WE ARE THE FUNKSVision: To show the heart of the Father to the nations by presenting his SonMission: To continue the ministry of Jesus to the ends of the Earth; preaching the Gospel of repentance unto salvation, healing the sick, and making disciples
I should start by telling you were it all began. My wife Katherine and I went to “The Send” in Orlando in 2018 and it changed our lives forever. It marked us spiritually. I began to fast and pray for God to send out laborers, and little did I know that God was going to send us out to be laborers. As my wife and I continued to pray, we felt compelled to apply for the Christ for all Nations Evangelism Bootcamp. Before we were even accepted, we felt very strongly that we needed to sell our house and prepare to go out. Shortly after selling our house, we were accepted to the bootcamp and began our move to Orlando.
The Evangelism Bootcamp is a highly intensive 3 month full time training that is meant to challenge an evangelist on every level and prepare them for the ministry of going out as a laborer into the harvest fields. It did not fail to challenge or prepare both of us. After the initial part of the training, I and my fellow classmates were given the task of spreading out across 5 cities in Tanzania to push hard and share the Gospel with as many people as possible. I had the opportunity to lead thousands to a decision for Jesus and Baptism in the Holy Spirit, seeing many people healed along the way. In all, our team recorded over 315,000 decisions for Christ across the five cities we visited, all in less than 3 weeks.
One of the ways we were able to reach so many on our trip, was by visiting schools and putting on a mass number of kid’s crusades. As we did these crusades, my heart was so stirred. It is so incredible to see the miracle of salvation, especially in these children, and to know that they can live the rest of their lives filled with the Holy Spirit doing anything for God. I have fallen in love with seeing these kids filled with the joy of the Lord, and it is my deepest desire to continue doing this ministry by conducting more children’s crusades.
I have now graduated from the Evangelism Bootcamp and have also become ordained through Christ for all Nations. Additionally I have joined over a thousand other evangelists worldwide in something called the Evangelism Alliance. Because of this training and these partnerships, I have incredible opportunity to continue the work of the Gospel in Africa and beyond through mass evangelism and crusades. As I mentioned in the previous paragraph though, my desire is to continue on by doing more children’s crusades. The harvest among African children is ripe and I am equipped as a scythe. In order to carry out this calling, I, along with several other harvest hungry evangelists, have partnered with CfaN and an organization called Scripture Union to gain access to schools all over the country. Because of the work and good report of these organizations across Africa, we have quite literally been given government paperwork, that with the permission of a headmaster, allows us to go into a school and share the Gospel. Thousands of students and teachers can, have, and do receive Jesus in a day because of this. I have seen it with my own two eyes.
It is my goal, as an evangelist, to take four trips to Africa a year in order to conduct more children’s crusades. Each of these trips will be in partnership with several other evangelists (as we will go out in pairs) and last at least 3-4 weeks . Each day we will push hard to share the Gospel with as many as possible, entering anywhere from 6-10 schools in a day. We are able to accomplish this, because time has already been taken to map out where every single school in target area is already located and which have been visited so far. Each school may have several hundred students, but we also see many with well over 1,000. On average, we are sharing the Gospel with between 3,000-5,000 students and teachers a day; many of them responding to receive Jesus and a baptism in the Holy Spirit. This is not the end though. Salvation is just the start of discipleship, and before we leave each school, we establish a multi-step discipleship method for those who have responded. First and foremost, we give honor to the Holy Spirit as the very best teacher. Second, “Now That You’re Saved” materials from CfaN are distributed to the kids and the teachers in their language. Third, we conduct a teacher talk and help teachers understand their responsibility as spiritual leaders, equipping them with resources from Scripture Union for the task, and fourth, we connect the local pastors with the schools we have entered.
This method of evangelism has been tried and tested and the heavenly results are overwhelming. We can keep our budget low, because we eliminate the need for advertising and a large amount of people. A trip for four weeks can cost less than $6,000 per person, and a team of two people can see a harvest of 35,000-40,000 decisions for Jesus within that time. This allows every dollar spent to go a long way. Additionally, according to statista.com, more that half the population of most African countries is aged 20 or under. The population of Africa is 1.2 billion, so there is a massive harvest to be found in going after the kids.
My heart to see children and adults meet Jesus does not end in Africa. When not doing children’s crusades there, my family and I serve with the launch team of Nations Church in Orlando. The church officially launches in August of 2021, but our pre-launch services are growing and thriving with hundreds in attendance already.
Our first area of service is with the Children’s Pastors, Dan and Jenn Young. They left a large and thriving church to help plant Nations, and I have had the honor of serving along side them, helping to build the foundations of something truly wonderful. Each week we have over a hundred kids in attendance, and the number just keeps growing. They are being taught the Word, baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit.
My wife and I are also both active in evangelistic outreaches that occur weekly throughout the city. My wife loves going on outreaches to the downtown and red light districts while I have a great opportunity to further the Gospel’s reach by partnering with a man named Scott McNamara. He is an evangelist and the creator of “Jesus at the Door” who specializes in one-to-one evangelism and in equipping the body to evangelize. He has recently come on staff at Nations Church as the Director of Evangelism. Scott has asked myself and a few others to help get this ministry in Orlando off to a strong start. We were already doing outreaches as a church twice a week and seeing many people get touched and make decisions for Jesus. With Scott’s expertise we are taking things to a new level, and I am humbled to get to help lead the charge.
Today, I am asking if you would partner with my family and me, both in prayer and finance, so that we may continue in Christ’s ministry and grow in the pace of evangelistic work the Lord has begun in us. We are 100% committed to seeing people saved and have laid down all we know how in order to serve Jesus and the Kingdom of Heaven. We are asking, that if the Holy Spirit so leads you, to partner with us on a monthly bases to help cover both our living expenses and the cost of these four ministry trips as we declare the Gospel in both Africa and America, reaping a harvest of disciples that will fill His kingdom and glorify Him as He rightly deserves.
Together in the Harvest,
Edward Funk