LEADERSHIP & Team
Pastors Gideon & Sarah Stanley
Gideon and his wife Sarah serve the Lord together in Gideon’s Army and also as senior pastor of Grace Apostolic Church in Richmond, Texas.
OUR STORY
Ministry to youth began in 1991 when Gideon traveled across the mid-west for a whole year with the Youth Encounter band called Captive Free, ministering in over 200 churches. Sarah has many years experience in pastoral teaching and preaching, having received her Master of Divinity degree from Luther Seminary in 1998.
When Sarah and Gideon married in 1996, they felt a calling to be “bridge builders.” That bridge building primarily takes place through prayer – drawing nations, generations, the saved and the lost together into God’s purpose.
In 2001 during a season of prayer, God birthed a burden to pray for and evangelize young people. God has used Gideon’s Army Ministries to bring salvation, healing and deliverance to hundreds of youth through over 50 youth events over the span of a decade. Gideon learned through his father’s ministry that prayer indeed has the power to affect a city! His father, Rev. Simon Stanley, and a handful of people initiated an All Night Prayer in the 1970s in Madras, India. Today churches are thriving and born-again Christians grew from 3% to now 20% of the city’s population.
After several years of ministering as a couple in voluntary roles, Gideon and Sarah were ordained in November 2004 under Turning Point Ministries, Intl. Together, they have persevered in city-wide prayer, Gospel community outreaches and training youth and young adults for over twenty years in the Houston region and beyond.
A Legacy - 40 Years of ministry Rev. J. Simon and Grace Stanley
A trainee of Wolsey Hall Oxford, U.K and a former teacher of the Ministry of Education in Ethiopia, Rev. Simon Stanley received the great calling of the Lord in 1966. Pastor Simon and his wife Grace witnessed and took part in one of the greatest revival moments in Ethiopia. They groaned and interceded with the people of Africa! The Lord did pour out his Spirit in a unexpected way. However, in obedience to the divine calling of the Lord, Pastor Grace and Simon left their possessions, professions and dedicated their lives for the revival in India. They were indeed called to birth prayer movements in various cities of India, particularly South India.
In 1972, the spirit of supplication and prayer on a great mass scale swept and took root first in Chennai, India and later stormed every town and village of that nation’s southern state, Tamil Nadu. The Lord placed Rev.Simon Stanley and his family in the midst of these powerful moves of the Holy Spirit. God gave him the privilege to organize and conduct prayers for thousands along with other men of God. Also, Rev. Simon Stanley headed as the president of the All India All Night Prayer Fellowship, one of the charismatic inter-denominational groups in South India.
He has taught eschatology in various institutes in India and presented studies in the second coming of Jesus in other parts of the world. Presently, Rev Simon, along with their son Gideon Stanley, pastor the Grace Apostolic Church.
Pastor Grace Stanley, served in the Apostolic Christian Assembly, one of the mainstream charismatic churches in South India for a period of 33 years.
“I have known Bible teacher and Pastor J Simon Stanley since 1975 when he used to conduct ‘All Night Prayers’ for about 3000 people in Chennai with great unction. He is known as a teacher of the second coming of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ.”
Pastor D Mohan, Founder and Pastor, New Life Assemblies of God Church,India
A Tribute to Faith Hepsibah Stanley
The life and testimony of Sister Faith Hepsibah is one of the most soul – stirring. Faith Hepsibah was born on June 7, 1973 in Chennai, India to Rev. J. Simon and Grace Stanley.
From an early age, she led a remarkable walk of faith. At the age of eleven, she was stricken with polio and lost use of her right hand. Her prayer of 30 days began to work, and when her father asked her to lift her hand in faith, she did it! The irreversible polio was reversed and no trace of weakness remained. Faith attended the C.S.I. Bain school and pursued higher studies at the Women’s Christian College in Chennai where she was in charge of prayer and impacted many staff and students. With the support of Pastor D. Mohan of New Life Assemblies of God, Faith obtained a Master of Divinity degree from Southern Asia Bible College in Bangalore, India. Following graduation she served at New Life Assemblies of God church as a Bible teacher and campus ministry coordinator.
Faith returned to New Life Assemblies of God and launched a new ministry called Project Rescue, rescuing women and children from the industry of sex trafficking and prostitution. She established a ministry center in the red light district of Chennai, providing tutoring and Bible teaching to the children, as well as life skill training and counseling to the women. Soon she also opened a “Home of Hope” for the many young daughters of women in prostitution to remove them from the dangers of falling into the same cycle, provide them counseling, healing, and schooling. Faith became ‘amma’ or ‘mother’ to dozens of these girls in the home and loved them as her own. Through this ministry the Lord transformed these girls into prayer warriors and outstanding Christians. Today many of these young women stand as testimonies, established in families and careers of their own.
In 2003, Faith made her first visit to the USA when invited to attend the Pray for America conference on the Pentagon grounds in Washington, D.C. and participated as a prayer leader. This was the first sign of her later assignment to intercede for the nation.
In 2007, Faith had to leave her beloved ministry due to diagnosis of a rare lung cancer for which she underwent surgery and treatment. Although not formally employed by the church at this stage, Faith continued to provide counsel and support to the Project Rescue ministry and was a featured speaker at Bible colleges and other organizations regarding the cause of raising up more leaders to minister to these women and children. In 2010, Faith traveled to Houston, Texas to pursue opportunities to minister in the USA. By God’s grace she obtained a religious visa and was instrumental in establishing the Grace Apostolic Church in Stafford, Texas where she served as Fasting Prayer coordinator and Youth and Family director. As fasting prayer coordinator Faith was known by other leaders in the Houston city-wide prayer movement as one with great burden for revival and return to holiness in the USA. Succumbing to lung cancer, Faith went to be with the Lord on July 30, 2013.