Mike Francen has traveled to over one hundred nations in his quest for souls. Millions of people have said “Yes!” to Jesus in his massive Gospel crusades. He has written more than forty books and he has over three million copies in print. On today’s episode of The Evangelism Podcast you will be inspired as you hear the stories of the lessons he has learned and the victories he has seen as he has traveled around the world telling people about Jesus.

Learn more about Mike Francen: https://mikefrancen.com/

Transcription:

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:00):
Mike Francen has traveled to over 100 nations in his quest for souls. Millions of people have said yes to Jesus in his massive gospel crusades. He has written more than 40 books and he has over 3 million copies of his books in print. On today’s episode of the Evangelism Podcast, you’ll be inspired as you hear the stories of the lessons Mike Francen has learned and the victories he has seen as he has traveled around the world telling people about Jesus.

Evangelism Podcast Host (00:49):
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,

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:12):
Daniel King. 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, Dr. Mike Francen. Thank you for being on the Evangelism Podcast.

Mike Francen (01:24):
Daniel, thank you so much. It’s an honor to be here with you, especially you said we’re going to talk about evangelism. I thought I’m there. I don’t need to pray about nothing.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:31):
Well, I want to begin by just saying thank you to you for your ministry. You have now gone to over a hundred nations. You’ve seen over 13 million people that you have led to Jesus, and you are one of the evangelists who inspired me so greatly. When I was young, I always knew I was called to be an evangelist, but I didn’t know how to be an evangelist. And so you did a conference here in Tulsa, Oklahoma called the Regions Beyond Conference. You had Reinhard Bonnke, TL Osborn, and you were speaking at this conference. And man, that conference has lit a fire under me and ever since I’ve been busy traveling and preaching the world. So thank you for your heart for evangelism.

Mike Francen (02:16):
Well, thank you for picking up the inspiration, the information, and just taking it to the nation. So thank you. You can present a lot of things to a lot of people, but a lot of people don’t do anything. I tip my hat to you, my friend, because you’re out there doing the stuff.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:32):
Well, let’s start at the beginning. How did you first go to the mission field? I remember that you had met the great Nigerian evangelist, Dr. Benson Osa, and he helped to inspire you to start doing evangelism.

Mike Francen (02:49):
Yeah, I wasn’t raised in a Christian home, never went to church. My parents, nobody was saved to my family in basketball. I’m a sports football, basketball, track, tennis, anything there was, I played it, but basketball was my God. And I was playing college basketball up in Minnesota and wasn’t living for God and another story for another time, how I got there. But after that first season, I accepted Jesus and somebody gave me one of Tal Osborn’s book, soul winning out where the sinners are. And when I opened that book, I saw the pictures of these mass crusades all over the world. And God birthed the vision of me that this is what I had to do. This was my lot in life. This is my purpose was to go to the nations. Now, I was raised on a farm, Bradford, Minnesota, population 97. I wasn’t raised in a church home, never went to church, never read a Bible.

(03:35):
And I claimed I was an athe. I told people basketball was my God, but now I get saved and I see this book and all of a sudden now I’ve got to go to the nations. But I didn’t know how to get from where I was. We can never let the where we are become the who you are. Where you are right now is not who you are. And where I was that just making $25 a week as the missions director of a church didn’t have any missions, but I was a director of it living in the boiler room in the basement of the church. And now I get this letter one day from a pastor. I didn’t know him, don’t know he knew me. I mean, I’m just barely 20 years old. And I get this letter saying, there’s a man by the name of Ben Anita Hosa, he’s coming from Nigeria.

(04:16):
They said he’s a Billy Graham of Africa. And I knew who Billy Graham was at that time, but I’d never heard of Osa and said, would you pick him up? He’s going to be here for two weeks of meetings. And Daniel, the first day I went to pick him up, 15 minutes after I met him, he said, I want you to come and stay with me in my home for three months in Nigeria. He said, you get your ticket there. And he said, you’re going to be my guest. And he wanted me there in six weeks, Danny, I was making $25 a week. I knew if I saved all my money in six weeks, it wasn’t going to be enough to get the $1,600 airplane ticket I had. I didn’t know how to get from where I was to the place God wanted me to be. And a lot of people watching, it’s like, God, how do I get to that place?

