“We’re Together Again” – at Ranwadi High School, Pentecost Island. Recorded by Helen Hill:
20 minutes of selections from Banmatmat Bible College and Ranwadi High School on Pentecost Island in Vanuatu:
Interview with Emily Staples (who joined me on a mission trip to Pentecost Island, Vanuatu)
Over 250 Views and over 800 shares (so more views there)
[If anyone can make it horizontal, let me know!]
Egypt: For modern-day ‘Daniel,’ God closed the mouths of savage dogs meant to tear apart imprisoned Christian.
Like the lions in Daniel’s den, the ferocious attack dogs meant to torture Majed El Shafie in his Egyptian jail cell refused to do anything to him. They sat placidly, and one even licked his forehead – to the rage of the guards.
“These dogs are trained to listen to their masters,” El Shafie told Sid Roth. “But there is no higher Master than the Lord Jesus Christ.”
How did El Shafie, a remarkable law student, wind up on the wrong side of law? First, he converted to Christianity from Islam, a big no-no in Egypt, which defines itself as officially Muslim. Then he founded a pro-Christian legal aid organization with thousands of members. But the last straw was he wrote a book expounding his ideas.
On August 15, 1998, the government came after him. “At 1:30 in the morning, I heard a knock at my door.” El Shafie said. “Five officers came and broke the door. They took me to the police station behind the Parliament. They told me, ‘We know who you are. We know about your book. One thing we don’t know is who is rest of your group.”
El Shafie
Since El Shafie refused to name his associates, the police resorted to torture. They escorted him to Abu Zaabel prison in Cairo, known in the Middle East as “Hell on Earth,” where he endured seven days before nearly dying, El Shafie said. He recovered slowly in a hospital.
El Shafie was born into an influential family in Cairo of lawyers and Supreme Court justices. But he learned of the injustices of Egyptian law in his first year at law school, when there were up to 7,000 prisoners languishing in Egyptians jails whose only crime was being a Christian.
[He questioned a Christian friend.] “From my knowledge, if there is persecution, it means the enemy is trying to hide something.”
His friend very discreetly dodged the question and instead offered him a different book, one “that answers every question he could have.” In the pages of the Bible he discovered a justice, love and forgiveness he had never known before.
Providentially, he first opened the Scripture to John 8, the story of the woman caught in adultery. “Judge her according to the law of Moses!” the Pharisees cried out to Jesus.
“Whoever of you is without sin, cast the first stone,” Jesus replied.
“The only one who could cast the first stone was the Lord Jesus because He was the only one who had no sin,” he observed. “But He didn’t. He told the lady, ‘Go and sin no more. I forgive you.’ This was my first time to see true forgiveness.”
Testifying before Congress about Syria.
Shafie embarked on a year-long study comparing the Bible with the Koran. When he finished he approached his Christian friend and said: “Now I know what Christianity is about. It’s not a religion. It’s not about going to church on Sunday. Christianity is a relationship with God. I accept the Lord and I want to receive Jesus.”
But converting to Christ is no small matter in Egypt. He would be excluded from professional positions, lose his standing in the community, endanger his life and face severe rejection from his family.
“None of that equal anything if you know that your soul in the end will end up in Hell,” Shafie said.
Using his knowledge in law, Shafie launched a non-profit organization to advocate for religious freedom and aid Christians in jail. It grew in two years to 24,000 members. He wrote a book expounding his beliefs and was arrested on Aug. 15, 1998.
By El Shafie’s account, the Egyptian torture machine works through various steps. First they change the prisoner’s name so family members can’t locate them and so international human rights organizations can’t verify the family’s accusation.
The Abu Zaabal prison
“The officers who are torturing you are always wearing masks. You cannot see their faces. They always call each other by numbers, not by names.”
As they try to break a prisoner down, they increase the torture. From one day to the next, they inform the prisoner of the next day’s tortures, thus inflicting mental anxiety all night long before carrying it out, El Shafie said.
On Day #1, his hair was shaved and his head was put alternately in freezing cold and boiling hot water for a minute each. “After that, they took me to my cell, and the told me, ‘You tell us the name of your friends.’”
He responded: “I haven’t taken a shower for a long time, so I enjoyed the cold and hot water. The more that you smile, the more you show no fear, the more you show that they have no control.”
On Day #2, they hung El Shafie upside down, burned his body with cigarettes and slashed him with knives.
“The only thing I can remember from Day #2 is the taste and the smell of my blood,” he said. “They took me back to my cell.”
Day #3 was the three snarling dogs loosed into his dark cell. But “the three dogs were sitting around me. None of them attacked.”
Since the first set of dogs didn’t bite his flesh, the guards brought in another set of dogs, which also sat placidly.
“The guards were talking about it as a miracle,” El Shafie said.
On Day #4, guard 27, a huge officer, offered him anything he could want – a big house, money, women – if he would just inform on his associates. El Shafie “agreed” but said he first needed some shish kabobs because he hadn’t eaten in three days.
After licking his fingers, El Shafie told the hulking guard: “I can’t remember the names, but I’ll tell you the name of our leader, and if you can catch him, he can tell you exactly the names of all the members.
“The name of our leader is Jesus Christ,” he said. “If you can catch Him, catch Him.”
The guard slapped him, sending him against the wall. El Shafie was led to a dark room and tied hands, arms, feet, legs and neck to a wooden cross. He hung there for 2-and-a-half days. Then they cut his left shoulder and poured lemon and salt on the wound.
“He thought he broke my spirit, but he was wrong,” El Shafie said.
Nearly dead from extreme dehydration, El Shafie was taken to a hospital. Miraculously, Jesus gave him water, he said. After a week, he recovered.
Eventually he was tried and sentenced to death. But with the help of friends, he managed an audacious escape. He stole a jet ski on the Sinai Peninsula and rode it out of Egypt to Israel.
Through the help of international organizations, he was granted political asylum in Canada in 2002. He became a Canadian citizen in 2006.
El Shafie’s recent efforts to liberate the oppressed under Islam included traveling to ISIS-held territory to buy Yazidi sex slaves their freedom. For his humanitarian work, he was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012.
“Persecuted Christians are dying every day, but they are still smiling. They are in a very deep dark night, but they still have the candles of the living God,” El Shafie said. “Our enemies have a very strong army, have very strong weapons, but we have the Lord Almighty. They can kill the dreamer, but no one can kill the dream.”
Buddhist Monks The The Nepal earthquake in 2015 killed over 8,000 people and was the worst natural disaster to strike that country since 1934. Hundreds of thousands were left homeless — with entire villages flattened — which prompted many Christian organization to respond with humanitarian aid.
A prominent Buddhist monk observed carefully as Christians helped rebuild his community last year after the massive temblor reduced his neighborhood to rubble.
“As a powerful Tibetan monk with 1,000 disciples, his word was law,” a ministry director for Christian Aid Mission reported. “He was watching us for seven days continually as Christians became salt and light to the community.”
Between the witness of the Christian workers and a powerful move of the Holy Spirit on the man’s heart something remarkable happened.
“After watching us for seven days, he said, ‘I’m going to give my life to Jesus.’”
Before the earthquake, the Buddhist leader had never allowed homegrown missionaries to preach in his area.
But he was disheartened when he observed that none of his monastery colleagues assisted with aid or rebuilding following the earthquake.
“Where are the 330 million gods of Hinduism? Where are the Buddhists?” the monk asked.
Showing JESUS film in Nepal
The monk placed his faith and trust in Jesus Christ, along with his family and many others, and became theleader of a church, according to Christian Aid Mission.
The former Buddhist monk’s two sons were recently baptized, and his daughter has become a Bible teacher for children in the area.
His former Buddhist colleagues now oppose him, and have made a false accusation that he was paid to convert. Undaunted, the former monk says he wants to go to remote areas on Nepal’s border with Tibet to proclaim Christ,” according to Christian Aid Mission.
“I want to go where no churches are,’” the former monk told Christian Aid Mission. “We have come across many other people thankful for our help. Even in hostile areas, many people were touched. When they saw our love and service, people were amazed – they saw the life of Christ.”
