Richard Gunning is the founder of ACE – the Association of Campaign Evangelists. This group of on-fire evangelists has conducted hundreds of campaigns by systematically going from town to town until an entire nation hears about Jesus. Today, Richard Gunning tells the story of how God sent him from Belfast to the Ends of the Earth.
Discover ACE – the Association of Campaign Evangelists: http://ace-evangelists.org/
Transcript:
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:00):
Richard Gunning is the founder of ace, the Association of Campaign Evangelist. This group of on fire evangelists has conducted hundreds of campaigns by systematically going from town to town until an entire nation hears about Jesus. Today, Richard Gunning tells a story of how God sent him from Belfast to the ends of the earth.
Evangelism Podcast Host (00:37):
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 (01:02):
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, Richard Gunning. He is the author of From Belfast two, The Ends of the Earth. He is also the founder of ace, which is the Association of Campaign Evangelists, and they are responsible for doing many different campaigns in many parts of the world. Brother Richard, thank you so much for joining me on the Evangelism Podcast.
Richard Gunning (01:35):
It’s great to be with you today, Daniel, on just sharing some of the things that God is doing around the world.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:41):
So let’s start really at the beginning of your spiritual walk Okay. And how you went to Bible school and in the nation of Norway Yeah. And really got on fire for God. Tell me how that happened.
Richard Gunning (01:56):
Well, it’s quite a long story, but I’ll try to be, to be short. I, I gave my life to Jesus when I was 20. My mother gave me a book by the famous American evangelist Billy Graham. And after reading this book, I, I gave my life to the Lord just in my own room. I suppose it was about one o’clock in the morning in January. And I was 20 years of age at that time. And then shortly after that, I, I finished my training in hotel management at a college in Belfast. And I got the opportunity to go and work in a hotel in Norway. And when I was there some, I got involved in a, in a very good church, which had some really on fire young people in it. And they took me to a convention that was held each year in the south of Norway, which was organized by a very big mission organization with a, a real focus on gospel campaigns, preaching the gospel through radio and literature and national evangelists.
Richard Gunning (03:03):
And I heard then that they had a Bible school there. And I thought, if I ever went to a Bible school, I would love to go to the Bible school that’s based at that mission organization’s headquarters. After some time I came home, but I continued to pray and to seek God. And then I decided I would take a step of faith and I would apply to this Bible school in Norway. And they accepted me and they said, You can come and join us you know, the following academic year. And that put a bit of pressure on me because I could only speak a few words of the Norwegian language and all the teaching was gonna be in Norwegian. So I, I sort of gave up the job that I had. I started reading a Norwegian bible beside my English Bible. And then one day a friend of mine told me, he said that he had a neighbor who was actually an old man from Norway who had been married for many years to a lady from Belfast and who lived quite close to where, where I lived.
Richard Gunning (04:09):
And I went round to, to see this old Norwegian man. And I told him what I was planning to do, and I said, I, I’m going to Norway. I need to learn the language. And he said, Why are you going to Norway? And I said, I’m going to a Bible school. And he said, Well, he said, I am a complete atheist. He said, I don’t believe in any God. And then he said, But I will help you. So I started going to his house, you know, two or three times a week. And he started correcting me and helping me. And together with my own studies, I, I learned the language. And then in 1982, I set off for a year at this Bible school in Norway.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:55):
Now, the Bible School was led by a great Norwegian evangelist who has now gone to heaven. Yeah. Tell me a little bit about him.
Richard Gunning (05:04):
The whole mission was founded by a Norwegian man called Aril Edvardsen. And he lived in this little village in the south of Norway, and he was quite dramatically saved one night, just before his wife gave birth to their first child. And God had spoken to him in a vision and told him to buy a plot of waste grind in the little village down beside a river. And that he was to build a headquarters for world evangelism in this little valley down beside the river in this little village of 3000 people in the south of Norway. And he was obedient to this heavenly vision, and he started to build this headquarters. He started to have a convention each year, and more and more people started to come to his convention and started to support his ministry. And he started supporting many national evangelists, local people in different countries to help them spread the gospel.
Richard Gunning (06:07):
And then he started doing his own gospel campaigns, and then he built the Bible school. He built a printing press. He had a, a book publishing and distribution company. Later on, he got into Christian television, which was something very new in Europe that wasn’t common the way it is in a, in America. And so God used this man in a great way. And he, he was a wonderful servant of God. He was often referred to as Scandinavia as Billy Graham. So he was a great man of God and a great influence on my life and my ministry.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (06:48):
You do such a wonderful job of telling your story in your new book. It’s really an, an autobiography Yeah. From Belfast to the ends of the earth. Yeah. And so after you graduated from Bible school Yeah. You became a businessman for a while. You worked in hotels. Yeah. Then you started a video. Yeah. Rental store. That’s right. But then there came a point where you decided to go to Kenya Yeah. And become a missionary. Yeah. Tell me about that.
Richard Gunning (07:17):
Again, it came back to this contact with Norway. It’s funny that I come from Northern Ireland, Norway’s a completely different country, but somehow there’s a divine connection there is the way I would like to put it. And I used to get the magazine from the, the, the mission organization every month. And they announced that they were having a trip to Kenya, and you could go with Aril Edvardsen and his team and be involved, you know, really as a spectator in his gospel campaign. My wife and I had never been to Africa. We’d never been to any kind of third world country, but we just both felt, as a recently married couple, we just really felt that God wanted us to join this trip. And we went along on that trip, and on the first night of the gospel campaign we were seated on one side of the platform, and Aril Edvardsen was preaching.
