January - March 2006
I know you have been very patient so here is your reward - the long-awaited update from the IWT campaign in Western Australia.
The IWT teams (for more info click here) came together for a week long campaign in Geraldton - a city about 4 hours drive north of Perth with a popultaion of about 25,000 people. They visited schools, churches and surrounding towns with the message of the gospel.
They were a huge blessing to us and it was really their campaign - without them nothing would have heppened and nothing would have been organised. There is one story that I would like to share with you about their sacrifical giving and loving on us...
After an evening performance in Mullewa (one of the towns surrounding Geraldton) the Island Breeze team were driving back to Geraldton. During the trip, the guys in the front of the truck looked behind and saw that the trailer with over $10,000 worth of equipment was up in flames. No one was hurt in any way but everything that they were to use for the following night's performance was lost - only ashes remained.
The Christians of Geraldton banded together and really rose to the occasion in order to meet the needs of the Island Breeze team. There were ladies armed with sewing machines who came marching into the church ready to sew new costumes, there was a father and son team who got instructions on how to make a new wooden drum and then went out and found appropriate timber and fashioned one from scratch, there was a store owner who opened up his store and told the team to have whatever they needed totally FREE!
That night, dressed in newly sewn costumes, using new or borrowed instruments, the Island Breeze team declared the gospel to Geraldton and 74 people gave their lives to the Lord.
In just one week there were 630 people who gave their lives to the Lord! In one of the surrounding towns that the teams visited, the Christian population doubled as a result of the IWT campaign. Over the whole week the crowd numbers exceeded 13,000 people who heard the gospel. The Word tells us that no word from the Lord will return void and we continue to pray for each and every person how heard the gospel - especially those who have yet to make decsions for Christ.
Well after the week in Geraldton where we really saw God move in people's hearts in mighty ways, the expectation was high for the following two weeks of outreaches. Team Xtreme, Island Breeze and GX International embarked on a two week series of outreaches into schools, churches and even two detention centres.
Team Xtreme split into two teams in order to cover more ground and for the first week one of the teams travelled south to Albany. Here in Albany, one of the team members was granted permission to visit a young man in prison. This young man was deeply moved by the testimony of our team member and for the first time in many years he recieved a hug from someone who genuinely loved him. The other half of Team Xtreme visited schools and churches and a detention centre in Perth.
GX International reached out into the local schools and churches in the greater Perth area and saw many kids give their lives to Christ.
Island Breeze ministered to schools and churches in Perth, Esperence, Kalgoorlie and Mukinbudin. It was a busy time for the IB guys but as they pressed on in the Lord they saw many people make decsions to follow Jesus.
All in all over two weeks of taking the gospel all over the south west corner of Western Australia we saw 1,064 recorded salvations! What an awesome result! When added to the decsions from Geraldton that come to a total of 1,694 decsions for Christ in just 3 weeks time! Talk about God moving in a mighty way!
So what is next???
Well the state office for IWT (where I am working) still has a lot of work to do in order to properly round off from the intense campaign time. The next campaign for Western Australia will be next year in Perth around Febuary - Mrach 2007. Judging from what we have seen in the last three weeks, we can expect an awesome harvest for the Kingdom of Heaven.
There will be an IWT campaign in Queensland later on this year (around July some time). If you would like more info on this then just let me know.
God bless you guys abundantly!
Cameron