Evangelist Aaron Perry leads Radiance Ministries. Their goal is to release life, love, and power into a new generation and they want to radiate the love of Christ to the lost. Today he shares his vision for reaching people for Jesus.
Website: http://www.radianceministries.org
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Transcription:
Evangelist Daniel King (00:00):
Evangelist Aaron Perry leads, radiance ministries. Their goal is to release life love and power into a new generation, and they want to radiate the love of Christ to the lost today. He shares his vision for reaching people for Jesus.
Evangelism Podcast Host (00:17):
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,
Evangelist Daniel King (00:54):
Welcome to the evangelism podcast. I’m Daniel King. And today I have a special guest with me. Aaron Perry is the founder and president of Radiance ministries. Aaron, thank you so much for being with me today.
Aaron Perry (01:09):
Yeah, thanks for having me. It’s always good to spend time with you.
Evangelist Daniel King (01:14):
So tell me a little bit about your ministry and how you got started in ministry.
Aaron Perry (01:21):
Yeah, so our ministry is mainly focused on evangelism overseas. We do missional evangelism and we actually started, it’s a unique way. It’s been a incredible journey, but we started a group of us gathered together out of Christ for the nations institutes. And we started you know, passionately wanting people to encounter God, to get saved experiences, presence. And so we started traveling, started a traveling ministry in Texas and Oklahoma traveling all over doing ministry. And that’s, that’s kinda how we first started and it kind of blossomed into what it is today, which is traveling all over the world, preaching the gospel.
Evangelist Daniel King (02:05):
What are some of the countries and places that you’ve been able to minister?
Aaron Perry (02:10):
Yeah. our first crusade we ever did, which was I think we’re coming up on five years ago now was in Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka right South of India, and then been to India been to Uganda Ethiopia, Honduras. And then of course you and I were in Cuba at the same time. Just what was that two years ago? So, yeah,
Evangelist Daniel King (02:38):
That was the last time that we really talked was that time in Cuba, we had a really wonderful time together. It was tremendous there to see what guy was doing in Cuba. So tell me some about the heart of your ministry and what you mean by radiance ministries, kind of what you, your mandate from God is.
Aaron Perry (03:02):
Yeah, so radiance ministries you know, our slogan is revealing life love and power. And so we, we just want people to encounter the living. God, it is something that has always been in me. And I’ll tell you when I did the Sri Lanka crusade, I would say it was the strongest conviction. Seeing the response of people coming down to give their lives to Jesus. I committed in my own heart and told the Lord, God, I give my life to this life. This is what it’s all about. And so Radiant’s, our vision is simply to preach the gospel for the rest of my life and travel all over the world and go to the places that need the gospel the most. So
Evangelist Daniel King (03:48):
Who are some of the ministries that have had the biggest impact on you?
Aaron Perry (03:55):
Six, seven years ago? That was seven years ago. You know, I worked for Reinhardt Bunky. I was Reinhardt Bunky and Daniel Glenda’s crusade director here in America. And as I was doing that for over two years it, it just gets on you, you know, it’s contagious, the just winning souls and the passion for evangelism, it gets on you. And so that’s kind of the start of just the, the transferring of, you know, doing local youth ministries to now preaching the gospel all over the world and matured out of working and serving Reinhart and Daniel Kolenda.
Evangelist Daniel King (04:36):
And now you’re, you’re married. You have a little girl, tell me how you balance life and ministry and providing for the family and also doing all the ministry things that God’s called you to do.
Aaron Perry (04:54):
Yeah. So I would say that I’m in the lane of, by vocational ministry. So we’re running a business, which is we work on a Questran ranch and we also, you know, do a few other things. And so we’re in business and in ministry, you know, and whatever else that’s coming to our plate. And you know, it, it definitely is something that we try to balance and we make sure that we do it well. And the thing is, is, you know, we’re just I think it’s, you know, it’s plowing with the focus that, you know, Christ is the end goal. So even with our business where we’re pushing Christ with our clients and with our people that come around our ranch, and then at the same time, you know, it’s just the discipline of just diving into the study of the word and prayer and God, what are you calling us to do today, tomorrow? You know, and, and in the future. And so that’s kind of how we operate.
