“Exceeding 🔥 Abundantly 🔥 Above All” - May 30th Crusade
GOD DID IT!! 😭🙌🏻 At the May 30th “Redeeming Hope Crusade”, the Lord answered prayer 🙏🏻 and poured out His Spirit. OVER 7,000 IN ATTENDANCE WITH 2,500 PRECIOUS SOULS ACCEPTING CHRIST!! 😲 To say that we are overwhelmed by what He has so miraculously done is an understatement. Over the past couple of days, my heart has been flooded with “joy unspeakable and full of glory” — to the point where I find myself just sitting quietly at times, deep in thought and speechless in prayer, not knowing how to praise Him and thank Him enough for mightily working. “Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth” (Psalm 46:10).
It is without a doubt that God moved upon Narsapuram and that surrounding area in Andhra Pradesh, India with the Gospel. I am convinced that He moved as a direct result of prayer. I cannot say it enough: “Without intercession, there will be no outpouring.” As you study revival history, every move of God is always born this way.
We are indebted to your fervent prayers as I know that many thousands of people in the United States and in India were seeking the Lord on behalf of this Crusade!
At least 300 pastors and churches were represented at the meeting; but, to the best of our knowledge, approximately 70% of the multitude were lost people that God drew in through the hard work of many churches co-laboring together in public outreach (Over 25,000 flyers were passed out in a 2 week period.)
Just look at the photos below! Isn’t it incredible??? The sea of precious faces. So many lost souls. Christ being exalted in the midst of a pagan culture. PRAISE THE LORD!! PRAISE THE LORD!! (Of course, photos do not give it justice to comprehend the MAGNITUDE of the crowd! There were even 100s of people gathered in the street behind the seating and in the blocks surrounding watching in.)
The Crusade lasted 3 hours, beginning around 8:30PM (later than anticipated as it took some time for the people to fully gather). People came from a 45 kilometer radius! Once the choir / special music finished, the Lord allowed me to preach for 40 minutes on “Finding Hope in the Reality of Christ” from Isaiah 45. (Bro. Ramesh did an excellent job translating!!) I was so very thankful that God sustained the internet during transmission! (Again, answered prayer 😊🙌🏻).
Bro. Kumar said, “So many people were weeping, sir. The Lord allowed you to connect with their hearts. While you were preaching, the pastors kept saying, we all felt like you were here. You were present. You were in the midst of us.” It’s utterly amazing how the Holy Ghost can work . . . Here I am preaching / pouring out my heart to a camera and computer screen in a classroom at Ripley Baptist Temple — standing 8,466 miles away from the very spot where the Crusade is happening — yet still able through His Spirit to connect with the people. TRULY — ONLY GOD!! (Thank you, Grant Garber, Seth Greenlee, and Adam Hager for all your help in the setup!!)
Right after my message, we went into watching the Telugu version of “Redeeming Hope”. I can only imagine what it must have been like to hear the audio of the movie echoing through the nearby blocks of the city. Many people stood along the street and watched from the back on one of the massive LED walls present. (We had one 20 foot wide by 10 foot high on the stage and two 12 foot wide by 8 foot high on either side of the audience.)
Bro. Kumar got up and further shared the Gospel right after the movie (just like he normally does in our meetings) to give complete clarity that trusting in Christ as your Personal Saviour is NOT to add Him to your other gods (as Hindus would do sometimes, hence making a false profession) — but to turn completely from all others unto Him alone as the One True God, crying out for Biblical salvation in our sin. This is a serious decision!!
GOD SAVED SOULS. 😭🙏🏻🙌🏻🔥 “And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the LORD; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation” (Isaiah 25:9). (Here are just a few testimonies out of many received!!)
✅ I never had any experience like this kind of meeting in my life. What a wonderful night it is! God touched my heart while I was listening to the Sir Caleb preaching, the way he presented the Gospel it was so clear, and so powerful. God touched my heart with the film too. I understand how great sinner I am and how great Jesus is. I surrender my life to Him. I decided to follow Him.
✅ I have been living a great sinful life, I addicted to all kinds of alcohol. I am living my life very far from God. Today after attended this meeting, I understand how great wretched sinner I am and how Great Jesus is. What a wonderful sermon, it was so powerful. God gave me the clear understanding about the Gospel. I want freedom from this bondage of sin. I have needed Jesus in my life, and I am so thankful I have found Him.
