Hey Fam! Happy Thursday!
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 five years ago this week when the Lord first sent me on mission outside the 941. And amazingly, by His grace, we’ve since led over 30 mission trips to 24 Florida 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 God 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. She lives in California now, but amazingly I ran into her (literally) at the national rededication in May:
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 working only 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 was a believer and he actually loved the idea. He said that he would be willing to work out a feasible arrangement with me, but that he needed me 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 of her sins 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 before they left town, 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.
I started recording this video towards the end of the woman’s prayer, once she had regained her composure.
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.”
The following Sunday, (which happened to be the 3-year anniversary of Billy Graham’s graduation to heaven), I made the official announcement to all my clients, former clients and prospects. Amazingly, it actually set off a little revival in my practice. People were in awe of my decision, and it made many people reconsider their view of Jesus and His importance in their own life. It was incredible to witness.
Here are just a few replies I got to my initial announcement:
Read that official announcement here- The Biggest Business Announcement I’ve Ever Made – Non Fiction Fitness
Over 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, August 9th, 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 trip. Here’s me sharing that God story.
Now, after 5 years, our team has taken over 30 trips to 24 Florida cities, and I am AMAZED at all the Lord has done to sustain this movement. 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
One other amazing thing that we saw during the past several years was a TOTAL transformation to our school board here in Sarasota County. For over 20 years our school board had a liberal majority and was pushing all kinds of demonic ideology. In 2022 though the people of God rose up and elected conservatives to the board, which flipped it from a 3-2 liberal majority to 4-1 conservative majority.
It was such a sign and a wonder that the victory was even shared on national news. Here’s the clip:
Sadly though, we lost one of these conservative seats in 2024, and this coming Tuesday all 3 of the remaining seats currently occupied by conservatives are up for grabs. Here’s a video you can share with people you know that explains what is at stake:
On that note, please join us in prayer on Friday from 6-7pm for the elections. A group of us will be gathering outside the school board offices to contend, and you can join us in person or in spirit.
Details here- Chris Vercelli wants you to check out this post on JoyProject
https://app.joyproject.com/posts/urgent-prayer-meeting-for-the-upcoming-school-board-elections?type=event
As for this past weekend, it was another great one.
On Friday, we got delayed by the rain, but we still had a fruitful time. Many people heard, a number of tracts were given out and several received prayer.
On Saturday, the weather was great and it was an incredibly fruitful time. I actually shared about it on Facebook, because it was so great. I’ve copy and pasted my post below:
This place is SO special 
Although we’ve ministered there for 261 weekends in a row, it NEVER gets old watching God show up in such diverse and powerful ways at Rossi Park.
Last night was a perfect example…
Right when I arrived, a team of 5 Hispanic evangelists were finishing up their monthly outreach. They are one of about 5 different teams that evangelizes there on a regular basis, and we blessed each other as they passed the baton.
Once we posted up, young people just kept coming and coming. We probably prayed with at least 15-20 of them to receive the Lord. Here’s one:
At another point, a young boy whom we led to the Lord there a year ago, came up and testified about how close he’s been getting with God. Then he shared on the microphone with everyone at the park.
At another point, a young girl came up, got prayer, and got filled with zeal to share Jesus with others. She loaded up on tracts and said she was going to give them to all the students at her school.
At another point, a woman came up (who was a believer) and asked us to pray for one of her family members. The woman touched heaven during prayer and began weeping.
At another point, a woman joined us for the first time, she ministered to several people, and she was SO encouraged by it that she said she wants to keep coming.
At another point, three teenage boys that were believers came up and received the baptism of the Holy Spirit and began speaking in tongues. The new woman is pictured praying here:
At another point, a strong believer that was about my age confessed his sins to me, received revelatory counsel, and walked away more confident that he could get free.
And at another point, a 16-year-old girl heard the gospel for the first time, received prayer and began to take steps towards Jesus. Screenshots of her texts with Rachael below
Then at the end of the night, everyone on our team was talking about how fun and exciting the night was and how grateful they were that we get to do this.
Honestly, how can you make a Saturday evening better than that???
And what else is SO cool is that the park is named after Anthony Rossi, the man who founded Tropicana. He was a devout Christian who gave much of his fortune to missionary work, and he helped fund the development of the Riverwalk.
You could definitely make the case that this is a place was set apart by God for EXACTLY what we are doing there.
On Sunday, we got delayed by rain and we also had to meet by the sidewalk because of the drum circle being in the pavilion. Despite that, it was still a fruitful night. Many people heard and took tracts and several received prayer. I only got one pic though:
I also shared the gospel with and prayed with a young man who didn’t know much about Jesus, which was awesome.
BIG thanks to Mike M, Amber N, Laney, Susan, Amber P, Gene, Thom, Jack, Rachael, Mike V, Paul, Paola, Kim and Michelle for coming out to serve! Great job everyone!
Let’s be praying again for the weather this coming weekend. Rain is on the forecast for Friday and Saturday.
Hope to see you on the mission fields again soon!
CV