I would have never expected to have spent the first six months of 2024 on the road, but I am grateful for the leading of Holy Spirit because now that I am back in California, I am full of JOY and lots of stories.
After completing one eight week tour from January-March, I had a 2 week break and time of preparation for for another eight week tour from April-May. It was a step of obedience to step into another tour after completing the one I was just on, but I felt so much grace to continue on. I was so honored to serve by leading another team who were eager to share the gospel and train up other believers.
Our team served in Los Angeles, Atlanta, London, Amsterdam, and Stockholm.
Our assignment was to go into these cities to preach the gospel and give people that opportunity to receive the gift of salvation, but also to train up believers in each of these cities to reach their community, campus, and city! Filled with faith, we would go out in pairs, sharing the gospel for 2-3 hours on the streets of these cities. Transformation was taking place in front of our eyes, as we watched people who had never shared the gospel before filled with joy, authority, and confidence that their “yes” to share the gospel meant people’s eternities would be changed.
There is truly nothing like it, I am the most joyful when I am sharing the gospel!
We called these trainings “Festival Weeks.” We would host evangelism training’s for locals, so they could learn how to share the simple gospel and actually practice articulating it to one another. Then our team would partner with those locals to be their evangelism coach that day so that could truly be trained. After a couple of hours of sharing, we would come back together to share testimonies or stories of rejection. We would celebrate all that God did, give each other high fives and encouragement, and head to a night of worship and further trainings from our curriculum in Circuit Riders. We taught on topics based on the life of Jesus including, living a life of radical faith, having a surrendered heart, walking courageous love, & the call to missions. These nights were SO powerful, as we had the opportunity to pour into the locals by getting to know them on deeper level and praying for them. We would end of each week we would host an evangelistic gathering specifically geared toward the lost. This night was for family or friends who hadn’t heard the gospel, and for those we met throughout the week during evangelism to come and see what Jesus is all about. It was a great success, 100’s gathered together for these nights and many walked away brand new!
It seems as though the youth in Europe have just been waiting to be trained, so they can be sent out!
But I wanted to share the testimonies with you, so you can also be encouraged!
Los Angeles Testimonies:
“Two girls who had never done street evangelism attended our training, paired up with our team, & were so filled with compassion and faith that even though the scheduled evangelism time ended, they kept going just the two of them. They ended meeting a woman who had once been apart of a bible study but never really heard what Jesus had done for her. After explaining the gospel, she ended up giving her life to Jesus, and the two girls who had never done street evangelism before that day, walked her through receiving salvation and getting her connected to resources and a local church.”
“While praying before evangelism, one girl felt that she was suppose to pray for someone in a purple hat. Shortly after, they saw a girl on an escalator wearing a purple hat, so they approached her and asked if they could pray for her. She immediately responded, “YES, I need freedom from my addiction to alcohol.” They got to pray for her, and lead her through repentance.”
“We went into a witchcraft store and began to talk with the one of the employees. Within a few minutes into the conversation the employee admitted believing in Jesus but was still operating in witchcraft. After hearing this, they began to explain the story of the wedding feast and explained that she was the person on the outside knocking on the door and the door would not be opened unless she surrendered her life to Jesus so that she could belong to him. She gave her life to Jesus in that moment.”
So much can happen in such a short amount of time! One day we went to a mall for 1.5 hours, and we saw 22 make decisions to follow Jesus AND a different day we only had 40 minutes at a university campus and we saw 7 people give their life to Jesus!
London Testimonies:
“We met a young woman in her late 20’s at a coffee shop under the train station. She was a fellow believer but they were able to encourage her & share words from the Lord. She told them that she had always been scared to share the gospel and so we invited her to go join us in evangelism. There was immediate activation and she left so encouraged that she could share the story and power of Jesus!”
“I shared the gospel with the security guard outside McDonalds. His family was Christian, but he had never received Christ. I shared the gospel and my testimony with him and he ended up giving his life to Jesus and praying there. He said he felt physically lighter and like a whole new man.”
