Hey Fam! Happy Thursday!
“Therefore, many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His Name” John 20:30-31
I read this verse today and it made me think. When Jesus was on the earth, He was doing mighty signs and wonders all over the place, yet God only saw fit for us to know about a small portion of them. In fact, in the next chapter it says that if all the things Jesus did were written in detail- “the world itself would not contain the books that would be written.” John 21:25
Among other things, to me, that is meant to telegraph to us that we should expect the Lord to continue to do a ton of stuff all around us…BUT…that we will probably only know of a small portion of what He does, this side of heaven.
Think about our own lives and ministries. God is probably doing so much in our own lives and in the lives of those we minister to, but how much do you think we actually get to see and know? 1%? 2%? 5%? More? Less? My guess is it is probably way less than we think.
All that being said, when the Lord told me four months ago to begin recording what happens at the outreaches, it seemed like a very daunting task. On any given week, we get to minister to hundreds and hundreds of people through preaching, music and gift giving, and we often get to pray for 10, 20, 30, 40 or more people. There is no way that any of us could know all that happens in the hearts of each of these people as they experience the presence of God.
I would even argue that the majority of the fruit that has been produced over these past 5 years has been the fruit produced in those that never even stopped to talk to us. I’m willing to bet that there have been hundreds, maybe even thousands of people who have stopped and listened for a while and then went off to have their own personal, life altering moment with God. Kind of like I did when I saw a bunch of believers having an Easter service on Holmes Beach back in 2006.
So, although what I’m about to share with you is probably only a tiny fraction of what God actually did this past weekend, I will share it with you anyway.
Friday night was super different. There was a boat show at Bayfront Park and because of that, most of the park was closed off. We ended up setting up near the main entrance and we had about the same number of people pass by as we usually do. Maybe 100+. Not as many people stopped for gifts, but we did have some great God moments. My favorite was with a woman named Claudia.
I first met Claudia at Riverwalk back in January. She was standing near the gift table with her dog when I came over to take a video of a young teenage boy who was receiving prayer for salvation. Claudia was in awe over what had happened and seeing it encouraged her so much. After that we talked for a minute and then she left.
The next day, while we were ministering at Siesta, a woman walked by us and stopped to listen for a few minutes. I came up to her to offer her a gift and suddenly realized.. it was Claudia! She had no idea we would be there, so it was such a God moment!
I hadn’t seen her since then, but on Friday night she parked right in front of where we were set up and she got out and just stared at me. I didn’t recognize her at first, so I went to offer her a free gift and when I got close, she said “I saw you at Riverwalk, I saw you at Siesta and now I saw you at Bayfront Park.” Instantly I realized who she was, and I was stunned. Again, she had no idea we were there and had we not set up in this alternate location we wouldn’t have even seen her.
Long story short, we get to talking and she shared with me that she was really struggling with finding the will to live. She has faith, she goes to church, but she was in such a dark place that she was secretly hoping God would just call her home. Of course, when I heard that I knew that it was a demonic attack and so I poured the Word into her as much as I could and then I prayed for her. She had an encounter with the Lord right there and was so encouraged by it all. I told her that God could see where she was at and that He orchestrated this very clear Divine appointment to let her know that He was still watching over her life. What an amazing thing for Him to do for one of His kids, right when they really needed it. And so humbling to think that if we would have cancelled due to the boat show, none of it would have happened.
Here’s a picture of us-
That night, Sofiya had a sleepover planned with her sister (yes, they still do that stuff! LOL!) and so she left around 8. About 30 minutes later, after we had preached a few more times, we decided to start to wrap up. That was when I realized that my van keys were in Sofiya’s backpack!
I called her right before she got to her sister’s house, and she begrudgingly came back to give me the keys. While waiting, I decided to preach again and a young man came up, listened for a while, and then prayed the sinner’s prayer along with me. We talked to him after, and he said he was a believer and that he was really touched by what we were doing. We found out that he is Brazilian, and it just so happened that Nate from Church of Hope was there with us and he told this man about a Brazilian service that they have and the man was really excited.
