Recently I preached at a crusade in Iringa, Tanzania. Today I interview two of the Christ for All Nations Evangelism Bootcamp graduates who helped to set up the crusade. They share what they have learned and what they saw God do on the mission field.

For Evangelism Coaching, call Dr. Daniel King at 1-877-431-4276

Transcript:

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:00):
Recently, I preached at a crusade in Iringa, Tanzania. Today, I interviewed two of the Christ for all Nations evangelism bootcamp graduates, who helped to set up the crusade. They share what they learned and what they saw God do on the mission field.

Evangelism Podcast Host (00:18):
Jesus said go into all the world and preach the gospel. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be welcome to the evangelism podcast with Dr. Daniel King we’re Daniel interviews, full-time evangelists, pastors, missionaries, and normal everyday Christians to discover how they share their faith, their powerful testimonies and amazing stories that will inspire you to reach people with the good news. And now here’s your host missionary and evangelist Daniel King.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:53):
Welcome To the evangelism podcast. I’m Daniel King and I’m excited about leading people to Jesus. And today I am in the nation of Tanzania, we have just finished a great gospel crusade in Iringa and thousands of people got saved. In fact, we just got the total of the number of decision cards that were filled out 15,715 people gave their lives to Jesus in Iringa. And we have two people with me today who participated in helping to organize and set up the crusade there. And I ring up they are evangelism bootcamp graduates. Now they have gone through the Christ for all nations evangelism bootcamp, and then they did their initiation and then they went to Iringa and they’ve been there for several weeks helping to organize them. And so my first person I’d like to introduce you to is J Smith. J thank you for being with me today.

Jay Smith (01:59):
It’s so good to be here. Thank you so much for having me

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:02):
Now. You’ve got a great accent. Where are you from?

Jay Smith (02:05):
I’m from Birmingham in the United Kingdom,

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:07):
Birmingham in the United Kingdom. Wonderful. Well, thank you so much for being with me today. And I also have Rachel Smith and tell me, miss Rachel, where you’re from.

Rachel Smith (02:19):
Hello, thank you for having me today. I’m from Orlando, Florida from

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:23):
Orlando, Florida. All right. So we’ve got Jay Smith and Rachel Smith, but they are not married. They are both single, very single and they have been giving their all for, for Jesus during this time. So let’s start out by talking about the city of Iringa. Jay, what did you see God do in Iringa?

Jay Smith (02:46):
I saw God gather thousands of people and he did miracles and he saved many people. There’s a lot of expectation in the city and you’ve got to feel it. And you could sense it throughout the five days of the crusade and even so we had a very, very powerful time. The churches were encouraged. They were ready because it’s harvest time. And miss Rachel, what

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (03:08):
Did you see God do in Iringa? How did it impact your life?

Rachel Smith (03:13):
So this was my first gospel crusade that I’d ever been to. And I was so impacted honestly, by seeing all of the work that we had done in the last six weeks culminate into the thousands of people who came to the, to the field. We saw probably 30,000 on average every night come and just to see the hands go up when they when the alter call happened. And then people just get healed. Deliverance happened all over the crusade field. People were just getting touched so deeply by the Lord. So that was really impactful for me, but also getting to see behind the scenes, what it takes to put on a gospel crusade. You know, there’s so many things that I didn’t realize went into it. The first thing being how important it is to unify the church you know, in Christ for all nations comes into a city.

Rachel Smith (04:00):
We’re not just targeting the assemblies of God or the Pentecostals or the charismatics. We go after all of the churches in arena. And one of our main points that we preach is a unity because the body of Christ has to be unified for there to be enough people, honestly, to, to reap the harvest that we need. And also because God wants the church to be unified as the body of Christ. And so we spent a lot of time really casting vision for the crusade. And it’s just amazing that the gospel, you know, when we come together under the gospel of Jesus Christ, that is what everyone, no matter what denomination you are, everyone can come in agreement with that. And everyone was willing to lay aside their differences in theology and just come together for the harvest. And so we saw great success in that way.

