Bells of Restoration

09/02/2026

As we enter Hebrew year 5787 📯 תשפ״ז, during God’s fall feast approaching, I’m reminded that we are not entering another season casually.

Tav: MARKED.
Remember who you belong to. You’re a child of God

Shin: REFINED.
Let God consume what cannot go forward with you into the next season.

Pey: SPEAK.
Let your mouth come into agreement with the Word of God. Choosing better words.

Zayin: ARMED.
Be armed with His Word & His Spirit, brought into His divine order, and prepared for the assignment ahead.

May this be a season under the covering of God’s grace, completion, new beginnings, and holy rest; not striving to force what is next, but trusting the God who finishes what He begins.

🔥 Let the old be refined.
🎺 Let the sound go forth.
🎤 Let His Word be in our mouths.
⚔️ Let His people be armed with the Sword of the Spirit.

May the people of God bear His mark, be purified by His holy fire, speak His Word with their mouths, and go forward armed with the Sword of the Spirit; walking in the fullness and rest of His completed work.

His timing. His order. His purpose.

“Take… the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” 📖 Ephesians 6:17

“Behold, I am doing a new thing…” 📖 Isaiah 43:19

08/31/2026

Choose Better Words. 🌹

Words can heal or wound, build or tear down, bring peace or stir up anger. 💞 Scripture reminds us that **“death and life are in the power of the tongue.” Proverbs 18:21 **

Cursing and harmful language can wound others, create negativity, and dishonor the person you are speaking to and God. Before we speak, post, text, or respond, let’s ask: Will these words encourage or harm? Will they reflect Jesus?

• Choose grace over harshness.
• Choose listening over reacting.
• Choose words that build up instead of break down.
• Choose language that brings life or encouragement, instead of cursing or causing harm.

🔔 Speak life. Build up. Bring restoration.

08/18/2026

He built a church movement of his own rather than take orders from a man who did not speak his language. 🕯️

Francisco Olazabal was born in Sinaloa in 1886. He came north and preached. The Assemblies of God ordained him in February 1918.

He filled halls across the Southwest. Mexican churches grew fast under him.

Then the group put an Anglo leader over its Spanish speaking work. Olazabal saw a ceiling. He would not take it.

In 1923 he called Mexican pastors to Houston. They set up their own body. Later they named it the Concilio Latino Americano de Iglesias Cristianas.

He drew huge crowds in El Paso, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York. He died in 1937. The council he started still exists.

08/18/2026

08/12/2026

Juan Navarro had been at the Azusa Street revival in Los Angeles. In 1912 he baptized a young Mexican man named Francisco Llorente.

Llorente began to preach to Mexican workers up and down California. In 1916 the pastors around him chose him to lead.

Antonio Castaneda Nava joined him. He had ridden with Villa before he crossed the line.

The churches took a name. They called it the Apostolic Assembly of the Faith in Christ Jesus. They filed papers in California on March 15, 1930.

They met in rented rooms and store fronts. It is the oldest Spanish speaking church body of its kind here.

08/07/2026

08/03/2026

Puerto Rico's religious story is often told as simply Catholic, but by the middle of the twentieth century, small Pentecostal congregations were reshaping the island's spiritual landscape one storefront at a time. In barrios across San Juan and beyond, modest rented rooms became churches, filled with folding chairs, hand-lettered scripture banners, and congregations singing late into the night. 🙏

These weren't grand cathedrals. They were often started by a handful of families pooling what little they had, led by lay preachers rather than ordained clergy, and built on a style of worship that was loud, emotional, and deeply communal. For many working-class Puerto Ricans, these churches offered not just faith but also a support network in neighborhoods that often had little else.

By the second half of the century, Pentecostal and other evangelical churches had grown into a major presence on the island and throughout the diaspora, changing what Sunday morning, and sometimes Tuesday and Thursday nights too, looked like for a huge share of Puerto Rican families. It's a part of the island's story that doesn't get told nearly as often as it should. ✨

Did your family belong to a small storefront congregation like this, and what do you remember about it?