Planning a crusade is a long process that
involves a lot of people. HIALEM sponsors the
crusades. The team usually sleeps in tents in
someone's homestead and the ministry also provides
for transportation and meals for the teams
First the core team fasts and prays for a period
of one month for God's direction . The fast is done
as a chain and hence one group of people fast and
pray for a period of 3 -4 days each and the other
team takes over and so forth until the month is over.
Wile this is going on, other ministry members continue
to hold overnight prayer meetings every Fridays.
After the praying and fasting time is over, the
core group meets and plans the crusades for the year.
Usually, HIALEM holds 6-8 crusades five day crusades
every year and 12 one day open air meetings.
All the evangelism takes place in the rural areas.
Once the planning ends, a team of 2-3 scouts are
sent to the villages that are selected by the core
group. The scouts survey the areas and seeks
out the churches that are in the area. They
meet with the pastors and introduce themselves.
They find out their testimony, doctrine, and their
attitude towards evangelism. The team then interviews
the villagers in general to find out the testimony
of the pastors in the area. This is done to
establish that these people are indeed living in obedience
to the word of God. Once this is established,
a meeting with the core group is established.
The survey team takes about a month and sometimes
more to complete
The meeting with the other pastors is held .
At the meeting, the core group interviews the pastor
(s) to make sure that they know the word of God and
can indeed shepherd and disciple new believers. HIALEM
generally does not plant new churches but rather uses
the network that is already in place. We have
found this to be more effective and has unified the
Body of Christ. On very rare occasions (2 )
we have been forced to plant a new church because
there were no reliable people in the area..
After the meeting, the dates for the crusade are confirmed.
A week before the crusade, posters are printed and
placed in strategic places in the villages.
A team from HIALEM and the networked churches
place the posters as well as go door to door asking
people to attend the crusade. The posters usually
have to be re posted in some areas because of vandalism.
The crusade usually starts on Wednesday evening
and ends on Sunday evening. They usually run
from 5pm-6.30 pm Tuesday -Friday, and 4.30pm-7.pm
on the weekends. During the day, HIALEM members
team up in twos and conduct door to door evangelism.
During the crusade, the team is split in two and
one team is left behind in prayer during the crusades.
The other team helps with setting up the platform
and controlling the crowds.
Later ,after the crusade, a meeting is held in one
of the churches in the area and new believers are
introduced to their new pastors. They are also
taught on assurance and God's promises as they start
their new life. This meetings are held every night
of the crusades and end between 10pm or 11pm.
Two weeks after the crusade, a team from HIALEM
does a follow up on the progress of the new believers.
This is followed up by another follow up a month later.
After this, HIALEM works closely with the pastors
and they are invited to a one day seminar on discipleships
and evangelism. HIALEM also does a 12 week training
program on evangelism which the churches on
the network are encouraged to attend. The training
is free and is held 2 days a week in the evenings.
Tanzania
Uganda
