It has been some time since our last newsletter! I pray this letter finds you blessed and highly favored. So much has been happening that I will do my best to consolidate it all down to a short letter. From seeing Jesus move in the streets of Mardi Gras to saturating the streets of Tulsa with Jesus we have seen countless miracles and hundreds of salvations. One thing for sure is that God is relentlessly pursuing His people and there is a move happening upon our great nation. Many refuse to see it or accept it. We however long to be at the front line leading our nation into true freedom by the blood of Jesus alone, by seeing the gospel advanced into the hearts of every man, woman, and child. People are starving and more than ever they are hungry for a real authentic encounter with the living breathing Jesus! The idols, treasures, and shining things of this world have proven to not measure up and they long for something real. Our mission is to give them just that and introduce them to the one true living God.
Story of Naaman
We are facing the biggest identity crisis our world has ever seen.
In 2 Kings 5 there is a story of a man called Naaman. This story greatly impacted my life and as we look deeper into it, we see a man who regardless of his valiant acts he could not see passed his own disease of leprosy. He was a man who found his identity in what was on the surface and not of whose he belonged to. If I know my identity rest in Christ alone then I know that I am royalty of in His blood line. So why would I choose to let either my great deeds or my flaws say who I am? Point being we are now seeing a world that lets what on the surface determine who they think they are. Male, female, boy, girl, rich, poor, successful, or homeless they can’t see passed their own flesh. When we feel less than just as Naaman than we puff ourselves up with pride to compensate and when we feel like we’ve achieved we refuse to see our need for a savior.
Healing the lepers is as going and healing the current identity crisis upon our nation of America.
Sapulpa
Street worship
Tuesday night Street Worship in Sapulpa has looked a bit different this year. 3 years ago, we set out into the streets to saturate the city in His presence. We have watched as so many amazing fruitful things have transpired. But we never want the new thing God created to become the idol worshipped so in trying to keep the Fathers heart in every aspect we have taken more time this year in pressing in in prayer and coming together in worship privately to ensure the Fathers heart is in fact restored and kept at the for front of everything we do. We never want to just be another ministry giving humanitarian aid. We long to see the power of the gospel exhibited and used to set the captives free! If we are not watchful the new thing God has done will become our next tradition and system. We must always guard and remember it’s all about Him, our source and not the system!
We are looking to kick off again this fall with a continuous flow of street worship every Tuesday with the intention to worship King Jesus in the streets over a city, pray over a city and release the word over a city to watch it be a place where revival is birthed by His presence alone! Not to mention that our bus has been down getting a new transmission and we are still waiting for its return!
Night of Unity
September 16th at 6pm will be our 2nd annual Night of Unity to bring all the local churches together to lift up the name of Jesus in one accord. This is a beautiful time where walls of division come down and the only thing that matters is Jesus! John 13:35 says that they will know us by our love for one another. I think it’s time the world sees something different than what it has up to now. Time for us to love our brothers and sisters regardless of their church name.
Interns
We also officially welcome Lili as our intern along with Brittany who has decided to come intern with us. We are excited to launch our internship program with the young ladies who will not only take to the streets to advance the gospel but they will learn what it takes behind the scenes to serve and build kingdom character as they are discipled and grow a deeper faith and intimacy with their Savior.
Tulsa
Apartment outreach & street worship
Since February we have been consistently hitting the streets of Tulsa every Wednesday and Friday evening. This has been an effort to target N. Tulsa, E. Tulsa, and 61st & Peoria areas. Between street worship in parking lots or apartment outreaches to specific communities we have seen countless salvations and miracles of healings in these areas. This summer we partnered up with Bridging Hunger to help feed hungry children in these communities and we have been serving over 500 kids grocery bags every week since the first of June. We will continue these efforts in these communities through the summer and then will continue to serve them through our Wednesday and Friday outreach.
Tent revivals
We partnered up with Spirit & Truth Ministries and have held 3 tent revivals throughout Tulsa over the last 3 months. Reed Park, Johnson Park, & Penney Park where we saw the Holy Spirit move upon people in power as there were blind eyes opened and deaf ears opened.
