Greetings Family! Hope all is well!
This past week was a fruitful one on the mission fields and it was also one when I had a nice trip down ministry memory lane.
It was 5 years ago last week when I was in a session with a long-time client, and I was telling her about my upcoming ministry plans. I had recently made the decision to semi retire from my medical practice to focus on doing more evangelism, and I had even more recently opened my own 501 c3 charity so that I could get a tax write off for all the money that I was investing into the ministry.
As I was sharing this with my client, she asked me if other people could donate to the ministry also. Of course, I said yes, but I also told her that I wasn’t really trying to raise any money because I felt like I should fund it all myself.
Looking back, it almost makes me laugh at how naive I was in that moment of the scope of what I was being called in to.
After she gently rebuked me for my “I can do it all by myself” attitude, she told me that she would have a check ready for me the next day. When I came to her house to pick it up, I was SHOCKED when she gave me a check for $10,000. This was my first official ministry donation, and it is what allowed me to buy my giant van.
She also gave me this card, which was such a huge encouragement as I was stepping out into this uncharted water.
Then she prophesied over me and told me that her seed was the first fruits of what was coming. She told me that in the days to come, I would receive 10x that amount in donations. Well, here we are 5 years later, and the Lord has already fulfilled her prophetic word and then some. And because of this abundant provision, we’ve been able to fund dozens of mission trips to take the Gospel to hundreds of thousands of people all across Florida and beyond.
This provision has also allowed us to have a continual supply of gifts and resources to give away, like my favorite resources- the “God’s Promises for Your Every Need” book.
On that note, I looked back at my order history for this year, and I saw that we are on pace to shatter our record for most books given away in a single year.
We set the record in 2024 by giving away 300 books.
We destroyed that record in 2025 by giving away 678 books.
So far this year we have already given away 439.
And since we only give these to people that either pray with us to receive Christ or who are newer in the faith and want to go deeper, this increase definitely shows that there is an ever-increasing hunger for Jesus in our state. Praise the Lord!
One other thing this week that has sparked a trip down memory lane was going to the YEX Youth camp at Christian Retreat. I first came to this in 2009 when The Front team was leading it, and it was at that event when I got baptized in the Spirit and began speaking in tongues.
I’ve been nearly every year since then and it is always so encouraging to see hundreds of teens going after Jesus. Here’s one video I took this year:
On Friday, rain came through right as we were about to start the outreach at Bayfront, so we got delayed about 45 minutes. Right after I got out of the van though I met a woman named Claire who told me that she needed prayer because she was addicted to crack. She was a believer and knew she needed a change. We prayed and had a really good conversation, and it seemed like she got some breakthrough.
Here she is:
There was still a sprinkle most of the night, so the traffic was pretty light. Despite that, a number of people took tracts, and we did have a few other Divine appointments. One was with a young couple on vacation from New York. He said that he was raised as a believer, but he humbly admitted he had been astray. She said she had very little understanding of the faith at all.
I ministered to them for a while, shared the Gospel with them, and then prayed with them both. It seemed to reignite the man’s fire as well as ignite a little fire in the woman. I’m praying that continues while they are back home.
One other cool thing about the night was the epic double rainbow we had over Bayfront:
On Saturday, when I arrived at Riverwalk, Paul and I were at the curb talking, and a young man whom we led to the Lord in 2023 came walking up. We have seen him several times since then, and at one point he was even enrolled in Bible school to become a pastor.
He’s had some challenges over the past year or so though, so it was good to see him and encourage him.
As we were talking to him, we kept hearing this angelic sound coming from the Amphitheater. When we went to investigate what it was, I was stunned. It was a huge choir singing songs to Jesus.
I came to find out that they are part of a Hispanic church that was celebrating its 100th anniversary by going to various cities in Florida and having the choir sing. The church originated in Mexico but has many campuses in Florida. The Bradenton location was the first one in Florida, which is why they were in Bradenton that night.
I had told Paul earlier that after the epic America 250 celebration that we had the previous week at Riverwalk, I felt like God would do something memorable to kick off the new Jubilee cycle. How fitting that He sent a choir to release praise over the same spot, while they were celebrating the Jubilee of their church.
The rest of the night was awesome. Tons of people came to the park and lots of people came to receive gifts and prayer. We were very shorthanded though, so it was tough to maximize all the opportunties, but despite that it was still very fruitful.
At one point, there were massive groups of teens at the park and the police actually brought out 4 squad cars full of officers to watch over things. When one of the kids set off some fireworks, the police locked the entire park down and made us all leave. It was just after 9.
I came to find out that it was a “Teen Takeover” attempt, which I’d never heard of. Read more about that below.
Funny enough, Paul and I had actually been toying with the idea of going to see the movie Young Washington, and this forceful ending to the outreach allowed us to get there just in time. Such a powerful movie btw!
On Sunday, we had a much bigger crew, so we were able to minister to a lot of people. Now that summer is in full swing, lots of families are coming down with their kids on vacation, so lots of people were coming over for gifts and prayer. It was great!
BIG thanks to Mike, Thom, Amber, Gene, Paul, Paola, Bailey, Carson, Gavin, Tom M, and Joe for coming out! Great work!
Please join us on the mission fields this weekend, and please keep me lifted up as I make plans and arrangements to minister in New England at the end of this month.
Love and blessings,
CV
P.S. Have you seen this on the news? Mainstream media is actually covering Israels plans to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem, and they are quoting end times prophetic scriptures on their program. What a time to be alive!