Ministry Newsletter

Dear Friends:

These are scary times. The war in Ukraine rages, and terrorists have attacked Israel. Political tensions are higher than ever, along with financial shakings. There is so much uncertainty. Yet I’m able to sleep at night because Jesus is on the throne. Psalm 2:4 says the Lord is not worried about His enemies. It says: “He who sits in the heavens laughs.” The gospel is spreading to the nations, and Christ’s victory is coming!

Below you can see some of the women we are reaching every month in Pakistan. Our director, Esther, is discipling these ladies, and we are providing food and clothing for their families. Also, we will soon have our site plan for the women’s empowerment center we are building in their village. Please be in prayer for this.

For more than a year we have been building our women’s empowerment shelter in Masindi, Uganda (below). We are excited to announce that the roof is now on! It will be the biggest shelter we have built to date. There is room to provide residential care for victims of abuse, and women who are escaping prostitution. There are also classrooms for vocational training, along with fields for farming and animal stalls where we help women start businesses. Thank you for making this shelter a reality!

Our donors are a vital part of our work. Below you can see Ruthanne Alarcon, a retired health professional from Lake Mary, Florida. Ruthanne has been a big encouragement to me and Deborah for many years, since the days when we went to the same church in Orlando. This year she told us that she wanted to make some craft items to help raise money for our women’s shelters. We had no idea how God would bless this! Ruthanne spent months making beautiful wallets, book pouches and bookmarks. She brought these items to a conference in Jacksonville this month, and we have made more than $4,000 so far from the sales. Ruthanne is donating all proceeds to our work. Thank you!

We had a very successful men’s Bold Venture retreat in Jacksonville in September. The photo below is one of my favorites from the event. It shows a guy named Ben Santana worshiping the Lord during that weekend. It was our biggest Bold Venture in the 14 years we have hosted it, with 220 men registered for the three days.

Bold Venture is a special time when men open their hearts for deep personal ministry. Because we meet in small groups four times during the weekend, and share all our meals together, the guys open up and share their deepest struggles. They also make a lot of new friends, so that they don’t have to live in isolation. Many men have been transformed during this event, and this year was no exception.

This year was special because I asked some of my spiritual sons to be the speakers. Besides my good friend Eddie Taylor, all the other speakers were young men in their 20s or 30s. I was so proud of them! They all brought seasoned words of encouragement to the brothers who attended. You can see all of us in the photo below: Antione Ashley, Paul Muzichuk, David Bakthakumar, Eddie Taylor, me, worship leader Nate Barbour, Abdiel Lopez, Lyle Fell and Felipe Amorim.

I want to give a special shout out to my ministry assistant, Abdiel López (below), who spoke on the topic of father wounds at Bold Venture. Abdiel was gut-level honest about the struggles he had when his father abandoned his mother and family. And his transparency helped all the other men open up with each other about their pain.

This year I also brought my disciple Lyle Fell all the way from Durban, South Africa, to speak. Lyle is an associate pastor at a church there. He had never been to the United States before, so I introduced him to grits, Cracker Barrel, Chick-Fil-A, and Bass Pro Shop! He loved his visit, but in his sermon he also challenged the guys to discover their spiritual gifts and ministry callings.

Bold Venture always attracts a diverse audience. This year we had more than 12 languages represented. Below you can see a group of 11 Ugandans who are part of a church in Boston, Massachusetts. They traveled so far because they are hungry for the message of discipleship. We believe that next year we will host Bold Venture in Boston so that we can reach the many immigrants in that region!

Two weeks after the men’s Bold Venture, Deborah and I traveled with Abdiel and his wife, Sara, to Minneapolis, Minnesota to host the women’s Bold Venture. Below you can see worship leader Maritza Rivera leading praise. This was a powerful weekend! All of the speakers challenged the women to break out of religious tradition so they can get louder for Jesus. In fact, our theme was, “Time to Get Loud!” So many women have been told they should be silent, but God is calling His daughters to be filled with the Holy Spirit and freed from fear.