Gospel Crusades

Olah! I just want to share with you the news of our last two gospel crusades, as they were really interesting, really exciting. The first one was held one hour from Gudivada- the town was fairly large and bordered by little communities: the Muslim community, the Hindus and the Christians. India is generally segregated like that, especially out here in the boonies. We got into this little truck that felt more like an ATV, it had a huge HUGE speaker on the roof, and we drove around announcing the gospel crusade that night. At a few points we stopped... one point in particular in the Hindu community- we stepped out in the street and preached the gospel through this gigantic speaker. People from all over came out of their houses and gawked at us. After a brief meeting with a roman catholic minister we headed to the gospel crusade- it was tiny, maybe 40 people… but it didn’t matter, because at least 3 people came to Christ that night- we're prayed for and, I believe, received the holy spirit. As it was a village many people came forward who were tormented and possessed by demons- the pastor I am staying with cast out 8 or more demons that night. The next Gospel crusade was huge, a farmer’s field lit up by tube lights- it was attended by 600+ people.  These crusades are very normal in India…. I am seeing more and more that being a pastor in India can often mean being extremely competitive, there is a lot of pride in being an Indian pastor. The first speaker was a Brahman, the highest cast… now this was a hard time for me, he came and sat next to me- wearing a beautiful outfit, gold cufflinks, a Rolex, a new Samsung phone, and the latest ipad… please have mercy and grace with me- in the moment I was trying my hardest not to judge, not to condemn.  But this is a huge problem in the Indian Church; India has no shortage of money… India plays hosts to most of the world’s billionaires… it also plays host to most of the world’s poor. Generally the rich churches are made of Brahmans, and they would never dream of supporting or helping the Dalits, who are poor, oppressed, and made to live on the outside of the village. This man came up preaching God’s love…. I’m going to stop there, I cannot write this without condemning. Anyways, when I went up to preach I was surprised to have a new translator, I had spent time with this man, but had never heard him speak any English- at the end of my sermon I found out why, the whole thing came out as jibberish. Vijaya preached last, he preached so boldly, that the crowd demanded that he keep preaching when his scheduled time was up. I will post a video of His preaching... the swinging arms and bold yelling is always entertaining for me.  When he was finished, 40 or more people stood up to come to Christ... it was an amazing night.

Vijaya preaching: