Happy Thursday Children of God! Hope all is Glorious!
Since my last message to you was an encouragement to vote in our recent elections, I’ll start off with some news about that. Unfortunately, some of the local candidates we were hoping to win, did not win, but there were some good wins in other parts of the state. Thankfully, despite the losses, our Sarasota County school board still has a conservative majority…but I would advise all of us to be seeking the Lord over the next few months regarding any strongholds that have crept in to our region and to really take seriously the mandate to be praying over the hearts of people throughout our state as we approach the general election in November.
On that note, one really good piece of election news came out the other day, which is that a case was won to force there to be a disclaimer placed next to Amendment 4 on the upcoming ballot. It will read:
Interestingly, this ruling came within hours of The Sarasota House of Prayer reigniting their weekly harp and bowl prayer meeting for the ending of abortion. May it be an encouragement to continue to intercede for this bill to be torn limb from limb!
Speaking of that, the Lord has put on my heart to go to the place where the first abortion clinic in Florida was founded in 1974, and to intercede for our state, this election and for future generations of children. Details on that coming soon…
Praise God, we had a great weekend out on the mission fields. One amazing miracle was how nice the weather was. In fact, at one point the humidity was 15% lower than it was in Cloudland Canyon Georgia, where Sofiya and I just left.
The nicer weather brought some good crowds to each location too.
On Friday, we had no Hispanic evangelists, so our reach was a little limited. Despite that, many people heard the gospel, and took tracts, and we got to pray for a number of people as well. One highlight was seeing this group of young people come up and respond to the preaching of the gospel by asking for prayer.
The next day, we went to Woodland Village, and praise God…we had more people than we’d ever had before. I counted 17 people at one point, which included several new faces. I couldn’t even fit them all into one picture!
I’m excited to see what God is doing through this hungry remnant.
Saturday at Riverwalk was great too. There was a good crowd that came towards sunset, and many people heard, engaged, received gifts and received prayer. One cool highlight was seeing this young man sitting on the bench listening to me preach for like 15 minutes…and then seeing him go straight to the gift table after I gave the altar call. He told Chuck and Debbie that he needed to give his life to Jesus right away, so they prayed with him and gave him counsel.
On Sunday, we met in the pavilion again and it was great. Before we even got started, this couple came up wanting more of God:
Then, throughout the night, many people heard and engaged, and a good number came up and received gifts and prayer. At one point I could really feel the anointing as I was preaching the Gospel, so I gave an altar call and maybe 6-7 hands went up, including 3 of the girls that were sitting at one of the tables. Afterwards, I asked Rachael to talk with them and I heard that all 5 ended up praying to receive Christ!
The only “bad news” about Sunday is that Adam, the Pharisaical preacher, came back and angered many people again. I would greatly appreciate your prayers for wisdom regarding that situation. I will say though, he definitely seems to be making many of the drummers like us more since they can see the clear contrast between us. However, I’m still believing that there is coming a day soon when he will either repent or leave Siesta for good. Lords will be done!
BIG thanks to Amber, Laney, Chuck, Debbie, Mike M, Mike V, Joe, Mike F, Gene, Mauricio, Jenny, Jack, Rachael, Sarath, Psalm, Pastor Robin, Tom, Julie, Trish and her friend for coming out to serve this past weekend. Great work everyone!
This weekend’s forecast is a little iffy right now, but we are excited to get back out and watch God work!
Hope to see you soon! Love and blessings!
Chris, Sofiya and Natalie
P.S. I’ve set up two pages on this site with discipleship resources and I will be adding to it continually. One has bible study resources and the other has a bunch of worship songs. Links are below.
So very thankful for how our Lord Jesus is using you and your team! I wish i could be more of a part of it, but my prayers are there with you. As I heal, and granddaughter
gets through her upcoming surgeries, hopefully I will be strong enough. as it is, i take one day at a time, and constantly remind myself that even in the midst of the storm, Jesus is in the boat! Love and prayers, Lynne