Richard Gunning (08:13):
And there were thousands of Kenyan people in a, a slum area of Nairobi, the capital city, listening to this man preaching. And as he was doing that and ministering, I, I didn’t hear an audible voice, but I could sense the voice of God speaking to my heart and saying over and over again, you can do the same. You can do the same, you can do the same. So to, again, to cut a long story short, we, we, we took a step of faith. I had a, a friend who was a Kenyan, and he invited us to come out and to, to have a big pastor’s conference and to have some meetings. And we,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:53):
It’s your friend Peter, who actually you translated for in the school in Norway. Yes. And then when you went to Kenya, he started to translate for you.
Richard Gunning (09:02):
That’s exactly right. Daniel. the, the, the school took two people from Kenya each year, two pastors. And these guys obviously couldn’t speak the language, but because I could speak it, and obviously English is my mother tongue, I very quickly became their interpreter whenever we went out to have meetings. So when Peter was speaking in a church in Norway, I would interpret what he said into the Norwegian language. And then when I went out to Kenya, obviously I couldn’t speak Swahili, which is the national language. So Peter became my interpreter, and our roles were, were totally reversed. So it, it’s, it’s very strange the way God led somebody from Northern Ireland to learn Norwegian to go to a Bible school in Norway, to meet a man from Kenya, and then to later go down to Kenya and start working with the, the same man. And we’ve been working together now for 32 years down there in Kenya. And also God has opened doors for me into, you know, many other countries to go and preach there as well.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (10:11):
So in Kenya, you started training up pastors and sending them out to very remote village areas, and it, it exploded very quickly. It did. Tell me about that.
Richard Gunning (10:24):
Basically, we just started out the name of the ministry that we felt God gave us was reached the unreached. So we wanted to focus on people in Kenya who had never heard the gospel before. If you go to the big cities in Kenya, you’ll see a lot of churches and it, it things look quite developed. But if you go out into the bush, you meet people who are living a very simple and almost primitive lifestyle. And we find that many of these tribes had never heard the gospel before, and there were no churches. So we started just driving around, just me and my wife and our friend Peter, and preaching in these little villages and sharing the gospel with people and praying for the sick. And very quickly support started to come in. And within about six months, we were supporting over a hundred national Kenyan pastors.
Richard Gunning (11:20):
And we sent them out just as Jesus did, two by two to go to different villages and different tribes and to preach the gospel and to plant churches amongst them. So that was kind of how it took off and started to grow quickly. And then we felt God challenged us about doing gospel campaigns. Reinhard bonk, the famous German evangelist, he came to the time that we were living in, We went to his gospel campaign, and then we thought, let’s start doing our own campaigns, but we’ll go to smaller times where, you know, the big name evangelists aren’t likely to go. And, and we started doing the same thing, but on a smaller scale, a smaller budget, you know, smaller crowds, but still being, you know, very effective in these smaller times where there’d never been a campaign before. And that’s always kind of been my, my vision and my desire is to go where other people don’t go.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (12:18):
So brother Aril Edvardsen, he invited you to Russia right after the Berlin wall fell, Started working there. Yes. What did you see God do in Russia?
Richard Gunning (12:29):
Yes, Aril Edvardsen here. He knew about the work I was doing in Kenya, and he helped to support us there. And we went to visit him in Norway one time. And then he said to me quite unexpectedly, he said, I’m, I’m going to Russia because the communism has collapsed and, and there’s open doors there, and I’ve been there a couple of times, and I want you to help me. And it was a tremendous experience. We used to have meetings in these big, very old fashioned, but very beautiful theaters in different towns in Russia. And everywhere we went, you know, the places were absolutely packed. You had children sitting on the floor at the front, people standing down the aisles at the side and the back. I remember going to one place and, and the theater manager locked the door, and people were banging on the door and wanted to come in. And the, the, the management wouldn’t let them in because they, they said, you know, the place is is already far too full. There aren’t seats for everybody. You know, it’s not safe to, to let more people in. So we saw a great hunger for the gospel, and many people responded to the, the preaching. And it was just amazing to see, you know, what God was doing in Russia in the, in the 1990s especially.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (13:49):
Yeah. So you did campaigns on your own, but 20 years ago, God put it on your heart to start raising up other evangelists and training them and empowering them Yeah. To go and do campaigns in many different parts of the world. Yeah. And so you started Ace Yeah. The Association of Campaign evangelists. Kind of tell me how that vision came to pass.
Richard Gunning (14:16):
Well, a few years previous to that, I, I’d been doing a lot of campaigns in Southern India, and I started to realize that we could go a lot quicker if I involved other evangelists. So I had a few friends in different Scandinavian countries who were also evangelists. So I invited them to come and help me. And I saw that this was very effective because then we could do maybe two or even three campaigns in one week in three different places. And that was really where the kind of vision started to take place in my heart. And then eventually I decided to take a step of faith and I booked a conference room and some bedrooms in a hotel in Belfast. And I invited everybody I knew that I thought had an interest in campaign evangelism to come to this conference. And it was a big step of faith because I was very keen that people would come.
Richard Gunning (15:15):
So I told them, We will pay for all your food and your hotel room. All you have to pay is your flight to get here, and everything else will be paid for by us. But I didn’t have the money to, to pay for it. And on the second night of this conference, we had a, a night for our partners and supporters, and many people came because they wanted to see all these preachers who had come from, you know, Africa, Sweden, Norway, different places. And just before that meeting started, a man came to me and gave me a little Brian envelope. I didn’t know this guy, I’d never seen him before. And he said, There’s a gift for your work. And just before the meeting started, I went out to the washroom and I opened this little envelope, and inside was a check for about 10,000 Pines, which was about 15,000 US dollars at that time.