(04:55):
One day you may get a letter. And so anyways, the last day where there OSA stands up and he said, son, stand up. He said, this is my son in the ministry. He’s very well in his body, but very sick in his finances. He said, he’s going to come and live with me in my home for three months. And he turned this pastor on the stage and he said, and you’re buying his airplane ticket. And he did. And six weeks later I was there and didn’t know this when I got there, but TL and Daisia Osborn were there dedicating his new 25,000 seat Miracle Center Cathedral. And that’s where I met TL and Da Osborn and TL just took me in. That’s why I moved to Tulsa because he gave me office space in this building. But that’s how it all started. And after I was there for those three months, and I saw TL and Daisy Osborn there the first week, and then Jerry cve came and did the crusade with them, and Rick Shelton came and did the crusade with them and saw these mass crusades, 57, a hundred thousand people. And at the end of that three months, I said, Benson, I said, why 15 minutes after you met me, did you invite me to come here? He said, I know what God told me about your life, you to learn how to do big crusades. I said, what am I supposed to do now? He said, son, go down and do likewise. So this was in the early eighties in December, January, I got an airplane, went to the Philippine, started doing my first crusade. Now I’ve been doing it for 45 years and a hundred.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (06:12):
Tell me about that first crusade. I remember reading the story in one of your books, and you’re a prolific writer. You’ve written a bunch of different books, but I remember this story that Benson Osa very boldly proclaimed. The blind will see, the lame will walk, the deaf will hear. And so you took that and ran with it.

Mike Francen (06:34):
Well, he said, son, go Don and do likewise. And that’s how he advertised. Bring the blind lift on Crips and God will heal him. My first crusade in the Philippines, I actually went there for six weeks, did three crusades, but I got on the airplane, I had $120 in my pocket. I had no partners, I had no bank account. I had $120. Went and met with a handful of pastors in the city, never had a crusade. And there was nine pastors. They got together and my pastor, the church I was working with, they said, Mike, you’re too young. You have no experience, you cannot go. So I went anyways, and I get there and meet these pastors. I left that meeting, they took a vote. I was too young, had no experience, so I couldn’t go. So I made up these tiny little posters, bring them blind, the deaf and the cripples and God will heal them.

(07:17):
And there wasn’t many of ’em. And I made two 15 second radio spots, bring the blind, the deaf and the cripples, and Jesus is going to heal ’em. And that’s all I had was to afford two second or two 15 second spots. I got there the first night, Daniel, I’d never seen so many sick people in all my life. And I said, my God. I went behind the, I said, my God, what have I done? I’m too young. I have no experience. I cannot do this. And then a thought came to me. I didn’t come in the name of a church. I didn’t come in the name of religion. I didn’t come in the name of Mike Francine. I came in the name of Jesus Christ. And when that thought came, a boldness came and I went up and I took the microphone. I preached like I’d done it a thousand times before. Preach, want to eat a host as much as God will single you out, shared those testimonies. He shared like they were mine. I figured they were God. So it’s community property and just went out and the blind and the deaf and the cripples and that very first crusade, we saw 4,000 people except Christ. And now we’ve done almost 400 crusades around the world, seen almost a little over 18 million people come to Christ and just been out there doing this stuff just like you are.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:19):
Well, I remember I wanted to learn how to do crusades. So I went to your office, which was here in Tulsa, and asked you if I could come to a crusade and you invited me to an event that you were doing down in Santa Ana, El Salvador. And so I went two weeks early because I want to learn how to do crusades. And your crusade director took me around the neighborhood, showed me how to make a glue pot and glue up on a telephone pole and put a poster up on it and how to go talk to pastors and everything. And I remember that crusade in Santana, I mean it was a football field that was completely packed full of people, as many people as you could put on a football field. On that football field.

Mike Francen (09:04):
Yeah, that was, I think I’ve done five crusades in El Salvador. And the one I had just prior to that was in San Salvador, El Salvador. And that crusade, we rented 3,722 buses. We had almost 4,000 buses we’d rented. People say, oh, that’s cool. This is logistics. Where do you park that many buses? How do you get those people back on those buses? Anyways, when we went there, a great story about that. When we went there, the president of El Salvador came the last day. He said, this is the biggest meeting of any kind in the history of Latin America. So when I went back to Santa Ana, which you were there, and I went back there and the president sent the chief of police over all El Salvador was there with us. And after that crusade was over, and in that one in San Salvador, we had eight soccer fields side by side packed to overflowing.