Rachel Smith (04:46):
The churches, there were two big branches of denominations they’re called CBCT and CCT. And the CCT was more of the Protestant you know, Lutheran Catholic Anglican, those denominations. And then you had the CBCT, which is more charismatic. Anyway, they had never worked together to this level. And when Christ, for all nations came, we reached out to both of them. And for the first time they came together in unity and they have told us that even after the crusade, they will continue to work together. And so that was a lasting impact that C fan had on the city of arena that I was so excited to be a part of Jake.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:25):
Paul told Timothy to do the work of an evangelist. And there was a lot of work that is involved in making a crusade happen. Were you surprised at all the work and what was some of the work that you were involved in doing well

Jay Smith (05:42):
From the beginning before Decapolis a team of five people, we were organizing our own crusade, not I knew about evangelism and preaching the gospel, but not to this detail and to the perfection that he was at. So I was really surprised by amount of work that we had to do to really mobilize and motivate the whole church. Even with promotion, promotion was a big job. You have to get permission from the council. We had to deal with the wind, tearing down our banners and fighting those kinds of challenges as well. So for me, I was just really my eyes were open to the amount of work that we had to do, like, you know, late nights and early mornings, literally nonstop, nonstop, nonstop, making sure that everybody knows about the crusade. Once we’ve done with the physical promotion, we’re off to the radio to promote it on the radio.

Jay Smith (06:35):
Then we’re mobilizing churches, we’re mobilizing volunteers and it’s a huge operation. It’s a huge operation. And it was just so good to see the team working together in unity to accomplish this task. And it was just wonderful to see the fruit at the end. Now, most people, they see the videos of the crusade. They see the thousands of people gathered. They, they see the salvation numbers, but we see all the details behind the scenes before the crusaders taken place. We’re already on the ground weeks before organizing everything. And when the crusade is finished, we were offered, you know, organizing all the followup material, making sure that all the cards are counted, that they’re in the right place. They’re scanned, they’re sent off. So even after the crusades finished, we’re still doing many things. And, and even now there’s follow-up work going on. And even though the, the stage has been taken down, the trucks have moved on the, the work still continues within the city and it will be going on for, for many, many weeks after. So it’s just a huge endeavor and it really opened my eyes. And it’s impacted me for the future of gospel crusades.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (07:41):
Evangelism bootcamp started in January, and then you did initiation, which was a lot of work and going out and ministering, and then you came to Iringa and you were helping to set up the cuisine. So, so now you’ve invested almost six months into God’s call on your life and doing evangelism. What are some of the big takeaways in your life from the six months? What has it meant to you?

Rachel Smith (08:11):
Yeah, I can honestly say this has been the most challenging season of my life, the most stretching, but by far the most rewarding. And I would just say for me, before I did the bootcamp, I knew I had the call of evangelism my life. I had a burden for souls, but I didn’t know how to preach a gospel message to the, to the level of excellence that we learned in bootcamp. You know, we were trained in every single way, our stamina, we had to be physically in shape. We had to be mentally just really, really tuned into what God was doing. We had so many book assignments, you know, they really cared about our theology being solid so that we knew why we were preaching what we were preaching, why we did it this way. So for me, it just solidified everything. The Lord had been showing me before bootcamp, but now I have a way to back it up with scripture.

Rachel Smith (09:01):
I know, I know why we do things the way we do. And so for me, it was just sort of stamping and ceiling in my heart, what the Lord had done. And now having being backed by C fan, you know, the, the doors that will open because of the impact that this ministry has in all over the world, you know, C fan has a reputation in Africa, everywhere we go. We say, we’re with C fan. People are just so excited because Reinhard Bonnke, you know, he started see fan. And he, he did gospel crusades here for 40 years. And, and so people, even now in Iringa, we met people who’d been to his gospel crusades,uwho were healed, who were touched. So to be a part of that legacy is an honor. Ubut I, I would just say it was, it was a lot of work, but I will never be the same after this experience. And I just feel like I’ve been launched, you know, so to just to know that I have this ministry behind me, it gives me full confidence to, to move forward and to go into full-time ministry. And just my heart is just to see the nations come to Jesus,

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (10:05):
Jay, Just a few years ago, you weren’t even a Christian and you went through quite a lot in your life in order to come to Jesus. And now here you are preaching the gospel, share with me a little of your testimony and how you came to this point.

Jay Smith (10:23):
Wow. So I didn’t really grow up going to church. You know, my mother took us to church at the age of four. And then for about 12 years, I had nothing to do with God until I got into a bad situation. And when you get into bad situations, that’s when people often call on God. And this was exactly the case with me. When I was 15, I was I was at knife point and I was threatened for my phone. And I gave them my phone. And I got hit around the head with a golf club as well. And I told the police. Now, when you tell the police about these things, they say that it will come back around to bite you. So I had people that were after me. I had my front window smashed. I was just living in constant fear.