Richard Gunning (16:11):
And that was enough to pay everybody’s hotel room, all the meals, and also even to give some gifts to some of these guys to help them in their next campaign. So that was really a confirmation that this was the right thing to do. And, and we kind of continued onwards from that. And it, it’s been a real blessing to, to work together with different people. And you know, we, we share contacts, we share fellowship, we try to help each other. We try to encourage each other and, and we meet together once a year for a conference like we’ve been doing this week when we’re happy to have you with us, Daniel, along with others, you know, from America, Sweden and Norway, Brazil, Great Britain, it’s, it’s wonderful that different evangelists can come together, keep their own ministry identity, but at the same time have a spirit of, of being willing to share contacts and to discuss how we can work together, how we can help each other, and to open doors for each other. And I, I think that’s the way it should be, and I think it’s good to see that in, in operation and in function.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (17:24):
Yeah, it’s been really beautiful this morning. We heard reports of what God is doing and Sri Lanka and Bangladesh and Pakistan in Brazil. Yeah. And so all over the world, God is moving and there are great opportunities for evangelism. Yes. I, And by working together, I think we can accomplish something great for God. Yeah. You mentioned how you received this gift for 10,000 pounds. What a tremendous miracle. And in your book, you, you talk a little bit about your, your philosophy of fundraising. You, you typically have not shared your needs with people Yeah. Or put, been aggressive No. In asking people for money. No. You’ve just been trusting God. Yeah. Share with me some of the, the miracles of provision that you’ve seen God do over the years
Richard Gunning (18:15):
That, that’s right, Daniel. I, I haven’t typically asked people for money or, or, or sent out, you know, letters, you know, outlining big needs. I think one of the reasons I’ve done that is that I don’t have very many people on the mailing list. So I know that really I can’t rely on a mailing list. You know, the fact that I have a big number to meet the need. I, I’ve always really had to trust God just to speak to the right person at the right time and send in the money. And we really have seen God meet our needs in some amazing ways. I remember one time we, we needed 10,000 pines. That was about $15,000 for a conference that we were planning in Kenya. And as the date grew closer and closer, we didn’t have the money that we needed. And I just didn’t know what to do because that was a huge amount of money.
Richard Gunning (19:13):
And I knew even if I sent out a letter to people on our mailing list, we probably couldn’t generate that kind of money at that time. And one day, a young man came to our office a couple of weeks ahead of this conference, and he said, I work in a bar not far from here. And he said, on Saturday night, two men came in and they had quite a lot to drink. And he said, As I was sweeping the floor, I find this banker’s check made out to your organization for 10,000 pints. And I thought, this is absolutely amazing. I thought, I wonder, can I trust this? So I took this banker’s check down to my local bank, and because it was a banker’s check, there wasn’t a personal name on it. It was check made out by the bank on behalf of a customer.
Richard Gunning (20:09):
I showed it to the manager and she said, Let me go and check. She made some inquiries. She came back about 10 minutes later and she said, I can confirm that this check is for you. And I said, Can you tell me who it’s from? And she said, No, we can’t tell you who it’s from because that’s private information. But she said, If you write a letter, we’ll pass it on to the person who issued that check. And I did that. And then I think about a week or 10 days later, I was on holiday with my wife on the beach in, in Northern Ireland, and the phone rang and it was a man on the end of the phone. And he said, I’m the man who sent you that check. He said, I sent it in the post, but the bank have told me that it somehow got lost or stolen.
Richard Gunning (20:57):
And I explained to him what had happened, and he said, Well, he said, That’s, that’s great. Obviously God has taken care of it, and it’s find its way to you, which is what I wanted. And he didn’t gimme his name, and he just said, I heard you speak in a meeting and I like what you’re doing. And he said, I’ll, I’ll try to support you again in the future. But that was just one example of many, many such cases of where God has really in quite unexpected ways, you know, met our needs and help us to do what God has called us to do.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (21:33):
With ACE. You have really challenged evangelists to go to small towns and small villages. Yeah. Where maybe there is not a huge crowd, but to go to places that have never had a crusade before. Yeah. Talk to me a little bit about why you feel that’s important.
Richard Gunning (21:56):
Well, the, the reason I like to go to new places is I’m always mindful of something that my spiritual father, a led edwardson, the Norwegian evangelist said, and he said, Why should some people hear the gospel? Many times when millions have never heard it once? And he used the example of Jesus feeding the 5,000. He didn’t just feed the first few rows and then give more bread to the disciples, and they fed the same rows again and again, because the people at the back would start to shout out, This isn’t fair. We are not getting any bread, and the gospel is the bread of life, and we need to make sure that everybody gets a chance to hear it. So I’ve always had this desire in my heart to go to places where people haven’t heard the gospel before. And I think that they should be the top priority.
Richard Gunning (22:49):
The people who haven’t heard should get a chance to hear, rather than focusing on places where the gospel has been preached many times, there’s many churches, there’s maybe been many gospel campaigns. I want to go to these remote places. And I often find in these places that, that that is where you see a great response to the gospel. And it’s also where you see many great healing miracles and, and wonderful things happening, because it’s like, God wants to show these people that, that this message is true. And, and he confirms the preaching of his word with signs following. So that’s kind of why I, I, I like to focus on unreached places and places that have not had a campaign before, maybe have very few churches or no churches at all. I want to give them the priority.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (23:39):
And ACE has had tremendous results through these methods. For example, in Burkina Faso, you started to do campaigns. And now over 67 campaigns have been done from village to village, town to town throughout Burkina Faso. Yes.
