1977 - Thursday 10 March - Min District, Papua New Guinea (Diyos Wapnok)

1979 - Wednesday 14 March - Elcho Island, Australia (Ginijini Gondarra)

1979 - Sunday 13 May - Anaheim, Los Angeles (John Wimber)

1984 - Thursday 14 June - Brugam, Papua New Guinea (Ray Overend)

1988 - North Solomon Islands Province, Papua New Guinea (Jobson Misang)

1988 - Thursday 4 August - Kambaidam, Papua New Guinea (Johan van Bruggen)

1988 - Madruga, Cuba

1989 - Henan and Anhul, China

1977

Thursday 10 March - Min District, Papua New Guinea (Diyos Wapnok)

Pastors from the Solomon Islands spoke about their revival at a pastors and leaders conference at Goroka in the highlands of Papua New Guinea. Diyos Wapnok attended from the Baptist Mission area at Telefolmin. He heard God call his name three times in the night there and realised that the Lord was drawing his attention to some special challenge.

Later, on Thursday afternoon 10 March, 1977 at Duranmin in the rugged Western Highlands, where Diyos was the principal of the Sepik Baptist Bible College, while he spoke to about 50 people they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and great joy. The students experienced a light brighter than day, filling the room where they were. Many simultaneously felt convicted of unconfessed sin and cried out for mercy and forgiveness. All became aware in a new ways of the majesty, authority and glory of God. Revival had come to Duranmin and the Sepik. This glimpse of God's greatness gave a new dimension to the students' preaching. The movement spread beyond the churches to their unreached neighbours and to most of the villages in the whole Sepik area. Many churches of new believers were established and in the next three years at least 3,000 new believers were baptised.

1979

Wednesday 14 March - Elcho Island, Australia (Djiniyini Gondarra)

The Lord poured out the Holy Spirit on Elcho Island in northern Australia on 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. This is his account of that Pentecost among Australian Aborigines, first printed in his book Let my People Go:

'When we landed at Galiwin'ku airport we were welcomed and met by many crowds of people. ...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

'We would like to share these experiences in many white churches where doors are closed to the power of the Holy Spirit. It has always been my humble prayer that the whole of Australian Christians, both black and white, will one day be touched by this great and mighty power of the living God' (Renewal Journal #1, 1993, pp. 21-23)

Sunday 13 May - Anaheim, Los Angeles (John Wimber)

In 1977 John Wimber began leading the fellowship of about 40 people which had been commenced by his wife, Carol. It later became the headquarters of the Vineyard Christian Fellowships. John preached from Luke's gospel and began to pray for healings with no visible results for nine months although the worship and evangelism attracted many people. Then healings began to happen and became a regular part of Vineyard ministry.

John summarised their story:

'Beginning some time in September of 1976, Bob Fulton, Carol Wimber, Carl Tuttle, along with others, began assembling at the home of Carl Tuttle's sister. The agenda was simple: praying, worshipping and seeking the Lord. By the time I came several months later, the Spirit of God was already moving powerfully. There was a great brokenness and responsiveness in the hearts of many. This evolved into what became our church on Mother's Day in 1977.

'Soon God began dealing with me about the work of the Spirit related to healing. I began teaching in this area. Over the next year and a half God began visiting in various and sundry ways. There were words of knowledge, healing, casting out of demons, and conversions.

'Later we saw an intensification of this when Lonnie Frisbee came and ministered. Lonnie had been a Calvary Chapel pastor and evangelist, being used mightily in the Jesus People Movement. After our Sunday morning service on Mother's Day 1979, I was walking out the door behind Lonnie, and the Lord told me, "Ask that young man to give his testimony tonight." I hadn't even met him, though I knew who he was and how the Lord had used him in the past. That night, after he gave his testimony, Lonnie asked the Holy Spirit to come and the repercussions were incredible. The Spirit of God literally knocked people to the floor and shook them silly. Many people spoke in tongues, prophesied or had visions.

'Then over the next few months, hundreds and hundreds of people came to Christ as the result of the witness of the individuals who were touched that night, and in the aftermath. The church saw approximately 1,700 converted to Christ in a period of about three months.

'This evolved into a series of opportunities, beginning in 1980, to minister around the world. Thus the Vineyard renewal ministry and the Vineyard movement were birthed' (Vineyard Reflections, May/June 1994).

July - Port Elizabeth, South Africa (Rodney Howard-Browne)

Rodney Howard-Browne has seen many, many thousands converted through his ministry, many more renewed in their love for the Lord and empowered by the Holy Spirit. His ministry remains controversial because of the manifestations involved, especially laughter.

