Daniel Bäckrud is young but he has already visited many countries to preach the Gospel. God gave him a vision of an island in Indonesia and he found an unreached people group on that island. Today we talk about his plans to reach out to this unreached people group.
Connect with Daniel Backrud on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/daniel.d.johansson.1
Learn about Go Out Missions: https://gautmission.org/
Transcript:
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:00):
Daniel Bäckrud is young, but he has already visited many countries to preach the gospel. God gave him a vision of an island in Indonesia, and he found an unreached people group on that island. Today we talk about his plans to reach out to this unreached people group.
Evangelism Podcast Host (00:32):
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 (00:57):
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 Bäckrud. Thank you for joining me on the Evangelism Podcast.
Daniel Bäckrud (01:08):
Thank you for having me. I’m so glad to be with you today.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:11):
So we are together in the nation of Turkey in Istanbul, and we have both come here for a conference with ace, the Association of Campaign Evangelists. And so this is an organization that is dedicated to preaching the gospel through gospel campaigns in, in many different parts of the world. And they are identifying evangelists, they are encouraging evangelists and giving evangelists opportunities to go to different nations. And so you actually got connected to them when you were very young. Tell me the story of what happened.
Daniel Bäckrud (01:52):
Yeah, so when I was in Bible school at, in my early twenties, I was picked up. There was one of the evangelists in the network who saw the gift in me and he welcomed me to, to this network and gave me the training I needed. And one of the organizations inside the network was training me as a trainee for, for first one year. And then I was sent out as an evangelist inside this network. And, you know, all the different evangelists and their experience and the teaching I’ve got and the access to different fields, what I have been able to travel and preach. It has been so valuable for my, my own ministry and my own journey and the work I’ve been doing for God.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:36):
So you had a period of training first. Can you tell me what that looked like and what were some of the things that you learned?
Daniel Bäckrud (02:42):
Yeah, so I was traveling on, on campaigns first as just to watch. And then I started to doing warmups to, to pre preaching on other campaigns. And then I got at my third campaign, I got the one of the nights on my own to preach. And, and my fourth campaign, I had the whole campaign myself. So it has been a, a progress of training where, where I learned how to, how to preach, how to do an call, how to pray for the sick, how to show the testimonies to to be clear and, and to, to be so that people can, can really sense that the, the testimonies.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (03:23):
What was the first country that you went to and how did you feel when you first stepped out on a campaign grounds and saw all the people?
Daniel Bäckrud (03:33):
Yeah, so the first campaign I was, and I’ve been on other mission trip before, but the first campaign was was in Pakistan. And I I had a warm up there and I felt that this is the thing I would do for the rest of my life.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (03:49):
And then where was the campaign where you got to preach for the first time and then where did you go, where you did the whole campaign on your fourth one?
Daniel Bäckrud (04:00):
Yeah, so both of those was in India where the organization I’ve been serving has been, been serving in the northeast of India. And we have had lots of campaigns there and I have been also having many campaigns there afterwards. So, so yeah, it was in, it was in India.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:20):
And tell me where you have been going since then. What, what doors have God opened and what are some of the countries that you’ve really enjoyed visiting?
Daniel Bäckrud (04:31):
Yeah, so, so through the organization, I am serving as an evangelist in Go Out Mission and the network of Ace, I have been able to, to do campaigns in, in India, in Sri Lanka, in Pakistan, in not campaign, but missions in, in Thailand campaigns in Western Africa, Guinea and Togo, and also Madagascar. So there are quite, quite many countries that I have been traveling the past five years. So
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:55):
You’ve been to a lot of countries. We’ve gone to many of those countries. I love Madagascar. We did five campaigns there in Madagascar over the years, and it’s such a beautiful country. All right. So recently I heard you share a testimony of a quite impactful thing that God did in your life. You were on a zoom call and someone began to speak in tongues and, and prophetically God spoke to you through this te tell me what happened.
