Hi Adrian,
Thought I would check in with you to see howe the Benny Hinn Crusade is going? I hear there was some minor Arson Clashes?
Praise be to the Lord Jesus Christ, the right wing forces weren't able to block God's people from assembling at the Jakkur airfield over the past three days. Pastor Benny, on the request of an Indian leader, led the congregation in a special prayer that God might bless all those who opposed the Festival of Blessings.
Though I was pretty far from the stage, lost in the ocean of people, I managed to get a couple of glimpses of Pastor Benny from afar. The 2500 member choir looked and sounded magnificent (well I helped train around 300 of the singers, so it was a moving experience for me to hear them lift their voices to the heavens!)
We were a little disappointed that Pastor Benny himself was not to be seen until 8 o' clock and by then there was just around an hour for him to lead the praise and worship and preach a little from the Gospel according to St Mark. His choice of passage (the healing of Bartimaeus, the blind beggar) apparently struck a chord in many hearts, since I was accompanied by a group of blind children who found Benny Hinn's description of the emotional struggle of a blind person most realistic.
The basic point of the message seemed to be: Jesus is passing by today. He may never pass by again. Reach out and touch him now.
Regrettably, I wasn't able to stay for the later part of the healing service as I had to take my blind children home. None of them received a miracle and I hope my early departure wasn't the reason for this, but we had instructions to follow. I did, however, watch the first four healings. I am sceptical of these things in general, but the second healing was pretty impressive because a man who had a right leg no thicker than my arm was leaping and dancing on the stage. Others testified to being healed of osteoporosis, stomach cancer and lameness.
The programme was well organised, considering the massive work that needed to be done. The organisers were rewarded with a massive turnout, though the numbers probably fell short of the targeted figure. In a way, this is one of the greatest assemblies in the name of Christ ever to be held at Bangalore. In another way, there was too little preaching and too many other things happening, so I left the grounds feeling vaguely disappointed that I had missed a good two hour sermon...others however seem to have been quite content with things the way they were.