Greetings Family of God! Happy Good Friday!
As I kicked off this Holy Day, I was encouraged to see over a thousand believers show up for the “Stations of the Cross” event in downtown Sarasota. It was a unified effort between 14 different denominations, and it was very reverent and very powerful.
Here’s one video I took of the worship at one of the stations.
Such a great witness to our community!
On another note, as you may know, I usually like to send these updates out on Thursday but yesterday was a busy and special day for us. Sofiya and I celebrated 4 years of marriage!! Here’s us on our date last night:
I’m SO SO SO grateful for my Proverbs 31 wife!!!
(and BIG thanks to Chris and Geraldine for babysitting Natalie so we could have our first date alone in months!)
Speaking of anniversaries, the ministry had a big one this week too- on March 31st, we celebrated 8 full years of doing outreach!
We began on Easter Saturday 2018, with a tiny speaker and no idea what we were doing. Now, 8 years later, we’ve done over 1000 outreaches, ministered in over 20 cities, activated over a hundred evangelists, raised and invested over $100,000, and sown a Gospel seed into about 400,000 people in person. Only by the grace of God!!
Here’s one pic from that first night:
There’s a pretty incredible backstory to how God called me to start this ministry, which includes a number of prophetic and supernatural events that took place over a 12-year period.
You can read about it here- Awaken 941 Prophetic History – Awaken Florida
As for this past weekend, it was definitely a powerful one.
On Friday night at Bayfront Park, we had more traffic than I had seen in a while. Many people were stopping to talk and pray, and praise God, we also had a solid crew of 8 that came to help (which we really needed!).
Here’s a few pics
The next morning, I went to the “No-Kings” protest to preach the Gospel, and it was actually a pretty good and seemingly fruitful experience. I centered much of my messaging around the phrase “we want no king, but King Jesus” and people by and large responded pretty favorably to that. Of course, as you’d expect, I did get some pushback, but it was way less than the last one I preached at.
I also tried something I’d never tried before- I brought the speaker on top of the van and preached from the roof! Here’s a pic of the setup:
Here’s one video from the roof:
The best part of the entire day though was seeing my dad. He came to the protest with a sign, and when he saw me, he came up to me and tried to give me the sign. I told him that I wanted a sign that said, “No King but King Jesus” and he smiled. He took a picture of me, walked away, and I think he stayed close enough to hear me preaching because a little later he posted this on our family chat:
If you’ve heard me share much about my dad, you’ll realize why seeing this made my year.
When I got saved, my dad was still a pretty committed atheist and he never opened his heart up to the Lord until just a few years ago. And, although he’s received prayer (and even prayed for me once), and has shown interest in the ministry and various testimonies, I’ve never actually heard him make a profession of faith.
So, to see him publicly acknowledge that Jesus is the “One King” (and even capitalize the O and the K) was next level AMAZING. Please keep him lifted up and believe with me that he will continue to grow in the revelation of Jesus. And get delivered from the democrat party!
Saturday evening was powerful too. There was a huge art festival happening at Riverwalk, so we had to shift our plans a little bit, but God really moved. I even had some powerful Divine appointments while I was walking around looking for a spot to set up, including with a backslidden man whose uncle was a pastor.
Once we set up our table, many people came to pray with us, including players on a soccer team from Cincinnati:
It’s so cool to see what the Lord is doing in this team. We actually met them 2 years ago at Riverwalk, and one of the players got radically healed of a leg injury after Mike Kramer prayed for him. The kid was limping around in pain one minute…and literally sprinting with no pain the next. It was powerful.
After the players witnessed this, they listened to the Gospel and prayed to receive the Lord. This a pic from that night in 2024:
The following year, they were in town again playing in the same tournament, and they came to the Riverwalk again. That night, God touched them in a powerful way again:
So, the fact that they came to Riverwalk to see us again was so cool. They are actually on a club team that funnels players onto FC Cincinnati, which is a pro soccer team in the MLS league. Because of that, some of these kids might become pro athletes in the future and have a huge platform to share Jesus with the world. How cool is that!?
Here’s the whole team last Saturday:
The most powerful moment of the night though was when we ran into a young man named Thomas, whom we’ve known for several years.
We prayed with Thomas to receive Christ back in February 2023 at Riverwalk. Here he is the night we met him:
When we met him, he was living on the streets with his mom and siblings, and in addition to praying for his salvation, we also prayed for God to open a door for housing.
About 8 months later we saw him again at Riverwalk and he told me that he was going to church regularly, reading his bible, and staying on the narrow path. He also told me that shortly after we prayed, God opened a door for him and his family to have a place to live in Tampa. He was so happy and excited, and he gave God all the Glory.
About a year after that, in October of 2024, I saw him at Riverwalk again and he told me that he was about to start at The River Bible Institute and that he felt the call to become a Pastor. This was us that day:
However, last October, I saw Thomas at the No Kings protest- and he was dressed in rainbow gear. After he listened to me preach for a few minutes, he took the rainbow gear off, and when I finished preaching, he came to me almost crying. He said that he had fallen back into sin and that he needed help and prayer. I ministered to him for a little bit and then continued to preach. It was a massive Divine appointment.
It was SO crazy to run into him on Saturday, 6 months later, (again on the day of the No Kings protest), and to hear from him that he’s doing a lot better than he was when i last saw him. Praise God!
On Sunday, the beach was PACKED with youth on Spring Break, and we had nonstop action the entire night. Here’s a few pics:
Here’s one video of people coming over to the table. It was like this for most of the night:
And here’s a cool video of a man praying to receive Jesus:
So amazing to see God drawing people!
It was also a pretty powerful moment when we met a woman on vacation whose father (who was a believer) had just died that morning. She said that at the last minute she decided to come to the beach and seeing us was such a powerful sign from God. She was even crying while I was praying for her. Here we are:
BIG thanks to all those that came to serve our Lord this weekend- Debbie, Chuck, Daniel, Mike V, Pastor Jacob and family, Paola, Steven, Sarath, Thom, Gene, Amber, Mike M, Laney, Sosa and family, Susan and Alan.
Another cool thing that I saw this week was a prayer meeting at the White House. Various faith leaders came to lift up the Name of Jesus, and they prayed for things that really resonate with people like us- mass salvations, the fire of the Holy Spirit and national awakening. It was powerful!
This weekend will be a very special and powerful one, and we are excited to partner with Hope International Ministries on Saturday too.
Hope to see you on the mission fields! Love and blessings!
C, S, N & Y