100 years ago a wife of the highest-ranking Paramount Chief died soon after native missionaries brought the Gospel to Pentecost Island. After her body was wrapped in burial calico the calico began moving. Quickly they unwrapped the body and she sat up. She had seen Jesus and told them all to leave their bad heathen ways and follow the good Christian way. Then she lay down and died again. They did what she said and moved from pagan villages to Christian villages on land offered by a Christian Chief who was the grandfather of Pastor Rolanson, our host.
Some of the signs of revival we saw there included a whole mountain ‘on fire’ (with nothing burned) during revival meetings at their Bible College,witchcraft items revealed then removed and destroyed by prayer teams, everyone prayed for in ‘custom’ villages healed, and angels filling a village church with songs in the night in a small village where the worship had been strong, lasting for many hours. Everyone prayed for in that village was healed and all unbelievers repented during the worship and many were baptized.
I talk about some of these things in this recent podcast:
Part of this account is information from my bookSouth Pacific Revivals(in paperback, ebook, and PDF).
French explorer Bougainville saw and named this 60 kilometres long, narrow island on the Day of Pentecost, 1764. Captain Cook sailed past it in 1774.
Martyr for the Gospel
Tomas Tumtum had been an indentured worker on cane farms in Queensland, Australia. He was converted there and returned around 1901 to his village on South Pentecost Island. He came with his friend, Lulkon, a new young disciple from a neighbouring island. They arrived when the village was taboo because a baby had died a few days earlier, so no one was allowed near the village. Ancient tradition dictated that anyone breaking taboo must be killed, so they were going to kill Tomas, but his friend Lulkon asked Tomas to tell them to kill him instead, so that Tomas could live and evangelize his own people. Just before he was clubbed to death at a sacred Mele palm tree, Lulkon read John 3:16, then closed his eyes and prayed for them.
Tomas became the pioneer of the church in South Pentecost, establishing many Churches of Christ in the villages there, initially along the west coast of South Pentecost.
Law student (now lawyer and pastor) Jerry from Fiji at sacred Mele palm tree, site of martyr’s death which opened the way for the gospel in South Pentecost 100 years ago.
The church on Pentecost Island was strongly evangelical, founded by native leaders converted by the Churches of Christ mission in Queensland. Many of the leaders on Pentecost Island became filled with the Spirit in a series of indigenous revivals from the 1980s.
Revival Background
Pastor Wilson Bebe led many revival meetings in South Pentecost in the 1980s and 1990s. He was a strong evangelist and revival leader. Prayer meetings multiplied during revivals.
Pastor Lewis Wari completed studies at the Bible College at Banmatmat and began preaching at revival meetings in the villages of South Pentecost in the 1980s. Revival spread in 1980-1981 with many people weeping, repenting, being reconciled and some people being healed. Lewis had strong revelations and words of knowledge for people. He also faced opposition from traditional churches, a cautious reaction common to revivals everywhere.
Pastor Lewis spoke at meetings in March 1995 at Panlimsi village on the west coast, near Pangi. The Country Women’s Fellowship (CWF) met there for a week to learn to use sewing machines and Lewis preached at the night crusade meetings. On the Friday night, 31 March 1995, the Spirit of God moved in a very strong way. Many people were crying and repenting and were filled with the Spirit.
Pastor Rolanson had just finished his studies at the Bible College and was the young pastor at Panlimsi (near Pangi) then. He led teams from his church in revival meetings with Pastor Lewis. God moved in a strong way at Ranwas village on the east coast with many people crying and repenting. The teams led revival meetings in many village churches in South Pentecost.
Pastors Rolanson and Owen praying for leaders in Ranwas village church
Revival spark in 2002
Jaynan
Simon
Law School Graduation
Graduation photos here of Jay, Simon, Calvin (with Kata and Samuel), Romulo and Pam – now all strong Christian lawyers and leaders.
Port Vila, the capital of Vanuatu, has the Law School of the University of the South Pacific. The Port Vila law students Christian Fellowship experienced a strong move of God from Easter 2002, with many converted and filled with the Spirit.
I hosted a team of 11 of the law students in Brisbane for a month in November 2002. They had their own 5 a.m. prayer meeting each day and then they helped lead the 6 a.m. daily prayer group at Kenmore Baptist Church. They spoke, sang, and did items at many different churches, praying for people personally at each one.
Law students Jerry, Pam & Sala now lawyers and leaders
In May 2003 a team from the University of the South Pacific law school Christian Fellowship (CF) joined me on Pentecost Island in Vanuatu for a weekend of outreach meetings on South Pentecost. The national Vanuatu Churches of Christ Bible College stands near the site of the native Christian martyrdom there.
God opened a wide door on Pentecost Island (1 Corinthians 16:8-9). The weekend with the CF team brought new unity among the competing village churches. The Sunday night service went from 6-11 p.m., although we ‘closed’ it three times after 10 p.m., with a closing prayer, then later a closing song, and then later a closing announcement. People just kept coming for prayer and singing.
Another team of four students from the law school CF returned to South Pentecost in June 2003 for 12 days of meetings in many villages. Again, the Spirit of God moved strongly. Leaders repented publicly of divisions and criticisms. Then youth began repenting of backsliding or unbelief. A great-granddaughter of the pioneer Tomas Tumtum gave her life to God in the village near his grave at the Bible College.
We held evening rallies in four villages of South Pentecost each evening from 6 p.m. for 12 days, with teaching sessions on the Holy Spirit every morning in the main village church for a week. The team experienced a strong leading of the Spirit in the worship, drama, action songs with Pacific dance movements, and preaching and praying for people.
Mathias (in photo), a young man who repented deeply with over 15 minutes of tearful sobbing, became the main worship leader in revival meetings. When he was leading and speaking at a revival meeting at the national Bible College, a huge supernatural fire blazed in the hills directly opposite the Bible College chapel in 2005, but no bush was burned. They told us it was supernatural fire, with no smoke and nothing physical being consumed.
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Pentecost Island Bible College
Pastor Lewis Wari, revival pioneer
By 2004, the Churches of Christ national Bible College on Pentecost Island became a centre for revival teaching. Pastor Lewis Wari and his wife Marilyn hosted these gatherings at the Bible College, and later on Lewis spoke at many island churches as the President of the Churches of Christ. Lewis had been a leader in strong revival movements on South Pentecost as a young pastor from 1988, with many village revivals.
Don and Helen Hill (in photo), friends from Brisbane, participated in some visits. Don repaired the electrical wiring at the Bible College and supplied needed portable generators and lawnmowers. Helen recorded the revival teaching sessions on DVD for international use by our friends in many nations who have also experienced revival.
Leaders’ seminars and youth conventions at the Bible College focused on God and revival. The college hosted regular courses and seminars on revival for a month at a time. Each day began with prayer together from 6 a.m. The early morning prayer meetings began even earlier, from 4.30 a.m., in the youth convention in December 2004, as God’s Spirit moved on the youth leaders in that area.
Morning sessions continued from 8 a.m. to noon, with teaching and ministry. As the Spirit moved on the group, they continued to repent and seek God for further anointing and imparting of the Spirit in their lives. Afternoon sessions featured sharing and testimonies of what God is doing. Each evening became a revival meeting at the Bible College with worship, sharing, preaching, and powerful times of ministry to everyone seeking prayer.
Every weekend the teams from the college led revival meetings in village churches. Many of these village revival meetings went late as the Spirit moved on the people with deep repentance, reconciliation, forgiveness, and prayer for healing and empowering.
Law School Christian Fellowship team
Another law student team from Port Vila, led by Seini Puamau, Vice President of the Christian Fellowship [now a judge in Fiji], had a strong impact at the High School on South Pentecost Island with big responses at all meetings. Almost the whole residential school of 300 responded for prayer at the final service on Sunday night October 17, 2004, after a powerful testimony from Joanna Kenilorea. The High School principal, Silas Buli, has prayed with some of his staff for many years from 4 a.m. each morning, praying for the school and nation. Silas became a Member of Parliament for South Pentecost in 2016.
Christian Fellowship team at Waterfall
The church arranged for more revival teaching at their national Bible College for church leaders. Teams from the college held mission meetings simultaneously in seven different villages. Every village saw strong responses, including a team that held their meeting in the ‘nakamal’, the chief’s meeting house of their village. The first person to respond for prayer in the nakamal was a man from the ‘custom’ traditional village called Bunlap.
Those Bible College sessions seemed like preparation for further revival. Every session led into ministry. Repentance went deep. Prayer began early in the mornings, and went late into the nights.