(09:52):
So you saw the one, we had one soccer field, this one was eight of ’em. We had hundreds of thousands of people there. But the last, you may have not have even heard this, I didn’t hear until after. But the last night after the crusade, we had a special dinner for some of the pastors and their spouses, I think there’s about a hundred of them there. And the chief of police that the president assigned to come with me, he said, Mike, I got to tell you what just happened. I said, tell me. He said, as you left, the team left the crusades over. The miracles were many that week. And he said there was a man there laying on the ground, beating the ground, cursing God. I mean, we’re done. We’ve left. I mean there’s still thousands of people that are dispersing. And he said, this man’s beating the ground, cursing God.

(10:32):
And he said, stand up. He said, I cannot stand. He said two of his officer went and picked him up. He said, how can you curse God after this week of miracles we’ve just seen? He said he was 50 years old. He said, when I was 10 years old, I fell in a hole and it broke my spine. He said, for 40 years, my legs have been dead. He said, I prayed, God, if you’re real, I want somebody to give me a wheelchair. He said, I see these empty wheelchairs on the stage of people that were healed. He said, God, if you’re real, give me an empty wheelchair. And he said, everybody’s left. He said, I didn’t get a wheelchair. And so the chief of police is telling me, he said, as he’s telling me the story, he said, all of a sudden his body slurred, shaken.

(11:06):
And he said the officers let him go. And he was standing all of a sudden started walking. He wanted a wheelchair. God gave him a new set of legs for first time in 40 years. He stood and walked and he fell on the ground and started praising God. So it’s just doing the stuff. It’s bringing the good news of who Jesus said, not what he’s going to do, it’s what he’s already done. And Daniel coming into your studio here and looking at your office and all the amazing posters and pictures you have all over the wall of what you’ve been doing for the last how many years of ministry for you?

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (11:37):
Yeah, I went to that Santana Crusade probably about 25 years ago, and I’ve been doing evangelism ever

Mike Francen (11:43):
Since. Beautiful, beautiful. Yeah.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (11:47):
But what it did is seeing all those people that planted a seed in my heart to believe that God could do the same through my ministry.

Mike Francen (11:55):
And that’s when I went with Eda Hosa and I saw TL and Jerry Seve and these crusades, they planted a seed in me. And so we just seed people with it. TL seeded me with it. I’ve seeded you with it. You’ve seeded others people and people just run and do it. Nike nailed it. Just do it. Just do it.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (12:12):
Well, two thirds of God’s name is go. So you just got to go and do.

Mike Francen (12:19):
Absolutely.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (12:20):
Okay, so you mentioned Dr. Teal Osborne. You did many Crusades where you and Dr. Osborne shared the platform together and you learned so much from him. What were some of the key things that you learned from the ministry of TL Osborn? Oh, wow.

Mike Francen (12:37):
In fact, I’ve got a book I’ve written called TL Osborn. Remember where it’s about two hundred eighty three hundred pages of things that I’ve learned from tl. So many things. One of the things that I learned from tl, see, God never called us to change. The world told us to love the world. If I think I’ve got to change you, that means I’ve got to find fault with you because you’ve got to change. But if I go in and love you, if I go in and love the world, then God will change them. One of the things, but one of the things that really stands out about tl, and I preach at his crusades, he preached at my crusades. I spent many, many afternoons and evenings with him in his home or him in my home. And one of the things about TL is his legacy of love. I had him come and speak to the five nights of the crusade I did in the Philippines.

(13:26):
And this is one of the things that really struck my crusade directors. He was in his eighties at that time. I mean, he wasn’t inre by any means. He was strong, maybe mid seventies, 80 years old. And there was one night after the crusade, and you know what it’s like, everybody wants to touch you, and he stepped off the stage. We’re starting to get in the car, and so the car’s being surrounded and they’re shaking the car everybody wants to touch. And Teal said, stop. So he stopped the car because he saw this little crippled boy in front of the car about to get run over and teal stopped the car. He got out in the middle of that crowd and my crusade directors are freaking out. It’s like, God, how are we going to control this crowd? Now? He went out there and he just went and prayed for this boy, and it was a waterhead baby.