“She told me she’s from Iran and has been living in London for 2 months. I explained to her that I was praying for people and asked if she needed any prayer. She said that she’d actually stumbled into a church by accident that very morning and she’d been searching but she didn’t know anything about God or Jesus, she just knew she didn’t believe in Islam. I shared the gospel with her and explained that she could talk to God on her own without any restriction. She began to cry and said that’s something she wanted so we prayed the salvation prayer. Then I prayed the infilling of the Holy Spirit over her and she said she felt a burning feeling. I gave her the Bible I had and explained how to read it and when I showed her the flyer inside we were shocked to find out that St. Paul Hammersmith was the exact same church she’d accidentally stumbled into that morning. “
“I was passing out Bibles on the street and a group of teenagers walked up to take some. I asked them if they’ve ever read the book before or know what it’s about, they say that they haven’t and so I asked if I could share with them. They explained that they had never heard the Gospel before but wanted to know, so I shared the Gospel with them and at the end before I could even ask if that is something that they want, one pointed to the friend next to her and exclaimed “I want that, how do I get it, I don’t care what she says, I WANT THAT!” . I explained that they can pray right now and extended the invitation to her friend as well. They both gave their lives to Jesus in joy and laughter and received Bibles!”
“We had just talked about how we like to sit down with people from other religions and chat. Joy noticed this older gentleman sitting on a bench in the park by himself wearing what looked like religious robes. We tried to ask him if the robes he was wearing were religious or ceremonial and found out he only spoke Arabic. So we broke out good ole google translate. We asked him and he told us he was Islamic. I asked him if we could share something with him about Jesus. He said yes. I typed out the gospel on google translate and told him that I’m all other religions you have to die for that god, but with Jesus he died for him. I asked him if that’s something he’s interested in. He said yes. I told him he’d have to leave all other religions behind and accept just Jesus, even Allah. He said yes. I typed out a prayer and said do you want to commit to this? He said yes and then prayed out the prayer!!!!”
“We met a Muslim named Ahmed while evangelizing near Hyde Park. He was smoking outside his hotel when we started talking to him about Jesus. The conversation was cordial and he respected our beliefs but we wanted him to know Jesus, we just didn’t want to debate. So we told him, “Our God speaks to us, and He can speak to you right now through us.” After I saw a vision of a memory of his childhood which was him and his sister and his dad going to a store together. His heart was softened after that but he still was skeptical. Then I heard a voice in Arabic and I don’t speak Arabic. I typed it in google translate and it was “I’m afraid.” And I asked him, “Are you afraid?” And he started explaining to us how he is afraid of failing Allah by missing his prayers and not following all the rules. We then went further into the gospel but then his uncle interrupted and he left. But before he left we know that his heart is softened to know Jesus!”
Testimony of local who joined us for the week!
“In the last year, Angelica was healed from anxiety and some intense trauma. Her passion for Jesus consumed her, to the point that where all she could think about was sharing about the love of Jesus with the lost. She was excited when she saw in the church bulletin that there was going to be an evangelism training, but when she asked about the details of the training, she found out that it was cancelled and there was no plans to reschedule. Disheartened by this news, a friend reached out to Angelica inviting her to a Circuit Riders evangelism training in London. When she arrived and I met her, she shared that her hope was to learn as much as she could, so that she could go back to her church and train/teach the congregation in how to share the gospel! I had the joy of being able to train her how to start conversations, learn different ways to integrate the gospel, and lead people to salvation! A few weeks after meeting her, she sent us a video of her open air preaching in a city square boldly sharing the truth about Jesus!”
Amsterdam Testimonies:
“We asked if he had ever heard about Jesus. He said he knew that he was a man that performed miracles and good deeds. I asked if he had any faith background and he said he doesn’t believe in anything right now. So I asked him if I could tell him about Jesus. He said he has to go so I told him it would just take 60 seconds. We shared with him and asked if that’s something that he would like to do. He said yes but he doesn’t think it can happen in one moment. We agreed with him and told him that his decision is to start the process. So he said yes he wants to start a journey of believing in Jesus. So we prayed with him.”
“My partner and I were constantly getting rejected by everyone we talked to. So we decided to pray and ask the Lord to send us at least one person who would be willing to at least hear the Gospel. Then a girl walked right up next to us and I was like, well I am just going to shoot my shot and see what happens. I asked if she had a faith background and if she had ever heard the Gospel. She said “no” to both so then I asked if I could share it with her, but then she said “no” again because she had an exam she was heading to. I told her I can share it in 60 seconds and I can walk with her to her exam, and she said yes! I shared it with her and then I asked how it made her feel and if she was willing to give her life to the Lord, and she said she felt safe but didn’t want to give her life to the Lord cause it just sounded like a story, but she wanted proof that God was real. I asked her if she had a pain in her body or any stress or anxiety she was feeling. She said she was feeling a lot of stress and anxiety especially because of her exams. So I told her that I believe God is a healing God and she can be set free from those things. So I prayed for her and immediately after she felt joy and peace within her and I asked her again is this something that you would be will to give your life to and this time she said yes!”
