Hey Fam! Happy Thursday!
As I sit down to write this, the Lord is reminding me of the passage in Isaiah 54 that reads:
“Enlarge the place of your tent;
Stretch out the curtains of your dwellings, spare not;
Lengthen your cords
And strengthen your pegs.
“For you will spread abroad to the right and to the left.
And your descendants will possess nations
And will resettle the desolate cities.
With that in mind, let me share a few announcements with you.
First off, this coming week (8/29-31) we are traveling to Panama City Beach to minister with our friends Mike and Rochelle. Please keep us in prayer while we are gone.
On September 5th, we are beginning a partnership with the Sarasota House of Prayer, and we will be leading a prayer set for souls to be saved, for evangelists to arise, and for local outreaches to have the favor and anointing of God. This prayer set will be part of their weekly schedule from this point forward and all of us are invited to participate in that. It will be Tuesdays from 10-11.
In addition, Roger and the team will be partnering with us to help us disciple those that we meet at the outreaches. This will include personal follow up phone calls and organized discipleship classes. This is a HUGE answer to prayer!
On Thursday September 14th, I’ve been asked to speak for the first time at The Front Port Charlotte, and the word I will bring will hopefully stir some people up to begin an outreach in Charlotte County. If so, it will be a turning point for the ministry because Charlotte is the only county in the 941 left for us to take territory in. That week we will be rescheduling our fellowship night, so I hope you can make it down there to help minister with us.
On Saturday September 16th from 3-4pm, we will be leading a church service at a Bradenton retirement home. This is something they want us to do every week if possible, so this will be the first step in that direction. Everyone is invited to participate.
And, last but not least, on October 24th-26th, we will be bringing a small team down to Key West to minister during Fantasy Fest. We have a wonderful place already booked and we will be partnering with Calvary Chapel Key West. VERY exciting!
Now, on to our (wet) weekend…
On Friday, it rained a little bit at the park, so the crowds were a slim, but a number of people still heard and got ministered to. Here’s one pic we got of some kids coming over to hear about Jesus.
Speaking of kids, the most memorable part of the evening for me was meeting a family from New Jersey, whose son is a 10-year-old fireball. I had him share a little bit on the mic and then pray for people and WOW! How encouraging to see such passion in such a young man.
Many people heard the worship too, which was awesome. Here’s a little clip of that:
Overall, it was a great night and as always, very fun! BIG thanks to Mike M, Thom, Abagail, Laney, Sara, Augast, Amber, Karson and Carol. Great job everyone!
On Saturday, I was extra excited about the night because it was our two-year anniversary service at Riverwalk. Last year I invited people to come and celebrate, but this year I felt led to just show up and see what God would do to make it memorable. He did not disappoint. Within the first hour of getting there, an ARMY of evangelists showed up from a local Hispanic church to share the Gospel! We were so encouraged to see such a wonderful answer to prayer on such a special day!
Here’s us having an epic Team Jesus:
There was rain before we got there and rain while we were there, so the crowds were a little slim. We still got to share Jesus with well over 100 people though which was great. Here’s a clip of the worship:
Our new sisters in Christ Paula, Annette and Alyssa (whom we baptized a few weeks ago), came back and got ministered to, and we also met these two girls who were going through a really hard time and asked us for prayer. Definitely a Divine appointment.
Another really cool thing that God did was He gave us a beautiful wink of approval for the two full years we had been ministering there- a DOUBLE rainbow!
Gotta love the beautiful ways that He shows up!
BIG thanks to Laney, Karina, Olivia, Nicole, Jackson, Mike V, Anne, John and Carol. Great work!
On Sunday, the rain was even worse than Saturday, so I had to push to start time back an hour. When I got there, it was still raining, and the drummers were already in the pavilion. Not wanting a rematch of last week, I decided to wait it out so we could go on the beach. We were able to minister on the beach for almost an hour before the rain came back, which I was thankful for. Here’s one video I took while we were out there:
Although there weren’t nearly the number of people out as usual, a few dozen people still got a seed sown into them. We also got to pray for several people, including an elderly couple that had just gotten back together earlier that afternoon after years of separation. As we prayed for them, God had me release a prophetic Word over them that this was a set up from Him to show them that He needs to be in the center of the relationship in order for it to survive. Very cool that we got that opportunity.
After the rain came, Amber had the idea to go down the walkway to a smaller pavilion where we could just worship and pray. We figured that if nothing else, we could keep affecting things in the spirit. Thankfully, right before we left the unloading zone, I ran into one of the drummers that we had the skirmish with the week before. We ended up hugging each other and he was very nice to me. It felt like restoration, praise God!
When we got to the smaller pavilion, we discovered that there was a woman trying to sleep about 100 yards away on the beach. I was hoping that she would hear something and come over…and thank God she did. Here’s us praying in that pavilion:
The woman came over after an hour or so and asked us what we were doing. She ended up sitting down and sharing how dark her life was. Her name is Joy, she is around 60 years old, and she is a nurse. She said that she was in an abusive marriage and that she was struggling with alcoholism. She even indirectly admitted that she had tried to take her life the night before. We shared our own testimonies with her as well as the Gospel. She ended up praying to receive Jesus that night and it was amazing to see how she was touched. Here’s a picture I took of Michelle and Laney hugging her after we prayed over her:
We were all stunned. The fact that we only met her because we had to reposition our location because of the rain and the drummers, was such a display of Gods sovereignty. I told her that God loves her so much that He not only sent His Son for her, but that He also sent the rain. She was blown away. I feel like that is something she will hold onto forever as a sign of how much God loves her.
So cool that we get to partner with Jesus in this way!!!
BIG thanks to Laney, Amber and Michelle for braving the rain and persevering to the end! Great job!
This weekend our schedule will be:
Friday at Bayfront Park (180) at 7:30
Saturday at Riverwalk (106) at 6
Sunday at Siesta Beach (284) at 4
Please pray and please come when you can!
Love and blessings,
Chris