Evangelist Greg Laurie of the California-based Harvest church network spoke in a recent video posted to X about the hard work his Harvest church network is doing in Hawaii after the horrible wildfires that devastated Maui, noting that it is working to help give people who desperately need it hope.
Speaking in the video, the first speaker said, “Seven years ago, we partnered together, Harvest over on the mainland, and Kulani Chappel partner together. And now we are Harvest Maui. And we are so thankful for the work that God has been doing for the last seven years. And we want to let you know that we are moving, we are moving out of that little cart barn into a new cart barn.”
Continuing, the speaker went on to explain, “And we’re really, really excited. And so we’re here for the long haul. We’re all about reaching people. And you might think that this is about a building. This is about a space. It’s not about a building. It’s about people. That is what this church is. It’s about people. It’s about stories, a part of the world that needs it. so desperately, people need hope, now more than ever over here. And so we’re thankful to be proclaiming that today, in the Sundays to come. And of course tonight and our Hope for Lahaina event.”
He added, “And why people feel hopeless, you know, there just seems like no end in sight, and what’s going to happen here with our community and stuff. So hopefully many people will come together and just feel the Spirit of God and Christ and find Jesus because right now, in Maui, we need it.”
Later in the video, pastor Laurie spoke about hope and finding it in Jesus. He began by asking the crowd, “So I want to talk to you a little bit tonight about Hope for Lahaina, but more specifically, hope for you. So what do we do when crisis hits? What do we do when the bottom drops out? What do we do when we don’t think we can make it another day?”
Continuing, he explained that in such situations, the thing to do is to look to Christ for hope and salvation, saying, “We look to God and there’s a book that God has given us that has hope in it. And that book is called the Bible. And this is where you’re gonna find the hope that you need. It need hope. Hope has a name. It’s Jesus. He’s here right now for you.”
He concluded by saying that we must be the one to accept Christ’s gift, saying, “Which you need to come to Him you need to accept the gift. I can’t force you to accept that I’m offering it to you at no charge, purchase by Christ. Thank you for hearing this prayer. In answering this prayer, in Jesus name I pray. Amen. Amen. God bless you guys.”
That message was apparently successful as, speaking to the Christian Post, he said that hundreds of people on the island decided to follow Jesus. Commenting on why he thinks they did so, Laurie said, “I think [the tragedy] causes one to ask, ‘What is my life really built on?’ So, I think it’s … caused many to reexamine their faith. I think it’s caused many to reach out, realizing they need God’s help,” he said. “And I think that they see the Church in action. … The Church is often criticized, and the Church is not even close to perfect, and we’re flawed. But no one reaches out and touches people when they’re hurting like followers of Jesus Christ.”
Watch him here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video