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 now
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.
Steve Loopstra at the rock where water flowed after 24-year droughtAlgodoa de Jandaira after the miracle of 2004
In June 2008, I saw something of God’s mighty work in Brazil. George and Lisa Otis and the Sentinel Group hosted a conference in Belo Horizonte and a group of us visited communities that have been transformed in Brazil. We worshipped in the Valentina Baptist Church, now powerfully Spirit-filled, and also in the Christian pioneers’ home in Algodao de Jandaira, and out on the street in front of that home.
That family hosted us. We worshipped and praised God on the rocky outcrop near the town, where their prayer teams had prayed each month. And I swam in the cool fresh water, now flowing through the low dam beside the town.
God answers prayer! Not always as soon as we want, and not always the way we want, but he does. I left Brazil filled with awe once again. Revival has made Brazil the country with the third largest number of Christians, after America and China.
George Otis Jr presents vivid stories of the transformation of cities and regions in the two videos Transformations 1 and 2. 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 sociopolitical 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
Jesus is Lord of Almolonga
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.
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 1 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).
Almolonga produce
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 4×8-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 (5).
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.
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 is from Chapter 1, “Snapshots of Glory” (pp. 15-53) of Informed Intercession (Renew 1999) by George Otis Jr., reproduced with permission of Gospel Light publications, Ventura, California, USA ( www.gospellight.com ). See Peter Wagner’s review comments in the Reviews section of this Renewal Journal.
An orderly account of the origins and early spread of Christianity
An apologetic emphasis: Christianity was not politically dangerous
A reconciliation of Gentile and Jewish Christianity
An answer to Jewish opposition
A statement of the work of the Risen Lord by His Spirit through the Church
3 The Author of The Acts
Principal reasons supporting Lukan authorship:
1 Acts is by the same author as the Gospel of Luke
2 Similar style and vocabulary
3 Use of medical term in Acts
4 Luke was a companion of Paul
5 The “we-sections” in Acts suggest Luke
6 Luke’s name is missing: another would refer to him
7 Luke with Paul in Rome, where he could have completed the book.
8. Luke, the man: Gentile; physician, historian, spiritual
Two others theories regarding authorship
4 The Date of The Acts
Arguments favouring an early date, especially in the 60s
1 Conclusion of the story before the death of Paul
2. Luke’s two years in Rome would allow him to complete the work
3 The vivid descriptions of the “we-sections” suggests immediate recording
4 Details regarding Caesarea would have been collected or recorded early
5 No mention of the devastation of Jerusalem in 70 AD
6 No reference to Paul’s letters
Arguments favouring a date about 75-85
1 Passages in Luke’s gospel which preceded the Acts
2 Synoptic issues affecting Luke’s earlier work
Arguments favouring a later date, about 95–100 AD
Luke may have used Josephus’ history published about 93 AD
5 The Sources of The Acts
1 The historical sections:
eye-witnesses
records in Jerusalem and Antioch
2 The biographical sections:
Luke’s diary
Paul
Other eyewitnesses
6 The Setting of The Acts
The Greeks:
Alexander’s conquests – a cosmopolitan society
The spread and use of the Koiné Greek – a common language
The Romans:
Stable world government
The Roman Peace
The System of Roads
The Slave Economy
The Jews :
Herod and his sons
The Roman Procurators: Pilate, Felix and Festus
The Scribes and Pharisees and Sadducees
The Jews of the Dispersion
Paul in this setting.
7 The Contents of The Acts
Historical and Biographical
Preparation for the witness (1:1-26)
The witness in Jerusalem (2:1 – 8:3)
The witness in Judea and Samaria (8:4 – 12:25)
The witness to Jews and Gentiles (13:1 – 28:31)
A Comparison and General Summary
An accurate history
Conclusion
A summary
Luke’s closing sentences
Appendix 1
Translations of Acts 1:1-9
Good News Bible
Today’s New International Version
J B Phillips Translation
The Message
The Amplified Bible
Buk Baibel (PNG)
Inter-linear Greek-English New Testament
Appendix 2
Renewal Journals and Books
Introduction
Luke and The Acts are two volumes of one astounding history – the story of Jesus and his church. Luke, “the beloved physician” (Colossians 4:14), often travelled with Paul in their pioneering missionary journeys. Luke gives us a concise preface in the beginning of his writings, and then introduces the second part of his story with a short introduction linking the two.
Luke’s own preface reads: “The Author to Theophilus: Many writers have undertaken to draw up an account of the events that have happened among us, following the traditions handed down to us by the original eyewitnesses and servants of the Gospel. And so I in my turn, your Excellency, as one who has gone over the whole course of these events in detail, have decided to write a connected narrative for you, so as to give you authentic knowledge about the matters of which you have been informed” (Luke 1:1-4, New English Bible).
Continuing his connected narrative, he commences part two with a sentence linking both: “In the first part of my work, Theophilus, I wrote of all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning until the day when, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom He had chosen, He was taken up into heaven” (Acts 1:1-2, NEB).
In his preface to the combined work, the author:
* revealed his subject – the Word;
* gave the sources of his information – eyewitnesses and ministers;
* described his method – accurate tracing of the course of all things, writing them in order;
* and declared the purpose – that of giving certainty to Theophilus (Morgan, p.7).
So here in my book we explore these issues mentioned by Luke himself, and examine the title, aim, author, date, sources, setting, and contents of The Acts of the Apostles.
What a great story! Luke traces the amazing growth of Jesus’ church from its beginnings in Jerusalem to its impact throughout the Roman Empire.
That story continues today. We are part of it. The God they worshipped is our God. The Lord they served is our Lord. The Holy Spirit they obeyed is in and with us.
This story of the Acts of the Holy Spirit continues today through the same Spirit of God. It fulfils Jesus’ last promise: You will receive power then the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses … to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8).
The following sample verses describe the acts of the Holy Spirit in both Luke and The Acts.
The Acts of the Holy Spirit
And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God (Luke 1:35).
John answered, saying to all, “I indeed baptize you with water; but One mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire (Luke 3:16).
And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said, “You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased” (Luke 3:22).
Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness (Luke 4:1)
Then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news of Him went out through all the surrounding region (Luke 4:14).
“The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the broken hearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD” (Luke 4:18-19).
In that hour Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight (Luke 10:21).
If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” (Luke 11:13).
This crucial theme continues in The Acts.
The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen (Acts 1:1-2).
John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now” (Acts 1:5).
But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance (Acts 2:4).
Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38).
And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness (Acts 4:31).
Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business (Acts 6:3).
And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke (Acts 6:10).
But he [Stephen], being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God (Acts 7:55).
Then they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:17).
Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go near and overtake this chariot” (Acts 8:29).
Now when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away, so that the eunuch saw him no more; and he went on his way rejoicing (Acts 8:39).
And Ananias went his way and entered the house; and laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you came, has sent me that you may receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 9:17).
Then the churches throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and were edified. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, they were multiplied (Acts 9:31).
While Peter thought about the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Behold, three men are seeking you (Acts 10:19).
God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him (Acts 10:38).
While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word (Acts 10:44).
And those of the circumcision who believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also (Acts 10:45).
Can anyone forbid water, that these should not be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have? (Acts 10:47)
Then the Spirit told me to go with them, doubting nothing. Moreover these six brethren accompanied me, and we entered the man’s house (Acts 11:12).
And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, as upon us at the beginning (Acts 11:15).
Then I remembered the word of the Lord, how He said, ‘John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit’ (Acts 11:16).
For he [Barnabas] was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord (Acts 11:24).
Then one of them, named Agabus, stood up and showed by the Spirit that there was going to be a great famine throughout all the world, which also happened in the days of Claudius Caesar (Acts 11:28).
As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, “Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them” (Acts 13:2).
So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus (Acts 13:4).
And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit (Acts 13:52).
So God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us (Acts 15:8).
For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things (Acts 15:28).
Now when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia (Acts 16:6).
After they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit did not permit them (Acts 16:7).
When Silas and Timothy had come from Macedonia, Paul was compelled by the Spirit, and testified to the Jews that Jesus is the Christ (Acts 18:5).
He said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” So they said to him, “We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.” And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied (Acts 19:2, 6).
When these things were accomplished, Paul purposed in the Spirit, when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying, “After I have been there, I must also see Rome” (Acts 19:21).
And see, now I go bound in the Spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing the things that will happen to me there (Acts 20:22).
the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying that chains and tribulations await me (Acts 20:23).
Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood (Acts 20:28).
When he had come to us, he took Paul’s belt, bound his own hands and feet, and said, “Thus says the Holy Spirit, ‘So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man who owns this belt, and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles’” (Acts 21:11).
So when they did not agree among themselves, they departed after Paul had said one word: “The Holy Spirit spoke rightly through Isaiah the prophet to our fathers, saying, ‘ Go to this people and say:
“Hearing you will hear, and shall not understand;
And seeing you will see, and not perceive …”’” (Acts 28:25-26)
Then Luke concludes his story abruptly with, “Paul dwelt two whole years in his own rented house, and received all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no one forbidding him.”
His closing reference to the kingdom of God and the Lord Jesus Christ brings us full circle to how Luke began The Acts. He tells us that the risen Lord taught his followers about the kingdom of God for 40 days and then promised them the power to continue teaching about the kingdom and demonstrating the kingdom, as Jesus had done.
This focus on the kingdom of God is another major theme in both Luke’s Gospel and The Acts.
Just as Jesus taught and demonstrated God’s kingdom on earth in the power of the Holy Spirit, so did his followers.
Author of A Preface to The Acts
Dr Geoff Waugh is the founding editor of the Renewal Journal and taught Ministry and Mission and Revivals at Trinity Theological College (part of the School of Theology at Griffith University) and at Christian Heritage College in Brisbane, Australia.
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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).
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).
It shall come to pass
That before they call, I will answer;
And while they are still speaking, I will hear.
(Isaiah 65:24)
As I lay in bed last night, thinking/meditating/praying with soft instrumental worship playing on my CD, ‘it came to me’ that I would love to read a book of the best revival stories from the many issues of the Renewal Journal. So here it is. Being editor, I get to choose the ones I especially like. Many more great stories are in my other books such as Transforming Revivals. This editorial has another great story about living faith, miracles and answered prayer.
Helen Roseveare
Living Faith
Helen Roseveare, a missionary doctor to the Congo, recorded this story in her book, Living Faith. She also wrote books about the Belgian Congo (now Zaire) revival of 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.
Revivals abound with such stories of answered prayer and miracles. This book contains a few of those stories.
John Greenfield’s book, Power from on High, sparkles with the vibrant evangelism and mission of the Moravian revival which flamed into the Great Awakening and Evangelical Revival of the eighteenth century.
Carl Lawrence graphically describes an example of revival in China ignited by two teenage girls. Djiniyini Gondarra traces the humble beginnings of the Aboriginal revival in 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
We too can participate in prayer and revival in vital ways:
We can Ask God for a great harvest as we pray.
We can Believe God. He is able to do far more than anything we ask or even think about.
We can Commit our way to God who is the Lord of the harvest.
I pray that this book will both inform and inspire you. We can all 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.”
