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).