It was the largest outreach of its kind since Billy Graham visited the area in 1959 and 1969—and nearly 3,000 people got saved during the weekend event.
Some 200 churches throughout the Auckland, New Zealand, area watched and prayed expectantly on Saturday and Sunday as they hosted the Greg Laurie: Auckland Harvest at Vector Arena.
The prayers of many were answered as Vector Arena filled to overflowing both nights of the outreach. More than 21,000 people flooded the arena, and another 2,000 watched from an overflow area. By the end of the outreach, 2,777 people made decisions to put their faith in Christ. Another 170 accepted Christ via an online broadcast.
Auckland Harvest evangelist and Southern California pastor Greg Laurie noted on his blog the unusually high response to the message of salvation presented during the outreach, but was particularly struck by the volume of those who came forward to indicate commitments of faith on Friday evening.
“The Kiwis are amazingly attentive and responded [to the gospel] in a way that quite frankly shocked me,” says Laurie. “Out of a crowd of 9,800 people in attendance on Friday, 1,429 people responded to the invitation to commit their lives to Christ (17 percent of the crowd). This may be the highest percentage of people coming to Christ at a Harvest event, ever.”
During the Auckland Harvest, Laurie spoke on topics that are universally relevant to anyone—making a new beginning and finding hope in the midst of pain and suffering. Drawing on his personal experience of suffering after the 2008 death of his eldest son, Christopher, Laurie appealed to the audience gathered at the arena: “To say that day was the worst day in my life is an understatement. The day my son died, it felt like the air was sucked out of the room that I was in. But it is God’s Word that sustained me and it is God’s Word that can sustain you during your time of suffering.”