'In July of 1979, at eighteen years of age, Rodney M. Howard­Browne of Port Elizabeth, South Africa, reached a crossroads in his life. Over a period of several months, an increasing spiritual hunger had been developing within him, and while at an interdenominational prayer meeting with about eighteen young people at this time, he cried out to the Lord, "God, either you come down here tonight and touch me, or I'm going to die and come up there and touch you." ... Describing this incident at his camp meeting fifteen years later (July 18, 1994), he said it was as though all of a sudden somebody had taken gasoline and put a lighted match to it. The fire of God fell upon Him instantaneously, and he was immersed in the liquid fire of the Holy Spirit. He became completely inebriated in the Holy Ghost. He was beside himself. Overflowing, he laughed uncontrollably. He went from laughter to weeping to tongues, back to laughter and weeping again. Four days later, the glory of God was still upon him, and by this time he was saying, "God, lift it. I can't bear it any more. . . Lord, I'm too young to die, don't kill me now." For a two­week period, he felt the presence of God. He said that, although these things became the basis of his later ministry, this was not really evident until about ten years later.

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

'From this point onward, these phenomena accompanied his ministry regularly' (Riss 1995: WWW)

1984

Thursday 14 June - Brugam, Papua New Guinea (Ray Overend)

Ray Overend describes part of a revival in the Sepik area.

'I will never forget June 14th, 1984. Revival had broken out in many churches around but Brugam itself, with many station staff and many Bible College and Secondary School students, was untouched. For a whole week from 8th June a well known preacher from New Zealand (Fred Creighton) had brought studies on "Life in Christ by the power of His Spirit". There was much very thorough teaching. On Tuesday afternoon in prayer I had a real peace that the Lord would break through in Brugam. Then early on Thursday night, the 14th, Judah Akesi, the Church Superintendent, invited some of us to his office for prayer. During that prayer time God gave him a vision. In the vision he saw many people bowed down in the front of the church building in the midst of a big light falling down from above just like rain.

'So after the ministry of the Word that night Judah invited those who wanted to bring their whole heart and mind and life under the authority of Christ to come forward so that hands might be laid on them for prayer.

'About 200 people surged forward. Many fell flat on their faces on the ground sobbing aloud. Some were shaking ­ as spiritual battles raged within. There was quite some noise...

'The spiritual battles and cries of contrition continued for a long time. Then one after another in a space of about three minutes everybody rose to their feet, singing spontaneously as they rose. They were free. The battle was won. Satan was bound. They had made Christ their King! Their faces looked to heaven as they sang. They were like the faces of angels. The singing was like the singing of heaven. Deafening, but sweet and reverent' (Overend 1986:36­37).

The whole curriculum and approach at the Bible School for the area changed. Instead of traditional classes and courses, teachers would work with the school all day from prayer times early in the morning through Bible teaching followed by discussion and sharing times during the day to evening worship and ministry. The school became a community, seeking the Lord together.

Churches which have maintained a strong Biblical witness continue to stay vital and strong in evangelism and ministry, filled with the Spirit's power. Christians learn to witness and minister in spiritual gifts, praying and responding to the leading of the Spirit.

'Many received spiritual gifts they never had before. One such gift was the "gift of knowledge" whereby the Lord would show Christians exactly where fetishes of sanguma men were hidden. Now in Papua New Guinea sanguma men (who subject themselves to indescribable ritual to be in fellowship with Satan) are able to kill by black magic... In fact the power of sanguma in the East Sepik province has been broken' (Overend 1986:23­24).

In 1986 a senior pastor from Manus Island came to the Sepik to attend a one year's pastors' course. He was filled with the Spirit. 'Shortly afterwards he went to Ambunti with a team of students on outreach. There they were asked to pray for an injured child who couldn't walk ­ and later in the morning he saw her walking around the town. He came back to his course and said: In my 35 years as a pastor on Manus I had never seen the power of God!' (1986:38).

1988

North Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea (Jobson Misang)

Jobson Misang, an indigenous youth worker in the United Church reported on a revival movement in the North Solomons Province of Papua New Guinea in 1988:

'Over the last eight weekends I have been fully booked to conduct weekend camps. So far about 3,500 have taken part in the studies of the Living in the Spirit book. Over 2,000 have given their lives to Jesus Christ and are committed to live by the directions of the Spirit. This is living the Pentecost experience today!

'These are some of the experiences taking place:

''1. During small group encounters, under the directions of Spirit­filled leadership, people are for the first time identifying their spiritual gifts, and are changing the traditional ministry to body ministry.

'2. Under constant prayers, visions and dreams are becoming a day to day experience which are being shared during meetings and prayed about.

'3. Local congregations are meeting at 4 am and 6 am three days a week to pray, and studying the Scriptures is becoming a day to day routine. This makes Christians strong and alert.

'4. Miracles and healings are taking place when believers lay hands on the sick and pray over them.

'5. The financial giving of the Christians is being doubled. All pastors' wages are supported by the tithe.

