Greetings Beloved! Happy Friday!
This past week has been an interesting one.
One week ago today, a small group of us pressed on through the earlier rain, and we met as scheduled at the Sarasota County School Board offices to intercede for the election. We were believing for it go 3 for 3 for Team Wallbuilders, hence the signs.
There were 8 of us that came out, and something interesting happened while we were there. Exactly 8 birds came and perched on the power wire above us and they stayed the entire time. Then, as soon as we finished, they left. You can them in this video, 5 on the left and 3 on the right with a clamp in between them that kind of looks like a bird but isn’t.
Since 8 is the Biblical number of new beginnings, I had hoped that this was a prophetic sign of a good change. Now I wonder if God was preparing our hearts for the new beginning (in the wrong direction) that we are about to see and have to learn to fight through.
After 4 years of conservative leadership, we are reverting back to a liberal majority. And just like the massive shift in the right direction became national news in 2022, this “new beginning” also made national news.
And of course, the man who is poised to be the next School Board Chair, (who is one of the areas leading LGBT activists), was publicly celebrating the win too.
With this man in charge, we have ALOT of praying (and who knows what else) ahead of us.
But there are some strange things about this election. Republicans crushed the Democrats on total votes casted
And the Republican endorsed candidates all won on early voting and in person voting…but they all got CRUSHED on mail in ballots
And look at how low the vote total was for our candidates, and look at the margin of victory.
It seems too suspicious to overlook, doesn’t it?
Today I actually reached out to Desantis’ office to report it. Let’s see what happens…
Last night I went to the first School Board meeting of the new school year and it was a very interesting experience.
About 15-20 angry liberals got up and spoke, and it was clear that pretty much the entire audience (of maybe 30-40) was in support of them. Several high school kids spoke too (all liberal with varying degrees of boldness) and the only “Christian” voice was a gay “pastor” who got up and spoke about how great it is that the board has changed.
No exaggeration- I was literally shaking after about 15 minutes of this, especially after the “pastor” spoke. It was like supernatural zeal came over me. I actually found something that I was going to speak on the microphone, but I found out in the middle of the meeting that I had to register beforehand to be able to speak. I will definitely be going back in the future though, and I hope to bring an army with me to at least equalize the audience.
As for the outreaches, they were great. We got to Bayfront around 7:30 and got to plant alot of good seeds and pray for a number of people. It was great to have Isaac from Ekballo out with us too.
This family came through the park and the boy came over to the cross and got ennamored. We ministered to them and it was a real God moment.
Then, we also met this young man who was really hungry for discipleship. We got saved in jail and was delivered from a very traumatic experience with the Jehovah’s Witness cult. He stayed with us for a while and I could tell it was a real God set up.
The next morning, it was a blessed time at Ekballo to get to share the Word with the congregation during the main service. There was no recording made of it but it really did happen! LOL
It was called “The Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand.” Here are the notes if you’d like to read them-
On Saturday night, it was pretty cool to see this group of hispanic evangelists at Riverwalk right when I arrived.
And then it was also cool to link up with our mighty evangelist friend Jacob and his family and team. Jacob is a youth pastor in Palmetto, and just started a house church.
It was such a good night out there too. Lots of people were drawn to the Lord that night, it was so cool. Here’s just a few pics:
One young man who just moved here from Miami even boldy responded to an altar call and surrendered to Jesus in front of everyone. Here’s a clip:
He said he had fallen away from God many years ago and was just recently starting to think about coming back. AMAZING.
Another powerful moment was seeing this small group of women get drawn to Jesus who were sitting right in front of us. They were there when we arrived and they stayed the entire night. One of the girls said she comes from a ministry family but she fell away from God years ago.
It was definitely a night where God was going after prodigals.
It was also cool to see our brother Julian, whom we led to the Lord at Riverwalk in 2021. We even saw God heal him of a learning disability and go from almost failing to being on the honor roll. He’s 14 now and still walking strong with Jesus.
On that note, this Saturday is the actual 5 year anniversary of Riverwalk, so we’d love to see you there if you’re able.
Sunday night at Siesta was great too. Hot but great. As always, we navigated through tougher ground but we still got to plant alot of good seeds, have some good conversations, pray for a number of people, and lead some people closer to Christ. I even had a pretty cool Divine appointment when I went into the drum circle to pray and juggle. Sadly only one picture was taken.
The only stain on Sunday was that Adam was there again. I am nearing the point where I will take it up a notch and get a sign to warn people about him. I’m hoping that me telling him about the video I saw online where he gets confronted by someone who has a banner that instructs people to google “adam lecroix lawsuits” to see what his agenda is, will possibly make him rethink his strategy. Please pray.
Other than that, everything is good. We are VERY excited by the momentum at The Joy Project. We are getting dozens of new users and seeing people really use the app. I even got a cool testimony from one of the leaders in our ministry network today letting us know that someone came to his outreach via the app. Praise God!
And how wild is it that this is the schedule of outreaches just within our network within our little area?
I really believe our region will become a model for many other places to follow in this regard.
We also got our first offical and public pastoral endorsement from Pastor Don Sturiano, who is a local legend. He has been the chaplain for many Bradenton and Manatee County governmental agencies for a number of years and has such a heart for evangelism.
I dropped by his church- Kingdom Life Church, on Sunday and it was a blessing to see him:
It has also been a great experience joining the various teams in our network at their outreaches and helping to support and encourage what they are doing. Here’s me with the team from Church of Hope, led by none other than our bro Nate. Nate REALLY got his start in evangelism with us and now hes an evangelism leader for a church of around 1000 people. Amazing!
In other news, our next shipment of water will have our new labels and I’m pretty pumped about that!
Lastly, lets just keep doing our part to win this region for Christ. 430,000 unchurched in Sarasota and Manatee County is a big number but we know we serve a BIG God who works through the mustard seed of faith of His people.
Hope to see you this weekend!!
CV