Great

Revival

Stories

from the

Renewal Journal

Geoff Waugh (Editor)

Copyright ©  Geoff Waugh, 2011

Compiled from two books:

Best Revival Stories and Transforming Revivals.

ISBN-13:  978-1466384262

ISBN-10:  1466384263

Printed by CreateSpace, Charleston, SC, USA, 2011

Renewal Journal Publications

www.renewaljournal.com

Citipointe Ministry College

School of Ministries

Christian Heritage College

PO Box 2111, Mansfield, Brisbane, Qld, 4122

Australia

Contents

Introduction                                                                                                             5

Part 1:  Best Revival Stories

1  Power from on High, by John Greenfield                                            13

2  The Spirit told us what to do, by Carl Lawrence                                27

3  Pentecost in Arnhem Land, by Djiniyini Gondarra                33

4  Speaking God’s Word, by David Yonggi Cho                              41

5  Worldwide Awakening, by Richard Riss                                            49

6  The River of God, by David Hogan                                         133

Part 2:  Transforming Revivals

7  Solomon Islands                                                                                      147

8  Papua New Guinea                                                                        159

9  Vanuatu                                                                                                                171

10  Fiji                                                                                                                179

11  Snapshots of Glory, by George Otis Jr                                            197

12  The Transformation of Algodoa de Jandaira                            239

Conclusion                                                                                                       247

Appendix:  Renewal and Revival Books                                          249

Renewal and Revival

Renewal Journal articles by Geoff Waugh,

Introduction

I will answer

God promises to answer us – again and again.

His answer is not always what we expect or even want, but bigger and better than our asking.

Call to me and I will answer you; and show you great and mighty things, you do not know

(Jeremiah 33:3).

It shall come to pass

That before they call, I will answer;

And while they are still speaking, I will hear

(Isaiah 65:24).

If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land

(2 Chronicles 7:14).

This book tells some of that story.  God is faithful to his word.  The 21st century sees transforming revivals spreading across the globe.  Many more great stories are in other revival books and the Renewal Journals (see Appendix).  This Introduction kicks off with another great story about living faith, miracles and answered prayer.

Living Faith

Helen Roseveare was a missionary doctor to the Congo who recorded this story in her book, Living Faith.

Her testimony tells of amazing answers to prayer.

She also wrote books about the revival in the Belgian Congo (now Zaire) in the 1950s.

One night I had worked hard to help a mother in the labour ward; but in spite of all we could do she died leaving us with a tiny premature baby and a crying two-year-old daughter. We would have difficulty keeping the baby alive, as we had no incubator (we had no electricity to run an incubator) and no special feeding facilities. Although we lived on the equator, nights were often chilly with treacherous drafts.

One student midwife went for the box we had for such babies and the cotton wool the baby would be wrapped in. Another went to stoke up the fire and fill a hot water bottle. She came back shortly in distress to tell me that in filling the bottle, it had burst. Rubber perishes easily in tropical climates. “And it is our last hot water bottle!” she exclaimed.

As in the West it is no good crying over spilled milk, so in Central Africa it might be considered no good crying over burst water bottles. They do not grow on trees, and there are no drugstores down forest pathways.”All right,” I said, “Put the baby as near the fire as you safely can; sleep between the baby and the door to keep it free from drafts. Your job is to keep the baby warm.

The following noon, as I did most days, I went to have prayers with any of the orphanage children who chose to gather with me. I gave the youngsters various suggestions of things to pray about and told them about the tiny baby. I explained our problem about keeping the baby warm enough, mentioning the hot water bottle. The baby could so easily die if it got chills. I also told them of the two-year-old sister, crying because her mother had died. During the prayer time, one ten-year-old girl, Ruth, prayed with the usual blunt conciseness of our African children. “Please, God,” she prayed, “send us a water bottle. It’ll be no good tomorrow, God, as the baby will be dead, so please send it this afternoon.”

While I gasped inwardly at the audacity of the prayer, she added by way of corollary, “And while You are about it, would You please send a dolly for the little girl so she’ll know You really love her?” As often with children’s prayers, I was put on the spot. Could I honestly say, “Amen”? I just did not believe that God could do this. Oh, yes, I know that He can do everything. The Bible says so. But there are limits, aren’t’ t there? The only way God could answer this particular prayer would be by sending me a parcel from the homeland. I had been in Africa for almost four years at that time, and I had never, ever received a parcel from home; anyway, if anyone did send me a parcel, who would put in a hot water bottle? I lived on the equator!

Halfway through the afternoon, while I was teaching in the nurses’ training school, a message was sent that there was a car at my front door. By the time I reached home, the car had gone, but there, on the verandah, was a large twenty-two pound parcel. I felt tears pricking my eyes. I could not open the parcel alone, so I sent for the orphanage children. Together we pulled off the string, carefully undoing each knot. We folded the paper, taking care not to tear it unduly. Excitement was mounting. Some thirty or forty pairs of eyes were focused on the large cardboard box. From the top, I lifted out brightly coloured, knitted jerseys. Eyes sparkled as I gave them out. Then there were the knitted bandages for the leprosy patients, and the children looked a little bored. Then came a box of mixed raisins and sultanas—that would make a nice batch of buns for the weekend. Then, as I put my hand in again, I felt the . . . could it really be? I grasped it and pulled it out – yes, a brand-new, rubber hot water bottle! I cried. I had not asked God to send it. I had not truly believed that He could.

Ruth was in the front row of the children. She rushed forward, crying out, “If God has sent the bottle, He must have sent the dolly, too!” Rummaging down to the bottom of the box, she pulled out the small, beautifully dressed dolly. Her eyes shone! She had never doubted. Looking up at me, she asked: “Can I go over with you, Mummy, and give this dolly to that little girl, so she’ll know that Jesus really loves her?”

That parcel had been on the way for five whole months. Packed up by my former Sunday school class, whose leader had heard and obeyed God’s prompting to send a hot water bottle, even to the equator. And one of the girls had put in a dolly for an African child – five months before – in answer to the believing prayer of a ten-year-old to bring it “that afternoon.”

“Before they call, I will answer!” (Isaiah 65:24)

Dr Helen Roseveare (1925-), an English missionary to the Congo from 1953 to 1973, suffered terribly through the political instability in the early 1960s and as a prisoner of rebel forces for five months in 1964. After her release she headed back to England but returned to the Congo in 1966 to assist in the rebuilding of the nation.  Now retired she lives in Northern Ireland. The film Mama Luka Comes Home documents her return visit to Zaire in 1989 (See YouTube).

Revivals abound with such stories of answered prayer and miracles.  This book contains some of those great revival stories.

Part 1: Best Revival Stories from the Renewal Journal gathers together amazing stories of God’s revival power.

John Greenfield’s book, Power from on High, sparkles with the pioneering evangelism and mission of the Moravian revival which flamed into the Great Awakening and Evangelical Revivals of the eighteenth century.

Carl Lawrence graphically describes an amazing revival from China ignited by two teenage girls.  Djiniyini Gondarra traces the humble beginnings of the Aboriginal revival that swept Australia.  David Yonggi Cho recounts his experience of explosive revival in communist Russia.

Richard Riss gathered extensive reports of revival awakenings in North America and England, and David Hogan testifies to amazing revivals in Mexico.

Part 2: Transforming Revivals tells how ecology (the land) as well as individuals, churches, communities, and even nations can be transformed.  These revivals literally fulfil God’s promise: If my people, what are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray, and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

The first chapters of Part 2 survey transforming revivals in the South Pacific island nations of the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and Fiji – selected from South Pacific Revivals (2nd edition, 2010).

Then the last two chapters expand to cover global transforming revivals researched and documented by George Otis Jr and the Sentinel Group.  See their website on www.glowtorch.org

As you read these stories, you too can pray for revival, including asking God to touch you in new ways.  This is God’s purpose right now, everywhere.  God promised to pour out his Spirit on everyone – not just on good people, and not only on church people.  Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would fill us with power to be his witnesses.

We can participate in prayer and revival in vital ways:

We can Ask God for a great harvest as we pray.

We can Believe God who does more than we ask or think.

We can Commit ourselves to God who is the Lord of the harvest.

I pray that this book will both inform and inspire you.  We can join the millions praying “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.  … For Yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever and ever, Amen.”

Best Revival Stories

from the Renewal Journal

Part 1 of this book

Part 1

Best Revival Stories

1  Power from on High, by John Greenfield                                            13

2  The Spirit told us what to do, by Carl Lawrence                                27

3  Pentecost in Arnhem Land, by Djiniyini Gondarra                33

4  Speaking God’s Word, by David Yonggi Cho                              41

5  Worldwide Awakening, by Richard Riss                                            49

6  The River of God, by David Hogan                                         133

These chapters are selected from different issues of the Renewal Journal available in four volumes of five issues each. See Blog on renewaljournal.com

Renewal Journals Vol 1 (1-5)

Revival, Church Growth, Community,

Healing, Signs and Wonders

3

Power from on High

1  Power from on High

Adapted from John Greenfield

The Rev John Greenfield, an American Moravian evangelist, published his book Power from on High in 1927 on the 200th anniversary of the Moravian revival.  The information in this article is from that book, now out of print.  The Moravians, a refugee colony from Bohemia, settled on the estates of Count Nicholas Zinzendorf (painted) in Herrnhut, Germany, where a powerful revival began in 1727.  It launched 100 years of continuous prayer and within 25 years 100 Moravians were missionaries, more than the rest of the Protestant church had sent out in two centuries.

A modern Pentecost

A Moravian historian wrote that Church history

abounds in records of special outpourings of the Holy Ghost, and verily the thirteenth of August, 1727, was a day of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.  We saw the hand of God and His wonders, and we were all under the cloud of our fathers baptized with their Spirit.  The Holy Ghost came upon us and in those days great signs and wonders took place in our midst.

From that time scarcely a day passed but what we beheld His almighty workings amongst us.  A great hunger after the Word of God took possession of us so that we had to have three services every day, viz. 5.0 and 7.30 a.m. and 9.0 p.m.  Every one desired above everything else that the Holy Spirit might have full control.  Self‑love and self‑will, as well as all disobedience, disappeared and an overwhelming flood of grace swept us all out into the great ocean of Divine Love (1927:14).

No one present could tell exactly what happened on that Wednesday morning, 13 August 1727 at the specially called Communion service.  They hardly knew if they had been on earth or in heaven.  Count Nicholas Zinzendorf, the young leader of that community, gave this account many years later:

We needed to come to the Communion with a sense of the loving nearness of the Saviour.  This was the great comfort which has made this day a generation ago to be a festival, because on this day twenty-seven years ago the Congregation of Herrnhut, assembled for communion (at the Berthelsdorf church) were all dissatisfied with themselves.  They had quit judging each other because they had become convinced, each one, of his  lack of worth in the sight of God and each felt himself at this Communion to be in view of the noble countenance of the Saviour.

O head so full of bruises,

So full of pain and scorn.

In this view of the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, their hearts told them that He would be their patron and their priest who was at once changing their tears into oil of gladness and their misery into happiness.  This firm confidence changed them in a single moment into a happy people which they are to this day, and into their happiness they have since led many thousands of others through the memory and help which the heavenly grace once given to themselves, so many thousand times confirmed to them since then (1927:15).

Zinzendorf described it as ‘a sense of the nearness of Christ’ given to everyone present, and also to others of their community who were working elsewhere at the time.

The congregation was young.  Zinzendorf, the human leader, was 27, which was about the average age of the group.

The Moravian brethren had sprung from the labours and martyrdom of the Bohemian Reformer, John Hus.  They had experienced centuries of persecution.  Many had been killed, imprisoned, tortured or banished from their homeland.  This group had fled for refuge to Germany where the young Christian nobleman, Count Zinzendorf, offered them asylum on his estates in Saxony.  They named their new home Herrnhut, ‘the Lord’s Watch’.  From there, after their baptism in the Holy Spirit, they became evangelists and missionaries.

Fifty years before the beginning of modern Foreign Missions by William Carey, the Moravian Church had sent out over 100 missionaries.  Their English missionary magazine, Periodical Accounts, inspired William Carey.  He threw a copy of the paper on a table at a Baptist meeting, saying, ‘See what the Moravians have done!  Cannot we follow their example and in obedience to our Heavenly Master go out into the world, and preach the Gospel to the heathen?’ (1927:19).

That missionary zeal began with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.  Count Zinzendorf observed: ‘The Saviour permitted to come upon us a Spirit of whom we had hitherto not had any experience or knowledge. ...  Hitherto we had been the leaders and helpers.  Now the Holy Spirit Himself took full control of everything and everybody’ (1927:21).

When the Spirit came

Prayer precedes Pentecost.  The disgruntled community at Herrnhut early in 1727 was deeply divided and critical of one another.  Heated controversies threatened to disrupt the community.  The majority were from the ancient Moravian Church of the Brethren.  Other believers attracted to Herrnhut included Lutherans, Reformed, and Baptists.  They argued about predestination, holiness, and baptism.

The young German nobleman, Count Zinzendorf, pleaded for unity, love and repentance.  Converted in early childhood, at four years of age he composed and signed a covenant: ‘Dear Saviour, do Thou be mine, and I will be Thine.’  His life motto was, ‘I have one passion: it is Jesus, Jesus only.’

Count Zinzendorf learned the secret of prevailing prayer.  He actively established prayer groups as a teenager, and on leaving the college at Halle at sixteen he gave the famous Professor Francke a list of seven praying societies he had established.

After he finished university his education was furthered by travel to foreign countries.  Everywhere he went, his passion for Jesus controlled him.  In the Dusseldorf Gallery of paintings he was deeply moved by a painting of the crucifixion over which were the words:

Hoc feci pro te;

Quid facis pro me?

This have I done for thee;

What have you done for me?

At Herrnhut, Zinzendorf visited all the adult members of the deeply divided community.  He drew up a covenant calling upon them ‘to seek out and emphasize the points in which they agreed’ rather than stressing their differences.  On 12 May 1727 they all signed an agreement to dedicate their lives, as he dedicated his, to the service of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Moravian revival of 1727 was thus preceded and then sustained by extraordinary praying.  A spirit of grace, unity and supplications grew among them.

On 16 July the Count poured out his soul in a prayer accompanied with a flood of tears.  This prayer produced an extraordinary effect.  The whole community began praying as never before.

On 22 July many of the community covenanted together on their own accord to meet often to pour out their hearts in prayer and hymns.

On 5 August the Count spent the whole night in prayer with about twelve or fourteen others following a large meeting for prayer at midnight where great emotion prevailed.

On Sunday, 10 August, Pastor Rothe, while leading the service at Herrnhut, was overwhelmed by the power of the Lord about noon.  He sank down into the dust before God.  So did the whole congregation.  They continued till midnight in prayer and singing, weeping and praying.

On Wednesday, 13 August, the Holy Spirit was poured out on them all.  Their prayers were answered in ways far beyond anyone’s expectations. Many of them decided to set aside certain times for continued earnest prayer.

On 26 August, twenty-four men and twenty‑four women covenanted together to continue praying in intervals of one hour each, day and night, each hour allocated by lots to different people.

On 27 August, this new regulation began.  Others joined the intercessors and the number involved increased to seventy‑seven.  They all carefully observed the hour which had been appointed for them.  The intercessors had a weekly meeting where prayer needs were given to them.

The children, also touched powerfully by God, began a similar plan among themselves.  Those who heard their infant supplications were deeply moved.  The children’s prayers and supplications had a powerful effect on the whole community.

That astonishing prayer meeting beginning in 1727 went on for one hundred years.  It was unique.  Known as the Hourly Intercession, it involved relays of men and women in prayer without ceasing made to God.  That prayer also led to action, especially evangelism.  More than one hundred missionaries left that village community in the next twenty‑five years, all constantly supported in prayer.

The Spirit’s witness

One result of their baptism in the Holy Spirit was a joyful assurance of their pardon and salvation.  This made a strong impact on people in many countries, including the Wesleys.

In 1736 John and Charles Wesley sailed to America as Anglican missionaries.  A company of Moravian immigrants were also on the vessel.  During a terrible storm they all faced the danger of shipwreck.  John Wesley wrote in his journal:

At seven I went to the Germans.  I had long before observed the great seriousness of their behaviour.  Of their humility they had given a continual proof by performing those servile offices for the other passengers which none of the English would undertake; for which they desired and would receive no pay, saying, ‘It was good for their proud hearts,’ and ‘their loving Saviour had done more for them.’  And every day had given them occasion of showing a meekness, which no injury could move.  If they were pushed, struck or thrown down, they rose again and went away; but no complaint was found in their mouth.  Here was now an opportunity of trying whether they were delivered from the spirit of fear, as well as from that of pride, anger and revenge.  In the midst of the Psalm  wherewith their service began, the sea broke over, split the main‑sail in pieces, covered the ship and poured in between the decks, as if the great deep had already swallowed us up. A terrible screaming began among the English.  The Germans calmly sung on.  I asked one of them afterwards: ‘Were you not afraid?’  He answered, ‘I thank God, no.’  I asked: ‘But were not your women and children afraid?’  He replied mildly: ‘No, our women and children are not afraid to die’ (1927:35‑36).

In Georgia, John Wesley sought spiritual counsel from the Moravian Bishop, A. G. Spangenberg.  Back in England in 1738 the Wesley brothers became intimately acquainted with the Moravians, especially Peter Boehler who later became a leading Moravian bishop.

On 4 March, 1738, Wesley wrote in his diary:

I found my brother at Oxford recovering from his pleurisy; and with him Peter Boehler: by whom (in the hand of the great God) I was, on Sunday, the 5th, clearly convinced of unbelief; of the want of that faith whereby alone we are saved.  Immediately it struck into my mind, ‘Leave off preaching.  How can you preach to others who have not faith yourself?’  I asked Boehler whether he thought I should leave it off, or not.  He answered, ‘By no means.’  I asked: ‘But what can I preach?  He said: ‘Preach faith till you have faith.’  Accordingly, Monday, 6, I began preaching this new doctrine, though my soul started back from the work.  The first person to whom I offered salvation by faith alone, was a prisoner under sentence of death (1927:37).

Eventually John Wesley came to assurance of salvation.  His own testimony reads:

Wednesday, May 3, 1738.  My brother had a long and particular conversation with Peter Boehler.  And it now pleased God to open his eyes; so that he also saw clearly, what was the nature of that one true living faith, whereby alone ‘through grace’ we are saved.

Wednesday, May 24.  In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans.  About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation;  and an assurance was given me, that He had taken away my sins, even  mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.

Friday, May 26.  My soul continued in peace, but yet in heaviness, because of manifold temptations.  I asked Mr. Telchig, the Moravian, what to do.  He said: ‘You must not fight with them as you did before, but flee from them the moment they appear, and take shelter in the wounds of Jesus (1927:38).

The Methodists and Moravians often met together then for Bible study and prayer.  George Whitefield’s biographer wrote:

Whitefield began the New Year (1739) as gloriously as he ended that which had just expired.  He received Sacrament, preached twice, expounded twice, attended a Moravian love feast in Fetter Lane, where he spent the whole night in prayer to God, psalms and thanksgivings; and then pronounced ‘this to the happiest New Year’s Day he had ever seen.’

This love feast at Fetter Lane was a memorable one.  Besides about sixty Moravians, there were present not fewer than seven of the Oxford Methodists, namely John and Charles Wesley, George Whitefield, Wesley Hall, Benjamin Ingham, Charles Kinchin and Richards Hitchins, all of them ordained clergymen of the Church of England.  Wesley writes: ‘About three in the morning, as we were continuing instant in prayer, the power of God came mightily upon us, insomuch that many cried for exceeding joy, and many fell to the ground.  As soon as we were recovered a little from that awe and amazement at the presence of His Majesty, we broke out with one voice ‑ ‘We praise Thee, O God; we acknowledge Thee to be the  Lord!’ (1927:38‑39).

What the Moravians imparted to John Wesley is summarised by one of his biographers, W. H. Fitchett:

In substance it was three things which lie in the very alphabet of Christianity, but which somehow the teachings of a godly home, of a great University, and of an ancient Church, and of famous books, had not taught Wesley.  These are that salvation is through Christ’s Atonement alone, and not through our own works; that its sole condition is faith; and that it is attested to the spiritual consciousness by the Holy Spirit. These truths to‑day are platitudes; to Wesley they were, at this stage of his life, discoveries (1927:40).

Wesley’s estimate of the Moravian revival which resulted in his own conversion was prophetic.  When Peter Boehler, nine years his junior, left England for America after several months, Wesley recorded in his journal:

Peter Boehler left London to embark for Carolina.  Oh what a work hath God begun since his coming into England!  Such an one as shall never come to an end, till Heaven and earth pass away! (1927:40).

Peter Boehler wrote to Count Zinzendorf, saying ‘The English people made a wonderful to do about me; and though I could not speak much English they were always wanting me to tell them about the Saviour, His blood and wounds, and the forgiveness of sins’ (1927:40‑41).

Witnesses unto Me

Zinzendorf’s speaking, preaching and letters were full of Christ.  Everywhere the Moravians went they spoke of their Lord, sang of him, and witnessed naturally.  The Holy Spirit had filled them, as in the early church, with great love for their Lord.

Their Bishop Spangenberg, for example, told how Johannes, an Indian chief who had been a very wicked man, was converted.  The chief said that once a preacher came to their tribe and proved to them that there was a God.  They informed him that they were not ignorant of that and told him to go away.  Another preacher came and told them not to steal, drink too much, or lie.  They regarded him as a fool because they already knew that, and they sent him off to preach to his own people who were worse than the Indians in those vices.

Then Christian Henry Rauch, one of the Moravian Brethren, came to his hut, sat with him and told him about Jesus.  Then fatigued from his journey, Christian Henry lay down and slept, unafraid of the chief.  Johannes could not get the Moravian’s words out of his mind.  He dreamt of the cross.  He told his tribe about Jesus and they repented as the Holy Spirit moved their hearts.  Johannes said to the bishop, ‘Thus, through the grace of God, the awakening among us took place.  I tell you therefore, brethren, preach to the heathen Christ and His blood and death, if you would wish to produce a blessing among them.’ (1927:53).

In Europe, a Countess with close friends among kings, emperors and princes, famous for her brilliant gifts and witty conversation, found that none of her amusements and recreations satisfied her any longer.  A humble Moravian shoemaker came into her presence and she was struck with his remarkable cheerfulness.  She asked him why he was so happy and he replied that ‘Jesus has forgiven my sins.  He forgives me every day and He loves me and that makes me happy through all the hours.’  The Countess thought about that and began to pray.  Conviction led her into the same joyful faith and she became a great witness for Christ among titled people, especially in the court of the Emperor of Russia, Alexander I, her close friend.

A new song

Then, as now, the baptism in the Holy Spirit upon the Moravians and then the Methodists, produced a flood sacred song.  Many of the best hyumns may be traced to this outpouring of the Holy Spirit.  Moravian hymns were filled with praise to Christ, adoration of him as God, and proclamation of His virtues and work.

Moravian hymns were generally prayers to Christ.  It was a Moravian characteristic that their prayers were generally addressed to their Saviour.  Honouring the Son they honoured the Father who had sent him as well as the Holy Spirit who glorified Christ.

A truly converted Catholic or Protestant, Calvanist or Lutheran, Moravian or Arminian, Baptist or Quaker, when baptised in the Holy Spirit and with fire often breaks out into sacred song that is prayer or praise addressed to Jesus.

This was so in Herrnhut.  The chief singer then was the godly young nobleman Count Zinzendorf.  He became the prince of German hymn writers.

England saw similar developments.  One of the many spiritual children of Peter Boehler was John Gambold, a young clergyman of the Church of England, an Oxford graduate and a friend of the Wesleys.  He joined the Moravian Church and became its first English Bishop.  Some of his hymns and sacred songs became well known.

Another of Peter Boehler’s English converts was James Hutton, a famous book seller.  He also wrote some precious hymns.

The best known English Moravian hymn writer during the Great Revival was John Cennick.  At one of Cennick’s famous open air meetings a young Scottish labourer, John Montgomery, was converted.  He joined the Moravian Church and John and Mary Montgomery become Moravian missionaries in the West Indies where they died and were buried.  Their son James was educated in the Moravian school at Fulneck.  James Montgomery ranks with great hymn writers of that era.

Charles Wesley had more than 6,000 hymns published after his conversion in 1738 through the witness and prayers of Peter Boehler.

The majority of his hymns testify to his great experience of salvation.  Peter Boehler had told him: ‘If I had a thousand tongues I would praise Jesus with every one of them.’  This prompted Wesley shortly after his conversion to write the immortal lines:

Oh for a thousand tongues to sing

My dear Redeemer’s praise

The glories of my God and King

The triumphs of His grace.

He breaks the power of cancelled sin,

He sets the prisoner free;

His blood can make the foulest clean,

His blood availed for me (1927:84).

Fruit that abides

A traveller of that period wrote this striking testimony, ‘In all my journeys I have found only three objects that exceeded my expectations, viz.: the ocean, Count Zinzendorf and the Herrnhut congregation’ (1927:67).  Herrnhut had become a spiritual centre visited by people from all parts of Europe seeking to be saved or to be baptised in the Holy Spirit and with fire.

John Wesley’s visit to Herrnhut was typical of thousands of others.  ‘God has given me at length,’ he wrote to his brother Samuel, ‘the desire of my heart.  I am with a Church whose conversation is in Heaven; in whom is the mind that was in Christ, and who so walk as He walked’.  In his journal he wrote, ‘I would gladly have spent my life here; but my Master called me to labour in another part of His vineyard.  O when shall this Christianity cover the earth, as the waters cover the sea?’ (1927:67).

At the end of his life Count Zinzendorf could triumphantly say:

I am going to my Saviour.  I am ready.  There is nothing to hinder me now.  I cannot say how much I love you all.  Who would have believed that the prayer of Christ, ‘that they all may be one,’ could have been so strikingly fulfilled among us!  I only asked for first‑fruits among the heathen, and thousands have been given me.  Are we not as in Heaven!  Do we not live together like the angels!  The Lord and His servants understand each other.  I am ready (1927:68).

Over four thousand people followed his body to its resting place on the Hutberg, including Moravian ministers from Holland, England, Ireland, North America and Greenland.  His tombstone bore this inscription:

Here lie the remains of the immortal man of God, Nicholas Lewis, Count and Lord of Zinzendorf and Pattendorf; who through the grace of God and his own unwearied service, became the ordinary of the Brethren’s Church, renewed in this eighteenth century.  He was born in Dresden on May 26, 1700, and entered into the joy of his Lord at Herrnhut on May 9, 1760.  He was appointed to bring forth fruit, and that his fruit should abide (1927:69).

Renew our days

The renewal of the Moravian Church can stir our hearts to pray, ‘Renew our days as of old.’

In 1927, 200 years after the revival in of the Moravian Church, the editor of The Biblical Review, New York, wrote:

No matter whether one is sympathetic toward the idea of revivals or not, if he wants to study the question thoroughly, he cannot afford to overlook the history and teachings of the Moravians.  Theirs has been from the beginning a great Revival Church, and its service to the general cause of Christianity, and to foreign missions in particular, is deserving of wide recognition.  The story of their spiritual development and its influence is one of the most inspiring in the annals of Christianity (1927:80).

Their first great experience which gave the Moravians such spiritual power was a personal experience of salvation.

The second great experience which gave them such spiritual power and leadership was the baptism in the Holy Spirit.

Dr. J. Kenneth Pfohl, a Moravian pastor, wrote in The Moravian in 1927:

The great Moravian Pentecost was not a shower of blessing out of a cloudless sky.  It did come suddenly, as suddenly as the blessing of its great predecessor in Jerusalem, when the Christian Church was born.  Yet, for long there had been signs of abundance of rain, though many recognized them not.

In short the blessing of the 13th of August, 1727, was diligently and earnestly prepared for.  We know of no annals of Church history which evidence greater desire for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit and more patient and persistent effort in that direction than those of our own Church between the years 1725 and 1727.

Two distinct lines of preparation and spiritual effort for the blessing are evident.  One was prayer; the other was individual work with individuals.  We are told that ‘men and women met for prayer and praise at one another’s homes and the Church of Berthelsdorf was crowded out.’  Then the Spirit came in great power.  Then the entire company experienced the blessing at one and the same time (1927:86).

In another article in The Moravian, Dr E. S. Hagen declared:

The great revival in 1727 in Herrnhut was the normal and logical result of prayer and the preaching of the Word of the Cross.  ‘Christ and Him Crucified’ was our brethren’s confession of faith, and ‘the inward witness of remission of sins through faith in His blood’ their blessed and quickening experience.  Lecky in his History of Morals says of John Wesley’s conversion, May 24, 1738, in the prayer meeting of Moravian Brethren in Aldersgate Street: ‘What happened in that little room was of more importance to England than all the victories of Pitt by land or sea.’

A renewal of our days as of old involves a return to fervent prayer and to the earnest and effectual preaching of the remission of sins through the vicarious sacrifice and the shedding of the blood of Jesus Christ the Son of God.  Revival time is coming.  We cherish a high expectancy of it.  Sooner than we dream of, to God’s people, who give themselves to earnest, persevering prayer, and the Scriptural testimony concerning the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, the windows of Heaven will be opened (1927:90‑91).

The day of revivals is not past.  The Holy Spirit still waits to fill believers with power from on high.

Adapted from John Greenfield (1927) Power from on High.

Reproduced from Renewal Journal 1: Revival

Renewal Journals Vol 2 (6-10)

Worship, Blessing, Awakening,

Mission, Evangelism

3

The Spirit told us what to do

2   The Spirit told us what to do

Carl Lawrence

Reproduced from the Dawn Report, August 1998.  Source: Church Planting Canada, the Church Planting arm of Vision Canada.  Originally published by Carl Lawrence, The Coming Influence of China.  Gresham: Vision House Publishing Inc, 1996, pages 186-192.

Two young women set off to plant churches without plans or training because “Jesus said to ‘go.’”

After we prayed, the Holy Spirit  would tell us exactly what to do.

We would keep praying and he would tell us what to do,

and we would do it.

Then we prayed and then he would tell us what to do.

We would do it and keep praying.

Several high-ranking church leaders from Europe visited a pastor in Hong Kong.  The pastor took them to visit some of the Three-Self churches.  They found them inspiring, a uniquely Chinese, but they wondered aloud if perhaps they weren’t seeing the real church.

On the final day of their visit, the pastor hoped to show them what they wanted to see.  He knew they would not really be satisfied unless they met a real church planter.  As it turned out, they saw something incredibly beyond what they ever expected to find in China.

At their last stop, the pastor discovered that two young women had just returned from their mission station for a short visit, so he asked them to come to the hotel late, to meet the visiting church leaders.

These young ladies had both become Christians as teenagers while listening to radio broadcasts, and they each had immediately felt the call to be a missionary.  The pastor had met with them and attempted to teach them how to witness right where they were.

“No,” they insisted, “the Bible you gave us says Jesus said to go to all the world.  We want to ‘go.’”

“But,” the pastor argued, “you have only been Christians for six months, and you are so young.”

They replied, “Pastor, we have read everything Jesus said and nowhere does he ask people how old they are.  We want to go.”

Smiling, the pastor asked them, “But can you give me an exegesis of the five classical appearances of the Great Commission in the New Testament?”  Their disappointed faces made him feel ashamed.  “Very well.  We need some workers on Hainan Island.”

“Hainan Island, we have never heard of it.”

The pastor said, “It is an island off the mainland.  The people there are fishermen.  It is very rough.  There are no Christians there.  For young ladies it might be very dangerous.”

Excitedly they responded, “How soon can we go?”

“Well, I have to go back to Hong Kong and make arrangements.  There will be . . . ”

They interrupted him, “Oh no, no, we must not wait.  Our Lord said ‘go,’ not sit around and plan.  We will go to this place - what did you call it?”

“Hainan.  Hainan Island.”

They looked at each other, “Hainan, yes Hainan.  That is where the Lord wants us to go.”

They had been there for two years and were now back for a short period of time to try to get Bibles and other literature for their new churches.  The pastor had not seen them since the day they insisted that they ‘go now’!

After the arrangements were made, he went to the lobby at the appointed time and waited for the ladies to arrive.  He watched the bellboys in their crisp, tailored uniforms, and the tourists who attempted to be casual in their designer clothes.  Then he spotted the two young women.  Oh no, he thought as they walked in.

Their black pyjamas and broad-brimmed fishermen hats stood in stark contrast to the appearance of the sophisticated hotel receptionist making her way towards them.

The pastor moved quickly to intercede.  “It’s all right, they are here to see me.”  Several people stood staring as he greeted them as politely as possible without drawing too much attention.  “Come, we will go to my room to meet some people from Europe.”

Once in the room, the two European church officials graciously greeted them.  He proceeded to ask the young ladies questions, interpreting for his guests as he went along.

“Pastor, ask them how many churches they have established on Hainan.”

The women put their heads down and answered, “Oh Pastor, we have only been there two years . . .  yes, two years.  Not many.  Not very many.” Their voices were apologetic.

“How many?”

“Oh, not many, not many.  We have only been there a short time.  The people were not very friendly. . .  Sometimes they became very vicious.  Yes, sometimes they told us they were going to drown us in the ocean . . .  several men threatened us . . . .  Oh my, and because we were so young, even some of the other ladies did not like us.  Yes some even called us terrible names . . .  so not many churches . . .  no, not many. . . .”

The pastor interrupted and slowly repeated the words, “How many? How many?”

There was a moment of silence, then one of the women looked up with embarrassment and anguish, as though confessing to a crime,

“Only . . .  thirteen. ”

The pastor looked astonished and interpreted for the guests, “Thirteen.”

One of the guests repeated the number, “Only thirteen, only - my goodness.  I haven’t planted that many churches in my lifetime.”

One of the pastor’s assistants interrupted, “No, Pastor, she did not say thirteen.  She said thirty.”

The pastor looked at the two young women and asked, “Thirty?”

“Oh, yes, not many, we have done very poorly.  Only thirty   . . . .”

The two guests could only mutter, “Thirty churches in two years . . .  my word. . . .”

Again the women began to apologize when the pastor interrupted to ask another question, “How many people are in the churches?”

“How many? . . .  Oh, not many. . . . ” Again both heads went down, apologizing for their failure.  “Not many. ”

The process repeated itself until, again, the pastor looked like he was ready to shake them and practically yelled, “How many?”

“Only two hundred and twenty people. Not many, no . . .  not many.”

Quickly multiplying in his head, the pastor said, “Two hundred and twenty in thirty churches?”

“Oh, no, in only one, but that one is a very small church, very small.  There are bigger ones. . . .”

As the pastor interrupted he heard the numbers repeated by his guests: “Two hundred and twenty is small?  Dear Lord, I wish I had some that large.”

“Ask them how many are in the big churches.”

The process began, but with a more reverent inquiry: “And how many in the big churches?  You know, the biggest one?”

“Oh, not many  . . . .”

“I know, ‘not many’.  But, please, ladies, how many?”

“Oh, less than five thousand.  Only four thousand nine hundred . . . .  Yes, less than five thousand.  We have just started.”

From behind the pastor came the sound of weeping: “Dear Lord, forgive us.”

“What did they do?  How did they do it?  Ask them what they did?”

When asked, they looked astonished.  “What did we do?  Why nothing.  Yes, we did nothing, nothing.”

“You did nothing?  You have thirty churches - the smallest with two hundred and twenty people, the largest with almost five thousand new Christians! And you did nothing?”

“No, nothing.  We just prayed.”

“I know you prayed, but what else did you do?”

“After we prayed, the Holy Spirit would tell us exactly what to do.  We would keep praying and he would tell us what to do, and we would do it.  Then we prayed and then he would tell us what to do.  We would do it and keep praying.”

“Dear Lord, they just prayed . . .  and the Holy Spirit told them exactly what to do and they prayed. . . . ”

The pastor laid his hands on the shoulders of the two sisters.  Behind him his two guests, on their knees weeping, joined as they ‘just prayed’.

Reproduced from Renewal Journal 12: Harvest.

The Coming Influence of China

3

Pentecost in Arnhem Land

3  Pentecost in Arnhem Land

Djiniyini Gondarra

The Revd Dr Djiniyini Gondarra is a Uniting Church minister and former Moderator of the Northern Synod of the Uniting Church in Australia.

This is a very brief outline of the revival which took place in Arnhem Land in the Uniting Church parishes, beginning in Galiwin’ku, a community with a population of 1500 to 1600 on Elcho Island, 400 miles east of Darwin in Northern Australia.

In the early years, Galiwin’ku Community was the mission station established by the Methodist Overseas Mission back in 1942 under the leadership of Rev. Harold Shepherdson. He was accepted by the Methodist Mission Board in 1927 as a lay missionary, engineer and saw miller. Because of his long outstanding Christian leadership and humility he was ordained at Galiwin’ku, Elcho Island, on 19th October, 1954. He and his wife Ella Shepherdson would have been the last pioneer missionaries to leave their beloved home and people in Arnhem Land.

The missionary movement in Arnhem Land has taken as its mandate the great commission in Matthew 28:19‑20 which says: “Go, then, to all peoples everywhere and make them my disciples, baptise them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to obey everything I have commanded you. And I will be with you always, to the end of the age.”

I understand that mission is to include every aspect of the work which the church is sent into the world to do, and I understand evangelism in a different sense which is called holistic evangelism. It is a means of communication of the good news about Jesus Christ as it affects the whole of life.

You will remember very well the story in Acts 1:6‑8 when Jesus and his disciples met together before the ascension took place. The disciples asked whether God’s reign was now come in full. Jesus told them it was not their business to worry about that, but they would receive power when the Holy Spirit came upon them and they would be his witnesses beginning in Jerusalem and going outwards into Judea, Samaria and on to the ends of the earth.

There is something quite unpredictable, unexpected and mysterious about the way that God’s rule is realised in communities and in the lives of individuals. So the disciples were told to wait for the Holy Spirit and then they would be witnesses when Pentecost came. Something quite unplanned and unexpected happened. They began to babble in other strange languages and people asked what is this that is happening? What is going on?

Difficult times

Galiwin’ku, Elcho Island, experienced the revival on 14th March, 1979. That year was a very hard year because the churches in Arnhem Land were going through very difficult times. There was suffering, hardship and even persecution.

Many people left the church and the Christian gospel no longer had interest and value in their lives. Many began to speak against Christianity or even wanted to get rid of the church.

This attitude was affected by the changes that were happening. Money and other things were coming into the community from the government. The people became more rich and were handling lots of things such as motor cars, T.V., motor boats, and good houses. The responsibilities were in the hands of the Aboriginal people and no longer in the missionaries hands.

The earthly values became the centre of Aboriginal life. There was more liquor coming into the communities every day, and more fighting was going on. There were more families hurt, and more deaths and incidents happening which were caused by drinking.

Whole communities in Arnhem Land were in great chaos. The people were in confusion and without direction. The Aboriginal people were listening to many voices. The government was saying you are free people and you must have everything you want, just like the other Australians. And there were promises from one to another.

To me, the Aboriginal people in Arnhem Land were like the Israelites in Egypt being slaves in bondage because of all the changes that were brought into the community. They were like the vacuum suction which was sucking in everything that comes without knowing that many of the things that came into communities were really unpleasant and only destroyed the harmony and the good relationship with the people and the communities.

I thank God that I was being called back to serve my own people in Arnhem Land, especially to Galiwin’ku. In 1975 I had just completed my theological training in Papua New Guinea in Raronga Theological College and was appointed to Galiwin’ku parish. My ordination took place in 1976 in Galiwin’ku parish, and I was ordained by the Arnhem Land Presbytery. I was appointed then to Galiwin’ku parish as parish minister.

This celebration took place when there were lots of changes happening and when the church was challenged by the power of evil which clothes itself in greed, selfishness, drunkenness, and in wealth. As I went on my daily pastoral visitation around the camp I would hear the drunks swearing and bashing up their wives and throwing stones on the houses, and glass being broken in the houses. And sometimes the drunks would go into the church and smoke cigarettes in the holy house of God. This was really terrible. The whole of Arnhem Land was being held by the hands of satan.

I remember one day I woke up early in the morning and went for a walk down the beach and started talking to myself. I said, “Lord, why have you called me to the ministry? Why have you called me back to my own people? Why not to somewhere else, because there is so much suffering and hardship?”

I then returned to the manse where Gelung, my wife, and the children were. This was our last day before we left for our holidays to the south, visiting old missionary friends and also taking part in the lovely wedding held in Sydney for Barry and Barbara Bullick, one of our missionary workers still remaining in Galiwin’ku Community.

It was almost 6.30 a.m. and it was my turn to lead the morning devotions. The bell had already rung and I had rushed into the church. When I got there, there were only four people inside the church. We used to have our morning devotions every day early in the morning because this system had been formed by the missionaries in the early years.

God had given me the Word to read and share with those four people who were present in the church with me. The reading I selected was from the Old Testament, Ezekiel 37:1‑14, the valley of dry bones. Most of you know the story very well, how God Yahweh commanded the prophet Ezekiel to prophecy to the dry bones, and how that the dry bones represent the whole house of Israel, how they were just like bones dried up and their hope had perished. They were completely cut off.

After the morning prayers, Gelung, the children and I were ready to leave for Gove and then go on to Cairns in North Queensland. We were away for four weeks and returned on 14th March, 1979.

20th century Pentecost

To me and all the Galiwin’ku Community, both the Aboriginal Christians and the white Christians, these dates and the month were very important because this is the mark of the birth of the Pentecost experience in the Arnhem Land churches or the birth of the Arnhem Land churches. To us it was like Pentecost in this 20th Century.

It happened when Gelung, the children and I arrived very late in the afternoon from our holidays through Gove on the late Missionary Aviation Fellowship aircraft to Galiwin’ku. When we landed at Galiwin’ku airport we were welcomed and met by many crowds of people.

They all seemed to be saying to us, “We would like you to start the Bible Class fellowship once again.” It seemed to me that God, after our leaving, had been walking on and preparing many people’s lives to wait upon the outpouring of his Holy Spirit that would soon come upon them.

Gelung and I were so tired from the long trip from Cairns to Gove and then from Gove to Galiwin’ku that we expected to rest and sort out some of the things and unpack. But we just committed ourselves to the needs of our brothers and sisters who had welcomed and met us at the airport that afternoon.

After the evening dinner, we called our friends to come and join us in the Bible Class meeting. We just sang some hymns and choruses translated into Gupapuynu and into Djambarrpuynu. There were only seven or eight people who were involved or came to the Bible Class meeting, and many of our friends didn’t turn up. We didn’t get worried about it.

I began to talk to them that this was God’s will for us to get together this evening because God had planned this meeting through them so that we will see something of his great love which will be poured out on each one of them. I said a word of thanks to those few faithful Christians who had been praying for renewal in our church, and I shared with them that I too had been praying for the revival or the renewal for this church and for the whole of Arnhem Land churches, because to our heavenly Father everything is possible. He can do mighty things in our churches throughout our great land.

