Chapter 8: The Birth of Christian Outreach Centre by Anne Taylor
This article describes the life of Clark Taylor and his influence through Christian Outreach Centre.
Clark Taylor was born in Queensland, Australia in 1937. He was a farmer with little formal education. As a result of being born again in 1959 in a Billy Graham Crusade in Brisbane, he began training for the Methodist ministry in 1961. This was interrupted in 1963 when he suffered from cerebral malaria and frequently lapsed into unconsciousness.
In 1967, God miraculously healed him. During the Sunday morning service at the Oxley Methodist Church, he believed God was telling him to obey James 5 as it was time for him to be healed. That is exactly what happened on the following Tuesday night when the Rev. Godfrey Williams prayed for him. It was in that same year that he first heard about the baptism in the Holy Spirit, which he received after being prayed for by Frank Fullwood, an Assembly of God pastor.
In January 1968, he became an assistant minister in the Holland Park Methodist Circuit in Brisbane. He was responsible for St. Paul’s Church at Upper Mt Gravatt. After a Bible Study on the Holy Spirit, some people remained behind for prayer. One young man who was prayed for that night spoke in tongues until 2am Another lady received holy laughter which lasted for three days. People who had a hunger for God began praying together three times a week.
Sovereign move of God
In July, God moved sovereignly at St. Paul’s. In a prayer meeting at the manse on 17 July, a lady had a vision of Jesus standing before her, telling her that there was going to be a special service on Sunday night, and that he would bring people from the highways and the byways. Normally there was only a small congregation.
True to His word, God drew the people from as far away as Toowoomba and the Gold Coast with the result that the church was absolutely packed, despite the fact that there had been no advertising. As an example of God’s ability to draw people, a man came from the Darling Downs after reading Haggai 2:1 about the 21st day of the 7th month. There were manifestations of the Holy Spirit during the entire meeting which came to an abrupt end with the appearance of the Senior Minister who had not received the same Holy Ghost revelation.
In 1969 the Methodist Church placed Clark Taylor in King’s College, their Theological College. Because there were people who had been filled with the Holy Spirit but were not being pastored, Taylor began a house meeting at Corinda in May 1969. Fifty people attended the first meeting from Brisbane and the surrounding area. Over the next two years, the numbers grew to approximately two hundred, with ministers, priests, nuns and other people being filled with the Holy Spirit.
Clark Taylor led a group of young people in the streets of Brisbane, who saw many other young people saved as they witnessed to them about Jesus. Some of the young people came from the Wavell Heights Presbyterian Church where the Spirit-filled ministers were Alex Wylie and Ian Barlow. Others were involved with Charles Ringma, who later commenced Teen Challenge in Brisbane.
Early in 1970, Taylor resigned from the Methodist Church. Later in the year he received a prophetic word. Part of it says “….The College which I have spoken about to you and have called you to is the College whereby you live in prayer and intimacy with the Spirit and where I speak to you Spirit to spirit. … I would have you to learn the fear of God; I would have you to seek the fear of God, for the fear of God will keep you stable. If you do not have a fear of me, then inevitably you will raise yourself up and the devil will snare you. …”
Late in 1970, Clark Taylor joined with Pastor Trevor Chandler to Pastor the Windsor Full Gospel Church. Later they both left to begin Christian Life Centre.
At the end of 1972, Taylor resigned from Christian Life Centre to spend eighteen months in travelling ministry.
Early in 1974 he wrote, “For a long time now the Lord has been impressing upon me to commence another Centre in Brisbane. It is a city of nearly one million people and God has given me a vision to reach many of the country areas round about”.
That vision found its fulfilment in Christian Outreach Centre, the major vehicle through which Taylor influenced Australia and other nations.
Christian Outreach Centre
Christian Outreach Centre began with twenty-five adults meeting in the Taylors’ home on 16 June, 1974. On the following Sunday, one hundred and twenty-six people took Communion in a rented building owned by the Teachers’ Union.
The Church grew rapidly. It had started with no money or resources, but by October was able to purchase a Salvation Army property in Woolloongabba. The Church kept expanding, particularly by unchurched people being saved. It was also a place where Christians, both Protestant and Roman Catholic could be baptised in the Holy Spirit.
Clark Taylor had a big vision for evangelising and teaching children. In 1974, Pastor Neil Miers was employed as the Children’s Pastor. Old double-decker buses were purchased from Sydney to transport unchurched children from the suburbs. The Woolloongabba property was bursting at the seams, but children and adults were crammed into every nook and cranny. Joy Time Clubs began for children in the suburbs after school. Saturdays found children’s workers dressed up in animal costumes, outreaching with the gospel. Before Pastor Miers left Brisbane in 1977, the Children’s Church numbered seven hundred.
Finding space was always a problem, but Taylor never allowed such problems to stand in the way of his vision of Australia For Christ. He believed that there was always a solution for each problem. He was not limited by traditional church thinking. In January 1975, a large property was purchased at Mt. Tuchekoi for a conference centre. Many a child’s life was changed at a Children’s Camp there.
Televison
Television was another medium that Taylor used very successfully throughout Australia. By 1976, Taylor was starting to talk about using television in Australia in a radical way. By that time the Church had outgrown the Woolloongabba property and had moved into a West End warehouse.
The bold television scheme could not have worked without Brian Millis, a TV journalist. Once again, Taylor’s vision was not hindered by lack of money or equipment. Under great difficulties, the Sunday evening services were filmed, then edited down to a half-hour programme called A New Way Of Living“. The first programme was shown on Channel 9 in Brisbane on 17 July, 1977.
During the next four years it was being shown on sixteen stations in Queensland as well as in South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales. A New Way Of Living was radical in Christian Television. The average Australian who never went to church saw large crowds of Christians with smiling faces enjoying God. They saw people responding to an altar call to be born again. They also saw miracles taking place. Large numbers of people were saved.
Country Centres
Clark Taylor’s influence was also spreading throughout South-east Queensland by the establishment of other Christian Outreach Centres in such places as Nambour, Ipswich and Redcliffe. Centres continued to radiate out from Brisbane.
One of the most powerful ways in which his influence was felt was in the lives of Christian Outreach Centre pastors. His Methodist background influenced the way in which he structured Christian Outreach Centre. It is a connectional system. There is an annual conference, but pastors gather together in local regions more frequently for fellowship and training, which was vital in the early years because most of the pastors lacked formal or theological education.
Clark Taylor built faith into his pastors. No conference would pass without a sermon on Mark 11:22-24. He took God at His word concerning mountains of sickness, demon possession, spiritual apathy, attitudes to religion in Australia, bureaucratic red tape, financial need, unbelief and impossibilities in general.
To him, Australia For Christ were not empty words. He believed that unchurched Australians would be saved. He believed that unlearned men who had been with Jesus could turn Australia upside down. He believed that there would be a Christian Outreach Centre in every city and town in Australia.
Christian Outreach Centres such as Nambour are an example of that faith. In less than twenty years, the younger generation that was nurtured there has continued to carry the banner of Australia For Christ. The Holy Spirit is being poured out through the anointed music of such people as Tracy Ham, Andrew Ironside and Ian Beresford.
People worldwide are influenced by the magazine, A New Way Of Living, edited by Darren Trinder. Mark Ramsey, who went out from Nambour to begin Noosa Christian Outreach Centre, continues to run with the vision of “The Sunshine Coast For Christ”.
Inter-state Centres
Clark Taylor’s influence spread to New South Wales. John Gear, a Spirit-filled Methodist who commenced Gloucester Christian Fellowship, listened to tapes of Taylor’s preaching. He persisted in inviting Taylor to conduct a tent crusade in Gloucester.
That was the initial step in small groups of Spirit-filled Christians becoming part of Christian Outreach Centre.
A number of the movement’s leaders, including the vice president David MacDonald, have come from that area, birthing new Christian Outreach Centres throughout New South Wales and beyond.
Overseas Centres
Christian Outreach Centre was beginning to flow out to other nations. One example of this is the establishment of the movement in the Solomon Islands. Pastor Kevin Dales had been a student in the one-year Bible College at Mt. Tuchekoi. He went out from there to pioneer Christian Outreach Centre in Innisfail.
One of his members, Lafai Ituaso, had a great desire that Kevin would go to his people in Tuvalu, a Pacific island. Over the next few years teams from Innisfail ministered in the Pacific Islands. Hundreds of people were saved and healed.
Late in 1989, a Bible College building was completed at Balasuna in the Solomon Islands, due largely to the hard work and sacrifice of the Innisfail people. Since then, students from the Pacific have been trained there and gone out to establish Christian Outreach Centres.
Education Centres
After seeing a Christian school in New Zealand, Taylor began to set the wheels in motion to have a Christian school in Brisbane. In May 1978, Christian Outreach College began with 136 children in primary and secondary school to grade 10. It was established in crowded conditions in the West End complex using the Accelerated Christian Education programme. Subsequently, other Christian Outreach Colleges have been established using the Education Department Curriculum.
Clark Taylor also had a vision for a Christian University. In 1986, Christian Heritage College began, with the vision of bringing reformation to the nation in many areas, beginning with the field of education. In 1988 Christian Heritage College was given accreditation with the Queensland State Government so that Christian-trained teachers would be accepted to teach in State Schools. Graduates are now teaching with a standard of excellence in both Christian and State Schools.
Bible College and School of Ministries
From the first week of the inception of Christian Outreach Centre, Clark Taylor began Bible teaching. Bible Colleges of one year’s duration were held at Mt. Tuchekoi, West End and Mansfield. He also established a Video Bible College. The year 1988 saw the commencement of the two-year Bible College course for the Associate Diploma leading into the Bachelor of Ministries course at Mansfield. Each January there is a Ministry Training School of intensified training for people going out to pastor Christian Outreach Centres.
Clark Taylor resigned from Christian Outreach Centre in 1989. He was involved in itinerant evangelistic ministry, and in November 2000 began Worship Centre in Brisbane.
The movement he founded, Christian Outreach Centre, continues and the vision of Australia For Christ continues to burn brightly in other nations of the world as well. The gospel has been committed to faithful people who are teaching others also.
Chapter 9: The Beginnings of Christian Outreach Centre by John Thorburn
Part I: Clark Taylor’s Life and Ministry.
Clark Taylor was a name that was well known in Australia, especially in Queensland, in the late seventies and the early eighties.
Every person who came across this man, either in person or through the medium of television could not avoid being touched and impacted by this dynamic and unconventional minister.
Taylor’s outgoing personality and his total dedication to the preaching of the Gospel were used by God to touch many lives. The result of this man’s God-given vision and his obedience to see that vision fulfilled is known today as Christian Outreach Centre.
Clark Taylor was born in Queensland in 1937 to Joe and Rita Taylor. His mother had always prayed, “Lord, make him a minister”, and like most mothers had always felt that her son was special.
In his early years, Clark had a great dislike for things academic. He was even known to have eaten green fruit in an attempt to avoid having to go to school.
Taylor was never afraid of hard physical work, having spent many hours working on the family property at Palen Creek, near Rathdowney, 70 miles south of Brisbane.
At the age of 14 his family moved to the Northern Territory, where they leased a property and raised beef cattle. At the age of 16 he was running a mustering camp, where he had authority over some of the roughest and toughest men in the Territory.
One sad event that took place during this period of his life was the death of his father who was killed in a tractor accident. It was after this tragedy that Clark moved back down south where he was to encounter something that would change his life forever.
Conversion
The year was 1959 and at the urging of his Aunt Alexandra, Clark Taylor found himself at the Brisbane Exhibition Grounds where American evangelist, Billy Graham was holding a series of crusade meetings.
The following is an extract from the magazine A New Way of Living where the journalist describes what happened that night.
The choir, hundreds strong, led by Crusade Songleader Cliff Barrows, sang fervently. Tonight was the final night of the Crusade. The bright moonlight revealed a scene typical of Billy’s crusades. Thousands had gathered – many from outback Queensland, to join in what had already been described as an historic event in Australian church life.
The words of the hymn meant nothing, Clark told himself. Sitting on the grass in the arena, looking up at the thousands in the grandstands, he cursed their churchiness and their assurance. Had there been a group of vocal hecklers, he might have joined them … but here, he was alone – as alone as he had been on other moonlit nights, far, far away from crowds … and from Christianity. The crowd fell silent, drawing Clark’s gaze to the stage in the centre of the arena. The boyish-looking Cliff Barrows had stepped back, giving place to a tall wavy-haired man whose craggy face and penetrating eyes commanded Clark’s attention: Billy Graham.
So this was Billy Graham. A dark-suited, fortyish, tall figure whose right hand held a New Testament, whose left-hand index finger stabbed skyward, and whose voice carried clearly to every part of the arena. After praying, Billy began to preach. He would preach for around forty minutes on this night. He would question, answer, anticipate, explain. He would speak of Heaven, and warn of Hell; he would even object, on his listeners’ behalf, to his own statements. “But Billy, you say …” would be repeated often … followed soon after by, “The Bible says …” By the close of his sermon he would have answered every objection, closed every exit, leaving only Jesus, The Way. He would have spoken thousands of words … and Clark would not have heard one of them.
“CLARK”. The voice, unlike any Clark had ever heard, somehow entered into the very centre of his being. There in front of him, and slightly above the heads of those seated a few feet away, stood Jesus. During the next forty or so minutes something took place that was unknown … even to Clark Taylor. Somehow the spirit of a man which life had battered and embittered received an awakening, in a communion that would defy explanation.
