1 877-431-4276This podcast episode features a conversation between Evangelism Coach Daniel King and Titus Stevens, a young evangelist who has recently graduated from Oral Roberts University. Titus discusses his calling to help raise up a new generation of evangelists in Brazil, where he believes the country is becoming a training ground for missionaries. He shares insights from his time at ORU and encourages young people to step out in faith, trusting in God’s grace rather than their own abilities. Titus also promotes his father’s evangelism resources and invites listeners to connect with him on social media to continue learning about effective evangelism strategies.
Learn more about the Steven’s Family: https://gilesstevens.com/
Transcript:
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:00):
Welcome to the Evangelism Podcast. I’m Daniel King. I’m excited about telling people about Jesus today. I have a very special guest with me, Titus Stevens. Welcome to the Evangelism Podcast.
Titus Stevens (00:10):
It’s a pleasure to be here with you.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:11):
Now we are in Brazil and you have just graduated from Oral Roberts University. Correct. And now you’re entering into another season in your life. But your father, Giles Stevens is a great evangelist. He is indeed. And now you have some big shoes to fill. So tell me, what is God doing in your life? What is God speaking to you? And as you’re coming off of graduating from ORU, what is God speaking to you about the next steps in your life?
Titus Stevens (00:44):
Amen. Well, I received a word of God some years ago that I really think has been the almost motto to the calling that he’s given me. When I was asking the Lord to use me to call me, I heard him say, I’m raising you up, but I’m also raising up with a generation. I don’t want just one or two great men of God. I want a generation of great men and women of God. So that really spoke to me and I’ve seen how the Lord has now aligned me in this way to I hope a kind of trailblazer for others. So like you said, I’ve got big shoes to fill because my dad is a great big trailblazer for me. I remember
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:22):
A few years ago I interviewed your father. At that time I think we were in Norway.
Titus Stevens (01:27):
Yes.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:28):
And I sat down with your father and I was so impressed. He was sharing with me what God is doing through the church here in Brazil. And your father has really been helping the church to grow, just teaching on evangelism, which I think is really beautiful that I think every evangelist should help local churches to
Titus Stevens (01:49):
Growly. Absolutely. That’s really what burns on my heart. I’m part of a youth network within the churches here called the Free Radical Movement. And we are radically a free for Jesus. That’s the goal that we can live radical lives for him. But the goal of me being in there is really to stir up the gift of the
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:03):
Evangelist
Titus Stevens (02:04):
Because we have young people around Brazil, literally in every corner and around the globe in this movement who are on fire for the Lord every week are being filled up with the word of God. And now all we’re doing is equipping them with the right tools for them to go, for them to call people from the streets to preach, for them to call people into their cell groups. So we’ve been seeing a great multiplication, and I went to OIU to really learn more about the word so that I can raise up others with me to learn more about evangelism so I could raise up others with me. And now I’m training thousands of leaders within the church to put on evangelistic events. And that’s my heart to go to a city, to go into the schools to do a youth event in the town squares like a youth crusade. But in that process to teach the leaders, this is how you can do it. I don’t need to come back anymore. You do it now. So that’s really the goal that’s been burning on my heart. But also we’ve been seeing so multiplication here in Brazil through these evangelistic strategies. So I believe this was going to grow and grow.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (03:05):
Now, I love Oral Roberts University. I have three degrees from ORU, and I love the leadership of Dr. Billy Wilson. He is a great visionary and there is really a spirit of revival on campus at ORU. Absolutely. Talk to me a little bit about some of the key lessons that you learned while you’re at ORU and what you’re carrying with you as you now launch into this next phase of your
Titus Stevens (03:32):
Life. I think one of the wonderful things about OU is it’s so diverse and there are people from every single background, and it’s amazing to see how the Lord is using each and every single one. I think an important lesson I learned from that was it’s not about you. It doesn’t matter where you came from, doesn’t matter your upbringing. Doesn’t matter if you’re rich or poor, you or Gentile. The purpose is the Lord has something to do here on the earth and he’s calling people to be a part of it. And if you want to be a part of it, he will gladly accept you in and throw you right into the deep end to get going. And that’s what I think I really saw at OYU, is that people from all different cultures, backgrounds, even denominations, but just with the same passion and hunger to be used by God. And I got to see all my people around me being used by God, and I thought, boy, that’s what I want to do. The message I want to share with the world doesn’t matter who you are, the Lord wants to use you.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:29):
Now as you graduated, God gave you several potential opportunities, but you really felt like God was calling you back to Brazil. Yeah, absolutely. Why Brazil? What is so special about what God is doing in this nation right now?
Titus Stevens (04:44):
I feel like Brazil, in 50 years time, people will talk about how Brazil was the training ground for the missionaries.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:51):
Wow.
Titus Stevens (04:52):
And I think we’re living that right now. And I had a clear word of God in my heart. Like you said, I had some wonderful opportunities in the United States, in Europe as well. But I had a clear word of God to come to Brazil to be trained. And that kind of seems weird because I’d just spent three years being trained. But I saw this opportunity as to become the man of God that God has dreamed of me being, that God has preparing me to be so that I can reach the nations. And I see Brazil prophetically as a place for that. I see young people coming to Brazil, young people in Brazil who the Lord is training and preparing to shoot out to spread out into the nations. So I really do believe that we’re going to look back, if the Lord hasn’t come back already, we’re going to look back and say, wow, Brazil was one of the key places that the Lord used to train up the next generation of evangelists. I really do see that.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:44):
And I believe God is raising up a young generation of evangelists. You’re still young yourself. What message would you give to young people who want to be used by God, that have to be used by God? What would you say to a young person?
Titus Stevens (06:00):
I would say that I think the number one issue that stops young people from being used by God is because they set some sort of condition for themselves to be used by God. And I want to tell you, I have a verse. That’s the verse that guides me. It’s Titus two. I know Tus, you have a great name. Yeah, great name. You got to go with Titus. I’ve always liked Daniel personally as a Bible character. Exactly.
(06:23):
But it’s in Titus two, verse 11, 12 and 13, and Titus two 11 says that the grace of God that appeared for salvation rule men, then verse 12 says, now, teaches us how to walk, teaches us how to resist the world, teaches us how to live a godly life, how to live a righteous life, but also a pies life for God. So I think a lot of young people, they get grace for salvation, but then they think that to work for God, it’s on them. But the truth of scripture is, is that actually it’s the Holy Spirit. Actually, it’s the grace of God in your life. That same grace that saved you, that same unconditional love is not going to teach you how to walk with God, going to teach you how to flow in your ministry. So don’t be afraid. Don’t think, oh, I’m not good enough.
(07:10):
I’m not holy enough. I’m not ready enough. You never will be. But as soon as you rest and trust in the grace of God to teach you, you’re going to see how the Lord is going to raise you up as a mighty man and a mighty woman of God who walks in his ways, who walks in his righteousness and can build the kingdom that he’s building here on the earth through your life. So that was the message that really broke me out of that space of bondage, of limiting, and just saying, Hey, it’s not because of me, it’s because of him. And that grace is what teaches me to move forward. So that’s the message I give to you. Don’t create conditions. It’s unconditional trust in the Lord and he will teach you.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (07:50):
Amen. Well, I know that your father has some great resources for evangelists. And so first I want you to share with me your father’s website, and then I want you to tell me how people can get in touch with you if you have an Instagram account, or what’s the best way for people to get connected to you?
Titus Stevens (08:10):
Absolutely. So my dad, he has some very strategic evangelistic material. Two of the most famous ones are the 11th question. In the last 20 years, we’ve probably given out over half a million of them.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:22):
Wow.
Titus Stevens (08:23):
And these are evangelistic booklets that are super easy for you to simply give to someone and they can read, and it will literally guide them through to a prayer of salvation, but also super easy for you to get to know and to preach. So you can sit down with a coffee with someone, get up on a stage and preach the booklet. And it always ends with an altar call and a call for salvation. The other one is a newer one called Seven Good Things that maybe you don’t know. And it’s just a really engaging way to start talking about the gospel through stories to a person who might be resistant, have a religious preconception against the gospel, and actually show them actually the Gospel’s full of good things that God has for you. He loves you, and it brings them into a relationship with Christ.
(09:08):
So you can get those books on Amazon, on Kindle, on my father’s website, giles stevens.org and myself. You can follow me on Instagram. You can follow me on YouTube. It’s literally just my name, Titus Stevens. You’ll find me there. My Instagram is a good picture of me graduating at OIU, which I’m very still very proud of. And it was a cool moment. So follow me there. I’m always posting about the evangelistic events that we’re doing, but also teaching people online how to use evangelistic material to preach. Amen. It’ll be a pleasure to be able to walk with you.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:40):
Well, let’s finish with a word of prayer. Would you pray for the young generation of evangelists that God is raising up? Absolutely.
Titus Stevens (09:48):
Absolutely. Hallelujah. Father, I thank you that you are doing a supernatural, wonderful, super abounding gracious work amongst our generation Lord.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:58):
Yes.
Titus Stevens (09:58):
A generation that had everything against it, Lord, that all the statistics said that would be the most difficult of the generations. But we’ve been seeing a great revival, and I believe, Lord, that is your grace and favor upon us Lord. So continue to raise up Lord. Ministers, I believe there are people watching this podcast right now who are like me, young, inexperienced, but have a heart to serve the Lord. Lord, make this fire burn faster and harder and greater in their hearts. Lord, continue to raise up ministers in our generation. And Lord, we believe that we will see the greatest harvest of souls through our generation. In Jesus mighty name, may you be greatly blessed. Amen. Thank you, Titus for being on the
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (10:45):
Evangelism podcast. It’s a wonderful
Titus Stevens (10:47):
Pleasure to be here.
Sergio Carriel is a Brazilian missionary who has been serving in Africa for 19 years, starting in Mozambique and then expanding to other African countries like Malawi, Uganda, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Kenya. He has experienced many miracles and conversions during his evangelistic crusades in Africa, including healings and deliverance from demonic oppression. Carriel believes God is raising up a missionary force from Brazil to go to other nations, and he wants to inspire and encourage more Brazilian youth to become evangelists and missionaries. He has faced challenges in getting financial support from churches in Brazil, who often focus more on local needs rather than global missions. Carriel hopes to see the Brazilian church invest more in sending missionaries worldwide.
Transcript:
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:01):
Welcome to the Evangelism Podcast. I’m Daniel King. I’m excited about telling people about Jesus today. I have a very special guest with me, Sergio Carriel from Brazil. It’s so nice to meet you. God bless you. Nice to meet
Sergio Carriel (00:14):
You, sir.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:15):
Thank you for being on the Evangelism Podcast. Now you are very unique because you are Brazilian and you are serving God right now in Africa, actually living in Nairobi, Kenya. And so talk to me about how you became a missionary from Brazil to Africa. Praise the Lord.
Sergio Carriel (00:39):
First of all, I want to say thank you Evangelist and Dr. Daniel King. It’s a big privilege for me, a great honor and privilege to be part of this podcast. So I’m Brazilian, and I’m born in Sao Paulo, the couch side of Sao Paulo. God called me to Africa in 2006, 2006, and I came to the first time in Africa and I start to preach the gospel in Mozambique, in Mozambique.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:24):
Now, Mozambique is unique in Africa because they were colonized by Portugal. So they speak Portuguese.
