Hey Fam! Happy Thursday!
I want to begin today by taking a moment to thank the Lord for His grace and His faithfulness over this ministry that He has called us all to. Recently, we hit a huge milestone- it has now been 700 cumulative weeks of doing outreach. 223 weeks at Bayfront, 150 weeks at Riverwalk and 327 weeks at Siesta. God is so good!
Interestingly, right after we hit this milestone, God decided to do something that I believe was meant to be a sign for us to grab hold of.
On Friday night, I went to Bayfront around 7, but the rain was coming down until around 7:30. Once it stopped, I got out of the van, started setting up, and the first people I met was a family from Kentucky. We got to talking, and they told me that they were all singers and musicians and that they had led worship at the Asbury Revival last year. I was stunned. I also came to find out that two of the daughters were students at Asbury and one of them was on the worship team at the February 8th Chapel service when the Holy Spirit fell. This is a picture of the two daughters:
It was such a God thing. They had originally planned to vacation in Destin, but they couldn’t find anywhere there to stay. They decided last minute to come to Sarasota, and they were on the last night of their vacation when they decided (also last minute) to come to the statue. Then God made sure the rain stopped right when they got there so they’d be sure to meet me. It was AMAZING!
I listened to their testimonies of what the revival was like, and I was in awe. I asked the girls if they could sing the song that was sung when the Holy Spirit came down (Mighty One) and they did. Then we all prayed for a move of God to touch our region just like it did at Asbury. I have to believe that God orchestrated this to prepare us for us for such a thing. So amazing! Below is a video of me sharing this story and praying the few verses God gave me to pray in response. Please continue to pray and believe for this with us!
The next day, Sofiya and I ministered at the retirement home and God gave me a Word about the covenant that He has made with America and how He is still honoring it. Then, right as we got packed up to leave for Riverwalk, the heavens opened up again and it was POURING rain for close to an hour. Once it finally stopped, I got out of the van and right away we had another Divine appointment. We met a team of Hispanic evangelists that just so happened to all be wearing the same shirt as me!
We all prayed together, and after a while, people started to trickle into the park. At one point, I gave an altar call for kids to come and receive prayer and handful of them came. Not only did they receive prayer, but they also decided to get baptized, which was awesome! They were having some trouble getting over the railing to go into the river though, so we decided to change plans and baptize them in the huge puddle that was left on the splash pad after the rain.
How cool that they got to be baptized in water that had just come down from heaven! Epic!
On Sunday, we had a great night ministering at Siesta. It was so busy though that I didn’t get any pictures or videos.
In the beginning, there were two guys from the drum circle that cussed me out, but after that it was smooth sailing. I prayed with at least 7 people that night to receive Christ, tons of tracts and gifts were given out, and many people received prayer and counsel. I also met a guy who had just rededicated his life to the Lord that morning and got to pray with him and his girlfriend. I counseled them for a little bit, and I even had the tough conversation with them about sexual purity. They were both very receptive. They even came back a few hours later as we were packing up and said to me “we’ve been thinking about what you said about purity, and we want to know your opinion- is holding hands going too far?” Talk about seed falling on good soil!
I also brought Natalie in the drum circle and had some good interactions with them. I also told a few of them about Natalie being picked to be on the 700 Club, and they were excited and want to see it when it airs. Super cool to see how God is using her to advance His work out there!
BIG thanks to Amber, Karson, Chuck, Debbie, Jenny, Mauricio, Rachael, Jack, Augast, Cindy, Gene, Joe, Mike M, Steven and Michelle for coming out to serve! Great work everyone!
We hope to see you this weekend! Team Jesus!
Love and blessings
Chris, Sofiya and Natalie