Stories From our Final Day in Fremont

Greetings from France!

We arrived safely in Marseille just 2 short days ago. Though our team fought against jet-lag, we spent our first day getting set up and getting the ball rolling.

We have already had a few encounters and cannot wait to share the stories that are sure to unfold in our next update. Please be praying for energy, joy, unity, and divine encounters for our team!

This week, we wanted to take a moment to share some final thoughts on our Fremont for Jesus outreach.

On Sunday, the majority of our base took off for Redding before going down to a conference in Chico, CA. This left just our students and outreach leaders, along with the community members in Fremont, to finish out our last day of evangelism.

By this point we had already seen over 50 salvations and were celebrating what the Lord had done. I don’t think any of us anticipated what was about to happen to give us even more reason to rejoice!

We went out, as usual, to share and pass out materials door to door before heading over to Elizabeth Park. We decided to have the students perform their dance one more time and had them set up by the playground. A group of 11 kids quickly formed.

At the end of the performance, Enoch and Kelly jumped in and immediately started sharing the Gospel with the little ones. She asked the crowd of children, after explaining to them who Jesus is, and about an experience she had where she felt Jesus hug her, if they would like to ask Jesus into their hearts. In response several of the kids raised their hands and a couple responded with a “Yes”.

All of a sudden one of the little girls yelled out,”I want to go to the Kingdom!” You can imagine the shock on all of our faces to hear such a comment from one so little! The general age seemed to range from about 4 or 5 to 8 and 10 at the absolute most, but regardless, these little ones understood what they were being invited to and one of them vocalized it perfectly!

“From the lips of children and infants you. Lord, have called forth your praise” (Matthew 21:16)

She got it! I can tell you, for certain, that I have never heard a child say such a thing before and it was one of the sweetest moments observed all of outreach!

Following her response, Kelly replied with another question, “Who wants to go the Kingdom?” All the kids began to erupt with hands and voices lifted high eager to go to the Kingdom; to go home. A home they have always longed for yet never known. All 11 children gave their lives to Jesus right there on the spot with Kelly and all professed out loud their belief in Jesus Christ King of our Kingdom! Such a sweet moment!

At the end of our time, we all gathered together to share more testimonies since we had split into smaller groups. By the end of all the stories we realized that 16 people, including the 11 children, had given their lives to Jesus that day! This quickly put the number of salvations in Fremont from about 50 to almost 70!

This was not only during our last day in Fremont, but also our very last night to be exact within our very last hour of evangelism! We saw five more salvations at the park within that short time frame making our last day of evangelism our single most visibly fruitful day! Praise the Lord!

While we may have His heart as our own and a desire to do the will of our Father at the end, and of course at the beginning, of each day, we find ourselves in bewilderment about the things He has planned for us to do and see never fully knowing what lies beyond the horizon of each moment He mercifully blesses us with!

May this be an encouragement, as well as a reminder to us all that our Father is good and eager to bring all of His Children into the Kingdom, both big and small, and often times our only part in this divine orchestration may very well just be asking those around us, “Would you like to go to the Kingdom?”

Halal Festival, Door to Door and a Ton of Salvations!

We are on our fourth week of outreach in Fremont, California! God has been doing some incredible things.  Our team, as a whole, has seen around 40 salvations in the last four weeks, and multiple people have been healed! It has been an amazing experience to watch God come and bring breakthrough in people’s hearts.

This week, we have had the privilege of going to the Halal festival in Fremont, California. It was one of the most rewarding experiences that we have had down here. Mariah, Enoch, Kelly, Allan and Sam all performed the dance that they have been working hard on during  DTS! After drawing a significant audience, our students, staff, and guest shared their testimonies, passionately illustrating the ways in which Jesus has transformed their lives.

As an added bonus, God blessed our team that night with free tickets to a San Jose Giants game, a much appreciated break.

Now, we get to the best part: testimonies!
During the Halal festival, Gina, a staff member with our outreach partner, Convergence House of Prayer, experienced a profoundly personal moment with three Persian women.

