Brian Chu and his wife, Melissa, have been missionaries for over 30 years. They have traveled to over 50 nations. They have three beautiful daughters who minister right alongside them and they have a great passion for discipleship. You are going to love the spiritual insights that Brian Chu makes on today’s Evangelism Podcast.
Learn more about Brian Chu: https://chumissions.org/
Transcript:
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:00):
Brian Chu and his wife, Melissa, have been missionaries for over 30 years. They have traveled to over 50 nations. They have three beautiful daughters who minister right alongside them and they have a great passion for discipleship. You are going to love the spiritual insights that Brian Chu makes on today’s Evangelism Podcast.
Evangelism Podcast Host (00:41):
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, Daniel King.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:05):
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. Brian Chu. Thank you for being on the Evangelism Podcast.
Brian Chu (01:16):
Thank you so much, Daniel. I am honored and privileged to be on this podcast and to finally meet you in person. I’ve been watching you on Facebook, your social media, and seeing what you are doing around the world. It’s a blessing to be here today.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:29):
We are connected through my wife, Jessica. You first met her back when she was a very young Bible school student. And since then, you’ve been going to nations around the world. Tell me a little bit about how that all got started.
Brian Chu (01:46):
Yeah, it’s amazing. I believe when I was in Bible school and I met Jessica, oh my gosh, back in the late ’90s. So I’m aging, dating myself. I just turned 62. And yeah, we had a similar friend group, and I think her being Chinese and me as well. We already had a common bond.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:04):
That’s awesome. And so the Bible school that Jessica was out had a big emphasis on missions. Yes. And it really seems like that became part of your DNA because since then you have been traveling all over the world. Tell me about some of the countries that God has taken you to.
Brian Chu (02:23):
Yes. Well, going back to Bible school, I knew when I was in Bible school that God had called me to ministry. And one of the things we had to do, Daniel, was go on a overseas mission trip. So my second year, we went to Thailand. Oh,
Evangelism Podcast Host (02:36):
Wow.
Brian Chu (02:37):
And so we went to Thailand, had a great time. People gave their lives to Jesus. But for me, it was really just a checkbox. Because in Bible school, we had to do children’s church, feed the homeless, even work in the nursery. And for me, it was really just checking the box. So after, I remember I was by myself on this little muddy hill, and I heard the voice of the Lord said, “Brian, I’ve called you to be a missionary to the nations.” And I said, “Not me. I’m ready to go back to the USA. I’ll be an usher, but I don’t want to be a missionary.” I said, “I can’t deal with this group dynamics with these people, but Daniel, I heard the voice of the Lord again. He said, Brian, I’ve called you to be a missionary to the nations and I could feel it right now.
(03:20):
I felt the fear of the Lord that I better obey, but I felt the peace of God. And I said, God, whatever that means, I’ll do it. So I kind of make it like this. I knew that God’s plan, his vision for me was to be in full-time ministry. But when he said the word missions and being a missionary to the nations, it was like how you wear glasses. I putting on glasses and I could just see my future was to be in ministry, but in the specific area of global missions. And by the grace of God, my wife and I, we’ve been to over 50 countries making disciples and we could not do it without God’s grace.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:00):
Have you continued to go to Thailand?
Brian Chu (04:03):
I went back two times since then. So I went in 1996. I’ve been back twice since then. It was fun going
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:10):
Back. I have really fallen in love with the nation of Thailand. We’ve been doing a lot of work there this year. I think in the last year I’ve been there five times and I’m going again next week and we’re participating in an effort called Everyone Thailand, which is a goal to share the gospel with everyone in Thailand. It’s a nation of over 70 million people. It’s 97% Buddhist and the church is small, but they are strong and they’re excited about leading the nation to Christ. In fact, the church of Thailand has a goal to increase the percentage of Christians from under 2%
Brian Chu (04:52):
To
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:53):
Over 10% over the next 10 years. Wow. And so they are excited about evangelism. And we’ve seen God do amazing things among the people of Thailand, great miracles, even going into some of the Buddhist villages and seeing God heal so many people. It’s really a special nation. And so you got started in Thailand. Yes. What are some of the other countries that you’ve seen God do tremendous things in?
Brian Chu (05:21):
Tremendous things. Well, let me go back to Thailand real quick
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:23):
Because
Brian Chu (05:24):
You’re talking about my wife, Melissa, she was a YWAMer and her outreach was in Thailand.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:32):
Oh, wow.