Then He was gone … and Clark, aware once again of his surroundings, was amazed to find that Billy Graham had finished speaking. The choir was again singing … this time softly, invitingly … “Just as I am”. The evangelist was standing, head bowed, chin propped, silently praying … In the moonlight, people were streaming forward … from the grandstand, from the open-air seats, and from the grassed oval where Clark sat, stirred in his heart as never before.
Still within him, the battle raged, as reason fought revelation and pent-up anger, the love of Jesus Christ. Verse after verse was sung. Still they came — people from all walks of life; men and women of all ages …. coming to Christ. It was time. Fighting feelings of foolishness, Clark rose to his feet and joined the throngs.
What a beautiful description of a night that would change one man forever, but also see the beginnings of a ministry that would see worldwide effect.
Spirit-filled Ministry
In 1961, Clark began training for the Methodist ministry. It was during this time that he met and married his wife, Anne. This union was to produce three children, Linda, Philip and Robin.
In 1963, Clark contracted cerebral malaria, which would cause him to lapse into periods of unconsciousness. In 1967, he received healing from this disease. This was the same year that he was baptised in the Holy Spirit.
Clark and Anne then spent time as Assistant Ministers in the Holland Park Methodist Circuit where they were responsible for St. Paul’s Church at Upper Mount Gravatt. It was during this time that Clark began to have difficulties with his denomination over the gifts and manifestations of the Holy Spirit which were happening under his ministry.
Clark was then to spend some time at Kings College, but he eventually resigned from the Methodist Church in 1970. He then joined himself with Trevor Chandler at the Windsor Full Gospel and then they started the Christian Life Centre.
This partnership lasted until 1972 when Clark resigned and spent the next eighteen months in travelling ministry. After receiving a prophetic word, Clark returned to Brisbane where he commenced Christian Outreach Centre.
From very small beginnings of 25 adults meeting in his home, C.O.C. has grown through many different stages to what it is today. The vision began as Australia for Christ but this later grew to Reaching Our World for Christ.
Clark was known for his radical and unusual approach to ministry but there was no denying the anointing that was on his life.
Another outstanding aspect was his ability to impart the ministry gifts to the pastors of C.O.C. Even though there was no formal theological training, he equipped these pastors in such a way that they were sent into towns and they established strong and vibrant churches. Even though this method had its limitations, it was instrumental in establishing churches in cities where there was very little Christian influence.
There were many other aspects of his ministry, such as television, outreaches, establishing Christian schools, and in the latter stages, a Christian Teachers College and School of Ministry.
Clark Taylor resigned from Christian Outreach Centre in 1989, and was involved in itinerant evangelistic ministry. He should primarily be remembered as a man who ministered powerfully in the anointing of God and as the pioneer of a movement that has not only touched Australia, a country that he loved, but a movement that has impacted the world.
Part II: Christian Outreach Centre, Mansfield
At the end of Wecker Road in the Brisbane suburb of Mansfield stands a complex which is the hub of what is now a worldwide movement. From a small beginning of 25 people in the lounge room of Clark and Anne Taylor’s home on 16 June, 1974, this local church has grown to a current membership of approximately 2500 people, while the movement that was birthed from its vision has grown to a worldwide membership of about 1600 churches.
After that first meeting the numbers grew so rapidly that the church saw the need to move to larger premises. They spent the next nine months meeting in the Teachers Union Building in Spring Hill until further growth forced another move.
By God’s miraculous provision the old Salvation Army Hall in Trafalga Street, Wooloongabba was purchased. This building was soon bursting at the seams and after knocking out walls and even joining up to the house next door it had finally outgrown its usefulness.
West End
Premises at 100 Victoria Street, West End were then purchased and the church was to have its home here for the next six and a half years. It was during this time that the Centre saw tremendous growth through the use of the medium of television.
A program called A New Way Of Living was produced and was shown on Sunday mornings. God had placed a powerful anointing for healing miracles and salvation over the church and as people saw these things happening in their lounge rooms they were drawn to the Centre to see for themselves.
Even though many had come out of curiosity and to have a look at this madman who seemed to break all the rules of what a preacher should be, many were saved as they sat under the anointing of God and saw the miracles that were taking place.
Another ministry that saw growth was with the children. It was during this time that Neil Meirs came on staff to head up the children’s work. Every Saturday Neil would take his eager team out into the streets and to the shopping centres. There they would be dressed up as clowns and would put on shows and invite the kids to come to Sunday School. As the children came, so did the parents.
The church continued this steady growth until once again the building was too small. Even though it seemed humanly impossible and too big a task, the people of Christian Outreach Centre once again put their trust in God.
Mansfield
Land was purchased at 322 Wecker and work was begun on the current Auditorium. Even though the cost was great, once again God supplied every need and the building was officially opened in May, 1983.
Even though the founder’s personal battle with immorality led to his dismissal from the ministry in 1989, the movement which he founded is still growing strongly today. This proves beyond doubt that if God wants to build and use something to touch people, he will do so. And he will do it despite the weakness and the imperfections of the people that he chooses.
Perhaps one of the greatest strengths of Christian Outreach Centre has been its desire to “equip the saints for the work of the ministry”, and to see that work carried out throughout the nations of the world.
In its early years there was great emphasis placed on the vision to see Australia for Christ. There were many pastors sent out from the Centre and even though they had only very basic training they were having a great impact wherever they went. This is because of the emphasis that was placed on relying on the Spirit of God to see you through.
Many ministries
While this was a good principle to live by, over the years it was realised that more was needed. This led to the establishment of another important part of the ongoing ministry of the Church. This is education.
The Church now has the facilities in place to educate and train people from Primary through Secondary and on to Christian Heritage College. Every day there are over 2000 men, women and children either training or being trained within the grounds of the church.
Another important part of the ethos of the church is its Sunday services. These are a time of great joy and celebration of what God has done and is continuing to do in and through His people. There is always a time of praise and worship where people are free to express their love for God.
Another strength is found in the variety and quality of the messages which are preached from the pulpit. Because of the size and reputation of the church it is able to attract world-renowned ministries to supplement the quality of the ‘in-house’ preachers.
This provides the members with a very well-balanced diet of spiritual food.
One of the challenges which a church of this size faces is found in the size itself. Because of the large numbers of people who gather together in one place every Sunday it is very difficult to maintain a family atmosphere. People can come along and not even be noticed.
In fact, it was not uncommon to find two people who had been attending the Church for a period of time and had never met each other.
This problem has been overcome by the introduction of the Home Cell principle. It has taken about 12 months to get people away from reliance on the Pastor to meet their needs and to look to each other for support. This has totally changed the atmosphere in the church and has formed a much friendlier and closer relationship among the people.
In summing up it is perhaps important to look at the vision statement of the Church: “Our vision is to lead people to Christ making disciples in our neighbourhood, city, nation, and overseas.”
The church was founded with the vision of outreach and it has seen success in this area. As a church and as individuals, we need to continue to be open to allow the Holy Spirit to mould us, change us, train us and use us.
If we continue to do this and remain faithful to God, we will continue to see our God-given vision fulfilled.
Christian Outreach Centre in 2011
Beginning with a home group in 1974, they moved their headquarters to the present location in 1982 when C.O.C. built their new auditorium to seat 5,000 people. Their school expanded from Preparatory to Grade 12 and has over 1,600 students. Their tertiary college, Christian Heritage College (CHC) commenced in 1986 grew from offering one course in education with an initial enrolment of nine students, to around 40 courses and a student community exceeding 800. The college offers a range of accredited degrees in Business, Education and Humanities, Ministries and Social Sciences.
By the end of 1988 there were 136 churches in the movement including churches in New Zealand, and the Solomon Islands. During 1989, churches were established in Papua-New Guinea, Fiji, Vanuatu, the United Kingdom, and Malaysia. The movement experienced rapid growth with 44 new churches opening in 1990, the year Pastor Neil Miers became president of Christian Outreach Centre International.
By 2010 C.O.C. had around 1600 churches in 30 countries including Australia, Bulgaria, Chile, Denmark, Egypt, Fiji, France, Germany, Iceland, India, Malaysia, Malta, Nepal, New Zealand, Philippines, PNG, Serbia, Singapore, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Thailand, Tonga, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Vanuatu and Zambia.
The Movement is strongly involved in helping people in need especially through Global Care. This relief agency poured millions of dollars into worldwide relief.
This movement is one example of exploding movements of church growth across the world today. Most of their churches began as a home group, and then grew.
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After Clark Taylor resigned from Christian Outreach Centre he travelled and ministered in America and then in 2000 founded the Worship and Ministry Centre, now the Worship Centre Christian Church, in Brisbane, and from 2012 handed the leadership of the church to Pastors Paul ‘Skip’ and Leah Smith.
We encourage and support revival leaders on Pentecost Island regularly. That includes providing revival books and resources, Bibles, and helping pastors with high school fees for their children.
Pentecost Island, Vanuatu
Team Visit, July 2017
We returned with another small team of Stan and Daphne Beattie (my sister & Judith’s parents), Emily Staples from Riverlife (formerly Kenmore) Baptist Church, and my grandson Dante, in the photo here with Morrison, a school prefect, and son of hosts Jackson & Annette.
Riverlife church people gave generously to help with a guitar, a keyboard, and about 50 spectacles (helping older people read Bibles), and gifts of Bibles as well. Miraculously we were not charged excess baggage on any flight!
Dante and Morrison join the musicians at Panlimsi village church, near Pangi
Emily, a nurse, spent hours helping in the local clinic, talking and praying with many people daily, and sharing in meetings, including her first ‘words of knowledge’ about healings needed. Everyone we prayed for reported that pain had gone (for some of them after a bit more prayer, and for some even before we started praying for them).
Stan and Daphne reunited with friends there, especially Jackson and Annette (who cared for their daughter Judith’s family with the 4 grandchildren) and Rolanson and Doneth and Grant who also visited their home near Rockhampton this year. Stan explored more possibilities for village water supplies and hydro power, and they both shared in meetings and prayed often with people.
Dante [former captain Kenmore High School, twice sportsman of the year, captain of Qld & Australian schoolboys volleyball teams competing in NZ, Singapore & Malaysia, Middle School Science & Senior School Physics awards, etc., Uni Power to Change worship leader] was a hit again with the youth and with his guitar in the meetings and in the high school at Ranwadi. We’re so blessed to see him growing in anointed leading of worship in churches and at university in Australia, and on mission in Vanuatu and in Maynamar/Burma.
Again our evenings were busy with meetings in three village churches and at Ranwadi College, their high school. Again we prayed with many people in each meeting, for many needs and empowering. Again they reported pain gone quickly – sometimes even before we prayed for them! See photos with brief comments on my Facebook album – with links to videos, such as inthe evening service at the high school on https://youtu.be/acQjF125SR8.
Ranwadi College high school chapel, Pentecost Island, Vanuatu
Many people prayed for Jackson this year and on Sunday he testified to the miracle that his blood count tested normal after a long period of high levels of diabetes. One lady suffering severe asthma was flown to hospital in Port Vila where she died three times but was revived.
We ‘happened’ to be there when the new MP (Member of Parliament) Silas Bule (formerly the principal of Ranwadi College) came to give Gideon New Testaments to all the primary and high school students, so we were involved in challenging them to read their new gifts regularly.
A moving time for us was as we prayed for local mission team leaders who will be going with Pastor Rolanson to other areas on Spirit-led and Spirit-filled evangelism and healing. God continues to open more doors for them into other areas. And so the Word of the Lord continues to spread in authority and power.
Praying with the local mission team leaders at Panlimsi village church, near Pangi
On our return, via Espiritu Santo island, we visited healing waters there. That was the island where Ferdinand de Quiros named the southern islands the Great Southlands of the Holy Spirit – Terra Australis del Espiritu Santo. That island retains its name of Espiritu Santo [Holy Spirit], and Australia the southern continent name.
Earlier in 2017, as a lady there with cancer prayed, God led her to dig in the sand near rocks on the southern beach by the airport road. Fresh spring waters began flowing there from among the rocks and brought healing, for her and many others who keep coming from many places – a reminder of healing waters in Jordan (for Naaman the Syrian general), and at Bethesda and the Pool of Siloam and of Moses with water flowing from the rock. People are warned that if they bring witchcraft there or sell the spring water they may die – some did that and died.
We are grateful that we have been able to assist and encourage the people of Vanuatu and see God touching and blessing so many.
We have invested into establishing a Revival Training Centre as a revival base to help equip revival team ministries.
If you would like to help financially my Australian mission account is: Geoffrey Waugh, BSB 014249, Ac. 5647 11123.
John 3:16 was the highest-ranked Google search term over the next 24 hours, generating over 92 million searches, after Tim Tebow wore it.
Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call (Acts 2:38-39).
Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord (Acts 3:19).
Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever, Amen (Ephesians 3:20-21).
Brief examples and illustrations:
In every revival, God’s people repent and pray, & trust and obey
1. Repent – means turn – turn to God
2. Pray – anytime, anywhere – thinking, responding
3. Trust – just believe – knowing God hears & knowing God acts
4. Obey – falling in love – “If you love me you will obey”
The Lord poured out the Holy Spirit on Elcho Island in northern Australia on Thursday, 14 March, 1979. Djiniyini Gondarra was then the Uniting Church minister in the town of Galiwin’ku at the south of the island. He had been away on holidays to Sydney and Brisbane, returning on the late afternoon Missionary Aviation Fellowship flight.