An entire village in Thailand became Christians after a prayer for rain was answered, according to Sowers Ministry. Lun Poobuanak, a Thai missionary among the Buddhists and animists in Kalasin Province, said a village leader interrupted a Christian service, promising that if the Christian God would bring rain to save their crops, all 134 village families would become Christians. Lun and the other Christians prayed and fasted for three days, and on the fourth day, an intense cloudburst flooded the canals and rice fields.
Source: IRN News, January, 1998
Revival in an Indian Village, 1998
Report from Dr Paul Pilai, Founder of Indian Inland Mission.
One of our mission stations in a village in central India, named Tarti, was under the grip of fear of an evil spirit that destroyed the crop every year. Three families came to know Christ and a small church was established in a hut. The church prayed for the safety of the crop and no damage took place last year.
The whole village is turning to Christ and a great revival is taking place there. Most of the villagers wanted to receive Christ as their Lord and God. They stopped all the animal sacrifices to the evil spirits and the demons. None of the evil spirits attacked the crop or the villagers. They are learning Christian songs and pray loud to Jesus to make the demons know that the true God is in the midst of them. The Lord’s presence in the midst of them is known everywhere.
How meaningful it was when Elijah prayed before the Baal worshippers “let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel and that I am thy servant, and that 1 have done all these things at thy word” (1 Kings 18:36).
We praise the Lord that our ministry started in that unknown village at God’s word and command. He proved to His servants that He is the Lord God Almighty, the only true and living God, yesterday, today and forever the same.
Indian Inland Mission Newsletter, July 1998, pages 3-4.
30,000 decisions for Jesus in New Delhi
Christ for all Nations were in New Delhi from 25 February to 1 March, 1998.
New Delhi is a city of ten million people and is the capital city of the nation of India, as well as the political nerve centre for the whole country. In addition to this, it is known as a Hindu stronghold, a fact that is made even more significant by recent advances in the national political arena for the Hindu political party. The CfaN team headed to this city only two weeks after the end of national general elections, to hold a Gospel outreach in the huge Jawaharlal Nehru stadium. The event was billed as “The Good News Festival.”
The Festival was launched with a VIP banquet that was held the night before the stadium meetings began. Two hundred and fifty local and international dignitaries attended, among them a number of ambassadors from other countries. Reinhard Bonnke preached a direct and clear Gospel message and many leading citizens were seen to respond publicly to the salvation call.
250 churches participated
Pastors and churches from across the city joined together to host the event and Pastor Robert Jeyaraj was appointed as chairman of the event, overseeing the activities of the two hundred and fifty participating churches. It was also planned that running simultaneously with the evening meetings in the stadium, pastors and church workers from the region would be invited to attend a Fire Conference, which would be held each day during the week. An idea of the excitement generated by the whole event can be gauged by the fact that over four thousand delegates registered for the Fire Conference, many travelling considerable distances to be present. Reinhard Bonnke, Peter van den Berg and Brent Regis handled the Fire Conference sessions. On the final day, this particular event culminated with Reinhard Bonnke personally laying hands on the four thousand delegates before they each received a complimentary copy of the book Evangelism by Fire. There is power in the prayers of the righteous!
Despite restrictive security measures at the stadium entrances and unseasonable cold weather, tens of thousands of people flocked to the meetings nightly to hear the Good News of the Gospel as Reinhard Bonnke preached. The meetings were characterised by an amazing attentiveness among the large crowd, transfixed by the Word of God as the Gospel message rang out across the vast arena. Each night the power of the Word was seen as thousands upon thousands responded positively to the invitation to receive Jesus Christ as their Saviour, to the exclusion of all other gods. The two thousand counsellors were kept very busy, sometimes late into the night, handling the many respondents. By the final meeting, over thirty thousand decision cards had been handed in, and these were immediately funnelled into the follow-up system to be incorporated into the local churches. The follow-up material was available in both English and Hindi, the predominant local language.
Healings
After the presentation of the Gospel message each night, a public prayer was offered for all those who were sick. The crowd was amazed at the testimonies that followed as people pressed forward to report what God had done for them. Of the many hundreds healed, only a small number could be interviewed publicly due to time restraints, but the crowd shouted with joy as each person, together with witnesses, gave glory to God for their healing. A young man by the name of Mr. Patel came with his father to report that his right eye, which had been totally blind for five years, could now see perfectly. Everyone rejoiced as he correctly imitated the preacher by lifting his fingers to the sky. A woman with tears in her eyes reported that a cancerous lump in her right breast was now completely gone. The crowd erupted in a shout of praise. Miss Naidoo, a young Hindu woman, was brought by her relatives to show that despite the fact that she had been deaf from birth, she could now hear very clearly. Reinhard Bonnke demonstrated this by whispering into her ear and she was able to shout out the reply.
Fanatics opposed to the Christian message were so incensed by the miracle testimonies, that they printed out special handbills denying the validity of what was happening inside the arena each night. These they proceeded to hand out to the thousands who were standing in line at the stadium entrances. What the people thought about it all was graphically illustrated at the close of each meeting by the fact that while thousands of the handbills lay discarded on the ground, not a single follow-up booklet was picked up by the cleaners!
When the time finally came for the CfaN team to leave New Delhi, the general feeling of all involved could be summed up in the words of the Festival Chairman Rev. Robert Jeyaraj. AWe have seen the power of the Gospel in action during these days in Jawarhal Nehru Stadium, and we will reap the benefits for many months to come.” Only the Lord of the harvest knows the full extent of the harvest. You, our Missions Partners, are a vital part of this harvesting team and we praise God for each and every one who is faithful in prayer and financial support. He is the One who sees and He is the One who rewards. To God be the glory!
Source: Asuza, Global Revival News
Tibet
Responses to Words of Hope’s radio outreach efforts to Tibetan Buddhists nearly tripled in 1997. Vice President for Broadcasting Lee DeYoung told Mission Network News on 23 February, 1998 that his group received over 700 letters from Tibetans in both 1995 and 1996. Last year that number jumped to over 2,000.
Source: Global Revival News, March 1998.
Syria
A Christian ministry in Syria, known in the USA as Syrian Evangelistic Educational Development, reports that a great revival has broken out due to prayer and fasting by the believers of that ministry. As a result, many Muslims have accepted Jesus as their Saviour. Additionally, for the first time in recent history, the government has allowed this ministry to print and distribute thousands of New Testaments. To help, contact <info@christianaid.org>.
Source: FIA News, 5 March, 1998
Cairo, Egypt
Last night they wouldn’t let me into church! The service was supposed to begin at 7 pm, and in Egypt this meant that most people would arrive around 7:30. So you can imagine my surprise when I arrived on time only to find dozens of people walking away from the church!
Hundreds of people were in the street trying to make their way through the gate into the church and were being told that there was no more room. It was very difficult to fight my way through the crowds into the church courtyard which was packed full of people watching the service on a very large screen. I finally went into the church and found one seat saved for me by a friend.
The place was absolutely packed and the worship time was in full swing even though it was only a few minutes past 7:00 pm. I knew that every Sunday school room and meeting room in the church as well as the parking lot at the back had closed circuit television screens transmitting the service to them. It was the first night of the Luis Palau revival meetings in this church, which is the largest Protestant church in the Middle East. Probably more than 3000 people were packed into the compound!
In Egypt, Christian meetings have to be held in Christian facilities so it was impossible to consider renting an auditorium or stadium for this event. But as the pastor was introducing the American Argentinean-born Evangelist, he reminded the audience that Luis would have a nightly hearing of more people than would fit in the large Cairo soccer stadium! How was this?
Through an ingenious program developed by this particular church, the complete service is video taped and after the service dozens of people work all night to make hundreds of duplicate videos. Early the next morning, couriers travel to all parts of Egypt to deliver one or more tapes to the 570 churches that have agreed to take part in this outreach! It is expected that around 150,000 participated each day.
Pray for the tens of thousands of people in hundreds of churches across this country. Also pray for God’s protection.
Source: FIA News
Sudan
Despite the harsh Arabization and Islamization policy by the government, the Christian Church in Sudan is growing fast. In the slums of Khartoum a revival has started. Small churches, often built of clay, mushroom everywhere. The Jesus Film is shown every night in another church. Twenty years ago only 5 percent of the Sudanese population was Christian. Ten years ago this number had grown to 10 percent. Now about 20 percent of the people in Sudan is Christian! The Anglican Church has grown from 4 congregations in 1984 to 280 now. Because of the arabization policy a strong Arab speaking Christian Church is arising which has the fire to spread the gospel even to other countries in the Middle East. These Christians risk severe persecution and even death.
Sudanese Muslims receive dreams
Many Muslims come to faith in Jesus through God-given dreams. Like an influential Nuba Muslim in Sudan. One night he received a clear dream. He saw himself getting baptized in a Christian church, while the believers sung a beautiful hymn in Arabic. He remembered the last part of this song very well: “Receive Jesus and you will be happy.” Then the door of the church opened and he woke up. “I noticed that the door of my dormitory was open, but I know for sure that I had closed it the night before.” He shared his dream with his wife and she couldn’t sleep that night. The next morning his son of 13 told him that he had had a similar dream. “I was in a dark room when suddenly there appeared a light. Then I saw daddy with a cross in his hand, where this light came from.” When the Nuba man heard this, he decided the get baptized. His whole family is now receiving Bible lessons. These kinds of stories come in from all over Sudan.
More freedom of religion in Sudan
While in South Sudan a civil war is going on and the rights of Christians are trampled, Christians in the North speak of more freedom of religion. According to an evangelist in Khartoum, the constitution was changed recently and now guarantees freedom of religion, freedom to evangelize and freedom to plant churches anywhere in the country. He tried this out immediately: in March he held a street evangelism campaign of a few days in the north of Khartoum. The population is mainly Muslim there. About 3,000 to 5,000 people showed up at the campaign that included a showing of the Jesus Film. “People were even standing on the roofs to be able to see the film,” according to the evangelist. “The gospel was not hindered at all. This is a miracle of God and a fruit of your prayers for us. Just because of the war many Muslims come to faith in Jesus.”
Source: Joel News, 25 April, 1998
Zambia
“Please ensure that Bibles are distributed in all corners of this country to give every Zambian the opportunity to have the Scriptures in their respective local language,” was the challenge issued by State President FTJ Chiluba on the occasion of the Bible Society of Zambia’s (BSZ) Annual General Meeting held on Saturday March 7, 1998.
The President continued: “The Word of God has life and power that can shape families and society. As people search for truth they need to experience the liberating power of the Gospel.” He pointed out that the Society’s work of translating, printing and distributing the Scriptures was of vital importance and that there was a pressing need for an increase in local fundraising.
The President said it was “embarrassing” for the church in Zambia to always rely on external assistance, and he pledged 100 million kwatcha (US$60,000) to the Bible Society to be made available during the current budget year. He challenged all Christians in Zambia to contribute generously to God’s work. Lack of giving to the work of God was the reason that many people failed to balance their budgets, the President said. “You can only expect to receive God’s blessing if you give back to him from what you have earned,” he added.
The Rev Peter Ndhlovu, National Chairman of the Bible Society in Zambia, commended the Government for its commitment to the Bible cause as he thanked President Chiluba for such a challenging message.