These were some of the words of challenge I gave to those of my beloved brothers and sisters. Gelung, my wife, also shared something of her experience of the power and miracles that she felt deep down in her heart when she was about to die in Darwin Hospital delivering our fourth child. It was God’s power that brought the healing and the wholeness in her body

I then asked the group to hold each other’s hands and I began to pray for the people and for the church, that God would pour out his Holy Spirit to bring healing and renewal to the hearts of men and women, and to the children.

Suddenly we began to feel God’s Spirit moving in our hearts and the whole form of our prayer suddenly changed and everybody began to pray in the Spirit and in harmony. And there was a great noise going on in the room and we began to ask one another what was going on.

Some of us said that God had now visited us and once again established his kingdom among his people who have been bound for so long by the power of evil. Now the Lord is setting his church free and bringing us into the freedom of happiness and into reconciliation and to restoration.

In that same evening the word just spread like the flames of fire and reached the whole community in Galiwin’ku. Gelung and I couldn’t sleep at all that night because people were just coming for the ministry, bringing the sick to be prayed for, for healing. Others came to bring their problems. Even a husband and wife came to bring their marriage problem, so the Lord touched them and healed their marriage.

Next morning the Galiwin’ku Community once again became the new community. The love of Jesus was being shared and many expressions of forgiveness were taking place in the families and in the tribes. Wherever I went I could hear people singing and humming Christian choruses and hymns! Before then I would have expected to hear only fighting and swearing and many other troublesome things that would hurt your feelings and make you feel sad.

Many unplanned and unexpected things happened every time we went from camp to camp to meet with the people. The fellowship was held every night and more and more people gave their lives to Christ, and it went on and on until sometimes the fellowship meeting would end around about midnight. There was more singing, testimony, and ministry going on. People did not feel tired in the morning, but still went to work.

Many Christians were beginning to discover what their ministry was, and a few others had a strong sense of call to be trained to become Ministers of the Word. Now today these ministers who have done their training through Nungilinya College have been ordained. These are some of the results of the revival in Arnhem Land. Many others have been trained to take up a special ministry in the parish.

The spirit of revival has not only affected the Uniting Church communities and the parishes, but Anglican churches in Arnhem Land as well, such as in Angurugu, Umbakumba, Roper River, Numbulwar and Oenpelli. These all have experienced the revival, and have been touched by the joy and the happiness and the love of Christ.

The outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Arnhem Land has swept further to the Centre in Pitjantjatjara and across the west into many Aboriginal settlements and communities. I remember when Rev. Rronang Garrawurra, Gelung and I were invited by the Warburton Ranges people and how we saw God’s Spirit move in the lives of many people. Five hundred people came to the Lord and were baptised in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

There was a great revival that swept further west. I would describe these experiences like a wild bush fire burning from one side of Australia to the other side of our great land. The experience of revival in Arnhem Land is still active in many of our Aboriginal parishes and the churches.

We would like to share these experiences in many white churches where doors are closed to the power of the Holy Spirit. It has always been my humble prayer that the whole of Australian Christians, both black and white, will one day be touched by this great and mighty power of the living God.

This article is reproduced from Church on Fire, edited by Geoff. Waugh,  adapted with permission from Djiniyini Gondarra’s book Let my people go published by Bethel Presbytery of the Northern Synod of the Uniting Church in Australia.  Also from Renewal Journal 1: Revival.

Renewal Journals Vol 3 (11-15)

Discipleship, Harvest,

Ministry, Anointing, Wineskins

3

Speaking God’s Word

4   Speaking God’s Word

David Yonggi Cho

Dr David Yonggi Cho is the senior pastor of Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul, Korea.  This article is reproduced from his message “Speaking God’s Word for Church Growth” published in the Church Growth Manual, No. 7, used with permission.

__________________________

Even though you may have

no ability in yourself, say

“I can do all things in Jesus.”

__________________________

One day the Holy Spirit impressed upon my heart, “God sent his word, and he healed the people.  Why don't you give the word boldly to the people?”

This must have been the idea of the Holy Spirit.  “Speak the healing.  God sends his word through your mouth.  God asked Ezekiel to speak to the air:  You life, go into that body.  So, why don't you speak?”

At first I was scared, but then I was determined to speak.  After I saw those impressions, then I began to boldly speak that such and such a person was healed, and such and such a disease is disappearing.

Miracle after miracle began to occur.  The person who was healed came to me saying, “When you spoke that word, it shook me hard.  Suddenly I felt the healing power flow, and I was healed.”

Through my own experience, I found the wonderful secret that through our mouth confession God's creative power is working.  In the book of Genesis, God spoke and the light appeared; God spoke and the firmament appeared; God spoke and the earth appeared.  Jesus spoke and the people were forgiven.  Jesus spoke and the sick people were healed.  Jesus spoke and the devil left them.  Jesus spoke and the turbulent sea became calm.

When you read the Bible, sick people was not healed just through prayer in the New Testament.  They were healed by ‘speaking’.  Peter said to Aeneas, “Rise up” (Acts 9:34).  To Paul Jesus said, “Stand on your feet.”

They always spoke healing to the people.  From that time until now, I would always just speak the word, and God created tremendous miracles.

Eastern Russia

In 1992 I went to the eastern part of Russia.  It was very dangerous there.  Russia was in a great turbulence, especially in eastern Russia.  It is so far away from Moscow that the discipline was very loose.  It was very difficult there.  I went to a stadium filled with about 35,000 people.  The Russian Orthodox Church was out there to attack me.  The Communists were scaring me.  On the second day I was ready to leave my hotel and was being carefully watched by the KGB.  However, I could not leave my hotel because they were trying to assassinate me.  They constantly intimidated me so I was incarcerated in the hotel.  I was sitting in the hotel the whole day, and in the evening I would go out.

That evening when I took up my Bible and was ready to leave the hotel; I heard a voice.  It was a very clear voice.  It was almost audible.  It was ringing in my soul: “You are leaving as a living man, but you will return as a dead man tonight.  You will be assassinated.  You came as a living person to our city, but you will return home in a casket.  So don't go to the meeting or you will return home in a casket.”

Every day people in Russia were being killed by shooting.  So, I was preaching behind bullet‑proof glass that the Russian government had given to me.  If I would be killed, it would become a diplomatic problem, so the Russian government commanded me to stand behind bullet‑proof glass.  They could shoot me from the back.  So while I was preaching, I was very conscious of the people behind me.  It was a terrible feeling.

When I heard that voice in my hotel room, I had to decide if that was from the Holy Spirit or from the Devil.  If you don't clearly discern this right away, then you will be in trouble.  At that time I began to see the predicament of Paul.  When Paul was returning to Jerusalem, the government and prophets said that Paul would be arrested and bound and put in jail.  These things would be waiting for him, so he was admonished not to go up there.  But Paul was determined to go to Jerusalem, knowing that he would be arrested.

Before my experience in Russia, I always thought that Paul made a great mistake.  He should have listened to the voice of those people.  Still Paul went because he discerned the right voice of the Holy Spirit.

Almost instantly, I said to myself.  “I should not go to the service tonight.  I do not want to die.  I want to see my wife and children.”

I prayed, “God, what shall I do?”

I began to hear another voice, a still, small voice in my heart with great assurance.  Then I heard two distinctive voices.  That was some experience.  The first voice was coming strong and loud in my soul, “You are a dead person.  Tonight you will be shot at.  They will carry your dead body to the hotel.  Don't go.”

Then the Spirit said to my heart when I prayed, “Go to the meeting tonight.  You will have great miracles in the service tonight.”

So I said, “You Devil, in the name of Jesus Christ, get out of me.  To live is Christ.  To die is gain.  So if tonight I go to heaven, it is okay.  I am ready to accept that.”

I went out of the hotel trembling.  I was really afraid.  The people were packed in the stadium and as I sat on the platform, I was constantly looking behind me.

Just before I stood up to preach, an ambulance was coming to the stadium.  Usually an ambulance would not be permitted to get close to the stadium.  As the ambulance came closer, I could hear the siren and thought, “Oh, they must have heard that I was going to be shot at and they have come to take me away.”  I froze in my chair.

The back door of the ambulance was opened, and they carried a man out.  He looked like a rich man and one who was in high authority.  They put him into a wheelchair and pushed him out among the crowd.  The Communist young people came and began to argue.  They said, “Why do you come to this kind of meeting?  He is preaching false doctrine.  There is no living God.  You cannot be healed.  You are bringing shame on us.  We are Communists.  We do not believe in God.  He is telling a lie.  Go back into the ambulance.”

At that moment, many Christian people came and said, “No, Christ is living.”

These two groups of people were surrounding this man in the wheelchair and arguing back and forth.  I got inspired and said, “Oh God, if you don't heal this man in the wheelchair now, I will be in great trouble.  I will be shot at for sure then.”

35,000 saved

I stood up and preached under the unction of the Holy Spirit.  When I asked for those who wanted to be saved, all 35,000 people stood to their feet.

I said, “Everyone sit down.  You misunderstood me.”  So I said, “All those who want to be saved for the first time, please stand up.”

The 35,000 people stood up again.  I asked my interpreter, “Did you say my words correctly?”

He said, “Yes.”

I asked, “Then why do they all stand up?”

He looked at me and said, “Pastor, these people have never heard the Gospel before in their lives.  For 70 years we have never heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  They are all newcomers.  You are from the Western country.  You don't know our situation.  They all heard the Gospel for the first time this evening, and they all want to be saved.  So, just accept them.  Don't question them.”

So I had them stand up and led them to Jesus Christ.  Then I began to pray the healing prayer.  Usually, I have great success in divine healing in Russia because the people are so humble and so easily believe.  However, that night I was concerned about the Communists’ gang.  Though I preached strongly, and prayed the healing prayer strongly, I was afraid to announce the healings that took place.

Healing Miracles

God had clearly put in my mind that a miracle was going to take place, but I was afraid.  So I just said, “This man with a deaf ear was healed.  This man with arthritis was healed.  This man who has stomach trouble is healed.”

Actually, I could not say that the man in the wheelchair was healed, but my interpreter said, “Yes, everyone knows this person.  He is a great man.  He was in an accident and has a broken backbone.  He has been in a wheelchair for seven years.  They tried every way, but he could not be healed.”

I have been trained medically, so when I heard that I thought, “That is impossible.”  It is impossible for that man with a broken backbone and broken nerve chord to be healed.

The people began to stand up and testify of their healings.  This strengthened my faith, so I said, “My brother, who is sitting in that wheelchair, you are healed.”  That was not an easy job at all. That man started to rise up.  He sat down again but struggled to rise up a second time.  He sat down and a third time struggled to get up.  Very wobbly he started to walk a few steps, then he began to run, then rushed onto the platform.

He hugged me with a typical Russian bear hug.  I was being choked.  He hugged and cried saying, “I am healed.  I was sitting in that wheelchair for seven years and now I am healed.”

Then I began to hear a roaring sound as the Christian young people chased the Communist young people.  The Communists were running from the stadium, and the Christians were running following after them.

This man who was healed was so excited that he jumped off the high platform.  I was scared then.  Then he went to where his wheelchair was and hoisted it into the air and began to walk.  The entire stadium was in an uproar at this time.

The Communists had completely failed that night.  What a success for the Christians!  Before I left my hotel, the Devil scared me.  And, if I had not heard the Holy Spirit speaking to my heart, I would not have come to the stadium.  Since I prayed and heard the Holy Spirit.  I could come.

A positive announcement is very, very important.  If you speak negatively, you will stop the current of the Holy Spirit.  But when you speak positively, you release the power of the Holy Spirit.

So, when people begin to talk negatively among your cell leaders – ”I have no power.  I have no strength.  I have no confidence.” - they can do nothing.  They are already defeated.  So I tell them not to say negative words.  Always say, “In Jesus Christ I can teach.  I can win.  I can preach.  I can do all things in Jesus.”

Even though you may have no ability in yourself, say “I can do all things in Jesus.”

Reproduced from Renewal Journal 8: Awakening.

Renewal Journals Vol 4 (16-20)

Vision, Unity, Servant Leadership,

Church, Life

3

Worldwide Awakening

5  Worldwide Awakening

Richard Riss

Historian Richard Riss (left with wife Kathryn) wrote many books including A Survey of 20th-Century Revival Movements in North America.  His doctoral research at Drew University includes study of the current awakening.  This edited selection is from his Internet publication The Worldwide Awakening of 1992-1995, Eleventh Edition, October 15, 1995.

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Many people have encountered God anew or afresh

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Introduction

During the early 1990s, a revival, or reawakening of Christian faith, became evident in many parts of the world.

Receiving its initial impetus from the ministries of many people, including Claudio Freidzon of Buenos Aries, Argentina, Rodney M. Howard‑Browne, a South African evangelist ministering in the United States, Mahesh Chavda of Charlotte, North Carolina and Cindy Jacobs of Colorado Springs, Colorado, this outpouring of God's Spirit touched a large number of people in many places.

An unusual visitation among the Vineyard Churches which originated in Mississauga, Ontario, outside of Toronto, on January 20, 1994 also brought this new anointing to many people in mainline denominational and non‑denominational churches throughout the world.

At all of the meetings associated with this fresh outpouring, there have been many emotional and physical healings.  Many people have encountered God anew or afresh, and have been brought to a place of repentance and brokenness.  People have often fallen down under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, become ‘drunk’ in the Spirit, and become filled with the joy of the Lord, laughing almost uncontrollably, or weeping or shaking.  Large numbers of children have been affected, many of whom have reported seeing visions of heavenly things.

Phenomena of this kind characterized a revival that began in 1992 in Buenos Aires, Argentina under Claudio Freidzon.  According to a publication of the Assemblies of God, Mountain Movers (October 1993, p. 6), at Freidzon's meetings, “as people entered into adoration and worship, some became ‘drunk’ on the Spirit and could not stand up.  Others laughed in the Spirit or fell under the power of God.  Each service lasted six or seven hours.  Outside, hundreds waited in lines that stretched around the block to get into the church.”

Some of the components of the revival were evident for several years in many places.  A. L. Gill, a prominent missionary from California, saw the ‘holy laughter’ in his meetings throughout the world beginning in 1983, culminating with the summer of 1993, when he led a praise and worship seminar at Doug Girard's Vision Christian Centre on Chestnut Street in Lawrenceville, Georgia, near Atlanta.  This seminar exploded into healing after a woman was dramatically healed of cancer of the tongue.  The meetings were extended over a period of many days, and became known as the Chestnut Street Revival.

Tony and Marj Abram, missionaries from Arkansas, also saw drunkenness in the Spirit and the ‘holy laughter’ in many places for several years.  They first observed it in 1986 at an Assemblies of God church pastored by John Lipton, currently of Dover, in England.

A church in Riverside, New Jersey, just outside of Philadelphia, East Coast For Jesus Ministries, pastored by Louis Halcomb, was at the centre of a worldwide sovereign move of the Spirit beginning in the late 1980s.  Particularly after Operation Desert Storm in early 1991, Halcomb began seeing God move in unusual ways wherever he ministered.  Local newspapers in Paris, France, Geneva, Switzerland, the Philippines, reported on the revivals in these places in the wake of his ministry.  Halcomb saw many people slain in the Spirit, laughing in the Spirit, drunken in the Spirit, and experiencing deliverances.

In one case, when Aleen Backsly was at Halcomb's church, people were slain in the Spirit everywhere.  She would hug people in the foyer, and they would fall down.  At the same time, outside, people who were getting out of their cars were falling down under the power of the Spirit as their feet hit the pavement, and it caused problems for those who were trying to park cars in the church parking lot.

East Coast For Jesus Ministries became influential to a number of other churches, including Calvary Worship Centre in Port St. Lucy, Florida, pastored by Thomas E. Smith and Bob Roach.  Calvary Worship Centre experienced a sovereign move of the Holy Spirit beginning in the late 1980s which reached new heights during its building dedication in July of 1994, which was preceded by a week of prayer and fasting.  In this case, the revival wasn't the result of any special visitors, but there was a spontaneous outbreak of revival and its associated phenomena, including holy laughter, drunkenness in the Spirit, and other manifestations.  As a result of this new outbreak of revival, they began twelve services a week.  Their new building seated 550 people, but they found it necessary to have two services on Sunday mornings in order to accommodate everyone.

According to Bob Roach, prior to the awakening associated with Rodney Howard‑Browne's ministry and that of the Toronto Airport Vineyard, when LaVerne and Edith Tripp visited Calvary Worship Centre, LaVerne was slain in the Spirit as soon as he arrived, and had to be carried into the sanctuary to preach.  At the time he said, “Your church is the best kept secret in America.”

Bob Roach said that “there has been a move across the United States in smaller churches that nobody really knows anything about that has preceded the more visible signs of awakenings.  In one case, Stan Johnson, formerly a professional ball player with the New York Yankees, visited and taught on the anointing for a 6 or 7 hour service.  People came in stretchers and were raised up, and this was recorded on video.  Many prophets come in and out of that church, including Ed Corley, whose ministry is very similar to that of Derek Prince, and Mike Connors, who was at one time A. A. Allen's associate, and who is also a friend of Wade Taylor's at Pinecrest.  We want to make sure that it's God working in our midst, and we're seeing so many lives change and marriages put back together, and pastors going back to their churches restored and refreshed.  In 1991 or 1992, Dr. Ron Shaw brought in Reinhard Bonnke (Shaw's brother‑in‑law), and there was a tremendous impartation given to the pastors who were there, including Rodney Howard‑Browne, who was visiting from Karl Strader's Church (the first time he was there).  Rodney did the offering at that time, and was one of many, many pastors and leaders who received a real impartation from Bonnke.”

Argentina

Karin Detert of Berlin, Germany, visited Argentina for three weeks, then later returned for another three months.  While visiting King's Church in Thanet, U.K., in October of 1994, she reported [according to Peter Verral, new-wine internet list, October 19, 1994] that a new surge of spiritual power in Argentina had begun in 1992, bringing “a renewed hunger for God, a new emphasis on personal holiness, a new desire for prayer, and also demonstrations of the Spirit's power. . . .  In my home church in Berlin we have had many visits from some of the leading men of God who are leading this Argentine revival; ministers like Omar Cabrera, Carlos Annacondia, Hector Gimenez and Claudio Freidzon. During these last three months, I have had the privilege of working in the church of Claudio Freidzon and I have been able to see and able to learn.”

The prelude to these events was in the early 1980s, at which time God raised up Carlos Annacondia, a businessman turned evangelist.  “Crowds gathered together to hear him preach because his ministry was accompanied by signs and wonders, healings (for instance, filling of teeth) and deliverances. In mass crusades thousands of people accepted Christ as Saviour.  Virtually every church grew” (ibid).

Then, according to Karin Detert:

In 1992, a second wave of revival began with Claudio Freidzon, founder of a Buenos Aires church that in four years has grown to 3000 people.  Pastor Claudio, who was very busy in all areas of his church felt a need to really come to know the Holy Spirit.  Whilst he was seeking an encounter with God, the Holy Spirit touched him one day in a powerful way and his ministry changed dramatically.  An unusual presence of the Holy Spirit started accompanying him in his meetings.

During the services, as people entered into adoration and worship, some became drunk in the Spirit and could not stand up.  Some had to be taken home by others because they could not drive or walk on their own.  Others laughed in the Spirit or fell under the power of God.  The services were very long (4‑5 hours), many miraculous healings were reported. Other pastors came to see and to receive the same anointing.  Claudio prayed for them and they received a fresh and new anointing and took it back to their churches.

A hallmark of this revival is an emphasis on worship and praise.  God's presence descends as we immerse ourselves in adoring Him. Some people weep throughout an entire service; others rejoice with laughter. Many are led to deep repentance, pastors and congregation.

An emphasis on personal holiness has caused many to change their lifestyles. Less time spent watching television, for example.  Critics have accused some of faking religious experiences.  But the emphasis on holiness, the desire of the people to praise and worship, and increase in concern for reaching others with the Gospel are genuine.  And although the revival started in Claudio's church, it has spread to hundreds of pastors and churches in Argentina.

God has also opened doors for a world‑wide ministry and, wherever he goes he ministers in this same anointing, which then remains in those places; and so this revival could be brought to many other places around the world, like for instance, also to my own church in Berlin, where God started moving in a tremendous way since September, 1993, when Claudio came to minister in our church.

This new wave of the Holy Spirit started about two and a half years ago in Claudio's church and is still going on.  I had the privilege of being part of their wonderful services where people were always caught up in a tremendous worship, sometimes weeping in the services, sometimes laughing. The presence of God was always very powerful. The people in the church are very healthy and spiritually strong in the Word.  There is a bold emphasis on the need for balance between the Word and the Spirit. . . .

In my church in Berlin many people gave way to frustration because they had not, at first, experienced an outward experience (laughter, crying, falling under the Spirit).  The work of the Spirit is much deeper.  These manifestations should be the effect and not the cause, for God's work at this time is much deeper and has to do with matters of the heart.  His Spirit is coming . . . in order to put the Church back on course, restoring a willingness and a desire to repent. He is putting his finger on sin and giving us the desire to let it go. But this all comes with an immense sense and realization of the awesome love that God has for us.  Another aspect of this anointing is growing compassion and love for the lost.  God is preparing us to reap the Harvest.

The January 1994 issue of Charisma carried an article on Claudio Freidzon, which reported:

One recent evening in Argentina, 65,000 people filled the seats, aisles and most of the playing field at Velez Sarsfield stadium in Buenos Aires.  For hours they sang, clapped and worshipped God. Thousands then streamed to the platform where a handsome evangelist named Claudio Freidzon waved his arms over those gathered near the stage.   “Receive the anointing!”  Freidzon shouted. In an instant, as if on cue, hundreds of people fell backward. Some laughed, others cried, some lay motionless on the ground. These people fainted, says Freidzon, because they were “overcome by the presence of God.” . . .

What happened at Velez Sarsfield that night has been repeated on numerous occasions since the 38‑year‑old Freidzon launched his crusade ministry in 1992.  An Assemblies of God pastor and former theology professor, Freidzon says he is consumed with seeing churches in his country filled with the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. . . . as many as 1,000 people have been converted in one evening in Freidzon's meetings. . . .

Spiritual hunger has been evident in the South American country for a decade, ever since evangelist Carlos Annacondia encouraged local churches to unite in prayer for revival. But some observers say Freidzon has brought a new dynamic to the spiritual awakening that has jolted Argentina in recent years.

“The anointing on Annacondia is for tearing down demonic strongholds that keep the lost from coming to Christ,” says one evangelical pastor from California who has visited Argentina many times. “Claudio Freidzon's anointing is for building up the church as it strives to minister to so many new converts.”

Freidzon's own ministry was influenced significantly by Annacondia. In 1979, when Freidzon planted his first church in the Argentine capital, he found it difficult to win anyone to Christ. . . .  The success of the Annacondia crusades and a personal meeting with Annacondia encouraged Freidzon to persevere through seven years of ‘spiritual desert’.  Then in 1986, Freidzon says, the Lord directed him to begin preaching in a nearby park frequented by drug peddlers. That was a turning point for his ministry.  Freidzon's King of Kings Church grew to 2,000 members in four years.

But Freidzon still believed something was missing in his ministry. He says he discovered the lost ingredient when he read Benny Hinn's Good Morning Holy Spirit. That book ‑ and a subsequent meeting with Hinn in 1992 ‑ convinced him to pursue deeper intimacy with the Holy Spirit. . . .

“Pastors in Argentina were seeking methods for church growth”, he says. But after he decided to spend as much time as possible listening to the Holy Spirit in prayer, Freidzon began telling pastors that methods were not the answer.

His advice: “There is no method. We must seek the presence of God.”  It was after he met Hinn that Freidzon's church mushroomed to 4,000 members and his crusades began attracting huge crowds. . .

“My message is simple. I'm emphasizing the presence of the Holy Spirit.”

Rodney Howard‑Browne

In July of 1979, at eighteen years of age, Rodney M. Howard‑Browne of Port Elizabeth, South Africa, reached a crossroads in his life.  Over a period of several months, an increasing spiritual hunger had been developing within him, and while at an interdenominational prayer meeting with about eighteen young people at this time, he cried out to the Lord, “God, either you come down here tonight and touch me, or I'm going to die and come up there and touch you.” He began shouting, frightening nearly everyone who was present. He shouted for twenty minutes, “God, I want your fire.”

Describing this incident at his camp meeting fifteen years later (July 18, 1994), he said it was as though all of a sudden somebody had taken gasoline and put a lighted match to it.  The fire of God fell upon Him instantaneously, and he was immersed in the liquid fire of the Holy Spirit.  He became completely inebriated in the Holy Ghost.  He was beside himself.  Overflowing, he laughed uncontrollably.  He went from laughter to weeping to tongues, back to laughter and weeping again.  Four days later, the glory of God was still upon him, and by this time he was saying, “God, lift it.  I can't bear it any more. … Lord, I'm too young to die, don't kill me now.” For a two‑week period, he felt the presence of God.  He said that, although these things became the basis of his later ministry, this was not really evident until about ten years later.

In 1980, while still in his native country, he was travelling in ministry with a group of denominational people.  He would preach, and they would sing, but he was warned not to talk about the Holy Ghost, but to talk about Jesus.  One day, when they were in the vestry of a Methodist church, a woman who was in terrible pain asked for prayer.  Rodney said that he continued as follows:

I got up from my seat. ...  I was going to put my hand on her head. ... And I lifted my hand and got it about here.  Just like it looked like you'd pull a six‑gun out of a holster and point it at somebody.  And when my hand got about here, it felt like my fingertips came off, and out of my hand flowed a full volume of the anointing and the power of God, and it flowed right out of my hand and it went right in to her forehead and she crumbled in the floor. ...  There was nobody in the room more amazed than me.  And I looked down at the woman and I looked at my hand, ... and I'll tell you what ‑ my hand ‑ the fire of God ‑ the anointing of God ‑ the virtue ‑ the dunamis was still coming out of my hand.  It felt like my hand was a fire hose.  And now you start getting nervous – you think, “I'd better look out where I point this thing.  This thing's loaded now.”

And so the rest of the team came in, and I didn't know what to do with it other than what we'd just done, so I said, lift your hands.  Bam, Bam, Bam, Bam, Bam, they're all out in the back of the vestry. . . .  Now I'm in trouble.  If the priest comes back, I'm finished. . . .  So I went around and just managed to . . . get them just right and sober them up and say “get up and pull yourself together, we've got to go in to the meeting,” and we managed to get them all up except one girl.  We had her propped between two men and got them out into the auditorium. . . .

I get into the service, and that night I had to speak and I said to the Lord, I said, “Lord, you know I'm not allowed to talk about Holy Ghost.  You know I'm not allowed to talk about tongues.  You know I'm not allowed to talk about 'fall' and 'power' and these words. ...  Lord, how can we have what happened in the back room ... happen out here?”  And the Lord said to me ...  “Call all those that want a blessing.”  ...  Everyone raised their hands.  So I said, “All right, get up, come up, and line up.” ... And so I was going to go down and lay my hands on the first person's head.  And the Lord said to me, “Just be very careful, and so don't put your hands on them because some people [will] think you'll push them over if you do.”    ...   I take my finger, ... put it on the forehead of the first person and I said, “In the name of Jesus.”  ...  It looked like an angel stood there with a baseball bat and smacked them up the side of their head.  And the person hit the floor.  And I went down the line.  Bam, Bam, Bam, Bam.  The whole row was out under the power of God . …  Some of the people were pinned to the floor. . . . for an hour and a half. Some of them, the moment they hit the ground they were speaking with other tongues, and we had said nothing about it. ...  And that anointing stayed again for a period of two weeks.

Let me tell you right now – for an eighteen‑year old to experience that kind of anointing – it’s dangerous.  And then suddenly, ... it was gone.  I prayed for people, they would fall down, but it was not the same.  And I thought I'd lost the anointing.  So now I'm starting to pray ‑ to get before God and find out: “What have I done to lose the anointing, and what formula must I use to get it back?”  ...  He said, “You can't do anything to get that anointing back. ...  That anointing is not you. ...  That anointing is all me.  It has nothing to do with you.”  He said, “I just gave you a taste of what will come later on in your ministry, if you are faithful.”  He said, “If I gave it to you now, you'd destroy yourself. ...  I can't give it to you now.   ...  There's no formula for it.  If there was a formula for it, you'd do it and you'd get it, and you'd think it was you.  ...  From now on, whenever that anointing comes, you'll know it's not you and you'll know it's all me and you'll have to give me all the glory and all the praise and all the honour.”

In December of 1987, Rodney M. Howard‑Browne arrived in the United States to engage in evangelistic work, but it was not until April of 1989 in Clifton Park, near Albany in upstate New York, that he began experiencing continuous revival during his meetings.  In a 1994 interview on TBN with Paul Crouch, Rodney Howard‑Browne said of the outset of the revival that, while he was preaching, “The power of God fell in the place without warning suddenly.  People began to fall out of their seats, ... rolling on the floor.  The very air was moving.  People began to laugh uncontrollably while there wasn't anything funny. ...  The less I preached, the more people were saved.”

From this point onward, these phenomena accompanied his ministry regularly.  A description of some of his meetings at Emmanuel Christian Church of Spring Hill, Florida, pastored by Bill Wilson, appeared in the February 14, 1993 issue of the St. Petersburg Times (“Signs and Wonders” by Dan DeWitt): “The revival was not only the largest in Hernando County history, say the believers, but the most inspiring.  As many as eight hundred people gathered by night time services. . . .  Some worshipped ten hours a day.  Almost all claim to have been reborn, to have been gripped by the joy of God, or to have been healed of a long‑standing emotional or physical ill[ness].”

At a meeting at Tabernacle Assembly of God in Orchard Park, New York in May of 1994, Bill Wilson reported that the revival at his church had continued unabated since it had begun. He estimated that 1500 people had become Christians during the previous sixteen months in Spring Hill, Florida as a result of the revival.

Rodney Howard‑Browne's influence soon reached worldwide proportions.  Ken and Nancy Curtis of Clearwater, Florida, have recorded a videotape, “The Laugh Heard Round the World,” documenting the spread of this revival throughout the Philippines, Singapore, Russia and Africa after they received their own initial impartation at a series of Rodney's meetings in the United States.

Kenneth Copeland

Rodney Howard‑Browne ministered at a Kenneth Copeland meeting, probably at some point during 1992 or 1993.  After Kenneth Copeland called him up to the front, Rodney began to prophesy:

This is the day, this is the hour, saith the Lord, that I am moving in this earth.  This is the day that I'll cause you to step over into the realm of the supernatural.  For many have preached, and it's been prophesied of old and said there was a move coming.  But Oh, it's even now and even at the door.  For the drops of rain are beginning to fall to the glory of God.  Yes, yes, many of you that have sat on the threshold and have said, “Oh, God, when should it be?”  Oh, you know that this is the day and this is the hour that you'll step over into that place into my glory.  For this is the day of the glory of the Lord coming in great power. . . .  For I'm going to break the mould, saith the Lord, on many of your lives and many of your ministries.  And even that which was known, the way that you operated in days gone by ‑ oh, many shall rub their eyes and shall look and say, “Is this the same person that we used to know?”

Oh, for there's a fire on the inside of them.  For this is the day of the fire and the glory of God coming unto His Church.  Rise up this day in great boldness.  Rise up this day and be filled afresh with the new wine of the Holy Ghost.  Rise up this day.  . . .

Kenneth Copeland then addressed Rodney, with gestures, while speaking in tongues.  Still facing Kenneth Copeland, Rodney answered him in tongues with apparent meaning.  Kenneth Copeland then laughed in response.  In return, Rodney then laughed.

While ministering to someone Rodney Howard‑Browne said: “For there's a new dimension coming to your ministry and yes, you've known this, yes, you've hungered for it, and you've said, ‘Oh, God’.  But the Lord would say to you this night, ‘Yes, even in this nation.’  For you have concentrated on the third world.  But this nation shall see through thy ministry a great outpouring of the Spirit, for this is the day, saith the Lord.  And you shall run [tongues].  And some have thought, ‘What's he going to do next?’  They're not going to know.  Oh, they're even going to be more confused [tongues].”

Kenneth Copeland spoke in tongues, and Rodney then said, “For as you've preached my word, even the miracles, the signs and the wonders that you've seen ‑ that happened ‑ are taking place in other nations ‑ shall begin to take place, and the great dimension of the supernatural ‑ that great dimension of the Spirit that you've hungered and cried for ‑ yes, even this night, is your portion.”

Later, Kenneth Copeland laid his hands upon Rodney Howard‑Browne, who fell to the floor.  Kenneth Copeland then knelt down, laid his hands upon Rodney and prophesied over him:

The greater realm that you've been seeing all evening long is the stage set before you that I've called you to walk in, and this is only the beginning.  It is only the start of the outpouring that has already begun of the former and the latter rain.  Keep yourself prepared.  Keep yourself in that cleft of the rock and the good presence of the Holy Spirit will come in ways that you know not of at this time [tongues].  The spirit that has been sent of the devil to hinder and to hurt and to hold you back has been broken and he will not hinder you any more.

Karl Strader

In February of 1993, Karl Strader, pastor of Carpenter's Home Church in Lakeland, Florida, and his wife, Joyce, were in Hawaii for a Worship '93 conference, where Norvel Hayes prophesied that a tremendous great wind of the Spirit was about to come to them.

Joyce Strader wrote in Ministries Today (July/August 1993, p. 38), “We arrived home Saturday night.  That Sunday morning Carpenter's Home Church began a planned one‑week series of meetings with South African evangelist Rodney Howard‑Browne.  But God had a surprise for us. The meetings went on for four weeks ‑ with thousands flocking to the church to see and taste the new move of God. . . .  But God never intended for it to last only a week.  Full‑blown revival has come to Central Florida and Carpenter's Home Church.”

During the first few months of 1993, Rodney Howard‑Browne spent a total of thirteen weeks at that church, and Christian leaders from many parts of the United States, including Richard Roberts, chancellor of Oral Roberts University, came to the meetings to observe and participate, and minister in the new anointing.  Charisma (Aug 1994, p. 24), stated that people flew in for these meetings from Africa, Great Britain, and Argentina to see what was happening.

Bud Williams

Among the people deeply touched by Rodney's meetings at Karl Strader's church in early 1993 was an Episcopal priest, Bud Williams (Hugh E. Williams III), who had pioneered Christ the King Episcopal church in Lakeland, Florida as an outreach from another parish beginning in 1984.  His church was not far from the Carpenter's Home Church, and his keyboardist played Sunday evenings at that Church.  While Rodney was there, Bud's keyboardist called him up during an evening service and said, “Turn on your radio, you've got to hear this!”  He did so, and he heard people laughing.  There was a lot of dead air time, which was very unusual, since this particular station would normally return to its regularly scheduled programming at the slightest indication of slack time.

Bud's wife, Fran, soon went to one of the meetings, but when he asked her about it, she said the Rodney made fun of “those who wear their collars backwards, and who wear those robes and call themselves father but look like mother.”  This was not particularly endearing to him as an Episcopal priest, but he was still curious as to why Rodney was having meetings almost every day of the week for several weeks running, so he decided to check into it further.  He attended two 10:00 am meetings, and left at about 12:00 or 12:30, while the meetings were still in progress.

He had heard various small groups of people laughing, but other than that, he did not feel that there was anything particularly unusual about the meetings.  But then, on a Sunday evening, Andrea, a young woman from Bud's church, came to his office at 7:15 and invited him to the revival.  So he went, and there were 7,000 present.  Hoping that he would not be recognized, he wore street clothes and sat in the back.  Rodney Howard‑Browne began walking around a bit, and would stop and stare at people for long periods of time.  Then he would tell them to go out into the aisle, and he would say “filled,” and they would fall down under the power of the Spirit.

Before long, Rodney began wandering toward him.  Bud later said that at this point, he was undergoing a struggle, and his head was arguing with his heart.  His head was saying to Rodney, “Surely you're not coming any further ‑ stay away from here,” but in his heart he was saying, “I wish he'd pray for me.”  Then Rodney went over to the back and stared at him for a long time.  Soon, he pointed to Bud and Andrea, and to two people in back of them, and said to the ushers, “Those four, bring them out here.”  He said, “filled,” and they fell to the floor.  Bud began laughing uncontrollably for twenty minutes, and eventually managed to crawl on his hands and knees back to his seat.  Although he wasn't sure at the time what had happened, he later realized that God had opened up his shell.

The Lord soon changed the direction of his ministry from parish priest to evangelist, despite the fact that “there's not exactly a high demand for evangelists in the Episcopal church.”  Yet, within days he was he was asked to speak at churches he had never known by people whom he hadn't met, and almost immediately, he was spreading the revival throughout the world.  According to Charisma (August, 1994, p. 23), within a year he had spoken before 100,000 people at 120 meetings in twenty different cities.

Oral Roberts

As a result of his meetings in Lakeland, Florida at the Carpenter's Home Church, Rodney Howard‑Browne was invited to Rhema Bible Training Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and to Oral Roberts University, also in Tulsa, where Oral Roberts spoke to Rodney Howard‑Browne as follows:

When my son Richard went down to Lakeland where you had preached . . . when he got in the building [Carpenter's Home Church], the Spirit of the Lord fell on him and he couldn't preach.  He fell down under the power of God and he laughed and he laughed and we put it on our Sunday morning . . . television program two Sundays in a row.  And there's been more talk over those two half hours than we've had in months and months.  People have been laughing all over America through those two programs that Richard made while he was there . . . and my wife and I sat there and we watched and we laughed and we cried.

I guess I'm the most moved tonight because God is in the now. . . .  And the stream is always flowing.  It ebbs and it tides.  And every so often He says, “It's time for another level of my move.”  And He lays His hand on someone that nobody thought about.  None of us were ever known by people.  Nobody would have selected us.  But the King of kings and Lord of lords knows something we don't know. . . . And my brother, the Lord brought me here tonight.  I've never met you in the flesh.  I was in South Africa twice in Wembley Stadium, when 30,000 came a night and your family was there but you weren't born at that time.  I believe you said your brother was saved in that meeting but I just want you to know that I know who you are.  [He lays a hand on his shoulder and begins to speak in tongues.]  Raised up from a new kind of seed.  With a new kind of revelation that those in the Spirit will know what it is.  Those who are not in the Spirit and will never get in it will not know, so we cannot blame them.  It’s a fresh wave, not something you're doing.

Oral Roberts then fell under the power of the Holy Spirit.  Richard Roberts, Oral's son, then said, “Brother Rodney, this has been the hardest summer of my life. . . .  It was several weeks before I was to go [to Lakeland].  And brother Strader had said, ‘Richard when you come, everyone who has preached in my church since brother Rodney was here has been filled with a fresh baptism of joy.’  [I said,] ‘Well, let it happen to me.’  Because, having taken on forty million dollars of debt [Richard Roberts begins to laugh.  Everybody laughs.] . . .

“That fresh baptism hit me at Lakeland.  I was not prepared.  But it has stayed on me.  I was flying home, reading a book on an airplane and just began to laugh uncontrollably.  The flight attendant thought there was something wrong.  The people around me thought there was something wrong. [Laughter.]  And I've been in business meetings and someone would come and say, ‘Here's something and we don't have the money to pay for it,’ and I would just fall and laugh.  [Laughter.] . . .  God by His Spirit spoke to me and said, ‘The same way that you're laughing here you're going to laugh while I pay off the forty million dollar debt.’”

Oral Roberts University then cancelled classes for two days in favour of Rodney Howard‑Browne's meetings.  At the close of the first meeting, 4,000 students and faculty lined up throughout the hallways and out onto the school's lawn.  “Most of them ended up on the ground after Howard‑Browne touched them,” Charisma reported.

Charles and Frances Hunter

At one point during the meetings at the Carpenters Home Church, Karl Strader had telephoned Charles and Frances Hunter, the well‑known Christian authors based at John Osteen's church in Houston, Texas, to tell them what was happening.  They then contacted Marilyn Hickey to ask her about it.  In their book on the revival, Holy Laughter (Kingwood, Texas: Hunter Books, 1994), p. 36, Frances Hunter wrote, “I had never heard Marilyn so excited!  She shared more experiences of what had happened during Rodney Howard‑Browne's meetings, not only in Florida but in Denver, as well.  Not only did this happen to her, but it affected her daughter, Sarah, too!  As a matter of fact they spent the night before Sarah's wedding at Rodney's meeting, laughing!”

Charles and Frances Hunter came into contact with the revival when they went to Rodney Howard‑Browne's winter camp meeting in Lakeland, Florida, in December of 1993, where they  “saw demonstrations of power with Rodney just pointing at people who would then fall under the power of God”  (p. 38).  The Hunters then went to Wayne Jackson's church, Great Faith Ministries in Detroit, Michigan, where some of the same manifestations started to break forth as a result of their ministry (pp. 40‑50).

In spring of 1994, the Hunters brought the revival to London, England (pp. 51‑57).  The London meetings were held in a Pentecostal church pastored by Colin Dye, Kensington Temple, one of the largest churches in Great Britain, where more than 116 nations were represented.  There was a group of twenty from Ireland who were anxious to bring the anointing to Ireland (p. 54).  “Scottish people were there, and they took this back to their nation.  Representatives from other countries were also there, and they laughingly but seriously took this back to Switzerland and Germany” (p. 55).  “By Easter Sunday it was impossible to get all the people into the church.  . . .  It was snowing outside and we were told they had bolted the doors to keep the people out who were trying to break down the doors to get into this great move of God” (ibid).

Soon afterward, the Hunters went to the Hague and Rotterdam in Holland (pp. 57‑59), where thirty visitors from Belgium then brought the revival from Rotterdam back to their own country (p. 59).

Ray Sell

Ray Sell, who died suddenly of a blood disease in December of 1994, was one of the revival's most powerful evangelists.  During May and June of 1994, incredible things happened in western New York State as a result of his ministry.  According to some reports, in May, while Ray Sell was ministering at Elim Bible Institute in Lima, NY, the visible shekinah glory of the Lord became manifest.

Ray had been touched by the revival after visiting Rodney Howard‑Browne's meetings at Emmanuel Christian Church in Spring Hill, Florida in February of 1993.   Although he was pastor of another church, he spent some time as a ‘catcher’ for Rodney while he was in Florida.  He resigned his church and continued to attend Emmanuel before beginning his itinerant ministry as an evangelist the following year.

Early openings in 1994 led him to Michigan.  Gerald Tricket of the Elim Missionary Assemblies attended Ray's meetings there, and felt freshly anointed.  Gerald therefore invited him to his church north of Detroit, and a cloudburst of blessings followed there as well.  Excited about what was happening, Gerald called another associate, Ron Burgio, in Buffalo, and insisted he come to the meetings.  In Buffalo there was another glorious encounter in the Lord, and the pastor of Elim Gospel Church in Lima was urged to attend, and he was revolutionized. ...

Carlton and Elizabeth Spencer arrived at Elim for Ray Sell's meetings there in the beginning of May.  Carlton Spencer wrote [to Richard & Kathryn Riss, December 10, 1994] “Never have we had so many come and stay so late ‑ from 7:30 pm to 2:00 am was not uncommon.  God was there and lives were revolutionized!  Elim Fellowship's Annual Pastor's Conference convened immediately after the Sell meetings.  Ray stayed on, ministering twice, I believe.  But the pastors who had already had a fresh encounter with the Lord followed up laying hands on many ‑ and the overflow continued.  This made many openings for Ray in New York, PA and Ontario, as far as Ottawa, and blessing followed.”

