1 877-431-4276Khon Khan | Turning Killing Fields Into Harvest Fields
Pastor Khon Khan leads a network of churches in Cambodia. This nation of 17 million people is 97% Buddhist. In the 1970’s, the Khmer Rouge killed over two million people. But today, with God’s help, these killing fields are becoming harvest fields. Today we talk about how to reach Buddhists with the love of Jesus.
Connect with Khon Khan on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SokhonEMA
Transcript:
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:01):
Welcome to the Evangelism Podcast. I’m Daniel King, and I’m excited about telling people about Jesus on this podcast. We love talking about evangelism, and so make sure that you subscribe and keep listening, because every single time we have an episode, we hear great stories of what God is doing around the world. Today I have a very special guest with me, Pastor Khan, from the Nation of Cambodia. Thank you for being on the Evangelism Podcast with me.
Pastor Khon Khan (00:35):
Okay. So thank you very much for having me here, pastor Evangelist Daniel King.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:42):
So brother, it is so wonderful to have you here, and I have been praying for the nation of Cambodia. It’s a nation of about 17 million people, and according to the STA statistics, 97% of Cambodia is Buddhist and follows the teachings of Buddha. But you are there being a shining light for Jesus in the midst of great darkness. So tell me a little bit, what is God doing in the nation of Cambodia?
Pastor Khon Khan (01:17):
Okay. I would like to say about how God is doing in Cambodia, but I just gave a bit background in the past the gospel come to Cambodia about hundred years ago, but at the time it’s through the Catholic priest during the French colony because our country was under colonized by friend about 90 years. So at the time, the gas ball is so close at the time. But just recently, I think back, starting from 1993, after we have election by prime what temporary government by un so we have the freedom to preach gospel. However, from that time, even though we have freedom to preach gospel, but still the community or the local authorities still close to us. However, recently few years later, we have much freedom now to God, Pandora, even our prime minister is open for us to, to preach gospel in Cambodia. Even our prime minister come to talk in the Christian group leader as well. So that mean he have a heart open for the US even though to speak gospel everywhere, even the public place places. Yeah.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:43):
Now I heard that you actually now have a position in the government. Tell me about that and what the influence of that allows you to do.
Pastor Khon Khan (02:54):
Yes, actually, I, now I can say that I am not, can say that I, I have a position called undersecretary of state in the Ministry of cause and religion. So through this position that mean I have the, the right to meet the higher high ranking people and tell them about Jesus. Also, I can go from place to place that people like give me a respite of me so that it’s easy for me to tell people about Jesus. So it’s really influence from that. Yeah.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (03:27):
And so I heard that I am supposed to call you your excellency <laugh> because you are a man deserving of great honor. Well, your excellency, I I think the, the greatest title that we can have is that of Servant of Jesus Christ. And you are a servant of Jesus, and you are a wonderful pastor. Tell me about the, the, the churches that you have been planting in different parts of Cambodia and and how does that happen?
Pastor Khon Khan (03:58):
Yes, actually we plan now we, they have 155 by last year. So we plan 100 and 55 churches in Cambodia. So how we do it, we do it like, you know, I train, I train the new pastor and leader so that they can go out, they can go out to the mission field to plant the churches, to bridge gospel in the villages. Also, we do it through a community hub. Sometime we do the water, well thriller, we thrill the village that there is no gospel. We go and partner with the local authority, and then we drill the well there and we ask them to plant a church here. So they open for us because we help them and they open for us to pray gospel and plant a church. They, they help us as well. Yeah. So this is the way that we come and plant the church in the villages. Yeah.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:57):
I love the idea of planting wells because people need fresh water, and Jesus said let all who thirst come to me and drink. And the lady at the well, in Samaria, in John chapter four, Jesus talked to her about living water. And so we give them the fresh water, but then also are able to give people the living water that comes straight from heaven.
Pastor Khon Khan (05:28):
Yes, that’s right. Amen. Yeah, because we not just only give only physical water, but also through that we can give them the living water as well. So because they’re spiritual for the word of God. Yeah.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:45):
Now, tell me about some of the, the outreaches that you do. I, I know that you’ve been involved in Christmas, in Cambodia, and you have been talking to people about Jesus at the, during the time of the birth of Jesus. What do those outreaches look like?
Pastor Khon Khan (06:02):
Yes. For the Christmas outreach, normally we do it the Christmas gift to the children in the rural village. So we we gather the children in the village to come together. We tell them Jesus story. We treat them song, and we present them the gift because we said that this is just only the gift physical gift just last a few day, or, you know, short time, but especially the love of God. That is the really gift for, for them. Jesus is the gift for them for eternal life. So for Christmas, we, we do that. We get the ring, also, we do the Christmas outreach by do Christmas celebration. We invite people, come together to one place, we serve them a meal, and then we can have opportunity to tell them about the Lotis, subscribe during that celebration. Yeah.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (06:54):
Now, tell me some about your testimony. How did you become a believer in Jesus, and then how did you become a pastor?
Pastor Khon Khan (07:02):
Okay. back in 1998, I was away from my house because I was an I I, my, I am an orphan, a mother license, mean I don’t have mother because my mother passed away in 1994, and my father remarried. And then I don’t like my stepmother, so I have to live home to live in a Buddhist temple to serve the monks Buddhist mon. And then finally I end up in another town. I became the bad boy, or I can say the gangster in 1998. So in 1999, I feel that I want to study English with foreigner, because I know English a little bit already. So I want to study English with the foreigner, so that I want to be interpreter, but the place that I come to study, which is Filipino missionary, the church, so I come to study there.
