1 877-431-4276Mark Drake | Bringing Youth Hope
Youth Hope was started in 1936 by some little old ladies who wanted to reach out to young people. It was originally known as the Christian Friendliness Society. Now they minister to children across the Quad Cities area. Today, Evangelist Daniel King interviews Mark Drake who has directed the ministry for the last thirty-seven years.
Learn more about Youth Hope: https://www.youthhopeqc.org/
Watch a video from a recent outreach we did at Youth Hope
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, Mark Drake from Youth Hope. Thank you for joining me on the Evangelism Podcast.
Mark Drake | Youth Hope (00:12):
Thanks for asking, Daniel. Appreciate it.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:14):
Alright, so Mark, we are here in a beautiful facility in Moline, Illinois and we are with Youth Hope. You’ve been leading this ministry for 37 years now.
Mark Drake | Youth Hope (00:32):
Yeah, 37.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:33):
And so tell me a little bit about Youth Hope and what Youth Hope does.
Mark Drake | Youth Hope (00:39):
Yeah, appreciate you asking. First of all, I would say when you say in a beautiful building, we didn’t have these facilities, but I’ve often said we can sell all the facilities. It matters what we’re doing with people, right? It’s all about the hard people. They were reaching a lot of people for Jesus as Christian Friendliness Association, which began in 1936 without the centers, we built the centers and the camp so that now we have a place to take people, but we also have something that might be magnetic to, because people sometimes far from Jesus, I call ’em everybody future believers, we’re either going to believe on this side or that side attorney. So everybody’s a future believer that future believers might come in here, cool looking, or it has an activity center or a sports center. And if we can get ’em in for whatever reason, we don’t care why they come, we care how they leave, right Daniel, we don’t care why they come to your festivals, right, to have fun and do we care how they leave. So 1936, the women that were in a Bible study really came to.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:42):
So 19 36, 19 36,
Mark Drake | Youth Hope (01:42):
It
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:44):
Got started.
Mark Drake | Youth Hope (01:45):
Got
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:45):
Started. And what’s the story of the start?
Mark Drake | Youth Hope (01:47):
Yeah, good for you. 1936, a group of women in Bible study. We’re seeing a lot of immigrant families to our quad cities in Illinois, part of Quad Cities and Molina and Rock Island, Illinois. And they saw the need to reach out and love and they said they want to give them food and they had a clothing at the time and then teach ’em about God’s love. So it was all by seeing the need that they decided to start Christian Friendness Association, which became Youth Hope and it’s grown since then. Not any different in heart or spirit, but in what our reach and breadth of it is.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:23):
So what are some of those core values that have led Youth Hope over the years?
Mark Drake | Youth Hope (02:30):
Yeah, first off, the way it started going, we want to see the needs in the community to say what are the needs? We’re doing a mentor program with schools and there’s need to support teachers. So chaotic in public schools. There’s programs not in schools anymore, so how can we be a partner within? And that’s exactly, they looked and they saw people immigrating saying they need food, they need clothing, they need friendship in God. So again, the core value I think for all of us believers is to say, what’s the need? Because the need’s going to get filled by somebody or something, but we have the hope of the world and the true answer so we can meet physical needs. We still have a food pantry here. If we can meet needs with art because they got art programs are dropped and schools and that leads them to the hope of the world, then we got ’em on the right path.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (03:20):
As I was touring the facility, I’m absolutely amazed. I mean, you have a dance studio, you have an area dedicated to art, you’ve got a beautiful gymnasium, you’ve got a food pantry where you’re giving out food and there’s lots of people lined up there today waiting to get food. And so you’re looking for needs. You’re helping to meet those needs. Now tell me a little bit about your story. It started back in 1936. You weren’t there originally. You’ve come, but you’ve been here for a long time. So how’d you get a part of Youth
Mark Drake | Youth Hope (03:55):
Hope? It ends up being a calling, but it was really motivated by, I was a delinquent youth in the Quad City Surf Factory. My mom lives two blocks from this particular center. And when I came to Christ a month later I left for Yso National Park. Then I left to go to college and then I went to graduate school and seminary and then worked a couple places and I always found a need to come back to the quantities to share Jesus with all the people I hadn’t before I left because I just became a Christian. So my story began that I had decided I was going to come back quad cities and commit for two years. I wanted to share with my old drinking friends, I want to share with family. I wanted to share with people that would be marveled at what God’s done in somebody’s life because I was a delinquent. And so my mom actually saw an ad in the paper about an opening for somebody who worked with troubled youth, said This would be perfect for you. And it was called Christian Friendness Association. And I came here to do that and pursue God that way.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:59):
And then you got involved and how long did it take before you rose to being a director?
Mark Drake | Youth Hope (05:08):
Well, that’s a director of an area demeanor, minimum security prison here for juvenile boys. I used to do ministry out there on Wednesday nights too. He said to me, mark, I said, the problem with you is you’re coming as the director of youth, but you’re also coming as the director of the whole organization. So I never got promoted. I came, you started out, I was the director and director of youth and I didn’t know what that encompassed it. I came here to worked trouble youth and they said, well, you’re in charge. And that was it. I had no training anything. I have a master’s in counseling, went seminary in counseling. And so I had no business training. I had no, how do you run an organization? I didn’t have me teaching me. So I sought mentors. So I just kept going forward with my heart to reach people and I’d see needs one of great needs.
(05:55):
I went to probation, I was going to court with this one boy over and over and the one probation officer pulled me aside and said, he has the biggest file on probation in our county right now. That’s how rough and tough this kid was. I said, that’s why I love him. I think it’s great and he needs the Lord. And they took me back and met, had a probation and everybody’s going, who are you? I work with this Christian organization. They go, oh yeah, we know Christian organizations around. They’re kind of doing their thing. And I realized, Daniel, we should be their hope. We should be the first people they turn to. And I said, Hey, we’ll work with any probationary youth you have. Oh man, we have a need. So again, they say,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (06:33):
We got all kinds of people we
Mark Drake | Youth Hope (06:35):
Want you to work with. And so that’s where it began the concept. I think God started planting that seed that we needed to be not the best kept secret in the quad cities, but the light on the hill. And so God gave me, I’m a deer hunter and I actually wasn’t getting a deer and I was doing all what spiritual men do. Then you talk to God about the deer. I felt like he was breaking my heart out there one day saying, you don’t really love the kids you’re working with. And I was telling him why I do and what I’ve done of course. And he said, I want you to commit a place for them to come to. So a few years down the road we opened a Rock Island youth center, so they have a place to come to and get off the street.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (07:18):
And so over all these years of ministry, you’ve seen many transformed lives, many miracles that have happened. What are some of the stories of the miracles that God has
Mark Drake | Youth Hope (07:28):
Done? Oh yeah, Danny, when I first started it was real big gang stuff going on in the quad cities and we opened the Rock Island Center and then we opened the Moley Center, we started calling it. And then we opened a camp and we call it the three parts. We go out and find and we pursue ’em. And unfortunately, in fact, I just saw a demonstration of it today, unfortunately quite a bit of the church has stopped looking out here and they look in here
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (07:53):
Instead of looking out at the community, we got to
Mark Drake | Youth Hope (07:55):
Keep going after they stay inward focused and then we open centers to bring them in and then we open camp to get ’em out of their environments for a week or a weekend to just, I call it purification time. It’s kind of like these kids are born on the north side of Denver and they’re drop of water and they’d land in the water and it’s real pretty stream when they’re infant possibly. And then it goes through the sewer system of Denver and they come out and they’re so we’re taking ’em on there. We’re purifying that water for a week or get ’em away from music and their phones and the gangs and everything.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:28):
I mean, that must be a great experience for a young person to go from TikTok all the time to being out at the campground.
