In the week before our evangelism in Armenia, our advertising campaign flooded the nation. Suddenly there was a great commotion. Seeing that people would be coming from every part of the country, pressure was put upon the government itself to overturn our legal contract with the stadium! Armenia is applying the same anti-evangelical laws as Russia. The director was afraid and cancelled the agreement. In the following days the directors of the three other stadiums in Yerevan, the capital city, first agreed to host us, then intimidated by the same pressure groups, withdrew the contracts. Our main organiser was also called in for interrogation. Then the authorities mounted a great counter campaign against our ‘evil meetings’, on TV and in the national newspapers, giving incredible publicity across all Armenia to the challenge of the Gospel!
Only the owner of the stadium in Vanadzor, one and a half hours outside Yerevan, still had the courage to allow us to come; and the sound system was installed. The director was evidently moved by the crusade we held in his stadium last year, as too the mayor and even the local KGB. But on the Saturday morning, the opening day of the crusade, a delegation of government, militia and security officials ‘paid a visit’ to the owner of the stadium. As a result of this ‘visit’ he had to inform our organisers that he was no longer in the position to let us use his stadium. Whilst the sound system was hastily being torn down and rapidly re-located in the local church, our chief organiser was himself then summoned for interrogation. After he had been released, next the pastor was summoned by the mayor – a man well disposed towards the local church – but not now, being himself threatened with losing his job if evangelism went ahead in town.
Despite being threatened with being de-registered and having his church building confiscated, the pastor – the last man still willing to help us – stood firm: his building and the land belong to the church, he was doing nothing against the state. He insisted he would allow the evangelism to go ahead on his church property. Afterwards he said, ‘If we do not stand and fight now, we, the evangelical church in Armenia, will never be able to fight against these attacks again.’
Our team was resourceful and determined: despite road blocks, more than 130 buses brought the people over the two days, coming from different regions each night to give as many people as possible the chance to hear the Gospel. More than 6000 each night crammed into the auditorium, crowded in the aisles, on the platform, in the corridors, up the stairs, in the balcony, in the kitchen and dining room below, and outside in the courtyard. – Last year we had 5000 for one night in the stadium – this time 12,000 came from across the nation! Police and secret service personnel mingled in the crowds, but could find nothing to halt the meetings – which were filmed and also broadcast live on the internet all over the world – according to the web server, people from over 230 different cities watched the service LIVE!
After David called the people to repent in their thousands on the opening night, and before the prayer for the sick, a tremendous black ‘tornado’ ripped through the town, with thunder and lightning, and hail the size of golf balls drumming furiously on the roof and beating on the cars in the street outside. The people were afraid, was it an earthquake like they had 20 years ago? It was as if Acts 4:24-31 was happening here in Vanadzor, in Armenia – the whole place was literally shaken! When David publicly commanded – in the Name of Jesus – the storm to stop, it stopped! And following this, the healings – see Acts 4:29-30 – were amongst the swiftest and most outstanding we have seen! A man with five tumours on his head, a woman with a tumour on her face, a boy with a cancer tumour on his back – instantly, perfectly healed – and hundreds more! Only on the way home on the Sunday night the buses which came from the Karaba region – where the government had de-registered the church last year and confiscated their church building – were stopped and searched at a police road block. Christian booklets and leaflets were taken from them – but not their Bibles.
The leaders of the largest evangelical/charismatic groups – and people from other countries – stood with us all the way in the preparation for the great crusade originally to be held in Yerevan, and then in the ensuing debacle with the government. At the airport as we left, one of these pastors said, “I don’t know how it will end, but I know the hand of God was on it. We already had a mini revival going on, with conversions in every meeting, but God wants to do something new, something greater. Before we can move up a level, it takes a tremendous effort and this is the time for that effort. We must not miss the day of God’s visitation – it will not come again. David, your ministry is a gift from Heaven for us. There is a time when we will take the largest stadium in the nation and we will see a great outpouring!”