Village evangelism teams from South Pentecost continue to witness in the villages, and also visit other islands. Six people from these teams came to Brisbane and were then part of 15 from Pentecost Island on mission with me in the Solomon Islands in 2006.
Revival meetings on Pentecost
Grant Shaw joined me on Pentecost Island in Vanuatu in September-October 2006. Grant grew up with missionary parents in China, saw many persecutions and miracles, and had his dad recounting miraculous answers to prayer as a daily routine. They often needed to pray for miracles, and miracles happened often. From 14 years of age Grant participated in mission teams travelling internationally in Asia. Then he attended a youth camp at Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship which has seen revival since 1994. He worked there as an associate youth pastor for 18 months before studying at Bible College in Brisbane and then being a youth pastor in a large Brisbane church. So he is used to revival – all his life! In Vanuatu he had clear words of knowledge, and saw people healed daily in meetings and in the villages. That inspired and challenged everyone.
Raised from the dead
Grant with nurse Leah
In Port Vila the capital, on our way to Pentecost Island in 2006 with Grant Shaw we attended the Sunday service at the Upper Room church. At sharing time in the service, Leah Waqa, a nurse, told how she had been on duty that week when parents brought in their young daughter who had been badly hit in a car accident, and showed no signs of life – the monitor registered zero – no pulse. Leah felt unusual boldness, so commanded the girl to live, and prayed for her for an hour. After an hour the monitor started beeping and the girl recovered.
South Pentecost
Our revival mission trip on South Pentecost Island was based in the village of Panlimsi near Pangi on the southwest coast. Mathias was then the young pastor there. The Spirit moved strongly in all the meetings. Repentance. Reconciliations. Confessions. Anointing. Healings every day. The healings included Pastor Rolanson’s young son Ralph, partially deaf from birth, able to hear clearly after Grant prayed for him. Rolanson leads evangelism teams, and helped to lead this mission.
Land diving with vines
South Pentecost attracts tourists with its land diving – men jumping from high bamboo towers with vines attached to their ankles. Grant prayed for a jumper who had hurt his neck, and the neck crackled back into place. An elderly man no longer needed his walking stick to come up the hill to the meetings. Grant prayed for a son of the paramount chief of South Pentecost from Bunlap, a ‘custom’ village. He was healed from a painful leg and later he invited the team to come to his village to pray for the sick. No white people had been invited there to minister previously.
The revival team, including the two of us from Australia, trekked for a week into mountain villages. We literally obeyed Luke 10 – most going with no extra shirt, no sandals, and no money. The trek began with a five-hour climb across the island mountain range to the village of Ranwas on the eastern side. Mathias led worship, and strong moves of the Spirit touched everyone. We prayed for people many times in each meeting. At one point I spat on the dirt floor, making mud to show what Jesus did once. Marilyn Wari, wife of the President of the Churches of Christ, then jumped up asking for prayer for her eyes, using the mud. Later she testified that the Lord told her to do that, and then she found she could read her small pocket Bible without glasses. So she read to us all. Meetings continued like that each night.
We then trekked through the ‘custom’ heathen village where the paramount chief lived, and prayed for more sick people. Some had pain leave immediately, and people there became more open to the gospel.
The village storekeeper was the first man to ask for prayer there. He wanted us to put a curse on someone who had stolen from him! Instead, I was led to pray that the Lord would convict the culprit. We heard later that the culprit returned the stolen goods.
Then the team trekked for seven hours to Ponra, a remote village further north.
Glory in a remote village
Revival meetings erupted at Ponra. The Spirit just took over. Visions. Revelations. Reconciliations. Healings. People drunk in the Spirit. Many resting on the floor getting blessed in various ways. When they heard about Marilyn’s healing through ‘mud on the eyes’ at Ranwas, some of them wanted mud packs also! Children often slept on the floor in the long revival meetings.
One of the girls in the team had a vision of the village children there paddling in a pure sea, crystal clear. They were like that – so pure. Not polluted by TV, DVDs, videos, movies, magazines, and worldliness. Their lives were so clean and holy. Just pure love for the Lord, especially among the young. Youth often lead in revival.
The sound of angels singing filled the air about 3 a.m. It sounded as though the village church was packed. The harmonies in high descant declared “For You are great and You do wondrous things. You are God alone” and then harmonies, without words until words again for “I will praise You O Lord my God with all my heart, and I will glorify Your name for evermore” with long, long harmonies on “forever more”. Just worship. Pure, awesome and majestic.
The team stayed two extra days there – everyone received prayer, and many people surrendered to the Lord both morning and night. Everyone repented, including us, as the Spirit moved on everyone.
Grant’s legs, cut and sore from the long trek, saved the team from another long trek back across the island. The villagers arranged a boat ride back around the island from the east to the west for the team’s return. Revival meetings continued back at the host village, Panlimsi, led mainly in worship by Mathias, with Pastor Rolanson organising things. Also at two other villages the Spirit moved powerfully as the team ministered, with much reconciliation and dancing in worship.
Pastor Rolanson, in the host village, heard angels singing there also. At first, he too thought it was the church full of people but the harmonies were more wonderful than we can sing. Repentance and healings continued in the meetings and in the villages.
Vanuatu Team visits the Solomon Islands
During November 2006, a team of 22 from South Pentecost flew to Honiara in the Solomon Islands and joined Grant and Jesse Padayache and me there for revival meetings in the city and in the mountain villages where revival was spreading. God miraculously provided accommodation in a Christian hostel. Sporting teams had cancelled their booking, so the whole place was available for us. The team visited many town churches and mountain villages, praying with and for hundreds of people. Many reported healings and anointing by God’s Spirit.
Grant and I had the marvellous opportunity to speak one night at the United Church’s national Christian Youth Convention on Choisel Island in the western Solomons. God poured out his Spirit on about 1,000 youths. Many were healed and filled with the Spirit. Many of them saw revival movements in their own islands when they returned home in their outboard canoes.
Weekend with Anglicans
Most of our mission work has been with the Churches of Christ villages but we also visit ‘custom’ pagan villages and other denominations.
Indigenous painting in the Anglican Church
We made history in 2010 by trekking three to four hours to the Anglican village of Point Cross on the southern tip of Pentecost Island, at their invitation. This was the first combined churches meetings ever held there. I taught on the Holy Spirit and transformation in their beautiful cement church, painted white with a majestic spire, visible for kilometres all around. It contains dramatic paintings of Jesus painted on the walls by a Pentecost Island man (see photo). We also met in the chief’s meeting house. At all meetings there we prayed with large numbers of people, including prayer for healings and to be filled with the Spirit. The helpful Member of Parliament there provided us with a free boat trip in his outboard canoe, back to our base village at Pangi and Panlimsi.
Church life has changed in the years I have been visiting Pentecost Island. Now all the churches we work with, including the Anglican youth, have revival-style meetings with revival choruses and personal prayer for those responding.
One of their revival songs has this chorus:
There’s gonna be a great awakening There’s gonna be a great revival in our land There’s gonna be a great awakening And everyone who calls on Jesus They will be saved.
Adventures with Andrew
Andrew Chee from Hawaii lived to surf. Now he lives to serve God [Photo: Andrew surfing].
21-year-old Andrew came with me on a three-week mission to Vanuatu in June-July 2012, again in July 2014, then in July 2015 with Ben Gray and Noel Missingham, then in June-July 2016 with Noel and my grandson Dante. A great way to escape winter! We saw God’s blessing and many miracles.
Andrew sensed God telling him to go on the trip, and he booked his flights only one week before we left when flights were full because of school holidays. At first he was wait-listed but the next day a seat became available on all my four flights!
His cousin Grant Shaw came with me to Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands in 2006 when he was 22. See photos on the Facebook Album
Grant founded Kingdom Culture Church on the north side of Brisbane. He encouraged Andrew to join me [Photo: Andrew and Grant].
Grant hit the news in 2012 with a front-page article in the Sunday Mail and guest appearances on TV shows because they take keen young people to nearby shopping malls and pray for the sick and for anyone wanting prayer. Grant’s brother Joel, also a pastor, began doing this kind of outreach some years previously. Joel and Grant saw God heal hundreds of people, especially non-Christians. Many of those prayed for are now keen Christians also. Joel and his wife Candice with four others from their church joined us for mission on Pentecost Island in June 2013, also visiting many village churches.
