Facing the Canon with Andy Economides

[Music] and Lee it warms my heart have you on facing the cannon thank you for introducing me to Jesus fine that's all right what you mean is boy if you hadn't told me about Jesus I might be running running a kebab house or something in London I don't know do you remember Andy we were both students at Hendon College in London it's now it then became a recessed poly and now it's called Middlesex University but we were students and I remember I mean we probably have two different versions of the story but I can remember meeting you on my first day and you discover that I was greekcypriot as you are and we became friends that's right and then from September onwards you get half what had you how do you remember my journey of faith well my version is we would bump into each other have a little chat I think that we used to get an e at lunchtime sometimes yes and an over period of time I got to know you and I remember one week in February I gave you a little gospel booklet and I went home to our prayer group and said I've been sharing with this young student at Hendon and today I've given him this gospel booklet can we pray it's journey into life it was can we pray that he'll read it and open the door to Christ so that week you came up to me and when I bumped into you and you said I've read the book I prayed the prayer what do I do now so I said I'll meet you on Sunday this week at such-and-such a place of such and such a time and I'll take you to our youth fellowship and that's when it began and you came and I went and we went to it and then the discipleship began for ya well I remember you yeah you said to me I'll what you got to do now is you've got to study the Bible or I've got savvy the Bible and you go Wednesday nights that's when we do that all right and then and then you said to me oh and you got to other people at Jesus that's a hole right then and and you said that's on Saturdays you would go out we go out on the street that's North Finchley and just tell people in the street so I think the week after became a Christian you met me on a Saturday with other youth and the whole youth group went out and then you said and you've got to worship and that's all along right then and so we did that on a Sunday I was really good wasn't very good I know but it was really interesting because you said look this is what you need to do I slotted into Bible study on a Wednesday night in the home of the youth workers Saturday night went out on the streets Sunday we would go to work church service and then to the youth fellowship yeah so we did good actually and earrings yeah but for you you really did good and I went off to Theological College and you would you were working but you would send me money to help fund me at Theological College says good job you did that you've done well so Andy have you always known Jesus no I when I was 17 the a friend sitting next to me in school secondary school who wasn't a Christian he said to me would I like to go with him to a summer camp so he went along to something called limps field which was a Christian summer camp and I knew it was a Christian camp I wasn't interested in Jesus I wasn't interested in Christianity but I went along and halfway through the week I decided to open the door but I felt that Jesus was knocking at the door and I could know him and have a friendship with him so one night I think it was something like the 28th of July at 10 o'clock at night in 1973 in Oxford in sorry little village I opened the door to Christ and began that journey of following him and did it make a difference it made a difference straightaway straightaway the next year that it made a difference straightaway and I was followed up immediately they not took my door a week or two later and said we'd heard and did not took my door literally they came to the house not to the door that word got out that I'd become a Christian so Andrew Liveris egde visited me not took the door and said we've heard you become a Christian I'm inviting you to Christ Church youth fellowship come so I went along and got discipled the next year I had another encounter in the spirit and that encounter was even more profound than the first yes and it was that encounter that enabled me and empowered me to share my faith and your the consequence of that encounter along with many other people through the year that Holy Spirit encounter made me enabled me to share my faith and also bring people to Christ so that was a very important event that followed conversion which the Bible speaks about you then studied you trained as an engineer you're a parachute engineer and you did that for a while and then you went and worked in a church in Chichester and that church you planted churches you trained leaders and and you started speaking of ministering around the UK and then you began to go overseas yes and you had the opportunity to go to Nigeria tell us about your first experience of Nigeria a gentleman called Corky sat in my kitchen one day and invited me to go to Nigeria with him this was over 25 years ago and as he's talking I'm thinking I'm not going you can talk you can show me the pictures but I have decided I'm not going somehow I told my vicar about it and he shocked me he said let's pray about it anyway we prayed about it and I ended up going that and so I wanted this if I die there I was a guest of Corky Devi so I just followed him so I tagged along and went along and he was the director of open-air campaigner in the West Country and had a wonderful man yet and every time while we were there every time they asked him to speak older great speaker wonderful loved out there they knew him and he never ever spoke he always said to the man that asked him to speak the pastor's know and he will speak so angered up to instance speaking so that was my first trip I was a guest I tagged along I did a bit of speaking then I got back to Heathrow after two and a half weeks landed at Heathrow after coming from this country Nigeria fell on the floor kiss the floor like light john paul ii used to do when i visited country everything in slow motion you kiss the floor stayed on the floor you stayed a seven the front prayed and what did you use pray i will never ever go back [Music] ha are men young man it is finished yeah it is done yes you would thankful you were home I'm alive you're alive I'm not going back so I surprised myself by going in the first place yes then I came back and decided well that was it six months later something began to happen so I was working for a parish church I had a really nice life there