Jay Smith (11:02):
So that’s when I started to go to church. But although I was going to church, I wasn’t a Christian. A lot of people, they go to church. And I think because I go to church, I’m a Christian. But then we found out my brother was demon possessed. This happened when he heard the preaching of the gospel. And a lot of people say, you know, like open-air preaching, doesn’t work, but the gospel works. It works. And that’s when we found out he was demon possessed, his eyes turned black, the steam, and started to take control over his body. And my mother didn’t know what to do. They were living in Cornwall in the UK at the time. And my mom took him to a local priest. And then the demon spoke through the, my brother to the priest and the priest didn’t know what to do.

Jay Smith (11:39):
But thankfully we have an auntie who’s a strong follower of Jesus. And my mom told my auntie, we arranged for my brother to go to this church in Birmingham, where I’m from in the UK. And I saw my brother get completely set by the power of Jesus Christ. I mean, even before I saw, I didn’t believe that this stuff was real, but I witnessed this with my own eyes. And I saw him impacted by the power of Jesus. And I then had an opportunity to give my life to Christ. Now I knew that I knew that I knew that I needed Jesus in my life, completely surrendered, you know, without a shadow of a doubt. So I decided to surrender my life to Jesus. And I had this powerful experience that changed my life. It literally turned me the other way. So as I received Christ, I began to thought elect something like electricity flow through my body.

Jay Smith (12:30):
And then I started to speak this language. I’d never learned. I remember asking myself in my head, what on earth is going on my hands? They did this funny thing. They stretched out to the side of my legs, kicked out straight. And I was like, what is going on? I never experienced this before. Then I tried to say, Jesus. And I couldn’t even say, Jesus, let alone, Jesus is Lord because the Bible says, no one can say Jesus is Lord, except by the holy spirit. And this was exactly the case with me then whatever was in me, came out and I felt completely brand new. I felt clean. I felt wash my life was never the same ever again. And even, you know, just a few weeks after I was out preaching the gospel on the streets. I didn’t know what an evangelist was. I didn’t know what they did. I never heard that word before, but one thing I knew Jesus had changed my life and I couldn’t keep it a secret. So I just started to talk everybody about what happened to me and what Jesus could do for them.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (13:26):
That’s so beautiful. Ms. Rachel, you come from a Baptist background and you found Christ for all nations by just Googling evangelism in Orlando and they popped up. And so you got hooked. What has it been like for you as a Baptist to be exposed to Pentecostals of believe in the baptism of the holy spirit who believe in miracles, who believe in healings? What has that been like for you?

Rachel Smith (13:56):
Wow, well growing up as a Baptist, you know, we we really love the word of God and I feel like I had a very solid foundation of, of the Bible. But I had a lot of fear of, of things that were extra that, that I thought were extra. So I, my perspective on bachelors of the holy spirit was, you know, when you’re saved, you get filled with the holy spirit. And that said it’s a one and done experience. And then everything else was emotionalism. And just, just in the flesh, I really thought, you know, things like laughing in the spirit or, you know what else falling out in the spirit that those were all just people being extreme. But I had no idea that I was missing out on that. It wasn’t until last year when COVID hit.

Rachel Smith (14:44):
I was, I actually moved back to Orlando. The Lord had told me to move back to Orlando. I had been working in a Baptist church as a worship leader for about a year and a half and was just, I just didn’t, I didn’t feel like I was living in the fullness of my calling. I didn’t really know that I was called to be a full-time evangelist at that point. I just knew that I had that in my heart. So in Baptist, you know, we don’t really believe in evangelists, you know, as like a, you know, a role, we kind of have pastors and teachers and that’s it at least in my church, but so the Lord called me to move to Orlando and then COVID hit. And I saw the church that I was a part of re look like the world and just run in fear.

Rachel Smith (15:24):
And it just didn’t sit well with me. I just didn’t understand how we could believe that God was sovereign and, you know, he was our healer and our deliver, and I realized, okay, the gifts of the spirit, you know, what, what is this? And so I started asking God, you know, Lord, I know that there’s more to you. And I just feel like in my spirit, I know I’m missing out on something. So my prayer was just show me more. He led me to Google, like you said, evangelism ministry in Orlando. Cause I just wanted to start sharing the gospel and bringing hope to people who were just in fear, hiding in their houses. It just the so sad to me, you know that Jesus came to give us abundant life. And so I found Christ for all nations through a series of different encounters, actually have a family friend that works in the ministry.

