Hi, I am Jose Lopez, the founder and director of Santo Outreach Ministry. Our goal is to unite like minded churches and ministries to fulfill the Great Commission in the DC area, primarily, but we also support churches and ministries in other parts of the country. We sponsor FreedomFest DC, an evangelism outreach event that is held on the National Mall every summer during the days leading up to and on July 4th, which is our main event. FreedomFest DC is considered to be the largest evangelistic outreach event in the DC metro area. While many churches and ministries send people to go out to the world to do missionary work, this is one of the few situations where the world comes to us because of how many people visit Washington, DC during the summer.
It’s like a great friend and sister in the Lord shared with her group during their devotional time. She said, “Where in the world can you do missions and reach out and connect with people from hundreds of different nationalities in a week? Nowhere.” And this sister is someone that has being doing missions for many years and in different countries.
The Bible passage that we use as a “theme” for FreedomFestDC is John 17:20-23.
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one- I in them and you in me- so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have love them even as you have love me”
Based on this passage, nothing less than the church being in unity will satisfy the prayer of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. When we come here to the National Mall and share the life changing message of Jesus Christ, we come united as one body of Christ and not as individual churches and ministries.