Mark Drake | Youth Hope (08:37):
And Dan, you were talking about creation. You start with creation. I was one time out there we were cleaning woods to put in our basketball court and using chainsaw and a tough kid came up and he’s involved in a gang and he’s like, man, I got a bathroom. I said, well just find a tree dude. And he’s like, what? Just go out. So there right away they’d never experienced that. So he ran across the whole field to go way down in the woods to go to the bathroom. I don’t know why saw him fixing. So he comes running down, not even all the way finished yet screaming. And he was scared of something and I’m thinking, what in the world could be so scary out here? And he ran into, he called it a prehistoric bird. It was a wild Turkey. It was in a rut. But how far this kid in a housing complex who doing gang stuff? He was from the creator and the created that we have dominion over that and that that’s meant to be enjoyed. And he scared of something he shouldn’t be. And Satan’s twisted his mind to think that’s the fear. But his life, you can put it back in the hood that you
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:38):
Might run into a gang, but let me introduce you to it, Mr. Turkeys. Exactly.
Mark Drake | Youth Hope (09:45):
But then as soon as I said, Hey, that’s just the Turkey. Don’t worry about man. You tell anybody I wet on myself, I’ll kill you right away. The tough guy came up right thinking the guy cheese are scared of a Turkey threatening in my life, right? I said, that’s not how in a lesson about ta, you talk to men. And I said, I would never do that. So when the group was coming back, I said, let’s start a water fight. He said, why? I said, because we’re going to get all wet. And so we started a water fight as soon as they got there and everybody was wetting it, right? So he got that. But it’s just that whole thing. So stories like that to me are taking people back in the woods to creation and getting them there so that they can hear the creators whisper out there.
(10:26):
We’ve been fortunate enough to have quite a few people live with my wife, Sarah and I, and it’s really neat. One Asian boy that became an older son to us, and he don’t want to tell you, but he’s in his forties now, but he was with us and he came to Christ and he had sisters and cousins all involved and he’s not going to get back home. We’re like, well how come? And he goes, because if I don’t get home quick, I won’t even get a place on a couch. And his name’s Sue. And I said, Souk, what are you talking about? He goes, well, my cousins are living with us. And my brother, he had a bunch of brothers, sisters and they’re from Laos and said, and Sarah looked at me and I said, is it okay? She goes, yeah. And I go, well you want to come stay here? And he lived two cities away from us and we offered it to him and it was like one of those funny things in a movie we feel like he shut the door and we start talking about it and he’s knocking and he already went home and packed his one bag. It was that fast and he was moving in and
(11:19):
It became life-changing from us and our kids because as he walked with the Lord, he’s a minority and they don’t see that. My kids don’t see that they saw souk. He’s our brother and we’ve had different races live with us. And so the life transformation that I’ve seen like souk and his other boy are amazing. But it also always impacts our lives, doesn’t it? Daniel and our kids’ lives.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (11:46):
Tell me some more stories of this transformation in people’s lives that’s happened over a period of time. Because evangelism isn’t just something that happens in a moment. Sometimes it takes a lot of work and effort to bring people to where they’re walking close with God. So what are some of the
Mark Drake | Youth Hope (12:04):
People? Yeah, before we had a camp, I used to take kids in advance to the boundary waters, Minnesota Canadian boundary water. We take ’em out in canoe and backpacks and you camp out there, you make your own latrine just to make ’em really get away from everything. There was a young man, he was a teenager then, but he was involved in a gd, he’s a gangster disciple and said he gave his life to Christ, disciple him. All of a sudden he shoots two people. Fortunately they didn’t die, goes out for pizza. That became his big thing in the community at that time, I remember the chief police at this task force I was on said, how can somebody go out for pizza that? And I said, Hey, if you don’t respect the creator, you don’t respect what he created.
(12:51):
Well this boy went to prison and I’m sitting in the office in here, I look talking, you say 10 years later he comes walking out and dreads and everything and I said, how you doing? And I’ll leave his name out. But he said, man, he goes, I just got out. I go, I had to come find you. And I go, I’m glad you did. What’s going on? He said, God was speaking to me while I was in prison. I got in solitary a lot. And he said, and all those things that you was telling me they’re true.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (13:21):
And
Mark Drake | Youth Hope (13:21):
He said, I had time to think about all the people that tell me all these other things. It got me where I was at. And he goes, I just want to tell you I believe him now. And to me that’s transformation in God’s time wouldn’t be the way you and I’d want it, right? I’m sure he wouldn’t want that way, but he got there. We lived for this real short time on earth and that 10 years seemed I wasted my whole life. What he kept saying, I said, now lemme tell you they’re true. Satan wants you to believe that because now what was he 30 something? I said, you’re 34 and if you believe that, then you believe there’s nothing left to do but to trash your life or take whatever you want from life. But you’re 34, you can do amazing things. Now he went on to have a family and stuff. So God transforms lives in his time
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (14:06):
And you’ve really seen God do amazing things and a lot of it has come because of your many years of faithfulness. What advice would you give to someone who might be young in the ministry and just starting out like that? I mean you starting out with just a position and now seeing what God has done through youth Hope, I mean is really miraculous. So what advice would you give to someone young in ministry who maybe wants to give their life to serving God?
Mark Drake | Youth Hope (14:37):
Oh yeah. I think two things, and I think you maybe saw this with your parents. One of the best things you can give to as a leader is longevity. Because when you’re there a certain amount of time and then you leave, you’ve grown to where God wants you yet growing us all the time. So he’s wanting to transform your life and by you growing and transforming where he has you, it becomes impactful. And then just even today in our meeting, the one young man that came in, he wanted to see me, he goes, I can’t believe you’re still here. And he’s in his thirties now. No, he’s at 41. Mark, I can’t believe you’re still here. It gave him familiarity. It gave him comfort in him. I introduced him to pastors over there and said, Hey, I’m still going to be around. Let’s go to lunch, but here’s some guys I want you to meet. Because it gives that consistency.
