Nothing could stop the gospel from breaking through in Shashemene, Ethiopia

Part 1, Report from Ethiopia, March 2011:

Our team had to deal with arrests, jail and beatings, but nothing could stop the gospel from breaking through in the capital city of the Rastafari religion, Shashemene.

The struggle had been going on for several weeks by the time I arrived for the crusade. Our own Ethiopian crusade team was at the forefront of an organization consisting of 200 people. They are dedicated evangelists who are being trained to hold their own crusades in the future in places I’m not able to go. They are really on fire and turned the whole city upside down. Three of them were arrested when they went to a mosque to talk about Jesus! Three others were beaten and chased off when too many Muslims responded to the invitation to the crusade. But the work they did ahead of time has really paid off. The Muslims came to hear about Jesus. Their presence affected the atmosphere – the more unreached people in the audience, the greater the power of the Holy Spirit. That was what happened on Saturday night.

Thousands of people had given their lives to Jesus, and I had actually already begun to pray for the sick, when the Holy Spirit told me to keep praying. The meeting got its second wind and I felt how power from Jesus was going forth from me! I started to pray with renewed power and called out: “Here comes more healing power from Jesus! Believe and receive!” At that moment a father noticed how his four year-old daughter, partially blind and completely paralyzed since birth, began to shake. After awhile she stood up, started to walk, and then ran back and forth. In just a few amazing seconds Jesus had touched her eyes and legs. She was completely healed.

After all of this, the pastors in Shashemene had to call an emergency meeting! They weren’t prepared for so many Muslims to visit the crusade and get saved. Now, in collaboration with PTL Ethiopia, there is a strategy in place. New churches have to be planted and there is now talk of a new season.

There are some nights you never forget

Part 2, Report from Ethiopia, March 2011:

There are some nights you never forget. This night, the second night of the crusade in Shashemene in Ethiopia, was one of those. The Holy Spirit turned the meeting upside down. Everywhere you looked there were people getting saved, healed, delivered and baptized in the Holy Spirit.

In the middle of this chaos, the girl in the photo above came up to the front to receive Jesus. I don’t know how old she was, 10-12 at the most, probably an orphan living on the street. She was dirty, and the jacket she was wearing was too big for her. She stood at the very front, weeping as she received Jesus and the baptism in the Holy Spirit along with hundreds of others. Jesus was touching her and some other children in a very special way. I invited them up on stage. One of the children manifested right away, as the demons threw him on the floor and he twisted in major convulsions. The three other children manifested as well. This girl, however, just shook and wept. What do you do when children start getting thrown all over the stage by a power you can’t see? I can assure you that everything turned out alright. The powers of darkness let go of them as soon as we laid our hands on them, and thanks be to God, they were all delivered.

How had these demons come into the children? I don’t know. Street children have to steal, sell their bodies and take drugs in order to survive, and maybe that’s how the darkness had entered them. You can wonder what these children’s lives would have been like if they hadn’t met Jesus! “So what is happening with them now?” you wonder. For several days we did everything we could to identify the girl in the photo and the other children. We have room for them in our orphanages in Ethiopia.

I can now tell you that we have succeeded in identifying the girl. Her name is Doretti, she is 10 years old, her mother is dead and she was living on the street, up until Sunday. Now she is living temporarily with one of the families of the church. I left some money for clothes, food and school fees so that she could start school again, and now she will receive help until the day that she is an adult and can stand on her own two feet.

The work that you and I are doing together to help Jews home, run Bible schools, and hold crusades is saving so many lives. Testimonies like Doretti’s encourage us to work even harder. She cried for joy when she realized that she would no longer need to live on the street and that she would get to start school. She cried when I left, and her tears go out to you also.

I am telling you this to encourage you for standing with us and seeing the many effects that our crusades have on the communities where Jesus steps in. Your help is saving lives, in this case the lives of 5 children.