Richard Gunning (23:59):
Yeah, we started in Burkina Faso in 2006. And different evangelists from Ace also started to get involved and do their own campaign there. But we tried to have a kind of a strategy of trying to cover the whole country with gospel campaigns by going to all the small to medium sized times. And, and as you mentioned, we, since 2006, we’ve managed to do 67 campaigns, and we haven’t reached the whole country by any means. But we, we, we’ve done a good spread, you know, from east to west, from north to south. We, we’ve managed to have a campaign in a lot of the small to medium size times. And that, that strategy is ongoing as, as much as possible to try and reach as many different places and have campaigns in as many different places, and kind of blanket coverage, you know, the whole, the whole state. And that’s the kind of same thing as what we did in Southern India and other a evangelists are doing in, in other countries, you know, trying to saturate the country or the state, you know, with the gospel. By, by doing these pioneer campaigns,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (25:09):
After successfully leading Ace for several years, you saw the need for a successor for someone to come after you. Yeah. And so now you’ve handed over the organization Yeah. To another, Yeah. Talk to me about that process of finding a successor and why that’s important.
Richard Gunning (25:30):
Well, I think it’s, the whole subject of succession is very, very important because I’ve seen churches and ministries that have collapsed because the person who founded it just kept going, you know, too long, became probably too old and a little bit out of touch with how younger people are thinking. And when I became about 60 years of age, I started to think about succession. And if Jesus doesn’t come back, who’s gonna take over? And I was in a shop one day, and I saw one of these little signs that people often have in their kitchen. And this one said, You can’t start the next chapter of your life if you keep rereading the last one. So that kinda really spoke to me, and I felt I need to start looking for people that I can hand things over to who will build on the foundation that I’ve laid.
Richard Gunning (26:27):
I’ve realized in my own life that God uses me primarily as a foundation layer, you know, to lay a foundation to get something started and up and running, and then to hand it over to other people. And as I reflected on my life, life in ministry, that that’s really what I’ve been doing almost since the start, is starting something, getting it going, and then handing it over to somebody else, to, to, to develop what I’ve started. And I felt I needed to do this with Ace. And we had a board meeting, and we took time to pray, and we eventually settled on a younger man who was on the board called Yona Anderson from Sweden. And I’m still on the board, but we handed over the chairmanship of that to him. I’ve done the same thing in other countries that I’m responsible for, like in Burkin Faso and in Kenya. I’m still very much involved in both those countries, but I’ve handed the, the, you know, the main initiative and, and, and leadership of the work over to younger men who, who I feel can drive the work forward and come up with new ideas, new way of thinking and are more in touch with younger people and the younger generation than I am.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (27:42):
I think you’re very wise in how you’ve done that. If you’re listening and you are excited about evangelism, I want to recommend that you read from Belfast to The Ends of the Earth by Richard Gunning. You can find it on Amazon. I’ll also put a link to where you can buy it on the Evangelism Podcast page for this episode. But Brother Richard, I’m inspired by your ministry. I’m inspired by the fruit that you’ve seen over the years, and thank you for your example and for your faithfulness in leading the loss to Christ for going after the unreached.
Richard Gunning (28:19):
Daniel, it’s been a pleasure to be with you, and it’s great to have you with us in the ACE conferences. We really appreciate it. Thank you. God bless you.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (28:27):
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 (29:46):
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.
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):
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 (24:29):
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.
Jonas Andersson lead Go Out Missions and ACE: The Association of Campaign Evangelists. On today’s podcast he shares his personal testimony and about the amazing work God is doing around the world.
Learn more about Go Out Missions: https://gautmission.org/
Discover the Association of Campaign Evangelists: http://ace-evangelists.org/
Transcript:
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:00):
Jonas Andersson Leads Go Out Missions and ACE, the Association of Campaign Evangelists. On today’s podcast, he shares his personal testimony and about the amazing work God is doing around the world.
Evangelism Podcast Host (00:27):
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 (00:51):
Welcome to the Evangelism Podcast. I’m Daniel King, and I’m excited about telling people about Jesus The day I have a very special guest with me, Jonas Andersson. He is the leader of ACE, the Association of Campaign Evangelists, and we are together in the nation of Turkey. We have come here for a conference. There’s about 22 of us all passionate about evangelism. Yes. And it’s so wonderful to be together. Brother Jonas, thank you for being on the Evangelism Podcast.
Jonas Andersson (01:24):
Thank you. It’s an honor. It’s great, great privilege.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:27):
So let’s talk about ACE and what ACE does. It was originally founded by Richard Gunning, who I’ve interviewed just a couple of episodes ago. And he launched ace, but now you have taken the leadership. And tell me what is Ace and what’s the purpose of it?
Jonas Andersson (01:50):
Well, as the name says, we are an Association of Campaign Evangelists. I stress this every time I, I talk about it. We’re not an organization, we’re a network. We’re an association. It’s it’s rather an umbrella with a number of ministries, evangelists doing the same thing. I’d say we all do we use multiple tools in, in bringing the gospel to the nations, but we’ve all come together around this one tool that we, we favor if you, so, like, and we know is very effective in reaching the masses campaigns. So we meet together annually at the conference where we are now, not this year we’re in Istan. And trying to find ways where we can cooperate better, where we can sharpen each other’s tools, where we can pull resources, where we can. Sometimes someone has an open door and we can maybe send more people there.
Jonas Andersson (02:50):
We can do collaboration. Sometimes someone has money and is looking for a field to sew, and someone has maybe people that are ready to go. So we’re trying to find ways where we can strategize together, where we can have a deeper and, and longer lasting impact in, in cities in in, in in states and in, in whole nations. So this is what we’ve been doing. But the second part is also we wanna see a next generation being raised up. So we, we very much believe in mentorship and in bringing people out into the field and training them and equipping them and giving them opportunities on the platform, sharing and on as we go, kind of train them and, and send them. So that has been big part of what we’ve been doing in Ace the last couple of years.