He was travel weary and just wanted to unpack and get to bed early. Many of the people, however, had been praying for months, and especially every day while he had been away, so they wanted to have prayer and Bible study with him in his home. This is his account of that Pentecost among Australian Aborigines in the Arnhem Land churches across the north of Australia:
After the evening dinner, we called our friends to come and join us in the Bible Class meeting. We just sang some hymns and choruses translated into Gupapuynu and into Djambarrpuynu. There were only seven or eight people who were involved or came to the Bible Class meeting, and many of our friends didn’t turn up. We didn’t get worried about it.
I began to talk to them that this was God’s will for us to get together this evening because God had planned this meeting through them so that we will see something of his great love which will be poured out on each one of them. I said a word of thanks to those few faithful Christians who had been praying for renewal in our church, and I shared with them that I too had been praying for the revival or the renewal for this church and for the whole of Arnhem Land churches, because to our heavenly Father everything is possible. He can do mighty things in our churches throughout our great land.
I then asked the group to hold each other’s hands and I began to pray for the people and for the church, that God would pour out his Holy Spirit to bring healing and renewal to the hearts of men and women, and to the children.
Suddenly we began to feel God’s Spirit moving in our hearts and the whole form of our prayer suddenly changed and everybody began to pray in the Spirit and in harmony. And there was a great noise going on in the room and we began to ask one another what was going on.
Some of us said that God had now visited us and once again established his kingdom among his people who have been bound for so long by the power of evil. Now the Lord is setting his church free and bringing us into the freedom of happiness and into reconciliation and to restoration.
There was a great revival that swept further west. I would describe these experiences like a wild bush fire burning from one side of Australia to the other side of our great land. The experience of revival in Arnhem Land is still active in many of our Aboriginal parishes and the churches.
We would like to share these experiences in many white churches where doors are closed to the power of the Holy Spirit. It has always been my humble prayer that the whole of Australian Christians, both black and white, will one day be touched by this great and mighty power of the living God.
On Sunday night, September 26, 1965, in Soe, Timor, people heard the sound of a tornado wind and saw flames on the church building which prompted police to set off the fire alarm to summon the volunteer fire fighters. Many people were converted that night, many filled with the Spirit including speaking in tongues, some in English who did not know English. By midnight teams of lay people had been organized to begin spreading the gospel the next day. Eventually, about 90 evangelistic teams were formed which functioned powerfully with spiritual gifts.
Nahor Leo, the young man who testified that night in the Reformed Church, chose 23 young people who formed an evangelistic group, Team 1. They gave themselves full time to visiting churches and villages and saw thousands converted with multitudes healed and delivered. In one town alone they saw 9,000 people converted in two weeks.
Another young man, Mel Tari witnessed this visitation of God and later became part of Team 42. He reported on this revival in two widely read books, Like a Mighty Wind and The Gentle Breeze of Jesus. Healings and evangelism increased dramatically. Specific directions from the Lord led the teams into powerful ministry with thousands becoming Christians. They saw many healings, miracles such as water being turned to wine for communion, some instantaneous healings, deliverance from witchcraft and demonic powers, and some people raised from death through prayer.
The teams were often guided supernaturally including provision of light at night on jungle trails, angelic guides and protection, meager supplies of food multiplied in pastors’ homes when a team ate together there during famines, and witch-doctors being converted after they saw power encounters when the teams’ prayers banished demons, rendering the witch-doctors powerless.
Dennis Balcombe, pastor of the Revival Christian Church in Hong Kong, regularly visits China. He has reported on revival there.
In 1989 Henan preachers visited North Anhul province and found several thousand believers in the care of an older pastor from Shanghai. At their first night meeting with 1,000 present 30 were baptized in the icy winter. The first baptized was a lady who had convulsions if she went into water. She was healed of that and other ills, and found the water warm. A 12 year old boy deaf and dumb was baptized and spoke, “Mother, Father, the water is not cold the water is not cold.” An aged lady nearly 90, disabled after an accident in her 20s, was completely healed in the water. By the third and fourth nights over 1,000 were baptized.
A young evangelist, Enchuan, 20 years old in 1990, had been leading evangelistic teams since he was 17. He said, “When the church first sent us out to preach the Gospel, after two to three months of ministering we usually saw 20-30 converts. But now it is not 20. It is 200, 300, and often 600 or more will be converted.”
Edward Miller tells of revival breaking out in Argentina after God told him to call his small church to pray every night from 8 pm to midnight beginning on a Monday. Their little group prayed for three nights, mostly silently except for their missionary Ed Miller. No one seemed to have any leading, except one lady felt she was told to hit the table, but she wouldn’t do anything so strange. On the fourth night, Ed Miller led the group in singing around the table, and hit it as they sang. Eventually others did the same. Then the lady did. Immediately the Spirit of God fell. They were baptized powerfully in the Spirit. They heard the sound of strong wind. Their little church filled. People were convicted, weeping, and praying.
By Saturday teams were going out in powerful evangelism. A young man, Alexander and his band of rebels sat in the front row of a revival meeting aiming to disrupt it. God convicted him and he repented. His gang began to leave but fell under the Spirit on the way out. All were converted. Two of them went to the Bible School.
Ed Miller taught at the Bible Training Institute in 1951 in the little town of City Bell, near Buenos Aires. In June he was led to cancel lectures so the whole Bible School could pray every day. He announced this on the first Sunday in June. That night Alexander, the former rebel leader, a teenager of Polish descent, was praying long after midnight out in the fields when he sensed something pressing down on him, an intense light surrounding him and a heavenly being enfolding him. Terrified he ran back to the Institute.
The heavenly visitor entered the Institute with him, and in a few moments all the students were awake with the fear of God upon them. They began to cry out in repentance as God by his Spirit dealt with them. The next day the Spirit of God came again upon Alexander as he was given prophecies of God’s moving in far off countries. The following day Alexander again saw the Lord in the Spirit, but this time he began to speak slowly and distinctly the words he heard from the angel of God. No one could understand what he was saying, however, until another lad named Celsio (with even less education than Alexander), overcome with the Spirit of God markedly upon him, began to interpret… These communications (written because he choked up when he tried to talk) were a challenge from God to pray and indeed the Institute became a centre of prayer till the vacation time, when teams went out to preach the kingdom. It was the beginning of new stirrings of the Spirit across the land.
Prophecies given to the Bible School told of God filling the largest auditoriums and stadiums in Argentina and in other countries.
In 1952 Tommy Hicks was conducting a series of meetings in California when God showed him a vision. While he was praying he saw a map of South America covered with a vast field of golden wheat ripe for harvesting. The wheat turned into human beings calling him to come and help them.
He wrote a prophecy in his Bible about going by air to that land before two summers would pass. Three months later, after an evangelistic crusade, a pastor’s wife in California gave that same prophecy to him that he had written down. He was invited to Argentina in 1954 and had enough money to buy a one way air ticket to Buenos Aires.
On his way there after meetings in Chile, the word Peron came to his mind. He asked the air stewardess if she knew what it meant. She told him Peron was the President of Argentina. When he went to make an appointment with Juan Peron, the dictator President, he prayed for a guard who was healed and so the guard arranged an appointment with Peron. Through prayer the President was healed of an ugly eczema and gave Hicks the use of a stadium and free access to the state radio and press.
The revival campaign shifted into the Argentina’s largest arena, the Hurricane Football Stadium, seating 110,000 which overflowed. During nightly meetings over two months 300,000 people registered decisions for Christ and many were healed at every meeting.
Some of the signs of revival we saw there included a whole mountain ‘on fire’ (with nothing burned) during revival meetings at their Bible College,witchcraft items revealed then removed and destroyed by prayer teams, everyone prayed for in ‘custom’ villages healed, and angels filling a village church with songs in the night in a small village where the worship had been strong, lasting for many hours. Everyone prayed for in that village was healed and all unbelievers repented during the worship and many were baptized.
This 60 kilometre long, narrow island, sighted and named on the Day of Pentecost, 1764, by French explorer Bougainville, was also seen by Captain Cook in 1774.
Part of this account is background information from my book South Pacific Revivals (in paperback and ebook).
Martyr for the Gospel
Tomas Tumtum had been an indentured worker on cane farms in Queensland, Australia. He was converted there and returned around 1901 to his village on South Pentecost Island. He came with his friend, Lulkon, a new young disciple from a neighbouring island. They arrived when the village was taboo because a baby had died a few days earlier, so no one was allowed near the village. Ancient tradition dictated that anyone breaking taboo must be killed, so they were going to kill Tomas, but his friend Lulkon asked Tomas to tell them to kill him instead, so that Tomas could live and evangelize his own people. Just before he was clubbed to death at a sacred Mele palm tree, Lulkon read John 3:16, then closed his eyes and prayed for them.
Tomas became the pioneer of the church in South Pentecost, establishing many Churches of Christ in the villages there. Revival movements have increased there since the 1980s, continuing to now.
We had revival teaching at their Bible College and every weekend revival teams led meetings in village churches. Many of these village revival meetings went late as the Spirit moved on the people with deep repentance, reconciliation, forgiveness, and prayer for healing and empowering.
The Bible College buildings in the bay (photo) are surrounded by mountains. We saw those mountains filled with supernatural fire one night.
Ranwadi High School on Pentecost Island
A law student team from Port Vila, led by Seini Puamau, Vice President of the Christian Fellowship, had a strong impact at the High School on South Pentecost Island with big responses at all meetings. Almost the whole residential school of 300 responded for prayer at the final service on Sunday night October 17, 2004, after a powerful testimony from Joanna Kenilorea. The High School principal, Silas Buli, has prayed with some of his staff for many years from 4 a.m. each morning, praying for the school and nation. Silas became a Member of Parliament for South Pentecost in 2016.
Bible College Chapel on Pentecost Island, Vanuatu
Mathias, a young man who repented deeply with over 15 minutes of tearful sobbing, became a main worship leader in revival meetings. When he was leading and speaking at a revival meeting at the national Bible College, a huge supernatural fire blazed in the hills directly opposite the Bible College chapel in 2005, but no bush was burned. They told us it was supernatural fire, with no smoke and nothing physical being consumed by the fire.
Global: How God used Catholic students to ignite a charismatic movement
Fifty years ago, Catholic Charismatics as a group didn’t exist. Today, there are around 120 million of them. Their emergence began when the Holy Spirit came to a dozen Catholic students in a Pennsylvania forest in February 1967.
They were from Pittsburgh’s Duquesne University, out to enjoy a spiritual weekend retreat at a place called The Ark & The Dove. The theme of the retreat was the person and the work of the Holy Spirit. Retreat leaders had assigned each of the students coming to first read David Wilkerson’s The Cross and the Switchblade – a miracle-filled story of a young Pentecostal pastor leading violent New York City gang members to the Lord.
As she read it, Patti Mansfield (then Gallagher) found herself asking, “Why isn’t the Holy Spirit doing these dramatic things in my life?” That led her to pray, “Lord, as a Catholic, I believe I’ve already received Your Spirit in baptism and confirmation. But if it’s possible for Your Spirit to do more in my life than He’s done till now, I want it.”
‘My spiritual life felt powerless and pedestrian. It was like I was pushing a car uphill.’
It first hit David Mangan, though, after he listened to a teaching that weekend that the Holy Spirit could still bring tongues and power like dynamite. Mangan wanted both – the tongues and the dynamite – and asked the Lord for it because his Christianity felt powerless and pedestrian. “My spiritual life could not be described as dynamite,” he said. “It was limping along. The way I describe it, it was like I was pushing a car uphill.” As for what he was hearing about the gift of tongues, he was so intrigued, “I wrote in my notebook, ‘I want to hear someone speak in tongues – me.’ I realized I did that because I don’t know how much I would’ve believed it if it was someone else.” Mangan received a powerful answer as he sought the Lord alone that weekend in a chapel located on the upper floor of The Ark & The Dove, a location that’s become known now as the Upper Room. That’s the same name used for the place where the Holy Spirit fell in the Book of Acts on the disciples after Jesus had ascended to heaven.
‘I lost all sense of time. I was lost in Christ and happy to be so.’
“The presence of God was so thick, so powerful, you could cut it with a knife,” Mangan said of the atmosphere in that room. “It’s the most intense experience I’ve ever had in my life. Time meant nothing to me. I had no idea if it was two minutes or two hours; it made no difference. I was lost in Christ, and happy to be so.” And he got his dynamite. “There were all these electrical explosions going on in my body,” Mangan described. Then he began to speak in tongues. The overwhelming feeling caused him to run and ask the retreat leaders if it was really possible. They said it is a valid experience which happened throughout history to a lot of saints. The experience infused him with a new dynamism and power in his spiritual life – or as he puts it, “It was like somebody told me that the car I’d been pushing uphill had a motor and now I had the key.”
Shortly thereafter, Patty Mansfield had her own Holy Spirit encounter as she was in the same chapel and His Presence came upon her. “As I knelt in that chapel, I actually began to tremble with this sense of, ‘My gosh, this is God and He’s holy!’” she said. Mansfield soon found herself prostrate, flat on her face. “And as I was lying there, I felt immersed in the love of God. I realized that if I could experience the love, the goodness, the sweetness, the mercy of God like that, anyone could.”
‘What happened to you? You look different! Your face is glowing!’
When right after her experience Mansfield encountered two young ladies, they said: “What happened to you? You look different! Your face is glowing!” She was so excited by what was happening, that she dragged the young ladies right up to the Upper Room so they, too, could experience what she just had. About a dozen ended up with her and David Mangan in the chapel.
