent a pastor to his house and he baptized his whole family. He had a couple of wives, many, many children. Everyone got baptized and they all became followers of Jesus. And so God is working in Sierra Leone. Now you’ve come here to Liberia and it was not easy for you to get here, easier than Guatemala. But tell us the road, the journey that you took to get here.
Orenta J.S. Macauley (09:27):
The roads are bad. I did a video. I’ll send it to you on the ocaa. We have to cut down from the hills and the ocaa has to come up. So it’s about almost three hours on an ocaa. And the road is not paved. It’s muddy.
Evangelist Daniel King (09:41):
How long did it take you to get from Freetown to the border? Took me like four hours. Okay. So the roads there are good, they’re good. But then you got on a motorbike, got on a motorbike, and it’s just dirt, roads of dirt, path, roads. And you came across the border, across the border to the city of Ung. And we’re doing a crusade here this week. What have you seen at the crusade so far?
Orenta J.S. Macauley (10:05):
I’ve seen the hand of God mighty moving, very mighty. And last night it was amazing. It was really, really amazing that the woman was completely blind, said she has not been seen a visualist all gone. I received her the steps and I excitement was unexplainable, like somebody having deprived sight. And now he can see her excitement was uncontrollable. That’s why you were saying I reacted that way.
Evangelist Daniel King (10:36):
Yeah. I announced on the first night of the crusade, tomorrow night we will pray for blind eyes. And so many blind people came and I preached on blind Bartimaeus from the Bible. He was sitting beside the road, and as Jesus was leaving Jericho, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, son of David have mercy on me. And the people said, be quiet, don’t yell so loud, buddy. He yelled Louder, Jesus. I told the people, if you cry out to Jesus, then you can receive a miracle. And last night I asked the people to begin to cry out to Jesus.
Orenta J.S. Macauley (11:13):
Then
Evangelist Daniel King (11:14):
Everybody lifted their hands high and they began to shout. They said, Jesus. Jesus. And when that happened, there was such a strong anointing that came on the crusade field. Exactly.
Orenta J.S. Macauley (11:25):
We had Mary miracles because of the rain. We couldn’t take them. There was a woman who came to me. She had stroke and she has not been able to walk. She was the one raising the crutch when he said the survey, the crowds did not allow it to come forward. By the time she was coming, the rains were coming heavily.
Evangelist Daniel King (11:43):
The people with the crutches
Orenta J.S. Macauley (11:44):
Were coming forward. There were many were walking. She walked. She had stroke for three months and she has never walked. Wow.
Evangelist Daniel King (11:52):
Well tell about Sierra Leone. Do you think it’s possible to do crusades in some of the Muslim areas of Sierra Leone? Yeah. And what would you like to do there? What does God put
Orenta J.S. Macauley (12:04):
On your heart? What is the crusades? The dream we had 20 more years back together when we start to reach out to the lost Sierra Leon. Leon is ready. Like you said, today the harvest is ready. And like you said, it’s a time. Harvesting has timing. I wrote that thing and I began to ponder about it. When you plant a crop, it tells you about six months this crop will produce. So every harvest hasty. And if you
Evangelist Daniel King (12:36):
Miss it, the harvest will never come in.
Orenta J.S. Macauley (12:39):
Yeah. You’re going to lose
Evangelist Daniel King (12:40):
Some crop. The crops will just rot in the field.
Orenta J.S. Macauley (12:43):
Yeah.
Evangelist Daniel King (12:45):
So you feel like this is God’s time for Syria.
Orenta J.S. Macauley (12:47):
It’s goes timing. When I heard that you come into Liberia, I said, this is God’s breakthrough because there was a crusade in the city. It was mega. They have to break some compounds just for the crowd to be accepted. And that was
Evangelist Daniel King (13:04):
Massive. God has really put West Africa on my heart. And the neat thing is, is that when you have a passport from West Africa, it opens the door for you to go into other countries. And so it’s called, what’s it called? The Ewa KOAs. ECOWAS
Orenta J.S. Macauley (13:26):
Passport. That’s what
Evangelist Daniel King (13:27):
Does that stand for?
Orenta J.S. Macauley (13:27):
Do you know? It stands for West Africa and economical. It’s a union of,
Evangelist Daniel King (13:33):
So all the different countries here have made an agreement. And so it’s like Liberia, Sierra Leone,
Orenta J.S. Macauley (13:39):
Guinea, Guinea, Ghana,
Evangelist Daniel King (13:41):
Ghana
Orenta J.S. Macauley (13:42):
And Bina. Faso. Nija. All inside
Evangelist Daniel King (13:45):
Ivory Coast.
Orenta J.S. Macauley (13:46):
Ivory Coast, Senegal.
Evangelist Daniel King (13:50):
And so Nigeria here in Liberia with the ministry of Brother Billy
Orenta J.S. Macauley (13:56):
Bimba.
Evangelist Daniel King (13:57):
We have a truck. He has a ministry. It’s called Liberia for Jesus. But God has given him a truck, a sound system, a platform. And with this crusade setup, we can cross the borders because with the truck, we can get special insurance that will allow us to go to any of these countries in West Africa.
Orenta J.S. Macauley (14:18):
Exactly.
Evangelist Daniel King (14:19):
And so what I am asking God for is a crusade machine that will go from country to country, from place to place, from village to village, town to town. And that we could do not just one or two, but hundreds of crusades across this entire region of West Africa. And we can build a team. We can have some team members from Sierra Leone, from Liberia, get some team members from Ghana, Nigeria, people that are on fire for God. And together we can build a reaping machine that will bring in the harvest because it is harvest time.
Orenta J.S. Macauley (15:01):
It’s harvest time.
Evangelist Daniel King (15:02):
And to just go from city to city, town to town, village to village, country to country, nation to nation, preaching the gospel and bringing in the harvest. What do you think? You think that’s a good idea? That’s a
Orenta J.S. Macauley (15:13):
Brilliant idea.
Evangelist Daniel King (15:14):
You want to be part of the team.
Orenta J.S. Macauley (15:16):
I’m already done living Sierra Leon crossing
Evangelist Daniel King (15:19):
For 20 years. You’ve been praying to be part of the team. I don’t think it’s by accident that God has brought us back together at this
Orenta J.S. Macauley (15:25):
Time. I know. I know. It’s not really an accident that she really said to have a drive for Christ. Like we discussed, many have depart from the faith. I kept thinking about that word from the first night we sat at the dining room, were eaten. We said, many have departed from the faith and for God to keep us on this thing. It means he has a bigger plan. And to all our viewers who are listening, I will tell everybody that the support to the king’s ministry is not in vain. It’s a fulfillment of a heaven mandate. And God will really bless you.