(14:13):
This baby’s maybe two and a half years old. Baby’s got this huge head, legs are crippled, never walked, never moved. Its legs in its life. And TL just went and prayed, and I saw that here’s a man, 75, 80 years old, knows he’s going to get mobbed by the people. My crusader is like, oh my God, how are we going to do this? It was his compassion for people, his love for people, his heart to help the hurting, to lift those that are beaten down by religion. And TL always said, he said, said, religion is superstition. Religion is man’s ideas of what God is like. Religion puts burdens on people and then refuses to help them bear those burdens. And so teal goes down there, and so the next day I’m up there preaching, just praying as those that were here to testify, that boy, that teal got out of the car, stopped in the middle of everything, out of a compassion of love, he went out and stopped the car that baby’s head shrank to half its size. That baby held my fingers and took its first steps for the first time in its life because Teal was moved with a compassion, with a heart of love. Even though the ministry was finished for the night, we thought the crusade was over. The testimonies are done. Amazing things happen is compassion in his heart of love for people. Just force one more, one more prayer.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:28):
The motto of your ministry has been our vision, the world, our passion souls. Talk to me some. Did I say that right? Absolutely. Talk to me some about how your vision is for the whole world. I mean, you’ve always been a huge visionary thinking about how do we win the whole world to Jesus? And then talk about having a passion for souls.

Mike Francen (15:53):
Before I got saved, I saw this picture. It was like a sunset and there was a caption underneath it. It meant nothing to me. I didn’t understand that. I thought, well, that’s nice. But it said, the greatest use in life is a spend on something that will outlast it. I thought that doesn’t make any sense, but it’s a pretty sunset picture. The week I got saved, I saw that poster again. It made total sense. The greatest use in life is suspend it on something that will outlast it. The only thing that’s going to outlast is life is eternity. I’ve got to take my life and God, I mean immediately put this heart for souls. I thank God, and I say this with a reason. I thank God I wasn’t raised in a Christian home. I didn’t learn religion. I didn’t have to unlearn anything. My Bible school is what I saw TL Osborn do and Reinhard Bonky do.

(16:37):
And Vincent, Nita Hosa, do you just believe God and do it? And it happens. And so our vision always been to the nation. It’s been to the unreached people. A lot of people go to the same place everyone else has gone. That’s never been my heart. It’s never been my vision. I want to go to places where Christ is not named. And today the church eagerly awaits Christ second coming when the vast majority of the world is not even yet to hear about his first coming. His last command should be our first concern. And so these things and realizing who Jesus was and he came to seek and to say, and that’s just been in me from day one. I just had to be. And so when I started working with that church up in Minnesota, they made the decorat of evangelism. They didn’t have any missions.

(17:21):
And so I built a puppet stage, went out to the parks, just did puppet evangelism for the kids, went door to door. I just did everything I knew. But see, that’s where I was, but that’s not who I was. Put your hand to do whatever you can right now and God will take you from where you are and make who you you’ve actually being created to be and the nations of the world. And I’ve spoken hundreds and hundreds, if not a thousand churches here in the us. I just spoke at an awesome church here a couple of days ago, and I’ve speak in a lot of churches and conferences and here in Australia and Canada and Europe and things, but the nations that have yet to hear the cities that have yet to hear, that’s my heart. Oswald j Smith, who coined the classic phrase, why should anybody hear the gospel twice before everyone has had a chance to hear it? Once those words ring, it is just really his passion for souls that really guides my efforts.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (18:15):
TL Osborne told you to always put pictures in every book that you write, and that’s one of the things that really inspired me. I remember one time you were at a conference and you had a table there, and when you left and took down the table, you just left all your books out on the table for anyone to come and take, and you were seating them into people’s lives. So I went and grabbed a copy of every single book that was on the table. I remember flipping through that book and looking at the pictures of the crusades, the pastor’s conferences, the train track to glory renting ships to go down the Amazon River. And I remember just seeing these pictures of the amazing things that God has done. And now you come over here to my house and you saw on my wall, I’ve got my victory wall, beautiful.