Jonas Andersson (03:41):
We have kind of opened up, we started as a very you say Northern European or Scandinavian network. It just so happened because of Richard gunning relations with a lot of Scandinavian evangelists and myself coming from Sweden. I have a lot of connections to that part of the world, but we’ve seen the last few years we have opened up and, and relations has formed with evangelists in other parts of the world like yourself. And, and I really like that. And I, I believe that we are gonna see more of this in the, in the days to come. Because the calling to run the race as an evangelist and do the work of evangelism from a platform that’s, that’s something the spirit of God obviously is doing all over the world. So I’d say the next phase in where we are right now, where we’re kind of open and seeking God and seeking his direction for, for the next step, how we can level this and, and see more both senior and seasoned evangelists who are eager to find apprentices, to find people they can invest in to, to mentor and and to, to, to give to the next generation.
Jonas Andersson (04:53):
But also the young ones who may ask, God, I I feel you, you have called me. I want to go, But who, who can I connect with? Where are, where are the open doors? Where are the opportunities? Is it at all possible for me? I mean, that’s where I started. And by the grace of God, someone came along and, and showed me, Yeah, we, we’d invest in you. We believe in you and, and opened the door for me. So that’s what we, that’s what we like to do. That’s, that’s a big part of, of, of the network of ACE. The second thing I’d say is for evangelists running our race. I mean, everyone at this conference and every evangelist pretty much that I’ve ever met in my life, we are passionate. We are, we are vision driven, but very much evangelist can be very alone.
Jonas Andersson (05:45):
We run a race and we, we, we live in a, in a backpack or in a suitcase big part of, of, of the year. And we move from, from place to place and country to country. And, and by doing so, forming lasting relations is, is kind of hard. And it can be a struggle for many. And also for local churches to, to relate to the office of an evangelist and, and understand where we are coming from and, and what we carry. Sometimes that makes it hard to form that kind of relations that that actually will be kind of a safety net when, when the li when life gets rough and hard. And that’s been a big part and is very essential to the network of ace, to, to build strong and last to relations between evangelists. Because in this in this setting, we, we understand each other. We know where we come from. And there is, I’d say we are not just focus and event driven, but we’re, we, we’re also very relational in the network. It’s a big part of it forming lasting relations where we can really share life both ups and downs and, and cheer each other on.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (07:07):
Yeah. And it’s so wonderful being at this conference. There are evangelists here from Pakistan, from Sweden, from Norway, from Great Britain, from Brazil, and even I have come from America and other evangelists from, from other parts of the world. And so it’s, it’s wonderful just the fellowship and our hearts beat together. This morning at breakfast, I was talking with some that they were working with Afghan refugees that have come to Sweden. And in Tulsa we have Afghan refugees that have come and, and we are working to, to reach out to them as well. And so we were sharing stories and, and saying, Oh, it’s so neat to see what God is doing. And, and, and we, we found that we were praying the same prayers together for these people to come to, to know Jesus. And so that’s such a, a wonderful blessing to, to be a part of evangelists coming together.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:04):
And I think it’s so needed, because you’re right, so many evangelists do feel alone Yeah. And misunderstood by the church. They, they see thousands of people get saved, and then they come back to share the testimonies and people don’t really understand. Yeah. But fellow evangelists can celebrate with them the wins and, and commiserate with them on the, the challenges that, that they’ve faced. So Ace has been very involved in many different countries, and I really like some of the strategies that Ace is using to reach nations, because the, the idea is not just to go over and over again to one big city, but to develop a strategy to go from town to town, village to village, and map out an entire region. So over a period of time, the entire region can be reached. And it’s not just one evangelist doing it, but you’re sending one ace evangelist one month, and then another ace evangelist the next month, and then another one. And over time, like in Berino Faso, I think you’ve done over 60 crusades now, or campaigns Yeah, yeah. In different parts of Berino fso and had a, a significant impact. So, so talk to me a little bit about that strategy and why you’re using that strategy and, and some of the nations that you’ve seen that type of strategy work.
Jonas Andersson (09:29):
Well, I mean Jesus said, going to all the world, and, and when I came into ministry a big part of of, you know, the fire that that kind of started inside of me was the, the unfairness in, in, when I realized at that time it was like two point 5 billion people within the people groups that where they were growing up, they would never even have a chance hear about Jesus. Today. That number is even some said at this conference. Now, it might even be up to 4 billion people. I mean the, the, the population growth is, is insane. But this really, this, this sense of this is not fair. This is not right. That was really what, what got me going, trying to, to, to look for, So what, what, what are we missing here? Why are there places still today on this planet where there has never since the cross been a church that cannot be right?
Jonas Andersson (10:30):
I mean and I, you know, you started question why, how could that pos, I mean, 2000 years of church history how is that even possible? I mean, can’t be that every believer in, in church history has been very bad at geography, <laugh>. I mean, it’s not as simple as that. It has to be something else. And, and of course, some places are harder to travel to that some places there’s gonna be you know, a bigger sacrifice to go. And as an evangelist, of course, we, we wanna reach as many people as possible at the same time. So there is always gonna be I, I, I hesitate to use the word temptation because I still believe in, you know, we should do you know, mass campaigns in, in big cities. I’m not saying we shouldn’t, but when there is a BC and d town in the same nation with maybe not as many people, but still together as many people that no one has gone to since the cross, then, you know, in me, that’s where I want to go.
