1 877-431-4276Andrew Scarborough | Follow Up for New Believers
Andrew Scarborough is doing follow up of new believer in Cambodia that has seen an 80% success rate. On today’s episode of The Evangelism Podcast he describes his method of turning decisions into disciples. Andrew grew up as a missionary in Indonesia working with his parents. Unfortunately, in his late teens he fell away from the Lord, but in a miraculous encounter with a believer, Andrew came back to Jesus. His gratefulness for how Jesus brought him back and saved him is now his motivation for reaching out to the lost. Keep listening, you will enjoy hearing his story!
Learn More about Andrew Scarbrough and his ministry: https://fireandrain.international/
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, Andrew Scarborough from Australia. Thank you for coming to the Evangelism Podcast.
Andrew Scarborough (00:13):
Oh, it’s such a joy to be here. Thank you so much for having me here in your amazing studio here in Tulsa. Thank you so much.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:20):
Yeah, so we’ve been together a couple of times. In the last year we were in Indonesia together at a conference with the Global Evangelist Alliance for everyone Asia. And then we were just last month in Thailand together for the everyone Thailand. We’re trying to reach that entire region of the world for Jesus. And you’ve actually grown up as a missionary in that part of the world. So tell me a little bit about your background and
Andrew Scarborough (00:52):
Yeah, that’s right. Yeah, so my parents were involved in missions in Indonesia. They’re still involved in missions in Indonesia. And so I was there from when I was seven to when I was 10, and then again when I was 15. So that was a huge, I guess, eye-opener and experience for a young Australian guide to live in. I had a pet monkey and we had to learn another language and different culture, different food, and it was a joy. It was a real joy. And I think obviously the most exciting thing was seeing what’s possible when you share the gospel.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:32):
Yeah, that’s awesome. And so you’re called by God to be an evangelist. It sounds like We have a similar upbringing. I was raised as a missionary in Mexico, and even as a teenager, my heart was beating for souls to be saved. And it sounds like you caught the same bug. How did you know that you were called by God specifically as an evangelist?
Andrew Scarborough (01:56):
Yeah. Well, I would say growing up I wanted to impress my parents. So at first it was as most kids do, at first it was I want to be a missionary like my parents. I want them to be proud of me, all of that. I soon worked out that that doesn’t really work. It doesn’t quite fill that void per se, and
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:19):
God has no grandkids, he just has children.
Andrew Scarborough (02:22):
That’s it. So I had to really work out my own identity in him. I ended up being a drunk. I was suicidal. I totally drifted away. And it wasn’t that I didn’t know that God was real. I knew that he was real. But the question for me is, am I good enough for him?
(02:42):
Just as I thought, could I ever be good enough for my parents? Could I ever be a great missionary like them? Now it was, can I be good enough for God? And I came up with the answer, no, I can’t. And then I was in a bar one night and a man came up to me, I’d never met him before, and he said, first thing he asked was, do you love your parents? That’s rather weird. Kind of like Jesus with the woman at the, well, tell me about your husband. And he says, do you love your parents? I said, okay, what do you want? Why are you here? And he said, I want you to know there’s a great love out there for you. I said, who are you? He says, I’m a Christian. I said, oh, I used to go to church. He says, then you know exactly what I’m talking about.
(03:24):
He looked me in the eye and said, God loves you so much. You have to come back to him. And in that moment, I mean obviously my whole world was transformed. I realized that scripture, that while we’re still sinners, Christ died for us is true. And that in my filth, in my sin, he had died for me. But then afterwards I thought, what if I could do for others what that man did for me? What if I could go to others and tell them about Jesus and the good news of the gospel? And that really began the journey for myself. It was no longer about trying to please someone or trying to prove something. It was a genuine, there are people out there, they dunno if they’re good enough for God. They don’t even know some that there is a God or who Jesus Christ is. I need to tell them.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:14):
And so how old were you when that encounter took place?
Andrew Scarborough (04:17):
I was 19. So a friend of mine, he says, Andrew, you got your season of the spirit of stupid. That’s what he calls it. So for about six months, I really just tried to escape life. And then when I had that radical encounter at 19, I then became a pastor for about 10 years. I thought you want to
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:41):
Be, where did you pastor? In Australia?
Andrew Scarborough (04:43):
Yeah, in Australia and in America. So we planted a church in California while I studied at Fuller Seminary. And yeah, that was really good, but still, even as a pastor, because I just didn’t know you could be an evangelist. The amount of evangelists that are full-time in Australia, you could count on maybe one to two hands. It’s just not something that we really have. We have pastors, so you want to work for Jesus, you go and become a pastor, and then we have traditional missionaries that live in country, but someone that travels around equipping the church, preaching the gospel.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:19):
So do they look at you a little weird sometimes when you tell people you’re an evangelist in Australia?
Andrew Scarborough (05:24):
They do, yes. It’s always you. You’re an evangelist, like a tech evangelist? No, not a tech evangelist. Like an evangelist for Jesus. They’re like, ah, who do you work for? Well, we run a ministry and it blows people’s minds. But yeah, in America, maybe a little bit more common. But then in America, people think, oh, you’re an itinerant preacher and you go from church to church. And I say, no, no, no. We actually go out over,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:52):
Yeah, the evangelist isn’t looking for meetings. He’s looking for lost souls, the true
Andrew Scarborough (05:56):
Evangelists. That’s it.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:58):
Yeah, I agree. Wow. So you went to Fuller Seminary and I saw in your cv you recently completed your ma, and what was your degree in?