One of the people to attend Ray Sell's meetings at Love Joy Gospel Church in Buffalo, New York, Ted Pawlicki, wrote on May 17, “The meetings are continuing and are quite extraordinary.  People come up for prayer and often fall down, sometimes laughing.  I have been to a number of these meetings and I feel that the Lord is really in them.  A lot of lives are being changed.”

The following day, he wrote, “Ray Sell . . does distribute Rodney's books.  However, the practices of falling down, laughing, etc., have continued in the Church after this fellow has left. . . .   The whole thing is very new to me.  The first meeting of this kind was only a month ago. . . .  When I first saw this stuff, I was enormously sceptical.  Nonetheless, I cannot deny the fact that I have sampled the first fruits of these events and found them quite sweet and wholesome.  I can see evidence of the Holy Spirit working (both in my own life and in the lives of those around me) through these meetings and manifestations.”

Mona And Paul Johnian

In the June 1994 issue of Charisma (pp. 54‑58), there was an article by Steven Smith about the spread of the revival to the Christian Teaching and Worship Centre (CTWC) in Woburn, a suburb of Boston. The 450‑member church is pastored by Mona Johnian and her husband Paul.  Her book, Fresh Anointing (South Plainfield, NJ: Bridge Publishing, 1994), provides 132 pages of descriptions of the new revival from her perspective.

According to Charisma, the revival broke out in their church after they attended revival meetings led by Rodney Howard‑Browne in Jekyll Island Georgia, in November of 1993.  At first, Mona was not impressed by the various phenomena she observed there, but she was surprised that her own pastor, Bill Ligon of Brunswick, Georgia, fell to the floor when Rodney Howard‑Browne laid his hands upon him.  “Bill is the epitome of dignity, a man totally under control,” she said.  The first chapter of her book describes a meeting at her church in which revival broke out while Bill Ligon was there as a guest minister.  From the Johnians' church, the revival spread to other churches, including Bath Baptist Church of Bath, Maine, pastored by Greg Foster.

In a video entitled Revival, produced in his church in August of 1994, Paul Johnian said, “We cannot refute the testimony of the Church. . . .  What is taking place here is not an accident. It's not birthed by man.  It's by the Spirit of God. . . .  The last week in October of 1993, Mona and I went down to Georgia.  We belong to a Fellowship of Charismatic and Christian Ministries International, and we went down there for the annual conference.  And hands were laid on us.  And we were anointed.  And I'm just going to be completely honest with you.  What I witnessed there in the beginning I did not even understand.  I concluded that what was taking place was not of God . . . because there was too much confusion. . . .  I saw something that I could not comprehend with my finite understanding.  And it was only when I searched the Scriptures and asked God to show me and to reveal truth to me that I saw that what was taking place in the Body of Christ was a sovereign move of the Almighty.  And I, for one, wanted to humble myself and be a part of the sovereign move of the Almighty.  And I came back.  I really didn't sense any change within me.  But I came back just believing God that He was going to be doing something different in our congregation.”

Jerry Gaffney

Jerry Gaffney, an itinerant evangelist from the peninsula area of northern Washington, began witnessing unusual signs of revival in the various churches in his area beginning at his home church, Westgate Chapel in Edmonds, part of the Fellowship of Christian Assemblies, on October 23, 1993.  This church came into continuous revival on February 11, 1994, when all but four in the congregation fell to the floor under the power of God.  Prior to this, he had spent over a year and a half praying between forty or fifty hours every week.

In late February, Jerry and his pastor went to New York City and Washington D.C. to visit various people in ministry, including Jim Simbla, David Wilkerson, and Rodney Howard‑Browne.  He said that when he was at the Rodney Howard‑Browne meetings at a Church of God in Washington D.C. on February 28, 1994, that the Lord seems to have put this mantle upon him for the spreading of revival in an unusual way.

In March, after he returned to his home church in the state of Washington, in a series of three services held on one day, 118 people came to Christ and a lady with a broken back was healed.

The following Sunday, Jerry spoke at a Four‑Square church, where thirty people ran forward for prayer and twenty fell under the power of God.  Among those who ended up running forward for prayer was a young man who had been brought there against his will by his parents.  At the time, he was still high on heroin.  Meetings were held there twice daily, six days a week, for another 26 weeks, beginning April 10, 1994.  There were many testimonies of healings and of people experiencing the work of God in their lives.

Soon afterward, meetings were held at the Lighthouse Assembly of God in Port Angeles for three weeks, than at Sequim, Forks, Bremerton, Blaine, Silverdale, Ocean Shores, and Central Park.  The meetings at Sequim had to move from the Four‑Square church to the Assemblies of God church after the first week due to the crowds.  The meetings at Sequim lasted four weeks.

Then, at a Friday meeting in Forks, one‑third of the entire town showed up, and someone was healed of a dislocated shoulder.  After two weeks at Forks, he went to Bremerton, where people would show up at 5:00 for services starting at 7:00.  People could not wait for the altar call.  During the meeting they would say, “Do I have to wait to get saved?”  They wanted to respond to the altar call hours before it was going to be given.  In one case, a lady came running down with a teenaged child, wanting to get saved.

Jerry spent five weeks in Blaine, Washington after leaving Bremerton, then went to Silverdale for another five weeks, where five people ran down to the front of the church in order to be saved.  After a two‑week holiday, Jerry went to Ocean Shores for four weeks, and Central Park for the first four weeks of the new year.  Then, for the next six weeks he was in Sequim, where there were eight weddings in one meeting.

One of his most unusual practices is that he performs wedding ceremonies on the spot for people who repent of fornication, in order to prevent them from falling back into sin.  He said that at an Easter service, they sang two songs, baptized twenty people (many of whom were on drugs, and who began falling out under the power when they were being baptized), held a wedding for several people, had a sermon, sang songs, took up an offering, then had a reception for the wedding.

When he held meetings in Marysville, California, one of the people present said that next to the day that he received his salvation, it was the holiest day in his life because there was such an intensity of the presence of God.  One of the most conservative people in the church was shaking under the power of God.

Present at these meetings were Roy and Anne Collins, who were at Branham meetings and Kathryn Kuhlman meetings years ago.  They cried and cried, and said, “It's starting all over again.”

In his meetings, between fifty and sixty percent of those who come to Christ have typically continued in the faith.  John Wilcox, who attended one of Jerry Gaffney's meetings at Lighthouse Assembly of God in Port Angeles, remarked that “The power of God to save and heal was evident, and many were slain in the Spirit.  Jerry is a humble man, and this move of God through him is very evidently a sovereign one ‑ there is obviously no fakery or self‑glorification [involved].”

The Vineyard Churches

In 1988, John White wrote When The Spirit Comes With Power, dealing with revival and its relationship to strange behavioural manifestations, including falling to the ground, trembling, and crying out.  The subject matter of this book became very timely for the revival, and it was in a sense, prophetic, since it contained a wealth of references to John Wimber and the Vineyard movement.

According to John Wimber (“Vineyard Reflections”, May/June 1994, p. 1), in September of 1976, Bob Fulton, Carol Wimber, Carl Tuttle and a few other people, began to assemble at Carl Tuttle's sister's home for prayer, worship, and seeking the Lord.  He wrote that by the time he became involved several months later, “the Spirit of God was already moving powerfully.”  During the spring of 1977, this developed into the Vineyard Christian Fellowship of Anaheim, which within seventeen years had become a mother church to over 550 Vineyard churches worldwide.  During those years, VCF Anaheim had what John Wimber describes as “an ongoing interaction with the Holy Spirit in which we'd have ebbs and flows” (ibid, p. 2).

After a bout with cancer in 1993, Wimber said that by October of that year, the Lord had spoken to him seventeen times that this would be a “season of new beginnings” for the Vineyard churches.  He brought this message of new beginning to a Vineyard Board meeting in November of 1993 at Palm Springs.  At the same meeting, John Arnott, a regional overseer of Vineyard Churches in Ontario, Canada, learned from Happy Leman, Midwest Regional Overseer, “how the Holy Spirit had recently powerfully renewed and refreshed Randy Clark (VCF St. Louis) in a meeting conducted by evangelist Rodney Howard‑Browne in Tulsa, Oklahoma” (ibid, p. 3).

Randy began to witness similar outpourings in his home church and elsewhere, and John Arnott invited him to Toronto [or, more specifically, to Mississauga, just outside of Toronto] to minister in his church.  These meetings began on January 20, 1994, and “four days of meetings turned into . . . months of almost nightly meetings in numerous locations in Ontario.  It has since poured out through those who have visited there into similar renewal meetings all over the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and even Europe” (ibid).

According to Charisma (June 1994, p. 53), within weeks of the meetings that began on January 20, people were coming from New York City, Dallas, Fort Wayne, and New Orleans, and returning to their own churches to hold protracted meetings in their own areas.

The March 15, 1994 issue of Christian Week, a newspaper published bi‑weekly in Winnipeg, Manitoba, featured the revival on its front page in an article entitled “Holy Laughter Lifting Spirits,” by Doug Koop, who wrote, “Since the outbreak of joy began in mid‑January, the Airport Vineyard has been holding services six nights a week, some in rented facilities to accommodate crowds of up to a thousand people.  In mid‑February they reported a nightly average attendance of 800. . . .  The phenomenon has spread throughout southern Ontario and more meetings were being held in cities including Cambridge (a reported average nightly attendance of 600), Stratford (300), Barrie (250) and Hamilton (250).”

Randy Clark said that he couldn't explain his sudden involvement as a leader in a new outpouring of God's Spirit, stating that he had been “relatively unsuccessful in 23 years of ministry.”  However, “a major change took place in his life last summer when he attended services led by South Africa‑born Pentecostal evangelist Rodney Howard‑Browne,”

According to the article, many church leaders were beginning to experience “supernatural joy” as a result of attending weekly meetings in Toronto for Baptist, Presbyterian, Reformed, Pentecostal, Anglican, and United Church pastors.  “Clark has also accepted several invitations to speak to pastors and lay leaders in denominational settings ‑ notably with both Convention and Fellowship Baptist groups.”

In June of 1994, Daina Doucet of Toronto reported in Charisma (pp. 52‑53) that the movement had spread to Presbyterians, Nazarenes, Pentecostals, Mennonite Brethren, Anglicans, and leaders of the United Church of Canada, all of whom were attending nightly meetings at the Airport Vineyard Christian Fellowship.  Guy Chevreau, a pastor affiliated with the Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec, was quoted to the effect that the revival is “crossing denominations, and denominational barriers are coming down. . . .  What we're talking about here is God's manifest presence, such that He is seen, felt and experienced and folks' lives are getting changed.”

John Arnott has described it is as a “nameless, faceless revival. . . .  It's basically people no one has ever heard of suddenly ministering powerfully in the Lord” (ibid).

Randy Clark

At the “Catch The Fire” Conference in Toronto on October 13, 1994, Randy Clark said that by 1986, a period of dryness, smugness, and self‑sufficiency had begun in Vineyard Churches.  Although there was a certain ritual, or liturgy, there was really no expectation that God would come into the midst of all of it.  It was a time of discouragement and disillusionment.  At his church, there had been only three healings of terminal illnesses over a period of eight years.  He began taking courses from various institutes of church growth.  In his head he knew that God could show up, but he didn't really expect that it would happen.  He “felt empty, powerless and so little anointed. . . . Emotionally, spiritually and physically I knew I was burning out.”  By August of 1993, he was close to a breakdown.  He would shake whenever there was criticism of his church, or of what he was doing.

While he was still undergoing this desert experience, Randy became discouraged and looked at the success of another pastor who was a friend of his, Steve Sjogren.  He began to realize that he would have to do things differently.  He went to his church leaders and said that he wanted to go back and start over, and make a sharp turn in how things were being done.

It was at this point that Randy received an unexpected phone call at midnight from a friend of his, Jeff McClusky, who had the gift of discernment.  He asked him, “How are you doing?” and “How is your church doing?”  To put up a good front, Randy said that things were fine, but Jeff began talking about some of his own problems.  He had been on the verge of suicide.  He had once known the glory of God, and it was gone.  Then, he received a phone call from a friend named Donny who asked him, “Jeff, what happened to you at about 3:00 am?”  He had been led to pray for him just as he was about ready to commit suicide.  Soon afterward, Jeff's aunt, Mary Ellen Hutchins called, and said that she was getting tired of being awakened at 3:00 am to pray for him.

After Jeff recounted some of these things, Randy admitted that things really were not going well, and that he was pretty low.  Then Jeff told Randy that he had just returned from a conference led by Rodney Howard‑Browne.  “You've got to go hear this guy.”  He talked to him for hours about how he had been spiritually revived at these meetings, and about how people were being refreshed and re‑filled.

But to Randy's disappointment, the next set of meetings to be held by Rodney Howard‑Browne would be among the Word of Faith people, at Kenneth Hagin Jr's Rhema Bible Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  This was the one group that Randy opposed ‑ the name‑it‑claim‑it people.  He asked the Lord if he could wait a week before going to Rodney's meetings, but he said, “the Lord spoke to me immediately, and said, ‘You have a denominational spirit.  How badly do you want to be touched afresh?’”

In August of 1993, Randy and his associate pastor, Bill Mares, went to the meetings at Rhema.  There, at one of the meetings, Randy heard a woman laughing.  “She's in the flesh,“ he thought.  But then, as if to answer his thoughts, Rodney said, “There are others of you, who, if you get upset, that's your flesh!”  Then, there was a blind three‑year‑old who fell down under the power of God.  This convinced Randy that this was not the work of man, since it was clear that she was not imitating everyone else.

Bill was filled with the Spirit, and fell down under the power of God.  Rodney was saying, “My job is to make you thirsty for God.”

At the third meeting that they attended, Randy fell under the power when Rodney prayed for him.  In 1984 in the Baptist church and then in 1989 at the Vineyard, he had been filled, but with shaking.  But this time, there was no shaking, and this caused Randy to doubt that the experience was real.  He thought, “I'm weak minded.  I'm just falling under suggestion.”  But when he tried to get up, he found that he was unable to do so.  It was as though he was pinned to the floor.  He had been in a line of people who had been filled, and “two bodies down from me, there was somebody oinking.”  This caused Randy to start laughing, and he couldn't stop.  After he finally got up, he got more and more drunk in the Spirit.  It was a one mile walk to his car, and he walked the whole way laughing.

At a later meeting that week, Rodney announced that on the following day he would pray individually for all 4500 people.  On that day, Randy got in line.  There was a very long wait, but finally Rodney came by, saying “filled, filled, filled,” and Randy went down for twenty minutes.  But then, Rodney was saying, “You don't get drunk on a sip.”  So Randy went to another part of the building, took his glasses off to disguise himself, and he went down again.  Then he put his glasses back on, and went to another part of the building, bowing his head to avoid recognition.  He went down a third time.  But there was no shaking, and no feeling of electricity.  He was afraid to get in line again, yet he felt a need to learn.  Also, he was hungry, because he had been fasting for two weeks.  He had said to God that he would not eat anything until He had received a touch from Him.

Rodney's brother, Basil, saw Randy watching, and asked him, “Do you want to get in line?”  Randy answered, “I've already been up three times.”  Basil said, “That's all right, you look hungry,” so Randy went yet again to be filled.  When he later stood up, he realised that, suddenly, he was emotionally healthy for the first time.  Because of this, he realised that God was working, even though he wasn't experiencing any shaking.

Bill then said to him, “I can't wait until we get home and this happens in our church!”  Randy answered, “They're not ready.”  Bill said, “I can't wait that long.”  Randy pulled rank and said, “I'm the senior pastor.”  But then God pulled rank and said to Randy, “I'm God.”

So, the first Sunday back at the church, Bill and Randy testified as to what happened.  Now, in their church, they had never had a manifestation of falling out under the power of God.  But a woman fell, and laughed all the way through 45 minutes of worship.  At the end of the service, they asked if anybody would like to be prayed for, and many people rushed forward.  At the front there was a line of people that stretched wall to wall.  Every single person fell down as Randy touched them.

There was one university student who was sceptical.  He went up to take communion, and was unable to move.  He was frozen, as though his feet were set in concrete.  Randy was coming toward him to pray for him, but Daryl said, “I don't want you to pray for me.  I don't think this is real.”  Randy asked, “Then why are you up here?”  He said, “I can't move.”  Randy said, “You don't think this is real, yet you can't move?”  Randy prayed for him, and he was falling further and further backward.  “Randy, I can't stand up.”  “Then why don't you lay down?”  “Can I?”  “Yes!”  He lay down, and got stuck and couldn't get up, and was healed of the emotional wounds that had resulted from sexual molestation.  From that time onward, phenomena of this type began happening every Sunday at Randy's church.

Then, after a meeting at a Regional Meeting where all except one person fell under the power of the Spirit, John Arnott called Randy and asked him to come to minister at the Toronto Airport Vineyard.  He wanted Randy to preach four times, and Randy said that he was only prepared to preach twice, but that his assistant minister [Gary Shelton, Randy's worship leader] could preach at the other two meetings.  “Do you think God will come?”  “I hope so,” Randy answered.  This was the case even though a woman in Randy's church [Anni Shelton, Gary's wife] had had a vision [two weeks previously] of a map of Canada, and of the power of God going forth from there over a radius of 360 degrees.

Randy's tentative feeling was due to the fact that his natural father had been unreliable.  “You never knew whether or not he would show up due to [his] work.”  Without realizing that he was doing this, Randy had begun to project this behaviour onto God.  At the meetings that Randy was going to hold in Toronto, John Arnott wanted to introduce the prophetic, and Randy's reaction was “Oh God, no!”  Randy did not like what was going on at places like Mike Bickle's church, and didn't know how to straighten out anything of this kind.

But then, on January 19, a Baptist friend of Randy's, Richard Holcomb of Ingram, Texas, called him on the telephone with a clear word of the Lord: “Test me now.  Test me now.  Do not be afraid.  I will back you up.  Do not become anxious because when you become anxious you cannot receive me.”  Randy had trusted this fellow because he always seemed to know exactly when Randy was in financial need, and on two occasions, sent him exactly the amount he needed at the time that he needed it.  Without this phone call, Randy would probably never have had a central role in the Toronto Revival.

In the past, Randy had been afraid at times to step out to minister, not knowing whether God would be with him.  But from this time forward, Randy Clark has had confidence that God would work through him whenever he would minister.

Argentina as a Prelude to the “Toronto Blessing”

Commenting on a trip that he had made to Argentina in November of 1993, John Arnott said [in a conversation with Richard Riss at “Catch the Fire” in October of 1994] that he was “impressed by the unity of the church held together by the glue of revival.”  He said that some of those associated with the revival included Claudio Freidzon, Hector Giminez, Carlos Annacondia, and Omar Cabrera.

“Carlos is a wealthy businessman (hardware manufacturer) who gave up everything to be a good steward for the Lord.  He had a crusade in Buenos Aires that filled up the stadium.  The goals are to take the city (Buenos Aires) for God and to take the nation for God.  The sheep‑stealing dynamic is absent there ‑ there are too many  converts ‑ they don't know what to do with all of them.”

The Arnotts were also impressed by the manifestation of the power and presence of the Lord in Argentina.  “In La Plata, near Buenos Aires, there is a maximum security prison for 4000 inmates.  This prison was out of control, and basically run by gangs within the prison.  But permission was given to hold meetings there.  They had pastors who were given responsibility over the converts.  This was under the auspices of Carlos Annacondia.

“Over a period of five years, a Christian floor developed in the prison, of eight hundred people.  This floor had round the clock prayer meetings, and 180 people were always praying at any given time, waiting before the Lord, and asking God to have mercy.  Over the course of 5 years, 600 men completed their sentences, and only one was later re‑arrested.  Other prisoners always want to go to the Christian floor of the prison  because it is safe and clean.  They have corking on the bars to make things more comfortable.  So others get saved as a result of going to the Christian floor.  When they think they are ready, the prisoners apply to be transferred to another prison, and then start some of the same things in other prisons.”

The Arnotts said that when they arrived, five years after this started, they were met with a wave of people singing in Spanish, “I'm free”, right in the prison.  “We came to bless them and they prayed for us and we were all out on the floor in the prison,” John said.  Carol added, “And they made us gifts, hand‑made crafts.”  She was really touched by this.  “And Cindy Jacobs of Colorado Springs has these people praying for her,” John said.

The third annual Harvest Evangelism International Institute was held in Buenos Aires, Argentina on November 4‑13, 1993.  In addition to John and Carol Arnott, about 100 others from North America attended, including C. Peter Wagner and Cindy Jacobs.

According to Gerald Steingard, who was also present, all of these people were completely ‘drunken’ in the Spirit at certain times during the conference [conversation with Richard Riss, October 8, 1995].

Most of the evenings of this conference involved attending Hector Giminez's church, where, according to John Arnott, Claudio Friedzon was ministering [John Arnott to Richard Riss, October 15, 1995].

In a brochure advertising this event, Ed Silvoso wrote, “What is so unique about Argentina that warrants a trip to South America?  For one thing, God is at work there in an amazing and incomparable way.  Have you ever read a book about revival and felt the intense desire to be there?  Well, in our time, Argentina is such a place.  Come and experience the hand of God as you visit churches that hold services every day of the week.”

In the same brochure, C. Peter Wagner wrote,

Like a burning, dry tinder, the Spirit of God has ignited an extraordinary spiritual bonfire in Argentina over the last ten years.  From the southern tip of Tierra del Fuego (Land of Fire) to breathtaking Iguazu Falls in the northeast, the flames of revival have blazed through Argentina and beyond, making the country one of the flashpoints of church growth in the world today.  . . .

Argentine evangelist Carlos Annacondia began his crusade ministry in 1982, the year of Argentina's defeat in the Malvinas, just as the Spirit of God began to spark spiritual renewal.  Since then, over a million and a half people have made public commitments to Christ during the course of Annacondia's ministry.

Hector Giminez was a drug addicted criminal when God called him into the Kingdom.  He began ministering to troubled youth; and within a year, was leading a congregation of 1,000.  Since 1986 his church in downtown Buenos Aires has exploded in size to over 120,000 members, making it the third largest church in the world.

The world's fourth largest church is also Argentina.  Omar Cabrera and his wife Marfa began their ministry during the tough years of the 1970s.  Long before most Argentine pastors, they began experiencing God's blessing as they learned the power of prayer to liberate people from sin, sickness, and the forces of evil.  Now their church, centred in Santa Fe, ministers to 90,000 members in 120 cities.

The revival that began in the early 1980s has touched virtually every evangelical denomination. . . .

The stirrings of revival have drawn Argentine Christians into unprecedented forms of unity.

ACIERA, the national association of evangelical Christian churches, and the monthly evangelical tabloid El Puente (The Bridge) has helped believers focus on common goals.

John Arnott

On June 29, 1994, in Rockville Centre, L.I., John Arnott spoke on many of the different origins of the outpouring that came to be known as the “Toronto Blessing”.  He and his wife, Carol, had spent much of 1993 and the beginning of January 1994 seeking the Lord for a fresh anointing.  They spent all of their mornings with Him.

They had been powerfully impacted many years previously by Kathryn Kuhlman, and then more recently, by John Wimber, “who really taught us that the anointing was available for everyone and in the context of team ministry things could be much improved” [John Arnott to Richard Riss, Sept. 19, 1994].  The Arnotts were friends of Benny Hinn, who also had an impact upon them.  But these things tended to be mountain‑top experiences, and they wanted something from God that would last.

Before the current outpouring, their church, the Airport Vineyard, had been in a hospital mode, where there was healing and deliverance, but in the final analysis, it seemed that all of the needs were magnified, and the Lord was minimized.  Then, they experienced a turnaround about a year before the outpouring, when they went to Mapleleaf Gardens in Toronto, where Benny Hinn was ministering.  In those meetings, about twenty people in wheelchairs were healed.  Backstage, Benny Hinn ministered to them, and Carol became really drunk in the Spirit and filled.  Later, they went to further Benny Hinn meetings and to Rodney Howard‑Browne meetings in Fort Worth.  However, he said this was not really what he was looking for ‑ he wanted healing and salvation more than people laughing and falling to the floor.

But then, in late 1993, they went to Argentina to some meetings conducted by Claudio Freidzon.  “Do you want it?” Claudio asked.  “Oh, yes,” they said.  “Take it!” he answered, and at that time it seemed that there was just a click of faith.  As a result of this, the Arnotts decided to start a monthly healing meeting at their own church in Toronto.  The first was scheduled for January 30, 1994.

Then, in Palm Springs, Randy Clark had really blessed them at a Regional Meeting, so John Arnott invited him to Toronto for a series of four meetings beginning January 20.  But “the Lord fell on us powerfully there,” and the meetings continued indefinitely.  “It was wonderful.  Too good to be true.”  On Sunday, the last scheduled day of meetings, they told Randy not to go home.  They offered to send some people to his pulpit at home and to fly his family to Toronto, and he accepted.  “Everybody catches it if they soak in it, but we're still working under Randy's anointing,” John said.

After that time, they went to many places, including Hungary for two and a half weeks.  He said that it has proven to be highly contagious and transferable, and has spread to Switzerland, Germany, France, Sweden, Norway, England, and Scotland, as well as most major cities in the United States and Canada.  Many pastors visited Toronto.  These were people who were very close to saying “forget it” and they've been refreshed and have brought this back to their own home churches.

The Arnotts had once been at a meeting in which the speaker, Paul Cain, said he had a word for “a John and Carol from Canada.”  In this situation, there was a tremendous presence of God, and John Arnott said that he thought, “Oh, God, you've found me.”  But through this word he realized that his mind had been offended by the things of the Spirit.  They had been making general rules at their church which were hindering the Spirit of God from moving.  These rules were their attempt to keep things tidy and presentable.  He said to the Lord, “If ever You come again [in power at our church], I will not put my hand to it.”

Speaking of the Airport Vineyard in Toronto, John Arnott said, “When some of these things first came to our church, it sort of shut down our office.  For the first three days, our receptionist could not talk.  Then, after that, she could only speak in tongues.  But she got so filled, the joy of the Lord just transformed her and her husband John, our sound man, and their kids.  He just got so drunk, drunk, drunk. . . .  We've been having a party now for 160 days [as of June 29].  In the story of the prodigal son, the very best party of all is right there in the father's house.  The angels party whenever one sinner repents, and there are thousands coming to Jesus every day throughout the world.  The real joy comes in anticipation of the wedding of the bride and the bridegroom.”

Worldwide Effects of the Vineyard Revival

On July 6, 1994, the Globe and Mail, a Toronto newspaper, carried an article on the revival in Toronto by Julie Smyth, entitled “Pilgrims Worshipping on a Different Plane,” which points out that the Airport Vineyard is in an unimpressive location, at a “nondescript, flat industrial plaza”, yet “every day, 100 to 200 Christians from a variety of denominations fly to Toronto from as far away as Japan and Australia on a pilgrimage to the church near the end of one of the airport runways.”  It states that people are packing into this 400‑seat church night after night, “breaking into uncontrollable laughter, shaking, crying, falling to the ground and roaring like lions.”  According to this article, when the revival first spread to the Airport Vineyard, the ministry staff had to rent a banquet hall to accommodate the crowds, approaching one thousand people per night.  Since then, they have been coming from Japan, Australia, South Africa, and many parts of Europe, especially England and Scotland.

The National & International Religion Report (July 11, 1994) reported that “An extraordinary phenomenon has rippled across Argentina, Canada, Britain, the United States, South Africa, and India.  Consistent reports describe a state similar to drunkenness, including shaking with laughter, crying, slipping into a trance, and falling to the floor.  Repentance, warm feelings of love and peace, the 'return of prodigals,' and a number of salvations also have been reported. . . .  The excitement started Jan. 20 for a small church in Mississauga, Canada, near Toronto. . . .  Also instrumental in bringing renewal and ministering at the Toronto church was Arnott's friend, Vineyard pastor Randy Clark. . . .  ‘We don't know why God has picked our dumb little church,’ Jeremy Sinnott, one of the Airport Vineyard's pastors, told The Sunday Telegraph of London. . . .  As reports of miraculous manifestations spread, pilgrims from the city's suburbs, the United States, Europe, Australia, Singapore, and Hong King swarmed to Toronto to receive what now is dubbed the ‘Toronto Blessing’ and spread it to their home churches. . . .  Congregations in Chicago, San Francisco, Houston, Dallas, Boston, Buffalo, Orlando, and Lakeland, Fla., have experienced renewal.  They have come under the ministries of evangelists Howard‑Browne, Hinn, Cindy Jacobs of the Colorado Springs‑based prayer ministry Generals of Intercession, and other lesser‑known leaders.”

By August of 1994, the worldwide reach of the revival was already recognized in Time (August 15, 1994, p. 38), Christian Week (August 23, 1994, pp. 1,4), and The Toronto Star (August 25, 1994, p. A17).

Impact upon the United Kingdom

On December 13, 1994, Christian Week (p. 14) reported that, as of that date, the biggest impact of the Toronto Blessing had been taking place in the United Kingdom.  In this article (“Airport Vineyard Still Flying High”), Doug Koop reported that The Church of England Newspaper conservatively estimates that more than 2,000 congregations “have experienced the so‑called ‘Toronto Blessing.’  (Some partisan observers have pegged the number as high as 4,000 churches.)”  The majority of these churches were Anglican, although many other denominations were represented as well.

Holy Trinity Brompton

One of the first and most highly publicised ‘hotspots’ for the awakening in England was an Anglican Church, Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB), in London.

At about 11:30 a.m. on May 24, 1994, Eleanor Mumford, assistant pastor of the South‑West London Vineyard and wife of John Mumford (pastor of South‑West London Vineyard and overseer of the Vineyard Churches in Britain) met with a group of friends, many of whom were leaders of other churches, to describe her recent visit to the Toronto Airport Vineyard.  As she explained her remarkable experiences of the power of God and prayed for them to be filled with the Holy Spirit, everyone was profoundly affected.

Nicky Gumbel, Curate of Holy Trinity Brompton, suddenly realised that he was very late for a staff meeting at his own church, and rushed back from this meeting with his wife, Pippa, to HTB church office in South Kensington.  The meeting was getting ready to adjourn, so he apologized and spoke briefly about what had happened.  He was then asked to pray the concluding prayer.  He asked the Holy Spirit to fill everyone in the room.  According to the church newspaper, “HTB in Focus,” 12 June 1994:

The effect was instantaneous.  People fell to the ground again and again.  There were remarkable scenes as the Holy Spirit touched all those present in ways few had ever experienced or seen.  Staff members walking past the room were also affected.  Two hours later some of those present went to tell others in different offices and prayed with them where they found them.  They too were powerfully affected by the Holy Spirit ‑ many falling to the ground.  Prayer was still continuing after 5pm.

At 4pm that day, HTB's Vicar, Sandy Millar, received an urgent phone call while attending a meeting of the Evangelical Alliance, chaired by General Secretary Clive Galver.  Glenda, a member of the HTB church staff was calling to report that all of the members of the church team were on the floor of the office, unable to get up, after having received prayer.  When Sandy asked how she had managed to get to the phone, she said that she had crawled.  At an HTP service on the evening of May 29, Sandy Millar recounted the incident as follows:

I've never had such a message in my life.  I was at a very serious meeting in the Evangelical Alliance, and we were talking about very serious things.  And the telephone went, and Clive Calver, who's the chairman of the Evangelical Alliance, went and answered it and then he looked over at me, and he said. “It's for you,” he said, “and it's urgent.”  So I said, “Oh, thank you very much.”  And I went over and I took the call, and this was Glenda.  Now Glenda works here most of the time ‑ by which I mean she wasn't working that afternoon, and she said, “Oh hello,” she said, “I'm sorry to interrupt the meeting,” she said, “but I thought you ought to know that the entire staff is slain in the Spirit and lying on the floor.”  And these other seven solemn men and women were watching me because they wanted to know what this urgent news was, and they hoped it wasn't too serious.  I wasn't quite ready to tell them, because I wasn't quite sure what it meant.  So I just said to Glenda, “Oh, you have to be careful nowadays.” I said to Glenda, “Is that a good thing?”  And she said, “Yes, it's a very good thing, indeed.”  So I said, “Well what are you doing on the telephone then?”  So she said “Well, I'll tell you,” she said. . . .  “I have crawled to the telephone on my hands and knees.”  So I managed to look solemn for another minute and I said, “Thank you very much.  I will get back as soon as I can.”

Sandy rushed back to find people rather startled at what had happened.  The church leaders invited Eleanor Mumford to preach at Holy Trinity Brompton that Sunday, May 29, at both the morning and evening services.  After both talks, she asked the Holy Spirit to come.  Wallace Boulton in The Impact of Toronto (Crowborough: Monarch, 1994), p. 21, wrote of the morning service:

There was a time of silence.  Then slowly, members of the congregation began to cry quietly, and some to laugh.  As the Holy Spirit came, Eleanor asked people to come forward if they wanted prayer.  Many did so.  As Eleanor's team and members of the church ministry team started to pray, people began to fall in the power of the Spirit.  Soon the whole church was affected.  There were scenes that few had ever seen before.  The children arrived from their own groups and may of them were deeply touched and began praying for each other.

People lingered for a long time after each service.  Audiotapes of Eleanor Mumford's evening talk soon gained wide circulation in over one thousand churches of all kinds throughout England and served to pave the way for a massive reawakening among Anglicans and others.

Here are most of her comments:

I really can't get over that you should have asked me to come at all.  But to ask me twice, in the same day, is grace upon grace, and I'm terribly grateful.  We had a wonderful morning this morning, quite wonderful.  And I've come back with some more friends this evening to join you again.  And I was saying to Sandy just now, coming in, it just moves me greatly because I know we're family.  We're all of us family, and God calls us to different corners and to do different things but the truth is, this is like heaven.  It's just the family.  And it's been a joy and I'm grateful to you for welcoming us and to be putting up with us.

Sandy mentioned to you that I've just got back from a little holiday.  And in fact, my husband generously suggested, and I enthusiastically agreed, and then with much grace, the Lord gave me a word through somebody quite independently of us within the church that I should take a little trip to Toronto, which I did, for three days. ...

A Baptist pastor [Guy Chevreau], was involved in this remarkable move of the Spirit of God which seems to be taking place in eastern Canada.  He's written this: “At meetings hosted by the Airport Vineyard, Toronto, there has come a notable renewal and revival of hope and faith and of expectation.  Over the past eighteen weeks, now about 130 days consecutively, the Spirit of God has been pouring out freedom, joy, and power in the most remarkable ways.  Six nights a week,” - because they take a day off for Monday, six nights a week – “between 350 and 800 people at a time gather for worship, testimony and ministry.  Rededications are numerous.  Conversions are recently being witnessed and ministry to over 2,000 pastors, clergy, and their spouses has been welcomed by a diverse cross‑section of denominational leaders.”

And to date, they think that about a quarter of a million people have gone to either the Airport Vineyard or one or two of the surrounding Vineyards, or one or two Baptist churches which are much involved with this thing, as I will tell you later.  This is supra‑church.  This is supra‑denomination.  This is not anybody's church.  This is Jesus' kingdom.

“And with all of this there has come a renewing of commitment, and enlarging and clarification of spiritual vision, and a rekindled passion for Jesus and for the work of His kingdom.  Some of the physical manifestations accompanying the renewal are unsettling for many people, leaving them feeling that they have no grid for evaluation and no map to guide them,” which is a sort of safe way of saying there are very bizarre things going on. ...

So you may say, other than the generosity of my husband and my mad enthusiasm, what did I go for? ...  I went because I had heard that there was a tremendous party going on.  And all through my life I've been one to get to a party.  If I knew there was something happening, I wanted to be in the middle of it.  It's always been that way with me.  And I went in a state of personal bankruptcy.  I knew that I was bankrupt, and I knew that I was needing the Lord badly, and I had an incredible longing in my spirit for the things that I had heard of.  And some of the stories I was hearing were stirring me, and just making me cry in the listening, and I thought, “I need to get there.”

And so I went conscious of my need but high on expectancy.  And so high that deep down, I was just sort of frightened of disappointment.  I thought, “God, I'm not sure that I'm not setting myself up to be let down, and a tiny bit disappointed, because my expectation is so high of what you're going to do.”  And one evening I rang John back in London and he very sweetly in his typical way, he said to me, “Well now my darling, on a scale of one to ten, what do you think so far?”  And I said, “Hmmm.  Seventy‑four?”  And that's the truth.  It really was, and it far, far exceeded my expectations, so gracious and generous was the Lord. ...  And so when I went forward on the first night, because they said on the first night, “Anyone who's not been here before we'd like you to come first for us to pray for you.”  And I went up unapologetically and the lovely pastor said to me, “What would you like?  What are you here for?”  And I said, “I want everything that you've got.  I've only got two days, and I've come from London,” sort of defiantly.  And behind this I was saying, “I've payed the fare and I'm determined to get my money's worth.  So what will you do?”  And from that moment on they were a little bit like ‑ they ‑ the whole climate of this thing is surrounded with generosity.

God has poured His spirit out on a people in an improbable little church, and they are now spending their time from morning to night giving away as fast as they can what God is giving to them.  And as new people hit town, and as pastors hover across the horizon, they sort of savour as if it were fresh meat and they just long to come to you and lay their hands on you and give you all that God has given them, which I take to be a mark of the Lord.  I just take it to be the generously of Jesus to His people.

And there was one very dear Chinese pastor who had come from Vancouver and he came fasting.  He was obviously a very ascetic and Godly man and he was a very skinny man and he had spent much of his life I suspect fasting and he came fasting and famished and as he arrived, the Lord said to him, “Gideon, you can forget about the fast because this is a time of celebration.”  And so it was.  It was celebration from beginning to end.  I need to tell you that the church itself where I visited, it happened to be a Vineyard, but I think that was really quite incidental.  It's placed on the very end of the airport runway at Toronto and is the most comically improbable building you will ever see.  It's part of a little office block, and if you were blinking you would have missed it.  And there was just a little bit of a paper notice in the window that said, “Airport Vineyard.”  And the band was splendid, but you know, just an ordinary church band. ...  And yet as I walked in, the atmosphere was electric with expectancy, and the pastors and the people whose church it was were just shining with the beauty of their Lord because they had spent the last 120 days in the presence of Jesus. ...

These are ordinary people ministering in the name of an extraordinary God.  And their pastor, John Arnott has said, “God is just using nameless and faceless people to minister His power in these days.”  And that's what I love.  There is no personality attached.  There's no big name involved.  There's no one church that's got a corner in the market.  This is something that Jesus is doing.  And the people and the church are simply preoccupied with the person and the power of the Lord Jesus.  No personalities.  Just Him.  And I love that, because I'm tired of all that stuff.  I'm tired of the heroes and the personalities.  I just want Jesus.  I just want Him and His Church straight.  And that's what I think I received.  I saw the power of God poured out, just as it was in the book of Acts, and as I said this morning, I didn't see tongues of flame, but I suspect it was because I wasn't looking.  And I have heard recently in this country of a meeting which took place where the Spirit of God was poured out and the building shook.  The building shook, and three separate witnesses quite independently, came home and said the building actually shook.  So we're in the days of the New Testament.  This is kingdom stuff, and it's glorious.  But it's not new.

And so I scurried back to Scripture and I scurried back to Church history and I have discovered glorious things in the writings of Jonathan Edwards, who was the initiator of the Great Awakening in America during the mid‑eighteenth century, and he wrote this, which is remarkably similar to what I saw in Toronto just last week, two weeks ago.  “The apostolic times seem to have returned upon us.  Such a display has there been of the power and the grace of the Spirit.”  Jonathan Edwards speaks of extraordinary affections ‑ of fear, sorrow, desire, love, joy, of tears, of trembling, of groans, loud cries, and agonies of the body, and the failing of bodily strength.  He also says we are all ready to own that no man can see God and live.  If we, then, see even a small part of the love and the glory of Christ, a very foretaste of heaven, is it any wonder that our bodily strength is diminished? ...

I have discovered a new heroine in the last few days, who is the wife, or was the wife, of Jonathan Edwards.  And she was a very godly and wonderful woman.  And she fell under the power of the Spirit of God to such a degree in the 1740s, that for seventeen days, she was insensible.  She was drunk for seventeen days.  She could do nothing.  (Now the Baptist pastor in Toronto had had to do all the school runs and all the school picnics for two days, because his wife was out for the count for forty‑eight hours.  And he was driving, and he was packing the lunches, and he was doing their homework ‑ he was doing everything and he said, “God, when are you going to lift off my wife, so that this home can get back into order?”)  But poor Jonathan Edwards had seventeen days in which his wife was insensible.  And on one occasion she decided it was time to arise from the bed and to try and minister to the household, and they had a guest.  So she got dressed in her best . . . and she went downstairs and lurching a little while, and as she passed the study where the door was open and Jonathan Edwards was talking to his friend about the Lord, as she heard the name of Jesus, her bodily strength left her, and she hit the floor.  So they carried her back to bed, and there she stayed.  And as it's said in the history books, no one recorded who made the lunch.  So this thing is taking people over in the most remarkable way.  And at the end of this time, Jonathan Edwards' wife said, “I was aware of a delightful sense of the immediate presence of the Lord, and I became conscious of His nearness to me, and of my dearness to Him.”  And I think it's this one phrase that has impressed itself upon my Spirit in the last week, and what I think is the key to this whole thing, is that the Lord in His mercy is pouring out His Spirit in order to persuade us, His people, of “His nearness to me, and of my dearness to Him.”  ...

I heard a story just this afternoon of a woman who had left a meeting rather as I had done, but she was reeling, and unwisely, she decided to drive home.  This was all over the place, and she was stopped by the police.  Honest to God, this is true.  She was stopped by the police, and she got out of the car, and the policeman said, “Madam, I have reason to believe that you're completely drunk.”  And she said, “Yes, you're right.”  So he said, “Well, I need to breathalyse you,” so he got his little bag, and as she started to blow into it, she just fell to the ground laughing.  At which point, the policeman fell, too, and the power of God fell on him, and he and she were rolling on the freeway laughing under the power of God.  And he said, “Lady, I don't know what you've got, but I need it,” and he came to church the next week and he found Jesus.  He got saved.  And this is happening.  People are going out and telling each other about Jesus with a recklessness that they've never known before.  I don't know about you, but when people say ‘evangelism’ the hairs in the back of my neck go up and I get guilt and I feel awful and I feel destroyed and defeated. Evangelism is a breeze, people.  It's such fun like this.

So there was a woman who had left one of the meetings and she had been laughing on the floor for two hours, and she got really hungry. So she went to the Taco Bell  . . . and she sat down . . . and she looked across, and she saw a whole family eating burritos.  And she said to them, . . . “Do you want to be saved?”  And they all said, “Yes!”  All of them!  And they were all saved and led to Christ on the spot.