Source: ChristianNet ChristianNet@christiannet.demon.co.uk 18 March 1998.
Uganda
Charles Carroll reports:
One of my favorite verses is Habakkuk 1:5, where God says, “Look at the nations and watch-and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told.” I want to give you a beautiful illustration of this. In January someone sent me a copy of a speech given recently by Y. K. Museveni, president of Uganda. Reuters news agency says Museveni has emerged as one of the most articulate champions of change in Africa (21/1/98). I think you will find this speech both amazing and encouraging.
Remarks by President Museveni
Thank you, Your Excellencies, for the opportunity to share some thoughts about the spiritual condition of the peoples of Africa. As I observe the tribal differences, religious divisions, poverty and disease, lack of sufficient educational opportunities for our children, political upheaval and racial strife, it becomes obvious that the principles of Jesus Christ have not penetrated Africa enough!
It may seem strange for some of you to think that I would say this about Christ, because I know many of you may think this is too religious and not a very practical solution to the problems I have just mentioned. Furthermore, I know that most of you do not think of me as a very religious man – in fact, I do not think that about myself. My wife is a much better believer and prayer than I am, and those who have known me through the years know that I have had problems with religious people. As I have grown older, I realize that all of the problems have not been theirs, but I do think that those of us who claim to love God ought to love one another – this is one of the most basic attributes of a follower of Christ.
As the years have gone by, however, even though I have not become a member of any special religious group, I have decided to follow Jesus Christ with my whole heart. I find in him the inner strength, the precepts and the lifestyle that can help me and all the people of Uganda to solve the problems we face individually and as a nation. It is one of the interesting facts about Jesus Christ that people in every nation of the world regardless of religion, whether one is a believer or a non-believer, consider Jesus the greatest authority on human relations in history. His views on that subject have transcended all religions and cultures. It is remarkable that the person of Jesus Christ is accepted by everyone – even when they are not attracted by institutional religion.
With that in mind, I want to stress at least three significant precepts that Christ taught and modelled, which if practised, will help Africa: forgiveness, humility and love.
Forgiveness – Jesus Christ is the only person ever to come up with the idea of unconditional forgiveness, even of one’s enemies. He went so far as to say, if you don’t forgive, God won’t forgive you. In countries where animosity and division go back for generations and even thousands of years, how can peace come to a person, a group of persons or a nation if at some point we do not forgive and let God take the vengeance on our enemies – if that is what he decides to do? It has also been discovered that if we do not forgive, in the final analysis, it hurts us more to hate than it does those we hate. Therefore, I have come to the conclusion that the message of Christ on forgiveness is the only practical solution to healing a nation’s wounds and bringing unity.
Humility – This is one of the most important attributes necessary to become a good leader. When you observe leaders at all levels of society, throughout Africa and I suppose throughout the world, you find them being overcome by power, greed and self-interest. Somehow, after they have attained the prominence and positions of trust, they forget the people, their poverty and need. They forget that they could become a great instrument to help their country, and instead they begin to live like little kings and dictators. Only with a humble spirit, one which recognizes that we who have been given opportunities greater than most are in fact servants of God and the people rather than masters, will we be able to help our countries move from Third World status and lead the people to a new day. As the Scripture says, God resists the proud and gives help to the humble. If you have time to pray for me, please pray that God will give me the strength, wisdom and sense to be a humble servant.
Love – It has been fascinating to me to discover that for centuries people who have been the most thoughtful, the most respected, and who have made the most lasting contributions to the human race have all agreed that the highest and greatest purpose for their lives has been to seek to love God with all their heart, mind, soul and strength. These are people like Moses – the great lawgiver; Abraham – the man of faith and father of nations; William Wilberforce – the leader against the slave trade; Mother Teresa – and on and on. Jesus Christ said the sum of all the law and prophets is to love God and love one another. If love for God and one another were the rule and the prevailing attitude in our nations and communities, all problems would move gradually to resolution. Even when love is not the rule for most of the population and only exists among the few, great things happen that give hope and life in a world starved for love and caring.
Today, as we meet together, let’s resolve to take Jesus Christ out of the religious setting in which we have imprisoned him and walk with him along the dusty roads of Africa where he feels much more at home.
Source: Awakening, 18 March 1998 <ccarroll@singnet.com.sg>.
Healings in Uganda
Bishop Grivas K. Musisi, a Ugandan Christian leader claimed in an interview in the USA in April 1998 that “God has healed 223 people from AIDS” in his country. Each one of these healings,” he says, “has been confirmed medically.” Bishop Musisi, senior pastor of the Prayer Palace Church in Kampala, Uganda, and who oversees of 75 other charismatic non-denominational churches throughout the country, stated that he believes that God can do the same for people who are HIV positive or have full-blown AIDS in the United States. Musisi stated: “I believe that the solution is to come back to God. If a person can turn to God, God is willing to heal that person. He did it to the people with leprosy and he can do it with those with AIDS. God has been kind enough to confirm it through his Word. It has become a calling to everyone at the church to preach and pray for the sick and see people get healed, not just from AIDS, but from many other diseases as well. Daily, over 500 intercessors cry to God for healings at the Prayer Palace Church.”
Source: Dan Wooding via IRN News
South Africa
Pastor Aré J. Van Eck reports: Our Congregation is called Nuwe Lewe Christensentrem, that is the Afrikaans for New Life Christian Centre. We are in no way a large congregation, with attendance seldom more than 80 and normally around 35 – 45. Part of this is due to the fact that we are in a rural area, which is church-riddled, but mostly because we are multi-racial. Most of our attempts to try and work with other congregations fail, because we love souls more than skin colours! What I want to share about is the way in which God is visiting us.
As for most preachers, I also went to local conferences (not being able to travel abroad) and had people like Benny Hinn, John Arnott, Rodney Howard-Browne and Randy Clark, pray over me and my wife, but always without any real manifestations. There was the occasional “going under” but not laughing, crying or being drunk for days – just to get back home and to find that God comes and touches his people anyway.
Imagine an Afrikaans scene with Afrikaans speaking to coloured farm workers, normally the poorest people you can get, sitting cramped in a 3 roomed house (no, not 3 bedrooms, but only 3 rooms) some totally illiterate, about 16 in the one room singing Vineyard and Hillsongs which they have been taught and of which the words have been properly explained to them. Minutes later, they
themselves start to pray, reading spontaneously out of the Word and laying prostrate under the power of the Holy Spirit, small children laughing in the Spirit, mom & dad repenting freely of hurts and sin. Praise be to God alone.
I am no person of wealth, charisma or above average education. I was a policeman for almost 18 years; it is all of God. We are near a black residential are as well. Now there are small black kids that run away from home to attend church. Some of them got spankings because of it, but they keep coming. I am talking children from 6 years up to about 14 years of age.
When I first ministered to a very small one who reacted on an altar call, I was annoyed to found that he did not even understand Afrikaans or English. All he said was “Jesu, Jesu.” The moment I started to pray for him, that little heart broke. He wept, fell under the power, and while lying on the ground, started to pray in his mother tongue, Xhosa. I asked one of his older friends to interpret. He was praying for a drunken mother and a father that left them on their own.
An elderly black man got saved, and asked prayer for his child that has vanished more than three years ago. The police had closed the case as they had no leads to follow. We prayed and within two weeks she surfaced in a town 300 kilometres from us, after being taken away by somebody who promised her a job. They had her delivered to her parent’s house, and we had the privilege of leading her to the Lord as well! Is God good or is he good?
Source: IRN News, 5 February, 1998
China
Neil Anderson reported in March 1998.
We have just returned from a very fruitful trip to the northern provinces of China. People are on the move, and political and spiritual changes are occurring in the country. The meetings with the believers had to be secretly held at night, because as you know in China it is against the law to meet in homes for church services. In these houses, the rooms are very small. In every place we went they were packed to the limit, so much so that the people were practically sitting on each other. But it didn’t matter as the people sang and worshipped the Lord. There were some new people there who were coming to a meeting like this for the first time. At the end of the meetings all of them gave their hearts to the Lord. People heard the Word with much interest and excitement. Every night we prayed for people to be baptized in the Holy Spirit and to be healed. All who were prayed for received the Holy Spirit, and spoke in tongues.
We were able to minister to many of the church leaders in China and listened to what God is doing in their lives and ministry. Brother Bi, one of the key leaders of many of the house churches based in the northeastern part of China has a total of 20 full time workers working with him in 50-60 different churches in the area. He told us this story:
In January a sister name Lan was going to see her brother, along with her little nephew. On the way to this place, it got dark and there was no light on their path. It was cold, foggy and nothing could be seen more than a foot in front of them. Suddenly a bright light shown before them. It was about 5 meters wide and this light led them all the way to her brother’s house. As soon as they stepped in to her brother’s house, the light disappeared. After they told this news to their family, five of them gave their lives to Jesus.
Source: Hong Kong & China Report.
Inner Mongolia
Churches in Inner Mongolia are experiencing phenomenal growth. The region, located along China’s northern border, had 2,000 Christians in 1984, Lee DeYoung of Words of Hope radio told Mission Network News. Today there are 150,000 believers and at least 40 large churches, he said. DeYoung, who visited the capital city of Hohhot recently, said there is no explanation for the growth other than the work of the Holy Spirit.
Source: Global Revival News, March 1998.
Japan
The light of Christ is beginning to dawn in Japan. Christians say they sense “a new beginning” as churches cooperate in prayer and evangelism, Paul Ariga of the All Japan Revival Mission told Religion Today. About 1,000 churches participated in the All Tokyo Revival Mission 18-27 September, 1998. Charismatic, evangelical, and Pentecostal congregations worked together to plan the event. Almost 20,000 “prayer warriors” — some from other countries — logged hours of prayers in preparation. About 1,000 people conducted evangelism outreaches in the months before the crusade.
It was the first time that Japanese Protestants of all denominations worked together. Workers delivered Christian literature to 3 million homes in Tokyo in preparation for the crusade. Well-known Japanese Christian writer Ayako Miura wrote the tract, called “From Discouragement to Hope”. Another one million tracts were distributed at street meetings in the city.
The crusade drew more than 120,000 people to 24 meetings. About 56,000 non-Christians attended 10 evangelistic services at the Nihon Budokan, and almost 6,000 made first-time professions of faith in Jesus Christ, Ariga said. Two outreaches were held for women and children. About 60,000 Christians attended revival services intended to deepen their commitments to Christ and inspire them to spread their faith.
The number of responses is high for Japan. About 2.5% of the population is Christian and most churches average 30 members, Operation World says. There are 3,000 Protestant churches in Tokyo, a city of 30 million, and 7,700 Protestant churches in Japan. Some cities and towns do not have a Christian church.
Most Japanese claim no personal religion, but follow the customs of traditional religions including Shinto, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism. About 100 New Age style offshoots of those religions spring up every year. Those influences, and Japan’s history of offenses during World War II and other eras, have created a “spiritual bondage” that hinders people from receiving God’s grace, Ariga said.
It takes the “spiritual warfare” of prayer, fasting, and confession of sins to break that bondage, he said. About 19,000 people have been praying for Tokyo since 1992. More than 1 million hours of prayer have been offered on behalf of the city in five years. To prepare for this year’s crusade, leaders asked the people to add 377,750 hours — one for every square mile of the city. About 3,000 people took part in a 40-day fasting chain prior to the event.