Rachel Smith (16:10):
He agreed to give me a tour of the headquarters. And when I walked in the building, I started seeing the pictures of the crusades on the walls. And I remembered that when I was young, I had a dream of me standing on a platform and preaching to a crowd. And when I was little, I thought that was just me, you know, making it up. But I realized now I feel like the Lord showed me back then that I would be doing crusade ministry. So I got accepted into the bootcamp and the, the few months before the bootcamp started, I had a lot of questions for God. I had a lot of fear a lot of honestly unbelief that the Lord could still do. Miracles did still do miracles because I was raised in a cessationist church. But I got the opportunity to go to a crusade by a man named Chris Michaelson.

Rachel Smith (17:00):
And he did something locally in Orlando. I just decided to volunteer. And it was the first time that I saw people who were not, they didn’t grow up in church. This was done in an area, very bad area in Orlando called pine Hills. And so the people who came to this crusade, they came because they were giving away some free things. So they had no reason to lie. They had no reason to pretend that they’d really been touched by God. You know, the things that I’d seen in church that I thought were just made up. And so I saw these people hardened, honestly, gangsters, people that were just they just looked scary. You know, they got touched by Jesus in this crusade. They were crying. I saw so many people get healed and touched and it opened up my eyes to see, no, this is real and really encouraged me.

Rachel Smith (17:43):
And so when I got into the bootcamp, I just came to the Lord and just said, Lord, I want all of you. And I’m laying down all of my fear and all of my unbelief. And you just show me, what’s real and what’s not. And I’ll trust you. And I’m telling you, I’ve experienced laughing in the spirit. I’ve experienced, falling out all these things that I had so many criticisms about in my heart, the Lord just slowly sh let me experience them. And I feel like I got a taste sort of like a buffet of all the gifts. And so I just I’ve really come, I think, to a really healthy place where and C fan C fan did an amazing job, you know, evangelist Daniel Kolenda was one of our instructors, which is such a privilege to sit under him because he’s not only an evangelist powerful preacher, but he’s also an amazing teacher of the word of God.

Rachel Smith (18:30):
And so all of the things I had questions about, like the baptism of the holy spirit he did a two day class on that, of where it comes from in the Bible and, and for me being a Baptist and it was just so good for me to, to know, okay, this is not just something that someone made up that everyone is just, you know, kind of talking about. It feels good. No, this is actually something that they believed in the church of acts. And this is something that they preached, and this is something that actually happened to them. And so I’ve just come to understand experiences are not bad. You know, the Lord wants to encounter us both by speaking to us in the word and also other things. And so I just feel totally brand new in my relationship with God. I’m just so excited in my place with him. And I’ve just seen things that I can’t explain, you know, even in the crusade, watching people get touched by the Lord to get healed delivered, and it’s just completely changed my life. So I’m very thankful for the place I’m at and I’m excited to continue to grow and see things and experience the Lord in a new, in a deeper way.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (19:30):
So now you are one of the crazy people your church used to warn you about. So

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (19:38):
Over the last six months, so much has been poured into you and God has been preparing you and getting you ready for doing amazing things in the future. And so, Jay, what is the vision that God has given you for your life? What, what area of evangelism do you see yourself involved in?

Jay Smith (20:01):
So I definitely see myself doing crusades. I really have a heart for the, for the UK. You know, like we’ve got a history of sending missionaries around the world and now a lot of the people in our country proclaimed to be atheist. It’s not atheist and agnostic. And we have people of different religions from a height is really to see gospel crusades in the UK. I don’t think we’ve had crusades crusade, Billy Graham cane. You’re not on a large scale, so I really believe it’s time for that to change. So that’s what I’m believing for. I’d also like to go into creative methods of evangelism in terms of like gospel tracks, you know, in the UK anyway, our tracks are not so good. But God has given me some ideas on, on tracks and how to creatively spread the gospel. I already have one already that’s created and you know, in distribution. So just, you know, continuing to run with that out, I’ve got other ideas. So that’s a plan also continuing to work hand in hand, we see fun. This is an incredible ministry, incredible harvesting machine. And, you know, they’ve got the vision of the decade of double harvest and as much as is possible, and God will, I want to stay connected. We see fun and working with them for the future in the kingdom of God. So that that’s for me.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (21:13):
That’s awesome. Rachel, what vision has God given you for the future?