As Mansfield describes it in her book As By a New Pentecost, like before, a heavenly Presence filled the Upper Room. “As we were kneeling, some were weeping, others were laughing for joy. Again others, like myself, felt like our bodies were on fire. My hands and my arms were tingling. Others, like David, knew that they wanted to praise God, but it wasn’t going to come out in English.”
‘He said: You’re praying in Arabic! I was astounded. I had no idea.’
At a prayer meeting soon after, a student of French was sitting next to Mangan when he started to pray in tongues. “David, I didn’t know you spoke French,” she said. He said: “Oh, I don’t speak French. I only studied Latin and German.” She told him he was praising God for streams of living water and thanking the Lord for the Divine Child who had come. Later, seeking confirmation, Mangan visited a linguist, who asked the young man to pray. After a few minutes, he jumped up with a look of shock on his face. “You are speaking Middle French!” The linguist asked Mangan to pray for him some more. “When we finished, he turned around and said, ‘Now you’re praying in Arabic!’ And I was astounded. I had no idea.”
In the months and years that followed, by word of mouth, the Catholic Charismatic Renewal spread from the The Ark & The Dove and Duquesne University across the world. Holy Spirit-baptized Catholics and non-Catholics gathered in interdenominational gatherings where their differences and conflicts melted away, and all that mattered was that they were one in the Spirit.
‘The charismatic movement is a current of grace.’ “Now we share this new alive faith in the Spirit and a personal relationship with Christ, I’ve seen many walls come down,” Mark Nehrbas, a Catholic Charismatic who frequently worships with non-Catholics said. Another one, Deacon Darrell Wentworth, points out how Jesus preached in John 17 that such unity is essential for the world to believe. “We need to love one another and be a bold witness for God, so that the world can see that the Father loves everybody.” Pope Francis has encouraged the Charismatic Renewal, calling it ‘a current of grace’, and urged the Charismatics to bless the entire Church with what they have.
Source: Patti Mansfield and David Mangan, interviewed by Paul Strand, summarized by Joel News International, # 1031 | April 5,2017
Sandwiched between India and Myanmar, Bangladesh is the third largest Muslim-majority country in the world. Despite persecution, the Christian faith is growing fast in this nation.
Bangladesh is 89% Muslim and nearly 10% Hindu, according to the Joshua Project, with Christians numbering less than one percent. Often beset by floods, cyclones and tornadoes roaring through the Bengal Delta, it also has the sad distinction of ranking number one in the world for children suffering malnutrition.
One ministry leader, who recently completed a fact-finding trip to the country, believes Christians are being undercounted. “Christianity is much larger and growing, especially in the rural areas,” says Jim Jacobson, president of Christian Freedom International (CFI). On his trip, Jacobson interviewed scores of indigenous Christian pastors, street evangelists, missionaries and converts to Christianity. “According to them, Christianity is on the increase, mostly underground, and the growth is a cause of concern for the Muslim majority, leading to persecution.”
‘20,000 Muslims have converted among the hill tribes’
One 60-year-old pastor, a former Muslim, reported to Jacobson that 20,000 Muslims have converted to Christianity among the hill tribes of northeast Bangladesh in the last 12 months. This pastor faces many hardships, has been beaten numerous times, and must pay bribes to the police to continue his ministry.
Another pastor and Muslim convert to Christianity told him that in his district more than 6,000 have converted to Christ since 1991. This pastor has been targeted for assassination by a radical islamist group. He told CFI, “Of course I am afraid, but when I think about my spiritual life I am not afraid. We continue to preach, no matter what.”
Jacobson believes the under-reporting of believers is because most tallies only count ‘traditional Christians’, people born into the Christian faith who attend government-approved churches. “But ‘converts’, those who change their religion from Islam to Christianity are not counted and no surveys have been made,” he contends. “The number of Christians in Bangladesh may be as high as 10 percent of the population.”
One pastor told Jacobson that after he converted in 2007, his rickshaw shop and tea business were taken away from him and he was disowned by his family. “Two imams caught him talking about Christianity in the market and attacked him. The imams beat him and tied him with ropes in front of a nearby mosque. His sons ransomed him only after they agreed that they would force him to reconvert to Islam.” When the sons failed to persuade him to return to Islam, they beat their father nearly to death, took all his possessions and left him for dead. In this pastor’s rural village, he has seen more than 700 Muslims convert to Christianity in the last two years.
‘Especially the young people are interested in Christ’
Babul, a Muslim who converted Christianity in 2013, once worked as a day laborer. After his conversion, his life was threatened and he was disowned by his family. He had to go into hiding in the jungle to survive. After eight months in the jungle, some Christian converts helped him. He is now a ‘street preacher’ and faces many hardships to share the gospel. He has been beaten numerous times but sees it as a badge of honor. “The young like me, are converting,” Babul told Jacobson. “Many more are interested in Christ.”
Bakar, another Christian convert told CFI, “Christianity is really growing in Bangladesh. The next generation is becoming Christian. We believe that Bangladesh will become a Christian nation one day. Islam has no mercy, no compassion, no love. It has nothing to offer. Christianity offers the assurance of eternal life, it offers hope.”
I want to update you on some recent and remarkable developments on the Oglala Sioux Indian Reservation at Pine Ridge. If you are not familiar with this reservation, it is located in South Dakota about 1.5 hours east of Mount Rushmore. As the site of the infamous Wounded Knee massacre, and home to Native luminaries such as Red Cloud, Black Elk, and Crazy Horse, it is one of the most influential Indian homelands in America.
Another purpose of this communiqué is to alert you to an imminent gathering that could alter the spiritual status quo throughout Pine Ridge, and indeed the entire Sioux Nation. Genuine revival is at the door, and we need all the prayer support that can be mustered on short notice.
Before I get into the details, allow me to offer a bit of backstory in case you have not been following our saga these past two years.
In early 2015, Pine Ridge was wracked by an epidemic of youth suicides. Many, many perished, with a significant number taking their lives in collective death pacts. As the momentum built, fear and grief hung over the reservation like a heavy, wet blanket.
Suspecting this was a spiritual assault on the next generation, a group of Native intercessors invited me to Pine Ridge to discuss the principles and power of transforming revival.
Recent insider accounts confirm the Evil One was indeed behind this carnage. Working through a handful of perverse medicine men, he launched a scheme in which vulnerable young people were drawn into sweat lodges and “prophesied to.” Several were told: “The spirits have shown me there will be 25 more suicides — and you will be one of them.” Sadly, these words proved to be curses, and those who heard them simply lost their will to live.
By June 2015, however, a spiritual counteroffensive was under way. Led by Norma Blacksmith and a small band of Native and non-Native partners, the power of the Holy Spirit was unleashed to break the bands of death. And as the suicides abated, many traumatized families (including prominent traditionalists) opened up to the love of God.
When I arrived to share the principles of transforming revival, the team on Pine Ridge could not have been any more receptive. They were eager to not just hear the word of the Lord, but to heed it. Not surprisingly, healings, deliverances, and conversions picked up across the reservation. It was clear the conditions were ripe for a significant breakthrough.
Earlier this month, I returned to Pine Ridge with Walo Ani, a dear friend and colleague from Papua New Guinea. Having walked with Walo for years, I knew his understanding of tribal culture and his extensive firsthand experience with transforming revival would be incredibly helpful. I was not disappointed.
PUBLIC REPENTANCE
Wade McHargue, one of our hosts, and a man of extraordinary faith and courage, offered this brief report on October 8, 2016:
“Thank you for praying for George Otis’ and Walo Ani’s visit. It was a powerful time. The presence of God was very tangible and the Holy Spirit spoke clearly through His servants. The week culminated with a unity service with five churches represented… It was deeply moving to see many come forward to repent publically, and to make reconciliation and intercession. It was unlike anything I’ve seen since being here.”
SUPERNATURAL SIGNS
Ten days later, on October 18, Wade added these details:
“I believe we can say safely that we just witnessed an indisputable act of God here… the fruit of years of fasting and prayer, and a specific outgrowth of the time George Otis and Walo spent with us.
I’ve written before of the two principal medicine men here — Jerome LeBeaux and Rick Two Dogs. Jerome is the one connected to the killing of Todd Little Bull in August.
Jerome’s Sun Dance at Thunder Valley is the biggest on the Reservation attracting 500 or so people each year (with connections as far as Europe). The Sun Dance tree (or pole) bearing flesh offerings and tobacco ties is the central focus, and remains up year-round. Never, I repeat never, has anyone heard of anything like what happened here last week. A violent wind pulled that tree out of the ground and threw it down!!
Those trees are buried 7 feet into the ground… Everyone who heard about what happened knows it is supernatural.
Norma Blacksmith prayed specifically for this pole to be pulled down, and as I drove Walo Ani by it (the site is visible from the road) he also prayed for this to happen. Within days, it was laying on the ground. God did it!!!”
It is important to understand that God is moving in an unprecedented way on Pine Ridge. And He has been announcing His intentions to local intercessors beforehand so there will be no doubt about who is behind these mighty deeds.
Harrison No Neck, a key leader from the Kyle area, had four recurring dreams around the time God uprooted the Sun Dance pole. In the dreams, he is taken by an angel to the various Sun Dance altars on the Reservation. The angel then says, “This is what the Lord God is about to do…” and proceeds to smite the ground until it caves in and the Sun Dance tree falls.
Dramatic stuff… especially when it actually happens!
But this is not ALL that God is doing. As we have taught for many years, genuine transforming revival moves on multiple fronts. And this is what has been happening on Pine Ridge over the last few weeks.
Another promise of God was that He would deliver entire families from bondage and deception. It is EXTREMELY RARE for families or clans raised in Indian traditional religion to come to Christ wholesale, but this is exactly what has been happening! One high profile family, disturbed by the hypocrisy of medicine men and impressed by the power of the Living God, noted traditional Lakota ceremonies are often done in the dark while followers of Jesus do things in the light.
DRAMATIC HEALINGS
A few weeks ago, Wade McHargue was sharing with a Native man, Kelly Cedarface, who had been resuscitated by electric shock paddles after trying to hang himself.
“[Kelly] was afflicted in his back and had just found out about a tumor on his kidney. Seeing he was using a cane, I asked about his pain. When he told me it was a 9 on a scale of 10, I laid hands on him began to pray. I wish you could have seen the expression on his face as the power of God entered his body and instantly removed all pain. Priceless! He just looked at me with these stunned eyes, and together we gave glory to God.”
This is just one of numerous examples of God’s healing power being released in recent days. And word is getting out! Convinced the followers of Jesus have real power, traditional Lakota are opening their hearts and homes to the Gospel.
CLOSURE OF ALCOHOL SHOPS
Two days ago, an excited Norma Blacksmith phoned me to share yet another sign that transforming revival is at hand. After decades of anguish, political wrangling, and intense intercession, notorious alcohol vendors in the unincorporated village of White Clay, gateway to the Pine Ridge reservation, are finally being shut down!
This is earthshaking news, and it took Norma several moments to form the joyous words.
An absolutely vile place, White Clay has become a hot bed of drug deals, human trafficking, and deadly fights. But worst of all, its alcohol trade has played a leading role in countless traffic fatalities, domestic tragedies, alcohol poisonings, and suicides across the reservation. An estimated 80 percent of Pine Ridge households are impacted.
How bad has it been? Consider the fact that White Clay’s four alcohol outlets sell more beer per capita than any town in America — nearly 4.5 million cans in a community with only a dozen full-time residents! Numerous TV reports and documentary films have highlighted the scourge, but until now, to no avail.
Thanks be to our GREAT GOD for His mighty and loving intervention! This will change things.
GATHERING OF THE SEVEN COUNCIL FIRES
Recognizing that God is moving in their midst, several Native leaders have summoned pastors and intercessors from the various bands and reservations that make up the Sioux Nation. This collective, known as the Seven Council Fires, is located primarily within the Dakotas.
On Saturday, October 29, these leaders will gather, in potentially historic fashion, to further humble themselves, repent, and call upon God to fulfill His purposes among the Sioux people — on Pine Ridge and beyond.
Here, in their own words, is the case at hand:
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
I am writing you with the thought of transforming revival the Lord wants for the Seven Council Fire Nation and beyond. The past couple of days I have been learning from George Otis Jr. and Walo Ani about the transformation of entire tribes and how to heal the land.
I believe our next step is to unite God’s called spiritual leaders (followers of Jesus) from within the Seven Council Fires people to prepare a council meeting and ask the Lord to visit our Tribes and heal the land.
The strategy was placed in our hands. Now I believe we must carry the ball the rest of the way. I will be working together with you all to see sweeping revival that will change the fabric of our society to God’s honor.
I cannot properly relate the urgency of this gathering… We have many other commitments, I understand that. But this is concerning a visitation. We can no longer move forward with religious activity and no visitation from God.
The battle has begun!!! Hokahey!!! In Jesus’ mighty name!!!
— Joe Donnell, Joseph Cross and others
This important meeting will be led by Jerome Slides Off and take place near Eagle Butte, South Dakota. Jerome and others have requested urgent prayer covering for this time, and I believe all of us who champion the cause of revival should rally to this call.
To help guide your prayer time, I have included the following requests:
Pray that God will protect this gathering from well-meaning but formulaic outsiders who would seek to inject personal agendas and other distractions into the proceedings. There is a real risk of this, and I believe God wants to keep these Native leaders focused on the fundamentals of humility, repentance, and prayer that have given rise to every genuine revival in history. God has brought them to this point, and the enemy realizes something historic is afoot.
