Greetings my friend! Happy Thursday!
What an incredible thing it was to see our Governor officially announce on Monday that the Sunshine state has just been ranked #1 in America for religious liberty!
This achievement was largely driven by several key bills that have been passed over the last few years:
And as I’ve often said, the mandate of the Sunshine state is to actually be the SON shine state, so praise God we are living up to the call!
To give some context, this achievement is really just a symptom of the dramatic spiritual and political transformation we’ve seen over the past 8 years.
In fact, when we started the ministry back in March of 2018, Florida was still considered a purple swing state. We had 8 years of strong leadership under Governor Rick Scott, but in 2018, we were still finding our way. That year, in November, our future fearless leader Ron Desantis ran for his first term as Governor against a man who was a “democratic socialist” and whose campaign was funded by George Soros. Here are a few of his policies. He would have essentially made Florida become California.
Read more about him here- FLORIDA: If Andrew Gillum, a Socialist running as a Democrat for Governor is elected, Muslim illegal aliens will have a new sanctuary state to invade | The United West
Between his ultra-liberal policies, his media enhanced personality, and his war chest of money, this Governor’s race became a national focus during the 2018 election. CNN even aired one of their debates to a national TV audience, fully believing that Gillum could not only win the Governor’s race, but could one day compete nationally.
When the election was over, Desantis had a small lead, but 2 counties in Florida colluded with Democrat leaders to steal the election by using the same tactic they used on Trump in 2020- fraudulent mail in ballots. Palm Beach County and Broward County continued to count mail in ballots for several days following the election, and after seeing that there was malfeasance going on, Rick Scott called out the fraud and sent in law enforcement to seize the ballots and do a full recount. Here’s a news clip of the story:
Once all the votes were counted, Ron Desantis had won by one of the narrowest margins in Florida’s history- 32,463 votes (0.4%).
Here’s the county by county map:
Then, over the next 4 years, we watched our fearless leader take bold and courageous stands during COVID, we saw many across our state be awakened by the power of God, and we saw other freedom loving patriots move here from places of persecution. All this culminated in something AMAZING- A total political reorientation in just 4 years.
This was Desantis’ 2022 re-election results. It was one of the biggest victories in Florida’s history:
Here is the 2022 county by county map:
And here are the changes we’ve seen regarding party affiliation:
Of course, even though some of them have probably moved away (although I doubt many have), it is wild to think that so many people in Florida have left the Democrat party. Definitely a sign of an awakening!
We’ve also seen massive changes in school boards, with conservatives going from controlling school boards in 44 counties to 55 counties.
And, we also became the first state to say NO to a pro-abortion amendment since the overturning of Roe v Wade:
All this combined has caused us to become the DeFacto state that other states who want to see similar transformations look to for inspiration and guidance:
And I do find it interesting (and prophetic) that Desantis chose to come to Sarasota to make the announcement about us become the top state for religious liberty too. Definitely a sign to all of us who are exercising that liberty on a regular basis!
Here’s the video of his entire speech. What is also amazing is that we are also #1 in a bunch of other categories too. God is REALLY blessing HIS great state!
I must say, given that this transformation has directly coincided with the birth and expansion of our ministry and given that as we’ve gone to more and more Florida cities, we’ve seen an increase in the expressions of the Kingdom in our state- I can’t help but feel like we had a part to play in all this. Whether that is true or not, seeing it all definitely gives me a lot of motivation to keep doing what we’re doing! Especially now that we are also seeing it spill over onto the entire nation!
Back to local outreach news…
On Friday, we had our brother Karson back at the helm, which was great. There was also a good amount of foot traffic at the park. Many tracts were given out and many seeds were sown. Two interactions that I had really stood out. One was with a man named Chris, whom I had met at Bayfront Park about two years ago. He told me that God has really been working on him and that meeting us was a real turning point.
Later, I met a man named Christian, who shared his testimony with me. While doing so, he realized that we were the same people that baptized him at Siesta Beach last fall. It was during one of the spontaneous mass baptisms we had (which we had just been talking about at fellowship the night before). He also told me that meeting us was a turning point for him. Here we are:
Very cool to get a glimpse of the longer-term fruit of our ministry!
One other thing that was pretty cool was that someone left this on my car:
Nice to know there are other people out there evanglizing along side us!
On Saturday, we had a great day at Riverwalk and ministered to LOTS of kids. At one point, there was a small line that formed for the gift table and one by one they took tracts, heard the gospel and prayed to receive Jesus. Maybe 6-7 in total. It was awesome!
Another cool moment was when I said on the microphone that if anyone wanted to know the meaning of their name, to come up and we would look it up and tell them. That is something I’ve NEVER said on the mic before.
About 10 minutes later, a girl came up and asked me to tell her the meaning of her name, which was Chloe. I first showed her the passage in the Bible where her name is mentioned, and she was amazed. Then, I looked up the meaning in different languages and the consensus meaning was “a blossoming flower.” I shared with her an entire message about this that I felt was from the Lord and when I got done, I realized that she had blossoming flowers on her shirt:
She was pretty moved by the sign, and not only did she pray to receive Jesus, but she hung around us for quite a while afterwards too. It was so cool!
I also met two young teenage girls who were cousins. One told me that she used to be Muslim, and she became a Christian a few years ago. The other one told me she’s Muslim, but only because of her parents. I shared the gospel with them, and they took tracts and God’s promises books.
Then, a little later a 14-year-old young man came over and encouraged us in what we were doing. We talked for a little bit, and he told me that he follows Jesus but needed to become bolder with his witness. I prayed for him, handed him the mic, and told him to start right then. And he did! Here he is:
So cool to see him get activated!
On Sunday, the beach was packed and there were tons of young people there. We met some hungry ones too, like Chase, who came up right in the beginning. He told me that he had just driven 19 hours from Ohio to get there and had never been to Siesta before. He also said he didn’t know much about Jesus but was interested. I talked to him for a bit, he prayed to receive the Lord, and he took a bunch of our materials. Here he is:
Then, a little later his 4 friends came over and we ministered to them for a while and all of them were open too. I prayed with them to receive Jesus too and then they took materials. Here’s them after they left:
We also gave out tons of tracts and got to pray with many kids as well. Then, later in the night we met a brother named Larry who had been healed of paralysis (which the doctors said he wouldn’t recover from), as well as from cancer. His story was powerful, and I told him that he needed to share it with people, and he agreed. He said he eventually wanted to write a book but didn’t really share the story with people outside of 1 off conversations.
I knew he needed to be activated too, so I gave him the microphone, and he actually had a little cheering section as he shared. It was really cool. Here he is:
All in all, it was such a great weekend! BIG thanks to Gene, Bridget, Karson, Thom, Mike M, Augast, Amber, Sarath, Jenny, Mike F, Mike V, Michelle, Justin, and Ken for coming out to serve! Great work everyone!!
This weekend we will be ministering in the 941 and then on Monday, I am leaving for an important mission in Tennessee. It is the 100th anniversary of the “Scopes Monkey Trial”, a legal case that opened the door for evolution to not only be taught in schools but to also be believed by the masses. I will be praying over the courthouse where the trial was held and prophesying that God’s story of Creation will come back into public school curriculums…and into the hearts of American’s.
Here’s a video explaining the trial:
On that note, one thing that seems like first fruits of this shift in school curriculums came just days ago, when President Trump won a Supreme Court case that would allow him to essentially dismantle the Department of Education:
Let’s believe that the day is coming soon when millions of young Americans will NO LONGER be taught that God doesn’t exist, that they are here for no reason, and when they die it’s all over. In Jesus name!
Love and blessings!
Chris