June 2026
A military tank picked her up in the snow and escorted her to a concert on the front lines.
Marina, an evangelist in Jeanie’s Vision, is an accomplished violinist who offers concerts followed by evangelistic messages. She stayed in Ukraine during the war, even though she and others regularly experience bombings. The coffee house where she frequents to study the Bible and pray was bombed, and her apartment is often without electricity due to the conditions.
She decided to minister to soldiers on the front lines through her music. Her car got stuck in snow while traveling, and the military commander radioed for help to come. A tank arrived to pick her up, and the driver wrapped her violin in a jacket and took her to the
front lines. Marina played her violin to the soldiers and shared the love and hope of God. Today she is training other evangelists and doing evangelistic musical events all over Europe. Through your prayers and partnership, women like Marina are finding encouragement, mentoring, and community to continue sharing Christ in difficult places.
At a time when many evangelists feel isolated and unsupported, Jeanie’s Vision creates spaces of encouragement, mentoring, and long-term spiritual friendship. She is just one of numerous female evangelists in our first Global Women Evangelists group, an arm of our new Jeanie’s Vision initiative. Anne Grizzle, director of Jeanie’s Vision, shares, “These are remarkable women doing remarkable work. Each comes highly recommended as an evangelist in their region.”
Another member of the group, Julianne, goes into churches across Australia with her Ripple Effect program to train Christians how to speak to others about Jesus. The churches receiving her ministry have overall experienced an eighteen percent growth rate, with almost ten percent of the growth being new believers. She simply trains Christians to share their story of how Jesus changed their lives.
Alejandra, another of our Global Women Evangelists, comes from Buenos Aries, Argentina. She works with young people and refugees in the city’s center and also has a dream of a hiking ministry where she can befriend hikers and share the Lord along the trails.
Anne Grizzle says, “With all of their passion and ability, they are so appreciative of being with other women of high capacity and encouraging each other.” In addition to meeting for a yearly retreat, they conduct quarterly online meetings to stay connected.
Discerning Their Truest Calling
For forty years, Leighton Ford Ministries (LFM) has walked alongside of leaders and ministries through some of their most pivotal seasons of transition and growth. Along the way, we’ve watched God move as leaders traded burnout for joy and confusion for clarity. At our heart, LFM exists to walk with leaders and ministries through the ups and downs of ministry, helping them hear God’s voice, discern their truest calling, and live it out with courage. That’s why we are incredibly excited about Jeanie’s Vision. Named after my mother, who had a tender heart towards evangelists, our vision is to raise up and mentor a new generation of evangelists in the United States and around the world. Jeanie’s Vision exists to ensure they thrive for the long haul through intentional, long-term Journey Groups.
Just a few decades ago, evangelists held a more prominent place in the North American Church. And those evangelists, like my father and my uncle Billy Graham, helped remind the church to focus on doing the work of winning souls to Christ. Today, whether they are itinerant evangelists, pastors trying to “do the work of an evangelist” (2 Timothy 4:5 NIV), or people like my mother, sharing the Good News of Jesus from their own home or backyard, we want to provide an arm around the shoulder for these men and women.
Nick Hurst, a twenty-something evangelist and LFM’s Director of Emerging Evangelists, networks with other young evangelists for the purpose of putting together LFM Journey Groups. Nick says, “We want to help them be around people who understand their bent and wiring.” Through Jeanie’s Vision, we connect them with “people who know what God has put in your heart, understand the gift and calling of the evangelist, and can fan wind into their flame. We want to help keep evangelists in the “game” of sharing the Gospel intentionally and leading others to Christ.
Hurst believes since the passing of Billy Graham, there’s been no central figure for evangelists to rally around, and many don’t see a clear pathway to do this work vocationally. Through Jeanie’s Vision, we will connect younger evangelists who show tremendous potential to share the Gospel with seasoned evangelists, who can provide mentorship and encouragement.
In August, we will host our first two Jeanie’s Vision training events, one in North America and one in the country of Georgia, where we’ll invest in 10-12 leaders from Eurasia. Anne Grizzle and Alexey and Tanya Gorbachev are collaborating and praying in preparation for the Georgian event. Will you pray for God to work through those initial gatherings to equip mentors to impact other ministry leaders?
LFM has deep ties to the Lausanne Movement, which believes evangelization requires the whole church to take the whole Gospel to the whole world. One way they do that is through their Younger Leader Gatherings, where they connect emerging leaders ages 25-35 from around the world. My father, Leighton Ford, was recently asked to speak to some of these mentors and participants.
More than a dozen of our LFM-trained mentors have been invited to the next Young Leaders Gathering to serve as mentors in São Paulo State, Brazil, March of 2027. The ripple effect of one person touching another person touching another continues!
Making an Impact
One example of the spiritual ripple effect is the Rolling Stones LFM Journey Group, which recently met for their yearly retreat. These leaders share the Gospel, strengthen the church, and make a positive impact in their communities around the globe.
One example is Meredith, who serves as Executive Director of All Nations, a North American hub of a larger mission agency. She leads a team in Kansas City that recruits, trains, sends, supports, and coaches missionaries who are starting disciple-making movements all over the world. Meredith shares, “We have grown our group of missionaries from thirty-nine households four years ago to seventy-two households today, and we are reaching more than seventy unreached people groups.
“We’re really excited at what Jesus is doing and how He is being discovered and worshiped in people groups where they’ve never heard the Gospel.”
Meredith is an original member of her group. She remembers, “Being part of the Rolling Stones has been such a gift to me. We’ve been doing this for 18 years, and it has been huge to have the support of other sisters in ministry who are doing powerful and amazing things. None of them overlap my networks of ministry and relationships, so it’s a completely safe place to debrief when things are hard and when I’m facing challenges. I am so grateful, so thankful for the investment of LFM in the Rolling Stones. Thank you so much.”
Would you help provide safe places, safe times, and safe people for ministry leaders?
That spirit of friendship – walking with leaders as trusted guides and companions – has always been at the heart of LFM. Through mentoring, coaching, and spiritual discernment, we invite leaders and ministries into sacred spaces to hear God’s voice, rediscover their direction, and move forward with renewed joy and purpose.
Thank you for touching and strengthening the lives of these and other leaders around the world.
Grateful for you,
Kevin Ford
Will you consider investing in the lives of ministry leaders?
- Praying daily for this ministry and the lives it reaches.
- Sharing $100/month to help support our ongoing Journey Groups around the world.
- Investing $2,000 to train and equip a leader for one of these soul care groups.
- Giving $5,000 to cover the first year of a new group.
- Providing $15,000 for the three-year launch of a new group
- Offering $30,000 to cover fund a Global Mentor Training event for evangelists, through Jeanie’s Vision.
Scan the QR code for ways to invest in leaders around the world.