Pray that the Presence of God will be so strong at the Seven Council Fires gathering that no one will dare lift themselves up or speak against another.
Pray that God will give clear instructions to those gathered… even if those instructions are simply to wait on him.
Pray for traditional families who are considering turning to Christ — especially the Little Bull family whose son Todd was killed for exposing Jerome LeBeaux’s deceptive practices. They have already indicated they want to follow Jesus, but they need courage in the face of serious threats — and they have known nothing else but Lakota traditional religion.
Pray for ongoing FBI investigations on Pine Ridge related to Todd Little Bull’s assassination, and another brazen and brutal murder that took place recently outside a basketball game. Several Natives close to these cases have reported waking up in the night to see Jerome LeBeaux standing over them… and then vanishing. The enemy’s power is real, but it cannot stand against the authority of Jesus. Pray that justice will be served, and served swiftly.
Pray that God will give Wade McHargue and Harrison No Neck an opportunity to proclaim the Gospel to Jerome LeBeaux. Both are sensing they should do this, and to warn Him of the consequences of rejecting it.
Pray for the many new believers on Pine Ridge that they might grow in their walk with Jesus, becoming grounded in the faith through knowledge of the Word, fellowship with the saints, and the fearless witness of God’s goodness. Pray especially for Norma Blacksmith’s son George, her grandson George Jr., and granddaughter Johaunna Brewer — all of whom have a strong call of God upon their lives.
The Sentinel Group has filmed several powerful testimonies on Pine Ridge and will be making these available for viewing in the weeks ahead.
George Otis, Jr.
The Sentinel Group | PO Box 2255, Lynnwood, WA 98036, USA
Story-tellers of good news ~ Results in healed families, freedom, love, less violence and addiction, redemption, hope, divine favour, grace, they pray and God moves.
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West Africa: Dramatic transformation among Muslim peoples.
“Dramatic transformation is the key to rapid multiplication of churches among Muslims,” says Jerry Trousdale of missions organization CityTeam International.
He relates the story how one time their West African ministry partners were having their midday prayers, when they suddenly were surrounded by Muslim leaders. The team had been seeing breathtaking breakthroughs among highly resistant Muslim peoples, so they had anticipated opposition. They had reason to be fearful, but kept praying. Surprisingly, the Muslims just stood around them observing the proceedings and making no signs of hostile intentions.
“We beg you: could you please send us the story-tellers?”
When the Christian leaders finished praying, the group approached and turned out to be a delegation of Muslim civic leaders from a distant region. They had come with their imam and with a request. They said: “We have not come to harm you, but we beg you – could you please send us the story-tellers?” They meant the Christian workers who were making disciples by telling stories. The Muslim leaders from this community had observed other communities in their area that had become Christian, and they had noticed a dramatic change in people’s lives. They wanted the same thing in their community!
After some rearranging of schedules and responsibilities, the ministry was able to send out a team of storytellers to the distant village. Nobody imagined at the time that events like these would be repeated again and again, and that even entire mosques would come to faith in Christ. “When Muslims observe the types of dramatic transformation that only the gospel can bring in individuals, families and whole communities, they are often jealous to experience the same,” explains Trousdale.
MARKS OF TRANSFORMATION
What does transformation look like among Muslim-background believers? These are some of the most common changes seen among Muslims who accept Christ:
1. Healed families.
In families where women and children have been treated almost as slaves, wife beating becomes no longer acceptable, and love begins to heal broken marriages. Children are given permission to attend schools and are treated with new appreciation. Fighting between parents and children diminishes. Polygamy is no longer the choice of Christian men, and prostitution dies out.
2. A Spirit of Freedom.
When people discover freedom, it affects everything in their lives. They find release from fatalism, they are willing to try new things, and they expect God to bless their lives.
3. A Spirit of Love.
Many Muslim people report that God puts love in their hearts for the first time. In many cases, they have a new passion for fellow Muslims who are still in the mosque.
4. Diminished violence.
There have been instances in which, upon becoming Christians, former Muslims refuse to participate in ongoing ethnic warfare. In one case, when the Christian men were called to account for why they no longer ‘supported the tribe’, they shared the message of Jesus. This caused tribal elders to rethink their reasons for fighting, and the fighting stopped. Today, the two men who stood up for their conviction, are church planters.
5. Less addiction.
The levels of addiction to alcohol, khat, and other things that consume people’s lives are greatly diminished as these people receive prayer for deliverance.
6. Redemption and hope.
Historically, when lost people become obedient disciples of Jesus, they typically exchange fatalism for optimism, have new energy and initiative, and become more productive people. In addition, they abandon expensive addictions, and they see the blessings for God on their family situation.
7. Evidences of Divine favour.
Many new Christians share with joy how, after they became followers of Jesus, and during a time of prolonged drought, the Lord caused it to rain on their farms or on the pasture where their livestock was, but not on their neighbors’ land. And it became so obvious that the Muslim neighbors came to them to find out why these Christians had such favor. Farmers in every region that City Team International workers have interviewed report that, since they have become Christians, they have begun praying over their fields and have ceased using Muslim or spiritist blessings on their land, and their harvests have dramatically increased.
8. Grace in persecution.
Many new Christians in Muslim areas face harsh persecution. But these believers, though persecuted in cruel ways, have been transformed so deeply that they find the courage to speak a blessing on their persecutors. This forgiveness in the face of persecution can, over time, be the way that God gets into a persecutor’s heart to transform it as well. Numerous Muslims who formerly persecuted the Muslim-background Christians in their areas have come to faith as a result of those whom they persecuted responding with grace and kindness to the evil things done to them.
9. Freedom from demonic oppression.
Many Muslims have experienced years of torment from demonic powers. But when they repent of sins and receive Jesus as Lord, those spirits are successfully cast out. These deliverances are very tangible witnesses of the power of the gospel in Muslim families.
10. The power of individual prayer.
Common people discover that they can pray and God moves. Even the Muslims see this and thank God for the changes in the communities, as many who used to disturb them are now peaceful Christians.
Source: Jerry Trousdale
Joel News International 872.
By J. D. King, author, speaker and director of the World Revival Network.
Many Middle-Eastern Christians publicly acknowledge the fact that dreams actively facilitated them coming into a saving knowledge of Jesus. For example, Nabeel Qureshi is a former devout Muslim. He became a believer in part through a visionary experience. When recounting his conversion he writes,
“I asked God to reveal himself to me in truth, through dreams and visions. All those things, combined with actually reading the Bible, are what drove me forward to the point of accepting Christ.”
When asked about his conversion to Christianity from Islam, Pastor Naeem Fazal of Mosaic Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, mentioned several things that impacted him. He pointed out things like friendship with a knowledgeable Christian as well as reading the Bible. However, it was a particular supernatural encounter that brought him into a moment of crisis. Having a visionary experience one night, Fazal had an encounter that forever shifted the course of his life.
“It looked like a figure made up with light—solid, yet transparent. It was an experience like no other. The peace I felt from this presence was so powerful, so aggressive … and [He] introduced Himself to me and said, ‘I’m Jesus; your life is not your own.’ The next morning my life changed forever.”
Fazal acknowledges that he is not unique in this experience. He notes that “the majority of the [Muslim] conversion stories I hear seem to involve dreams and visions inspired by the Holy Spirit in which Christ is supernaturally revealed.”
Joel Rosenberg’s Insights Into The Middle-Eastern Revival
More Muslims have committed to follow Christ in the last 10 years than in the last 15 centuries of Islam. In spite of great difficulty and turmoil, Christianity is unquestionably expanding throughout the Islamic world. God is up to something amazing in a region that many have thought was unreachable.
Joel Rosenberg, an Evangelical researcher, author, and resident of Israel has documented the recent upsurge of Christianity in the Middle-East. Through first-hand reconnaissance, coupled with reports from Arabic nationals, Rosenberg demonstrates that Christianity is rising rapidly in the world of Islam.
Some of the particulars can certainly be debated, but in many of the Mediterranean nations, Christianity is making extraordinary inroads. Though the subsequent conversion figures are impossible to confirm, even in their imprecision, they provide a snapshot of what’s transpiring in the Middle East.
Sudan
A number of reports suggest that increasing numbers of Christ-followers are emerging in the brutal, war-torn nation of Sudan. Here, in the Nile river valley – along the Islamic strongholds of Northern Africa – It is being noted that
“One million Sudanese have turned to Christ since the year 2000—not in spite of persecution, war, and genocide, but because of them…the estimated total number of believers in the country is more than 5.5 million.”
Many are convinced that the great brutalities that this nation has encountered are becoming a catalyst for the expansion and growth of Christianity. Rather than inhibiting the Church, the war is actually propelling it.
Pakistan
Pakistan is typically not identified as a nation experiencing a move of God, but apparently they’re beginning to see one spark within their contentious borders.Christianity’s Middle-Eastern expansion is particularly evident in this unexpected place. Rosenberg acknowledges that,
“Senior Pakistani Christian leaders tell me there is a ‘conversion explosion’ going on in their country.There are now an estimated 2.5 million to 3 million born-again Pakistani believers worshiping Jesus Christ. Whole towns and villages along the Afghan-Pakistani border are…converting to Christianity.”
This Islamic country is not alone, many others in this region are having similar things take place.
Egypt
Reliable reports suggest that there is also a great revival erupting in the land of Egypt. Rosenberg declares that, “Ministry leaders in Egypt estimate there are more than 2.5 million followers of Jesus Christ in their country. Many of these are Muslim converts.”
Undoubtedly, the severe persecutions and disruptions related to the “Arab Spring” have affected the lives of Christians throughout this nation, but the faithful have remained strong. Martyrdom invites outsiders to examine the claims of those willing to die for Jesus. It is believed that many amazing things are taking place in Egypt.
Iran
Surprisingly, the contentious nation of Iran is also beginning to encounter the rising flames of awakening. Violent Islamic Fundamentalism has not been able to impede the advancement of the Gospel in this fierce Persian nation. Reflecting on this reality, Rosenberg writes,
“At the time of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, there were only about five hundred known Muslim converts to Jesus inside the country. By 2000, a survey of Christian demographic trends reported that there were two hundred twenty thousand Christians inside Iran, of which between four and twenty thousand were Muslim converts. And according to Iranian Christian leaders I interviewed, the number of Christ-followers inside their country shot dramatically higher between 2000 and 2008.”
Yes, you read that right. Christianity went from 500 people to 220,000 in 21 years. Contrary to what many Americans think, Christianity is quietly advancing behind the scenes in some of the most unlikely places around the globe.
Saudi Arabia
Reports continue to come in. A strikingly similar stirring is also taking place in Saudi Arabia – unquestionably the epicenter of world Islam. One wouldn’t expect the growth of Christianity in Mecca, but it is happening. Summarizing some of what he has heard, Joel Rosenberg reports that “Arab Christian leaders estimated there were more than one hundred thousand Saudi Muslim background believers in 2005, and they believe the numbers are even higher today.”[6] Saudi Arabia is being quickened by the Spirit of the Lord. It seems to be positioned to experience significant growth in the decades to come.
Iraq
Christianity is also quietly advancing in the turbulent nation of Iraq. Again, it needs to be noted that these numbers precede the vicious emergence of Isis and the aftermath of the Arab Spring. Multitudes of Christians have been martyred since these figures were originally reported. Yet, even the fact that Muslims felt compelled to quell its advancement suggests that Christianity’s influence has been growing.
“Before 2003, senior Iraqi Christian leaders tell me, there were only about four to six hundred known born-again followers of Jesus Christ in the entire country, despite an estimated seven hundred fifty thousand nominal Christians in historic Iraqi churches. By the end of 2008, Iraqi Christian leaders estimated that there were more than seventy thousand born-again Iraqi believers.”
As many are aware, the expansion of Christianity has been greatly hindered more recently in Iraq. Don’t be mistaken, this martyrdom and brutality will ultimately give way to more Christians in the land once known as Babylon.
Algeria
The whole Islamic world is currently shaking. We have already discussed some of the amazing advancements that are taking place in several of Arabic nations. These are where the greatest signs of revival are evident. Nevertheless, on a lesser level, other Islamic nations are also experiencing a tremendous stirring within their borders. One of these is Algeria. Rosenberg recounts the recent upsurge in Algeria, noting that:
“more than eighty thousand Muslims have become followers of Christ in recent years…The surge of Christianity has become so alarming to Islamic clerics that in March of 2006, Algerian officials passed a law banning Muslims from becoming Christians or even learning about Christianity, and forbidding Christians from meeting together without a license from the government.”
Algeria is beginning to come alive with the gospel like much of Northern Africa.
Jordan
Another ancient Middle-Eastern locale where Christianity is beginning to take root is along the borders the eastern bank of the Jordan River. The Islamic land of Jordan is also experiencing the grace and wonder of Jesus. Reflecting on what is transpiring in this nation, Rosenberg noted the following:
“God has been reviving the Jordanian Church in the last four decades, and particularly in the past few years. Conservative estimates say the number of believers in the country is now between five and ten thousand. The head of one major Jordanian ministry, however, believes there may be as many as fifty thousand believers in the country.”
Jordan is also experiencing the salvation of Jesus Christ.
Other Islamic Nations
Almost every Islamic nation has been experiencing a significant upsurge of Christianity over the last twenty years. Though the numbers aren’t equally high, all are experiencing the impact on some level. Here are some of the other reports.
