e funeral of a young boy felt a strong impression to pray for the lad’s life. At first she resisted the impulse. The boy had been dead several hours and in that climate it was imperative that an unembalmed body be buried soon after death. But her feeling persisted. When it came time to put the lid of the wooden coffin in place, she felt compelled to act. She asked if she could offer a prayer. The ceremony was stopped to humor the old woman. While she was praying, the boy stirred, then rose up.
“To many observers the fact that the “dead” boy is alive today represents a miracle. But to the believers in Soé the miracle lies rather in how the event was useful in bringing a large number of animist worshipers to faith in Christ. Sardjito and the Soé church’s two pastors, Rev. Daniel and Rev. Binjamin Manuain, all asserted that such occurrences – as well as the testimony of those who had been delivered from the grip of witchcraft – spurred a remarkable growth of Christianity on the island. From Indonesian statistical sources I learned that in the first three years of the movement the Christian population of Timor grew by 200,000.”
The teams learned to listen to the Spirit of the Lord and obey him. His leadings came in many biblical ways:
1. God spoke audibly as with Samuel or Saul of Tarsus,
2. many had visions as did Mary or Cornelius,
3. there were inspired dreams such as Jacob, Joseph or Paul saw,
4. prophecies as in Israel and the early church occurred,
5. the still small voice of the Spirit-led many as with Elijah or Pauls missionary team,
6. the Lord often spoke through specific Bible verses,
7. circumstances proved to be God-incidences not just coincidences,
8. often when leadings were checked with the group or the church the Lord gave confirmations and unity as with Paul and Barnabas at Antioch.
The American wife of Mel Tari, Nori Tari noted that revival phenomena in Timor were neither obvious nor advertised, even though continually occurring, because the people live in greater awareness of spirit powers, do not talk about miracles except to a spiritual advisor or mentor, and do not expect everyone to be healed. They acknowledge God’s sovereignty, especially in what may happen, when and how it happens and to whom it may happen.
The Reformed Church Presbytery on Timor recorded 80,000 conversions from the first year of the revival there, half of those being former communists. They noted that some 15,000 people had been permanently healed in that year. After three years the number of converts had grown to over 200,000. In those three years over 200 evangelistic teams were formed. On another island with very few Christians, 20,000 became believers in the first three years of the revival.
These people movements can be studied from a range of perspectives beyond the scope of this thesis, such as the political, social, economic and historical dynamics involved. However, a crucial element of the Timor revival was the perceived authority and power of the Christians’ God over animistic gods and the confrontation with the authority and the magical powers of the local shaman. Significant church growth, people movements, and evangelism continually demonstrate such a power encounter between God’s Spirit and local gods or spirits.
1967 – February, Pittsburgh (Catholic Charismatic Renewal)
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 do