(15:31):
It is in that journey that we grow the most. And the other thing I’d say to young leaders is if you’re gifted, even if you don’t feel like it, I struggle with the imposter syndrome. Even if you don’t feel like it or think you are and you can’t hear when people say it, you’ll get chances and opportunities and it may look like this is it. I had a great campus ministry recruit me. I had won a ministry for Eastern European Ministry that would be based out of Colorado Springs and they recruited and a mega church that was really on the boom. Then it would be a name you’d know that recruited me three times and it was so honoring. But I remember my pastor and his wife at that time, and so young leaders listen to this, unless you’re released, you don’t have a right to take the calling. And that was a great word to me because that excitement of the potential of growth and the things I could do and maybe make a world impact, but you got to go back home and say, has God released me yet where I’m at? Even if it’s hard right now, even if I’d kind of like to get out because there’s times in every ministry, I’m sure you even had it at times. One more adventure in a different,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (16:43):
What would you say are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced with Youth Hope over the years? What does it take to keep a ministry like this going?
Mark Drake | Youth Hope (16:54):
Well, it’s grown. It’s grown and grown and grown. I think it takes humility to say, I dunno how many times I’ve said to people, I’m really not good at anything but finding
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (17:05):
People that God still manages to do something with me.
Mark Drake | Youth Hope (17:08):
My wife and I are working on a book and I titled it, it’s amazing what God gets done with what he’s got to work with in the 50 mistakes I made to build a ministry
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (17:17):
Because so 50 mistakes, I had to, you didn’t have just one or two, you
Mark Drake | Youth Hope (17:20):
Didn’t. I had to narrow it down. There was a lot more I wrote down, but I’m trying to narrow down to go which ones are the most impactful that I can do. I’m trying to do it in one to three page, almost Proverbs
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (17:30):
Going, what were some of a couple of the biggest
Mark Drake | Youth Hope (17:33):
Mistakes? Right? Right off the bat, I came here at 25, my master’s plus at
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (17:38):
25, everything
Mark Drake | Youth Hope (17:39):
I knew everything dude. And I was working at a college campus charge of two halls, the biggest two hall and a full-time interventionist counselor for suicide, ideology and counseling students is alive on college. And I came here and our first building here was a house in the middle of a small residential neighborhood with the stairs that go up the back door. And I remember the first day I reported, I go in early, no one’s there and I go to the back door and there’s aluminum storm door and it was stuck and I was like, God, why did you call me here? I’m so mad at God going, what am I going to do in this little neighborhood? What are you possibly as? I leaned my head against the door and I was like, okay, God, I’m going to give you two years. I told him, I’m going to give you two years. I went down and I got my tools and I fixed the score. The first thing I did is executive director here and it was only called director then, but I was so dishonoring to God that if God calls you and I felt like he’d called me here, but I was already begrudging God for calling me to such a lowly position that nobody knows I’m in this aluminum storm when you’re 25 you kind of want the lights. And I had a lot of attention there. And
(18:48):
So that was the first one. The first mistake was right on the first morning to go, man, when God calls you embrace it. He’s got a big plan, doesn’t he? And we say that, but we don’t believe it in the moment. That would be the beginning of the mistakes. But the journey was tremendous because he took a young man that was training, counseling and started teaching him how to lead to lead, to lead to lead. And he did that through a lot of people too. Right.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (19:19):
So now you’re going through a time of transition and the reason I’m here is because you’ve asked my sister Esther Joy King to come on board and to take a leadership role here. And what are some of the dreams and visions that God has placed in your heart for the future of youth Hope?
Mark Drake | Youth Hope (19:41):
It’s a really cool question, Daniel, because first year I was here, a board member asked me to put together kind of a five-year dream vision thing without a community. Just say, Hey, what would be for you? And one of the things is to move across the river from Illinois, Iowa, around the Mississippi and reach people in Davenport too because it impact back and forth too. And with your sister, we were just met with people from Davenport, they called us to take over a youth center there and it was fun to be here still to be a part of that beginning.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (20:13):
So that was an idea you had back when you first started
Mark Drake | Youth Hope (20:17):
In the first five years I think goes from God. Yeah, it was right
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (20:19):
Off. That’s one of the interesting things is God puts dreams and vision in your heart and some of them are for next year, but some are for a long
Mark Drake | Youth Hope (20:26):
Time I’ve written on that five year plan, I have to look at it again. I think I showed it to your sister, but I think it was in two years later. It was supposed to happen 30 some years ago in my human mind. But God had started that ball moving way back then knowing one in his time and in human time. We think it’s a long time ago, but not for God. Right.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (20:48):
Well, I’m super excited that my sister Esther is going to be here. What a tremendous blessing that is. Our family comes from a great legacy of ministry and so I’m so proud of her and it really is amazing. I mean I think you’re very wise because a lot of ministries in America, sometimes the leader holds on to everything. I was just last week with a pastor from Japan and he was telling me that 50% of the pastors in Japan are over the age of 80. I mean, that’s a situation where they’ve held on too long and not given it over to the next generation. And so I think you’re very wise to start looking for the next generation. And I’m very honored that you would bring my sister here to be part of Youth Hope. And I think that God always moves from level to level, from glory to glory. And so there’s been great victories in the past. I think there’s going to be great things happening in the
Mark Drake | Youth Hope (21:54):
Future. Yeah, I always hope we’ve had an opportunity in Galesburg to take an armory in Monmouth and we’ve had opportunities to go expand bigger, but I was never able to do it in building what I felt God had me build here. But I dream that and your sister actually started talking about some of those because she has contacts here. So it’s just cool to go, wow, we almost did this and we didn’t, but maybe now it will still come to fruition, but don’t give me too much wisdom that 55, it felt like God nudged me and said, put in your notice. So I put in a notice board, I’m resigning. They’re like, what? And I was like in seven years and I really thought God was saying 62 and I didn’t know financially how or if I could, but it didn’t matter. Once God nudges you because he has his plan and his time, I see it all coming together and it feels great.
(22:41):
I hope to do a lot more ministry and a lot of other things and still help here, but we’re still growing and I’d rather be going on the way out when it’s still growing than staying so long that it’s going flat or declining. And I’ve seen that in churches being here 30 some years. You see that and you see it in ministry too, that somebody hangs on. It becomes too much of an image of who they are. And this was never mine. It was all God. And for a season of time, never know what guy can do with what he’s got. He didn’t have much to work with, but he did a lot. Right. And he plans to do a lot more.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (23:18):
Yeah. Tell me one more story of someone’s life. Who has changed or what God has done through Youth Hope?
Mark Drake | Youth Hope (23:25):
Yeah, it just happens to be another young man that comes right to mind because he just passed away in 2021. So he was a young man, he was in his forties, but he was around the same time as Sue. His name was kk. He was from Laos too. But in 2020, in March of 2020, he called me from California where he was living his wife and kids and said, Hey, we’ve got to meet with a surgeon to find out my final diagnosis of some liver problems.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (23:56):
And
Mark Drake | Youth Hope (23:56):
He said, we think it’s going to be real bad. And I had heard from him for years. He said, would you come out here? Absolutely, absolutely. So flew out there and went with him and they said, Hey, if you make it till Christmas, it’ll be amazing. And he ended up going through Christmas till the next September. But during that time there was a real time of reconcile him with God again and it never had left him. He still believed in God, but he had from his past and culture, Buddhism was kind of
(24:28):
Almost like the whole theory of, hey, it’s all those different ways to get to God. And he wanted to carry ’em both together. So because we were so close, and I brought soup too when he came here and visited too before he died in Suk with tomb. But it’s so close, just be able to say to him that we have a jealous God and there is the different God. And here’s word in scripture and I think you know that in your heart. And just to see him, he’s in glory now. And to see it all get adjusted and well and witness to his family. So it’s a privilege when you stay long enough somewhere to be a part of those phone calls and those people and to know one of the greatest wisdom for young leaders like you said earlier, I would say is don’t try to count what you’re doing.
