Hey Fam! Happy Friday!
This past week has been special. Not only because of the great things God did through the outreaches, but also because it has truly been a Psalm 77 week of remembrance.
“I shall remember the deeds of the Lord; Surely I will remember Your wonders of old.” Psalm 77:11
What am I remembering? Well, it was four years ago this week when the Lord first sent me on mission outside the 941. And amazingly, by His grace, we’ve since led close to 30 mission trips to nearly 20 cities and shared the gospel with 10’s of thousands of people along the way. It has truly been an amazing ride.
It’s also a pretty cool (and supernatural) story of how the Lord called me into doing this, so to honor Him on this anniversary I will share with you the reader’s digest version.
“Oh give thanks to the Lord, call upon His name; Make known His deeds among the peoples.” 1 Chronicles 16:8
Flashback to 2020…
On the 22nd of December, my parents informed me that they had both tested positive for COVID. Because of that, they did not want me to come over for Christmas for fear they might get me sick. It was the first time in 38 years that I didn’t see my parents on Christmas. Having nothing else to do that evening, I called my friend Dave Lloyd, and we met up at Siesta Beach to do a Christmas Day outreach. While there, I met a South Korean woman who had just moved to Sarasota. Her name was Song Bae, and her father pastored one of the biggest churches in South Korea for many years. She was very intrigued by what we were doing, and she ended up ministering alongside us.
Then, after about an hour, she came up to me and very boldly prophesied over me-
“The Lord is telling me that He is calling you to do these outreaches in many cities across the state of Florida. I see a mantle upon you like that of John Wesley and the Lord will use you in the same way- to go from place to place to start fires of awakening that others will help maintain.”
When she said this, I was intrigued, but not yet 100% convinced that it was the Lord speaking through her. Then I saw her prophesy over a couple that we had just met, and my entire attitude changed. She gave them a very specific word about their family, and when they heard it, they both broke down into tears. They kept saying, “how did you know? How did you know?“
Spoiler- Song has been a good friend of mine ever since and every prophetic word she has ever given me (and everyone else I know) has come to pass. I’ve NEVER met a more accurate prophet than her.
Back to Christmas 2020. After seeing her prophesy so accurately over the couple, I went home, and I began to research John Wesley. As I did, I began to get very excited about the idea of going place to place and doing outreach. But….I also knew that if I was going to answer the call than it would mean more time and more money would need to be devoted to ministry. I also knew that it would likely require me to scale back on my medical practice, which would be a HUGE leap of faith.
For the next 6 weeks, the Lord kept building an excitement in me for the possibility of doing this and I began to sense that He was leading me to back down to only working 3 days a week to make room for it. Then, on Thursday February 11th, I had a meeting with my landlord to discuss a new rental agreement (which had been planned for months) and I told him what I was considering. He actually loved the idea and said that he would be willing to work out a feasible arrangement with me, but that he needed to give him a firm answer by Monday.
On Friday February 12th, while at Bayfront Park, a woman and her daughter came to listen to the message, and then they joined us for the prayer circle at the end. When it was their turn to pray, the mom began to cry out to God for forgiveness, repenting in front of all of us. Then the daughter turned her heart to the Lord as well, although in a less dramatic fashion. It was powerful. We spoke to them afterwards and found out that they were on vacation from Miami and were just about to go back. The mom said that something in her was telling her to come to the park, and she said that once she saw us, she knew it was the Lord. She then told us that her father was a missionary and that she had once walked closely with Jesus but had fallen away. She and her daughter had a very visible personal revival that night, which was really exciting to watch. Then, after going to eat with them and exchanging numbers, they left to go back to Miami.
On Sunday February 14th, I was on a prayer walk and I was desperately asking God for a clear sign of what I should do about the rental agreement. Whatever I agreed to the next day would be what I would have to follow for a long time so I needed God to make His will clear- THAT DAY. After coming back from the walk, I got a text from the woman I met at Bayfront Park on Friday night. She said that she was with her brother in Miami and that she had just told him about what happened to her in Sarasota. She said he really wanted to talk to me, so she asked if he could call. I expected that he might be backslidden too, so I excitedly said yes, thinking I might lead him back to the Lord as well.