Ariga and other leaders have visited other nations to confess Japan’s sins against them. He has visited Australia, South Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan in the past two years to ask forgiveness for the country’s brutal behavior in occupied territories. Christian leaders in each of those nations accepted his apology and pledged to mobilize people to pray 1 million hours for Japan.
Reconciliation among Christians “breaks the bondage and the power of darkness and makes it easier for people to receive the message of Christ,” Ariga said. “We drew so many people—more than expected—from all over the island.” Before the revival, seven of Ariga’s eight relatives in Tokyo were not Christians. “Now I have eight relatives in Tokyo who are believers — that is the result of prayer.”
Source: Baptist Press, Religion Today; Joel News, 16 October, 1998.
Russia
In the Soviet Union, in 1989, there were 550,000 evangelicals, then by 1998 there are 2.3 million in Russia alone!
Source: Hands for Christ; IRN News.
Arctic Areas
Slavic Ministries and YWAM Norway are launching an initiative to reach the unreached living at the world’s extremes. The Arctic, Siberia and the Caucasus are rugged regions where numerous still-unreached indigenous peoples live. The Arctic is home to more than 20 indigenous nomadic & mostly unreached people groups. A School of Foreign Missions (SOFM) at Borgen, YWAM’s northernmost base, in Norway’s far north, was be led by the mission’s pioneers among the nomadic Nenets in April, 1998. Siberia, the ultimate godforsaken territory where thousands of political prisoners were sent to the gulags, and the Caucasus region, with the greatest concentration of unreached peoples in Europe, are the two other target areas of this thrust.
Source: Europe NOW, Mon, 16 February, 1998.
Bible in 2197 languages
The Bible or portions thereof has now been printed in 2197 languages, 30 more than in 1996 reports the German Bible Society in Stuttgart. The Bible is not only the most sold book in the world, but also the most translated. The complete Old and New Testament is available in 363 languages. 135 groups are working on a further 681 translations.
Source: Hope for Europe, February, 1998.
France
Pastor Marc Lebrun from France reports:
Our visit to Toronto in 1995 has changed our lives and put our ministry in such a dynamic that we couldn’t expect before.
When we came back the power of the spirit fell in the place and hit our little church in such a power that it is a wonder it remained. We organized soon renewal services and many people from around the Paris area and even further visited the church. Many were healed up, refreshed, with a new love for Jesus. The church grew and we needed twice to move our facilities. Our revival meetings draw around 200 people and the power of the Holy Spirit is increasing toward the revival outbreak we expect to come soon. Intercessory prayer, fasting, gifts of the spirit, have grown up and have become a normal way of life now.
The prophetic anointing is tremendous. Lately during a four days revival with David Herzog (David is an American evangelist missionary to France) a word of knowledge revealed that some people in the crowd had a spirit of suicide. We had a call for those people to come forward, the spirit resisted, nobody came, but when we rebuked the spirit of death, several people were hit and fell onto the ground, screaming. Some of our people went into intercession. Then seven people came forward and the power of death was broken. At the altar call 13 people gave their lives to Jesus. Some were children, youth and some adults. A young boy was delivered from a spirit of violence and death, he saw a vision of angels, his mother says he is completely changed. When Naomi, a 13 month old baby girl with second degree burns was healed through prayer, it resulted in the healing of all other children that were next to her in hospital. Please pray for us. We expect revival to explode and touch many people and churches around. If you have France on your heart, please pray with us and let us know.
Sourcehttp://members.aol.com/christlum/homecln.html via Awakening
Holland
Tessa de Ruiter from Elim Pentecostal Church in Hilversum, Holland, reports to have seen and heard angels: On 8 March 1998 during the worship-singing I heard voices singing that I had never heard before in church. These voices were the most beautiful ones I had ever heard, clear and pure. I knew that the voices did not come from the congregation for I know those, who are close to the platform, very well. After the preaching, when the invitation was given, my eyes were continually attracted to the platform, then I saw an angel on either side of the platform. I closed my eyes quickly and was thinking: “Lord, this cannot be real…” A voice within me said: “Look once more.” I looked and they were still there, beautiful, with gold-blond hair, clothed in white. In their hands they had a large golden horn, full of pure oil. I asked the Lord what they were doing and the answer was: “I have send them to serve and to anoint with my oil.” I asked him what they were waiting for and the answer was: The sign to start. “But, Lord, who will give that sign?” The reply: “You. When you will go to the front and tell the people what you see, then they will begin to move.” As a result many came forward, there were tears and Jesus touched everybody deeply – the anointing was powerful.
Source: Joel News
Ireland
Youth unity initiative in Ireland
Protestant and Catholic young people joined forces in a marathon prayer walk round the borders of Northern Ireland, seeking peace for the long-divided communities. While sectarian marches have frequently sparked violent clashes during the years of “The Troubles”, organizers of The Reconciliation Walk-Northern Ireland hoped that linking young Christians from different traditions in the trek would serve as a symbol for a united future. The Rec Walk was for Christian young people, between the ages of 16 and 25, who wanted to walk together with other young people and pray for reconciliation, unity & peace in Northern Ireland. The 600-mile journey started in Belfast and basically followed the border of Northern Ireland, taking participants through former trouble spots like Londonderry and Eniskillen – sites of some of the worst violence during the years of conflict. Local youth events focusing on peace, reconciliation and unity were staged along the way. The event was promoted by Youth With A Mission, whose Northern Ireland leader Mike Oman hopes to see up to 1,500 young people taking part – some for one week and others for the entire route. He said that the walk was intended to build on the fragile sense of hope for the future that had been building in Northern Ireland over the past couple of years – which had largely seen an absence of violence. Mike Oman <100071.1477@compuserve.com>
Peace Agreement
Report by Diarmuid O’Neill.
What happened in Ireland with the peace agreement on Friday the 10th of April, 1998, was something I never thought I would see in my lifetime, it was and is something amazing. It is a wonderful opportunity that God has given the people of Northern Ireland and the people on the island of Ireland as a whole, for peace, healing and restoration. This healing and restoration is also needed for the church of Jesus Christ in Ireland, to be a whole body the way Jesus intended it to be.
God has done an amazing thing and I hope that he will richly bless each one of you who has been praying for however long for peace in Ireland – as an Irish man I am so grateful to you and praise God for all he has done through your faithfulness.
But it’s only the beginning. Its the dawn of a new day, the ushering in of a new era, that is if we continue to cry out to God for grace and mercy to be given out in abundance to all those involved.
God has blessed us with leaders in the political realm who were prepared to take risks and lay down some of their own ideals, aspirations, agenda’s and pride. The church needs to learn from these men and women so that the church will do the same and will be prepared to stick its neck out and take risks and stop trying to be always politically correct. Let us pray that from within the church will come the role models for every stratosphere of community life, especially for the up and coming generation who have known nothing but trouble and violence. 65% of the population in the South of Ireland are young people looking for answers. New Age and alternatives to Christ flood the market place. These young people need your prayers that the Christians in the North will share with them their new life.
God can powerfully use leaders and Christians who are prepared to say “your will – not mine be done”, and they are the type of people the island of Ireland needs right now. Pray that God will give leaders favour with their people, so that they will be able to persuade them to vote in favour of the peace deal.
God is without a doubt blessing Ireland (North & South) in many ways during this time and he has said much about how he will bless Ireland in the future and how he will use the people of Ireland to bless again nations all over the world. Pray that once again revival will sweep the land, remembering that it was the people of this island who kept the gospel alive while the rest of Europe was being over-run by Vandals, Barbarians and such like. God used Irish people powerfully to bring the gospel all over Europe, may He do it again as continental Europe now, like then, sits largely in darkness and is in desperate need of Gods love and grace.
We need to keep praying that all of these things will come to pass. That the people of Northern Ireland will be healed of all the pain and be restored. We also need to be prepared to go and just listen and be alongside them, we need to take risks and be brave and go and face the powerful emotions of hatred, anger, loss, mourning, fear, bitterness and many more besides. This process of restoration is not just for the people of Northern Ireland, but for the people of the South of Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England and beyond. The eyes of the world are watching and God will use all that this troubled land and people have learnt through this torrid, terrible time to bring restoration and healing between peoples, churches, Catholic and Protestant, Jew and Gentile.
We need to keep praying too that nothing else will fill the void left by terrorism and intimidation by all paramilitaries. Since the first ceasefire in 1992 the drug scene in Ireland has become drastically worse. Believe it or not: because of the vigilante tactics adopted in the North by paramilitary organisations, the crime rate in Northern Ireland has been one of the lowest in Europe.
So please, please keep praying for Ireland North and South and all the people in it, that people’s fears of this being yet another failed attempt will not be realised. Rather that this will be what we have been hoping and waiting for for nearly 30 years and then maybe we will be able to heal all the other wounds which stretch back over centuries! We want to challenge the church to keep praying and fasting for this crucial time in the history of the island of Ireland – don’t stop praying, in fact pray even more.
‘Sowing the Seeds of Revival’ has continued over the last five months, four nights a week at the Emmanuel Centre, Marsham Street, Westminster on Wednesday to Saturday nights since the 1st of June, 1997. Well over 55,000 people have been through the building and over 6,000 have come forward to ‘Get right with God’. Twelve dustbins full of pornography, illegal drugs, weapons, Masonic jewellery, clothing and personal effects have been collected. Scores have been converted to Christ and dozens baptised. Some have been so overcome by the Holy Spirit they have been unable to get out of the pool. Members of the House of Lords, House of Commons and staff at Buckingham Palace have been present as well as the homeless and hungry off the streets of London. Over 500 bags of food have been distributed to the hungry and homeless over that period of time. —
David Culley reports from Glad Tidings Assembly in Vancouver, Canada.
“And it shall come to pass in the last days that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh …” We are seeing it! For the past months Glad Tidings in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada has been experiencing the same renewal that is happening all over the world. Yesterday, we crossed over into full blown revival. The morning service started much like any other. The worship was annointed as usual, and we had a visiting revival minister as we often had before. The thing that was different was the sea of turbans and saris in the building. Vancouver is a multi-national city with a large Sikh population, and over 200 had come to our morning meeting.
Our guest minister, Charles Ndifon from Nigeria and New York, had been in Victoria, British Columbia, for some meetings a few weeks ago, and a young Sikh woman, who had been invited by her Christian husband was healed of blindness and deafness. She went back and brought her favorite uncle, Charnjit, who was dying of cancer, and he left the meeting healed and saved.
Since then Charnjit has been witnessing to all his relatives, and when Charles Ndifon came to our church in Vancouver, this man invited his whole extended family. Yesterday, after watching many people be healed of athsma (as an example of how simple it is for God to heal anything), and a 90 year old woman receive a new ear-drum, about 200 Sikhs came forward to give their hearts to God. And it’s real. They had already heard the Gospel from Charnjit, and to make sure, the altar call was translated into Punjabi. After the service, the people were so excited to have found Jesus, and to be so accepted by these white people. At the evening service another 104 Punjab Sikh people responded to the altar call.