st. Pancras in churches that wonderful good vicar great position she just is very nice everything was great after 6 months I began to get a stir in go back so I went back second time took a team and I've been going back ever since so how many times do you think you've been back since that Federation may be nearly 40 times now 40 and every time you go you go for several weeks at a time now I've been twice this year and we've I've been for nearly seven weeks this year now so what have you done over in Nigeria well we've done a number of things we've we've got two big projects what our biggest project is that we've founded a college and it's called a cetera business school it's in a big city in the South two hours drive from Lagos the city of several million called ibadan when I booked into the hotel I go into the same room two one one when I open the key go into the rooms like I'm home it is my hotel is my flat this is my city these are my people I love them they love me so one of the things that we've done is next year will be our 10 year anniversary we started a college for young people and when I was there last month we awarded 17 pitches to college diplomas yes so you've managed you set up this business go college for vulnerable young people yes but you managed to get accreditation and qualifications from chitester college yes Aladin this administration and computing a two year international diploma so we've worked with them fulfilled their criteria and continued to fulfill their criteria and requirements so that we can continue to award and I personally myself when we go award them their diplomas and while we've got them there for up anything from three months to two years on this particular course it's not just about education which is the second most important thing for me it's about bringing these young people to Christ so it's about education it's about Jesus it's about making disciples and they live in the school fed watered educated come to Jesus baptized love Angie they love Jesus and follow Jesus so that's kind of how many students do you currently have we have something like maybe seventy to a hundred at any one time that's our big project there's another one and how many of you how many of you graduated over the year many many many I don't know how many hundreds yeah how did you select these vulnerable young people to come to your college well they're interviewed and if they are poor and if they're vulnerable and if they're genuine and they can't afford the fees we give them a scholarship over ninety percent of our students on a scholarship sponsored from somebody from the UK and they come from all sorts of backgrounds come from every anywhere in Nigeria all kinds of backgrounds Muslim students Christian students girls young girls young men from 16 to 35 mostly tell us tell us a story or two about the life of one or two of your former pupils who've graduated I won't mention their names okay one young woman was brought to the school and her fees were paid for by a man and she was really very unhappy and distressed and we found out that this man in return for him pain for her fees wanted to marry her or her sleep with him live with him so he paid the man back his money and told him to go and if he was to come back we would deal with him we brought her in she lived in the women's dormitory for two years in the end got at reduced a diploma at the same time there was another man I won't tell you his name both his parents are dead he's vulnerable he's on a scholarship too he's living in the men's dormitory he also got the chester diploma while they're there for two years federal - educated they're slowly been transformed they're changing from the inside out it's not just about food water education Thank You Mae it's about what Christ is doing in their lives they're beginning to be transformed and changed they meet each other they fall in love and they get married they've got two children and we decided to keep them and give them jobs we can't do that for everybody but these two people now have worked for us for many many years and they live in the flat in the school and he's tremendously gifted as a musician and pastor and evangelist he's in his early 30s she's an amazing woman woman and their children now have been sponsored from people from the UK that's one story of many who were either poor or vulnerable and but those that obviously we can't give just for everyone and that's not the aim anyway they leave us and they can start a business they leave us they can start business designing websites or they leave us and they get a job in fact the majority of students in Nigeria won't be able to go to university and they don't need to go to university in fact they can come to us get some scores of qualification and then start a business or get a job with that for those who don't go to university how do you see in these years ahead the work that you're doing in Nigeria growing well I see it I've talked about tonight about our one project we have another project yes and I see both projects growing our other project is that we're schooling nearly sixty children all the time and through the years we've schooled hundreds of them and again these are vulnerable children's are poor vulnerable how children assign poor and vulnerable or bitter or they're poor because they they struggle to eat they can't eat properly they might not have a father or a mother that's vulnerable so we pay for their school fees to go to school and then we've made a promise to them that when they finish the secondary school we'll have them come to our College so you've been helping children for many years longer though the longer than our college yes so I see our two projects getting stronger developing with new courses growing in size people come into Christ every time I go for example i baptize people because they've come to christ i interviewed two girls last last month so in the baptism class i said to one of them and first question baptism class preparation for baptism saturday when were you born again last tuesday sir when you asked us to receive christ and you led us in a prayer i became christian last tuesday that's why I want to be baptized so every time I go I'm baptizing young people so I see you all that strengthening and developing and growing with Nigerian causes and and there's the other side of our work which is schools work when I turned 50 I thought the Lord say to me I want you to be a score's evangelist at the age of 50 so how do you feel about that I said I've given up in England doing that but I'm doing it in Nigeria so you know just walk