(08:04):
However, before I don’t like to, to go to the church to study there, because I, I don’t like Christian. I hate Christian. I even Christian. I want to fight Christian and I stone the church. So, but finally, if I don’t go there, I don’t have money to study outside. So I force myself come to study, attend the class, and the class. It is not an earn English class. At that time, it was the Bible class. So I attend the Bible class, however, I don’t care the Bible class or whatever, because I want to learn English. I want to speak English.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:39):
Your English is very good. You speak wonderful English now.
Pastor Khon Khan (08:43):
So through that, through that the church require all the student come to church every midweek service, prayer meeting, and Sunday service. So I love to listen to my my pastor preaching so that I can learn English. So I keep coming on every Sunday, every midweek service I nonstop. So after five months later, I realize that after I read the Bible, and I, I, I find out especially from the Bo Man chapter three, verse 23, that for all have seen. So I look at to myself, oh, I have seen, because I, I was a bad boy. Yeah. So that’s why from that time, early of 2000, I accept the Lord Jesus s Christ as my personal Lord and Savior is through coming to the English class. Yeah.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:33):
Wow. And then how, how do you become a pastor?
Pastor Khon Khan (09:36):
Oh, yes. So when I was an believer, I had to be a, a teacher because I want to teach people. So when I become Christian, and after I study the Bible class in my, my church, we, so it, God revealed to me God want me to be the pastor to shepherd the people who are lost. So that’s why from that time, I pray that, Lord God, after I finished my high school, and I will continue the Bible school so I can become the pastor. So I finished my high school in 2002 and Bible school in 2004. So through that, first I serve in my church, but finally God called me out from my church to plant my own ministry, which is called Evangelical Fellow evangelical Mission Association.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (10:26):
Wow. Yeah. Well, let’s talk a little bit about Buddhism, because you said that you are an angry Buddhist. Yeah. You even want to throw stones at the Christians. You’re kind of like the Apostle Paul. He watched Stephen be stoned. He was there at the stoning of Stephen, but then he had an encounter with Jesus and gave his whole life to, to serving God. Yeah. And, and so here you were, you were an angry Buddhist, but the love of Jesus touched your heart. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. And I think that it’s very interesting looking at the, some of the, the differences between the Buddhist religion and the, the Christian religion. Of course, Buddha he was enlightened, and I got to go to India and see the tree, it’s called the, the Bode Gaia tree that they say that Buddha was sitting under mm-hmm. <Affirmative> when he was enlightened.
(11:25):
And so when I saw that, I, I began to study some of, of what what Buddha thought. And, and, you know, he, he had the, these four truths that he discovered mm-hmm. <Affirmative>. And the first truth was that all is suffering. That everything is, is suffering that everything in the world it, it causes suffering. And then the second, second truth was that this suffering is caused by desire. That if you want some, like for example, if, if you want a car, you see somebody who has a beautiful new car mm-hmm. <Affirmative>, and you begin to be jealous, then you feel bad mm-hmm. <Affirmative> on the inside because you want the car that they, well, you start to suffer because you want what they have. And then so all is suffering that suffering is caused by desire. That then the third truth is that the way to rid yourself of suffering is to rid yourself of desire.
(12:29):
And then Buddha taught an eightfold path to help people to rid themselves of desire. And, and when Buddha was born, he was a prince. Yeah. Yeah. And one day he was being carried down the road. He looked out through the curtains, and he saw a beggar man who had leprosy sitting beside the road. And he had never seen anything like that because he was, he was a prince. He was grew up with great wealth. And when he saw that, that really impacted him. And, and that’s where he went on his search for truth. Now, what’s really interesting is that Jesus also dealt with suffering. And when Jesus saw a leper, man, you remember what Jesus did? Yeah, yeah, yeah. He healed the leper. Yeah. He took away the leprosy. It is beautiful. And then Jesus sat under a tree in the garden of Gase. Yeah. And he be God. He said, you know, take this cup of suffering away from me. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, but he says, but if it be your will,
Pastor Khon Khan (13:40):
Not my will,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (13:41):
Not my will, but yours be done. Yep. Yeah. And so Jesus actually went to the cross and he suffered so that we could be set free from suffering. Hmm. Jesus took stripes on his back. Yeah. The sin of the whole world was put on him. They put a crown of thorns on his head. Jesus suffered so that we could be set free from suffering. Jesus died so that we could have eternal life. And I find that very interesting because the, the, the, the problem that Buddha was confronting is a very real human problem. I mean, people suffer. Suffering is very real. It hurts. Mm-Hmm. But Jesus came with a solution to the problem of suffering. Yeah. What do you think about that?