We saw many miracles. A 14 year old boy born blind saw his mother for the first time, deaf ears were opened, cancers were healed. But the greatest miracle of all was that God now seems to be bringing in the Sikh population that we have been so unable to reach for all this time.
26 October 1998. Source: Awakening.
British Columbia
Bob Brasset from Victoria, Canada, writes about the move of the Holy Spirit in British Columbia:
The outpourings continue. In fact, it seems to be getting stronger. We now meet four nights a week. The response of the pastors in the area is simply an overwhelming gratitude for the goodness of God for deigning to visit us in such an awesome way. There is an amazing, astounding hunger in North America right now. People know that we are on the edge of not only Revival but a genuine Awakening: perhaps the greatest since the day of Pentecost. This Awakening, I feel, will be characterized by the very kabod (Hebrew for weighty, laden down with treasure, riches, glory, and wealth), glorious presence of God coming and abiding in a room, a church and even a city, or a whole region (as in Charles Finney’s revivals). The worship in our services now continues and flows for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, unabated with spontaneous songs of the Lord from worship team and congregation. Bodies lie on the floor, prostrate in worship. People report seeing angels. Visions, mighty, inspiring ones, are plenteous. Healings happen during the preaching of the word or worship without anyone praying or laying on hands. We are not advertising this. People are just coming. Salvations are happening in each service – even when we don’t give specific calls. We now have reported healings of fibromylagia, diabetes, cancer, chronic pain, ears opening, many necks and backs healed and severe allergies.
Source: Global Revival News, Bob Brasset <rbrasset@tcs.bc.ca>
Arkansas, USA
Revival is breaking out in the Lee County jail in Arkansas. In just one year, chaplains and volunteer staff oversaw 161 services in the chapel and 118 services in the jail itself. As a result 1,459 people made decisions for Christ. Currently, 218 inmates are enrolled in Bible studies and some 6,900 individual Bible studies have been distributed. “There is a hunger for God inside me that is more powerful than any hunger I have ever known,” said AOG Chaplain Patrick McCowan. “The Lord is teaching me so many things in these days about servanthood,” McCowan said.
Source: The Assemblies of God News Service
Hampton, Virginia
Ken Lawson reported:
Bethel Temple Assembly of God has been experiencing a move of the Holy Spirit since April 1996. Church membership is 2,200. Revival meetings are held Wednesday, Thursday & Friday. In April of 1996 the Sunday 7:30 am service started and did not end till 3:24 pm which bypassed the 10:30 am service. Church members were repenting, numerous people converted to Christ, and many were delivered of evil spirits.
Hampton, Virginia is the oldest English speaking settlement in America. Bethel Temple Church is racially diverese: 40% African-American, 50% white, 10% Hispanic and Asian.
In 1996 the Senior Associate Pastor, Don Rogers, had an open vision of the Holy Spirit coming to Hampton. He saw the Spirit of the Lord coming like a storm and it blew into their church. In his vision when this happened it blew out a glass window in the church.
Fourteen months later, in June of 1997 the Sunday service at Bethel Temple was starting. Senior Pastor Ron Johnson was praying and asking God to come “like a pent-up flood”. Suddenly Pastor Johnson looked at his hands and oil was dripping from his hands. The pastor began to tell the congregation of what was happening to his hands. The head usher told the pastor the front window of the church just blew out.
The pastor began telling the congregation of what happened. People ran to the altar. Many publicly repented of sins. God’s manifest presence filled the building. Marriages are being restored, sexually broken people healed, myriad conversions to Christ, and many being filled with the Holy Spirit.
The vision was beginning to be fulfilled. Part of the interpretation of the glass breaking signified the Spirit of the Lord blowing into Bethel church and blowing out. The mission of Bethel church is to proclaim God’s glory to the nation. The breaking of the glass window is a prophetic symbol of God’s power to release the church to carry the gospel to the nations. Also that week, several “signs and wonders” happened. An unexplained earthquake tremor and circular rainbow 360 degrees appeared over the city.
Unity of churches in the Hampton area is growing. Twenty churches gathered for Easter Services this year in the town’s coliseum. According to Pastor Don Rodgers it’s unprecedented to get twenty churches to lay down the most important service of the year. Eleven thousand people attended.
Source: Awakening, 13 April, 1998
Greenville, Alabama
By Ken Owen, Senior Pastor of First Assembly of God Greenville, South Carolina.
In April 1995 a first wave of revival began to crest over the congregation at First Assembly of God, Greenville, South Carolina. Nightly meetings were held for a month with Ed Nelson. Since then a number of waves have rolled in, building into what is now a sunami of revival.
In August, 1997, the tide began to significantly deepen. I called Ed – a director of a mission work to unreached peoples – to return immediately. On October 11, 1997, Ed returned to us from Asia. The Sunday morning service flowed like a mighty river — hundreds came forward to repent of sins. The meeting carried on through the day till 4:00 pm. With an hour break, it began again at 5:00 pm with a large prayer meeting and evening service. Since then there has been no let up, only an increase.
More than two thousand people have repented of sins, converts being baptized weekly. Many miracles and healings are accompanying the revival.
People from a variety of church backgrounds and denominations are driving to the meetings from several cities and states as momentum continues to strengthen. There has been almost no promotion of the revival, but word-of-mouth has brought thousands of people to the meetings.
IRN News, 5 February 1998. Source: IRN – http://www.revivalnet.com
(c) Renewal Journal 12: Harvest, 1998, 2011.
Reproduction is allowed with the copyright included in the text.
The closure of a pub through lack of customers is big news in Australia. This is what drew the media to a small town called Nullagine in the far north of Western Australia. But the media didn’t know quite how to report the religious revival that is keeping people out of the pubs‑as well as the jails and hospitals. Aboriginal church worker Craig Siggins wrote this account of the spiritual awakening that is changing Aboriginal communities in Western Australia.
“Kuurti yarrarni kuwarri ngangka mungkangka” (“Holy Spirit, we welcome you in this place tonight”) is the first line of a song being sung at many Aboriginal communities around the Pilbara. It was composed by Len “Nyaparu” Brooks, also known as Kurutakurru, one of the many leaders God has raised up among the Martu Wangka, Nyangumarta and other peoples of the Pilbara.
A spiritual awakening took place in many communities last year, in 1997. Things started at Warralong, where many became Christians and were baptised after being influenced by three Christian Aboriginal leaders. Then just before Christmas, Kurutakurru joined two other leaders at Nullagine, and many from Nullagine and other communities became Christians and came across to the dam at Newman to be baptised.
Many communities started having meetings almost every night and prayer meetings every day. Leaders travelled to different communities for the meetings and to encourage people, sometimes holding meetings at night after a funeral service when hundreds of people were gathered. Some meetings went on for eight hours or more as people shared in song, testimony, prayer, Bible reading and preaching.
When Franklin Graham visited Perth in early February, over 200 Martu people travelled the 1150 km for his meetings. It was like one long church service all the way there and back. Everyone was bursting to sing and witness to the people in Perth.
When we got back there were more meetings and baptisms, even from communities that had previously rejected Christianity. Old people, Aboriginal elders, were turning to Christ and being baptised. Four hundred people gathered at the Coongan River near Marble Bar for three days of meetings, with many more being baptised.
Police, hospitals and others have noticed a decrease in alcohol-related incidents. The media has begun to take notice. Nullagine, which had the record of being the arrest capital of Australia, became news when the pub went broke, apparently because so many had given up the grog. ‘A Current Affair’ came up and did a television spot at Nullagine.
Amazingly, a simultaneous and apparently quite separate revival began at about the same time among the Pintubi people and others across the border in the Northern Territory. A team from Kiwirrkura, just on the WA side of the border, travelled across the desert and joined up with the Pilbara meetings, arriving early for our Easter Convention held in a wide dry river bed near Newman. More than 1000 people from different communities and Christian traditions came together to celebrate.
Why the revival? It is nothing more or less more than a work of the Holy Spirit. It has similarities to the revival that spread to many Aboriginal communities in the early ’80s, which reached the Pilbara but never really took hold. Like that revival, people have had dreams and visions. Recently Mitchell, a leader from Punmu, got up and read from Acts 2 about Joel’s prophecy and said it was being fulfilled. Not long ago, people told me they had seen a cross in the sky one morning. And like the ‘80s revival, it is the Aboriginal people taking the Wangka Kunyjunyu (Good News) to their own people in their own way and their own language.
Aboriginal leaders empowered by the Holy Spirit are leading the revival. These leaders would like to see the revival reaching the wider Kartiya (non‑Aboriginal) society. But for these shy desert people to reach out to Kartiya in these days of Mabo, Wik and the struggle for reconciliation will only be by the hand of God.
Reprinted with permission from On Being ALIVE Magazine, PO Box 434, Hawthorn Victoria, 3122, Ph: 61 3 9819 4755, No. 5, June 1998, pages 8‑10.
Spiritual Awakening in the North-West
Craig Siggins
Aborigines baptised with Dan Armstrong
Craig Siggins gives a more detailed account of the Pilbara revival in this article.
Beginnings at Elcho Island
Revival! In some Christian circles it is like the Holy Grail – something to be sought after at all cost. But perhaps few realise that a revival did come to Australia – or that there is again a revival happening right now. Perhaps few realise this because both revivals began in remote areas among Aboriginal people.
In 1979 a revival began on Elcho Island off the Northern Territory. In 1981 it came to the Warburton Ranges in Western Australia, and then spread to many Aboriginal communities around Australia. I was privileged to have been a witness to that revival.
In 1981/82 at the height of the revival in Western Australia I was teaching at the Christian Aboriginal Parent-directed School at Coolgardie. All of the students became Christians and there were prayer, praise and testimony meetings most nights. My present work as a pastor/missionary is a direct result of that revival. The revival has been well documented in Ian Lindsay’s Fire in the Spinifex and John Blacker’s Fire in the Outback. The effect of that revival nearly 20 years on is still strong in many communities – Aboriginal Christian leaders, committed Aboriginal Christians and Gospel seeds sown in many places and many lives, including the Pilbara.
Resistant people respond
My wife, Lyn, and I came to the Pilbara in 1993, settling in the town of Newman. Our vision was to see a strong, indigenous Aboriginal church raised up amongst the Martu Aboriginal people of this area. But we had not expected to see it so soon. We had expected a long, slow struggle before anything of significance developed.
Some communities were strongly anti-Christian. At one community we were told by some white Christians not to be too overt in our Christian witness. Two years later Aboriginal leaders from our Parnpajinya Church at Newman baptised many from that community. At another community a clause against teaching Christianity was written into the school constitution. Two years later we were having Christian meetings on the school verandah. Aboriginal people told me how some of the old men had threatened Christians with spears. Some of these same old men have now accepted Christ.
Against all expectations we found the Martu people to be really open to the Gospel. The seeds were sown by the 1981 revival, by the witness of the Apostolic Church and by the work of the late Jim Marsh, a gifted linguist with a pastoral heart, much respected by the people.
Winter rains refreshing
We began our own language efforts modestly, by walking up to Aboriginal people and speaking a few words we had picked up in the Goldfields and then, with practice, gradually expanding our vocabulary. Church also began slowly, but some believed and then were baptised. We thought things were happening too quickly, even then, so we didn’t rush to baptise anyone.
