Over 26,344 receive Christ!

First of all, thank you to so many people who dedicated themselves to pray for us during this last trip. God supernaturally watched over us, and gave us tremendous results! Your prayers covered us in some potentially difficult situations.

As you have no doubt watched on the news, the radical Muslims have terrorized India again. This seems to happen every year or two in some fashion, but this is certainly the boldest they have been in at least 15 years.

In addition to what you saw, there are anti-Christian radical Hindus who also are killing in the name of their religion. Scores of churches have been closed, and scores of Christians have been killed for their faith. Please continue to pray for your brothers and sisters who are persecuted.

By God's grace, during this India trip we will have seen over 26,344 people pray to receive Jesus as their 'one true God'. The incredible healings abounded, and demonized people were set free. One demon-possessed woman interrupted my preaching three times as she came to the front area screaming, while scratching and clawing at herself. But on the final night, she came to the platform with the biggest and most joyous smile as she testified how she had been completely freed by Jesus!

The Oasis team conducted six open-air gospel and healing festivals, and six pastor's schools. We also dedicated six new church buildings, and drilled 16 fresh water wells... all for the glory of God! Photos from our trip>

PLEASE also pray for us as we leave after Christmas for Liberia, Africa. We will conduct two open-air crusades and two pastor's schools, all in a country that has 80% unemployment. Pray that a spirit of forgiveness and reconciliation will help heal this war-torn country. Thanks for your continued partnership in prayers and support. Please continue to help us as God leads you. Whether your gift is large or small, we appreciate your help so very much.

Intentional for souls,

Tom Elie
Evangelist/President
Oasis World Ministries
www.oasisworldministries.org

In five days: 6,479 decisions for Jesus

We just completed an absolutely awesome second week sharing the Gospel with the people in the town of Huzurabad, India.

There was great unity, great crowds and great results. The pastors of 12 neighboring churches made a real difference, as they prayed and fasted before we arrived.

On opening night of our second Gospel & Healing Festival of this trip, we sensed a great hunger for God as a thousand people flocked to the altar and invited Jesus to be their "One True God"! Eight thousand people attended the final night of the festival, and in all, 6,479 people signed decision cards to make Jesus Christ their Lord and Savior during this five-day festival.

One of the local pastors told me that this was truly a historic event, since this town has never hosted anything like this before.

Among the healings was a woman who testified of having a painful tumor the size of her fist. When she received prayer, God shrunk the tumor and the pain left. Many others also testified of pain leaving their body in the name of Jesus. Another woman testified of being completely blind in one eye, and that God reclaimed her sight.

Jesus Christ was truly exalted in the town of Huzurabad. We pray they will never be the same again.

Intentional for souls,
Tom Elie
Evangelist/President
Oasis World Ministries
www.oasisworldministries.org

A holy and reverent respect for God

November 3, 2008

God has visited us in a great way! We've just finished our first week of meetings in Bheemgal, Andhra Pradesh.

During our first five-day festival, we saw a holy and reverent respect for God. People came forward to give testimonies of God's healings and thousands streamed forward to accept Jesus as their "one true God". Even when I preached about the persecution that is now happening in India, people still wanted to follow Jesus.

Thousands gathered on the final night of our first five-day "Gospel and Healing" Festival. It was electric! The first three testimonies took my breath away! First, a woman who had been totally blind in her left eye for one year, testified that she can now see with both eyes. Next, a man with one totally deaf ear for 20 years testified that he can now hear out of it. Finally, a demon-possessed woman, who had disrupted my preaching three times during the previous evening, came with a joyful smile and testified that she has been completely set free.

Praise God! This town will always remember the way God met them and touched their lives!

Intentional for souls,
Tom Elie
Evangelist/President
Oasis World Ministries
www.oasisworldministries.org

The Third-World Christian

Here's a glimpse into third-world evangelism. Please take three minutes to read about evangelism by the persecuted church in China. It is a transcript of a captivating interview by Denny Kenaston with two unidentified house church leaders.

Bro Denny: That leads me to my next question. What about missions and methods of evangelism? How do our Chinese brothers live out the Great Commission?

