Five years of doing kingdom with friends out on the beaches!
Five years ago, around the time I started exploring different ways of expressing God’s love out in public, a friend and I went out on the beach in Oceanside, California and for the first time set up this little prayer tent. With duct tape and clothesline cord we hung some nicely printed thick paper signs on it that were very kindly made for us by what was then my church Grace Chapel of the Coast, now Grace Vineyard. I had no idea what I was doing, so I learned as I went.
We just had that small tent I’d picked up on sale at Walmart, some metal folding chairs I brought from home, each other, and the power of God’s love. It was more than enough. We started loving on and praying for people in a very laid-back way, and Holy Spirit began to move. I was shocked and elated that people would actually line up to experience the gospel.
We started on Fridays each week for a few months. I think by the beginning of the next summer we had cutback to about once a month, switched to Saturday’s, and I had purchased a slightly larger tent and some collapsible beach chairs from Walmart. The chairs were so cheap that within a few months I had to toss them and get some sturdier ones at CostCo. We experimented with different signage and had some professionally made to last. The pastors and people at Grace Chapel encouraged and supported us out in public so well & a small trickle of people made it from their God-encounter on the beach up to the church location several blocks inland. Because i was sharing our exploits on social media more people started coming out with us .
Shortly after that we did our first Activate Love workshop down in San Diego with a brilliant group of friends and we began to see and connect with others throughout our county that getting lit up with the Light Of The World. During the next several years we did these workshops all over San Diego county teaching Christians how to begin to activate the love that is already inside of them in Christ and share it with others in their daily lives.
During the years since then the beach outreaches have continued monthly for the most part; and different people partnering with us have come and gone as the seasons of their lives have changed. A few years back we begin to partner with some friends that wanted to bring out their own expression of the good news, so we added another prayer tent with different signage and a large popup for a drum circle & acoustical music. Next an artist friend or two began to join us so we added an art tent to engage people creatively. We’ve taken our set-up to different beaches in the San Diego area, sometimes partnering with churches nearby and sometimes just following Holy Spirit. More and more peeps have been coming out to be salt and light. We usually have 4-6 different churches/communities represented, and I can remember once when there were 12. More and more people have been encountering God in increasingly significant ways.
In the last five years we’ve seen hundreds and hundreds of people in the streets and on the beaches encounter the power of God’s love in many ways. Sometimes people are just overwhelmed and cry or shake of even fall over in the sand or on the sidewalk. We’ve seen scores of really radical physical healings out in public, and hundreds of less dramatic healings. Deliverances! Prophetic ministry! Conversions! Rededication’s! And many of the people who’ve come out to join us to love our communities have also been transformed. Come on Jesus!!
We’re still at it, and we’re still growing and changing. In the last six months we’ve seen a real increase in the number of people that are giving their lives to Christ. Almost every time we go out now we get to introduce somebody or several somebodies to their Father through Jesus. Recently another strategically thinking friend and I have begun to talk about how we might be able to follow up with these new Christians and help them grow up healthy in their new lives.
There’s more fun ahead! Hit us if you’re interested! So fun!! #activatelove