We’re still being called by the Lord to evangelize the same church group. Two more people received the Holy Spirit this weekend when we prayed over them. We think a third person also received the anointing, but we’d like to pray with him again to be sure. It’s great to see how God is chipping away each weekend, moving upon those that are not yet Spirit-filled to diligently seek God for the Holy Spirit.

Please keep Jessica’s husband in your prayers. We’re hoping he’ll be the “next one.” Jessica indicated that he would be open to praying with us, so we’re very hopeful. Praise God for His mighty hand upon everything that’s happening. None of it is by our doing. We’re simply putting ourselves out there as His vessels, but God’s the one that’s giving the increase. Thank you, blessed Lord!

Don met a lady while at a U-Haul office yesterday. He got chatting with her as she helped him (she is a staff member) and he soon discovered that she is already Spirit-filled. He was able to offer her lots of encouragement regarding actively using the Holy Spirit, especially making the effort to pray in tongues every day and boldly preach the fullness of the salvation message (repentance, water baptism, and seeking for the infilling of the Holy Spirit – with the evidence of speaking in tongues). He shared how we meet so many born-again believers that, unfortunately, have never been encouraged to pray in the Spirit daily. The lady welcomed Don’s stories and scriptural encouragement, which was great!

We asked Nate if he wanted us to come to his worship meeting again to pray with some more people. He was keen, so we went this last Sunday. At the end of the service, we got the opportunity to pray with two more people (on separate occasions). Nate encouraged two of his members who had yet to receive the Holy Spirit to pray with our little team and both of them were filled with the Spirit mightily, speaking boldly in tongues for the very first time (as the initial manifesting sign of having just been anointed). Praise God! It was another very joyous time with Nate’s fellowship.

We also had Nate and his family and one of the newly Spirit-filled brothers back to our house for lunch. Paula (Nate’s wife) wanted us to pray with her older son (16 years) this time, to inspire him to get praying in tongues on a daily basis. The last time he’d prayed in the Spirit was over a month ago, so we laid hands on him and prayed over him. It wasn’t long at all before Nathan (Nate’s son) was praying confidently in tongues!

The Holy Spirit also compelled us to exhort him scripturally, so please join us in praying that Nathan will lay hold upon the Word of God as it applies to his situation. We want to thank God so much for the truth and power of His Word!

Two people got filled with the Spirit this last week, and another gal got speaking in tongues again after not praying in the Holy Spirit for at least 18 months! We met their pastor after a local Concert in The Park event. He was there at the civic park playing basketball with a friend/brother in the Lord and we got talking with them both in the parking area.

Actually, it was quite funny how we met. One of us was wondering how far 358 yards is (based on something he was Googling at the time), so Don marched off, pacing out the distance across the car park and back. His calculations took him past the vehicle where the pastor and his friend were chatting. Don heard the word “church” in their conversation, so he spun around and asked them about it.

We ended up chatting with Nate (the pastor) for a very long time. He invited us to one of his worship meetings and we felt moved to go the next Sunday. A large number of his fellowship are born again, but some others have yet to receive the Holy Spirit. It was refreshing to learn that Nate understands the necessity of being born again of both water and the Spirit (John 3:5) and the significance of speaking in tongues as the first manifesting sign of being filled with the Holy Spirit, so we were hopeful that the Lord would use us to help get the rest of his assembly “on the same page.”

After praying with two of the fellowship members, we went to lunch with Nate and his family at which point we got to share many of the amazing testimonies of how the Lord has so graciously moved upon our traveling ministry. Nate’s wife (Paula) was inspired to ask us to pray with their youngest son (Mateo – 10 years old) who had been baptized in water but wasn’t yet Spirit-filled. So, we invited the family back to our house.

We enjoyed talking some more, getting to know one another and sharing stories of God’s hand, and then we all prayed over Mateo. Don then took Mateo aside to pray one-on-one with him in another room and this helped. Don encouraged him lots, and soon Mateo was praying in tongues comfortably.

It was a day filled with miracles and great fellowship. We were also inspired to hear Nate and Paula’s testimony of how their daughter was healed soon after she was born. The doctors diagnosed her with spinal meningitis. They told the parents to expect all kinds of horrible results for their little girl. The family and fellowship prayed and prayed. One day when Paula was feeling particularly taxed, a sister in the Lord phoned her and told her she was coming by. Paula was not up to it, but the sister insisted as she felt compelled by God to pray with Paula.