(19:09):
All the pictures of the great crusades that God has done. And what people don’t understand when they look at those pictures, sometimes I show people pictures and they think it’s just ego like, look, I got to preach in front of a big crowd. But what people don’t understand is that every single one of those pictures represents a miracle where you are raising the money in order to do the crusade, you have to go with blood, sweat, and tears, often fighting government forces or political things or religious spirits to make that crusade come to pass. And so you’ve seen so many victories around the world and you have so many pictures. What can you do to encourage evangelists that the price is worth paying in order to see people come to Jesus?

Mike Francen (20:06):
One thing that comes to mind, many things flood my mind to my psyche in that question. When I was in, I won’t say where, but I was in crusade in Africa, and a very prominent minister came into the conference in the morning and I was talking to him. We were talking with different people and he was talking about TL Osmond. He said, oh, Tommy Lee. He said, I’ve told Tommy Lee that talking about TL Osmond. He says, I told Tommy he’s a fool. He gives these vehicles to these pastors and they use him as buses. Are they selling? They pocket the money? He said, he’s just a fool. And so I thought, well, so I went back and when I got home, I went to Teal’s home and I mentioned that to him. He said, you know what, Mike? He said, I’ve heard of that happening a couple of times.

(20:51):
In fact, I wrote this in one of the chapters in my book, tl Osmond remembered. Tio said, Mike, what’s the option? He said, the option is to do nothing and that’s not an option. And I thought, wow, what’s the option? The option is do nothing. The option is don’t give anything. The option is not to send out a book. Maybe they sell the book. I’ve seen some of my books, none of my books, I sell for more than $20. I’ve seen some of my used books on different places for $69. I thought, my God, they’re getting four times. I’ve given away 3 million of my books around the world. I want to see people. And that’s what you’re doing. That’s why I tip my hat to you. And I did what I saw ts were doing because it worked. You’re doing what you saw me doing, what you saw TL doing, and it’s working.

(21:34):
And it’s like we don’t have to do anything new. And when we rented the trains and did a tour across India, did it across Thailand, took boats up the Amazon River, I chartered 3, 7 20 sevens invaded. Honduras took 400, some believers went. They shut down the international airport. Why do you do those things? I want to grab the attention of a nation. I want people to know that we are there. And when we chartered those three planes and went into Honduras, vice President, first Lady met us there, 400 people from America came with us. They closed the city down for us. We were like the Presidents. And in that stadium, we filled the stadium to overflowing. And they said there was four times more people outside the stadium that couldn’t get in. And I heard this years afterwards that when the pastors went back the next day, they had to take down the stage. They said there was 32 empty wheelchairs and 122 sets of crutches left on the stage of people. Real. We never even heard their testimonies. But what drives us is compassion for people. People are hurting. People are bound with religion. And that’s why we got to go, because religion doesn’t give ’em the offering. The politicians don’t have an answer. We have it. We have it.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (22:41):
Amen. What are some of the greatest victories that you’ve seen and experienced? Wow,

Mike Francen (22:52):
You talk about some of the opposition we’ve had political opposition of any kind. Every kind you can imagine. I’ve had, I don’t know how many times people have come to kill me and I’m a nice guy. I don’t know why people want to kill me all over the world. People want to kill me. And we were doing a crusade in Zema bed Islam. I mean, it’s a Hindu stronghold with an S, an accent of the radical sect of the Hindus. And we went there the day before we got there, they beheaded six people. And it was on the newspaper front page. These six bodies is six heads. And so the next slave came to my team and they said, listen, Mike Francine preaches said they’re looking for you. Oh no, they’re looking. We got posters all over. They beat up our guys that are putting up our posters.

(23:35):
And I said, Mike, Francine and preaches tonight. We will kill ’em. Well, they’d just behead six people. And so I get there that night, and we probably, I mean for how crusades, they start out small. We start off maybe 30, 40,000 the first night. And so I get there, I can’t find my interpreter, I says, and they said he’s under the stage. And I said, Akka, what are you doing? He said, the next site said, if I interpret, they’re going to cut my legs up. Well, they just cut off six heads of the people the day before we got there. I said, get up here. Usually we’ve got 50, 75, a hundred pastors on the stage. There was nobody on the stage that night. None of the pastors wanted to sit up there. Oh, no. And so we had 38 ax lights around the stage with AK 40 sevens.