(25:16):
Just keep doing what you’re supposed to do. Plant the seeds due to water because one comes out of prison, one was on his deathbed, you don’t ever know. And it is another place I failed. I shared the gospel for a year here with Troubled You took ’em to boundary water. I’d had guest speakers videos. I was showing everything. Not one teen gave it life cry. I literally was thinking about quitting my first year going, but I’d made a two year commitment. So I stuck it out. But I was like, I got to be the worst evangelist in the whole world. I tried everything. And we go to the beach up there at the end of a week and about was, and the guy guiding said, Hey, I feel like God’s leading me to do last message. He said, go for it. If God’s lenient go every team. But one gave their life to Christ on the beach that night. Every team and I realized, and they start talking about all they learned from the different speakers. And I realized, Daniel, we have no power. We can’t do. And God wanted to show me, it has nothing to do with you, mark, but be faithful what I ask you to do and in my time I’ll do my thing. And
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (26:22):
I think it’s really significant. You’ve shared these two stories about these two young men from Laos last year. I went to Laos,
(26:31):
Got to minister there. And ministry there is very difficult. It’s a communist nation, like you said. They’re Buddhist and the Communists actively persecute the church. And for the believers there, they pay a very high price. And so it’s very hard to reach people in Laos, but yet God brought them here and you were able to reach them. And so I think people really need to be looking for opportunities that God puts people right in our backyard to reach the world. Whether it’s immigrants, I mean we have lots of new immigrants coming to every different part of America. Immigrants are coming and some people get upset about it. But I think as the church, we can recognize this is God bringing the mission field to us and it could cost thousands of dollars to fly to the mission field, but right in our backyard, there is a mission field of people that need Jesus. And that’s what Youth Hope is all about, is looking for the mission field right here in the Quad Cities area. We have a lot
Mark Drake | Youth Hope (27:33):
Of immigrants here a lot.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (27:35):
And doing everything you can to reach this mission field that God has brought us.
Mark Drake | Youth Hope (27:39):
I love your image of that too, because even being human, I don’t agree with illegal immigration period. But as a believer, illegal or not, it doesn’t matter if they’re there to share, God may have.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (27:54):
There’s lots of scriptures that talk about welcoming.
Mark Drake | Youth Hope (27:57):
Who cares? Again? They come in our centers, who cares why they came? We care how they leave. So they come here. Wouldn’t it be cool if so many of ’em were coming to Christ? They’re going back to their countries to say, I found the hope that we all need down here. And it’s not more material things or more money or the plethora you can find in America. It’s in your heart. You can be lost sometimes. I think faster in America, everything can become your God. You don’t need God very much over here compared to the places you’ve been, I’m sure.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (28:27):
Well, I’m so impressed being here at Youth Hope. It’s so amazing to see what God has done. It’s amazing. So many miracles. And thank you so much for sharing some of your story today. I really appreciate it and God has more for you. Your story’s not finished yet. Hopefully,
Mark Drake | Youth Hope (28:45):
I’m hoping. I know an evangelists now and I hope to carry his beans and rice on the missions field. You’re welcome to come anytime. We’d love
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (28:52):
To have you brother, mark. Thanks for being on the Evangelism Podcast. Alright, God bless. Thank you.
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What are Creative Ways to Share the Gospel?
There are many creative ways to share the gospel, and the best approach will depend on the context and the audience you are trying to reach. Here are a few ideas:
- Use social media and other online platforms: In today’s digital age, there are many online platforms that you can use to share the gospel with others. You can use social media to share your faith, create a blog or website to share biblical teachings and resources, or use online evangelism tools such as virtual gospel tracts or online evangelistic courses.
- Use visual aids: Visual aids such as videos, slideshows, and graphics can be a helpful way to share the gospel in a way that is engaging and easy to understand. You can use these aids to present the gospel message in a clear and concise way, or to illustrate biblical teachings in a way that is visually appealing.
- Share your personal testimony: Sharing your personal testimony, or the story of how you came to faith in Jesus, can be a powerful way to share the gospel with others. Testimonies can help people see the reality of the gospel in a personal and relatable way.
- Use creative storytelling: Using storytelling techniques, such as parables or allegories, can be a creative way to share the gospel in a way that is memorable and easy to understand.
- Use arts and media: You can also use arts and media, such as music, drama, or film, to share the gospel in a creative and engaging way. These mediums can be especially effective at reaching people who might not be interested in traditional evangelism methods.
Ultimately, the key is to be open to the leading of the Holy Spirit and to be willing to try new approaches that are appropriate and effective for the audience you are trying to reach.
Who is Dr. Daniel King?
Welcome to the ministry of Evangelist Daniel King – international evangelist and dedicated servant of Jesus Christ.
For over 20 years, Daniel has traveled the world sharing the message of Jesus and bringing hope and salvation to people from all walks of life. His passion for sharing the love of Christ is contagious, and his powerful and engaging presentations have inspired thousands to turn towards God and experience the transformative power of his love.
Whether he’s speaking to a large crowd at a conference or ministering to individuals one-on-one, Daniel’s message is always the same: that Jesus is the answer to the deepest needs of the human heart, and that through faith in him, anyone can experience true joy, purpose, and fulfillment.
If you’re looking for a powerful and inspiring evangelist to bring the message of Jesus to your community, look no further than Daniel King. Contact us today to book Daniel for your next event and be prepared to be inspired and transformed by the love and grace of Jesus Christ. Call us today: 877.431.4276 or visit https://kingministries.com.
Zane Bousum | An Innovative Idea for Attracting Visitors to Your Church
Zane Bousum is the pastor of Spirit of Life Church near Indianapolis, Indiana. He has a big heart for reaching out to his community. On today’s podcast he shares a unique outreach idea any church can use to attract people to come to church.
Connect with Pastor Zane Bousum: https://spiritoflifechurch.org/
Transcript:
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:00):
Zane Bousum pastors, spirit of life, church near Indianapolis, Indiana. And he has a big heart for reaching out to the community on today’s podcast. He’s going to share with you a unique outreach idea that any church in America could use to attract people to come to church.