Daniel Bäckrud (05:28):
Yeah, so we had this ACE (Association of Campaign Evangelists) conference online,last year, September. And,there was one of the evangelists who spoke in tongues. And as she opened her mouth, I started to shake and my sight became blurry and I started to cry and I started to, to uto, to sweat. And,I saw a vision in front of my eyes where there was a map of Indonesia. And you have to, to, to, to understand that I did not know anything about Indonesia before this. I could not describe the map. I didn’t know the names of the islands, and I didn’t know so many of the islands. I know the, the, the big one to the left and the, the big one to the right and the two in the middle. But I didn’t know anything but that. But I saw a red spot, God, God showed me a red spot in the sea between one of the biggest islands, two of the biggest islands.
Daniel Bäckrud (06:20):
And I went to the Google Maps searching for, for what is on this red spot. And I found out that there were two islands on this, this red spot that I did not know of before. And I felt God speaking to me, you must go here. And I went to, to Joshua Project and other databases over unreached people groups. And I found out that there are two groups that are considered unreached on those islands. So we reached out to one of our friends that are working in Indonesia, other parts of Indonesia, a woman called Susan Hoover, a wonderful woman of God who have done tremendously work. And you have been working with her as well?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (06:59):
Yeah. So Susan Hoover, a great woman of God from the nation of Canada. Yeah. She originally went to Indonesia as a missionary from Peter Youngin’s ministry. And God gave her a gift for languages. And so she very quickly learned how to speak Indonesian and now speaks it fluently with the accent of the people. And people are always surprised to see her. She’s as white as can be, but yet she speaks perfect Indonesian. And so she has a bible school in Madan, been doing many campaigns in different parts of Indonesia, and, and she’s a, a, a dear friend of my wife and, and our family. And so she’s doing great work there in Indonesia. So you knew that she was there working in Indonesia. You called her What happened?
Daniel Bäckrud (07:51):
Yeah, so we had a sue meeting with her. It was, this was during the pandemic, so, so the, the, the borders was close. The immigration policy of Indonesia was very strict, so we couldn’t travel there. It was impossible to get any visa. So we were, we, we were reaching out and planning this and said, as soon as the country opens up, we want to come. And she promised to, to provide interpreter for us in send one of her staff to, to interpret for me. And I was refreshing the, the immigration policy on the, the websites like every week since. And suddenly in in the spring this year, 2022 the, the, the, the country opened up for, for, for some countries in Sweden. What is included? Well, one of the first ones. So I booked the ticket one week after the, the country opened up, and a few months later I went there and yeah, Susan provided an interpreter that traveled a long way with me.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:53):
And so you took your interpreter, you went out to these islands that are just dots on the map in the place where God gave you a vision, and you went and looked at some of the databases like Joshua Project that gives information about unreached and unengaged people, groups people groups that don’t have any church or any believers that are reproducing in their society. And it gave you some information about those islands and some of the people that were supposed to be there. And, and so you just went to investigate? Yeah,
Daniel Bäckrud (09:34):
Yeah. It was you know, investigating trip and we, we went there to do some research to, to finding some way to, to reach those people. And my first goal was to, to find those people groups that was in the database. And
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:49):
So what were the names in the database of the people groups
Daniel Bäckrud (09:53):
There, there to its Banca and it’s Beletu,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:55):
Okay. And so tell me that process. You’re, you’re there on the island and you’re looking for these unreached people groups. How did that go?
Daniel Bäckrud (10:03):
Yeah, so we wanted to, to like have a local foundation to, to put our feets on the ground. So we went with a motorbike,me and my interpreter, he was driving it and I was sitting on the back and we went, looked at Google Maps because we had no connections. So we went look at Google Maps and we find some churches and we went there, we knocked the door and we asked for the pastor and we talked to the pastor, interviewing them and, and asking, Do you know about these people? And, and,where do we find them?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (10:33):
Okay. And and what’d they say?
Daniel Bäckrud (10:36):
Yeah. So the problem was that we, we went from door to door speaking with 10 15 pastors, and no one ever heard about those groups.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (10:46):
Okay. So you’ve, you, the database says that there’s on reach people groups there, and you go and are looking for the banca people. Yeah. And people are saying, I don’t know where they are. Yeah. So, so then what happened? You, you, you said that you had like a recording of the language. Yeah,
Daniel Bäckrud (11:05):
Yeah. So we, I was staying in, in a home of Su Susan had a student that was originally from this area. So we were invited to sleep in the house of, of his grand, her grandparents. And they were, they were Muslims original from Malaysia. And we, we really blessed to, to, to stay in their home. And you know, as we, as we were traveling around asking for, for this group that was called Banca in the database, I, I had the recording in my phone that I got from, from Wcl, that is translating Bible and, and giving resources. And I played it because we, we never find the people groups. So I, I, I tried to play this and I asked, What language is this? And it turns out that that was Hacka, which is a Chinese language. And it turns out that all the pastors that we were met were from that tribe.
