Stories

‘Whilst out getting a suit to rent from a shop, I got chatting to the guy helping me, and got to share the gospel with him. As we talked and prayed together, he began to experience Jesus’ love and started to cry. When I was leaving, I felt God tell me that he’d led me to that store just to share Jesus with that guy and that he’s got a plan for his life.

A few days later, I was chatting with my friend, Ivan, who happened to know the guy from the shop that I’d met earlier. Finding out more about his story, my heart broke for him, and I prayed I’d have another opportunity to meet him and invite him along to church. Later that day, I bumped into him, invited him to church – and he came. We had more amazing Jesus-filled conversations and got to pray together again. I love how much boldness I’m getting from Advance to share the gospel, and God is faithful and doing amazing things through it all!’
– Wesley, Advance Ambassador in Brazil.

‘I was in conversation with a large church in Alberta who had a phenomenal leader on staff – she was called the ‘pastor for evangelism’ – she was an evangelism champion who would talk to people about Jesus every single day and who has thousands of spiritual children and grandchildren.
She sadly passed away, and the church was wondering, ‘What do we do now? Who is going to fill her shoes’.
Of course, there was no one who could do that, so instead this large church of several thousands have realised that they don’t want just one ‘champion’ for evangelism, but that they want to create a culture of evangelism across their whole congregation. So now we’re planning on supporting them through Advance as they do this, and having an annual Advance Summit at this church, with the hope of establishing multiple Advance Groups, so that they might be empowered to share Jesus with passion’. – Bill, Advance Ambassador in Canada

Over in Oregon, USA, Brad shared that before being part of an Advance Group he thought he ‘knew what an evangelist does and what they believe’. But after joining the group where they share experiences and encourage each other to grab every opportunity to share the love of Jesus, Brad learned so much more of God’s heart for the evangelist and said ‘Advance has been the catalyst for me to further develop my own ministry and evangelism. A year on from joining the group, we are all still spurring one another on to share the gospel in every way we can!’ – Evangelist Brad Butcher, founder, Passion 4 People, Portland, Oregon, USA

‘At The Message Trust we begin every morning with prayer and one morning, I felt God encourage me to pray with the man sitting in front of me who I felt was in pain.

I know that before Advance, I would have been afraid to step out in faith like this in case I had understood wrongly, and they had no idea what I was talking about. As it happened, the man was in pain, and I was able to pray with him for healing.

What an amazing privilege that is, and how good it feels when we do what the Spirit leads us to do. Why not pray today that God would give you opportunities to hear from him and to step out in faith this week, as you pray with others.’ – Amanda, Advance Group Leader, UK

‘I got chatting with a lady in hospital whose husband had had a stroke and was in a serious condition. I felt God encourage me to share the gospel and encourage her during this difficult time. I didn’t expect what happened next!

When hearing that Jesus loved and cherished her and her husband, she instantly wanted to accept him into her life. We prayed together for this and then she called her sister who then also gave her life to Jesus over the phone! Even that wasn’t all! We went to go visit her husband, shared the gospel with him and he also gave his life to Jesus!
In one morning, 3 people heard the good news and accepted Jesus!’ – Grace, Advance Group Leader, Zambia

Nina first came along to her group here in the UK whilst dealing both with the breakdown of her marriage and the discovery that she was pregnant. She knew God loved her and had a Christian faith, however felt that having an abortion was her only option.

As she worked plans through in her head, Nina miraculously found herself sitting in an Exploring Advance session one evening, recognising a friend across the room.

As Nina listened to the group leader share her passion for making sure everyone gets to hear the gospel, and the need for each of us to get serious about our faith and evangelism, something shifted inside her. The fact God had not abandoned her struck home, and she had an overwhelming sense that this part of her story would help others as she shared about Jesus.

That evening, Nina decided to get serious about her faith as well as signing up to be part of the Advance Group. Over the next nine months she spent as much time as she could praying, reading her Bible and reflecting on life, whilst also discovering a passion for evangelism.