Evangelism Podcast Host (00:24):
Jesus said, go into all the world and preach the gospel. Everyone who calls in the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Evangelism Podcast Host (00:35):
Welcome to the evangelism podcast with Dr. Daniel King, where Daniel interviews, full-time evangelists, pastors, missionaries, and normal everyday Christians to discover how they share their faith, their powerful testimonies and amazing stories that will inspire you to reach people with the good news. And now here’s your host, missionary and evangelist Daniel King.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:59):
Welcome to the evangelism podcast. I’m Daniel King, and I’m excited about telling people about Jesus today. I am right near Indianapolis, Indiana with pastor Z Boso pronounced like awesome Zane Bossum and we’re at spirit life church. And it’s so wonderful to have you on the evangelism podcast. I’m glad to be here. Thank you so much. We are excited about what God’s doing here on the west side of Indianapolis, and we believe that God wants us to not only live the life that he’s called us to, but to tell people about it yesterday, I came as a guest minister to the church here, and you had a really unique outreach idea to bring people into the church. Tell me about it.
Pastor Zane Bousum (01:55):
Yeah, so basically what we did is we had a $50 gas card giveaway. And so what we did is we went to a local gas station and we bought 50, $50 gas cards. And our goal was for that each new visitor that came in, we would put this $50 gas card in our visitor bags. We already have visitor bags we give, but for every new visitor and what this, what our goal with this was, was to not only have new visitors, obviously come into the church, but was to get our own people, to invite people to come. And so I couldn’t think of I mean, I just thought this was a great idea. I believe God gave it to us to encourage our own people, to have bait, to have something really neat, to give to someone as their guest, that they invited a church. And so so yeah, I think this is a, a really wonderful outreach idea. And, and you had emailed me a couple of months ago and it was right at the height of all the gas prices when all the gas prices America were going up and everyone was concerned about the cost of gas and it was in the news.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (03:06):
And you said, you know, this would be a really great idea to bring people into the church and everyone’s concerned about gas. So why don’t we give away gas? Now Jesus said that we are called to be fishers of men. And the way that you go fishing for fish is you gotta find the right bait to attract the right kind of fish. And so if you go deep sea fishing, you’re gonna use one kind of bait. If you go down to the Creek, you’re gonna use a different kind of bait. And so what better bait is there to use when people are concerned about gas prices than to use a $50 free gas card for everyone who comes to the church. And so we, the, the, the church gave away these, these invitations. Yes. And how many invitations did you print
Pastor Zane Bousum (03:57):
Up? Yeah, so we printed 900 flyers that our goal was then to pass these flyers out at, and actually the local gas station that we bought gift cards from. They didn’t give us the a hundred percent right away, but the manager said, if you come and tell people about ’em, I’m not gonna say anything. And she was actually in the store, why we were doing it. And we had so many people and actually a few of them that I had personally invited. So I knew that they were invited there. They actually came and so we passed ’em out that way, passed ’em into a local trailer park. We passed them into neighborhoods. We had people that passed them to their own connections that they have, whether that was their family, their friends, people they work with. And so just, it really was an encouragement for us to share the gospel for us to invite someone to church. And and I think it went really well.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:53):
All right. So the church for the last couple of weeks been passing out these 900 flyers. You’ve had volunteers come and, and right across the street from the church, there’s an apartment complex. And so you’re giving out the, the invitations there. Now. Now why I think this is an innovative idea is because it’s so important to, to get people into the church. And sometimes you have to go outside the walls of the church to, to go after people, you know, a, a fisherman who goes fishing in the forest, isn’t gonna catch any fish. You gotta go down to where the fish are. They’re they’re in the stream, or they’re in the river, they’re in the lake. So you gotta go where the fish are to catch the fish. And so I think sometimes people are, they, they stay sitting in the church and they’re just waiting for fish to come into the church or is like sitting in a boat and, and waiting for fish to just jump in the boat. Like maybe every once in a long while that might happen just by accident. But if you’re really going to catch someone for Jesus, you gotta go out where they are. And, and so your church spread out into the highways and byways giving out these invitations and you gave out 900 invitations. And how many visitors came and filled out visitor cards at church yesterday.
Pastor Zane Bousum (06:10):
Yeah. So yesterday, and, and, and just to tightness in here too. So one of the reasons why we brought in Dr. Daniel King is because he is an evangelist. And so one of the, the things with all of this was that we wouldn’t just be inviting people who were churchgoers already, but our goal was really to get people who were not going to church unsaved, people who had maybe been questioning about God. And so that’s why we had Dr. Jano king in. And so when he came, we were fully expecting for the gospel to be preached for people’s lives to be changed. And so we had 17 bags, actually, we’re I forgot tell you that 17 bags were given away. 16 cards were filled out. So I don’t know how one bag ended up going, but, but either way we had 16 visitor cards that I’m gonna get now to share. We follow up with those people. I’ll follow up with them, I’ll call them all. And so we’ll get to now connect with them. And this is actually, I can honestly say this. This was the best outreach that we’ve had when, when it comes to people coming in, we’ve had other outreaches, but never had the return on it, of people actually walking through the door to where they can now hear the gospel message and then get a really good connection.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (07:32):
And yesterday I preached a crystal clear gospel message. And we had the 16 visitors and we counted, there were about 14 people that came up for salvation and at least three people that testified that God had healed them. Mm-Hmm <affirmative> and some other great things that happened. We had one young man who came and he, he said, I’m a pagan. I don’t serve God anymore. I’m a pagan. He said, I just came because I wanted the free gas card, but at least he came and we had a chance to, to talk to him and pray with him and share the gospel with him. And he may be a pagan now, but I think he can come to Jesus.