While in the nation of Morocco it has been claimed that “between 20,000 and 40,000 Muslims have become Christ-followers.” Rosenberg suggests that, “The number of Afghan believers is now between 20,000 and 30,000.” In Kazakhstan “there are more than fifteen thousand Kazakh Christians, and more than one hundred thousand Christians of all ethnicities.” Reflecting on Lebanon, Rosenberg suggests that, “there are about ten thousand truly born-again followers of Jesus Christ today.” Reports suggest there were no Muslim background Christians in Syria fifty years ago, but today “there are between four and five thousand born-again believers in the country.”
Rosenberg’s figures suggest that there are over 13 million Christians in Islamic countries and a majority of them are from a Muslim background.
Other Observers
There are other evidences of a notable transformation taking place. For example, Journalist George Thomas notes that,
“A Christian revival is touching the northernmost reaches of Africa. In a region once hostile to the gospel, now tens of thousands of Muslims are following Jesus. As the sun sets over the Mediterranean Sea, Muslims across Northern Africa are converting to faith in Jesus Christ in record numbers… What experts say is that there is a profound move of God in the predominantly Muslim nations of Mauritania, Western Sahara, Morocco, Algeria, Libya, and Tunisia.”
Tino Qahoush, a researcher and filmmaker, has been traveling to various parts of this region to document the Christian revival that has been taking place. Reflecting on what he observed, he noted the following,
“What God is doing in North Africa, all the way from actually Mauritanian to Libya is unprecedented in the history of missions. I have the privilege of recording testimonies and listening to firsthand stories of men and women, of all ages.”
Jayson Casper, a journalist with Christianity Today, also pointed out some astounding growth that’s taking place in the Arabian Peninsula. He writes,
“Today the Pew Research Center numbers Christians in the Arabian Peninsula at 2.3 million – more Christians than nearly 100 countries can claim. The Gulf Christian Fellowship, an umbrella group, estimates 3.5 million…United Arab Emirates Christian population…[is] 13 percent, according to Pew. Among other Gulf states, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Qatar each about 14 percent Christian, while Oman is about 6 percent. Even Saudi Arabia, home to Islam’s holiest cities (Mecca and Medina), is 4 percent Christian…”
One of the best examples of the expansion of Christianity within Muslim lands is through the work of Heidi and Roland Baker. Along with their church plants and trained workers from Iris Ministries, the Bakers have made an extraordinary impact on the brutal nation of Mozambique. The province that they currently operate in was entirely Muslim before their arrival, but a little over ten years later those figures have changed drastically. Kelly Head from Christ For The Nations writes,
“The Bakers are now based full-time in Pemba, Mozambique, in an area where Heidi says was once called a ‘graveyard to missionaries.’ But recently the government announced publicly that it’s no longer a Muslim providence; now it’s a Christian providence.”
The abrupt changes to the once Muslim Africa are something even the Islamic clerics are beginning to acknowledge. In December 2001, Sheikh Ahmad al Qataani, the president of The Companions Lighthouse for the Science of Islamic Law in Libya, appeared on a live interview on Al-Jazeera satellite television. He declared the following:
“Islam used to represent, as you previously mentioned, Africa’s main religion and there were 30 African languages that used to be written in Arabic script. The number of Muslims in Africa has diminished to 316 million, half of whom are Arabs in North Africa. So in the section of Africa that we are talking about, the non Arab section, the number of Muslims does not exceed 150 million people. When we realize that the entire population of Africa is one billion people, we see that the number of Muslims has diminished greatly from what it was in the beginning of the last century…As to how that happened, well, there are now 1.5 million churches whose congregations account for 46 million people. In every hour, 667 Muslims convert to Christianity. Everyday, 16,000 Muslims convert to Christianity. Ever year, 6 million Muslims convert to Christianity. These numbers are very large indeed.”
It is obvious from these and other reports that Christianity is advancing.
100 years ago a wife of the highest-ranking Paramount Chief died soon after native missionaries brought the Gospel to Pentecost Island. After her body was wrapped in burial calico the calico began moving. Quickly they unwrapped the body and she sat up. She had seen Jesus and told them all to leave their bad heathen ways and follow the good Christian way. Then she lay down and died again. They did what she said and moved from pagan villages to Christian villages on land offered by a Christian Chief who was the grandfather of Pastor Rolanson, our host.
Some of the signs of revival we saw there included a whole mountain ‘on fire’ (with nothing burned) during revival meetings at their Bible College,witchcraft items revealed then removed and destroyed by prayer teams, everyone prayed for in ‘custom’ villages healed, and angels filling a village church with songs in the night in a small village where the worship had been strong, lasting for many hours. Everyone prayed for in that village was healed and all unbelievers repented during the worship and many were baptized.
I talk about some of these things in this recent podcast:
Part of this account is information from my bookSouth Pacific Revivals(in paperback, ebook, and PDF).
French explorer Bougainville saw and named this 60 kilometres long, narrow island on the Day of Pentecost, 1764. Captain Cook sailed past it in 1774.
Martyr for the Gospel
Tomas Tumtum had been an indentured worker on cane farms in Queensland, Australia. He was converted there and returned around 1901 to his village on South Pentecost Island. He came with his friend, Lulkon, a new young disciple from a neighbouring island. They arrived when the village was taboo because a baby had died a few days earlier, so no one was allowed near the village. Ancient tradition dictated that anyone breaking taboo must be killed, so they were going to kill Tomas, but his friend Lulkon asked Tomas to tell them to kill him instead, so that Tomas could live and evangelize his own people. Just before he was clubbed to death at a sacred Mele palm tree, Lulkon read John 3:16, then closed his eyes and prayed for them.
Tomas became the pioneer of the church in South Pentecost, establishing many Churches of Christ in the villages there, initially along the west coast of South Pentecost.
Law student (now lawyer and pastor) Jerry from Fiji at sacred Mele palm tree, site of martyr’s death which opened the way for the gospel in South Pentecost 100 years ago.
The church on Pentecost Island was strongly evangelical, founded by native leaders converted by the Churches of Christ mission in Queensland. Many of the leaders on Pentecost Island became filled with the Spirit in a series of indigenous revivals from the 1980s.
Revival Background
Pastor Wilson Bebe led many revival meetings in South Pentecost in the 1980s and 1990s. He was a strong evangelist and revival leader. Prayer meetings multiplied during revivals.
Pastor Lewis Wari completed studies at the Bible College at Banmatmat and began preaching at revival meetings in the villages of South Pentecost in the 1980s. Revival spread in 1980-1981 with many people weeping, repenting, being reconciled and some people being healed. Lewis had strong revelations and words of knowledge for people. He also faced opposition from traditional churches, a cautious reaction common to revivals everywhere.
Pastor Lewis spoke at meetings in March 1995 at Panlimsi village on the west coast, near Pangi. The Country Women’s Fellowship (CWF) met there for a week to learn to use sewing machines and Lewis preached at the night crusade meetings. On the Friday night, 31 March 1995, the Spirit of God moved in a very strong way. Many people were crying and repenting and were filled with the Spirit.
Pastor Rolanson had just finished his studies at the Bible College and was the young pastor at Panlimsi (near Pangi) then. He led teams from his church in revival meetings with Pastor Lewis. God moved in a strong way at Ranwas village on the east coast with many people crying and repenting. The teams led revival meetings in many village churches in South Pentecost.
Pastors Rolanson and Owen praying for leaders in Ranwas village church
Revival spark in 2002
Jaynan
Simon
Law School Graduation
Graduation photos here of Jay, Simon, Calvin (with Kata and Samuel), Romulo and Pam – now all strong Christian lawyers and leaders.
Port Vila, the capital of Vanuatu, has the Law School of the University of the South Pacific. The Port Vila law students Christian Fellowship experienced a strong move of God from Easter 2002, with many converted and filled with the Spirit.
I hosted a team of 11 of the law students in Brisbane for a month in November 2002. They had their own 5 a.m. prayer meeting each day and then they helped lead the 6 a.m. daily prayer group at Kenmore Baptist Church. They spoke, sang, and did items at many different churches, praying for people personally at each one.
Law students Jerry, Pam & Sala now lawyers and leaders
In May 2003 a team from the University of the South Pacific law school Christian Fellowship (CF) joined me on Pentecost Island in Vanuatu for a weekend of outreach meetings on South Pentecost. The national Vanuatu Churches of Christ Bible College stands near the site of the native Christian martyrdom there.
God opened a wide door on Pentecost Island (1 Corinthians 16:8-9). The weekend with the CF team brought new unity among the competing village churches. The Sunday night service went from 6-11 p.m., although we ‘closed’ it three times after 10 p.m., with a closing prayer, then later a closing song, and then later a closing announcement. People just kept coming for prayer and singing.
Another team of four students from the law school CF returned to South Pentecost in June 2003 for 12 days of meetings in many villages. Again, the Spirit of God moved strongly. Leaders repented publicly of divisions and criticisms. Then youth began repenting of backsliding or unbelief. A great-granddaughter of the pioneer Tomas Tumtum gave her life to God in the village near his grave at the Bible College.
We held evening rallies in four villages of South Pentecost each evening from 6 p.m. for 12 days, with teaching sessions on the Holy Spirit every morning in the main village church for a week. The team experienced a strong leading of the Spirit in the worship, drama, action songs with Pacific dance movements, and preaching and praying for people.
Mathias (in photo), a young man who repented deeply with over 15 minutes of tearful sobbing, became the main worship leader in revival meetings. When he was leading and speaking at a revival meeting at the national Bible College, a huge supernatural fire blazed in the hills directly opposite the Bible College chapel in 2005, but no bush was burned. They told us it was supernatural fire, with no smoke and nothing physical being consumed.
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Pentecost Island Bible College
Pastor Lewis Wari, revival pioneer
By 2004, the Churches of Christ national Bible College on Pentecost Island became a centre for revival teaching. Pastor Lewis Wari and his wife Marilyn hosted these gatherings at the Bible College, and later on Lewis spoke at many island churches as the President of the Churches of Christ. Lewis had been a leader in strong revival movements on South Pentecost as a young pastor from 1988, with many village revivals.
Don and Helen Hill (in photo), friends from Brisbane, participated in some visits. Don repaired the electrical wiring at the Bible College and supplied needed portable generators and lawnmowers. Helen recorded the revival teaching sessions on DVD for international use by our friends in many nations who have also experienced revival.
Leaders’ seminars and youth conventions at the Bible College focused on God and revival. The college hosted regular courses and seminars on revival for a month at a time. Each day began with prayer together from 6 a.m. The early morning prayer meetings began even earlier, from 4.30 a.m., in the youth convention in December 2004, as God’s Spirit moved on the youth leaders in that area.
Morning sessions continued from 8 a.m. to noon, with teaching and ministry. As the Spirit moved on the group, they continued to repent and seek God for further anointing and imparting of the Spirit in their lives. Afternoon sessions featured sharing and testimonies of what God is doing. Each evening became a revival meeting at the Bible College with worship, sharing, preaching, and powerful times of ministry to everyone seeking prayer.
Every weekend the teams from the college led revival meetings in village churches. Many of these village revival meetings went late as the Spirit moved on the people with deep repentance, reconciliation, forgiveness, and prayer for healing and empowering.
Law School Christian Fellowship team
Another law student team from Port Vila, led by Seini Puamau, Vice President of the Christian Fellowship [now a judge in Fiji], had a strong impact at the High School on South Pentecost Island with big responses at all meetings. Almost the whole residential school of 300 responded for prayer at the final service on Sunday night October 17, 2004, after a powerful testimony from Joanna Kenilorea. The High School principal, Silas Buli, has prayed with some of his staff for many years from 4 a.m. each morning, praying for the school and nation. Silas became a Member of Parliament for South Pentecost in 2016.
Christian Fellowship team at Waterfall
The church arranged for more revival teaching at their national Bible College for church leaders. Teams from the college held mission meetings simultaneously in seven different villages. Every village saw strong responses, including a team that held their meeting in the ‘nakamal’, the chief’s meeting house of their village. The first person to respond for prayer in the nakamal was a man from the ‘custom’ traditional village called Bunlap.
Those Bible College sessions seemed like preparation for further revival. Every session led into ministry. Repentance went deep. Prayer began early in the mornings, and went late into the nights.
Village evangelism teams from South Pentecost continue to witness in the villages, and also visit other islands. Six people from these teams came to Brisbane and were then part of 15 from Pentecost Island on mission with me in the Solomon Islands in 2006.
Revival meetings on Pentecost
Grant Shaw joined me on Pentecost Island in Vanuatu in September-October 2006. Grant grew up with missionary parents in China, saw many persecutions and miracles, and had his dad recounting miraculous answers to prayer as a daily routine. They often needed to pray for miracles, and miracles happened often. From 14 years of age Grant participated in mission teams travelling internationally in Asia. Then he attended a youth camp at Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship which has seen revival since 1994. He worked there as an associate youth pastor for 18 months before studying at Bible College in Brisbane and then being a youth pastor in a large Brisbane church. So he is used to revival – all his life! In Vanuatu he had clear words of knowledge, and saw people healed daily in meetings and in the villages. That inspired and challenged everyone.
Raised from the dead
Grant with nurse Leah
In Port Vila the capital, on our way to Pentecost Island in 2006 with Grant Shaw we attended the Sunday service at the Upper Room church. At sharing time in the service, Leah Waqa, a nurse, told how she had been on duty that week when parents brought in their young daughter who had been badly hit in a car accident, and showed no signs of life – the monitor registered zero – no pulse. Leah felt unusual boldness, so commanded the girl to live, and prayed for her for an hour. After an hour the monitor started beeping and the girl recovered.
