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by Matt Sommer
I’M STANDING IN THE MIDDLE of more than 400,000 people in Mumbai, India...in a field nearly a mile long. Around me are women wearing colorful Indian dresses of saffron, azure, ruby and lime, with their hands raised toward heaven. Men are on their knees praying. Old people are sitting on the ground, taking in the incredible experience. And up front ecstatic teenagers are jumping in a “mosh pit” of praise.
Rain...down... All around the world we’re singing.
These lyrics reverberate from a massive speaker system and appear on gigantic 28 x 32-foot screens. The British rockers Delirious? are on stage. But it’s not just their pulse-pounding beat that the crowd is responding to. This is far more than concert “entertainment.”
‘Cos it’s living water we desire...to flood our hearts with holy fire. These inspired words fire up the spirit of the crowd.
Next, Joyce Meyer takes the stage and begins to minister. “God wants you to wake up tomorrow and say, ‘Something good is going to happen to me,’” she exclaims. She receives a double cheer with every word spoken: one when she says it in English and a second when her Hindi translator repeats it. Her words are like living water in a desert caused by thousands of years of religious oppression and heart-wrenching poverty. These precious people are soaking in the richness of the Word of God.
“How many feel hope stirring in your heart tonight?” Joyce continues. The packed assembly responds with enthusiastic whoops and applause.
This night in January was just part of an incredible four-day Festival of Life crusade in Mumbai, India, that also featured the spirit-quickening praise of Hillsong’s Darlene Zschech and the popular Christian band Delirious?
During the day, Joyce held a series of special leadership meetings and was joined by special guest speakers Brian Houston, Paul Scanlon, Christine Caine, and Gary Clark. More than 30,000 attended these sessions each day! Then each night, hundreds of thousands flocked to our open-air crusade, which made an incredible impact on one of the largest cities in the world.
“No matter where I go in the world, every human being always responds to hope,” Joyce says later backstage. “We want to challenge them with the ‘real deal.’ We’re here for one simple reason: to release the love of God within these wonderful people.”
And release it Joyce Meyer Ministries certainly did! The four-day crusade was an outpouring of goodness brought to a nation that has for years endured so much suffering.
Bringing Down the House by Lifting Up the Lord
Here in India, Joyce Meyer’s presence is particularly inspiring to women. “Do you have any idea what one person really committed to Christ can do?” Joyce’s voice resounds.
Pearl Baptista came to the crusade with her two teenage daughters. “Here in India women are held down,” she says. “But Joyce is empowering women. She is showing us, ‘If I can do it, you can do it in the strength of the Lord.’”
The crusade was packed every night. John Vijay Ray was just one of over a million people who attended. “Though we are grown up people, we are like little children,” Ray says. “Yes, Joyce is a wonderful lady of God. I’m praising how God is using her. What she preaches she practices by taking care of the homeless and the poor. She is feeding them physical food, and now she is feeding people with a spiritual message.”
In addition to the crusade, there was so much more going on across the city and around the entire country of India. David L. Meyer, CEO of Hand of Hope, Joyce Meyer Ministries World Missions, has a broad strategy, and he emphasized the ministry’s multifaceted approach.
“At the end of the day, we want to reach people however we can,” David says. “Yes, these big events help to open a lot of doors. But when we can surround the crusades with television outreach, personal discipleship, and humanitarian outreaches, this is how we can really transform lives.”
Delirious? demonstrated this holistic approach by bringing the children of former prostitutes on stage to join them in song. They are just a few of the children we are reaching through our Transformation Center. (Click here for more details.)
“It’s pretty mind-blowing to have children with mothers who operated in the sex trade singing, ‘All God’s children sing hallelujah,’” says lead vocalist Martin Smith.
The crusade was a massive logistical undertaking. It took Scott Norling, the director of Joyce Meyer Ministries’ Asia headquarters, nearly a year for his team and over 2,000 volunteers to pull it off. To hold such an enormous crusade, they had to receive permission from twenty-eight government agencies.
However, numerous churches and denominations joined together to make it happen, and they were extremely pleased with the outcome. In fact, Joyce was welcomed and was designated the official title “Guest of the State”—the first time a Christian figure had ever been extended such an honor.
“We have uncommon favor to fulfill the Great Commission,” Scott says. “I’m a great believer in the need to connect people relationally…and that’s how we’ll establish the church in India.”
“Love is in the air.”
“The poorest person on the earth can give a hug...a smile,” Joyce says from the stage.
Her encouragements are like warm oil igniting a jubilant crowd. In this amazing mosaic that is India, God’s goodness washes over them, refreshing them with grace from heaven itself.
How magnificent that in a country where food is scarce, God provided a feast—and not just through our many feeding programs throughout the continent but through His lifesaving Word. “With the hand of God, she is feeding us,” beams one of the attendees at the crusade.
God heard the cry of these people. He saw their suffering. And through the help of Joyce Meyer Ministries’ friends and partners, He inspired us to go and share the Good News. Of the over one million who attended the crusade, more than 400,000 made a decision to accept Christ!
The Mumbai crusade wasn’t just an event; it truly was a Festival of Life. As Joyce’s words rang out, one attendee summed it up perfectly, “Love is in the air.”
Friends and partners, this epic crusade wouldn’t have been possible without your amazing generosity. Thank you so much for your prayers and support that have helped turn this vision into a reality…and have literally helped us touch the lives of millions all across the nation of India.
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Matt Sommer accompanied Dave and Joyce and our missions team to India, reporting on the life-changing outreaches made possible by our ministry partners.
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