Our January Encounter DTS students have been on outreach now for about one month! We currently have three teams out, the Explorer’s Outreach Team, Greece Team, and Turkey Team. We’ve received amazing testimonies from them of what God is doing around the world. Here’s a quick recap of what each team has been up to.
Greece Team
God’s been so good to us here in Greece. We were able to connect with a few YWAM teams to do joint street evangelism. Our team split up between a local hotel, hosting refugees and a nearby park. At the park we simply began worshiping and engaging in conversations with the crowd that began forming.
Through this we were able to share the Gospel to three refugee men and one of those men committed his life to Jesus! Glory to God! At the same time Jesus led us to three Pakistani believers, one of whom suffered from chronic headaches. We asked if we could pray for healing and he agreed. After praying four times he was completely healed! We rejoice over these divine encounters and would like to thank everyone back home for praying.
Explorer’s Team
Every day here in Greece has been full of excitement and purpose. The first day we arrived in Athens we split into pairs to walk the streets and pray for different people we felt the Holy Spirit lead us to. It was a great benefit to learn about the culture and layout of the city as well as the spiritual environment we now were walking in. We all felt like we needed to spend time together to pray and intercede for the city of Athens as well as spend time growing in unity and spending time together as the family of Christ.
The next day, we met up with the other Greece Team which was long overdue. It was so good to catch up with each other and speak life into one another. Not only that, but we were able to come together and evangelize two days in a row! We saw 2 people give their lives to Jesus as well as multiple healings and were able to just simply love people in the way they needed in that moment! It has been so good to just simply live for Christ and with Christ in every moment, little or big.
On our day off, we had the opportunity baptize two of our students Eli and Joylyn in the Mediterranean Sea! It was beautiful to come alongside the two of them and bear witness to the declaration of their faith and love for Jesus Christ!
Turkey Team
This last week was powerful! As we got more acquainted with our surroundings and the neighborhood that was around us we began to invest in relationships with different shop owners in the area. We noticed ourselves getting used to the neighborhood we’re in and have been able to build relationships with some of the shop owners here. We were able to meet a Christian couple from America who own a local coffee shop and we had the awesome opportunity to break bread with them and fellowship together. It was a real blessing to rest and refuel at their coffee shop after long days of pouring out. We also were able to befriend one of their employees and share Jesus’ light and love with her, as well as share the gospel with a worker at a nearby smoothie bar.
One day as two of us went out during a time of ministry, we saw a flower kiosk and felt drawn to talk to a woman there. After God provided a translator we found out that she had pain in her body, we laid our hands on her and Jesus released complete healing over her whole body! Later as we were worshiping by the sea we saw a woman with a broken ankle and immediately felt that we should talk to her and ask her if we could pray for her. As two of us did so, we were left amazed as God healed her ankle and the woman shared that she didn’t feel any pain!
Another day we went to the mall and three of us were able to talk to a saleswoman who told us that she didn’t really believe in anything and felt homeless. We were able to share the power of the Gospel with her and the woman was astonished at God’s timing in bringing them to her. She was really open to hear about Jesus and so our team asked if she wanted to receive Jesus as her Savior and she gave her life to Jesus right there on the spot! The team was able to pray the salvation prayer with her and as they did she received a powerful revelation of who Jesus is. As she was praying for forgiveness for sins the power of the Holy Spirit touched and confirmed it to her deep in her heart. She was aware of her salvation possibly causing problems in her family (due to her former Islamic faith) but she was consumed with the awareness that Jesus is Lord and that she is loved by the father. Hallelujah!
Check back soon for more testimonies from these awesome teams!