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…