Brian Chu (05:33):
So we kind of have that connection that I got called to the mission field in Thailand, and then she was a missionary in Thailand. And
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:39):
We’ve gotten to work with several people that are connected to YWAM in Thailand, and it’s been really beautiful to see what God is doing there. In fact, next week when we go, we’re participating in an event that’s going to be in the BTX stadium right in the middle of Bangkok. And Planet Shakers from Australia is coming, and they’re going to be doing the music. And Nathan Morris, who’s an evangelist friend of mine, is going to be preaching the gospel, and we’re hoping to fill the entire stadium full of people coming to hear about Jesus.
Brian Chu (06:16):
Praise God. So going back to your question. So mainly now, as I’m getting older, trying to be more focused, more lasered, dialed in on where God’s called me to go. So we’ve been mainly working in the Middle East these last five years. We’ve been working in Romania for the last 15, and then Kenya and Tanzania.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (06:36):
Okay. So talk to me a little bit about the Middle East. Yes. It’s on everyone’s mind right now because of the conflict going on in Iran. But I think God is working in a tremendous way in the Middle East, even though in the last few weeks, like the Dubai airport got shut down, which so many planes go through there and the Qatar airport has been targeted and stuff. But talk to me a little bit about what God is doing in the Middle East.
Brian Chu (07:05):
Well, in the Middle East, what I’ve learned, Daniel, especially the main place we go is Qatar. I was actually in Dubai in November, but because they’re under a kingdom rulership, the believers there really understand kingdom principles. Here in America, we live in a Republican Democratic mindset. It’s really, I find it’s hard for Christians here in America to understand kingdom principles. But when you get somebody saved in the Middle East that’s been living in a kingdom, the gospel to me and to them is so much more real because they understand that, yeah, we live in a kingdom and just like Jesus, he’s our king, he’s our Lord. He provides for us, takes care of us. So they can relate more to it as believers now in the kingdom. So when someone gets saved there, it’s … I mean, I love America. I love living here. They really radically get saved and they are all in.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:08):
And they become subjects of the king of kings.
Brian Chu (08:10):
Correct.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:11):
And they understand what it means. And so is that a lot of what you teach on, kingdom principles? Basic
Brian Chu (08:18):
Kingdom principles. I mean, that’s the main subject if you read through the gospels of what Jesus preached.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:25):
Tell me a little bit about what you would say in the Middle East about the kingdom of God.
Brian Chu (08:30):
Yeah. It makes it so real for me. I said, it says in Colossians to have a kingdom mindset. So when you have a kingdom mindset, that’s what you’re focused on, that you’re not focused on things of this world and they understand that. And so for me, to teach kingdom principles over there, it’s actually very easy. But when you try to teach that here in America, it’s almost very foreign to them because here in America, if we don’t like a law, we can vote and change it. But as believers, when God says,” If you don’t forgive, I won’t forgive you. “We’re like, ” Oh, I don’t like that verse. “Does that make sense?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:07):
Yeah. Tell me about your life verse. What is the big message that God has given you? All
Brian Chu (09:15):
Right. Well, I’m glad you asked that. And I had to make sure I’m going to quote this and I’m sure you know this by heart. So my life verse for probably since God called me to the nations has been Acts 14, verses 21 and 22, and it says,” They preached the gospel in that city and won a large number of disciples, kind of like you going to Thailand. Then they returned to Lystra, iconium and Antioch, so from traveling from city to city. “Sounds
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:42):
Like the life of a missionary.
Brian Chu (09:43):
Yeah. And then it says they went to Antichock strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith, too, true to the faith because we must go through many hardships, which we don’t like that, many difficulties to enter the kingdom of God. So a big major thrust of our ministry like you is making disciples, evangelism, but encouraging believers, Daniel, that to remain strong through persecution, through difficult times. And yeah, we go through difficult times here in America, but like our friends, I was just on WhatsApp with my friends in Qatar. I mean, they’re under extreme persecution with bombings. They can’t even go to their religious complex right now because of the threat of being blown up. So we’re going to go through difficult times, whatever it is you’re going through a hard time in your marriage with your kids, that we must remain true to our faith to enter the kingdom of God.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (10:45):
Now you’re married to Melissa and the two of you have three beautiful daughters and you don’t go as a missionary by yourself. Your entire family is serving the Lord together. Yeah. So talk to me a little bit about how that looks like for your family and how are your daughters involved in the ministry?