And God did amazing things!

Opportunities for her to talk to her husband about the problems they’d been having opened up, and they were able to sort these out, deciding to give their marriage a second try. Also, from the very first session she walked into, Nina knew God had a plan for her baby’s life and so, decided to go through with the pregnancy. She and her husband are now proud parents to a newborn son and are using every opportunity to tell people about how God changed their story.

Pete, one of our Advance Group leaders in Stockton, North-East England, has recently been able to get to know a number of people in his community. One day, Pete got chatting to Berti who mentioned he had pain in his back. As they spoke, Pete told Berti about Jesus and offered to pray for his back. As they did this Berti’s back was fully healed, and he responded to the gospel!

As Pete got to know Berti, he found out that he and his wife, Bozena, lived in a street they described as ‘lively but never dull’.  He described how life isn’t always easy for their neighbours, with some battling addictions and others having moved to the area as asylum seekers.

Desperate to show the love of Jesus to his community, Berti invited Pete and his Advance Group to meet in front of his house each day for prayer meetings. So, they did just this. At 11am every day from Monday – Friday the group would meet for an hour to pray and distribute food. As more people came along to the prayer meetings and heard about Jesus, they had to spread across three different gardens just to fit everyone in! Every day they found that new people would come up and ask what they were doing, giving them a chance to pray for them as well as share the good news of Jesus with them, and they saw many responding to what they heard.

And that’s not all – wanting to reach even more people with the gospel, every Thursday evening on Facebook, someone from the Advance Group gave a 30-minute gospel talk which was broadcast from the street with sometimes 15 to 20 people logging in.

From what started as a small chat and prayer session, Pete and Berti have helped encourage and equip a community devoted to sharing the gospel and growing in their evangelism; it’s growing and going from strength to strength with seven people from the local Czech community joining an Advance Group in Stockton.

In one Advance Group in Germany, Matthias felt challenged to share his faith in his work. On one particular business trip out to Dubai, he took a brave step and decided to share the gospel with his business partner – a practising Muslim – not knowing if this might be the end of their personal or professional relationship. But God was so good, and his partner not only listened to what Matthias had to say, but off the back of that conversation, has now given his life to Jesus! He now wants to get baptised as soon as Matthias can make it back to Dubai!

At a BBQ the local church was holding for the community, Kenny (a member of Advance Youth in London) met Pete and got to tell him about Jesus using the three circles model he’d been taught out on mission. As he listened, Pete was impacted by hearing the gospel so clearly that he gave his life to Jesus there and then! One year on Pete has been baptised and has thrown himself into the local church, serving in lots of different ways.

Not only have the young people seen those they’ve chatted to coming to know Jesus, but as a result of them stepping out in boldness they are changed too.

Abigail*  in an Advance Group here in the UK shared she didn’t feel like she was an evangelist and found it really hard to share the gospel. Encouraged by her group, she started to pray for an opportunity to share the gospel.

Later that week, Abigail went to the hospital to take her grandma, and whilst she was there, she got chatting with another visitor and naturally grabbed the opportunity to share the gospel. The lady was so impacted by the gospel message and the love of Jesus that she gave her life to God there and then and now comes along to church with Abigail!

Bryce, one of our Ambassadors in South Africa, was talking with a pastor in Cape Town about Advance Groups. As they chatted, the pastor began to get so excited and inspired for mission that he went away determined to launch his own group! Only two days later, he got together with eight other local pastors to explore starting an Advance Group together with a fresh passion to reach the lost with the love of Jesus and the gospel message

One UK Advance Group leader recently shared about a conversation he had with a lady whilst out shopping.

‘I live near a Community Grocery that is run by The Message Trust and I often like to pop in and chat with some of the people who shop there. Recently I began talking with one lady, Latifa, who was out doing her weekly shop. She turned out to be a Muslim and I gave her the standard Islamic greeting and she was surprised to know I spoke a bit of Arabic.