Sergio Carriel (01:33):
Yes.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:33):
And so that’s a good place for Brazilian missionaries to go.
Sergio Carriel (01:38):
In that time I could not speak English, nothing, and only Portuguese. Then I start in Mozambique, and then I faced many, many challenges, challenges there. And I came back to Brazil, and then I was praying to come back in Africa again, but I could not, because I had no money, no resources, no one trusted me like a missionary, and no one want to support me, even my church. But I was praying and fast and God gave me a vision. And I saw in that vision a prison. And behind the jail, behind the prison, I saw behind the barn, I saw many African people. And I was out of the prison with my Bible in my hands. And God told me, you must come back and continue to preach the gospel in Africa because you have the key to open the doors, to open the door of the prison and let these people go. So then I came back to Africa again in Mozambique again. Wow. Yeah. So then I was in the middle of the jungle in Mozambique, tried to preach for one man, but he doesn’t understand Portuguese. And he told me I’m speak English, but I could not speak English. And then I say, Lord, helping me to speak English. And then the Holy Spirit helping me and I start to speak English. Then I went in Malawi because they speak English there, Uganda, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Kenya,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:02):
Ethiopia. Wow. And so I’ve been to Ethiopia many times. And I know that you have been to Ethiopia doing crusades many times now. In fact, you have a crusade coming up very soon in Ethiopia. So tell me about some of the miracles that you’ve seen God do in Ethiopia. Wow.
Sergio Carriel (04:25):
There is a lot of miracles that Jesus did in Ethiopia, in Africa, but there is one of a miracle that I can’t forget the people in the Ade. They brought a woman. They brought a woman, she was mad, and she was captive by chains, and they throw her in the stage in the platform. And then they asked me to pray for her. And I start, I thought, oh my God, if this woman continue to be the same, if it’s nothing happened, what’s going to happen to me? My reputation as a evangelist,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:17):
She was held by physical chains. And you had some fears that were holding you as chains from doing what God
Sergio Carriel (05:25):
Wanted. Yes,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:25):
I
Sergio Carriel (05:26):
Feel some fear in my heart. And then I ask the pastors to join with me and pray with me. They refuse. They refuse. And then I say, oh Lord, I believe nothing is so hard for you. And then I prayed for that woman in Jesus’ name, and the demons left heart and she become free. She got healing and she gave her life to Jesus. And she started to testify in that big crowd, they realized that nothing is impossible with Jesus Christ. Wow. Hallelujah. And another miracle, there was another woman, she could not feed the baby because the milk stopped and she came for the crusade and Jesus started her and the milk started to come out. Wow. She could not feed the baby for one year, and then the milk start to come. And she testified in the cro and the multitude there, they believe Jesus. They gave their life to Jesus Christ.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (06:42):
Wow. Praise God. Amen. Many years ago, God spoke to me and he said that the mission field shall become a mission force. And so for many years from the West, they’ve looked at Brazil as a mission field and people send missionaries to Brazil. The missionaries come, they work here. But now if you look at the church in Brazil, the church in Brazil is very strong. The fire of God is very strong here. In fact, I would say that the fire of God is stronger in Brazil than we even see in America. And the Brazilian church, they know how to pray, they’re on fire. But now I believe that God wants to raise up a missionary force from Brazil to go to other nations. And you are one of those Brazilian evangelists sent out by Brazil as a missionary to Africa. And so what would you say to other Brazilians who are wondering if they maybe are called to be missionaries?
Sergio Carriel (07:54):
I can say to them that if God use me, I’m nothing. I am Mr. Zero. If God uses me, he can use everybody.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:06):
Everyone.
Sergio Carriel (08:09):
Yeah. God saved me. I was lost in alcohol and drugs, and Jesus saved my life. I was mechanic. I usually fix cars in my garage. And God called me to be evangelist. Wow. And evangelist Danielle King. I want to tell you something. You inspired my life and I’m very happy. I could not imagine to be this conversation with you because I saw you on tv, on YouTube. But now we are talking here. So I believe there is a lot of youth in Brazil. They have the calling of an evangelist. And I believe that we are going to see a big wave around the world with Brazilians evangelists. I believe that. Amen. And my goal is inspire them and pray for them and teach them and encourage them to come to Africa too. And to preach to the gospel in Africa. In Africa, around the world. Yeah.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:35):
Now there’s several African nations that speak. Portuguese. What are they? You have Mozambique, Angola, Guinea, Guinea,
Sergio Carriel (09:44):
Baal, some tome. Prince.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:48):
Okay.
Sergio Carriel (09:50):
And
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:51):
Ka. And so these are a great place for Brazilian missionaries to get started. Even if they don’t speak English, they can go to these places. They can build a ministry. And so I think it’s time for the Brazilian church to rise up and to send missionaries to many other countries, even to Portugal needs lots of good Brazilian missionaries. And even in the United States, we need some Brazilian of missionaries to come. So tell me, how is your ministry supported? You said that at the beginning even your own church did not want to support you. But now have some people started to support you?
Sergio Carriel (10:33):
Yes. I have sponsors now, some churches.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (10:43):
Has that been difficult? Yeah, it’s difficult for me. Why do you think that’s difficult in Brazil? Because what needs to change in the church of Brazil? So they support missionaries more. I
Sergio Carriel (10:57):
Think they need understand like America people, they do. They did like some other cultures. They did give priority to reach the lost and invest in missionaries and invest in evangelists. In Brazil, we have challenges. Most of the church, they think that the missionary work is give food for people. We can give of course, but it is not the goal that we need to reach. Jesus says, go, go, go and preach the gospel.
(11:48):
Preach the gospel, make disciples. So the challenge in Brazil is the church invest more locally, locally like build the temple broadcast tv. And they invest a lot of money locally, but they invest just few in mission. I believe that if the pastors, the leaders in Brazil, if they understand a hundred percent the purpose to preach, to reach the lost in cultures, that it’s until now unreachable and places that no one else have been before. If they understand and have compassions for souls and start to invest and send more missionaries to the field, we’re going to see the great commission of Jesus accomplish it in Jesus’ name. More quickly.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (12:58):
I think that your story will help to bring a consciousness for missions to Brazil churches. And it’s very important as people see your pictures, as they watch your videos, as they hear your stories, as you minister at churches here in Brazil, I think that the resources, money will follow vision. Amen. And so as you share the vision of the lost, you show people how Jesus sees those who are lost, and you help churches to see beyond their own walls out into the nations around the world. Amen. Because in Acts one, eight, Jesus says that you’ll receive power after the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you’ll be my witnesses in Jerusalem. But Jerusalem was the city of the disciples. But it doesn’t end there then it is in Judea, which is like their country. But then they go to Samaria, the next door country. And so God is going to raise up missionaries from Brazil that will go to Argentina, to Colombia, to the other nations that are nearby.
(14:09):
But then it says that you will go to the uttermost ends of the earth. This verse is not only for Americans, this verse is for Brazilians. The Brazilian church is called to go to the nations around the world and to bring many people to Jesus. And so I think that as you tell your story, as you show your pictures, as you show people the videos of what God is doing, then people say, wow, God can do that through a Brazilian. We must invest in that. And so God will use you to break heart for missions open
Sergio Carriel (14:51):
In Brazil. Can I testify a little bit about the challenges that I faced in the past? Yeah. I had a lot of supports and sponsors, and I did crusades by faith. Sometimes I didn’t have money to rent the PA system or the stage. And I remember it’s happened with me when I did the crusade.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:21):
Brother, I want to tell you, I also do crusades by faith. Whether you are small or big, you must do it by faith. Praise the Lord. That’s the only way to do it. Crusade. I went to
Sergio Carriel (15:32):
Uganda. I had no money, but I sold my car. Wow. I sold my car
(15:39):
And I did the crusade in Uganda. Wow. Yeah. Another crusade that I did in Mozambique. And I borrow money from the bank. I asked my sister-in-law helping me, and she asked the bank to borrow money for her, and she gave the money for me, but I could not pay her. But God raised one sponsor every month before the day before to pay the law. That money was in my account. Wow. Yeah. So now it’s not necessary. I am blessed because more people is helping me and trust in the vision that God gave me, believe in the dreams and the vision that God gave me. But still, I have some challenges, but I never give up. Amen. Never.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (16:49):
Amen. And I believe God will continue to give you more and more resources to use for his kingdom. Amen. Because now you have shown yourself faithful. So how many years have you been working in Africa now?
Sergio Carriel (17:03):
19 years. Wow. 19 years. Wow. Since 2006. I continue to trust in the Lord and feel compassion for soul and dreams about reach more cultures in Africa, more crusades, more seminars, more outreach, more evangelism, more training.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (17:29):
Amen. Well, let’s finish by saying a prayer for God to raise up more missionaries from Brazil. And instead of praying in English, why don’t you pray in Portuguese and pray that God will raise up many missionaries from Brazil to go to the nations of the world. Amen,
Sergio Carriel (19:12):
Man.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (19:14):
Brother, thank you so much for being on the Evangelism podcast. Welcome, sir.
Lana Vasquez is a missionary in Thailand who runs an international organization that rescues and cares for sexually exploited children in Thailand and Brazil. Her organization, Life Impact International, rescues, protects, and provides long-term care for vulnerable children, while also sharing the gospel with them.
Learn more about Lana Vasquez: https://lifeimpactintl.org/
Transcript:
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:00):
Welcome to the Evangelism Podcast. I’m Daniel King. I’m excited about telling people about Jesus today. I have a very special guest with me, Lana Vasquez. Thank you so much for being on the Evangelism Podcast.
Lana Vasquez (00:10):
Thank you for having me.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:12):
Now you and I are friends from Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Lana Vasquez (00:14):
Yes, sir.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:15):
And you know my wife Jessica?
Lana Vasquez (00:17):
Yes.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:17):
And you are living in Thailand?
Lana Vasquez (00:20):
Yes, sir.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:21):
And so tell me about how God took you to Thailand.
Lana Vasquez (00:26):
Yeah, so honestly I had never heard about Thailand before. I got radically saved at 19. I knew for the rest of my life that I was supposed to do two things. I was supposed to protect children internationally, vulnerable at risk, exploited children because what had happened to me in my childhood and that I was supposed to tell as many people about Jesus before the age 19 because nobody ever told me. I was born and raised in Southern California and I never heard the gospel. Nobody ever invited me to church until I was 19. So I knew that I was rescue to rescue. I knew that that would be my life. And God did a quick work and I went to Bible school in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and I went from California to the first ever of my family to leave California, go to Tulsa, was there.
(01:09):
While I was in Tulsa, I started hearing about children being trafficked in Thailand. I started hearing about eight year olds virginity going for as much as $3,000. I started hearing about children in the Red Light district of Bangkok and that being sold to businessmen and that businessmen would sleep with their children to bring good luck. Or if they had HIV, they believed that if you slept with a child that it could take away HIV or you couldn’t get HIV for a child. But I just heard these things and something in my heart broke and I knew I had to do something. Simultaneously, I heard a missionary from Sa Paulo, Brazil, talk about the street kids in Sao Paulo talk about five-year-olds walking around sniffing glue to kill the hunger pains because glue was cheaper than food and there’s more kids on the streets than food in the dumpsters.
