The Messenger
Hartsville, South Carolina
Rick Gage Crusade Draws Crowds of More than 13,500
Four-night event makes history in Hartsville
By Ruth McClellan
Rick Gage has often been labeled the Billy Graham of small town America. There are not many places you can go in Hartsville, South Carolina, which boasts 8,000 as its official population, where people are not still talking about the recent Tri-County Crusade with Evangelist Rick Gage at Kelleytown Stadium.
The local paper, The Messenger, reported the amazing event as drawing more than 13,500 of its citizens for the four-night crusade. By its conclusion, 660 spiritual decisions had been recorded, including 356 first-time professions of faith. More than 100 churches joined forces, forming 13 committees, working together to bring revival to their area.
“The powerful way God moved in this crusade with Rick Gage,” says Co-chairman Jack Westmoreland, “made it the most worthwhile, overwhelming experience of my life.” He chokes back tears as he continues, “It is hard to put into words glorious enough to do it justice. The Spirit of God swept through night after night, saving and changing lives. It is beyond anything I could have imagined this side of heaven.”
Youth night was the culmination of Gage’s outreach to young people of the area through his “On Track” School Assemblies. More than 5,000 students attended these assemblies where Gage talked about life’s choices and addressed issues such as drugs, alcohol abuse, and teen suicide.
The last night of the crusade ended with a youth pizza blast attended by over 1,700 young people. “Young people flooded the altars making decisions for Christ that last night,” said Counseling Chairman, Warren Arthur, of Lakeview Baptist. “We had 100 counselors standing by, but we needed 300. It was phenomenal how powerful and strong the Spirit of God was as the Lord worked in hearts. Many were saved who had no church affiliation at all.”
“As I left the stadium that night,” said Judy Lyles, Prayer Chairperson for the crusade, “I felt as if my heart would burst with thankfulness to God. My husband and three sons had been saved at the crusade. I was overwhelmed with an awesome sense that the work God began in this miraculous crusade will go on and on. We are praying seriously about that.”
Following the crusade, churches in three counties canceled their Sunday evening service plans to conduct testimony services. “We couldn’t do anything else,” said Pastor Gary Colbach of Emmanuel Baptist Church. “People are excited! We couldn’t stop talking about what God had done.
“Our school administrator, Jim Tritle, told us a moving story about one of the students from our Christian school whom he had had to expel the week before the crusade. He had been deeply burdened for that young man. The last night of the crusade someone tapped him on the back. There was that boy. He gave a powerful testimony about how he had never been saved but how the Lord had saved him that night. The glowing stories just went on and on.”
Several who attended the crusade remarked that they had never seen a spiritual awakening of this magnitude in their lives. “The only thing I can think of that could come anywhere close to it was when Freddie Gage, Rick Gage’s father, came here 30 years ago, in 1973” said Iris Rice. “I don’t remember much about the crusade except that many people were saved and a great impact was made at the high school.”
Co-chairman David McFarland of Jerusalem Baptist Church spoke of the exciting future of the Hartsville area, “The revival that was begun by this crusade will always continue. We are making sure of that. Barriers that had been forged for years with denominations and races were broken by the power of God. We are unified in our mission. We are praying together, meeting together, working together, contacting every person who made a decision for Christ and loving our city and our world to Christ.”
“The old-time gospel still works,” says Gage. “Crusade evangelism still works. Saturating our communities across America with the gospel must be done at all costs. It takes time, money, and involvement to reach lost people.”
Gage has witnessed more than 250,000 decisions for Christ through his many evangelistic outreaches in America and abroad. Rick Gage GO TELL Ministries include crusades, summer youth camps, school assemblies, one-day church revivals, and overseas mission trips.
For more information about Rick Gage GO TELL Ministries, please call 1-866-I-GO-TELL; email at info@gotellministries.com or visit his website at www.gotellministries.com.
McClellan is a writer for the Rick Gage Crusade team.
