Speaking to a cleansed crowd, crusade concludes.
It has taken a while to pull together the energy and images for the crusade concluding post, but now I am ready.
I will also make other posts now that are not sent via email, so please visit the site so you can read more about the crusade's aftermath, boat trip, etc.
Before I get into the details of the final night, let me attempt to explain the context of what we were dealing with here. The fishing villages around the crusade ground, as well as the other villages from which people came by 90 rented vehicles, are populated with people who for centuries have been isolated, intimidated and given over to desperation. The spiritual climate of the crusade was like hard ground compared to the fertile yet religio-skeptical soil of most evangelical meetings you might attend. It took very passionate, faith-filled prayer and worship to break through the topsoil. Each night I felt it softening. We had rotating teams of prayer warriors behind the stage. I could hear them calling out to God whenever there was a lull in the PA.
So on the final night, I felt compelled to say something that could relate to the gradual softening of their hearts and give them something they could use over and over going forward. The message was based on the parable of the sower. My feeling was that if their hearts could receive and understand the Word of God, value the Word of God beyond their experience that day, then I could retire from the meetings with a clear conscious that I followed God's leading and lasting fruit would emerge. Marcus (my translator) and I felt very connected to the message as it was going out, and I knew that the soil of their hearts had been prepared. I ended it with leading the attentive audience through a symbolic action of holding a seed in thier fingers, acknowledging it as the Word of God, then placing it in their hearts. This was essentially the altar call and we had nearly 90% participation. We are still praying that these precious people will remember this moment and seek God's promises each and every day. Then we personally prayed and laid hands on nearly 1000 people. I could not count it, but everyone was busy helping me pray. Many were personally lead to Christ.
The crowd was over 5000 strong on this final night... 2000 more than any other meeting here in anyone's memory! We owe it to the unprecedented level of cooperation between the 20+ local churches who participated with us. I especially owe my personal thanks for this to CGI's pastors' Joshua, Joel and Aruldas who assurred these local leaders that their efforts in working together would bear fruit!
More on the growing teamwork we are seeing in future posts.
Here are all the pics I have now. They represent a variety of 2nd and 3rd night crusade shots as well as Sat and Sun daytime activities. More posts may explain these. :-) I'll get more digicam cards copied so more pics can join these below.
I will also make other posts now that are not sent via email, so please visit the site so you can read more about the crusade's aftermath, boat trip, etc.
Before I get into the details of the final night, let me attempt to explain the context of what we were dealing with here. The fishing villages around the crusade ground, as well as the other villages from which people came by 90 rented vehicles, are populated with people who for centuries have been isolated, intimidated and given over to desperation. The spiritual climate of the crusade was like hard ground compared to the fertile yet religio-skeptical soil of most evangelical meetings you might attend. It took very passionate, faith-filled prayer and worship to break through the topsoil. Each night I felt it softening. We had rotating teams of prayer warriors behind the stage. I could hear them calling out to God whenever there was a lull in the PA.
So on the final night, I felt compelled to say something that could relate to the gradual softening of their hearts and give them something they could use over and over going forward. The message was based on the parable of the sower. My feeling was that if their hearts could receive and understand the Word of God, value the Word of God beyond their experience that day, then I could retire from the meetings with a clear conscious that I followed God's leading and lasting fruit would emerge. Marcus (my translator) and I felt very connected to the message as it was going out, and I knew that the soil of their hearts had been prepared. I ended it with leading the attentive audience through a symbolic action of holding a seed in thier fingers, acknowledging it as the Word of God, then placing it in their hearts. This was essentially the altar call and we had nearly 90% participation. We are still praying that these precious people will remember this moment and seek God's promises each and every day. Then we personally prayed and laid hands on nearly 1000 people. I could not count it, but everyone was busy helping me pray. Many were personally lead to Christ.
The crowd was over 5000 strong on this final night... 2000 more than any other meeting here in anyone's memory! We owe it to the unprecedented level of cooperation between the 20+ local churches who participated with us. I especially owe my personal thanks for this to CGI's pastors' Joshua, Joel and Aruldas who assurred these local leaders that their efforts in working together would bear fruit!
More on the growing teamwork we are seeing in future posts.
Here are all the pics I have now. They represent a variety of 2nd and 3rd night crusade shots as well as Sat and Sun daytime activities. More posts may explain these. :-) I'll get more digicam cards copied so more pics can join these below.