And another man left a meeting and he went into a restaurant, and a man was watching him, and for about ten minutes, he watched him.  And he had this . . .  young man who came up to him and said, “Excuse me, but are you a Christian?”  And this chap had just left the meeting ‑ he said, “You bet.”  And he said, “Well, my wife has just left me.  I've just lost my home.  I've just lost my job, and I'm about to take my life. ... What can help me?”  And he led him to Christ.  And ... this is good news, people.  This is news for the people out there.  People are getting saved right and left.  And they are now discovering even in the Toronto area that there are several hundreds of people that are getting saved.  People right and left are coming to know Jesus, because Jesus is the joy of our lives.  It's a wonderful, wonderful thing. ...

There's a woman of whom I know.  I know her story well, and it's a verifiable story, and she has been extremely ill with colitis.  A most horrendous form of colitis for a very, very long time.  She was, as a child, dreadfully abused.  And she's married and infertile.  No babies.  And she's a secretary to a friend of ours.  And last September, the Lord mercifully healed her of her colitis, and about three weeks ago she fell under the power of God to such a degree, and an hour or two later she got off the carpet and she said, “I no longer have abuse in my history.  I have no memory.  I have nothing. It's as if there was never anything.”  And she's now expecting her first baby.  So God is healing the sick.  And He's mending our wounds and He's doing things for us that it's taken us years of care and counselling to try and achieve. ...

People are being restored by the mercy and the sweetness of God.  And, quite honestly, whether one stands or falls, whether one laughs or cries, whether one shakes or stands still, whether you go down could matter not, it just doesn't matter a bit.  It doesn't matter how you go down.  What matters is how you come up.  It doesn't matter what goes on in the outside.  What counts is what Jesus is doing in our bodies and in our souls, in our hearts and in our spirits.

We have a woman in my prayer group who is a hair dresser.  And she's married to a Muslim, and her life is not easy.  And she said that in the course of the last week, she's been reading her Bible like never before.  But she said, “I'm not reading it.”  She said, “I hear the voice of Jesus reading it to me.  As if I were a child, Jesus reads me His book.”  Wonderful things. ...

I think if we come receptive and childlike, there is infinite blessing for the people of God at this time.  I've discovered in myself a love for Jesus more than ever.  I've discovered in myself an excitement about the kingdom I wouldn't have believed possible.  I've discovered that I'm living in glorious days.  There's no other time; there's no other place where I would have chosen to be born and to live than here and now. ...

Although Holy Trinity Brompton was not the first church in the UK to be touched, the church newsletter, which detailed the events of Sunday, May 29 triggered “an avalanche of publicity” in The Sunday Telegraph, Daily Mail, The Independent and The Times.  Christian word‑of‑mouth and the newspaper coverage would draw hundreds of ministers to the church in the following weeks; soon hundreds of churches were engulfed by the most intense spiritual fervour they had ever known.  In the midst of these days of heaven an HTB staff member spoke of the “Toronto Blessing” and very soon the label became attached to what many believed was a special “time of refreshing from the hand of the Lord” (Dave Roberts, The “Toronto” Blessing [Eastbourne: Kingsway Publications, 1994], p. 12).

On May 31, Sandy Millar and HTB's Pastoral Director, Jeremy Jennings, flew to Toronto.  That evening, they saw remarkable scenes at the Toronto Airport Vineyard, while the phenomena continued the following day at another staff meeting at HTB.  Sandy and Jeremy returned on June 3, and Jeremy left to join a residential Alpha weekend, which was being run by the church for new believers and inquirers.  Patrick Dixon, in Signs Of Revival, (Eastbourne: Kingsway Publications, 1994), p. 14, described what happened the following Sunday morning, June 5:

Nicky Gumbel shared what had been happening to him, and others also described their experiences.  Once again, many manifestations appeared among the congregation ‑ so many in fact that the normal communion service could not continue.

That night the church was completely full, with around 1,200 people.  As people prayed, the main church area gradually become covered with people lying on the floor, requiring hundreds of chairs to be stacked away.  More than 100 people were still praying in the church at 10 pm.  Someone remarked: The word ‘revival' is on everyone's lips.

According to Wallace Boulton (pp. 22‑23), Sandy Millar wrote to his congregation as follows:

We have begun to see an astonishing outpouring of the Spirit of God upon our own church and congregation.  It seems to be a spontaneous work of the Holy Spirit and there are certainly some very surprising manifestations of the Spirit excitingly reminiscent of accounts of early revivals and movements of God's Spirit.

Some of the manifestations include: prolonged laughter, totally unselfconscious for the most part, and an inexpressible and glorious joy (I Pet 1.8).  For some it is prolonged weeping and crying and a sense of conviction and desire for forgiveness, purity and peace with God.  For others it seems to be the silent reception of the Spirit of God sometimes leading to falling down and sometimes standing up, sometimes kneeling, sometimes sitting.

There are great varieties of the manifestations of the Spirit.  They are breaking out both during services and outside them in homes and offices.  At times they are easy to explain and handle and at other times they are much harder and more complicated.

We have been hearing for several days of the movement of God's Spirit in the Vineyard Church in Toronto, Canada, and a number of people have come to us from there telling us about what was going on and of what they thought it all meant.  For that reason Jeremy Jennings and I decided to go briefly to Toronto to see what we could learn and what conclusions, if any, at this stage it was possible to draw.  The manifestations are quite extraordinary and would undoubtedly be alarming if we had not read about them previously in history.

The manifestations themselves of course are not as significant as the working of the Spirit of God in the individual and the church.  The manifestations are the signs and therefore of course it is to the fruit that we look rather than the signs.  …

On June 19, Fred Langan and Paul Goodman provided the following account in the London Sunday Telegraph:

British Airways flight number 092 took off from Toronto airport on Thursday evening just as the Holy Spirit was landing on a small building a hundred yards from the end of the runway.

People from all over the world are flocking to this unlikely church, the Toronto airport branch of the Vineyard Christian Fellowship, six nights a week.  And every night there are astounding scenes of people shaking with laughter, slipping into a trance, falling to the floor, and crying.

“Last week Bishop David Pytches from England was down here on the floor roaring like a lion,” says John Arnott, the church's pastor, as he explains how evangelical Christians have swarmed to Toronto like pilgrims to Lourdes.

They come mostly from the city's suburbs, but as many as a quarter of them travel from the United States and from Europe ‑ in particular England.  In the world of charismatic evangelism, this is the place to be.

Already, the phenomena seen at the airport church are rippling out to churches all over the world.  In London, astonished worshippers at Holy Trinity, Brompton ‑ a cathedral of charismatic churchmanship renowned for its largely young upwardly mobile congregation ‑ have been undergoing similar experiences.

And now, there is rising speculation among charismatic evangelicals that what may be happening is more than a renewal, more even than a revival.  The world, it is said, may in fact be on the verge of a full‑fledged awakening ‑ something on the scale of the great Wesleyan movement that swept England during the early 18th century.

At the end of September, 1994, Mike Fearon wrote of Holy Trinity Brompton in his book, A Breath of Fresh Air (Guildford, Surrey: Eagle, 1994), p. 4, “At the time of writing, four months after the ‘Toronto Blessing’ made its unexpected but very welcome appearance, services there are so full that the choir stalls and chancel area behind the speaker have to be used as overflow areas, with scores of people standing in the gallery and around every doorway.  Nearly 2,000 people pack into the building every Sunday.”

Sunderland Christian Centre

Ken and Lois Gott founded Sunderland Christian Centre (SCC) in 1987 in the north‑east part of England.  Although they moved into a new building in 1992, by the summer of 1994 they felt very dry spiritually.  Then, in August of that year, Ken Gott visited Holy Trinity Brompton in London with four other Pentecostal leaders, and he was deeply humbled by the sense of God among Anglicans.

Andy and Jane Fitz‑Gibbon wrote in Renewal (issue 227, April 1995, p. 11), that “stereotypes were shattered as Ken and the other Pentecostalists received a new baptism in the Spirit at the hands of Bishop David Pytches.  The change was so profound in Ken that the members at SCC took up an offering and sent Ken, Lois and their youth leader for a week to Toronto.  Like most of us who have made the same pilgrimage, they were profoundly touched, ‘soaking’ in God for a week, never to be the same again.”

Upon their return from the Toronto Airport Vineyard, the Gotts decided not to tell the church about the phenomena they had seen.  Ken said, “We wanted to have a visitation, not an imitation.”  Andy and Jane Fitz‑Gibbon (ibid, p. 12) wrote:

On their return, the Holy Spirit landed on SCC!  In a similar fashion to the beginnings at Airport Vineyard, the church met nightly, thinking it would last for a few nights.

After two weeks of nightly meetings without a break it seems the renewal “kicked into another gear.”  Without advertisement, word began to extend across the region.  People started to come to SCC from a spread of 70 miles.

Numbers attending in the third week grew to 600 a night. . . .  there have been occasions when the ministry team are still praying into the early hours of the morning. . . .

Catholics lie on the carpet next to the Plymouth Brethren.  Anglican priests have fallen, shaken, and jerked along with the Baptists. . . .

Each night testimonies are given to God's changing peoples' hearts and lives.  One woman testified a month and a half after her first visit that “God has done for me in six weeks what counsellors had tried to do for 10 years,” so deep was the change in her life.

Teenagers have been given new boldness in testifying of their faith to their friends.  Children as young as seven or eight are seeing amazing visions and publicly giving testimony to the fact that they know God is with them.

There have been a number of dramatic physical healings and a great increase in the release of prophetic ministry. . . .

Each night there is a ministry team composed of members of different churches throughout the region.  Leading and preaching are done by a team of pastors and others who have been touched by the refreshing.  The renewal meetings have become a melting pot of God's people in the north‑east. . . .  among those who have come have been pastors and their spouses needing a fresh touch from God.  Most have been spiritually dry, some even to the point of resigning from the ministry before they came to Sunderland.  Many of these have testified to a renewed vision, a new sense of direction and a new empowering and anointing.  Having been met powerfully, they have returned home and God has transformed their churches.

Needless to say, the effect on the church itself has been profound.  Membership doubled in 1994, to just over 400.  There have been many commitments to Christ during the renewal meetings. . . .  One man, who had a criminal past, was brought to the meetings by his girlfriend.  Half way through the meeting he ran out, unable to cope with what was happening.  A few days later he was back, gave his life to Christ and received the Holy Spirit in a powerful and dramatic way. . . .

In January [1995] the renewal at Sunderland moved to two meetings a day with a daily prayer meeting in the afternoon.

By April of 1995, Charisma (vol. 20, no. 9) was reporting of Sunderland Christian Centre that its pastor, Ken Gott was leading six meetings a week at that church.  “The nightly meetings have remained constant since last summer, when Sunderland's leaders visited the Airport Vineyard Christian Fellowship in Toronto.  . . .  Visitors from Australia, the Netherlands and the United States have been to Gott's 400‑member church, and the region's independent TV company has filmed services” (p. 58).

Charisma quoted Gott to the effect that “We're just aware that the place is saturated with God's presence. . . .   Visitors regularly claim they have [even] felt God's presence in the parking lot outside.”

On June 19, 1995, in two posts to the new‑wine list on the internet, Jon W. Cressey reported that Sunderland Christian Centre had been experiencing continuous meetings for 43 weeks, and that car theft and crime, according to Alpha magazine, had allegedly dropped by 45% in the city area over the previous year.

In August of 1995, Andy and Jane Fitz‑Gibbon reported in Renewal (issue 231, pp. 14‑18) that John and Carol Arnott had made their second visit to Sunderland in April of that year:

The conference took place in the Northumbria Centre on the Stephenson industrial estate.  Members of Sunderland Christian Centre worked hard to organize the large‑scale event. . . .

Over 1,300 people had registered for the full three days, with several hundred others enrolled as day visitors and with many more attending the evening meetings, which were open celebrations.

Many had travelled hundreds of miles to attend.  We know of people who had come from Holland, Norway, France, West Africa, new Zealand, Australia and Thailand as well as from all over the British Isles. . . .  Every night probably over a thousand people fell under the power of the Spirit and lay row after row, side by side as they soaked in God's presence.

We asked if John [Arnott] had any idea why Sunderland became like a smaller version of Toronto.  He commented, “We can only speculate.  I know God uses people.  Ken and Lois Gott got powerfully touched.  They had a desire to do it.  They went back home.  God exploded on them and they had the faith to keep it going.  God is looking for people that are willing to pay the price, risk it all and go for it.”  We hope God ‘finds’ many such people.

Vietnam and Cambodia

Tom Ford of Dallas, Texas, reported that on October 10, 1994, he had just returned from a two week trip to Vietnam and Cambodia.  He wrote:

Ten of us from our church in Dallas went there to bring in medical supplies and bibles and to build up the churches there.  Our team met with several leaders of house churches in Vietnam.  Some of the leaders oversee hundreds of individual house churches and several thousand people.  Most of them had spent time in jail for preaching the gospel.  Any unapproved meeting of more than 15 is illegal and the churches have to meet secretly.  Their faith and commitment to the Lord is amazing.  We met with them to encourage them and to pray for them to receive the outpouring of the Holy Spirit that had been seen in the US and around the world.  We divided into groups of 2 or 3 to go to various meeting places around the city.  We were driven on the back of motorcycles to a lot of them.  At every place where we prayed the Holy Spirit touched them and many fell out, laughed, cried, shouted, or danced under the influence of the anointing.  It was really amazing.  Most of the people we talked to had not seen or heard about the outpouring that is happening now.  One time, I went with one of the girls on our team to meet with a group of about 20 people.  I told about the what had been happening in Toronto, about our pastors going there to see it, and bringing it back to our church in Dallas.  The two of us started praying for them and saw the same thing happen there.  Wow!  I hadn't been stretched that far before.  It was great.

In Cambodia, we were hosted by Sophal Ung, the pastor of a church sponsored by Global Network.  The Lord is doing great things through his ministry there.  The government has given them freedom to do whatever they want.  They are feeding the poor, planting churches all over the country, and helping train people with marketable skills.  It's a very poor country with little industry.  They've seen lots of miracles too, blind eyes opened, deaf healed, demons cast out, and the dead raised.  There was a man that died of a heart attack and was dead 9 hours.  They took up boards from the floor of his house to have a coffin made.  The Buddhist priest was going to come pick up the body the next day.  His wife had been saved about 2 weeks and wouldn't give up.  She and several Christians prayed for hours until midnight.  The others gave up and went home, but she kept on.  At 4:30 am the husband sat up said give me something to eat.  He went out the next day and the people of the village thought he was a ghost.  People came from miles around to see the man that was raised up.  The man and his wife now have a church in their house.  I have the testimony on videotape also.

At the CATCH THE FIRE Conference in Toronto in October of 1994, there were some people from Cambodia, Monee Mon and Chen Mau, co‑workers with Sophal and Deborah Ung, who told about a resurrection from the dead and a Buddhist temple that had been struck by a fireball from heaven, which caused it to move fifty metres.  The resurrection had occurred in January of 1994.  Someone's husband had been sick for two or three years, and died in January.  The neighbours came, and at 8:00 pm the Buddhist monk came and pronounced him dead.  He left at midnight.  Then, at 3 am, after the wife had been praying, he was alive.  He, himself, was surprised, and began checking his body.  He asked for rice soup.  At 6 am he walked around throughout the village and the people thought that he was a ghost, because they saw him lying dead the previous evening.  He would knock on peoples' doors, and when they saw him, they were too frightened to let him come in.  As a result of this, thousands of people came to the Lord, and eight churches were planted.

They said that on Sunday morning, August 31, Sophal was sharing about what was happening in Toronto.  People fell to the floor before he ever had a chance to finish.  In the evening, the same thing happened again.  Then it began to rain, and there was a Buddhist temple on the mountain.  The people were preparing to bring all of the idols to the Buddhist temple.  Suddenly, people saw a ball of fire coming from the side, which caused the temple to move fifty metres, and the temple was destroyed.  Five Buddhist monks testified about this.  One monk said that he was clinging to his bed for the entire fifty meters, but he was not hurt.  He felt happy, and he was rejoicing.  The whole building was destroyed, but nobody was hurt.  God destroyed the idols, but the people were left unharmed.  This incident reportedly caused the people to take the message of the Christian Gospel very seriously.

In October of 1994, James Ryle told Richard and Kathryn Riss that Monee Mon and Chen Mau had videotaped an interview with Sophal and Deborah, and in the interview, there was a description of the experiences of the man who was raised from the dead.  He said that he was taken to a river, and people were crossing the river.  Each person crossed in a coffin.  He was asked, “Where is your coffin?”  He said he didn't have a coffin.  He was told that if he didn't have a coffin, he couldn't cross.  He began retracing his steps, and he came to a crossroads.  He was given a choice of either light or darkness.  He chose the light.  The next thing he knew, he was in bed, checking himself to see if he was really alive.  His wife was there praying, and had been praying for some time.

Melbourne, Florida Revival

On New Year's day of 1995, Randy Clark was guest speaker at the Tabernacle Church in Melbourne, Florida, for a series of meetings sponsored by five local churches.  An unusual revival broke out immediately, accompanied with holy laughter, falling under the

power of the Spirit, and many dramatic physical healings.  From the first day, thousands of people flocked to meetings held six days a week.  The services were hosted on a rotating basis by pastors and musicians from fifteen different congregations in the local area, including Presbyterian (PCA), Southern Baptist, Episcopal, Methodist, and Assemblies of God churches (National & International Religion Report, vol. 9, no. 8 [April 3, 1995], p. 2).

In a January 20 post to the new‑wine list, an internet mailing list devoted to the revival, Randy Clark wrote:

In 1994 I spent about 150 [days] in renewal meetings. During that time I never was in a meeting which I felt had the potential to become another Toronto type experience.  That was until I went to Melbourne, Florida [on] January 1, 1995.  Another revival has broken out.  Many sovereign things have occurred which indicate this place too will be [the site of] usual renewal meetings.  I shall share some of these.

First, what made me expect something special at these meetings?  I never schedule over four days for meetings, but I scheduled fifteen days for this meeting.  Why?  I believed there were things going on which indicated a major move of the Spirit was imminent.  The Black and White ministerial associations merged a few months prior to my going.  The charismatic pastors had been meeting together for prayer for six years, and pastors from evangelical and charismatic and pentecostal churches had been meeting and praying together for over two years.  There was a unity built which would be able to withstand the pressures of diverse traditions working together in one renewal/revival meeting.

The meetings are held at the Tabernacle, the largest church in the area.  It holds 950 comfortably.  This was Jamie Buckingham's church, now pastored by Michael Thompson.  The church sanctuary is filled by 6:15 with meetings beginning at 7:00.  About 1,200 are crowded into the sanctuary, another 150 fill a small overflow room, and another 200‑300 sit outside watching on a large screen. . . .

This past Sunday a man who was hurt six years ago was healed.  He had severe spinal injury in the neck which had resulted in four surgeries, and fusing the four bottom vertebrae in the neck.  This made it physically impossible for him to look up at the ceiling or down at the floor.  Neither could he move his neck to the left or right.  He also had had seizures for the six years since the accident.  He had been treated by the best neurosurgeons at Johns Hopkins.  He had been told his damage was irreversible.  He was taking pain medication for pain management.  This pain had become worse and he was facing a fifth surgery.  He had been a pastor in the area before this accident.  He is very well known in the area.  Sunday night I was praying for him when he was healed.

That Sunday morning I woke up having a dream about seeing a spine.  In the dream I could see vertebrae and disks.  That morning I had a word of knowledge about pain in the left armpit.  When I began praying for him I asked him if he had pain in the left armpit.  He said that he had a lot of pain in that area.  He also had tremors in his hands, as well as feeling pain and sometimes numbness in the fingers.  When I began to pray for him I noticed first the trembling stopped in the hands.  Then he told me the pain in his left arm stopped.  I had been praying for over ten minutes before there was any noticeable effect upon his body.  Then I began praying for his neck more specifically.  First the pain in his head stopped.  Then the grinding sound in his neck ended when he tried to move his head.  Then he was able to move his head looking up at the ceiling, down at the floor, and left to right as much as I could.  He was healed.  I was so surprised by this healing that along with his adult son and wife, I began to weep kneeling beside him.

It has been three days since his healing. I have kept in touch with him through others in the area.  He still has no pain, and he is able to move his head in what should be physically impossible with four fused vertebrae.  “To God be the glory great things he has done!”  Let no one look at me as if by my power or godliness this man was healed.  He was healed by faith in the name of Jesus. cf. Peter's explanation to the crowd after the man was healed at the gate beautiful.

By March of 1995, the Melbourne revival was receiving coverage in Charisma (vol. 20, no. 8, p. 56), which stated that “on a recent Tuesday evening service at the Tabernacle Church in Melbourne, Fla., more than 1,000 people tried to find seats.  Many of them settled for a spot in an adjacent overflow room, where they viewed the sermon via a video monitor.  Meanwhile, another 60 people stood outside the sanctuary and watched the service on a giant screen that flapped in the balmy evening breeze.  The crowds came from all over Florida's Space Coast to hear Randy Clark.”

On June 12, the National & International Religion Report (vol. 9, No. 13, p. 3), reported that the revival services in Melbourne were “still going strong.”  Fred Grewe reported at that time that “everybody is exhausted, but God is manifesting His presence every night ‑ so we are reluctant to stop” (ibid).  Pastors from many different denominations were continuing to join in worship, share testimonies, and pray for renewal at one another's churches.  Between fifty and eighty pastors in the area were attending a weekly prayer meeting associated with the revival at First Baptist Church in nearby Satellite Beach.

In August of 1995, Charisma magazine reported, “Falling under the power of the Holy Spirit is not unusual to most charismatic Christians.  But doing so alongside Presbyterians, United Methodists and Southern Baptists is.  Yet it's a daily experience for many Christians in Melbourne, Fla., where an unexpected revival movement is unifying charismatics and noncharismatics, and their clergy. . . .  More than 65,000 people now have attended the meetings. . . .  Hundreds of people have publicly professed faith in Jesus Christ.” (p. 18).

The October 1995 issue of Renewal (issue 223), a British Publication, carried an article on the Melbourne, Florida revival by Thomas Locke, an author of Christian fiction who was touched by the revival in June.  He wrote, “I was in Florida doing research for a new story, when the city's main paper ran a front‑page story of remarkable goings‑on at a local church. . . .  The reporter was clearly not a believer, and yet this article described someone who had been deeply affected. . . .  the meetings were continuing six nights a week, drawing a capacity crowed every evening.”  He found an “astonishing mixture” of white, black, Asiatic, Hispanic, and American Indian people, which “cut right across the borders of wealth, class, race, and religious background. . . .  The sense of matter‑of‑fact calmness which had returned upon arrival continued unabated throughout the five‑hour service. . . .  There were numerous declarations of miraculous healings.  Well over a hundred people had by the end of the night been laid out flat by the moment's power.  There was loud laughter, there was speaking in tongues, there was spontaneous singing” (pp. 18‑20).

In a testimony posted to the internet (the world wide web pages of Melbourne Renewal Services and Youth Revolution International) dated February 25, Lisa Frodge wrote that, initially, she and her husband Rex were very skeptical, but that after becoming involved in the revival in Melbourne, “many, many prayers that have been prayed for years, have come true over a period of a few weeks.  Some are small things, like finally being able to pray at our large family dinners, unity within the family, less tension in the home.  However, God is changing our hearts and has drastically changed our lives.”

Colleen Orfe wrote, “Randy Clark first ministered at the Tabernacle in Melbourne on Sunday, January 1, 1995.  That morning he gave an altar call for hypocrites and I went forward. . . .  I was slain in the spirit and lay on the carpet, unable to get up for maybe an hour.  A couple of times, I sat up, only to fall back down under the anointing.  As I lay there, I experienced a sensation of perfect peace and felt my body relaxing so much it felt like I was melting into the floor. . . .

“Eventually, I was able to get up, but remained very ‘drunk’ in the spirit, almost unable to walk or talk.  I felt like I was in a fog.  When I drove home and prepared for bed, I discovered God had healed my back.  I had had pain in my lower back for over a year, causing me to have difficulty turning over in bed finding a comfortable position, and even getting in and out of a chair.  In the past, the spasms had been so intense at times that I had gone to a doctor and received muscle relaxers because I couldn't stand up straight or walk.  Most recently, it had just been general discomfort of the nature described.  This night, I felt totally relaxed and pain‑free and enjoyed the best night's sleep in months.  It has remained healed ever since.”

Marie Purdy reported that she had strained her lower back and upper cervical neck area while helping her daughter with a landscape nursery.  In October of 1994, she had x‑rays which indicated a stenosis. A friend brought her to meetings at ‘The Tab’ in Melbourne.

She wrote, “I am used to a conservative Protestant service.  I was not about to undergo any ‘carpet time’ being a skeptic and being scientifically trained although I do have faith in Jesus Christ.  . . .  As I watched and witnessed the people receiving prayer, I couldn't comprehend the uncontrollable actions and emotions that they were responding to as a result. . . .  As time went by, John Arnott said anyone with back, neck or spinal problems should come forth. . .

“As John started administering prayer to me, I felt a warmth begin from my feet graduating up to my waist.  He asked me to bend, twist and turn asking Jesus to give me more power to heal me. . . .  I had no pain!  What had happened?  My legs started buckling and I hadn't any control of my body as I felt myself falling back. . . .  I lay on the carpet confused, questioning, nervous, overwhelmed. . . .  For the first time in one year, I took the opportunity to stand up without one struggle and pain free.”

On January 6, Randy Clark and Fred Grewe of the Tabernacle Church went to Vero Beach, Florida, an hour's drive south of Melbourne, to speak for Christian radio station WSCF, FM 92.  During the interview, the disc jockey fell under the power of the Spirit, and was rendered incapable of continuing the interview.

Soon afterward, the general manager was also affected in the same way, so music was aired since “there was nobody to operate the station” (National & International Religion Report, vol. 9, No. 8 [April 3, 1995], p. 2).

In his January 20 post to the new‑wine, Randy Clark wrote, “Two weeks ago Friday I had a radio interview.  During [the] interview a DJ fell out [under the power of the Spirit] in front of the station manager who was interviewing me.  He shook violently.  Other station employees fell out under the power.  After we left, the station kept on sharing [on the air] what was occurring live for hours.  People were healed listening to the broadcast.  Others came under conviction, drove to the station and gave their lives to God.  Others were rededicated while listening.  One man had to go home from work unable to continue driving his truck because the Spirit was so strong upon him.”

The General Manager of the radio station, Jon Hamilton, wrote a letter to his constituency as follows:

January, 1995

Dear Friend of Christian FM 92:

I had already put the finishing touches on my first letter of 1995.  I really liked it.  It was full of optimism and inspirational resolutions for the New Year.

It will never make it to the printer.

Instead, I am compelled to offer to you a testimony and witness as to a most remarkable day.  I pray that it may serve to encourage those who seek God, and terrify those who oppose Him.

January 6, 1995 began in a rather ordinary way.  It was Friday, it had been a busy week, but I was looking forward to a slow day.  As I was leaving the house, I actually told my wife, “There's not much on my calendar, I may try to take the afternoon hours off and came home early.”

I had agreed to interview a pastor from St. Louis, Randy Clark that morning.  Randy was the guest speaker at The Tabernacle Church's renewal services nightly, and since ‘The Tab’ is a good friend of FM 92 (and many other area churches were participating in the meetings), we had decided to clear a slot on the morning show for a brief interview.

My guest was one of the leaders of the so‑called ‘Toronto Revival’.  I had read about the Toronto meetings, but frankly, I've heard a lot of ‘revival rumours’ over the years and have learned not to pay much attention.  Normally, I don't do the interviews myself, but I was feeling cautious and let the ‘morning guys’ know I'd be there during the show.

The interview was innocent enough at first.  The subject turned to a discussion of the Holy Spirit's manifest presence in a meeting (as opposed to His presence that dwells within our hearts always).  Rather suddenly, something began to happen in the control room.

It began with Gregg.  He was seated behind me listening, and for no apparent reason, he began to weep.  His weeping turned to shuddering sobs that he attempted to muffle in his hands.  It was hard to ignore, and Randy paused mid‑sentence to comment “You can't see him, but God is really dealing with the fellow behind you right now.”  I looked over my shoulder just in time to see Gregg losing control.  He stood up, only to crash to the floor directly in front of the console, where he lay shaking for several minutes.

I don't know if you have ever tried to conduct a radio interview in such circumstances, but let me assure you I never have.  I was mortified.  We have always attempted to avoid any extremes at FM 92, so it was difficult to explain to our listeners what was happening. I had always known Gregg to act like a professional, so I knew something was seriously going on.  I did my best to recover the interview under the embarrassing circumstances.  I thanked the guest and wrapped it up.  (And thought of ways to kill Gregg later!)

After when we have a guest minister in the station, we ask him to pray for the staff.  Before Randy Clark left, we asked him to say a word of prayer.

We formed a circle and began to pray for the staff one by one.  My eyes were shut, but I heard a thud and opened them to see Bart Mazzarella prostrate on the floor.  He had fallen forward on his face.  What amazed me most was that Bart was known to be openly sceptical.  he simply did not accept such things.  Within seconds, another and another staff person went down.  Even those that remained standing were clearly shaken.

When they prayed for me, I did not fall down.  What did happen was an electric sensation shot down my right arm, and my right hand began to tremble uncontrollably.  My heart pounded as I became aware of a powerful sense of what can only be called God's manifest presence.

Remember, our staff is not primarily Charismatic.  We are Episcopalian, Nazarene, Evangelical, Pentecostal .... and a couple of “not quite sure”.  While I personally am associated with an Assembly of God church, I'm quite the skeptic when it comes to “weird stuff”.  I don't watch many evangelists on TV, because too often I am turned off by what I see.  This was completely new to us.

Randy was scheduled elsewhere, so after just a few minutes of prayer, he thanked me graciously and left quickly.  Our staff remained in the control room, staring at each other wide eyed, and hovering over Bart, who still appeared unconscious on the floor.  (He was completely immobile for over half an hour).

There was a sweet atmosphere of worship in the room, so I told someone to put one of the integrity Worship CD's on air while we continued to pray together.

I thought the atmosphere would abate after a few minutes and return to normal... but instead, our prayers grew more and more intense.  The room became charged in a way that I simply cannot describe.  After an hour of this, we realized that it was 10:30, the time we normally share our listener's needs in prayer.

I switched on the mike, and found myself praying that God would touch every listener in a personal way.  After prayer, with great hesitation I added “This morning God has really been touching our staff, so we've been spending the morning praying together.  If you're in a situation right now where you are facing a desperate need, just drop by our studios this morning and we'll take a minute to pray with you.”  This was the first time we had ever made such an invitation.

This is where everything went haywire.

Within a few minutes, a few listeners began to arrive.  The first person I prayed with was a tall man who shared with me some tremendous needs he was facing.  I told him I would agree with him in prayer.  As I prayed for his need, a voice in my head was saying, “It's a shame that you don't operate in any real spiritual gift or power.  Here's a man who really needs to hear from God and you've got nothing worth giving him!”  I continued to pray, but I was struggling.  I reached up with my right hand to touch his shoulder, when suddenly he shook, and slumped to the floor. (He lay there without moving for over 2 hours.)  I was shocked and shaken.

Two others had arrived at this point, and staff members were praying with them.  Suddenly they began weeping uncontrollably, and slumped to the floor.  This scene was repeated a dozen times in the next few minutes.  It didn't matter who did the praying, whenever we asked the Lord, he immediately responded with a visible power, and the same manifestations occurred.

I didn't know whether to be terrified or thrilled, but clearly, something completely unusual was going on.  A young man cautiously entered the room, and began to tell us that he was “just happening” to be scanning the radio dial when he heard “something about prayer”.  He reported that he was immediately overcome with conviction.  Years before, he had contemplated going into the ministry, and had even attended a couple of years at a Christian College, but he had since strayed from God.  As a chill of conviction swept him, he felt God suddenly tell him it was now or never.  He drove to the station. We prayed with him to receive Christ as Lord, and afterward, he too slumped to the floor.

One by one they came.  We continued to play praise‑oriented music, and every hour (sometimes on the half‑hour) we'd invite people to come.

Fairly early in all this, we ran out of room.  The radio station floor was wall to wall bodies... some weeping, some shaking, some completely still.  People reported that it was like heavy lead apron had been placed over them.  They were unable to get up.  All they could do was worship God.

Fortunately, our offices are inside of the complex at Central Assembly, so when the crowd began to grow, we moved across into the Church, leaving the radio station literally wall to wall with seekers.

Some teachers at Indian Christian School had heard what was happening, and asked us to pray for certain children they were bringing in the room.  As we prayed for the kids, many began to shake and fall to the floor.  Some would begin to utter praises to God.  Others lay completely immobile for periods of over an hour. (If you've ever tried to make a seven year old lay still, you know it's a miracle!) A few simply experienced nothing at all.

By now I was convinced that we were experiencing a bona fide move of God. I had read about such manifestation experiences being common in the revival  meetings of great men like Jonathan Edwards and John Wesley.  I had also read of the great camp meeting revivals in the early 1800's, where thousands upon thousands experienced being ‘slain’, but I never imagined I would really live to see it.

The crowd continued to grow, and lines began to form.  The power of God continued to fall on those coming.  It was almost like being in a dream.  I would look up and see our staff members ... eyes red, faces puffy, and hands trembling, but with a fire in their eyes and the power of God upon them.  I couldn't believe it was the same people I knew and worked with.  In a matter of hours, something we never even dreamed of (much less aspired to) was happening.

The floor in front of the sanctuary was soon covered with men and women, boys and girls.  The aisles began to fill and we were pushing aside chairs for more floor space.  Usually, one of our staff would ‘catch’ the person as they fell, but on quite a few occasions we were caught by surprise and people fell hard on the floor.  Frankly, we had no idea what we were doing. (I'm not sure I want to learn!)

At some point I looked up and saw a local Baptist Pastor walk in the door.  I must confess that my first thought was, “Oh Boy...I'm in trouble.” While I knew this brother to be a genuine man of God, nevertheless I was concerned about how a fundamental, no‑nonsense Baptist might take all these goings‑on. (Besides, I didn't have an explanation to offer!)  I walked up to greet him.  He just silently surveyed the room, and with a tone of voice just above a whisper said, “This... is...God.  For years I've prayed for revival... This is God.”

Within minutes more local pastors began to arrive.  Lutheran, Independent, Assembly of God... The word of what was happening spread like wildfire.  As  the pastors arrived, they were cautious at first, but within just minutes, they would often begin to flow in the same ministry.  The crowd was growing and pastors began to lay hands on the seekers, where once again the power of God would manifest and the seeker would often collapse to the ground.

It did not seem to matter who did the praying.  This was a nameless, faceless, spontaneous move of God.  There were no stars, no leaders, and frankly, there was no organization.  (It's hard to plan for something you have no idea might happen!)

Eventually, word of what was occurring reached Fred Grewe, the Melbourne pastor who had brought Randy Clark to the station earlier that morning.  He and Randy, along with several other Melbourne pastors, jumped into the car and headed down to Vero Beach.  At this point, we started broadcasting live from the Church.  As the group from Melbourne arrived, more and more people also began to show up asking for prayer.  It seemed like there were always more than we could get to.

Amazingly, unchurched, unsaved people were showing up.  I got a fresh glimpse of the power of radio as person after person told us “I'm not really a part of any church...” A few were sceptical at first, and later found themselves kneeling in profound belief.

Sometimes people would rise up, only to frantically announce to us that they had been healed of some physical problem.  One woman's arthritic hands found relief.  Neck pains, jaw problems, stomach disorders and more were all reported to us as healed.

We have received at least a dozen verified, credible, reliable comments from people who told us that when they switched on the radio, they were suddenly, unexpectedly overwhelmed by the presence of God (even when they didn't hear us say anything).  Several told us that the manifest presence of God was so strong in their cars that they were unable to drive, and were forced to pull off the road.

The ‘falling’ aspect of this visitation was the most visible manifestation, but it was not falling that was important.  What was important was the fact that people were rising up with more love for God in their hearts than ever before.  They were being changed, and their hearts set ablaze. I have lost count of the numbers of people who told me of the change God worked in their life.

It's hard to imagine the impact this has had on our staff.  It seems like God has almost given me a new staff, composed entirely of men and women with tremendous zeal for God.  What is occurring in our local churches is even more amazing.  My phone is ringing with the calls of excited pastors.  At least a dozen area churches from completely different ends of the theological spectrum are already experiencing this powerful move in their church.  The leaders of many, many other local fellowships have been visiting these churches to “check it out”, and they too are being touched to “take it back” with them.  It's almost like a tidal wave has hit this area of Florida.

If you are sceptical, I understand and forgive you.  (I might have thrown a letter like this one away just days ago.)  I share this only to try and offer a faithful rendition of what has really happened.  I only ask that you remain open to whatever God wants to accomplish through you.  Christian history is full of accounts of those times when God elected to ‘visit’ His people.  When He has, entire nations have sometimes been affected.  I believe you'll agree, our nation is ripe for such a revival.  For such a time as this, let us look to God with expectancy.

With warm regards, I am,

Sincerely Yours,

Jon Hamilton

General Manager

Mott Auditorium, Pasadena, California

Similar in intensity to Toronto and Melbourne is what happened at Mott Auditorium on the campus of the U.S. Centre for World Mission.  Beginning in January of 1995, John Arnott of the Toronto Airport Vineyard and Wes Campbell of New Life Vineyard Fellowship in Kelowna, B.C. began taking various trips of two or three days each as guest speakers at Mott Auditorium.  By March 24, nightly meetings had begun, lasting far into the night five nights per week.  On April 16, Isabel Gouveia of Oakland saw a vision.  On May 28, she testified of this as follows (archives of the new‑wine list, July 29):

The anointing just came over me, and what I saw this large auditorium placed in the middle of a neighbourhood, a quiet neighbourhood in Pasadena.  There were children playing all over in a nearby park.  The Lord brought me in here.  I came in the auditorium up to the stage, the altar here and what I saw was lots of seats going back and I saw three large doors.  What I saw come in was just multitudes of people, coming into the auditorium with their arms open wide.  It filled the auditorium up completely.  People were standing in the aisles.  Then I heard the Lord say that He was going to pour His Holy Spirit down upon all the people here in this place and that here ... that here they will come and they will seek my face.  Here they will bow down before me.  They will repent, and they will receive the outpouring, and they will seek my face and they will confess, and they will bow down before me as empty vessels ... and I will fill you up, and then what I saw was this gush of roaring living waters being poured out of everyone's belly, and it just filled up this place.  It filled it up completely.  It was a flood.  The Lord said that it was a cleansing flood, that He was going to cleanse everybody here.  Then what I saw was the waters went up the isles and out of the auditorium and into the streets of Pasadena into the surrounding neighbourhoods.  Then they connected and there were big rivers, there were mighty rivers, and they connected into the main arteries that flow into Los Angeles. Then in Los Angeles he said he will do a healing there and the people there ... and the people there, they will ... He said, His people then will be called by His name and that they will seek His face, they will humble themselves and they will pray, and He said then and only then.  He said, I will forgive their sins and I will heal their land.  He said that He will heal racism because there is only one race, and that is the race of Jesus Christ.  He said that He will heal the generations, that He will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers.  He said to come, come and be close to me.  Receive from me, receive from me.

On May 28 (at about the same time as a visit by Claudio Freidzono of Argentina, John and Carol Arnott, and Bill Twyman of the Vineyard Christian Fellowship in Anaheim) two children began seeing visions of angels.  Transcripts of the testimonies of these children, Joy Ahn (12), and Christine Cadiogan (10) of Pasadena, were made public on July 29 through the new-wine list on the internet, with the permission of Che Ahn, pastor of the Vineyard Christian Fellowship of Greater Pasadena.

Very early in the morning on Sunday, May 28, Joy and her friend, Christine, were visiting the Ahn family in their home, but they began disturbing Che Ahn's sleep and Christine kept shouting “Mott, Mott, Mott, Mott.”  Sue, Che's wife (Joy's mother), took the two children to the nearby Mott auditorium, where the glory of God descended and the children saw open visions of heavenly things.  An independent observer, John Lee, a ministerial student returning to the Church to pick up his car, said that he saw the glory of God in the form of a mist hovering all over the place, and later observed enormous angels everywhere throughout the auditorium.

College Revivals

On January 22, 1995, at Coggin Avenue Baptist Church in Brownwood, Texas, two students from Howard Payne University, a Christian institution, stood up and confessed their sins.  As a result of this incident, many others started to confess their own sins before the congregation.  On January 26, a similar event took place on the campus of Howard Payne.  Word quickly spread to other colleges, and Howard Payne students were soon being invited to other college campuses, which experienced similar revivals.  From these schools, more students were invited to still other schools, where there were further revivals (Chronicle of Higher Education, May 19, 1995, pp. A39‑A40).

One of the first two students from Howard Payne to confess his sins was Chris Robeson.  As he testified about his own life and the spiritual condition of his classmates, “People just started streaming down the aisles” in order to pray, confess their sins, and restore seemingly doomed relationships, according to John Avant, pastor of Coggin Avenue Baptist Church.  From this time forward, the church began holding three‑and‑a‑half‑hour services.  Avant said, “This is not something we're trying to manufacture.  It's the most wonderful thing we've ever experienced” (National & International Religion Report, vol. 9, no. 7 [20 March 1995], p. 1).

The events at Coggin Avenue Baptist Church were preceded by about seven weeks of increased, widespread prayer.  According to Avant, “God is shaking us ‑ something no person could do.  God began by doing some things in isolated ways.  He transformed the life of a prominent man in the community who was considering suicide, and couples who were within days of divorce were walking the church aisle to seek God's forgiveness at the altar. . . .” (press release from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1 March 1995).  Avant said that after the events on January 22, the motto among several local high school students had become, “God's going to rock the world, and it's starting in Brownwood,” and that “Southern Baptists, Nazarenes, Pentecostals, Independent Baptists, and Presbyterians are getting together just to kneel and pray for revival” (ibid).

At Howard Payne, revival broke out during a January 26 ‘celebration’ service, as students praised God in song and shared their testimonies.  Students then started to schedule all‑night prayer meetings in dormitories.  (Christian Week, 11 April 1995, p. 1 and Ken Camp, “’Activity of God’ Produces Renewal in Texas City's Church”, Campus, 1 March 1995).

Then, on February 13‑15, during five meetings at Howard Payne, Henry Blackaby, a Southern Baptist revival leader ministered at a series of five worship services, attended by guests from up to 200 miles away.  On Tuesday, February 14, more than six hundred attended, and students leaders went up to the platform to confess publicly their secret sins.  About two hundred stayed afterward to continue praying.  One of the students, Andrea Cullins, said, “Once we saw the Spirit move, we didn't want to leave” (ibid).  Blackaby's “Experiencing God” discipleship curriculum had been used recently in many of the Brownwood area churches that became affected by the revival.

After Howard Payne, some of the first schools to be affected were Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Forth Worth, Texas, Beeson School of Divinity in Birmingham, Alabama, Olivet Nazarene University in Kankakee, Ill., The Criswell College in Dallas, Moorehead State University in Moorehead, Ky., Murray State University in Murray, Ky., Wheaton College in Wheaton, Ill., Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, La., Gordon College in Wenham, Mass., and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois.  In each case, students went forward during long services to repent of pride, lust, bondage to materialism, bitterness, and racism.

