THE HISTORY OF HOW IMS BEGAN...

IMS was founded by Mike Jones over 30 years ago.

Mike Jones was converted at the age of 17 being involved in evangelism immediately from his conversion, taking part in open air meetings within days, preaching right from the beginning, sharing his testimony and giving short words before the evangelist preached. In a very short time he was preaching the gospel, both in halls and in the open air.

Mike's grounding was in evangelism, youth work, street work and being part of Mission teams. This continued until his marriage to Janet at the age of 25 when they both considered the full time ministry, knowing there was a call on their life.  

However, it did not happen at that time, three children were born and Mike continued with a successful career, which started in electronics and developed into the construction area of civil engineering. Eventually becoming a Contracts Manager with the responsibility of several large constructions sites dotted around the country, building multi storey office blocks.

Along with his wife, he continued with youth work being responsible for many successful youth groups as well as having an evangelistic team, preaching evenings and weekends. It soon became obvious that Mike could not continue his demanding construction work and be so involved in ministry. He visited America with his friend Dr. Tony Stone in a break between contracts, to attend a conference, which was coast to coast on the USA television. While he was there the preacher called him forward and prophesied over him. He told him 3 distinct things about his life. The first was that his car had broken down but was now mended. The second was about a situation between his neighbours & his children which was resolved and the third, that he had just given up a successful youth work. The preacher then went onto say that Mike would preach to many thousands of people of different coloured skin and culture in different parts of the world.

This was at a point when Mike was spending time seeking God as to whether he should step out into a faith ministry. On the morning of the conference  he was reading the Scriptures and God spoke to him through Psalm 37 v 25 (I have never seen the righteous forsaken or the seed begging for bread )  Amazingly, just before got up to preach the soloist sang exactly the same verses and  Mike knew he was called.  

In the evening the prophetic word explained to him what he was going to do and Mike came back home to the leadership of his Church, resigned from his construction work and started a life of faith, feeling very strongly that he should not ask anybody for anything but just tell God, and for 29 years right up to 2007 this is the way Mike and his family have lived.

In his spare time Mike was already running an evangelistic team, taking crusades locally in the Midlands , was very active in schools, taking assemblies and teaching lessons. He was well known in the local schools running the local Youth for Christ, and a large youth work. When it came to Christmas Mike had an amazing invitation from Zambia , South Africa , to preach the gospel in the open air and to teach pastors. He was not sure how this came about, as he did not have connections with Zambia . A few days later exactly the same invitation came from the neighbouring country, Zimbabwe . Sharing with those who had authority over him he came to the conclusion that this was God?s open door, so a few months later, leaving Janet with the three children, aged 5 ? 9 he set off on his journey.

His African adventure became the foundation of what turned out to be the IMS Ministry, under conditions very different to those we have today, Mike left Heathrow Airport , London , without being able to contact anyone for seven weeks until his return. Incredibly, God opened doors, Mike spoke at large open-air conferences, preaching to thousands of people, seeing for the first time God do miraculous healings, such healings that he had never witnessed before. It was an incredible challenge to Mike, as he went through Zambia and continued through Zimbabwe  experiencing the same things.

A lot of questions came into his mind. Why does it happen here and not back in England ? Why am I called to preach to these thousands of people when I have never preached to more than 300 people before? The trip was one of great blessing and the start of what became the IMS ministry. As Mike?s family grew up, he continued preaching crusades in England , not just in the Midlands but also up & down the country, then into America where the ministry had strongly developed and back into the African continent many times.

One of the challenges Mike found when he went to the African continent was the great humanitarian need for food and clothing etc. He was challenged, when on a  trip to Ghana, having spent 5 weeks travelling with two young men, to realise they had nothing to eat at all. One of the marks of Mike?s ministry was that he did not spend time in the capital cities but was always out in the wilderness, in the townships often preaching in places often where most white men were not prepared to go.

This was where God had called him and this was where the blessing was and great fruit for the ministry. Mike saw thousands of people being saved, people being healed, people walking for days to come to a conference to listen to the teaching. In many ways it surprised Mike, wondering why he had been called to do this, as in  many places in the UK he was just somebody with a Brethren background, not always allowed to preach in Pentecostal places. It was through an experience in Africa, that God opened doors in the UK . Mike was ordained as a minister 26 years ago, he was baptised in the Spirit and worked very much with the Pentecostals, he became a Pentecostal minister and evangelist, with missions always playing a vital part.

