In our 30 years of ministry, there has never been as profound and intense ministry as I have just experienced. Late last year the wonderful folks at Promise Keepers New Zealand invited me to come and speak at two of their three annual conferences in August. The trip would take me into Auckland and have me there for 19 days. They asked me if I would be open to other speaking opportunities sandwiched between the two weekends of the events. I said, sure, you cannot over work me. My former pastor, Danny says there is a theological word for this—STUPID!
I want to share with you a brief summary of what happened: I arrived in New Zealand on the 15th. By the time I was done I had been in 8 cities covering both islands from Auckland in the north to the far southern tip, taken 6 plane trips, spoken at 5-6 fundraisers, conducted 7 marriage seminars, spoken at 3 churches for Sunday services and two major PK rallys where I brought the opening and closing messages as well as two elective workshops in each. In all I calculate I spoke 28 times in 19 days.
I want to truly thank Paul Monahan, John Subritsky and the entire PK staff for their incredible kindness and encouragement all the way through. In addition, a special thanks to Paul and Lynette Subritsky, (founders of PK NZ 25 years ago now retired) for hosting all of my trips throughout this amazing and beautiful country. I cannot say enough about the people, all the incredible food and the amazing sights I encountered.
This trip was truly supernatural on so many levels. In all of that time I never once felt tired, did not come close to losing my voice and did not experience anything other than God’s amazing grace and strength. I am sorry that time and space here does not afford me the opportunity to share all of the details but let me just unpack the final weekend for you as a sample.
It began at the opening of the last PK event Friday night the 31st. It was my privilege to open for about 900-1,000 guys with my testimony. Daz Chettle followed with a strong evangelistic call and the altar was flooded with hundreds of men. Daz and I escorted them into another prepared room where we shared more with them, had them fill out a card and then prayed over them. The next day I conducted two elective breakout sessions with an average attendance of around 350 men. During the second breakout about 10 men gave their hearts to Jesus.
Later I spoke at a fundraiser for PK and then closed the conference that evening with a strong message on Real Christianity In An Un-real World. At the end of the night I felt impressed to give another invitation and about 20 more men followed me off to another side room where we shared and prayed together. It was so amazing and special. NOTE: If you would like to see some pictures and videos from this experience please visit my Facebook home page, https://www.facebook.com/vince.dacchioli.
The next day, Sunday, I had the privilege of speaking at two services for a church about an hour away and Cindy opened the services with prayer all the way from California where she had just arrived. I brought the powerful message of God’s incredible healing of Cindy back in 2010 and all He taught us through that challenging time. There were many tears and many were saved and touched.
That evening was the culmination of the whole 19 days when 150 people showed up for our final couples seminar. This was the 7th one and though they were all special, this one was amazing. As you know, Cindy was not able to join me on this trip so I had to play her role in all of the sessions. Thank God He gave me the grace to pull it off. These seminars were some of the most impactful events of the entire trip. So many couples recommitted their lives and marriages to Christ and many people were saved.
The two-hour meeting time was split into two sessions. The first one dealt with the differences between men and women and has always been the highlight of our Couples On TargetSeminar. The second session had them taking the natural gift test and then concluding with a time of debriefing the results. The feedback was amazing. Many indicated they thought it was some of the best information they had ever encountered on marriage. When the video of this is available I will post it.
The next morning before going to PK and then the airport I had some meaningful alone time with God. I shed a lot of tears as I remember being very emotional. Everything finally over I now had time to reflect. The intensity of our move, losing our precious dog, Beau and the excitement of this trip was catching up. I remember my most powerful emotion was being filled with awe and great thankfulness about how God used me on this trip. I am so deeply humbled that He would allow me, a frail and flawed human being, to experience His amazing grace.
I arrived back in Los Angeles on Monday September 3rd. Our daughter Kim purchased a ticket for Cindy to fly out to meet me so I would not have to drive our second car back to our new home in Colorado alone. What a blessing that turned out to be. I was exhausted to say the least. The adrenalin gone and jet lag set in, it took a couple of days to adjust. We drove back on the 6th of September and are now able to begin settling in.
Next week I begin a new assignment at The Road @ Chapel Hill. I am looking forward to how God might use me to bless my pastor, Steve Holt and our wonderful staff there. In addition, the ministry is moving forward full blast. We are still in need of additional financial resources to complete our second MOTCurriculum manuals and it looks like PK New Zealand is interested in perhaps adopting this resource for distribution there.
Cindy and I are so blessed to bring you this exciting report and want to encourage you to please continue to pray for us, OTM and to also consider a generous gift this month to help us close out the usual end-of-summer financial challenges.
We are so thankful for you, your prayers and support.
May God richly bless you,