On February 23 at Olivet Nazarene, Chaplain Bill Bray played an eight‑minute video clip of the 1970 Asbury College revival at a chapel service.  Students and faculty then began seven hours of sharing, praying, singing and exhortation to one another.  As it continued, word spread off campus and members of the community came in order to experience the move of God, according to Bray.  Other colleges affected by the video of the 1970 revival included Moorehead State and Murray State.  (National & International Religion Report, vol. 9, no. 8 [3 April 1995], p. 1).

Three Howard Payne students spoke at an evangelism class taught by Roy Fish at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, on February 28 to report on “the activity of God” in Brownwood.  Fish reported that what happened that day “had all of the marks of a revival.”  Other students from Howard Payne later spoke at Houston Baptist University and Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama.

On March 1, John Avant spoke to an overflow crowd at Southwestern Baptist's Truett Auditorium about the events at Brownwood, resulting in seven hours of confession and prayer by students, faculty, and administrators.  Students said that there was “an outpouring of healing, purging and cleansing among students, faculty, staff and administrators” (“Confession‑Filled Chapel Service on March 1 Marks Spiritual Awakening at Southwestern,” Press Release, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1 March 1995).

Avant said that he witnessed deep, gut‑level and spontaneous confessions of sins.  “I saw a lot of brokenness and some genuine healing,” he said.  “I was amazed by the camaraderie among the students.  Someone would share and immediately five or six people would stand around them and pray.  One of the most moving experiences was when a white man admitted racism and two or three black guys almost carried him off the stage hugging him” (Bob Murdaugh, “Southwestern Revival Spreads into Surrounding Community,” 7 March 1995).

Southwestern student Bobby Miller was surprised at the wide range of sins confessed by his fellow seminarians.  “It's scary because most of them are prominent leaders of churches.  Their confessions made me realize how much more I've got to have my act together” (ibid).  Avant said that Southwestern professors such as Roy Fish and Malcolm McDow first gave him a love for revival while he was a student on campus. The meetings at Southwestern continued for several weeks with “extended chapel services lasting all day long, with students and faculty confessing their sins publicly and praying for forgiveness and cleansing from the Lord.  There is a strong Presence of the Holy Spirit in the meetings, which are not being led by any one person” (Bill Benninghoff to Richard Riss, 24 March 1995).

According to Bob Murdaugh, various ministers of churches in Fort Worth reported that their congregations were experiencing or close to experiencing great movements of God similar to the one which took place during the March 1 chapel service at Southwestern.  For example, “One supernatural event was an hour‑long youth meeting at Southwayside Baptist Church on the evening of March 1 that turned into a three‑hour time of confession, according to youth worker and Southwestern student Bobby Miller” (ibid).  This took place after some Southwestern students gave testimonies of how God touched them in the seminary chapel.

Avant and Robeson later spoke at Beeson Baptist Theological Seminary on March 7 at a three‑hour service during which dozens of people went forward to pray, confess pride and lust, and seek reconciliation in personal relationships.  Beeson's dean, Timothy George, said that this was something that they had been “praying and yearning for.”  Southwestern's president, Ken Hemphill, described the events as “a genuine moving of God and the beginning of authentic spiritual revival” (ibid).

At Wheaton College, some students from Howard Payne University, James Hahn and Brandi Maguire, gave their testimonies at a weekly meeting of the World Christian Fellowship at Pierce Chapel on March 19 that lasted from 7:30 pm to 6 am the following day, when the custodial staff asked the remaining 400 people (of a total of 900) to leave so that the building could be cleaned.  During that meeting, after each student spoke, friends gathered around to embrace and pray for him or her.  Five large garbage bags were filled with bottles of alcohol, tobacco, drugs, pornography, and secular music.  Subsequent meetings were moved to College Church at Wheaton to facilitate the larger crowds (1,350 to 1,500 according to chaplain Kellough, but closer to 1800 according to John Knapp, a professor of English at Suny‑Oswego and an alumnus of Wheaton who attended the Thursday meeting).

Steve Snediker, wrote on March 25, “This thing has been almost entirely student led ‑ there were lines and lines of people engaged in confession and restitution.  Loads of pornography, alcohol, cigarettes, ungodly CDs and tapes were being brought to the meetings as part of the confession.  And people were coming forward to receive salvation in Christ. . . .  It has been affecting more than just the students on campus.  Young people from area churches have been attending.  Because the meetings had officially been ended, at least one group of young people continued to meet at their own church last night (Friday) for prayer.”

Richard Leonard wrote, “The revival began on Sunday evening after some special speakers (from another college, we believe) had addressed the student body.  One young man was so moved that he went forward to confess his sins.  (He is something of a campus leader.)  He left the chapel to pray with some other students, and when he returned, people were lined up all the way to the back of the auditorium waiting to confess their sins.  This went on far into the night until early Thursday morning when the last person got to the microphone.  Thursday night the administration scheduled a praise service to thank God for moving on the campus.  . . .  There has been racial and gender reconciliation and all across the campus there is a great spirit of quiet joy. . . . The report is that about four hundred students have made a commitment to missions or other Christian service because of their gratitude for what the Lord has done for them” (Richard and Janice Leonard to Richard M. Riss, 24 March 1995).

On March 23, Joel A. Dylhoff wrote to Teresa Seputis, “We have been having meetings all this week starting in the evening and running until the next morning.  The one tonight ran from 9:30 until 2:30 in the morning.”  Another student wrote, “What would happen was that after a period of singing, people would line up to confess publicly, and as soon as they were done, they would be mobbed by fifteen to twenty people who would gather around them and pray for them.  There was a lot of crying as people unloaded sins that they had carried with them for a long time. . . .  God is definitely at work and the number of people who attend continues to grow each night as the word spreads by mouth.  We have had people from the community there, faculty, and students from Northwestern, DePaul, North Park, Loyola, and several others.”

David MacAdam of New Life Community Church in Concord, Mass., wrote (25 March 1995), “I pastor a cell church in Concord, MA. While we were meeting in a home Tuesday night (March 21), a woman in our group received a phone call from her son, a senior at Wheaton.  He reported that he has never experienced anything like what was going on there.  His classmates, who could have cared less what they watched on television or how they reacted in terms of behaviour, were crying out to God, shedding tears.  People were lining up to confess their sins in the chapel.  There is a sense of the awesome and holy presence of God. . . .  The passion for God born of this move of the Spirit is obvious.”

Joel A. Dylhoff wrote to Jennifer Baier on 24 March, “Tonight we emphasized thanksgiving and praise since everyone finished confessing late Wednesday night.  The place was absolutely packed!  We had an open mike again tonight for people to get up and talk about what they had discovered during the past week.  Two people were saved and when they said this, the place went crazy!  We also had a call tonight for people to go into the missions field and between 200 and 400 went forward (my judgement is not good, so I couldn't tell you the exact number)!  Then we sang some praise and worship songs and the place absolutely exploded!  People were shouting and jumping around because they couldn't contain themselves.  Afterward people were running around hugging and laughing with each other.  I was completely floored!  The Holy Spirit was flexing his muscles and Satan fled in a big way!”

A detailed account of the revival at Wheaton College has been written by Lyle W. Dorsett, in the fourth chapter of Accounts of a Campus Revival: Wheaton College 1995, edited by Timothy Beougher and Lyle Dorsett (Wheaton, Ill.: Harold Shaw Publishers, 1995), pp. 75‑92.

At The Criswell College, 150 students prayed and repented for four hours after hearing testimony from some Howard Payne students.  Then, Doug Minton, pastor of First Baptist Church of Corinth, Texas, reported that his church experienced revival for weeks after a visit from Howard Payne students.  At an evangelism conference for the Illinois Baptist State Conventi                            on, more than 500 people stayed for four hours to pray and repent after John Avant described these events.  During the next week, There were more than six similar incidents reported by those who had been at this conference.

By April 17, the National & International Religion Report (17 April 1995), vol. 9, no. 9, p. 1, reported that thousands more students, as well as some faculty and administration members, had “participated in public confession, restitution, and reconciliation” in colleges throughout the U.S., including Asbury College in Wilmore, Kentucky, Illinois Baptist College in Galesburg, Ill., Eastern Nazarene College in Quincy, Mass., Taylor University in Upland, Ind., Northwestern College in St. Paul, Minn., Crown College in St. Bonifacius, Minn., and Cornerstone College (formerly Grand Rapids Baptist College) in Grand Rapids, Mich.  Meetings that had been scheduled in advance, such as the National Student Leadership Conference at Taylor University, and Beacon '95, a New England student conference, both of which were held April 7‑9, 1995, served as catalysts to spread the revival still further.

Mike Shelton, a student at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary, wrote on April 10, “Some students from Wheaton came to Gordon College this past Friday to speak about what's been going on there as part of Beacon '95, an annual conference of New England college students hosted by Gordon.  After a period of praise and worship followed by an excellent message on Matthew 7 by John Fisher, the Wheaton students were invited to share.  Several student leaders came forward to confess their own pride in praying for revival on campus for other students and recounted how they had been humbled to see the need for revival in their own lives.  After they finished, a steady stream of Gordon students and, later, visiting students came forward to confess sins or share what God had been touching their hearts.  I and everyone with me were deeply touched and met privately with one another afterward to confess some deep sins to one another and rededicate our lives to the Lord.  Classes have been cancelled this Tuesday at Gordon so that the entire campus can meet together. . . .  I'm seeing a widespread hunger for God and willingness to take up the cross that I've never seen before.”

The revival at Taylor University was prompted by some students from Wheaton and Asbury who went to Taylor to share testimonies about revivals on those campuses.  According to one Taylor student, “word spread like wildfire throughout the campus,” and an evening service was held at 8:00 pm on April 9, about five hours after the previous meeting had ended.  “I went there, expecting little, and wanting nothing.  I stayed until 1:00 am; it went until 4:00 am.  I have never felt so filled with the Holy Spirit, nor have I [before] been able to see my fellow students through the eyes of God [as I have now]. . . .  I absorbed this love and radiance of God for 5 hours, and it felt like 15 minutes.  God initiated the giving up of addictions, attitudes, and practices.  It was real, it was not forced.  Never will I forget this weekend, and how God has broken me, and the people around me.”  (Colleen Kendrick to Richard Riss, 10 April 1995).

By May 1, revival had come to Iowa State University, Colorado Christian University in Lakewood, Co., Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., Indiana Wesleyan in Marion, Indiana, Gordon‑Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Mass., Judson College in Elgin, Ill., George Fox College in Newberg, Oregon, Multnomah Bible College in Portland, Oregon, and Colorado Christian University in Lakewood, Co.  (National & International Religion Report [1 May 1995], vol. 9, no. 10, pp. 2‑3).

At Iowa State on April 10, about three hundred members of several Christian organizations on campus waited for several hours in order to go to the microphone to confess sin, repent and pray after hearing from four Wheaton students about what had happened on their campus.  The meeting lasted from 8:30 pm until 5 am the following morning.

On April 13, at Southern Baptist, John Avant spoke at a chapel service, and when the 1,000 students were dismissed, hundreds of them, along with some faculty and administration members, went forward to repent of sins, including bitterness (ibid).

A detailed account of the spread of the college revivals to Northwestern College in St. Paul, Minn., Asbury College in Wilmore, Ky., Trinity International University in Deerfield, Ill., Gordon College in Wenham, Mass., Eastern Nazarene College in Quincy, Mass., Cornerstone College in Grand Rapids, Mich., Taylor University in Upland, In., Judson College in Elgin, Illinois, Hope College in Holland, Mich., Iowa State University, George Fox College in Newberg, Ore., Multnomah School of the Bible in Portland, Ore., Trinity Christian High School in Elmhurst, Ill., Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Ill., Messiah College in Grantham, Pa., Columbia University in New York, N.Y., the University of Wisconsin ‑ Stevens Point, Yale University in New Haven, Ct., Trinity Christian College in Palos Heights, Ill., a Baptist church in the Chicago area, and Greenville College in Greenville, Ill., has been written by Matt Yarrington in the seventh chapter of Accounts Of A Campus Revival: Wheaton College 1995, edited by Timothy Beougher and Lyle Dorsett (Wheaton, Ill.: Harold Shaw Publishers, 1995), pp. 139‑170.

Modesto, California Revival

In January 1994, when Glenn and Debbie Berteau became pastors of Calvary Temple Worship Centre in Modesto, California, they had a strong sense from the Lord that revival would take place there.  In one of their sermons, “Why not Modesto?”, they asked why Modesto couldn't be known as a city that had been visited by revival.  In early 1994, they presented the congregation with the vision that God had given them.  After this ‘vision Sunday,’ the congregation went into a forty day fast.  Individuals signed up for specific days on which to fast and pray.  The entire procedure was repeated again a year later.  In early January, a three day fast was declared, and the church building was kept open throughout the day.  Those who could do so met together for prayer daily at noon.  Members of the congregation came and prayed over names on cards that were placed on the altar.  The cards were then left on the altar for the next team of intercessors.  Pastors of many congregations in the Modesto area began meeting together weekly to pray for the city.

On January 15, 1995, the church began holding performances of a play, “Heaven's Gates and Hell's Flames,” directed by a husband and wife team from Reality Outreach of Niagara Falls, New York, a group founded by Rudy and Karen Krulik which makes use of local church members to produce dramas.  The play was originally scheduled for three days, but due to popular demand, a total of twenty‑eight performances were held for a period of seven weeks, ending March 16.  In an Article entitled “Prayer and Fasting Precedes Revival in Modesto, CA,” Jann Mathies, pastoral secretary of Calvary Temple reported in the April, 1995 edition of the Island Christian Herald (pp. 1, 17), that most nights, over nine hundred people responded to the altar call, in an auditorium that seats 2200 people.

According to Jann Mathies, “As of this writing, approximately 81,000 have attended the performance with 90% each night seeing it for the first time.  At time of printing, 33,000 decision packets have been handed out, and of that, (confirmed) 20,000 returned with signed decision cards.  Over 250 churches have been represented with hundreds of people added to the churches in our city and surrounding communities in less than one month.  People come as early as 3:30 pm for a 7:00 pm performance.  There are over 1,000 people waiting to get in at 5:00 pm, and by 5:30 pm the building is full.  Thousands of people have been turned away; some from over 100 miles away. . . .  Husbands and wives are reconciling through salvation; teenagers are bringing their unsaved parents; over 6,000 young people have been saved, including gang members who are laying down gang affiliation and turning in gang paraphernalia. . . .  The revival is crossing every age, religion and socio‑economic status. . . .   We have many volunteers coming in every day, and through the evening hours to contact 500 to 600 new believers by phone; special classes have also been established so that new believers may be established in the faith.”

At each performance, a show of hands was given each night indicating first‑time attenders, who numbered between 85 and 90 percent of the audience.  In an unpublished letter to Madge Bowes of the Island Christian Herald dated April 17, 1995, Jann Mathies wrote that “when the doors were opened at 5:00 pm the people waiting would literally run for seats.  By 5:30 pm the building was filled to more than capacity, with people standing along the walls and sitting on the floor in the altar area. . . .  Hundreds responded to the altar [call] each night: 700, 800, 900, 1,000 plus each night; entire families, gang members, homosexuals, children, aged, businessmen, teens, all ages, races and socio‑economic groups were coming forward to receive the Lord.”

Revival was beginning to sweep through Modesto and the outlying areas.  Some churches moved their Sunday evening service to Calvary Temple encouraging their congregation to attend the drama and bring unsaved friends and family members.  Churches from many miles surrounding Modesto have been affected by the drama.  Local Pastors and Priests of various denominations said there is a new passion and love for God in those who already had a relationship with the Lord, they have received many new converts and their churches are filling up.  One local church had to add a third Sunday morning service and another had to ask their members to give up their seats so visitors could have a place to sit. . . .  Local Bible book stores said they were selling more Bibles than usual.  A local psychologist said much healing had happened in the lives of some of his clients who had attended the drama ‑ far more than what the usual counselling sessions had been able to do.

Karen Krulik, wife of Rudy Krulik, founder of Reality Outreach Ministries, had had a vision in prayer several years previously with respect to the drama, in which she saw long lines of people waiting to see it, and a church that was hosting the drama for a long period of time, giving unselfishly.  During the time of the production, Rudy Krulik told the cast and crew of Calvary Temple that he believed that they had found the place that had been seen in the vision.

Pensacola, Florida

On Father's Day, June 18, 1995, evangelist Steve Hill spoke at Brownsville Assembly of God, just outside of Pensacola, Florida.  Although he was planning to be there for only one day, the power of God fell, and the pastor, John Kilpatrick, fell out under the power of God for a period of about 48 hours.  The first meeting, which had been scheduled to conclude at noon, lasted until 4:00 pm.  During a 5½ hour service that evening, the church asked Hill to extend his visit, and he began cancelling his appointments, including a planned trip to Russia.  Crowds of 2,500 came five nights a week, from Methodist, Baptist, Episcopal, Nazarene, Catholic, and Church of Christ denominations.  According to the National & International Religion Report (vol. 9, no. 19, September 4, 1995, p. 2). “Buses brought visitors from around the Southeast and other areas of the United States.  Some came from overseas.”

On July 3, Scott D. Weberg of the new‑wine list wrote of his visit at the end of June:

The church ‘comfortably’ seats 2100, and they said that there were between 2400 and 2600 people every night.  We all felt the power of God increase every night that we were there.  We stayed each night til about 2:00 in the morning, and at that hour there was still about 1000 people standing, sitting, laying around the altar!  Even on the week nights!  And the evangelist and prayer ministry teams kept praying for people right on into the morning hours.

They asked all first‑time visitors to raise their hands each night ‑ and there were probably several hundred first timers every night.  They estimate that over 10,000 people have attended during the first 2 weeks, and that over 3,000 have been saved, either in the meetings, or as a result of people going out from the meetings and leading someone to the Lord.

People have called the church from 7 different states to inquire about the move of God ‑ they had to put in a new phone system!  They only had 2 or 3 lines, and now they have 8 lines, and they are all lit up all day long!

It was very powerful on the last night we were there.  As I approached the altar, stepping over bodies, and wading through the mass of people that were always crowded up front, the presence of God became so strong that my legs got weak as I got closer to the front, without anyone even praying over me.  I turned around to my friend and asked her if she could feel the presence of God get incredibly stronger as we approached the altar, or was it just me?  She said, “Yes!”

. . . There were so many different denominations represented there ‑ even ministers of other denominations were visiting.  One Baptist pastor cancelled his Wednesday night church service, and told his congregation to go with him to see what God was doing in Brownsville Assembly!  A different Baptist church called up and offered to send nursery workers over to help, since they heard that the meetings were going every night until very late!  There was more of a sense of Church unity than I would have expected.  This Wednesday morning the evangelist and the pastor are putting on a free breakfast meeting just for pastors and their wives ‑ for the purpose of answering any of their questions and informing them of exactly what is going on.

On July 31, he wrote, “now there are about 4000 people attending nightly services (except Saturdays).  The awesome part of the report was that [a total of] about 800 people got saved during the last 2 meetings of last week! . . . The meetings are usually going until 3:00 in the morning, and people are coming in buses!”

In an e‑mail message to Richard Riss (July 29, 1995), Beth McDuffie wrote, “I go to Brownsville Assembly of God in Pensacola, FL.  We have been having a move of God in our church for about 6 weeks now.  People from 22 or more states have visited during this time, and we have had over 80,000 people come through the church doors during this time.  Every night 150 or more people are getting saved or rededicating their lives to Jesus.  It is amazing what is going on! At the end of the service there is a prayer time for people to receive a blessing from the Lord.”

On August 19, Beth McDuffie wrote:

God is still moving mightily in Brownsville.  Just Thursday night we had a neat thing happen.  Lindall, our music director, was still singing, but the praise team had stopped.  The church was still filled with people being prayed for, and seeking God.  As he sang another strong male voice joined him.  He could not see who it was, but was so deep in the Spirit, he kept on singing.  In a second another strong male voice joined him.  Almost instantly the people were on their faces, praising the Lord because the power of God had so filled that place!!  Many times angels have been seen in the Sanctuary, but this is the first time that we have heard them sing.  They said that it was the most beautiful music they had ever heard.  It was wonderful.

Friday night we did not even get to the preaching.  A young woman stood up to give her testimony.  God had turned her life around 180 degrees, and had given her the gift of intercession.  (As she spoke, she shook so much she could barely hold the microphone.)  When she began to tell how, during the altar calls, she could feel the hurt that God felt, the Spirit of God fell.  The altars filled up, and people were weeping all over the church.  It was like no other service we have had yet!  (You never know what to expect ... there is never a dull moment!)

We have also began to see some healings.  One woman, who has diabetes, had a terrible sore on her foot.  The doctors told her that if it did not get better soon they would have to take her foot.  She came down one night for prayer, did a little bit of ‘carpet time’ and went home.  The next day when she went to change the bandage the sore was all gone except for a very small spot in the middle.  I am just waiting for her to come back and say that she is healed from the diabetes!  I know there is nothing too hard for God.

James H. Doughty reported that on the evening of Wednesday, August 23, a mother and daughter went to the Pensacola Outpouring after the daughter had heard about the meetings at her school.  The power of God fell on the daughter and she fell to the floor.  The mother had never seen this happen before, and went to a phone to call for an ambulance.  After they brought the daughter into the ambulance, the workers began checking her blood pressure.

She returned to consciousness and said that there was nothing wrong with her. She said that she wanted to go back into the church because she wanted more of God. She told her mother and the ambulance worker that God had touched her in a mighty way and that she wanted to go back out under the power of God.

Doughty also reported that a pastor from Nappa, Idaho went to the meetings and received prayer.  His daughter had been attending Brownsville Assemblies of God. He did not get slain in the Spirit or feel any great move of God in his life, but he knew that God was moving and he wanted a drink of this New Wine.  He told his daughter that he had been really dry and he needed a fresh touch from God. Before he left the meetings, God really touched him.  After he went back to his church in Nappa, Idaho, he spoke on the Pensacola Outpouring. At the end of his sermon, he had an altar call, and the altar was full of people who wanted prayer.  Almost the entire church fell under the power of God.  Jesus is moving across the land. They are now having meetings 5 nights a week.  The church has standing room only.

By early September, 116,000 people, including 35,000 first‑time visitors, had attended the church since mid‑June.  According to the assistant pastor, Richard Crisco, an average of more than 100 people became Christians each night.  Many of these people came directly from local bars to attend services, which usually lasted until about 2:00 am.  “Prostitutes and drunkards stand next to men in three‑piece suits at the services,” one woman said (National & International Religion Report, vol. 9, no. 19, September 4, 1995, p. 2).  Crisco reported that he has received telephone calls almost daily from visitors reporting that the Spirit of God is moving powerfully during meetings at their own churches after they have visited Brownsville.

Thailand

Jim Paul of the Toronto Airport Vineyard reported from Thailand on June 26, 1995, as follows:

Meetings in Bangkok, Thailand increased each night to 1,700 by Saturday night, the third night.  The average attendance was 1,000 per night with morning session approximately 250‑300 at the Fourth Presbyterian Church.  An explosion took place Monday morning as I taught on the prophetic.  Weeping, praying, visions and prophecies rang through the building.  A specific vision of the harvest that Jesus would himself bring in was seen, also that Thailand would become a centre of revival for the region.

Regarding the Sunday night meeting, there was a great release of power.  Don felt it was a highlight of his service as a pastor, especially surprised by a friend interpreter, Prayoon Lim, a spiritual leader in the land.  There was an explosion of God, with 25 coming forward for salvation.  Because the closed circuit TV was not set up I directed a second service with 300 people in the overflow.  The testimonies were outstanding with people becoming drunk in the Spirit in the process.

Monday night, Sopal and Deborah, from Phnom Penh, Cambodia, gave testimony of how they entered the anointing and how their lives were changed.  They also shared how the fire . . . fell from heaven over their city.  He was shot to the floor during the testimony and then Deborah shared and she prayed for fire on Thailand, and the people entered into deep intercession.  She too was thrown to the ground. The wailing in the congregation went on for ten minutes in the crowd of 1,000.

The committee has extended the meetings both morning and night for three more days (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday), with Carol Low and Jimmy Dowds, from the Vine Church, Dunfemline, Scotland, staying on. Meetings are also planned for three days in the north and three days in the south.  Hunger for God is seen throughout the nation.

Mainland China

On September 19, 1995, Rolland E. Baker reported to Richard Riss that, in China, “The Toronto‑type manifestations began occurring last year, and Dennis [Balcombe] made a videotape  . . .   Dennis Balcombe is a pastor in Hong Kong whose church is responsible for bringing literally hundreds of thousands of Bibles into China, and Dennis himself has spent much time in the provinces of Henan and Anhui where revival is so strong.  It is quickly spreading to other provinces as well.  Last year Christianity Today did a cover story on his ministry and the human rights abuses against Christians that he has exposed to Congress and England's Parliament.  I . . . have . . . his personal email messages to me telling of many meetings where thousands began to laugh and fall under the Spirit."

On February 23, 1995, Dennis Balcombe reported to Rolland Baker as follows:

I just want to thank you for sending the file on the history of the revival.  It is really very interesting.  The Lord is doing the same thing all throughout China and even in Hong Kong. We were in Anhui two weeks ago where the Lord brought a tremendous spirit of joy and laughter. Sharon, who was interpreting for the American minister, just got lost in the Spirit with many of the Chinese preachers.

Also we had a tremendous release of the prophetic ministry as these brethren ministered to hundreds in China and almost everyone in our Church in a prophetic ministry.

Dennis Balcombe's videotape, released in May of 1995, is entitled “A New Spirit In China: The ‘Toronto Blessing’ in China and Mass Conversions.”  It contains live footage of Chinese Christians experiencing revival, and in a segment dated January 1, 1995 from the northern Onway province, people are can be seen experiencing, holy laughter and ‘drunkenness’ in the Spirit, falling to the floor, shaking, and vocalizing in unusual ways.

Russia

In an internet message from Siberia dated September 28, 1995, Michael Enos received word from the Resurrection Lutheran Worship Dance team from Charlotte, North Carolina as follows:

The worship and dance team consisted of seven women and five men.  The trip was organized and led by Dwight Marable who has given us much advice over the past four months.  Dwight has invited us to Kazakastan to preach to 750 leaders. . . .

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord came in power.  Russians were dropping everywhere, many can running up after one particular worship series and said they saw many angels.  One young boy came running up and said a carriage pulled up with all the angels around and the Lord stepped out and led a host of people and angels up a path. . . .

The Pastors were deeply touched and the wife had to be carried home drunk one night.  They laughed for days.  They were laughing, singing, dancing or crying for the past two weeks.  God met them powerfully, Many got saved and many more asked questions.

Prophetic Predictions of the Revival of 1993‑1995

In the January, 1995 issue of Charisma, p. 14, Cindy Jacobs wrote an article, “1995: A Critical Year,” in which she said that “many of the moves of God we are seeing in the 1990s were prophesied in the 1980s.  I remember two gatherings of prayer leaders held in 1986 ‑ one in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the other in Pasadena, California ‑ in which almost identical prophecies were given about a sweeping revival that would begin in Canada. As I write, sparks of revival are already leaping into the United States from Toronto!”

Wes Campbell, pastor of New Life Vineyard in Kelowna, B.C., Canada, also reported on some of the prophetic predictions of the awakening of 1993‑1995 in his book, Welcoming a Visitation of God (Lake Mary, FL: Creation House Publishers, 1995).  In the second chapter of his book, he provided detailed descriptions of prophetic revelations concerning the visitation of 1993‑1995 which were given to Mike Bickle, Larry Randolph, Paul Cain, Marc DuPont, Randy Clark (through others), and David Yonggi Cho.

© Richard M. Riss, 1995.  Used by permission.

The full text of this article may be found on the Internet at

http://www.grmi.org/renewal/Richard_Riss/history.html.

Reproduced from Renewal Journal 8: Awakening.

Revival Fires

Expanded version of Flashpoints of Revival

3

The River of God

6   The River of God

David Hogan

Pastor David Hogan is the founding leader of Freedom Ministries, a pioneering mission among remote Mexican mountain tribes.  This article is edited from a message he gave at Christian Outreach Centre in Brisbane, Australia.

______________________________________

Between 150 and 500 people

a month are being saved

______________________________________

A new move of the Holy Spirit has started.  It’s been all over the place.  It’s got a whole lot of different names, depending on what part of the world you’re from.  Some people call it ‘The River’, some people call it ‘The Refreshing’, some people call it the ‘Fire of Heaven’, others just call it plain ‘Revival of God’.  I don’t particularly care what we call it as long as we’re in it!

Our work is now so large that I have to take care of it, which means I have to protect it in the way of not allowing any false doctrine to get into it.  Westerners are real ‘faddish’ people and tend to jump into the latest thing for a little while, until it subsides and then people go back into their normal way of life.  Well I don’t agree with that.

I agree with Jesus and going and staying in the flow and allowing it to change you and be completely radical in the Holy Spirit.  You have to do things by faith.  Everything has to be done by faith or it’s sin.

I am responsible to the Holy Spirit for what happens to the people he’s given me.  And I’m not going to jump in just because America jumps in, or just because Australia jumps in, or New Zealand, or England or anybody else.  I’m going to jump in when the Holy Spirit jumps in our work.

Now that’s not to say I’m fighting it. I never was fighting, please understand.  I was not against the Refreshing, the River, the flow, the wind, the fire.  I never was against all that.  Every time I’d come out, or go around the world somewhere, I’d mix with everybody but I was being cautious.

So I went after God.  I told the Lord: “This is what we’re going to do God, and if I’m wrong you can do whatever you want to.  I am not going to preach this Refreshing, this Revival, in our work.  I will not teach one message on it.  I won’t allow anyone that comes from around the world to speak about it in our work till I see you divinely touch us as you have in the past.”

You may say, “You shouldn’t be that strict. You shouldn’t be that serious.”

Yes I should!  If you knew how hard it is for me to dig those Indians out of those hills, to get them born again, to get churches started, to get it established, then you’d understand why I’m so serious about how I undertake what I do in my ministry.

And it really happened, it really, really happened.

Miracles

We’ve had over 400 people raised from the dead in our work.  God can raise anybody from the dead.  It’s awesome to watch.

We had a lady the other day, just before I came over here, a 70 year old grandma, who was dead for about 14-16 hours.  The Holy Spirit touched her and raised her up, but it was after the whole family was brought in.  They washed her for burial.  They set her up on the altar in the house, and the whole town came through and acknowledged her death and gave respects to the people. Then God raised her from the dead!  Hallelujah!

It’s wonderful.  God can raise people from the dead, whoever he wants to.  And it doesn’t make me any different whether you believe it or not.  It matters that I believe.  It matters that our work believes.  It matters that Jesus is King.

We see the dead raised, the blinded eyes opened, the lame walking, and all sorts of tumours fall off people and every kind of miracle - tuberculosis is healed.  Yes we get that, we do get that and let me tell you something, that’s the very reason I was so cautious about going into this revival with the rest of the world; because I don’t want our work tainted at all.

Our work has got high integrity.  It’s new.  It’s fresh.  It’s just 20 years old and I want the thing to carry over into the next millennium with glory and honour and victory!  And we will, in Jesus’ name, if Jesus doesn’t come back.

So, I blocked it.  I wouldn’t allow people to talk about this new revival that’s taking place in the world.

People say, “You can’t tell people what to preach.”

I wasn’t telling them what to preach, I was telling them what not to preach.  They could preach on anything but this thing that was going on.

We are stuck up in the mountains.  It’s off the trail.  It’s not a beaten path.  It’s hard to get to.  It’s not an easy thing to accomplish, and so people never would come to see us.

But now we’re a thousand strong and we’ve got every kind of miracle known, so now everyone wants to come!    That’s fine, you can come, but there are certain things you’re not going to talk about.

The work must be protected.  It’s a worthy thing that God’s doing.  But God can do it because God wants to.  God can quicken the dead if he wants to.  I watched him do it, I’ve personally been in on 19 dead raisings and I know.  I have watched people.

We had a couple of girls that were dead for 3 days that were lying, covered in lime and the Holy Spirit brought them back from the dead.  It’s wonderful.  A couple of teenage girls.  They loved it when they got up, spitting that lime out of their mouths.

Remember Romans 4:20: Abraham ‘staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God.’

So, about the new wine.  I was blocking people, not God.  I wanted something that would last.

God’s visitation

I visited an outlying village.  It took 4 hours in a 4 wheel drive and then 2 hours on foot, uphill.  It’s very remote.  There’s no radio, no T.V., and no outside influences.  I was sitting up there in this little hut on a piece of wood against the bamboo wall on the dirt floor.  Chickens were walking around in there.

The pastor walked up to me.  He’s a little guy, and he was trembling.

He said, “Brother David, I’m really afraid I’ve made a mistake.”

I hadn’t heard of any mistakes.  I was wondering what had happened in the last few days.  He’s got four little churches in his area.

He said, “It’s not my fault.  I apologise.  I’ve done everything right, like you taught me.  I pray everyday.  I read the Bible.  I’m doing it right.  What happened is not my fault.”

I said, “What happened?  Come on, tell me what happened.”

He was trembling.  Tears were running out of his eyes.  He said, “Brother David, I got up in our little church.  I opened my Bible and I started preaching and the people started falling down.  The people started crying.  The people started laughing.  And it scared me.  I ran out of the church.”

That’s what I was looking for.  That’s what I was waiting for, when God came in our work, not because somebody came and preached it, not because I said it was okay or not okay, because I was neutral about it.  I knew it was all right, but I wanted to see it in our work not because I ushered it in, but because the Holy Spirit ushered it in.  And he did.

I got together with my pastors and we made a covenant to do a month’s fast in September 1995.  This was as well as the 3 days on and 3 days off fast that we had been doing that year anyway, so we were ready for whatever God wanted to do.  That year every day at least 365 people were fasting.

God hit me on the third day of that month of fasting, but I continued the fast and on the seventh day he hit me again greater than I’ve ever been hit in my life up to that point.  But we continued fasting for the whole month.

The River of God

Psalm 47:4-5 says, ‘There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God.  God is in the midst of her...’

I found the river.  It’s real.  The Shekinah presence of God has come into our work.  There is a river of God wider and deeper than we know.

The minute you think you are accomplishing something is the minute you should repent.  Find ways to keep yourself humble.  Look for ways to not be a ‘big shot’ and to stay in the river.  We are the habitation of God, Zion, God’s people.  He wants us flowing in the river.

It doesn’t matter what’s around us – bullets, knives, disease, the state of the economy.  It matters that our eyes are fixed on Jesus.

When the Holy Spirit fell on us there was war around us.  Bullets were being fired.  People were dying.

I don’t have words to describe what happened to us when the Holy Spirit fell on us on Friday 27 October 1995.  If you had been there, you wouldn’t have words to describe it either.

It’s an awesome thing I’ve been able to witness.

The river of God is here, and it’s full.  There’s plenty for all.

We were in an awesome time.  I didn’t know how deep we were in the river of God.  I’d been fasting for a month, and I didn’t know what was happening.    So I decided to get my pastors together in each section.  We had groups of about 30-75 pastors in each section.  I went into the most conservative area of our mission first, because I wanted to see what would happen.

At the first meeting, with about 75 of my pastors I got up, I opened my Bible, and I shared one or two verses.  Suddenly I felt, that’s enough.  They’re used to me preaching two hours sometimes, but it hadn’t been ten minutes.

I said, “Stand up.”  And they stood up.

I said, “Receive the River of Life.”

You should have seen it!  It looked like someone was hitting them with bats in the stomach and the head.  But nobody was touching them.  People were lying over benches, forward, backward, all over the place.  I was trying to help, but I couldn’t help.  People were just flying everywhere.  And these were ministers.

So I went through all the sections like that.  I got into one section, and they were glad to see me.  They hadn’t seen me in a few months.  I stood up.  I opened my Bible.  I read one verse about the fire of God, and the people started shaking.

I thought, “Oh God, this is way out.”

So I said, “Stand up.”  They tried to stand up.  Some of them couldn’t stand up.  I just said the word “Fire.”  And the whole place fell.

It was getting more and more scary to me.  But people were getting healed without anybody touching them.

A man in that meeting had been deaf for 27 years.  I didn’t know the man.  He fell over and hit his head on a bench, and fell underneath the bench.  He got up from there after a few minutes and he took off running out of the room.  His ears had unstopped and he was running from the noise!

Amazing conference

After I had been through all the sections, introducing this softly, it finally came time to call all the pastors together from the whole work.  A couple of hundred of our pastors came.  I wish you had been there to see what we saw!  It was amazing.

On the first day there were about 200 pastors there, and the whole church that was hosting us.  That made about 450 people.

The first day was awesome.  God hit us powerfully.  There were healings.  I was happy.  The people were encouraged.

The second day was even better.  It was stronger.  I thought we were peaking out on the second day.  I got there at 8 o’clock in the morning and left at 10 o’clock at night, and there was ministry all day.  We were fixing problems, and God was working through the ministry.  It was wonderful.

But I tell you, I was not ready for the third day.

We were coming in from different areas.  The Indians were all there.  I didn’t know they had been in an all night prayer meeting.  I didn’t know that the Holy Spirit had fallen on them and they couldn’t get up.  I didn’t know that they had been pinned down by the Holy Spirit all night long, all over the place, stuck to the ground.  Some of them had fallen on ant beds, but not one ant bit them.

I was staying about 45 minutes away.  I got in my 4 wheel drive and as I drove there I began listening on the two-way radio.  Some of our missionaries were already there, and were talking on the two-way radio saying, ‘What’s happening here.  I can’t walk.’

As I listened to them on the radio I felt power come on me.  And the closer I came, the more heat I felt settling on me.  I could feel heat, and I had my air conditioner going!

When I got to the little church, I opened the door of the truck and instantly became hot.  Sweat poured off me.  I was about 300 yards from the church.  The closer I got, the more intense was the heat.  I could hardly walk through it, it was so thick.  I’m talking about the presence of God.  That was 7.30 in the morning!

I walked around the corner of the building.  People were all over the place.  Some were knocked out.  Some were on the ground.  Some were moaning and wailing.  It was very unusual, and I could hardly walk.  By the time I got to the front of the church where the elders were I could hardly walk.  I was holding on to things to get there.  I could hardly breathe.

The heat of the presence of God was amazing.

The people had been singing for two hours before I got there.  At 8.15 on the morning of October 27th, 1995, I walked up there and lay my Bible down on that little wobbly Indian table.  Hundreds were looking at me.  Some were knocked out, lying on the ground.  I could hardly talk.

I called the nine elders to the front and told them the Holy Spirit was there and we needed to make a covenant together, even to martyrdom.  We made a covenant there that the entire country of Mexico would be saved.  They asked me to join them in that pact.

When we lifted our hands in agreement all nine fell at once.  I was hurled backward and fell under the table.  When I got up the people in front fell over.  In less than a minute every pastor there was knocked out.

We were ringed with unbelievers, coming to see what was going on.  The anointing presence of God came and knocked them all out, dozens of them.  Every unbeliever outside, and everyone on the fence was knocked out and fell to the ground.  There were dozens of them.

From the church at the top of the hill we could see people in the village below running out screaming from their huts and falling out under the Holy Spirit.  It was amazing.

We always have a section for the sick and afflicted.  They bring them in from miles around, some on stretchers.  There were 25-30 of them there.  Every sick person at the meeting was healed: the blind, the cancerous, lupus, tumours, epilepsy, demon possession.  Nobody touched them but Jesus.

There was instant reconciliation between people who had been against each other.  They were laying on top of each other, sobbing and repenting.

I was afraid when I saw all of that going on.  I looked up to heaven and said, “God what are you ... ?” and that was the end of it.  He didn’t want to hear any questions.  Bang!

I was about three or four metres from the table.  When I woke up some hours later, I was under the table.

When I finally woke up my legs wouldn’t work.  I scooted myself around looking at what was going on.  It was pandemonium!  When some people tried to get up, they would go flying.  It was awesome.

We had five open-eyed visions.

One small pastor was hanging onto a pole to hold himself up.  He was there, but he wasn’t there.  He said to me, ‘Brother David, look at him.  Look at him, Brother David!  Who is it?  Look how big he is!  Oh, he’s got his white robe on.  He’s got a golden girdle.’  It was Jesus.

He said, “Brother David, how did we get into this big palace?”

I looked around.  I was still on the dirt floor.  I still had a grass roof over me, but he was in a marble palace, pure white.

I crawled over to look at him.  He was seeing things we could not see.  Another of the elders, a prophet from America, who had been working with me for thirteen years, crawled over and we were watching this pastor who was in a trance.  It was amazing.

The three of us were inside something like a force field of energy.  Anybody who tried to come into it was knocked out.  It was scary.

The pastor said, ‘He’s got a list, Brother David.’  And he started reading out aloud from the list.

I was looking around, and as he was reading from the list people went flying through the air, getting healed and delivered.  It was phenomenal, what God was doing.  And he’s done it in every service in our work that I’ve been in since then.  It’s been over a year.  It’s amazing.  Wonderful.

Rev 22:1 says, “And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb.”

I saw that river.  I actually saw the river, its pure water of life from God’s throne.  If I could see it again I would know it.  I saw it.  I experienced it.  I tasted it.

God came because we waited, and listened.  We didn’t jump in at the first sprinkle.  We will keep it through prayer and fasting.

Between 150 and 500 people per month are being saved because of it, just through what the North American missionaries are doing.

Do you really want it?

Reproduced from Renewal Journal 9: Mission.

Blog on renewaljournal.com

Transforming Revivals

Part 2 of this book

3

The River of God

Part 2

Transforming Revivals

7  Solomon Islands                                                                           147

8  Papua New Guinea                                                             159

9  Vanuatu                                                                                         171

10  Fiji                                                                                                       179

11  Snapshots of Glory, by George Otis Jr                                 197

12  The Transformation of Algodao de Jandaira   239

Conclusion                                                                                        247

These stirring stories of revival with community and ecology transformation are compiled from articles in Flashpoints of Revival (2nd edition, 2009), South Pacific Revivals (2nd edition, 2011) and Revival Fires (2011),

3

Solomon Islands

South Pacific Revivals

3

Solomon Islands

7   Solomon Islands

Sir Peter and Lady Margaret Kenilorea,

the first Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands and his wife,

hosts of mission teams and visitors

Honiara and Malaita, 1970

The South Seas Evangelical Church and the Methodist Church (now the United Church) experienced strong revivals in the Solomon Islands.  Revivals also produced many independent churches and movements including many Pentecostal churches.

Muri Thompson, a Maori evangelist from New Zealand, visited the Solomon Islands in July and August, 1970, where the church had already experienced significant renewal and was praying for revival.  Many of these Christians were former warriors and cannibals, gradually won to Christ in spite of initial hostility and the martyrdom of early missionaries and indigenous evangelists.

Everywhere people were talking about what the Lord had done to them.  Many received healings and deliverance from bondage to evil spirits.  Marriages were restored and young rebels transformed.