As they prayed together, the Lord gave them a message: “It’s not my report” (or something to that effect – we can’t remember exactly). When they went back inside the hospital, the next lot of tests came up completely clear. The medical staff tried to explain things away, saying that their systems had been out of whack and that’s why the report of spinal meningitis kept appearing. But, Paula and her family and the sister knew very well otherwise! They knew all the glory went to God in the name of Jesus Christ!

We’re currently editing a story we filmed during a super quick trip to Victoria, B.C., Canada, so keep your eyes out for the notification once we post the video. It’s a mind-blowing example of God’s perfect timing and miraculous hand. We hadn’t spoken with Aubrey for over a year and she “happened” to text us as we were landing in Victoria – quite literally (the plane was just coming in to land)! She said she wanted to talk to us more about what we had first shared with her. We texted back and said it was amazing timing as we had been gone from the country for a long while and we were only going to be in Victoria for simply one day!

We raced around, trying to get everything on our list done in time to meet with Aubrey before having to catch a ferry to the mainland that night. We had to be in Vancouver for an appointment early the next morning, so we couldn’t miss the ferry crossing.

We met with Aubrey at a Starbucks store about mid-afternoon. We “cut to the chase” fairly quickly and invited her to pray for the Holy Spirit anointing. She was very keen, so we all piled into our rental van outside of the store and prayed there. She received the Holy Spirit and was overjoyed! She was also looking to be healed from a severe brain injury with which she’d been suffering for about two years (from a car accident). She felt very hopeful after having received the Spirit, but we encouraged her that according to God’s Word, she still needed to be baptized in water.

You’ll be able to see in the video how things unfolded. We tried to go to Aubrey’s grandma’s place to do the baptism, but that didn’t work out. So we had to race to Aubrey’s place instead (which was much farther away) which, as it turned out, was a blessing and obviously God’s design. Even though things were really tight getting to the ferry on time, we managed to make it and still get the whole story on video for you to see.

It was such a great day, but it didn’t end there. We ended up receiving a bunch of texts from Aubrey, each more and more excited as she progressed. You’ll be able to read the texts in the video, but it appears she was miraculously healed from her brain injury – including restoration of her impaired eyesight! Praise our mighty God!!

We have an amazing sequel story: We recorded in an earlier post how we got talking about the Lord with a local doctor during an appointment and she invited us back at the end of the day to pray with her. We turned up at her office and in the waiting room were a bunch of other people she had invited to come and hear what we had to say. Four people got filled with the Holy Spirit that night!

Anyway, here’s what happened recently: We were on our way back from seeing a movie. It was very late at night and we felt like a snack. The only decent place that was open was our local In-N-Out burger place (they have great lettuce wrap burgers!) We walked to the outdoor patio area thinking it’d be easy to find a seat, but it was jam-packed! We had a feeling the gathering was related to some kind of church group, so we kept our radar on as we sat on the retaining wall and ate there. Very soon, we overheard a table of young people mention Scripture. But, we were only able to speak with them briefly before their family members called them as they were all leaving (it was about 12:30 a.m. by this time).

Disappointed that we didn’t get to finish our conversation with the young people, we looked around for other opportunities. Everyone had quickly gotten up and left about the same time and there was only one table of people left in the corner. We felt moved to speak with them on the way out of the patio area. As we approached the table, a lady said to us, “Hey, I know you!” It was the local doctor we’d previously prayed with!

She was sitting with a man and three young ladies. We soon discovered that the doctor had organized a very large Bible-based concert evening at a local venue that night and everyone we had seen at In-N-Out had attended the event. It was amazing, miraculous timing, and it gave us an opportunity to chat with the others at the table. We learned that the man was the band manager and the three young ladies were the doctor’s nieces, visiting for just one week from Mexico.

We ended up praying with the three gals (the man was already Spirit-filled and agreed with everything we had to share), and they all received the Holy Spirit! Actually, one of the gals said she had spoken in tongues many years ago during some mission work, but she hadn’t prayed in tongues since then, so we really just ignited the fire of the Holy Spirit that was already within her. The other two young ladies were very touched by their experiences – there were many tears of joy!

