Every day we receive stories about Advance from countries all around the world.
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One Advance Group member in Zambia was praying for more opportunities to share their faith and they managed to get a 30- minute slot on their local radio station to share the gospel and about the love of Jesus. Feeding back to their Advance Group, they said, ’They have given us a platform to share the good news, the Lord is at work!’
Check out this video of Angelica , an Advance Group leader in Venezuala, as she shares about the impact and influence Advance has had on her life and on those in her group
In Sierra Leone, where over 75% of the population is Muslim, Will – an evangelist and founder of Awakening Ministries International – decided to start an Advance Group and use the mentoring guide to train and mobilise evangelists from across the country. As their group journeyed through the sessions, they found themselves being more bold in stepping out sharing their faith. In just a few weeks 7 members from the group shared the gospel with over 5,000 people!
‘I love taking to the streets to share the love of Jesus with those that I meet. Recently, I woke up with a deep set feeling in my stomach of loneliness and abandonment, it reminded me of the feelings I had when I was in foster care. I didn’t understand where these feelings came from but got up and met my friend in town as we’d planned to do some street evangelism that day.
During the day, I met this guy and I just felt Jesus indicate those morning feelings I had were for him. I shared with him some of my story and what I thought Jesus was saying, that he was known and loved. It turns out he too had been in foster care and even earlier that week a Christian had been sharing with him about the love of Jesus.
I shared the gospel with him and asked him if he wanted to put Jesus in the driving seat of his life or keep living his own way, he said ‘Yes, I want to follow Jesus and put him in charge of my life from now!’ I prayed for him and we’ve made plans to meet and go to church at the weekend!’ – Lauren, UK
Mario, an Advance Group member in Cuba, shared this about her experience of Advance during the pandemic.
‘God has had mercy on us in this time of the pandemic. Things often still look bleak and there’s still a lot of fear that surrounds us, however we remain rooted in the good news of Jesus. We know that the gospel has to to be preached now more than ever and Advance is a tool that came to us just in time.’
Lucas is a worship leader from a small city in Brazil. After being invited by his regional Advance Ambassador, Flavio, to join his Advance Group, Lucas started attending and felt challenged in his approached to sharing the gospel.
One Saturday evening, Lucas received a surprise call from an old friend that he hadn’t seen or spoken to in a while. Encouraged by his Advance Group, Lucas went to go visit his mate and listened to the some of the hardships and challenges that he’d been going through.
Unsure what to do or to say, Lucas responded with the only thing he felt he could – to share his own story of how he had found Jesus in his own difficult seasons of life. When his friend saw the love Lucas has for God and how Lucas had valued him by just showing up and spending time with him, he asked to hear more about Jesus and then accepted God into his life!
Recently one of our Ambassadors had a virtual Advance Group session with our first two groups in Yemen and saw that despite the persecution they were facing and real risk to their lives, the group members were totally focused on sharing Jesus with their community. One member said during the session ‘Brother, don’t worry, we have Jesus, we have all that we need and with this Advance Group we will do it!’
Mary was one of the first people to join our first Advance Group in Germany. After a few sessions Mary came up to her group leader and said about how excited she was to share the gospel, how she now knew so much more about who God is, and that she was inspired to go out and talk about her faith! She’d never seen herself as an evangelist, but something inside her was on fire for Jesus and that people needed to know about him.
A few weeks later, Mary found herself on a beach on holiday where she met a guy. Seeing the opportunity in front of her, Mary ended up getting into a conversation with this man about Jesus. The guy had walked away from his faith however after this chat, he said how inspired and encouraged he was, and that he was going to go back to church and explore more about who God really is!’
‘Through being part of an Advance Group in Manchester UK, I felt challenged to go on to the street to intentionally share about Jesus and not be controlled by the fear of sharing my faith with strangers. I went with another friend of mine in our Advance Group who is far more used to boldly going out and sharing about his faith and we ended up having two separate conversations with people. I got to share the gospel with them and whilst I initially felt so nervous about doing it, after a while, I felt so encouraged and excited. We’ve already made plans to do it again next week, reminded me of Luke 10:17 where it says after Jesus sent out his disciples, the 72 returned and they joyfully reported to him about what they did.’
In Zambia one Advance Group often goes to the local hospital to share the gospel. One member Paula recently went round the wards and saw an old lady who was clearly in a lot of pain. She sat down by her bed and just talked to her about Jesus. Whilst Paula shared the gospel, the old lady was moved by what Paula had been saying and they got the chance to pray together.