Evangelist Daniel King (16:06):
Amen. Yeah. If you want to help support us, go to king ministries.com and give a donation today. We still need more equipment. This part of Africa is very hard on equipment. Last night it rained and some of the equipment, we are so worried it might get wet. We were wet actually to you and I were completely soaked when we got back. My shoes were squish, squish, squish puddle in my shoes. And every piece of clothing on my body was, you ring out the water, it was just completely wet. But it because the conditions here, so we need more equipment. We need to buy a big generator that costs about $12,000 to get a big generator that’s good
Orenta J.S. Macauley (16:54):
For wheel.
Evangelist Daniel King (16:55):
That has the wheels. That has the wheels to run the sound system. We need more sound equipment. We need another truck. You know what we really need? We need a land cruiser to be able to go anywhere
Orenta J.S. Macauley (17:07):
Across countries
Evangelist Daniel King (17:08):
Because sometimes the roads are very bad. They’re very bad. Exactly. And so we need the best land cruiser, Toyota Land Cruiser. And I went to look at one in Monrovia yesterday or a few days ago with Brother Bimba. And for maybe 50, $60,000, we can get a good Land cruiser that can take us anywhere here in West Africa, anywhere. And so I’m trusting God. I’m saying, God, send us the team, send us the equipment. We want to do crusades across this entire region of Africa.
Orenta J.S. Macauley (17:39):
Well, for our viewers around the world, and I want to say it’s a blessing. I’ve followed Daniel King for the past 20 years. So when I you online and I was following the Crusades, I said, wow, the dream is still on fire. Daniel is on fire. He’s just,
Evangelist Daniel King (17:57):
You got to keep the fire.
Orenta J.S. Macauley (17:58):
I know. And you really keeping it. And you spreading the fire. And you spreading the fire. And I want to tell all those, you can spread the fire with whatever support the Lord lays on your heart. Sometimes it’s not necessary that maybe you can leave your office, but your finances can be of a great benefit. And I want to say I’m already part of it. Although the work of an evangelist to meet out to the Lord souls and those who the Lord will touch. I know providing the vehicle, providing equipment for evangelism, it’s a breakthrough. It’s a spiritual breakthrough because nothing that is done for the Lord is in vain.
Evangelist Daniel King (18:41):
It
Orenta J.S. Macauley (18:42):
Saves generations. I have a testimony of a man who roofed the church and his son was suffering poem. There is an English woman, somebody who just, and the day he made the provision to just roof the church, his son was completely heal. Maybe somebody’s watching this today, and you’ve taken a lot of pills, medications. You are asking yourself how this happened. Just see the King’s ministry. I can buy that vehicle for the King’s ministry. Maybe no one not to. I can provide the trucks. I can provide the generator. I can provide the equipment. The Lord just laid up upon your heart. Just be a blessing to king’s ministry and it’ll be the greatest testimony, not only for you, but for your generations. Amen.
Evangelist Daniel King (19:38):
Amen. Well, brother Solomon, thank you so much for coming here to Liberia to meet with me. It’s my pleasure for trying to come many years ago to Guatemala. I know. And I believe God’s brought us together again for such a time as this. Amen. And so thank you so much for being on the Evangelism Podcast.
Lance Alves, his wife, and their five kids are called to be missionary evangelists in Central Africa. God has given him the mechanical ability to turn a normal truck into a tool that can be used for evangelism. His trucks are transformers for Jesus. In less than five minutes, a normal truck can turn into a platform with a sound system for preaching the Gospel in a marketplace or village. Today on the Evangelism Podcast he shares about his plans to reach Africa using Gospel Trucks.
Website: https://alvesministries.org/
Summary:
Lance Alves, a missionary evangelist, and his family are called to reach Africa with the gospel. They have developed specialized gospel trucks that can be set up in just 5 minutes to preach the gospel and perform baptisms in marketplaces and villages. The trucks are equipped with sound systems, power, and other necessary equipment to effectively reach large crowds of up to 100,000 people. Alves and his family, including his 5 children, are planning an upcoming 7-day mission trip to Central Africa during which they will conduct 35 outreaches in schools, prisons, and unreached villages. Their goal is to efficiently reach as many unreached people as possible with the gospel.
Transcript:
Evangelist Daniel King (00:00):
Lance Alves, his wife and their five kids are called to be missionary evangelists. In Central Africa, God has given Lance the mechanical ability to turn a normal truck into a tool that can be used for evangelism. His trucks are transformers for Jesus. In less than five minutes, a normal truck can turn into a platform with a sound system for preaching the gospel in a marketplace or village. Today on the Evangelism podcast, he shares about his plans to reach Africa using gospel trucks.
Evangelism Podcast Host (00:50):
Welcome to the Evangelism Podcast with Dr. Daniel King, where Daniel interviews full-time evangelists, pastors, missionaries, and normal everyday Christians to discover how they share their faith, their powerful testimonies, and amazing stories that will inspire you to reach people with the good news. And now here’s your host, missionary, and evangelist
Evangelist Daniel King (01:12):
Daniel King. Welcome to the Evangelism Podcast. I’m Daniel King. I’m excited about telling people about Jesus today. I have a very special guest with me, Lance Alves, thank you so much for being on the Evangelism Podcast,
Lance Alves (01:26):
An honor to be with you today.
Evangelist Daniel King (01:28):
Alright, so Lance, you and your wife Heather, you were missionaries in Central Africa and now God is sending you back. You’re called to be an evangelist and you are building trucks. I’m so excited about the trucks that you’re building. Tell me a little bit about them.
Lance Alves (01:47):
Sure. So the trucks that we’re building are made for to do volume. So the five minutes set up and tear down, it’s very simple, very easy, and we can show the gospel many times in a day. It’s very simple. So everything’s prebuilt in and simple, but everything’s in it.
Evangelist Daniel King (02:11):
Now, where I met you was the Tulsa State Fair here in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and you had your truck parked at the state fair. And as people were going by, you were ministering to them and even had a baptismal baptism like pool
Lance Alves (02:30):
Where
Evangelist Daniel King (02:31):
People who got saved. You gave them an opportunity right there at the Tulsa State Fair to be baptized. And one of the things I really loved about you is you have five kids and all five of your kids are involved with you in the ministry. So tell me a little bit about your kids, how old they are and what they do in the ministry.
Lance Alves (02:51):
Sure. So I have five kids ranging from 11 years old to three. And every one of them since being born in some way has been part of it. And so even from when we were on the streets of San Francisco, they were all on stage, even as we were rocking the baby carrier. And we just made a place for them in our ministry as a family. We felt that God had wanted us to do that. And so we never left them out. We always found a way that they could get involved. And some things that we would try to do is make it fun for them, so find their interest, but also make it fun. And at the end, we all really had a great time.