Pastor Khon Khan (14:31):
Yeah. I sing
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (14:32):
That it’s am am I right when I’m describing some of the teachings of Buddha? I don’t, I’m not Buddhist, so I don’t know, but maybe you know more
Pastor Khon Khan (14:39):
Yes. Actually that that is right. But the way that Buddha try to try to help the people out of dusk, there is four thing. One about he want to help people because some kind like people have to be born and grow up, get old born, get get born and getting old and sickness and die. So this is Buddha thing about his first thing that he want to try. How, how to get out people from that thing. Yeah. Because why people have to be born sickness all and die. But when he suffer himself a lot in order to find a way, finally, he said that he cannot, cannot take out the people, the nature of people from all of these. That’s why he throwing that he tried to do something else, he said, he’s not a God. This is what the Buddha said.
(15:45):
He’s not God, but he can solve what is right, what is wrong, what is good to do, and what is not good to do. So that’s why Buddha said that we cannot depend on him. We have to depend on ourself. Yeah. We have to depend on ourself, not depend on him. But he said that let the people who follow him need to Risa wait for another God who is the, the real God who bring peace to the world and who can help bring love to the world. So this is what Buddha one people not look to him, but to another God who come later after him. Yeah. So this is what Buddha’s teaching Yeah. Telling the people. Yeah.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (16:30):
What do you say to a Buddhist who may be like, you, does not want Christianity? Maybe even would say that I don’t want a, a religion from the west, from the white man. What would you say to somebody who is Buddhist, but you want to present the hope of Jesus to that man?
Pastor Khon Khan (16:59):
Actually what we can say, Buddhist or Buddha Isk the leader of one religion. So if we compare the word religions, it mean that religion, Chas leader teaching. So all religion, most religion teach people what is the good thing to do? What is the bad? But religion cannot say people. So what we come to tell you to come, to tell you, the creator of the world, the one who create everything, and the one who can help us, and the one who die on the cross, and not just only die, but he resurrected from the dead. So this is what we can tell them, that Jesus is not one of the religion. Jesus is the God of the world. Jesus is the savior of the world. So we believe in Jesus, not mean that we change the religion from Buddhism to to believe in religion of Jesus, but we believe in the personal of the Lord Jesus, who is the real God. So this is the way that we present the gospel to the people of give hope to the people. Hmm.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (18:05):
That gives such wonderful hope. Yeah. And, and really, that, that is what the, the message of Jesus is. He brings hope. Yeah. To those who are hopeless. I remember I was in the nation of, of Myanmar mm-hmm. <Affirmative>, and of course there’s many Buddhist temples in Myanmar, big beautiful golden temples. And I was outside one of the temples, and there was a, a man who had a, a cage full of birds and an an old Buddhist man, and his wife came, they, they bought two birds. They paid money, they bought two birds mm-hmm. <Affirmative>. And then they take the birds out of the cage, and then they, they let the birds go free. Yeah. And I asked, why, why did they do that? And someone explained to me, he was like, well, you know, maybe they’ve done some bad thing. Mm-Hmm. And so now they want to do something good in order to, to make up for what they did that was bad. And so by setting the bird go free mm-hmm. They’re doing a good deed to make up for a bad deed. And the problem is that as humans, the Bible says, all have sin. We’ve all done so many things that are bad. Yeah. And no matter how many good things we do, we cannot balance the scales. It’s impossible to be as good as God.
Pastor Khon Khan (19:23):
Yeah.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (19:24):
But that’s what Jesus does for us. He lived a perfect life. And then the, the Bible says that the punishment for sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ. So Jesus, he died on the cross to pay the price for our sin. And now by trusting in Jesus, we can be made perfect before God. Yeah. And he takes away all of the bad deeds that we’ve done. And He, he gives us his righteousness. That righteousness means to, to be standing right in to be good before God. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. And that’s what Jesus does. Yes. He brings hope. Yeah. That’s right. Where releasing a bird can never get you to heaven. Yeah. <laugh>. But Jesus can take you to heaven.
Pastor Khon Khan (20:12):
Yeah. That’s right. Yeah. So that is wonderful. Yeah. Because only Jesus, as he said, that he’s the way, the truth and the life. So if people don’t come to him, they cannot take hope for their life. Yeah. Actually, normally people who believe in Buddha, they don’t have hope at all. They just, you know they sometime they know, but because they said that is because of their tradition, their forefather, when they was born as a Buddhist believer. So they just follow, but they don’t understand, clearly understand what they believe. So what they see, they just follow. And sometime for back in Cambodia people know that Christian are good, Jesus Christ are good, but they said that they cannot stop. They cannot give up their religion. Because if they give up the religion, their parent or their grandparent or relative will get angry with them sometime like that. So they can say, Jesus is a, a good Jesus, good. Or can give her, or can give the, but the hard thing, when they want to come to believe in Jesus sometime their parent, their relative criticize them. Yeah. So, Jesus, only Jesus is the hope for the people.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (21:29):
Amen. Yeah.
Pastor Khon Khan (21:30):
Yeah.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (21:31):
Well, I’m so excited to hear that Jesus is working in the nation of Cambodia. You are raising up leaders, training pastors, planting churches, preaching the gospel. And I encourage you to continue in in that. I believe that Jesus loves the nation of Cambodia.
Pastor Khon Khan (21:53):
Amen.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (21:53):
And I believe that God is going to send a great move of His Holy Spirit to Cambodia. And I believe that every person in Cambodia needs to hear about Jesus and have the opportunity to, to give their lives to Jesus and to receive the salvation that comes through Jesus. So I have a question. A lot of the people who, who listen to this podcast mm-hmm. <Affirmative> if, if they wanted to, to pray for Cambodia or come to Cambodia is is there opportunities to do that? What what should they be praying for for the nation of Cambodia?