(01:53):
And I just heard about how the store owners would pay off the lease to line ’em up, massacre, and you could smell the rotting bodies of children in the open sewages of South Paulo, Brazil. At that time, my heart just exploded. I knew I needed to do something and I knew that I was supposed to work with exploited children internationally. So while I was there, I was praying and God gave me a hundred Psalms 127 verses three through five as arrows in the hand of a mighty man. So children of the youth, they will not be ashamed, but they’ll subdue and conquer the enemy at the gate. And I knew God was speaking in my heart to do children’s homes in these countries and different countries that I was hearing all these exploitations and abuses with children. And I said, but God, I’m an evangelist.
(02:33):
I want to win hundreds, thousands, millions to you. I don’t want to just have a little daycare for a God daycare, a little children’s home and have 10 kids and float to heaven singing kumbaya. My Lord. When Jesus comes back, I said, I want to have maximum impact for you. And he spoke to me and said, in the Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu nations of the world, there are generations who don’t know me. You’ll raise up a generation to know me and that generation will make me known to their own nation. And I knew what I was supposed to do. I was supposed to go into different nations, close nations and reach that nation through the children that we would reach rescue and raise up a generation to know him. And that generation would make him known to their own nation and stop the evils of trafficking, exploitation, slavery in their own nation.
(03:17):
I knew that I had a picture of that. I was only 23 years old. I had never been on a missions trip. I was radically saved from the clubs of Hollywood. So I didn’t know what ministry was missions, I didn’t know any of these things. I just had this blueprint and this download and I knew what I was supposed to do. I knew I was rescue to rescue. And so in that time I was just praying it out. All of these pieces of the puzzle I say or like I connect the dots. All these dots were being connected in my life. And there came an opportunity to go on a mission trip to Thailand, and this is where I heard that eight year olds there, Virginia had been sold for $3,000 in the red light district to Bangkok. And so I knew I was supposed to go.
(03:54):
So I committed two months and then I was going to go end up in Brazil and be a missionary in Brazil with these three kids in Sao Paulo. I’d already planned I was going to go two months to Thailand and then I’d end up in Brazil. And so I got there, went to Thailand on this missions trip, and a little face came up to me, a 14-year-old girl and she said, I don’t have a mom. You don’t have a daughter from the state forth. I’m your mom and I’m your daughter and you’re my mom. And I couldn’t leave those kids. I became mama to 52 kids at 24 years old and the rest is history. I two months turned to six months, six months turned into a year and a half, a year and a half into it. I had went with other missionaries and they had said, children’s homes are expensive.
(04:33):
We do church planning, bible school planning where we can’t do homes anymore. It’s straining our budget. We’re going to hand these homes over. And I said, you can’t do this to these children. They don’t have anywhere to go. They don’t have any, but I’m their mom, they’re my children. We can’t do it. I said, would you pray about handing the home over to me, handing the homes? It was a boys and girls home over to me. And they said, how are you going to support? I said, I don’t know. And I was there with three other single missionary girls who put all our money together. We lived with the children and we took over the home. So at 24 I became mama to 52 kids, and at 25 and a half I became the responsible for two children’s homes and an international organization. And the rest is history.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:14):
How long have you been there now?
Lana Vasquez (05:15):
24 years. So two months turned into 24 years.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:18):
Wow. It’s so valuable what you’re doing. I’ve been back and forth to Thailand several times this year and we did an outreach in Patalia.
(05:27):
And so we were setting up our sound system in one night market, and as we were setting it up, an older woman drove up on a motorcycle. She had a little girl on the back of her motorcycle, probably 10 or 11 years old, and she sent this little girl over to talk to us because we were foreigners. And this little girl had her fingernails done super long full makeup and dressed in scanty clothing, and she was there to offer herself to us. And so we were there with several pastors who loved the women there and try to rescue women in Patalia. And we spent 20 minutes talking to this little girl and it broke my heart so much because she’s the age of my daughter. And for that to happen to a little girl is so horrific. And so what you’re doing is so valuable rescuing them and giving them a hope and a purpose for their life. Yeah. Thank you. So not only are you working in Thailand, but now God has brought you back to Brazil. So your vision for Brazil is coming to pass.
Lana Vasquez (06:45):
Yes.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (06:45):
And right now we’re actually in Brazil at a conference where we’re talking about reaching everyone in Brazil for Jesus. And so what are you doing here in Brazil
Lana Vasquez (06:54):
With Brazil? So Thailand, when I was there every year, I’d say, God is a time for Brazilian here. No, not yet. No, not yet. So every year I waited and I just put on the shelf and we got property from the Thai Chinese Burmese Mafia, actually it’s called the Promised Land. It was supposed to be a brothel gambling casino resort. And we got this land, and I remember signing for the land to be under the Thai foundation’s name to protect it from the mafia or trying to come back or anything happening. So I remember I had to make some big legal things. I had to set up a foundation and I had to be the chairman on the foundation to protect it and protect all of it. So remember signing my name, and that meant I had to stay in Thailand permanently. And I just said to the Lord, I guess Brazil was just what you used to get me to work with exploited children internationally.
(07:43):
That’s how you brought the mess of exploited children to my heart and broke my heart with that. So I just lay it down, I put it on the shelf, I just give it back to you. I lay my Isaac on the altar so to say, and I remember signing my name to be the chairman and then to stay in Thailand for the rest of my life and everything like that. And I signed that piece of paper. And not too long after somebody that I went to bible school with a Brazilian pastor, he contacted me. He said, I heard what you’re doing with the children of Thailand. The children of Brazil are calling out to you. The Brazil needs life impact. The children of Brazil needs you here. And I didn’t. Thailand’s number one, it’s known in the world for child exploitation, actually has the largest amount of children forced into prostitution, children being sexually exploited for sex. Slavery is Thailand. That was the number one number. And I didn’t realize that Brazil was right up there with Thailand. Nobody would ever think about that for Brazil. So anyways, he called me and said, wherever you’re at in the world, we’ll fly you here. So we came to Brazil and at that time we went from one side to the other, and Brazil’s a big country. It’s the size of America, minus Alaska
(08:51):
With different states just like America. And we went from the top to bottom looking for the next place or how we were going to help the children of Brazil. And every story that I heard was worse than the other. And we had already rescued, we had rescue homes. My youngest victim was a year and a half boy when we took off his diaper, he had been messed with. My first girl ate, my first rescue girl was an 8-year-old girl, sold for $24. And so we had experienced so much, but when I came to Brazil, the stories and what I heard, the stories were worse than the other. And I just knew we needed to do something. And so in that, when I landed, and I always say it like this, you be faithful with what got put in your hands. He gave me Thailand and he gave me Burma, the wars that were on the Thai Burma border. And we have homes both on the Thai side and the Burmese side and how human trafficking works. Whatever the poor nation is, the children are trafficked and sold into the more wealthier nation.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:46):
And right now many refugees are coming from Burma over into Thailand. And so they’re very vulnerable,
Lana Vasquez (09:52):
Very vulnerable. I mean, we have moms selling baby auction off babies even in their belly on the border right now. So we have babies. We’re the only ones that will rescue babies. And so babies are going, they go for as little as 500 Bob, which is $18 you can buy a baby. Twin girls are considered good luck. So they’re a little bit more, there’ll be about 10,000 bought, which is roughly $300, $350 around there. So at that time, I was faithful with what God put in my hands, which was Thailand and Burma, but I still carried Brazil in my heart. So we came here and once we saw all of this, I knew that now was the time for Brazil. So six years later, we’re in three locations, we’re in the Amazon in the interior. We’re the first safe home in the interior of the Amazon.
(10:38):
It’s a place that you have to fly very stealth. And in that area, because of the trafficking, we just rescued a two month old boy that was sold for 300 hays to the drug traffickers. Oh wow. That’s about $5. The mom had 12 kids we’re investigating. We’re trying to look for a boy who was sold at two, he’s now four. They brought us in for investigation. While we were there, we found a baby that she was already in negotiations with the drug traffickers. And then she was also auctioning off the baby in her belly. So we’re there. We just rescued a 12-year-old girl, 11-year-old boy, 7-year-old boy. And then I have another 13-year-old girl there right now, the first safe woman interior of the Amazon. The government has already come to us and they basically said, okay, will you do what you’re doing in now the capitol?
(11:23):
And the only question we’re going to have next, we guarantee you it will be filled in two months. And the only question that we have next is, will you start another home? So we’re working, and it’s a crucial area. People don’t realize this, but the Amazon is known for sex trafficking in the fishing boats, in the fishing industry. So there’s actually companies that go from Florida in Miami to leave out of Miami to the Amazon for this purpose of sex trafficking. What they’ll do is they go to the shores of the poor villages along the water, they send their kids out to these yachts. I was there, I saw a middle aged man come out in Speedos with a drink in his hand, and cat called to the 10, 11-year-old girls that were swimming in the little lagoon right there. So it’s known for this basically.
(12:07):
And what they’ll do is they’ll pull up to the shores, they’ll send their kids out, and these little rickety canoe boats, the kids will go onto that big yacht. They’ll have these big parties and if something goes wrong, they’ll tie something heavy around them and throw them on the other side into the water. They’ll send back that rickety canoe with a pile full of money to buy the parents silence. And then they’ll never know. Nobody will ever hear. I was actually there when that happened to one of the girls we were trying to rescue. And so they call it an epidemic in the Amazon. One out of every two children in some villages are being sexually exploited. And then my Tim took me into one room where all these 10, 11, 12, 13 year olds, they’re sitting with babies on their lap. And I’m used to it in Asia because the older brothers or sisters will take care of their little brother or sister.
(12:51):
And I asked them, is this their brothers and sisters? And they said, no, these are their children. One of the girls that I rescued right now that’s in our home, she’s 12 years old and she’s pregnant from her stepfather while her mom is pregnant by her stepfather as well. So she’s pregnant at the same time as her mom is, and it’s just an epidemic there of proportions. And so we’re there in the Amazon, we have a prevention project right next to the Red light district. We’re in Rio de Janero and we got a crack house and we turned it into a prevention center and one of the most dangerous faves in the world called City of God. There’s documentaries about it. I got to pray for the number three. Basically up in the rankings of the drug traffickers, they came, they saw what we were doing on our opening day.
(13:34):
We had 800 kids there. They came in, their kids come to our project too. And he walked in and he said, can I meet with you? And I went to the side and we start talking and all of a sudden the Lord told me to pray for him. I said, can I pray for you? And he got all serious and said yes. And I said, can I put my hand on your arm and pray for you? Got even more serious, said yes. So I started praying for him and I said, thank you, God, that the blood of your one and only son is more powerful than the blood that’s on our hands. And it can wash away any blood that’s on our hands, anything that we have committed that we have done with our hands. And the guy started to shake. So then I preached the gospel in prayer and I said, and whoever calls on the name of Jesus shall be saved, so Jesus will be call and you save us.
(14:14):
And all of a sudden he opened his eyes and I opened my eyes and I didn’t know what was going to happen. I thought he was going to kill me or something. And we looked at each other and his eyes were full of water. And he said, I’ve never seen anything like this before. He said, but if you continue doing what you’re doing with these children, I promise you you will never have a problem with us and we will continue to protect us. Two years later, they protect us. The drug traffickers protect us. There’s one way going in and going out. They know who we are. We have our life impact little minivan. And when we stop, a little 16-year-old with an AK 47 looks in and he hits our head and they say, hi auntie. Hi auntie. So they know we’re reaching 350 kids there, 250 in the Amazon.