Evangelist Daniel King (03:35):
I recently saw a picture on your Facebook page where your kids were doing a puppet show. And it really brought me back to when I was a kid because when I was 10 years old, my parents became missionaries to the country of Mexico. And to be part of our family was to be part of the ministry. And so I did thousands of puppet shows on the streets of Mexico. I used to dress up like a clown, run through the streets and invite people to come to the service. And then we would do dramas and my dad would preach and I would pretend to be Jesus. And my sister would pretend to be a crippled lady and Jesus would touch her. And suddenly she was healed. And then my dad wanted to crucify Jesus. And so it was a great way to grow up. I’m a big believer that God does not just call individuals, he calls families to the ministry. And so talk to me a little bit about what you feel the call of God is upon you, but then how that it extends down to your whole family.
Lance Alves (04:32):
Sure. The calling that God has put is all of Africa. And so it’s not one particular region but the entire continent. And also there was other places that Lord had showed me that he would one day open up. And so we’ve never been one place only, but utilizing equipment, specialized equipment and people and be able to, for our family, that they could share the gospel, be part of it in almost a sense of multiplication. That was very important to us as a family. And so the kids have been able to be involved in music and puppet shows as you mentioned. And also they’ve been able to, if we had any food involved, they were part of that sharing what’s next, praying for the sick. And really it is just been an honor.
Evangelist Daniel King (05:35):
One of the things I really like is your focus on building these trucks for evangelism. And God’s given you a very mechanical mind, an innovative mind for taking a truck and turning it into a tool that can be used for evangelism. And the reason I think this is so important, what you’re doing is because we need to develop the infrastructure of evangelism. Think about it. When a church is wanting to minister to people, they do a capital campaign to raise money to build a church building. And the reason that people give to build a church building is because for a church, that’s where the ministry takes place. But it’s different for an evangelist. An evangelist doesn’t do his ministry inside a church building because the evangelist is going after people who are lost and who need Jesus. And so the evangelist is out on the dusty fields of Africa.
(06:39):
It could be a marketplace, it could be just a soccer field, it could be out in the jungle somewhere. That’s where the ministry takes place. And the evangelist needs to amplify his voice so that hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of people can hear. So the ministry for an evangelist takes place not in a church building, but on a platform. And one of the things about doing crusades that I’ve learned is it is really expensive sometimes to rent platforms, to rent sound systems. And so I think the church needs to make some investment in the infrastructure of evangelism to build trucks, to build sound systems that can go from place to place and do evangelism in brand new places. And God’s given you a really innovative mind for developing this. So tell me a little bit, you’ve got your first truck, your second truck, and then you’ve got some plans for bigger systems. Walk me through what you’ve already built and what God has put on your heart to build in the months and years to come.
Lance Alves (07:46):
Sure. A long time ago, my mom had noticed that when I was playing the guitar, that I would listen to how other people were playing their styles. And I would really focus in and she noticed that I was always trying to make it better. I would come home, I would take that same song. I would work on how different things could be a little bit more efficient and make the sounds a little bit better. So when I look at equipment, I look at how can I make it more efficient? How can I reach more people, how can I do it cheaper and stronger and be able to do even more? So there’s a lot of variables in my mind that I pray through and really analyze. So the first truck, I call it state truck number two, or that’s our oldest daughter, Isla. We named it after each one of our kids just at home. But our first stage truck takes five minutes to set up and tear down. Everything is pre-built. So I pay attention to the sounds of the speakers, what it’s giving off of. I pay attention to every little detail from the,
Evangelist Daniel King (09:00):
So tell me a little bit about the stage truck. Sure. It actually has a stage built into it.
Lance Alves (09:06):
Yes. It’s like a box truck and it opens up on the passenger side, and there’s speakers that are connected. It’s all run by iPad. There’s a generator on board, and so there’s outlets, there’s lighting, light switches, fire extinguishers, and it’s built to San Francisco code, which is the top code for building and
Evangelist Daniel King (09:30):
Stuff. So you bought a truck and then you started innovating and building the different aspects of what it would take to turn it into an evangelistic tool?
Lance Alves (09:41):
Correct.
Evangelist Daniel King (09:42):
Okay. So you got your first truck, now you’re working on a second truck.
Lance Alves (09:46):
Yes.
Evangelist Daniel King (09:47):
Alright, tell me about that.
Lance Alves (09:48):
Okay. The second truck I looked at how I wanted to do something different. So the first truck opens up kind of, I don’t know how to explain
Evangelist Daniel King (09:59):
Audio. The side kind of opens up.
Lance Alves (10:01):
Yes, from left to right on each side. The second truck, I wanted to do something different. Each truck, I get bored after a while. So second truck, I was noticing that some trucks were folding down on one side. Well, I wanted to do something different. So I wanted both sides to fold down the driver’s side and the passenger side still have five minutes set up. I wanted sound system running all the every open space. So we’re running 180 degrees of sound. I visualized that there would be people and I wanted them to hear the gospel clearly, even in the very back. And so that was something that was a challenge, a creative challenge, and that was really exciting for me.
Evangelist Daniel King (10:44):
And so what size crowd can these
Lance Alves (10:46):
Trucks reach? Sure. So the first truck can easily do 1000. Second truck can easily do 5,000
Evangelist Daniel King (10:55):
In the years to come. You have plans to build systems that can reach the tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands. So tell me what comes next.
Lance Alves (11:05):
Sure. I run across different sound technicians and they give me graphs and all that kind of stuff and explain how it can’t work. Then I look at it and I pray and really check it out. And I say, okay, what are they seeing and what are they not seeing? I try to say, well, why can’t it work? And that’s how I approach it, why can’t it work? And so then we do that. So the second, or not the second, but the next equipment includes shipping containers. It’s very important for me to know that I could ship it to any country in the world via ship. And so everything is connected. So imagine three shipping containers and from one plug, that’s it. One plug the side sound towers plug into each side of the center stage shipping container. And so everything is running through that one plug. And again, that will take one hour sediment tear down with a minimum easy if not more, but 100,000 people.
Evangelist Daniel King (12:11):
Wow. And God’s already given you the blueprints, the plan to make that happen. I think that will be such a valuable tool to use to evangelize. And so let’s talk about your plans to evangelize. Tell me, it sounds like you want to do not just one crusade a month, but you want to have this equipment once it’s ready to just be going full time.