Pastor Khon Khan (22:29):
Okay, so days before, and answer your question, I, i dunno what it is term called, but I say that my heart is to turn killing field into how Westfield, why Wow. Why I said turn killing field to how Westfield, because the, he, I was bad history last in 1975, up to 1979, we were under the Khmer Rouge that that communist kill their own people amongst, when amongst 1 million people, they kill at least two to 3 million people. So that’s why if you go there, you can see a lot of bond that they college and keep in one place. So this is what I want to see Cambodia turn back to God. So there are many opportunity that if anyone want to come and minister to Cambodia, we either can come to do the, you know, we can do the public evangel, public evangelism, or we call crusade, or we can do pastor leader training or do some outreach as community help through
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (23:44):
That. We can, maybe someone wants to help dig a well…
Pastor Khon Khan (23:46):
Dig a well or maybe help build a community school. Or maybe they can, you know, like there are many opportunity because there are needs, many needs there in Cambodia. So, and all those need through that, we can bring hope to the people through what we can have. We can have the way to reach out the people also. Yeah.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (24:11):
Amen. Yeah. Well, I agree with you that we need to turn the killing fields into harvest fields. Amen. And I believe that Jesus can do that. And I pray for a great harvest of souls in the nation of Cambodia. Let’s finish today by praying for Cambodia, okay. And lifting up the people of Cambodia. Yes. To Jesus. Would you pray for Cambodia? Brother?
Pastor Khon Khan (24:34):
Okay. Dear heaven, father, thank you Lord for this opportunity that we come together and we share about what is God doing in Cambodia. And thank you Lord for evangelist Daniel King for help me to share here. So Lord God, now I lift up Cambodia to you, Lord God, that you will turn the killing field into the harvest wheel and turn the heart of the people in Cambodia from believe in religions and come back to the through God, which is the Lord Jesus Christ, who die on the cross for Lord God, I pray that God will bless the people and send more laborer to come to Cambodia to have or to the mission, feel their Lord. Because we need more people come to work alongside with us in order to bring the gospel of salvation to the hopeless people. Lord, thank you Lord, that you love us and you care for us. And your Christ is abandoned also. Lord. Now I am praying also for those who are listening the podcast today, Lord, that they will be touched by what we have been sharing, Lord God, so that they can pray for Cambodia as well. Lord, I pray to you that you will do great thing in Cambodia before you are coming. This can time, Lord, in the name of Jesus we pray, amen.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (26:04):
Amen. Amen. Well, brother, thank you so much for being on the Evangelism Podcast. I appreciate
Pastor Khon Khan (26:09):
It. Amen. Thank you for this opportunity. Yeah,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (26:13):
God bless you.
Pastor Khon Khan (26:14):
Amen.
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Evan & Madeleine Threlkeld | Is a Gospel Awakening Coming?
Evan Threlkeld is a missionary-evangelist and a youth pastor. He is married to Madeleine and together they have a burning desire to carry the gospel of Jesus Christ to the lost across the earth through the power of the Holy Spirit. They fell in love on the mission field in Africa. On today episode of The Evangelism Podcast, you will hear the story of their romance and about the ministry God is calling them to. We also talk about doing neighborhood outreaches in the United States and about reaching Buddhists in Thailand.
Donate to Evan Threlkeld: https://www.modernday.org/field-workers/evanthrelkeld/
Connect with Evan Threlkeld on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/evan.charles.94064
Transcript:
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:03):
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. Evan & his wife, Madeleine Threlkeld. Welcome to The Evangelism Podcast. Did I say that right?
Evan Threlkeld (00:23):
Pretty close. Yeah, thro. K it’s it’s a tough one because it’s, it’s old Norwegian last name. So <laugh> you did good.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:30):
Well, wonderful. We met at the Christ for All Nations (CFAN) Evangelism Bootcamp. You were one of the evangelism students there, and now you’re a graduate and you are excited about evangelism all over the world. Tell me a little bit about how you ended up at the Evangelism Bootcamp.
Evan Threlkeld (00:54):
Yes, it’s, it’s an interesting story. So I, I interned with evangelist Chris Overstreet at Bethel in 20, 20, 19, and shortly after I went to the school of evangelism, the SOE where you were training, and actually that was evangelist Reinhardt Bonnke’s last school that he taught at. So had the privilege to see him speak. And there was a there’s an opportunity to go to Africa and preach on gospel trucks and do kids crusades. And so I at the time was with Chris, but I said I would be, I would love to go. And I was one of 12 evangelists at the school that was selected. So for five weeks I went to Nigeria, saw thousands, tens of thousands of, of Nigerians give their lives to Jesus. They’re just so hungry over Nigeria. And then at the end of the five weeks Evangel Kada did a crusade and I Ave ACUTA Nigeria and that changed my life. It was a four day crusade. I got to just see so many people get touched by God. And the last the second to last day, Ben was going to ask me to pray for the sick and we just saw incredible miracles. So from there I applied for the bootcamp and that was also life changing experience. So yeah, that’s, that’s how I ended up at bootcamp.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:28):
So first you were interning with, with Chris over street. Chris is a great friend. I was just with him last month, got to spend a whole afternoon with him and, and see the, the powerful impact of his ministry. I really love the, the huge truck that Chris over Street’s ministry has. It turns into a platform it’s got screens on either side and he’s using it to, to preach the gospel. And, and now he’s going into neighborhoods using a, a smaller like sidewalk Sunday school size truck, and preaching in the, in the neighborhoods. And you’ve been involved in, in helping with that to kind of tell me what you’ve been seeing.