(14:51):
And then lastly, in the place that we’re at right now, Jo Che, the Northeast, which is the capital for child exploitation in Brazil, it’s known it’s an oversexualization of a generation. And this is an area that is still has starvation, that is still destitute, that is still very much in poverty. And so kids will sell their bodies for rice and beans in Thailand, kids are traffic. But here, kids freely sell their bodies for rice and beans. It is just what they know. The little girls know that they can sell their bodies for a cell phone or cell phone minutes. So it’s this that they know that they can do in this region in the desperation. The poverty is so horrible that they know the only way that they can get these things is through their bodies. So we set up shop here, we got a flip-flop factory, turned it into a prevention center, and we’re seeing another 350 kids weekly in the prevention center here. We feed them two warm meals so they don’t have to sell their bodies for rice and beans. We give them Jesus, most of all. So we’re seeing a thousand children now weekly in Brazil alone.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:49):
Wow, that’s so amazing. Sex trafficking is a huge problem, and especially when it happens to the young girls and young boys, it really tears at your heart. But I’m so thankful that God has provided you to help give an answer to this horrible problem. If someone’s listening and they want to help to support you or hear more about what God is doing through your ministry, what is a good website where they can find out about you?
Lana Vasquez (16:20):
Yeah, so Life impact international.org, international INTL. They can go there. We’re on all the social media, but look us up there. We have a whole thing Prevent Rescue Heal so they can get involved in one of our prevention projects, support one of our prevention projects. They could support the rescuing of a new child, or they can provide long-term support for their healing and their aftercare in Thailand, Burma, and Brazil.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (16:45):
Awesome. Well, thank you so much for being on the Evangelism Podcast. Thank you.
Janio Cesar da Silva is a Brazilian evangelist who has been preaching the gospel in Brazil and around the world for over 25 years. Today we discuss what God is doing in Brazil.
Summary:
Connect with Janio: https://www.instagram.com/janiocesar/reels/
Transcript:
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:00):
Welcome to the Evangelism Podcast. I’m Daniel King. I’m excited about telling people about Jesus. Today I am in Brazil with a great Brazilian evangelist, Janio da Silva.
Janio da Silva (00:13):
Yes.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:13):
Can you say it the proper way? Jano Da Silva. Alright. And we are at In Everyone conference with our friend Rubens Cunha. And we have been here challenging evangelist s in Brazil to reach people for Jesus. And so let’s begin at the beginning. Tell me a little bit about yourself and what God has been doing in your life.
Janio da Silva (00:38):
Wow, this is a pleasure for me to stay here to, he’s like a legend for me because I love so much him. So my name is Jean DeSilva. I left here in the country in Brazil for many years, but today I’m living there in the US also Oklahoma. He’s my neighbor there. And we have some conference here in Brazil and around the world, around 50 country. I’ve been preaching in Crusades conferences, big churches, and as outdoor my books, I need to go to some places, school, Bible schools. That is just a little bit about me.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:18):
And so here in Brazil, you’ve been teaching at the RMA schools?
Janio da Silva (01:23):
Yes.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:24):
There are many thousands of RMA students across
Janio da Silva (01:27):
Brazil. I think they have more than 12,000 enrolled today. Wow. Here in Brazil or in 130 campuses all over the
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:37):
Country. And tell me the names of some of the books that you’ve written.
Janio da Silva (01:40):
Yes. I have one book that is used by a lot of Bible schools here in Portuguese. The name is Understanding God’s character In English. We put a different name, like Understand God’s Reveal Self. This is one of the most famous here. They said it is a bestseller here in Brazil.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:04):
Wow. Now, last night we were sitting together eating some pizza and you began to share your testimony of how God called you and how you gave your life to Jesus. Can you tell me some about that?
Janio da Silva (02:17):
Yes. When I was 17 years old, I think I was in depression. I don’t know that. But I was asking help for my soul and someone lent me, gave one New Testament. When I start to read that I felt my sins and I call out Jesus to save my life and he saved. And I said, I need to share with everyone. And someone lent me a book called You Are God’s Best.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:48):
By Dr. Tio Osborne, the great evangelist, great missionary evangelist.
Janio da Silva (02:51):
When I read that, I said, I need to share with the people. I need to share this gospel around the world. And I start to go, no money with nothing. Go to the street, go to the plazas, go to the parks to preach Jesus and Jesus start to heal the people. And after that we start to do in a different way, in gymnasiums doing some crusades, we start Church, planet Church. And after that they called me to be a Bible college professor. So it has been like 25 years ago when I started.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (03:26):
And so right now you are serving with the Osborne Ministries. Tell me about that and what you have learned from being around Dr. LaDonna Osborne.
Janio da Silva (03:37):
Yes. God called me to preach as I was reading the book, ebe from Dr. Thi Osborne. And after a while when I was there in the US I have this connection. I have the privilege to stay with Dr. LaDonna in several countries. They’re in the US in the same church. I’m working with them at the same church and abroad also. And for me, it’s a privilege to stay with the people who most I know that is the people who love people. They love people, they love nation’s culture. It’s a very pleasure for me because it’s like I’m returning to that place that one day got called me to preach by one of them. And right now I’m side by side with the daughter of the great t Osborn. And she’s amazing. One of the best preachers that I heard. She’s a teacher, one of the best.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:35):
Yeah. And I think what you said about how the Osborne family is known for loving people
Janio da Silva (04:41):
Yes.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:42):
Is such a key to being successful in ministry because sometimes you think ministry is about being on the platform, seeing lots of results. But really ministry comes down to bringing the love of God to one person. And if you can’t demonstrate it through your own
Janio da Silva (05:00):
Life,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:00):
Why are you preaching for Jesus? Like Jesus loves you, you should love others.
Janio da Silva (05:06):
When Dr. LaDonna asked me to stay with her, my English was terrible. Today is not 100%, but look at this. I was with her and she said, just tell something to me. I was saying to her, she said, no, no, no, no. You must say that word, another word to reach the people. You must say in this way. And he taught me how to speak English. This is love because was a foreigner. I was a guy from another place. She never knew about me. And right now, oh, I will help him even to preach in my own language. That is awesome. This is the love of God for something.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:46):
Wow. What are some other things that you’ve learned from being around the Osborn Ministries? Another
Janio da Silva (05:51):
Thing is they have never, you have nothing about one for bad news about them. They are people that you can trust. They are people that we can say, we will be like them without restrictions. It’s like a dream to stay with someone that will say, because sometimes we are with someone and said, oh, I want to have like that. But not that part with them, the character, the history, how they treat people. There’s, we have sometimes a king, a senator or someone very important and we have a beggar. She will treat them at the same love. With the same love because of that. For me, it’s very special. You can’t feel you are more than other people if you are walking with the family, Osborne family because they are very humble.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (06:57):
Now, we are here in Brazil right now, and I love the church in Brazil. The Church of Brazil is on fire for God. And I believe that God has great plans for the Church of Brazil. Tell me what you feel God is doing here in Brazil right now and what God wants to do in the next few years.
Janio da Silva (07:18):
I think Brazil, we have one of the greatest revival of the entire world. I know the US has the foundation of the gospel.
(07:29):
So you can see many people without the revival, but they are living a good life with Jesus. But here everything is very new because when I receive Jesus in my town, only 2% was Christian. Today half of the people are Christian like us, so it only in 27 years. So we have a burning fire revival here in Brazil. But I think the next step for Brazil is the foundation to have character, a good way of reli. I think it’s the next step because the foundation will keep you to stay on fire every time. I think it’s the foundation is the next step for Brazil. We need that.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:16):
Wow. Well, if someone wants to know more about your ministry or get connected to you, what is your Instagram if they want to find you? You can find me in two
Janio da Silva (08:26):
Different ways. On website is jc w.org jc w.org. But most of my information is they’re in my Instagram, just put their J-A-N-I-O, Cesar, C-E-S-A-R. And Deto on my Instagram you can see miracles where I’m preaching the big conferences and sometimes I’m preaching in English. I’m preaching in Spanish and in Portuguese. And you can’t just
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:58):
Follow. Well, let’s finish by praying for Brazil and why don’t you pray in Portuguese? Wow, that’s
Janio da Silva (09:07):
Easy for me
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:07):
Because I know you are three times as anointed in Portuguese.
Janio da Silva (09:12):
Yeah,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:13):
Because it just flows. So Yeah. But your English is, when I first met you, you didn’t speak any English at all. Yes, I was. We spoke in Spanish and now you speak a good English and God has blessed you and you are preaching in English. And I believe God will give you more and more voice in the English speaking
Janio da Silva (09:32):
World. Amen. Jesus name.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:34):
But let’s pray in Portuguese. Let’s pray in Portuguese.
Janio da Silva (09:36):
Okay. It’s everything. Very good for your life, Jesus. Amen.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (10:16):
Amen. Well, thank you for being on the Evangelism podcast. Thank you for having me. I love you, and I look forward to seeing what we can do together in Jesus. God has brought us together now, and I believe that together we could do something really great for
Janio da Silva (10:30):
God in Jesus mein. You.
Giles Stevens is the evangelism pastor for a huge network of churches in Brazil. His goal as an evangelist is to equip the saints to do the work of the ministry. You will be amazed as you listen to his story about how the church grew from 70 people to tens of thousands.
Learn more about Giles Stevens: https://gilesstevens.com/
Learn more about the church GIles Stevens is part of: https://www.igrejavideira.com.br/
Buy the book about “The Eleventh Question”
Transcript:
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:00):
Welcome to the Evangelism Podcast. I’m Daniel King and I’m excited about telling people about Jesus. Today I have a very special guest with me, Giles Stevens from Great Britain now in the great nation of Brazil. Thank you for joining me today,
Giles Stevens (00:15):
Daniel, a joy to be with you. Thanks for having me.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:18):
Alright, you are passionate about evangelism. Tell me a little bit about your testimony and how God has brought you to where you are now.
Giles Stevens (00:27):
Well, I’m the first believer in my family. I like to say I got saved by mistake. I was looking in all the wrong places for life and for adventure. I’d rather thrown out the idea of Christianity as a young teenager because of my rather negative sort of traditional church experiences. And so I went to look for life and adventure outside of the church and that took me down all sorts of wild and paths and so forth. But thank God in his rich mercy, he sent along a couple of nice friends of friends who preached Christ to me and it kind of tricked me up, woke me up, brought me out of my lost state and showed me what life was all about, where told me the truth. And it just radically changed my life. And I think the fact that I’d come from a family where we didn’t know Christ personally and didn’t have that relationship and the fact that I suddenly realized there was an eternal realm and the decisions we make here during our lives affect where we spend our eternity.
(01:29):
I kept thinking to myself, well, how come nobody’s ever told me this before I could have died and if I’d have died, where would I be today? And so in a sense, I became a natural evangelist. I just thought there would be thousands, millions of people out there just like me who had no idea about these eternal consequences and destinations who’ve never heard. And so I just began. Once I was saved and knew the Lord, I just thought, boy, I’ve got to tell everybody else. So I preached at everything that moved. That’s how it started.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:56):
So you definitely have the call to be an evangelist on your life. And now you’re living in the nation of Brazil. How did you end up going to Brazil?
