Stories

‘I quite never understood the purpose of my life until I started to be part of an Advance Group. Now I know who God is, who is Jesus and why I exist. I feel so full of hope and new purpose and vision now!’

‘The biggest blessing from the first year of my Advance journey was to understand that I am not call to ‘convince’ anyone about the gospel. This is the role of the Holy Spirit. My role is the share about the love and hope of Jesus and that’s so freeing. It’s great to partner with God to see more people find out more about him.’

‘Before being part of my Advance Group, I thought that my calling in life was to be a worship leader and nothing else. I continue to lead worship and that continues to be my call, but now I know that I am also called to proclaim the gospel in my day to day life. This has changed my perspective and shows me that every conversation is an opportunity to share the gospel.’

‘Advance is making a huge impact in my personal relationship with the Lord. And because I am closer to him, now I feel equipped and empowered to share his message with people around me.’

‘Thanks to Advance, I discovered that I don’t need to be an ‘evangelist’ to share Jesus with the world, and after I understood that, I had a new freedom and excitement to share my faith. I can now see people that were blessed and could connect to God because they heard from a ‘normal’ person and not a professional evangelist.’ – Sarah, Manchester

It’s been amazing to see young people getting involved with Advance too. In Benin, some young people have been trained through the Advance resources and as a way to try and share about Jesus in their community, they organised an evangelistic football game. How amazing!

‘I went along to my Advance Group here in Chile and was so struck with the need to share the good news of Jesus with those around me that I stopped a lady walking down the street to share how much Jesus loved her. I invited her along to church with me that Sunday and she came with her husband and daughter and gave her life to God!’

In Chile, one church has launched an Advance group for children on Saturdays. They’ve gone from having 12 young people come along to 30! It’s so good to see young people catch the heart of Advance and want to share about Jesus with their mates.

‘After a session of our Advance group, we all decided to go out and practice some street evangelism. Many of the group were nervous at first but we were so encouraged when many that we met thought what we were doing was great for bringing social transformation through the love of Jesus.’ – Ambassador in Mozambique

‘After we had an Exploring Advance session at our church, we’re so excited to see what God is going to do in and through us in this city!’

After using the Advance Groups material in Godomey (Togoudo, Benin), a church has seen 50 people come to know Jesus for the first time and come along church!

‘In the district of Porto Novo capital of Benin, a Muslim family have been getting to know some of our Advance group members. One day the father was sick, and his children asked one of our Advance members to pray for him because they knew that he prayed to God and saw miracles happen. Just a few hours later, after the Advance Group prayed, he was healed and was so amazed that he’s letting his children go along to church with the Advance group members!’ – Ambassador in Benin

In a church in Peru, many of the leaders were afraid to boldly share the gospel as they felt they didn’t have the training to bring the good news of Jesus to those who didn’t know him. When the church started using the Advance Mentoring Guide to raise up evangelists, things are looking different. The church leaders and members are always looking for an opportunity to share the gospel at all times, striking up conversations to share about Jesus on lunch breaks. How amazing!

During a hospital visit, Grace, our Advance Ambassador in Zambia, got chatting to two brothers who were patients there. As she got to know them, Grace shared the gospel with them, and they both wanted to accept Jesus into their lives so responded to the gospel right there and then!

Astro in Greece started his journey with Advance thinking that he would never be able to share the gospel in his taxi. But after few sessions, he was praying for opportunities to share his faith and God helped him to grab these to share about the love of Jesus. Now Astro has shared the gospel with many people and seen three of them accept Jesus into their lives in the last couple months.

Luis grew up in a Christian family in Portugal but after he started going along to an Advance Group, he was inspired to start sharing his faith and the gospel with those around him and recently, he got to see someone respond to the gospel – something he’d never done before!

After one Advance session in Portugal, member Maria was so impacted that she went to a store and bought 10 soups to give to people in need while she shared the gospel with them. As she did this, she saw four people give their lives to Jesus!

‘Thanks to Advance, I now know God personally and I am seeing many people around me deepening their relationship with God too.’ – Pedro from Lisbon

‘I cannot thank Advance enough. I didn’t realised that I had lost the passion for the lost over the years. It’s great to have a heart soft for the gospel again!’ – A testimony from a church administrator in Sheffield.

‘The session on Advance mentoring helped me go from being a cultural Christian to someone who has a deep and real relationship with God and who is proud to share about Him with the world.’ – Katie in the UK