Evan Threlkeld (03:14):
Yes, that’s been amazing. So I’ve been a part of nearly every gospel truck event that Chris had, the small gospel truck event that he’s done. Earlier this year, he got the small gospel truck and which has been amazing, cuz he is been able to go into neighborhoods, apartment complexes tight spaces that a bigger truck couldn’t get into and reach entire apartment complexes for Jesus. And it’s been amazing seeing families come out and give their lives to Jesus. And then Chris and their compassion action team started a youth basically kids school for kids where their discipling and pouring into the kids. And you know, if you reach the heart of a kid, you reach the heart of the family. And so it’s been really, really beautiful to see. And I’ve been DJing at I’m a DJ as well. So I’ve been like coming in, just DJing at these events, which is a creative way to, to draw people out. So that’s been really fun.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:16):
Okay. Kinda walk me through one of these apartment outreaches. What does it look like? How do you, how do you, and, and Chris’s team attract people to come to the, the event and, and then what does the ministry look like? And, and then what have, are some of the results that, that you’ve seen?
Evan Threlkeld (04:39):
Yeah. So what we, what, what they do is they, they start by going to different apartment complexes and talking to the apartment managers which I actually did in Orlando as well when I was serving at, at CFA for, for a season go in, talk to apartment managers, get permission from them, which which is pretty, it’s pretty easy. If you find someone that, you know, you, you really basically pitch it to them is this is gonna be really good for your community. Really good for retention of of your, of your residents. And you tell them the benefits of what you’re gonna be doing. Like they give away free raffle prizes. They give away cotton candy, snow cones, popcorn, you know, all of that. And so it’s something that apartment managers love to hear. So once you get some apartments, then they come with the gospel truck.
Evan Threlkeld (05:38):
But we flyer the apartments for, for a few days beforehand and let the people know we’re coming and what it’s about. And then we show up and, and families come, we start to share the music, maybe go around and let people know one more time that we’re there. And it’s so fun. See all the kids that come, I mean, really the kids are the ones that are so excited about the event they come and they get their popcorn and they’re dancing, they’re doing, we’re doing raffles. So it’s a really fun event it’s. And then in that, you know, in that timeframe, we preach the gospel. We take 15 minute moments to preach the gospel and people, you know, after you’ve blessed them after you’ve loved on them, their hearts are so wide open. And I remember we went down to one of the worst neighborhoods, easily, the worst neighborhood in Portland. Just like two days before we got there, someone was shot and killed in the apartment complex next to where we were. And we had a very diverse crowd. And if you know anything about Portland you know, it’s not really known for being receptive to the gospel per se.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (06:51):
Portland is always in the news for the wrong reasons.
Evan Threlkeld (06:54):
<Laugh> exactly. Yeah. It’s one of the most unreached areas of America and the most unchurched I should say. And so we did this gospel event and I actually had the privilege to preach just a 15 minute gospel message. I really used a lot of evangelist, Columbus stories and kind of how he trained us at bootcamp and like 17 people got born again, like 15 people raised their hands to get born again. And this was in a church parking lot. So we were able to have the pastor come up, introduce himself, connect with the people and they get plugged into their church there. So,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (07:32):
Wow. What a great report. All right. Let’s talk about romance. Normally I ask people, what’s the number one thing that you got from the evangelism bootcamp? Well, I think the number one thing you probably got was a wife. So tell me kind of how that happened and how the, this romance between you and your wife sparked and, and then what that’s like for two evangelists to marry each other.
Evan Threlkeld (07:58):
Absolutely, absolutely. Well, you know, <laugh>, we I love to, I love to tell this whenever I preach and I introduced my wife, but I remember evangelist bonky would always say, he’d call himself a hot evangelist. And I said, Lord, I need me one of those. And so God answered my prayers <laugh> but yeah, I, I actually went to the first bootcamp in 2020 and then served in the next bootcamp for a season. And I just felt to my heart that my wife is a part of this bootcamp. I just had that strong feeling and sure enough, you know, I, I I met Madeline and we she was actually one of my interns. So we would go to the streets and, you know, evangelize and we’d even go to some of the nightclubs and love on the people in the parking lots with the team and the way that she loved people.
Evan Threlkeld (08:58):
And the way that she evangelized just really touched my heart. She was weeping over these girls. Seeing them get saved and her compassion and love for people really blew me away. So after, after we finished boot camp, I asked her out and then we went on the mission field to Tanzania. And on the way there, I got to talk with her on the plane and in the, in the airport. And I just fell in love. I knew she is the one for me. I just instantly knew in my heart. And so we actually came back to Orlando. We dated for it for a month and confirmation after confirmation came. And in fact, I even wrote in a journal, the Lord really spoke to me and people ask me dating advice all the time, because it was just so successful. I have single guys that ask me all the time that are evangelists. Like, how did you, you know, and I said, well, one thing I encourage you to do is to write a list. And the holy spirit spoke to me to write a list of things that I wanted in a wife. And even one of the things I wrote was maybe somebody that’s Australian and sure enough, she’s Australian. So God really answered that list. And so we, we, I proposed her a month after boot camp after our dating. And then we got married another month after that. So,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (10:23):
And how long have you been married now?