Evangelist Daniel King (05:58):
What are some of the things that God has been speaking to you recently, what’s really been on your heart
Aaron Perry (06:05):
For this year? It’s nothing is impossible for God. And for, for me, it is the plowing, you know, across the board with COVID it has taken a big hit on a majority of evangelists. I know that you’ve been still traveling and plowing, but you know, for me, it’s been difficult. I’ve had to cancel like four crusades last year, and it’s been a difficult time. So we’re coming into this new year. It was standing on that promise. Nothing is impossible with God. And so believing that this year we’re going to see great victory. We’re going to see a lot of souls come into the kingdom and we’re going after it, we’re setting up and scheduling a lot of ministry for this year to win souls.
Evangelist Daniel King (06:50):
That’s great. That’s really a tremendous theme that nothing is impossible with God. Yeah. In the last three months I’ve been to Tanzania, Ethiopia, and I just got back from Sierra Leone. And so I’ve been traveling. It’s a lot harder to travel these days for the Sierra Leone trip. I had to have five COVID tests, so it’s a little bit of a challenge to travel, but it’s worth it because we saw people get saved. We saw people baptized and we’re S our ministry is supported by individuals that believe in what we’re doing. And if we’re not out there telling people about Jesus, getting people saved, then what reason do people have to, to support us? So I always tell people, you know, for every dollar you give, we’re able to leave at least one person to Jesus, just, and so I want to stay out there on the mission field because eternity is real heaven and hell are real and eternal destinies hanging in the balance. If we’re not going out leading people to Jesus who will, and it’s difficult to go out right now, but I like your theme with God. Nothing is impossible. What are some of the impossible things that you’re asking God for in the coming year?
Aaron Perry (08:09):
Yes, we’re, we’re trying to actually go back to Shalom the very first crusade I ever did out there. We’re we feel like God is calling us longterm to, to that country. And so we’re, we’re trying to plow one of the challenges right now is that if you were to go to that country you have to be quarantined for 14 days before you even do tourism. And so you know, that’s one of the challenges that we’re coming across. And so we’re trying to figure out strategize, like we’re going to go, but when are we going to go? And, you know, just trying to time it, right. And we do believe it’s this year that we’re going to make it happen.
Evangelist Daniel King (08:48):
That’s a big commitment to that. That’d be a long time to be away from your family to quarantine for 14 days, and then do ministry back. That’s a lot. Wow. Well, when you read the stories of the old time missionaries, you know, they’d get on a boat and they’d leave for the next 26 years, you know?
Aaron Perry (09:10):
Yeah, yeah. I know. Yeah. This is a, yeah, it’s going to be a small sacrifice, but we feel like it’s something that we want to pursue for sure. So we’re excited
Evangelist Daniel King (09:23):
When you go and do a crusade what type of miracles have you seen in some of your services?
Aaron Perry (09:33):
Well, we, we do see a lot and you know, I think that probably you and I, we are very similar in our, our push for the gospel, which is to present it with evidence, present it with power. And so we always pursue the miracles. And it is something that is very evident in, in many of our crusades. And, and it’s, it’s the, it’s the icing on the cake. It’s the, it’s the greatest part of, you know, once you’re, you’re drawing people in to expose, not, you know, not just get them safe, but show them the power of God. And I will say there has been a few miracles that have marked me, and one of them was in Uganda just a couple of years ago where we sold the blind eyes open. And it was right in front of my face.
Aaron Perry (10:24):
I got to see it. And the outcome of the blind eyes being opened. And it w what was strange was it was only a partial sight that came to, but he had a haze over his eyes. And after prayer, you know, he opened back up his eyes. There was a difference, there was a different color of his eyes. And because of this partial miracle, we ended up seeing five other blind eyes open because of it. So it was a powerful miracle that we saw. And I’ll never forget it, never forget that miracle that happened in Uganda.
Evangelist Daniel King (11:01):
Early on, we had a little boy who was deaf in one ear, and I asked everyone to put their hand on the part of their body where there’s pain. And the reason I do that sometimes it’s because we can’t lay hands on the entire crowd. Cause there’s just too many people. So the Bible says, lay hands on the sick. And so I just ask people to take your hand and place it on a part of your body where there’s pain. And so this little boy is about seven years old. His mother placed her hand on his ear, which was deaf. And she began to pray for him. And as she was praying for him, a black pebble or a growth fell out of his ear into her hand, and she thought it was kind of gross. And so she shook it off onto the ground.
Evangelist Daniel King (11:49):
And then she started to test her boys, hearing in the boy was able hear. And so he came up, we tested his hearing. The whole crowd was able to see that he was able to hear, you know, I clapped and then he clapped and then I clapped twice and he clapped twice in the crowd, just erupted in shouts. And it was really a unique creative miracle because as she’s praying for him, whatever obstruction or blockage there, wasn’t his ear fell out of his ear into her hand. And so it’s really neat to see when, when God does miracles, you have a, another miracle story that you were about to share.
