Yes, you heard correctly, many of the brethren in L.A. preach in Spanish. Given that there is a large hispanic/latino community in L.A. preaching in Spanish is a must. If you didn't know, now you know!
First off was the Spanish Catholic convention that took place July 23rd, 2023. If you want a visual of Matthew 23 when Jesus rebuked the pharisees, here's a repeat in our modern day. We rebuked these catholics hard without holding back, as their main sin is the sin of idolatry which is the breaking of commandment number 2. Attached is a link to the video. If you know or have any Catholic friends, family, or neighbors feel free to send them the link to this video.
In preaching to the Catholics we rebuked their sin of idolatry namely bowing down and praying to false images of Jesus and statues of a false Mary. Besides that we exposed the false European Jesus that Catholics worship, as opposed to the real Hebrew Jesus of the Bible. The Catholics main defense to our rebukes was "we gave you the Bible" to which we responded salvation of the Jews and the New Testament was given to us by the apostles not the Catholic Church. They also claimed that speaking against Mary was like speaking against the "Mother of God", in which we responded by saying God doesn't have a mother, moreover Mary was a sinner in need of a Savior.
We arrived at this location at 7:15am, since the doors opened at 8am and we wanted to get them before they went in. As they trickled in things got very heated at times luckily there was a barricade to keep them away from us. Moreover, there was a Catholic deacon who was in charge of persuading the crowds not argue with us. However despite their being a barricade this guy still managed to give me a good slap to the face.
This women came over and tried flaunting her idols in front of us, as if that was going to subdue us. Well, it didn't work. She's lucky we didn't bring a statue of Mary and break in the sight of all.
This openly lesbian Catholic heckled us for some time. She was with the vendors who were also Catholic, many of which complained about our preaching affecting their sales and complained about our disrespect towards their false Mary. Many nice looking old ladies actually got very vulgar with us in defending their idol Mary, it was a sight to see.
When we came back to our car, we realized that all 4 of our tried were slashed. We have suspicion that it might have been the lesbian Catholic, as she had stopped heckling us for a while but later came back with a completely different attitude even threatening to call her gangster friends to come shoot us. Due to this incident we had to get a tow truck. Although 4 new tires are not cheap we rejoiced at the persecution we received counting it all joy!
Up next we hit this Salsa Festival on July 29th 2023. If you don't know anything about Salsa it's the Spanish version of dirty dancing and its very much embedded into the latin culture. Both the music and the dances are regarded as a mere art form, however it is not hard to see that it is also motived and influenced by man and women's lust for one another. This made the topic of adultery our main focus. As many of the songs glorify sex, romance, women, and forbidden pleasures.
This was our first time hitting this event. The street was blocked off and the police gave us full freedom to sound the trumpet of truth. With a 75 watt bullhorn the Word thundered and echoed from wall to wall. There was no escaping God's loving warning on this occasion.
Below are several pictures of the type of crowd we were preaching to. Not to mention many of the men were highly conceited and many of the women were dressed immodesty something which we did not fail to address.
If you wish to see or share the video below is the link:
On August 12th one of the brothers hit the Marco Antonio Solis Concert. Although this man is nobody in the eyes of God in the eyes of the Spanish community he is the modern day "Elvis." He is highly idolized and adored by many men and women alike. To his millions of fans he is like an Angelic Messianic figure who sweeps people off their feet with his voice. His songs are mainly about heart break, romance, and the idolization of women as "gods." The brother got to walk around the BMO stadium while preaching to the thousands who were lining up for this concert. These 3 events are only a small portion of all the events that we preach in Spanish each year. Although I personally do not speak fluent Spanish God has given me the grace, wisdom, and words to speak when the opportune times to preach in Spanish arises.
If you would like to see and share the video the link is below:
https://www.facebook.com/100048504165470/videos/668311228217488/
As always thank you for your support and prayers!