The Holy Spirit Came

I can't think of any other way to describe it. Today was another typical day of ministry with roughly the following schedule:

8:00am Breakfast
9:15 Worship
10:30pm Visit an Orphanage
1:00pm Lunch
2:30pm Depart for Food Distribution
3:30pm Distribute Food and Bibles, pray with people
5:30pm Reconvene with teams and set-up for open-air service
6:30pm Open-air Service

That's when things got interesting. We had 4 teams from 4 different churches in the U.S. doing ministry in this area. We covered it with Bible and Food Distribution, Evangelism and praying with and for people. We saw some people come to receive Christ doing door-to-door, but this evening's open-air service took the cake.

So we did a pretty typical program, songs, dramas, testimonies, muppets, etc. At the end, one of the team leaders got up and delivered a salvation message asking that those interested in receiving Christ in their heart raise their hands. About 3 people of the 150-200 in attendance raised their hands. I remember thinking to myself, "That's cool that those people responded, but since there's only about 3 of them, we'll probably be packed up and out of here in 15-20 minutes or so." I couldn't have been more wrong.

After a few minutes several of the students made two lines of about 15 students in each and faced eachother (as if they were going to play London Bridges). The speaker asked those who had raised their hands and anyone else that wanted prayer to step forward and walk down the line of students to be prayed for. The next 30-45 minutes almost seemed like a slow-motion film as I look back on it. Not only did the 3 people who responded to the message come forward, but many more people began responding as well. Pretty soon the line was so long that they had to make another line which is where I got pulled into the fray.

I was asked to line the students up and like any good YWAM staffer would do, I herded the students into two lines so they could begin praying for some of the people in the other line. I went and stood at the end of the line and thought, "I'll just stand back here and help out." Then one of the leaders came up and said, "Can you go up to the front of the line? We need someone up there who can receive prayer requests for people and translate for the team members." So there I found myself at the front of the line asking people what we could pray for. Within about 2 minutes the 3-5 people in line grew to 30+ and it would stay that way for the next half-hour or so. As people would approach me, before I could say, "How can we pray for you?" they would have tears welling up in their eyes.

It was so obvious that the Holy Spirit was moving so strong in this community, it was amazing! After a couple people came through, we began asking them if they knew Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Many said, "No," so we asked, "Would you like to pray and give your life to Christ right now?" Of the 15-20 people that didn't know Christ, all of them said, "Yes," to receive Him. Then they walked down the line and had 30+ youth ranging from 14-25 years old praying over them. It was so cool to see the response of the people in this community and even more so, to see God's hand move so powerfully in the hearts of His children.

As each person would approach the front of the line, I had to hold back the tears and the lump in my throat that would well up as I saw people whose hearts were broken, but were so ready to surrender their life to Christ. It is perhaps one of the most beautiful things I have ever experienced.

Father, may I never forget the priviledge of seeing your Spirit move so powerfully and praying for so many of your children to become joint heirs in your Kingdom.