Everywhere people were praying together every day.  They had a new hunger for God’s Word. People were sensitive to the Spirit and wanted to be transparently honest and open with God and one another.

The South Seas Evangelical Church Bible School constantly abandoned normal lectures as the Spirit took over the whole school with times of confession, prayer and praise.

Teams from these areas visited other islands, and the revival caught fire there also.  Eventually pastors from the Solomon Islands visited other Pacific countries, seeing similar moves of God there also.

Marovo Lagoon, 2000

Methodist missions established strong churches in New Georgia a hundred years ago.  These are now part of the United Church of the Solomon Islands.   Munda, on the south-west of New Georgia where the pioneers began, has the church’s headquarters with its administration, hospital and schools.  It lies 50 miles from Seghe on the south-east coast in the Marovo Lagoon with its 70 kilometres of lagoon with 1,000 islands.  Seghe Theological Seminary is the national Bible College for the United Church.

James Mitchener in Tales of the South Pacific said, “I think Segi Point, at the southern end of New Georgia, is my favourite spot in the South Pacific.  Behind the point, hills rise, laden with jungle.  The bay is clear and blue.  The sands of Segi are white.  Fish abound in the nearby channel.”  Seghe (formerly spelt Segi) in the south east of the island and Munda in its south west both have airstrips built with crushed coral during World War II.  That makes it easy to visit these areas.

Revival movements spread through the western Solomon Islands, especially in the Marovo Lagoon, beginning at Patituva in 2000.  Patutiva is a large village at the southern end of the lagoon, just across the lagoon from Seghi.

I visited the area in July 2003, and first saw this revival on Nusa Roviana Island near Munda.

I visited Seghe and Patutiva in the Marovo Lagoon where the revival had been spreading powerfully, especially among children and youth.  Some adults became involved, also repenting and seeking more of the Holy Spirit.  The revival included these effects:

Many youths that police used to check on because of alcohol and drug abuse became sober and on fire for God, attending daily worship and prayer meetings.  A man who rarely went to church was leading the youth singing group at Seghe.  Adults publicly confessed hatreds and many were reconciled after years of longstanding divisions and strife.

Worship was transformed, often held daily.  Communities changed.  God gave many revelations, especially words of knowledge about hidden things, including magic artefacts and good luck charms.  Jesus will have no rivals!  Children showed parents where they hid these things.  If other adults did that there would be anger and feuds, but they accepted it from their children.  One boy told police that a man accused of stealing a chain saw was innocent as he claimed, and the boy gave them the name of the culprit, by a ‘word of knowledge’.

Revival continued to spread throughout the region.  Revival movements brought moral change and built stronger communities in villages in the Solomon Islands.  Ashley Ngirah researched the revival and summed up the effects of the revival with these observations:

1. Revival brought higher moral standards.  People involved in the revival quit crime and drunkenness, and promoted good behaviour and co-operation.

2. Christians who once kept their Christianity inside churches and meetings talked more freely about their lifestyle in the community and among friends.

3. Revival groups, especially youth, enjoyed working together in unity, including a stronger emphasis on helping others in the community.

4. Families were strengthened in the revival.  Parents spent more time with their youth and children to encourage and help them, often leading them in Bible readings and family prayers.

5. More people began using new gifts and ministries including revelations and healing.  Even children received revelations or words of knowledge about hidden magic artefacts or ginger plants related to spirit power, and removed them.

6. Churches grew.  Many church buildings in the Marovo Lagoon have been pulled down to be replaced by much bigger buildings to fit in the crowds.  Offerings and community support have increased.

7. Unity.  Increasingly Christians unite in reconciliation for revival meetings, prayer and service to the community.

Confusion and suspicion continue however, as seems typical of all revivals.  Genuine manifestations of the Holy Spirit are sometimes mixed with excessive human reactions or demonic intrusions.  So we have been involved in helping people to understand and participate in these powerful outpourings of God’s Spirit.

As we keep praying for people to be filled with the Spirit, and as they learn to step out in faith and pray for others, revival spreads.  We don’t make it happen.  God does.  We co-operate with him.

Our revival mission teams constantly saw God touching people, and us, in powerful ways.  Many were filled with the Spirit.  Many discover new gifts of the Spirit in their lives.

Revival mission team, December 2003

South Pacific revival mission team at the home of

Sir Peter and Lady Margaret Kenilorea

A team of law students from the University of the South Pacific Christian Fellowship in Port Vila, Vanuatu, joined me with some others in Honiara and the Western Solomon Islands in December 2003.  Sir Peter and Lady Margaret Kenilorea hosted the team in Honiara.  Sir Peter was the first Prime Minster of the independent Solomon Islands, and was then the Speaker in the Parliament.

Dr Ronald Ziru, then administrator of the United Church Hospital in Munda in the western islands hosted the team there, which included his son Calvin.  The team had to literally follow Jesus’ instructions about taking nothing extra on mission because the airline left our luggage in Port Vila!  We found our bags at Honiara two weeks later after our return from the western islands.

The team first experienced the revival on Nusa Roviana Island across the lagoon from Munda.  We took the outboard motor canoe with Rev Fred Alizeru from Munda.  Children and youth lead the worship in a packed church.  Then many of them slept on the floor during the speaking and while the team prayed for the people.

We held meetings in the main church at Munda and in surrounding villages and churches as well.  Children and youth always responded freely.  They usually led the worship with revival songs.  Their simple, strong faith and ardent love for Jesus touched us all.  I really appreciated some of them praying for me with humble prophetic insight.  So many revival leaders are very young.

We taught in morning sessions about revival and answered questions.  One mother, for example, asked about the meaning of her young son’s vision of Jesus standing with one foot in heaven and one foot on the earth.  What a beautiful, powerful picture of Jesus’ claim that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him (Matthew 28:18), seen in a child’s vision.

Those powerful, yet simple and natural effects of revival in strong worship, visions, revelations, healings and deliverance continued to spread throughout the Solomon Islands.

Guadalcanal Mountains, 2006

I led a different revival mission team of 22 visiting the Solomon Islands for a month in November-December 2006.  Most of them came from Pentecost Island, Vanuatu, on their first international mission. The rest came from Brisbane – an international group of Bible College students (from Holland, England, Korea, and Grant Shaw who grew up in China) plus Jesse Padayachee, an Indian healing evangelist originally from South Africa, now in Brisbane, who joined the team for the last week.  Jerry Waqainabete and his wife Pam (nee Kenilorea), participated in Honiara.  Rev Gideon Tuke, a United Church minister, organized the visit.  Gideon had been one of my students at the Uniting Church Theological College in Brisbane and joined me in revival mission trips to churches in South Australia as well as in Queensland, and also in Vanuatu.

In the Solomon Islands the revival team of 15 from Vanuatu and 6 from Brisbane visited villages in the Guadalcanal Mountains, three hours drive and seven hours trekking from Honiara.  We held revival meetings in November 2006 to encourage revival leaders.   The team trekked up mountain tracks to where revival was spreading, especially among youth.  Those young people went in teams to the villages to sing, testify, and pray for people.  Many gifts of the Spirit were new to them.  The team prayed for the sick and for anointing and filling with the Spirit.  They prayed both in the meetings and in the villages.

Mathias and Grant with leaders on Prayer Mountain in the Guadalcanal Mountains of the Solomon Islands

Revival in the Guadalcanal Mountains started at the Bubunuhu Christian Community High School on July 10, 2006, on their first night back from holidays.  They took teams of students to the villages to sing, testify, and pray for people, especially youth.  Many gifts of the Spirit were new to them - prophecies, healings, tongues, and revelations (such as where adults hid magic artefacts).

Choiseul Island, 2006

We saw1200 youth gather in the far west Solomon Islands for a national convention where again God moved powerfully on them.  “I was deeply touched and feel like I have left a part of myself in Choiseul,” Grant Shaw in our team noted.  “God did an amazing thing with the young people and I really believe that he is raising up some of them to be mighty leaders in revival.”

A young man who was healed that night returned to his nearby village and prayed for his sick mother and brother.  Both were healed immediately.  He told the whole convention about that the next morning at the meeting, adding that he had never done that before.

A study group at the National Christian Youth Convention

At Choiseul Island in the western Solomon Islands

The delegation from Kariki islands further west, returned home the following Monday.  The next night they led a meeting where the Spirit of God moved in revival.  Many were filled with the Spirit, had visions, were healed, and discovered many spiritual gifts including discerning spirits and tongues.  That revival has continued, and spread.

Youth from the Kariki at the national convention

saw revival begin in their islands straight after the convention

Revival Movements, 2007

Many revival movements continue to spread in the Solomon Islands.  Visiting teams have participated and encouraged leaders.

Honiara, the capital has seen many touches of revival.  A week of evening revival meetings spontaneously erupted in Wesley United Church in Honiara in September 2007.  That was the first time they had had such a week of revival meetings, including joining with youth of other churches.  Calvin Ziru, their youth leader had been worship leader in the law student team we hosted in Brisbane in 2002.  He was then legal advisor to the parliament in the Solomon Islands, ideally placed to lead combined churches youth revival meetings and also help in the parliamentary Christian fellowship.

Seghe lies at the south east point of New Georgia in stunning scenery.  We held revival meetings at the Theological Seminary at Seghe in the fantastic Marovo Lagoon – 70 kilometres with hundreds of tropical bush laden islands north and west of New Georgia Island.  Morning teaching sessions, personal prayers in the afternoons and night revival meetings, with worship led by the students, filled an eventful week in September 2007.  That was the first time the seminary held such a week.  Meetings included two village revival services in the lagoon, including a long one at Patutiva village, where revival started in Easter 2003.  That meeting went from 7 p.m. to 1.30 a.m. with about 1,000 people!  We prayed personally for hundreds after the meeting ‘closed’ at 11 p.m.

Simbo.  A tsunami ravaged Gizo and Simbo islands in April 2007.  It smashed all the Simbo canoes, except Gideon’s and his brother’s which were then on the ocean on the two hour trip from Simbo to Gizo.  Strong moves of the Spirit continue on Simbo.  Tapurae village on Simbo has hosted many revival meetings.  It was wiped out by the tsunami, so the villagers relocated to higher ground.  Those villagers have a revival prayer team of 30, and no one from that village needed medical help from the clinic in three years since they started regularly praying for the sick, laying on hands and casting out spirits.

Gizo, the provincial capital of the Western Region, is the Solomon Islands’ second largest town.  Its unique airstrip fills a small island near the town, with its pressed coral runway covering the whole length of the island.  Travellers ride in a canoe or a launch across to the town.  The central United Church hosted revival meetings in October 2007.   The Premier of the region asked penetrating questions and joined those who came out for prayer.  He testified that he was immediately healed from stress-related head pain and tension.

Healings and testimonies have been a normal part of revival movements in the Solomon Islands and in the South Pacific.  People see these as usual and to be expected when the Spirit of God is moving among them as in revival meetings or in personal prayers for one another.

Gizo’s small island airstrip

Taro. The regional centre for Choiseul province in the west Solomon Islands hosted an amazing week of unprecedented unity among all the churches, the United Church, SDAs, Catholics and Anglicans.  The meetings included 30 leaders from Kariki in the Shortland Islands region, further west.  Revival started in Kariki the day after leaders returned from the National Christian Youth Convention in Choiseul Island the previous December.

The region’s premier and officials attended a meeting at the regional parliament house, which included praying with people afterwards.  So did the director for medical services and his staff at a meeting at the hospital.  Others gathered at the Catholic Church for a meeting and personal prayer there.  Each night we held combined churches revival meetings on the soccer field, with huge responses for prayer every night.  Pastor Mathias from Vanuatu shared in speaking and led worship in the prayer groups.

In all these places people made strong commitments to the Lord, and healings were quick and deep. Both in Vanuatu and in the Solomon Islands the people said that they could all understand my English, even those who did not speak English, so they did not need an interpreter.  Another miracle.

International mission team at Honiara airport

Gideon (Solomons), Jerry (Fiji), Jesse, Grant (Australia), Sunim (Korea), Christopher, Marry, Arjen (Netherlands)

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Papua New Guinea

8   Papua New Guinea

Revival spread throughout the rugged, isolated tribal communities of Papua New Guinea, often sparked by visits from Solomon Island pastors, following their revival of 1970.

South Pacific Revivals (2010) gives fascinating details of many local revivals in Papua New Guinea, omitted here.  This chapter focuses on recent transforming revivals which changed communities and the ecology.

Healing the Land, 2006-2007

Walo and Namana Ani

Rev Walo Ani and his wife Namana describe community transformation through revival and Healing the Land (HTL) on the south coast of Papua New Guinea.

Karawa Village

It was a very exciting week in August 2006 where we saw the Lord move mightily in the lives of the village elders, chiefs, church leaders and the people.  A group of dedicated young people’s prayer ministry team started praying and fasting from 1st of July for the HTL Process. We witnessed repentance, forgiveness and reconciliations between family and clan members, and between individuals.

The Lord went ahead and prepared the hearts of people in every home as we visited.  They were ready to confess their sins and ask for forgiveness from each other and reconcile.  In some homes, members of families gave their hearts to the Lord.  Visitation of homes took two days.  On the third morning, after the dedication of the elements of salt, oil and water, the village elders and chiefs publicly repented as they identified with sins of their forebears; and each of them publicly gave their clans to the Lord.

Three dinghies and a big canoe with people all went in different directions up several rivers and along the nearby coast to anoint specific places for cleansing that had been defiled through deaths and killings in the past.

That night there was a time of public confession and renouncement of things that were a hindrance in the lives of the people around a huge bonfire.  It was a solemn night; the presence of the Lord was so powerful that people were coming forward and burning their witchcraft and charms publicly.  No one could hold back, even the deacons and church elders, village elders, women and young people were all coming forward.  Young people started confessing their sins and renouncing and burning drugs, cigarettes and things that were hindering their lives from following Christ.

A young man, who had murdered another young man about 11 years ago, came forward and publicly confessed his sin and asked for forgiveness from the family of the murdered man.  That was a big thing; there was a pause and we waited and prayed for someone from the other side to respond.  Only the Lord could do this.

The younger brother of the man who was killed came out finally, and offered forgiveness.  We could hear crying among the people; it was a moving moment where God just took control.  Mothers, brothers and members of both extended families became reconciled in front of the whole village.  We could sense the release upon both families and village.  It was an awesome time; the meeting went on into the early hours of the next morning.  At the end of all this at about 2am the pastor stood up and said the prayer to invite Jesus into the community.

The village is not the same; you can sense the release and freedom of Christ in the lives of the people.  The Holy Spirit is still moving in people’s lives and they are coming to their pastor for prayer.  Recently, a young man surrendered two guns to the pastor.  News of what God has done and is still doing has spread to neighbouring villages.  God birthed a new thing in our area and I believe that many more villages will see the transforming power of God because they are hungry and desperate to see change in their communities.

Update, February 2007

Walo did three nights of HTL follow up in Karawa village and reported that the meetings in the village were packed.  He spoke on the bow and arrow concept – reliable bows enable reliable arrows to hit the mark (reliable parents are like the bows).  The people were asked to bring their bows and arrows.  They brought their bows but interestingly no one had any arrows.  That was really a challenge and eye opener to everyone.  The HTL prayer team has taken on board the bow and arrow concept and they are going to do house to house visitation to explain this concept.  Three widowers and several widows were rededicated to the Lord. They were anointed with oil and prayed that untimely death will not occur in the village any more.

Walo reported that there were a lot of testimonies arising seven months after the HTL Process.  Two water wells which had a salty taste were anointed with oil and now have good fresh water in them.  One of the rivers that was anointed and prayed for now has fresh water instead of salty water half way up the river.

Alukuni, one of the villages which experienced their pigs being stolen by the Karawa young people over the years, testified that since HTL in Karawa none of their pigs had been stolen so far.  Righteousness is rising up in the village.

The king tides in January to March usually caused floods in the middle of Karawa village dividing the village in two.  After the HTL Process last August, the 2007 king tides have not caused any flooding.  Praise the Lord!

A barren woman conceived after one of the visitation teams dealt with the generational curses holding her in bondage for sixteen years.  Nine months after the Karawa HTL Process she gave birth to a beautiful baby boy named Simon.

There is abundance of fruit and garden food and two harvests of fruit on the orange trees have been observed so far.

A hunger for prayer has risen among the young people.  Straight after the HTL Process young people from one of the clans started a prayer group which is still going on.  Two other clans started prayer groups after a lot of struggle to get going over the years.  The HTL team was the main support behind “Kids Games” which were held December 2006 in the neighbouring village of Keapara.

The studies were on Joseph and when they came to the section on forgiveness the Lord moved in a powerful way and revival started among the children.  They stood and asked for forgiveness from their parents.  There was crying and reconciliation between children and parents.  The Lord is arresting the hearts of the young, the old and the children and there is no holding back.

One Year Thanksgiving, October 2007

Karawa is still experiencing the blessings of God with abundance of crabs, fish and garden produce.  The economic life of the village is growing stronger.  There have also been some challenges.

A week before we arrived there had been a murder of one of the Karawa men who was living in his wife’s village nearby.  He went missing for three days on his fishing trip.  All the Karawa people prayed during this time and search parties went out to look for him.  On the third day they found his body and thanked God, as in the past people missing on fishing trips were never found.  The testimony from this is the Lord kept all the Karawa young men calm although the urge to take the law into their own hands was there.  They testified that if it had not been for the transforming work of the Lord in their lives since the HTL Process, they would have caused trouble in the nearby village.

One of the things prayed for was good education for their children, especially the smaller ones who do elementary schooling and did not have proper classrooms.  Nine months after the HTL Process, Karawa which was the second last on the list of applications for school funding, was brought up to second priority and their application was approved.  A semi-trailer loaded with building materials for two classrooms worth K75,000 (Kina, about AU$35,000) arrived in the village.  The classrooms have now been built and the children are using them.  Only the Lord could have done this.

Makirupu Village

Makirupu is about 2 hours drive east of Port Moresby, with a population of about 600.  The United Church was the established church there and CRC and AOG have also planted churches there in recent years which caused a lot of offences between families.

In March 2007, we had eight days for the HTL Process, two teaching sessions in the mornings and one at night.  From 2‑5.30 pm for four days the prayer team did house to house visitation of all of the 126 homes in the village.  The HTL team of seven and the prayer team all fasted and prayed for those eight days.  The teaching was done in the language people understood very well.

The Lord moved in a mighty way convicting people of land disputes, immorality and fornication, fear of witchcraft and sorcery (fear was at its peak when the HTL Process began), lies, gambling, stealing, marriage problems, witchcraft, sorcery and charms and many other issues.  Miracles of healing started from day one; people who were deaf began to hear, their ears were healed.

From research I had done we discovered that the mission land was defiled by three previous pastors who had ministered in the village and who had committed adultery and fornication in the last 30 years, the last one about 18 months before.  This involved the last pastor and a young girl in the church behind the pulpit areas in the church building.  That pastor was suspended from ministry.

There was a court case between the family of the young girl (who defended her saying she was innocent) and the deacons of the church.  There was actual physical fighting as well.  This case involved the whole village; almost all the young people left the church.  Because of this, the life and attendance of the services were affected.  The life of the church was slowly dying away.  This issue was never resolved properly; it was like a dark shadow hanging over the whole village.  Our first focus of prayer would be the cleansing of the mission land.

On the second night of prayer this evil manifested itself in a snake that lay across the doorway of the current pastor’s house.  The prayer team killed it on the spot.  The next morning I spoke on Roots and Foundations and how curses come into communities and defile the land and people.  That night we had a time of identification repentance and the current pastor came forward and repented on behalf of the three former pastors of adultery and fornication.  Something happened in the heavenlies.  A deacon came forward and repented on behalf of the deacons, followed by a women’s leader all repenting of the same sin and their involvement in it.  More people came out and confessed.

The presence of the Lord was very heavy in the church.  I asked if there was anyone to repent on behalf of the young people and the young girl who had committed fornication and adultery with the last pastor came forward, trembling and crying, confessing, repenting and asking for forgiveness from God and the whole village.  The people were amazed at what God was doing.  Only He could do that.

The girl who had denied outright what she had done 18 months ago was arrested by God’s presence and could not hide any more.  A Sunday School representative came forward and repented and asked for forgiveness.  A former deacon could not hold back.  He came forward and confessed that he had been the messenger boy for the pastor and the girl and he said sorry to the Lord for denying Him.

Because of this incident 18 months ago, all the young people had left the church but when the air was cleared, the next day all the young people came and the church building was full to capacity.  The fear of the Lord entered the hearts of the people.  That same night the anointing elements were mixed and the mission land was anointed, cleansed and rededicated to God.  It was an awesome time.

The AOG pastor also asked for forgiveness from the United Church for leaving the church and causing division.  He and his wife and all his church members were part of the prayer warrior team right from day one of the Process.  A couple of days later the CRC members started joining us and by the end of the Process all three churches were united to see change in the community. The prayer warrior team grew from 7 to 40.  Praise God!

The next day news of what had happened had reached everyone in the village and the nearby villages and more people came for the meetings.  They were hungry to hear the Word of the Lord.  The next few days people were seeing signs and wonders, something they had never experienced before.  Revival had started and the fear of God came upon the people.  Also on the third day the village chief invited Jesus into the community.

On the last day the whole village gathered at the spot where the village was started some five or six generations ago.  Anointing oil was mixed and all the chiefs and village elders were anointed and reinstated.  After that, groups of people and prayer team took oil to certain places previously defiled because of bloodshed in the past on garden land.  They anointed these places while deacons took oil to the boundaries of the village and the beach and dedicated the land back to God.

After lunch everyone came back to the village and started a bonfire.  Church deacons and leaders were the first ones to come forward with confessions of adultery, immorality and witchcraft.  Families with land disputes came out and reconciled with people they had taken to court.  Young people came out with charms and magic and burnt them in the fire.  A mother came out with her ten year old daughter and confessed she had handed down her sorcery and magic to her and said she was sorry, asking for forgiveness from God.  Both were prayed for.  Husbands and wives reconciled, artefacts of magic and idolatry were burnt.  God was doing His cleaning up in the lives of the people.

The next day we had a time of celebration and you could see the release and freedom in people’s lives; singing was coming from their hearts and joy was bubbling over.  The Lord had again touched people’s hearts and His presence was so evident that the people did not want to stop celebrating, although it was getting dark and there was no light.

The land and the people are being healed.  The day after the Process a couple of men went crabbing and caught bigger and more crabs than usual.

A week later a lady went to her garden to find that the bad weed which had been a problem to most gardens had started to wither and die.  She went back to the village and told everyone.

The fear that had gripped the hearts of the people had also been broken in prayer and now women are going to their gardens on their own – something they could not do before.  A few days after the HTL Process, men began to go fishing and to their surprise they were catching more and bigger fish than before.

There has been a case of instant healing of a patient with a stroke after the AOG pastor and his wife shared with her family about Roots and Foundations and how curses come into lives.  The whole family confessed, repented and reconciled with each other.

The pastor’s wife had some of the oil that was mixed in the village the week before and began anointing the lady while they prayed.  To their surprise, she was healed instantly.  She began to speak and eat on her own.  The pastor said he had never experienced anything like this before.  The presence of the Lord was so great they all started worshipping Him and time was not an issue any more.  Praise God for this miracle!

During the Process, the pastors of the AOG, the United Church and an Elder of the CRC church, standing on behalf of the pastor, all repented of all the offences and misunderstandings between them in the past.  So now the three churches have decided to have a combined service once a month in the middle of the village.  The young people from all three churches are already having combined prayer meetings and they are in the process of building a big shelter in the middle of the village for the combined church services.

Update 6 months after the HTL Process

A couple of months after the HTL Process a security firm from the city turned up in the village and recruited all the young men who had been stealing and causing problems.  These young men had been stealing pigs and other things and then reselling them in the city.  One of them could not fit into city life so he went back to the village.  He stole a pig and when his family found out they chased him out of the village.  He went to stay with relatives in another village and in the process found the Lord there!

The villagers reported there has not been any stealing since the men were employed.  There has also been increase in their garden produce, fruit and nut trees.  The people are able to see their own produce come to maturity and sell it, whereas in the past it would have been stolen.

Makirupu and one of the nearby villages are known for getting floods during heavy rains.  One month before we got there, it had been raining heavily but the Lord has kept the floods away.  This is an answer to the people’s prayers.  However, the other village got the floods and we got to see some of the houses still surrounded by flood waters when we were there.  It surely is amazing!

The sea is dedicated to God

Kalo Village

Kalo is the village where in 1881 four Cook Island missionaries and their families were killed.  The killings were led by the chief of one of the clans.  Walo had three meetings with the clan leaders and the history was told and confirmed.  Since the killings this particular clan has been under a curse and the whole village is also affected by it.  The leaders and the people of this clan know that they are under a curse and they are desperate to be freed from it.  There have been unexplained deaths, not many of their children go beyond high school; those that go to work in towns don't last long and they lose their jobs.

The outcome of the talks is that the leaders of this clan called all their families together, from far and near to come and start the repentance and reconciliation Process.  This was supported by the pastor and all the Church and clan leaders of Kalo.  It was a moving occasion and the leaders agreed to proceed with the HTL Process and a bigger reconciliation event with the relatives of the Cook Island missionaries present in the near future.

Every year at their Church anniversary the Kalo people used put on the play of the landing of the Cook Island missionaries and their killings but straight after putting on this play, someone always died.  They cannot explain it and they don’t put it on any more.  After talks with Walo, they have decided to do the play again but this time including a time of repentance, forgiveness and reconciliation after the play.[1]

Healing the Land involved community repentance, reconciliation and rededication of all the people to God, along with acknowledging our stewardship under God for the land and the sea.  This commitment continues to spread throughout the South Pacific islands, especially in Fiji, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and also the Solomon Islands.

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Vanuatu

Papua New Guinea village baptisms

3

Vanuatu

9   Vanuatu

Vanuatu village pastors pray in revival meetings

Pastors Rolanson and Owen pray for leaders on South Pentecost

Vanuatu, formerly called the New Hebrides, is a nation of over 80 islands between the Solomon Islands and Fiji.  It has seen many revival movements.  More details of local revivals are included in South Pacific Revivals (2010).  This chapter focuses on community and ecological transforming revivals.

Healing the Land, 2006-2007

Pastors Walo Ani and Harry Tura[2] tell how revival transformed whole communities in Vanuatu, including healing of the land.

Hog Harbour, Espiritu Santo

The island was named Espiritu Santo because that is the island where over 400 years ago in May 1606 Ferdinand de Quiros named the lands from there to the South Pole the Great Southland of the Holy Spirit.

After hearing about the Healing the Land stories of Fiji, Pastor Tali from Hog Harbour Presbyterian Church invited the Luganville Ministers Fraternal to run a week of HTL meetings in Hog Harbour village.

In April 2006 the Fraternal, under the leadership of Pastor Raynold Bori, conducted protocol discussions with the Hog Harbour community leaders and explained to them what the Process involves.  In May 2006 six pastors from Luganville did the HTL Process and God’s presence came on the people that week.

Here are some of the stories of Healing the Land in a village of 800 people:

     Married couples were reconciled.

     Schools of big fish came to the shores during the reconciliation.

     A three year old conflict, bloodshed and tribal fighting that could not be stopped by the police, ended with reconciliation.

     The presence of the Lord came down on the village.

In June of 2006, 12 pastors from the Luganville Fraternal were invited by the Litzlitz village on Malekula Island to do the HTL Process there.  These pastors spent three weeks teaching and doing the Process during which many instances of reconciliation and corporate repentance were witnessed.  Village chiefs and the people committed their community to God.

One year later the President of Vanuatu re-covenanted the Nation to God on the island of Espiritu Santo.

Pastor Harry Tura, then pastor of Bombua Apostolic Church in the main town of Luganville Espiritu Santo Island, adds these stories of transforming revival in Vanuatu.

I wish to indicate to you what God is doing now in Vanuatu these days as answers to your prayers, and ask that you continue to pray for us.

Litzlitz Village, Malekula Island

I went to Litzlitz village community on the island of Malekula on Sunday, June 4, 2006, and the Transformation activities started on the same day.  The study activities and the process of healing the land closed on the following Sunday, June 11.  The presence of the Lord was so real and manifested and many miracles were seen such a people healed, dried brooks turned to running streams of water, fish and other sea creatures came back to the sea shores in great number and even the garden crops came alive again and produced great harvests.

Miracles happened three days after the HTL Process:

     The poison fish that usually killed or made people sick became edible and tasty again.

     The snails that were destroying gardens all died suddenly and didn’t return.

     As a sign of God’s transforming work a coconut tree in the village which naturally bore orange or red coconuts started bearing bunches of green coconuts side by side with the red ones.

     A spring gushed out from a dried river bed and the river started flowing again after the anointing oil was poured on it when people prayed and repented of all the sins of defilement over the area.

     A kindergarten was established in the village one week after the HTL Process took place.

     Crops are now blessed and growing well in their gardens.

Vilakalak Village, West Ambae Island

On Tuesday June 20, 2006, I flew to Ambae Island to join the important celebration of the Apostolic Church Inauguration Day, June 22.  After the celebration I held a one-week Transformation studies and activities of healing the land at Vilakalak village community.  It began on Sunday June 25 and closed on Saturday July 1, 2006.

A lot of things had been transformed such as people’s lives had been changed as they accepted Christ and were filled with the Holy Spirit for effective ministries of the Gospel of Christ.

The Shekinah glory came down to the very spot where we did the process of healing the land during the night of July 1.  That great light (Shekinah glory) came down.  People described it as a living person with tremendous and powerful light shining over the whole of the village community, confirming the Lord’s presence at that specific village community area.  On the following day people started to testify that a lot of fish and shell fish were beginning to occupy the reefs and they felt a different touch of a changed atmosphere in the village community.  I flew back to Santo on Tuesday, July 4.

The lands and garden crops then started to produce for great harvests, and coconut crabs and island crabs came back in great abundance for people’s daily meals these days.  The people were very surprised at the look of the big sizes of coconut crabs harvested in that area.  I went there a month later to see it.  You can’t believe it that the two big claws or arms were like my wrist when I compared them with my left wrist.  That proved that the God we serve is so real and he is the owner of all the creatures.

We started the Transformation studies and activities at my church beginning on Monday, July 17, and closed on Sunday, July 23, 2006.  After the Transformation studies and activities had been completed, we did the final process of healing the land on Sunday, July 23.  As usual the Shekinah glory of the Lord’s presence appeared the following night of Monday, July 24.  The people were amazed at the scene.  That confirmed that God is at work at that specific area.

A lot of changes are taking place at our church base and its environment - the land, the sea, and the atmosphere above us.  People experience the same blessings as the others had been through.

On Sunday, August 13, 2006, I took a flight to West Ambae again because the Walaha village community had requested me to carry out the Transformation studies and activities and healing of the lands in their area.

The Transformation studies started on Monday, August 14.  Again the presence of the Lord came down (Shekinah glory) on the whole village community early on Wednesday night and they all witnessed the scene the following day.  They were very excited and began praising God all over the place. I took a flight back to Santo on Tuesday, August 22.

The revival is now taking place at that particular community and lives are totally changed and people turned out to be experiencing a mighty difference of atmosphere and have been transformed to people of praise and worship.

All sorts of fish are coming back to the reef and garden crops came green and are now beginning to produce a great abundance of harvest at the end of this year by the look of it now.

This is all the hand of the Lord who does the work which is based on the transformation key verse in 2 Chronicles 7:14, which reads:

“If my people who are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and forgive their sins and heal their land.”

Lovanualikoutu Village, West Ambae

Walo Ani and a team conducted more of the HTL Process in Vanuatu.

In 2004 Walo was invited by a pastor in West Ambae to do the HTL Process there.  It wasn’t until May 2007 that a small team consisting of Pastor Walo Ani, Deryck and Nancy Thomas of Toowoomba Queensland and Tom Hakwa from Lovanualikoutu village (who then worked for Telekom Vanuatu in Port Vila) flew to West Ambae to do the HTL Process.  The protocol was done by Tom some months before the team’s arrival and a prayer team was already praying and fasting a month before the actual event took place.  Deryck and Nancy coordinated the home visitation teams and saw many miracles of people restored to the Lord and witchcraft destroyed.  The Chief said the sinner’s prayer on behalf of the community one night and they all surrendered their lives to the Lord as he invited Jesus into the village.

In the morning of the last day one of the teams was trying to pray down a stronghold in the bush when a bone fell through a hollow tree, taking them by surprise.  They all jumped back but then stepped forward and dealt with it once and for all.  Many taboo (sacred) places were demolished and items of witchcraft and idolatry were burnt in a bonfire as reconciliations flowed till after midnight.

Also on that morning a team of people swam out to sea with the anointing oil to worship there and dedicate the sea and reef back to God.  The day after the team’s departure from the village a pastor who went out spear fishing saw a large migration of fish.  He in fact reportedly speared two fish together at one stage.  When he reported this to the Chief there was dancing and rejoicing under the cocoa trees where the Chief and some young people had been working.

During the reconciliation when the Chief began to speak, a light shower fell from the sky. There were no clouds but only a sky full of millions of stars. Surely God was in this Process!  The prayer team continues to see visions and witness miracles of more reconciliation and repentance.  Harvests from sea and land have begun to be more abundant than ever before witnessed.

Flashpoints of Revival

3

Snapshots of Glory

10   Fiji

Burning artefacts used for witchcraft during Healing the Land

with repentance, reconciliation and rededication

Fijians have seen many powerful moves of God’s Spirit such as when churches joined in unity and repentance in 2001 following the coup and rioting in 2000.  See the Sentinel Group’s DVD, “Let the Seas Resound.”  Here are a few more local examples of touches of revival.

Law students from the Christian Fellowship (CF) of the University of the South Pacific experienced strong touches of revival at their Christian Fellowship (CF) in 2002 at their Law School in Vanuatu.  The leaders were mostly from Fiji.  They grew strong in faith.

Jerry Waquainabete, one of the Fijian students, returned home after their mission visit to Australia, and prayed for over 70 sick people in his village, seeing many miraculous healings.  His transformed life challenged the village because he had been converted at CF at the law school after a wild time as a youth in the village.   The following year, 2003, Jerry led revival in his village.  He prayed early every morning in the Methodist Church.  Eventually some children and then some of the youth joined him early each morning.  By 2004 he had 50 young people involved, evangelising, praying for the sick, casting out spirits, and encouraging revival.

By 2009 Pastor Jerry, then a lawyer, led a church in Suva, the capital, and also one in his seaside village of Kiuva, just north of Suva.  The Spirit of God moved strongly in those churches.

I appreciated opportunities to lead revival mission teams, which included Jerry, in Australia, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, and Fiji.

Lautoka and Navua, 2007-2008

I also appreciated being part of the combined Kenmore Baptist Church (KBC) and Christian Outreach Centre (COC) teams in Fiji in 2007-8.  Team leaders returned many times after that also.  The teams, led by senior pastor Ric and Anne Benson and pastor Jesse and Cookie Padayachee, worked with the COC churches in Lautoka in the west and Navua on the Coral Coast in the south east.  We saw many saved and healed in morning visits to villages, as well as at the large night meetings.

A ‘magic man’ in one village came for prayer after seeing healings in his village.  Three women and a man who had done fire walking from another village made commitments to Christ, renounced their spirit involvement and were healed from constantly itchy skin irritations on their legs.  Jesse prayed for 11 people in the Suva hospital who were then sent home soon afterwards.

In spite of political turmoil in Fiji, and perhaps because of it, God is moving strongly in many communities and churches.  Even the police in Fiji have been involved in evangelism, with police bands leading worship, and Christian police preaching, all in uniform.  Some of them argue that where they are involved in evangelism the crime rate has dropped dramatically!

Suva, 2007-2009

Lawyers and leaders at Navua revival meetings

Seini and Jerry with Mathias (from Vanuatu) in centre

I visited the young lawyers I had hosted for a month in Brisbane in November 2002 when they were students.  In Australia, I drove them around and took them to meetings, and now they drove me around and took me to meetings!

I spoke at the combined inter-tertiary Christian Fellowships prayer rally weekend in October 2008.  The Fiji School of Medicine Christian Fellowship organised and led it.  Over 500 tertiary students met for two nights of worship and prayer.

The Fiji School of Medicine Christian Fellowship has about 200 doctors in training with some trainee dentists.  They impressed me.  Their leaders seek God, and respond strongly to him.  Their worship team led the combined campuses rally on the Friday and Saturday nights.  Buses brought in groups from the various universities and colleges.  Different Christian Fellowship (CF) groups presented powerful Pacific dances to strong Christian songs.  The prayer team prayed personally for over an hour at the end of each meeting for the hundreds of tertiary students who responded, while the School of Medicine CF continued to lead appropriate and anointed worship.

Romulo reported: “Inter-tertiary went very well at Suva Grammar School that was hosted by Fiji School of Medicine CF.  It was an awesome two nights of fellowship with God and with one another.  The Pacific Students for Christ combined worship was a huge blessings for those that attended the two nights of worship. Pastor Geoff spoke on Obedience to the Holy Spirit - this being a spark to revival and power.

“Students came in droves for prayers and the worship lit up the Grammar School skies with tears, repentance, anointing and empowerment. The worship by Fiji School of Medicine students brought us closer to intimate worship with the King. It was a Pacific gathering and each and every person there was truly blessed as young people sought a closer intimate relationship with the King. We were blessed beyond words. Thank you all for the prayers, the thoughts and the giving.”

Roneil, a Fijian Indian, added, “It was all so amazing, so amazing that words can’t describe it.  For me, it was obvious that the glory of God just descended upon the people during the Inter-tertiary CF.  I’ve never seen an altar call that lasted for way more than an hour.  I myself just couldn’t get enough of it.  It was and still is so amazing.  God’s anointing is just so powerful.  Hallelujah to Him Who Was, Who Is and Who is to Come.”

Similar scenes have been repeated in the following years as well.  University and college students responded in huge numbers.  We prayed for hundreds of them.  Their leaders do that constantly also.

I was deeply moved to see God’s Spirit powerfully present at two congregations of the Redeemer Christian Church of God.  Pastor Jerry is senior pastor of their churches in Samabula, Suva, and in his seaside home village of Kiuva north of Suva. Romulo described part of our visit in 2009 this way:

“Two of the memorable highlights were the washing of leaders’ feet at RCCG Samabula and the worship service on Wednesday at RCCG Kiuva village.  In fact I remember picking up the pastors on Sunday morning, and seeing Pastor Geoff carrying towels, I said to myself, “This is going to be fun.”  And fun it was.

“God was teaching the church the principles of servanthood, demonstrated not just by words but by actions.  It was a moving experience as Pastor Geoff on his knees started washing feet, drying them with a towel and speaking into the lives of leaders.  Powerful also was the fact that Pastor Geoff’s leading was to wash the feet of leaders.

“That Sunday former PM Rabuka, who heard of the Pastor’s visit, came to church for prayer.  Of course the leading for Pastor Geoff to pray for leaders meant Rabuka would get his feet washed too.  One of the acts that will be embedded forever in my mind was seeing Rabuka sit on the floor, remove his coat and wash the feet of Pastor Geoff and KY Tan.  He then dried their feet with his ‘favourite’ Fiji rugby coat (he played in their national rugby team).  I was blown away by this act of humility, as demonstrated by Christ on his final night with the disciples before his arrest and execution.

“On Wednesday night, (their last night in Suva), we were at Kiuva village in Tailevu.  The powerful and angelic worship of young people and kids in Tailevu made the atmosphere one of power with a tangible presence of the Lord in the place.  We saw a glimpse of revival and the power of God at work in such a simple setting.  I was blessed to witness for myself the prevalent hunger in the body as lives connected with God. In all, it is purely refreshing being in the presence of God and being touched and filled by the Holy Spirit.

“Mighty moves of God continue to amaze us when we seek after him. We continue to witness the greatness of God and his willingness to use our lives as we remain available and yielded to him. Indeed miracles and wonders have followed us and the best part of it all is just seeing the power of the Word of God bring life to them that believe.”

Healing the Land, 2002-2007

Vuniani Nakauyaca

Transforming revival continues to spread globally.  DVDs produced by The Sentinel Group (www.sentinelgroup.org) report on community transformation around the world, especially in Transformations I and II, and reports from Fiji in Let the Seas Resound.  This brief update describes recent revivals in the Fiji islands, similar to revivals multiplying in the twenty-first century with significant healing of the land.   Rev Ratu Vuniani Nakauyaca reports here on many communities transformed in Fiji, through repentance, reconciliation and unity.

One of the first instances of this occurred in 2002, when Chief Mataitoga of Sabeto village (between Nadi and Lautoka) had a dream from the Lord.

The village had a lot of social problems as well as enmity and divisions.  As a result of the dream, he called his people together to pray and fast to seek God for answers and healing.  Over a period of two weeks, many of the clans spent time with the Chief to sort out their differences.

They had meetings every night and God brought about reconciliation and unity in the church and village, many relationships being healed.

There had only been one church in the area until the Pentecostal revival of the 1960s which spread across the cities and towns and into the rural areas during that period.  Because of the rejection of the Pentecostal experience by some people, many villages had two churches, one Methodist and one Pentecostal.  This caused division between friends and family, with many people not communicating and carrying bitterness and resentment for decades.

When Ratu Mataitoga directed his people to come together as one, there was a move of the Holy Spirit with real repentance and forgiveness.  Unity in the village was restored.

The long term results of this action were only revealed with the passing of time.  Productivity of the soil increased and long absent fish varieties returned to the reef.  Mangroves that had died and disappeared have begun to grow again.  The mangroves are very important for the ecology, providing shelter and breeding grounds for all kinds of fish and crabs, which were part of the staple diet of these villages.

Burning items of idolatry

The Healing the Land (HTL) Process, as it is now officially recognized, really started on the initiative of Pastor Vuniani Nakauyaca.  For him it was a personal journey that resulted from an accumulation of various events.

The Pacific Prayer movement had a desire to see that prayer, repentance and reconciliation were carried out where necessary on location - where missionaries had been killed or where tribal conflict had taken place.  These were all based on a bottom up or grass roots approach to bring healing and reconciliation.

Vuniani had visited Argentina and seen the beneficial results of reconciliation with the British over the Faulklands war.  He also visited Guatemala to see the Almolonga transformation (see Transformations 1 DVD).  This was a singularly dramatic community change.  Jails and public bars closed, land fertility increased and crop production levels had to be seen to be believed.

What he saw brought a deeper desire in his heart to see this happen in Fiji, to give room for God to bring about community and national transformation in similar ways to what he had seen overseas.  He saw the need to appropriately respond to the circumstances and use the spiritual tools available to see the nation transformed.

Nuku Village, Viti Levu

After returning to Fiji, he called some people together to seek God for solutions.  They felt they should begin at Nuku, and this took place on April 1-10, 2003.  Nuku is about 65 kilometres north of Suva, on the main island of Viti Levu.

The inhabitants of Nuku had been suffering feuds, infertility, mental illness and social problems for decades.  The water of the stream that flowed through the village had been polluted since a day 42 years previously, the water and banks being filled with slime.

At that time, children were swimming in the stream when the water suddenly turned white and they all ran for their lives.  Fish died and grass died.

