To my surprise, my interpreter was not just an interpreter who does interpreting, but
Anapola is arguably the most influential Christian singer in that whole nation.
I have never had such an experience of having one of my translators as an intercessor. You could feel
the presence of God. Now maybe it was just me, but I know it wasn't. I knew that my
whole team could feel such a different dynamic. A different calling of love. It was her motherly
call as she said each sentence. It was like your own mother reminding you of the promises of God.
There was a double portion of the anointing that was given as the gospel was
presented. That's as clearly as a simply as I can put it, and I was moved.
We all felt it. Powerful.
Many of these countries in South America was a first for me, and Uruguay was also a country I've never been to, and hearing about the
general pulse on society and mindset in faith is always something I get debriefed on before
I enter the nation. It is my privilege and pleasure to be here
in front of you all. I want to thank you so much for your welcome and the main reason
why I am here is to plant exactly what, as it was said, a seed of hope and a seed of faith.
As men, we need to be true, faithful, pure, more than an excellent speaker, I want to be an excellent father.
More than an excellent speaker, I want to be an excellent husband.
When the families fall, the nation falls. We need to bring the basics back.
Uruguay has a very, very, very small percentage of Christianity.
It was a nation with a lot of potential.
As we drove up closer and closer to the big crowd, it was breathtaking. You could hear the expectancy and the anticipation of everyone.
Buses came from everywhere, every direction. There were thousands and thousands of people,
some say 17,000 people. It is my joy to be here tonight. Man, what a cool crowd!
Even across the road, people were in trees, on top of cars, looking at the stage from across the street. It was absolutely incredible.
And you could tell that every single word that was spoken from stage was being received
by everyone. Hallelujah. God is good. God does have a plan,
and I'm thankful that I said yes to God. My question to you tonight is have you said
yes to him yet. So that was basically the first and the largest
evangelical event ever in that country. And thousands and thousands of seeds were planted
of faith and thousands gave their life to the Lord that night. It was absolutely incredible.
When Nick speaks to schools, there are several topics he comes back to. One is bullying,
one is having purpose in life. At the school in Cochabamba, it struck me special, because
Nick asked kids to show by raising their hands how many had ever considered suicide, how
many had ever tried suicide. Do you know how many people have thought of
committing suicide? Not another school, not another country, in this room. One thousand
of you have told me that you have thought of committing suicide.
When you realize the power of your time, stand up for what is right. Change your mind. I don't want to be a reason
why someone gives up. I want to be a reason for someone to live! We need to pray for one another.
You can make a difference now. I want to see a generation who understands one thing:
that never in the history of the planet has there been a generation who can actually
really make a difference in this world. The most favorite topics I like to talk about
is bullying and making sure they get the messages of knowing that everyone's beautiful just
the way that they are, but also that God has a plan for their life, and to acknowledge
that sometimes we feel like giving up. We feel like God's abandoned us, but he never
leaves us. As we search for that greater purpose, God will reveal his plan for our life.
It was a very, very powerful time, with the kids, and many, many, many of the kids, way
over half of the kids, 70, 80% of them maybe stood up at the end, saying I want to renew
or have a relationship with God in a new way when Nick was speaking.
We have some very smart doctors in this hospital. But sometimes, we don't always have all
the answers. And there are times in life where things happen and sometimes we feel alone,
but when I feel alone, God is with us. We don't want anyone to feel like they're
just a piece of media source. We come in absolute respect to the parents, to the kids, to the
nurses, to the doctors. I put myself in their shoes. We're talking about a matter of life
and death here. This is life and death issues. It's salvation. It's people finding hope.
This kid really caught my attention, he was a teenager. A young boy with cancer, and I
could see immediately that he was in a lot of pain. You know, when you're in that type
of pain where it's really even hard to focus, that's the type of pain he was in. I looked
at him many times during the speech, I talked about heaven, I talked about miracles, I told
him we're going to pray for miracles. Sometimes, physical miracles don't come. Heaven is
my focus of happiness, is my focus of joy. My wife, she had a dad. He died of leukemia.
But now, he's in heaven. We need to do our best. We need to do our treatment. And God
will do the rest. He's always with you, and if I don't see you, because I don't
know when I'm coming back to Bolivia, I'll see you up there, and we'll play football together.
I love you. Lo samo, lo samo. Finally, I got to that child, and prayed with him.
And said goodbye. I found out that even before our South American trip was over, that he went home to be with the Lord.
That made us again realize we never know how much time we
have to share with people the hope that God wants to give them. Being there at the
cancer ward I think brought that to light to all of us again. That we don't know, and how
important it is to share God's hope with people.
I everyday thank God for the calling of being appointed to say some things that not a lot
of people get to say, and it's life-changing.