Hey Fam! Happy Thursday!
It has been quite a week!
Do you recall me mentioning last month that I had gotten connected with a very anointed worship leader/pastor/evangelist named Charles Taylor? If not, you can read about that and see some videos of him leading worship at Riverwalk by clicking here-> Schedule, Announcements and Testimonies- December 15th-18th. 2022 – Awaken941
He and I got together for coffee last Thursday and God really breathed on our conversation. We talked about things that we could do together to impact the city for Christ and we both felt very strongly like God was telling us to link up soon. Then, near the end of our meeting, Pastor Charles got up to go to the bathroom and when he came back, he looked like he had seen a ghost. He looked at me with big eyes and said, “you won’t believe what just happened!”
“What?” I asked.
He said, “I came out of the bathroom and a man with long hair and a beard, who looked like Jesus, was standing there and he looked at me and said -‘you’re a worship leader, you’re a pastor, you’re an evangelist, you’re a counselor, and God is calling you to something new. Walk in it, He will be with you.”
Then Charles told him that he was there meeting with me about beginning to do outreach with us at Riverwalk and the man said, “This is of the Lord, He will be with you.”
Can you believe it!?
At that point, Charles and I decided that it would be best to use his sound system to run all his teams’ instruments and vocals because he has a big team and needs lots of inputs. Knowing that this required power, I went home and immediately bought a massive battery powered generator! Here’s a pic.
Thank God I had just gotten that huge donation because this thing was over $1000! It will totally be worth it though, because having them with us will draw SO many people to the gospel! He plans to come this Saturday too so hopefully you can make it!
Friday night, my son had a playoff soccer game (which they won!), so I had Sofiya lead the set up without me. Since I had only talked to Mike M and Chuck beforehand, I expected it to just be the 3 of them, but when I arrived, to my amazement there were a bunch of people there serving! Big props to Mike, Chuck, Thom, Ed, Carson (welcome back!), Solomiya, Max, and Abagail (who all came for the first time!) and to Diana!
The presence of God was thick there that night and we had some great God moments. One great thing was seeing these 4 young kids getting drawn in and getting ministered to for over an hour.
Then, Owen, the one to my right, prayed to receive Jesus!
Another cool moment was meeting a man named Scott. Scott came up to us while Carson was preaching, and he looked so serious that we thought he was going to yell at us for being there. When Carson finished, a huge smile lit up his face and he said, “thank you guys so much for being here!”
He went on to tell us that he is from Kentucky and that he came down here for the weekend to escape the pain of his recent divorce. He said that he came to the Bayfront to talk to God and when he got out of his car, he heard “Jesus” and followed the voice. We ministered to him for a while and God touched him and brought tremendous healing. He sent me this later.
Isn’t it cool how God brings people to us as we step out? It makes me wonder what would happen to them if we didn’t bother to show up!
All in all many people heard the gospel and received that night. Maybe close to 100.
On Saturday, we had planned to start Riverwalk at 2, but since my son’s soccer team won on Friday, they got to play Saturday, and the game was at 1. I changed the time of the outreach so I could go (thank God they won!) and we ended up ministering at Riverwalk the entire evening and canceling our plans to go to our church retreat. Thank God we did, because God brought so many people to us to minister to on Saturday. It was crazy!
The first ones to receive prayer was this couple.
He told Howie that his parents had dedicated him to satan when he was a child and that he was still experiencing major demonic attacks. Howie prayed for him for a long time, and later Mike V prayed for him too. The man got radically set free right there at the park! Howie was still in awe over it when he told me the story.
Then, each of us began praying for person after person and one after another people were encountering Jesus right in front of us. It was seriously like next level Glory. At one point, Howie, Mike and I gathered and just thanked the Lord for what He was doing, and then we asked Him to continue to have His way, and literally as we were praying that, a lady walked up to the gift table with her kids.
Her name was Kim, and she ended up getting ministered to for nearly an hour. She gave her life to Jesus, got radically healed, and was crying so much under the weight of the Glory that Howie had to take a picture of the puddle she left behind.
