Greetings Family of God! Happy Thursday!
I am VERY excited about what is brewing in our area. On Tuesday morning, I was invited to a private meeting hosted by the Mayor of Palmetto- Dan West.
It was attended by a small group of local ministry leaders, and the purpose of it was to hear about the plans to make June of 2026 “Faith and Family Month” in our region. We were told that 5 mayors have already signed on to make this proclamation, and that more were being recruited.
This is me with (the very tall) Mayor of Palmetto
They also announced in the meeting that Sean Feucht is coming to do a “Let Us Worship” event at the Bradenton Convention Center on June 4th, to help kick the month off. There will also be other events and activities throughout the month that will help promote faith and family, which you can read more about on the website Faith and Family Month – Moving Families Forward by Faith
I shared during the meeting that I saw this as an incredible evangelism opportunity because it would allow us to easily share the gospel through explaining the Biblical definition of family and marriage and how they are parables for our relationship with God. Everyone seemed very excited by that. Then, as we were closing in prayer, one leader in the room got a word from the Lord that I was supposed to be a spokesperson for faith and family month. He spoke that out in the meeting, and everyone agreed.
On that note, please keep me lifted up regarding this because whenever you do anything that appears like you are coming against pride month or the gay agenda (which we sort of are) the enemy (partly through deceived people) does whatever he can to come against you and your efforts.
As for the weekend, it was powerful.
Friday night we had good weather and decent foot traffic, so a good number of people heard the gospel. It was also the night when I unveiled our new BEAST of a speaker- the Partybox 520, which sounds awesome.
The most meaningful interaction I had that night was with a young man named Leo.
Leo is in his early 20’s, and he learned about Jesus through his mother. Sadly though, he had some church hurt, some life hurt, and a VERY strained relationship with his father. All this made him skeptical of what his mom taught him. When he walked by, Thom asked him “do you want to talk about Jesus?” and he came back and talked to me for about 20 minutes.
I shared things with him related to the evidence for Christianity, what the bible says about satan, and several other things that seemed to connect with him. He listened, asked questions, and he seemed to have a slight change of heart. We had to cut things a little short so he could get his ride, but he let me pray over him and he took the God’s Promises book and some tracts before he left. It really felt like an answer to his moms’ prayers.
Here’s a pic Sofiya took:
A little later a man in his late 40’s came up to me with his wife and gave me a dollar. I asked if I could pray for him and he said, “no that’s ok.” I then asked if he follows Jesus and he told me that he didn’t. He also told me that his wife has been talking to him about Jesus for a while, which she acknowledged. I shared a few nuggets with him, but he didn’t want to stay very long. When he was leaving though his wife thanked me, as if to say that we were answer to her prayers too. Pretty cool.
There was also a group of 3 young believers who came over and got encouraged by us too. One has been following me on Instagram ever since.
On that note, let’s keep in mind that God has sent us out to minister to Christians too. This is in part because we are in the TINY minority who actually have a Biblical worldview and can counsel them from that worldview. Read more here- 6% of Christians hold a biblical worldview as syncretism rises | U.S.
Saturday, we had a very fruitful time at Riverwalk. It started with a bang when a group of kids came over right as I began speaking my opening message and announcements:
Many people were ministered to that night and many kids prayed to receive the Lord too. Here’s a few pics:
It was really awesome to see all the Jesus art that the kids drew too. God has always told me that the art was an expression of the revival happening in their hearts. Here’s a video of some of it:
Another powerful interaction was with a young woman who came to the gift table and ended up telling me that she was raised Christian but was far from God. We had a great conversation, and she prayed with me to come back to Jesus:
At another point, a young man whom we’ve ministered to several times came by with his friend who hadn’t surrendered to the Lord. I talked to him for a while, and he prayed with me to receive Jesus also. This is afterwards, when I was explaining the Gods promises book to them.
That night, Natalie also showed off her new shirt, which I love:
Can’t let all that attention she gets go to waste!
Sunday was a great night too. Not a ton of traffic, but hundreds of people still heard the Gospel. I even saw a group of Muslims listening to the Word for a while, which was AWESOME. The most powerful thing that happened that night though was that a woman from communist China, (who had NEVER heard the gospel) walked through the pavilion and listened to the Word. She then went to the gift table to ask questions, and after brother Paul explained the gospel, she prayed to receive Jesus. So amazing!
Interestingly, this was my first time back at the beach since our epic mission trip to New Orleans, LA (NOLA), and this woman’s name just happened to be…NOLA! You can’t make this stuff up!
BTW if you want to hear a rundown of what happened in NOLA check this out- https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1WKXfpCgcJ/
Another cool thing that happened that night was this young man named Zander from Michigan got ministered to for a while:
He later said this about the interaction:
So cool!
One other thing that was interesting was that a man who was part of the very first drum circles on Siesta Beach, way back in the 80’s, came through the pavilion and he stopped and talked to us. Turns out he knew Mike so after they caught up, he prayed with us in the circle. What are the odds we would pray with a founding member of the drum circle the first time I go back after NOLA?? Pretty wild!
One other cool testimony worth mentioning is that our sister Trish (aka “storm”) who we met and discipled in evangelism last summer, sent me a video of her street preaching in Iceland (where she lives now) along with this encouragement:
Pretty cool to see the (international) ripple effects of this work that the Lord has raised up!
Lastly let me give BIG thanks to all those that came to serve last weekend- Mike, Thom, Augast, Amber, Jack, Rachael, Tom, Julie, Ken, Ricardo, Jerad, Joe, Paul and Mike F. Well done everyone!
Hope to see you soon! Much love and God bless!
CV