Brian Chu (11:06):
Yeah. That’s a huge blessing, Dan, is that our children, since they were born, have been involved with our ministry and travel. I mean, when they were little, they just went because they had to go, but now they choose. They want, ” Dad, when are we going to go back to Romania? Dad, when are we going to go back to Kenya? “And it’s not like we have to make them. They want to go and they want to start going by themselves. So when we talk about discipleship and like you, traveling around the world and making disciples, and I’m so thankful to do that, but to me, Daniel, when I leave this earth, that to me is the greatest legacy is that my children are our best disciples. Does that make sense? I’m thankful to go to Kenya. I’m thankful to go to the Middle East, but to thank God that my children are serving the Lord.
(11:55):
I’m here in Tulsa right now that our middle daughter wants to attend Oral Roberts University, but traveling with them and watching them on stage, sharing scriptures, watching them in children’s church or doing youth ministry. We go to Romania very often and watching my kids with the youth till 10 o’clock at night and we have to tell them to come back inside. It’s getting too late and they just love to go. And they joke even here, they invite more people to church than I do. And they joke,” Dad, we actually go to church more than you and you’re a minister. “So Melissa and I are our greatest disciples.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (12:33):
That’s awesome. And I really feel that God is not just call individuals, he calls the entire family. And so it’s really neat to see how God works from generation to generation. He’s the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and so he’s your God and now he’s the God of your daughters. And I really think your daughter should come to Oral Robish University. I know she’s looking at where she’s going to go. There is a real spirit of revival at Oral Roberts University. A lot of people that are excited about ministry and I just love the atmosphere on campus every time that I go over there, the students at Oral Roberts University are just on fire for God.
Brian Chu (13:12):
They are. I mean, I really enjoyed the tour today and talking to the students, talking to the staff and really seeing the joy of the Lord and these staff members talking about how they were former students and now they’re there serving. And I was like, gosh, if I was younger, I would go to school here.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (13:30):
Well, I’m a three time graduate of ORU, so I give a thumbs up and it’s a great place to be.
Brian Chu (13:36):
But I have a fun fact about
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (13:37):
ORU.
Brian Chu (13:37):
Yeah.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (13:37):
Tell me.
Brian Chu (13:38):
And my daughter’s doing the quest interview tomorrow. So I said, fun fact, going back to when I was in Bible school, same Bible school as your wife, Jessica, Evelyn Roberts and Oral Roberts were guest speakers at our school and church. And guess who used to pick them up? Me.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (13:59):
You probably have something that a lot of the current students never had, a personal connection to Oral Roberts. I
Brian Chu (14:05):
Was like, I was the Uber driver for Evelyn and Oral Roberts before there was Uber.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (14:10):
Did you ever ask Oral to pray for you or to give you advice?
Brian Chu (14:13):
I did ask them to pray for me. I was like, okay, here’s my one chance. So I remember I didn’t want to do it on the way to church. I said, okay, my one final shot. So Evelyn, I drove them back and I said, “Would you pray for me? ” And they both prayed for me. I really believe I could feel it right now that that’s part of why I’m still in ministry, just having a man and woman of God of that magnitude, one of God’s generals to lay hands on me and pray for me.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (14:42):
I mean, he was such an amazing visionary. When you go look at the Oral Roberts University campus, you see the prayer tower right in the center, and that’s always been the center of the university is a life of prayer. And then at the entryway, they have big praying hands and they call them the healing hands. That’s what they told me.
Brian Chu (15:04):
Yeah.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:05):
Because oral was used by God so tremendously in the healing ministry. And I remember one time towards the end of his life, God made a way for me and my whole family to go visit oral at his place out in California. And I was a student, my dad was a graduate and we went to his house. Evelyn talked to us for about an hour. Oral didn’t say much. And then at the end of the hour, he just looked up and said, “Let’s pray.” And so he actually opened up his Bible and put his Bible on top of my head and laid hands on top of the Bible on top of my head and prayed over me. And then I asked him for advice as a young minister and he says, “Daniel, obey God.”
