The Decision Card Count is in! – Freetown, Sierra Leon

The J+Passion Conference is now over and what a wonderful and powerful conference it was. In each service there was an overwhelming response to the message…nearly unanimous. The second service which was in a morning session was so powerful. So many people were weeping during the message. The people came forward at the alter call wanting to lay down their lives to be used for God’s kingdom. I was told that the Japanese were very shy people. I was told that they would probably not respond outwardly, but I did not see that side of them. The passion that they demonstrated was as intense as anything I have seen. In the final service the Fire of God fell in a powerful way. I must admit that I did not know what to expect, but when the alter time came nearly every person that came forward (except one or two) was blasted by the Holy Ghost! Many of the people testified that it was the first time they had ever experienced a manifestation of the Holy Spirit. Several people were filled with the Holy Spirit for the first time. One young woman had been seeking the Baptism for over 10 years and during this conference had a breakthrough and received. Young children were shaking under the power of God. Old men and women were layed out on the ground. Young people everywhere were speaking in tongues and being touched by the Holy Spirit for the first time. I was told that this had never happened before and that it was a new experience for these believers and for the whole region. The next day many people stood before the crowd and with tears testified to a transformation in their lives.

Last night was a wonderful beginning to the services that will be taking place all throughout the week. I could sense the tide of the anointing rising all throughout the evening. The people are hungry, but in the middle of a national spiritual drought. It is the polar opposite of what I experienced in Brazil, where the nation seemed to be ablaze with the Fire of God. There is really no revival to speak of anywhere in Japan. It is not because the people are not hungry however. As I began to preach I felt like the people were drinking in every word. The Japanese are a quiet, and sometimes shy people, but I saw tears streaming down many faces as I preached and It seemed as if certain people were about to burst open. I could feel the hunger of the people reaching out. At the end of the week I am going to preach about the Fire of God and pray for the Baptism in the Holy Spirit…I am anticipating a powerful move of God…they are ready! This morning I preach and again tonight and then again tomorrow night. More to come…

I am in transit now to Miyazaki, Japan for the J+Passion Conference where I will be ministering for several days. I had a layover in South Korea today so I visited Yoido Full Gospel Church in downtown Seoul. It is Tuesday here so there were no services going on, but it was still very interesting to walk around the campus and get a feel for what God is doing here.

Yoido is the largest church in the world with over 800,000 members. The sanctuary only seats 12,000 at one time so there are nine consecutive services each Sunday morning translated into 16 languages.

I am writing now from the beautiful mountains of North Georgia where I have been on vacation over the past week. It has been such a blessing to stop running for a few days and just enjoy my family. We have gone tubing, whitewater rafting, shopping (of course) and a whole lot of sitting and talking. I am getting ready to leave on Sunday for North Korea, then on to Japan, London, Philadelphia and Ghana before I return home again for a couple of days. Please continue to pray for my family and myself and for the whole CTE team as our schedules intensify and the demands on the ministry grow.

I am now back in the US and reflecting on our trip to Madurai, India. My Spirit is refreshed and eager, but my body is recovering and taking its time. It was an exciting and extremely grueling trip with our team ministering more than 24 times in only five days at schools, orphanages, the Leaders Conference and a Women’s Conference in addition to the nightly mass Evangelistic Gospel Crusades. My blogging slacked off once we were in the heat of the fray for lack of time and creative energy…all of it being poured out in ministry. I will do my best to recount the days now touching on the highlights for me personally.

We are now just hours away from the official start of the Crusade here in Madurai, India. Everything is in place and after many months of preparation we are finally ready.

Today we visited the largest Hindu temple in Madurai, “The City of Temples” and one of the largest in the world. This city is known as a Hindu stronghold, but in the darkness, the light of the Gospel will be all the brighter.

I am sitting now in a small tribal village half way up a mountain in south India. We drove through the night on winding, narrow roads to reach the top of the mountain and then began hiking down to the village at about 6:00 am. As the sun began to rise we found ourselves in a little paradise. Neatly groomed acres of tea plantations covered the mountainside as far as the eye could see and clouds covered the peaks of misty mountains in the background.

We stopped for tea in a small hut and it was the best I ever had. I keep having this overwhelming revelation of how much God loves the world and how much we need Him…I can’t wait to preach the Gospel to these precious people.

I am sitting in the airport in the Indian city of Chennai at 4:06 am (local time) on Sunday morning (July 1st) waiting for a flight that leaves in a couple of hours. We have been traveling for about 2 straight days now! We have’nt even arrived in Madarai yet and already the trip has been quite eventful. Our plane out of Tampa was a couple hours late and then we sat on the runway for about an hour and a half. Our flight from London to Mumbai was caught in a terrible storm and the intense turbulance lasted for over two hours…people were vomiting as we flew in a holding pattern waiting for the storm to subside so that we could be cleared to land. Finally, running low on fuel, we flew to another city about an hour out of the way to land and re-fuel. The airport that we landed at had no indoor facilities so we sat on the crowded plane in sweltering heat for about two hours before receiving the clearance to fly back to Mumbai.