out on the field I've got a whole school in front of me I've got maybe a thousand young people from 11 to 16 I've got the teachers on the side I may be standing under a tree or just in the field I'm speaking about Jesus and giving them an opportunity to follow Jesus and then afterwards they take me into a classroom and they're sitting on the desk they're sitting on the window sills are sitting on the floor or they're standing I've got 70 100 jam-packed in a shabby African classroom and they're itching to hear more about this Jesus that loves them so I'm training others to do the same you know I've got a text this morning I'm going to this school and Reverend Andy will you pray for me so it's not just about me it's about training up leaders to do the same kind of thing to bring people to Jesus and decide as you look back are you are you surprised that you're doing what you're doing I'm very surprised sometimes there as I am but it's wonderful and as you know as God gives us strength and health and his spirit and his resources and people to pray with you and go with you you know we just continue training and go in and doing the Lord's work is a joy it's a joy to see people come to Jesus to see people get education to get jobs and I feel I feel at home there it's become home to me you know and God willing you'll continue to do this I will and of course you're doing you have a ministry in the UK and you travel extensively in the UK speaking and teaching and introducing people to Jesus yes maybe two or three weekends Sundays in the month I'm out speaking somewhere and their emphasis is evangelism training and renewal and praying for people praying for the sick praying for the well just to bring renewal to the church to encourage the church to strengthen the church to love the church and to help the church win people for Christ because I was a parish evangelist there there are hardly any churches have got curates but I was up parish evangelist and a lay minister for 10 years so you know my heart is the parishes Anglican churches and other denominations do to win people for Christ and disciple them so I've always had that past raw aspect so it's not just about I'm an evangelist you know when you came to Christ it was about de cycling you yeah you know when I when I bought Linden to Christ yeah not to add or did a survey if this big man then went back six months later so wait just explain that to it you would just you go knock on someone's door so when I was when I was a parish evangelist my job was to train the church in evangelism and reach out to our parish son lot took the door did a survey as I would sometimes do and then I made a note discreetly of the number of the door and to go back six months later you will come into church Easter went back to this house not took the door Linden opened the door asked myself in and said to him Linden I've come to invite what he said can I come in there can I come in yeah he's fixing his central heating system it's broken and you're an engineer I'm gonna we'll know I'm interested so we talked about his warm air the central heating system which is broken so from that I invited to a dinner meeting which you're speaking now he comes along with many others at the dinner and we pay for him of course but 120 140 people came you get up you speak you give an opportunity to people to know Christ coffee served I turned to him and say what did you think of that he said you people have got something I said did you pray the prayer he said no next week I'm in his house we spent a holy one there we leave he reads that journey into life book that you read yeah gets on the floor opens the door to Christ becomes a Christian born again starts coming to church his wife becomes a Christian his children become Christians then he went to a Theological College in Bristol and became a vicar so that's like and then.we discipled him you know between conversion and going to Theological College discipled him for months so we'd go to his house fortnightly disciple in him so you know discipleship discipleship and follow-up has been a key thing you know in my over 40 years of ministry so whether it's you whether it's him you know it's in my heart to follow up whenever possible what is the gospel Andy how would you explain it articulate it if somebody would want to become a Christian how does that actually happen what's very simple we've got a problem our problem is sin and our sin has cut us off from God and this God sent his son to die and rise again to die to remove the problem of our sin which has cut us off from God and if we would believe and receive to all them that believed and received so you need to embrace Christ you need to receive Christ and make him your Lord come under his lordship you need to receive him and believe in him but he is the Christ he is the son of God who died on a cross out of love to remove the problem the sin to bring you to God to all those that received him that's what we need to do and believed in him he gave them the right to become children of God born of God so if we open that door and allow him in and receive him we're born again born of God we must be born of the Spirit it's very simple but it means it involves humility he is Lord so we must come under his lordship so about us doing that is about respect let's respect him who is he is the king is the Prince we respect the president or prime minister or we respect very much our queen she's wonderful yes how much more should we respect the king the King how much more should we respect the Prince so I don't care who a person is I don't care how much money they had what color they are whoever they are we must all bow all presidents all people's bow before this king miss Prince and then we'll have this life to the full that he's dying to give and he I've known you for 41 years you're a very gracious humble man whose loves Jesus and is passionate and compassionate for the lost and it's wonderful to see all that your have done all that you're doing in the UK all that you've done and all that you're doing in it badan and our prayer is that you will continue to be blessed as you're a blessing to many others and the economy these thank you very much [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: Facing the Canon

Views: 6,037

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: facing the canon, j.john, interview, jjohn, j john, philo trust, philo, trust, christianity, Jesus, Lord, God, Holy Spirit, Andy Economides, Soteria Trust

Id: s938MEorK2k

Length: 28min 56sec (1736 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 04 2017