e killed and mutilated, with only Suharto and Nasution narrowly escaping execution. General Suharto became acting president, keeping the popular President Sukarno without power till his death in 1971.
At the time of the coup a powerful revival movement had begun in Timor at Soé, a mile-high mountain town of about 5,000 people where Rev. Daniel pastored the Reformed Church. A young man, Nahor Leo, was convicted by a vision of Jesus, destroyed a hidden amulet, and confessed publicly in the Reformed Church on the evening of Sunday, 26 September. The church experienced a Pentecost style Spirit movement.
The editors of Tyndale House Publishers, hearing of unusual revival reports from Timor, sent Don Crawford, a trained reporter, to investigate the revival in Indonesia, especially in Timor. He reported this way:
Calls to enter an evangelistic ministry came to young people in unusual fashion. Nahor Leo, a high school athlete with a reputation as a rebel, was stirred by a dynamic challenge to Christian service given by the headmistress of a Soé school. Later, studying in his room in Pastor Daniel’s home with two fellow students, he suddenly called out, “Who turned out the light?” Assured it was still burning, Leo stumbled to his bed. “I’m going to rest.”
He slept a few minutes. Then, as if wrenched from the bed, he fell to the floor and appeared to be struggling with an invisible force. Leo groped his way to his clothes box and thrust his hand to its bottom, then pulled up the root of a plant which was wound with red string. “Yes,” Leo muttered, as if answering the unseen visitor, “this is my djimat.”
Leo’s companions recognized the strange object as an instrument of witchcraft. “It’s true,” Leo spoke again. “I have used it to ask the spirits to help me win races and to attract girls.” The unusual conversation continued for a moment. Then Leo collapsed on the floor.
“What’s the matter? Who were you talking to?” one of the boys shouted. Leo slowly turned his sightless eyes toward his companions. At length the white-faced youth replied, “I saw the Lord. He made me reveal the djimat I had never given up. He told me he wanted me to serve him alone. And . . .” his voice trembled . . . “he told me I must have Pastor Daniel pray for me – or I will die. Would you get him, please?”
Pastor Daniel came swiftly at the desperate summons. After a prayer of confession, the fetish was burned. Then, reminiscent of the Apostle Paul when he was ministered to by the man of God, Leo’s sight was restored. And, like Paul, Leo became a persuasive evangelist, inspiring others to follow the Christian way.
It was the zeal of young leaders like Nahor Leo who formed wide-roving evangelistic teams that fanned the religious fire in Timor, Mr. Daniel told me, and continuing “signs and wonders” have fueled the flame. For in every case of a supernatural occurrence, there has followed a significant turning to the Christian faith.
On Sunday night, September 26, 1965, 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 firefighters. 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. Healings and evangelism increased dramatically. Specific directions from the Lord led the teams into powerful ministry with thousands 