Teams of Aboriginal Christian men from the Plibara Aboriginal Church of Roebourne (Apostolic) came over from time to time and helped. Leaders developed. More were baptised. I became committed to taking teams from Parnpajinya (Newman) to various communities. Gifts were developed. More and more became Christians and were baptised, but the revival hadn’t really come as yet. It was like the winter rains refreshing us before the main summer rains came. Communities – too many to cope with – were crying out for visits.
One of our leaders – Kerry Kelly (KK) – had gone to Warralong and teamed up with a couple of other strong Christians. Warralong has a community that had been opposed to Christianity. But the Spirit moved there and many were baptised. We had Christian meetings (the first ever). At one meeting nearly the whole community came forward to dedicate or re-dedicate their lives to Christ. KK, less than two years old as a Christian, became one of the main leaders at Warralong and for the revival. In 1996 I had taken KK over to a Men’s Training Camp in the Northern Territory. This interaction helped solidify KK in his Christian walk. KK often leads at the Lord’s Supper, and when many communities come together this has been a unifying factor.
At Parnpajinya (Newman), just before and after Christmas 1997, many people were coming to the Lord and we were having multiple baptisms at the Ophthalmia Dam. This was about the time the revival really took off. People from Jigalong and other communities were also coming to be baptised, including some of the old men. Many nights we were having meetings that went to early in the morning. Some communities were having meetings every night and prayer meetings every day! Some still are.
The ‘arrest capital’ of Australia
Nullagine, which had the dubious distinction of being called “the arrest capital” of Australia, asked us to come there, which we did. Len (Nyaparu*) Brooks, known as Kurutakururru, Walter Crusoe (Wari) and Billy (Nyaparu*) Landy took up the leadership at Nullagine. Many people there who had become Christians were asking to be baptised.
So one weekend I drove the old church bus to Nullagine, picked up as many people as could be squashed into the bus and, two flat tyres later, drove back to Newman. Many were baptised. Our practice is to have two doing the baptising together – usually one who knows the words to say and another who might be a learner. For cultural reasons, we have men baptising men and women baptising women. So we picked out two men and two women from each community. When the baptisms finished, we found out the lady leader from Nullagine doing the baptisms hadn’t been baptised herself, so we turned around and baptised her!
After that we travelled again to Nullagine and baptised a number of people there, including people from remote communities and some more of the old men. Parnpajinya, Nullagine, Punmu and Warralong, with some from Jigalong and Parnngurr, were spearheading the revival. I travelled around with leaders such as Alistair (Jaliku) Sammy, Chrissie Sailor, Clarrie Robinson and Lizzie Jones to different communities encouraging the believers and holding meetings that at times went for hours. Sometimes hundreds would stay on after a funeral and all join together for a Christian meeting. In October 1997 1 had taken Clarrie Robinson and Willie Bennett to a Men’s Training Camp in the Northern Territory. The topic was ‘Preaching’. Clarrie came back and began preaching for the first time. Willie went back to Kiwirrkurra near the Western Australia / Northern Territory border. Incredibly, a revival had sprung up at Kiwirrkurra and other Pintubi communities in the Northern Territory at about the same time as the Western Australia revival, but quite unconnected. Willie Bennett became a leader of that revival.
A week-long revival
Someone heard that Franklin Graham was coming to Perth for a Festival, and the Aboriginal Christian leaders decided it would be good to go to hear him. The only thing was, Perth was 1150 kilometres away! But people chucked in money and somehow over 200 people crammed into 4 coaster buses, 2 mini-buses and a motley fleet of assorted 4WDs and other vehicles and got to Perth (and back!).
We were there for a week, but it was like one long revival meeting. We sang and prayed all the way down and had meetings every morning and night where we were camped (when we weren’t listening to Franklin!) Kurutakurru, a gifted singer and songwriter himself, had the idea of singing outside to the crowds waiting to get in the Burswood Dome where Franklin was speaking. So we arrived early each night, gathered in a group and sang away in English and Martu Wangka to the kartiyakaja (white people). They seemed to appreciate it. The style was a bit different to the precision programming that happened inside the Dome, though!
When we got back, some communities had the idea of holding a mini-convention before our main Easter Convention. After some hesitation (over finding a place with enough water for baptisms!) a gorge near Warralong was chosen. Over 50 people were baptised including some old men who had been opposed to Christianity previously. Two old men and an old lady, too crippled to enter the water, knelt down while water was poured over them with a cup (this was after some discussion as to whether such a baptism was okay). It was a stirring witness! Meetings went on morning and night. Even a rain storm and lightning strike one night didn’t dampen the enthusiasm.
A pub with few patrons
Our Easter Convention (1998) was a wonderful time of celebrating Jesus. Over 1000 people came, including many new Christians from communities that had never come before. The meetings went nearly non-stop over the Easter period. Singing is a prominent feature of the revival. There is a real sense of joy that comes out in song. Many new songs have been written and many old songs translated into Martu Wangka, Nyangurnartu and other languages. Everywhere you go you bear kids singing and tapes playing songs of the revival.
So many people were becoming Christians and giving up the grog that the pub in Nuilagine lost a lot of its business and went into receivership. The story made news around Australia. Nyaparu Landy and I were interviewed on Perth radio! A Current Affair went to Nuilagine.
But the revival has not stopped. The Martu people themselves are reaching out to other Martu people. Neilie Bidu from Yandeyarra came back, fired up from
hearing Franklin Graham, to reach out to his own community. He began a small prayer meeting and then invited Kurutakurru and other leaders from Warralong and Punmu to help him. So they went to Warralong and many there became Christians. Yandeyarra people in turn have reached out to Banjima people near Tom Price. Other communities have also been reached, including some that were closed to Christianity. Some of these communities had turned away Crusade teams from the 1981 revival. Now they have turned to the Lord.
Why revival, and why now?
Only the power of the Holy Spirit can explain this revival. It is a miracle, an incredible revival happening. Mitchell Biljabu, a leader from Punmu, has likened it to the prophecy of Joel in Acts 2.
I asked Milton Chapman, another leader from Punmu what, apart from the Holy Spirit, is bringing about the revival. He replied that it was Aboriginal leaders bringing the message of Good News to their own people. Many have responded to the powerful witness of changed lives. Alistair and Chrissie wrote their testimony for Today magazine and said: “For a long time we were drinking and gambling… We started to think about Mama (Father) God… we gave our hearts to the Lord. We have kept following Mama God right up to now.”
The example has had a strong impact on their extended families, nearly all of whom have become Christians. Prayer has been another major factor in the revival. The Martu pray simple and sincere prayers for all sorts of things. The prayer meeting at Nullagine every morning helped keep the believers strong.
Some excesses and difficulties
But there have also been some excesses and difficulties in the revival. Some still struggle with alcoholism and some have gone back to the drink. Many are new Christians with little knowledge of Christianity. Even the leaders are in the main untrained. Some are illiterate. And other groups have come in with different ideas and practices that have caused division even within families and have led to much debate and argument, some of it bitter. One is a legalistic group that stresses the keeping of the 10 commandments, especially the fourth (keeping the Sabbath). Another is a fairly extreme charismatic group.
Then there are issues of a more cultural nature. Some couples who have become Christians are married the wrong way in a tribal (though not biblical) sense, including some leaders. What to do? What to do about some of the tribal laws and ceremonies? Reject them all? Keep some? These are big issues to be worked through.
We are encouraging the leaders to read the Bible for themselves and to come to solid biblical conclusions as they struggle through these issues with the help of the Holy Spirit, but it will take time. Pray for the people and the revival!
Used with permission from Vision, the magazine of the Australian Baptist Missionary Society, July 1998, pages 12-15.
Grog replaced by Gospel
Reports by Mairi Barton
Mairi Barton is a reporter with The West Australian newspaper in Perth. These reports were written in April 1998.
A religious revival among Aboriginal people in the remote North‑West town of Nullagine ‑ once labelled the arrest capital of Australia ‑ has drastically reduced the number of arrests and jailings.
Police in Nullagine, 184 km north of Newman (in WA), claim drunken domestic fights which once dogged the community have virtually disappeared and the residents seem happier and healthier.
The only sufferer is the local pub, the Conglomerate Hotel, which once kept six staff busy. Last month the lessee went into receivership after the town’s 100 to 150 Aboriginal people turned to Christianity in November.
Since then, the Aboriginal community has reduced the number of arrests to just a handful and there have been no jailings. They gave up alcohol and labelled the hotel “the devil’s place”.
Instead of going to the bar each night to drink, they sit happily in circles under the stars, pray and sing gospel songs at the Yirrangkaji community on the outskirts of the town.
When The West Australian visited last week, they were eager to share their new‑found love of God and talk about the positive changes they have made to their lives.
Gary Marshall, who leased the hotel and adjoining shop for 2 years, said the arrival of religion spelt disaster for his business, but he did not hold it against the Aboriginal people.
“I couldn’t sit here and say it was a bad thing,” he said. “If they are better off, then it’s a wonderful thing.” …
The two men believed responsible for their religious conversion ‑ local Aboriginal men who left town a couple of years ago and returned late last year as changed men, keen to share the Christian message ‑ were out of town.
Senior Constable Mal Kay, the officer in charge at Nullagine, said the drop in crime could be explained in part by the fact that the population dropped every time big groups from the community left town to attend religious meetings around the Pilbara and in Northam.
Most arrests in town in the past have been assaults and woundings stemming from alcohol.
Mother sees her life in a new light
Mother‑of‑two Lisa Dalbin used to be a weekly visitor to the Nullagine police lockup for assault, anti‑social behaviour or just to sober up. The 26‑year‑old would spend her pension on alcohol, get jealous over her man and find herself in punch‑ups with women who were her friends when she was sober. That was before she found Christianity and gave up drinking last November.
“We pray and sing every morning and every night,” she said. “We have church meetings every Wednesday and Saturday.”
Miss Dalbiii has worked off her fines through community work, picking up rubbish and working in the children’s kitchen ‑ where the children have breakfast, shower and change into their uniforms before school.
Her favourite drink used to he port and she freely admits that it made her act mad. She does not miss it. She is happier, has money in her pocket to go shopping and takes better care of her sons, aged five and eight, now she is sober. She is even studying to get her driver’s license, a privilege which seemed out of reach to her a few months ago. The only time she sees the police now is when they stop to say hello in the street.
Her cousin Phillip Bennell, 39, who spent much of his youth behind bars because of alcohol‑related strife, has also been sober for about four months since “he saw the light”.
God is his master now, not grog, he says. “To follow the Lord is good, you know. It keeps you away from trouble. Alcohol is a killer for anybody, but especially the Aboriginal people. I was one of the worst blokes, locked up all the time away from my kids. I spent 21 years of my life in and out of prison.”
Mr Bennell said it would be easy for him to turn back to drink, but he did not want to because he had realised the damage it could do. “I had two feet in the grave and what I was doing was adding a final nail in the coffin,” he said. “But when I found the Lord I gave it all away. I didn’t want to die a young bloke.”
He said he no longer wanted to drink because he had a 12‑year‑old daughter and her life was more important to him than alcohol.
Mr Bennell said the footpath outside the Conglomerate Hotel had been the site of many arguments and brawls, but now the community held prayer meetings across the road. If they ventured into the pub, it was only to get a cool drink.