“We met a 14 year old guy named Jordi. We tried talking to his friend first but he blew us off so we started talking to him. He recently gave his life to Jesus so we prayed for him. While Addison was praying the Lord gave me a vision of him writing a suicide note. And I asked him, “Do you struggle with depression?” He said, “Yes, but I haven’t told anyone.” Then I asked if he struggles with suicidal thoughts. He said he does. I then told him the vision I saw and told him how the Lord showed me that because when he was writing the suicide notes Jesus was there with Him telling him He loves him and that He paid the price and sees his life worthy of dying for. We prayed for freedom and joy. The Holy Spirit hit Jordi so profoundly! He began to cry and he was filled with so much joy. He repeatedly told us his life is never gonna be the same. He was shaking, felt tingling and breathing heavily and could not stop smiling. He couldn’t explain the feeling and we told him it was the Holy Spirit. We then got to walk him through repentance of smoking weed and addiction. After we prayed he then told us he’s going to tell everyone about this. He immediately went to his sister to share Jesus with her and her boyfriend. He said he’s never gonna forget that moment and he said he couldn’t tell if he needed to cry or laugh! He was made new and set free!!!”
“Saw a group of around 10 teens, a couple vaping, stopped them, preached the Gospel and they all locked in at one point and stayed throughout the whole conversation. At the end I asked who wanted a true relationship with Jesus and to be saved, all of them raised their hands, one kid confessed he was ashamed he was addicted to vape. He decided to destroy his vape!”
“We were walking by the grass area and I felt like the Holy Spirit had said that there was a girl by herself that needed prayer. Instantly, God highlighted this girl who was by herself. I asked her if she needed prayer for anything, and she said depression and her fear of disappointing God. I started encouraging her, which then led to her asking about her faith. She told us that she never had heard the full gospel, so I shared and she started to cry. She said, she had never felt that kind of love and she wanted it. I lead her in prayer and SHE ACCEPTED THE LORD.”
Stockholm:
“I saw this guy with a cool jacket. We stopped to compliment him and started a conversation. He said it was the first time in a long time someone had stopped to have a conversation with a stranger. We began to ask him questions about his life and his purpose. He began to tell us about how he got kicked out when he was 16 and he was living with his best friend, who ended up committing suicide. Zach asked him what he thought his purpose in life was, and he said he’s just living to live. We asked him questions about faith, and he said grew up Catholic, but he rejected it because they threw it in his face and it wasn’t fulfilling. I explained my testimony. He ended up connecting to the gospel and God’s love for him and gave his life to the Lord! As we left, I hugged him goodbye and he said it was the first time in a long time someone had hugged him.”
“Met this 12 year old girl that we invited to the revival night. She said that she also believed in God. She was not from a religious background at all but somehow just started believe. She’d never read the bible or heard the gospel, so I shared it with her! As I shared gospel and my testimony she said “I don’t know what to do to have that connection with God”. I said, you can get that right now- if you believe in Him, confess with your mouth and invite Jesus into your heart you can start have a relationship with God. She immediately wanted that! On the train we prayed a salvation prayer, & her eyes just lit up! She texted me later saying that this was a day she’s been longing for!”
“In a park by Södertornkyrkan, I passed by a table of a random friend group drinking and smoking. I did not want to engage them with the gospel, but felt convicted to go back and tell them about Jesus. It seemed like a failed attempt and I was about to leave and give up, but gave one of the people in the convo a Swedish New Testament, on it was written “book of Hope”. This mother grabs the Bible from her daughters hand and embraces it, weeping uncontrollably and gives her life to Jesus, shortly after the daughter does as well, their friends who were drinking are all astonished because the woman was an anti theist, some of them came to the festival night and one of them gave their lives to Jesus, so 3 total salvations.”
I linked a few of the testimonies from our team sharing in Sweden!