Giles Stevens (02:06):
Well, I married the girl.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:09):
Where’d you meet?
Giles Stevens (02:10):
Well, my wife, who is Brazilian as I’m indicating, she had won a scholarship to go and study in a Bible school in London, a place called the International Bible Institute of London, run by the quite well-known church, Kensington Temple. And so she was there and I was a full-time evangelist traveling around London at the time and other places with a big gospel tent and putting it up in downtown parks and using music and test me and other things to bring people in. And then preaching, there was no tomorrow to the crowds. And her church brought in the whole tent and all the equipment. I noted her in the kind of gang of young people. But being a classic Englishman, we have this slight reserve on us. So you shouldn’t really in decent society introduce yourself. So I saw this girl wanted the local pastor to introduce me and he didn’t. And so in the end, at the end of this mission, I went away having seen her thought, well she looks lovely and she’s full of the spirit and there’s something different about her. But I didn’t get introduced. But interestingly, a year later I was in a Reinhard Bonky fire conference in Birmingham and I saw her again. And thankfully by then I had more kingdom culture than British culture and I thought, I’m not going to miss my chance. Second time round,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (03:34):
God is the God of a second chance he brought her back.
Giles Stevens (03:37):
So I made a beeline for her.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (03:39):
Oh well that is a good place to meet your wife at a Reinhardt Bonky fire conference. I know you know that here is someone who loves Jesus.
Giles Stevens (03:47):
Well that’s right. People who go to those fire conferences, they have to have a certain are type of believer. They love the fire, they love evangelism. And so I like to say it’s a good place to find a partner better than the pub.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:01):
Alright, so you met her, you got married, how many years have you been married now? 23. Wow, congratulations. And she’s from Brazil, so you ended up going to Brazil with her?
Giles Stevens (04:14):
Yeah, we married in England. And so it was only really after our marriage that we went down to Brazil to meet the extended family. And we have completely different upbringings. And this is one of the challenges, but also one of the exciting things about our relationship is I was brought up, my father was a general in the British Army. I went to private schools, studied at Oxford, been traveling around the world ever since. My youth,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:43):
A classic British gentleman. Well,
Giles Stevens (04:47):
I trying to be, be gentle. Anyhow, Sylvia, in contrast, she was brought up out on a ranch in the back end of nowhere. I think you Americans, if you can picture in your mind the little house on the prairie, then you’ve pretty much got how Sylvia was raised. She’s the oldest of four girls. Her father and mother had this ranch literally miles and miles away from the big city. And they were brought up without electricity, without a car, without telephones. They would go to town once a week in a horse and cart to go to church and buy a few supplies. And she tells these incredible stories about how sometimes in rainy season to get to town you’d have to cross rivers and if if it had risen through the rain, they would have to sort of camp by the river until it had gone down so that they could cross over in their cart.
(05:39):
And so it was completely different upbringing. But as I’ve often said to young single people who are looking and praying about their married marriage partner, I’ve said, look, it’s not the past that counts. It’s the destination, your future that counts. Scripture says how can two walk unless they are agreed. And so when you’ve got a similar vision, a similar heart, a similar passion, then I believe that partnership can be a success. And thankfully, like we were talking about Sylvia being in a fire conference for evangelists, I knew that’s somebody with a similar vision. So it’s been a great, great marriage.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (06:16):
And what city are you living in? Brazil?
Giles Stevens (06:20):
Well, it’s a place that nobody knows and nobody can pronounce even if they know it well, certainly us foreigners. It’s called Goya. And it’s actually a large city, 1.5 million. So it’s big, but it’s kind of, it’s cowboy country. So people think when they think of Brazil, they either think Amazon or they think of Rio de Janeiro and the beaches kind of carnival football on the beaches. So we are more than a thousand kilometers inland, if you know where brazilia is, a couple of hours drive from there, right in the heart of Brazil below the Amazon and to the east of the Panol, which is the equivalent of our Everglades or your Everglades. And it’s a lovely region, beautiful countryside, jolly hot, but great place to be. Goana itself has no tourist attractions apart from an old zoo where there’s zebra that’s lost its stripes, there’s a lion who’s forgotten how to roar. And an old bear who strolls around. That’s our only tourist attraction. But Ang is not known for a tourist center. It’s known for something much more superior. And that is the move of God that’s happening there. It’s an extraordinary, it’s a city of revival.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (07:29):
Wow. Tell me about the revival.
Giles Stevens (07:32):
Well, I mean my experience mean in general. I can tell you about Brazil. I mean, it’s just extraordinary really what’s happened over the last 20, 30 years. I mean, Pentecostal, the Pentecostal missionaries came in and we’re here at an evangelist conference. So these sorts of conversations we’ve been having. But Swedish Pentecostals came in 112 years ago to the Amazon and started that sort of whole Holy Ghost move. But it didn’t really take off numerically until the last 20, 30 years. And so we’ve seen multitudes coming to the Lord in a general sense. I mean literally millions and millions, remembering that Brazil is a country of 230 million people. So that’s a big, big country. But I’ll give you more of the context with the network of churches with whom I’m based and principally work for, even though being an evangelist, I’m a kingdom man. So we started that church, which has now grown into a large network. About 24 years ago, I joined up with one of Sylvia’s youth pastors, my wife’s youth pastors, who had started this new church with a group of people, 70 people in a garage or on a veranda. And now that church is over 30,000 people.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:51):
And what’s the name of the church in port in
Giles Stevens (08:53):
Portuguese? It’s called Reja Viera, which translates directly as the Vine Church. The Vine Church. So we’ve now got over a thousand churches. And
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:01):
So there’s many branches all over Brazil.
Giles Stevens (09:03):
Yeah, I mean originally we just, the growth is so organic, the thing just kept growing and growing. And then before we knew it,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:15):
Well, if you name your church the vine, you figure it kind of spreads. We used to have a vine on our house and it would cover the entire thing. And so I think that’s a good name for a growing church. Yeah,
Giles Stevens (09:25):
I agree. I agree. I agree. It’s very biblical John 15. Of course. Yeah. But we did mean we were intentional as well. I mean some of the growth came just because people would get saved, become a member. And we have quite a strong church culture. So the people who sort of like what we teach and the way we do church, we’re a cell church. We have a lot of encounter weekends, and it’s a very busy active church full of young people. And so people who have been in that environment, if they get moved to another city for, I dunno, work or something else, they tend to, because of the culture they carry, they love having church at home as well as in a big building. So they’ll automatically start a group at home, a cell group. And so we just found these new groups growing up in other cities as well. And then we thought, well, we better send a trained pastor or a leader down there to help them. And suddenly we found that we had a network and then we did become a bit more intentional saying, well, let’s get a church into every one of the capitals of each state that 26 states. And then we thought, well, let’s get a church into every city with over 200,000 and so on and so on. And now we’ve become actually a growing international movement as well.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (10:31):
Wow, that’s amazing. And so tell me your position and what you do.
Giles Stevens (10:37):
Well, I kind of wear two hats really. I’m on the one hand an evangelist, and that’s really my principal.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (10:46):
The reason I’m asking this question is because a lot of evangelists who listen to the podcast are wondering how do they fit into the local church? Not every church makes a place for the evangelist, but I think an evangelist really needs to be part of a church and plugged in doing evangelism as part of a local church using their gifts. So how has that worked in your life? Well, I
Giles Stevens (11:11):
Think I really agree with you, and it’s not only good for the evangelist, it’s good for the church. It’s a two-way thing and it’s good for the family of the evangelists. You can’t just be out there on your own all the time. You should be in a community of believers. And in a sense, I mean I’ve always operated like this. My call as an evangelist is principally to my local church or to the group of local churches with whom I’m based. But obviously evangelists are kingdom people as we referred to earlier because we’re preaching the gospel to get people saved and to join a church. So we work with other churches as well. But for me, I think every evangelist needs to champion the local church. Christ is coming back for the church, it’s the church that will be raptured, the church is his bride.
(11:57):
And so the idea of having, even if you have a parachurch organization, you’re not building up that organization. You’re actually using your parachurch organization, your charity, your not-for-profit to build the local church. And I think pastors, they’ve had an uneasy relationship with evangelists over the years. They perhaps felt threatened by them or they feel that they might be pulling their flock away. But I think if evangelists express that and show that pastor I’m here to do a campaign so that your church grows so that new families come in, then obviously pastors are going to open up their hearts and their doors to them as well. So yeah, it’s always been a passion of mine. And I think also that coming back to the way we do church is that as Ephesians four says, the primary purpose of a five-fold ministry gift is to equip the saints to do the work of the ministry. So yes, I do campaigns, big campaigns, but actually I spend just as much time, if not more time training all the believers to be evangelists as well, all the believers to share their faith.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (13:05):
Yeah, that’s so much an important part of what the evangelist is called to do. So you said you wear two hats. One is the evangelist and are you saying the other one is the equipper or you have another hat? Yeah,
Giles Stevens (13:18):
Well yes, we might have a few hats here. We start breaking this down. But what I wanted to say was I do run an evangelistic association. It’s called the Great Mission, and that is to serve the body of Christ and the local churches at large. So I am an evangelist doing that within the Vine Church itself, I’m part of a presbytery or an apostolic team. I kind of serve as the director of evangelism. And so I train all the members of those churches. I prioritize that multiplying my own gifting and giving them tools and strategies so that they can be fruitful as well.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (13:58):
And so what does that training look like? Often in church, people want to do something for God and they have a heart to share their faith with others, but they don’t really know what to say or what to do. So in the Brazilian context of where you are, how do you equip believers to share their faith?
Giles Stevens (14:19):
Well, it’s great question. I really like that it’s right at the heart of what I feel like I’m called to do. I think firstly, local churches need to have a structure which allows them members to be sharing their faith and encourages them. It’s one of the reasons I really believe in cell groups where it’s not just now the pastor who’s doing the preaching because in cell groups, all the members of the church and that cell group can get involved in preaching and starting their own groups and so forth. So you are sharing what you’ve received, you are teaching what you’ve learned. And I think that produces healthy growth in the individual believer as well. If the believer is just receiving, then in a sense he grows lazy. If he’s just giving, then he’ll dry out. But you’ve got to be having both sides receiving and giving learning and teaching.
(15:08):
So we need to have church structures where that can happen. But as you rightly say, often people have a heart to win. Others, they just dunno how to start the conversation. They dunno what to say, they dunno how to do it. And so I think one of the things that the Lord has anointed me or gifted me to do is to create tools and strategies that help ’em to do that. And Daniel, you know how it is the evangelist as a character, one of the characteristics, the traits of an evangelist normally is that he’s quite extroverted. He preaches with ease. He burns all the time to share the gospel. And that’s great, but not all believers are like that. Like I say, a genuine believer, somebody who’s born again has a new nature, they’re going to have a heart to see others saved. Of course we are, but they perhaps just dunno how to take that step.