Andrew Scarborough (06:09):
Yeah, so my first master’s at Fuller was in global leadership, and my most recent one was in, it was an in professional ministry. So I was looking at crusade follow-up and what that looks like.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (06:23):
Okay, so let’s talk about that. You’ve been doing crusades this last year. You’ve done some really amazing things in Cambodia. And so the number one question evangelists always get asked is, well, what do you do about follow up? That’s a great place to start. What do you do about follow up, Andrew?
Andrew Scarborough (06:43):
Yeah, well, we are really trying.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (06:47):
I love that question because even people that have never evangelized, they’ve never shared their faith with anyone. They’ve never discipled anyone they know. They got to ask that question, what do you do about follow up? It’s like, well, what do you do about evangelism? Are you going out preaching the gospel? Let’s talk about getting people saved and then let’s talk about follow up.
Andrew Scarborough (07:05):
Yeah, absolutely. And look, it is like the, it’s the classic question that you always get is, but where are they now? What about follow up? What about discipleship? And I think when I first started out in evangelism, I would say, look, we are the midwife. It’s our responsibility to birth the baby, and then it’s up to the parents to raise the baby. The evangelist brings the soul to Jesus. The local church raises the baby three kids in. For my wife and I noticed something with the midwives is they make sure that the baby is actually drinking, is actually putting on weight, is actually getting a little bit healthier or developing before the midwife exits the relationship. So what we’re seeking to do is marry disciple making movements with evangelism. And I know this is something that the team working in Thailand is going to be really focusing on as well. How do you marry those two movements? So you have evangelism, but then instead of just expecting the person to come to church on a Sunday, which in my research it shows that you get about two to 6% of people will actually end up in church on a Sunday and continue with Jesus if we try the approach of just see you at church. But if you go to them and you start discipling them straight away, straight after they make the decision, it jumps up to 80%. And so we tried that. That’s phenomenal.
(08:44):
We tried it in Cambodia. So we went into a village, we preached the gospel and all these decisions. Then we said the next day we got the 80% from a friend of mine, Benji Morph, and I thought, Hmm, I want to try this out. Well, the next day we said, we’re coming back tomorrow to do a follow up, to share more about the Christian faith, how to read your Bible, all of this. We came back to the village and 80% of the hands that were raised we’re sitting under the same tree ready for discipleship. And they’re asking great questions, do I still go to the temple? How do I read my Bible? Where do I start? We were like, oh, this is amazing. But we found that the number to hold true, that about 80% will actually be there if you go to them versus, Hey, come on to a church.
(09:37):
And especially in these regions where there’s not many Christians and there’s not many churches that can be an hour drive, that can be a two hour drive to get to a local church. And that’s hard when we need to make it easier for people to walk with Jesus. I do think the Holy Spirit really does the convicting, and I don’t think we can. Sometimes we try and formalize it a little bit and we try to almost take too much credit or put too much pressure on us. I think if someone really gave their life to Jesus, they’re going to do everything they can to follow him if it’s true. But I do think we have a responsibility to at least get them to a place where they’re beginning that journey. So what we are trialing is we would go in as the evangelist for the beginning of the discipleship, either us or other people that were involved in the campaign. Then we pass it over to a local pastor. Now he’s got some establishment there. So yeah, it’s a little bit different to the standard follow-up form passed over to the local church, still working with the local church. But rather than just giving them a phone call, inviting them to church, we are saying, all right, pastor, let’s go. We’re going back into that location or back into the village and we are going to do discipleship.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (11:03):
Yeah, that’s awesome. Now, I think the place that you and I first met was at the Christ for All Nations Evangelism Bootcamp.
Andrew Scarborough (11:12):
Yes, that’s
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (11:12):
That ‘s the minstry that Daniel Kolinda helps to lead, the Ministry of Reinhard Bonnke. And just tell me some of what you got out of that training from the Evangelism Bootcamp and then how you’ve put that into practice in different parts of the world.
Andrew Scarborough (11:30):
Yeah, look, I would say that bootcamp was a game changer for me, and I’d encourage anyone to do keep upskilling, keep doing some sort of training. Like I said, I already had a master’s at the time. I was working for a ministry called Youth for Christ, two PAs, a company car, a phone, a laptop, all expenses paid. It was great. And then the Lord said, do this bootcamp. And I’m like, but I’m already established. I know what I’m doing. I had no idea what I was doing. The bootcamp taught me how to preach the gospel in such a crystal clear way. I almost felt like before the bootcamp, I didn’t even know how to preach the gospel, even though everyone called me an evangelist. And then the other thing that it did is it showed me what’s possible when you stretch yourself. And I think that’s why I like spending time with people like yourself, evangelist Daniel King, because you show me what’s possible.
(12:37):
And I think as you get around evangelists that have done more than you, that have learned more than you, and you glean from them, then you’re able to say, if they could do that in Nigeria or if they could do that in Kenya, maybe I could do that in Cambodia. Maybe I could do that in Indonesia, maybe I could do that in Thailand. And yeah, it’s also given me a great network. I think the GEA Global Evangelism Alliance, the C fan Evangelism Alliance, any of these networks are so helpful because you need someone to join with you in a crusade, join with you in a training. You’ve got a family or a network to run with.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (13:16):
Absolutely. It’s great to be around people that think big,
Andrew Scarborough (13:20):
That
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (13:20):
Have big faith and are trusting God to do amazing things. I think it stretches your own faith and you see what is possible through God. So you grew up in Indonesia, you’ve been doing stuff in Cambodia, and I think it’s just so beautiful that in your ministry, God’s really given you a focus on Asia in Africa over the last 50 years, especially with Reinhard Bonnke, we’ve seen such a great move of God in Africa, and now I think it’s Asia’s turn. It is a great harvest field. Talk to me some about what you see God doing and what you hope to see God do in Asia.