Grant and Joel’s cousin Andrew loves praying for the sick because he sees God constantly taking away pain and healing people. He has strong faith in God’s Word, such as Mark 16:17-18. Jesus said, “these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; … they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
We saw all that in Vanuatu, literally. Daily. Both in 2012 and 2014 with Andrew, as well as in 2006 with Grant and 2013 with his brother Joel and his team from Glory City Church in Brisbane – see Photo Reports listed above.
See photos and maps on the Facebook Album.Huge numbers were healed, and leaders challenged and helped.
Port Vila, the capital
Andrew and I flew into Port Vila late on a Friday night and stayed at the Churches of Christ transit house above the church there. Next morning at 6 a.m. we heard young people worshiping in the church with their beautiful island harmonies, so we joined them. They welcomed us and invited us to speak briefly and pray for anyone sick. Andrew had words of knowledge about people with pain who then came out for prayer. Our praying continued for everyone wanting prayer, after the closing prayer. Nice fast start to a mission trip!
That morning we flew for an hour in a very small plane on the windy trip to Pentecost Island – the bumpiest I have had on my dozen visits there. Fortunately we only had time for one bread roll at the airport before leaving, so did not get sick!
I went to Pentecost Island first in 2003 to see their famous land diving, when men dive from 20-30 meter towers with only vines tied to their ankles. Chief Willie (photo), my host, invited me to return with teams of young people from the Law School Christian Fellowship of the University of the South Pacific. I had met them in 2002 and hosted a month’s mission trip they had with me in Australia in November of that year.
So now I was returning again, with another keen young firebrand for God.
Pentecost Island
Pastor Rolanson met us at the airstrip and we walked 300 meters to the beach to ride for half an hour in the outboard canoe 10k south to Pangi village. There Rolanson’s sons met us to carry our bags along the muddy track half a kilometer inland to their village, Panlimsi.
Host Pastor Rolanson and Andrew
I stayed there many times, including with Grant in the bush house behind Andrew and Rolanson in this photo. Rolanson, pastor and evangelist, keeps asking us to return to encourage revival, pray for people, and help him train leaders.
We had our first meeting there that Saturday night in the village church, partially lit by a couple of old fluorescent lights when the generator was started, usually after everyone has arrived – to save fuel. So most meetings begin in the dark with torchlight or candles.
Early in the worship Andrew again had words of knowledge about people’s pain so worship included praying for the sick. Their pain left. After we both spoke that night, we prayed for many more.
So began weeknight meetings at Panlimsi. During the day we rested, recovered, washed in the nearby river where water taro grew abundantly, and usually walked back to Pangi to swim in the ocean. Every time we went out into the villages people asked for healing prayer.
So, like Jesus sending out the 12 and 70 (Mark 6:7; Luke 10:1) in pairs, we too went through the towns and villages proclaiming the kingdom of God, healing the sick and casting out spirits. Many illnesses there result from curses or witchcraft. Often we had to break curses, bind afflicting spirits and cast them out in Jesus’ name.
The first time I went there, in 2003, my host Chief Willie asked me to throw out an afflicting spirit giving him a headache, literally. He said that ‘enemies’ had cursed him. So we prayed together, bound and cast out attacking spirits, and he felt fine.
At other times people asked me to help them get rid of strong invading spirits such as one that haunted a house by ‘jumping’ onto the stones on the floor at night. We prayed and it was gone after that. However, that impudent one ‘jumped’ on the stone floor in my bungalow that night, so I had to cast it out in Jesus’ name, and it never returned. Rather weird to hear someone/something ‘jump’ into your dark room at night!
This time we experienced strong witchcraft. On our last day there, when Andrew and I were weary, Andrew was hit by severe aches and headache. That night I saw a strange dull light, like a reddish torchlight, moving horizontally just outside our village hut. We began praying against powerful spirits. God’s Spirit reminded Andrew to bless those who curse you and pray for your enemies. He did. The strange spiritual connection was immediately broken, and pain started easing off. It took a day to recover from that one. “All hail the power of Jesus’ name.”
Every first Sunday of the month the Churches of Christ have a combined service for all their churches in South Pentecost. We shared in one in the packed Panlimsi church. Before the service, Andrew had words of knowledge about pain in a man’s shoulders and the right side of a woman’s face. Both came for prayer as people were gathering in the church. It turned out that the man was the leader of the service and the woman preached that day! Many times, the words of knowledge Andrew received, we discovered later, were for pastors and leaders, and then later we prayed for others.
At that Sunday service I was strongly led to call people out for prayer during communion. That was a first for them. It never happened in communion before. A large number came for prayer and healings were fast and strong.
Andrew washes chief’s feet in church
One night Andrew felt led to wash everyone’s feet. That took the whole service! We put a bucket of water near the door (regularly refilled) and Andrew washed everyone’s feet as they arrived while we worshiped, prayed, spoke and called people out for healing and empowering prayer. One lady, Alice, told us later that while Andrew in obedience washed her feet the Lord healed her legs! Alice was also healed another year while she was bringing a friend to the front for healing prayer! I was led to wash the leaders’ feet that night also [Photo: Andrew washes the chief’s feet]. That happened many times through the years – following Jesus’ example.
Our adventures included another outboard motor canoe trip an hour north for a combined churches youth rally on the beach with a large campfire at the end of the meeting. We joined forces with another mission team from Gladstone (in Queensland, Australia). That night we also prayed for many people after the service. Healings were the fastest and strongest we had seen till then.
Bunlap
The ‘custom’ village of Bunlap on the east coast is famous as the spiritual base for native witchcraft and curses.
I went there in 2006 with Grant on a five-hour trek across to Ranwas village and then via Bunlap on a seven-hour trek to Ponra village where we saw the power of God at every meeting and I heard angels singing in the night, like the church was full, although no people were there.
Grant had prayed for the paramount chief’s son whose groin was healed at Pangi village, so we offered to go to Bunlap and pray for the sick. A couple of days later we heard that the chief had invited us to come and pray – the first white people to ever be invited to pray for people there.
This time Andrew and I were swimming off the jetty near Pangi when one of the chief’s sons from Bunlap and his friends wandered onto the jetty. Two of those young men had pain so Andrew prayed for them and the pain left. The chief’s son told us they would be there when we came to Bunlap the following Saturday to pray for sick people again.
This year we enjoyed the luxury of a four-wheel truck trip across the island through the dense green mountains. We had three nights of meetings at Ranwas village, Friday to Sunday, including the Sunday morning service there. On Saturday we trekked half an hour through the jungle to Bunlap.
People were even more welcoming this time at Bunlap. We prayed for dozens of people, and their pain left. We talked about the kingdom of God and how Jesus saves and heals. Some of the people told us they believed that, and when the chief allowed it they would be part of a church there.
The paramount chief once burned a Bible given to him by a revival team from the Christian villages. Now he is willing for a church to be built on the ground where he burned the Bible. Hallelujah – what a testimony to God’s grace and glory.
For the first time ever, that paramount chief asked for prayer. He wanted healing from head pain. Andrew placed his hands on the sides of the chief’s head and we prayed for him in Jesus’ name. The pain left.
Pastors Willy, Gordon, Rolanson and his son David with Andrew and the paramount chief
Then another chief there prepared lunch for us so the pastors in the team and Andrew and I ate in his house – again the first time ever for white people on mission eating with him there.
Like Jesus’ disciples, we returned to Ranwas church, rejoicing that afflicting spirits were cast out, people were healed in Jesus’ name, some believed in Jesus, and they now plan to have a church there someday. Our host chief told Rolanson he can bring his guitar and have meetings in the chief’s house anytime.
Some Christians at Ranwas were amazed to hear the reports. They have endured witchcraft and curses from Bunlap for a century. Again, during communion on Sunday large numbers came for prayer for healing, and healings were fast and strong. They also had never done that in communion before. At all the meetings Andrew had specific words of knowledge about healings, and pain left quickly. In the beginning of our trip we had to pray for some people two or three times before the pain left, but as the weeks passed and faith rose, healings were much quicker and stronger. By the end of the mission trip people in the congregation were praying for each other in faith and seeing God touch their friends. We really encourage them to keep doing that.