We talked for a long while and by the time we left it was about 2 o’clock in the morning! What an evening, praise God!

Last month, we read news about the pastor of a very large non-denominational church committing suicide after a long struggle with depression and other mental issues. We knew it was the absence of the power of Holy Spirit in his life – and probably in the lives of most of his congregation – that was the basis of his difficulties. Leaders of all kinds of religious organizations easily become disillusioned when they compare their years of efforts and devotion with the fruit (or lack of) in their personal lives and in the lives of their members.

After considering the situation, we felt compelled to visit the congregation on a day when they were holding a collective “processing” kind of meeting whereby leaders and members alike sought to deal with the impact of the tragic event. We sought the Lord, asking Him to lead us to people to speak to and encourage toward the fullness of the gospel message.

It was a very interesting day. We sat amongst the people as they sang and listened to words spoken from the platform, and while some attempted to pray. We began speaking with those closest to us and word must have gotten out quickly that we were preaching something different from their all-encompassing beliefs as we soon had many security guards watching us closely. We didn’t let this faze us, though. By the end of our time there, we were able to share the truth with eight people – including the new head pastor, one lady was filled with the Holy Spirit as we prayed over her, and we were able to encourage one already Spirit-filled gal that was suffering under the oppression of the church group (she knew the truth about the need to be born again of water and the Holy Spirit, but every time she brought up this subject – especially the subject of speaking in tongues – she was quenched).

It was a challenging yet spiritually profitable day, and we want to thank the Lord for leading us to do this work for Him.

We decided to take a day trip to escape the heat and ended up a playground by the beach. While our youngest played, we relaxed and enjoyed watching the people around us. One of them was a very fit mother of three young girls, helping her girls on the playground equipment and doing pull ups on the monkey bars in between. It was fun to watch.

After a long while, the mother was preparing to leave (she had a bicycle and bike trailer) near the bench seat where we were relaxing. We engaged in conversation with her. She mentioned the word “blessed” which gave us the perfect opportunity to bring up the subject of God. Only about 15 minutes later, we were all sitting on the grass adjacent to the playground, laying hands on the mother (Dana), praying for her to receive the Holy Spirit. With some encouragement, she was filled with the Spirit, speaking in tongues as proof.

It all happened so naturally – proof of the hand of God upon the situation – and upon our entire day to cause us to be at the very spot where He wanted us to be! It was a great day!

We had the privilege of praying with a Christ-believing Jewish man (Zane) yesterday. We were in his store getting him to help us compare his products. We saw his surname (Rothschild) on his business card and asked him he was a relative of the famous Rothschilds. Zane said no, so we asked if his surname still indicated that he was Jewish. He said yes, but he was also a believer in Jesus. We were then excited to share the news of our traveling ministry and asked if he’d like us to pray for him. He was keen, so we prayed over Zane that he would have a desire for the Holy Spirit, and we also prayed for his healing needs (he suffers from neuropathy). Very interestingly, he shared with us a strong vision he’d had only one week ago that God was living within him. We believe this was a touch from the Lord, showing him that he should be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. Please join us in praying that the Lord will give increase to the words we spoke with Zane yesterday and that Zane will take our advice and seek God for the Holy Spirit anointing – and that he will also be baptized in water in accordance with Jesus’ commands (John 3:5).

Two nights ago we had a baptism in our pool and she (Diana) received the Holy Spirit straight away, the moment she began to seek the Lord after coming up out of the waters of baptism. Diana had been going to church for ten years but had never heard of speaking in tongues. We spent about 30 minutes taking her through the scriptures first and she was very excited to see things in the Word that no-one had ever shown her before.

Diana is actually a very good friend of a gal (Caroline) that we prayed with and baptized quite a few months ago. Diana had come to visit Caroline for the week and Caroline encouraged Diana to get baptized in obedience to God’s Word. After the baptism, we spent the evening discussing lots more in the Bible and sharing stories of God’s hand in our lives. We all thoroughly enjoyed our time together.