Andrew Scarborough (14:00):
Yeah, look, it’s a great question, and if I think about it too much, I’ll probably tear up because the reality is a lot of these nations, they’re 2%, they’re 3%, they’re 1%, they’re 4% Christian. In the last two to three years I’ve been in Japan, Singapore’s got a lot more Christians, but so does Indonesia. But I’ve been in Japan, very low percentage. I think it’s less than 1% Christian. Then I’ve been in Singapore, been in Indonesia, Cambodia, Thailand, and I look at these nations and as we do evangelism on the streets, people say things like, one gentleman said, I’ve been waiting 14 years for someone to tell me about Jesus. Another person said, I’ve been waiting eight years. I thought you had to be born into a Christian family. I had no idea I could become a Christian. There was even a religious leader. I could put it that way, that one of the followers of their faith came to them and said, I have anxiety, I have depression.
(15:10):
What do I do? And this religious leader said, I can’t help you, but I hear that the God of the Christians can help you. What you need to do is start to pray to their God that he would send you one of these Christians. And so this religious leader, not from the Christian faith, counseled one of his own followers to pray for a Christian to come. And then obviously a Christian came and he and his whole family got saved. And I think that Asia is crying out, send us the missionaries, send us the evangelists. And it is so ripe. It is beyond ripe. It blows my mind how people are like, we’ve been waiting. We just didn’t know this good news. And so where you could argue that some nations are saturated in missionaries, I think a lot of nations still crying out for missionaries.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (16:06):
In the early years of my ministry, I focused a lot on Latin America, and we’ve seen God do great things there. But the last few years I’ve been trying to focus more on the 10 40 window. I mean, because there’s just such a huge harvest there of people that are waiting to hear about Jesus. They just need someone to come and tell ’em. And so I’m so excited about what God is doing in Thailand. You’re going to be involved in some of the evangelism training in Thailand. Kind of talk me through what does evangelism training look like when you do evangelism training? I know even while you’re here in America this week, you’re driving around in an rv and I saw you’ve been doing some evangelism training for churches here. What does that look like?
Andrew Scarborough (16:53):
Yes, I would say that evangelism training, we do cater it a little bit to the context. So Asia is very different to Africa, and then America is very different to Asia.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (17:07):
But
Andrew Scarborough (17:07):
In general, I try to deal with the four main excuses that I’ve seen to sharing your faith. So the number one thing I see is people say, I don’t know how. So we just equip them in the basics. Things like three circles or bridge to life or Roman Road. There’s so many Jesus at the door. There’s so many tools that you can equip people with. The second reason people say they don’t share their faith is it doesn’t work in my own life, so why would I share it? And so we really encourage people, you need to fall in love with the Lord again. And if we have a little bit longer training, we really spend some time ministering to the individuals as well. And then the last two, they’re fairly related to each other. One people would say, fear of man. So we really pray for people.
(17:55):
I think a lot of the challenges in evangelism actually have to do with people’s own identity and fears. And we just need to break those and always tell this story. I say there was in Australia, there was a deadly snake in my backyard. I’m very scared of snakes. I don’t like them at all. And we are famous for them in Australia. But with that snake, I became a warrior and I went out with my boots and my shovel and I was going to kill that snake. I couldn’t find it to kill it, unfortunately, but I scared it away. And the reason I wasn’t scared of that snake, even though I was a little bit is because my children play in the backyard. And my love for my children was so much greater than my fear. So I used to tell people, if you’ve got fear of man, you actually need to spend time falling in love with the lost again.
(18:45):
And the last reason that we kind of disarm or dismantle in our training is people say, well, I actually haven’t thought about it. I haven’t let the reality of the lost world break my heart. I haven’t actually, I’ve put it in the two hard basket or the don’t think about it basket, but the reality of hell, the reality of people that don’t yet know Jesus, spinning eternity away from God. I just don’t let it touch me. So we encourage people to pray and we pray and pray and pray in these trainings. During the trainings, we weep over the loss. And just a fun story for you. We were just in Nampa, Idaho, and I said, before we go out on the streets and preach the gospel, we were doing a training with about 30 people from that church. I said, let’s pray for the lost.
(19:37):
And I knelt down next to a window and began to pray, Lord, save America, Lord save Idaho. And as I’m praying a couple walking off the street into the church, I get up, they take one look at me, I’m covered in tears. So I think that freaked them out. They turned around, walked away. And so I grabbed the pastor, I said, go, go, go get them. Get them. So he runs outside and it turns out that there was a couple and the gentleman had just come out of prison. He was trying to get his life together. He needed some food. Well, they prayed for him. The girl, she got healed from pain in her shoulder and they said, we’ll be at church in the morning. Well, that morning I preached the gospel and both of them responded, gave their lives to Jesus. But it showed me the power of prayer. We are literally crying out for the lost, the lost walked into our prayer meeting, and then now their lives are transformed and they’ve got food in their bellies and also spiritual food. So I think a training should go beyond just head knowledge, but into an encounter with the Lord, a heart for the lost and then an activation. So we always activate people and get them out on the streets sharing the gospel. Faith without works is dead. We got to do something. So we get them out there.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (20:58):
Yeah, that’s awesome. I love what you’re saying about prayer and allowing God to break our hearts and look at people as he sees people. So let’s just take a moment right now and pray for lost
Andrew Scarborough (21:11):
People,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (21:12):
The lost people of Asia, the lost people of the United States. Would you lead us in a prayer?