Andrew especially encouraged leaders to pray with him for people’s healings, just as he had learned from leaders in his church. Soon those village leaders and others were praying more strongly in faith. Many of them do that constantly anyway, so we were just encouraging them to believe and take authority in Jesus’ name even more fully.
We returned to Ranwas village, and Bunlap village in 2014, with similar results. The sick were healed. Hearts were opened to faith in Jesus.
In 2014 we also spoke and prayed with many people at the Independence Celebrations held every 24th July for a week. Many responded, and many youth came for prayer during our time there. We slept one night with a local football team and woke up to them singing:
For I was made in His likeness Created in His image For I was born to serve the Lord And I can’t deny Him And I will always walk beside Him For I was born to serve the Lord.
I challenged them all to live fully this way and the whole team responded in prayer.
2015 Update
I’m just back from a good time in Vanuatu, though tiring – it reminds me I’m approaching 80! Great to have 3 young fellows full of energy and zeal, Andrew Chee (3rd time there, and he was with me in Nepal and Thailand last year), his friend Ben Gray, and my nephew-in-law Noel Missingham – see the Facebook Album. Pastor Rolanson has been the main organizer of my visits to Pentecost Island for over 12 years and I often stay in his village. This time Rolanson came to Vila the first week we were there so we stayed in Vila a week with contacts given to Noel. We joined with a new church group there and had free accommodation as well. The boys loved praying for people in the streets and seeing immediate healings, and we were taken out by church people on 3 days to pray for many, including the Paramount Chief of Port Vila, and for many of his people in his island village.
We had a good week on Pentecost staying with Elder Jackson and wife Annette (who worked in a bank branch there) in their house near the beach at Pangi, as Rolanson stayed on in Vila with government stuff. The team prayed for healings every day and in all the night meetings. Night meetings in four different villages: Panlimsi, Hotwater, Wali and Pangi, were all strong with personal prayers for healings, anointing, empowering and mission. See the Facebook album
It was a time of building them up again. Everyone who was prayed for about their healing reported that the pain had gone – quickly. I left some of the treks into the mountains to the young men this time, and Andrew and Noel returned and prayed for the ‘custom’ paramount chief not only for healings in the village but for his salvation. He indicated that he wanted to give his life to God and open all the ‘custom’ villages to evangelism. Two ‘custom’ chiefs opened their villages for healing prayers and evangelism.
Noel and Andrew pray with the ‘custom’ paramount chief for healing and salvation
We had a few days at Santo Island on our return. Pastor Lewis (who hosted my time teaching at the Bible College in 2004-5) was there in the main office as director of mission. We had a few days to relax on Sunny Santo.
2016 Update
Noel Missingham returned to Pentecost Island many times in 2015-16 including two visits with his family of four young children, hosted by Jackson and Annette at Pangi village. Here is their report in June 2016.
Noel, Judith and family
Email from Noel & Judith:
Greetings to our friends and partners,
It has been an exciting time for us over the last few months. Looking back, our word from the Lord was simply ‘come and follow Me,’ so we found ourselves stepping into the mission field on Pentecost Island in Vanuatu.
In being obedient to this word we have seen the Lord do amazing things and it feels like we have just been along for the ride. We have seen the Lord open deaf ears, make the blind see, heal backs, knees, ankles, broken bones and headaches.
The Lord has brought us before people great and small. He has created divine connections with leaders in Vanuatu and has given us ‘standing before kings’. In the small time we have been spending there, we have seen impossible situations made possible, broken relationships restored and enormous favour for the Lord’s work. We have seen people baptised in water and be completely overwhelmed after being touched by the Holy Spirit. We never anticipated the Lord would use us in such a way.
Out of everything we have witnessed so far, we’ve found that nothing quite compares to the miracle of salvation; seeing a repentant heart weeping in the Father’s love. A story that comes to mind is when a man approached us after a service. It had been some time since he last stepped into a church building, but something told him he should go this morning. As he listened from outside, the Lord touched him and he came forward and shared how he had been involved in adultery. Wow, what a scene as he completely broke down and gave the Lord everything and when we are willing to give everything to Jesus, He is willing to take EVERYTHING from us. He makes us clean, puts a robe and ring on us and calls us ‘faithful and beloved’… When the time for church announcements came, this man took the microphone and with tears in his eyes he apologized to the church and individual leaders and people he hurt. The leaders in turn forgave him, and restored him to the place he was formally serving, on the worship team. A son restored!
One of the ‘impossible made possible’ situations has been the restoration of the Banmatmat Bible College. As Noel hiked around the island to take the gospel to distant villages, one of the things he felt was that it could be more effective. While we are seeing divine favour, signs and wonders, healing and salvations and clear open doors, to do it by ourselves or with a small group of people is not as effective as it could be.
We feel the need for multiple teams of people, and strategic planning so that we can really take Pentecost Island, and all the islands of Vanuatu for the Lord, and then go beyond there to other nations. Of course the Lord had a solution already in the pipeline: The Banmatmat Bible College.
The Lord brought Banmatmat to our attention on one of our previous trips. It lies in the south of the island, a remote part only accessible by hiking or boat. It now lies in ruins and disrepair, however in times gone past it was regarded by locals as a paradise, and a valuable source of training and equipping for many pastors serving there and in surrounding islands.
Bible College and beach at Banmatmat, South Pentecost. Lulkon was martyred in these hills, and we saw supernatural fire on those hills from the Bible College.
We learned that the people dedicated the land where the college is located to God, a few generations after one of the first Christians was martyred (and eaten) near the site. The Church of Christ college was built on that location in 1964. It lasted up until 2004 when the college closed for various reasons. …
[From Geoff: I was able to teach there many times in 2004-2005, hosted by Pastor Lewis Wari, a revival pioneer, who later became President of the Churches of Christ in Vanuatu. God may have other purposes for this place in the future. Many people have had amazing prophecies about revival in South Pentecost.]
The other thing that the Lord opened up on the last trip was different connections with church leaders around the island (from Anglican, Catholic, Seven Day Adventists and Churches of Christ). These are divine connections with brothers and sisters who know Him and love Him and just want to see the King glorified regardless of denominational boundaries.
In closing out this update letter, we want to personally thank each of you for partnering with us in the work the Lord has us doing in Vanuatu. We pray that our Lord continues to richly bless you as we labour together in his work. Remember we are partnering together!
Bible College chapel 2005
Team Visit, June-July 2016
We had the privilege of sharing in meetings every night during our visit covering three weekends. The team, for part or all of the time, included Noel, Andrew, Stan (my brother-in-law) and Dante (my grandson).
Again, most meetings and outreach were around Pangi village on the coast (where we slept) and up the ridge at Panlimsi village, in Pastor Rolanson’s church. Again we participated with local people and encouraged them to continue boldly in faith in praying for one another and for mission teams to go out to the villages. At every meeting we had many responding for commitment to God, anointing and healing. This included evangelism meetings in a few different villages along that west coast of South Pentecost.
During the day we mixed with the people in their daily activities, including fishing with outrigger canoes and with nets. So we enjoyed fish cooked on the fire on the beach a few times, just like the resurrected Jesus with his friends on the shore of Galilee.
Noel and Stan accompanied Rolanson and other leaders to Banmatmat to assess future possibilities. No one seems to know what will happen there, or when, but it remains in our prayers along with the possibilities of having a Revival Training Centre on South Pentecost as the Lord opens the way.
Pioneer chief dies at 111
Paramount chief Morris lived to 111. He died in Panlimsi village on 1st July 2016 when we were there so we had the honour of being involved at the graveside and in the combined churches memorial service on Sunday 3 July.
Morris was a young man when a wife of his father, the highest ranking chief on the island, died. After they had wrapped her body for burial the cloths began moving. They unwrapped her and she told them to leave their heathen ways and follow the Christian way (see above in red). So most of them did.
Pastor Rolanson’s father, a Christian chief, gave them land where they relocated among Christian villages. Chief Morris helped to pioneer the Gospel in other villages in south Pentecost Island.
I had the privilege of speaking at the graveside and in the memorial service on the Sunday in July 2016. I sensed the Lord give me a word of comfort and a word of challenge – “Come and Go”: Come to Me … I will give you rest … My yoke is easy and my burden is light … (Matthew 11:28-20). Go and make disciples of all nations … I am with you always even to the end of the age (Matthew 28:18-20).