Later, I shared the testimony of what happened to the demon possessed man on the microphone, and a woman who was also bound by demons came up and asked to be prayed over. This time our friend Julian was there, so he prayed for her alongside me. Julian is 12 years old, and he too was delivered from demonic oppression at Riverwalk about a year ago. I definitely wanted to leverage his childlike faith! The woman got noticeably touched and so did her boyfriend. Then the Lord told me that some of her breakthrough would come through obedience to the ways of God, so I counseled her in that for quite a while, which she appreciated.
Another cool moment was seeing SO many kids come over! Here’s one video we got of some of them. It was like this for a good portion of the evening.
And it always blesses my heart so much to see the kids write that they love Jesus on the walkway, but this time I really understood the significance. God told me that this is a sign of revival happening in their hearts as they hear the worship and the Word. So cool!
All in all, I’d say 250+ people heard the gospel on Saturday. What a blessing!
On Sunday morning, I was on a prayer walk and I was meditating on what the Lord had done the past few days and I got overwhelmed with gratitude. We were seeing such supernatural things happen that I felt like there was another level of Glory He was pouring out. As I was talking to Him about this, I walked by a huge patch of grass, with nothing in it but this card. When I picked it up, God spoke to me and He said, “I’m birthing something new in the 941.”
I’m not sure exactly what that means yet but I’m excited!
Sunday night, the Glory came again. It started when this woman came up for prayer for a brain tumor. She got ministered to for nearly 30 minutes and God encountered her in such a powerful way that Howie, Laney and Diana (who were the ones praying for her) were convinced that she was healed on the spot. This is her-
After that, 3 of the 4 boys we ministered to on Friday came and one of them got baptized!
The one who was saved on Friday said he wanted to, but he wanted to wait until it was warmer! LOL!
This man came by at one point, and I felt the Lord told me to talk to him. I asked if he needed prayer and he got a little defensive, so I let Rose and Stanley take over the conversation after a few minutes. To my shock, about 15 minutes later Stanley said, “guess who just accepted Christ!?” Here’s him getting prayed for-
Turns out he was a catholic who had been running from God. So cool to see him get rescued!
Another amazing moment was with a man named Nico, who came near the very end of the service. He told us that although he was a “believer”, he also was also very into Taoism, and he even seemed to exalt those teachings over the bible. I asked him if I could pray for him, and he said I could. I prayed for him to be delivered from all false beliefs and no joke, within less than an hour, Howie and I were talking to him in the parking lot, and he fully accepted Christ and renounced Taoism and all other false religions! It was wild!
Sunday night, there were also several people who received words of knowledge and had encounters with the Lord while getting prayed over, much like what happened the previous night at Riverwalk. I really don’t know what to expect in the coming weeks, but I’m on the edge of my seat!
All in all, there were probably 400+ people that heard the gospel that night, and we had ZERO complaints! Praise God!
Big props again to all that came out to serve this past weekend! Mike M, Thom, Carson, Abagail, Solomiya, Max, Diana, Ed, Howie, Patty, Laney, Mike V, Rose, Stanley, Grace, Joy and Amber. You guys’ rock!
This weekend our schedule will be:
Friday at Bayfront Park (148) at 7
Saturday at Riverwalk (76) at 4
Sunday at Siesta Beach (253) at 3
Also, this Saturday morning, we are meeting up with a team of evangelists from Lakeland to minister at Gasparilla, which is a huge parade in Tampa with 10’s of thousands of people. We will aim to get there around 10am, so if you can join the fun please let us know!
Also, tonight we will have our weekly outreach prayer meeting, which you can access using the link below:
Topic: Prayer Meeting For Outreaches
Time: Jan 26, 2023 09:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/73609615557?pwd=nzV81bbBdGpERFK0wa6JoknOSO0om5.1
Also, I’m excited to announce that I’ve reserved a huge house in Ft. Lauderdale so we can all stay there and minister during spring break. I would only ask to contribute to the cost as you feel led, and if you need to be sponsored, we can make that happen. It’ll be so much fun! Let me know asap if you’re in! March 14th-16th.
Love you lots and we look forward to seeing you soon!
Chris and Sofiya
P.S. Here’s another cool testimony. My son’s soccer team won the championship on Monday! After the game, I told him that I had been praying for the team, hoping it would make him even more grateful to God for the win, and guess what he told me? That his coach got the entire team together in a circle before each of the playoff games, and they ALL prayed to Jesus together! Christian definitely knows this was God’s favor shining on him! So cool!