Finally, we come to the last of our stories from our recent trip to Belize, Mexico, and Florida. Here they are briefly…

1) As we walked down popular 5th Street in Playa Del Carmen, we were approached by one of the beggar-looking salespeople that was selling waterproof cell phone cases. He also asked us if we wanted to buy weed, to which our response was, “No thank you, we’re Christians.” He was pleased with our response, so he began talking about God and how reading the Bible had helped him get through his long prison sentence. We learned he’d only just been released. He’d been in jail for murder for nearly twenty years if I remember correctly. We proceeded to tell him our testimonies and asked him if he’d like us to pray for him. He said he’d like to, so we found a little alcove outside of a hotel, laid hands on him, and prayed for him to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Manuel received the Spirit very quickly, quietly but fluently speaking in tongues as the first manifesting sign. Afterward, we spoke a while longer, offering him guidance and encourgaing him with the Word. Manuel declared that he felt washed clean and kind of light. Praise God for the Holy Spirit power!

2) While swimming at the beach in Playa Del Carmen, one of us lost a good pair of Ray-Ban sunglasses quite a ways out in the waves. They immediately sunk to the bottom and it was impossible to see where they went because of the murkiness of the water. We searched and searched for about ten minutes, trying to feel them with our feet, and also scouring the seashore to see if they’d be washed up by the waves. We then stopped trying to solve the impossible by ourselves and took a break, asking the Lord in prayer for His help. Various fleshly thoughts rose up as we kept searching, but we quenched them, choosing to believe that God is a God of miracles and that He cares for us even in these kinds of situations.

Suddenly, after twenty five minutes of looking (including renting sets of goggles and snorkles), faithful Elisabeth (just 7 years old) suggested to look further out. Don went with the suggestion and almost immediately he stepped on something that felt like the arms on the sunglasses. He grabbed with his toes and pulled them up out of the water!!! – A huge ocean, deep mirky water, constant large waves, and nearly half an hour since they’d been lost, yet God knew exactly where they were! We just had to exercise faith until He revealed it. Thanks to God – our most merciful, gracious, all-powerful Lord!

3) Please keep Trevor – the manager of the condo we rented in Playa Del Carmen – in your prayers. We got to share the Word with him quite a number of times over the course of our stay. He was very interested, but he said he wasn’t ready to make a full commitment to God and His ways. We’re not sure exactly what is was that was holding Trevor back from moving forward into the fullness of God’s blessings, but God knows, so we shall hope and pray that the seeds that got planted will be watered over time and that one day Trevor will take the plunge, so to speak.

4) When we first arrived in Florida, we had a vacation package to use up, so we stayed at a resort where we had to attend a presentation. The first sales representative was named Elvis and, while getting to know us, he asked about our lives. We took the opportunity to share with him our traveling ministry and he listened eagerly. He then proceeded to share with us many special things about his love for God and his desire to be used more by Him. Elvis said he prayed along these lines every day that he went for his walk out amongst God’s creation. He had been baptized by full immersion, but he knew – after hearing the scriptures from our lips – that he wasn’t yet filled with the Holy Spirit.

We were very excited to hear these things, so we offered to pray with Elvis when he took us to view the staged condominium. We told Elvis that this meeting was all for him – it was an answer to his prayers as there are no coincidences, only God-incidences! Elvis agreed, so he hurried things through so we could all get to the condo as soon as possible.

Elvis received the Holy Spirit very powerfully almost immediately after we started to pray for him. It was a very emotional experience for him. It was so touching to see a big, strong man cry before the Lord in humility and thanksgiving. Please keep Elvis in your prayers. We only got to spend a brief amount of time with him, but at least we were able to encourage him regarding the most important things and then direct him to our website.

5) While checking in to a hotel in Boca Raton, Florida, we met Rogerio the porter. He was a really sweet, cheery man from South America, trying to get fully established in the U.S. in order to be able to bring his family to be reunited with him. Although no specific conversation transpired between us about God, we felt moved to offer him one of our cards. As soon as he saw the logo, his eyes brightened and keenly declared that he was a Christian, too. We asked him if he had been filled with the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues as proof, and he said “yes.” He had been water baptized, and he believed exactly what we share as part of our traveling ministry. Praise God! Rogerio shared a few brief stories about his missions work in his home country, and it was wonderful to listen to his enthusiasm for God’s work.

