Founder Paul Button tells his story and how Wales Revival  Alliance was birthed...

Beginnings
I was born in 1960 to non-Christian parents, being raised in Pontyclun, South Wales. My grandfather was a Christian and it was he who encouraged me to attend the local Sunday school. When I was thirteen, my grandfather suddenly died whilst working in the mines, and, without his encouragement I soon gave up going to Sunday school. After twenty years of living without the Lord and encompassing several substantial tragedies, in November 1993 I finally cried out to God; "Lord! if you're real, save me".

"Do the work of an Evangelist"
What followed was a "Damascus Road" conversion experience that would stay with me forever and I finally gave my life over to Jesus in May 1996. Six months later God profoundly gave me 2-Timothy 4:5 with a clear instruction to "do the work of an evangelist". For the next twenty-three years I tried to do things in my own strength. Yes, I saw some fruit in my ministry but, without total surrender, the harvest will always be limited, as it was in my case.

The Pomegranate Vision
In July 2019, I was given a profound vision of a calendar with three "date boxes" in the bottom right-hand corner. Under the first box appeared a pomegranate and it was trying to burst through the box. It couldn't get through, apart from a few yellowish seeds. Under the second box appeared another pomegranate, this time a few more seeds burst through the box, a few bright purple ones, but the others were brown and yellow. Then under the third box appeared another pomegranate. I could see right into the centre of this pomegranate, and it was full of red/purple lush seeds. All the seeds were ripe and there were no discoloured seeds. There was hardly any yellow skin, just full of good seeds. Then the pomegranate exploded, and all the seeds came shooting through the third box. The seeds were everywhere, and they were all good seeds.

The Interpretation
Later that day I got the interpretation: At the time of the vision, I was three years into my third decade as a Christian. The first box represented the first decade, the second box the second decade and the third box was representative of my third decade as a Christian. In my first decade I won a few souls for Jesus but not too many, in the second decade I won a few more souls but not great fruit. In my third decade the Lord showed me that I was going to reap a mighty harvest of souls, and the fruit of their salvations would be good. They would go on to make disciples and we would see a massive growth in the Kingdom.

Mission24
Just over a year later (August 2020) I heard an evangelist by the name of Jonathan Conrathe preaching at an open-air tent crusade in Cardiff. Jonathan was the founder and director of a ministry called Mission24 and I knew that I had to connect with him. I introduced myself and he told me about the work of Mission24 and about the "school of mission and ministry" that was starting in three weeks. Following a suitable reference from my pastor, I was accepted into the school. In July 2021 I graduated and was invited by Jonathan to be a "core-team" evangelist with Mission24, an offer that I humbly accepted. Since then, I have won more souls for Jesus than in all the previous year's put together. This is because I am finally allowing the Lord to do things through me HIS way, no longer my way.

Visit to Columbia and the call to Wales Revival Alliance
In June 2022 my wife and I were invited to attend a Christian conference at Avivamiento world revival centre in Bogata, Columbia. On the Saturday evening of the conference (June 25th, 2022), I clearly heard the Lord say, "Will you allow me to use you to bring revival to Wales?" In awe and in floods of tears I said "Yes, Lord, use me please". After returning to the UK, three days later at around 4am on the Tuesday morning (June 28th, 2022), the vision for Wales Revival Alliance was given to me. In the months following, Wales Revival Alliance was formed.

Next steps
Behind the scenes we are busy registering WRA as a charity, which usually takes several months, and formalising our financial arrangements in preparation for this. We have a gallant band of trustees to launch WRA as a "Charitable Incorporated Organisation" in preparation for what we believe will be an exciting and powerful future.

WRA is passionate about seeing the lost in our nation saved, healed, and delivered and I'd like to repeat our invitation for churches to reach out to us to help them with training in evangelism and in participating in evangelistic events. We are working with Mission24 on the first Wales school of Ministry and Mission hosted at Liberty Church, Swansea starting in September 2023.  God desires unity in His church and we are particularly keen to help churches work together in local areas for the Kingdom.