Photos: Chief Morris at 111 (June 2016) with his grandson Presley, the burial, and the combined churches memorial service at Panlimsi with the overflow crowd.
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Team Visits, 2017-2018-2019
I returned with grandson Dante and others in June-July, 2017. Stan came with his wife Daphne (my sister) and Emily from Riverlife Baptist joined us. The Riverlife church people sent a keyboard, a guitar, and a large box of reading glasses with us. We often take used and discarded spectacles with us on these trips.
This time we had meetings at Ranwadi High School again and once again prayed with large numbers there among the 300 boarding students. Then we returned south to Pangi and Panlimsi villages for more meetings and visitation with Pastor Rolanson. At a Sunday service, Elder Jackson gave his testimony that his blood readings were normal at the clinic following prayer for diabetes.
We continue to encourage Christians to pray for one another in faith and obedience. I participated when their new MP Silas Bule, formerly principal at Ranwadi, distributed Gideon’s New Testaments to the local school.
Then in 2018, I had a team of seven of us. The six young men with me included Dante and Ben again with Ben’s friends Scott (Andrew Chee’s brother), Blake, Sergie, and Dylan. We stayed in Rolanson’s village at Panlimsi, up the ridge from Pangi on the coast.
Again we prayed with large numbers at their village meetings and during the day. Pain left immediately with healing prayers, people were filled with the Spirit, using spiritual gifts, and we saw rising faith and obedience among them. As we pray with and for them, we encourage them to keep praying for one another – as they do. Faith grows stronger and people are touched powerfully by God in prayers.
Glimpses of my grandson Dante in the first of his many visits to Pentecost Island to speak, sing, and pray, including baptisms (and his original song ‘Still Worth It’, and this link to his biography of me!).
Then I returned again in September 2019 with Chris and Robert Bullock from Kenmore Churches of Christ for another stay with Rolanson and his family in their village at Panlimsi. Again we had prayer times at their house and many meetings in their local church. Now that I was in my 80s we stayed there without the regular trips to other villages so typical of previous villages. Again we prayed regularly with and for the local people, especially their leaders and chief.
Update 2023
Pastor Rolanson Tor had been our host and the leading evangelist pastor in South Pentecost. Sadly he died of a stroke in August 2023, but he leaves behind a great legacy of evangelism and revival in the power of God’s Spirit.
Ps Rolanson
David Scarlett joined me for two weeks of mission on Pentecost Island in September, originally arranged with Rolanson. It involved meetings each night across four village churches plus morning services and some day sessions such as a morning with the area pastors and a final morning praying for anointing for local leaders.
This time the faith and expectation level at each meeting seemed higher than previously, the worship stronger, and 20-30 or more came for prayer each time, including prayer for healing, empowering, surrender and anointing. That often included anointing with oil for healing or empowering.
David and Geoff stayed at a beautiful tourist bungalow by the beach run by its godly church elder who also attended the many meetings and prayer times together. So this touch of blessing and Spirit-led meetings and prayer combined nicely with South Pacific prayerful relaxation.
We encourage and support revival leaders on Pentecost Island regularly. That includes providing revival books and resources, Bibles, and helping pastors with school fees for their children. We also support mission team ministries.
If you would like to help us financially my mission account is: Geoffrey Waugh, PayPal – geoffwaugh2@gmail.com
Jesus told a parable about two sons whose father told them to work in his vineyard (Matthew 21:28-32). One son said he would go but he did not. The other son said he would not go but changed his mind and went. The one who said ‘No’ but then went was more obedient than the one who said ‘Yes’ but didn’t go. The story shows how we can repent, change our mind and obey.
Jesus’ parable of the two sons encourages us to repent, turn around, and obey even if previously we did not. Often we may feel guilty that we are not obeying Jesus fully and wholeheartedly. When we pray we may remember how we disobeyed or were half-hearted or reluctant to obey. We can repent, and obey.
Some of Jesus commands seem hard for us to obey: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you; whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me; carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; sell your possessions, and give alms; those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples (Luke 6:27-28; 9:23; 10:4; 12:33; 14:33). And that’s just a few of his instructions!
We’re not all called to be Saint Francis or Mother Teresa. But we are called to follow Jesus – and that’s a challenge. Jesus’ instructions can shape our attitudes and actions. We may live it out in different ways in different places, but his commands will always guide us as we are led by his Spirit. Jesus was wholly obedient in different ways at different times as a child, a student, a carpenter, a teaching rabbi, a healer, a sacrifice. We can obey in our different situations.
Our obedience springs from love and flows strong in God’s love. We love Him because he first loved us (1 John 4:19).
Love is the reason we obey
Jesus says that we will obey his commandments because of our love for him. We obey from love, not just from duty. Our duty becomes our delight.
We understand obeying in love with people we really love such as our parents or husband or wife. We love to obey or please them because we love them. It’s our delight, not just a duty. We love to please them, and we are so happy when our response to them pleases them.
Jesus’ obedience was a natural part of his loving relationship with his Father, and he calls us into loving obedience also.
If you keep My commandments you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love (John 15:10).
Jesus lived in full fellowship and intimate loving relationship with his Father. Consequently his obedience flowed naturally and supernaturally from that.
So this book explores how we can obey Jesus in love by loving God and loving others. Loving God and loving others are inter-related. John, the Apostle of love, reminds us:
Those who say, ‘I love God’, and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also (1 John 4:20-21).
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the parent loves the child. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments.For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome,for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith (1 John 5:1-4).
Believing in God and in his Son Jesus changes us. It enables us to love God and to love one another. When we believe in God and trust him he gives us his life and we discover that his life in us gives us love for him and for others.
From the Introduction to Part 2
Jesus is the best model for short term supernatural mission.
When Jesus, aged about 30, returned to his home town of Nazareth in the hills of Galilee, he explained his mission and ministry by quoting from Isaiah.
Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. 15 He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone. …
16 When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read,17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
18 ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’
20 And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.21 Then he began to say to them, ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’ …
(Luke 4:14-15, 16-21; see Isaiah 61:1-2)
Jesus fulfilled that prophecy in his life and ministry, and taught his followers to minister that way. We can too.
The name Joshua/Jesus means God saves, or God is salvation. That is why the angel announcing his birth said, “… you are to name him Joshua/Jesus (Yeshua), for he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). It is the same name as Moses’ general, Joshua, who led the Israelites into their promised land.
The earliest English translations of the Bible used the name Jesus for Yeshua of Nazareth, and the name Joshua for others with that same name. So in English the name Jesus became unique and sacred for Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, the Saviour of the world.
This book explores the mission and ministry of Jesus/Joshua the Christ/Messiah, the Son of God, and how he fulfilled his brief ministry (Chapter 1). Jesus took others to minister with him and sent them out to minister in the authority and power of his name (Chapter 2).
Peter and Paul travelled with teams in their mission and ministry, also anointed with the Spirit of God (Chapter 3).
I give some brief contemporary examples of short term mission and ministry (Chapter 4) and Bart Doornweed (Chapter 5) and Randy Clark (Chapter 6) describe their experience of short term supernatural mission.
The final chapter is a powerful story by Carl Lawrence about two teenage girls in China who established 30 churches in two years with congregations ranging from 200 to 5,000 (Chapter 7).
Listen to God’s Spirit as you read and apply this good news.
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Share to inform and bless others. Blessed to bless.
This is Mary and John. While waiting at a busy train station after dismissing a group of school kids I had taken on an excursion, I saw a few people with a stall set up handing out flyers. I immediately felt ‘lower right back pain’ for an Asian lady there and asked her if she had any pain. She didn’t but she took me over to an older man, John, who was with her. John had some minor lower back pain and a blocked left ear. He experienced only a small measure of healing in his back after a few times praying and to be honest, I was a bit discouraged and was about walk back to my car after that.
Mary then came over again and I asked Her if she had any pain at all, which she did in her upper back/neck region. I began to pray for her and began to see a picture of her as a little girl playing in a yard with her younger sister. I began to ask questions to see if this meant anything to her and it was spot on. As I continued praying over her, she tangibly could feel the presence of God and when we finished, her back was completely healed!
After a short time of sharing about my experiences with Jesus, she told me her knees were in a lot of pain also. After praying three times, all the pain left and she was able to bend down fully. She had pain in both of these areas for over 2 years!