“There used to be a lot of tough drinkers at the reserve,” he said. “They gave it away because they found a bit of peace and a better way of life. A lot of people here want their health, and their children brought up in a good environment.
The West Australian. Used with permission.
(c) Renewal Journal 12: Harvest, 1998, 2011.
Reproduction is allowed with the copyright included in the text.
After five years of prayer and some dry stretches,
God came mightily
Cecil Turner was a shy man with a stutter – a pipe-fitter with no Bible college education – when God called him to lead Calvary Assembly of God in Mobile, Alabama, in 1963. Even family members questioned whether or not Turner could pastor the young congregation.
Now, 34 years later, the church literally overflows with people coming to see what’s been happening since Sunday, 29 September, 1996, when God’s presence came in power during the church’s annual “campmeeting.”
“I’ve thought we’d close out a number of times,” Turner says. “But the Holy Spirit says we’re going on.”
The church has been in continuous revival from week to week, meeting Tuesdays for intercessory prayer, and Wednesdays through Fridays for services that draw 250 to 300 people. Sunday mornings draw 400, the maximum number they can pack into the sanctuary.
Some services are exuberant and intense; others so heavy all they can do is “lay on the ground.” Sometimes the Spirit is so strong during praise and worship that they throw open the altars.
“We come in each night and never know what’s going to happen,” Cecil says, pausing for a moment. “I like it.”
The church started praying for revival in 1992, says Cecil’s son Kevin, who has been on staff for 11 years.
“At times we wondered if revival would happen,” Kevin says. “But we saw the intensity and the hunger growing.”
After five years of prayer and some dry stretches, God came mightily when a travelling evangelist, Wayne Headrick, came to preach. God spoke to Headrick that if they got out of the way, God would make something happen.
That “something” keeps on happening.
“It seems like it’s accelerating,” Headrick told the Mobile Register in May 1997. “Each service there’s more . . . anointing and more of the power of God.”
The Lost
Unchurched people are coming in droves to this church that sits at a 3-way stop on the western city limit of Mobile. “They may not understand it,” says music pastor Kevin Turner, Cecil’s son, “but they want more of it.”
Many come from other denominations: Nazarene, Catholic, Methodist, to name a few.
“We agreed from the beginning that this wasn’t an Assembly of God revival – it was for the whole church,” Cecil says.
People are saved in every service – and some 150 were saved in the last two months alone, Kevin says. Some say afterwards that they felt a need to come, and several testify that they were drawn in as if to a beacon. One man pulled into the parking lot, not fully understanding why he was there. The congregation prays regularly that people will be drawn by the Lord’s presence.
Stacy Tanton, 26, says that the revival has “totally transformed” her life. Her husband no longer drinks alcohol, and now serves as an usher during weeknight services. Others have been delivered from alcohol, healed, and delivered from demons.
Changing “Church”
The Mobile revival is redefining Calvary’s concept of pastoral leadership, steering them away from man-generated structure and teaching them to encounter God together.
“It’s like God said, ‘I’ve been trying to move. Now get out of the way,'” says Kevin. “It’s liberating for both pastors and the people.”
Kevin, who grew up a pastor’s kid, testifies that the move of God now enveloping their church has brought him to a new level of faith.
“I’ve always loved the Lord, but this has changed my life,” Kevin says. “I want to be intimate with him.”
Revival has also redefined his ministry. Kevin and his 10-piece music team keep a greulling schedule, sometimes singing for 3 hours straight. Before revival began, Kevin would lose his voice after a week of services, he says. But he asked God to sustain him, and has gone 10 months with few problems.
Revival has also forced him to be more in tune with the Holy Spirit before leading worship.
“I make a song list, but often it gets tossed out,” he says. “Some nights it’s like being held over a cliff. I know God wants to do something, and I’m asking, ‘What is it?’ I’ve had to become comfortable with silence. Sometimes he just says to wait.”
The revival is not personality-driven. Headrick is often gone for weeks at a time, and the river continues to flow. The pastors say the move of God keeps changing colours as God takes the church to different places in him.
“There have been two or three times when the revival has shifted gears,” Kevin says. “It’s hard to describe, but the intensity goes up a level.”
Churches unite
Glenn McCall, pastor of Crawford United Methodist church, frequently takes members of his congregation to Calvary for revival services. “[People] are looking for something, and only God can meet that need in their spirit,” he says. “I feel like it’s a nationwide thing. I’ve heard a lot of testimonies from around the country and the world. There’s some phenomenal things happening in the church world.”
McCall believes the fact that Calvary is drawing from other denominations signifies that America is ready for awakening. “I think people are wanting a revival regardless of what the name is on the [church] doorpost. They’re willing to crawl through barriers to get a touch from God,” he says.
Reported in the Mobile Register, May 10, 1997
Beth Cumbie, 26, prayed for her daddy all her life. “He was hard-hearted,” she says. “A good man, be he never wanted to surrender.”
Beth’s mother, a Christian, had endured decades of disbelief, but never put her husband down.
“We thought some tragedy would have to push him to God,” Beth says. “Finally we said, ‘God, do it your way.’”
In April 1997, while closing his produce store for the night, Beth’s 62-year-old father turned to his wife with tears in his eyes and asked for prayer. When they got home he fell on his face and cried out to God to save his soul. After he had received Christ, Beth’s mother came to the revival service where Beth was on the music team, ran down the aisle with the news, and together they wept.
“I didn’t care what anybody thought,” Beth says. “That was a long-time prayer answered.”
Now the family is at church nightly, and Beth’s father is able to cry, hug his children, and express his love.
“In some ways it’s strange, but in others, so natural,” Beth says. “Dad wants to go to the altar every night.”
Reproduced from the Pentecostal Evangelist.
(c) Renewal Journal 12: Harvest, 1998, 2011.
Reproduction is allowed with the copyright included in the text.
Like thousands of pastors across America, Steve Gray was discouraged and disappointed. He was even considering leaving the ministry. For twelve years he had pastored the Smithton Community Church in the sleepy little town of Smithton, Missouri, nestled among the wheat. Steve Gray was discouraged and disappointed. He was even considering leaving the ministry.
For more than a decade, Gray felt his ministry was like riding a stationary bicycle. He was pedaling real hard, but he wasn’t going anywhere. He says that all he was thinking about was “out, out, out.” Pastor Gray had even lost hope. He knew he could not continue doing what he was doing and unfortunately he gave God no other options. Steve Gray was ready to quit.
Knowing he had to get away from the church for some “R and R,” he chose revival over relaxation. In March 1996, he drove from Missouri to Florida to visit the Brownsville Outpouring that was then in its 37th week. Gray attended the services each night and spent the days in his motel room, praying and seeking God’s face.
During the Tuesday night prayer meeting, while hundreds gathered around the “Pastor’s Banner” to pray for the nation’s shepherds, Gray was praying especially for one pastor, himself. He knew if he continued in the ministry, he had to be restored. After about three days, he felt some recovery and his focus began to change. God was restoring his hope and he found this to be the first signal of his personal revival.
Before this change in focus, Gray didn’t even know what to ask from God. Gray says he came to Brownsville not to “get something” but to “see something,” as Moses went to “see” the burning bush. After several more days, Gray was “seeing” again. One night, in what Gray described as a “perfect atmosphere,” God spoke to him and said, “I want you to have a revival.” The very thought was too much to accept. Smithton, Missouri, is not Pensacola, Florida, and Gray could not imagine himself in the role of revivalist. Then God spoke again, “I didn’t say I want you to be a revival, I said I want you to have a revival.”
On Sunday morning, 17 March 1996, Pastor Kilpatrick shared part of his personal testimony of how revival came to Brownsville. Gray reached the place of faith and could believe “there is a place for me in revival.” He observed Kilpatick as he was “watching, guiding, and pastoring a truly sovereign move of God that was changing the world.” Kilpatrick’s words and example showed Gray that “revival needs to be pastored and can be pastored.”
After Sunday worship, Gray called his wife, Kathy, and said, “I have just been in the best Sunday morning service I have ever been in. Tell our church.” Near the end of his second week in Brownsville, Gray headed for home, repentant and on the road to revival and restoration.
While God was working on Gray, he was also working on the members of Smithton Community Church. For two and one-half years the church had held a Tuesday night prayer meeting, but as God prepared the church for revival, the prayers became more intense. Associate Elder Randy Lohman says there was “lots of brokenness” in the months immediately preceding the outpouring.
As the pastor sought God in Florida, the congregation sought him at home. On Sunday night, March 17, Kathy Gray relayed the pastor’s message about the great Sunday morning service in Brownsville. David Cordes, one of the elders, was deeply convicted. Weeping, he asked the congregation, “Why should our pastor have to travel a thousand miles to be in the best service he has ever been in?” He fell on the floor in repentance. Soon he was followed by several other men in the church, repenting for their lack of support and crying out to God to do the same thing at Smithton that he was doing for the pastor in Florida. God continued his work on Wednesday night as a five year old girl prophesied and said, “It’s coming! It’s coming!” The Lord had seen their brokenness.
When the pastor arrived on Sunday night, the glory fell. To be exact, at 6:12 p.m. on 24 March 1996 God the Holy Ghost arrived in his awesome power at Smithton Community Church. They will never be the same. Immediately they added services to their church schedule. Now, the outpouring has continued for two years with five services every week. Visitors have come from all fifty states and many foreign countries, often in numbers that vastly exceed the population of the town.
Thousands of lives have been changed. Sick bodies have been healed. Visiting pastors have taken the fire back to their congregation. Steve, Kathy, and teams from the church are taking the revival all around the world. As for the future of the revival, Lohman said, “God started it and we are going to let him do what he is doing.”
Steve and Kathy Gray
When a two-year revival breaks out in any church, the lives of the pastors are forever changed. This is especially true for Steve and Kathy Gray, pastors of Smithton Community Church in Smithton, Missouri. The Grays pioneered this small country church twelve years ago, after seven years travelling the country in a singing, preaching, and teaching ministry.
Not only does Gray have the responsibilities of pastoring the church and preaching in revival services that are held five nights each week, but the revival has opened many doors for his ministry. Although he seldom is gone from the Smithton pulpit on Sunday morning, he and Kathy often minister across the country and around the world on his “days off.” They have also appeared on many national and local religious television programs. In the past six months, Steve has travelled to Israel three times. Gray says his travels have had a good effect on the church, “keeping them nationally and world minded.” To be sure the church shares in the expanded ministry; he often takes teams of four to twenty with him as he travels.
According to Gray, “The longer we are in this (revival), the more I realize how badly it is needed. I didn’t realize how sick the church in America is.” The biggest challenge he has had, according to Gray, “Is to keep out the wolves that come to ruin the purity and unity.” The revival has had persecution and critics, but Gray feels that is to be expected.
He was surprised, however, that he has had to “mobilize staff” to beware of “others who come to infiltrate and cause division.” Gray realizes that God is doing a great work in many places today and is glad God has raised the level of humility in the church “so we can bless those who are being blessed even if we don’t do it the same way they do.” Despite all the changes and challenges, Gray says the last two years have been “the best years of our lives.”
