As of this writing I am flying back from an exceptional ministry trip to Puerto Rico!

I and my wife Joyce spent a week with my 18 year-old daughter Rachel, who is participating in a one year discipleship training school with Youth With A Mission. Yarley Nino and Lynette Ruiz, who founded the base three decades ago and are now significant leaders across Latin America, lead this base!

YWAM Ministry: October 28 to November 1

I was honored to teach their students for four days (Monday to Thursday 10/28-10/31) on various theological topics including the application of Scripture to culture utilizing a kingdom worldview! My wife then taught on Friday 11/1 on many practical topics. (We made a great team!)

During this time with these young people I strongly emphasized how they can be prepared for college with a biblical worldview.  I saw how much the church needs to focus on making disciples of our youth! I ended the sessions on Thursday by moving prophetically over each of the 17 students attending. The Holy Spirit fell upon us and many of those receiving words were weeping because they knew God was speaking things only He knew about them!

Ponce Ministry: November 1 to 3

That Friday 11/1 I left my wife at the YWAM base to spend time with my daughter and left for the city of Ponce (second largest city in Puerto Rico!) to preach at the 23rd anniversary celebration of “Iglesia Cristiana de la Familia” led by Pastor Angel Esteban Martinez. This church has about 1,500 regular attendees and has amazing influence in their city. (A large percentage of their church is made up of marketplace leaders including politicians, scientists, educators, doctors, etc.) They educate more than 400 children daily in a primary school; they have a community-counseling center with professional psychologists; they have a music and arts center, as well as many holistic programs for their city too numerous to mention in this report!

I preached in this church on Friday Night on the topic “Being a Kingdom Church” based on corporately applying the Lord’s Prayer found in Matthew 6:6-9. God moved powerfully and almost all of the 400 to 500 present rededicated themselves to becoming kingdom minded people who want to bring societal transformation to Ponce, Puerto Rico and to all of Latin America! Then, at the end, the pastor had all of his leaders stand on the platform (about 75) to dedicate themselves and their church to the kingdom! God also moved prophetically as I gave specific words of knowledge and wisdom to about six people who responded to the altar call.

Saturday leadership conference for the 4/14 window leaders of Puerto Rico

On Saturday 11/2 I taught for more than three hours to 237 leaders of the 4/14 Window Movement Puerto Rico. This is a global movement initiated by Luis Bush to reach children between the ages of four and fourteen with the gospel!) Both Yarley Nino of YWAM and Pastor Angel Esteban Martinez organized this day.

I taught this group on Kingdom Structures and showed them from both biblical truth and personal stories related to my experience in New York City and our local church community (Sunset Park) how the church is called to not only transform individual sinners but also confront systemic societal sin encased in its laws and social norms! I ended this seminar by teaching them how to apply the Law of God found in the Ten Commandments and the 613 civic laws to economics, politics, education, families and how to use the Bible to frame public policy. I used the Ten Commandments as a framework and showed them how each of the commandments can be applied socially, politically and economically to contemporary culture.

Pastor Esteban said at the end: “It was one of the most profound seminars ever given in the nation of Puerto Rico!”

It challenged and changed the mindset of all present and many professionals in the marketplace. Some in high-level political positions told me they want to read my books, subscribe to my weekly newsletters and need ongoing mentoring and/or resources. It was truly a great time of bringing kingdom thinking and changing the paradigms of some of the greatest minds and leaders in Puerto Rico!  I am excited to be a small part of the present revolution-taking place in the church of Puerto Rico!

(Many of them told me how frustrated they are because there are so many churches and a large percentage of Puerto Ricans are Christian, yet their island leads Latin America in AIDS, crime, divorce and other negative statistics! Now they know the answer is for the church to be kingdom minded and shepherd their cities, not just care for their local congregations!

Sunday 11/3 in Iglesia Cristiana de la Familia

Finally, I preached two services to about 1,000 people on this day. God moved powerfully as I taught on “Having a Generational Church” based on having healthy marriages and families in the local church. In each service every married couple ran to the front to rededicate their generations to God and to break generational curses due to negative habit patterns in their lives.

One of the things I said repeatedly was to “put their family as their first ministry” which was (unknown to me!) also a slogan they would be using in a marriage retreat to be given the next weekend! That showed all the leaders how prophetic the message was for their church!  Pastor Angel said it was one of the most important services in the history of their church and he knew God sent me to preach that message on their anniversary!

In conclusion, I am thrilled to make a reconnection in the Spirit with Puerto Rico (the birthplace of my mother) and I believe this is only the beginning of a long-term relationship with Pastor Angel, Iglesia Cristiana de la Familia, the 4/14 Window Movement, as well as Yarley and Lynette of YWAM!

Together, we as well as many like-minded leaders will continue to preach the gospel of the kingdom and see the nations of the world transformed for the glory of God!