‘For my first Advance Youth mission, I really didn’t want to talk to anyone or pray with anyone because I was so nervous. But when we went out, our group started chatting to this lady who was really open. I was surprised that people actually want to talk about faith. My Advance Youth leader asked me if I wanted to pray and although I was really scared, I prayed for this lady (I have never prayed for anyone like that before!) Doing Advance Youth has given me a confidence to talk to people and my friends about Jesus!’
A member of an Advance Group in the UK share with us his story.
‘I was out shopping one afternoon and noticed a man selling Indian food from his street food stand. I felt stirred to chat to him about Jesus however there were too many customers, so I left it and went back to shopping. Half an hour later, I actually bumped into him and we ended up having a chat about faith and Christianity. He told me how he’d rejected all religion, seeing them as abusive and aggressive, especially Christians. However, he liked me and what I had to say and even accepted a bible from me. We shared phone numbers and myself and another group member are going to follow up with him. We’re praying God changes this guy’s heart and transforms his life with the love of Jesus.’
One UK Advance Group member was already in the middle of a conversation with someone about Jesus, when they had quite the interruption:
‘I was chatting with one lady about Jesus in a café when another women just walked up to me after she overheard some of the conversation. It turned out this lady was Jewish and after chatting a bit further with me she simply said ‘I think it is time for me to accept this Jesus as my Messiah’. I was blown away and am now following up with her.’
Advance Group member Liam told us the story of how he wanted to use the fact he was having kitchen repairs done to boldly share the gospel with the workers coming in and out of the house. The day after Liam prayed with his group, he was chatting with Steve, the builder. As they talked, Liam quietly prayed that he would find a good way to bring up his faith and share the gospel with Steve. But before he had a chance to do anything else, Steve started chatting about God. Seizing this opportunity, Liam shared about how Jesus had moved in his life and then explained the gospel to Steve. 90 minutes later, Steve was still desperate to learn more about Jesus and asked Liam for a Bible so he could go away and read more! Even after the building work finished, Liam and Steve are still in touch we’re praying for more big strides in his faith.
‘I love being part of my Advance Group as they really encourage me in my prayer life and to step out in faith. At church, I help to run a playgroup and noticed that the team didn’t gather to pray before each session. After encouraging them to pray together each time, the group has had many opportunities to share the gospel with mothers who bring their babies along to the group. I love chatting about Jesus with them and seeing lives transformed by his love.’ – Melanie (UK)
‘During our Advance Group’s mission week in Żyrardów, Poland, we had an opportunity to share the gospel to a number of young people. We prayed with many of them and saw God heal them in a miraculous way.It was amazing to see not only physical healing but emotional and spiritual healing too, and many people accepted Jesus into their lives!’
‘During the pandemic, I saw how difficult things were for teachers and school children here in Germany. God really put teachers on my heart so I prayed with my Advance Group for an opportunity to encourage some teachers. Not long after, I got the chance to pray with my son’s school headmaster and share about the love and hope of Jesus. I feel so encouraged and can’t wait to use even more opportunities in the future.’
Flavio, an Advance Ambassadors in Brazil, shared with us this story from one Advance Group.
‘I recently launched a new group here in Brazil and decided to go along for the first session. We ended up chatting about the simple act of sharing the gospel and began talking about our experiences of evangelism. It’s like an old Brazilian hymn that says ‘to count the blessings you’ll be surprised by how many there are!’ Ordinary encounters can change a life forever.
We shared simple moments like a meal, a chat or a normal life encounter that just had divine intentionality.
The calling on our lives is clear: share Jesus and he changes everything. Being an evangelist is often like that, being intentional to offer the opportunity for a person to know and to experience Jesus Christ.’
Courtney is part of Advance Youth and joined us for the summer mission’s week, THE SCATTERING. During the week, Courtney met Jen while she was prayer walking a local estate and they started chatting. As the conversation went on, Courtney was able to tell her about Jesus and Jen burst into tears and shared that she’d always thought she wasn’t worthy of Jesus’ love and had been doing everything she could to avoid finding out more about him. As they prayed together, Courteny offered her a Bible, and Jen gave her life to Jesus! And a year later she’s still coming along to church regularly and is desperate to learn more about Jesus.
One Advance Group leader in Zambia shared with us her heart for proclaiming the gospel; ‘Many are hurting in this world, and I know that Jesus is the only true answer for these pains. We need to be bold and step out in faith so that others hear about and come to know Jesus for themselves. I am so thankful that Advance has created a platform for myself and others to share the goodness of Jesus. It is time to shine.’