She and a few other participants decided to stand beyond the doors of the Halal festival and hand out free water and Bibles. There was a group of three women who approached Gina to see what was going on, a perfect opportunity for her to offer free water, both physically and spiritually.  She then felt led to ask the women if any of them needed healing. Turns out, all three of them were experiencing physical ailments, and each of the women promised to come to the healing rooms and the prayer house later that week. While they didn’t give their lives to Jesus in the moment, all three of these precious individuals are intently open to hearing the full truth of the Gospel.

We have also been continuing our door to door evangelism, and I would love to share this testimony with you as well! We have two community members that have been joining us for evangelism almost daily named Lidia and Doug. The other day they had an encounter with a young Native American man who said that he knew Christ and had been baptized but Lidia had a sense that this man needed more. So she asked him if he needed more of the Holy Spirit, so they both received permission to pray and this man had such a strong encounter with the Lord that he ended up falling forward on top of them under the power of the Holy Spirit. This man knew about Jesus but he was finally brought into the fullness of who God is and was baptized in the Holy Spirit!

One last testimony…

Two members of our staff, Susanna and Meghan, went out to evangelism late at night, after a long day of planning, leaving only about an hour to go out and share the Gospel. After praying about which house to approach, they met a young man named Fred who formerly served in the military. Susanna asked if he had ever heard the full Gospel of Jesus; he said no. Susanna then shared a brief overview of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation.

Meghan received a word of knowledge that he was a good dad to his daughter, and that his love for his daughter was nothing compared to the Love that God has for us. After that, Susanna asked Fred if he would like to give his life to Jesus. He responded positively, the only hindrance being the desire to have his family with him in the moment, a hindrance the Lord quickly overcame, beckoning Fred into salvation.

More salvations and encounters at the Festival of Globe!

This weekend, our team attended an Indian cultural festival to do worship, hand out materials, pray for people, and talk to them about Jesus!

The first day (Saturday) our DTS students, Allan, Enoch, Kelly, and Mariah, had the opportunity to perform a dance they had prepared on stage at the fest. This was a miracle in and of itself, as teams usually have to sign up to perform weeks in advance. They did an amazing job and after the performance had people running up to them asking about the dance. They had the opportunity to then share about Jesus with these people and pass out Bibles to many of those who watched.

During this time the rest of our team, and members of the community, were out engaging with others and many people received Bibles, Jesus films, heard the Gospel, and were open to and thankful for prayer!

The responses that we had were so good that we decided to go back Sunday. And it was good that we did! On Sunday our team members Susanna and Mariah had the privilege of leading a woman to the Lord!When they met her, they asked if she had heard the Gospel and she said that she had not. Susanna shared the story with her so well. From creation to the fall and our need for a savior, to God’s plan for redemption through the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus! We can often get caught up in debating with people, or are hesitant to share the Gospel because we want to avoid debate, but the significance and simplicity of what Jesus has done is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, and is made known to them as true through the assurance given them by the Holy Spirit. They then shared with her afterwards that all of heaven was now rejoicing at her salvation!

Even on our off days God often brings us into encouraging encounters. Yesterday we decided to take a trip down to Santa Cruz to go to the beach and enjoy a day of fun with one another. On our way we needed to stop at the gas station and while Sophia was inside she felt led to go pray for the man who was working there. She asked him if he knew who his Father was; not his dad on earth but his spiritual Father. He said no so she went on to share the Gospel with him. As she was talking with him she felt that he had pain in his right ankle. When she asked him about it he confirmed that it was true and allowed her to pray for it. After she prayed she asked him to test it out. As he did, a huge smile spread across his face as he realized that all the pain was gone! She told him that it was Jesus who had healed him and got to pray again for him. He didn’t receive the Lord in that moment, but we know that God is going to continue to pursue his heart and use this powerful encounter.

Whether it is door to door evangelism, at a festival, or just on a fun day we are honored and excited to share God’s love and Jesus’ worthiness with the people around us. And we are thankful for your prayers as you continue to partner with us in all that the Lord does. To Him be the glory!