Andrew Scarborough (21:17):
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Father, we just thank you so much for the privilege of knowing you. And I pray for the lost in Asia. I pray for the lost around the world that you would send forth laborers into the harvest. And for anyone listening or watching this right now, I just pray, Lord God, you’d move their hearts to preach the gospel and to see many come into the kingdom. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (21:46):
Well, if someone wants to know more about you or your ministry, what is your website? How can they find out more about you?
Andrew Scarborough (21:54):
Yeah, so it’s fire. That’s FIRE because my accent can throw the Americans fire and rain International. So it comes from Elijah and the prophets of Bal, that story, and what I say is if we want to see the spiritual drought broken over a nation, we need the fire of God to first fall on the people of God. So it’s revival, but it’s also evangelism. So fire and Rain, international, that’s the website.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (22:23):
Awesome. Well, I’d encourage you to go to Fire and Rain International and support the ministry of Andrew and just help them and all of the evangelism that they’re doing and pray for them get connected. And so Andrew, thank you so much for being on the Evangelism Podcast.
Andrew Scarborough (22:43):
No, thank you. And I just wanted to say a huge thank you to you, Daniel, because you are a champion of the evangelist. And so thank you for having this podcast. And I’d encourage you to share this podcast with your friends, let people know about King Ministries because I tell you, it is great what God is doing through your life, Daniel, and I’m so thankful for the way that you champion, not just the ministry that you are doing and reaching the lost, which is incredible, but you champion others as well. So thank you for this great resource.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (23:13):
Well, thank you. Bless you.
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Evangelism in France | Leave the Shore | Timothée Paton
Timothée Paton is an evangelist passionate about reaching France with the Gospel. On today’s episode of the Evangelism Podcast, we discusses the current spiritual state of France, noting that while churches have grown in size, the presentation of the gospel message has often been lacking. Timothée shares his vision to bring the clear, simple gospel presentation back to the forefront of church services. Timothée also talks about using short gospel stories and radio spots to effectively communicate the good news. He challenges believers to leave their comfort zones and take the gospel to the “deep end” – the unreached areas of France and the Francophone world. He expresses optimism about the opportunities to reach the French, particularly through the influx of believers from Africa, and calls for more missionaries to minister in the rural, traditionally Catholic regions of the country.
Buy the Book: Leave the Shore: https://amzn.to/3WGhpko
Learn more about Timothée Paton: https://timotheepaton.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. And today I have a very special guest all the way from France, Timothée Paton, thank you for joining me today.
Timothée Paton (00:16):
Thank you Daniel. It, it’s a joy to be with you. We met once that’s back in Amsterdam, 2023 if I remember. Well,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:27):
Yeah, that was at the everyone conference there with Dr. Billy Wilson. God gave Dr. Wilson from Oral Roberts University a vision to reach everyone on Earth with the gospel before 2033, the 2000 year anniversary of the first day of Pentecost. And so I believe that’s a vision that comes from God. It goes right in line with the Great Commission. And the Great Commission is something that you are very excited about. Tell me a little bit about what God is doing in France right now.
Timothée Paton (01:04):
Well, I got excited probably because my parents got excited about serving in France 60 years ago. I mean, my mom and dad are very similar to yours. They left the comfort of a wealthy or Christian nation and they came to a place where the gospel was not very known. So my parents came, my dad from Glasgow, Scotland, my mom from Birmingham, England, I have none of their accent. And I was born as an MK right here in the central of France where it was tough back in 1964, I was told. And in 2025, it’s still a tough place, but as you know, France like Western Europe is wide open. We can tell people about Jesus anywhere, anytime. So I’m excited. I guess I got excited when I saw that mom and dad found the best thing to do in the world was to tell people in France about Jesus.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:07):
And what are you seeing God do in France through your ministry right now?
Timothée Paton (02:14):
Well, when we got married about three and a half years ago, after many years in Southeast Asia, I realized that I left France in 1999, came back in 2019, and then I realized maybe by going overseas, when you come back, you see what you couldn’t see so well because you were part of the picture. So when you leave the picture and come back into the picture, I realized that churches in France had great services. Churches were bigger than 20 years before almost mega churches in Paris and a few other places. But now realize the worship is good. The church building is top-notch. You could be in California and the service is so good, people are very welcoming. But something interesting had changed from in the nineties, the preaching of the gospel, which used to be in the Assemblies of God, where I was brought up on Sunday afternoon.
(03:24):
Jesus saved only at 3:30 PM on Sunday afternoon. And we prayed for the sick when the service came to the end. But since that gospel meeting has been taken away, we took away the gospel meeting, but we took away the gospel and the meeting. So the preaching of the gospel, the A, B, C, as Bonky used to say the A, B, C was dropped out of the Sunday morning service. So I realized it was time to bring the gospel back. It doesn’t have to be on Sunday afternoon, but it has to be back at the heart of the church. So my wife and I realized that the best thing we can do is to ask pastors in France who invite us to speak. What about if we had a gospel service on Sunday morning? And for some pastors, the two don’t go together Sunday morning gospel service.
