olve the bitterness in my heart… In his own time and at his own pleasure he sent a divine solvent into this troubled heart. It was like the warmth of the sun burning off the layers of fog.
I don’t know just how the love came in, but I know that all the bitterness I held against others including those near to me disappeared.
Resentment hostility hurt feelings you name it.
They all dissolved. Evaporated.
He commented on this laying hands on people for prayer, which was normal in Afterglows: “Call it revival, renewal, a fresh touch, an anointing, times of refreshing, or what you will. I needed it.”
That deep work of the Spirit continues now across the world. Its expressions vary with different cultures and denominational traditions. However, the divine Spirit deeply impacts those who continue to seek the Lord.
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1973 – September: Enga District, Papua New Guinea
During September 1973 pastors from the Solomon Islands Enga Baptist churches in the highlands of New Guinea. They conducted meetings throughout the area including sessions with village pastors.
Revival broke out in many villages on Sunday 16 September when the pastors had returned to their churches. Hundreds of people, deeply convicted of sin, repented and were reconciled to God and others with great joy. Pastors in one area held a retreat from Monday to Wednesday in a forest which previously had been sacred for animistic spirit worship. Others joined the pastors there. Healings included a lame man able to walk, a deaf mute who spoke and heard, and a mentally deranged girl was restored.
Work stopped as people in their thousands hurried to special meetings. Prayer groups met daily, morning and evening. Most villages established special places for prayer such as groves near the village where people could go and pray at any time. In the following months thousands of Christians were restored and thousands were converted. The church grew in size and maturity.
This was followed in the eighties by tough times. Tribal conflict, destruction and bloodshed erupted. Revival often precedes hard times and equips God’s people to endure, or even to suffer for him.
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1973 – September: Phnom Penh, Cambodia (Todd Burke)
In September, 1973, Todd Burke arrived in Cambodia on a one week visitor’s visa. Just 23 years old, he felt a strong call from God to minister there, the only charismatic missionary in the country. Beginning with two English classes a day, conducted through an interpreter, he taught from the Good News Bible. Those interested in knowing more about Jesus stayed after class and he saw regular conversions and people filled with the Spirit and healed. Revival broke out in the war torn capital of Phnom Penh and rapidly spread to surrounding areas.
During that September Todd’s wife DeAnn joined him and their visas were extended. A capable interpreter, Thay, joined their team and they received government permission to hold a crusade from 28 September on the afternoons of Friday to Sunday in the athletic stadium. A singing team from the States arrived the day before the crusade began and led each meeting for half an hour with songs and testimonies.
Todd Burke described that first meeting:
About five thousand people were in the audience, most of them middle and lower class people. Among them was a large number of refugees. Seated to my left was a whole section of soldiers dressed in battle fatigues. Many of them had been wounded or had suffered the loss of a limb and I was touched by the look of hope written on their attentive faces. Before the meeting I overheard a reporter interviewing one soldier who was leaning on crutches near the platform. He had lost his right leg in combat. “I don’t understand what this is going to be about,” he said, “but maybe this Jesus can help to relieve our pain and sorrows.” That was my prayer too. …
As the time drew near for me to speak, I began praying for God to anoint me with the Holy Spirit. I needed his power to proclaim the Lordship of Jesus to these people who had never heard his message. …
Thay was interpreting phrase b