Rachel Smith (21:18):
So I mentioned earlier that before I was a preacher of the gospel, I was a worship leader and I really feel strongly that music is an avenue for the Western world to receive Jesus and, you know, people in America, they’ve, they’ve become really hard into the gospel in so many areas, but music has a way of speaking to their hearts. And so the Lord before I came to Tanzania, really gave me a vision for revival in America and also to see the lost get saved. And that was just doing crusades in a, in a different way than we do in Africa, where, you know, we draw people by calling it you know, come and receive your miracle and those things and people in Africa, they respond to that because that’s something that they really need, but in America I think the Lord is wanting to do a new thing and we’ve seen groups like what Sean Foyt did, you know, with the lettuce worship movement that really spoke to my heart.

Rachel Smith (22:08):
And so I I want to work on creating a format for a crusade involving worship music involving gospel messages through the method of, of, of music and just drawing in a different crowd. I also just, I burned for revival, you know, and so I just really want to travel around and break open spaces and preach the gospel and see see the church revived. You know, there’s a lot of apathy, especially in, in the area of evangelism in the Baptist church. And so coming from a Baptist background, my heart is just for the Baptist to get filled with the holy spirit, to really walk in the fullness of the gifts and to see them live out the abundant life of Jesus Christ and just all of the fear, just go and just be United as a church. So what we’ve worked so hard on with the capitalists to unify the body of Christ for the sake of the gospel, that’s what I want to see happen in America and beyond. So, and like Jay said, you know, C fan, I want to stay involved with them. I want to partner with them. The Lord has just spoken to me, just partner right now. Just get more experienced and learn and grow, but I want to assist them as well because the decade of double harvest that is the future, we’re going to see nations taken for Jesus Christ. And I want to be on the front lines with them.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (23:26):
What is the, the one memory, the biggest memory that you’ll take home with you from Tanzania?

Jay Smith (23:34):
Wow. What a question? My goodness, I would say counting the decision cards at the end to, to not just have, you know, an estimate of numbers from people that have raised their hands, but we got the evidence in front of us signed decision because of people that made a decision for Jesus. These are people who are now saved. They’re going to be walking with Jesus and we’ll see them in heaven. For me, this is the most exciting thing. It’s the greatest miracle for salvation. So for me, you know, we counted a lot of cards. We we had a machine to help us put, to see those costs being counted so that they could also be integrated into a local church. Rachel,

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (24:10):
What’s the big memory that you’ll take home with you from Tanzania?

Rachel Smith (24:16):
Wow. There’s so many memories. I think one that stands out is when we had our field dedication day, you know, we had worked for six weeks into capitalists, just really promoting the crusade. We needed the church to be unified. And, you know, we came to that day where we weren’t sure how many people would show up. But when we got to the field, there were at least 4,000 people from all over the church in Iringa who came and said, I will volunteer. I will be a part of this crusade. And it was just amazing to see that the Lord answered our prayer. You know, he gathered an army of people to usher in the harvest. And so I just thought it was amazing to see the church stand together. That was really powerful. And then yeah, counting the decision cards, you know, seeing the thousands of cards every night and just in awe of what the Lord had done on the field right in front of our eyes. So I’ll never forget that.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (25:10):
That’s awesome. Well, thank you so much for all of your work in Iringa. Thank you for your dedication to serving the Lord and thank you for being a guest on the evangelism podcast. Thank you so much. God bless you for having us. We love you, Daniel. Yes. God bless you guys. Thanks for listening to the evangelism podcast today. I want to ask you to partner with me to help lead people to Jesus. For as little as a dollar a month, you can be responsible for helping us lead at least one person to Jesus every single month. Over our 20 years of ministry, we’ve found that it costs an average of about $1 for every person that we’re able to reach. And so if you could just go to king ministries.com and partner with us for at least $1, just $1 partner with us to help us lead people to Jesus. Imagine for a dollar you can be responsible for starting a party in heaven every single month. And would you do me a favor go to apple iTunes and leave this podcast a review. Your positive review will help other people who are excited about evangelism to find the show. Thanks so much. And God bless you

Evangelism Podcast Host (26:33):
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