Pastor Tommy's report from India - February 2013

February 17

Early tomorrow morning I travel to India. First I will visit our Bible school and children’s center in Delhi on Tuesday morning, and then in the afternoon we leave for Hyderabad. We have a very important meeting at 11:00 on Wednesday. Then in the evening we fly to Chennai. First we have a meeting with our Nepal coordinator, then we will visit a village for lepers, and then on Friday the crusade gets underway. PTL’s Field Manager Bertil Dolfén has already arrived.

February 20

It is Wednesday evening here in Hyderabad. We have been flying every day since Monday, and we are about to fly again, this time to Chennai and the conference there. Everything has gone well. God has opened a huge door for us to the Hindu-speaking Indians, about 600 million!

February 21

Right now we are in Chennai, a city of more than 9 million people! We have just finished a meeting with PTL’s partner in southern India. Two positive things are happening now. 1: We will have a small crusade in the slums among the Hindus, along with a young church there. 2: There are many Christians in Chennai, and the largest charismatic church in India is located here. It has over 20,000 visitors every Sunday. I was just invited to preach there on Sunday morning! That is grace from God.

February 23

We’ve just had a small crusade in Chennai. At first I was a bit skeptical until I realized that over half of the people there were Hindus! That became obvious when I started preaching, because Hindus, Muslims, and a loving gospel release the presence of God in a mighty way. Nearly everyone received Jesus, and those were first-time conversions! Many people were healed and now the word has spread. It will be exciting to see what Jesus does tonight.

Early tomorrow morning I will be preaching in India’s biggest charismatic church. It has over 600 pastors, so you can understand that it is crowded both in the congregation but also at the pulpit. Yonggi Cho is one of the speakers who is usually invited to come and speak. But I’m not going to get all religious and complicate things. The power in the name of Jesus is the same! I think I will wing it, because that’s the only thing I can do – listen to the rhema from the Holy Spirit!

February 24

The church service started at 7:00 this morning. There were people everywhere! Keep in mind that the church pictured below has another story, plus people who were sitting in tents outside the building. The atmosphere was wonderful and even though I didn’t have the chance to pray for people, the Spirit of the Lord was at work. I winged it and the word I got was: Keep on walking – some will cry “Hosanna”, others “Crucify”, but you just keep walking.

What is most important is that you don’t give up or grow stagnant. No matter what storm or what success you are in the middle of, you still have to keep on walking. It was full of encouragement, and then I also told them about Sara who got healed in Nepal. Even though she was born with a muscle disease, she didn’t give up, and at the age of 12 Jesus healed her. Tonight we will have the final meeting of our mini crusade.

February 26

I arrived back home in Sölvesborg last last night, and have just finished a full day at the office. About half of the people who attended the final meeting on Sunday evening were Hindus. When we have mini crusades I always have an altar call, which isn’t always possible at the big crusades. All of the Hindus answered the altar call! It is so touching to see how gladly many of them receive Jesus, and to see how intensely the Holy Spirit works. It is also surprising to see how the Hindus receive healing in the name of Jesus. There are no limits!

The pastor who coordinated the crusade was surprised at how many non-believers came to the meetings. But what I remember most was all the tears of all the people who experienced the Holy Spirit for the first time.

Pastor Tommy's report from Shashamene, Ethiopia - February 2013

Thursday

There are normal church meetings, and of course they are a part of God’s kingdom, but then there are also meetings where the Holy Spirit moves in such a way that everyone present is touched. Tonight was a night like that. There were so many Muslims, poor people and street children at the meeting – about 7000 at the first meeting of the crusade, which is good. Now the word is out. Halfway through the meeting many children started to manifest and an unusually large number, for Ethiopia, were delivered. It feels nearly surreal to see children getting spontaneously delivered or filled with the Holy Spirit.

The Muslims are doing what they can to stop us. Everyone seems to be scared of them. They tried to shut down the prayer meeting this afternoon at the crusade grounds. The Muslims are the ones who have scared the authorities into forbidding us from using cars with loudspeakers. But if the power that pulsed through the crowd tonight continues, every single visitor will be a loudspeaker for what Jesus is doing here.

For me personally it has been a wonderful night. I have had so many meetings with Christians for awhile now, and at our latest crusade most of them were already saved, which is good in its way. But it is such grace from God to get to preach in a place in the bush, where the sound from the loudspeakers breaks up, there is low grade of efficiency, there is feedback on the microphone and everything is one big mess, but there is such a total presence of the Holy Spirit when Jesus comes to embrace these suffering people. That is such grace from God.

 The opening meeting in Shashamene, Ethiopia, along with many Muslims, poor people and street children

Friday

It is 30 degrees and the leaders’ meeting exploded this morning. The first time we were here there were 80 participants, but today there were over 600, and most of them had taken the day off of work. It was so encouraging. The theme that God gave me was: “Stay on track” and “Keep on walking.” If you can stay on track then you will eventually cross the finish line. And whether people are shouting “Hosanna” or “Crucify”, you just keep on walking.

 At the leaders’ meeting on Friday morning. Over 600 leaders listened to Pastor Tommy’s teaching in the 30 degree heat.

Saturday

This meeting just never wanted to end. The Holy Spirit came in wave after wave. Even from the start of the sermon, the demons started to shriek and people were manifesting. Now we are getting ready for the final meetings tomorrow. We expect over 20,000 people at the morning meeting.

She saw Jesus! The Muslim woman who is falling in the Holy Spirit in the photo below has just been saved and healed. She had heart problems and a neck injury. During prayer, when she lifted her hands, a man came out of thin air, clothed in a white, full-length robe, and placed his hand on her neck. She felt warmth go through her body and she was completely healed.

 A Muslim woman gets saved after Jesus shows himself to her and heals her completely.

This boy had never been able to move his arms. His body was like Jell-O. He had not been able to walk or even move. During prayer, his body jerked, and he moved his arm and hand for the first time and stroked his mother on the cheek. Amazing! His mother couldn’t stop crying for joy.

 Jesus healed this boy from paralysis and his mother kept crying for joy.

Sunday

Every time a Muslim went forward for the altar call, the crowd rejoiced. Today both meetings were full. The photos below were taken from the stage and they show the crowd from the left, middle and right.

What an atmosphere at the two final meetings on Sunday 

– it simply must be experienced firsthand!

The atmosphere and the presence of God were surreal, and simply must be experienced firsthand. The things that happen are indescribable. During the morning meeting two young boys were saved and healed. One of them got back his hearing in one ear, and the other one got back his vision in both eyes. One man, homeless and an addict, told us that he had been healed and delivered. He boldly told us that he had been having trouble with incontinence. This morning he got set free from his drug addiction and was healed from incontinence.

If we put the same efforts into reaching our cities for Jesus as the churches in Shashamene, Ethiopia did to reach theirs, then the results will be the same – because it is the same Jesus!