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How did we get here?

Don & Loraine Murray

I guess this all started about 8 years ago when the church I was attending had a guest speaker, Kash Elijah, a former Sunni Muslim, speak at our church. He had a very powerful testimony that was very interesting. So, the next day I contacted our Pastor, Major Gord Armstrong of the Salvation Army, and got the contact information for Kash. I then arranged a meeting over coffee at my office (Tim Horton’s) and found out his desire was to be involved in a Revival. Over the next 3 to 4 years, mostly Kash, with a little bit of help from myself, held 5 Revival meetings at various churches or hotels or rented buildings. We had a good degree of success with them and learned a lot.

In 2019, my wife, Loraine and I moved to Alliston. Through a new church we attended we met a guy named Ken Rounds and then his lovely wife, Geri. And although the Revival was not really talked about until late 2021, we started to plan this current event you have all gracefully agreed to assist us with. This is an evangelistic crusade which only God can organize, born of prayer, with unity amongst all. We put the word out and had our first organizing meeting in November ‘22, in which we had a dozen or so people attend. The in January ‘23, an organizing meeting attracted 23 people and after that each month we met until the 1st Encounter Jesus in June of 2023.

More and more people came and we ended up with over 150 volunteers and raised $15,000 to cover the expenses for the 1st Encounter Jesus event, which was scheduled for June 16-17, 2023. The first event went over the two days scheduled and lasted over a week as almost 2,000 people kept coming and wanting more of the Holy Spirit. Kind of like, “Field of Dreams”, if you build it (if God builds it) they will come. Our keynote speakers were Kris Kildosher from the U.S. and Andrew Robertson from New Zealand.

Throughout the summer of 2023 we held a few follow-up meetings with volunteers and guests that attended the June meeting and also held an appreciation “pot luck” day for all the volunteers.

September of 2023 was the 2nd Encounter Jesus event. It was scheduled for September 22-23, 2024 and again lasted a week long, attracting well over 3,000 people.

We found that God led the people to Rounds Ranch and the “portal” over Rounds Ranch opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon us all. This is a Kingdom Event designed to bring people to salvation. That was the initial goal and it’s still the vision to see people saved, find salvation, be healed, have deliverance, baptism and find new life in God. We always said, “Keep the main thing the main thing”.

The next and 3rd Encounter Jesus event will be held June 14-22, 2024 at Rounds Ranch, 192 County Road 92, Elmvale, Ontario, L0L 1P0. Please stay tuned to the website for further developments with Encounter Jesus at: encouterjesuscanada.com