Jonas Andersson (11:35):
And that has been, I, I think the main reason and, and the main strategy we’ve been working with in Ace, we see that in the capitals and sometimes maybe the second largest city in man nations, there has been campaigns, there has been the opportunities. So we’ve tried to define it also kind of pushed the limit for, and, and the border of the kingdom economy you wish, and going to, and I think that’s been, not everyone, but quite a number of the ministries involved in Ace. That’s what we’ve been doing. This is what we’ve been kind of driven by sowing the NA nations, where we’ve been starting this kind of work where we’ve brought money in, that has been the, the aim and goal to go into regions and states where we see the, the church weak, or there’s hardly any new church planted.
Jonas Andersson (12:21):
And then we move in with, with national movements and denominations who have church planters ready. And, and we set up the campaigns. And so far, I mean, we’ve been working in, in India in different states in a pradesh. We started with Richard Gunning and, and several others did multiple campaigns at the same time. Simultaneously. We did that for a number of years. We’ve been working in India and in Asam, Northeast India, Pakistan, we did for, for a number of years, from 2000 and, and three to 2009, I’d say we had around 70 campaigns with different days evangelists, sometimes up to two campaigns a month. I mean, it was a machine we were doing. It was crazy. I just spoke to, to the son of the coordinator. He’s actually now with us in ACE. I’m so happy about that. He actually was the translator on my very first campaign. I preached my first message and
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (13:19):
Yeah, Jabron Inayat Yeah. Yeah. Just last week I was in Pakistan with his brother. Yeah. Tamran Inayat the whole Inayat family caught the vision to reach Pakistan Yeah. With the gospel. And it’s just so wonderful to see what God is doing there. Yeah. And, and, and like you said, so many crusades from village to village have had such a big impact
Jonas Andersson (13:42):
That impact in, in, in, I mean, we saw that church movement had around 70 churches when we started. And after those 70 campaigns, they had more than 400 churches, 450 plus or something. He just told me. Now, the other day, I thought it was around 300 something. And he corrected me. He said, No, we planted more churches as a direct result of the campaigns. But, and that’s, I mean, that’s the, that’s the greatest thing. But you now, even still, after so many years, you know, you receive contacts. People are calling me, People are inviting us to come back to Pakistan. Where you realize these people who are ministry leaders now who are pastors in local churches, who running their own campaigns, they’re actually a fruit of the campaigns that Ace held 2004 to 2009 in Pakistan. Now they’re running, they got saved. Lebron actually shared the other night.
Jonas Andersson (14:36):
He said, You know, there are two guys that go save. Do you remember this place, Saja? Do you remember? They came, they’re drunk. They, you know, they were just, you know, Jesus saved them. And now he’s running this big ministry and he has his own church. And, you know, I just met them down there. So we’ve seen this in, in, in many, many countries in Bina Faso. We’ve seen so many churches planted. I remember one of the campaigns I had there three months after the campaign they had to close down bars. There was hardly any people in the jails in the day. Jails. They had a different system. They closed down. And, and the, the chief of the police and even some religious leaders from the other, other religions represented there they were all amazed at the power of God that kind of shook the city.
Jonas Andersson (15:28):
And this was not one of the bigger cities, but it had an impact in the entire area like village to village to village. And this is how we’ve seen the gospel spread in the interior of the nations and, and have deep and, and significant impact. And, and doing this together, knowing I’m going today in a few weeks time, one of my friends, one of my colleagues from another nation, they’re going to this city, and then someone else is coming to this city. And then maybe a few months, you’re going back again. And you can visit one of the places where your colleagues had a campaign, and there’s already churches, and you can go there, you can teach new believers, you can encourage them, and then you move on, You have the next campaign, and you kind of, you know, go like this. We have seen, you know, the, the, the, the, the profound impact, the long lasting fruit where we can, we can know for sure that the fruit remains. So, so we really believe in this.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (16:29):
You actually have two full-time jobs. Not only are you leading Ace, but you are also leading another ministry called Go Out Missions. Yeah. Tell me about what Go Out Missions does.
Jonas Andersson (16:42):
Well, <laugh>, in a way, we’re doing a bit of the same. I mean all my evangelists go out Mission. They’re involved in Ace. So when we’re doing the campaigns, we’re involved in, in, in what, what Ace is doing. But we are based in Sweden, and we’re training and equipping people. We’re equipping the local church we work with, with most denominations. So we’re Pentecostal in, in, in, in theology. We work with everyone that loves Jesus and wants more of him. And we plant churches in Sweden. There are no go out mission churches, but we work with the, the, pretty much every denomination in Sweden that wants to work with us we pull resources and we send people so we’re, we’re planting churches in Sweden, because this is important for us. When we try train young people and, and we, we have someone that says, I have a calling on my life and I want to go to the unreached for us it’s important that if you wanna reach the people there, you start reaching people at home.
Jonas Andersson (17:48):
It says in X one eight that when the Holy Spirit comes upon, you’ll see power to be a witness in Jerusalem. It doesn’t say, or Judea, it says, and Judea and Sumaria and to the end of the earth. So this is what we emphasize a lot. This is what we teach. So in what mission, my church planters, they go regularly on missions to the unreached, though they are based and, and planting churches in Sweden. And it, the opposite goes for the ones going on campaigns regularly. They live maybe in a place where they also help planting a local church. We travel regularly into church plants and help them and evangelizing the streets and, you know, preach to the neighbors and that kind of work. Then we run a few training operations. We have both to training schools, both where we train, train young people for church planting and for pioneer missions, and really racing up and training campaign evangelists.