Pastor Zane Bousum (08:19):
Amen. And he also that same guy I was able to connect with as well, and he will, I’m gonna meet with him this week. And so, you know, that’s, that’s one of the things as, as we’re, whenever we do evangelism events, whenever we do things where we are attracting people, we do, we do want that moment to be impactful, but we also need to remember that relationships and connections are so important. So now all these people, even if, even if they don’t come back, they’ve now been connected to our church at least once. But my goal is that of those 16, whether all 16, even if only four, come back, then there’s four new people. We’ve had to do our church. But no matter what, we’ve made a connection with them. And that’s our goal is to connect them to God, connect them to the church. And and praise gods, see their life’s changed.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:08):
Now, I think this is actually a, a really great investment for a church to make, because often you’ll go to Costco. Our family likes to, to eat, to buy food at Costco, and you’ll go down the aisle and they’ll have little free samples yeah. That they give. And, and so they’ll, they’ll give you a little sample of cheese or a little sample of pizza, something, and you eat it. And you’re like, oh, I like that. And, and then you go ahead and buy it. Now, Costco does that for a reason. It’s not just to give away free food, they’re giving it so that you can sample their products and then see if you’re interested in it. And, and so somehow a church has to get people to come in and, and sample a service. And not everybody who tries the sample at Costco is going to buy that product.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:57):
They know that, but they know that enough people are going to buy it, that it makes it worth their while. And it keeps people coming back. In fact, my wife, and she says, let’s take the kids to Costco and gotta feed ’em lunch, you know? And, and so we’ll try all the samples two times each, and that’s like a free meal for the little kiddos, but then we spend like $400 at Costco. Absolutely, absolutely. So, you know, this is a really good investment for a church to make. You’re investing in outreach, you’re investing in souls. You know, somebody might say, well, $50, you’re for a gas card. You’re bribing people to come to church, but really what you’re doing is you’re using bait. Jesus made us fishers of men, and you’re using this bait to, to go after people. And in every country, we find that different bait works.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (10:46):
So sometimes we go to a country and, and people come because they want a miracle from Jesus mm-hmm <affirmative>. And so our posters say, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever, you know, the blind sea, the lame walk, the deaf here in the miracles is what brings people. Other countries music will draw people. Hmm. And if we’ll advertise a local band that that’s well known, people will come specifically to, to hear the music. We went to one country where they had had some war and some famine. And so in that country, we were able to buy several dump truck loads full of, of rice and beans to give away. And people came for the food. And, and so what we’re doing is we are using different kinds of bait and here in America, sometimes it’s hard to figure out what bait there is that that’s effective for reaching people, because people are, you know, they’re sitting at home watching Netflix, they’re watching TV. They, they don’t really think about what their spiritual needs are. But somehow you gotta get them to come in to church or reach out to them, reach out to where they are. And,
Pastor Zane Bousum (12:03):
And, and that, and that’s what I was gonna say. Like, not, not only the miracle of them coming, like the miracle of them changing their schedule to come on a Sunday morning, like all the habits that, that each of those 16 or 17 people had gotten that they had to rearrange their schedule, like something, something, we did something we said, as we were either passing out the, the, the flyer for it, got them to say, you know what? This is worth me changing my schedule. And I think that, that in America, that’s one of our biggest hurdles is, is not just finding a bait, but even whether it’s the, the way we present it, or, and that’s, that’s one of the reasons why I really felt like we needed to have flyers. And we did, we passed some out, we did put some social media stuff, but I really feel that the, the flyers was the most important thing of having a one-on-one connection of having us invite them and really try to get them to see the importance of coming that morning.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (12:59):
Now, your church, pastor Zane has a tremendous heart for, for reaching out to the community. And so this is just one of many different outreaches that you’ve done. What are some of the other ways that your church has of reaching out to the community? Yeah,
Pastor Zane Bousum (13:15):
We’re, we’re, we’ve been of a church of about a hundred, 150 people for the last 10 years.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (13:20):
And now, now let me just say for a church of a hundred, 150 to have 16 visitors on one Sunday morning is really a, a great outreach that that has to be counted as a success.
Pastor Zane Bousum (13:30):
Oh, totally. And so we usually, so we usually try to be mindful of our people. So we have three large events that we do. And one of ’em is kind of two in one, we do a, a summer outreach where we have big splash night. We do two of those. We rent an 18 foot water slide, and then we invite the community and we’ll do a seven to 10 minute gospel presentation during that we invite the local local fire truck. We invite a Kona ice truck, and we just love on the community. And then we do a hallelujah night, which is on Halloween where we’ve had up to 900 people in our building because we open up the doors and we have candy, we have games, we have food, all kinds of stuff. And the community kind of knows that it’s coming.
Pastor Zane Bousum (14:15):
So we’ve done that for over 20 years. And so that’s a, a large outreach and over COVID we just moved it outside. And we even had a, a drive up one year where it was, we had different things, different stations that we did. And so, so those are three big things. We do. We also have a connection with the local schools. We have a relationship with the superintendent and a relationship with the local principal. We also, and so with you want me to go into that? Sure. So with the schools, we do two things where we give for teacher appreciation week, we’ll bring breakfast and the school actually lets me come in and give a three to five minute gospel message and, or just whatever that law is on my heart to share with them. And then in the in the beginning of the school year, we will do a, we’ll give them lunch.
Pastor Zane Bousum (15:05):
And so that’s just two times we get the love on, and we’ll take a stand that says spirit of life, church. And we say spirit of life, church loves robe. And so we, we do that when we’ve done that to multiple schools, but Rob’s the main one that we do. And then we also have a relationship with our local police department where we bought two kennels over the last 10 years for their dogs. We just, we love our community and we want the community to know that God loves them and he loves them through the church. And so that’s why we do it this way.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:35):
I, I think this is so important for the church to be involved in the community because over time people get to know that the church cares about the community. And so just one outreach may not be successful in, in drawing lots of people in, but if you just keep doing outreach after outreach, after outreach people in the community, get to know you, then when someone in the community suffers from a, a tragedy that you are the one that they call and you actually have this happen really recently, we
Pastor Zane Bousum (16:10):
Did. Yeah. So with the school robo elementary on a weekend, there were two children of that school that it was just a, an awful accident where their mom and dad were driving a a golf cart and the children were on the back and a tree fell on them. And so instantly they died. And so this, this community was grieving. And so the principal who has my number texted me that that day and said, Hey, this tragedy happened. Could you come and be here to minister, to the teachers, the kids that may come in on that morning. And so I came in that Monday morning and I just loved on the kids, loved on the, the teachers and they already knew me. So then they saw me come in the door, two of ’em in particular, one teacher that I’d known for years, I just went up and gave her a big, big hug.
Pastor Zane Bousum (17:02):
And she said, I was fine until I saw you. And just the tears started flowing. And then another teacher did about the same thing. And it just because of the connection we’d make through made through outreach when the, when that school was in need. And we know that in those situations, people are looking for God and the comfort of God that we were able to be there for them. And, and in the following week, I was able to share a messages on heaven with all the teachers. And that’s, I don’t think that was by chance or accident. I think that had to do with us already developing relationship.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (17:37):
Another way that you are present in the community is through your preschool. Yeah. How does your preschool work to help pull people to Jesus?
Pastor Zane Bousum (17:46):
Yeah, so we always tell anyone who, so we do do have a preschool and we have it’s and we’ve had up from ones all the way up to the kindergarten level. And so most of the people who come to our preschool aren’t even from our church. And so it really is an outreach. And we always tell ’em, we say we are a, we are a church with a preschool. And so we let ’em know that our main reason for the preschool is to share the gospel, to love, to have the love of God. And so we’ve had, haven’t, hadn’t even told you this, we’ve had Muslim families come and be a part of our preschool. We’ve had Hindu families come be a part of our preschool, just cuz they see that not only are there children treated right, but they see that there is the quality of education is very good. And so, so we get to preach to Muslim families and, and I even had one Muslim mom say, can you not tell them about Jesus while they’re here? And I said, no, that’s what we do. <Laugh>. And she said, okay. And we still continue to share the gospel with them. But yeah, we see our preschool as a, a ministry. All of our teachers are Christian teachers. And so we get to love on the kids, love on the parents. And so yeah,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (18:59):
Pastors in a lot of pastors listen to this podcast for pastors who are looking for advice on how to reach out to people or reach out to the community, what, what would you tell them?