'6. Rascal activities (crimes) are becoming past time events and some drinking clubs are being overgrown by bushes.

'7. The worship life is being renewed tremendously. The traditional order of service is being replaced by a much more lively and participatory one. During praise and worship we celebrate by clapping, dancing, raising our hands to the King of kings, and we meditate and pray. When a word of knowledge is received we pray about the message from the Lord and encourage one another to act on it with sensitivity and love.'

Problems encountered include division taking place within the church because of believers' baptism, fault finding, tongues, objections to new ways of worship, resistance to testimonies, loss of local customs such as smoking or chewing beetlenut or no longer killing animals for sacrifices, believers spending so many hours in prayer and fasting and Bible studies, marriages where only one partner is involved and the other blames the church for causing divisions, pride creeping in when gifts are not used sensitively or wisely, and some worship being too unbalanced.

Thursday 4 August - Kambaidam, Papua New Guinea (Johan van Bruggen)

Johan van Bruggen, a missionary at the Lutheran Evangelist Training Centre, Kambaidam near Kainantu in the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea, wrote in his circulars:

'There came Thursday 4 August (1988), a miserable day weather wise, although we had great joy during our studies. Evening devotions ­ not all students came, actually a rather small group. I too needed some inner encouragement to go as it was more comfortable near the fire. We sang a few quiet worship songs. Samson, a fellow who by accident became one of our students last year ­ he and Paul had wanted to go to another school, missed it, and ended up in our Evangelist Training Centre and stayed on, although at times felt miserable, as we all do ­ well, this Samson was leading the devotions. We had sung the last song and were waiting for him to start. Starting he did, but in an unusual way. He cried, trembled all over! ... Then it spread. When I looked up again I saw the head prefect flat on the floor under his desk. I was praying in tongues off and on. It became quite noisy. Students were shouting! Should I stop it? Don't hold back! It went on and one, with students praying and laughing and crying ­ not quite following our planned programme! We finally stood around the table, about twelve of us, holding hands. Some were absolutely like drunk, staggering and laughing! I heard a few students starting off in tongues and I praised the Lord. The rain had stopped, not so the noise. So more and more people came in and watched!

'Not much sleeping that night! They talked and talked! And that was not the end. Of course the school has changed completely. Lessons were always great, I thought, but have become greater still. Full of joy most of the time, but also with a tremendous burden. A burden to witness.

'What were the highlights of 1988?

No doubt the actual outpouring of the Holy Spirit must come first. It happened on August 4 when the Spirit fell on a group of students and staff, with individuals receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit on several occasions later on in the year. The school has never been the same again. As direct results we noticed a desire for holiness, a hunger for God's Word which was insatiable right up till the end of the school year, and also a tremendous urge to go out and witness. Whenever they had a chance many of our students were in the villages with studies and to lead Sunday services. Prayer life deepened, and during worship services we really felt ourselves to be on holy ground.

'The fact is that our school is not just another church institution. As one of the students remarked recently, the real head teacher at Kambaidam is the Holy Spirit. Well, he certainly did a good job! Our 35 new students were again fascinated by the new life they discovered among the second year students. The Word of God did the rest. During the month of March real repentance took place. One week before Easter the Holy Spirit moved mightily among the students and staff. There was a lot of crying during that week. Each night the students met in small prayer groups. The aim was to get them prepared to go out to seven small Easter camps that were planned for the Gazup area ­ our area here around the school. Well, God's Spirit really prepared them well! I have never seen and heard so much crying. Many students had listed all their sins. I must confess that some of these lists really shook me. There was witchcraft, magic, adultery, stealing, drunkenness. It once again showed me how deep and far the world has invaded the church today. There was tremendous relief as students were assured of forgiveness and were filled with the Holy Spirit.'

A young student, David, in his early twenties from the Markham Valley had a growing burden for his village of Waritzian which was known and feared as the centre of pagan occult practices. He prayed earnestly. As part of an outreach team he visited nearby villages and then went to his own people. He was concerned about the low spiritual life of the church. He spent a couple of days alone praying for them.

Then as he was teaching them they heard the sound of an approaching wind which filled the place. Many were weeping, confessing their sins. They burnt their fetishes used in sorcery. This area had been a stronghold of those practices. Many people received various spiritual gifts including unusual abilities such as speaking English in tongues and being able to read the Bible. People met for prayer, worship and study every day and at night. These daily meetings continued to be held for over two years.

In November 1990, Johan van Bruggen wrote:

'This is what happened about 2 months ago. A new church building was going to be officially opened in a village in the Kainantu area. Two of our last year's graduates took part in the celebrations by acting the story in Acts 3: Peter and John going to the temple and healing the cripple.