(04:24):
And we said, Jesus can save on Sunday morning. And many of them would say, Hey, I mean they wouldn’t say so plainly, but I could read between the lines Sunday morning is a service for God’s people. And I said, well, you’d be surprised if we have a gospel service on Sunday morning. How many people in your church will actually respond when the call is given publicly to turn to Jesus? And we’ve had these gospel services on Sunday. I preach the gospel, people respond, and I love the look on the pastor’s face. And he says, wow, this lady’s been in my church for 20 years. She’s been worshiping where he thinks she’s been worshiping. She’s been singing, now she’s going to worship because she’s born again.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:19):
Amen. And one of the things I really like on your website is you talk about having gospel talk and not making it boring, but making it interesting using stories. Give us some examples of what you would recommend to a pastor to include in a gospel talk on Sunday morning. How do we take it from being just a boring, sometimes condemning presentation of facts to making it dynamic and interesting, using stories in a way that communicate the truth of the good news?
Timothée Paton (06:04):
Well, I think stories are the best way to captivate any audience. And we sometimes think stories are for kids in Sunday school so they can hear another Bible story. But everyone is made, it’s in our DNA, people respond. You can see the body language of the congregation actually rise when the preacher says back in 1924, there was the famous Russian clown that would go around the country and people suddenly the body language will change. And I realized that there’s nothing more powerful than a story. I think our sermons are like bonkers, bonkers are in the Second World War. You had these very tight buildings with soldiers, with hide, no windows
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (07:03):
Made out of concrete, very
Timothée Paton (07:04):
Hard concrete. So it’s good to have the doctrine. It is good to have sound teaching, but if you don’t have windows in your house, you’ll suffocate. And we have too many suffocating sermons from the pulpit. So we need windows to get the light through. But you can’t build a sermon on windows alone. You need some windows. I think Billy Graham had a window, a story every seven or eight minutes to keep the audience captivated, but also to bring the light on the word. So one of the keys of gospel talk, we’ve given it another name since I’m back in France, it’s called Luter. It’s like a circle of people who are together to proclaim the gospel and one of the keys to captivate your audience anywhere in the world. I’ve seen it from Colombia to New Zealand to Finland and France. Wherever you go, whether you have very wealthy people or your stick somewhere in the bush of Africa, everyone responds to a story.
(08:16):
So one of the keys that I teach in these gospel talk sessions is I plead pastors and preachers and missionaries bring stories. I have here myself, hundreds of stories that I’ve cut out of newspapers, magazines, Christian calendars, and I use them. I use maybe two or three in a sermon, and I know that will really bang the nail. So then the truth, and also teach one truth at a time. There’s a Russian proverb that says if try to run after two rabbits, you would lose both of them. So run after one rabbit catch it. And that’s enough for a sermon.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:07):
Yeah, sometimes it’s hard to be disciplined to stick with just one idea. Can you share with us one of your favorite stories? You have hundreds. Give me one or two of your favorite gospel stories that you use.
Timothée Paton (09:23):
Yeah, there’s one I’ve used in many places, this little girl probably in France many years ago when trains were not very common and she heard about trains, she’d never seen a train, maybe a picture of a train. So she said to her, dad, dad, please take me some time to the train station. I know there are trains passing through every day. Please bring me there. So the dad took the little girl, she’s maybe nine years old, and took her to the train station and she was fascinated. She’d never seen a train before. Suddenly a train comes into the station and this very rough looking man surrounded by two policemen, handcuffed, comes out of the train and he’s about to be taken away by a police car. The little girl who’s a believer, she leaves, her dad runs to this man she’s never seen, of course, very terrifying face.
(10:36):
And she looks at him and she says, I’ve got something to tell you. And this man looks to the little girl and says, what do you have to say? And she says, Jesus loves you. She runs back to her dad. The dad is a bit surprised. The man gets into the police car and ends up in jail. And the words of that 9-year-old girl is like a broken record in his mind. Jesus loves you. Jesus loves you. She didn’t give a long sermon, but she brought the whole gospel in those few words, Jesus loves you. A few months later, he’s on his knees, in his cell, in his prison cell, and he cries out to God and he says, God, I need that love that I don’t have in my life. And he became a believer, the power of telling the truth in three words. Jesus loves you.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (11:38):
That’s a beautiful story. Let me tell you about what I’ve been doing with my stories. I’m like you, I like to collect stories. And so recently I’ve been recording some of my stories as 62nd YouTube short videos, and we’ve been putting them up on YouTube in order to build momentum with the algorithm on YouTube, we’re posting three videos every single day. And so each one is only 60 seconds, but each one is one story with one idea. And then at the end of it, I say, if you want to know more about Jesus, watch the video. I pin down below and I point like this on the video. And right there, there’s a place on YouTube where you can pin a video and it will take them to a longer session on how they can properly be saved. And so we’ve just been doing that the last two months and just this month we’ve had over 30,000 people watch these little stories.
(12:44):
And I think that’s just the very tip of the iceberg of what is possible because I have some friends on YouTube and they get a million views on one video. So you can imagine if you take a gospel story, 60 seconds, just share the story and then give people a quick opportunity to have something that impacts their lives. Just something simple like your story there. Jesus loves you and it can change their life. And so I think that you should go into your cupboard of hundreds of stories that you got there and record some of them so that they can impact more lives. Do them in both French and Spanish. French and English. And English. Yeah. I think there is not many things like that in French. So you will very quickly get a big following.
Timothée Paton (13:43):
Actually, I’ve given a second live to those illustration at a Christian radio called Far
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (13:51):
And
Timothée Paton (13:51):
Far Fem is in the francophone world.