Pastor Zane Bousum (19:13):
You know, I would say do what is connected to you? So do be led to the Lord. One of the reasons we reach out to, to schools is because my wife and I were teachers. And so we have a heart for teachers. We’ve also done things for nurses, but we kind of gravitate toward what we know best. And so I would say, well, number one, ask God, be led to the Lord on it. And then number two do things that you enjoy. Like I enjoy talking to teachers, I enjoy getting out and about talking to the community. So do those things that the Lord has put on your heart, the areas that he’s called you to, to witness to, and there may be others that God brings a alongside you that can help you branch out. And as he, as he, as that happens, then be led to the Lord on what things to do. Don’t feel like you have to do everything, just do those things that God’s called you to do.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (20:07):
That’s awesome. Well, I love your heart for evangelism. I love your heart for, for outreach. You are a tremendous pastor, pastor Zane. Thank you so much for being on the evangelism podcast.
Pastor Zane Bousum (20:20):
Dr. Daniel King, thank you so much. And I pray that this blesses you guys!
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (20:24):
Thanks so much for listening today. I am excited about telling people about Jesus. And I want to invite you to be a part of helping us to rescue people from hell and take them with us to heaven. There’s two things you can do to help. First of all, can you go find the evangelism podcast on apple iTunes and leave us a positive review by giving a review, you will help other people find these valuable resources about sharing our faith. And second, would you become a financial partner with king ministries? Every single dollar that people give us enables us to lead at least one person to Jesus. And so that means for only $1, you can help start a party in heaven. And so today I want to invite you to become a monthly partner. You can start out for just a dollar, but if God puts it on your heart to do more, of course you can do more. But please go to king ministries.com and become a monthly partner with us today to help us to lead more people to Jesus. Thank you so much. And God bless you
Evangelism Podcast Host (21:43):
For more information about how to share your faith or to financially support our worldwide evangelistic outreaches. Visit king ministries.com. Again, that’s king ministries.
Jocelyn Hansen | Moving into the Heart of a Community
Jocelyn Hansen leads Fusion Canada, a ministry focused on working alongside people of goodwill to transform local communities. She does this by building relationships and doing life with people within a community. Fusion Canada is reaching people with the love of Jesus in a uniquely Canadian way.
Learn more about Fusion Canada: https://fusioncanada.ca/
Transcript:
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:00):
Jocelyn Hansen leads, fusion, Canada, a ministry focused on working alongside people of Goodwill to transform local communities. She does this by building relationships and doing life with people within a community fusion. Canada is reaching people with the love of Jesus in a uniquely Canadian way.
Evangelism Podcast Host (00:33):
Welcome to the evangelism podcast with Dr. Daniel King, where Daniel interviews, full-time evangelists, pastors, missionaries, and normal everyday Christians to discover how they share their faith, their powerful testimonies, and amazing stories that will inspire you to reach people with the good news. And now here’s your host, missionary and evangelist Daniel King.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:56):
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, miss Jocelyn Hanson. She leads fusion Canada. We are in Warrenville Alberta. And thank you so much for being on the evangelism podcast.
Jocelyn Hansen – Fusion Canada (01:16):
Thank you, Daniel. It’s really exciting to be able to share the story with you. So thank you.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:21):
So let’s start at the beginning. Tell me what is fusion Canada?
Jocelyn Hansen – Fusion Canada (01:27):
Well, fusion Canada is a branch of fusion international, which started in Australia 65 years ago by a name man named Mel Garvin, who was a young man at the time, searching for his purpose in life and came across a Bible camp and found Jesus there.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:47):
And how did you get connected to fusion international?
Jocelyn Hansen – Fusion Canada (01:50):
So then interestingly enough, my daughter was working in Canmore, Alberta, right outta high school. And she met the Australians who had come to see bam and Jasper. And they asked her if she had a passion, what her passion was. And she said, oh, she would love to go to Africa someday. And they said, well, come in to fusion inter in Australia. And that’s how it got started.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:17):
And then later you ended up bringing it here to Canada because it had such a tremendous impact on your daughter’s life.
Jocelyn Hansen – Fusion Canada (02:25):
Then there were some people in Edmonton who were already connected and they had brought the internationals to bam. And so we did our first foundations course, I think 2003. And it just struck a chord with my heart to serve the community in the front lines and to find creative ways to care for people in our communities.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:49):
I really love your focus on going into a community and having an impact in the community. Tell me kind of what fusion does. What is the goal of fusion
Jocelyn Hansen – Fusion Canada (03:02):
We wanna share? The good news of God’s love, and we wanna do it in a way that’s by making relationships and walking with people on their journeys. The gospel comes alive when we’re walking with each other and we’re sharing God’s love. And that looks many, many, many different ways. Whether it’s for young people at risk or seniors who need help or mental illness we let it be creative where it is it isn’t cookie cutter. And that’s what I love about it. You go into a community and you say, God, what are you doing here? And then he invites you into the story that he’s already well on with. And then we get to be a part of that because God is good.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (03:53):
Now it sounds like there’s many different expressions of how fusion reaches out to the community and gets involved in what God is doing. And I, I know talking to your son-in-law Mattie, he loves doing block parties and, and going into a community and just bringing people together and having a time of fellowship. And so you have block parties. What are some other ways that you, you reach into a community and make a difference?
Jocelyn Hansen – Fusion Canada (04:20):
Yeah, so the, the festival, the block party came out of wanting churches and community organizations to work together. So we were in west Edmonton for over 10 years and we did breakfast clubs in junior highs and high schools. And we worked with the police, the community leagues, the churches, anybody that wanted to make a difference in their community, believing always that together we’re better. And together there is hope that we all bring something that is essential to the responses of the needs in the community. And that no one of us has all of the answers, but together we can really shine the light of Jesus in a community. So with that, we also have some training foundations is sort of the underpinning knowledge of the gospel living with God, living with others, living with yourself and then community transformation, but always the goal is to inspire a kingdom cell group of people who can then go and see what the Lord’s doing and, and play the part that they’re invited to play.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:29):
Let’s talk more about the foundations course, because it sounds like that’s really the foundation mm-hmm <affirmative> to discipling and, and really turning people from maybe someone who doesn’t have much exposure to God, to really having a living relationship with God. So kind of describe to me, what does the foundation’s course look like? How does someone go through it and, and what are some of the things that they learn as they go through?
Jocelyn Hansen – Fusion Canada (05:56):
Mm, thanks, Daniel. When I did foundations for the first time I grew up in the church, my dad was a pastor, so I wasn’t really expecting to blow, be blown away. I thought, you know what, you know, and I probably came with some arrogance in, in all of that. And I think what I loved the most was that it was actually tools of how important it is to listen to another human being and why listening is so profound. And then things about our own like body, soul, and spirit. We’ve all got bruises and deficits. We’ve all got things that have gone wrong because we live in a broken world, but then the redemption of Jesus and the forgiveness of Jesus and the glory of God, justice, mercy, and compassion. And so whether you’re a new believer or whether you’ve been believing for 40 years, I found that the course always meets you where you’re at and the group of people that God in brings together for that time that we share is always for the work that he wants to do. So it allows for a large gamut of flexibility for sharing the gospel and going deeper at the same time.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (07:10):
And so how does <affirmative> and so how does, how do people go through the foundation’s course? How long does it take to go through it?
