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 In the summer of 1999, Drs. Rodney and Adonica Howard-Browne came to New York City, to conduct one of the largest soul winning crusades since the 50s.
It began in February of 1998. While conducting a series of meetings in Ozark, Alabama, Dr. Rodney Howard-Browne had a supernatural dream in which he was talking to Dr. Billy Graham. In the dream, Dr. Graham was talking to Dr. Howard-Browne about a crusade he had conducted in 1957. He had rented Madison Square Garden for what started out to be a six week crusade and went for three and a half months. During this time in New York, two million people attended the meeting at the Garden and 55,000 decisions were made for Christ.
While Dr. Graham was speaking to him in the dream, Dr. Rodney Howard-Browne began to weep over New York and America. When he awoke in the morning, his pillow was soaking wet with tears. The moment his feet touched the floor, he knew that he had to go to New York City and launch one of the biggest soul-winning crusades since the 50s.
The crusade, called Good News New York ran from July 7-August 14, 1999. It was six weeks of nonstop soul-winning on the streets during the day and a soul-winning service every night at Madison Square Garden. We spent over $6.7 million to fund the crusade. We were not the first ministry God spoke to, to do a city-wide outreach in New York City, and even though we are not a big ministry and we did not have the finances or the support needed for an outreach of this magnitude, we decided to trust God and go ahead and obey His call and His mandate. In spite of a lack of cooperation from most New York churches and even outright opposition, we went ahead with the outreach and the Lord blessed us and helped us.
Five thousand volunteers from 36 states and 22 countries came to share the love of God with the people of New York City. We handed out over 13 million tickets, in eight different languages, with free admission to Madison Square Garden. We witnessed on the streets, from the penthouse to the crack house in all five boroughs of New York City. We also gave away 250 tons of food.
And the greatest part of all – we saw over 48,459 people accept Jesus into their heart.
This was a city-shaking event from which we are still hearing testimonies.
In the light of recent events in New York City – the terrorist attack on New York and the destruction of the Twin Towers with the resultant loss of life – we know why the Lord placed this urgency in our hearts to conduct this crusade in 1999 and not wait until we had the necessary resources in our hands before we moved to do it. Since 1999, several New York churches, motivated by our example, have been conducting regular outreaches and the soul-count in New York has continued to rise. Hallelujah.
The Vision of GNNY
1. Rent Madison Square Garden for a period of six weeks in the summer of 1999.
2. Launch one of the biggest efforts in street evangelism, with teams from all over the world. These teams, in an organized effort, will evangelize the five boroughs of New York City.
3. Contact 32,000 churches in a 250-mile radius of the city and invite their participation.
4. Train 25,000 workers to fill the need for ushers, choir members, altar workers and other workers and volunteers.
5. Distribute Bibles, tracts, clothing and food by the tons.
6. Reach the political world in the region with the Good News.
7. Reach into the business world with the Good News.
8. Reach into the private sector with the Good News.
9. See every area of the city shaken for Jesus.
10. See the Good News proclaimed throughout the city through every available means: TV, radio, billboards, buses, subways, posters and handbills. |