Greetings beloved! Happy Thursday!
After nearly 600 outreaches in 5 years, I have to say that I’m still in awe that we get to do what we do. This past Monday I was especially reminded of what a privilege it is when a woman came and spoke at The Front who is a minister to the underground church in China. As you probably know, public preaching of the gospel, public worship, and even private Christian gatherings are all forbidden in China. Hearing about this persecution from someone who experiences it firsthand made me so much more grateful to be able to do what we are doing. To be able to be as bold, as loud, and as public as we are in such high traffic places…AND have the authorities pat us on the back for doing it- is such a blessing. I hope we never take it for granted.
In fact, I’m willing to bet that if people from the persecuted church around the world came and joined us, they’d probably say that they (and we) should take every chance we can get to do this while there is still such freedom to do it. I would have to agree with that.
On that note, let me tell you- last weekend was amazing! God moved powerfully each night.
On Friday, there was a good crowd of people at Bayfront Park and Cheryl, Jeff, John, Maria, Mike M, Thom and Rene were with us. I got reports that a number of people received the Lord that night, which was awesome! Here’s a video of some of the worship and you can see a big group praying here too-
We also saw this man whom Jeff prayed over for deliverance from alcohol a little while back. He came and told us that he hadn’t drank in 3 weeks and was feeling great! Praise God!
Later in the night, a man walked up and started listening to me preach. He then took out his phone and started to video. After I finished, I talked to him, and I could tell he had been crying. He kept saying that seeing us was a sign from God and that he was so happy that we were there. As we got to talking, he told me that he is from New Jersey, and he just came to Florida 10 days earlier. He said that last year his life went into a dark pit, and it made him finally begin to seek God. He gave his life to Christ a few months ago and he said that after a while he felt like he had to leave NJ and come here. He left by faith with only $600 and his vehicle. He said that for days he had been overwhelmed with stress, wondering if he made the right decision, desperately seeking a sign from God.
He said that Friday night he was at his friend’s house, and something came over him and told him to go to Bayfront Park to watch the sunset. He drove over 20 minutes to get there, and he drove around four times but didn’t find any parking. He was just about to give up but then he decided to park in valet. As he got out of the car and walked toward the water, that is when he heard me.
We ended up talking for over an hour and it was incredible to see how touched he was. It was like God breathed life back into him. He went on to tell me that he has been in the fitness business for years and I thought- wow just like me. Then he told me that the reason he got into fitness was because of a physical problem that he overcame with exercise. Then I thought- wow just like me. Then, the icing on the cake was finding out that his name was also- Chris.
You just can’t make this stuff up!
This is us:
Saturday was a really fun and fruitful night too. Cheryl, Chuck, Dan, Debbie, Jackson, James and his wife, Mike V, Paul, Ricardo and Shirley were with us and even though the crowds weren’t huge, many people got touched. Here’s a few pics of some people we ministered to. The two girls in the flower leis were in a lesbian relationship and they both were crying under the power of God.
This man said he never heard the gospel. Once I told him, he started professing love for Jesus and told me he was catholic. He prayed the prayer of salvation with me too:
I really love this video of the worship too, because you can see 3 groups of people getting ministered to:
So cool!
Good news- this week we are back at Rossi Park! I’m excited to see what kind of crowds we get for the first few weeks after they reopen too. I’m sure many will come just out of curiosity and pent-up demand.
Sunday, we had Amber, Cheryl, Diana, Jeff, John, Maria, Mike M, Paul, Rene, Sandra, Sara and Savannah with us, and it was a great day too, even from the start. About 10-15 minutes before we finished setting up, a young girl came over and said, “excuse me, don’t take this the wrong way but…what are you doing here?” Not sure where she was coming from, I answered her kind of plainly and she still thought it was the coolest thing. After that, her whole family came over and started talking to us and they stayed for the ENTIRE service. All of them got ministered to so powerfully and the mom and the two kids ended up getting baptized! Here they are after:
All throughout the night, God was drawing people and we got to minister to many. Here’s a pic of one guy who got so convicted that he poured his alcohol out and the other is a boy praying to the Lord with Paul.
Here’s a video of the worship. It’s cool to see all the people around who were getting ministered to:
Also, in case you weren’t there, the House of Prayer led a great area-wide gathering for the National Day of Prayer last week. The subject was essentially- “do it again Lord!” We looked back at 9 different revivals in American history that were significant, and we all prayed for another outpouring in our day. Here is the bulletin-
Here’s a clip from the meeting:
Do it again Lord! Do it again!!!
This weekend our schedule will be:
Friday at Bayfront Park (164) at 7
Saturday at Rossi Park (91) at 4
Sunday at Siesta Beach (268) at 3
Please pray and please come when you can!
Love and blessings!
Chris and Sofiya