Aaron Perry (12:27):
Yeah. you know, in fact it was actually at this crusade that I have up here. We were in Ethiopia Africa with, you know, you and I have our good friends with Wagners Josh Wagner and I, we were out there with, with pastor evangelist, pear pear activists. And when we were out there, we were in this village. You know, you could see the crowd. I mean, we were seeing thousands and thousands of people give the lives Lord. And I believe that crusade, we saw over 8,400 people get their lives to Jesus. And there was a young girl who was in the far back of the crowd. So you can kind of see, she’s probably in the far back of the tree line and she’s carrying the gospel. She is from a Muslim family and in the crowd as she’s hearing the gospel we then start pursuing to pray for miracles.
Aaron Perry (13:27):
And I remember on the stage, I just said, if you have an issue with your arm, I want you right now to stretch out your arm right now, just stretch it out. And so that’s a weird word of knowledge. And surprisingly this girl, she actually had a lame arm. She was not able to move her arms. She was not mobile in it. And when she heard these words stretch out your arm she did, she ended up a miracle immediately happened. I think it was probably the faith that she was believing, heard the gospel believed, stretched out her arm. And I mean, she was healed. She was instantly healed. And one of the, and that was amazing. But upon that, her father who was the Muslim man standing behind her, sees her, his own daughter sees the miracle happened. And this man was a mosque builder for the Muslim community.
Aaron Perry (14:24):
So he would go to village, to village building the mosque. And when he saw this miracle, he said, I must give my life to Jesus. And he got saved right there on the spot because of a miracle with his own daughter. And I remember we were trying to ask him, you know, can we, can we film this testimony? Can we re, can we interview him and get this on, on camera? And they said, no, no. Like, you don’t understand if this man comes out as a Muslim man who converted to Christianity, they might kill him. They’ve and I was thinking, well, we don’t want him to die. He’s already now living in Christ. We don’t want him to die again. So we just held onto that testimony and, and it was amazing. It was incredible, incredible miracle that took place there.
Evangelist Daniel King (15:10):
Wow. That’s, that’s amazing. That’s very cool. Yeah. Yeah. In Sierra Leone, we had another testimony of we, we hired a camera man from a local television station to come and take pictures during the crusade. And he was Muslim. He came from the Mandingo tribe which is about 95, 98% Muslim, and historically very strong Muslim from the North of Sierra Leone. And he followed us around taking pictures all day, every day. And we were doing five or six or seven services a day out in the villages. And so he heard the gospel presentation over and over again. And by the last day we were doing a baptism service down in the river. And the night before he came to one of our team members and says, I want to be baptized. I want to become a Christian. And so the Muslim cameraman heard the gospel over and over, and then we, we baptized him into the faith and there’s nothing like that to, to see someone come out of darkness into the light. It’s just such a tremendous Testament. Aaron, how did you get saved? How, how did you become a follower?
Aaron Perry (16:29):
Well, it happened at a very, very young age. I believe I was around four years old when my mother would always you know, when she would tuck me in at night, we would pray to this man, Jesus and I didn’t, you know, I don’t, I’m only going into the motions. Every single night we would do this prayer, but I remember one night there was a storm that was taking place outside and it woke me up and I was scared. And I would, you know, as a child, so scared that, you know, I’m, I’m putting the blanket over my head thinking that that’s the best protection. Like, I’m so scared that I’m not even going to run to my mama. You know, my mom was bed that night. And I remember saying, Jesus, I that’s because I was just remembering what we talked to this man, Jesus, maybe he can help me.
Aaron Perry (17:21):
And so I, at a very young age, you know, saying, Jesus, I’m scared, will you help me? And it was, I would say a miracle was taking place in the room where all of a sudden the storm stopped. My window was open. So rain and the curtains were blowing. I mean, it was, you know, as a child, that’s very scary. And so I remember just everything stopping the moment. I said, Jesus, I’m scared. Will you help me? And I immediately fell asleep. I had this peace come over me. And I remember waking up the next morning, understanding the saving knowledge of Jesus that anytime that I was to call upon his name, that he would be there for me. And that was the start of my journey of being saved in Christ.
Evangelist Daniel King (18:04):
How did you know that you were called to be in ministry? Was there a particular moment that you got a call from God or was it something that developed over a period of time?