(16:02):
And so one of the things I’ve done is produce tools or materials that help people to share. Back in 2008 now I launched, or 2007 I launched a strategy called the 11th Question, a little booklet I’d spent some time with Reinhard, actually this is an interesting story. And he’d been down to us, he’d come and visited and preached in our conference and he was talking about in those days, I think his vision was to win 50 million people for Christ. Now we were really, really growing. We were really growing. I mean our churches were exploding, but when he started talking about the millions, it kind of makes you feel like you’re doing nothing in comparison. And I remember just lying on my bed after he’d been there and I’m just wrestling it out with the Lord. I’m thinking, Lord, I’m excited about winning 5,000 and he’s winning 50 million.
(16:53):
I said, I’ve got the same Bible as him, the same spirit as him. There’s something wrong here. And I felt like the Lord said to me, Giles, it’s one thing to have a vision, it’s another thing to have a strategy. I think we all tend to have a vision of winning our generation for Christ or something like that. But you’ve got to go beyond the vision and actually have a strategy in place that then fulfills the vision. And it was clear that Reinhard had his strategy of big crusades and all this kind of stuff. So I prayed that through and I felt like the Lord said to me to do two things, write a book for believers to equip them to share their faith, but also write a little booklet for unbelievers so that they can hear about Christ in a dynamic way. And I mean, if you think about it as well, you go to a Christian book shop, there’s pretty much nothing written for the unbeliever.
(17:44):
It’s all for the believer. And that’s got to be wrong because we are the salt and the light of this earth. So anyhow, I wrote this booklet called The 11th Question, A Spiritual Self-Evaluation Test. There are 11 questions, you have to answer those questions. The 11th is the most important, and the way you answer the 11th will determine your future. And what I did, it’s a little booklet with these 11th questions in, and we equip believers to share those 11 questions with friends. Now what happened was, this is back in 2007, I equipped 10,000 believers to do this test with seven people over the course of one month. So we evangelized 70,000 people in one month and we baptized at the end of it, 3000 on a day. So that was the beginning of this.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (18:29):
That’s like the day of Pentecost, 3000 people getting saved in one day.
Giles Stevens (18:33):
Well, we’ve gone beyond that. I then launched more recently another little booklet called Seven Good Things that maybe you Don’t know, same kind of idea. Because remember what I’m doing is I’m helping believers witness to their friends, to their neighbors, to their colleagues. So it’s not me doing the big preach. I mean, I do do the crusades and things, but this is getting the body to do it.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (18:55):
So let’s talk about the 11th question. What are some of those questions that people are trained to ask?
Giles Stevens (19:00):
You have to buy the
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (19:00):
Book to find out now is it on Amazon? Yeah, it’s on Amazon. We’ll put a link on the podcast so people can find the book The 11th question. But tell me some of the questions. No, I won’t.
Giles Stevens (19:12):
I
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (19:13):
Really won’t. The thing is,
Giles Stevens (19:15):
Like I say,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (19:15):
Because otherwise it
Giles Stevens (19:16):
Takes the kind of thunder out of it.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (19:18):
I mean, I’ve got a book, but I only got three questions in my book. You’re much more complex money. I just get them there much quicker. I’ll tell you some
Giles Stevens (19:25):
About my last one called The Seven Good Things. And that’s been really effective, which we launched just before the pandemic. And interestingly, when the quarantine came for us evangelists, most of us turned like tigers in a cage. We didn’t know what to do with ourselves. We love being out there doing crusades. You can’t have big gatherings. And I just was praying about, I just thought, Lord, what do we do? I just refuse to let not just kind of regulations shut me down, but also that kind of spirit of fear that was in the air, that everybody
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (19:56):
Was afraid
Giles Stevens (19:57):
That they were going to die and so forth. And I felt that classic story of David and Goliath. Saul ran from the Giant, but David ran at The Giant and I just thought, I’ve got to run at this thing. I’ve got to do something sort of bold and courageous at a time like this. And so I created a network on WhatsApp and for a hundred days I challenged this big network, thousands of young people to share their faith with one person every day for a hundred days. And I gave them different things to do. But one of the things was this booklet called Seven Good Things that Maybe You don’t know. And they would share these messages. And so some of those things, I’ll tell you those no matter who you are, you are much loved another one. No matter what you’ve done, there’s forgiveness available. I’m a real good news preach. I believe that Jesus Christ came as a friend of sinners to tell them the good news that their sins had been forgiven through his blood and by the
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (20:56):
Cross. And so over the course of those a hundred days, what were some of the miracles that you saw? Well,
Giles Stevens (21:01):
I mean the biggest miracle as we evangelists will say, is the miracle of salvation. And so actually at the end, it was in October, beginning of October during the pandemic, we baptized 10,000 people in a day.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (21:12):
Wow, that’s amazing.
Giles Stevens (21:14):
And that was in swimming pools and lakes and rivers and seas. Anywhere there was water because we couldn’t gather them together. We had this online meeting through YouTube and so forth, and all the different churches and places, the cities that were holding these events were baptizing. So we ran at the Giant.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (21:32):
Wow, what a miracle. Let’s talk about the spiritual atmosphere in Brazil. What do you see God doing in the nation of Brazil?
Giles Stevens (21:41):
Yeah, I mean we really have to talk about that because again, the tendency when we think about church growth and winning souls is to immediately go to strategy. But I think it was moody or one of these guys said, it’s not so much how you present the gospel, just make sure you present it hot. It’s got to be anointed, it’s got to be full of fire and life. And really, if you’re full of fire and life, it doesn’t really matter what sort of strategy you use. I mean, I teach young people these days. I say, look, be filled with the Holy Spirit and then do whatever you like because if you’re filled with the Holy Spirit, life is going to flow through you. So we work, how can I say? We’re very conscious, I suppose, as church leaders of creating spiritual atmosphere, culture, a revival culture.
(22:30):
And so I almost want to talk in tongues. So difficult to put into words this, but you’ve got to have that atmosphere where people are just going after God, where the presence of God is liberated and manifesting the whole time, and a fire will naturally go out unless it’s fed. And so we see that as well. It’s very easy for a move of God to stop very easy unless you make a personal decision. I think this is one of the roles of a church leader. You make a decision that your meetings, your church, whatever you do is you don’t accept anything but a manifestation of the presence of God. Whether it’s in a prayer meeting, a Sunday church, a crusade, an encounter weekend. We are going to pray to have that presence. We’re going to preach. Until we get that presence, it just becomes our life source. We need the living water. Because of that, there’s life manifesting. And of course growth comes because of life. Most people go after growth. I always say, no, no, go after the spiritual atmosphere and growth will be the result.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (23:37):
Wow. I know you’re a very proud father. Your son is at Oral Roberts University right now. My friend Rubens Konya took him over to Ethiopia for a crusade. And so God doesn’t just call individuals, he calls families. Talk to me about balancing family life and ministry life.
Giles Stevens (24:00):
Well, yeah, I mean that’s really interesting. Again, I’m really enjoying your questions, Daniel. We are a missionary family. I’ve got four children. Titus is the oldest, so 21, 19, 18, and 15 little girl at 15. And so let me say it like this. Sometimes you hear Christians say, God, first, family second, ministry third or those kinds of things. But I’ve never seen it like that. For me, it’s all one thing. So it’s not just about Daddy Giles being the minister and everybody else following me. No, we’re a ministry family, we’re a family of priests. We are all in this together. And so also for us, church isn’t a building, church is a body of Christ. And so we’re just as much in church at home as a family as we are if we’re in a pulpit somewhere. And I think that atmosphere and that way of life has just meant that what the gift and the call of God on my life has just been naturally spontaneously shared with the children.
(25:03):
And so they are all involved in the ministry with me. I mean, I was listening to a message that Titus preached the other day, and I had to post it on a pastor’s group. I just had to, on a WhatsApp group that I’m part of, I said, just listen to this coming from a 20 year old boy. Because what he preaches in this message, I think is wiser and more anointed than most ministers I’m hearing who’ve been in the ministry for years. And I don’t say that as a proud father. I’m just trying to say that when you’re brought up in revival and it’s just in you from the get-go, then it just sort of gushes out, doesn’t it? And so it’s just been a joy. Obviously, they’ve all got slightly different and giftings and so forth, but all of them are just full of the Holy Ghost. That’s great.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (25:52):
That’s awesome. What advice would you give to a young evangelist who really wants to be used by God?
Giles Stevens (26:00):
Well, yeah, really good question. Again, boy, you’ve done this before, haven’t you?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (26:06):
You’re my 290th interview on evangelism. Fine. Yeah. Have I got anything new to say? No, it’s good. I mean, it’s so neat seeing how God uses different people, different personalities. There’s so many different methods of evangelism, but God is so wonderful. He uses all of us. Yeah, yeah. I mean
Giles Stevens (26:25):
Advice to a young evangelist is if it burns in your heart, preach it. I started out pretty shortly after I got saved. I remember reading the scripture that Saul, who became the Apostle Paul, he preached Christ immediately. The scripture says in the synagogues immediately after his conversion. So he didn’t hang around to start sharing about Christ. And I think when you’re faithful with the little, God will give you much. And so you can see how Paul’s revelation just grows and grows and grows. He was constantly giving out what he’d received. So I think there’s a principle there. If you’ve been anointed, to be honest, if you’ve got saved, start talking about it, start testifying. At least that’s what we’re empowered to do by the Holy Spirit. But I think really, if you’ve got a call to the full-time ministry and you dream of the multitude, so to speak, I think probably the best thing you can do is something rather like Elijah did with Elijah, serve a man of God, a more experienced evangelist.
(27:25):
Because there’s a certain amount you’re going to learn in the classroom, and obviously you’re going to learn through your own relationship with the Lord principally and the study of the scripture. But so much is transferred in that discipleship process when you’re actually under the authority and you’re serving a man of God who’s already doing it. There’s just lessons there that you wouldn’t get anywhere else. And I again like to teach on that particular story in the Old Testament that scripture gives detail and it says that Elisha, he poured water on the hands of Elijah. And I read that and I thought, that’s really strange that it would say that, but it’s clear that the detail is in the scripture, I think, to show us that if he was doing the menial tasks of just even helping Elijah Elijah wash his hands before dinner, that really meant that he was disposed to serve his master in any possible way that he could be helpful.
(28:21):
Remembering that, of course, Elisha was a rich young farmer, and so he was the rich young ruler, let’s say, who gave up everything unlike the rich young ruler who Christ called and went away. So he served this rather strange prophet. He saw the anointing of God upon him. So if you’re a young guy, then you kind of need to let go of sometimes of your natural world and your natural relationships and get around somebody who’s really anointed, but serve them in practical and menial ways. And you see, this is the glory of this revelation is that as Elijah poured water on the hands of Elijah, what he didn’t realize perhaps at the time was that Elijah was pouring spiritual water upon the head of
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (29:08):
Elijah. I love that story. And then one of the most tragic stories in the Bible is the next one of Gaze who was called by God, I think, to be the next prophet of Israel, but failed his test, and he was serving Elisha, but then for a little bit of money in a few sets of clothes, he gave up his anointing in his bad trade dollars because he didn’t know that being a servant is just a stepping to the destiny that God has for you.
Giles Stevens (29:43):
Yeah. Sold himself out. Oh, dear.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (29:46):
Tragic. I’m going to put a link to your book on the podcast, but do you have a website, a way that people can connect with you?