‘We ended up chatting a bit longer and Latifa started to share about some of the challenges and difficulties she’d been going through, particularly since moving to the UK six years ago. I felt that this was a chance to share a bit about Jesus so chatted about the hope and peace that I find in him, and she was so interested in what I had to say that she began asking me loads of questions! She was so eager to find out more that I realised we weren’t going to be able to finish talking about everything so we made plans to meet up again to chat more.

‘Latifa went home that afternoon and after telling her mother about the conversation we’d had, was forbidden to meet me again because I was a Christian. By happy coincidence a few days later, I bumped into Latifa whilst out for a walk and said how keen she was to find out more about Jesus and ask all her other questions however was too worried if anyone were to find out what we’d been discussing.

‘For now, I haven’t been able to meet up with her again, but me and my Advance Group are praying that our paths might cross again in the future for another chance to talk about Jesus.’

January, Ben Jack, Global Head of Advance, travelled to Ethiopia to partner with some of our Ethiopian evangelists for a time of teaching, training, and prayer.

A key leader from one of the main church denominations in Ethiopia, embraced the heart and vision of Advance for equipping, encouraging and empowering churches for evangelism, and is now planning to launch an Advance Group in each of his 1700 churches across the country!

And as well as encouraging people spiritually, Ben and the team  travelled to parts of northern Ethiopia, which have been badly impacted by internal warfare to give 60 families who had been severely affected by the conflict, two months-worth of food!

Do be praying that would God would move powerfully in Ethiopia transforming lives with his love.

‘It’s amazing to see how different churches are coming together using Advance to be a blessing to communities in Cuba and to increase expectation for all Jesus is going to do.’ – Rosa, Cuba

Uganda, a group of pastors were receiving some Advance training from Isaac, our Advance Ambassador there. During this training, Isaac shared about the transformative power of the gospel and the joy that it brings. After this, the group went out to put this training into practice and were challenged to share the good news. The response was amazing and so many people accepted Jesus on just that one day!

Those sharing their faith for the first time all commented how simple they found it and chatted excitedly thinking about the next time they get to tell those around them about Jesus.

Ben is part of our UK Advance Youth team. He joined us for three days of mission with Advance: The Scattering, to grow his faith, and to share the gospel.

At the end of the week Ben shared how he’d always struggled with being turned away by people, but went on to say, ‘I have learnt that rejection is all part of following Jesus. If he was rejected, then I will be too. And, if I share with Jesus in his suffering then I will share in his glory.’

‘One week we were praying for an Advance Group member’s relative – Sajani. She was pregnant but had just been told that she had diabetes and that because of this, her baby was at risk from a serious infection and was not expected to survive.

When the baby was born, we prayed that she would be healed and the miracle came – she lived, and Sajani was also freed of the diabetes. The doctors were shocked, and our Advance Group has been so encouraged by the goodness of God in answering our prayers for healing. Sajani has since given her life to Jesus and has been baptised – praise God! – Ravi, Advance Ambassador in India.

‘We love sharing testimonies and praising God for all he’s doing through our group members. Sharing stories helps our group to never forget that people are more than just numbers and that all we ever need to really offer people is Jesus, the one true love’. – Flavio, the Advance Ambassador in Brazil

During lockdown we of course couldn’t go to the streets and share the gospel with people in person. Therefore we encouraged our Advance Youth  to head online, share their faith and point those around them to Jesus, whilst also using every opportunity possible to have conversations about faith and the love of God with their non-Christian friends.

And the response was amazing. Emily*, told us how she’d never felt brave enough to talk to her friends about Jesus, but after we prayed with her, she felt God had given her a fresh boldness! Later that evening, she got in touch with one of her friends who was on her heart and asked if she could pray for them. Her friend was really open to this and Emily went on to tell her more about Jesus!

*name changed