God bless you, my friends! I want to start off by saying a huge “thank you” to those of you who were praying for our Crusade in Ethiopia last month. Jesus certainly heard your prayers, and delivered a strong, miraculous Crusade—Hallelujah! Let me tell you all about it…
In only 4 days of Crusade meetings, over 200,000 people attended! The crowds swelled and swelled on the weekend, as the mighty miracles that the Holy Spirit performed awed the crowd. Literally scores of people testified to blind eyes opening, deaf ears hearing, lame legs walking, tumors disappearing and so much more. In a bit, I’ll tell you about not only my favorite miracle from this great Crusade, but also one of my favorite miracles EVER!
We hosted a Believer’s Conference as well during the day, and 1500 local believers from the region attended (pictured). The large church was packed, as eager followers of Jesus listened intently as I preached the Word of God to them. These are the very same people who are right now doing the follow-up/discipleship of the new believers from the Crusade.
And speaking of the new believers—there were thousands of them--7603 of them to be exact! This is the number of people who personally registered decisions for Christ with the local churches. Truly, Heaven was filled and Hell emptied, as the Holy Spirit brought great conviction of sin and true repentance and faith in the hearts of so many.
You know, God has been doing a great work in Ethiopia in the past 25 years. In the early ‘90s, after years of a brutal regime that oppressed and persecuted believers across the country, the Lord began doing a new thing. At that time, only about 2% of the people in Ethiopia would even have claimed to be born again. But 25 years later—after decades of Crusade evangelism that has blanketed the country—about 20% of the population now testifies to being born again---Hallelujah! Honestly, Kingdom growth like that in such a short time is truly remarkable, and sets Ethiopia apart as one of the true hot spots of Revival in the entire world! It is getting harder and harder now to find cities that have not had mighty, soulwinning Crusades in the recent past. But we continue to find them, just like we did this past month.
Ethiopia has a population of about 100 million people, making it the second largest country in Africa. I would like to now tell you a story about one of those precious people…
At one of our Crusade meetings, a 50-year-old woman came to the stage to testify to a miracle (pictured). I asked her what Jesus had done for her. Here is what she told us: “I had a large tumor on my stomach, about the size of a large potato, or the size of your fist. I have had this tumor for 3 months; it had grown very quickly. I have been going from clinic to clinic, but no one has been able to help me. When you prayed for healing, I trusted Jesus Christ to heal my tumor, and after your prayer, I realized that it was miraculously gone!”
Well, of course the crowd erupted in joy! At that point, I asked her if there was anyone else at the meeting who could verify that she had the tumor, and that now it was gone. She said her friend was there with her. We called her friend on stage, and she indeed confirmed not only that she did indeed have a tumor when she came to our meeting, but also that, after feeling around for it on her friend’s stomach, the tumor was totally gone!
What made this miracle so special for me was the woman’s reaction. She was so totally filled with joy. She was weeping and weeping at what Jesus had done. She was crying out praise to God with her voice, in front of the multitudes. She fell on her knees in worship and adoration of Jesus Christ, the one true God, who had done this great work in her life. And this healing so inspired the entire city, that the next day, almost 100,000 people attended the Crusade! It was truly Book of Acts stuff. Thank you, thank you, Jesus!
You see, this is what your prayers and financial support do. They allow us to bring salvation, deliverance and healing into the lives of multitudes of people who need the strong arm of the Lord to forgive their sins, set them free from demons and heal their bodies. In short—to get them ready for eternity, and to serve the Lord fruitfully until then! So thank you. Only in eternity will we see the full extent of what our prayers and giving have accomplished, but during Crusades like this, we truly do get a glimpse into what eternity will be like for so many.
As we look forward to our upcoming Crusade season, we are so thrilled about opportunities to preach to the Muslim people of Bangladesh and Pakistan, and the Hindu people of India in 2 separate Crusades. I want you to be encouraged: Jesus Christ is on the move in a way that He never has been in the history of the world, and through our Ministry and by His grace—YOU are a huge part of that! Have a blessed month in Jesus…
For the Lost,
Dr. Kevin Wagner, D.Min.