Giles Stevens (29:59):
Yeah. The ministry that I run, the evangelistic ministry I run is called The Great Mission. Put a.org on the end of that, and you’ll find us or Giles Stevens, old English name, G i l e s, Giles Stevens with a v.com. You can find me there and you’ll find materials. Like I said, my heart is very much to equip and empower others. I’ve often said, what’s best? One guy speaking to a thousand or a thousand preachers speaking to their multitude. So I’m very much about helping not just teach, but giving other young evangelists and teachers and preachers and pastors sermons to preach and strategies to use so that you can be fruitful in your own life.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (30:42):
My passion. Well, thank you so much for being on the Evangelism Podcast. I appreciate
Giles Stevens (30:46):
It. Daniel, it’s a joy. Thank you for receiving Titus when he’s been to help you as well and your crusades, and I
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (30:52):
Hope we can, he’s a blessing. Hope
Giles Stevens (30:53):
We can do more together.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (30:54):
Thank
Giles Stevens (30:54):
You. Bless you.
Do you want to be an influencer for Jesus? Frankie Cortez is a graduate of the Christ for All Nations Evangelism Bootcamp. God has given him a vision to raise up social media influencers who can share the Gospel with a sight and sound generation. On today’s podcast we talk about why it is important to evangelize online and give you some tips for maximizing the impact of your social media.
Website: https://www.promisesinternational.org/
Transcript:
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:00):
Do you wanna be an influencer for Jesus? Frankie Cortez is a graduate of Christ for All Nations evangelism. Bootcamp. God has given him a vision to raise up social media influencers who can share the gospel with a sight and sound generation. On today’s podcast, we talk about why it’s important to evangelize online, and we give you some tips for maximizing the impact of your social media. Plus, Frankie is going to share some stories from the different countries that he’s been working on, and you’ll hear about what God is doing in Egypt, in Pakistan, in Brazil, and in Ukraine. Let’s listen.
Evangelism Podcast Host (00:54):
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 (01:19):
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, Frankie Cortez. Thank you for being on the Evangelism Podcast.
Frankie Cortez (01:30):
Thank you for having me.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:32):
So let’s talk about how we first met you were a student at the Christ for All Nations Evangelism Bootcamp in Orlando, Florida. And tell me, what did you learn going through the Evangelism Bootcamp?
Frankie Cortez (01:48):
Yeah, so I had the amazing opportunity to be part of the Evangelism Bootcamp at Christ for All Nations. Danielle King was actually one of my teachers. I learned how to organize crusades, how to plan them, how to preach at them, and then ultimately how to roll that out.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:02):
Well, I love pouring into other evangelists and helping people who have a passion for the great commission and going to nations all over the world. And so, do you remember some of what I taught in, in the sessions that we were together?
Frankie Cortez (02:18):
I yes. I remember you had systematic plans on how we can actually do this. I remember you had 300, I think it was 316 steps to be an effective evangelist. And I specifically remem I think it was number 17, is Find a Wife. I still haven’t found that one yet. <laugh>,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:33):
Absolutely. Well, when I found my wife, it really helped me out as an evangelist. Just gave me more credibility. But, uh, that, that plan that you’re, you’re talking about, I have, uh, a list of how to start a ministry and it’s because people kept coming to me and asking me questions like, well, how do I start a ministry? What do I do in, in order to start taking donations from, you know, how do I share my vision? And, and I kept getting the same questions over and over again. And especially like, like, how do I write a book, Daniel, you’ve written like 25 different books. How do I write my first book and how do I raise money for my ministry and how do I book speaking engagements at churches? And, and I kept getting all of these questions and, and so finally I decided I’m just gonna put one spreadsheet, all the answers to every question I get.
(03:23):
And so now if people ask me a question, I just send them a link to their spreadsheet and I have resources there. And I love coaching people that gives me a place to, to start coaching them in evangelism and helping them to become more effective in the ministry that God has called them to. And so if you’re listening and you’re interested in being coached in evangelism or being coached in how to start a ministry, uh, reach out to me and, and we’ll talk about doing that. All right. So Frankie, since you graduated from the the Evangelism Bootcamp, you’ve gone to a bunch of different places around the world and you’ve seen God do some amazing things. Kind of walk me through that journey and what you’ve seen God do.
Frankie Cortez (04:04):
Yeah, so it was amazing. The Evangelism Bootcamp showed me how practical it is to just duke Mass Gospel campaigns for right after our, our bootcamp, we had the opportunity to go to Tanzania. We were able to kind of apply what we learned by going to gospel outreaches on trucks where basically we would preach on trailers of semi trucks and we would go to different places around. I was in Moto Godo in Tanzania, and we would share the gospel and we would in marketplaces and on the streets, and we would see many people come to Jesus. We would go into schools and we would share the gospel to many thousands of children. We would give her that to Jesus. I also, within the last year, had the opportunity to travel to many different countries, um, like Pakistan and Brazil and Poland, uh, Mexico, Egypt, where I was able to have these big giant campaigns and bring in just the harvest of thousands of souls.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:55):
Yeah. Tell me about the details of, of some of these events. You went to Egypt, what did you do in Egypt?
Frankie Cortez (05:02):
Yeah, so in Egypt, Egypt was very special in history. They’ve never actually had a mass gospel campaign in, in the Egypt history. I can’t say the C word cuz that one’s actually a bad word over there. But it was amazing. Two weeks before, um, our crusades started, we’ve been planning for an entire year and the biggest church in the city is actually set on fire. 40 people dying over 50 people are injured. And it was like, what do we do? God, is this something that we move forward or is it something that you want to maybe push ahead or something like that? God said, we want you to push forward, I want you to go and I want you to do this crusade. So we had to find a brand new location in a different part of the city in Cairo. And we found actually a Muslim military base in the middle of the hood in Cairo, Egypt.
(05:41):
And God poured out his spirit. So Daniel, you know, the marketing budgets for some of these, sometimes the marketing budgets are 10, 20, 30, $50,000, depending, you know, where you are. I remember in Cairo, Egypt, an event like that has never been done. So we put in about a thousand dollars of marketing. Day one, we had 5,000 people on the field, and by day five we had over 50,000 people on the field because God’s glory showed up, miracles, signs and wonders happened. People were literally coming up to us saying that they had dreams of Jesus and they were leading ’em to our event.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (06:11):
Wow. Well, when you have the Holy Spirit working with you, you don’t need much of a budget. And so that’s amazing. Did, did you know the, the first evangelist to ever go to Egypt was Mark who wrote the Gospel of Mark. And the story is that he went to Alexandria, which was founded by Alexandria the Great. And when Mark went into Alexandria, um, his shoe was, uh, it, it was a leather sandal and it had fallen apart as he traveled. So he went and found a shoemaker, and the shoemaker was, was fixing his shoe. And as he was working on it, the owl that he was working on, the leather slipped and went right through his hand. And right then Mark laid hands on him, prayed for him, and the shoemaker was healed. And so the mark became the first bishop of Alexandria. And then when he was martyred, they tied him some to some chariots and dragged him through the streets. And that’s how he died for Jesus. Uh, the, the shoemaker who got saved that day, when he was healed, he became the second bi bishop of Alexandria. And to this day, the Coptic Christians in al in Egypt, they traced their spiritual heritage back to Mark the writer of the Gospel of Mark. And so what a great thing that you got to go and be an evangelist in the footsteps of Mark. Yeah. And then you also went to Brazil. What’d you do in Brazil?
Frankie Cortez (07:43):
Yeah, so in Brazil we, we taught and trained on evangelism. We had a fire con a fire camp. So basically what that is, it’s a week long evangelistic training where we take a small group of 50 to 60 young people or old people, but they’re very interested in going forward in evangelism within their local country. So we trained about 50 evangelists there and we, and then we sent them out to the streets to apply what they learned. And we were raising people up out there.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:05):
And you also went to Pakistan. What’d you do in Pakistan?
Frankie Cortez (08:08):
Yep. I, um, total in Pakistan, I’ve done four gospel campaigns where we saw tens of thousands of people come to Jesus crowds of 20 to 30,000 people, uh, miracles, signs and wonders happen. And we’re really seeing just God descend on some of these countries that people are like, is not possible. We’re, we’re still gonna go.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:25):
That’s absolutely amazing. Now how old are you?
Frankie Cortez (08:28):
I’m 25 years
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:29):
Old. So 25 years old. You’ve already been to a bunch of different countries. You’ve been seeing God to amazing miracles. And then, uh, you also recently worked in Ukraine. The, the, the war that’s been going on in Ukraine is absolutely horrible. Uh, what were you doing when you went there?
Frankie Cortez (08:47):
Yeah, so I went with my friends, uh, Slavik down, he has a ministry in Ukraine. So what basically what we were doing is we have, we, we had teams that were coming in from the United States, from Seattle, Florida, different parts of the United States. And they were going into Ukraine from both Poland and Romania. And they were going in and they were sharing the gospel, providing humanitarian aid help for the people cuz it’s just a very sad situation that’s happening. So what we were doing, we were actually raising teams up and teaching them how to evangelize in these places, how are we gonna roll out the humanitarian aid work? So we’re we’re also, we went to go shoot a documentary to kind of document what’s actually happening and what God is doing within the country. And that’s coming out pretty soon as well.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:26):
Wow, that’s amazing. Alright, just a few days ago I was on a Zoom call with you, with a bunch of other evangelists who had graduated from the Evangelism Bootcamp and they were all coming together to talk about how to be kingdom influencers on social media. So we’re talking about Instagram, we’re talking about TikTok, we’re talking about Facebook, YouTube, and any other social media platform that people are on. And your vision was to activate these evangelists to go and share the gospel on these different platforms. So, so talk to me a little bit about what God has put on your heart in this area of raising up kingdom influencers for social media.
Frankie Cortez (10:21):
Yeah, it’s amazing. So the Lord kind of put this, um, desire on my heart to see people reached online. So there’s 8 billion people on the earth and 5.8 billion of those are internet users. About four, a little over 4.5 billion of those are social media users. So the biggest people group in the world are internet users. So it’s now how are we gonna actually use the internet to reach people for the kingdom of God, because that’s where the people are. Many times we want to reach people in, in the way that we’ve always done things and now we’re living in a generation and a time where maybe those things are, are not as effective as what as when, how it was long time ago or some of those things we can keep doing. But we can also add social media to that. So the Lord gave me a vision about going on social media and really sharing the gospel, but not just sharing the gospel, but raising up a team to share the gospel online as a unit and creating some type of alliance or some type of collaboration of a group of us to make our own individualistic channels, but then kind of come together, collaborate, give each other feedback so that we can be effective in reaching people on social media.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (11:26):
So God’s given you this vision to reach out on social media and, and I think this really is a, a vision that that comes from God because like you said, we need to go to where the people are. And so sometimes people think about missions as going on a missionary trip. You, you go over to Africa, people are in Africa, you go to Asia. But nowadays, so many people are spending so much time on social media. I have two kids, they love spending time on the screen. And so we have to limit how much screen time they have cuz they’ll just sit and scroll through different things and watch YouTube videos. And, and so as a parent, it’s kind of, it is kind of scary because who knows what they’re watching, but I think that Christians need to be a voice in those places where, where people are.