Vuniani, as a child, was swimming in the river when this happened, so he knew the background story.  It was believed that the polluted water caused blindness, infertility, madness and even death.

Vuniani and the team went up to Nuku to activate the Process.  The key Scripture they went with was 2 Chronicles 7:14, “If my people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land”.

They had two weeks of prayer meetings, the Methodist, Assemblies of God and Seventh Day Adventist churches being represented.  They spent time studying Bible references on defilement and Healing the Land.

This lead them to repent and confess their sins and the sins of their forefathers, in the same way as Nehemiah did.  These included killing and cannibalism, idolatry, witchcraft, bloodshed, and immorality.

They went to the high places in the area to cleanse them of the sinful acts that had taken place there.  The elders confessed sins of their forefathers.

Reconciliation first took place within families, then clans and finally within the tribe.  The chief of the area led a corporate prayer of repentance with the whole tribe.

On the third day of the Process, some women came running and shouting into the village, announcing that the water in the stream had become pure again.  It is still pure today.

Nuku village had been heavily populated, but because of feuds and disputes, people were chased out or just left and went to live in other villages.  Deputations were sent out to these to apologise for the past offences.  A matanigasau (traditional apology) was sent to two villages, inviting the people to return if they wished.

The whole community now counts themselves as very blessed.  The productivity of the land has increased.  The stream water is pure and since that time shrimps and fish have returned to the waters.

The fertility of the banks and agriculture has radically improved.  Some people have even reported that the water has demonstrated healing properties.

Nabitu Village, East of Nausori

What occurred in this village was very much a follow on from what was happening around the country at the time.  There was a split in the tribe and there were a lot of unresolved issues.

During a business meeting in the local church, which was situated right in the middle of the village, a fist fight broke out.  There was always a heaviness in the village, like a hovering dark cloud.  This affected people negatively and there were not a lot of jobs available.

On the advice of chiefs, the people came together on their own initiative for a time of corporate repentance.  A lay preacher in the Methodist Church facilitated the Process.  There was instantly a change in the atmosphere.  The heaviness that had been there had lifted and everyone could feel it.  The division in the church was healed.

The lesson learned from there is that Satan’s hold over people and places is tenuous to say the least.  It only takes one man to lead many into forgiveness and healing.  Satan has to leave, along with the oppression and curses.

Vunibau, Serua Island, at the Navua River

The HTL Process in this place was scheduled over a 14 day period.  During the Process the mixture of elements was poured out onto the sand on the beach.

Later that day, an elderly lady and her son went fishing on the beach.  They cast the net out but when they tried to haul it back in, it seemed to be stuck.  They thought that perhaps it had been caught on a stump or rock, but they found that the net was actually so full of fish that they could not pull it in.

They started walking back to the village to tell everyone, and the lady was following her son walking along the beach.  Wherever his footprints were in the sand a red liquid appeared.  As she walked in his footsteps she was healed of migraine, knee ailments and severe back pain, all of which she had suffered for many years.

This healing has been permanent.  As soon as they returned to the village she told the whole community what had happened.

All the people rushed down to the beach to see this phenomenon, including the HTL team that was still there at the time.

To their amazement, right on the spot where the elements had been poured onto the sand, there was blood coming out of the sand and flowing into the sea.

A backslidden Catholic man gave his life to the Lord on the spot.  Photos were taken.

Vuniani was called from Suva (about an hour away) and he also witnessed the blood coming out of the sand.  This actually happened twice.

It was understood to be a confirming sign from the Lord that He was at work in the reconciliation and healing Process:

“There are three that bear witness on earth, the Spirit, the water and the blood” (1 John 5:6-7).

This was similar to the miracle of the healing of the waters in Nuku, which was also recognized as a sign of God’s cleansing and healing that was taking place amongst the people.  God is authenticating what he is doing.

At Vunibau many other signs quickly followed.  Large fish returned to their fishing grounds.

On one occasion, considerable quantities of prawns came ashore so that people could just pick them up.

Crabs and lobsters have also returned, and they have been able to sell the large lobsters for up to $25-$30 each.

After this sign of the blood, Pastor Vuniani recalled the scripture in Acts 2:19 where the Lord had spoken through the prophet Joel that “I will grant wonders (signs) in the sky above, and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire and vapour (pillars) of smoke” (NASB).

He wondered what would come next after the sign of the blood and felt that the next sign would be fire.

Nataliera, Nailevu North

In Nataliera village there were four churches.  There was no communication between their members, affecting even closely related families within the village.

Traditional witchcraft was still being practised and there were about eight sorcerers there.  In addition, there had been many more deaths than would be normal.

After forgiveness and reconciliation, the members of these four churches would meet every Wednesday for prayer and fasting.

On the first Sunday of every month, the four congregations would combine for one large gathering.

An Eco Lodge, previously closed, is now prospering after the HTL Process.

For many years the fishing on the reef had become lean.  Large fish were very scarce and for many years the catch had only ever comprised “bait fish” – the very small ones.  Much of the coral reef was dead and what was left seemed to be dying.

After reconciliation, on two separate occasions fire was seen to fall from the sky onto the reef.  After this, large fish returned in abundance.

The coral is now regenerating and new growth can be seen in abundance.

When stormy weather strikes and the boats can’t go out, the women pray and large fish swim in close to the shore and become trapped in a small pond so that the women are able to just wade in and catch them.

When women from neighbouring villages heard of this, they tried praying for the same provision, but without the same result.

Draubuta, Navosa Highlands, north of Sigatoka

Vuniani’s son, Savanaca, was working with two teams in the highlands.  While they were there, pillars of smoke descended on the villages.  This was seen by many neighbouring villagers who described it as thick bloodstained smoke.  This sign was seen at almost exactly the same time as fire was seen to fall on the reef at Nataliera.

In this area there were many marijuana plantations.  The Nadroga council had been trying to prevent the plantings. During the HTL Process, a deputation of marijuana growers approached the team and asked what the Government would do for them if they destroyed their crops. They had a list of demands which they presented to the team.

The marijuana crop was large, and estimated to be worth about $11 million.  There were 9 growers involved.

The team leaders told the farmers that it was their choice, that they should obey God and trust him for their livelihood, without any promises from anyone to do anything for them.  If they could not, then they should not participate in the Healing Process.

By the time the Process had finished, the people had destroyed the crop as part of the reconciliation Process.  After the HTL ministry, a total of 13,864 plants were uprooted and burnt by the growers themselves.  There were 6,000 seedlings as well.

These are a few of the many miraculous events that have occurred in Fiji since 2001.  Every week, more such events are happening as the forgiveness, reconciliation and HTL processes are being experienced.

The following summary gives an outline of the Healing the Land (HTL) Process.

Healing the Land Process

Essential requirements for Healing the Land, used by HTL teams, include these practical steps, as explained in A Manual for Healing the Land.

1. The Protocol.

Discuss protocol, select a “man of peace” to lead, form a council of elders, a community leader invites Jesus into the community, assess the needs of the community, and recognise and work with the men or women of peace.

2. Teaching on Healing the Land

Six days of teaching concerning commitment to the land, dealing with sin in the church, and dealing with hidden agendas in the community.  This involves teaching about the land belonging to God, fallen stewardship, defilements of the land (idolatry, immorality, broken promises, and bloodshed), bow and arrow concept (Psalm 127), roots and foundations of curses, salt of the earth, forgiveness and healing, healing and transformation from Jesus, inheritance and consecration, obedience to the word of the Lord for the community, men and women of peace, and unity in the Body of Christ.

3. Activities of the HTL Process

Have Protocol discussion, form a council of elders, use the sinners prayer and invitation of Jesus, research and assess and profile the community, teach the Word of God, lead into corporate repentance, allow repentance and forgiveness and reconciliation to flow, develop a prayer team for the village, cover the village in prayer and fasting, organise teams for home visitation, prepare the anointing oil.  Final day activities (may involve oil, water, and salt): anoint and reinstate community chiefs and village leaders, public worship after anointing the land, and public repentance, reconciliation and burning of witchcraft items.

4. Celebration

Celebration may be in dancing, feasting, singing and in taking the Lord’s Supper together as the climax of the week.

5. Allow God to Continue the Process of HTL

Prayer teams stay active, a mid-week united prayer service sustains transformation, share testimonies, share with others usually in teams.

6. Follow-up Ideas

These include recognising those who made new commitments to God (as in baptisms or prayer for them) and an on-going review each three months, with a thanksgiving event a year later to celebrate the goodness of God on the land and the community.

7. Warnings!

Four strong powers always at work are lies, fear, shame and secrecy.  Possible attacks include people speaking discouraging things against transformation – usually from outside, opposition by the devil, criticism by other Christian leaders, complacency, unbelief, and lack of prayer to sustain the transformation.

A Manual for Healing the Land by Vunami Nakauyaca and Walo Ani, gives further details of the process of Healing the Land. It is available from Toowoomba City Church,

PO Box 2216, Toowoomba, Qld 4350, Australia.

Website:  www.tcchurch.com.au

Email: tccemail@tcchurch.com.au

The Healing the Land stories in this book (with some HTL photos) have been gratefully reproduced here, with permission, from the book A Manual for Healing the Land.

The community celebrates with a feast

These reports of transforming revival confirm that God’s purposes for us include far more than personal, family, or church renewal and revival.  They also include community transformation, including social and ecological renewal and revival.

The accounts of transforming revival continue to multiply in the twenty-first century, calling us all to deeper repentance, reconciliation, renewal and revival.

Renewal and Revival

Renewal Journal articles in one volume

3

Algodao de Jandaira

11   Snapshots of Glory

by George Otis Jr

George Otis Jr presents vivid stories of the transformation of cities and regions in the two DVDs Transformation 1 and 2 and other Transformation DVDs.  This article about some of those cities is from Chapter 1 of his book Informed Intercession.

For some time now, we have been hearing reports of large-scale conversions in places like China, Argentina and Nepal.  In many instances, these conversions have been attended by widespread healings, dreams and deliverances.  Confronted with these demonstrations of divine power and concern, thousands of men and women have elected to embrace the truth of the gospel.  In a growing number of towns and cities, God’s house is suddenly the place to be.

In some communities throughout the world, this rapid church growth has also led to dramatic socio-political transformation.  Depressed economies, high crime rates and corrupt political structures are being replaced by institutional integrity, safe streets and financial prosperity.  Impressed by the handiwork of the Holy Spirit, secular news agencies have begun to trumpet these stories in front-page articles and on prime-time newscasts.

If these transformed communities are not yet common, they are certainly growing in number.  At least a dozen case studies have been documented in recent years, and it is likely that others have gone unreported.  Of those on file, most are located in Africa and the Americas.  The size of these changed communities ranges from about 15,000 inhabitants to nearly 2 million.

Given the extent of these extraordinary stories I have limited my reporting to select highlights.  Despite their brevity, these abridged accounts nevertheless offer glorious “snapshots” of the Holy Spirit at work in our day.   Readers interested in more details can find them in books like Commitment to Conquer (Bob Beekett, Chosen Books, 1997), The Twilight Labyrnth (George Otis, Jr., Chosen Books, 1997) and Praying witb Power (C.  Peter Wagner, Regal Books, 1997).

Miracle in Mizoram

One of the earliest and largest transformed communities of the twentieth century is found in Mizoram, a mountainous state in northeastern India.  The region’s name translates as “The Land of the Highlanders.”  It is an apt description as a majority of the local inhabitants, known as Mizos, live in villages surrounded by timbered mountains and scenic gorges.

The flora is not entirely alpine, however, and it is not uncommon to see hills covered with bamboo, wild bananas and orchids.  The Mizos are hearty agriculturists who manage to grow ample crops of rice, corn, tapioca, ginger, mustard, sugar cane, sesame and potatoes.

But it is not farming prowess that sets Mizoram’s 750,000 citizens apart.  Nor, for that matter, is it their Mongol stock.  Rather it is the astonishing size of the national church, estimated to be between 80 and 95 percent of the current population.  This achievement is all the more remarkable in view of the fact that Mizoram is sandwiched precariously between Islamic Bangladesh  to the west, Buddhist Myanmar to the east and south, and the  Hindu states of Assam, Manipur and Tripura to the north.

Before the arrival of Christian missionaries in the late nineteenth century, local tribes believed in a spirit called Pathan.  They also liked to remove the heads of their enemies.  But in just four generations Mizoram has gone from being a fierce head-hunting society to a model community – and quite possibly the most thoroughly Christian place of comparable size on earth.  Certainly in India there is no other city or state that could lay claim to having no homeless people, no beggars, no starvation and 100 percent literacy.

The churches of Mizoram currently send 1,000 missionaries to surrounding regions of India and elsewhere throughout the world.  Funds for this mission outreach are generated primarily through the sale of rice and firewood donated by the believers.   Every time a Mizo woman cooks rice, she places a handful in a special ‘missionary bowl.’  This rice is then taken to the local church, where it is collected and sold at the market.

Even the non-Christian media of India have recognized Christianity as the source of Mizoram’s dramatic social transformation.  In 1994 Mizoram celebrated its one-hundredth year of contact with Christianity, which began with the arrival of two missionaries, William Frederick Savage and J. H. Lorraine.  On the occasion of this centennial celebration, The Telegraph of Calcutta (February 4, 1994) declared:

Christianity’s most reaching influence was the spread of education  ...  Christianity gave the religious a written language and left a mark on art, music, poetry, and literature.  A missionary was also responsible for the abolition of traditional slavery.  It would not be too much to say that Christianity was the harbinger of modernity to a Mizo society.

A less quantifiable but no less palpable testimony to the Christian transformation of Mizorarn is the transparent joy and warmth of the Mizo people.  Visitors cannot fail to observe “the laughing eyes mid smiling faces,” in the words of one reporter, on the faces of the children and other residents of Mizoram.  And nowhere is this spirit of divine joy more evident than in the churches, where the Mizo’s traditional love of music and dance has been incorporated into worship.  The generosity of the people is also seen in their communal efforts to rebuild neighbours’ bamboo huts destroyed by the annual monsoons.

Eighty percent of the population of Mizorarn attends church at least once a week.  Congregations are so plentiful in Mizoram that, from one vantage point in the city of Izol, it is possible to count 37 churches.  Most fellowships have three services on Sunday and another on Wednesday evening (1).

The state of Mizoram is governed by a 40-member assembly that convenes in the capital of Aizawl.  Although there are different political parties, all of them agree on the ethical demands of political office in Mizorwn.  Specifically, all candidates must be:

·       persons with a good reputation

·        diligent and honest

·        clean and uncorrupt

·        nondrinkers

·        morally and sexually unblemished

·        loyal to the law of the land

·        fervent workers for the welfare of the people

·        loyal to their own church

How many of our political leaders could pass this test?  For that matter, how many of our religious leaders could pass?

Almolonga, Guatemala

In the mid-1970s, the town of Almolonga was typical of many Mayan highland communities: idolatrous, inebriated and economically depressed.  Burdened by fear and poverty, the people sought support in alcohol and a local idol named Maximon.   Determined to fight back, a group of local intercessors got busy, crying out to God during evening prayer vigils.  As a consequence of their partnership with the Holy Spirit, Almolonga, like Mizoram, has become one of the most thoroughly transformed communities in the world.  Fully 90 percent of the town’s citizens now consider themselves to be evangelical Christians.  As they have repudiated ancient pacts with Mayan and syncretistic gods, their economy has begun to blossom.  Churches are now the dominant feature of Almolonga’s landscape and many public establishments boast of the town’s new allegiance.

Almolonga is located in a volcanic valley about 15 minutes is west of the provincial capital of Quetzaltenango (Xela).  The town meanders for several kilometres along the main road to the Pacific coast.  Tidy agricultural fields extend up the hillsides behind plaster and cement block buildings painted in vivid turquoise, mustard and burnt red.  Most have corrugated tin roofs, although a few, waiting for a second story, sprout bare rebar.  The town’s brightly garbed citizens share the narrow streets with burros, piglets and more than a few stray dogs.

Although many Christian visitors comment on Almolonga’s “clean” spiritual atmosphere, this is a relatively recent development.  “Just twenty years ago,” reports Guatemala City pastor Harold Caballeros, “the town suffered from poverty, violence and ignorance.  In the mornings you would encounter many men just lying on the streets, totally drunk from the night before.  And of course this drinking brought along other serious problems like domestic violence and poverty.  It was a vicious cycle.”

Donato Santiago, the town’s aging chief of police, told me during an October 1998 interview that he and a dozen deputies patrolled the streets regularly because of escalating violence.  “People were always fighting,” he said.  “We never had any rest.”  The town, despite its small population, had to build four jails to contain the worst offenders.  “They were always full,” Santiago remembers.  “We often had to bus overflow prisoners to Quetzaltenango.”  There was disrespect toward women and neglect of the family.  Dr. Mell Winger, who has also visited Almolonga on several occasions, talked to children who said their fathers would go out drinking for weeks at a time.  “I talked to one woman,” Winger recalls, “whose husband would explode if he didn’t like the meal.  She would often be beaten and kicked out of the home.”

Pastor Mariano Riscajché one of the key leaders of Almolonga’s spiritual turnaround, has similar memories.  “I was raised in misery.  My father sometimes drank for forty to fifty consecutive days.  We never had a big meal, only a little tortilla with a small glass of coffee.  My parents spent what little money they had on alcohol.”

In an effort to ease their misery, many townspeople made pacts with local deities like Maximon (a wooden idol rechristened San Simon by Catholic syncretists), and the patron of death, Pascual Bailón.  The latter, according to Riscajché, “is a spirit of death whose skeletal image was once housed in a chapel behind the Catholic church.  Many people went to him when they wanted to kill someone through witchcraft.”  The equally potent Maximon controlled people through money and alcohol.  “He’s not just a wooden mask,” Riscajché insists, “but a powerful spiritual strongman.”  The deities were supported by well-financed priesthoods known as confradías (2).

During these dark days the gospel did not fare well.  Outside evangelists were commonly chased away with sticks or rocks, while small local house churches were similarly stoned.  On one occasion six men shoved a gun barrel down the throat of Mariano  Riscajché.  As they proceeded to pull the trigger, he silently petitioned the Lord for protection.  When the hammer fell, there was no action.  A second click.  Still no discharge.

In August 1974 Riscajché led a small group of believers into a series of prayer vigils that lasted from 7 P.M.  to midnight.  Although prayer dominated the meetings, these vanguard intercessors also took time to speak declarations of freedom over the  town.  Riscajché remembers that God filled them with faith.  “We  started praying, ‘Lord, it’s not possible that we could be so  insignificant when your Word says we are heads and not tails.’”

In the months that followed, the power of God delivered many men possessed by demons associated with Maximon and Pascual Bailón.  Among the more notable of these was a Maximon cult leader named José Albino Tazej.  Stripped of their power and customers, the confradías of Maximon made a decision to remove the sanctuary of Maximon to the city of Zunil.

At this same time, God was healing many desperately diseased people.  Some of these hearings led many to commit their lives to Christ (including that of Madano’s sister-in-law Teresa, who was actually raised from the dead after succumbing to complications associated with a botched caesarean section).

This wave of conversions has continued to this day.  By late 1998 there were nearly two dozen evangelical churches in this Mayan town of 19,000, and at least three or four of them had more than 1,000 members.  Mariano Riscajché’s El Calvario Church seats 1,200 and is nearly always packed.  Church leaders include several men who, in earlier years, were notorious for stoning believers.

Jesus is Lord of Almolonga

Nor has the move of God in Almolonga been limited to church growth.  Take a walk through the town’s commercial district and you will encounter ubiquitous evidence of transformed lives and social institutions.

On one street you can visit a drug-store called ‘The Blessing of the Lord.’  On another you can shop at ‘The Angels’ store.

Feeling hungry?  Just zip into ‘Paradise Chicken,’ ‘Jireh’ bakery or the ‘Vineyard of the Lord’ beverage kiosk.  Need building advice?  Check out ‘Little Israel Hardware’ or ‘El Shaddai’ metal fabrication.  Feet hurt from shopping?  Just take them to the ‘Jordan’ mineral baths for a good soak.

If foreigners find this public display of faith extraordinary, Mariano sees it as perfectly natural.  “How can you demonstrate you love God if you don’t show it?  Didn’t Paul say, ‘I am not ashamed of the gospel’?”

The contents of the stores have also changed.  Mell Winger recalls visiting a small tienda where the Christian proprietor pointed to a well-stocked food shelf and said, “This was once full of alcohol.”

Town bars have not fared any better.  Harold Caballeros explains: “Once people stopped spending their money on alcohol they actually bought out several distressed taverns and turned them into churches.  This happened over and over again.”

One new bar did open during the revival, but it only lasted a couple of months.  The owner was converted and now plays in a Christian band.

As the drinking stopped, so did the violence.  For 20 years the town’s crime rate has declined steadily.

In 1994, the last of Almolonga’s four jails was closed.  The remodelled building is now called the ‘Hall of Honour’ and is used for municipal ceremonies and weddings.

Leaning against the door, police chief Donato Santiago offered a knowing grin.  “It’s pretty uneventful around here,” he said.

Even the town’s agricultural base has come to life.  For years, crop yields around Almolonga were diminished through a combination of and land and poor work habits.  But as the people have turned to God they have seen a remarkable transformation of their land.  “It is a glorious thing,” exclaims a beaming Caballeros.  “Almolonga’s fields have become so fertile they yield  three harvests per year.”  In fact, some farmers I talked to reported their normal 60-day growing cycle on certain vegetables has been cut to 25.  Whereas before they would export four truckloads of produce per month, they are now watching as many as 40 loads a day roll out of the valley.

Nicknamed “America’s Vegetable Garden,’ Almolonga’s produce is of biblical proportions.  Walking through the local exhibition hall I saw (and filmed) five-pound beets, carrots larger than my arm and cabbages the size of oversized basketballs (3).  Noting the dimensions of these vegetables and the town’s astounding 1,000 percent increase in agricultural productivity, university researchers from the United States and other foreign countries have beat a steady path to Almolonga.

“Now,” says Caballeros, “these brothers have the joy of buying big Mercedes trucks -with cash.”  And they waste no time in pasting their secret all over the shiny vehicles.  Huge metallic stickers and mud flaps read ‘The Gift of God,’ ‘God Is My  Stronghold’ and ‘Go Forward in Faith.’

Some farmers are now providing employment to others by renting out land and developing fields in other towns.  Along with other Christian leaders they also help new converts get out of debt.  It is a gesture that deeply impresses Mell Winger.  “I think of Paul’s words to the Thessalonians when he said, “We not only gave you the gospel of God but we gave you our own souls as well.’” (4).

Caballeros agrees: “And that’s what these people do.  It is a beautiful spectacle to go and see the effect of the gospel, because you can actually see it - and that is what we want for our communities, for our cities and for our nations.”

Despite their success, believers in Almolonga have no intention of letting up.  Many fast three times a week and continue to assault the forces of darkness in prayer and evangelism.  On Halloween day in 1998, an estimated 12,000 to 15,000 believers gathered in the market square to pray down barriers against the gospel in neighbouring towns and around the world (5).  Many, unable to find seats, hung off balconies and crowded concrete staircases.  Led by the mayor and various Christian dignitaries, they prayed hand in hand for God to take authority over their lives, their town and any hindering spirits.

How significant are these developments?  In a 1994 headline article describing the dramatic events in Almolonga, Guatemala’s  premier newsmagazine Cronica Semanal concluded “the Evangelical  Church ... constitutes the most significant force for religious change in the highlands of Guatemala since the Spanish conquest (6).

The Umuofai of Nigeria

The Umuofai kindred are spread out in several villages situated near the town of Umuahia in Abia State in southeastern Nigeria (7).  A major rail line links the area with Port Harcourt, about 120 kilometers to the south.  Like most parts of coastal Africa, it is distinguished by dense tropical flora and killer humidity.

It is possible, even likely, veteran travellers will not have heard of the Umuofai or their homeland.  This is not surprising seeing that the kindred’s claim to fame has virtually nothing to do with  their size or setting.  While their history does claim centuries-old roots, the truly newsworthy events are still tender shoots.

Indeed the interesting chapter of the Umuofai story began as recently as 1996.  Two Christian brothers, Emeka and Chinedu Nwankpa, had become increasingly distressed over the spiritual condition of their people.  While they did not know everything about the Umuofai kindred, or their immediate Ubakala clan, they knew enough to be concerned.  Not only were there few Christians, but there was also an almost organic connection with ancestral traditions of sorcery, divination and spirit appeasement.  Some even practiced the demonic art of shape-shifting.  Taking the burden before the Lord, the younger brother, Chinedu Nwankpa, was led into a season of spiritual mapping.   After conducting a partial 80-day fast, he learned that his primary assignment (which would take the good part of a year) was to spend one day a week with clan elders investigating the roots of prevailing idolatry - including the role of the ancestors and shrines.  He would seek to understand how and when the Ubakala  clan entered into animistic bondage.  According to older brother Emeka, a practicing lawyer and international Bible teacher, this understanding was critical.  When I asked why, Emeka responded,  “When a people publicly renounce their ties to false gods and  philosophies, they make it exceedingly undesirable for the enemy to remain in their community.” (24).

The study was finally completed in late 1996.  Taking their findings to prayer, the brothers soon felt prompted to invite kindred leaders and other interested parties to attend a special meeting.  “What will be our theme?” they asked.  The Master’s response was quick and direct.  “I want you to speak to them about idolatry.”

On the day of the meeting, Emeka and Chinedu arrived unsure of what kind of crowd they would face.  Would there be five or fifty?  Would the people be open or hostile?  What they actually encountered stunned them.  The meeting place was not only filled with 300 people, but the audience also included several prominent clan leaders and witch doctors.  “After I opened in prayer,” Emeka recalls, “this young man preaches for exactly 42 minutes.  He brings a clear gospel message.  He gives a biblical teaching on idolatry and tells the people exactly what it does to a community.  When he has finished, he gives a direct altar call.  And do you know what happens?  Sixty-one adults respond, including people from lines that, for eight generations, had handled the traditional priesthood.

“Let me give you an idea of what 1 am talking about.  There is a local spirit that is supposed to give fertility to the earth.  The people of the community believed this particular spirit favoured farmers who planted yams - an old uncle to the potato.  A male from each generation was dedicated to this spirit to insure his blessing.  When this priest was ready to die, he had to be taken outside so that the heavenly alignment could be undone.  He was buried in the night with his head covered with a clay pot.  Then, a year after the burial, the skull was exhumed and put in the shrine.  These skulls and other sacred objects were never allowed to touch the ground.  Of course, sacrifices were also made from time to time.  This was the way of life in our community for eight generations.”

When the minister finished the altar call, the Nwankpa brothers were startled to see a man coming forward with the sacred skull in his hands.  Here in front of them was the symbol and receptacle of the clan’s ancestral power.  “By the time the session ended,” Emeka marvels, “eight other spiritual custodians had also come forward.  If I had not been there in the flesh, I would not have believed it.”

As Emeka was called forward to pray for these individuals, the Holy Spirit descended on the gathering and all the clan leaders were soundly converted.  The new converts were then instructed to divide up into individual family units - most were living near the village of Mgbarrakuma - and enter a time of repentance within the family.  This took another hour and twenty minutes.   During this time people were under deep conviction, many rolling on the ground, weeping.  “I had to persuade some of them to get up,” Emeka recalls.

After leading this corporate repentance, Emeka heard the Lord say, ‘It is now time to renounce the covenants made by and for this community over the last 300 years.”  Following the example of Zechariah 12:10-13:2, the Nwankpas led this second-phase renunciation.  “We were just about to get up,” Emeka remembers, “and the Lord spoke to me again.  I mean He had it all written out.  He said, ‘It is now time to go and deal with the different shrines.’  So 1 asked the people, ‘Now that we have renounced the old ways, what are these shrines doing here?’  And without a moment’s hesitation they replied, ‘We need to get rid of them!’”

Having publicly renounced the covenants their ancestors had made with the powers of darkness, the entire community proceeded to nine village shrines.  The three chief priests came out with their walking sticks.  It was tradition that they should go first.  Nobody else had the authority to take such a drastic action.   So the people stood, the young men following the elders and the women remaining behind in the village square.  Lowering his glasses, Emeka says, “You cannot appreciate how this affected me personally.  Try to understand that 1 am looking at my own chief.  I am looking at generations of men that I have known, people who have not spoken to my father for thirty years, people with all kinds of problems.  They are now born-again!”

One of these priests, an elder named Odogwu-ogu, stood before the shrine of a particular spirit called Amadi.  He was the oldest living representative of the ancestral priesthood.  Suddenly he began to talk to the spirits.  He said, “Amadi, I want you to listen carefully to what 1 am saying.  You were there in the village square this morning.  You heard what happened.”  He then made an announcement that Emeka will never forget..

Listen, Amadi, the people who own the land have arrived to tell you that they have just made a new covenant with the God of heaven.  Therefore all the previous covenants you have made with our ancient fathers are now void.  The elders told me to take care of you and I have done that all these years.  But today I have left you, and so it is time for you to return to wherever you came from.  I have also given my life to Jesus Christ, and from now on, my hands and feet are no longer here (8).   As he does this, he jumps sideways, lifts his hands and shouts, “Hallelujah!”

“With tears in my eyes,” Emeka says, reliving the moment, “I stepped up to anoint this shrine and pray.  Every token and fetish was taken out.  And then we went through eight more shrines, gathering all the sacred objects and piling them high.

“Gathering again back in the square I said, ‘Those who have fetishes in your homes, bring them out because God is visiting here today.  Don’t let Him pass you by.’  At this, one of the priests got up and brought out a pot with seven openings.  He said to the people, ‘There is poison enough to kill everybody here in that little pot.  There is a horn of an extinct animal, the bile of a tiger and the venom of a viper mixed together.’  He warned the young men, ‘Don’t touch it.  Carry it on a pole because it is usually suspended in the shrine.’  This was piled in the square along with all the ancestral   skulls.”  Soon other heads of households brought various ritual  objects-including idols, totems and fetishes-for public burning.    Many of these items had been handed down over ten generations.

Emeka then read a passage from Jeremiah 10 that judges the spirits associated with these artifacts.  Reminding the powers that the people had rejected them, he said, “You spirits that did not make the heavens and the earth in the day of your visitation, it is time for you to leave this place.”  The people then set the piled objects on fire.  They ignited with such speed and intensity that the villagers took it as a sign that God had been waiting for this to happen for many years.  When the fire subsided, Emeka and his brother prayed for individual needs and prophetically clothed the priests with new spiritual garments.  Altogether the people spent nine hours in intense, strategic-level spiritual warfare.

Emeka recalls that when it was over, “You could feel the atmosphere in the community change.  Something beyond revival had broken out.”  Two young ministers recently filled the traditional Anglican church with about 4,000 youth.  And in the middle of the message, demons were reportedly flying out the door!  Having renounced old covenants, the Umuofai kindred have made a collective decision that nobody will ever return to animism.  “Today,” Emeka says, “everybody goes to church.  There is also a formal Bible study going on, and the women have a prayer   team that my mother conducts.  0thers gather to pray after completing their communal sweeping.” (9).

In terms of political and economic development, good things have begun to happen

but not as dramatically as in Almolonga.  Still, there is evidence that God has touched the land here much like He has in the highlands of Guatemala.  Shortly after the public repentance, several villagers discovered their plots were permeated with saleable minerals.  One of these individuals was Emeka’s own mother, a godly woman whose property has turned up deposits of valuable ceramic clay.

Hemet, California

For years this searing valley in southern California was known as a pastor’s graveyard.  Riddled with disunity, local churches were either stagnant or in serious decline.  In one case, street prostitutes actually transformed a church rooftop into an outdoor  bordello.  The entire community had, in the words of pastor Bob Beckett, “a kind of a nasty spiritual feeling to it.”

When Beckett arrived on the scene in 1974, Hemet had the personality of a sleepy retirement community, a place where people who had served their tour of duty came to live out a life of ease (10).  Having achieved most of their goals, people simply wanted to be left alone.  Though a fair number attended church, they had no appetite for anything progressive, much less evangelistic.   Spiritually lethargic clergy were content to simply go through the motions.

But things were not all they seemed.  Underneath the surface of this laid-back community was a spiritual dark side that was anything but lethargic.  “We discovered,” said Beckett, “that illegal and occult activity was thriving in our community.”  It was a rude awakening.

The Hemet Valley was fast becoming a cult haven.  “We had the Moonies and Mormons.  We had the ‘Sheep People,’ a cult that claimed Christ but dealt in drugs.  The Church of Scientology set up a state-of-the-art multimedia studio called Golden Era, and the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi purchased a property to teach people how to find enlightenment.”  The latter, according to Beckett, included a 360-acre juvenile facility where students were given instruction in upper-level transcendental meditation.  “We’re not talking about simply feeling good; we’re talking about techniques whereby people can actually leave their bodies.”

These discoveries got Beckett to wondering why the Maharishi would purchase property in this relatively obscure valley and why it would be located in proximity to the Scientologists and the spiritually active Soboba Indian reservation.  Sensing something sinister might be lurking beneath the town’s glazed exterior, Beckett took out a map and started marking locations where there was identifiable spiritual activity.”   Noticing these marks were clustered in a specific area, he began to ask more probing questions.  “I began to wonder,” he said, “if there was perhaps a dimension of darkness I had failed to recognize.  1 didn’t realize it at the time, but I was led into what we now call spiritual mapping.”

The deeper this rookie pastor looked, the less he liked what he was seeing.  It seemed the valley, in addition to hosting a nest of cults, was also a notable centre of witchcraft.  And unfortunately this was not a new development.  Elderly citizens could recollect looking up at the nearby mountains on previous   Halloweens and seeing them illumined by dozens of ritual fires.  In Hemet and the neighbouring community of Idyllwild, it was not uncommon to find the remains of animal sacrifices long before such matters became part of the public discourse.

Nor were cults the only preexisting problem.  Neighborhood  youth gangs had plagued the Hemet suburb of San Jacinto for more than a century.  When pastor Gordon Houston arrived in 1986 the situation was extremely volatile.  His church, San Jacinto Assembly, sits on the very street that has long hosted the town’s   notorious First Street Gang.  “These were kids whose dads and grandfathers had preceded them in the gang.  The lifestyle had been handed down through the generations.”

The danger was so great around the main gang turf that the police refused to go there without substantial backup.  “One time I was walking out in front of my church,” Gordon recalls.  “Three First Street guys came up behind me, while four others closed in from across the street.  They moved me to the centre of the street and asked, “Who are you and what are you doing here?”  It was a scary scenario.

“We were one of the first school districts that had to implement a school dress code to avoid gang attire.  It was a big problem.  There were a lot of weapons on campus and kids were being attacked regularly.  The gangs were tied into one of the largest drug production centres in Riverside County.”

It turns out the sleepy Hemet Valley was also the methamphetamine manufacturing capital of the West Coast.  One former cooker I spoke to in June 1998 (we’ll call him Sonny) told me the area hosted at least nine major production laboratories.  The dry climate, remote location and ‘friendly’ law enforcement combined to make it an ideal setup.  “It was quite amazing,” Sonny told me.  “I actually had law officers transport dope for me in their police cruisers.  That’s the way it used to be here.”

Sonny cooked methamphetamine in Hemet from 1983 to 1991.  His minimum quota was 13 pounds every two weeks - an amount capable of supplying more than a quarter of a million people.  And there were times when he and his colleagues doubled this production.  Most of the deliveries went to Southern California, Arizona or Utah.  Often the deadly powder was trucked out of town disguised as 4x8-foot forms of Sheetrock.  “It was fascinating to see it done,” Sonny remembered.  “Even the paper backing was torn off afterward and sold to people in  prison.”

The spiritual turnaround for Hemet did not come easily.   Neither the Beckerts nor the Houstons were early Valley enthusiasts.  “I just didn’t want to be there,” Bob recalls with emphasis.  “For the first several years, my wife and 1 had our emotional bags packed all the time.  We couldn’t wait for the day that God would call us out of this valley.”

The Houstons didn’t unpack their bags to begin with.  When the San Jacinto position first opened up in 1984, they drove into town in the middle of summer.  Gordon remembers it being scorching hot that day.  “We had our six-month-old baby in a Pinto Runabout with vinyl seats and no air-conditioning.  We drove down the street, took one look at the church and said, “No thank you.”  We didn’t even stop to put in a resumé.”

It would be three years before the Houstons were persuaded to return to the Hemet Valley.  “Even then,” Gordon says, “we saw   it as a chance to gain some experience, build a good resumé, and then look for other opportunities.  God, of course, had something else in mind.  I remember him saying, “I have a plan, and I’ll share it with you – if you will make a commitment to this place.”  And I’ll be honest with you.  It was still a tough choice.”

For a while, Bob Beckett’s spiritual mapping had provided certain stimulation.  Then, it too reached a dead end.  “The flow of   information just seemed to dry up,” he remembers.  “That was when God asked if we would be willing to spend the rest of our lives in this valley.  He couldn’t have asked a worse question.  How could I spend the rest of my life in a place 1 didn’t love, didn’t care for and didn’t want to be a part of?”

Yet God persevered and the Becketts eventually surrendered to His will.  “As soon as we did this,” Bob reports, “the flow of information opened back up.  In retrospect I see that God would not allow us to go on learning about the community’s spiritual   roots unless we were committed to act on our understanding.  I now realize it was our commitment to the valley that allowed the Lord to trust us with the information (12).

Once we made this pact, Susan and 1 fell in love with the community.  It might sound a little melodramatic, but 1 actually went out and purchased a cemetery plot.  I said, “Unless Jesus comes back, this is my land.  I’m starting and ending my commitment right here.”  Well, God saw that and began to dispense   powerful revelation.  I still had my research, but it was no longer just information.  It was information that was important to me.  It was information I had purchased; it belonged to me.”

One new area of understanding concerned a prayer meeting Bob had called 15 years prior.  Unable to interpret his spiritual site map or a recurring dream that depicted a bear hide stretched over the valley, he had asked 12 men to join him in prayer at a mountain cabin in nearby Idyllwild.  Around two o’clock in the morning the group experienced a dramatic breakthrough - just not the one they were expecting.  Rather than yielding fresh insight into the site map or bear hide, the action stimulated a new spiritual hunger within the community.

Now that the Beckets had covenanted to stay in the community, God started to fill in the gaps of their understanding.  He began by leading Bob to a book containing an accurate history of the San Jacinto mountains that border Hemet and of the Cahuilla Nation that are descendants of the region’s original inhabitants.  “As 1 read through this book I discovered the native peoples believed the ruling spirit of the region was called Tahquitz.  He was thought to be exceedingly powerful, occasionally malevolent, associated with the great bear, and headquartered in the mountains.  Putting the book down, I sensed the Lord saying, “Find Tahquitz on your map!”

“When 1 did so, I was shocked to find that our prayer meeting 15 years earlier was held in a cabin located at the base of a one-thousand-foot solid rock spire called Tahquitz peak!  I also began to understand that the bear hide God had showed me was linked to the spirit of Tahquitz.  The fact that it was stretched out over the community was a reminder of the control this centuries - old demonic strongman wielded, a control that was fuelled then, and now, by the choices of local inhabitants.  At that point I knew God had been leading us.”

Bob explained that community intercessors began using spiritual mapping to focus on issues and select meaningful targets.   Seeing the challenge helped them become spiritually and mentally engaged.  With real targets and timelines they could actually watch the answers to their prayers.  They learned that enhanced vision escalates fervour.

When I asked him to compare the situation in Hemet today with the way things used to be, he did not take long to answer.  “We are not a perfect community,” he said, “but we never will be  until the Perfect One comes back.  What I can tell you is that the  Hemet Valley has changed dramatically.”

The facts speak for themselves.  Cult membership, once a serious threat, has now sunk to less than 0.3 percent of the population.  The Scientologists have yet to be evicted from their perch at the edge of town, but many other groups are long gone.  The transcendental meditation training centre was literally burned out.  Shortly after praying for their removal, a brushfire started in the mountains on the west side of the valley.  It burned along the  top of the ridge and then arced down like a finger to incinerate the Maharishi’s facility.  Leaving adjacent properties unsinged, the flames burned back up the mountain and were eventually extinguished.

The drug business, according to Sonny, has dropped by as much as 75 percent.  Gone, too, is the official corruption that was once its fellow traveller.  “There was a time when you could walk into any police department around here and look at your files or secure an escort for your drug shipment.  The people watching your back were wearing badges.  Man, has that changed.  If you’re breaking the law today, the police are out to get ya.  And prayer is the biggest reason.  The Christians out here took a multimillion-dollar drug operation and made it run off with its tail between its legs.”

Gangs are another success story.  Not long ago a leader of the First Street Gang burst down the centre aisle of Gordon Houston’s church (San Jacinto Assembly) during the morning worship service.  “I’m in the middle of my message,” Gordon laughs, “and here comes this guy, all tattooed up, heading right for the platform.  I had no idea what he was thinking.  When he gets to the front, he looks up and says, “I want to get saved right now!”  This incident, and this young man, represented the first fruit of what God would do in the gang community.  Over the next several weeks, the entire First Street family came to the Lord.  After this, word circulated that our church was off limits.  ‘You don’t tag this church with graffiti; you don’t mess with it in any   way.’  Instead, gang members began raking our leaves and repainting walls that had been vandalized.”  More recently, residents of the violent gang house across from San Jacinto Assembly moved out.  Then, as church members watched, they bulldozed the notorious facility.

Nor are gang members the only people getting saved in Hemet Valley.  A recent survey revealed that Sunday morning church attendance now stands at about 14 percent - double what it was just a decade ago.  During one 18-month stretch, San   Jacinto Assembly altar workers saw more than 600 people give their hearts to Christ.  Another prayer-oriented church has grown 300 percent in twelve months.

The individual stories are stirring.  Sonny, the former drug manufacturer, was apprehended by the Holy Spirit en route to a murder.  Driving to meet his intended victim he felt something take control of the steering wheel.  He wound up in the parking lot of Bob Beckett’s Dwelling Place Church.  It was about 8 o’clock in the morning and a men’s meeting had just gotten underway.  “Before I got out of the car,” Sonny says ruefully, “I looked at the silenced pistol laying on the seat.  I remember thinking, ‘Oh my God, what am I doing.’  So I covered it with a blanket and walked into this prayer meeting.  As soon as 1 did that, it was all over.  People are praying around me and I hear this man speak out: ‘Somebody was about to murder someone today.’  Man, my eyeballs just about popped out of my head.  But that was the   beginning of my journey home.  It took a long time, but I’ve never experienced more joy in my life.”

As of the late 1990s, Hemet also boasted a professing mayor, police chief, fire chief and city manager.  If this were not impressive enough, Beckett reckons that one could add about 30 percent of the local law enforcement officers and an exceptional number of high school teachers, coaches and principals.  In fact, for the past several years nearly 85 percent of all school district staff candidates have been Christians.

The result, says Gordon, is that “Our school district, after being the laughing stock of Southern California, now has one of the lowest drop-out rates in the nation.  In just four years we went from a 4.7 drop-out rate to 0.07.  Only the hand of God can do that.”

