Shores of Grace started as Invade ministries in 2008 with Nic and Rachael Billman. They had one goal, to invade the streets with the love of God. In the fall of 2008, Nic attended the Global School of Supernatural Ministry. During the school, he joined Randy Clark on a mission trip to Brazil. On this trip, the Lord showed him a vision of his daughter, Leila, on the face of each of the women who were prostituting themselves on the streets and asked him a simple question, “who will rescue my daughters?” Nic was broken by what the Lord had showed shown him.
One night, when Nic was ministering at a church, he challenged the church with a word from the Lord. “If you do not care for the prostitutes in this city, I cannot bless this church.” Half of the congregation came forward.
Nic on his second trip to Brazil in 2009.
Throughout this trip, Nic continued to be broken as he saw the many women in prostitution, lost children, lonely widows and people suffering from conditions like blindness and deafness. He could hear the Father singing, “There is nothing but my love.” He saw the oceans of the Father’s love and the Shores of His grace, yet many people were trapped on earth and could not find the oceans of His love. This is how the name “Shores of Grace” was created. After a night of surgery with the Lord, the Lord woke Nic up saying, “I have given you a heart for this nation and a clarity of vision.”
It was done. He was called to Brazil. As he called Rachael to give her the news, she had already known. The Lord had already asked her if she would say yes. So she did. Luke, Nic’s brother, had also left Nic a voice mail saying the Lord had shown him the poor of Brazil and given him a heart for them.
The Move
In 2012 Shores of Grace felt God was calling them to move to Recife, where the first Shores’ mission base was started. Recife, one of the original ports of the slave trade still continues to be a center for sex slavery in Brazil. The Shores team continued to reach the women on the red light district and reach the people in the favelas. But the biggest need of all became evident as the women in the red- light district began to trust us more deeply; expressing a desire to leave prostitution, and asking for a safe place to go instead. Thus, in 2013, Bethany was birthed as our team actively pursued training to create a safe house for children. Bethany had been carried in the hearts of Nic and Rachael even before their feet had touched Brazilian soil. It would be a place where girls could come freely, just as Mary Magdalene had at Bethany, to wash the feet of Jesus with their tears.
Today, Bethany is home to up to 20 girls and boys who has have nowhere else to call home, a beacon to our community, and is becoming a model for rescue homes.
Our hearts continued to grow as helping 20 children would not change the fact that every day those that the Lord calls sons and daughters are “choosing” to live in a world where their value is simply a monetary transaction. So, today, we continue to make weekly visits in the favelas and the streets. We continue to declare over those we serve that they are not slaves but their blood was bought with the blood of our Savior. And He sees them there, in their darkest moments. We continue to challenge the church to find the Father’s sons and daughters where they are. We continue to equip the church to do the work of Christ, live a supernatural lifestyle, minister to others and impact their communities. Our mission still resounds what it was in the beginning, to invade the streets with His love and to love the unloved.