(12:13):
And, and so frequently you see people there spending time just watching videos on their pH their phone, and they’re, they’re listening to content and we have to go to where they are and then we have to present the, the gospel message. Now something that you said earlier really stood out to me. We were talking about how there are a lot of Christian influencers that talk about good Christian topics, but there’s very few people that preach the gospel. So talk to me about the difference between an influencer and someone who is intentionally trying to lead people to Jesus.
Frankie Cortez (12:51):
Yeah, so there, there’s many amazing Christian influencers out there. Um, um, many with very good doc and many with amazing heart. They’re reaching out to the church, they’re building up the saints, which is amazing. Keep doing that. But what I don’t, I don’t see many, um, influencers that are Christian that are actually going out to reach the loss. Specifically, I’m going to do social media because I want people to know Jesus. I want people to come to the place of repentance. I want people to come into I don’t know Christ, who I know Jesus now.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (13:22):
And so one of the things that the Christ for All nations Evangelism Bootcamp really does well is teaching people how to present the gospel. And so just give me a nutshell, what is the gospel, Frankie?
Frankie Cortez (13:37):
Yeah, so this is the gospel. Many times we, we, we know the gospel mentally, but we leave out some parts. So this is the gospel. Sin separates us from God. There’s no way we can get to God because of our sin. That’s the problem. But this is the answer. Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God, came down to this earth lived life, look every single one of us, but was without sin. And you know, the, the religious people at the time, they hated him. They killed him, they mocked him, and they hung him on a cross. And Jesus died. But the story doesn’t end there. The Bible says that Jesus rose from the dead and now he’s alive and he’s living and he’s wanting to give us eternal life. Jesus prayed an ultimate price for us that we couldn’t pay ourselves. There’s nothing we can do to earn our salvation. But Jesus came, died, rose again to give us eternal life. And the Bible says, if we repent and believe the gospel, we can have eternal life today.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (14:27):
Amen. Well, I hope if you’re listening, you don’t know Jesus right now, you’d cry out to Jesus and ask him to save you. And if you will call on Jesus, he will save you from every sin and give you a brand new start. All right, Frankie, let’s talk about some of the, the different platforms that are available for, for social media influencers and just kind of talk me through some of how people be effective on these different platforms. Cuz every platform has a slightly different nuance, different things that they’re looking for, different algorithms. And so let’s start with Instagram. How do you think someone could use Instagram to share the gospel?
Frankie Cortez (15:04):
Yeah, so Instagram seems to really want to be competing against TikTok right now with reels. Reels is what they’re pushing in the past, um, they pushed a lot of graphics, a lot of photos and stuff like that, but it seems like we’re in a place where they’re really pushing Instagram reels. And for those of you that don’t know what Instagram reels is, their short form videos just like TikTok, where you basically have 60 seconds or less to get your messes across. And if it’s anything longer than that, you lost them. And you have about five to 10 seconds in the beginning to grab their attention. And if you don’t grab their attention within five to 10 seconds, you’re pretty much gone. So it’s how do we effectively grab someone’s attention, the five to 10 seconds, and then keep their attention for the rest of the, the remaining time, which is 50 seconds longer.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:44):
All right, so now let’s, you mentioned TikTok. Talk to me about TikTok. How can we reach people on TikTok?
Frankie Cortez (15:48):
So I think TikTok is honestly the greatest vi uh, social media. It’s just so as far as virality, it’s just so easy to go viral. What I, what I’ve seen when I’ve talked to major influencers, they, they tell me that if I post three times a day every single day for a month, you pretty much blow up. And TikTok is short form content just like Instagram reel. So everything needs to be under 60 seconds. You need to grab people’s attention within the first five to 10 seconds, and then you need to keep them for the rest of the 50 seconds.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (16:17):
Alright, give me a hook for a a TikTok video. If you want to tell someone about Jesus on TikTok, what is the first sentence that you’re gonna use to hook them? Gi Give me two or three hooks.
Frankie Cortez (16:29):
Just say something super crazy. Did you know that Jesus is not the Savior of the world? And you’d be like, what? That doesn’t make sense. And then you hooked him and then you kind of say, he’s not the savior of the world. If you don’t, if you don’t receive it, it’s like I give you a check. And if, and if you don’t actually cash the check, you don’t actually have salvation.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (16:45):
Yeah, that sounded like heresy there for a second. It did. It did. Oh, and, but it definitely got my attention. Okay. <laugh>, I was about ready. Kick you off the, the Evangelism podcast for heresy. Alright, so, so TikTok and then YouTube. Talk to me a little bit about who YouTube.
Frankie Cortez (17:01):
So YouTube is very interesting because they’re both long, there’s long form content, and they’re short form content. So YouTube actually started shorts, which they’re competing against Instagram reels and TikTok, but then they have the long form content and what they’re known for, which is amazing. So long form content is maybe 10 minutes of video. Short form content again is like 60 seconds. Now,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (17:22):
Who would you say is the most famous YouTuber right now,
Frankie Cortez (17:26):
Mr. Beast.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (17:28):
And what did Mr. Beast do in order to become famous on YouTube?
Frankie Cortez (17:34):
Yeah, so what Mr. Beast did is he looked up the algorithms. He, he really studied what worked, what didn’t work. He looked up what the people wanted, and as he looked up what the people wanted, he began to do trial and error. Okay, if I try this, let’s see if this works, because like statistically it should, but if it doesn’t, let’s kind of tweak, tweak, tweak, tweak. And then he just found his niche, he found his, his kind of vein, and he moved forward with it. And now he’s the greatest YouTuber out there right now.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (18:02):
And so you’re thinking about this from a, a gospel standpoint or an evangelistic standpoint. And what I really like about your idea of bringing together kingdom influencers is that by working together, we could replicate some of the success that Mr. Beast has had by doing the same thing in the, the kingdom realm. And so what he did, he had a group of friends, a mastermind group, and every day they would talk together, they would critique one another’s videos, they would see what was working, what wasn’t working, what was good at getting views. And he was obsessive about it, tweaking every single little video until it was perfect and looking for creative ideas, creative ways. He loves giving away money. And, and so what Mr. Beast saw is that his early videos didn’t get many views, but as he got better and better, they got more and more views. And so I think if we had a Christian Mastermind group, we could achieve amazing success and, and really catch the attention of people that need Jesus.
Frankie Cortez (19:12):
100%. And this is the point of the group that we created, is that we are creating a group where we can build each other up. We can kind of talk to each other, what worked, what didn’t work. We can kind of give constructive criticism for one another. We can say, this is what we think would reach the most amount of people. And it’s really thinking outside the box. It’s like, let’s do something that we haven’t done before. Let’s try to, you know, look outside of the box and maybe do some of the Mr. Beast type content, but bring it into the gospel and see people saved.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (19:38):
Hey. Amen. Well, if you’re interested in being part of a group of Christian influencers who are sharing the gospel, uh, reach out to us. Let me know, or, or you can contact, uh, Frankie, uh, what is your website if someone wants to donate to your ministry or find out more about you? Frankie, what, what’s your website?
Frankie Cortez (19:58):
Yeah, if you want to contact me, you can go to promises international.org. Again, promises international.org.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (20:05):
So I’d encourage you go support Frankie, help him go and preach the gospel around the world. And if you want to communicate the gospel on social media, I encourage you to start making videos. Start using your voice to reach out. Today’s generation is a sight and sound generation. They’re on all the social media, media platforms. So if we wanna reach them, we need to start thinking strategically about how to use social media to present the gospel. God bless you. And thank you so much, Frankie, for being on the Evangelism Podcast.
Frankie Cortez (20:42):
Thank you for having me. Are
Evangelism Podcast Host (20:43):
You called by God to be an evangelist? Do you wanna lead millions of to Jesus? Do you desire to be trained in the practical side of building a ministry? Then check out the Daniel King’s School of Evangelism. Learn how to be an effective evangelist from Dr. Daniel King’s 20 plus years of experience. Daniel King has done crusades all over the world in over 70 nations and has seen over 2 million people give their lives to Jesus. But it wasn’t easy. There was no crusade school. So Daniel traveled the world learning from and observing top evangelists, noticing how they successfully won souls for Christ. Now he wants to share decades of knowledge and experience with you. Topics of the Daniel King School of Evangelism include what is an evangelist, how to be a master soul winner, how to given ultra call, how to organize a crusade, how to raise money for your ministry, and much more. If you wanna be an evangelist, but don’t know where to start, the Daniel King School of Evangelism is for you. Enroll today in the School of Evangelism by going to Daniel King ministries.com/evangelism.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (21:44):
Thanks so much for listening today. I am excited about telling people about Jesus and I want to invite you to be a part of helping us to rescue people from Hell and take them with us to heaven. There’s two things you can do to help. First of all, can you go find the Evangelism podcast on Apple iTunes and leave us a positive review by giving a review. You will help other people find these valuable resources about sharing our faith. 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 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 (23:05):
For more information about how to share your faith or to financially support our worldwide evangelistic outreaches, visit king ministries.com. Again, that’s king ministries.com.
Caicó, Brazil is located in Northeast Brazil in the state of Rio Grande do Norte. According to a census in 2013 a total of 66,246 people live in the city. The city has the highest rate of suicide in the state and the third highest rate of suicide in the country of Brazil. Caicó is known as a stronghold of idolatry and the people fight mental depression and spiritual oppression. The city is considered to be a stronghold of Catholicism. The patron saint of Caicó is St. Anne and every year a festival is held by the Roman Catholic Church to honor her memory. Caicó is also known for hosting the largest carnival in the state of Rio Grande do Norte.
The planning for the crusade began six months in advance. A crusade director visited the city of Caicó and met with the local pastors. They indicated their eagerness to participate in the crusade. All nine of the evangelical churches in the city participated in our crusade. The total membership of these nine churches equals 1,357 which is about 2% of the population of the city of Caicó.
Three months prior to the crusade, prayer cards were given to all the church members. Each believer was encouraged to write down the names of ten unsaved people on their prayer card and to begin to pray for them to be saved. When the event drew closer, the church members reached out to the ten people and invited each of them to attend the crusade. Permission was secured from local authorities to hold the event. One month prior to the crusade, one thousand posters were distributed throughout the city. The local churches distributed seventy thousand crusade pamphlets and fifty thousand youth crusade invitations. In the eight days prior to the crusade, seven sound cars were used to announce the crusade for six hours each day for a total of two hundred and fifty-six hours of sound car announcements. Seven hundred and fifty radio spots were run on three different radio stations over a fifteen-day period. WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook were also used to advertise the event.
Our international team of ministers included six Americans, one Canadian, one Paraguayan, one German, and at least five Brazilians. When the team arrived in the city, we immediately began ministering in local schools and neighborhoods. We also gave away food to hungry families.
We held a three-day training event for local believers. Then we did a youth event and used music and a strength team to attract the young people. When the crusade began, the city was ready. On Friday night, three deaf people were healed and began to speak. This miracle caused attendance on Saturday night to greatly increase. We also did a children’s festival and a pastoral leadership seminar.
A total of 641 people filled out decision cards at the crusade indicating they decided to follow Jesus. This harvest of souls represents an increase of 43% in the number of Christians in Caicó, On the Sunday after the crusade, all nine churches in the city reported that new people attended their churches.
Evangelist Daniel King is on a mission to lead people to Jesus. But he cannot do it without your help. Can you give a financial gift today to help us “plunder hell to populate heaven?” To support King Ministries in our quest for souls, click here!