And what of the Valley’s infamous church infighting?  “Now we are a wall of living stones,” Beekett declares proudly.  “Instead of competing, we are swapping pulpits.  You have Baptists in Pentecostal pulpits and vice versa.  You have Lutherans with   Episcopalians.  The Christian community has become a fabric instead of loose yarn.”

Houston adds that valley churches are also brought together by quarterly concerts of prayer and citywide prayer revivals where speaking assignments are rotated among area pastors.  “Different worship teams lead songs and salvation cards are distributed   equally among us.  It is a cooperative vision.  We are trying to get pastors to understand there is no church big enough, gifted enough, talented enough, anointed enough, financially secure enough, equipped enough, to take a city all by itself.  Yes, God will hold me accountable for how I treated my church.  But I am also going to be held accountable for how I pastored my city.”

One fellowship is so committed to raising the profile of Jesus Christ in the valley that they have pledged into another church’s building program.  To Bob Beckett it all makes sense.  “It’s about building people, not building a church.  In fact, it is not even a church growth issue, it is a kingdom growth issue.  It’s about seeing our communities transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

Cali, Columbia

For years Colombia has been the world’s biggest exporter of cocaine, sending between 700 hundred and 1,000 tons a year to the United States and Europe alone (13).  The Cali cartel, which controlled up to 70 percent of this trade, has been called the largest, richest and most well-organized criminal organization in history (14).  Employing a combination of bribery and threats, it wielded  a malignant power that corrupted individuals and institutions alike (15).

Randy and Marcy MacMillan, copastors of the Communidad Christiana de Fe, have labored in Cali for more than 20 years.  At least 10 of these have been spent in the shadow of the city’s infamous drug lords.

Marcy inherited the family home of her late father, a former Colombian diplomat.  When illicit drug money began pouring into Cali in the 1980s, the Cocaine lords moved into the MacMillan’s upscale neighbourhood, buying up entire blocks of luxurious haciendas.  They modified these properties by installing elaborate underground tunnel systems and huge 30-foot (10-metre) walls to shield them from prying eyes-and stray bullets.  Video cameras encased in Plexiglas bubbles scanned the surrounding area continuously.  There were also regular patrols with guard dogs.

“These people were paranoid,” Randy recalls.  “They were exporting 500 million dollars worth of cocaine a month, and it led to constant worries about sabotage and betrayal.  They had a lot to lose.”

For this reason, the cartel haciendas were appointed like small cities.  Within their walls it was possible to find everything from airstrips and helicopter landing pads to indoor bowling alleys and miniature soccer stadiums.  Many also contained an array of gift boutiques, nightclubs and restaurants.

Whenever the compound gates swung open, it was to disgorge convoys of shiny black Mercedes automobiles.  As they snaked their way through the city’s congested streets, all other traffic would pull to the side of the road.  Drivers who defied this etiquette did so at their own risk.  Many were blocked and summarily shot.  As many as 15 people a day were killed in such a manner.  “You didn’t want to be at the same stoplight with them,” Randy summarized.

Having once been blocked in his own neighbourhood, Randy remembers the terror.  “They drew their weapons and demanded to see our documents.  I watched them type the information into a portable computer.  Thankfully the only thing we lost was some film.  I will always remember the death in their eyes.  These are people that kill for a living and like it.”

Rosevelt Muriel, director of the city’s ministerial alliance, also remembers those days.  “It was terrible.  If you were riding around in a car and there was a confrontation, you were lucky to escape with your life.  I personally saw five people killed in Cali.”

Journalists had a particularly difficult time.  They were either reporting on human camage – car bombs were going off like popcorn - or they were becoming targets themselves.  Television news anchor Adriana Vivas said that many journalists were killed for denouncing what the Mafia was doing in Colombia and Cali.  “Important political decisions were being manipulated by drug money.  It touched everything, absolutely everything.”

By the early 1990s, Cali had become one of the most thoroughly corrupt cities in the world.  Cartel interests controlled virtually every major institution - including banks, businesses,  politicians and law enforcement.

Like everything else in Cali, the church was in disarray.   Evangelicals were few and did not much care for each other.  “In those days,” Rosevelt Muriel recalls sadly, “the pastors’ association consisted of an old box of files that nobody wanted.  Every pastor was working on his own; no one wanted to join together.”

When pastor-evangelists Julio and Ruth Ruibal came to Cali in 1978, they were dismayed at the pervasive darkness in the city.   “There was no unity between the churches,” Ruth explained.  Even Julio was put off by his colleagues and pulled out of the already weak ministerial association.

Ruth relates that during a season of fasting the Lord spoke to Julio saying, “You don’t have the right to be offended.  You need to forgive.”  So going back to the pastors, one by one, Julio made things right.  They could not afford to walk in disunity - not when their city faced such overwhelming challenges.

Randy and Marcy MacMillan were among the first to join the Ruibals in intercession.  “We just asked the Lord to show us how to pray,” Marcy remembers.  And He did.  For the next several months they focused on the meagre appetite within the church for prayer, unity and holiness.  Realizing these are the very things that attract the presence of God, they petitioned the Lord to stimulate a renewed spiritual hunger, especially in the city’s ministers.

As their prayers began to take effect, a small group of pastors proposed assembling their congregations for an evening of joint worship and prayer.  The idea was to lease the citys civic auditorium, the Colisco El Pueblo, and spend the night in prayer and repentance.  They would solicit God’s active participation in their stand against the drug cartels and their unseen spiritual masters.

Roping off most of the seating area, the pastors planned for a few thousand people.  And even this, in the minds of many, was overly optimistic.  “We heard it all,” said Rosevelt Muriel.  “People told us, ‘It can’t be done,’ ‘No one will come,’ ‘Pastors won’t give their support.’  But we decided to move forward and trust God with the results.”

When the event was finally held in May 1995, the nay-sayers and even some of the organizers were dumbfounded.  Instead of the expected modest turnout, more than 25,000 people filed into the civic auditorium - nearly half of the city’s evangelical population at the time!  At one point, Muriel remembers, “The mayor mounted the platform and proclaimed, ‘Cali belongs to Jesus Christ.’  Well, when we heard those words, we were energized.”  Giving themselves to intense prayer, the crowd remained until 6 o’clock the next morning.  The city’s famous all-night prayer vigil - the ‘vigilia’ - had been born.

Forty-eight hours after the event, the daily newspaper, El Pais, headlined, “No Homicides!”  For the first time in as long as anybody in the city could remember, a 24-hour period had passed without a single person being killed.  In a nation cursed with the highest homicide rate in the world, this was a newsworthy development.  Corruption also took a major hit when, over the next four months, 900 cartel-linked officers were fired from the metropolitan police force (16).

“When we saw these things happening,” Randy MacMillan exulted, “we had a strong sense that the powers of darkness were headed for a significant defeat.”

In the month of June, this sense of anticipation was heightened when several intercessors reported dreams in which angelic forces apprehended leaders of the Cali drug cartel.  Many interpreted this as a prophetic sign that the Holy Spirit was about to  respond to the most urgent aspect of the church’s united appeal (17). Intercessors were praying, and heaven was listening.  The seemingly invincible drug lords were about to meet their match.

“Within six weeks of this vision,” MacMillan recalls, “the Colombian government declared all-out war against the drug lords.”  Sweeping military operations were launched against cartel assets in several parts of the country.  The 6,500 elite commandos dispatched to Cali (18) arrived with explicit orders to round  up seven individuals suspected as the top leaders of the cartel.

“Cali was buzzing with helicopters,” Randy remembers.  “The   airport was closed and there were police roadblocks at every entry point into the city.  You couldn’t go anywhere without proving who you were” (19).

Suspicions that the drug lords were consulting spirit mediums were confirmed when the federalés dragnet picked up Jorge Eliecer Rodriguez at the fortune-telling parlour of Madame Marlene Ballesteros, the famous ‘Pythoness of Cali” (20).   By August, only three months after God’s word to the intercessors, Colombian authorities had captured all seven targeted cartel leaders - Juan Carlos Arminez, Phanor Arizabalata, Julian Murcillo, Henry Loaiza, Jose Santacruz Londono and founders Gilberto and Miguel Roddguez.

Clearly stung by these assaults on his power base, the enemy   lashed out against the city’s intercessors.  At the top of his hit list was Pastor Julio Ceasar Ruibal, a man whose disciplined fasting and unwavering faith was seriously eroding his manoeuvring room.

On December 13, 1995, Julio rode into the city with his daughter Sarah and a driver.  Late for a pastors’ meeting at the Presbyterian Church, he motioned to his driver to pull over.  “He told us to drop him off,” Sarah recounts, “and that was the last time I saw him.”

Outside the church, a hit man was waiting in ambush.  Drawing a concealed handgun, the assassin pumped two bullets into Julio’s brain at point-blank range.

“I was waiting for him to arrive at the meeting,” Rosevelt   remembers.  “At two o’clock in the afternoon I received a phone call.  The man said, ‘They just killed Julio.’  I said, ‘What?  How can they kill a pastor?’  I rushed over, thinking that perhaps he had just been hurt.  But when 1 arrived on the scene, he was motionless.  Julio, the noisy one, the active one, the man who just never sat still, was just lying there like a baby.”

“The first thing 1 saw was a pool of crimson blood,” Ruth recalls.  “And the verse that came to me was Psalm 116:15:  ‘Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.’  Sitting down next to Julio’s body, I knew 1 was on holy ground.

“I had to decide how 1 was going to deal with this circumstance.  One option was to respond in bitterness, not only toward the man that had done this terrible thing, but also toward God.  He had, after all, allowed the early removal of my husband, my daughters’ father and my church’s pastor.  Julio would never see his vision for the city fulfilled.  My other choice was to yield to the redemptive purposes of the Holy Spirit, to give Him a chance to bring something lasting and wonderful out of the situation.   Looking down at Julio I just said, ‘Lord, 1 don’t understand Your plan, but it is well with my soul.’”

Julio Ruibal was killed on the sixth day of a fast aimed at strengthening the unity of Cali’s fledgling church.  He knew that even though progress had been made in this area, it had not gone far enough.  He knew that unity is a fragile thing.  What he could not have guessed is that the fruit of his fast would be made manifest at his own funeral.

In shock, and struggling to understand God’s purposes in this tragedy, 1,500 people gathered at Julio’s funeral.  They included many pastors that had not spoken to each other in months.  When the memorial concluded these men drew aside and said, “Brothers, let us covenant to walk in unity from this day forward.  Let Julio’s blood be the glue that binds us together in the Holy Spirit.”

It worked!  Today this covenant of unity has been signed by some 200 pastors and serves as the backbone of the city’s high profile prayer vigils.  With Julio’s example in their hearts, they have subordinated their own agendas to a larger, common vision for the city.

Emboldened by their spiritual momentum, Cali’s church leaders now hold all-night prayer rallies every 90 days.  Enthusiasm is so high that these glorious events have been moved to the largest venue in the city, the 55,000-seat Pascual Guerrero soccer stadium (21).  Happily (or unhappily as the case may be), the demand for seats continues to exceed supply.

In 1996 God led many churches to join in a collective spiritual mapping campaign.  To gain God’s perspective on their city, they began to gather intelligence on specific political, social and spiritual strongholds in each of Cali’s 22 administrative zones (a scene reminiscent of the 41 Hebrew clans that once rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem).  The results, stitched together like panels on a patchwork quilt, gave the church an unprecedented picture of the powers working in the city.  “With this knowledge,” Randy explained, “our unified intercession became focused.  As we prayed in specific terms, we began to see a dramatic loosening of the enemy’s stranglehold on our neighbourhoods.

“A few weeks later we used our spiritual mapping intelligence to direct large prayer caravans throughout Cali.  Most of the 250 cars established a prayer perimeter around the city, but a few paraded by government offices or the mansions of prominent cartel leaders.  My own church focused on the headquarters of the billionaire drug lord, José Santacruz Londono, who had escaped from Bogota’s La Picota prison in January (22).  His hacienda was located just four blocks from my home.  The next day we heard that he had been killed in a gun fight with national police in Medellin!” (23).

In partnership with the Holy Spirit, Cali’s Christians had taken effective control of the city.  What made the partnership work are the same things that always attract the presence of the Lord: sanctified hearts, right relationships and fervent intercession.  “God began changing the city,” according to Ruth Ruibal, “because His people finally came together in prayer” (24).

As the kingdom of God descended upon Cali, a new openness to the gospel could be felt at all levels of society - including the educated and wealthy.  One man, Gustavo Jaramillo, a wealthy businessman and former mayor, told me,  “It is easy to speak to upper-class people about Jesus.  They are respectful and interested.”  Raul Grajales, another successful Cali businessman, adds that the gospel is now seen as practical rather than religious.  As a consequence, he says, “Many high-level people have come to the feet of Jesus.”

During my April 1998 visit to Cali, I had the privilege of meeting several prominent converts, including Mario Jinete, a prominent attorney, media personality and motivational speaker.  After searching for truth in Freemasonry and various New Age systems, he has finally come home to Christ.  Five minutes into our interview Jinete broke down.  His body shaking, this brilliant lawyer who had courageously faced down some of the most dangerous and corrupt figures in Latin America sobbed loudly.  “I’ve lost forty years of my life,’ he cried into a handkerchief.  “My desire now is to subordinate my ego, to find my way through the Word of God.  I want to yield to Christ’s plan for me.  I want to serve Him.”

Explosive church growth is one of the visible consequences of the open heavens over Cali.  Ask pastors to define their strategy and they respond, “We don’t have time to plan.  We’re too busy pulling the nets into the boat.”  And the numbers are expanding.   In early 1998, 1 visited one fellowship, the Christian Centre of Love and Faith, where attendance has risen to nearly 35,000.   What is more, their stratospheric growth rate is being fuelled entirely by new converts.  Despite the facility’s cavernous size (it’s a former Costco warehouse), they are still forced to hold seven Sunday services.  As I watched the huge sanctuary fill up, I blurted the standard Western question: “What is your secret?”  Without hesitating, a church staff member pointed to a 24-hour  prayer room immediately behind the platform.  “That’s our secret,’ he replied.

Many of Cali’s other churches are also experiencing robust growth, and denominational affiliation and location have little to do with it.  The fishing is good for everybody and it’s good all over town.  My driver, Carlos Reynoso (not his real name), himself a former drug dealer, put it this way: “There is a hunger for God everywhere.  You can see it on the buses, on the streets and in the cafes.  Anywhere you go people are ready to talk.”  Even casual street evangelists are reporting multiple daily conversions - nearly all the result of arbitrary encounters.

Although danger still lurks in this city of 1.9 million, God is now viewed as a viable protector.  When Cali police deactivated a large, 174-kilo car bomb in the populous San Nicolis area in November 1996, many noted that the incident came just 24 hours after 55,000 Christians held their third vigilia.  Even El Pais headlined: “Thanks to God, It Didn’t Explode” (25).

Cali’s prayer warriors were gratified, but far from finished.  The following month church officials, disturbed by the growing debauchery associated with the city’s Feria, a year-end festival accompanied by 10 days of bull fighting and blowout partying, developed plans to hold public worship and evangelism rallies.

“When we approached the city about this,” Marcy recalls, “God gave us great favour.  The city secretary not only granted us rent-free use of the 22,000-scat velodrome (cycling arena), but he also threw in free advertising, security and sound support.  We were stunned!”  The only thing the authorities required was that the churches pray for the mayor, the city and the citizens.

Once underway, the street witnessing and rallies brought in a bounty of souls.  But an even bigger surprise came during the final service which, according to Marcy, emphasized the Holy Spirit “reigning over” and “raining down upon” the city of Cali.   As the crowd sang, it began to sprinkle outside, an exceedingly rare occurrence in the month of December.  “Within moments,” Marcy recalls, “the city was inundated by torrential tropical rain.  It didn’t let up for 24 hours; and for the first time in recent memory, Feria events had to be cancelled!”

On the evening of April 9, 1998, I had the distinct privilege of attending a citywide prayer vigil in Cali’s Pascual Guerrero stadium.  It was no small event, even in the eyes of the secular media.  For days leading up to the vigilia, local newspapers had been filled with stories linking it to the profound changes that had settled over the community.  Evening newscasters looked straight into the camera and urged viewers, whatever their faith, to attend the all-night event.

Arriving at the stadium 90 minutes early, I found it was already a full house.  I could feel my hair stand on end as I walked onto the infield to tape a report for CBN News.  In the stands, 50,000 exuberant worshipers stood ready to catch the Holy Spirit’s fire.  An additional 15,000 ‘latecomers’ were turned away at the coliseum gate.  Undaunted, they formed an impromptu praise march that circled the stadium for hours.

Worship teams from various churches were stationed at 15-metre intervals around the running track.  Dancers dressed in beautiful white and purple outfits interpreted the music with graceful motions accentuated by banners, tambourines and sleeve streamers.  Both they and their city had been delivered of a great burden.  In such circumstances one does not celebrate like a Presbyterian, a Baptist or a Pentecostal; one celebrates like a person who has been liberated!

Judging from the energy circulating in the stands, I was sure the celebrants had no intention of selling their emancipation short.  They were not here to cheer a championship soccer team or to absorb the wit and wisdom of a big-name Christian speaker.  Their sole objective on this particular evening was to offer up heartfelt worship and ask God to continue the marvellous work He had been undertaking in their city for 36 consecutive months.

“What you’re seeing tonight in this stadium is a miracle,” declared visiting Bogota pastor Colin Crawford.  “A few years ago it would have been impossible for Evangelicals to gather like this.”  Indeed, this city that has long carried a reputation as an exporter of death is now looked upon as a model of community transformation.  It has moved into the business of exporting hope.

High up in the stadium press booth somebody grabbed my arm.  Nodding in the direction of a casually dressed man at the broadcast counter he whispered, “That man is the most famous sports announcer in Columbia.  He does all the big soccer championships.”  Securing a quick introduction, I learned that Rafael Araújo Gámez is also a newborn Christian.  As he looked out over the fervent crowd, I asked if he had ever seen anything comparable in this stadium.  Like Mario, he began to weep.  “Never,” he said with a trembling chin.  “Not ever.”

At 2:30 in the morning my cameraman and I headed for the stadium tunnel to catch a ride to the airport.  It was a tentative departure.  At the front gate crowds still trying to get in looked at us like we were crazy.  I could almost read their minds.  Where are you going? Why are you leaving the presence of God?  They were tough questions to answer.

As we prepared to enter our vehicle a roar rose up from the stadium.  Listening closely, we could hear the people chanting, in English, “Lift Jesus up, lift Jesus up.” The words seemed to echo across the entire city.  I had to pinch myself. Wasn’t it just 36 months ago that people were calling this place a violent, corrupt hell-hole?  A city whose ministerial alliance consisted of a box of files that nobody wanted?

In late 1998, Cali’s mayor and city council approached the ministerial alliance, with an offer to manage a citywide campaign to strengthen the family.  The offer, which has subsequently been accepted, gives the Christians full operational freedom and no financial obligation.  The government has agreed to open the soccer stadium, sports arena and velodrome to any seminar or prayer event that will minister to broken families.

Global Phenomenon

As remarkable as the preceding accounts are, they represent but a fraction of the case studies that could be presented.  Several others are worth mentioning in brief.

Kiambu, Kenya

Topping this list is Kiambu, Kenya, one-time ministry graveyard located 14 kilometres northwest of Nairobi.  In the late 1980s, after years of profligate alcohol abuse, untamed violence and grinding poverty, the Spirit of the Lord was summoned to Kiambu by a handful of intercessors operating out of a grocery store basement known as the “Kiambu Prayer Cave.”

According to Kenyan pastor Thomas Muthee, the real breakthrough came when believers won a high profile power encounter with a local witch named Mama Jane.  Whereas people used to be afraid to go out at night, they now enjoy one of the lowest crime rates in the country.  Rape and murder are virtually unheard of.   The economy has also started to grow.  And new buildings are sprouting up all over town.

In February, 1999, pastor Muthee celebrated their ninth anniversary in Kiambu.  Through research and spiritual warfare, they have seen their church grow to 5,000 members - a remarkable development in a city that had never before seen a congregation of more than 90 people.  And other community fellowships are growing as well.  “There is no doubt,” Thomas declares, “that prayer broke the power of witchcraft over this city.  Everyone in the community now has a high respect for us.  They know that God’s power chased Mama Jane from town” (26).

Vitória da Conquiste, Brazil

The city of Vitória da Conquiste (Victory of the Conquest) in Brazil’s Bahia state, has likewise, experienced a powerful move of God since the mid 1990s.  As with other transformed communities, the recovery is largely from extreme poverty, violence and  corruption.

Vitória da Conquiste was also a place where pastors spent more pulpit time demeaning their ministerial colleagues than preaching the Word.  Desperate to see a breakthrough, local intercessors went to prayer.  Within a matter of weeks conviction fell upon the church leaders.  In late 1996 they gathered to wash one another’s feet in a spirit of repentance.  When they approached the community’s senior pastor - a man who had been among the most critical - he refused to allow his colleagues to wash his feet.   Saying he was not worthy of such treatment, he instead lay prostrate on the ground and invited the others to place the soles of their shoes on his body while he begged their forgiveness.  Today the pastors of Vitória da Conquiste are united in their desire for a full visitation of the Holy Spirit (27).

In addition to lifting long-standing spiritual oppression over the city, this action has also led to substantial church growth.  Many congregations have recently gone to multiple services.  Furthermore, voters in 1997 elected the son of evangelical parents to serve as mayor.  Crime has dropped precipitously, and the economy has rebounded on the strength of record coffee exports and significant investments by the Northeast Bank.

San Nicolás, Argentina

Ed Silvoso of Harvest Evangelism International reports similar developments in San Nicolás, Argentina, an economically depressed community that for years saw churches split and pastors die in tragic circumstances.  According to Silvoso, this dark mantle came in with a local shrine to the Queen of Heaven that annually attracts 1.5 million pilgrims.

More recently, pastors have repented for the sin of the church and launched prayer walks throughout the community.  They have spoken peace over every home, school, business and police station and concentrated intercession over 10 “dark spots” associated with witchcraft, gangs, prostitution and drug addiction.  The pastors have also made appointments with leading political, media and religious (Catholic) officials to repent for neglecting and sometimes cursing them.

As a result of these actions the Catholic bishop is preaching Christ and coming to pastors’ prayer meetings.  The mayor has created a space for pastors to pray in city hall.  The local newspaper has printed Christian literature.  The radio station has begun to refer call-in problems to a pastoral chaplaincy service.  The TV station invites pastors onto live talk shows to pray for the people.  In short, the whole climate in San Nicolás has changed.

Villages, cities, countries

In other parts of the world God has been at work in villages (Navapur, India; Serawak, Malaysia [Selakau people]; and the North American Arctic) in urban neighbourhoods (Guatemala City; Sao Paulo, Brazil; Resistencia, Argentina; Guayaquil, Ecuador) and even in countries (Uganda).  The United States has witnessed God’s special touch in places as far-flung as New York City (Times Square); Modesto, California; and Pensacola, Florida.

Early in my ministry I never thought of investigating transformed communities.  I was too preoccupied with other things.  In recent days, however, I have become persuaded that something extraordinary is unfolding across the earth.  It is, I have come to realize, an expression of the full measure of the kingdom of God.  Finding examples of this phenomenon has become my life.  And the journey has taken me to the furthest corners of the earth.

NOTES

1. Most of the churches are either Baptist or Presbyterian.  But there are also Catholic, Seventh Day Adventist, Salvationist and Pentecostal congregations.

2. Although these confradías are no longer welcome in Almolonga, they can still be found in the nearby communities of Zunil and Olintepeque.

3. Almolonga’s fields also grow cauliflower, broccoli, radishes, tomatoes, squash, asparagus, leeks and watercress.  Their flower market sells gorgeous asters, chrysanthemums and estaditas.

4. See 1 Thessalonians 2:8, KJV.

5. Crowd estimates were provided by Mariano Riscajché based on 10,000 plus seats, rotating local believers and the capacity of adjacent buildings.  The event was also carried on local cable television.

6. Mario Roberto Morales, “La Quiebra de Maximon,” Cronica Semanal, June 24-30, 1994, pp.  17,19,20.  (In English the headline reads ‘The Defeat of Maximon.’)

7. In African social hierarchy, kindreds are situated between nuclear families and tribes.  They can often be spread out in several towns or villages.

8. This is a local expression that means ‘I have pulled myself our of your clutches.’       9. George Otis Jr., The Twilight Labyrinth (Grand Rapids: Chosen Books, 1997), p.  284.

10. Television personality Art Linkletter made the area famous by proposing it as a mobile home centre.

11. This action was taken around 1976.

12. Bob believes that community pastors need to be willing to make an open-ended commitment that only God can close.

13. This is based on estimates developed by the U.S.  Drug Enforcement Administration.  Colombia is also a major producer of marijuana and heroin.  See ‘Colombia Police Raid Farm, Seize 8 Tons of Pure Cocaine,’ Seattle Times, October 16, 1994, n.p.

14. This statement is attributable to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.  See also Pollard, Peter. ‘Colombia,’ Encyclopaedia Britannica Online [database online].  Book of the Year: World Affairs, 1995 [cited March 11, 19971.  Available from www.eb.com/.

15. To keep tabs on their operations, cartel founders Gilberto and Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela installed no fewer than 37 phone lines in their palatial home.

16. Documenting the dimensions of Colombia’s national savagery, Bogota’s leading newspaper, El Tiempo, cited 15,000 murders during the first six months of 1993.  This gave Colombia, with a population of 32 million people, the dubious distinction of having the highest homicide rate in the World.  See Tom Boswell, ‘Between Many Fires,’ Christian Century, Vol. III, No. 18, June 1-8, 1994, p. 560.

17. Two years earlier, as a Christmas ‘gift,’ the Rodriguez brothers had provided the Cali police with 120 motorcycles and vans.

18. Otis, Jr.,  The Twilight Labyrinth, p. 300.

19. Ibid.  This unique group was comprised of Colombian police, army personnel      and contra guerrillas.  Note: The June 1995 campaign also included systematic neighbourhood searches.  To insure maximum surprise, the unannounced raids would typically occur at four A.M.  “Altogether,” MacMillan reported, “The cartel owned about 12,000 properties in the city.  These included apartment buildings they had constructed with drug profits.  The first two floors would often have occupied flats and security guards to make them look normal, while higher-level rooms were filled with rare art, gold and other valuables.  Some of the apartment rooms were filled with      stacks of 100-dollar bills that had been wrapped in plastic bags and covered with mothballs.  Hot off American streets, this money was waiting to be counted, deposited or shipped out of the country.”

The authorities also found underground vaults in the fields behind some of the big haciendas.  Lifting up concrete blocks, they discovered stairwells descending into secret rooms that contained up to 9 million dollars in cash.  This was so-called ‘throwaway’ money.  Serious funds were laundered through banks or pumped into ‘legitimate’ businesses.  To facilitate wire transfers, the cartel had purchased a chain of financial institutions in Colombia called the Workers Bank.

20. Dean Latimer, ‘Cali Cartel Crackdown?’ High Times [database online, cited 8 August 1995].  Available at www.hightimes.com.

21. The vigils have been held in the Pascual Guerrero stadium since August 1995.

22. After serving six months of his sentence, Santacruz embarrassed officials by riding out of the main gate of the maximum-security prison in a car that resembled one driven by prosecutors.

23. As the authorities probed the mountain of paperwork confiscated during government raids, they discovered at least two additional “capos” of the Cali cartel.  The most notorious of these, Helmer ‘Pacho’ Herrera, turned himself in to police at the end of August 1996.  The other, Justo Perafan, was not linked to the Cali operations until November 1996 because of a previous connection with the Valle cartel.

24. To appreciate the extent of these changes on the city, one has only to walk past the vacant haciendas of the drug barons.  In addition to serving as monuments of human folly, these ghost towns stand as eloquent testimonies of the power of prayer.

25. “Gracias a Dios No Explotó,” El Pais, Cali, November 6, 1996; “En Cali      Desactivan Un ‘Carrobomba,’ El.Pais, Cali, November 6, 1996, n.p.

26. For a more complete version of the Kiambu story, see The Twilight Labyrinth pp.  295-298.

27. The pastors came out of this season with a five-part strategy for turning their community around: (1) set aside a day for fasting and confession of sin; (2) require Christian men to improve the way they treat their wives and families; (3) promote reconciliation between churches; (4) raise up trained intercessors for the city, and (5) conduct spiritual mapping.

This article from Chapter 1, “Snapshots of Glory” (pp. 15-53) of Informed Intercession (Renew 1999) by George Otis Jr., is reproduced with permission of Gospel Light publications, Ventura, California, USA  www.gospellight.com from Renewal Journal 17: Unity.

Informed Intercession: Transforming Your Community through Spiritual Mapping and Strategic Prayer by George Otis, Jr. (Ventura: Renewal, 1999).

Endorsement by C. Peter Wagner, adapted from the Foreword

God has been raising up an extraordinary group of leaders for his kingdom in this generation, including George Otis, Jr.  I can say with great confidence that the Body of Christ is in good hands for the future.  Through these and many others like them, the Holy Spirit has been speaking some new things to the churches.  They have the “ear to hear” that Jesus spoke about in his letters to the churches in Revelation.

These things, of course, are not new to God.  They are scriptural, and indeed, a few members of the Body of Christ were tuned in to them long before the rest of us began to catch on.  As we in repentance began to ask God to “heal the land” (2 Chron. 7:14), we then began to realize how little we knew about stewardship of the land and about the increased spiritual authority that is released when leaders become sincerely committed to the geographical sphere to which they have been assigned

The title of this book, Informed Intercession: Transforming Your Community through Spiritual Mapping and Strategic Prayer reflects a basic premise with which I fully agree: Accurately informed intercession is a critical component in transforming entire communities for Christ.

We all know and practice this principle when, for example, we pray for a friend.  If they ask for prayer, our first question is, “What do you want me to pray for?” and we go on from there.  But only recently have we learned how to ask such questions to our community and get the answers we need.

George Otis, Jr. has been the pioneer of this important discipline that we now call “spiritual mapping.”  As might be expected, the novelty of an activity such as spiritual mapping attracts its share of flakes.  While they may be somewhat of an embarrassment to the rest of us, I do admire their zeal.  Furthermore, as I have tracked some of them down and discussed this with them, I have yet to meet one who wants to be a flake.  They will be the first to admit that they would love to have more role models and better instruction.

This book will meet those needs.  This is a remarkable document that will raise the whole spiritual mapping movement to new levels of integrity and usefulness.  I would hate to try to use a bread machine or a computer or a chain saw for the first time without an operator’s manual.  I am grateful that we now have the operator’s manual for those who desire to attempt spiritual mapping.

What is spiritual mapping for?  This can easily become so fascinating that it seems to be an end in itself.  George Otis will have nothing of that!  The goal is not just to gather information.  The goal is nothing less than community transformation.  Is this a high standard?  It certainly is, and as you read this book you will be increasingly grateful, as I was, for the demands for excellence which persist from beginning to end.  For those of us who deeply desire to serve and please the Lord of lords, nothing else would be acceptable.

See also articles on Almolonga, Cali and Bogotá in Renewal Journal 16: Vision – Blog on www.renewaljournal.com

Body Ministry

The Body of Christ Alive in His Spirit

3

Algodao de Jandaira

12   The Transformation of

Algodao de Jandaira

A Sentinel Group Report

Pastor Enéas Araújo and Simone at Valentina Baptist Church

The story began in the Valentina Baptist Church located in the coastal city of Joao Pessoa, Brazil.  The congregation there was small and very poor, but this did not prevent them from being preoccupied with a broad range of religious activities.  Most of the congregants were also quite conservative – neither believing in nor experiencing anything supernatural.

God, however, began to deal with this busy, self-absorbed congregation.  A deep conviction set in and the people repented of their sin and small-mindedness.  Many cried out for a fresh move of God – and as they did so, the Holy Spirit broke their hearts and inclined them to his purposes.

Vitoria with Steve Loopstra (Sentinel Group)

One nondescript member of the church choir, a woman (Vitoria), began to have dreams about a town or encampment called Algodao de Jandaira.

Although she had never even heard of the place, the dreams were so vivid – revealing local terrain, troubled faces, and other considerable detail – that the entire congregation received them as a divine revelation.  The problem was that no one had the slightest idea where this community might be.  The place was not identified on any map.

One day, however, a church member mentioned this story in passing to an acquaintance.  The man confirmed that indeed there was such a place, and that it was in fact not far away.  The reason it did not show up on any map was because it was in a desert area with no proper roads.

Excited by this news, the poor Baptist congregants took up a collection that was just enough to purchase one tank of gas.  This allowed a small team to head out on an investigatory trip to Algodao de Jandaira.  The trip took nearly an entire day owing to the fact much of the driving was in dry river beds.

When the team arrived at the outskirts of the community, they were shocked by what they saw.  Not only were the 2,200 inhabitants poorer than the Baptists themselves, they looked like they were starving.  There were no visible crops, the animals looked emaciated, and the people were dressed in rags.  Everything, including a young girl walking around in red shorts and a blue shirt, was exactly as had been described in the dream.

The people had attempted to put in a community well, but each time they drilled the hole was dry.  It had not rained in the area for 24 years, and there was no water table.  As a consequence, water had to be trucked in from the outside.  The main dietary item was cactus, but the people had no money to buy salt for flavouring.

Faced with this trauma – which was likely precipitated by the people’s idolatry – the community had turned even more sharply to spiritism.  All manner of rituals and sacrifices were linked to the spirits of nature.

As the team approached the town, they were viewed with great  suspicion.  The people of Algodao de Jandaira felt vulnerable, and they were not used to outsiders.  Unfortunately, the day was waning and the team needed a place to stay.  Not knowing what else to do, they approached a small home and knocked on the door.

A woman answered and the team explained the purpose of their visit and asked if she knew of a place where they could bed down for the night.  Immediately the woman called the other family members to the door where they welcomed the team inside.  Without realizing it, the team had approached the only evangelical home in the community! It was an answer to prayer for both parties.

When the investigation team returned to Joao Pessoa and reported what they had seen to their fellow congregants, the people made a vow.  They would return to the troubled community once a month with whatever supplies they could muster.  These follow-up trips continued through 2003, with each successive visit serving to further break down the initial suspicion and hostility.

At the end of each visit, after they had delivered their meagre supplies of food, salt and clothing, the team would walk up to a rock outcropping above the village to pray.  Overwhelmed by their inadequacy, they asked God why he didn’t give the mission to a larger church that, presumably, could do much more for these needy people.  They also began to pray that God would speak to government leaders about helping the people of Algodao de Jandaira.

God responded by saying the Christians’ prayers were off target.  It was not his intention to use either rich churches or the government.  Rather, he wanted to work through weak vessels in order to demonstrate his power.

The Baptists’ prayers began to take on a real urgency in late 2003.  Despite their efforts, the situation in Algodao de Jandaira was deteriorating rapidly.  The little water on site was extremely brackish, and many animals were starting to die.  After prayer, the congregation decided to forego their traditional Christmas feast and family gift-giving in order to help the people of Algodao de Jandaira.  Through this sacrifice, the people were able to purchase 80 gift baskets containing food staples like rice, beans and pasta.

After delivering these Christmas baskets, the team returned home with heavy hearts.  Even this gesture seemed futile in light of the enormous needs.  Algodao de Jandaira’s inhabitants needed so much more – especially a relationship with Christ.

As Valentina Baptist Church began to collect funds for their next visit, the spirit of intercession began to rise within the congregation.  God was not one to play games, and they were not about to quit.

On January 24, 2004, the team headed out again on the day-long trek to Algodao de Jandaira.  This time, however, something was different.  About five miles from the community they approached a riverbed they had crossed dozens of times before.  But not this day.  For the first time in a quarter century, raging waters were coursing down the channel.  Parking their vehicle, the ecstatic believers hoisted supply sacks onto their shoulders and waded across the river.

As they walked the final stretch to town, a spirit of worship overcame them.  Reaching the edge of the village, the team stood in astonishment.

Algodao de Jandaira

From the rock outcropping that served as their prayer station, a waterfall was pouring forth life-giving water upon the community below.  Children were running in the river, splashing and laughing all around.  Men were watering their horses, while goats drank their fill.  It was almost too good to be true.

Upon reaching their friends, the Joao Pessoa team heard more of the story.  Shortly after their last visit, they were told, the heavens over Algodao de Jandaira had unleashed a deluge.

Water had exploded out of previously dry wells with such force that huge boulders were tossed into the air like pebbles.  Young people who had never before seen rain or running water were dumbfounded.  Their longsuffering parents were delighted.

After the “Flood of Blessings” – the mayor’s term for the recent miracle – 45 wells were drilled to tap what hydrologists now say is a substantial water table under Algodao de Jandaira.  All now provide potable water.

Baptisms at the dam, Pastors Joao Soares left, Enéas Araújo right

The once arid and infertile land has been transformed, and is now producing fava beans, papaya, guava, and other crops.  At the same time, bees are generating high quality honey, goats are yielding record amounts of milk, and the local river is filled with fish and shrimp.

Not only does this bounty provide for the immediate dietary needs of the people, but for the first time ever they are able to sell their overflow to public schools and outside distributors.

Buoyed by these developments, Algodao de Jandaira has seen its population rise to 3,000.  The Valentina congregation has planted a church and social centre in the community, and holds joint services every other month with a local Assembly of God congregation.

Today, a substantial majority of Algodao de Jandaira’s citizens follow Christ as their Lord and Saviour.  When glory is to be given, it is given to God rather than their former patron saint, Padre Cicero.

The Mayor (left) and Pastor Enéas outside former mud brick houses

The town’s 24-year-old mayor – recently selected to head a 29-town mayoral association – is happily serving the Lord along with his staff and a majority of the town councilors.  Under his leadership, Algodao de Jandaira has landed multiple federal grants worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.  During a recent trip to meet with federal officials, the mayor turned on the TV just in time to hear a preacher declare: “You are to go before government leaders and fight for your people.”

When he presented his case the following day, Algodao de Jandaira was the only community in the state of Paraiba to win a grant.

Although Algodao de Jandaira has a small police force, the constables have very little to do.  It seems that crime has all but vanished in the aftermath of the 2004 “Flood of Blessings.” To celebrate this victory – and their other manifold blessings – the town plans to erect a monument to the Lord in the spring of 2008.

Algodao de Jandaira town after the miracle

In the meantime, local believers are watching The Sentinel Group’s Quickening video to better understand the principles that animate transforming revival.  For while there is no shortage of gratitude for their recent breakthrough, there is also a growing sense of responsibility toward neighbouring communities still lost in their sin

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Appendix

Conclusion

Western Christians believe in Jesus and live for him, but I found that many overseas Christians and leaders were more responsive to the Lord and his Spirit, more aware of the spirit realm, and more convinced that Jesus’ ministry and New Testament life still happen now just as it did then.  They cast out spirits more than we do!  They are more likely to pray and obey as the early church did: “In the name of Jesus, be healed.”

They expect signs and wonders and pray for God’s supernatural intervention amid opposition, like Christians in the early church: “Now Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.  Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus” (Acts 4:29-30).   Revivals often restore New Testament church life today.

Christians in many other cultures seem less distracted than we are by media such as TV and DVDs and the internet.  That applied to Australian Aborigines also, although now the media increasingly bombard them as well.  We may know more about our own culture’s gods, such as Hollywood and singing idols, than we do about Jesus’ life with his disciples.

In the South Pacific particularly, and in many developing countries, they have a much stronger sense of community and commitment to one another than we do.  That can promote unity, serving one another and praying with and for each other as a regular lifestyle, once they repent of typical human jealousies and rivalries.  Like the early church, people in revival today still have human faults and failures and need to constantly repent.  When they do, God moves more powerfully among them.

However, there’s hope for us also, if we, like them, will humble ourselves and pray, and seek God’s face and turn from our wicked way.  God promises that he will hear from heaven, forgive our sin, and heal the land (2 Chronicles 7:14).

We too can discover the power of God’s Spirit, as Jesus promised.

Renewal and Revival Books

Details on ‘Geoff Waugh’ at www.amazon.com

Discounted on Blog at www.renewljournal.com

Free postage at ‘Geoff Waugh’ on www.bookdepository.com

Flashpoints of Revival (2nd ed., 2009)

Revivals Awaken Generations (Korean, 2006)

Revival Fires: History’s Mighty Revivals (2011)

South Pacific Revivals (2nd ed., 2010)

Anointed for Revival: Histories of Revival Pioneers (2011)

Looking to Jesus: Journey into Renewal and Revival (2009)

Light on the Mountains: Pioneer Mission in PNG (2009)

Great Revival Stories (2012), compiled from 2 books:

Best Revival Stories, and Transforming Revivals

Renewal and Revival (2012), compiled from 2 books:

Renewal and Revival

Body Ministry (2012), compiled from 2 books:

The Body of Christ, Part 1: Body Ministry (2010) and

The Body of Christ, Part 2:  Ministry Education (2010)

Church on Fire (1991, 2009).

Living in the Spirit (2nd ed., 2009)

Your Spiritual Gifts (2011)

Fruit and Gifts of the Spirit (1992, 2009)

The Leader’s Goldmine (1990, 2009)

Kingdom Life in Matthew (1992, 2009)

Kingdom Life in Mark (1990, 2009)

Kingdom Life in Luke (1991, 2009)

Keeping Faith Alive Today (1977, 2010)

Exploring Israel (2011)

Inspiration (2011)

Discovering Aslan: High King above all Kings in Narnia

(2012)

Renewal Journals

Renewal Journal articles, available now on www.renewaljournal.com and Blog

1: Revival

2: Church Growth

3: Community

4: Healing

5: Signs and Wonders

6: Worship

7: Blessing

8: Awakening

9: Mission

10: Evangelism

11: Discipleship

12: Harvest

13: Ministry

14: Anointing

15: Wineskins

16: Vision

17: Unity

18: Servant Leadership

19: Church

20: Life

Bound Volumes

Vol. 1 (1-5) Revival, Church Growth, Community, Signs & Wonders

Vol. 2 (6-10) Worship, Blessing, Awakening, Mission, Evangelism

Vol. 3 (11-15) Discipleship, Harvest, Ministry, Anointing, Wineskins

Vol. 4 (16-20) Vision, Unity, Servant Leadership, Church, Life

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[1] Vuniani Nakauyaca & Walo Ani, 2007, A Manual for Healing the Land, Toowoomba City Church, pp. 77-82.

[2] Nakauyaca & Ani, 2009, A Manual for Healing the Land, Toowoomba City Church, pp. 82-83, and personal prayer letters by Harry Tura.

Table of Contents

Copyright

Introduction

Part 1

1 Power from on High Adapted from John Greenfield

2 The Spirit told us what to do Carl Lawrence

3 Pentecost in Arnhem Land Djiniyini Gondarra

4 Speaking God’s Word David Yonggi Cho

5 Worldwide Awakening Richard Riss

6 The River of God David Hogan

Part 2

7 Solomon Islands

8 Papua New Guinea

9 Vanuatu

10 Fiji

11 Snapshots of Glory by George Otis Jr

12 The Transformation of Algodao de Jandaira

Conclusion