(13:54):
It’s actually the fastest growing Christian radio in the world outside of the US I was told by the director, and it’s an amazing tool. There’s 16 people working full-time in the town of Ulus in France. And one day I said, look, I’ve got these stories. As you say, lying in those envelopes is hundreds of cuttings by theme Easter forgiveness mission, the cross give your life to Christ, which I’ve used for sermons. But I’ve said I will have to leave 400 years preaching those anecdotes and I don’t have 400 years, so I want to give him a second life. So every day, three times a day, they are broadcast. And as you say, it’s very short. It’s 75 seconds, one minute, 15 seconds. And it’s one idea, one story no more with a punchline, inviting people who are listening to the radio to actually respond to the love of Christ.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:01):
Wow. I wonder how many radio spots have you produced? I
Timothée Paton (15:08):
We’ve done 139.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:11):
Wow.
Timothée Paton (15:12):
And they are aired on this Christian radio, which can be heard anywhere in France, but also on the internet. And actually the Christian radio I find, which started 35 years ago as probably a gospel, Christian radio has become very a lot of teaching as if everyone in France was already a believer, it’s oh 0.5%. I’m like, when everyone is a believer, maybe we can put so much Christian content on the airwaves. But since France is mainly resistant to the gospel, they don’t know anything about the plan of salvation. I don’t want to broadcast anything else but the A, B, and C, I won’t even go into D and F. I just want to stick to those three letters. And I’m very happy that they take those one minute, 15 second Christian messages. And sometimes it seems to be like it’s a bit the odd and the odd one in the Christian radio, but actually it should be the other way. We should just be preaching the A, B, C till everyone gets the message.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (16:31):
Yeah, you are the evangelist. We need more good evangelists on Christian radio. And you actually have a book that you have written. The name of it is Leave the Shore’s. Tell us a little bit about why you chose that title and what someone can find in the book.
Timothée Paton (16:53):
Good. If you hold on, I’ll get you a copy. It’s right there on the shelf.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (17:04):
Yeah, I found the book on Amazon. And so when I post this podcast, I’m going to put a link to where someone can get a copy of the book. And is that one in French, the one you just showed me?
Timothée Paton (17:21):
Yeah, that’s the latest one in French.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (17:23):
And then I saw you also have it in English.
Timothée Paton (17:26):
It’s in English. Leave the shore. It’s seen about 20 languages. Some are not fully printed yet, and we just look for new languages and the publisher can keep all the money. The whole idea is to get it out, no copyright, no royalties. Our passion is to get people out of the shore into the deep end.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (17:51):
Wow. Alright. Well tell us a little bit about the book and the main message.
Timothée Paton (17:59):
Yeah, the book is a challenge to get believers away from the shore. Remember when Jesus met Peter for the first time, he was cleaning his nets. He was discouraged, the two men had never met, but Jesus tells him from Peter’s boat, get back into the boat, bring your nets and let’s cast the nets in the deep end. The deep end is anywhere in the world where people are still waiting to hear the gospel message. For the first time, two thirds of the world have had some knowledge of Christianity. But one third, that’s 2 billion people, not 2 million. It’s not an M, it’s a B. 2 billion people are waiting for the message of the gospel. What gets me sometime is that we translate the Bible in a new English version in a new French, in a new Spanish version with a better cover, with a nicer design.
(19:06):
I was just praying with my wife yesterday for the people of Maldive in the Indian Ocean, a place where people go on holiday. After 2000 years, only 25 books of the Bible have been translated 25 books out of 66 up to 2000 years. For me, it’s a disgrace, it’s an injustice. And maldive is the deep end and we are called to help those who are translating join the Wcl Bible translators who are in the deep end. They’ve left the shore of the us, Australia, maybe a nice place, and they’ve gone to the deep end to translate the Bible for those people who are still waiting for the complete old and New Testament. So for me, the deep end are those places in the world where people are still waiting and you can stay on the shore for the rest of your life going from one conference to another, enjoying Christian music the whole day, just casting your net on the shore, don’t cast your net on the shore, you’ll catch some shelves, maybe some dead fish.
(20:24):
No one is called to stay on the shore. We are called to get into the boat. And I want to speak to people who might have one foot in the boat and one foot on the shore get both feet in the boat. Jesus is not coming on the beach to meet you. He’s waiting for you to meet him in the boat and bring your nets. Everyone has a net. Everyone has gifts and talents. I speak on radio, but I wouldn’t know how to build the walls of an orphanage. In Africa, we have different nets. Use your nets. Don’t compare your net with someone else. Bring your nets, your gift, your talents. Don’t spend your life cleaning your nets. Some people say, when my life is better, when I’ve read the whole Bible, when I’ve been two years to Bible school, when my nets are just right, then I can join Jesus in the deep end of mission. Well, that’s not the way it works. Come with your weakness, with your struggles, with your past, with your difficulties. But by all means, bring your net. Don’t leave your net on the shore. Bring it with Jesus in the deep end.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (21:44):
Amen. That’s powerful. Let’s talk about the challenges and opportunities of ministering in France. Some people have said that Europe is now a post-Christian nation. I like to say no, it is a pre-Christian nation. It is wide open and ready for a new move of God. And I was watching the news just recently and it was so beautiful to see the ceremony where they reopened the Notre Dame Cathedral
Timothée Paton (22:22):
Because
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (22:22):
For hundreds of years, Notre Dame has been the symbol of Christianity in France. And it was so tragic when it burned down, but now they have restored it. And the Bible says that God makes all things new. And in some ways I see it as a prophetic picture that in the past Christianity was very strong in France and now not so much, but Satan has tried to destroy it. Satan comes to steal, kill and destroy. But Jesus says, I have come to give life and life more abundantly. And in the same way that Notre Dame has been rebuilt, I believe that God wants to rebuild the Church of France to be strong, to be full of the fire of the Holy Spirit, to see miracles once again to send out missionaries around the world. Once again, what do you see working on the ground? What are the great challenges? And then what do you see are the great opportunities that God has for not just France, but all of the Francophone countries, francophone Africa and other places around the world that have been so influenced by French culture?