Samuel Autman wrote this article in the Everyday Magazine, a Sunday paper in Missouri, on 7 June 1998.
Tiny Smithton in Missouri has no sidewalk, no coke machines, no gas > stations, > no traffic lights, no motel rooms, no restaurants. But 100,000 people > believe > it’s where you go to find the Holy Spirit.>
And it will come about after this that I will pour out My Spirit on > all > mankind; and your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will > dream > dreams, your young men will see visions. And even on the male and female > servants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. > Joel 2:28
Under sweltering skies on a late spring Friday evening, more than 500 > worshipers are packed into the Smithton Community Church for powerful > encounters with the Holy Spirit. For two years now, seekers have driven or > flown in from all 50 states and every corner of the globe to this > white-frame > country church. Easily 100,000 have traveled from as far away as Africa, > Canada, France, Japan, Germany, Australia, Korea, Israel, England and > Malaysia.
This night, not unlike many others, the church will cram in more souls > than > live in this mid-Missouri town, population 532, seven miles east of > Sedalia > on > Highway 50. > The audience is in high gear for another Pentecostal revival meeting.
Outside, men in vests, walkie-talkies in hand, circulate through the > gravel > parking lot, directing traffic. Inside the gymnasium-turned-sanctuary, > fathers > and mothers clutch their small children. People embrace newfound friends. > It’s > a yackfest before the holy explosive celebration begins.
By 7:30 p.m., a joyful musical roar goes up. Hundreds of bodies bounce > up > and down in unison, vibrating as if at a rock concert. They clap their > hands. > They speak in tongues. They dance and they shriek. The volume is > deafening. > Elderly women and small children alike lift their hands.
“Praise the Lord!”
“Hallellujah!”
“Thank you, Jesus!”
The four-hour Pentecostal service has only begun.
Eyes look toward heaven to see the slides projected overhead. That’s > where > the song lyrics are displayed. > In one voice they yell: “Revival is in the land! Come and see what the Lord has done! Revival! Revival! Revival!”
Eric Nuzum, 28, a former forklift driver turned associate pastor, leads > a > full band with drums, guitars and synthesizers on the stage. The music > blares. > The room reverberates.
An hour and a dozen songs later, quiet blankets the room after the > high-octane worship. The shouts have ceased. Nuzum leads a one-word chorus > slowly of “Hallelujah” on his acoustic guitar. All over the building, they > are > singing and swaying in unison.
After a few announcements, the offering is taken. The music picks back > up. > The bespectacled pastor, Steve Gray, 46, jumps to the lectern and sings > “One More Time” and “Return to the Lord,” two songs he wrote himself.
He opens his Bible to Mark, chapter 1, verse 1.
“The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”
Gray, is an unassuming man in a 5-foot-8 frame, with ocean-blue eyes > and > fiery blond hair. He is intent on not becoming a celebrity or drawing > attention to himself. He berates what he called the American humanistic > gospel, which has taken the focus off Jesus Christ. His oration goes for > an > hour.
“It’s not about us! It’s the gospel about Jesus Christ,” he thunders.
“Amen!” the crowd responds.
“We are missing the point,” Gray says, raising his voice. “Jesus didn’t > say > ‘I have come to follow you.’ He said ‘Get behind me. Follow me. Do what I > do. > Go where I go. Feel what I feel. Pray what I prayed. Live how I lived and, > if > necessary, die how I died.’”
It’s an old-fashioned message that was spelled out in the book of Acts. > Gray sprinkles in comments about hellfire.
The ‘Smithton outpouring’
Like many Christian groups, Pentecostal and charismatic Christians > believe > that the Bible is the inspired word of God; that salvation comes through > Jesus > Christ, the Son of God; that baptism is accomplished through total > immersion. > They believe that all people will be raised from the dead to face a final > judgment, and then eternal salvation or damnation.
What distinguishes the charismatics/Pentecostals is not simply > believing > in > the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, but allowing the Holy > Spirit > to manifest himself through physical behavior such as speaking in tongues, > casting out demons and singing in words inspired by the power of the > Spirit.
Jesus is the center of their religious attention; worship of Him is greatly enhanced by the gifts of the Holy Spirit. > Throughout the preaching, and in subsequent conversations, Gray stresses that when anyone puts aside self-interest and assumes the interests of > God, > things happen.
He’s not interested in numbers, he says, only spiritual > intensity. He believes that God has selected the little church in Smithton > to > prove that revival can occur anywhere.
“These are men and women, that when they pray, fire from heaven falls. When they pray, blind eyes are open. When they pray, lives are changed. When > they > pray, miracles happen. When they pray, the whole world is stirred up and > whole > cities are changed,” Gray said.
The “Cornfield Revival” or “Smithton Outpouring” has stirred up this Pettis County community, so tiny it barely shows up on a map. There are no soda > machines, traffic lights, gas stations or sidewalks in sight. At least > seven > times a day, trains zip across the track, blocking entrance to the town.
The international attention, the high-octane music and the snarled > traffic > anger Smithton residents. However, travellers needing food and shelter are > welcomed by the motel and restaurant owners in nearby Sedalia.
‘Slain in the Spirit’
Once Gray’s preaching concludes, he turns the service over to trained > prayer leaders. The prayer sessions seem violent. > Many worshipers pray, weep, tremble and are knocked to the floor by > what > they consider to be the hand of God. By evening’s end, this room will > resemble > a battlefield littered with human bodies, many supine on the gray carpet, > “slain in the Spirit.”
They say they are so overcome by the Holy Spirit, they shake, quake, > roll, > jerk or even faint. > Within minutes, a jubilant energy fills the room, almost like > electricity. > The faithful believe the Spirit has come with power to heal broken hearts, > to > transform lives and get them on the road to glory.
Tears roll down many cheeks. > Cheeks are mostly white, although there are a few black and yellow > faces > in > the mix. Upper and lower income. Young and old. Urban and rural dwellers, all under one roof.
The Rev. Robert Clement drove 1,700 miles from San Diego. His own > church > has been struggling. He has wrestled with fear, rejection and failure. > “Each time I go up and get prayer, it’s like layers peeling off,” he > said. > “Layers of fear, failure and rejection.”
Missouri ties to movement
Smithton is the third place in North America in the last four years to > be > engulfed in one of the longest Pentecostal revivals of this century. All > three > sites have Missouri ties.
In January 1994, Randy Clark, pastor of the Vineyard Christian Fellowship of St. Louis, Missouri, was ministering at the Airport Vineyard Church in Toronto, Ontario, when the so-called “Toronto Blessing” hit. People in the > congregation > burst into fits of uncontrollable laughter. Others fell into people’s arms > and > shook. That revival is ongoing.
On Father’s Day 1995, an appearance by visiting evangelist Steve Hill > at > the Brownsville Assembly of God in Pensacola, Florida, marked the similar > emotional manifestations. More than 1.5 million seekers have made > pilgrimages > to Brownsville, where the revival is ongoing. Springfield, Missouri, is the > worldwide headquarters of the Assemblies of God.
As the century and the second millennium of the Christian era draw to a close, Pentecostal revivalists say more is to come. Newsweek magazine said there were 20 million Pentecostals/charismatics in the United States and 400 million worldwide (600 million by 2010).
Revivalism seems to be characterized by an expectation of Jesus Christ’s returning to Earth. At the end of the 19th century, there were similar expectations of some cataclysmic event, and there was revival fever.
“There will be a great revival before the Second Coming of Jesus Christ,” said Clark. “This could be the beginning of it, but I am not saying it is.”
With revival comes stinging backlash. The California-based Vineyard Fellowship ousted the Toronto organization for going “over the edge.”
The lightning of the Spirit
Steve Gray grew up in Sedalia, a town of 20,000 well known as the site of the Missouri State Fair. He and his wife, Kathy, to whom he’s been married 23 years, spent seven years in a travelling music ministry. Then in 1984, the Grays stopped their itinerant ministry and opened a church in a building that had been closed for four years.
The building, now called Smithton Community Church, had been built as the Christian Church in Farmer’s City in 1859. As people deserted Farmer’s City and moved to the nearby “Smith City” because of the railroad, the church moved. In 1873, the building was disassembled into into four parts and pulled by ox cart to what is Smithton today.
The Christian Church changed hands a number of times by the time it closed its doors in 1980. By 1996, the Grays’ ministry and marriage had reached crisis point. They had considered splitting. Gray had wondered whether pastoring in a rural community had been the right choice.
“I was ready to quit,” Gray said.
Gray drove 1,000 miles to the revival in Pensacola, hoping to figure out a way to dissolve his ministry and maybe to sell insurance or become a teacher.
For 10 days, he waited in his hotel room for an experience with God. At night, he went to meetings at the Brownsville church. Ultimately, Gray felt that God wanted him to return to his community and have a revival. He was slightly hopeful.
When he arrived back in Smithton, he walked into his church after an > evening service had concluded. He took eight steps toward Kathy and the lightning of the Spirit hit him, he said. His hands shot up in the air. The people in the congregation rushed forward and began weeping and rejoicing.
As the story goes, the entire congregation of the church at Clay and Chestnut streets in Smithton was transformed by the Spirit. They started to gather day after day to pray. By the third week, the curious showed up. The multitudes followed from outside of Smithton in Missouri and way beyond.
Jennifer Dieckmann remembers. Before the revival, Dieckmann, 23, described her life as miserable. Her family had been kicked out of a church in Sedalia in a theological dispute, and she was resentful.
“I was happy holding on to anger and bitterness and hate,” Dieckmann said. “When the revival hit, it hit me personally.”
Now she talks about forgiveness and loving her enemies. “In an instant, it was like the weight was gone,” she said. “I have forgiven those people who kicked us out of our church.”
Linda Byrd, 28, is co-pastor of Jubilee Worship Center in Junction City, Kansas. She and her husband drive down many weekends for spiritual refreshment.
“Most Americans know religion is their effort to find God,” she said. “What is happening here is not just talk about Christ but demonstrations of Christ. He demonstrated that He was the Son of God. He did not say ‘Take my word.’ He proved it through miracles. That’s what this is, demonstrations.”
‘I realized God loves me’
Rhonda Wagner, 44, of Springdale, Arkansas, was back. She had come once before in March. Wagner had attended the Toronto meetings some time ago.
“We kept going to the Lord with our problems, but we never actually gave them to him. I can’t tell you all of the dynamics of what happened to me in Toronto, except it was up there I realized God really loves me.”
In the process of receiving prayer there, she shook for 12 hours. What made her shake?
“The spirit of the Lord is way more powerful than an electric shock. When the Holy Spirit comes upon us, our physical bodies will react by shaking, shouting or falling.”
Her friend Kathy Johnson, 48, of Amarillo, Texas, has now been to all three revival hot spots. She said a hunger and thirst for spiritual things cause her to travel to revival meetings.
“I have realized that I have only just begun to know him who draws me to Pensacola, to Smithton and Toronto. He’s so much bigger than I thought.”
Reproduced from the Awakening e-mail, 9 June 1998.
(c) Renewal Journal 12: Harvest, 1998, 2011.
Reproduction is allowed with the copyright included in the text.
Pastor Enéas Araújo and Simone at Valentina Baptist Church
Writer Joel Kilpatrick describes revival in Mobile, Alabama.