Crusade #7 - INDIA
Friends!! THIS WAS THE ✨ LARGEST ✨ CRUSADE YET!! I’m blown away… 😭 truly amazed at God’s working! “🙌🏻 This is the LORD's doing; it is marvellous in our eyes” (Psalm 118:23).
OVER 800 PEOPLE WITH 300+ TRUSTING CHRIST!! 🔥🙏🏻🙌🏻 Yet another harvest 🌾 of precious souls given hope in the darkness — this time from Kunaparaju parva, Reddygudem mandal, N. T. R district, Andhra Pradesh, India!
In spite of the heavy rains ⛈️ that cancelled this meeting on Thursday evening, the team decided to stay the night (sleeping in one of the churches there on the floor) and hit the streets the next day to inform the people the crusade would be held on Friday night instead! All of this was a huge step of faith. A storm loomed in the sky all day long, but through the faithfulness of fervent prayer, it did not rain, and the clouds were rolled away by the evening! ONLY GOD!!
As the day went on, everyone in the villages and surrounding area were so excited. God was stirring in the hearts of the people! Frequently, the team came across men and women in the villages who were talking among themselves about Redeeming Hope and how surprised they were that the team had stayed the night: “What is this movie? Why would they stay to try to show us this film? What is so important about it? Surely we must go watch this thing!”
NEWS TRAVELED FAST!! Now instead of inviting the people, the team were constantly being approached by people who were asking if they were still going to hold the meeting! God used a physical rainstorm to bring a spiritual one.
Floods of lost souls came pouring into the crusade EARLY (which is very unusual in the Indian culture I have been told). The meeting place was quickly filled to capacity. 600 chairs had been put out, but the team had to scramble to find 100 more ‼️ Rickshaw after rickshaw kept pulling up and people steadily streamed in from the area. Every seat was taken! (Even Bro. Bharath had to stand! He gave his seat for someone else!)
Men gathered their own chairs and sat along the main road…. Others even got up onto the roofs of the surrounding homes and watched from above! (See photos for examples of this.) A vast majority of the people there had never heard the clarity of Gospel before. Some were aware of the name Jesus, but most did not know Who He was. INCREDIBLE!! 😭🙌🏻 NOW THEY KNOW!!!!! Praise God! Praise God! ❤️
Everyone sat quietly, completely engaged in the film. At the end when the Gospel was presented, over 300 prayed and accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour!
Here is what I’m sure you’ve been waiting for… 😊🙏🏻👇🏻 To read some of the testimonies of CHANGED LIVES from that glorious night!! (Put yourselves in their sandals 😇. Think about how powerful the following words really are!)
✅ When I watched this movie, I really felt wonder because there are a lot of connections in this movie and my life. I felt many times to commit suicide. I came to watch this movie with lot of discouragement, God spoken through this movie very straightly. In this movie pastor Warren spoke to Denver, I really felt he was literally talking to me. Really I praise God, through this movie, He has changed my life, now I submit my life to Him completely.
✅ My wife always usually talks about Jesus, but I never cared. She asked me “Take me here to watch this movie.” I came to watch this movie setup and how things are going on here, because I never had any experience to watch a movie in open ground in a big LED screen and especially there is no Christian movie i watched yet, so that's the reason I came here. I observed one thing In this movie, Denver’s wife usually doing a lot of prayer for her husband, I think my wife have been praying for me as Denver wife's did. As God spoke to Denver and changed His life, the same way God spoke to me and changed my life. I trusted the Lord for salvation.
✅ I had lot addictions in my life, one of my friend request me to attend this meeting. He forcefully brought me here. I never knew before that God loves me and He forgives me. I truly realized this after I watched this movie. God changed my life!
✅ I am thankful that God can save anyone, as I have been living with the same thoughts as Denver of doing suicide every single day, but praise God, today I submitted my weakness to the Lord. I thank God, He doesn't want me to go to Hell. I trusted in Him for salvation!
✅ God gave the opportunity to know about Him through this film, even though there are lot of uncertainty situations happening in our village with the rain. We praise God for His plan and purpose for us. Today we witnessed hundreds of trusted Lord for salvation, and I am the one of them.