When I got on the phone with him, I was pleasantly surprised that not only was he walking with the Lord, but that he was actually a pastor in Miami. He told me how happy he was that God reached his sister, and he told me that he had been praying for her for a long time. He also said that he was so inspired by the boldness of our outreach that he wanted his church to do the same thing.
Then, he said “brother, will you come down here to Miami and go out with us? I will provide everything you need, I just want you to be with us.”
This was literally the first time EVER that a pastor in another city had invited me to do an outreach with his church, and this was right after praying all day for a clear sign of whether God wanted me to answer the call to go to cities across Florida and do outreaches. What a sign!
The next day, when I told my Christian landlord the story, he said “wow! That’s definitely a sign from God! I’ll work out a deal with you that will allow you to do this.”
For the next 5 months God not only allowed my rental agreement to be ideal, but He also provided everything else I needed, including $16,500 in donations to buy a van. Then, on August 8th, I did my very first out of area outreach with the Miami pastor I had connected with on Valentine’s Day. Here we are:
The outreach on South Beach was awesome. Pastor Ariel brought several people from his church and his wife even led worship. The next day I went to Ft. Lauderdale for the first time and that was the day that I heard from God that I was supposed to go back there on Spring Break, which became our first big annual mission.
Now, after 4 years and nearly 30 trips to nearly 20 cities, I am AMAZED at all the Lord has done to sustain this movement of Awaken Florida. He’s provided all the time, money, people and power, and… on top of that, we’ve ever seen a MASSIVE transformation in our state over that same period of time. It has been SO encouraging!
More details about that transformation can be seen here- Team Jesus Update July 17th, 2025 – Awaken Florida
So, bringing it back to last week- there I was at Bayfront Park on Friday, on the 4-year anniversary of doing my very first Awaken Florida event, and since it was raining so much there was almost nobody to minister to, so I just walked around the park and praised Jesus for all He has done over the past 4 years. I was also in awe of how the Lord timed it so that I was at the exact place where I met Pastor Ariel’s sister in 2021, which led to the entire confirmation.
While walking, I was also playing the song on repeat that someone sent me the day of my first mission trip, called “we will ride”. It is a very prophetic and powerful song:
I also kept sensing the Lord saying, “Your first term is over, but I’m re-electing you. Are you willing to serve another term?”
As it says in the song, I enthusiastically said “YES LORD!” Speaking of that, I’ll be sharing some exciting news in the days to come about our upcoming trips. We’ve got St. Augustine, Key West, Tallahassee and New England coming up soon!!
Saturday was a great day too. Thankfully, that day we got to minister to the Lord AND to people. There was definitely a smaller crowd at Riverwalk though because of the rain, but despite that, a bunch of people came over in the beginning and made professions of faith and received prayer. Here’s a little bit of video of that:
We also got a few of the kids activated in evangelism by having them hand out tracts, which was great. Then, at another point several teenage boys sat down and listened to the gospel and then came and got books, which was great to see.
Sunday, we had an army with us, it was awesome.
It was a true Jesus Party too, complete with 3 drummers, 2 of which were from the drum circle. Many people were drawn in all throughout the night, even when the drum circle came into the pavilion. Many people were ministered to and one woman even got baptized. It was awesome. Here’s a little video reel of how things went down.
Here’s a few pics:
This is the second week in a row that we have seen “cross over” with the drum circle. Last week they drummed to our stereo worship and this week to our live worship. Could the Lord be doing something new? I believe!!!
BIG thanks to Bridget, Amber, Laney, Mike M, Mike F, Mike V, Chuck, Debbie, Joe, Michelle, Gene, Mike K, Rochelle, Natalie, Tom, Jody and fam, Renee and friends, Thom and everyone else who came out to serve. Great work!!!
Hope to see you soon!
CV