It was still raining on the crusade day 22 October 2005; it has been raining continuously from the last few days. And many areas in Kolkata have been flooded. But that morning the hall in Moulali Yuba Kendra Building had showed the activities. When I arrived, nine people from the set-up team from Dum-Dum had reached the place with all the equipment; they were ready to start the day. As soon as the room was opened at 10 a.m., they have shifted the stuff from Sumo car into the hall. We started immediately to set up the stage. Things seem not as easy as we thought. It needed a lot of effort to place the banner on the background due to some regulations from the building maintenance, and the sound systems which earlier we thought will support the sound, didn't work as well as it has to be. Thank God that we have brought the mixer and one amplifier from our church which helped a lot and the building worker who handle the sound system was very helpful. Finally we finished the set-up at 1 p.m. which is 1 hour late than our schedule, and we used half hour more for the final song practice. It was not difficult to collect the singers, because majority of the set-up team are our song leaders, back up singers, and musician. At 1.30 p.m. everything was finished and we all went out to have lunch. But seems not everyone could enjoy the meal, we were quite nervous and excited for the crusade.

The rain hasn't stopped yet, we looked at the rain stressfully, we are quite afraid that the rain and the flood would hindrance people to come to the crusade. By 2 p.m. we had only 3 ushers. The usher team supposed to arrive at 1 p.m. for the final briefing. But slowly by slowly the usher team were arriving even the number was less that what we expected, we started a quick final briefing immediately with the ushers.

At 2.30 p.m. I saw not many people yet inside the hall, I went out to see if everything was going on well with the usher in the reception, to my surprise, I saw lots and lots of the people outside the hall, so many people were coming for the crusade, the usher team was very busy in giving the welcome card and guided them in filling the form, and with the small number of ushers and hundreds of people they seems to be like small fishes among the big fishes. So, we had to let the people go inside the hall to fill the form so there would be enough room for the people who were just arrived as it was still raining outside the building.

By 2.40 p.m. the hall which could accommodate more than 400 people was packed. Seeing that the hall was already full, by 2.50 p.m. we started our service which is 10 minutes earlier than our schedule which is 3 p.m.

The crusade was opened with the prayer by Bro. Peter R. Biswas. Bro. Biswas is the District Coordinator of UPC Bangladesh. He has worked together with Bro. James Corbin for years. Then we continued with 3 Bengali Songs and 4 English songs before we heard the preaching from Bro. James Corbin. Bro. James Corbin is the missionary from America who ministers in Bangladesh with his family; he has done a great ministry for the Bangladesh people. Right now the members of UPC Bangladesh are about 5000 people which keeps growing. Bro. Corbin preached in Bengali language (The language which is used in Bangladesh and West Bengal India), he spoke very fluently just like his mother tongue. And Bro. Babu was the interpreter from Bengali to Hindi. This is the first crusade for him and this is also his experience to be an interpreter from Bengali to Hindi, but God has used him in a wonderful way.

After the preaching, Bro. Corbin opened the Altar Call, only in a short time people has moved from their seats to the altar which were very difficult to accommodate them all at once. Even the line system that we have arranged couldn't even work in this time, because every body wanted to come down to prayed. The roar of praises and prayers fulfilled the entire hall, and tears were falling. I could see some outsider who peeped in to see what was going on inside the hall to join the others outsiders who already managed to get themselves inside the hall when we started our praise and worship. All the pastors and altar call usher immediately lay their hands on the people and prayed for them. It was a wonderful sight, how God had touched this people with His Spirit. There were 61 people filled with the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongue.

The thing that I will never forget, the rain which didn't stop for few days continuously and made the major area in Kolkata flooded, the rain which we thought would hindrance the people to come to the crusade and which we really hoped to stop in the beginning of the day, has brought glory to God. At the end of the service, the outsiders who work in the same building where the hall is and who peeped inside the hall and finally joined the crusade, came to us and said that they want to know more and we gave them our church addresses. One of them came to me and said "it was the first time the hall full when the event was held during the rainy days", the hall always empty whenever the rain came during the event of others religion. And he then said to me, "this must be because of God, even when it is raining, people would still come. This is must be a true God."

I remember, in Isaiah 55:8-11 God said "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it (NIV)"

And today God has proven it. PRAISE THE LORD!

Working together in Christ,
Kolkata, 25th October 2005

Agustina Baid