Jonas Andersson (18:53):
And the second year is more of a, of a tailored, you know leadership year. Internship year, you could say where you can receive scholarship to go. And and we’re doing I mean, what we felt when we traveled in churches and the conferences, we met a lot of people and fire for God. And we met a lot of young people. What we saw, a lot of the young people, our standard response would be, Wait until you’re 18, you know, when it’s possible for you to travel, make your own decisions. And but we saw the fire God upon really young people, and we felt, we need to do something about this. Now. We, we shouldn’t just tell them, Wait we need to open some opportunity for them already now, because obviously God is already there doing things in their lives.
Jonas Andersson (19:41):
So, so we started the trading program that we call Young Missionaries, where we train people from, from 15 or 14 years old even. And really to do the work of an evangelist. We bring them with us, maybe not to Pakistan, but you know, we are closer in, in, in Europe. And we let them preach, we train them, we equip them, and we’ll, we’ll stand behind them, but they’re doing the preaching. We train them how to cast out demons and pray for the sick and, and do an al call. And then they come back home to Sweden. They’re changed <laugh>. They do the same home back in Sweden. And it’s, it’s really that’s actually one of the fastest growing parts of the ministry right now. And I’m, I’m super proud of, of, of the young people that we have in the organization, really running with fire and passion and, and soon gonna pass us <laugh>.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (20:29):
Tell me about your testimony. How did you get on fire for God, and how did you discover the assignment that God has for your life?
Jonas Andersson (20:38):
Well, I can see in respective, I, I I started praying to God at a very young age. I grew up in a Christian family. My father was a pastor. So for me, God was not something that I really thought of. Does he exist? That was not really the, the question when I was five years old, four years old. Even every single night I would pray for, for those in leadership, you know, I would pray for the government, I would pray for, No one ever taught me this, but my parents told me, actually, I would not go to sleep until I prayed for, for, for our Prime Minister, you know, for, for the, for the, for the Chief of Police. And, you know, it was quite funny for me, the existence of God, that was not the question. I grew up, we, we, we moved as God called my father to different places.
Jonas Andersson (21:29):
And my first year I didn’t really have any Christian friends. And I had to pay a bit of a price for my faith. I was, you know, attacked for my faith and almost bullied. But God kind of turned that around when both, both my class and the parallel class they both attended a volunteer Bible class with my father for a year in our church. And I was like, Yes. But something, something I think was built inside of me where I realized I could be assault and a light for me. It was never, you know, does God exist? Should I do this? Should I be believer? It was more like, I feel so sorry for the, for the rest of them. They don’t understand. When I was 13, I, I gave my life to Jesus. I, you know, I I I always had, you know, my personal faith.
Jonas Andersson (22:29):
But when I was 13, I decided I need to get baptized. And my father said, yes, You know, he baptized me when I was 16 I was in a youth meeting. I was standing there worshiping God, and all of a sudden I hear from my mouth, I’m no longer singing the song. And I got baptized in the Holy Spirit. My, my youth pastor had, you know, I didn’t even know what was going on. He laid his hand on me, and we prayed and, and, and I started speaking new times. And I can see from that day, everything started changing. We had then moved to a place where I’d never met as many young believers in, in my entire life. To that date, I thought that I’d come to heaven. And there was 60 young people in my age in church every weekend.
Jonas Andersson (23:16):
And I didn’t even know. There weren’t that many believers in my age in Sweden, <laugh> at that time. I’d never seen that many. So at first I thought, you know, wow, I’ve come to heaven. But then, because how I grew up, I, I was always around non-Christian people. And what I could see, the difference between me and my friends in the church was, it was enough for them. They, we were 60 people. They had a good time. They didn’t need the others. And for me, I was not content. I, I did not like this. I got, you know, <laugh>, we, we need to bring more people. We need to be out there. I had classmates that never been to church, and I realized, you know, we need to do something about this. And when I got baptized in the Holy Spirit, I started doing stuff.
Jonas Andersson (24:00):
I, I, you know, I, I, I, and also because, I mean, I was a teenager and, you know, I got frustrated with my Christian friends, and I thought they were too religious, and they didn’t want to go for the lost. So I started spending more time with my non-Christian friends, and I had a bit of a struggle. You know, you, you were at parties and maybe we were in all making the right decisions, but when the Holy Spirit came and the conviction was there, and there was power to be a, a witness, I started youth groups. You know, I didn’t even know this was happening. I, I see this now, looking back, it just started happening. I started youth groups soon, that group bigger than the original youth group. But the big difference was most, most of the guys in this group was non-Christian. And then I realized I need to do something about it, you know?
Jonas Andersson (24:51):
So we started at prayer, and I started give small teachings, and I started preaching, and it was very frustrated. They didn’t understand. And, you know, so I was seeking God. And, and then you know, I, I had a dream. I had a dream to be an ambassador, to be an ambassador for Sweden. You know, I, I, I took I studied social science with an international perspective. I studied everything in English, actually most of it, preparing for this. And I added extra languages. And I, I had everything mapped out. I, I thought I’m gonna be an ambassador for, for Sweden. And then one day, I can’t say exactly when it happened, but it was after I received the baptism in the Holy Spirit, one day, it just dawned upon me. I came home, I flung the door open, I ran into my dad’s home office, and I said, It’s insane.
Jonas Andersson (25:49):
It’s crazy. You have the best job in the world. This is amazing. Do you realize that you get paid to, to be with Jesus? Do you read the Bible and pray to preach? This is amazing. And you know, I mean, I grew up with this, and I never realized how amazing this was. And at the same time, I knew I’ll probably never be a pastor in a local church. Actually, I have been <laugh>, but, but I thought, this is this. That’s, that’s not for me. But what I realized is God has a plan for my life, and I need to make that my top priority from this day, you know, school. Yeah. But it’s not, I’m not gonna be an ambassador. Yeah. For Sweden God has a plan for my life. For, So I went to Bible school, I prayed for a year.