Brian Chu (15:49):
That’s it.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:50):
And that was his advice. So now anytime anyone asks me for advice, I just say, “Obey God.” If it was good advice from oral and that was really the essence of his ministry, like he obeyed God. God told him to take his healing power to his generation and he did that and then God told him to build a university and he did that and it took great faith. In fact, when you see the impact of his ministry, I look around and I was like, “Who in the ministry today has faith like that? ” We need more faith because God can do big things. God’s a big God. And that’s one of the things that Oral had on his desk is a sign that said, “Make no small plans here.” And so I’m always encouraged to dream bigger, to do something bigger for God. I mean, we’ve done amazing things, but I still feel like in comparison to some of these giants of the faith, we’re just starting to do what God wants to do in this generation.
Brian Chu (16:45):
And then the next step is to obey him. I’m looking at all the stuff on your vision board right there. I mean, it’s one thing to have the vision and to dream big, but to actually obey how many people are going to do that. And you run into people, “Oh, God called me into ministry 20, 30 years ago and I’m still praying about it. ” Why aren’t you obeying those that are listening right now?
Evangelism Podcast Host (17:06):
Yeah.
Brian Chu (17:06):
If God’s giving you a plan, a dream and a vision, just obey. I love that. It’s so simple. Jesus said, “If you love me, obey my commandments.”
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (17:15):
Yeah. Earlier you mentioned the importance of discipleship, and I know that that’s very important to you because you have a podcast named the Discipleship Podcast. And so if you’re listening and you want to learn from a really tremendous podcast, I’d encourage you go to Apple Podcasts and find the Discipleship Podcast with Brian and Melissa Chew and learn more about discipleship. And discipleship is different than evangelism. My primary calling is evangelism and the question I get more than any other question when I’m talking about all the people that pray with us for salvation and that gets saved in different nations, the question I always get is, what do you do about discipleship? Sure. Like what are you doing to follow up on those new believers? And I really feel that the secret is found in Acts chapter eight where Philip the evangelist is preaching in Samaria, then he calls Peter and John.
(18:21):
They come from Jerusalem to help with what God is doing there. And so we see this model where often the evangelist may be the first to go in, but the evangelist is not called to do it alone. Discipleship takes the other ministry gifts, the apostles, the prophets, the pastors, the teachers. And so as someone who cares deeply about discipleship, and you have the discipleship podcast, talk to me a little bit about the discipleship side. After someone gives their life to Jesus, then how can we as a body of Christ bring them along in their walk with God?
Brian Chu (18:59):
That’s good. Very good. Well, they go hand in hand because we can’t disciple people unless they’re getting saved because of the evangelists. So what you’re doing, Daniel is incredible, is getting people to make a decision to follow Christ. Okay? And then like we were talking about in discipleship, we’re teaching people how to obey God’s commandments. And we just walk through them very simple, just teaching people just very basic kingdom principles of how to follow Jesus, how to remain true to the faith.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (19:37):
That’s awesome. All right. So if you’re listening and you want to help Brian and Melissa Chu, go to the nations around the world, you can find out more information about them on their website, which is chumissions.org, C-H-U-M-I-S-S-I-O-N-S.org, twomissions.org. And go check them out and encourage you to support them and help them as they go to the nations and disciple people now in over 50 countries around the world and still doing amazing things for God.
Brian Chu (20:13):
That’s right. Even at age 62,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (20:15):
You just
Brian Chu (20:16):
Turned
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (20:17):
62. All right. Thank you so much for being on the evangelism podcast.
Brian Chu (20:20):
Thank you so much. Thank you for tuning in everybody. Have a great day.
Evangelism Podcast Host (20:23):
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 has seen over two 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.
(21:11):
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 danielkingministries.com/evangelism.
Evangelism Podcast Announcement (21:26):
Do you ever find it hard to share your faith? What if telling someone about Jesus was as simple as drawing a picture on a napkin? In his latest book, The Gospel and Pictures, communicating Eternal Truth Visually by Evangelist Daniel King, you’ll discover simple and creative ways to explain the plan of salvation. Anytime, anywhere. This powerful book will teach you how to be bold in sharing your faith. Clearly communicate the basic gospel message in remembering the plan of salvation. Imagine sitting in a coffee shop. Someone asks, “What must I do to be saved?” With just a pen and a napkin, you’ll be able to draw the way to eternal life in a way they’ll never forget. If you want to be an effective witness for Jesus and confidently lead others to salvation, this is the book for you. To get your copy of the gospel and pictures, go to kingministries.com.
(22:20):
Also available on Amazon.
Evangelism Podcast Host (22:26):
For more information about how to share your faith or to financially support our worldwide evangelistic outreaches, visit kingministries.com. Again, that’s kingministries.com.