Evan Threlkeld (10:25):
We’ve been married just over a year. August 1st was our actually yes, it was our anniversary.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (10:33):
Wow. You know, I, I think some people really have a tough time as an evangelist to maybe find someone that their, their calling would be compatible with the calling of an evangelist because it, it’s not easily being an evangelist. There’s, there’s a lot of travel you’re away from home a lot. I found my wife on the border of Rwanda in Congo, and she was a missionary for, for 10 years before we met. And at the time when we met, she was actually a crusade director. So I was a crusade evangelist. She was a crusade director. It felt like a, a match made in heaven, but it it’s so neat to see that the, the two of you got together. I know that God’s calling is not just on an individual. His calling is upon the couple. And, and so both of you are, are called together and will be a mighty team.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (11:29):
One will put a thousand to flight. Two will put 10,000 to flight. Yes. And so I think like as maybe some of our listeners, they’re looking for the right wife or the right husband, and I think if you’re just pursue God as fast as you possibly can just go in the direction that God has given you to go, you know, and you’re running after God. And if you turn your head and look, and there’s someone who’s running along with you yes. And running in the same direction, that might be the person that, that God’s called you to be with.
Evan Threlkeld (12:05):
Yes,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (12:06):
Absolutely. So, so this last year you’ve been serving as a youth pastor. What’s that like having a, a calling as an evangelist, but being in this position where you are, are serving as a youth pastor?
Evan Threlkeld (12:21):
Yes. Well, that’s great. I, I got saved in middle school and I’ve always had a heart for youth. And even when I was at the boot camp, it was, it was a desire in my heart to really reach the young generation. And I have had countless prophetic words about it and so forth. So my, my wife and I, when we got married, we, we really felt the desire to reach youth. And so actually right when we got married, we were traveling to different youth groups in Florida and, and the west coast. And yeah, there’s a compelling story of, I, I always made it a gold preach in youth groups. And just a powerful story that I still used to preach today was that I went to a youth group in Michigan and I had just come off the mission field in, in Tanzania.
Evan Threlkeld (13:11):
And the pastor said we only have 12 youth in our group, but would you come? And I said, I’ll come for one. And so I came, preached the gospel one girl came forward, gave her life rededicated her life to Jesus. And three weeks later, she was in an accident where she passed away. She was only 16 years old. And so the, the, the pastor and the the grandmother came up to me and said, thank you at the funeral. I went to said, thank you so much for preaching the gospel to my granddaughter, because now I know she’s in heaven. And so this young generation, there’s an urgency. So my wife and I, we came out to Vancouver, Washington at Bethesda church and been youth pastoring for about the last year pouring into the youth learning like their culture, their language.
Evan Threlkeld (14:06):
And there’s so much that could be said. But when we first came in, we noticed that a lot of their a lot of them were hungry, but they came from broken backgrounds or families. And so we really began to encourage them disciple them build them up in their identity, just the foundation of who they were were. And then we began to really teach them about how to pour out. Once we saw that maturity growing in their hearts and their lives, how to pour out in their community, in their family. And so now we, we have students that have been sharing the gospel with their own families and seeing family members get, get touched by God. We’ve seen we had one student he’s been faithfully doing a club in his school for the last three years in his high school. And his high school is very hostile in gospel. He’s just been made, he’s been like the, like the laughing stock of the school, but he’s continued to faithfully preach. He’s in downtown Portland. And so we did an evangelism training with him and Scott McNamara that we went to, and that week he went back to school and preached the gospel and 50 kids gave, raise their hands, give their life to Jesus. And so yeah, it’s just been phenomenal. Being able to pour, pour into them.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:32):
You’re about to enter a new season of ministry. God has put it on your heart to, to launch your own ministry. What, what are you gonna call your ministry?
Evan Threlkeld (15:44):
Yeah. So we’ve been really praying into this and the holy spirit has spoken to us gospel awakening because we want to bring clarity and the power of, of the gospel to the nations.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:58):
And talk to me a little bit about your vision and, and what you see God doing through your ministry over the next few years.