South Pentecost
Our revival mission trip on South Pentecost Island was based in the village of Panlimsi near Pangi on the southwest coast. Mathias was then the young pastor there. The Spirit moved strongly in all the meetings. Repentance. Reconciliations. Confessions. Anointing. Healings every day. The healings included Pastor Rolanson’s young son Ralph, partially deaf from birth, able to hear clearly after Grant prayed for him. Rolanson leads evangelism teams, and helped to lead this mission.
Land diving with vines
South Pentecost attracts tourists with its land diving – men jumping from high bamboo towers with vines attached to their ankles. Grant prayed for a jumper who had hurt his neck, and the neck crackled back into place. An elderly man no longer needed his walking stick to come up the hill to the meetings. Grant prayed for a son of the paramount chief of South Pentecost from Bunlap, a ‘custom’ village. He was healed from a painful leg and later he invited the team to come to his village to pray for the sick. No white people had been invited there to minister previously.
The revival team, including the two of us from Australia, trekked for a week into mountain villages. We literally obeyed Luke 10 – most going with no extra shirt, no sandals, and no money. The trek began with a five-hour climb across the island mountain range to the village of Ranwas on the eastern side. Mathias led worship, and strong moves of the Spirit touched everyone. We prayed for people many times in each meeting. At one point I spat on the dirt floor, making mud to show what Jesus did once. Marilyn Wari, wife of the President of the Churches of Christ, then jumped up asking for prayer for her eyes, using the mud. Later she testified that the Lord told her to do that, and then she found she could read her small pocket Bible without glasses. So she read to us all. Meetings continued like that each night.
We then trekked through the ‘custom’ heathen village where the paramount chief lived, and prayed for more sick people. Some had pain leave immediately, and people there became more open to the gospel.
The village storekeeper was the first man to ask for prayer there. He wanted us to put a curse on someone who had stolen from him! Instead, I was led to pray that the Lord would convict the culprit. We heard later that the culprit returned the stolen goods.
Then the team trekked for seven hours to Ponra, a remote village further north.
Glory in a remote village
Revival meetings erupted at Ponra. The Spirit just took over. Visions. Revelations. Reconciliations. Healings. People drunk in the Spirit. Many resting on the floor getting blessed in various ways. When they heard about Marilyn’s healing through ‘mud on the eyes’ at Ranwas, some of them wanted mud packs also! Children often slept on the floor in the long revival meetings.
One of the girls in the team had a vision of the village children there paddling in a pure sea, crystal clear. They were like that – so pure. Not polluted by TV, DVDs, videos, movies, magazines, and worldliness. Their lives were so clean and holy. Just pure love for the Lord, especially among the young. Youth often lead in revival.
The sound of angels singing filled the air about 3 a.m. It sounded as though the village church was packed. The harmonies in high descant declared “For You are great and You do wondrous things. You are God alone” and then harmonies, without words until words again for “I will praise You O Lord my God with all my heart, and I will glorify Your name for evermore” with long, long harmonies on “forever more”. Just worship. Pure, awesome and majestic.
The team stayed two extra days there – everyone received prayer, and many people surrendered to the Lord both morning and night. Everyone repented, including us, as the Spirit moved on everyone.
Grant’s legs, cut and sore from the long trek, saved the team from another long trek back across the island. The villagers arranged a boat ride back around the island from the east to the west for the team’s return. Revival meetings continued back at the host village, Panlimsi, led mainly in worship by Mathias, with Pastor Rolanson organising things. Also at two other villages the Spirit moved powerfully as the team ministered, with much reconciliation and dancing in worship.
Pastor Rolanson, in the host village, heard angels singing there also. At first, he too thought it was the church full of people but the harmonies were more wonderful than we can sing. Repentance and healings continued in the meetings and in the villages.
Vanuatu Team visits the Solomon Islands
During November 2006, a team of 22 from South Pentecost flew to Honiara in the Solomon Islands and joined Grant and Jesse Padayache and me there for revival meetings in the city and in the mountain villages where revival was spreading. God miraculously provided accommodation in a Christian hostel. Sporting teams had cancelled their booking, so the whole place was available for us. The team visited many town churches and mountain villages, praying with and for hundreds of people. Many reported healings and anointing by God’s Spirit.
Grant and I had the marvellous opportunity to speak one night at the United Church’s national Christian Youth Convention on Choisel Island in the western Solomons. God poured out his Spirit on about 1,000 youths. Many were healed and filled with the Spirit. Many of them saw revival movements in their own islands when they returned home in their outboard canoes.
Weekend with Anglicans
Most of our mission work has been with the Churches of Christ villages but we also visit ‘custom’ pagan villages and other denominations.
Indigenous painting in the Anglican Church
We made history in 2010 by trekking three to four hours to the Anglican village of Point Cross on the southern tip of Pentecost Island, at their invitation. This was the first combined churches meetings ever held there. I taught on the Holy Spirit and transformation in their beautiful cement church, painted white with a majestic spire, visible for kilometres all around. It contains dramatic paintings of Jesus painted on the walls by a Pentecost Island man (see photo). We also met in the chief’s meeting house. At all meetings there we prayed with large numbers of people, including prayer for healings and to be filled with the Spirit. The helpful Member of Parliament there provided us with a free boat trip in his outboard canoe, back to our base village at Pangi and Panlimsi.
Church life has changed in the years I have been visiting Pentecost Island. Now all the churches we work with, including the Anglican youth, have revival-style meetings with revival choruses and personal prayer for those responding.
One of their revival songs has this chorus:
There’s gonna be a great awakening There’s gonna be a great revival in our land There’s gonna be a great awakening And everyone who calls on Jesus They will be saved.
Adventures with Andrew
Andrew Chee from Hawaii lived to surf. Now he lives to serve God [Photo: Andrew surfing].
21-year-old Andrew came with me on a three-week mission to Vanuatu in June-July 2012, again in July 2014, then in July 2015 with Ben Gray and Noel Missingham, then in June-July 2016 with Noel and my grandson Dante. A great way to escape winter! We saw God’s blessing and many miracles.
Andrew sensed God telling him to go on the trip, and he booked his flights only one week before we left when flights were full because of school holidays. At first he was wait-listed but the next day a seat became available on all my four flights!
His cousin Grant Shaw came with me to Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands in 2006 when he was 22. See photos on the Facebook Album
Grant founded Kingdom Culture Church on the north side of Brisbane. He encouraged Andrew to join me [Photo: Andrew and Grant].
Grant hit the news in 2012 with a front-page article in the Sunday Mail and guest appearances on TV shows because they take keen young people to nearby shopping malls and pray for the sick and for anyone wanting prayer. Grant’s brother Joel, also a pastor, began doing this kind of outreach some years previously. Joel and Grant saw God heal hundreds of people, especially non-Christians. Many of those prayed for are now keen Christians also. Joel and his wife Candice with four others from their church joined us for mission on Pentecost Island in June 2013, also visiting many village churches.
Grant and Joel’s cousin Andrew loves praying for the sick because he sees God constantly taking away pain and healing people. He has strong faith in God’s Word, such as Mark 16:17-18. Jesus said, “these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; … they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
We saw all that in Vanuatu, literally. Daily. Both in 2012 and 2014 with Andrew, as well as in 2006 with Grant and 2013 with his brother Joel and his team from Glory City Church in Brisbane – see Photo Reports listed above.
See photos and maps on the Facebook Album.Huge numbers were healed, and leaders challenged and helped.
Port Vila, the capital
Andrew and I flew into Port Vila late on a Friday night and stayed at the Churches of Christ transit house above the church there. Next morning at 6 a.m. we heard young people worshiping in the church with their beautiful island harmonies, so we joined them. They welcomed us and invited us to speak briefly and pray for anyone sick. Andrew had words of knowledge about people with pain who then came out for prayer. Our praying continued for everyone wanting prayer, after the closing prayer. Nice fast start to a mission trip!
That morning we flew for an hour in a very small plane on the windy trip to Pentecost Island – the bumpiest I have had on my dozen visits there. Fortunately we only had time for one bread roll at the airport before leaving, so did not get sick!
I went to Pentecost Island first in 2003 to see their famous land diving, when men dive from 20-30 meter towers with only vines tied to their ankles. Chief Willie (photo), my host, invited me to return with teams of young people from the Law School Christian Fellowship of the University of the South Pacific. I had met them in 2002 and hosted a month’s mission trip they had with me in Australia in November of that year.
So now I was returning again, with another keen young firebrand for God.
Pentecost Island
Pastor Rolanson met us at the airstrip and we walked 300 meters to the beach to ride for half an hour in the outboard canoe 10k south to Pangi village. There Rolanson’s sons met us to carry our bags along the muddy track half a kilometer inland to their village, Panlimsi.
Host Pastor Rolanson and Andrew
I stayed there many times, including with Grant in the bush house behind Andrew and Rolanson in this photo. Rolanson, pastor and evangelist, keeps asking us to return to encourage revival, pray for people, and help him train leaders.
We had our first meeting there that Saturday night in the village church, partially lit by a couple of old fluorescent lights when the generator was started, usually after everyone has arrived – to save fuel. So most meetings begin in the dark with torchlight or candles.
Early in the worship Andrew again had words of knowledge about people’s pain so worship included praying for the sick. Their pain left. After we both spoke that night, we prayed for many more.
So began weeknight meetings at Panlimsi. During the day we rested, recovered, washed in the nearby river where water taro grew abundantly, and usually walked back to Pangi to swim in the ocean. Every time we went out into the villages people asked for healing prayer.
So, like Jesus sending out the 12 and 70 (Mark 6:7; Luke 10:1) in pairs, we too went through the towns and villages proclaiming the kingdom of God, healing the sick and casting out spirits. Many illnesses there result from curses or witchcraft. Often we had to break curses, bind afflicting spirits and cast them out in Jesus’ name.
The first time I went there, in 2003, my host Chief Willie asked me to throw out an afflicting spirit giving him a headache, literally. He said that ‘enemies’ had cursed him. So we prayed together, bound and cast out attacking spirits, and he felt fine.
At other times people asked me to help them get rid of strong invading spirits such as one that haunted a house by ‘jumping’ onto the stones on the floor at night. We prayed and it was gone after that. However, that impudent one ‘jumped’ on the stone floor in my bungalow that night, so I had to cast it out in Jesus’ name, and it never returned. Rather weird to hear someone/something ‘jump’ into your dark room at night!
This time we experienced strong witchcraft. On our last day there, when Andrew and I were weary, Andrew was hit by severe aches and headache. That night I saw a strange dull light, like a reddish torchlight, moving horizontally just outside our village hut. We began praying against powerful spirits. God’s Spirit reminded Andrew to bless those who curse you and pray for your enemies. He did. The strange spiritual connection was immediately broken, and pain started easing off. It took a day to recover from that one. “All hail the power of Jesus’ name.”
Every first Sunday of the month the Churches of Christ have a combined service for all their churches in South Pentecost. We shared in one in the packed Panlimsi church. Before the service, Andrew had words of knowledge about pain in a man’s shoulders and the right side of a woman’s face. Both came for prayer as people were gathering in the church. It turned out that the man was the leader of the service and the woman preached that day! Many times, the words of knowledge Andrew received, we discovered later, were for pastors and leaders, and then later we prayed for others.
At that Sunday service I was strongly led to call people out for prayer during communion. That was a first for them. It never happened in communion before. A large number came for prayer and healings were fast and strong.
Andrew washes chief’s feet in church
One night Andrew felt led to wash everyone’s feet. That took the whole service! We put a bucket of water near the door (regularly refilled) and Andrew washed everyone’s feet as they arrived while we worshiped, prayed, spoke and called people out for healing and empowering prayer. One lady, Alice, told us later that while Andrew in obedience washed her feet the Lord healed her legs! Alice was also healed another year while she was bringing a friend to the front for healing prayer! I was led to wash the leaders’ feet that night also [Photo: Andrew washes the chief’s feet]. That happened many times through the years – following Jesus’ example.
Our adventures included another outboard motor canoe trip an hour north for a combined churches youth rally on the beach with a large campfire at the end of the meeting. We joined forces with another mission team from Gladstone (in Queensland, Australia). That night we also prayed for many people after the service. Healings were the fastest and strongest we had seen till then.
Bunlap
The ‘custom’ village of Bunlap on the east coast is famous as the spiritual base for native witchcraft and curses.
I went there in 2006 with Grant on a five-hour trek across to Ranwas village and then via Bunlap on a seven-hour trek to Ponra village where we saw the power of God at every meeting and I heard angels singing in the night, like the church was full, although no people were there.
Grant had prayed for the paramount chief’s son whose groin was healed at Pangi village, so we offered to go to Bunlap and pray for the sick. A couple of days later we heard that the chief had invited us to come and pray – the first white people to ever be invited to pray for people there.
This time Andrew and I were swimming off the jetty near Pangi when one of the chief’s sons from Bunlap and his friends wandered onto the jetty. Two of those young men had pain so Andrew prayed for them and the pain left. The chief’s son told us they would be there when we came to Bunlap the following Saturday to pray for sick people again.
This year we enjoyed the luxury of a four-wheel truck trip across the island through the dense green mountains. We had three nights of meetings at Ranwas village, Friday to Sunday, including the Sunday morning service there. On Saturday we trekked half an hour through the jungle to Bunlap.
People were even more welcoming this time at Bunlap. We prayed for dozens of people, and their pain left. We talked about the kingdom of God and how Jesus saves and heals. Some of the people told us they believed that, and when the chief allowed it they would be part of a church there.
