Happy Friday Family! Hope you’ve had a great week!
Although I’m excited that we are just over a week away from America turning 250, I’m a little sad that we only have a few more days left of Faith and Family Month. Time flies!
On that note, it was fun last Friday to open our mailbox and see an official copy of Governor Desantis’ proclamation:
And very appropriately, on the final weekend of Faith and Family Month, we will be bringing a team of missionaries to the biggest “Pride” event in Florida- St Pete Pride.
St Pete Pride has actually been the biggest Pride event in the entire Southeastern United States for several years, but praise God- the entire movement (especially in Florida) is really starting to weaken. In fact, check out what the President of St Pete Pride had to say about what is happening to the Pride movement in this year’s event guide:
He even stated in this news interview that the event is $146,000 in the hole due to the pull out of corporate sponsorships as well as a new Florida law that prevents local governments from helping to fund anything related to DEI.
And on top of that, check out the results of a recent poll that asked Americans what their views are regarding the morality of homosexuality:
You can see the big drop amongst independents and republicans, and this translates to a 6 point drop in society overall. This is making many within the movement rethink how they promote their messages while also making many companies rethink whether they should continue to fund Pride events.
Praise God that altars are coming down!
Speaking of altars coming down, our Joy Project team had to privilege of meeting and having dinner with some of the people from the First Liberty Institute the other night. This is me with one of their top attorneys Jeremy Dys:
They are the leading law firm that represents people who are targeted for practicing or expressing their faith, and they have argued 11 cases before the Supreme Court…and won all 11.
They even argued several cases in recent years (including the “Coach Kennedy” case) that led to the Supreme Court tearing down decades old precedents (altars), which opened the door for much more Christian expression in public schools and other governmental spaces.
You can read more about them here- First Liberty Institute – First in the Fight for Your Religious Liberty
As for the outreaches last weekend- they were great.
On Friday night, the park was packed, and we had some really good conversations with people. Early on a young man on vacation from Atlanta named Sebastian talked to us and he told us that he was raised Catholic but had been away from the faith for 13 years.
He said that he had been feeling the pull to come back to the Lord for a while and that seeing us was a sign. He was so moved by the fact that we were out there, and he prayed with us to receive the Lord. Here he is:
We also got to speak with a woman named Sharma, whom we met at Bayfront a few years ago. She was stuck in the Jehovah’s Witness cult back then and she told us that she has since left it. She said that meeting us was a meaningful moment in her spiritual journey and that now she’s reading the Bible more and trying to discern the truth about God.
We had a good conversation, where we got to help her dispel some false theology and help her to better understand the Gospel. It was really cool to see God working in her life.
Towards the end of the night, as we were packing up, we met a couple on vacation from New Jersey- Jade and Jeff. They are originally from China, and they had just recently gotten married. We shared the Gospel with them, and it was pretty much new revelation. They both opened their hearts to the Lord and prayed to receive Christ.
Interestingly, Jade had on a cross necklace, but she said she picked it only because she liked how it looked. Cool that she was kind of prophesying over herself through the necklace that she would one day come to Jesus. Here they are:
On Saturday, the crowd at Riverwalk was much smaller but we still had some great God moments.
We gave out lots of gifts and tracts, and a number of kids (and some adults) came and prayed with us. Here’s a few.
This little boy broke my heart. He came and got a gift, and I asked him about his relationship with God. He told me that he went to church until his dad “abandoned him” a while back and then his family stopped going. I was so startled by that.
I prayed with him and spent some time encouraging him, and the boy hung around with us for most of the night. Hept telling me how thankful he was that we were out there and what a blessing we were. It was SO precious.
Here he is, his name is Andre:
This woman came up and opened up about her walk with God and told us that she had never asked Jesus into her heart. Debbie asked her if she wanted prayer for God to become real to her and she said yes. After she prayed, she could feel the Holy Spirit, and she said she wanted to receive Jesus, so Debbie prayed with her. It was a powerful moment.
Here she is:
Praise God there was also a group from a Hispanic church that came out to minister at Riverwalk that night too, so we linked up with them a little bit which was cool. Here’s me with the Pastor and my friend Carlos who goes to the church:
We had a great night at Siesta too. LOTS of people were there and many people came by for gifts, tracts and prayer. Of course, being that it was Fathers Day, much of what we shared centered around the reality of the Fathers love and His desire for us to beco e His kids.
Here’s a few clips from the night:
On another note, check out this video that was taken last week at Siesta. It was uploaded to the Siesta Key facebook page and someone sent it to me. Not sure what they are doing but it seems to be more evidence of how badly satan wants to use that beach for his purposes:
We defintely need to keep our foot on the gas!
BIG thanks to everyone who came out to serve this past weekend. Hope to see you on the mission fields again soon!
C, S, N & AY
PS- Isaac Farias is the contact person for this Saturday at Riverwalk. The outreach event will be going on at the Amphitheater and while I’m in St. Pete, everyone can join him/them and minister there instead of at Rossi Park.