Young people's work was very much a focus of Mike & Janet?s ministry; they were involved with youth, nationally and internationally. Mike ran and helped pioneer Youth Ministries in Canada and America . His evangelistic calling took him many times to the African continent and then to Eastern Europe to countries like Romania . Mike was one of the people who after the revolution went, with teams, out on the streets presenting the Gospel and saw thousands of people coming to know Jesus. The call of evangelist was very evident upon Mike?s life.

Mike faced many challenges in Africa . Seeing people without food, brought to mind the thought that you cannot say you love Jesus and see people in need and do nothing about it. When presented with some of these problems he sought God and decided he would do something about it. His first step was to attempt to provide a coconut-crushing machine in Ghana . He shared his vision at an assembly in  one of his local schools and the pupils were so inspired they raised all the money needed to buy the machine. Amazingly enough, 30 years later the machine is still working on the beach at Esiama , Ghana . IT produces oil from fresh coconuts, giving work to individuals, supporting ministers and orphans, helping the work of the Kingdom...  

As people supported this work and got involved, there was a need to have a proper structure base to deal with the finance. This is when IMS was born. IMS officially became a Charity only a few years ago, but IMS was a working foundation operating out of England for some 27 years, when the first accounts were opened up and the money was used for the work of the Gospel. Mike & Janet have never lived off IMS; all gifts were directed immediately to the projects they supported. As the crusades grew in Africa and in other places, where finances were limited, then IMS was responsible for not only leading the crusade and providing the teams and preaching but also providing the finance for PA, platforms and feeding the teams etc. It became a big undertaking but as the ministry grew then the giving grew. IMS has never been in a position where a crusade has taken place and the finance has not been available to fulfill it, whether we are talking about a small crusade of 5,000 people, or a large event of 80,000, the money has always been there.  

As Mike's experience grew, he was invited to various nations to come and preach at crusades and to lead & take conferences. Mike always invited people to join him to help with conferences to bring training, teaching and exposition of the Scriptures. People have travelled for days to be part of a crusade to receive the teachings. At times, it has been necessary to provide food for up to 5000 delegates and IMS have always managed to meet the costs.  

As the work grew, further challenges were faced and met. IMS saw the need to feed people, the need to provide homes for orphans, the need to help with clinics, the need to build schools, to plant and build churches and the need to provide literature. IMS set about writing its own literature including a Leadership Training Manual and an Evangelism Training Manual. They then discovered those people who were gifted who were prepared to release their writings and teachings into the hands of IMS to be produced and put into the hands of the needy. All this became the mark of IMS within Africa, Eastern Europe, South America, The United States. While in Canada the  training of young people becoming the main area of mission.

10 years ago, Mike realised that God was speaking to him about relocating into Canada  so he started to establish a base there. He met businessmen who were very much involved in supporting the work through building schools and churches and supporting church planting projects etc. IMS would plant the church, help support it, see a pastor in place, buy the land and build the churches, another part of the IMS philosophy which has grown out of the past 10 years.

IMS has always operated through people joining Mike on various crusades, sometimes once or twice a year, sometimes teams from the same church year after year coming in to support. Generally, some 40 people operate with IMS on this kind of a basis, linking with the nationals which has always been the philosophy of IMS. A team would consist of invited people from the UK , Canada and the States. IMS has always had a very effective team and has seen the Glory of God as people have become saved, healed and restored and established churches have been built up.  

The situation went up a gear 10 years ago when IMS started to build more churches and take on some big building projects such as schools. They also faced the demands of preaching at larger crusades every night along with 4 sessions in a conference as well as preaching in many different churches over the weekend. There became an obvious need for another permanent preacher to help with the responsibilities of the crusades. And so in 2000 IMS developed again as Mike Harris joined IMS as a permanent member of staff and took the lead in Europe . Mike Harris had been on several missions, the two Mikes having met when Mike H was in the Evangelism School , and Mike J was a lecturer. God had spoken to Mike Jones about Mike Harris joining the team and he was certain about his decision. With Mike as part of the team it continues to grow, even in 2007, we see other members joining and the work is beginning to expand to new levels.  

As we look at the present time,   IMS continues with its crusades, conferences, building churches and setting up small businesses such as the piggery project. The piggery project was initiated 5 years ago and involves setting up a small piggery unit that is then managed locally by a pastor and his family. This has been a very successful venture and if run correctly can support a pastor for the rest of his life. IMS has also put the units together to create a pig farm which can then produce larger revenue to help to finance God's work.