Tomorrow morning it is exactly two weeks since we left home and made our way over here to sunny Florida. So far we have had a good time and God has worked in mysterious ways as usual. We have mostly been at our home base in Okeechobee at Fountain of Life Church, our home church. We have done some work on our race car project and hopefully we will have it ready for the Daytona Turkey Run during the Thanksgiving weekend. We are going there to tell people about Jesus and establish new connections within the hot rod and racing scene. This is something that God has put on our hearts and He has sure confirmed that we are doing His will. For our part ”motorcycle ministry” is history as we need to follow His steps and when God tells us to let go and go ahead we need to be obedient.
For the last seven years I have been ministering at the Lone Star Rally in Galveston, Texas but this time I had to make up my mind and because of other peoples true colors and faults it was not a hard decision to make. I do not really want to go places where there is division and where people are arguing about nonsense. The same day we made our decision to stay in Florida Sebastian found a ready built race engine on Craigslist. It was the perfect engine for our race car. I sent the people an e-mail and for some reason I told them that we have a Christian hot rod & racing team. The response back was quite a typical ”God thing” as they wrote me back that they were part of a prison ministry. Soon I came in contact with Tom and Debbie from ROOT ministries and two weeks later both me and Sebastian were cleared to enter any prison in the state of Florida through their ministry.
The first weekend we drove up to Ocala on Friday and met Tom and Debbie and we had a great time together. From there we drove up to Cottondale in North Florida to Heaven’s Way Biker Church where we had a meeting at halloween Saturday. It was wonderful to meet brother Robert and sister Alicia again and we had a great time. From Cottondale we drove to Jacksonville where we spent some time with guitarist Mike Hendrix and his family before we checked in at our cheap motel in Orange Park. On Monday, November 2nd we visited the Ronnie Van Zant memorial park and after that we hooked up with Tom and Tammy who had the engine for sale. We checked out the engine and it was a crazy engine with around 500 hp. I had to tell them that it would be the perfect engine for our car but we can not afford to buy it. All they said was; - Go ahead and take the engine. We are going to bless you with it!
I had to stop myself from crying as this was something amazing that I could never have expected but this is how God confirms and takes care of things when we do his will. We drove back to Okeechobee happy and blessed. On Wednesday I sang a couple of songs at the Wednesday night bible study at Fountain of Life Church before Pastor Dave Robertson was going to teach from the book of revelations. I first thought that I was going to listen to the teaching that night but instead Pastor Linda wanted me to speak to the youth and it became a fantastic night around a table with the youth. We had great discussions and to me it means much to encourage the next generation.
Last week Thursday we drove back to Ocala as on Friday we got to meet Drag Racing Legend Big Daddy, Don Garlits in his private shop next to his museum of drag racing. We did an interview with him for Life in Him and it will be a great episode coming up in the near future. Friday night we fellowshipped at a local restaurant with the ROOT volunteers who were going into Marion Correctional Institution the following day and this became our first day behind the wire together with ROOT ministries.
Saturday morning we got up at 5AM and drove to the Pilot gas station where all volunteers hooked up and registered. Together we drove to the prison and it was just amazing to see the co operative staff work together with ROOT Ministries and get around 30 motorcycles checked into the prison. We spent the entire day at the yard with the inmates and we had many good talks with them. I think they were at least 1000 offenders who got to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ that day and it was a great privilege to serve the Lord together with all these brothers and sisters from ROOT Ministries. At the end of the day an altar call was given and an impressive crowd came forward to receive Jesus Christ into their lives. We were exhausted when we left the prison around 4PM that day but we were thankful and our hearts were rejoicing over what had happened that day. We only know a little bit about what God did in peoples hearts and we trust that HE will take care of the seeds planted. We became part of all this because we stayed obedient and decided to not go to Texas. It was way more than just the engine thing. We got connected with another ministry we are looking forward to serve together with in the prisons of Florida in the future.
Sunday morning we were invited to minister at a new church plant called The Ten Two in Edgewater, Florida. The church are using the YMCA Sunday mornings and we had a good service. Jesus was in the house and all it took to get Him into the atmosphere was proclaiming His name. We did not need any lights or smoke machines to this. Where two or three are gathered He has promised to be with us. After the service we drove back to Okeechobee and now we are working out of here. Every day is a new day and every single day we have been here we run into people that we can share the good news with. More and more I realize how much more God can use us over here and over here we have a church leadership who believes in what we are doing and who are supporting us and sending us out. I can not be more thankful.
Three more weeks
We are still going to be here three more weeks and the schedule is getting tight. This week we are going to visit Real Life Children’s Ranch here in Okeechobee. It will be the third time I visit the ranch and these children are in need of encouragement. They come from different backgrounds and the ranch is doing an amazing work. We just go in there and spend time with the children and talk with them about Jesus. We are also going to visit the Matthew 25 community in Pahokee as well as Central Assembly of God in Vero Beach on Sunday night at 7PM.
Next week we start our work at Detox of South Florida and we are going to be there three Tuesdays in a row and talk with people who are coming off drugs and alcohol. A critical moment in life where these people need all encouragement they can get. There is one way out and that way is Jesus. We are also going to do another visit at Teen Challenge as well as be part of the Thanksgiving feed and outreach in Fort Pierce on Thanksgiving. That same weekend we are heading back up to Daytona Beach for three days of ministering at one of the bigger hot rod events in the US; Daytona Turkey Run.
As to this date we have not yet met our financial needs for this trip. The church has taken well care of us and raised funds at a dinner and movie night as well as on a bake sale Sunday. Never have I had a church do anything like this for us before. We are half way through and lots of stuff going on. We are on a mission from God and I believe this is something we do together. IF you would like to sow a seed and be part of what God is doing in Florida right now you can either use Pay Pal or the banking details on our donation page. Feels like we are in the middle of a new start and I am sure that God has something in store for the people we are going to meet. He died for us, so we have decided to live for Him.
Stay Blessed in Jesus name and
Greetings from Okeechobee, Florida!
Love you all!
Pontus & Sebastian