Lance Alves (12:37):
That’s right. In my mind, it is about efficiency being effective. And I really truly believe that the roughly 3 billion or so unreached people can be reached a lot faster than people actually realize. When you look at it on paper, put everything on numbers, and then you break it down how it is to reach those people and really come up with different steps to reach those people, it can really be done a lot faster. And so what we need specialized equipment, we need teams of people that are willing to do that. So the equipment takes a big load off of people. But here’s the thing, we can do multiple outreaches per day and then we could lead up into a bigger crusade and we’ve got to have all specialized equipment to do that. We could do training for evangelism as well and make it take equipment. And I want it to be fun for people. So imagine a missions trip that blows your socks off. You’re able to take rides in bush planes land right in the middle of the jungle where there’s no runway. You’re able to utilize different types of equipment that people would never have thought about in use of advantage of them, and you’re able to reach people.
Evangelist Daniel King (13:52):
That’s exciting. Now, coming up really soon in August, you’re going to be doing a mission trip to Central Africa and you’re taking your entire family, so all your kids are going with you. Tell me about what you plan to do on that trip.
Lance Alves (14:06):
Sure. So we’ll have, over the course of seven days, we’ll do 35 outreaches, five outreaches a day, and be back.
Evangelist Daniel King (14:13):
What are you going to do in your free time when you’re not? No five outreaches a day. That’s that’s a very aggressive schedule. No sitting around the hotel.
Lance Alves (14:25):
Well, actually that’s right after breakfast
Evangelist Daniel King (14:27):
And
Lance Alves (14:27):
Then being back, leaving the last outreach by 5:00 PM and being back at the hotel for dinner. So that’s our thing. And we have an hour in one powerful one hour event, and we allow for travel time in between. And so that’s how we’re able to really analyze things, how we could be efficient. Everything’s very simple, easy, and everything is just compiled into that one hour.
Evangelist Daniel King (14:55):
And so that’s going from village to village? From marketplace to marketplace.
Lance Alves (14:59):
That’s right.
Evangelist Daniel King (14:59):
And doing 35 outreaches in just one week.
Lance Alves (15:03):
Every school, prison and village. So we pick out, we map in unreached particular area and we look at every village, school, prison along the way. And we want to make sure that nobody’s left out.
Evangelist Daniel King (15:18):
And so you’re not just going to easy places, you’re specifically targeting places where there’s unreached people groups.
Lance Alves (15:25):
That’s right. Going into difficult areas. It doesn’t bother us. So in fact, even in different parts of the states, we take people with us and they’re very nervous, but we say there’s nothing to be afraid of. So
Evangelist Daniel King (15:42):
That’s right. Well, if someone wants to participate in your ministry, pray for you guys, maybe give to help you with what you’re called to do. What is your website? What’s the best way for people to find out more information about you?
Lance Alves (15:58):
Sure. They could go to alves ministries.org. That’s A-L-V-E-S ministries.org.
Evangelist Daniel King (16:04):
And tell me a little bit about the long-term passion that God has put in your heart for evangelism. Just talk to me about how you knew you were called to be an evangelist. What’s your story? How did you develop this in your life?
Lance Alves (16:21):
Sure. The Lord had called a absolute nobody, a zero, somebody who was stuffed in the lockers, picked on, beat up on, and God had a plan. And I laid everything before the Lord. They said I was convulsing for two hours, but the Lord was showing me what he wanted and if I would just trust him and believe him. And so we’ve seen a lot of powerful things. What we believe that God has is to reach again, every unreached people and that they’ll hear the gospel in a way that they can understand very simply, and that God would accompany with signs, wonders, and miracles and be able to connect them to churches for discipleship. And so we wanted to see both our family involved and other people and just multiply that. It can become in time, really a powerful evangelism movement. And so that’s certainly within our heart.
Evangelist Daniel King (17:30):
Amen. Well, thank you so much for being on the Evangelism podcast. Let’s finish with your favorite scripture about evangelism. What scripture do you like to preach about to inspire people to get involved in God’s plan for humanity?
Lance Alves (17:51):
Yeah, I think first of all, it’s an honor to be with you. It is actually a portion that comes from the story of Samson. And where Sams hint had tied Fox’s, their tells together, he had sent them out and there was nothing ordinary or special, rather about the foxes. They were just foxes. But the thing is that they were sent out two by two. They were accompanied with this flame and they were sent out into the harvest field. And I believe that that was almost that moment where Samson had done that. It was really resembling what Jesus does today.
Evangelist Daniel King (18:35):
Amen. Well, brother Lance, thank you so much for being on the Evangelism Podcast. It’s
Lance Alves (18:40):
An honor. Nice to be with you. Thank you.
Evangelism Podcast Host (18:43):
Are you called by God to be an evangelist? Do you want to lead millions of people to Jesus? Do you desire to be trained in the practical side of building a ministry? Then check out the Daniel King School of Evangelism. Learn how to be an effective evangelist from Dr. Daniel King’s 20 plus years of experience. Daniel King has done crusades all over the world in over 70 nations and is seen over 2 million people give their lives to Jesus. But it wasn’t easy. There was no crusade school. So Daniel traveled the world learning from and observing top evangelists, noticing how they successfully won souls for Christ. Now he wants to share decades of knowledge and experience with you. Topics of the Daniel King School of Evangelism include what is an evangelist, how to be a master soul winner, how to give an altar call, how to organize a crusade, how to raise money for your ministry, and much more. If you want to be an evangelist, but don’t know where to start, the Daniel King School of Evangelism is for you. Enroll today in the School of Evangelism by going to Daniel King ministries.com/evangelism.
Evangelist Daniel King (19:44):
Thanks so much for listening today. I am excited about telling people about Jesus, and I want to invite you to be a part of helping us to rescue people from Hell and take them with us to heaven. There’s two things you can do to help. First of all, can you go find the Evangelism podcast on Apple iTunes and leave us a positive review By giving a review, you will help other people find these valuable resources about sharing our faith. Second, would you become a financial partner with King Ministries? Every single dollar that people give us enables us to lead at least one person to Jesus. That means for only $1, you can help start a party in heaven. And so today I want to invite you to become a monthly partner. You can start out for just a dollar, but if God puts it on your heart to do more, of course you can do more. But please go to king ministries.com and become a monthly partner with us today to help us to lead more people to Jesus. Thank you so much, and God bless you.
Evangelism Podcast Host (21:05):
For more information about how to share your faith or to financially support our worldwide evangelistic outreaches, visit king ministries.com. Again, that’s king ministries.com.
