Two of our outreach teams recently were apart of the Islamic festival in Turkey, that happens once every year. Our teams had the opportunity to pray and share the love of Jesus to thousands of Muslims that were there. Our teams witness many healings! Keep on reading to hear one of their crazy testimonies!

“We had an awesome opportunity to come alongside hundreds of other believers on an island in Turkey! Every year on April 23rd, upwards of 100,000 Muslims come to this island to climb to the top of a large hill to pray in desperate hopes their prayers would be answered. We lined the path leading up the hill with booths set up for Henna tattoos, healing, worship, prayer and blessings.

Our group set up at the very top of the hill. The amount of people around us was insane. We had prayed intensely before hand that God would reveal Himself through signs and wonders — AND HE DELIVERED. The spirit of The Lord was so present, and The Father was revealing Himself through healings. We held up a sign in Turkish that translates to, “do you need a miracle?” and hundreds of people responded! We got to pray for about 150 people and saw upwards of 70 healings! One of which was a young-teenage Turkish girl who was brought to us by her mother. Her mother began to tell us that her daughter was mute and couldn’t speak. We knew The Father wanted to heal her and after we prayed for a few moments, said amen, and asked how she was feeling, the girl uttered in Turkish, “I’m okay” for the first time. Her mother jumped up with so much enthusiasm after witnessing her daughter’s healing and quickly asked us to bless her as well!

We saw the mute speak, knees healed, backs healed, migraines healed, but overall, lost and hopeless hearts were able to be reminded that they are so loved by a Father who hears our prayers wherever we may be, and in the kingdom of God, there is no striving, we don’t have to climb to the top of a STEEP hill to reach Him because He is already by our side.”

– Explorer’s Outreach team

How good is our God! It’s so comforting to be reminded that you don’t have to strive to reach God but that He is by your side always. Our God is living and He is just waiting for your ‘Yes’ and step in obedience. By stepping out in faith and trusting God our students saw the young teenage Turkish girl healed from muteness. This miracle not only changed her life but planted a desire in her mother’s heart to ask for more in her own life. What else would God be able to do if we were defined by His character and not our circumstances?

It’s not about your ability to pray, it’s knowing Jesus’ ability to answer. Our God has eyes and ears! He knows and understands, He sees and hears everything that everyone in the world is going through! You have access to the keys to unlock healings and miracles – because you have access to the Father!

January 2015

It is a bittersweet time for our team, as we now have finished our time of ministry in the refugee camps. We are so grateful for all of the people God led us to that have impacted our lives, including our translators and the local church who are now like family to us. We are convinced of God’s strong love and faithfulness to all He promised (Romans 8:28). We know we will never be the same.

In these new camps, God broke our hearts as we listened to their stories of the trauma and reality of fleeing war-torn areas and living in refugee camps.

We are excited to share that the last weeks of our outreach were full of miracles and answered prayers! We followed Jesus to six new refugee camps that were completely unreached; meaning none of the people had heard the Gospel before. In each camp, we were eagerly received by crowds of children and invited into the homes of families. It was amazing to see crowds of people gather into single homes as we ministered.

In these new camps, God broke our hearts as we listened to their stories of the trauma and reality of fleeing war-torn areas and living in refugee camps. Almost every family has lost loved ones, some only can afford three to four meals a week, and others live in physically hard conditions in addition to the spiritual darkness and emotional trauma.

But in their brokenness, God is bringing His comfort, hope and peace. He is revealing Himself in dreams and in power as we and others share the Gospel. We were overjoyed as we saw the awe and wonder in the eyes of those who heard and encountered Jesus for the first time.

One woman exclaimed as we prayed for her, that the heaviness she always lived with lifted and she felt security for the first time. Others could only attempt to describe the healing, joy and peace they felt when we prayed. God is so eager to embrace every hungry heart here. In fact, during the week, people would come looking for us, asking for audio bibles and for us to come pray for the sick in their camps.

We were stoked to see Jesus’ name and healing made known. There are so many testimonies of how the Gospel is going forth as light in this darkness. We now understand why John wrote “There are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written” (John 21:25). Likewise, this update cannot contain all that God has done and is doing here in the middle east!

“There are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written.” (John 21:15)

Highlighted Testimonies:

Camp Leader Saved
We were so excited to see the refugee camp leader of an unreached camp give his life to Jesus! He eagerly welcomed us into the camp to share with the few families that were gathered there. This camp was isolated and had never received visitors before, let alone the Gospel! We know that his salvation will open the door for many to know Christ.

Healing Hugs
Jesus’ embrace truly heals. Everywhere we go, people of all ages are hungry for love and eager to receive hugs (and sometimes they don’t let go). We were amazed to see Jesus heal one woman from her head pain through a hug! Susanna felt led to hug her for a long time, and afterwards, the pain had melted away.

Hello again, everyone!

We want to thank you again for your support and prayer for all our team is doing in France!