Daniel Bäckrud (12:04):
And then I asked, What, what about all these other people that are Muslims? What, what are they? And they said, they are the malai, they are from, from Malaysia, and they, they live total separate life from the Chinese. And it turns out that this Malai people, they have developed their own dialect of Malaysia, Malaysia language Malai. And it has, that language is called Banca. So the tribe that was in the database called Banca is locally called the Malai because they are originally from Malaysia. And so I’ve been traveling all over the island searching for a people group, and at the end of the day, it, it, it’s turns out that every night I came home eating dinner, sleeping in the bed, talking with people who was the people group banca.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (13:01):
Wow. So you, you finally found them. I did. You you went searching. Yeah. You’re on a treasure hunt. Yeah. And you found this people who God loves very much. And, and, and God led you there. God gave you a vision that that led you to this place. Yeah. And, and so that was just the beginning. You, you, you didn’t know anyone at first. You just had an interpreter go with you. You met some people and now you’re, you’re planning to go back and you, you’re actually putting together a plan that’s going to take several years to complete to, to actually reach these people. Yeah. And so it hasn’t happened yet, but you’re in process, so you’re about to go back. And can you kind of explain what you’re doing on, on the second trip and then what you hope will happen in the future?
Daniel Bäckrud (13:49):
Yeah. So at the first trip at the end of the week, we met with one pastor who is a very, very much a man of peace. He’s a very honorable man. He’s an ex-marine and he’s a pastor who has built up lots of churches among the Chinese tribe. And he’s a wonderful man of God who has done tremendously work the past 30 years. And we, we had a hard connection with him and we have been communicating with him both when I was there the last time, but also with, with phones and zooms meetings since then. So this time I’m invited to, to his church, have a couple of conferences to speak to both leaders and youths and their congregation. And you know, right now I’m building more relationship with him so that we find trust in each other to, to, you know, pull out a vision how to, how to reach those people because there are one, 1.5 million people unreached on those islands that have no access to the gospel. Right now, there are no Bible in the language. There are no churches, there are no pastors, there are no worship songs. There are nothing in their context. So it’s a lot of work that has to be done.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:10):
Indonesia has a unique situation because many of the Christians in Indonesia come from a Chinese background. And since they’re Chinese, they are good in business. And so when they come into the church, the, they give money to the church. The church is, is well off. But then you also have lots of groups that are Muslim and they tend to be poor. And so in many countries that you go to, the Christians are very poor, and then the, the, the other people are rich. But in Indonesia, it’s kind of flipped. The Christians are rich, but they don’t always know how to reach people. I think in talking to them every Indonesian Christian I’ve talked to wants to reach people, but sometimes it’s difficult to work cross culturally cuz even though they’re in the same country, they often speak the same language. They, they have a different culture. It’s Chinese versus Muslim, and there’s lots of differences in culture and, and that type of thing. And, and so part of reaching the Unre people is giving a vision to the churches that come from a different culture, how they can develop missionaries that will go from their culture into another culture. Yeah.
Daniel Bäckrud (16:37):
Yeah. Everything you see is, is absolutely correct. This is cross-cultural missionary we’re looking for inside the nation. And yeah, we, I i, if we do this again next day’s conference, maybe I have more, more answers because we are, we are in the process and we are in the beginning of the beginning of this journey in this province bunk be. So yeah, this is this is the challenge we have in ahead of us, but we believe in God’s grace, in God’s miracles and God’s favor. And we just pray that the Holy Spirit will lead people into the heart of a missionary Yeah. On those islands.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (17:18):
Well, I, I really admire your boldness in going, you don’t have a contact, you just have a, a vision from God, and it takes great faith to, to go to just start knocking on doors of churches that you find on Google until you find the the right man of peace. Who can you explain kind of what a man of peace is? What, what is that?