Today’s guest is Evan Herrman—a passionate communicator, devoted family man, and the CEO of Evangelism NOW. From a young age, Evan has loved the Church and ministry, a calling that led him to earn a degree in Theology from Oral Roberts University. He has dedicated his life to helping others grow in faith and purpose. But Evan’s journey hasn’t been without obstacles. As a child, he struggled with reading and writing—graduating high school with only a seventh-grade reading level. Yet through determination and faith, he overcame those early challenges. Now, as an author, he wrote a book called Evangelism Now that inspire others to overcome their own evangelism barriers and boldly live out their faith. Evan believes that everyone has a unique story to tell, and he’s on a mission to empower people to share their testimonies and make a difference in the world. In this episode, we’ll hear Evan’s incredible story of perseverance, purpose, and passion for evangelism—and how he’s using his life to bring hope to others.
Learn More About Evan Herrman: https://www.evangelismnow.us/
Buy a copy of Evan Herrman’s book: Evangelism Now: https://amzn.to/4j65C7y
Key Points:
Transcript:
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:00):
Today’s guest on the Evangelism Podcast is Evan Herman. He is a passionate communicator, devoted family man and the CEO of evangelism. Now, from a young age, Evan has loved the church and ministry. It’s a calling that’s led him to earn a degree in theology from Oral Roberts University, and he has dedicated his life to helping others grow in faith and purpose. But Evan’s journey hasn’t been without obstacles. As a child, he struggled with reading and writing, graduating high school with only a seventh grade reading level. Yet through determination and faith, he overcame these early challenges. And now as an adult, he has written a book, he’s become an author, and it’s brand new. It just came out. It’s called Evangelism Now this book is going to inspire you to overcome your own evangelism barriers and boldly live out your faith. Evan believes that everyone has a unique story to tell and he’s on a mission to empower people to share their testimonies and make a difference in this world. On this episode of the Evangelism Podcast, we’ll hear Evan’s incredible story of perseverance, purpose and passion for evangelism and how he’s using his life to bring hope to others.
Evangelism Podcast Host (01:28):
Welcome to the Evangelism Podcast with Dr. Daniel King, where Daniel interviews full-time evangelists, pastors, missionaries and normal everyday Christians to discover how they share their faith, their powerful testimonies and amazing stories that will inspire you to reach people with the good news. And now here’s your host, missionary, and evangelist
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:51):
Daniel King. Welcome to the Evangelism Podcast. I’m Daniel King and I am excited about telling people about Jesus. Today I have a very special guest with me, Evan Herman, and he is the author of a brand new book called Evangelism. Now in the name of your ministry is Evangelism. Now
Evan Herrman – Evangelism Now (02:13):
Question, who picked out my name for the ministry?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:18):
I think it was a great name. Your name is Evan and your ministry name begins with Evan. So evangelism now, I think it just made sense as a name for your ministry, and so I’m so proud of you. You’ve now written a book, you’ve published it, and it is called Evangelism Now, cultivating Influence That Matters. So congratulations.
Evan Herrman – Evangelism Now (02:41):
Thanks, man. I really appreciate it.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:43):
And I’ve kind of been watching you on your journey as God has been blessing you in your ministry. A couple of years ago we did a great outreach together at the Tulsa State Fair and in Broken Arrow too. And so walk us through that outreach. It was really your idea, your genesis, and so walk us through how God gave that to you and what results we saw.
Evan Herrman – Evangelism Now (03:09):
So the very first time I did the Tulsa State Fair Outreach, I did a prayer booth on the inside building and I mostly ran it by myself. And I prayed with people that would come by or I’d ask if they’d want prayer. Never saw any salvations the first time I did it. And then I had a life-changing moment. I did another prayer booth. Ironically, it was that Rooster Day Fair, which is currently going right now in Broken Arrow. Okay. Yeah. And Daniel and Kevin, you guys came out to, that’s
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (03:43):
Kevin Wagner.
Evan Herrman – Evangelism Now (03:44):
Yep. Kevin Wagner, the
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (03:45):
Wagner Ministry is a great friend,
Evan Herrman – Evangelism Now (03:46):
Came out and we did evangelism and prayer there and I think we saw 50 people get saved. And for me, watching you lead people to Christ in that environment, it changed my own thinking and my own patterns of evangelism to then when we went back out the next year to Tulsa State Fair, I think we led like 480 people to the Lord.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:12):
Yeah, it was great. And Tulsa State varies a great place. Every year over a million people go through their over a 10 day, 11 day period, and they’re just walking around with their Turkey, Turkey
Evan Herrman – Evangelism Now (04:28):
Legs,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:29):
Leg in one hand and a coney
Evan Herrman – Evangelism Now (04:30):
Dog,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:31):
50 gallon big gulp in the other hand. And they’re just looking for something to do. And so at our booth, we all had shirts on. I should have worn it, dang it. And what did the shirt say?
Evan Herrman – Evangelism Now (04:46):
They said, free prayer.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:48):
So free prayer. And so we just as people are walking by, stop people and say, Hey, is there anything that you need prayer for? And some people are like, why are you out here? And they’re upset about it, but the vast majority like, oh yeah, I need prayer. I say, you need to pray for my grandma. She’s dealing with cancer right now. Pray for my uncle. He’s really going through a tough
Evan Herrman – Evangelism Now (05:11):
Time,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:12):
Usually family members that they want to pray for. Sometimes people are like, everything’s okay, but why don’t we just pray for world peace?
(05:18):
And so then what we would do is we’d just grab ’em by the hand and say, let’s pray together. And whatever it was that they expressed that they needed prayer for, say, a dear father, I pray for a grandma who’s dealing with cancer. I pray that you would heal her, send your healing angels to her. By the stripes of Jesus, she is healed in Jesus’ name. And then usually I’d have ’em by the hand. And before I’d let go, I’d say, I need to ask you an important question. If you died tonight, would you go to heaven? Or where would you go? Make really sure that you’re going to heaven with me and then take the opportunity to present the gospel to them. All of us are sinners. Jesus died on the cross for our sins, and Jesus rose from the dead. And the Bible says, everyone who calls on Jesus will be saved. Would you like to call on Jesus right now? And it was amazing how many people were ready right then in the fair, ready to call in
Evan Herrman – Evangelism Now (06:16):
Jesus. We even had people that came back later like, Hey, I didn’t do it, but I want to remember there was a guy on the first day of the fair who said, Hey, I’m going to come to you guys sometime this week and we’ll pray. And then three or four days later, this guy comes to our booth sobbing and we’re just like, what’s going on? What happened? He goes, I just found out my mom died last night.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (06:43):
And so in that moment, he turned to the people that were offering free prayer, knew that he could get a prayer.
Evan Herrman – Evangelism Now (06:49):
Yeah. So not only did we pray with him, but he’s like, I need to give my life to the Lord. And he did. And so many more stories. We’ve seen healings. I mean, there’s this one girl, she had a broken wrist because she was angry and punched a brick wall. And I have photo evidence of what her hand looked like before we prayed for it. And then she came back the next day and she showed it to me and the swelling was gone, the discoloration was gone. She made it a point to come back like, Hey, it was broken, I couldn’t move it. And she came back. And so we saw God do many miracles there as well. We got to preach under the beer tent, remember that?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (07:34):
Yep.
