Crusade leadership made a significant effort to invite and include everyone, providing translation in 11 languages and counseling in 12. Many of the musical artists sang in both English and Spanish. A group of 200 juvenile offenders from local facilities attended Saturday evening's youth event, with 100 percent making either a first-time decision for Christ, a rededication, or a commitment to future ministry. Two guards attending with the teens also made faith commitments. Prison Fellowship founder Chuck Colson, who spoke at the Sunday evening meeting following a prison event that morning, said that he's seeing a new responsiveness to the Gospel both inside and outside of prison walls following Sept. 11.
Inmates are hungry.
Inmates in prisons are like the whole country is today. They are aware of sin and evil and they are searching for answers. Rather than working through area shelters, churches chose to distribute more than 6,000 backpacks directly to needy families by the beginning of the school year. Saturday evening's audience reached the one million mark in attendance for the Concerts for the NeXt Generation, through 18 events over eight years. Artists dc talk and Kirk Franklin were joined by local Latino favorite Gamaliel Ruiz, who performed before one of the most diverse and responsive Crusade youth audiences in recent years.