(24:17):
They said, you preach, we will kill you. And when you hear of churches being bombed or trains being burned, it’s an ax lights. And so I get there the first night and I said, well, this is my last message. This is going to be a good one. And that night there was 12, 13, 14, 15. Little boys and girls had poll. They never walked or Ced Day in their lives. One after the other got up walking those 38 people that came with their AK 47. So they laid down their guns, raised their hands to Jesus. I was doing another crusade up in Zeba, not Nabad, I’ll think of the name. So nobody had ever crusade there before. Four years before we got there, American evangelists went there. The day he arrived, they put ’em in jail and deported them. And so we get there the first night, they tried to get our permits pulled, and so the next lights, and so they went to the chief of Police.

(25:08):
They said, I didn’t issue the permits. I can’t pull the permits. They went to the mayor. I didn’t issue the permits. I can’t pull the permits. And so we got through the first night and the first night, I mean amazed. The frog Boy got healed. This boy had callouses on the tops of his knees and feet and arms just dragging his body like a frog. Had polio as a baby, got healed. Miracle after miracle. So the next day, because they wouldn’t pull our permits, they brought charges against me. I was in violation of the Magical Remedies Act. And so we had to go to court every day, all morning, all day, because I was in violation of the Magical Remedies Act because of the miracles, and they wouldn’t pull our permits. And so now the crowd’s getting huge. And so on that last day, they took out full page ads in the newspaper for riots in the streets against me and against the crusade, and that I was to be stoned that night.

(25:59):
I’m a nice guy now. They want to come and stone me. And so we get over there the first night, of course, there’s nobody on the stage again, and not only being charges against me, but they also brought charges against the chief of police, which was a beautiful thing because when he found that out and when he saw the ads and they were calling for me to be stoned, he sent hundreds of his police officers there that night. A mob came over 200 had stones in hand. They came and arrested him, went on. I mean, they were just less than a hundred yards away from stone and me, and now they’re being arrested. And so we’ve seen countless victories like that all over the world. But if you don’t have opposition, you’re not doing something right. You do something right, do something God’s way. Opposition’s going to come. We can’t worry about the devil. He’s just doing his job. We do our job. He becomes

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (26:45):
Irrelevant. I learned a lot in my early years from talking to you. You had me to your office several times

Mike Francen (26:54):
And

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (26:55):
Were very gracious, spent a lot of time with me encouraging me, even though I was young and didn’t know anything back then. What advice would you give to a young evangelist who has a heart for evangelism and wants to do something big for God?

Mike Francen (27:10):
First of all, and this is one of the things I tell people, I don’t care about how old you are chronologically, but those young in ministry just started. You may be in your teens, you may be in your fifties, you may be 80 years old if you get started. One of the things I see today, which is it’s sad. So many of these guys today, they’re trying to be somebody. They want to be somebody. They want to make a name. When I started out, I wasn’t trying to be anybody. I was just trying to serve God. I remember the first crusades I sleeping in, abandoned home, no furniture. I slept on a shipping crate and no electricity, no water, no nothing. Abandoned home. I had rats running over the top of me all night long. And so one of the greatest things I would say, find somebody that is doing or has done what you want to do, what’s in your heart to do?

(27:54):
Because I did this with t Osborne, and you start praying for them. You start reading everything that they’ve written. You start listening to everything that they’ve spoken. You start praying for them on a regular basis. You start sowing seed into their lives. That’s what I do. TL told me for a long time, I was his largest monthly supporter, and TL said, every month, he said, Mike, you’re doing more than I’ve ever done. You keep it. No, no. I would tell somebody that wants to find somebody who’s doing or has done what you want to do, you start praying for ’em, start gleaning all you can. Maybe God will open the door for you to become friends with ’em. Maybe you’ll never meet ’em. But you start sowing into them. You start praying for them, you start following them. You start doing everything you can because God will use that. And I could go into a lot of things when I brought TN Daisy to India and I paid for all that to come over how God exploded our finances through those things. That would be one of the best things I could tell

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (28:40):
Us about it.