Just before I was about to go, she told me that when she took a breath, there was a lot of pressure around her chest and mid back area. After praying twice this all left as well!
This is what’s available for anyone who is willing to take a risk, even if you get wrong the first time. What was awesome about this experience is that over a hundred people were walking by watching as well, many of them school aged kids.
Last night I went to Myer in the city to pick up shoes for Jordan’s wedding. I met the two ladies pictured. They helped me with getting the right sizes.
Once I was all sorted with the shoes I asked Alyssa if she had pain in her arm. She said she didn’t but she had pain all through her back be cause she was pregnant. And asked me why.
I said “can I show you something cool? Take my hand!”
She cautiously took my hand while Olga looked on.
“In Jesus name pain go right now! Muscles relax,” I said.
Then I asked her to bend and try it out. She bent down and came back up wide eyed. I asked her what was happening..
She said “It’s gone! I couldn’t do that with out pain before!”
I said “Don’t be nice to me! Be honest. Is there even a little bit of pain?” She said “No! I’m being honest! It’s all gone! What happened!?”
Then Olga said “My turn! Do it to me!”
I asked her what is causing her pain and she told me that she hurt her hamstring about a year ago. So I took her hand and said the same thing. And asked her to try it out. She said there was no change, so I prayed again. Still no change. “Alyssa! You pray!” I said. So Alyssa put her hand on her shoulder and said the same quick prayer that I did. I asked Olga to try it out again. “It’s gone down! ” she said!
They both asked what was happening. So I told them a bit of my story before and after Jesus and how what was happening to them is because the love of Jesus for them. I then said “Jesus healing you guys is his way of inviting you into a personal relationship with himself where this which just happened becomes normal! Where you talk to Jesus and he actually talks back because he is in love with you!”
Then Olga said “Jesus talks to you?”
“Yes,” I said. She then said “what’s he saying about me?” I smiled and said “I’ll ask!” Instantly I saw a snow covered train line with a little house next to it. So I said “When you were little in Russia (she told me she was Russian earlier in the conversation.) did you live right next to a train line?” She said yes. Alyssa eyes go even wider and said “Oh my God!”
Olga said “tell me something else.”
I then said “Did you recently lose a white dog?” She said she did and asked again for something else. I felt God say to me that she’s got something she wants to share. So I said “Olga, I feel like you have something you want to tell me?” She then said “I wanted you to tell me about my brother.” She then told me that her brother died two years ago and she was struggling with it. I then got to tell her about how God did not take her brother. And that he’s a loving Father and he was with her through even those hardest times.
Then Alyssa said “tell me about me! ” I smiled and said “I see dark water… What happened when you were little?” She said “OH MY GOD! I nearly drowned when I was 6 years old! I am terrified of water even today!”
I then got to share with them about how Jesus knows everything about them and how much he loves them! They both said “So how do we give our lives to Jesus?” I told them what to pray when they got off work because they said they couldn’t do it right there because it was super busy.
They both asked me for my contact details and what church I go to so they could find out more about Jesus!
Opportunities to administrate the kingdom of Heaven are everywhere if you just stop a second. (This happened because I got a wrong word of knowledge.)
[Simon’s impression was that Alyssa had pain in her arm.]
It is impossible that Christianity is not God’s revelation of truth. Simply impossible. The math proves it beyond question. It doesn’t take faith to believe that one plus one equals two, and it doesn’t take faith to identify the religion which has mathematical certainty in its corner.
God didn’t have to give us mathematical proof of His existence, but He did it anyway. God didn’t have to give us proof of Christianity, but He chose to do so. And God didn’t have to give us proof of His love for us, but that is exactly what He did. The proof is irrefutable.
I live in Nebraska where I serve as a pastor. Imagine someone covering this entire state in silver dollars 6 feet deep. Then mark one coin and bury it anywhere across the state. Next, blindfold a man and have him choose one coin. The odds that he would choose the marked coin are the same odds of getting 8 prophecies all fulfilled in one man. God gave us about 300 fulfilled prophecies in the Person of Jesus Christ.
Here are 8 of those 300 prophecies:
(1) The Messiah will be born in Bethlehem. (Micah 5:2; Matthew 2:1; Luke 2:4-6)
(2) The Messiah will be a descendant of Jacob. (Numbers 24:17; Matthew 1:2)
(3) The Messiah will enter Jerusalem as a king riding on a donkey. (Zechariah 9:9; Mark 11:4-11)
(4) The Messiah will be betrayed by a friend. (Psalm 41:9; Luke 22:47,48)
(5) The Messiah’s betrayal money will be used to purchase a potter’s field. (Zechariah 11:13; Matthew 27:9,10)
(6) The Messiah will be spat upon and struck. (Isaiah 50:6; Matthew 26:67)
(7) The Messiah’s hands and feet will be pierced. (Psalm 22:16; John 20:25-27)
(8) Soldiers will gamble for the Messiah’s garments. (Psalm 22:18; Luke 23:34)
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There is no way one man could have fulfilled all 8 of these prophecies unless God was making it happen. Who else controls history? Who else could give us such irrefutable proof for Christianity? The odds are one in one hundred quadrillion, or 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000.
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This mathematical proof was calculated by Professor Peter Stoner. He was chairman of the mathematics and astronomy departments at Pasadena City College until 1953. He then went to Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California, where he served as chairman of the science division.
You don’t have to be a mathematics professor to see that this evidence is irrefutable. No one would pick the marked coin under those conditions. No one but God could have given us these biblical prophecies, and then brought them to fulfillment right before our eyes. It is impossible that Christianity is false. The math proves it, and the Man behind the math rose from the dead, just as it had been foretold.
It doesn’t take faith to see how the Bible could only have come from God. It does take faith, however, to accept Jesus as your Savior and to believe in God’s promise of eternal life. God has done everything to make this way open to you. If you choose to reject it in spite of the overwhelming evidence and in spite of God’s love for you, you will be walking away from an open door to paradise.
Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.
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They said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?”
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Then He said to them, “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.”And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures. (Luke 24:27, 32, 44-45)
MOST ISRAELIS OWN A BIBLE AND REVERE THE WORD OF GOD
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A survey recently conducted revealed that nearly all Israeli Jews own a Bible, that most revere it as the Holy Word of God, and that nearly half the Jewish population still reads from the Scriptures at least on occasions. The poll was conducted in the run-up to the “Opening the Tanakh” conference at the Herzog Academic College, which was attended by 7,000 Israelis and foreign visitors who were treated to a wide range of lectures and workshops dealing with the Bible and its place in modern society, especially Israeli Jewish society.
The results, originally published in Israel’s largest daily newspaper Yediot Ahronot, showed that no fewer than 93 percent of all Israeli Jews have a Bible in their home. A full 68 percent of respondents said they revere the Bible as a “Holy Book,” and nearly half (42 percent) said they read the Scriptures at least infrequently. Only 15 percent of Israeli Jews said they never read the Bible, and just 9 percent said they have no connection to the Word of God.
Source: Israel Today
Messianic congregation in Israel
ISRAEL ENCOURAGES CITIZENS TO UNDERTAKE A NATIONAL BIBLE STUDY
Israel is the only Western country that is currently taking positive steps to teach their people God’s Scriptures on a national level. They are shortly to read a chapter that is normally not read in the annual synagogue readings and has therefore remained largely hidden – Isaiah 53. The program called “929 Studying the Bible Together” was launched on Sunday 21st December 2014, during Hanukkah – the festival of Light and re-dedication of the temple after the Greek ruler Antiochus Epiphanes had desecrated God’s house. There are 929 chapters in the Hebrew Bible from Genesis to II Chronicles (the Hebrew Scriptures follow a different order to the English Bibles). 93% of Israelis own a Bible but only a minority have ever read it. It is expected that 1 million Jews will participate making it the largest Bible study ever.
The daily Bible readings run from Sunday to Thursday – the Israeli week, with one chapter per day for three years and seven months and will finish on Israel’s 70th birthday – Independence Day, April 19, 2018. The Bible studies are taking place in schools, private locations and educational institutions, on social media, TV, smart phones, radio and internet. There are a variety of commentaries from different viewpoints to promote discussion. There are also community cultural events associated with the program. The project aims to teach Jewish history and values to the diverse community and unify the nation around the treasure God entrusted to the Jewish people.