Jocelyn Hansen – Fusion Canada (07:18):
So we could, we have a one week foundations course that would be generally residential. So we’d rent a camp and 40 or 50 of us would turn up and we would do life together. And it would be from 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM. And it was foundations is a really, really jampacked course, most would say, there’s too much for too little time. So now we’ve done a 12 week with two weekend retreats. We’ve done it as small groups in churches, and we’re going to do one starting in September here in Warrenville. It will run till December 14th and we’ll also have pods from other communities. So we’re gonna try something new this time, but the whole idea is that you’re doing it with a group of people that you’re actually doing life with because that’s kind of where the rubber hits the road, isn’t it? The gospel is meant to be lived out it’s meant to be transformational. And so when you wrestle these things with people who are particularly not of the same views as you might be, it even gets more deep and more exciting about finding how much God loves us and how much grace he has for us. And so it has been super profound in my life.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:38):
You’ve used this, this term doing life together several times now. So can you give me some examples or some testimonies of how you are doing life together with others and kind of what God has done through those relationships? Mm,
Jocelyn Hansen – Fusion Canada (08:57):
Yeah, I think for the many people that the Lord has brought that call themselves fusion, Canada has been that small group of friends that wanna do life together, share in the hard stuff cry with each other, laugh with each other, rejoice with each other be on mission with each other, but not as an event or a program, but really where the rubber hits the road doing life together. So I know there’s times when yeah, profound times where I have had crisis in my own family with my children or my grandchildren. And I have been had this group of friends that have been around me that have prayed for me and celebrated me and held me up when I just wanted to fall down. And I think that’s been the biggest thing where, mm, yeah, it, it was very, very deep.
Jocelyn Hansen – Fusion Canada (09:57):
I, I guess that’s the word that I would use people who have your back prayer warriors who are around you and diverse people that I may not have chosen if I had to choose. And I, I think that’s the other thing I celebrate is that who I was 10 years ago is thank God different than who I am now, the refiners fire and my, my diverse group of small group of friends that I do life with that challenge me, ask me the hard questions. So it’s not superficial. And I guess that’s what I love about it. Daniel.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (10:35):
That’s wonderful right now we’re sitting inside a fusion thrift shop is right here in downtown. Morville more is not very big, no like 7,000 people, but this is the, the little town where my wife grew up and you have this, this thrift shop here. But it’s under the, the fusion ministry. And so you’re using it to, to reach out to the community. You’re right here in the middle of the community. The other day, my, my wife was helping my father-in-law to clean out his house. And so we had some stuff and, and brought it over here and we saw that you already put it out for sale <laugh>. And my wife even came and bought some, some books and stuff at, so we’re being part of the community. And, but kind of talk to me about the, the vision for this thrift shop and, and how you use it to, to help people in the community.
Jocelyn Hansen – Fusion Canada (11:25):
Yeah. And that’s a really good segue to what do we mean by community? So I will have my community of people around me, and then there’s the community of Warrenville and the people that we do life with. And so how the Lord birthed this thrift story is always an amazing story to me. Kathy, the assistant manager, and I turned up to do sandwiches for a funeral at our church. And we ended up having this amazing conversation and, and we both had a heart to do this. And honestly, within weeks it was happening and both of us would look back and say, wow, we did not see this exact thing coming. And so the goodness of God he wanted something in the heart of this community where people can come shopping. Yes. Providing reasonably priced clothing in housewares, because there is no clothing store in Morville would be one very upfront need.
Jocelyn Hansen – Fusion Canada (12:25):
But I’ve just found that people will be dancing and singing to Johnny Cash. I’ve been sharing my story with some people who ask questions and, and they say, I gotta get back to church and my son died and I need some support. And so the whole, the whole place has been so holy spirit filled the conversations that we have. Now, we have a partnership with Jesse’s house victim services, social services, the town, the hotel other congregations who have people in need. And really you can’t outgive God Daniel, you can’t outgive God. So as fast as it pours in, as fast as it can go out people are being blessed by the abundance and generosity of people who donate to the store. And we’ve just been able to pour that abundant blessing back out the front door. And I am in awe. I go to tell you, I stand in awe of the goodness of God and yeah, how much he loves Warrenville and how much he loves this community and how much he wants to be revealed to his people.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (13:41):
Well, I so love all the different things that, that fusion Canada is doing. Let’s talk a little bit about vision. What do you hope to see God do in the future and how can this reach other people here in Canada and other parts of the world?
Jocelyn Hansen – Fusion Canada (13:59):
Yeah, look, that’s that’s a really good question. We walk, we walk by faith, not by sight. We walk day by day and what I see the Lord doing now, moving Maddy and Ashley to Australia here in the next year, it’s going to become very related to fusion in our, in India, Nepal Africa, where we have people who really want to have foundations more accessible. And so using zoom and, and other technology to make the teaching and the training except accessible for the purpose of discipleship, not for the purpose of getting more information in people’s head, but for the purpose of serving remote Indian communities. So that, and in Canada, I would love to fly into Northern remote areas. We’ve always had a dream of flying into Northern remote areas, doing the foundations course, doing festivals, empowering and training teams, so that it isn’t dependent on us, but that you can encourage others who are waiting to share the gospel and give them hope and a way to do that. So across Canada in the Northern remote areas and yeah, Jerusalem Judea, and to the end of the earth,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:22):
What a tremendous vision. Well, we have lots of listeners who are here in Canada and in other parts of the world. And, and so if someone’s listening and they would like to find out more about fusion or, or even support what God is doing through you, what’s your website. What’s a way that they could find more information about you.
Jocelyn Hansen – Fusion Canada (15:41):
Yes, you can go to canadafusion.ca. And everything that we’ve talked about today, there’s snippets of it. All, all the contact information is there as well, Daniel, and we would love to dream with people. We would say, what’s God doing in your community and how can the tools we have help you to grow that and bring life and hope to that. So that would be our offer and we would be happy to come wherever you are.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (16:14):
Wonderful. Well, thank you so much for being on the evangelism podcast.
Jocelyn Hansen – Fusion Canada (16:18):
Thank you, Daniel and blessings to you and your family and king ministries as well.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (16:24):
Thanks so much for listening today. I am excited about telling people about Jesus. And I want to invite you to be a part of helping us to rescue people from hell and take them with us to heaven. There’s two things you can do to help. First of all, can you go find the evangelism podcast on apple iTunes and leave us a positive review by giving a review, you will help other people find these valuable resources about sharing our faith. And second, would you become a financial partner with king ministries? Every single dollar that people give us enables us to lead at least one person to Jesus. And so that means for only $1, you can help start a party in heaven. And so today I want to invite you to become a monthly partner. You can start out for just a dollar, but if God puts it on your heart to do more, of course you can do more, but please go to king ministries.com and become a monthly partner with us today to help us to lead more people to Jesus. Thank you so much. And God bless you
Evangelism Podcast Host (17:43):
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