|PIC1|American evangelist Greg Laurie is set to deliver a series of hard-hitting messages to northern California this weekend.

The energetic Harvest Ministry pastor will be hosting tens of thousands of people at the 2006 Greater Silicon Valley Harvest, leading the largest community outreach in the San Jose area since Billy Graham hit the city nearly a decade ago.

Each session will be held at 7 p.m. (PST), 13-15 October in the HP Pavilion.

Last night's crusade drew some 10,000 people, with 1,033 people making decisions to give their lives to Christ. 2,751 people joined the crusade via webcast.

This is the first time Harvest is hitting San Jose and only the second time the ministry held a crusade in northern California. Some 220 churches are working together to help bring Laurie's signature straightforward message of faith to the community.

Christian groups in the area have prepared for the crusade with prayers since it has been first announced, Laurie told Christian Today in a recent interview.

Under the theme "Making God Known", Laurie will be delivering a series of messages, which will also be broadcast worldwide via the internet.

In addition, Christian music's most popular artists will be featured at the crusade. Artists include Newsboys, Jeremy Camp, Seventh Day Slumber, Kutless, Todd Agnew, Crystal Lewis and Chris Rice.

A youth event called "Amplify" will also draw teens and young adults on the second night of the crusade, and for the first time, Harvest will have a Saturday midday Spanish-language matinee featuring music from Salvador and Ericson Alexander Molano.

Nearly ten years ago, "America's pastor," the Rev. Billy Graham, had visited the Bay Area at the invitation of local pastors. He held crusades in September and October of 1997 in San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, where thousands committed themselves to Christ.

"As we have prepared for the Greater Silicon Valley Harvest over the past two years, church unity has increased to a new level as pastors of a variety of denominations and ethnicities have worked side-by-side," said local steering committee head Gary Zelasko in a news release. "Since last April, more than 1,300 people have gathered to pray for the Greater Silicon Valley Harvest, and we are excited to see the impact that the message presented at the Harvest event will have on our community."

The Silicon Valley outreach follows the 17th annual Southern California Harvest Crusade which drew a total attendance of 102,000 people and saw 9,313 decisions for Christ made over the course of three nights.

The October crusade will be broadcasted live on the Internet. Harvest Ministries went global last year at the 2005 Anaheim crusade with more than 50,000 people watching the crusade and making decisions for Christ online. The global outreach continued this year in alignment with advanced technology.

Harvest Crusades are free of charge and have drawn more than 3.4 million people around the world since 1990.