✅ I have two sons. My elder son has trusted the Lord for salvation, me and my husband and elder son regularly attend the church, but my younger son he didn't accept Christ as his personal Savior, and He never attends the church. We ask him many many times to attend, but he never cares for our words. We requested him to attend this movie and spend time with us. He didn’t agree with us and said very clearly “I don't come!” But after sometime, He decide to come and watch this movie on yesterday. But there is a heavy rain, we heard from someone that the movie got cancelled. I really felt discouragement, because at least through this movie my son could get saved and change his life. Now this will not happen. But then today morning I heard that the cancelled movie will show tonight! Again I spoke with my son, and finally we came to watch this movie. After the movie my son came to me with tears and said, "I have submitted my life to the Lord and accepted Him, I understand how great of a sinner I am, I want to attend church regularly, I want to change my life.” It was life time testimony in our lives! I am so thankful that God can change anyone! I thank God for all the people who arranged this movie tonight, even though there are many uncertainty situations. I praise God for these God servants and their faith and courage to move forward and having the burden souls! Today we have witnessed God greatly move! Thank you each and every one to make this happen.
✅ I am a believer, I trusted Lord for salvation, I'm trying to grow spiritually every single day, I really felt very happy to know that there is movie day in our village, our Pastor have been announcing this last two weeks. We really got excited to watch, but unfortunately it got cancelled due to heavy rain. We really discouraged a lot, but again today we heard from someone, the movie team and all the equipment still there, and we will try to have the movie tonight, I felt very happy. Again we had really bad weather all the day. Me and some of our friends prayed together for good weather. Finally we are witnessed God’s power. We clearly understand He is in control, He can change worst situations into great testimonies. The powerful result we seen many many trust Lord for salvation. What if this movie team went back? What if they cancelled the meeting? But praise God for their faith in the Lord to make this meeting happen. Many many were trusted the Lord for salvation!
✅ I come from Hindu background. I thought many times this God (Jesus ) is only for Christians. But after I watch this movie I understand that God loves anyone no matter how wretched sinner he is or how far away he is living. But He loves anyone whatever their situations. He loves me and will forgive me no matter what I have done. This movie touched my heart, I clearly understand now that Jesus is the only way to go to Heaven. Today I submitted my life to the Lord.
Again — “This is the LORD's doing; it is marvellous in our eyes” (Psalm 118:23)!
Here is something most unique that I believe you will love to hear about…. The pastors who hosted this event had actually been at odds with each other for quite some time. Nothing doctrinal — just a personality conflict. This brought great division between them. Bro. Bharath knew of it and was greatly burdened about this for quite some time. Both of these men were his friends! So he approached them and said plainly, “Brethren, this ought not to be. You must reconcile together for the Lord’s glory if you wish to ever see Him do a work through your ministries.”
God healed their hearts together with genuine brokenness as they forgave each other and put their differences aside. (Could there be a lesson learned here? 😭🙏🏻❤️🙌🏻) Before the crusade, they got busy working together to make the meeting a success. During the meeting, one took care of the seating and the other took care of the auto rickshaws coming and going.
“Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! …for there the LORD commanded the blessing, even life for evermore” (Psalm 133:1 & 3).
Also, friends, there is a lesson here about storms. As Bro. Bharath and I spoke together late Thursday night, I shared with him, “What do storms represent in the Bible? …They are ‘vehicles’ for God’s glory. Jesus walked on the stormy water and stilled the raging sea to prove that He is in control and all-powerful. Storms are always used to build our faith. Even though we were not expecting all of this to happen, let us pray for God’s great miraculous blessing and go forward by faith!! Just as with the disciples, let this become a moment for worship, praising Him for what He is going to do!!” And sure enough — God “sent the rain” from a Heavenly country!! 🥲🙏🏻🙌🏻
WOULD YOU PLEASE PRAY FOR US? Pray for wisdom. Pray for anointing. Pray for open doors. Pray for God to begin preparing the hearts of the lost even now. Pray about what you could do to financially “get behind” and support this new ministry. It could be to help pay for a rickshaw or a future crusade. Please contact me for details!
Bharath shared with me — “What I have been finding in these meetings, sir, is that if we would try to have a regular service, most will not come, but when we tell them that there is a movie from America about the Gospel, they are very interested in coming. God is using this film to draw people to Himself!!”
THROUGH THESE SEVEN “REDEEMING HOPE CRUSADES”, THERE HAVE BEEN AT LEAST 4,200 PEOPLE IN ATTENDANCE WITH 1,300+ PRECIOUS SOULS TRUSTING CHRIST!!
I had no clue two months ago that this would be something that God would have our family involved with!! I have wept. Katie has wept. Our three older children have wept. We are overwhelmed with God’s work!! Stay tuned with what God has in store for December! I am very excited!!
🙏🏻🔥This is just the beginning….🔥🙏🏻