The paramount chief once burned a Bible given to him by a revival team from the Christian villages. Now he is willing for a church to be built on the ground where he burned the Bible. Hallelujah – what a testimony to God’s grace and glory.
For the first time ever, that paramount chief asked for prayer. He wanted healing from head pain. Andrew placed his hands on the sides of the chief’s head and we prayed for him in Jesus’ name. The pain left.
Pastors Willy, Gordon, Rolanson and his son David with Andrew and the paramount chief
Then another chief there prepared lunch for us so the pastors in the team and Andrew and I ate in his house – again the first time ever for white people on mission eating with him there.
Like Jesus’ disciples, we returned to Ranwas church, rejoicing that afflicting spirits were cast out, people were healed in Jesus’ name, some believed in Jesus, and they now plan to have a church there someday. Our host chief told Rolanson he can bring his guitar and have meetings in the chief’s house anytime.
Some Christians at Ranwas were amazed to hear the reports. They have endured witchcraft and curses from Bunlap for a century. Again, during communion on Sunday large numbers came for prayer for healing, and healings were fast and strong. They also had never done that in communion before. At all the meetings Andrew had specific words of knowledge about healings, and pain left quickly. In the beginning of our trip we had to pray for some people two or three times before the pain left, but as the weeks passed and faith rose, healings were much quicker and stronger. By the end of the mission trip people in the congregation were praying for each other in faith and seeing God touch their friends. We really encourage them to keep doing that.
Andrew especially encouraged leaders to pray with him for people’s healings, just as he had learned from leaders in his church. Soon those village leaders and others were praying more strongly in faith. Many of them do that constantly anyway, so we were just encouraging them to believe and take authority in Jesus’ name even more fully.
We returned to Ranwas village, and Bunlap village in 2014, with similar results. The sick were healed. Hearts were opened to faith in Jesus.
In 2014 we also spoke and prayed with many people at the Independence Celebrations held every 24th July for a week. Many responded, and many youth came for prayer during our time there. We slept one night with a local football team and woke up to them singing:
For I was made in His likeness Created in His image For I was born to serve the Lord And I can’t deny Him And I will always walk beside Him For I was born to serve the Lord.
I challenged them all to live fully this way and the whole team responded in prayer.
2015 Update
I’m just back from a good time in Vanuatu, though tiring – it reminds me I’m approaching 80! Great to have 3 young fellows full of energy and zeal, Andrew Chee (3rd time there, and he was with me in Nepal and Thailand last year), his friend Ben Gray, and my nephew-in-law Noel Missingham – see the Facebook Album. Pastor Rolanson has been the main organizer of my visits to Pentecost Island for over 12 years and I often stay in his village. This time Rolanson came to Vila the first week we were there so we stayed in Vila a week with contacts given to Noel. We joined with a new church group there and had free accommodation as well. The boys loved praying for people in the streets and seeing immediate healings, and we were taken out by church people on 3 days to pray for many, including the Paramount Chief of Port Vila, and for many of his people in his island village.
We had a good week on Pentecost staying with Elder Jackson and wife Annette (who worked in a bank branch there) in their house near the beach at Pangi, as Rolanson stayed on in Vila with government stuff. The team prayed for healings every day and in all the night meetings. Night meetings in four different villages: Panlimsi, Hotwater, Wali and Pangi, were all strong with personal prayers for healings, anointing, empowering and mission. See the Facebook album
It was a time of building them up again. Everyone who was prayed for about their healing reported that the pain had gone – quickly. I left some of the treks into the mountains to the young men this time, and Andrew and Noel returned and prayed for the ‘custom’ paramount chief not only for healings in the village but for his salvation. He indicated that he wanted to give his life to God and open all the ‘custom’ villages to evangelism. Two ‘custom’ chiefs opened their villages for healing prayers and evangelism.
Noel and Andrew pray with the ‘custom’ paramount chief for healing and salvation
We had a few days at Santo Island on our return. Pastor Lewis (who hosted my time teaching at the Bible College in 2004-5) was there in the main office as director of mission. We had a few days to relax on Sunny Santo.
2016 Update
Noel Missingham returned to Pentecost Island many times in 2015-16 including two visits with his family of four young children, hosted by Jackson and Annette at Pangi village. Here is their report in June 2016.
Noel, Judith and family
Email from Noel & Judith:
Greetings to our friends and partners,
It has been an exciting time for us over the last few months. Looking back, our word from the Lord was simply ‘come and follow Me,’ so we found ourselves stepping into the mission field on Pentecost Island in Vanuatu.
In being obedient to this word we have seen the Lord do amazing things and it feels like we have just been along for the ride. We have seen the Lord open deaf ears, make the blind see, heal backs, knees, ankles, broken bones and headaches.
The Lord has brought us before people great and small. He has created divine connections with leaders in Vanuatu and has given us ‘standing before kings’. In the small time we have been spending there, we have seen impossible situations made possible, broken relationships restored and enormous favour for the Lord’s work. We have seen people baptised in water and be completely overwhelmed after being touched by the Holy Spirit. We never anticipated the Lord would use us in such a way.
Out of everything we have witnessed so far, we’ve found that nothing quite compares to the miracle of salvation; seeing a repentant heart weeping in the Father’s love. A story that comes to mind is when a man approached us after a service. It had been some time since he last stepped into a church building, but something told him he should go this morning. As he listened from outside, the Lord touched him and he came forward and shared how he had been involved in adultery. Wow, what a scene as he completely broke down and gave the Lord everything and when we are willing to give everything to Jesus, He is willing to take EVERYTHING from us. He makes us clean, puts a robe and ring on us and calls us ‘faithful and beloved’… When the time for church announcements came, this man took the microphone and with tears in his eyes he apologized to the church and individual leaders and people he hurt. The leaders in turn forgave him, and restored him to the place he was formally serving, on the worship team. A son restored!
One of the ‘impossible made possible’ situations has been the restoration of the Banmatmat Bible College. As Noel hiked around the island to take the gospel to distant villages, one of the things he felt was that it could be more effective. While we are seeing divine favour, signs and wonders, healing and salvations and clear open doors, to do it by ourselves or with a small group of people is not as effective as it could be.
We feel the need for multiple teams of people, and strategic planning so that we can really take Pentecost Island, and all the islands of Vanuatu for the Lord, and then go beyond there to other nations. Of course the Lord had a solution already in the pipeline: The Banmatmat Bible College.
The Lord brought Banmatmat to our attention on one of our previous trips. It lies in the south of the island, a remote part only accessible by hiking or boat. It now lies in ruins and disrepair, however in times gone past it was regarded by locals as a paradise, and a valuable source of training and equipping for many pastors serving there and in surrounding islands.
Bible College and beach at Banmatmat, South Pentecost. Lulkon was martyred in these hills, and we saw supernatural fire on those hills from the Bible College.
We learned that the people dedicated the land where the college is located to God, a few generations after one of the first Christians was martyred (and eaten) near the site. The Church of Christ college was built on that location in 1964. It lasted up until 2004 when the college closed for various reasons. …
[From Geoff: I was able to teach there many times in 2004-2005, hosted by Pastor Lewis Wari, a revival pioneer, who later became President of the Churches of Christ in Vanuatu. God may have other purposes for this place in the future. Many people have had amazing prophecies about revival in South Pentecost.]
The other thing that the Lord opened up on the last trip was different connections with church leaders around the island (from Anglican, Catholic, Seven Day Adventists and Churches of Christ). These are divine connections with brothers and sisters who know Him and love Him and just want to see the King glorified regardless of denominational boundaries.
In closing out this update letter, we want to personally thank each of you for partnering with us in the work the Lord has us doing in Vanuatu. We pray that our Lord continues to richly bless you as we labour together in his work. Remember we are partnering together!
Bible College chapel 2005
Team Visit, June-July 2016
We had the privilege of sharing in meetings every night during our visit covering three weekends. The team, for part or all of the time, included Noel, Andrew, Stan (my brother-in-law) and Dante (my grandson).
Again, most meetings and outreach were around Pangi village on the coast (where we slept) and up the ridge at Panlimsi village, in Pastor Rolanson’s church. Again we participated with local people and encouraged them to continue boldly in faith in praying for one another and for mission teams to go out to the villages. At every meeting we had many responding for commitment to God, anointing and healing. This included evangelism meetings in a few different villages along that west coast of South Pentecost.
During the day we mixed with the people in their daily activities, including fishing with outrigger canoes and with nets. So we enjoyed fish cooked on the fire on the beach a few times, just like the resurrected Jesus with his friends on the shore of Galilee.
Noel and Stan accompanied Rolanson and other leaders to Banmatmat to assess future possibilities. No one seems to know what will happen there, or when, but it remains in our prayers along with the possibilities of having a Revival Training Centre on South Pentecost as the Lord opens the way.
Pioneer chief dies at 111
Paramount chief Morris lived to 111. He died in Panlimsi village on 1st July 2016 when we were there so we had the honour of being involved at the graveside and in the combined churches memorial service on Sunday 3 July.
Morris was a young man when a wife of his father, the highest ranking chief on the island, died. After they had wrapped her body for burial the cloths began moving. They unwrapped her and she told them to leave their heathen ways and follow the Christian way (see above in red). So most of them did.
Pastor Rolanson’s father, a Christian chief, gave them land where they relocated among Christian villages. Chief Morris helped to pioneer the Gospel in other villages in south Pentecost Island.
I had the privilege of speaking at the graveside and in the memorial service on the Sunday in July 2016. I sensed the Lord give me a word of comfort and a word of challenge – “Come and Go”: Come to Me … I will give you rest … My yoke is easy and my burden is light … (Matthew 11:28-20). Go and make disciples of all nations … I am with you always even to the end of the age (Matthew 28:18-20).
Photos: Chief Morris at 111 (June 2016) with his grandson Presley, the burial, and the combined churches memorial service at Panlimsi with the overflow crowd.
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Team Visits, 2017-2018-2019
I returned with grandson Dante and others in June-July, 2017. Stan came with his wife Daphne (my sister) and Emily from Riverlife Baptist joined us. The Riverlife church people sent a keyboard, a guitar, and a large box of reading glasses with us. We often take used and discarded spectacles with us on these trips.
This time we had meetings at Ranwadi High School again and once again prayed with large numbers there among the 300 boarding students. Then we returned south to Pangi and Panlimsi villages for more meetings and visitation with Pastor Rolanson. At a Sunday service, Elder Jackson gave his testimony that his blood readings were normal at the clinic following prayer for diabetes.
We continue to encourage Christians to pray for one another in faith and obedience. I participated when their new MP Silas Bule, formerly principal at Ranwadi, distributed Gideon’s New Testaments to the local school.
Then in 2018, I had a team of seven of us. The six young men with me included Dante and Ben again with Ben’s friends Scott (Andrew Chee’s brother), Blake, Sergie, and Dylan. We stayed in Rolanson’s village at Panlimsi, up the ridge from Pangi on the coast.
Again we prayed with large numbers at their village meetings and during the day. Pain left immediately with healing prayers, people were filled with the Spirit, using spiritual gifts, and we saw rising faith and obedience among them. As we pray with and for them, we encourage them to keep praying for one another – as they do. Faith grows stronger and people are touched powerfully by God in prayers.
Glimpses of my grandson Dante in the first of his many visits to Pentecost Island to speak, sing, and pray, including baptisms (and his original song ‘Still Worth It’, and this link to his biography of me!).
Then I returned again in September 2019 with Chris and Robert Bullock from Kenmore Churches of Christ for another stay with Rolanson and his family in their village at Panlimsi. Again we had prayer times at their house and many meetings in their local church. Now that I was in my 80s we stayed there without the regular trips to other villages so typical of previous villages. Again we prayed regularly with and for the local people, especially their leaders and chief.
Update 2023
Pastor Rolanson Tor had been our host and the leading evangelist pastor in South Pentecost. Sadly he died of a stroke in August 2023, but he leaves behind a great legacy of evangelism and revival in the power of God’s Spirit.
Ps Rolanson
David Scarlett joined me for two weeks of mission on Pentecost Island in September, originally arranged with Rolanson. It involved meetings each night across four village churches plus morning services and some day sessions such as a morning with the area pastors and a final morning praying for anointing for local leaders.
This time the faith and expectation level at each meeting seemed higher than previously, the worship stronger, and 20-30 or more came for prayer each time, including prayer for healing, empowering, surrender and anointing. That often included anointing with oil for healing or empowering.
David and Geoff stayed at a beautiful tourist bungalow by the beach run by its godly church elder who also attended the many meetings and prayer times together. So this touch of blessing and Spirit-led meetings and prayer combined nicely with South Pacific prayerful relaxation.
We encourage and support revival leaders on Pentecost Island regularly. That includes providing revival books and resources, Bibles, and helping pastors with school fees for their children. We also support mission team ministries.
If you would like to help us financially my mission account is: Geoffrey Waugh, PayPal – geoffwaugh2@gmail.com
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Christian Outreach Centre began with twenty-five adults meeting in the Taylors’ home on 16 June, 1974. On the following Sunday, one hundred and twenty-six people took Communion in a rented building owned by the Teachers’ Union. 
Don and Helen Hill (in photo), friends from Brisbane, participated in some visits. Don repaired the electrical wiring at the Bible College and supplied needed portable generators and lawnmowers. Helen recorded the revival teaching sessions on DVD for international use by our friends in many nations who have also experienced revival.
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