Apostolic Praise Tabernacle

Revival in

Fort Myers FL

This past week we were in Fort Myers Florida with Pastor & Sister Lester Bruce. Pastor Bruce has been the Pastor here for approximately 25 years building a great congregation of people who love God.

The Assistant Pastor and his wife Brother & Sister Locke had attended Soul Winners Boot Camp in St. Petersburg Florida back in 2007 and had been looking to schedule us for some time. We finally found a date that would work and were blessed to be together with this great church.

Fort Myers is located about 120 miles south of Tampa on the South West Coast of Florida.The census list the population at around 68,000 people. It was the winter home location of Thomas Edison and his good friend Henry Ford who lived next to each other. There is a very interesting exhibit with the homes, museums and interesting grounds that you can tour. You can learn more about this by visiting the web site: http://www.efwefla.org/

We had the opportunity one early evening to visit the ocean and beach side. We pulled over and took a few pictures of the beautiful sunset. About the time we were going to leave a lady walked up to us and asked if we could help her jump their vehicle, the battery had died leaving them stranded. We agreed to help them and pulled our van down on the sand. We were able to help them and get their car started; however as we tried leaving ourselves, our van quickly became stuck in the sand!

We did everything we could to get it out, the people who we helped were not much help given the drunken condition they were in. Finally we found someone who pulled over with tow straps and was able to pull us out. We ended up paying $40.00 to get out! Even though it was an expensive venture Sister Downs was able to minister to the lady who we helped and give her an invitation to attend the church. We believe God will somehow reach them!

We were blessed this week to have Evangelist Brandon Mocas come and spend the week learning our methods of reaching the lost! Brandon was a great help and very inquisitive through out the week. He is from the Chicago Ill area and spent his own recourses to come and learn. I believe he will be implementing our methods in his services as he continues to minister to churches across the Nation.

We also were blessed to meet Pastor John Otalvaro who is from the United Latin American Pentecostal Church Organization of Apostolic believers. He came to learn and brought several of his Saints to gain instruction as well. We are looking forward to more interaction with this organization and bringing them into fellowship with other Apostolic believers.

During the week we had a great time reaching the lost. On the first night of outreach after the Wednesday night service we were out for a short time and found a man who could only speak Spanish. We were blessed to have a man (William) from the church help interpret for us and in a short time were able to bring this man back to the church to repent and be baptized!

The Pastor had taken a small group out with him in another direction and after being out only a short time phoned me to say he had three people coming back to be baptized!

On one afternoon we came across two men sitting on the step of a home. I pulled over and began talking to them about going to Heaven or Hell. One of the men had been baptized in Jesus name at another church already and was in need of renewing. The other man was very hungry for God and agreed he needed to repent and be baptized in Jesus name!

As we headed back to the church Dezi began telling us that just a few hours before we met him that he could not sleep and at 2:00 am prayed that God would send someone to him to bring him to church and help him get right with God! He was so excited to know God answered his prayer! Just think people out there are praying that God will send someone and he used us to reach them!

Another night we were out and came across a young man named Frank. We asked him about going to Heaven or Hell and in a few minutes he was ready to go to the church and repent and be baptized. As we road back to the church he said he was born in the Country of Spain and he had not been to church ever in his life except one time when he was four years old. He said he really wanted to have God in his life and was so thankful we stopped him!

As we were driving Frank back home we left the church and in a couple blocks seen a young man riding a bicycle. We stopped and asked him the Heaven or Hell question and as often is the case he said he had been baptized before in the titles of Father, Son and Holy Ghost. In just a few minutes he agreed to repent and be re-baptized the correct way in the name of Jesus! Frank was so excited he came back to the church with us and watched as we prayed and baptized Dan in Jesus name!

After talking to Dan after his baptism he said he had been looking for a church! I cannot tell how many times we have heard someone say they are looking for a church. So many out there searching and so few willing to go find them.

So many other exciting things happened during the week. We were very excited Sunday to see what God would do. As we entered the service Sunday afternoon we had 188 first time guest and baptized a total of 41 people in Jesus name!

We are excited about the vision and passion of this church and look forward to hearing the incredible things God is going to do for them!

We must not be satisfied with just sowing seed or planting, yes, we must plant, and we must water but we also must win souls. If we plant seed but never harvest the crop what good did we do? Some believe there is an option, using the scripture that some plant and some water as a choice. We must all plant, we must all water, and we must all win souls! Sometimes you may hand out a church card, that's planting, sometimes you may pray for someone, that's watering, but sometimes you must compel someone to repent and be baptized and when God gives them the Holy Ghost that's the increase and you have won a soul.

Tim Downs will be here Wednesday, January 28th at 7:30p through Sunday, February 1st at 2:00PM. Invite people out and come and be a part of this great mission of winning souls to the kingdom.