Good News New York

Publish date: 08/04/1999

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.

Testimonies

"I was standing on a street corner in Harlem and I approached an elderly woman. I asked to pray for her. She said okay. When I stopped praying, her face was lit up very bright. She said she didn't know how she would make it across the street because of the pain in her hip. But when we stopped praying, the pain was gone." William S.

"I was witnessing to a man who was in a wheelchair in Washington Heights. He said he used to be a dangerous character until he had a stroke. He said that he remembered reading in the Bible about how Jesus was beaten and tortured and crucified. As he spoke about this, he began to weep. I led him to Christ and then prayed for his body which was partially paralyzed. He could walk before, but when I prayed for him, he said he could walk much more freely and it did not hurt like it had before." Dan K.

"I had just gotten out of the shower and Monica, a housekeeper I led to the Lord on Monday, came to the door. She wanted me to pray for her friend. I led her to the Lord. I told them I had another housekeeper on my heart. She went and got her and two other housekeepers and I led the three of them to the Lord. One was a supervisor. She had tears in her eyes when she said the prayer to accept Jesus." Deborah S.

"I approached a woman who had a little girl with her. We talked about the (crusade at) Garden and she seemed interested in the fact that it was about Jesus. She went on to receive the assurance of salvation. For some reason when I prayed for her, I asked God to provide her with a house and a job. She started to cry and told me that everything I prayed for is what she needed. She had just recently lost her home and job." Anne S.

"We witnessed to a man who lived on the streets. He accepted the Lord Jesus as his savior. I prayed for him afterwards. I placed my hand on his left shoulder and the power of God hit him and ran down his back. The next day we ran into him again. He told us he was a former priest. His left arm had been numb. God restored the feeling back into his arm." Linda S. with Marilyn C.

"An 84-year-old man and his wife came up to us in front of Madison Square Garden. They were here from Michigan. We asked them if they knew for sure that they would go to heaven if they died. They said no. We told them about Jesus and the man accepted him. He said he had been searching for someone all of his life to explain Jesus to him the way we did." Karen L.

"My wife and I met a man on a park bench in Central Park. His brain was so fried on drugs and alcohol that all he could tell us was his name. Other than that, he could not talk. As I began to share about the love of God, tears began to flow from his eyes. I began to lead him in the sinner's prayer. He began to laugh then cry. My wife began to cry and she bought him a hot dog. When we left he was laughing and shouting and weeping for joy." Dan and Susie K

"I witnessed to Jewish man. He said he was waiting for the Messiah. After telling him that Jesus was the Messiah. I told him 2000 years ago the Messiah came and was resurrected and is alive and he loves you. He accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior." Myong P.

"I witnessed to a young man named John from England. He had gone to church a short time. He wanted to know more about God. He went to the first meeting of the crusade. I told him about Jesus. He accepted Jesus as Lord. He immediately started to witness on the streets and bring others to Jesus." Myong P.