One thing we were able to encourage him about, though, was with regards to praying in tongues every day. We discovered this is something he’d neglected to do, so we emphasized the importance of exercising the Holy Spirit like this, quoting scriptures like Jude 20. Praise God for the way He connects us together with all kinds of people – from complete unbelievers to those that have already been born again but needing wise counsel.

6) We met Mark and Pat while swimming in a hotel pool in Naples. We’d gone to Naples to visit some old friends. We chatted with Mark (an airline pilot) about life in general for a long while before we got on to the subject of the Lord. After a time of sharing testimonies and scriptures with him, his wife joined us all and we shared some more. It was great to hear about their own paths toward the Lord. They had some very interesting experiences, had both been water baptized, and were keen to tell others about Jesus. In particular, Mark had just been miraculously healed from prostate cancer.

We asked our standard question from Acts 19 and, although they both believed they had the Holy Spirit, they were open to hearing what we wanted to explain from the Word. They listened intently and were soon keen to pray with us. We met after dinner in our hotel room, and they both received the Holy Spirit. Pat was in tears. She was very happy and she said she felt tingly all over. Mark was peacefully joyful and he later texted us with a lovely message. They had to leave to head back to Texas, but please keep them in your prayers with us.

While in Belize and Mexico recently, some awesome things happened…

Firstly, a construction worker/handyman (Knelson) whom we’ve known for about 7 years finally got baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit. He used to attend the Seventh Day Adventist church when he was growing up, and he got put off because of the institutionalization and man-made religion. He still continued to believe in God and Jesus Christ’s sacrifice for mankind, but he never actively pursued a relationship with the Lord. We shared our testimonies and the scriptures with Knelson over the years as we saw him sporadically, and he seemed curious, but not enough to want to take any steps forward. He was afraid of getting caught up in empty Christianity again.

This time, we were only visiting Corozal Town (the town near where Knelson lives) for two days, but we got to spend a good amount of time with Knelson and share more amazing stories of how God has worked in our lives and used us over the years. It was certainly God’s doing how it all happened… Because of our short stay, we planned to only catch up with one couple, but something occurred that caused us to immediately need an extra pair of hands. So, we called Knelson and, despite the very short notice, he was actually available to stop by to help.

This time around, Knelson had an open heart and ears. Various things in his life had brought him to the point where he was humble and ready to fully submit to God, realizing that doing things his own way all these years hadn’t worked for him or his family. It was a very special evening. We got to pray again in the Spirit together and discuss more of God’s Word after his baptism.

Knelson has also been keeping in regular contact with us. It’s such a joy to receive his email updates. He’s very excited about the changes in himself and his life already. He says he feels brand new with a real power within him that he can draw upon any time to guide him through all parts of his day. He’s being mindful to pray in tongues every day, and he’s also started regular Bible studies with his wife and children. This is one of his inspiring emails:

“I read your email and I thank you so much for your advice. I know the Lord will always have good for me. I have the Holy Spirit in me and it is so wonderful that I am a different person. Thank you once more. It is a new life I am living now. It’s so different from what I was living. It is like I don’t have to worry about nothing, once you let Him live in you. May God bless you all and keep in touch.”

We’ll also be posting a little interview we filmed with Knelson the day after his baptism. You’ll soon find it on the “Winging’ It” page.

Then, not long after arriving in Mexico, we got to pray with two people – on separate occasions – to be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. The first was Luis. He heard us mention we were Christians on our way past his sales booth. He opened up conversation with us, commenting (in a good way) on our faith. We took the opportunity to pursue the topic with him, asking him if he had received the Holy Spirit since he believed (from Acts 19). We only had time to speak briefly and give him our card before his boss ushered him back to work.

We had actually invited Luis to stop by our condo in the morning, to have us lay hands on him and pray for him to receive the Spirit, but he never showed up. When we saw him later, we commented on this, and he said he’d come another time. We didn’t think he’d follow through, but to our surprise, he texted us one afternoon, asking if we’d be home. He later told us that he’d been dropping off some clients in Cancun and was driving back on his own when he decided to turn on the radio. The first song that played was a Christian song with lyrics that really humbled him. He immediately thought of us and the words we’d shared with him, so he knew he just had to come visit with us.

