Happy New Year! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and cross over to 2017, but if not, don’t worry, just leave the past in the past and believe God for an amazing year! The apostle Paul says in Philippians 3:13:
“No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead”
That means good and bad things! Leave everything behind and press in for greater things.
But I do want to give you highlights from 2016, especially if you are a new subscriber to my newsletter.
Personally, the opportunity to preach at the River@Tampa Bay Church marks the greatest privilege I ever had. Walking on that same carpet where I was baptized in the Fire of God and preach from the same pulpit where the Words that changed my life forever were preached is an absolute work of God.
You can skip the following walk down memory lane and just check out the pictures but if you like me just read on, because I do want to say that when I was 19 and I just got to Amerika with my broken English and no clue about ministry or revival, I never thought I could be one of those people standing behind this pulpit and minister in the power of the Holy Spirit. I was a mess and I didn’t think God could have any use for me. But then I started to press in and give Bible school and God my all and got the ultimate breakthrough when I was baptized in the Fire of God, January 2008. That day I vowed to the Lord to carry that fire everywhere God gives me the opportunity to go.
Not only did I preach the midweek service but I also got to teach the 2nd and 3rd year River Bible Institute students the following week.
I also got to preach at iM student ministries where I did my internship during Bible school.
From Florida I returned back to Beirut Lebanon, 25 people dedicated their lives on Sunday morning after I preached. From there I also went to the Bekah Valley (close to the Syrian border) where 9 people received Jesus in a house meeting (there is no church in that area) and where I performed my very first baptism, which was a Muslim Syrian girl that converted to Christianity.
I went to England to attend Dr Rodney Howard Brown’s meetings. I was planning to return to Lebanon but pastors Tomi and Sanna invited me to minister at the River Helsinki in Finland. The power of God was there to save, and heal like this lady who left pain free and without needing the sling for her arm.
Praying about my next steps I knew there was something else to do in Europe. That’s when the terror attack in Brussels, Belgium happened and my friends pastors Ben and Jacky Kroeske called me and asked me to join them for Evangelism at the sight of the attack. I was on the next plane down and with the team we saw 315 people receive Jesus in military covered Brussels and many hundreds heard the message of the Gospel. In the picture below you can see the memorial sight for the people who died, but that day we reclaimed ten times the amount of people for the Lord!
I preached in Zurich, Switzerland and held soulwinning classes there. New harvesters were trained and we saw 147 people that received Jesus on the streets. The evangelism team there has been going strong since my first visit in 2011 and over 5000 people received Jesus since then through hundreds of believers that were trained to win souls.
Back in April I got to meet Pastor Bill Wilson with Metro World Child Ministries and he invited me to minister to all his staff and interns who make a huge impact in the inner city of NY. I preached on the fire of God and running the race set before us.
From NY I flew to Tampa to attend the ministers and leaders conference at RMI and after that to the Netherlands to preach at the very first Graduation of the River Bible Institute Netherlands at the River Amsterdam Church. It was great to see the charter class Graduate whom I personally got to teach for the first two terms at the launch of the school.
Back in Beirut I officially started taking full time Arabic classes. To be most effective in the Middle East and increase my work there I know that knowing the language is an important key.
My dear friends pastors Jeremiah and Julia Thomas organized a conference at their church where I got to preach along side friends and see the River Church Rochester impacted by the power of God and mobilized for the harvest of souls. Over 160 people received Jesus on the streets and many were touched and forever changed in the meetings. One night the spirit of giving broke out and people brought precious offerings to the stage while I was still teaching. That night a lady was healed from many years of night blindness without actually receiving prayer for healing.
After Rochester I went back to Finland to do my second Summer school of Evangelism where I trained over 40 how to win souls for 10 days and we have seen 3211 people receive Jesus!
I continued my Arabic studies in Beirut and ministered a tree the church on several occasions and continued teaching the evangelism team.
I went to Cyprus for the first time where I got to teach at an Arab Holy Ghost conference where many new believers attended and were baptized in the Holy Ghost.
I returned to Rochester New York where I held my very first women she conference! 3 days in the presence of the Lord, ladies baptized in the Holy Ghost and lives touched and changed.
Then I did my very first trip to South Sudan. This was the most intense trip I ever had in many ways. When you are told that if there is gun fire at night and it lasts for more than a few minutes you should hide under your bed, then you know you’re in a place the gospel is really needed, to say the least. And I did wake up to gun fire three of the nights and just went back to sleep. Amen. I did 3 days of women she meetings, 3 days of youth meetings, Saturday revival preaching and ministering over 4 hours every day and a Sunday service. For those who sowed into that trip, thanks for being a part of feeding everyone who attended the meetings and of course seeing over 218 people saved, over 214 baptized in the Holy Ghost and about 100 people received healing in their bodies! I just posted some short videos from the trip on Instagram so you can check them out.
I went to Thessaloniki Greece to help out a new church with Evangelism and also preached the sunday service where 5 people gave their lives to Jesus and 15 people were baptized during in the Holy Ghost including all the children.
I also returned to Helsinki Finland where I got to teach at the River Bible Institute for two nights.
What an amazing God we serve! All the honor and glory goes to Him for all the great things He has done! But no one should ever think they did enough in the past, we should always go to another level of faith and believe for greater things to come.
Here is my itinerary for the next two months in 2017:
GOD BLESS AND HAVE AN AMAZING 2017!
...unless you want to tell me something really flaky, please don't ;)