Greetings beloved! Happy Thursday!
Wow, I feel like I haven’t written one of these in so long. Where do I begin?
Well, as you know we got back from Ft. Lauderdale last Thursday after having the most incredible time ministering there for two days and two nights. The kids were super open, and some even repentant. There were many potent seeds sown and likely thousands that were touched somehow with the gospel.
We also had some very rich times of fellowship and the worship and prayer times we had before every outreach were absolutely on fire. Here’s a link to the various pictures and videos from the trip- https://www.dropbox.com/sh/gyxqvbxcs87k99g/AAAW84bCgGqTQdw2rr9uPj5na?dl=0
What else was really fun was that Paul, Laney, Howie, Ricardo and myself testified at The Front on Monday night about the trip and I was in tears that night listening to what was shared. Here’s the video link. Our testimonies start around 1:53:34
https://www.youtube.com/live/eShJwmq_-4c?feature=share&t=6814
Meanwhile, around here, God has certainly been moving too.
Two weeks ago the highlight at Bayfront Park happened in the first few minutes because the rain came right after we showed up! We met a young man, who was still in high school who said he felt very led to go to the park that night. When he saw the cross, he said had to come and talk to us. In the rain, we listened as he shared that exactly one year earlier, he had attempted suicide after having bad reactions to anti-depressant medications.
He is now a believer, and a pastor’s kid actually, and he totally credits God with saving his life. I ended up sensing that God wanted to speak to him through our Divine connection, and the word essentially was “this is your way of knowing that God is up there celebrating this anniversary of when He saved your life… because He has great plans for the rest of your life.” He wholeheartedly received it. How cool to be part of that for this young man.
The following week at Bayfront the thing that stands out the most was meeting a church leader doing outdoor services in Charlotte County. Initially I thought this was a huge Divine appointment, and that maybe he was sent to help us complete the 3-county mandate God has given us as evangelists. (The 941 area code is Sarasota, Manatee and Charlotte Counties, and we are not yet in Charlotte.)
Well…unfortunately the conversation turned rather quickly, because he ended up confessing to me that he was in the process of leaving his wife and had already found another woman. He even admitted to me that they were having sex. I was stunned.
From that point on I felt like Nathan confronting David, because I laid into him with enough tough love to fill Bayfront Park. His girlfriend was there too, and they ended up going off and talking privately after our conversation. Later he told me that they had decided to stop having sex, which I was happy about, but I told him that he needed to be a single man for a while and press into the Lord for healing or else this woman will simply become an idol to him. A way for him to feel better from all the rejection from his frist wife. He didn’t like that idea, so he left a little miffed. I’m still praying for him!
One other cool thing that happened that night was we met a prophetic young evangelist who is already helping lead outreaches in the area. He said he wants to minister more with us too. So cool how God is raising up and joining together His end times Salvation Army!
Speaking of young warriors, we have recently formed a close friendship with 15-year-old Jackson, whom I met at Riverwalk on Christmas Eve. It was like 45 degrees and crazy windy that night, but he still stood there and listened to my message for 20+ minutes. Then he told us that he had just gotten back in church and seeing us was a sign from God.
Fast forward a few months…this kid is a full-blown evangelist! He actually says that he believes the only purpose of doing virtually anything is to win souls along the way. He is preaching to his friends at school, wearing Jesus shirts, and he’s been coming to the outreaches with us too. We had the privilege of being with him as he received the baptism of the Spirit, and then we anointed him with oil. Howie said it reminded him of how Samuel must of felt when he anointed King David. That we were sowing into a young man with that kind of destiny.
Riverwalk has been great lately too. Two weeks ago, we ministered during the gay pride rally, and it was great to see how smooth everything went. We got to pray for several people, and we got to share Jesus with a number of them through preaching and testimony.
The thing that stood out the most to me was this little girl who came over with a pride flag. She was probably only 5. I asked her if she knew about Jesus, and she said no so I shared the gospel with her and prayed for her. I turned to do something else and after a minute or two I looked around and the girl was gone…but she had left the flag behind! I felt like this was a sign of what was happening in the spirit.
This is a pic I took of a woman being prayed for and you can see the girl holding the flag on the bottom right. So sad that these little ones would be indoctrinated into this on a playground!
The following week we met this man Michael, and the Lord immediately opened up his heart to go deeper with Him. He said he believed, but never understood repentance, surrender, baptism, etc. and after tag team speaking with him for well over an hour, he made a full-blown profession of repentance and faith and even decided to get baptized in the cold water! It was so powerful!
Later that same evening our friend Rochelle called over some kids and their parents and explained to them about blessing their children. She then had the kids line up all along the steps and the parents washed their children’s feet. Such a cool moment!
It was also cool to see so many people show up to help serve that night. We really had an army! This is the prayer circle at the end, mostly comprised of people who came to serve. You can also hear Michael, the man who was baptized, praying in this video.
Siesta has been amazing too. The crowds two weeks ago were incredible. Even more incredible is that we all found parking easily! Spring Break has been going on here too so there were many high school and college kids coming over receiving ministry. Two weeks ago, we had two baptisms, a number of kids made professions of faith, a few heard the gospel for the first time, and a few prayed to ask Jesus to reveal Himself to them for the first time. So awesome that we get to do this!
We also saw a little healing miracle when a ladies back pain went away after praying for her! I was also really blessed that our drummer friend Aaron, who was chastised by the angry preacher a few weeks ago, came up and asked me for prayer for his work. Definitely a sign that he’s still has a measure of faith!
This was a really cool moment caught on camera. 7 kids from Canada praying to repent, receive Christ and the Holy Spirit right at the gift table!
This past Sunday it was a little cold so there less people out. We still got to bless many and pray for a few which was nice.
The past few days, I have been battling some physical attacks so please keep me lifted up. I want to keep this night early, so we won’t have a prayer meeting tonight.
This weekend our schedule will be:
Friday at Bayfront Park (157) at 7
Saturday at Riverwalk (84) at 4
Sunday at Siesta (261) at 3
Please pray and please come when you can! Also please be sure to come on Saturday if you can because Charles Taylor and Purpose Culture will be there ministering, and there will be a huge need for people to minister at the gift table because so many people will stop to listen. It would also be a great thing to bring an unsaved friend to because the music is so good that anyone would like it no matter what they believe!
Love you so much and we will see you SOON!
Chris and Sofiya