Stories

A group of churches in Harar, Ethiopia, recently received some training in evangelism through the Advance materials and shared with us their appreciation.
‘The training is so crucial right now for the current church and we have learned so much about evangelism. We want to say thank you and so appreciate all you have done in our ministry’.

One Advance group member in Kenya was taking a taxi from the airport when he got into an extended conversation with his taxi driver who had fallen away from his faith after his marriage fell apart. Over the course of the 45minute journey the taxi driver re-dedicated his life to the Lord and indicated that he wanted to go back to church and rediscover his relationship with Jesus and the purpose for his life.

During a lunch in Dallas, TX, an Advance group began chatting with the waiter, asking him about his life and faith. He confessed that he is a believer but having recently moved to Dallas had not found a church yet but had been waiting for a good fellowship opportunity. One member of the group took his details to help him find a church community and get intentional about his faith, just as the group had chosen to be intentional in chatting with the waiter as he served them.

During the GNE Reach Mombasa festival where Advance was used to train church leaders for evangelism, halfway through one gospel presentation a man desperately tried to get past the stage barrier and onto the stage. Fearing he might want to cause a problem, security held him back until it became clear that the man just wanted to give his life to Christ there and then and didn’t want to wait for the end of the talk! He wept in the embrace of a prayer counsellor as he gave his life to Christ.

Ben Jack preached the gospel from the main stage on the first night of Festival Manchester. He says of his preparation, “While praying into the festival and playing around with different focus’ to hinge the gospel presentation on I felt the Lord tell me not to short-change the audience by delivering anything less than the truth of his gospel. This is something we talk about a lot in our Advance group. God made it clear that no Hollywood stories or clever communication were needed tonight, just a simple and clear presentation of the gospel for those in attendance. It was such a joy to then see by God’s grace and power hundreds give their lives to Jesus, including one girl who had been causing trouble at the event weeping as she admitted that she needed forgiveness and wanted Jesus as Lord of her life. God is so faithful.”

In Peru a church has seen amazing transformation in their congregation since they started some Advance groups. Seeing that many people in their local area struggled with basic literacy, they have started to run evenings where, using the bible as their source, they teach people to read and write through scripture!
On another occasion a member of their community suddenly fell ill. Sadly the guy died, however before passing the church were able to share the good news of Jesus with him and the whole family, none of whom knew Jesus. The family later asked the pastor to do a funeral, where they were able to share the hope and love of Jesus with them all.

Ben went to a Christian gathering discussing the importance of healthy marriage and relationships – nothing particularly evangelistic.

Whilst at the gathering, he ended up chatting with a guy called James, someone who wasn’t a Christian but wanted to find out about different faiths, what they believed, and what his purpose in life was. Before the event started Ben shared about his own faith and why he believed it and they ended up chatting and sitting next to each other when the gathering started.
Towards the end, the leaders of the gathering made various alter calls – however none of them were particularly aimed at none-Christians or people exploring faith. However Ben felt a really strong urge to pray for James and asked him if he could. James said yes and after Ben prayed for him said he felt a strong sense of peace and calm – however caveated it by saying it was a similar feeling to how he felt when he tried general meditation. Ben chatted with James a little more and then before leaving went up to the church leader and just told him about James so he was aware.

A week later, Ben received a text from James telling him he had since giving his life to Jesus and joined the church! – Ben, Advance group member, UK

I was on the bus heading home and ended up sitting a mother and her baby. We ended up chatting and she shared that her name was Helen and last month had gone through a painful divorce and was struggling a lot. My heart broke for what was going on in her life and I shared with her the gospel and the hope and love Jesus had for her. I got Helen’s number and we’ve been chatting and praying a lot together, as she journeys through this challenging season.’ – Advance group leader in Zambia.

‘I received a call about a guy who was severely sick with Malaria and a group of us from the church went and prayed for healing. The following day he woke up in perfect health and even went back to his work in construction! From bed to work – Jesus is going great things!’ – Advance group leader in Angola

Joãn is currently studying at university in Portugal, and whilst he always saw himself as a follower of Jesus, he always felt embarrassed and uncomfortable sharing his faith. He was invited to join an Advance group and found himself growing in confidence and understanding when it came to evangelism. He started to share the gospel with some of his close friends at uni and found that many of them were interested in what he had to say and were open to having conversations about faith and Christianity.
Since then, Joãn has ended up praying with some of his mates, some of whom have since given their lives to Jesus!