Luis was filled with the Holy Spirit very quickly after starting to pray. He shed some tears and was very happy. He was excited to go and share things with his 8-year-old daughter who is apparently very God conscious. We invite you to keep them both in your prayers.

The second situation involved a jewelry store manager named Raul. We had only very briefly mentioned our traveling ministry and had given him a card on our way out of the store, but we hoped he would be sufficiently pricked in his heart to contact us. He did!

We baptized Raul in the ocean after taking him through the scriptures for about an hour. He had a strong Catholic background and he was keen to learn what we knew, as it was all a mystery to him. It all made complete sense to him, and he was keen to be baptized the right way (full immersion) according to God’s Word (baptism comes from the Greek word “baptiso” which means to be sunk like a ship).

So, Raul came back to our condo the next day, eager to get baptized, although he never actually received the Holy Spirit when we prayed with him after his baptism. After talking with him some more, we discovered one major thing in his life that he needed to repent of (and show forth fruits of that repentance). We believe that was the stumbling block that was preventing him from getting Spirit-filled. However, Raul had an awesome attitude and, despite a little fear, he was eager to “go and sin no more” and lead the new life he had started in the waters of baptism. Praise God!

By the way, please also keep Matthias is your prayers along with Raul. Matthias is a Catholic friend of Raul’s whom Raul brought along when we first went through the scriptures at our condo. Raul translated to Matthias as we all went through both an English and Spanish version of the King James Bible. Although it was all new to Matthias (he had only ever been exposed to Catholic teachings), he was excited to hear and see such a powerful message. He couldn’t bring himself to get baptized yet, which is a shame, but everyone is at a different stage of coming to repentence and full submission before God, so we hope and pray Raul’s experience will have a positive effect on him.

Anyway, there’s more to come about our adventures in Mexico, and also during the next part of our travels in Florida. Three more more people got filled with the Holy Spirit – a guy in Mexico that had only recently been released from a long prison sentence for murder, and then a lovely couple we met while swimming in a hotel pool in Naples. We’ll share their stories when we get some more time…

We never got to complete the list of people in our last post, so we’ll continue those shortly, but for now we’re excited to share with you something amazing that happened this last weekend. First, here’s the back story:

Just over 18 months ago, we got a call from a Florida vacations company wanting to sell us a package. We ended up purchasing one and, during the course of the phone call, we somehow got chatting to the representative (Leon) about the Lord. I can’t remember how it all started. It might have been that we mentioned our time in Belize and Mexico because they’re just slightly south of Florida. We discovered that Leon hadn’t yet received the Holy Spirit, so we offered to pray with him over the phone – as we have done with others that are long distance. Leon took our number and purposed to call us back some time when he was off shift.

It might have been that same day, or perhaps the next, when Leon called. We shared many scriptures with him and he was keen to pray. He was filled with the Holy Spirit, praying in tongues fervently and boldly, almost immediately after we began praying. It was a very moving experience for him. He kept expressing how thankful he was. We reassured Leon that we were simply vessels that God used to spread truth and God’s the one that did everything.

Anyway, fast forward just over 18 months and we’re now living in a different location. A fairly short-notice trip to Belize was on the cards for us, so we thought we’d combine it with some time in Mexico. We phoned a vacation club company to see if we could arrange an affordable package, but we couldn’t get through to anyone, so we left a message. Whenever one of the sales staff tried to return our call, we were never home. Apparently (Leon told us when we recently caught up with him), the sales staff kept trying without success, so they gave our number to the manager. The manager was Leon – he had since changed companies from the first one 18 months ago to this new one of which he’s now the manager.

Leon also tried to call us a number of times and he’s was about to throw our number in the trash and give up when he felt moved to try one more time. This time he got hold of us (but he didn’t know it was us!). Leon began his sales pitch when we quickly recognized his voice. We reminded him who we were and he was shocked. After some discussion about the mighty hand of God, he admitted it was a miracle that God forced us all to connect again.

The other miraculous thing is that we had been praying for the Lord to guide and direct us as we weren’t quite sure how to plan our travels. We wanted to go where there was work for us to do for God. So, now we knew for sure that the Lord wanted us to head to Florida and not just Belize and Mexico.

