The harvest in our town

The aim of this post is purely to glorify the Name of Jesus Christ, because that which happened to us over the past three weeks is nothing less of a miracle!

Worcester and the neighboring towns are situated in the Breede Valley in the province of Western Cape, which is, according to me, one of the most beautiful places on Earth! The amazingly beautiful "blue" mountains are covered by shrubs, the climate is overall Mediterranean, and the area is the best spot to cultivate olives, grapes and apple and pear farms. Simply a chunk of paradise!

It is to this corner of the earth that the Impact World Tour came for the past three weeks. Impact World Tour is a profit-free organization that aims to spread the Gospel of Jesus via arts, dancing and other popular and multicultural ways of reaching out to people. You can read more about them on http://www.impactworldtour.com

Anyway, so these people came in three teams from all over the world. "Team Extreme" were the big guys, who, through bending steel bars, breaking bricks and tearing telephone books, showed that our God is a mighty God of breakthroughs and that nothing is impossible to Him. "Island Breeze" - a team of Indonesian and Pacific island natives, came to do their awesome Polynesian dances to show that God is very creative and multicultural and anyone can reach out to Him because of what His Son Jesus did on the cross. Finally, "GX" or "Generation Extreme" - personally my favorite! - was a team of hip-hop, rap and break dancers, who carried a message of God's mercy, love and acceptance to the youth, speaking into everyone's lives through dances and drama they did.

God provided for them during their stay in a miraculous way! To start, these guys came from countries like Australia, Brazil, Pacific islands, Canada, England and even Nigeria! God has provided over $100k for transportation, flight tickets and accommodation costs for them to come here. How? Ask Him when you meet Him!! He is good at those things! Then here they had to raise about $60k to rent the stage and the light and sound system for 3 weeks of everyday shows - and God gave them the money! How? I have no clue! I only gave what God told me to give, and that was about $15 - and wow, God even uses small people like me! Those people never NEVER lacked a cent, everyday they had plenty of food to eat and a roof over their heads, so that they could rest for they everyday performance.

And a performance it was!! The shows of the three teams alternated every evening, and the shows were the same but, man, I was touched every time I watched it! The dancers, the drama people, the strong men - all on fire for God! Their message was all unique: surrender your life to God and He will give you a new life, beyond your wildest dreams!!

The results were astonishing! Every night an altar call was made and hundreds of people streamed to Jesus. Often we would get a chance to do a pre-show at one of the local schools in the morning, and God would use us to reach out to hundreds of young kids! I realize now that we, as South Africans, are so very privileged to have a freedom of religion in our schools and other public places. I heard that in USA one is not allowed to preach the Gospel at schools - how sad must that be! No one is allowed to give hope to the kids!.. But here... Oh my dear God, you have answered our many prayers about a great harvest - and the past three weeks over 3,000 people committed their lives to You! You are the King of our hearts, we worship You and we LOVE You!!

God was changing people's lives right in front of my own eyes! We, as help crew, had the responsibility to pray with those who answered the altar call after the show. One night I prayed with a lady who was only two years older than me, but was already struggling with alcohol addiction. the Spirit revealed to me that she needed security and a love of a Father. After I took a step of faith and prophesied it into her life, she began shaking and when I hugged her, she would not let go! She left us that night with a new hope and a solid faith that God loves her. Another time a man in his forties came to repentance and I led him in prayer to re-dedicate his life to Jesus. he promised that he will allow God to restore his marriage and family life, that he will accept God's guidance and leadership. When I wanted to pray for him, he fell on his knees, dragging me along! What desperation!!! Another man came with his two kids, and when I asked him what he needed tonight, he said - nothing! Then I found out that this man attended our show yesterday, gave his heart to God, and today he walked 20km (over 10 miles) with his two boys just to ask for a blessing for them! Amazing!

I can just go on and on and on - truly the Psalmist was right when he said that the glory and mercies of God are without end! I saw deliverance and healing, evil spirits leaving people while we worshiped, ears opened, broken bones and other chronic pains were healed. I was weeping so often, shaking under the presence of God! It felt like I was drunk, like I had something really heavy on my shoulders and could not stand upright. Those who did bodybuilding might understand me if I say that it felt like I was pushing beyond my limits with heavy weights, and my muscles were shaking and trembling with spasms instead of working smoothly and evenly. And yet, miracles happened even when I did not feel this way, just proving that faith is not an "on-high" euphoric state of being or a super-trooper feeling in the gut, but a state of mind and a determination to stick with God's Word no matter what!

My faith was greatly built over the last three weeks and I realized that God is more interested in my readiness to serve Him than in what I have to offer. One of the YWAM values we have is to do first and then to teach and it says basically that God's call upon our lives carries much more value than our individual gifts and talents. You can be the most gifted speaker in the world, but if God calls you to preach the Gospel, He would not look at that - instead, He could only make use of you if you had a willing heart. I gave Jesus all of my heart, and He is filling me up with abilities and talents I never had before! The more I humbly and sacrificially allow His Divine Power to flow through me, the more He is revealed through me to others! And being used in this way is the most glorious feeling I could have ever wished for in my little life!!! Praise God! HalleluYah!!

P.S.: I did not take any pictures over the past three weeks because every night I was busy praying with people and interceding for the open heavens above the crowd. Now someone came to me and offered over a 1000 high-quality pictures that they took from their camera! Praise God!!!!!!