Happy Thursday Fam! Hope all is well!
I didn’t even think about this until I went to write this report but today is a very special day for the ministry. Today marks exactly 6 years since we launched the Bayfront Park outreach, which was on March 26th, 2020.
Flashback: Our Governor (under massive pressure from the media), had just days earlier closed all Florida beaches, which effectively shut down our outreach ministry. Up to that point, we had been ministering on Siesta Beach every Saturday for nearly two full years, so the closure put us in a bit of a dilemma. We had to decide whether we were going to wait until the beaches reopened…or find another place to minister.
To be honest, the thought of not ministering during the lockdowns seemed like the dumbest thing we could do, so we prayed and asked God where to go. He told us to go to Bayfront Park.
From the very first time we went there we had amazing Divine appointments. And, given the uncertainty of the COVID situation, and the intense fear that so many were experiencing, we saw incredible hunger in the people we met there. Sadly, I was SO bad back then about getting videos of our outreaches, but here’s one from those early days where you can see many people gathered to listen. We would see things like this a lot.
During the 5 weeks when the beach was closed, my office was also closed so we ministered at Bayfront Park nearly every day. This was the first time in my ministry life that evangelism was a primary focus of my daily activities and it REALLY whet my appetite for more outreach.
By mid-May, the beaches were reopened and we knew we had to keep Bayfront Park as our second outreach location. So, from that point on we made it our Friday spot and kept Siesta for Saturday. We’ve been at Bayfront every Friday since.
Looking back on this chapter of my life, I can say with all confidence that had the lockdowns not happened, I would very likely still just be doing my once-a-week Siesta outreach, with no other local outreaches or mission trips. The entire experience was like of Divine realignment into a brand-new way of life and ultimately a brand-new calling. In fact, less than one year later, in February of 2021, I had already decided and announced that I was backing down from my practice to focus more on the ministry.
It’s amazing how God turns what the devil meant for evil around for good!
As for this past weekend, it was a great time.
On Friday, we had good foot traffic, and we got to pray for several people. It was great to have some warriors from Revival Church with us that night too. The most powerful Divine appointment happened right as we were leaving. A woman saw us praying and came up and asked if we could pray for her. She told us that her good friend had just killed himself that morning, so she felt like God sent us there to comfort her.
On Saturday, we linked up with Generation Church again and we had a powerful time. Many people received gifts, tracts and prayer, and many prayed to receive Jesus. I even got to share the gospel with a young man who had never heard it before, which was awesome. Here’s just a few pics:
Here’s some video clips:
It was also really cool to see a huge group of mostly Hispanic evangelists that came with English and Spanish Jesus signs. There must have been 40 of them total, but I only got a picture of a few:
On Sunday, we had a pretty action-packed night at Siesta. There were tons of youth there for Spring Break, and I could see many of them listening as I preached. Throughout the night they were coming over and asking for prayer, even while I was preaching, and maybe close to 10 prayed to receive Jesus.
Here’s a pic of a group of young men that came towards the end:
Then, when we were packing up the van, a man walked by and asked a few questions. We talked with him and he said he was following the Rastafarian religion. I talked to him about Jesus and the Bible for well over 30 minutes and he soaked everything up. I even spoke to him the next day and he was really touched by our conversation and is starting to seek more of Jesus. Super cool how God put that together!
Here he is:
Speaking of Spring Break, I saw that Revive Church (one of our partner churches from the east coast), sent a team to Ft Lauderdale last weekend too. They saw lots of fruit and even baptized several people.
And speaking of Spring Break baptisms, our sister Geraldine just made this video the other day showing the Holy Spirit outpouring that we saw in Ft Lauderdale that led to 7 spontaneous baptisms. Such a powerful moment!!
Click here- https://www.facebook.com/share/v/18HNyF4Htw/
One last thing to share is the recording of a message I gave at The Front on Monday. Michelle Skorski asked me to share, and the main message on my heart was one on sexual immorality. I mainly focused on the prophesies from Revelation 17-19 about how a sexual immorality movement will sweep the earth before Jesus returns.
Check it out here:
That’s all for today! Hope to see you this weekend!!!
CV