Paraguay is one of the 25 countries Liberation Ministry has worked in, where over 500 children have passed through an orphanage
Ministry is blooming around the world
Liberation Ministries has been helping people find and live out their destinies since 1999. Direction caught up with founders Brian and Vanessa Richardson to find out how God has been moving through the organisation
“I was looking at a bouquet of flowers the other day and I realised it summed up our ministry,” says Brian Richardson.
“There were so many different flowers, ferns and greenery. The variety made the beauty of the bouquet, and that’s what it’s like with our ministry – no single focus, but many different things to offer.”
Brian and his wife Vanessa are describing 24 years of running Liberation Ministries.
From worship leading, speaking and mentoring to writing books, church planting, supporting and raising funds for parachurch ministries, they have joyfully ministered in 25 countries. “Our heart is to challenge people and churches to reach for their destinies and fulfil the calling of God on their lives,” they say.
Vanessa and Brian meet worshippers at a church in Qatar, another country where their work is reaching people
One major focus is worship, Vanessa explains. Over the years she has led worship, recorded albums, mentored worship leaders and teams and written a book, The Warrior Bride, which is about prophetic warfare praise and intimate worship.
Vanessa speaking at a church in Qatar
“My passion is to see people liberated and healed through the power of praise,” she says.
In their overseas ministry, Vanessa has often stepped up and lead worship in French and Spanish. “I can’t expect everyone to worship in English!” Through lockdown, international travel bans took the couple onto Zoom, but their ministry still flourished.
“We have made many new friends from all over the UK and France through teaching and singing Scripture online,” says Vanessa.
“We sang our way through Song of Songs and the Revelation hymns.”
The couple also minister closer to home. In their Buckinghamshire village, Pitstone, Brian and Vanessa are presently raising up a ‘House of Worship’ with local Christians from the surrounding area. They are thrilled by the liberty, sincerity and the strong presence of God in the meetings. “It’s been very powerful, and people are so hungry for God,” says Vanessa.
“One music practice night commenced at 7pm and the presence of God was so overwhelming that practice went out of the window and we were still lost in Jesus at 11pm!
“The two ladies in the meeting that night received significant healing in their backs as they worshipped.”
Prayer and discipleship are two other key areas.
Brian and Vanessa run a monthly on- line Anglo-French bilingual prayer meetings to pray for major issues in France, plus another worship and intercession meeting, where folks from Scotland to Cornwall pray together over issues of national importance.
The couple have also run courses to help Christians find their motivational gifting, the HTB Marriage Course and a discipleship course, Keys to Freedom.
“We have just finished a nine-week course online with 50 people, some from as far away as Austria, that’s been amazingly fruitful. We’ve had some wonderful testimonies of new-found freedom,” says Brian.
“One lady said she’d seen more change in her life during the course than in her 40 years as a Christian.
“Another had grown up in an environment of explosive anger and volatility. She told us she’d been on many healing and freedom courses, but nothing had ever shifted. On this course, though, she was absolutely transformed by the Word of God.”
The couple also support a dozen different parachurch charities, in four of which Brian has been a trustee. “Through the amazing support of Liberation Ministries partners, we have been able to raise nearly £1m to help support an orphanage in Paraguay,” he says. “Over the last 23 years 500-600 children have passed through the orphanage and out into the world, nearly all saved and baptised in the Holy Spirit.
“We also support a charity that helps Christian young men and women through university in Mozambique and we support mission work in Australia, Paraguay, China and Uganda too.”
The couple have had some exciting adventures over the years, particularly in Chile, Paraguay and the Arab Emirates.
“In Dubai, over a ten-year period, we witnessed a church grow from 100 to well over 1,000 people.
Worshipping in Dubai
“In one service there we witnessed many remarkable healings just while people worshipped. In a ten-minute period, we watched a dozen people healed of serious bronchial problems as they just stood in the atmosphere of worship,” says Vanessa.
The past 24 years, Brian concludes, have been an incredible time of learning to trust and see God’s miracle provision.
“In 1999 we stepped out in faith with no money, bookings, keyboard or computer, and have seen God miraculously meet our needs and use us in so many ways.”
Liberation Ministries is a member of the Elim Network.
This article first appeared in the June 2023 edition of Direction Magazine. For further details, please click here.
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