Praise the Lord! We just celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary. How time flies when you're having fun! We both feel incredibly blessed with each other and more so each year, and more in love. He has given us such a gift in each other and we both know it is a gift from the Father of all grace, all glory be unto Him! (I, Bryan, am more thankful especially now as Mercedes has to decipher my one-handed hieroglyphics while I write with my left hand and as she has to double as a nurse helping me get dressed and even having to tie my shoes, due to a recent accident you'll read about below.)

RECENT MINISTRY

The Lord has been doing great things as we have been ministering in various places, and we have been experiencing the washing, cleansing blood of Christ working at every turn as well as the waves of God’s Holy Spirit power.

At some meetings we've been doing lately in the last couple months up in Santa Maria on the Central Coast of California at Freedom Christian Fellowship we had some very blessed ministry times. At one meeting there happened to be a group of Navajo Native Americans visiting and we were blessed to see many of them greatly impacted, filled, and empowered by the outpoured presence of the Spirit of God manifested when we preached and ministered. At another meeting we just did recently we were slated to just do the preaching but the worship leader's son got sick just before the meeting so we were asked to lead the worship and do the preaching too. We had a blessed time in the Lord as His presence filled the place while we led the worship and threw in a few Jesus People and older Vineyard songs and then let the Holy Spirit take over. We were told that it reminded some there of the early days of the Vineyard when the revival began, His presence filling the place the whole meeting, Glory!!

We have also been seeing the Lord move in power as well as bringing people to salvation and doing healing and miracles while ministering in places like La Jolla, Carlsbad, Chula Vista, down on the Mexican Border, and in the Inland Empire.

We had a powerful time while ministering at USC (University of Southern California) in Los Angeles recently as we shared upon the Reformation's ties to the birth of America and the powerful revivals that followed. As stated on the History Channel, “There would be no America without the Reformation." We experienced real revival power as the Lord lit up the students and others at the meeting there with the glorious power of His presence in a remarkable way. We are presently working on a video on that very topic that we just shot up in Santa Maria.

We had a radical outpouring on the youth as well as on some young children in the desert area of Hesperia at a church service where we preached at recently. God radically filled the young people as they prepared to serve him as well. We had an awesome time in spite of the 106 degree temperatures and no air conditioning in the car or in the building . The Lord has kept us on the edge, being able to endure hard things, like the Apostle Paul said in the book of Timothy: "Endure hardship like a good soldiers of the Lord." We put that even more into practice the next day as a last minute "whim" had us head out to Mt. Whitney afterward and hike the next morning from The Portal to Lone Pine Lake which is a 6.5 miler with a 2000-foot of constantly very steep and rugged ascent, going from the 8,000 mark to 10,000 feet up at the lake where you get that one-third-less-oxygen feeling pretty heavily. All this on only 3.5 hours sleep, these ole legs and lungs still got it! We had a very powerful and important intimate and healing time in the Lord out there that was very significant. It is important to take out those personal moments to let the Lord speak into our lives as His children.

DIVINE APPOINTMENTS AND MIRACLES SMALL AND LARGE

While having a friend visit from Sweden, whom we discipled in the things of the New Testament and Kingdom of God, we were out on a bike ride and ran into some other Christians who were out witnessing and we were able to connect and share with them and then add some power to their work as we prayed over them right then and there on the beach. Praise God! We also ran into a couple while traveling just recently who just happened to have been in some of the exact same places we were in Germany on our last Euro mission trip. They were excited to have us pray with them and share with them about some of the things we've been doing and receive a DVD we gave them about Martin Luther and the Reformation. We also had some Norwegian friends come visit and had some powerful Holy Ghost times with them as well as experiencing lots of other cool times together. We had a divine appointment with some hispanic people selling tamales who spoke very little english, we ended up sharing the Lord and praying for these two new believers, they were powerfully impacted and encouraged as the Spirit of God lit them up with His power when we laid hands on and prayed for them. We were speaking to a guy from France recently and Mercedes shared a word of knowledge with him which opened him up to be able to be ministered to and have the Gospel shared with him. We've been ministering to the nations even when in this nation!

TO EVERYTHING THERE IS A SEASON...
A TIME TO HEAL...(AND GET CAUGHT UP)

We've had a bit of a schedule change lately and have had to temporarily put on hold some possible mission trips, because of a recent mishap: Surfing is much easier on the body when you fall than its poor red-headed step child skateboarding; cement is merciless. After a string of injuries back in the day I hung up the skateboard until Patrick got into it recently. One little rock can ruin your day though, I hit one just cruising and going straight doing basically nothing. You'd think it would have happened while I was hitting vertical in the pool right before this at the skate park we were at, it started to feel like the old days, but then... That little pebble catapulted me like a crash-test dummy straight into a dislocated shoulder, the real problem was the way I landed with my arm up in the air, usually I'm ready to tuck and roll, it's when your guard is down that you get broadsided. The doc at the emergency room, where I spent 6 long fun-filled hours, said it's one of the most painful injuries there is; pure agony is how I'd put it. After being shot up like a pin cushion with numerous painkillers, they finally had to knock me out to reset it. Now it's ice, rest, then rehab. Keep us in your prayers for a full and speedy recovery without complications and consider us in your giving as we've got lot's of extra expenses with deductibles and co-pays to pay off due to limited insurance.

While reviewing our mission and ministry trips to the nations both short and long from 2008: eg. our Europe mission trip where we traveled through over 17 countries as we ministered as well as mission trips to Hawaii, Mexico, all over California and all the rest of the stuff we were away for, we realized when adding it all together we were gone for almost six months of the year in 2008. Thus, while still staying active ministering regularly lately, we have also realized we have needed to catch up on some of the things we have gotten so far behind on, and we've been given the opportunity now with this recent injury. You just can't keep recycling the same old radio and TV programs week after week, people will just get bored and change the station. We also realized we ran out of cards with our info on them early last year at some point and because of being so busy and traveling so much we never had a chance to get new ones made and have been out for long over a year. We also drained our finances quite low as well, however we did it unto the Lord's service. Thus, we've been working on producing new materials for both radio and TV and getting new video programs produced, as well as working on getting caught up on a slew of other things. We are however, praying on some different mission trips that would be possible in the future, so we appreciate your prayers for God's clear guidance and provision.

We do have a new video out on a "Miracle in Portugal" that gives a divine appointment miracle story while traveling. We also have some new video series we are putting out on "The Gospel in The Roman Empire" that gives important and insightful info to the historical times of the New Testament. Our latest blog is also on this important topic. Our radio and TV programs continue to touch lives. Click here to find possible times in your area. We also have numerous programs on podcast now, over 85 that you can download to your computer or iPod to listen to and learn from at your convenience (Click here to connect through iTunes.) Many cover teachings in the Scriptures as well as on the History of Christianity, dealing with essential topics that are important for every Christian to know. Using these podcasts is a good way to get yourself quickly informed and enlightened on many important topics, especially some essential historical ones. They will enable you to have a grasp of, and to be an informed believer, regarding knowing something of the important history of your own faith.

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