‘When I first heard about Advance, I was sceptical – another piece of material, another resource. Anyone who has been involved in Christian Ministry is likely to say that it’s easy to get over exposed to so many different types of resources and materials. At times you feel like Christians can be the best salesmen and women – everyone wants to be a creator and provide resources for the kingdom, which is not a bad thing necessarily, but often the resources come with an attempt to raise personal profile. I thought, ‘what would be different about Advance than any other material that I’ve ever worked through?’, but now I know, Advance is something different!’ – Bryce, Advance Ambassador in South Africa.
Ready more of the impact of Advance on Bryce and his ministry at advancegroups.org/advance-the-refreshing-resource

An Advance group has recently started in Tamogrande, Peru, made up of non-Christian drug addicts. The leader later shared ‘Now that we’ve got Advance, we have lost the fear to go and share the gospel. Now we help and evangelise to our community’.

I was on holiday in Greece and my wife and we hopped into a taxi. On the journey I noticed that hanging from the rear-view mirror was a crucifix. I remembered that the main religion in Greece was Greek Orthodox and so I began chatting to the driver about the hanging crucifix and what he believed. His name was George and he shared that whilst he was raised in an Orthodox church, he only had gone to when he was a child when his parents made him. Now he was an adult, his mum was always nagging him to go to church and he didn’t really know what to believe
I got to share briefly with him about my view of church and faith and when we arrived at our destination George was happy for me to pray for him.
I’ll never know what came from that conversation, but I was so grateful for the chance to share a little about Jesus and encourage George in his journey. – Advance group leader in UK

Recently I met a prisoner in hospital – he had got sick whilst in prison and had been admitted. We started chatting and he told me his name was Frank. I explained that I was a Christian and began to share with him the gospel. Before I even finished he couldn’t hold back from wanting to pray and give his life to him. We prayed together right there and he accept the Holy Spirit into his life. – Advance group leader in Zambia.

Advance has recently really taken off in parts of Angola. Victor, our Ambassador in Angola, decided to invite a few friends of his from some of the local churches in his town Luanda. One of the key struggles of the local church in Angola are the divisions and distinctions between them, never having much to do with each other and often discouraging the work of other churches in their area. However, some of Victor’s friends agreed to join his group and the group began to grow.
As this group grew, Victor started to notice that evangelism was becoming a more active around town, and that the churches were also starting to grow in size. However, one of the more surprising and joyful impacts has been the growing sense of unity of the churches in the area – never before has there been such a unity amongst the local church and Advance has played a pivotal role!

Alyson recently started an Advance group in his church in Maringá, Brazil. From the first session they had 11 people join and that in itself was super encouraging. However even with that Alyson really felt like more people in the church needed to do this and was thinking about getting another group to launch.
Little did Alyson know that after that first session one of the Youth Leaders in the church had so loved Advance that they had already decided to go off and start another group. They now have multiple people in Advance groups in their church!

In Santa Rita, Peru, there was a church who struggled to share the gospel. Looking back, they admited that they felt empty and spiritually dead. On certain occasions they would receive invitations from non-Christians to go and visit them and share about Jesus, but they would never go.
Julio, our Advance Ambassador in Peru, began chatting with members of the church and they decided to start an Advance group, and quickly things began to change. They felt fired up by the spirit and started to go out and share about Jesus with those in their community. In the church a new feeling of joy and passion for Jesus spread amongst them and in just 3 months this small church saw 10 people accept Jesus into their lives.

Rosa, a 62 year old lady from Portugal, recently was inspired during Session 5 of her Advance group – looking into the power and vital role of prayer in our evangelism.

Working as a carer, Rosa often is out and about visiting many of her patients. One guy she visited was in a really challenging place in his life, recently having lost various close family members and suffering with heavy grief and loneliness. Having been inspired by her recent group session on prayer, Rosa boldly asked if she could pray with him and the guy agreed. After finishing praying together he shared how encouraged and uplifted he was, being so touched by her care and in that moment Rosa was able to share with him about the hope and love of Jesus and his gospel.

‘I left feeling so encouraged. Before joining Advance I would have never had the confidence to pray for someone in public, but God has done amazing things in my heart giving me the courage to go and pray for others.’ – Rosa, Advance Group Member in Portugal.

Mark* leads an Advance Group. Since starting his group, he’s found that Advance has helped give him the confidence to actually go out and share the gospel.
*Name changed

After an Advance Conference in Brazil, many members of one church felt on fire and empowered to go into theircommunity to share their faith with their friends and family.
As a result, this one church saw 18 new Christians join their congregation!