✅ I have been struggling in my life with many issues, I don’t have any reason to live. Many times I thought of commit suicide, I came to this meeting in an unexpected way. I saw the poster in some area, I heard from the autorickshaw announcement from last couple days. Something about hope. I have been trying my best to overcome my suicide thoughts but I couldn’t able. I already tried some attempts in past, but I don’t have courage to move forward. I’m waiting for the right time, but today as I attended this meeting, preacher on screen gave powerful words with crying he told to everyone, “Jesus loves you and I love you too, My God caring for your soul, I'm caring for your soul too, not to die and go to hell but know Jesus and live for him, you will get the peace in your life!” I repented from my sins, and I submitted my life to Jesus. Especially that movie touched my heart too. I submitted my life unto Jesus! God has changed my life. Please do pray for me.
✅ What a powerful movie, it deeply touched my heart. Especially when Denver is about to take his life, that time Sir Warren came to knock on the door, I really felt God knocked on my heart door, I understand How Jesus loves me even though I am very far from Him, God loves me. I surrender my life to Jesus. He is the only way.
✅ I never knew there is God who really cares for me and died for me. I came to work on this meeting as sound operator. When I start to listen to the preacher while he is crying and telling from his heart how Jesus loves me, it touched me. I never had any experience like this. And movie also very clear and bold to understand what is God's love and concern. I surrender my life to Jesus. Please do pray for me.
✅ Many times our (Hindu) priest motivates us to do good things so that we may come back to this earth again as a better human (higher caste / better life), or if not, we will end our life to be like other animals. But after I came and attended this meeting I understand very clearly there is only one life after death. It is eternity and Heaven is only possible through Jesus alone. He died for me and He cares for me. What I needed was Jesus in my life!
✅ There are many times in my life I decided to take out my life. I tried many times to commit suicide. My husband and I had no peace in our lives, and we are struggling with many issues. I attempted suicide three times and failed. But today as I attended this meeting I understand how great Jesus loves me and that He is very powerful. I may have struggles but He can help me through them. There is nothing greater than Jesus. I decided to not make any more suicide attempts. I decided to follow Jesus. Please pray for me.
✅ From ten days onwards many flyers got distributed everywhere, autorikshaw announcement is going on through the streets. There will be Redeeming Hope Crusade. What is this? Literally I came just to see the arrangements here. But after I attended this meeting, it was the most worthy time in my life. You could feel God’s presence here. God spoked very clearly though His servant and through movie. I really never had any experience like this. I submitted my life to Jesus. I have needed his Jesus in my life. Thank you for this wonderful crusade.
I weep. I just weep. This is the power of God. “He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and brake their bands in sunder. Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!” (Psalm 107:14-15) PRAISE THE LORD!! Several pastors joyfully testified:
🔷 I am in the shock. No meeting I have gone to has ever been like this before.
🔷 These type of Crusades are normally held at least three days. But it was a so powerful day we seen three days revival crusades in one day. This is our prayer and Burden. Praying for the Redeeming Hope Crusades may a great blessing to Telugu states and all of India.
🔷 What a glorious day, we never expected this type Crusade in our place, it’s very difficult to find this type of crusades having pure intention and burden only for the lost souls and Gospel. We as the pastors learnt many things from this day. It was a great revival and blessing to these thousands of people.
“This is the LORD's doing; it is marvellous in our eyes” (Psalm 118:23).
In conclusion, some may be wondering how this area-wide Crusade came about. As many of you know, from March to May, the Lord directed this ministry to conduct a three month campaign called “An Evangelistic Expedition for Christ.” Between the hard work of Bro. Bharath Kumar and Bro. Shalem Raju, there were at least 13,500 people who attended our 47 different crusades with 4,860+ that we know of who received the Lord. On April 12th, God placed the thought on our hearts (Bro. Kumar and myself) to hold one final large-scale, area-wide meeting before the monsoon season hits India in June. After a week of fervent prayer, the Lord gave us peace to proceed with initial preparations . . . . This was 44 days before the Crusade was to be held!! God opened every door. He answered every prayer. He worked in every detail. His hand was evident in the entire process!! God kept us on our knees, and He provided every single penny — including the $1,000 that I presented less than 24 hours before the Crusade to rent an additional 50 autorickshaws!!
A HUGE “thank you” to everyone who gave to help make this Crusade possible!! Thank you for minding the Lord and financially sacrificing so that a multitude could have a chance to hear the clarity of the Gospel!! Your eternal investment was not in vain.
The only way to describe what happened is: “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. . .” (Ephesians 3:20). MAY GOD BE GLORIFIED!! “Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth's sake” (Psalm 115:1).