Aaron Perry (18:15):
I remember being at a youth camp at 13 years old, and I remember just in my own prayer time, you know, it was after the service and just in my own prayer time. And I remember just dedicating my life to the Lord. I would say, you know, I’d never felt like this call from the Lord, but more of like initiated the call. And so just took it on myself at 13 years old saying, God, I, I give my life to this. You know, there’s nothing else that I desire. There’s no other passions that I have, I I’m yours. And I would say out of that, the passion for evangelism just started brewing and may even, you know, at a very young age, 13 years old to just want to see people come to Christ.
Evangelist Daniel King (19:03):
What were some of the, the big things that you learned when you were going to Christ for the nations in Dallas, Texas?
Aaron Perry (19:11):
Yeah. So you know, a lot, there was a lot Christ for the nations, I will say was one of the best experiencial training learning centers, therefore Bible college ministry students. And yeah, there was a lot one was just the constant every day diving into worship, encountering the Lord and then, you know, getting fed scripture and teachings on the word of God. But you know, for me, one of the things that I loved was there was an evangelism group. So there was you got credits to actually go out and evangelize for your schooling. And so somebody that you and I both know, Chris Michaelson was one of the leaders of the evangelism group there at Christ for the nations. And you know, we would go out to the streets and we would share the gospel. We saw the miracles happen, people get saved. And you know, when you see that it’s kind of like a spark that happens where you want to carry this on. You don’t want it just to leave it at the college, but you want to take it where you go. And so yeah, there was a lot that was learned there. I mean, I had incredible for feccers, that was a great school really enjoyed it, really enjoyed that place.
Evangelist Daniel King (20:32):
And then you got recruited to be a crusade director for Reinhardt Bunky, helping set up some of his big events here in the United States. What was that like? What what’d you learn from that experience?
Aaron Perry (20:46):
Oh, it was, it was incredible. It was it was a lot of work. It was absolutely work. But it was, it was a great exp experience. You know, I was, even as I was doing it, I was saying, this is the greatest training ground for evangelism and men. It was, it was experience. Just the way that you know, one thing that I loved about Reinhardt Bunky and Daniel Kolenda is their position of faith. You know, when they would lock down the cities to preach the gospel it was always a faith move. I mean, you know, there’s tons of funds that have to be raised to have these massive meetings and every time without fail, God provided for these crusades. And we stepped in and, and you know, kind of did the, I did the legwork on the ground for six months to a year in a city for, for a two day harvest. And yeah, it was a lot of work, but incredible experience. I will never forget the memories that I have of everything that I did with that ministry. Cause I learned so much for my own ministry you know, to, to do for evangelism. And so it was a good time.
Evangelist Daniel King (21:59):
Yeah. I think you, you, you can’t help, but catch a passion for souls and a passion for people being around Christ for all nations and Reinhard, Bonnke Daniel Kolenda. What a tremendous blessing that was in the early years of your ministry. That’s really cool.
Aaron Perry (22:14):
Yeah. Was, it was awesome.
Evangelist Daniel King (22:19):
Well, if someone wants to support your ministry or wants to invite you to come and minister at their church, how can they find out information about you? What’s your website?
Aaron Perry (22:32):
Yeah. So our website is radiance ministries.org. And you can just go on there. We have a place, you know, if you want us to come and minister, we have a place for you to you know, kind of submit an application. And then if you want to give there’s a place for you to give us as well for our ministry and all the places that we’re trying to go to this year. So.
Evangelist Daniel King (22:55):
Awesome. Well, thank you Aaron so much for being on the evangelism podcast. It’s great to have you with me today.
Aaron Perry (23:04):
Hey, thank you so much, Daniel. And Hey, you and I, we gotta go do something soon in the future as well
Evangelist Daniel King (23:09):
Would love to let’s do it. Let’s take over a country for Jesus. Amen. Thanks so much for listening to the evangelism podcast today, I’m excited about telling people about Jesus. And what we found is that as we go to different nations of the world, it takes us an average of about $1 for every person we’re able to reach with the gospel. And so some countries are more expensive. Some countries are a little bit less expensive, but on average, we’ve invested about $1 for every person we’re able to lead to Jesus. So today I’m asking you to go to my website, King ministries.com and give $1, $2, $5, become a monthly partner, help us to lead people to Jesus. Imagine you can start a party in heaven with just $1. Also go to Apple iTunes, leave us a review for the evangelism podcast with Daniel King. So lots of people can find this evangelism podcast. God bless you
Evangelism Podcast Host (24:09):
For more information about how to share your faith or to financially support our worldwide evangelistic outreaches. Visit King ministries.com. Again, that’s King ministries.com.