Timothée Paton (23:46):
Well, interesting you mentioned Francophone Africa. I mean almost half of Africa speaks French.
(23:55):
I think the Africans coming from the Congo, from KaVo, from Cameroon, from Togo, Binna, Congo, they’re coming over to France 60 years after the independence. And most of them are strong believers in Jesus. So the churches in France have been shaken. I’m talking about many the Protestant, evangelical Pentecostal churches everywhere across the country are being blessed by very strong. They know what they believe. Sometimes the French Christians have only Christian as a name, but they don’t really know what they believe. They don’t really read the Bible. But those Africans, they know what they believe and they won’t give in and they won’t be afraid to stand up publicly for Jesus. And what’s very good, because in France there’s no way you can say anything about someone with dark skin that’s against the law. So the best thing is when you have thousands of Africans who’ve come to France and they go for the march for Jesus, which is once a year in Paris, Mar Ur, 90% of the crowd is made up of Africans who live in France and no one dares to say anything.
(25:20):
Being black in France is the best thing because you can have a black gospel choir singing the gospel, gospel music, black gospel music. It’s probably the best tool to reach French people. They might not believe in God, but they have a lot of respect for the Martin Luther King and the civil rights back in America. So when you have a gospel choir singing, it’s probably one of the best ways to reach French people. So I’m telling if you have a black gospel choir, whether you’re from Chicago, LA or Detroit, come over to France with your choir, you’ll be invited everywhere you will go where it’s difficult for me as a white man born in France to go. So there are great ways to reach the French people in rural France. It’s still very, very dark. I mean, yesterday my wife and I went back to where I was born, exactly to the day 52 years ago.
(26:34):
We went, it’s bang in the middle of France. It’s a little place called Ghana. You’ve got Ghana in West Africa and you’ve got Ghana as a little town right in the central of France. That’s where my parents started the ministry back in the early sixties. I was born there, but I was born again at the age of four in Ghana. So I went back memory lane yesterday with my wife and she’s very nice. She goes where I love to go back to, and she was born in Hong Kong, I was born in Ghana, but she comes to my world and I hope one day I can go to her world over there on the other side of Asia. But we went to this church, an old Catholic church a few miles away from Ghana. And I realized that not much has changed in a thousand years.
(27:30):
And I saw those leaflets on the way out, how to pray for the dead with the dead, how to have a better relationship with the Virgin Mary. And I said to myself, those rural places in France, which is a large section of the country, is still untouched with the message of the gospel. So I ran from my car, picked up a few gospels of John, slipped him in that church because we saw no Bible, no gospel. And that’s the way it is. In a lot of villages in France, people have a religion, but they don’t yet know the gospel. They’ve never read. Most French people have never opened the Bible. So we see great things. We see big churches. A new evangelical church is birthed every 10 days in France,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (28:29):
But
Timothée Paton (28:30):
France is big. France is almost 70 million people. It’s the largest country alongside Germany, the largest country in Europe. So it’s good news, a new church every 10 days. We don’t tell you those who close. But in rural France where we live, my wife and I since early January this year, we realized not much has changed. So if you want to leave the shore of America, bring your nets to places like Central France where people have a religion. There’s a Catholic church in every single village, but most people have no knowledge of the gospel. People are very suspicious. We went for a restaurant for my birthday yesterday. I always have a gospel in my pocket and I don’t just give it like that. I bring the price. I want people to realize the price of the booklet I’m giving them, and I gave it to the waiter on the way out when we paid.
(29:36):
We do pay missionaries, pay for the mill. And I said to her, this book is the oldest book in print. It’s almost 2000 years. In about 20 years time, this book will be 2000 years old. So that raises a little bit of interest. I say this is the most translated book in the whole world. People will do anything to get this book in some countries. And this book is part of a large book that my wife and I read every single day. We start the day with this book. So I don’t just give it as a gospel tract too quick,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (30:19):
You the value.
Timothée Paton (30:21):
I elevate the value. I want people to realize how precious this book is. But I could see on that woman’s face, there’s something on the faces of most French people when you give the gospel is very cautious. Don’t get me into your thing. Very, very aware of cults. I think the French people are more afraid of a cult and they think we belong to one of those than they are of the atomic bomb. So you can sit on their faces. So we need to pray for France and we need missionaries to come to those rural areas that have had Christianity, but not really the gospel.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (31:14):
Amen. Well, let’s take a moment right now to pray for France. Would you pray and let’s pray together and agree together for God to send missionaries and for France to come to Jesus.
Timothée Paton (31:29):
Yeah. Father, we thank you that you love this nation, A nation that has known revivals in the past. But we know that people like John Calvin, Jean Calva was born in France and others who brought the Bible back at the center of society. And we know that France centuries ago went through a genocide when the Protestants were either slotted by the millions in France or escaped to places like Switzerland, Holland, South Africa. Though we pray that the gospel would come back. People have had religion. People have seen a church in their village their whole life. Even when they walk through the doors of a church, they don’t always hear the salvation message. Lord, I pray that you will bring new workers to France. This nation is waiting to hear the true message that changes lives. Lord, the country is open. It’s easy to get in. And I pray that you’ll bring gospel choirs from America to tour across this nation singing the gospel. And I preferred missionaries to come in to learn the language and to love the French culture and to become French to win the French. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (33:14):
Amen. Powerful. Well, brother, thank you so much for being on the Evangelism podcast. If someone is listening and they have a heart for France and they want to find out more about your ministry or maybe find your book or maybe support your ministry, I’m sure you need more support. What is your website? What is a good way for someone to find out more about you?