Mike Francen (28:43):
I know we’re going over our minutes here. It’s good, but this is good stuff. This was a real turning point in my ministry, Daniel, years ago. I was in my early thirties I guess, and Tal and Daisy hadn’t been to India in 30 years. And so I went over to Teal’s home and I said, I want to bring you and Daisy to India. And I said, I’m going to pay for it. I’m going to set it up. I said, it is going to be one of your great crusades you’ve ever done. And so I’m sitting there thinking in my mind, alright, I’m going to set the budget. At that time, $50,000. It could have been 50 million at that time for me, that was way stretching my faith, and I still had eight or nine of my own crusades I was doing that year. I said, tl, I’m going to fly you and Daisy over.

(29:30):
And I’m sitting there thinking I’m going to fly him over business class. So I talked to my travel agent back when they still had that back in the day, and I said, how much is a business class? Two tickets. And he said, it’s $7,500. I thought, wow, that’s a big chunk. And so I thought we’ll do a five day crusade. And so I thought, I’m going to put them up with a suite at the nicest hotel in Hyderabad, India, the Oberoi Hotel, and I’m going to pay for that for a week. Then I’ve got myself and a few of my team people that we’ve got to pay for this hotel and then the five day crusade. So $50,000 we can do it, right? I mean, this is back around,

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (30:03):
Back when 50,000 was a lot of money.

Mike Francen (30:04):
It was a lot of money. It was huge money to me. And so then I heard tl, he wasn’t saying it to me, but I heard him telling somebody. He says, yeah, after all these years of ministry, he said, we only fly first class. I thought, oh no, I budgeted business class called my travel. How much is the difference between first class and two business class tickets? He said, well, two business classes, 7,502, first class is 15,000. I thought twitching. It’s like, oh, Jesus. I was stretching my faith at that. And then TL said, he said, Mike, he said, we’re going to go all that way. He said, let’s not do five days. Let’s do 10 days. I thought, okay, and he said, I’ll help pay for it. I said, no. I said, I’m going to pay for it. And I’m sitting there thinking, I didn’t know how I was going to raise 50.

(30:44):
Now we’re going to 60, now we’re going to 70,000. And TL said, Mike. He said, if we’re going to do that, he said, let’s do a pastor’s conference, a fire conference and a women’s conference. I thought, okay, we’ll do a one day pastor’s conference on Saturday, do a women’s conference on Sunday afternoon. He said, no, we’ll do that after the 10 day Crusade. So now we’ve extended the hotel from one week to two weeks now. He says, no, we’ll do the women’s conference the week following that, we’ll do the pastor’s conference. The week following that, I thought, dear God, now we’re not in a hotel for a week now. We’re in there for a month, and so now our budget goes to 80,000, 90,000, a hundred thousand. I’m TL said, I’ll help pay for it. I said, no, no, it’s okay. I didn’t know I was going to get 50.

(31:29):
And then TL said, I don’t like to do conference like that unless we’re going to give away books. He said, let’s give away a hundred thousand books. He said, I’ll pay for it. I said, no, I’ll pay for it. I had no idea. Nowhere we’re at 125, 130,000. Then a month before the meeting, we had to put, there was a government building. I had to put $5,000 down on that building for the women’s conference a month before the meeting. It burns to the ground. We didn’t get our $5,000 back. Now I got to get a new venue. Now, the budget at $137,000, I didn’t know how I was going to get 50. I thought that was beyond my faith. Tal kept saying, I’ll help. I said, no, Tal, I’m going to take care of this. Daniel. To this day, I don’t even know where the money came from.

(32:09):
I didn’t let Tal put in a dollar. He wanted to. The money came in supernaturally. When I left India, that crusade was totally paid for 100%. We paid for all of it. I had $7,000 in my pocket. I got back here to Tulsa. I bought me a Yamaha Vigo motorcycle, and I just cruised for a week because I see your pictures out there and I’m sitting there thinking, I know what kind of stress went in that I know what kind of pressure went in that I know what kind of finance went, I know what kind of battle. I know what kind of war is that. So I see those because I’ve lived this for 45 years. But when I got back from that, God supernaturally brought the money in and our finances exploded after that. I mean, we went from a few hundred thousand dollars a year to two, 3 million a year, 4 million year, 5 million a year.

