By Jackie Johnson
Special to ASSIST News Service
ANAHEIM, CA (ANS) -- This year's Anaheim Harvest Crusade with Greg Laurie was blessed with the potent testimonies of pro-surfer Bethany Hamilton (Friday) and WWII POW survivor Louis Zamperini (Sunday) who spoke to crowds gathered at the Angel Stadium to share their inspirational stories of survival and their mutual faith in Jesus Christ.
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Greg Laurie speaking at Angel Stadium |
Their extraordinary stories brought a single, unparalleled premise: survival. For Hamilton and Zamperini, survival referred to a physical crisis that rocked their spiritual condition.
Hosted by more than 215 churches, from Riverside to Irvine to Temecula, the Harvest Crusades with Greg Laurie marked its 22nd year of evangelistic outreach in Orange County, Calif. with a three night event, August 12 - 14.
The 2011 Anaheim Harvest drew a diverse crowd of 115,000 people from 34 states and 11 countries, all of whom gathered to listen to top Christian music, hear the testimonies of Hamilton and Zamperini, and listen to what has become the cornerstone of the Crusades: the message of salvation presented each evening by Riverside, Calif. Pastor, Greg Laurie.
In her on stage interview on Friday night, Bethany Hamilton expressed the theme of survival through adversity when she told the audience about her traumatic incident at the age of 13, when a tiger shark attacked her, ripping her left arm off just below the shoulder. Her friends helped paddle her back to shore, and the father of a friend fashioned a tourniquet out of a surfboard leash around the short piece left of her arm, before rushing her to a nearby hospital . Her father was supposed to have knee surgery that morning, but she took his place in the operating room. She then spent seven more days in recovery at the hospital and her story has since been told in the movie, "Soul Surfer".
She told the large audience, "I saw the beauty in it and [God] turned the bad into good."
In his message on Saturday night, Laurie reminded the audience of Bethany Hamilton's testimony while preparing us for Zamperini's story. "The faith that cannot be tested is a faith that cannot be trusted," Greg Laurie said.
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Louis Zamperini doing radio interview before his appearance |
In a radio interview before his on-stage testimony, Zamperini was asked how he would introduce himself out of the many titles he has earned. Without hesitation, Louis simply replied, "I am a sinner saved by the grace of God."
Zamperini ran for his country in the Berlin Olympics of 1936 where he met Hitler. During WWII, his B-24 crashed in the Pacific and he barely survived 47 days adrift on a raft. Picked up by the Japanese, he spent the remainder of the war in a P.O.W camp, where he endured horrible abuse at the hands of a prison guard nicknamed "The Bird."
After the war, he met and married the girl of his dreams, but post-traumatic stress disorder threatened to destroy his marriage. All the while, he dreamed of a return to Japan to hunt down and kill the former guard who tormented him.
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Thousans repond to the invitation to receive Christ at Angel Stadium |
"I had nightmares every night," says Zamperini, the subject of Laura Hillenbrand's bestselling book "Unbroken." The nightmares followed Zamperini home like a crazed hound from hell. "No one knew about it, because I looked perfectly normal," he says. "I covered it up by drinking."
But then, his life changed when he gave his life to Jesus Christ during Billy Graham's 1949 crusade in Los Angeles.
Laurie reinforced these ideals by stating, "I'm not interested in becoming a religious man; I'm interested in having a relationship with Jesus Christ." A relationship, Laurie said, that will create a solid foundation so that when hardship does strike, the bond deepens.
The broad variety of musicians - from heavy metal band RED to soft-spoken gospel vocalist and Harvest veteran Crystal Lewis - were also present to "paint a mood picture" with their music, as Lincoln Brewster put it. Brewster was also true to the unstated theme of the weekend: "God's goodness is consistent. He is the center," Brewster said.
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Phil Wickham pictured with ANS writer, Jackie Johnson |
In addition to the above musicians, the weekend also featured music from The David Crowder Band, Kutless, Phil Wickham, Jars of Clay, Francesca Battistelli, and Jeremy Camp.
In separate interviews, artist Phil Wickham and director of Harvest Crusades John Collins reflected a similar confidence in the simple proclamation of the gospel.
"The goal isn't to stay relevant, the goal is to sing what the Lord has put on my heart," Wickham said and Collins mirrored this sentiment: "The gospel sells itself."
The goal of the Harvest Crusades is indeed to reach out to the all generations and Laurie has always had the ability to relate to his audiences, but not at the expense of the authenticity of the gospel or the compromising of truth.
On Sunday evening, Laurie spoke to a crowd of 45,000 - many of whom were under the age of 26 - to illustrate the story of the biblical parable of the prodigal son in the theme "Home Before Dark." This story demonstrates how we are all like this boy, running from God.
"When I was a little boy, my mother used to tell me to get home before dark," said Laurie. "My son made it home before dark. Louis Zamperini will make it home before dark."
Laurie continued, "You don't know if you'll have a tomorrow. Tonight is your night to get right with God so you can make it home before dark."
By the end of the 2011 Harvest Crusades, 11,216 people at the Angel Stadium did just that and accepted Laurie's invitation to put their faith in Christ, while another 376 made the same decision via live broadcast of the Anaheim Harvest.
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A packed out Angel Stadium |
The Harvest Crusades continues to expand its internet outreach. This year's Anaheim Harvest was broadcast on the internet where people from 50 states and 63 countries were able to connect with the 2011 Harvest outreach. Online viewers connected with the live webcast 404,222 times and over 1.3 million times overall (live and archived). From the internet outreach, 376 online viewers filled out online cards indicating that they prayed with Laurie to make a commitment to faith. For a period of time on Friday night, the Harvest Crusades was the number one trending topic on the popular social networking site, Twitter.in the world.
Every year, the Anaheim Harvest team looks to streamline and expand. I asked John Collins and Richard Garcia (director of the Anaheim Crusades) what they have in store for us in the remainder of 2011 and the following year.
Next month on September 10th, Dodger stadium opens Los Angeles to the Crusades. "This year will be the year we bring [Los Angeles] the Crusades.this gives us the opportunity to capture the attention of the community as we bring in the nation for a candlelight memorial of the 10th anniversary of 9/11," said Collins.
Next year, "A program called 'Harvest America' will be an expansion of our web, with Anaheim as the base, we will have churches around the country open up their venue to take the live stream from Laurie's message," said Garcia.
They also hope expand the Crusades' international reach past New Zealand and Australia, specifically to the UK.
All three evenings of the Anaheim Crusades are archived and available for viewing at www.harvest.org. "Behind the scenes" updates from Greg Laurie were posted on his blog at http://blog.greglaurie.com/, as well as on Twitter athttp://twitter.com/#!/
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