Timothée Paton (33:45):
Yeah, well my name, so www dot t mo Payton in one word, forget the accent. The English people will be happy about that. Timothy Peyton,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (33:59):
Can you spell it for those who are listening?
Timothée Paton (34:02):
Yeah. So Timothy OTE is T-I-M-O-T-H-E-E, Peyton, PATO n.com. And you can find the book and you can write. And if you do come to France, if you leave the shore with your net to France, you will never, never be out of a job. People are waiting and people want to hear the gospel, but they want to see a demonstration as well. They want to see signs and wonders. And I have a feeling, and I just finished, I was just telling my wife when I saw the look on the face of the waitress yesterday, I said to myself, what about if I had given her a word of knowledge, personal word from God? And that’s what we need. We need signs and wonders. We need the gifts of the spirit to shake the unbelief of the French people.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (35:03):
Amen. Well, may it be so I pray that God would raise up mighty missionaries and ministers and people who are filled with the Holy Spirit have all the gifts of the Holy Spirit, words of knowledge, miracles, signs, and wonders. In Jesus’ name.
Timothée Paton (35:19):
Amen. Amen. Thank you.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (35:22):
Well, thank you brother so much for speaking with me on the Evangelism podcast. It is so wonderful. I love your heart. I love what you’re doing. It’s so beautiful to see and how you’re continuing on the mission that God gave your parents and now you and your wife are doing it. It’s so beautiful to see. Thank
Timothée Paton (35:42):
You. Thank you. See you soon. See you in France.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (35:46):
Yes sir.
Timothée Paton (35:46):
Anytime.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (35:49):
Bye-Bye.
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Cambodia
Cambodia is famous for its Buddhist temple, Angkor Wat. According to Guinness World Records it is the largest religious structure in the world. At one time, Angkor Wat was the center of a great empire. As I explored the ruins of this ancient temple, I was fascinated by what it represented. Inside every human being is a need for God and the temple was an attempt to connect with the Creator of the Universe. For eons, humans have desired to know God.
Cambodia is 97% Buddhist. According to Buddha, all of life is suffering. This suffering is caused by desire. In Buddhism the way to be free from suffering is to free yourself from desire and the way to do that is by following the pathway of enlightenment.
Yet despite Cambodia’s commitment to Buddhism, they have still faced great suffering. In 1975 Cambodia was taken over by the Khmer Rouge, a Communist party. Under their regime an estimated three million people were viciously murdered. The places where people were killed is known as “The Killing Fields.” For many years it was impossible to preach the Gospel in Cambodia. But now the door is open for us to tell people about Jesus. Now the “Killing Fields” have become “Harvest Fields.”
Gospel Festival in Battambang
Our Gospel Music Festival took place in the city of Battambang, Cambodia. Sitting at the entrance to the city is a huge idol holding a stick. The name of the city “Bat-tam” means “losing” and “bang” means stick. There is an ancient Buddhist story about a king who lost his stick then miraculously found it again. To this day, the people of the city of Battambang worship the figure of the “stick-king.” I saw people burning incense and offerings of food and drink to the idol as they bowed down in front of it in an act of worship.
Our team flew into Bangkok, Thailand. Then we took a van to drive across the border into Cambodia. The border closed at 10:00 pm and we made it across at 9:55 pm.
On our first day in Cambodia, we ministered in a prison. There were about 220 prisoners and they all prayed with us for salvation.
We used music to attract a crowd to the two-day International Gospel Music Festival. It was held in a church campground and thousands of people were in attendance. The people enjoyed listening to the local artists and church worship groups, and watching our dance team of teen girls dressed in typical Cambodian clothing doing traditional dances.
I preached on the three greatest miracles in the Bible: God created you, God loves you, and God saves you. When I gave the altar call, many people gave their lives to Jesus.
Discipleship Book Translated into Cambodian
For this festival, we translated my book “Welcome to the Kingdom” into the Cambodian language and gave it away to all the new believers who got saved. There are not many Christian resources available in the Cambodian language, so the book was greatly appreciated. It teaches people how to be saved, how to be healed, how to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and how to walk with God. I wrote the book twenty years ago and now it is available in eight different languages. Over the years, we have given away over 600,000 copies of the book to people who prayed with us for salvation.
In Cambodia, a gift copy of the book was given to the Undersecretary of State of the Cambodian Ministry of Cults and Religions. He is the government official in charge of representing all religious activities in the nation.
We printed extra copies of “Welcome to the Kingdom” and gave them to the local churches who worked with us. Already we have received reports of the book being used in many places to teach people about Jesus.
On Sunday morning I visited a local church that was doing a sports outreach for all the youth in the area. The young people play in a soccer league hosted by the church. But in order to play, they have to attend a special devotional on Sunday morning. The church decided to use my book as the basis for their devotionals. Every week the young people will study a new chapter.
Thank you! It is because of your financial support that we are able to put resources like the book “Welcome to the Kingdom” in the hands of people who are searching for God.
CAN YOU HELP US REACH PEOPLE FOR JESUS?
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!
Khon 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.