We passed out many more Bibles this week, we preached to so many, and we’ve prayed fervently for this city as we have led people to the Lord Jesus! 🙂 Here is one story from a time of evangelism…

We had just finished performing our dance and preaching the gospel, and I (Samantha) saw a woman walking by us. She seemed to be in a hurry, but I felt the Lord direct me to talk with her. I interrupted her brisk journey and asked if she had just a couple minutes to speak with me. She accepted, and I proceeded to tell her who I am, where I’m from and why I am in Marseille. We ended up conversing for over 30 minutes.

After informing me of her Muslim faith, she began to give her stance of what she believed, but I could quickly tell that her heart was actually hurting…she was sad about what she believed. She thought God was very angry and a murderer, and I began to gently tell her the truth of God’s character – the Gospel.

The love of the One and Only True God profoundly disarmed this sweet woman of her bitterness. She asked me vulnerable questions, fervently seeking Truth, and I gave her answers straight from the Bible. She admitted that she’d stopped believing because of the evil she’s witnessed in the world; she had questioned why God would allow suffering and assumed the God she had been trusting had let her down.

I told her boldly and kindly that the true God is Jesus, and that He is not the same god that Islam claims. She went from a state of anger, intensely backing up her beliefs, to telling me “I want to believe everything you’re sharing with me…I want Jesus in my life. If I believed and followed Jesus, my life would completely change…He loves us!”

She then had to catch her bus, I’m sad to say, so I didn’t get to pray with her. However, this occurrence added even more to the evidence for intense reaping in this city; the people here are so ready for the Gospel.

They are ready for us to proclaim Truth, repentance of sins, and salvation in Jesus!

Though I cannot mention this woman’s name, please pray that she would be saved and would radically follow Jesus, as well as the MANY that we have met in very similar situations!

More stories…

We shared the gospel on a college campus for an entire day. We took part in a children’s ministry, where we teach Bible stories and pray for healing for any of the kids who are hurting (one little girl’s back was healed!), and we also took advantage of a flower market and purchased roses to pass out to women on the street as a tool to share God’s love and the Gospel.

We had numerous people come as close to salvation as possible, so please pray that they would follow through with giving their lives to Jesus completely.

Mariah, a DTS student, also led a couple to salvation in Jesus. After we danced and preached yesterday, a man and woman came up to us and explained to Mariah that they had researched many religions, and they wanted to know why we believe Jesus is the Only True God. She explained the simple Gospel, and they gladly confessed their sins to the Lord, asked for forgiveness, and confessed Jesus as their Lord and Savior!!!

The Lord is really doing a great work in Marseille. We’re having a great time together–our team has such beautiful unity!

We’re looking forward to having a full last week of ministry here before we begin to wrap things up and head back to Redding. Please pray that we would reap much more of this harvest and see many more come to know Jesus as Truth!

I want to start off this update by saying how incredibly proud we (Sam and Alyssa) are of this DTS. It has been a tremendous honor and pleasure to lead them and see them championed and launched in getting to know God and making Him known!

Every day we go out for hours on end for one reason: to boldly proclaim the good news of Jesus. We pray for the sick and the hurt, and for deliverance from the enemy; we pray for those who are seeking God and desire to know His heart; we pray for prophetic words to bless them with. And, in only a week, the fruit of this has been at least six salvations, and around 8 healings. We have given out at least 30 Bibles all to people who really desired them.
 
I have written down about 50 significant testimonies from individual conversations—these for the most part are not even including when we have preached from a microphone to around 100+ people…there are many more. Praise God! Outreach is SO fruitful!
 
We have met many Muslims who have had dreams of Jesus. They know who the “man in white” is, and they say that in dreams He would deliver them from oppression of the enemy and He says in many dreams “I’m calling you to me—I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life—no one comes to the Father but through Me. I am the Alpha and the Omega.” Praise the Lord for revealing Himself to those lost.

The story pictured at left is of a young man from outside of France who used to be a follower of Jesus but recently chose to pursue alcohol, partying, and other similar choices. He was stunned and inspired by the fact that we had all left our families and our homes to become trained as missionaries—we flew all the way from California to tell people such as this man about salvation in Jesus!

He was humbled by that, and he told us that we could pray for him, since he admitted to his knee actually hurting a lot. After praying for his knee (which at the time was in much pain), he laughed and overflowed with joy as he said, “I would be lying to you if I said that the pain didn’t completely leave.” His eyes were opened to the reality and resurrection power of Jesus, and he said that for the first time in a while, he really wanted to get back into church! He had two friends with him and by them also witnessing, they too didn’t want to just be “Christians” in the sense of what my generation thinks that means, but they were inspired and awakened to really live their lives for Jesus.

Many young people such as these have been touched by our obedience to Jesus. Through simply sharing the gospel and our testimonies with our French peers, lives are truly being transformed!