Bro Paul: Their theology and methods are really quite simple. They believe there is only one reason why God has left them here on earth: that is to evangelize the lost. Anyone who is not actively pursuing this holy purpose is missing the mark. The Great Commission cannot be compromised.

Their methods are anointed preaching with signs following. The leaders instruct the evangelism teams to go to a new village and inquire about the worst problem in the village. Then they are to go and minister to that problem and show that Jesus is the all-powerful Savior. With this success, they turn to the people and preach Jesus to them.

Bro Ren: I will give you a beautiful example of how this worked for two young ladies who were sent to a village to share the gospel:

These two sisters, eighteen years old and very tiny, came to a village of about three hundred people. There was one big problem. There was a man who was possessed by demons. Somehow, the Communists were able to count that this man had twelve demons in him. He was learned in five different languages. He was so powerful that twelve heavy farmers could not hold him back. They tried with chains and wires, but he had the power to break free.

This man happened to live at the entrance of that village. The whole village of three hundred people could not walk on the road, but had to walk in the forest, because the man decided that nobody was going to pass through his property. Whenever anyone stepped through the property line, which was invisible, the man would come out with a jungle knife in his hand, shouting, "I'm going to kill you!"

Everybody was afraid. It was like this for many, many years.

Now, these two young ladies came asking, "What is the biggest problem in this village?" Everybody pointed to the crazy, demon-possessed man's house. The sisters turned around and started to move towards that house. They were walking and praying. The whole village came out from their houses. Everybody wanted to see what would happen. They knew where the invisible line was, and if they step over that line and enter into his property, they knew what would happen. He would fly out with a jungle knife, half-naked, with a crazy look in his eye, and all the demons would drive him forward to them.

Sister Lee, one of the young girls, was leading. The two of them entered onto his property. The man ran out through the door with a knife in his hand. This sister lifted up her hand and said, "In the name of Jesus, stop." This man became frozen. He stopped in mid-air, like a statue. He couldn't move back, and he couldn't move forward. This man was as a stone. He couldn't do anything. He could not stand. His eyes were totally frozen.

This happens quite often in China. We know by experience that the body is frozen by the Holy Ghost, but the person can hear with his ears. You can share any message you want to with this kind of person. He can understand every word that you speak. Sister Lee went next to this "statue" and started to proclaim the Gospel. She then, through the name of Jesus, cast all twelve demons out of this man. He was instantly delivered. He melted in that spot, like butter in sunshine. He fell down onto the ground and was completely restored. The first words he said were "This Jesus is Lord." He was wonderfully saved and restored.

There was a very special group of people who stood together in the village that day. There they stood, the two girls on each side, and the man who used to be possessed in the middle of them. He was talking to these sisters, and together they entered into the village. As they passed the doors of the first house, the families one by one confessed that Jesus was the Son of God.

The whole village with three hundred people surrendered to the Lord that evening. These are very simple Gospel methods: problem-solution- salvation.

You may read the whole article at www.house2house.net

Intentional for souls,

Tom Elie

Evangelist/President

Oasis World Ministries

www.oasisworldministries.org

POWER EVANGELISM

“And the multitudes with one accord heeded the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. For unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice, came out of many who were possessed; and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed. And there was great joy in that city.” Acts 8:6-8

In India this year a woman came to our stage to testify that she could previously only walk with the help of a cane, but now she could walk and run freely without pain. I asked her, “Who did this for you?” She replied, “you did.” I said, “Oh no, JESUS is the one who healed you!” She said, “this is my first night at your festival. Who is Jesus?”

An Indian college student and I were talking, and I asked him if he was a Hindu. He said that he used to be, until last night at our gospel festival where he saw the town blind man healed by Jesus. He said, “that’s the kind of God I want to serve!”

Jesus often drew a crowd through His healings.
He then kept a crowd through His love.

Jesus told his disciples to “preach the gospel, and heal the sick.” Luke 9:2 In the next chapter He sent out the 70 with the same directive: “Heal the sick there, and say to them, ‘the kingdom of God has come near to you.” Luke 10:9 The two go together like peanut butter and jelly.

Heal the sick... preach the gospel!