Evan Herrman – Evangelism Now (07:34):
There was an area where they would drink and we got to preach there on a Sunday morning service. And that whole idea of the Tulsa State Fair came to me because I was just like, God, what should I do? I want to do tent ministry, I want to do evangelism, but I have very little finances, I have very little support just because I’m new into evangelism. And I just felt like go where people are at. And that became kind of the key area where I found a lot of success in the ministry for praying with people. And I actually calculated Daniel, we probably over the three or four years that we did that prayed with over 10,000 people individually.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:24):
Yeah, that’s amazing. The number of people that you’re able to impact and people need prayer, people are hurting, they’re going through things. And so I think that this is an outreach that more churches need to do. Churches are always looking for a good way to do an outreach. This is a good way to get your church members involved in evangelism. And it is really soft because if someone is not comfortable necessarily with sharing their faith, everyone can pray with someone.
(08:54):
And so if you’re there part of a team and everyone has on a free prayer. And so if your church is interested in doing this type of outreach, we actually, after the outreach was done, we put together a manual on how to do it. You wrote some of the chapters and then I contribute some, and Kevin Wagner contributes some, and that’s available on my website. So just type into a search engine free prayer, Daniel King Ministries, and it’ll pop up. And you can also download the logo for t-shirts, the logo for banners and stuff. And go ahead, take this and use it in your church, in your ministry. It’s a great idea that is really easy for people to do and produces tremendous results. And I think every church should have a booth at their local state, fair or local out. If there’s a community day, your church should represent itself out there and get people outside of the four walls of the church and into the community praying for people. Alright, so Evan, now you have written this book, evangelism Now, and it’s beautiful. I love it. And just walk us through some of the content of this book and what you’re telling people about evangelism.
Evan Herrman – Evangelism Now (10:17):
I’m going to first start off with why evangelism is important to me. And that’s the very first chapter of the book. And I had a very unique experience with where I believe now looking back on my life, where the mantle of evangelism was placed on my life. Danielle, I was always a Christian. I believed in God, I led people to Jesus. But then there was a moment in my life where everything switched and I became aggressive and bold towards evangelism. And believe it or not, it was a promise that I made not to God, but to Satan, that I would try to take as many people to heaven with me as I possibly could. There was an event that happened in my life in 2013 where my wife gave birth to a premature stillborn daughter and we knew for about a day that our daughter was already gone and we just had to wait for the birthing process.
(11:16):
And then what ended up happening, Danielle, is the next day the birth happened and we had my daughter’s body with us for about seven hours. Daniel, I had prepared myself for her death. I had come to grips with that realization, she’s gone, she’s coming out and we’re going to get to spend time with the body and we’re going to cry. So we did all that. But Daniel, what I wasn’t prepared for was seven 30 that night when the nurse walked in and said, Mr. Herman, and I’m holding her. She goes, it’s now time for us to take her body. I was not prepared for that moment,
(11:57):
And I had to hand my daughter’s body over to the nurse never to see her or to hold her again. The amount of pain, desperation, anxiety, fear, it felt like life itself was being sucked right out of me. Remember swimming as a kid and being held underwater to the point where you became desperate and frantic for air. It felt like that, but a million times worse. So my daughter’s gone, it’s seven 30, my wife’s tired, she starts falling asleep, and there I am laying on the fake pink hospital couch, crying my eyes out for hours. And then about 9, 9 30 rolls around and I say, God, I don’t blame you. You didn’t do this. Satan comes to steal, kill and destroy. I know you didn’t need another little angel. I know you didn’t take my daughter and I know that you were a good God no matter what with all that being said, Lord, where’s your love?
(12:53):
And all this because I don’t see it and I desperately need to see your love. And he gave me a picture in my mind of seven 30 when I had to hand my daughter’s body over and that pain and that desperation and the anxiety and life itself being sucked right out of me. And I said, God, I don’t get it. Why is this the picture that you showed me when I asked to see your love? And I heard him say this because Evan, that is exactly how I feel. Anytime any of my children live a life without ever knowing my love. And in that moment while already being a Christian, already leading people to the Lord, salvation in heaven became so much more real to me in a way that I had never experienced before because I now understood the pain of a father’s heart who loses a child, who never gets to experience his love.
(13:42):
And that was transforming in my life. And so for me, that was a moment and a time and a place where that mantle of evangelism was placed on my life. So that’s kind of how this book starts. It starts off heavy, but I wrote it because I know most people, once they start reading the book, sometimes they just stop. And I want it to hook people in to, okay, this is why it’s important to me. But throughout the rest of the book, what it does is it teaches people that there are different areas that we are gifted in evangelism. For example, you and I are very bold in being able to do crowd work or to speak. Not everyone has that gift. You and I both do digital ministry and you are far better at it than I am apparently by your YouTube results lately. Congratulations, by the way. That’s amazing. Thank you.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (14:31):
We’ve been working hard at it.
Evan Herrman – Evangelism Now (14:32):
150,000 plus subscribers on YouTube. A round of applause, Daniel. That’s amazing. God is doing some great stuff through your ministry. So there’s those of us that can do digital ministry and have an impact. There are those that, you know what? I’m not as bold as those guys and I want to do digital ministry. Well, you know what? Can you mow a yard for your elderly neighbor? Can you pick up groceries? Can you go buy a meal for the family that just lost a loved one? There’s a lot of areas with an evangelism where you can serve people. And let’s say you struggle with serving. You’re like, I don’t know what gifts or talents I have. Well, how about this? One of the most basic things in evangelism is from the woman at the well. There’s a story where the disciples in Jesus, they come to a well, and there’s this woman who is drawing water from this well at midday and midday is important.
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Why would you draw water in the most hottest part of the day when most of the women would draw it in the morning? It’s because this lady was an outcast. She was an adultery. She was essentially the town prostitute and no one wanted to be around her. And I talk about this in the book, how she was one of the first evangelists for Jesus because once the disciples went into the town, her and Jesus had a moment and then she recognized that this is the Messiah, that this is Jesus. And after having that connection and that moment with him, she went back into town and used the sin that everyone knew that she come committed and say, Hey, this man told me all that I have done wrong. I believe him to be the Messiah. Come out and look. She invited people. She didn’t preach the gospel to them.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (16:22):
Yeah, often the best way to reach sinners is to reach a sinner.