Evan Threlkeld (16:07):
Yes. Well, we really want to keep things simple. We want to preach the simple gospel disciple people, plug them into local communities where they’re gonna be discipled. And we have a really strong heart for Asia for Africa. We really want to partner with some other ministries that are in Asia. We have so my wife, you know, she’s from Australia and she, her parents are pastors just north of Sydney. And so what we’re, what we’re really planning to do is have our base in Australia and America as well. <Laugh> but we want to go to Asia from Australia, and we have plans to partner with friends that are doing crusades throughout Thailand. Indonesia is on our hearts as well as some of the Oceania like islands, Vanuatu Fiji, some of these different regions PNG, Papa, Papa, new Guinea. And so right now we, we really feel that soon we’re gonna be doing partnering with a, a friend that’s doing crusades in Thailand and reaching some of the literally most unreached people groups in Thailand who’ve people that have never even heard the name of Jesus. And so, so far they’ve had thousands of people coming to their gospel truck events, preaching the simple gospel and plugging them into local churches. So that’s where we we’re plan to start.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (17:46):
Well, I think that’s so brilliant to, to base your ministry there in Australia, because you’ll be so much closer to, to many of these places. It it’s a, a good 18 hour plane ride from the United States, but from Australia, you can get there much easier and much cheaper. And all of those countries that you mentioned have such a tremendous need for a, a gospel awakening, especially Thailand. It’s a nation that is mostly Buddhist. My wife went to Thailand one time and she told me she was on the, the Metro in, in the capital. And she was talking to someone about Jesus. And this person said, oh, Jesus is that an American music star and had no idea that Jesus was a historical figure that lived 2000 years ago. And, and so there’s so many villages in Thailand that you can go to and they, they literally have not heard any of the gospel story.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (18:54):
I mean, here in the United States, generally, people kind of have an idea of the story of the Bible that in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth and, and then Adam and Eve sin, and then Jesus came and died on the cross to save us from our sins. I mean, that basic gospel outline, even for people that maybe don’t go to church or aren’t living for God, they kind of know that general basic outline. But when you go to a, a Buddhist station like Thailand, you really have to start with just the very basic that there is a God who created the universe. And let’s talk about who that God is. And so I, I think God will give you tremendous fruit as you go there.
Evan Threlkeld (19:42):
Amen. And I, I know you’ve done a lot of ministry and crusades in Asia as well, Indonesia and Burma. And it’s just amazing to hear about the testimonies that have come out of that as well.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (19:56):
Yeah, God is moving. I love ministering to, to Buddhist people. Let, let’s talk a little bit about ministering to, to Buddhist, you know, in Christianity, the, the main issue that Christianity deals with is, is guilt. We, we talk about sin and being guilty of sin but in Buddhism, the main issue that that Buddha was trying to deal with was suffering. And so the story is that that Buddha was a prince who lived a very rich isolated life. And then one day he was in a, a, a little thing that he was being carried by his servants, and he was going down the street and the, the curtain open. And he saw sitting beside the road, a leper who was in horrible suffering. And seeing this leper shook him to his very core because he saw suffering for the first time.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (21:08):
And Buddha started to look for ways to deal with suffering. And he came up with four great noble truths of Buddism that helped people to get free from suffering. And so the first truth is that life is, is suffering. Now all of life is suffering. And then he decided that the, the second truth is that this suffering is caused by our desire. And then his third great truth is that the way to get rid of suffering is to get rid of desire in our life. And so he said that when desire is eliminated, then suffering can be eliminated. And then his fourth truth revealed an eightfold path for getting rid of desire in our ministry. And this was all a response to him seeing this Lepar. And so he came up with this, this very complicated plan for getting rid of suffering in our life.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (22:11):
And I always like to compare Buddha’s response to Jesus’s response because in the gospels, we find a similar story where Jesus encounters a leper. And again, this leper is in horrible suffering. No one is touching him. And what is Jesus? Does. He reaches out his hand, he touches the man that the man says, Jesus, are you willing to heal me? And Jesus says, yes, I am willing be healed. And immediately the leper was cured of his suffering. And so the very problem that Buddha was looking to solve Jesus solved. Wow. And I think it’s so beautiful that here Buddha is looking for enlightenment and Jesus actually said, I am the light of the world. And, and so Jesus offers hope to Buddhist, to hinders to Muslims, to people of every single religion. Jesus actually offers the very thing that they’re looking for. So, so I think that will be wonderful.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (23:25):
As you go to Thailand and in other nations in Asia God is going to open up great doors for you to minister and, and for you to, to have a, a tremendous impact. If you’re listening today and you want to support Evan and his ministry, I’m going to put a link on our website that would link to where you can go and to support him. And, and to, to find out more information a, about his ministry. But Evan, there’s a lot of young people who maybe feel called to be evangelist. What would you say to those who, who maybe have a heart for evangelism, but don’t know where to get started? What would you say to them?
Evan Threlkeld (24:15):
I would say that you have what it takes. You have Jesus in you. He is the desire of the nations, and there’s no junior holy spirit. And in fact, I’ve seen some of the young people have the most faith for miracle signs and wonders. And even in our church, when the young people come forward to pray for people, the miracles are astounding and in our youth group. And so I want to encourage every young person that might be listening to this, that you have, what it takes and that Jesus lives on the inside of you. And he’s the one that qualifies you, not your experience. You know, Paul told Timothy don’t let anyone despise your youth. And so you have what it takes. And secondly, I would encourage any young person to really plug themselves into an non-fire church to surround themselves with Onfi, believers mentors and fathers in their life, as well as peers that can encourage them run with them. This generation because of social media is a very isolated generation. And so I would encourage every young person to really run with a tribe of on fire P men and women of God that can encourage you. And so I, I, I would, I would just really love to pray for any young person as well for your school, for your neighborhood, for your family. There is hope.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (25:40):
Absolutely. Please let’s pray.