Not long after we arrived in Florida, we phoned Leon. Interestingly, he had suddenly gotten crazy busy with his other side business, so he wasn’t sure if he’d have time to spend with us. He ended up inviting us to come to his church service on Sunday which is when he could gurantee he’d be available. When we turned up, we happily discovered it was an all-black church (we’d never met Leon up until this point, so we didn’t know his background). We were excited to see how the Lord would use us this day!

The fellowship meeting was very loud and lively, and we were welcomed by many before and after the service. The climax came when we got talking to the bishop, sharing with him our history with Leon. He was excited to hear about our traveling ministry and our work in praying with people (churchgoers and otherwise) all over the world to receive the Holy Spirit and water baptize them in Jesus’ name. He seemed quite shocked to find a group of people who still believe in the baptism of the Holy Spirit – he is Spirit-filled, but many of his congreation had yet to be anointed with the Spirit.

We offered up our services, to pray with anyone there that day. The bishop was a little taken aback by the spontaneity, but praise the Lord that he followed God’s leading because five people ended up receiving the Holy Spirit, plus we helped Leon to get praying in tongues again (as he hadn’t done so again since our first phone call with him 18 months ago). We emphasized again the importance of exercising the Spirit (like a gym membership!) every day, first by praying in the Holy Spirit (praying in tongues) as much as possible – during times of quiet worship and even at other times throughout the day’s activities (whenever the situation permits e.g. while doing house and garden chores, while driving alone or with other brethren, etc.).

We had a number of follow-up phone calls and texts with Leon and also with the bishop over the next few days which was great. They were both very grateful for the way God caused everything to happen, and Leon was especially invigorated by the various messages of encouragement God gave us to share with him.

We invite you to join us in keeping the new converts from the church service last week in your prayers (and Leon and the bishop also, of course).

We invite you to join us in praying for all of the following people the Lord has caused us to connect with (all in very interesting, different ways) in the last few weeks. God’s hand never ceases to amaze us!

1) Isaac – Home Depot employee: He’s been a church-goer with the Mormon church for many years. Despite Mormon teachings, he was interested in the Holy Spirit and the first sign of speaking in tongues. Some of us had the opportunity of praying with him in the store. After sharing the Word with him at the checkout, we came back later when he could take a break. He never received the Spirit at the time as he seemed distracted, but he’d like to continue to seek God.

2) Jeff: He came to our house to fix some blinds and my husband got talking about God together with him. It turns out that Jeff is the one that organizes the outreach at the festival where we met Mandy (see our earlier post). How’s that?! Jeff is Spirit-filled and understands, for the most part, the truth of the gospel message, but there were quite a few encouragements my husband was able share with him, as moved upon by God. They had a great discussion. Praise God for the way He leads us to connect with people that need to hear a message from Him!

3) Ariella: She’s Lisa’s daughter. (Lisa is the lady with the German Shepherd that we met outside of a sushi place – from an earlier story we posted on this page.) We met up with Lisa again for more prayer and discussion about God’s Word, and to help her with her dog. Ariella was there for the day and we got to share some scriptures with her, too. Ariella is very God conscious and was interested in what we had to say.

4) Young guy (can’t remember his name – it all happened so quickly!) outside of a McDonalds on our way to visit with Lisa: We stopped by the store for a quick bathroom break. There was a very God-conscious homeless guy outside of the store, preparing his sign that he would use to beg for money for the day. One of us got talking with him and it soon led to us praying with him to receive the Holy Spirit. We prayed under some trees in the quiet parking lot and he was filled with the Holy Spirit quite quickly. He had to leave to attend a local charity event, but we encouraged him to call or text us so we could water baptize him on our way back through. We never heard from him, but we hope and pray he will be mindful of everything we shared with him.

5) Gabrielle: We met her in a Chick-fil-A after connecting with Lisa and Ariella. What happened with Gabrielle was very interesting and completely new to us. My husband spied her “Got Jesus?” sticker on her computer as he exited the bathroom and passed by her table. He tried to speak with her, but communication was difficult because of her disability. We think she might be autistic or something similar.

