By Craig Finley
Surrounded by thousands of celebrating Candians and people drawn from all over the world, we set up in the middle of a street with the permission of the police. Interspersed between Swing, Hip Hop and Rock and Roll the gospel went out to thousands of people last night in Vancouver.
There were families from Europe, Japan, and China. Proud Vancouver residents flooding the streets for the Olympic nightlife. They danced, rocked and listened. It was amazing! I've only seen stuff like this in Russia, where massive crowds come around, faces lit up, taking pictures, receiving and reading the gospel message through the thousands of tracts we're passing out.
One of the brothers, a Hungarian named Karen, an excellent evangelist, has been preaching the clear powerful message of Jesus all through the music. At certain points, we just stop and make the call for people to pray to receive Christ. Right there, in the middle of the road, there are people coming to faith in the midst of the crowds and nightlife.
We've personally been able to lead several people in praying to receive Christ here in Vancouver.
We played all day long to large crowds on the streets, in a city center park area. Then, at night we had an indoor show at a local venue. We saw many come to the show because of the flyers and personal invites. It was a full day as we ended the outreach at 9:00, exhausted from going-going-dancing-singing all day long.
But it was then that we headed out and found our little spot in the middle of the street (mentioned above) We got back to the camp (where we're staying) around 1:30am.
Day two saw us doing outreach in the rain. As the band Swingy had to be back in the states, the team "flash mobbed" the city - going into crowded areas and doing a spontaneous dance party, drawing a crowd and then sharing with them. In spite of the drizzle, it went well. That night the team hit the streets flash mobbing and starting a real stir on the main street.
Saturday, day three we set up the stage right across from the Olympic torch. Tens of thousands of people were blessed with the music and message. The sound and message carried so far that a representative from NBC came down and asked us to turn it down for 30 minutes as it was coming through their national news coverage! It was an excellent opportunity and hundreds stopped by to listen, dance and receive the message.
There were two boys from the area hanging out getting into the music. A couple of our young men, Cameron Williams and David Sinclair began talking with them, sharing Christ. After an hour or so, while the music played, the rest of the team went down the street for lunch, the boys all stayed in the park talking. Later, after the music started up we noticed that the two local boys were smiling ear to ear! They had received Christ right there in the park!
That night we set up the outreach in the middle of the busiest walking street and nearly got overwhelmed as people joined in the dancing, rocking and sharing. Even as it began to rain we continued preaching and singing. As we closed up and headed back for the states, we were exhausted, poured out and filled with thankfulness for the awesome opportunity.
So, both via planting the seed and bringing the message through the music to the vast crowds - to the thousands of printed gospel messages passed out - to the individuals we spoke and prayed with, we saw the Lord Jesus proclaimed and His name exalted all over the world via the Winter Olympics.
Please keep in prayer for all those who received Christ and those thousands who had the seed planted.
