Bartholomew's Notes

The Analyst (Monrovia) reports on a healing rally by Canadian evangelist Len Lindstrom:

A crowd numbering over 50,000 people from across the county and surrounding counties gathered to hear the exciting message about Jesus who restores dignity, destiny, divine health and spiritual life.

…An old lady almost totally blind and crippled from Lofa received her healing. She was seeing dancing on the platform. A local boy who was run over last year in Gbarnga by a car also got healed. The only way he could move was to sit on his chair and bounce down the road, but now he was up and walking freely…

Etc, etc. Lindstrom’s website gives further details about the alleged miracles that attend his “World Harvest” ministry:

Lepers have been cleansed, the Human Immune Virus (HIV) and the AIDS virus vanished, blind eyes opened, hearing restored, cancers cured and the dead raised, the list of God’s miracles seems endless and they give God all the Glory! (1 Corinthians 15:10.)

The Analyst goes on to note that Lindstrom also has business concerns in the country:

…But Rev Lindstrom is not only an evangelist, he is a very busy man as he left the campaign late Sunday night, God’s Business done, now to visit again with his exploration companies who employ 17 geologists in Liberia and over 250 other people.

He said he has been busy restructuring the parent companies in Canada into one new company called Liberty International Mineral Corporation which he intends to soon make a publicly traded company on the Stock Exchange.

This will provide funding for further rallies, and for building an orphanage.

Details of Lindstrom’s interests are scarce, although last year he featured in an AFP report on foreign investment in the country:

“Selon tous les rapports, le Liberia semble être un pays très riche en richesses naturelles, mais il a besoin d’investissements étrangers pour les développer”, selon Len Lindstrom, président de la société Liberty Gold and Diamants, qui a signé un contrat d’exploration de deux millions de dollars en juin 2004.

The company was earlier known as the Liberty Gold and Diamond Mining Company, and as Liberty Diamond International the company was advertising for a new geologist just a few weeks ago.

Naturally, when one thinks of diamonds, Liberia, and foreign evangelists, Pat Robertson quickly comes to mind. Lindstrom, however, takes a different view: while Robertson notoriously called for the US to support Charles Taylor as a “Christian, Baptist” president in conflict with Muslims, Lindstrom’s website denounces Taylor as a “despot”. Lindstrom does, though, enjoy political links of his own:

When God begins to move, the hunger for His blessing and presence goes right to the top of a nation, as evidenced when we met with several of the country’s top officials! First was the National Director of Defense and Director of the Police Department, the Honorable Chris Massaquoi along with the Head of the CID, Central Intelligence Department who I jokingly called the CIA. After a powerful service in the Police Dept, it was off to the Executive Mansion, they said the first visiting evangelist to ever be invited there. We were warmly greeted by the Vice-Chairman or ‘Vice President’ of the country, the Hon. Wesley Jones, whom we prayed with for peace and the healing of the nation. He said, ‘If I had known I would have been there, but when you come back, I will be there every night!’ The President was out of country at the Donor Conference in the USA, so it was next to the office of the Hon. Lawrence George, the Chief Minister of Presidential Affairs where we had a great time of prayer, and then to several other dignitaries who called us into their offices to pray as we passed by! They had all heard what God had done in the crusade, wanted His blessing and asked us to come back quickly! In fact, Rev. Arku tells me that an official letter from the joint heads of government inviting us back for the stadium crusade is on the way and they have all declared that they will be present in the campaign!

“Rev. Arku” is James Arku, who is somewhat oddly described on Lindstrom’s website as “Minister of Religious Affairs and Minister of National Defense”; this is mysterious, since Arku is not given these titles anywhere else (and is actually somewhat obscure), while the actual Minister of National Defense from 1997 to 2006 was Daniel Chea. Arku also pastors Liberty Church in Kakata, which is associated with Lindstrom’s ministry.

Lindstrom’s ministry began in the 1970s, and originally focused on First Nation Canadians. He was apparently trained a Bible College run by Pastor Max Solbrekken, who is an apocalyptically-minded Christian Zionist. Lindstrom’s ministry has apparently

…held over 300 Mass Crusades in any venue possible in over 100 nations resulting in over 3,000,000 decisions for Christ. Under the leadership of Evangelists Len & Julie Lindstrom and located in Kelowna, British Columbia, it has impacted the nations for more than 25 years through miracle and power ministry. In Canada and the USA World Harvest has held over 115 tent crusades and more than 250 indoor rallies resulting in over 30,000 first time decisions for Jesus Christ.

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