We ministered to him for a while, and he said that He knew that God set the whole thing up. So crazy to think that it only happened because I left my keys in Sofiya’s backpack! Here’s a picture of the 3 of us:
On Saturday we met at the skate park again, and we had a few dozen youth to minister to. We ended up having some good conversations of several of them and some good seeds were planted. Including into one boy who was a practicing homosexual. Two believers who got ministered to the week before also showed up and ended up helping pass out gifts, and a young boy who received prayer a few months ago walked by and told us that God answered that prayer and that he was so happy about it. Funny (and sad) story. The boy asked Debbie and Chuck to pray for his mom who was in jail for “menopause”. Apparently, she assaulted his dad and that was the story the boy was given. He asked that they pray for his mom to be released and for his family to be together and to get along. THANK THE LORD all of those things are happening and how cool that because of the prayer, the boy sees that it is the hand of God. Such a cool story!
Here’s one video I took from that night:
On Sunday, there were several people tied up, so we had a pretty lean team to start. Thankfully a young man who was baptized last week came to serve and he helped us a ton with the set up.
The whole night was amazing. So many people were getting ministered to all over. One really cool moment for me was getting to share the gospel with a Hindu man. He had never heard the gospel before, so I gave him the entire message and he ended up praying for Jesus to reveal the truth to his heart! So cool!
Here’s a pic of us:
Another really cool moment was seeing a man named Sam, who I met at the beach a few months ago. The day I met him, we had a baptism, and during my public announcement of what was happening, Sam started yelling and cussing me out. I talked to him afterwards, and he was very defensive. He ended up telling me that he was raised Jewish and became an atheist as an adult. I had been studying apologetics at the time, so I asked him a few questions to get him to critically think about his position. When all was said and done, he shook my hand and basically offered a truce.
This past Sunday, I saw him in the drum circle and wow, God has really been working on his heart. He told me that he likes me and that I have a “great heart.” He also said that he LOVED my shirt of Jesus surfing with no surfboard. He even hugged me! What a far cry from cussing me out just a few months ago!
Another cool moment was when a man walked by me on the walkway and said “do you remember me? You prayed for my dad who was in a wheelchair.” Immediately I recalled the meeting and I remembered that his dad told me he was raised catholic and was more or less an atheist. What I shared with him seemed to really get through to him though, so I asked the son if his dad was more open to the Lord now and he said, “He’s starting to..” I was so happy!
These various testimonies are such reminders of what I was saying in the beginning, we just don’t know all that God does through us, but thankfully He gives us little glimpses sometimes to encourage us to keep sowing.
Here’s one video I captured from Sunday. All in all, it was an amazing night!
Another powerful thing that happened last week is that we had a great time of fellowship, worship and prayer at our house. We packed 17 people into our little one-bedroom condo and the presence of God was THICK. We really want to do more of these gatherings, so try and keep Thursday nights open from time to time so you can join us. Here’s a video from last week.
If you can’t join us in person for prayer, please join us on zoom. Here is the link to join:
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/75931687679?pwd=KVgN4Bqrp8FLqfBbvu8HEWJsBVC7MK.1
This weekend our schedule will be:
Friday at Bayfront Park (162) at 6pm
Saturday at Riverwalk (89) at 5pm
Sunday at Siesta Beach (266) at 3pm
Please pray and please come when you can!
Also, HUGE shoutout to all the warriors who were able to come to battle last weekend-
Vitaly, Olga, Sara, Nate, Ed, Mike V, Chuck, Debbie, Jackson, Zack, Paul, Andrew, Mike, Rochelle, Lucas, Sandra, Rose, Amber, John and Mike M- THANK YOU!
Love you guys!
Chris and Sofiya
P.S. Our bro and teammate Mike Kramer gave a powerful message about the goodness of God at The Front on Monday. I encourage you guys to watch it when you get a chance. Click below: