Stories

‘Whilst out on the streets of Manchester myself and some other ladies from our Advance Group, shared about Jesus with some people we met and grabbed the opportunity to pray for healing for one lady who had pain all over her body. After we prayed, she was totally healed from pain!’

Shaun, our Advance Ambassador in Cape Town, South Africa has been prayerfully looking for ways he might be able to take Advance into prisons and see prisoners not just come to know Jesus but be equipped and encouraged to share the gospel with their cellmates.

After over a year of prayer and conversations, he recently got to start an Advance Group with 14 guys in one prison, and we’re excited as Shaun seeks to map this model out with other prisons across South Africa!

One young person who is part of our Advance Youth team in Barnet, UK, told us about how going out and sharing her faith had impacted her, ‘Before we went out to share the love of Jesus with people in the town centre,  I was super nervous as I’d never done anything like this before. We spoke to a lot of people and although we didn’t see anyone come to faith my confidence in sharing Jesus with people has gone up loads!’

‘Since being part of an Advance Group in the UK God has increased my passion for sharing the gospel with my neighbours, who I realised probably didn’t know that I was a Christian. At both Easter and Christmas for two years now, I have reached out to them with Christian cards and some homemade gifts, also giving a short letter explaining what is being celebrated and asking if they wanted any prayer. New relationships are growing out of this and I’ve been able to pray and journey with one neighbour who is facing terminal cancer and have had conversations with others that I don’t think would have happened before. My confidence is growing everyday and I can’t wait to see what God does!’

During lockdown, one Advance Group leader, Tony, saw a growing opportunity to minister to  men who’d been involved with  crime wanting a different life. Over time, Tony built friendships with the men and got to  share the gospel with them and about the hope and peace Jesus offers.

Over months of walking alongside these lads and getting more confident in sharing the love of Jesus, many of these men have accepted Jesus into their lives, have got baptised and are now having their lives transformed by Jesus.

Our Advance Ambassador who works predominantly in the Arab World shared with us this incredible story of boldness and healing.

‘There was a young Muslim girl who was told by some local Christians that if you prayed in the name of Jesus you would see a miracle. A short while later her sister went into labour and gave birth to a still-born baby girl at the local hospital where doctor pronounced the child dead.

This young girl was watching the whole thing and afterwards, in a moment of courage, went up to dead baby and prayed for it to come alive in the name of Jesus. Immediately she saw something happen and went to doctor, telling him to look after her niece. The doctor tried to explain that the baby wasn’t alive, however this young girl insisted and persuaded him to check. He was shocked to find the baby breathing with her heart beating normally.

The family have now given their lives to Jesus and this little still-born girl, now 3 years old, is totally healthy and known as ‘The Daughter of Jesus’.

Denzel, one of our Advance Youth members in Teesside (UK) met Ryan whilst out walking and started chatting about Jesus. As they talked, Ryan said that he’d prayed the night before ‘God, if you’re real, come into my life’ only to have met Denzel and others from Advance Youth the next day! Denzel grabbed the opportunity to tell Ryan about Jesus, prayed for him and left feeling so encouraged by how God used him in that moment to show Ryan that he was real!

Recently one of our Ugandan Advance Ambassadors told us that he was able to share about the work of Advance  to almost 1000 church leaders in Uganda. Many of them have said they would like to start running their own Advance Groups and we’re excited and expectant to see many more men and women across the nation equipped and empowered to share the gospel.

Advance is growing across the world each day! One group in Brazil, which started as a small group of Christians sharing the gospel with their neighbours has now grown to such a size that new churches are being planted in Maringa and Curitiba as a result.

‘I love being part of an Advance Group. Our group here in Germany is only a couple of months old and yet we’ve seen one person healed, and one lady share her faith with a couple who’ve since given their lives to Jesus and been baptised!’

One Advance Group in Zambia found themselves in a conversation with a group of Jehovah’s Witnesses. As they chatted, the Advance Group members used the opportunity to share the gospel  many  seemed interested in finding out more. Over a few weeks, the two groups met to chat and one day several of the Jehovah’s Witnesses accepted Jesus into their lives!