Happy Thursday family! Hope all is well!
Although it’s been another great week on the mission fields, I’ll start out with the “bad news” of the past week. Last time, I wrote extensively about the tragic loss in the school board election, and that situation has officially gone from bad to worse.
Just as conservatives across America were emboldened by our school board victory 4 years ago…the recent liberal victory has done the same thing for their side. In fact, just like the conservative win of 2022, this liberal win has made national news and is being used as a model for how libs can take back their local school boards.
Here’s one of the new Sarasota School Board members gloating about it on Rachel Maddow the other night:
As I’ve said before, I believe that this will become a massive catalyst for local believers to join the Great Commission AND to get more involved in local government, so let’s keep that lifted up. On that note, PLEASE try to make it to the upcoming school board meetings. The next one is on 9/15 at 6pm.
Now for the good news…
On Friday, we had good foot traffic at Bayfront Park, and we got to sow a lot of seeds. We also had a very profound Divine appointment.
It all began when I saw something I’ve never seen at outreach before- a man with a giant snake on his neck.
As that man was talking to a young lady, asking her if she would like to wear the snake for a picture, 3 college guys got out of a nearby car and walked over towards the man to “get in line” to wear the snake.
I just happened to be standing right by where they were waiting, so I greeted them with our typical “God bless you, Jesus loves you.” Then, I looked down and saw that one of the guys was wearing a What Would Jesus Do (WWJD) bracelet, so I commented on it.
The young man’s name was Allesandro, and he is a college student on vacation from Connecticut. As we got to talking, he began to open up to me a lot about the struggle he’s been in.
He told me that he gave his life to the Lord about a year ago, and that he had felt like he was growing in his faith. That was until he was dumped pretty badly by his girlfriend. He said that the breakup crushed him and that he has had a really hard time keeping his faith ever since.
He also said that for the past month he’s been drinking a lot and that he felt like he was going back to his old life. He also told me that just a few hours before he met us, he broke down and finally cried out to God for help. Then, there he was at Bayfront Park, literally standing in line to see a snake, and he reconnected with the Lord.
God encountered him in a powerful way too. We spoke for close to an hour and he was in tears. He truly had a personal revival that night, and he could really sense Gods sovereignty over his life. He also got a ton of counsel and encouragement to help him stay on the narrow road, so we are keeping him lifted up as he goes back to school.
What else was crazy was that he told me that he’d been wearing the WWJD bracelet for months and not even one person had ever commented on it. Not too long ago, he even started to feel strongly that whoever says something about it to him first will be a special messenger from God. WILD!
Here we are:
Shortly after this encounter, I left the team in charge so I could drop in on an evangelism training that was happening down the street. It was a group of about 15 from Victory Church, and the lead evangelists invited me to come and share. It was pretty cool that I had this powerful testimony to tell them right when I walked in!
I spoke to them and ministered to them for about an hour, and everyone seemed very blessed by it. I got some really good feedback afterwards too, including this:
Here’s a pic of the group that someone took
Here’s a precious video someone took of them doing their first “Team Jesus!”
So thankful that the team was willing to hold things down (and pack things up) in my absence!
On that note, let me give a shout out to Right Hand Mike McManus. We celebrated his birthday the other night at Oak and Stone on the Bradenton Riverwalk:
Mike, more than any other singular individual, has been the main reason why we’ve been able to stay so consistent in the 941 while also taking over 35 mission trips to over 25 cities. Because of his help, we’ve been able to sow the Gospel for 439 weeks at Siesta, 335 weeks at Bayfront, and 263 weeks at Riverwalk. Mike being willing to step up and fill in on a moment’s notice has helped us fulfill one of our fundamental missions, which is that
“the fire on the altar must be kept burning”
Leviticus 6:9
Be sure to give Mike a big hug next time you see him!
On Saturday, we were celebrating our 5-year anniversary at Riverwalk, and I was tickled that it landed on the same day (8/22) as the day we started in 2021.
Here’s a clip that someone got of me sharing some testimonies.
The entire night was great. It started with us sharing the gospel and praying with 5 teenage girls, and then we had a steady stream of people coming over after that.
At one point, this young man whom we led to the Lord a few weeks ago came to get prayer and counsel.
He started opening up to us about how he was having a hard time resisting temptation, and I felt led to give him a pretty deep message about spiritual warfare and the devils tactics. I was probably talking about it for a good 10 minutes, when all of a sudden, a woman walked by with a shirt that made my jaw drop:
Can’t make this up!
At another point, a young man whom we led to the Lord about a year ago, came up and started telling me that he’s trying to get his dad saved. SO Cool! Here we are:
Then it was cool to minister to this man and his son. They were listening to me preach for a while and then I spoke with them afterwards. He has a CRAZY testimony about how a massive steel wall fell on him and how God miraculously saved his life. He said he has been trying to follow Jesus ever since but was having his struggles. He definitely needed counsel and prayer, so it was truly a Divine appointment.
A little later on more young men came up and prayed with us to recieve the Lord too.
It was defintely a memorable anniversary on many levels.
And it was so cool that our bro Pat/Paul came out because he was actually with us on the very first night in 2021. He also has the claim to fame of taking the most epic Riverwalk picture ever, which was taken on the very first night.
Talk about a sign of God’s Glory!
Sunday was a good night too. It had rained pretty hard, so the drum circle was in the pavilion, but we definitely had some Divine appointments. The most profound was with one of the young evangelists that has been coming out with us. He got a word of knowledge for a guy on the beach, and it broke his heart open to receive the Lord on the spot.
It was also cool to minister to a few people that were believers but needed a touch. One was a man from PA, and another was a local woman who is the single mom of a little baby. It was also cool to plant another seed in Vivian, the little girl whose mom drums in the drum circle. The mom is open but lost. It’s so cute to hear the stories her mom tells though. I guess Vivian brings up my name at home and tells her mom that she wants to be more like me. So precious.
Here’s one quick video I got that night while we were ministering:
Never a dull moment!
BIG thanks to Amber, Amber, Gene, Susan, Thom, Kim, Theresa, Pat/Paul, Marjorie, Michelle, Larry, Bram, Gavin and Mike for coming out!!!
Oh and one last little thing I’ll share is this picture I saw on Facebook. The entire Venice High School football team praying.
So cool that they would do this and that they would publicize it!! Definitely shows us how hungry (and bold) this generation is for Jesus and how timely to see this at a Sarasota County public school as we are going through this school board tragedy. Such a great reminder that the Gospel is our first and best hope for humanity.
Hope to see you soon on the mission fields! The Harvest is ripe!!!
CV