After trying, my husband headed back to our table. Five minutes later, I noticed Gabrielle standing at the wall near the notice board. She seemed distracted, and she was wiping her eyes. I thought that maybe she had been tearing up a little. She then did an abrupt obout-face and beelined for us. She babbled a whole bunch of hard-to-decipher information to us as we listened from our table, so I interrupted and simply asked – gently and confidently – if she’d like me to pray for her. She rambled some more, so I lovingly offered once again, quietly seeking for the Holy Spirit to triumph in this unusual situation. I persisted, asking Gabrielle where she’d like me to pray with her. I pointed with a suggestion, but then Gabrielle motioned with her head in the opposite direction.

I got up and went with Gabrielle to the outdoor patio. She followed me to a corner, I quickly told her what I was going to do, and then I told her to start praising God with the word “Hallelujah.” I laid hands on her as I prayed along with her, and Gabrielle almost immediately received the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues fluently. I let Gabrielle pray for quite a long time, to get used to allowing the Holy Spirit to worship God in this new way. She then gave me a huge hug at the end. It was very special.

I was able to give her a card and some brief encouragement before she whipped herself away. It was quite a surreal experience for me as I had never before encountered praying with someone like this. I so wanted to know more about her and how much she understood, but I rested on my faith that God knows Gabrielle’s situation and He is the one that clearly filled her with the Holy Spirit. Obviously there were things going on that were far above and beyond my understanding, so far be it from me to question the Lord’s mighty hand!

This is another belated post. So much has been happening that, yet again, we’re behind in recording all of the amazing things God has been calling us to do lately…

We had a long list of doctor’s offices we could choose from for a medical we all had to go through. We chose one that seemed the best for us, and as soon as we entered we realized why God had moved upon our choice. Every wall was covered with scriptures! While in the examination room with the doctor, we asked her the meaning of all the references to God throughout her clinic. She (Dr. Gonzales) excitedly told us about her walk with the Lord over the years and her new radio ministry she very recently started (that she wants to extend into Mexico). We discovered she had received the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, many years ago, but she had never prayed in tongues since that day.

Dr. Gonzales was was keen to hear about our traveling ministry adventures, especially the many testimonies we have of praying with people to kick start speaking in tongues again (after they had at one time been filled with the Spirit but were never encouraged to pray in tongues as much as possible every day). After asking her if she’d like us to pray with her, she immediately invited us back that very night at 6:30 when she finished for the day.

The surprising and wonderful thing was that when we turned up, Dr. Gonzales’ waiting room was filled with other people she’d invited to join her. We ended up speaking for over an hour, preaching with boldness and authority from the Word, as led by God. That night, three people were filled with the Holy Spirit, praise God! Also, we prayed with another particular lady that had been resistant to the message we shared (because it contradicted the incorrect message she’d been told by her church group). She was in the same boat as Dr. Gonzales – she’d been filled with the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues as proof, many years ago while diligently seeking the Lord on her own in her bedroom. She was going through a rough time and her coming to God (versus trying to solve the problem on her own) worked, but she had never prayed in tongues since then.

We encouraged her to allow us to lay hands on her and pray with her. Even though she was rushing out of the door at the time (she needed to get home to her children), she agreed to give it a try. While praying with her at first, she was seemingly conservative. We motivated her to kick things up and come to God fervently. As soon as she did this, she blared forth in tongues. We’d just finished quoting the scripture at the end of the Gospel of Mark that tells us God worked with them and confirmed the word (that the disciples spoke) with signs following (Mark 16:20), so this experience – that everyone else in the room witnessed – was a powerful support of the truth we’d been preaching all night.

Dr. Gonzales is keen to get together with us again when we’re back in town, so we’re very much looking forward to seeing how much more we can be of service in her life – and in the lives of others she knows. In the meantime, we invite you to keep everyone that was touched by the Lord that night in your prayers: Dr. Gonzales, plus Eduardo, Carolle, Monica, and Bianca.

One of our biggest encouragements to them was to never let a day go by without worshipping the Lord in tongues (and not just English – or in their case, Spanish). We also explained that Spirit-filled believers can pray in tongues whenever they like – not just during times of dedicated worship. The more they do so, the stronger the relationship they’ll build with God.