Slowly, on cue, they ascend the stage of Tel Aviv's Yad Eliahu stadium to give their testimonies. A tall middle-aged woman who has been deaf in her left ear since the age of one says she can now hear; a young man from Ghana is convinced he no longer has asthma; a heavy set woman says she no longer needs her cane to walk, and another says she felt the Lukemia in her body seep out slowly. They faint on stage, are revived, and faint again. The religious spirit, explains Pastor Benny Hinn who is leading the prayer ceremony, is just too overwhelming.

For Hinn, a controversial Christian faith healer who preached to a nearly-packed stadium earlier this week, the results he produced on Saturday night are nothing new. His half-hour broadcast, "This is Your Day," airs in 190 countries, and physical and emotional healings are simply part of his daily routine.

"Jesus is about to pass by your seat - don't miss the moment," he tells the crowd, with the recorded ringing of church bells sounding in the background. "This is not the time to be questioning and doubting. This is the time to believe. Everything that happens now until the end of the service is under the direction of the spirit. Some of you may feel a warm sensation, some of you may feel a vibration... rise and be healed in the name of Jesus."

For the thousands of devout believers who flocked Saturday night to experience Hinn's miracles, among them foreign workers, messianic Jews and Christian Arabs, the service had come to a near climax. Stirred out of their stadium seats and standing with their hands splayed about their heads, a religious frenzy of sorts had taken over. Some believers began to cry, others shouted impromptu hallelujahs and many continued their private, somewhat hypnotic chantings.

"Jesus is not dead," Hinn yelled aboved thunderous shouts and the clapping of hands. "He's alive and his holy spirit will fill this room and touch your life and make it whole again. Only Jesus can fill that hungering heart. You don't have to change. Tonight, all you have to do is call his name."

For Hinn, who was born in Jaffa in 1953 to a Greek father and an Armenian mother, Saturday night's event was something of a kick-off performance - a successful start to a seven-month international "crusade" that will reach Guatemala, India, the Philippines, Singapore, Nigeria and Japan. The decision to begin the campaign in Israel was a religious one, he notes, because Jesus and his apostles were all Jewish. "The people of Israel gave the world the Bible," he explains, "and now they need it more than ever." The "crusade" is a sign of the looming Second Coming, Hinn insisted Saturday night with Bible in hand, and people around the world are thirsting to know "what's in this book."

"I'm here to announce to the whole house of Israel that Jesus the messiah is coming back to earth," he shouts.

Though raised Greek Orthodox, Hinn was "born again" in 1972 and joined the Pentecostal church soon after moving to Canada with his family. He began preaching in Toronto, then moved to Florida, where in 1983 he founded the Orlando Christian Center, now known as the World Outreach Center. His televised programs, which are broadcast out of Los Angeles, reach some 100 million people a year and he travels often, filling stadiums and drawing crowds that number in the thousands and sometimes, hundreds of thousands. His Ministry does not divulge its annual earnings and he rarely gives interviews, but news reports describe his $ 3.5 million, eight-bedroom home in a Southern California gated community, $2,000 a night hotel rooms, and a penchant for luxurious cars.

Hinn's charisma is difficult to dismiss; his power to control a crowd as he preaches in his trademark white tailored suits is impressive. With a touch to the forehead or even a general gesture in their direction, believers simply faint in front of him, often repeatedly. But critics challenge Hinn and urge him to take his so-called divine healing powers from the stadium to the hospital.

"Benny Hinn is not somebody that many evangelical leaders think about or talk about with any regularity because he is considered marginal, controversial and not credible," Tim Morgan, a senior editor for Christianity Today magazine was quoted as saying last year. "Christian critics have problems with everything from his worship service to his financial accountability, to his theological views. At the same time he's very much a hero in the charismatic Pentecostal movement. It's easy to say that he's a polarizing figure. People react positively or negatively, but they can't ignore the fact that Benny Hinn is coming to town."

Others in the evangelical movement, though, come to his defense, and say that any "dramatic" ministry will cause some level of theological dispute. "Just because he's controversial, doesn't mean he's not of God," says David Parsons, a leader in Jerusalem's evangelical community. Moses, he adds, "had his share of troubles too."