Daniel Bäckrud (17:44):
Yeah, that probably, there are many definitions, but to me, a man of peace is, you know, the local person who has access to both other churches and also the society and has keys to reach into different, both churches, but also among the, the people that we are about to reach and who has the heart for, for missions, who has the heart to reach people, who has the burden of souls in the heart and is also open to cooperate with, with, you know, the, the person we need to accomplish what God has put in our hearts that the matter. Peace.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (18:21):
Another thing I think you’re being really smart with is developing relationships, going in, starting to, to talk to people, develop relationships, asking a lot of questions. I think sometimes foreigners come and they feel like they have all the answers and they know this is how you reach people. Yeah. But you have to work with the people that are there, the in work within their culture and how they, they do things. And so, so you’re, you’re doing this step by step. This is not something you want to accomplish immediately. This is something that you want to make a commitment to for, for years to come. Yeah.
Daniel Bäckrud (19:01):
Yeah. You know, this, this job includes so many things. We are starting to, to train people during this upcoming week. I’m hoping that we can have a, a group that are committing to cross culture missionary and that we can train them for, for several months, and that we can send them to, to, to this tribes. And that we can follow up on that by doing evangelistic events or festivals or campaigns or crusade or whatever name you wanna put on it. But, but reaching people in, in masses in those, those villages that’s what we want to do long term and, and checking villages by villages to, to to really have an impact in this, in this people group.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (19:46):
Well, I really think that your story can inspire people who are listening, who are wondering, you know, where should I go? God, you know, maybe they have the desire to go, but they don’t know where to go. Well get a vision from God. Go find an island that needs Jesus and, and just go, You may not have context. You may not know what to do. Just go, you know, Jesus said in Mark 1615, Go into all the world Yeah. And preach the gospel. And so two thirds of God’s name is go and <laugh>. And so you have to be like God, and, and, and go. And if you’ll just go, then you’ll begin to see miracles happen. And I know that you will see miracles happen. I know that you will see people in this tribal group come to Jesus, You’ll see churches established. And, and so I think we should make an appointment to talk again in two or three years to share the testimony of how you can reach a whole island for Jesus
Daniel Bäckrud (20:45):
<Laugh>. That is wonderful. Thank you for your faith and your encouragement. Just to add something about to, to what you said of course we don’t need like a clear vision of a place to go, just to go. We don’t have to, to wait on the, the fire scripture on the wall. It Bible is very clear. Go into all the earth, lot of places included in that challenge,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (21:09):
<Laugh>. Yeah. So if you go somewhere on the earth, you are in God’s will He told you to go. You can expect him to go with you.
Daniel Bäckrud (21:16):
Exactly. Exactly. So, you know, I have been traveling as an evangelist for, for five years before I got this vision, having tremendous success in many places, seeing so many miracles and people say to God. And yeah. You know I, I never had anyone telling me what country to go to before that. I just went with wherever it was possible. And yeah. Suddenly I got this vision and I, I have to be faithful with that because not many people get that clear vision.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (21:49):
Amen. Well, let’s finish by saying a word of prayer. Yeah. For these people, obviously they’re on God’s heart. God gave you a vision, and, and so let’s just pray for them.
Daniel Bäckrud (22:01):
Yes. So, Heavenly Father, we just place this people group banca and the people group of Bella tomb before your heart. Thank you that you have created them. Thank you that you love them with your heart. Thank you that you are their father. And let me be the tool to realize, let them realize who their father is. Lord, thank you that you love them so much, and I pray that you will put your love for this people in my heart. Let me feel what you feel. Let me see what you see. And we just pray for those churches that exist among other groups. We just pray that you will send your fire, that you will send your, your, your strength and your power and your will and your, your, your, your eager to reach those people for these churches. Lord, we just pray that upon them. We thank you for all the work that has been done. We honor everything that has been been happening in the past, and we just thank you for all the tremendous work that those pastors has been doing. But we pray that you will give them visions further to reach new tribes, new places where your gospel has not been preached before. Amen.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (23:06):
Amen. Well, thank you, Daniel for being on the Evangelism Podcast.
Daniel Bäckrud (23:09):
Thank you for having me.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (23:11):
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Evangelism Podcast Host (24:29):
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