Jonas Andersson (26:38):
I actually had received some scriptures that really marked me, but I couldn’t understand it because it said that I should go out into the world and preach in other nations. And I, I, I could not see that happen. I was 20 years old who would send me, I had no experience. I’d never read the Bible in English. I mean, where, where should I go? Who would send me? So I went to Bible school, and my one prayer for one year was, Lord, where should I go? How should I start? The only testimonies I’d ever heard was, you know, those spectacular stories, People receiving a nation in the most crazy way, you know, seeing, you know, fire on the wall and riding on the wall, or an angel or appearing, or, or even crazy stories like they found birthmark on the body that held, you know, the exact shape of the country, then the map, you know, And they knew that’s the nation you’re buying.
Jonas Andersson (27:32):
I was, I was, I went to the extreme. I’m telling you, I even heard a story, someone prayed, and in the morning, the serial form that wrote the name of it, I prayed over, I probably went through like 15 different types of cereal. I prayed over porridge, <laugh>, I did everything. I was desperate. The, the last few weeks of the Bible school, I screamed. I was crying out to God. I said, Give me an Asian Lord, give me an Asian. And then I had an epiphany. For me, it was, I mean, this is really silly, but, but for me that’s actually something that, that became, you know, profoundly spiritual for me. I realized I live in a nation Sweden as a nation, Sweden as a part of the world. This is amazing. I can start now. I don’t have to wait anymore. And as silly as it, it, it sounds, that’s where it started for me.
Jonas Andersson (28:23):
And I realized I’m not wired like maybe everyone else. I, I can’t, I don’t, I love the church <laugh>. I love crush Christian people, but I don’t wanna be here. I need to go where, where there are no Christian people. I need to find the really bad place. I need to find some where, where, where they have never had the chance, where they had not had the privilege that I have had to be raised and actually know God. So that took me into church planting. So I moved to, to the second largest island in Sweden. That’s where I, it was launched into full-time ministry. Really. I moved there. I didn’t know anything. And we started youth work and that grew rapidly. We had like 6,000 people coming every weekend. And, you know, they had knew nothing. That’s where it started for me.
Jonas Andersson (29:15):
And I spent a few years there. Then I got in contact with Co-op Mission. I was sharing and preaching on the same conference as their, their founder. And they just kind of threw out to me, You know, you should come with us. You should come with us out into the mission field. There was something in my heart that said, Yeah, you should. And at the same time, in my natural, my er mind, I was like, Why should I do that? I have no experience. It would just be a waste of money and resources to have me there. They’re doing a great job, but something on the inside told me, Just go there. So I prepared, you know, I thought, I’ll be there. I’ll carry, you know their bags. I’ll, I’ll be praying for them, you know, support them. And then the voice inside of me started saying, and it kept repeating, actually for a few months.
Jonas Andersson (30:08):
Take everything you get, take everything you get. I ended up going to Pakistan. I’m making a very long story, try to make it short. <Laugh>, the founder of, of Go Mission calls me. I actually calls to Team leader, but he passes me the phone and he says he has something he wants to say. I take the phone and he says, Those words take everything you get. And then he hangs up. And I just knew, okay, God has something in store. I just bought my first English Bible. I was struggling through this, but in my spirit, I was prepared. You know, something’s gonna happen. After the first night and after the first pastor’s meeting we’ve had, and I had been just sharing some testimonies and some short of him praying, the leader of this team came to me and he said, We believe that, that you should be preaching one of the big campaign meetings.
Jonas Andersson (31:06):
And I hear myself more than I reflected. I hear myself say, Yes, I’ll do that, <laugh>. And then I turned around. I went into my room, I closed very slowly, and then I fell down on my niece. And I said, What have you done? What have you done? How, what is wrong with you? <Laugh>? And at the same time, the the voice inside take everything you get. And I felt peace, but I said to God, I know what I’ve seen. I refuse to leave this room without knowing the same things are gonna happen. I’m not leaving until I know. And God started tering to me. God started speaking to me and activated me in, in giftings words of knowledge. I’d never seen this in my life before, but I started receiving words. And, and I started preaching there. Brown was my interpreter. It was the first time he interpreted.
Jonas Andersson (31:58):
And it happened. We, we saw a multitude of people giving their lives to Jesus. I saw miracles that to that day I’d never seen before. Lame started walking, people taking off those you know, they threw crutches and started walking, jumped off the beds. Blind people receive their sight and was like, I heard of always saying, This is something you’ll be doing for the rest of your life. And when I came home, I, I continued working with the church plant, and but I still, I realized God has something more in store for me. So that’s where it started. And since then I’ve been going <laugh>.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (32:44):
That’s wonderful. Well, thank you so much for sharing your story. You know, I’m so amazed at what God is doing through you, Jonas, and very honored to call you a friend. And I think it’s amazing what God is going to do through you in the years to come. The world is a big place. There’s a lot of people that need Jesus. And so God is raising up leaders like you that have a passion for going and preaching the gospel, and, and even more than that, raising up others. So thank you for your heart and thank you for being on the Evangelism podcast.
Jonas Andersson (33:21):
Thank you, Daniel. My privilege. Thank you so much. I love what you’re doing. I love this tool that you’re using as well to spread the fire and inspire others. There’s a great need for evangelism, and there’s is great need for evangelists sharpen each other and giving tools. So God bless you, God bless you. Listen to this. And let’s go with the gospel to the end of the earth.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (33:44):
Amen. 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 (35:04):
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.