(16:26):
She runs into the village says, come and see a man who told us everything I ever did in the entire village comes back to see Jesus. And meanwhile, the 12 disciples are in the town buying food. They’re professional preachers. They’ve been following Jesus around. They’ve seen all the miracles that Jesus does, but not one of the disciples brings a single person back to Jesus. And Jesus gets a little angry with them and says, guys, open your eyes. You save four more months. And then the harvest, I tell you, the harvest is ripe. It is ready right now. And they didn’t really understand what he was saying, but what he was saying is all around us, there are people that need a touch from God and you miss them.
Evan Herrman – Evangelism Now (17:08):
And it’s simple by that style of evangelism that she participated in was invitational evangelism. So there’s six different styles of evangelism in the book that I talk about that a person can.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (17:20):
So let’s go through those different styles. What are some of the different styles of evangelism that you see?
Evan Herrman – Evangelism Now (17:25):
You have invitational, you have your testimony, and I have a training that’s on my website that you can learn how to craft your testimony both in one and two minute segments to 10 to 15 minutes.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (17:41):
And so what is your website? I saw that you have that free e-course on how to put together your testimony. What is your website?
Evan Herrman – Evangelism Now (17:48):
Evangelism Now us.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (17:51):
Alright. So if you want to go through Evan’s course on how to put together your testimony, you can do so at evangelism now us. And if you want to support his ministry, I’d encourage you to go there and support his ministry, help him with the evangelism that he is doing all over the state of Oklahoma. And your heart is to start doing more around the world for sure.
Evan Herrman – Evangelism Now (18:18):
Absolutely. So we have
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (18:19):
Invitation. You just need supporters.
Evan Herrman – Evangelism Now (18:20):
I do. I do need supporters. So we have invitational, we have testimonial, we have acts of service. So the service approach, let’s see, I don’t have everything memorized. We have digital and then we have
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (18:35):
Intellectual evangelism,
Evan Herrman – Evangelism Now (18:36):
Intellectual, so intellectual evangelism, we see a lot of that. It’s called apologetics. We see a lot of the online and apologetics is when you really know the historical context and the scriptures well, where you’re kind of debating people almost. That’s probably one of my weakest areas, but one of my more fascinating areas that I love. And so you can jump into evangelism in any one of these spots.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (18:59):
And I’ve been trying to develop in all these areas in my own life, obviously when I preach from a platform, you want to clearly communicate the gospel. So I’ve become a student of preaching on a platform. So studying great evangelists like Billy Graham, how did they communicate the gospel? And then how can we adapt their methods to communicate the gospel today? But then intellectual evangelism. I wrote a book on proof God is real, it’s basically an apologetics book and a bunch of atheists really hated that book. So it was a great book.
Evan Herrman – Evangelism Now (19:38):
That’s awesome.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (19:39):
I got so many comments like you’re such an idiot. You don’t know anything off that book. And then digital evangelism, IM doing the YouTube channel and so I’m presenting the gospel 60 seconds at a time, just one little gospel story at a time.
Evan Herrman – Evangelism Now (19:55):
And you’re reaching 17 and 30,000 people per video. I mean Daniel, can you imagine standing in front of a crowd? I’m sure you have of 17 and 30,000 people, but most of us have not. And that would be hundreds of thousands of dollars to create. However, for your time on what you spend on the digital side of the ministry, you’re reaching those people in 62nd segments and those are just seeds being deposited. So I mean, again, kudos, that’s amazing. But I
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (20:25):
Think this is something that anyone can do,
Evan Herrman – Evangelism Now (20:28):
Correct?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (20:28):
If you have a testimony, if God’s ever done for you, anything for you and there’s ever been a miracle in your life, just take that, record it as a two or three minute testimony and post it on Facebook and I’ll bet all your friends will watch it and you’ll be able to reach some of them for G. And at the of it, just say, Hey, if you want to know more about God or if you want to make sure you’re going to heaven, then reach out to me. I want to pray with you.
Evan Herrman – Evangelism Now (20:55):
I love that you said that. I think you met my wife. I’m not sure, but my wife is very meek. She’s not very outgoing. She doesn’t post videos. And this year she posted one video that she decided to talk to the camera and it was a testimony of what she went through when we lost our daughter so many years ago, dude that got like 800 views.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (21:23):
They probably like her way more than they like you.
Evan Herrman – Evangelism Now (21:25):
That’s very true. Most people do. But this girl never posts stuff
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (21:31):
And
Evan Herrman – Evangelism Now (21:31):
Then all of a sudden her one post reached 800 people. I mean, how many pastors would kill to have a church audience of 800 people? I mean,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (21:43):
Absolutely. Yeah. So I think that there is a method and a style that works for everyone. You may not ever see yourself on a stage preaching to 10,000 people at a time, but the great commission to go into all the world and preach the gospel, every creature is for every single believer. And so there is a style of evangelism that will fit you, that you can use to reach people for
Evan Herrman – Evangelism Now (22:10):
Jesus. Daniel, in this book as well, there’s two things I want to also hit. We have a lot of excuses as Christians. I call them myth understandings, myths or misunderstandings that we have about preaching the gospel and it’s in here. And I want to encourage those that want to learn more. If you do struggle with false beliefs or false identity of preaching the gospel, there’s stories in here that will help you overcome your own objections to preaching the gospel. And then also a lot of people feel unprepared like, Hey, what about this question? What about the topic of homosexuality? What about the topic of God?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (22:52):
Do you remember in Broken Arrow that one time we had a woman who we were not saying anything about homosexuality or anything, but this one woman just came up to us, was very upset and she was a little bit drunk,
Evan Herrman – Evangelism Now (23:08):
And then she got arrested
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (23:09):
And got belligerent and police ended up coming over and arresting her and we’re like, we’re just loving people. We’re just trying to pray for people. Why are you so
Evan Herrman – Evangelism Now (23:19):
Upset? Well, so that topic is a very culturally sensitive topic. And so how as believers do we handle that? Not many of us feel strong or comfortable enough to be able to have that conversation. But in the book it says, Hey, here’s how you can have that conversation.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (23:34):
And I think you have to realize that you rely on the Holy Spirit and in the moment the Holy Spirit is going to give you words to say absolutely. And often people that have serious objections, the thing that they’re arguing about is not the root issue. The root issue is they need to feel the love of God. And so sometimes you don’t need the right answer to the argument because the argument is not the real problem. The real problem is that they need to feel God’s love. And so you got to love
Evan Herrman – Evangelism Now (24:08):
People. That’s presence based evangelism where you’re just there with someone in that moment, time and space, and your presence is witnessing to them. And as we were kind of talking about that, Daniel, something that it made me think of, oh dang it, now I lost it. At least you can edit that out.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (24:30):
We’re not editing, we’re live here.