'Their cripple was a real one - a young man, Mark, who had his leg smashed in a car accident. The doctors had wanted to amputate it, but he did not want to lose his useless leg. He used two crutches to move around the village. He could not stand at all on that one leg. He was lying at the door of the new church when our Peter and John (real names: Steven and Pao) wanted to enter. The Bible story was exactly followed: "I have got no money, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!" Well, they acted this out before hundreds of people, among them the president of the Goroka Church District and many pastors and elders. Peter (Steven) grabbed the cripple (Mark) by the hand and pulled him up. And he walked! He threw his crutches away and loudly praised the Lord! Isn't that something? What a faith!

Their testimony was given at a meeting of elders when Kambaidam was discussed. Mark was a most happy fellow who stood and walked firmly on his two legs. He also had been involved in criminal activities, but in this meeting he unashamedly confessed his faith in the Lord Jesus.

Later I talked with them. Steven (Peter) told me that the Lord had put this on his heart during a week­long period of praying. "I had no doubt that the Lord was going to heal Mark, and I was so excited when we finally got to play­act!" And Mark? He told me that when Steven told him to get up he just felt the power of God descend upon him and at the same time he had a tingling sensation in his crippled leg: "I just felt the blood rushing through my leg, bringing new life!" Mark is now involved in evangelistic outreach and his testimony has a great impact.

Madruga, Cuba

In 1988, revival broke out in a small church in Madruga, Cuba. 'People would begin to weep when they entered the church,' said their pastor. More than 60 churches experienced a similar move of the Spirit. And today the Holy Spirit's presence is still being felt. Despite gestures of tolerance towards Christians, believers in Cuba still experience much hardship and oppression. Nevertheless, God is moving amongst the 10 million people of Cuba, just like in the early church recorded in the book of Acts.

The revival has generated more than 2,400 house churches - more than all the official churches put together. Though open evangelism is still outlawed, teenagers and joining the children and adults to witness boldly in parks, beaches, and other public places, regardless of the risk.

There is a 'holy and glorious restlessness' amongst the believers, said one pastor. 'The once defensive mood and attitude of the church has turned into an offensive one, and Christians are committed to the vision of "Cuba Para Cristo!" - Cuba for Christ!' (Open Doors, September 1993).

1988 saw astounding revival. The Pentecostals, Baptists, independent evangelical churches and some Methodist and Nazarene churches experienced it. One Assemblies of God church had around 100,000 visit it in six months, often in bus loads. One weekend they had 8000 visitors, and on one day the four pastors (including two youth pastors) prayed with over 300 people.

In many Pentecostal churches the lame walked, the blind saw, the deaf heard, and many people's teeth were filled. Often 2000 to 3000 attended meetings. In one evangelical church over 15000 people accepted Christ in three months. A Baptist pastor reported signs and wonders occurring continuously with many former atheists and communists testifying to God's power. So many have been converted that churches cannot hold them so they must met in many house churches.

'In Cuba in 1990, an Assemblies of God pastor whose congregation never exceeded 100 people meeting once a week suddenly found himself conducting 12 services per day for 7,000 people. They started queuing at 2.00 a.m. and even broke down doors just to get into the prayer meetings' (Robinson 1992:14).

1989

Henan and Anhul, China

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 baptised in the icy winter. The first baptised 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 baptised and spoke, 'Mother, Father, the water is not cold ­ the water is not cold.' A 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 baptised.

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 20­30 converts. But now it is not 20. It is 200, 300, and often 600 or more will be converted.'

Sister Wei, 22 years old in 1991, spent 48 days in prison for leading open air worship. She saw many healings in prison and many conversions.

On 12 March 1991, The South China Morning Post, acknowledged there were a million Christians in central Henan province, many having made previously unheard of decision to voluntarily withdraw from the party. 'While political activities are cold­shouldered, religious ones are drawing large crowds' (Hong Kong and China Report, March 1991).

Dennis Balcombe reported on 27 August 1994:

'The persecution of the church has not ceased since our arrest in February. Many home churches have been raided, Bibles confiscated and preachers put in prison... For example, one of the Henan preachers, a 28-year-old sister, has been given a 3 year prison sentence for distribution of Bibles. Many house churches in Guilin ... have been closed down and the leader imprisoned. ...

'This year has seen the greatest revival in Chinese history. Some provinces have seen over 100,000 conversions during the first half of this year. Because of this, the need for Bibles is greater than ever. This year we have distributed to the house churches over 650,000 New Testaments, about 60,000 whole Bibles, one million Gospel booklets and thousands of other books.'

Revival continues in China with mighty signs and wonders amid severe persecution, just as it was in the early church.

(c) Geoff Waugh, Fire Fell: Revival Visitations. Brisbane: Renewal.

PO Box 629, Strathpine, Qld. 4077, Australia.

E-mail: geoff@renewal.dialix.oz.au

Internet: http://www.pastornet.net.au/renewal

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