Rejoicing in Hyderabad; Over 110,000 Calls Received

India campaigns produces record response

The mega city campaign in Hyderbad exceeded all expectations. Response to the call center surpassed 110,000 calls, mainly from Hindus and Muslims. The churches of the city had not seen anything like this. 60 phone lines were active at the call center.

Additionally, we had over 650,000 hits on the website and thousands of cell numbers from young people downloaded the message and visited the Facebook pages. Also thousands of books were downloaded from the website.

The hard copy of the 132 page “Power to Change” book is in high demand. The campaign was extended for two weeks. People are thirsty and they are looking for answers to the great questions of life.

There was a surprising stir in the Islamic community of the city with much response coming from that sector. Normally that community is not responsive to the Gospel.

Daily, the call center intercepted calls from people ready to commit suicide. In every case their lives had been spared. They have been prayed for on the phones. One such person, after prayer on the phone, has been in daily contact with the call center supervisor by SMS messaging and wrote “You are giving me the strength to live day by day!”

One young Hindu lady came with a Christian friend just to help out at the call center because of the congestion. On her third day there she gave her life to the Lord saying “this is what I am missing and I need for my life!”

Fall of 2013: colossal mega city campaign in Mumbai

Great Commission Media Ministries will launch its largest evangelistic mega city media campaign to date in Mumbai, India this fall. Over 22 million people live in the metropolitan area. Mumbai is the cultural, business and entertainment hub, also referred to as “Bollywood” and it is one the world’s biggest cities.

Here’s a briefing on the challenge that lay ahead. It is the the second largest city in the world. It is the financial and cultural center of all India and therefore whatever happens in the city can impact this second most populous nation on earth—1.3 billion people. The challenge is monumental. 

The city has seen big crusades in times past: Billy Graham, Luis Palau, Joyce Meyer, Benny Hinn, etc and soon Reinhard Bonnke. “But, none of those campaigns compare with what we are talking about today. There is no doubt that this great city of Mumbai has never seen anything on this scale…” 

The mega city campaign planned for Mumbai is a colossal challenge, much bigger that what we have ever experienced. Rightly so, if we are talking about reaching the second largest city of our world with the good news of the Gospel. If it were not colossal, it would not be Mumbai!

We ask all our friends to join us and take part in this push to deeply impact one of the largest cities in our world. Would you please pray with us for the next 6 months? I know you too will be blessed to be a part of this work of God.

Reaching the Slums

The Director of Railways for Mumbai told us that 9 million people commute to work every day in Mumbai by train. They call it “crush hour!” These jam-packed commuter trains are prime locations for the campaign ads that proclaim: “God gives you the power to change!”  In addition there are 18 million cell phones and 75,000 taxis in the city of Mumbai. That means a huge opportunity to reach people in a mega city like Mumbai.

Millions of residents in the slums of Mumbai know nothing about God and his love for them. GCM Ministries President Hannu Haukka says the sight of kids playing on heaps of garbage is heartbreaking.

Despite the poverty in the slums, many homes have a satellite dish and a cell phone. This will certainly serve the evangelistic media campaign to reach the people living in the slums with the message of change through Jesus Christ.