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“Live for me. I died for you,” proclaims a striking, giant, illuminated billboard depicting Jesus on the cross to hundreds of thousands of people daily on Durban’s busy M4 Southern Freeway.
An Easter project of The Worship Tabernacle (TWT) church in Shallcross, Durban, the 18m x 5m billboard was erected with the aim to evangelise day and night, said Julian Tharmiha who handles the church’s media and social media and is part of the worship team.
He said TWT leader Pastor Silas Lutchman came up with the idea of the alternative evangelism project which was embraced enthusiastically by the congregation.
He said that in addition to creating the billboard artwork they had to get “Jesus’s legs” made and attached to the structure. They also installed lights as the original billboard was not illuminated.
He said more than 100 excited church members attended the launch [see video clip below] of the billboard on the night of Thursday March 31.
He said that the Jesus billboard project has been getting a lot of positive attention on social media all over SA and was featured by a radio station in Cape Town.
“We wanted to get the message out. But we honestly didn’t think it would go national. That’s all to the glory of God,” he said.
Julian said that among the many positive comments people have expressed the desire to have something similar in their town. He said if their project inspires others to do likewise they will be delighted.
He said 140 000 cars use the stretch of the M4 between the Bluff and Clairwood offramps where the billboard stands. They expect that holiday traffic will swell that number over the Easter weekend.
He said that as well as evangelising over Easter, the billboard will remind people “the reason for the season”.
“Easter is all about the death and resurrection of Christ,” he said.
He said they hope to display the billboard for three months.
“And thereafter — we haven’t decided yet but are looking to something else after that. It may become an ongoing thing,” he said.
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