Evan Herrman – Evangelism Now (24:32):
Are we really?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (24:32):
Alright, so let’s talk about anxiety that people feel because sometimes people are like they feel this deep anxiety. You remember what
Evan Herrman – Evangelism Now (24:43):
You were. I remember what I was going to say. Okay. So a lot of times when we are sharing the gospel, we don’t know what to say or what to do. And you brought it up earlier that the Holy Spirit will help you. There’s a scripture that says, those that sow to the spirit will reap the spirit. And those that sow to the flesh will reap corruption of the flesh. As you sow to your spirit of evangelism and presence with the Lord, he will give you, like Daniel was saying, the words to say in those moments, whether you realize it or not. And I was kind of sharing this earlier. There are moments in my life, Daniel recently, that I realized that I wasn’t trusting God going before me into a situation. I struggle with anxiety, I struggle with some health issues recently. And so I tried to make conscious decisions.
(25:30):
Should I go, should I not? I’m not feeling great. And someone said, Evan, you’re not allowing God to show his grace for you in those moments because you’re predetermining. It’s going to be too hard and you don’t go. You need to trust that God’s grace is sufficient enough for you in those moments and then trust God by going. And I was just like, oh, you are right. And so lately in my own life, I’m relearning this lesson that I’ve learned before of learning how to walk things out by faith and trust that God’s grace will be sufficient for me in the time of need. And so I wanted to add that to it. So now let’s go back to what you were saying.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (26:06):
Yeah. So I was asking this question about anxiety. People that say, I know that I’m supposed to be witnessing, but I don’t know really what to say. How should people deal with the anxiety they might feel about sharing the gospel?
Evan Herrman – Evangelism Now (26:23):
Well, first I just want to say anxiety is a very real human experience. And so one, don’t beat yourself up for feeling that way because if you start beating yourself up and you feel guilty or ashamed or condemned, then that’s Satan tormenting you in him, digging his claws into preventing you even further from being able to share the gospel. So understand that you are in a spiritual war when you’re wanting to do this, and when you start sharing the gospel, you’re going to feel a spiritual war. When you have anxiety, it can come from a fear of lack of preparation or knowledge, but I want to encourage you, just like the woman at the well, she did not have the knowledge or preparation. She invited Jesus. So there is an element to any area or style of evangelism that you can participate in to start getting over anxiety.
(27:14):
And the biggest way, Daniel, that I’ve learned how to get over anxiety in my life is just doing it. If I’m struggling with wanting to swim because I’m scared of swimming, just getting in the pool, whether it’s in real estate and I don’t want to make cold calls, I’ll tell you the best thing that helps me do it is just making cold calls. And then you get acclimated to that temperature, you get acclimated to that environment, and then you’re emboldening yourself because now you’re realizing you can do things that you thought you couldn’t do. And that’s just from the social context. Anxiety can also be chemical anxiety can also be stuff from food or environmental. And so it shares different stuff about anxiety and how it relates to sharing the gospel in the book as well. But more than anything, most Christians fear being rejected by other people. And you know, who wasn’t afraid of being rejected Jesus, and he did it anyway. You will be rejected. And guess what? That’s okay. It’s okay. Know that people are going to yell at you know that people are going to get mad at you, but they’re not rejecting you, they’re rejecting him. And as you face the rejection, you’ll become more emboldened and you’ll become more spirit led to be able to share the love of God with other people with kindness and compassion.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (28:43):
Amen. Well, if you want the book by Evan Herman, just type in on Amazon, Evan Herman Evangelism. Now you’ll be able to find the book. Go to his website Evangelism Now Us. And let’s finish up today, Evan, by praying for people that maybe have anxiety about sharing their faith, would you go ahead and pray for them?
Evan Herrman – Evangelism Now (29:08):
Gracious Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, I thank you for the work of the cross that you have gone through to give us freedom from our sin and salvation, from the corruption of sin so that we can live eternally with you. Father, I thank you that you faced and your son faced separation of each other, that Jesus faced physical torture and death. There’s nothing on this side that can even compare to what you’ve gone through. So let us stand firm and the boldness that Jesus had leading him to the cross, that the spirit of God through the power of the Holy Spirit that is living and active inside of us will help us know what to do and what to say, and that there’ll be freedom and peace in our hearts and our minds that have already delivered us from fear and anxiety. That comes from the evil one, that I think that we recognize that we are in a spiritual war and battle. And we’ll stand firm on the foundation of who Jesus Christ is and will stand firm on scripture. And for those of you that are listening, I encourage you to memorize scripture because as you memorize scripture and those thoughts and feelings of doubt and temptation come up just as Jesus spoke to Satan when he was being tempted in the desert, he spoke scripture, I encourage you to speak scripture over your life, over your heart, over your mind, and over your circumstances and situations. We speak peace. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (30:49):
Amen.
Evangelism Podcast Host (30:50):
Are you called by God to be an evangelist? Do you want to lead millions of people to Jesus? Do you desire to be trained in the practical side of building a ministry? Then check out the Daniel King’s School of Evangelism. Learn how to be an effective evangelist from Dr. Daniel King’s 20 plus years of experience. Daniel King has done crusades all over the world in over 70 nations and is seen over 2 million people give their lives to Jesus. But it wasn’t easy. There was no crusade school. So Daniel traveled the world learning from and observing top evangelists, noticing how they successfully won souls for Christ. Now he wants to share decades of knowledge and experience with you. Topics of the Daniel King School of Evangelism include what is an evangelist, how to be a master soul winner, how to give antar call, how to organize a crusade, how to raise money for your ministry and much more. If you want to be an evangelist, but don’t know where to start, the Daniel King School of Evangelism is for you. Enroll today in the School of Evangelism by going to Daniel King ministries.com/evangelism.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (31:50):
Thanks so much for listening today. I am excited about telling people about Jesus, and I want to invite you to be a part of helping us to rescue people from Hell and take them with us to heaven. There’s two things you can do to help. First of all, can you go find the Evangelism podcast on Apple iTunes and leave us a positive review by giving a review. You will help other people find these valuable resources about sharing our faith. And second, would you become a financial partner with King Ministries. Every single dollar that people give us enables us to lead at least one person to Jesus. And so that means for only $1, you can help start a party in heaven. And so today I want to invite you to become a monthly partner. You can start out for just a dollar, but if God puts it on your heart to do more, of course you can do more. But please go to king ministries.com and become a monthly partner with us today to help us to lead more people to Jesus. Thank you so much, and God bless you.
Evangelism Podcast Host (33:11):
For more information about how to share your faith or to financially support our worldwide evangelistic outreaches, visit king ministries.com. Again, that’s king ministries.com.