In June we teamed up with Everyheart for their summer tour. These are college aged missionaries out of Grand Rapids, MI who have laid their yes on the altar and are willing to get radical for Jesus and go wherever He sends them. We spent 7 days saturating the streets of 61st & Peoria with them. From apartment outreach to street worship to tent revivals and just old-fashioned street evangelism. We saw over 5 salvations this week alone and watched as God restored hearing to a 7-year-old boy and gave sight to blind eyes! During the tent revival on Friday night, we baptized over 25 men, women, and children! Hallelujah!!! No doubt this team became like family to us, and we cannot wait until we are able to worship with them again.
PPM
One of the many ways we have been able to disciple the younger generation is by partnering with Praying Pelican Missions. A global organization that takes teams all around the world and S2S has become one of their primary avenues for evangelism in Tulsa. We have had the pleasure of working with multiple teams this summer and over spring break. Many of these students have never shared the gospel before so we are able to take time to train and equip them for the work of a missionary and then take them into the streets and communities to love on the people of Tulsa. They always leave transformed by what God does in them and through them.
America
We were able to attend Mardi Gras this year in New Orleans and worship in the streets during some of the darkest times through that week. One encounter I will never forget was a young man standing on the corner with a lost look in his eyes. He couldn’t have been over 25 years old, and he looked like he was just trying to stand there long enough eating a piece of pizza to pull himself together and go back into the crowd of chaos. As I walked up to him, I heard the Lord say that this young man has known me, and his grandmother took him to church all his childhood and how he has walked away. As he engaged in small talk with me, I bluntly asked him what he was doing there and he said, “I really don’t know”. So, I told him what God had revealed to me. He turned to me and as tears rolled down his face, he told me the details of his grandmother and how she was the choir director, and he was in that church almost every day. We talked in depth of what it looks like to really follow Jesus and how Christ is pursuing him because he wants him to live. We prayed together and the young man hugged me and with tears still flowing said, “thank you for doing it right”.
You see there were many churches out there with their signs of “turn or burn” but it was a real authentic Jesus that stepped up on a curb with a young man and listened to his story and spoke truth from a place of love that will direct his steps back to the arms of Christ. The gospel is never a fear tactic but rather that of a father’s heart to his children.
We even made a weekend trip to OKC where we saw 26 salvations in the streets of downtown OKC in one night. The highlight was a group of 8 young men around the age of 14 who were looking for water at midnight. After giving them all the water we had they stood and listened to the gospel and how God wants us to live so he protects us and cautions us to not go down certain paths, just like how we place our pets in a fence, so they don’t die. They each had a revelation moment to the amazing love of the Father. This was all after we had just sat in a bar drinking water and eating wings with a bartender that surrendered his life to Jesus and received restoration in his hearing! We serve a mighty God!
We have a few trips coming up and would be honored if you would join us in praying for favor, safety, and divine appointments for each of them.
Aug 24th – 28th Burning Man outreach in Gerlach, NV
Sept 1st – 3rd The Send in Grand Rapids, MI
Mexico
Aug 17th – 21st in Piedras Negras (train & equip)
Durango (train & equip missionaries) El Tulle - dates TBD
Brazil
July 28th – Aug 7th In Brazil with Global Gospel Action
We thank you for all the prayers and support to join us in advancing the gospel in the streets of America and to other nations. Your generosity and love is changing this world one encounter at a time.
The Ask
Please prayerfully consider partnering with us financially to continue advancing the gospel in the streets of America and around the world.
Any size reoccurring gift whether $5 or $1,000 monthly will help us plan and fund the efforts going forward. Would you consider making small sacrifices that would allow you to give money towards others hearing the gospel of Jesus you can follow the link to give online https://www.shoulder2shoulderministries.org/donateor cash or check to Shoulder2Shoulder Ministries at PO BOX 724Sapulpa, OK 74067. Cashapp $S2SMin