20th January 2008

Here’s a glimpse of Joyce’s message in the evening. With much power and authority came these words of life.
Something good is going to happen!

Pay attention to what you are saying. Don’t say negative things about yourself (Ex: All I ever do is mess things up.)

19th January 2008.

If you are desperate enough, it shows. People with families and many with luggage occupied seats for the evening festival right after the day time conference. By 5 pm itself, the MMRDA grounds was full. No VVIP pass would work there. Every seat was taken, as if the occupancy depended on the level of hunger and thirst for God’s presence.

Just to witness and experience a sea of faces looking up to heaven in desperate worship unto a worthy God was overwhelming. Seated among thousands who have ‘made’ time to be there, setting apart these three days just for a mighty visitation from the King of Kings, and then to watch hands being lifted up one after the other, un-ashamed, in surrender, ready to accept this new found Savior at the end of Joyce’s message, was an unforgettable experience.

Sounds of the Nations from Hyderabad opened for Delirious with some Hindi numbers that the crowd enjoyed and sang along. This included some of their new songs from the album ‘Azaadi.’

Following suit was Delirious which always has a surprise element in their package. Continuing in ‘desi’ style, a tablist joined them, as Allen Ganta from SOTN and Martin Smith sang ‘Mukti Dilaye Yeshu Naam.’  But what moved the crowd and even Martin to tears were this group of children from our Bhandup feeding center (red light area) along with their mothers who joined Delirious in singing ‘All God’s children, we will sing Hallelujah.’ As we stood there, we could not even sing. We were just overwhelmed at the glorious sight: children coming from the worst of circumstances -from the red light area in Mumbai, come together and lift their hands in worship. When we looked at the sight, we just saw this - God smiling over them. As they stood there singing, Martin read Psalms 74: 21 which talks about taking the children from the streets and making them a choir singing praise to the Lord.

Then we had a powerful time of ministry with Joyce Meyer who spoke about the power of words and a line that we will never forget to say because she said it so many times till it got into our head and now on our lips – Something good is gonna happen to me today!

Hillsong stormed the stage after that and also had something special for the Indian crowd. For the very first time, we heard ‘My Jesus, my Savior’ in Hindi. Darlene called upon a local female singer who sang with her the same song in Hindi, while the crowd roared with applause. Not once, not twice, we sang the song over and over again. Like every day, the crowd would not let them go, and echoed with screams of ‘One Way.’ They seemed like they walked away, while the lights dimmed slowly, but Darlene came running and jumping back to lead us into One Way, which we hummed on our way home. Nobody wanted it to end. That’s why we have another day – just the festival!
So join us!

18th January 2008.

We saw around 2.5 lakh people in the evening festival. Hillsong opened, followed by Joyce Meyer talking about receiving and accepting God’s free gift of salvation, grace and righteousness. God does not see what all is wrong with you, He sees righteousness. When someone gives you a gift, and you do not want to accept it, because you think you need to earn and work for the gift, it hurts the giver. Similarly, it hurts God when we do not accept His grace and forgiveness, she said. God’s got something special he wants to give to each one of you. Decide that you will receive whatever God has in store for you and wants to give you.

Delirious ended the festival with hits from Now is the Time, and introduced one of their new songs – All God’s children sing – Hallelujah. People were not ready to leave, so the band played Rain Down once again on popular demand!

17th January 2008.

The seats were occupied in hundreds by 3 pm itself for the evening festival which started by 6.30 pm. And by around 7 pm, we had close to two lakh people – families, children and youth fill the grounds. What a spectacular sight it was to see thousands lift one voice of worship to one God. Darlene kick-started the worship with ‘Salvation is here’ and people thronged to the front to jump and dance. It was an amazing time of singing and dancing and letting oneself free and un-ashamed in the presence of the living God.

Joyce was welcomed with shouts and claps soon after worship which ended with ‘How great is our God.’ Oh one could witness the excitement on thousands of faces to see their ‘star’ dressed in an orange Indian salwar kameez. She urged people not to give up, but press on on what God has in store for us. Not to follow feelings, but trust God and follow His voice. Citing the example of the man by the pool who waited for 38 years for someone to push him to the pool, she said, “don’t wait for someone to come and give your miracle. Go after it.”

You do what you can do, and God will do what you can’t do. Just when we thought it was over, Delirious led us in half an hour of awesome praise and worship. We were not ready to leave, but all good things do come to an end…only to begin again the next day.

The good news is you can still join us!