This was NT Christianity in it’s embryo stage. It continued with the apostles as the church grew throughout the world. It was ‘normal Christianity’. I LOVE IT, DON’T YOU?

This was to be a sign of NT believers: ‘they shall lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” Mark 16:18 And what happened? “the Lord worked with them, confirming the word through the accompanying signs.” Mk 16:20 People came to Christ through His kind miracles!

A young woman with MS came to our “Praise and Healing Celebration” in southern Minnesota. God healed her on the spot. She left her cane at the altar, and THEN she got saved!

Today Jesus sends you and I out with the same authority. You and I have the goods! Let’s pray for the sick. Our job is to pray in faith...God’s job is to heal... and save!

Intentional for souls,

Tom Elie

Evangelist/President
Oasis World Ministries

God is a Serious Golfer!

“May the Lord make you a thousand times more numerous than you are and bless you as He has promised you!” Deuteronomy 1:11

Any golfers out there? I heard a pastor friend of mine, Jerry Strandquist, say that 98% of the putts that are short don’t go in the hole. That’s food for serious thought!

So why do most of MY missed putts end up short? I’m not a serious golfer, but I would say it’s because I don’t want to hit it too long. I don’t want to overshoot the cup. Why, you may ask? I don’t know. What difference is it if I am 2 feet short of the cup or 2 feet long?

I am told the only people that fail in life are those who fail to try. No golfer hits par every hole. No golfer avoids the water hazards forever. I saw Tiger Woods hit into the sand trap recently, and I thought, “even I can do that!”

So why do we live life like we play golf? Why are we afraid of big goals? Because we’re afraid of missing the mark. So we dumb-down our goals, our life, and even our faith. I hate to have my head in the clouds without also having my feet on the ground. I want to be God’s dreamer, but I don’t want to overshoot.

God already had made Abraham’s seed more than the number of stars he could count. And now Moses is getting inspired… “may God make you a THOUSAND TIMES MORE numerous than you are.” WOW!

What’s God saying to you? Little goals or big goals…. it doesn’t matter. They both take faith. God smiles on us whenever we listen to His voice telling us to get out of the boat and out of our comfort zone. I dare say that God has some big plans for us that are far, far beyond our imagination…. a thousand times bigger than we thought.

So when you are setting spiritual goals, or thinking about how God could use you,… shoot long!

We at Oasis are shooting for 1,000,000 souls to find Christ before the end of 2010… talk about a long-shot! Yet at this fall’s annual banquet, we will celebrate our 1/2 way point.

By God’s grace, we will reach the hole!

Intentional for souls,

Tom Elie
Evangelist/President
Oasis World Ministries

What Kind of a Person am I?

Since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God...? (II Peter 3:11-12).

Gas prices at $4/gallon? Who would've thought?

Millions of homes in foreclosure?...Get real.

Real nuclear danger from Iran? You've got to be kidding.

The rapture of the church? We've got a lot of time left!

This isn't Kansas anymore, Toto! Things are a changing faster than we think. Morals are declining or disappearing, church growth is stunted or reversing, crime is increasing, and our nation is becoming more and more godless.

The Bible has been telling us forever that we should lay up treasures in heaven... that none of our stuff is going to last. Yet we are in debt past our eyeballs with stuff that we can't take with us.

What kind of person am I anyway? That's a great question to ponder. Maybe the best one to answer it is the Holy Spirit. After all, He lives inside us. He knows us inside out and upside down. There's nothing hidden from Him.

Holy Spirit, what kind of person am I: religious or righteous?

What consumes me: stuff or souls?

For what am I looking: earthly promotion, or heavenly?

We say we believe in the imminent return of the Lord...He could come at any time.

But if you are like me, a lot of times I believe with my head more than my heart. Sometimes, I'd rather He wait a while. But now, we can all see that our world is changing fast. It's time to believe with our heart... all of it.

Signs of the time? Could be! Perhaps Jesus is returning soon... I mean real soon. What if we don't have decades left, but only years? Does this change what kind of person I am?

It should.

It can!

Intentional for souls,
Tom Elie
Evangelist/President
Oasis World Ministries