Greetings beloved! Happy Thursday!
This past weekend was definitely one for the books. We had our usual 3 outreaches, which were very fun and fruitful, but I also took a trip to Miami to minister with evangelist/worship leader Phillip Renner and his team at the largest Gay Pride rally in South Florida- Miami Beach pride.
The event certainly lived up to its reputation in terms of its size. Roughly 10 blocks of Ocean Drive on South Beach were sectioned off for the event. There were dozens of vendors, thousands of people, rainbows everywhere, and clothes that screamed bondage. In the midst of all of that craziness though, SO many people were touched by the Lord. My friend Phillip led worship inside the event for hours and we gave out around 200 Jesus waters and a bunch of tracks. We also prayed for a number of people, and the report I heard is that 10 people prayed to receive the Lord! Thank you all so much for praying for us! Here’s a little recap video that Phillip sent me the other day:
While I was sowing seed into Babylon, PRAISE GOD, an army showed up to Riverwalk to bring the Kingdom there also. Huge shout out to Sofiya, Paul, Laney, Mike V, Zack, Daniel, Abagail, Deb, Andrew and everyone else who stepped up in my absence to keep it going out there. Here’s one video Sofiya took. I love seeing the people come to listen to the Word!
Sunday at the beach was also amazing, and the Divine appointments began right when we showed up. The first were with these two young men who were on the walkway as I was unloading. One of them saw my “One Way” shirt and he came up and told how much he liked it. I kept talking to him and it turned into a 20+ minute conversation plus prayer, plus them helping us bring our stuff to the beach. They were really in need of guidance, and they acknowledged that the entire meeting was God ordained. I love it when that happens!
After we got set up, I did my usual intro, and it caught the attention of these 4 youths that were sitting 100 feet away or so. During worship, they came over and listened for a while and then we talked and prayed with them for quite a while. Here’s a video of the worship and you can see them coming over at the end:
After a few of us talked to them for a while, all four rededicated their lives to the Lord and got baptized in water and the Spirit! I don’t have a video of the baptism, but here’s a video of them testifying after they came out. God is so amazing!!!
Later on in the night, I went to the drum circle to juggle and pray, and two different people came up to me and told me that they gave their lives to the Lord and were baptized the day before. One was this girl, who definitely looks like she’s lived a hard life. She knew exactly who I was too, and she was so excited to tell me, so it was clear that we’ve sown some good seed into her over the months.
The other one to tell me he was baptized was this young man who came from a family of Buddhists. He came over to the tent later in the night and he shared his testimony on the mic, which was awesome. Want to hear the most shocking part? The guy who baptized him is the weird drum circle guy who always wears a towel and no shirt (pictured in the video below). I also found out that the towel guy prayed deliverance for his friend and demons manifested. He was even throwing up! Is that wild or what!?
If all this wasn’t enough of a display of His anointing, I was also moved when two unsaved young people came and listened to me share the gospel and then they both prayed for Jesus to show them the truth of who He is. We also saw a bunch of youth coming over the hear the Word later in the night as our new friend Zack was sharing his testimony. There were so many signs of hunger, it was so exciting!
Friday night was fun too. We had a big team helping serve and because we arrived at 6, we sowed into well over 100 people. One big highlight of that night was that we broke the BIG news to those that came. If you haven’t heard yet, listen to this video of Rose praying. In it she gives away the secret.
One last highlight of the weekend was celebrating the 17th anniversary of the day when God encountered ME through an outdoor worship service, before I got saved. You may have heard me tell the story, but I was on Holmes Beach, high on cocaine, looking for a woman to sleep with, and I saw a bunch of people worshipping on the beach. God met me there that day and my life was changed. 35 days later I was saved, and this experience on the beach became the first major sign the Lord gave me that one day I was supposed to be leading outdoor services so that others could encounter Him just like I did.
Here’s the full written testimony if you want to read it. It was published in a local Christian newspaper back in 2018.
One interesting thing about this story is that I never told the leaders of the service how them being there impacted me. I was so ashamed of what I was doing that I left without saying a word. To this day, I still don’t know who they were, but one day I’ll get to tell them in heaven how them stepping out and being bold transformed my life. The Lord always reminds me of this experience every time we do outreach, because it proves that even if we don’t see someone get radically touched while we are out ministering, there’s a very good chance that it is still happening behind the scenes.
Last but not least, HUGE shoutout to all the bold and brave warriors that came out to the front lines this past weekend! Mike M, Thom, Amber, Jeff, Laney, Deb, Sara, Savannah, Rose, Grace, Joy, Nate, Paul, Jackson, Mike V, Zack, Mike K, Rochelle, Nathalie, Rene, Maria, Andrew, Alexa, Hannah, Michelle, and others. Y’all are hero’s!
This weekend our schedule will be:
Friday at Bayfront Park (161) at 7pm
Saturday at Riverwalk (88) at 5pm
Sunday at Siesta Beach (265) at 3pm
Please pray and please come when you can!
Also, please join our prayer meeting tonight at 9. Here is the login info-
Topic: Prayer Meeting for Weekend Outreaches
Time: Apr 20, 2023 09:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/78824582635?pwd=f4xxnJsnabkyNboxRwYOib2gFs4Xsz.1
We love you so much! God bless!
Chris and Sofiya