The project was initiated by Deputy Education Minister Avi Wortzman, and Rabbi David Lau, and launched from President Reuven Rivlin’s office. Rivlin claimed that, for him, the Bible represents the identity card of the Jewish people, which is also the identity card for all humanity. By my calculations they will read the wonderful passages of the Messiah in Isaiah 52 and 53 on Sunday June 12 and Monday June 13. This “just happens” to be Shavuot (Pentecost) in the Hebrew calendar! God’s timing is amazing. Can we storm heaven for another outpouring of the Holy Spirit? Pray for the Lord to remove the veil from the eyes of the rabbis and the nation of Israel (2 Cor 3:14-18) so that they recognise the One whom they have pierced (Zech 12:10), repent and embrace their Jewish Messiah – Yeshua HaMashiach (Jn 1:29, Jn 1:49, Acts 3:36-38).
JILL CURRY, Jewish Prayer Focus Coordinator
Source: Jewish Prayer Focus
“Yeshu = Yeshua = Yeshuah” banner includes the phone number of the Jews for Jesus office
ISRAEL’S MESSIANIC SOLDIERS SHARE THEIR FAITH
All Israelis, men aged 18 to 21 and women aged 18 to 20, are required to do some form of military or community service. This means that thousands of Messianic Israelis—Jewish and non-Jewish, men and women—have shared in the Israeli army experience at one time or another. Israel is especially proud of their soldiers who are facing the challenges of today, which are more complex than ever before. From the survey results, it is clear that openness about Yeshua (Jesus) in the Israeli army is indeed the new “normal.”
Of those Messianic soldiers asked by Kehila News, a remarkable 96 percent say that their fellow soldiers know of their belief in Yeshua as the Messiah. Possibly even more remarkable is that 78 percent of their commanders or officers know of their belief in Yeshua. This is certainly a generation that is bolder than ever in sharing and living their faith. Equally encouraging feedback from the survey results is a largely supportive and pluralistic reaction from their fellow soldiers and officers with 64 percent of them having a “positive” response, 22 percent having an “indifferent” response and only 14 percent expressing a “negative” response upon hearing about faith in Yeshua.
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Christian revival, renewal, outpouring, or times of refreshing, no matter what you call it, is something that has been happening ever since the first outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost.
I honestly don’t care what you call it. Quibbling over semantics is silly.The fact of the matter is that there have been ebbs and flows of spiritual fervor throughout the history of Christianity.
Until the time where there is no longer a war between the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of God; until such a time as the war between the flesh and the Spirit has been resolved, there will always be a need for Christian revival in each generation.
As the psalmist sung,
Psalm 85:6
Will You not revive us again, that Your people may rejoice in You?
23 Christian Quotes And Sayings About Revival
When Holy God draws near in true revival, people come under terrible conviction of sin. The outstanding feature of spiritual awakening has been the profound consciousness of the Presence and holiness of God. – Henry Blackaby
Revivals begin with God’s own people; the Holy Spirit touches their heart anew, and gives them new fervor and compassion, and zeal, new light and life, and when He has thus come to you, He next goes forth to the valley of dry bones… Oh, what responsibility this lays on the Church of God! If you grieve Him away from yourselves, or hinder His visit, then the poor perishing world suffers sorely! – Andrew Bonar
How we have prayed for a Revival – we did not care whether it was old-fashioned or not – what we asked for was that it should be such that would cleanse and revive His children and set them on fire to win others. – Mary Booth
To look back upon the progress of the divine kingdom upon earth is to review revival periods which have come like refreshing showers upon dry and thirsty ground, making the desert to blossom as the rose, and bringing new eras of spiritual life and activity just when the Church had fallen under the influence of the apathy of the times. – E.M. Bounds
There is a growing conviction everywhere, and especially among thoughtful people, that unless revival comes, other forces will take the field, that will sink us still deeper into the mire of humanism and materialism. – Duncan Campbell
Revival is not just a feeling of excitement of the Lord. We get excited about many things, but excitement is not a revival if God is not the thing that gets us excited. – Jerry Falwell
A revival is nothing else than a new beginning of obedience to God. – Charles Finney
There can be no revival when Mr. Amen and Mr. Wet-Eyes are not found in the audience. – Charles Finney
It was wonderful to see the change soon made in the manners of our inhabitants…From being thoughtless or indifferent about religion, it seemed as if all the world were growing religious, so that one could not walk through the town in an evening without hearing psalms sung in different families of every street. – Benjamin Franklin [Philadelphia, 1730’s, on the effects of George Whitefield’s preaching]
Revival is falling in love with Jesus all over again. – Vince Havner
We cannot organize revival, but we can set our sails to catch the wind from Heaven when God chooses to blow upon His people once again. – G. Campbell Morgan
A true revival means nothing less than a revolution, casting out the spirit of worldliness and selfishness, and making God and His love triumph in the heart and life. – Andrew Murray
Revival is the visitation of God which brings to life Christians who have been sleeping and restores a deep sense of God’s near presence and holiness. Thence springs a vivid sense of sin and a profound exercise of heart in repentance, praise, and love, with an evangelistic outflow. – J.I. Packer
It’s true that (many) are praying for a worldwide revival. But it would be more timely, and more scriptural, for prayer to be made to the Lord of the harvest, that He would raise up and thrust forth laborers who would fearlessly and faithfully preach those truths which are calculated to bring about a revival. – A.W. Pink
You never have to advertise a fire. Everyone comes running when there’s a fire. Likewise, if your church is on fire, you will not have to advertise it. The community will already know it. – Leonard Ravenhill
As long as we are content to live without revival, we will. – Leonard Ravenhill
Present-day wickedness, apostasy and modern civilization cannot prevent revival. – John R. Rice
Revival begins in the individual’s heart. Let it begin with you on your face alone before God. Turn from every sin that might hinder. Renew yourself to a new devotion to the Savior. – Lee Roberson
Study the history of revival. God has always sent revival in the darkest days. Oh, for a mighty, sweeping revival today! – Adrian Rogers
Therefore, in a post-Christian world and in an often post-Christian church it is imperative to point out with love where apostasy lies. We must openly discuss with all who will listen, treating all men as fellow men, but we must call apostasy, apostasy. If we do not do that, we are not ready for reformation, revival, and a revolutionary church in the power of the Holy Spirit. We are all too easily infiltrated with relativism and synthesis in our own day. We tend to lack antithesis. – Francis Schaeffer
Oh! men and brethren, what would this heart feel if I could but believe that there were some among you who would go home and pray for a revival men whose faith is large enough, and their love fiery enough to lead them from this moment to exercise unceasing intercessions that God would appear among us and do wondrous things here, as in the times of former generations. – Charles Spurgeon
Trying to run a church without revivals can be done when you can run a gasoline engine on buttermilk. – Billy Sunday
Have you noticed how much praying for revival has been going on of late – and how little revival has resulted? I believe the problem is that we have been trying to substitute praying for obeying, and it simply will not work. – A.W. Tozer
I hope that you have both enjoyed and have been spiritually invigorated by these quotes on revival.
Please join in the conversation and share which quote spoke to you or share your favorite quote about revival in the comment section below. Please feel free to copy any of these quotes and share them on your favorite social media platform.
Source:
And another:
Revival is God pouring out his Spirit.
We can pray for it, ask for it, believe for it, repent for it, and move in it, but God does it.
Geoff Waugh “I will pour out my Spirit” (Joel 2:28; Acts 2:17-18)
Tommy Welchel: Last living link to the Azusa Street Revival
Pentecost Island, Vanuatu Video
Andrew speaking at baptisms on Pentecost Island
Steven baptized on Pentecost Island
Chandi baptized on Pentecost Island
Sunday service at Panlimsi village near Pangi
Youth sing at service near Pangi, Pentecost Island.
Dylan and Boys
Blog of the amazing story of Pentecost Island
Testifying before Congress about Syria.
The Abu Zaabal prison
Buddhist Monks
Showing JESUS film in Nepal
Don and Helen Hill (in photo), friends from Brisbane, participated in some visits. Don repaired the electrical wiring at the Bible College and supplied needed portable generators and lawnmowers. Helen recorded the revival teaching sessions on DVD for international use by our friends in many nations who have also experienced revival.
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