Friday, May 28, 2010

My First Crusade

today was great! i only did one school today because i was leading a crusade tonight. the school was awesome, they had about 200 high school students including a small christan union and a principal who seemed like a Christian but who was not very good at expressing his thoughts and beliefs. anyway, they were incredibly attentive and VERY responsive. about 125 raised their hands that they prayed the sinners prayer for the first time and want to turn from their sins and give their life to Jesus! i spoke to the student who was in charge of their christian union after the assembly and he had this amazingly glazed over look like he had been hit by a semi-truck. i've seen this look several times before because it is the look of someone who has been praying for years to see his classmates and friends come to know Chirst and then just watched 125 of them do it in one day! he said the CU usually has about 20-25 students at its bible studies, but he said he now expects at least 100 each coming week. i pray that God will give him and the local pastors strength and diligence to handle all these new believers.

so i lead my first major crusade tonight and it went very well. it was right in the middle of a large slum in a "clearing," which basically means there was just a smaller pile of trash there than anywhere else. there were probably 200-250 people that stopped to listen including about 75 kids under 10 that came to sing and dance when they heard the African music a local church was helping us provide. we had to use an interpreter because the young kids and the uneducated only speak swahili. my stepmom then took the stage and sang a couple songs and my friend margaret gave a 5 minute testimony. amy sung one more song and then it was my turn to speak. it was amazing to look out at the crowd and notice the diversity. there were the 75 kids i mentioned earlier, but there were drunks half passed out in the alley, people selling things at the market, a few parents watching the children go crazy, and old and broken people listening intently to what was going on. the kids right in front of the stage grew progressively more rowdy as i gave the gospel and the people in the background simply continued to go about their business selling and buying so i was beginning to wonder if anybody was really listening to what i had to say. but i began to notice the people scattered in the middle of this place that were really listening. i gave the full gospel and then did the sinners prayer and quite a few raised their hands along with every kid in the front lol. i wasn't sure how to do an alter call because all the kids piled up in front of the stage, but thankfully the interpreter took charge and got a few of the people there from his church to shove the kids out of the way and make room for the 25-30 people who received Christ. he then went over everything i said again in swahili and sent these people to the counselors he brought from his church. many of them were crying tears of joy and truly looking like i know i felt the day God saved me!

i am now pretty much done for the trip. however, i will be speaking in one deaf school tomorrow which should be an awesome experience. i will also be preaching at a church on sunday and probably giving a short testimony at the crusade my dad is leading the next two days. we also found out that because our fkight out on monday is at 10:00PM, we will be able to do a game drive and visit our friends at the hobbs house orphanage that day. GOD IS GOOD!!! please pray that we can finish strong this trip and continue to lean on God for everything that we need. thanks!

In Christ,
Steve Stockwell

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