ASSIST News Service (ANS) - PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USA
Visit our web site at: www.assistnews.net -- E-mail: assistnews@aol.com
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Last Sunday's Harvest Crusade meeting with Greg Laurie at Angel Stadium, Anaheim, was 'the largest single presentation of the gospel in American history!'
By Dan Wooding
Founder of ASSIST Ministries
ANAHEIM, CA (ANS) -- The figures are now in, and according to Pastor John Collins, Executive Director of Greg Laurie's Harvest Crusades, last Sunday's event at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, California, broke all records for a single presentation of the gospel in American history.
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Greg Laurie preaching last year at Dodger Stadium |
The annual Harvest outreach called the "2012 Anaheim Harvest"-was attended by some 78,000 people over two nights, Aug. 25 - 26, and this year was capped off by a Sunday evening broadcast called Harvest America, which was viewed live by people in 2,400 venues from California to the Carolinas.
Tens of thousands of Harvest America participants gathered at churches, auditoriums, parks, and theaters to watch the message of hope presented by Southern California pastor and evangelist Greg Laurie, made available via satellite and a live streaming webcast. More than 600 radio stations also carried the Harvest outreach live and nine television networks made the program available.
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Collins, in a message to Harvest supporters laid out the figures for the record-breaking event, but first of all thanked everyone who participated, saying, "I wanted to thank you on behalf of all the crusade team for the prayer and hard work that went into last weekend. As you know, this was a huge step of faith that we all took together. I know many of you prayed fervently and diligently and we can now see the results.
"We have come up with some numbers that we feel are fairly accurate to gauge our total reach. Out of more than 2400 host sites that participated, over a 1,000 of those were churches, and others were neutral sites, hotel ballrooms, gymnasiums, homes, etc. We have had more than 480 who have reported back with their results."
Collins said that when they "extrapolated" the data (counting only about half for the sites that haven't reported), the totals they ended up with are these:
* 235,000 attended host venues on Sunday
* 37,000 attended at the stadium on Sunday
* Total live Sunday attendance: 272,000
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Crowd at a Harvest Crusade |
Collins went on to say, "The response to the invitation totaled and little more than 18,000. That would make last Sunday the largest single presentation of the gospel in American history! Praise God!"
He added: "When we add our Saturday totals, it means that we reached 312,000 people in live attendance over the weekend, with more than 22,000 making professions of faith. When we add the internet viewing audience our total number of people who watched either live in person or on the web at over 400,000! These numbers don't reflect how many people - potentially in the millions - that also viewed or listened to the event live on television and radio.
"Now we focus on Dodger Stadium. Let's not let up. Keep on praying! Pray hard for the crusade, web, and media teams. They are working overtime to get us to the finish line. Let's keep our foot on the neck of the enemy as God is doing great things in our midst!"
The final 2012 Harvest Crusade event is scheduled for Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles on September 8 - 9. For more information, go to http://la.harvest.org/.
| Dan Wooding, 71, who was born in Nigeria of British missionary parents, is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma, to whom he has been married for 49 years. They have two sons, Andrew and Peter, and six grandchildren who all live in the UK. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS) and he hosts the weekly "Front Page Radio" show on the KWVE Radio Network in Southern California and which is also carried throughout the United States and around the world. Besides this, Wooding is a host for His Channel Live, which is carried via the Internet to some 192 countries. Dan recently received two top media awards -- the "Passion for the Persecuted" award from Open Doors US, and as one of the top "Newsmakers of 2011" from Plain Truth magazine. He is the author of some 45 books, the latest of which is "Caped Crusader: Rick Wakeman in the 1970s." To order a copy, go to: http://www.amaz on.com/CAPED-CRUSADER-Rick-Wakeman-1970s/dp/1908728302/ref=sr_1_1?s... . |  |
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ASSIST News Service (ANS) - PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USA
Visit our web site at: www.assistnews.net -- E-mail: assistnews@aol.com
Monday, August 27, 2012
Harvest Crusades with Greg Laurie Draw 78,000 to Angel Stadium Over Weekend, Broadcast Sunday Harvest America Program to 2,416 Venues across U.S.
Tens of Thousands Participate in First-Ever Nationwide Harvest Outreach Via Satellite, Internet, Radio, or Television Broadcast
By Dan Wooding
Founder of ASSIST Ministries
ANAHEIM, CA (ANS) -- More than a year of planning and praying came to fruition this past weekend when Harvest Crusades with Greg Laurie successfully undertook their largest evangelistic project to date: to simultaneously take the message of the Gospel presented at Angel Stadium of Anaheim to multiple sites across the U.S.
Pastor Greg Laurie preaches at 2012 Harvest which came to Angel Stadium Saturday for the first of two days of outreach
(Photo: Rod Veal, The Orange County Register)
Tens of thousands of Harvest America participants gathered at churches, auditoriums, parks, and theaters to watch the message of hope presented by Southern California pastor and evangelist Greg Laurie, made available via satellite and a live streaming webcast. More than 600 radio stations also carried the Harvest outreach live and nine television networks made the program available.
In addition to a nightly message from Laurie, the 2012 Anaheim Harvest featured the best in Christian music from artists including Third Day, Gungor, David Crowder, Jeremy Camp, and MercyMe. And, although the means of participating in the Harvest Crusades expanded, the underlying message throughout the weekend remained the same.
"If you're searching for answers, you've come to the right place. I have answers from the user's manual of life-the Bible," said Laurie. "People will disappoint. Pursuing pleasure will not bring happiness. What you're looking for deep down inside is a relationship with God; you were born to know Him."
Part of the large crowd
Both nights of the 2012 Anaheim Harvest were broadcast on the internet, where people from 50 states and 149 countries around the world watched the outreach. The 2012 Anaheim Harvest is archived and available for viewing atwww.harvest.org.
Greg Laurie, who founded the evangelistic Harvest Crusade events in 1990, also serves as senior pastor of one of the largest churches in the U.S., Harvest Christian Fellowship, which has campuses in Riverside and Irvine, Calif. During the past 23 years, the Harvest Crusades have drawn some 4.4 million people to events in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Laurie also serves on the board of directors for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
The final 2012 Harvest Crusade event is scheduled for Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles on September 8 - 9. For more information, go to http://la.harvest.org/.
MEDIA NOTE: For more information about the Harvest with Greg Laurie events, contact Laura McGowan at (847) 328-8009 or lauramcgowan@comcast.net, or access the Harvest Newsroom at http://www.harvest.org/newsroom.