Evan Threlkeld (25:42):
Yes, father, we thank you for every young person. God, we thank you for every youth worker, Lord that may be listening to this today, father, we pray that your power Lord, that your love that your fire would fall in their lives. Jesus father, we thank you that the holy spirit is the best evangelist. He is the one that leads us, that guides us, that convicts people of their sin and reveals Jesus to their hearts. And so father, I ask for a fresh baptism of your fire. Lord, I thank you for boldness Lord to preach the simple gospel, the death, burial, and resurrection of our king Jesus Christ that others may hear and be saved. I pray for their schools. I pray for their families. Lord my family, my parents got divorced when I was seven and they through a miracle, got remarried when I after 18 years of being divorced. And so father, any families that are broken, I pray that I pray that you would restore families. God restore marriages in Jesus mighty name. Amen.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (26:51):
Amen. Well, Evan, thank you so much for being a guest on the evangelism podcast. I’m excited about what God is doing through you and through your ministry. And I know that God is going to give you a tremendous harvest and I agree with you for a gospel awakening all over the world in Jesus name.
Evan Threlkeld (27:09):
It’s been an incredible honor. Thank you so much, Daniel.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (27:12):
Bless you.
Evangelism Podcast Host (27:15):
Daniel King is on a mission to save 1 million souls a year, but he can’t do it alone. Would you consider sewing a financial seed today to give, please visit www.kingministries.com.
Burma — Myanmar
How a Door Opened to Burma
My six-year-old son Caleb just graduated from kindergarten at Victory Christian School. One of his classmates is a boy named Go. At a parent-teacher conference, I sat down next to Go’s father and discovered his name is Do. After chatting for a while, Do found out that I am an evangelist. He invited me to share at the Zomi Baptist Church here in Tulsa. The Zomi people come from the nation of Myanmar (previously known as Burma). I thought there might be a few dozen people in attendance but when we arrived there were over four hundred. Do asked me to speak on the subject of healing. Right before I began, he leaned over and said, “Many of the church elders do not believe that God heals today but I still want you to preach on healing.” In that service, three people testified that they were miraculously healed by Jesus. When we went out for a meal after the service, another seven people texted Do to report they were also healed but had been hesitant to share their testimonies publicly.
Do invited me to visit Myanmar. His father, also named Go, is a pastor in the city of Kalaymo. He said, “We need to do a pastor’s conference to train our leaders and a Gospel Festival to tell people about the healing power of Jesus.
What Can Take Away My Sin?
On my first day in Yangon, the largest city in Myanmar, I had the opportunity to visit some of the local Buddhist pagodas. They look like big golden Hershey kisses surrounded by statues of Buddha sitting in a lotus position. Many barefoot Buddhist monks in orange robes walk around asking for alms by holding out a metal pot. In front of one pagoda, I saw a woman with a birdcage. Several hundred birds were flapping inside. A husband and wife came and bought a bird then set it free. There is a Buddhist belief that doing a good deed will wipe out a previous bad deed. The problem is that no matter how many good deeds one does, one can never wash away the stain of sin. Only Christ can do that.
Training Frontline Shepherds
When Do and I arrived in Kalaymo we were greeted by a large crowd outside the airport. Many of them were there to welcome Do who had been away from home for nine years. They put a scarf with traditional Zomi colors around my neck. This is a sign of great respect. Two hundred and fifty pastors gathered together for our leadership conference. We fed them three meals each day. They ate two cows, over sixty chickens, and twelve hundred pounds of rice. Our team spent six hours each day teaching on evangelism, leadership, and basic Bible principles.
Thousands Hear About Jesus
Each night at the Gospel Festival, thousands of people came together to hear about Jesus. In the crowd were many Buddhists, some skeptical about the message. But when the miracles started, they were amazed. Each night we witnessed tremendous miracles and when the altar call was given virtually the entire crowd prayed with us to make Jesus Lord of their lives. We also prayed for people to be set free from drug and alcohol addiction.
Opposition to the Gospel
On the final night of the festival, a group of gang members gathered outside the front gate of the Festival and attacked Go’s brother. Twenty of them viciously beat him with rocks. We do not know if the gang members were Buddhists that were angry we were preaching about Jesus or drug dealers furious we were preaching against drugs. We rescued the man and took him to the hospital. He had blood streaming from several cuts on his face and head and his back was bruised badly. He was forced to stay in the hospital for several days. A few days after I returned to the United States, the same gang burnt down the man’s house. At this Gospel Festival, we saw God do great miracles and saw many salvations, but we also were attacked by the devil. I am thankful for your prayers during this outreach. We really need people like you praying when we visit the frontline of Gospel evangelism. Thank you!
Report from Chin State, Myanmar
Myanmar (Burma) is located in southeast Asia between Bangladesh and Thailand. It has a tropical climate. In landmass, Myanmar is slightly smaller than the state of Texas. Myanmar is one of the poorest nations in Asia. About 26% of the nation lives in complete poverty, especially in rural areas.
For over fifty years, a military junta ruled the nation of Myanmar. In 2016, a civilian government was democratically elected in Myanmar. For the first time, it became possible for Christians to hold open-air meetings in Burma.
Myanmar has 54 million people divided up among 149 distinctive people groups. Each of these people groups have their own culture, traditional dress, and language. The official language of Myanmar is Burmese, but many people speak a second mother tongue.
Of these people groups, 53 of them are completely unreached which means there is no church within their people group. The nation of Myanmar is 78.1% Buddhist and about 8.1% Christian. The remaining population has an ethnic religion (6.9%) or is Islamic (4.8%). In total, there are 49 million unreached people living in Myanmar. These are people who have never had the opportunity to respond to the Gospel.
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