(32:55):
I mean, and it was that thing, catalyst, because I decided, that’s why I say find somebody who’s doing, who’s done what you want to do. You start sowing into them. You start praying for them. You start reading everything they’ve got. You start picking up the little things. That was a huge turning point in our ministry. And every January I’d sit down with our staff and I said, how much is in the bank? And whatever was in there, could have been a thousand, could have been a hundred thousand. I said, we’re giving it all away. We’re starting out with seeding, but find somebody who’s doing it, seed them. Pray for them every day. Read their stuff, glean from, and you go watch ’em. See what God does.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (33:32):
A seed has great power and it will always bring in a harvest. And so you have seeded your work, your ministry all over the world, and to this day, you continue to do crusades to preach the gospel. You can never get an evangelist to retire. They just keep going because it’s a calling that comes from God.

Mike Francen (33:53):
Yeah, I mean, this is not what we do. It’s who we are. How do you stop being who you are? There’s no retirement. I’m going to be who I am till the day I die, and if I’m 94 years old, which I believe I’m going to live to, I don’t know why I believe that. I can’t say God told me. I just think that maybe it’s 84, maybe it’s 104. I don’t know. It doesn’t matter. To the day I die, I’m going to live and breathe this in evangelism, and it’s not who I am. It’s not what I do. It’s who I am. Can’t stop being that.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (34:20):
And so if you are listening and you would like to help Dr. Mike Francine with his next crusade, he told me he’s going to Puerto Rico soon, or if you want to invite him to come to your church or you want to get hold of one of the books that he’s written, what is the best website to find out some information about you?

Mike Francen (34:39):
Just go to mike francine.com. This is Mike Francine is F-R-A-N-C-E-N, Mike francine.com. You’ll see all kinds of videos on there or iCal films. There are lots of things on there, so you can keep up with this that way. And I want to say this, Daniel, I love what you’re doing. I love who you are because who you are, it’s expressed by what you’re doing that’s hanging on the walls outside of this studio and everybody that’s watching this that will sow a seed into your ministry. I’m going to give you my book in a digital format. It’s called Dream Big. I’m going to give that to you and anyone who will write in that’s listening, watching this right now, and you say, Daniel, I want Mike’s book. I’m sending a seed. I don’t care how if it’s $5 or $500,000, whatever you send, Danny’s going to give you my free book, dream Big. I’m going to send that to you digital, and you’re going to say, Hey, listen, I watched Mike and you on your podcast sent. Here’s my offering, and Daniel will make sure that you get a dream big.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (35:42):
Well, that is extremely generous of you, Dr. Mike, thank you so much for your inspiration. Thank you for your example, and thank you for sharing with us today on the Evangelism Podcast. It’s great to have you here,

Mike Francen (35:56):
Daniel. It’s been my honor, and again, I tip my hat to you. I salute you and everybody who’s watching God’s big enough to honor your wisdom and your mistakes. I’d rather err on the side of trying to do something for God than err on the side of sitting there waiting on God. So Daniel, I appreciate you, my friend. I honor you. Thank you.

Evangelism Podcast Host (36:13):
Are you called by God to be an evangelist? Do you want to lead millions of people to Jesus? Do you desire to be trained in the practical side of building a ministry? Then check out the Daniel King School of Evangelism. Learn how to be an effective evangelist from Dr. Daniel King’s 20 plus years of experience. Daniel King has done crusades all over the world in over 70 nations and has seen over 2 million people give their lives to Jesus. But it wasn’t easy. There was no crusade school. So Daniel traveled the world learning from and observing top evangelists, noticing how they successfully won souls for Christ. Now he wants to share decades of knowledge and experience with you. Topics of the Daniel King School of Evangelism include what is an evangelist, how to be a master soul winner, how to give an altar call, how to organize a crusade, how to raise money for your ministry, and much more. If you want to be an evangelist, but don’t know where to start, the Daniel King School of Evangelism is for you. Enroll today in the School of Evangelism by going to Daniel King ministries.com/evangelism.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (37:14):
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 (38:35):
For more information about how to share your faith or to financially support our worldwide evangelistic outreaches, visit king ministries.com. Again, that’s king ministries.com.

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