Hey Fam! I hope you’re doing amazing!
Merry belated Christmas, Happy early New Year and… Hallelujah it is warm again!
In the nearly 5 years that I’ve been out preaching the gospel in public, I don’t remember many times that it was as cold as it was this past weekend. Despite that, we had a blast!
On Friday, we started at Bayfront Park, but due to slim crowds, we then transitioned to St. Armands Circle around 8:30. Despite the cold, “Santa’s Village” was a popular spot that night, so praise God, maybe close to 50 people ended up hearing us. They even had a giant Christmas tree which attracted many people, so of course we set up right next to it. That’s Amber, Sofiya and Mike on your left. God bless Thom for coming out to Bayfront Park as well!
What I was especially grateful for on Friday was that one of my clients came to the outreach, and she got to hear the full gospel. She had said she was a believer, but she also expressed some “new age-ish” kind of beliefs, so I was a little concerned. By the end of the night, (and since) she has been more firm in her faith in the gospel, which has been awesome.
On Saturday, when we got to Riverwalk, it was so cold that there was literally only one person in the entire park! We ended up walking around for 15 minutes or so and God began to download to us new ideas for how to make things even more effective there in 2023. Afterwards He began to speak to us about the other locations as well, so this year there will be some significant investments and upgrades, which we’re very excited about!
Once we got set up, people started coming and we had some great Divine appointments. A 15-year-old young man named Jackson came up on rollerblades and listened to me preach for over 15 minutes. We came to find out that he hadn’t been to church in two years and had just started praying again last week. He said that meeting us was a huge confirmation of God’s activity in his life. We got to pray for him, counsel him, exchange info and give him some resources. He’s very excited to come back again.
We also met this really sweet couple from Idaho who said that right before they saw us, they were telling each other that “it’d be nice to go to a Christmas Eve service.” They stayed for the entire outreach and then talked with us a lot. They were so thankful that we “gave them their Christmas Eve service” that they gave us $50!
You can see them and the young man in the video below. All in all about 20+ people heard the gospel at the park that night, praise God! Big shout out to Carlos and Elizabeth for coming out on Saturday too!
On Sunday, there were more people at the beach than expected. I’d say closer to 100 people heard, and many people thanked us for being there. We even got to pray with people from 3 different states at the end of the night, and our former atheist drummer friend Aaron, whose mom got healed recently after he asked me to pray for her, gave me another prayer request as he was leaving the beach during my message. I didn’t get a chance to catch up with him, but him asking me to pray for something else shows me that he has faith that it will do something. So cool to see the change in him! Be sure to read last week’s update to get the full story.
My favorite part of Sunday though was seeing Kevin Martin and his family come out. Kevin met us over the summer and gave his life to Jesus at the beach. He is an ex-marine, combat veteran who has been struggling with PTSD, alcoholism and other things for years. Back in August, he was with his family at Bayfront Park on a Friday, and he heard us from inside their car. He said God began to speak to him and his wife that night and both of them were moved to tears. He never spoke to us at all that night, but amazingly, he just so happened to be at Siesta for the drum circle that same Sunday! When he saw us, he asked if we were the same ones from Bayfront and when I said yes, he told me the whole story. He was led to Christ right there. Since then, I’ve talked to him a number of times and he has been growing in his faith a lot and is getting more healed and delivered every day. For him to bring his wife and five kids to the beach to celebrate Christmas with us when it was 45 degrees outside just felt really special!
This is him and his family back in August. Big shout out to our sister Laney who was SO instrumental in helping Kevin get free from the religious chains of his catholic background!
Here’s us praying on Sunday with a few other believers.
God is so good! Big shout out to Alessandra for coming out on Sunday too!
This weekend should be really nice, so I really hope everyone can come and help us minister to the crowds.
This weekend the schedule will be:
Friday at Bayfront Park (145) at 6
Saturday at Riverwalk (72) at 4- NEW YEAR’S EVE!
Sunday at Siesta Beach (249) at 3- 2023!
Also, tonight we will have our weekly prayer meeting to cover this weekend’s outreaches. If you can join, it’d be awesome! Unified faith can move mountains! Just click the link below.
Topic: Prayer Meeting For Outreaches
Time: Dec 29, 2022 09:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/76607510444?pwd=jZdXefaZ7ppcjbZlNVOrcpHXJaVkby.1
Also, I hope to see you at John and Michelle Skorski’s house on New Year’s Eve! It will be a fun time of worship, food, fun and fellowship and we will be taking communion together to begin 2023. We will also be burning dozens of Christmas trees in a huge bonfire, which is always a sight to behold! It starts around 9 and they live in Myakka City, so let us know if you can go and we will give you the address.
Also- I have been reviewing some prophetic words that were spoken over me, the ministry, and all of the team at the beginning of the year and WOW! Things have literally been fulfilled word for word for word, particularly things related to the drum circle. It has been SO encouraging to go through it! I will be compiling everything into a few minute presentation and I hope to share it with you guys on New Year’s Eve. It will blow your mind!
Oh, and one last thing, in case you hadn’t heard yet, we ARE going back to Ft. Lauderdale for spring break! The dates are March 14th-16th, 2023. Let me know asap if you are going and I will get working on travel accommodations.
We love you so much and we are so grateful that we are in this family, and in this fight…together!
Chris and Sofiya