Revival Fire News

by Barkos Warjri

15th September 2006
Dear …,
We have not met but Pauline has spoken so well of you
it seems like I have met you. Pauline returned on 21st
August to Delhi where I met her and we then flew back
together to Bangalore the next evening. You would of
course have guessed by now that I am her husband,
Barkos.
Thank you very much for the good time the choir had in
Kandy and for your warm reception. Pauline has told me
of your interest on things which are eternal and
wanted me to share with you some of the news.
Events of the last fortnight have gripped our
attention. You may have not read of them in the news
but they have been God’s answer to the prayers of
believers in Meghalaya, the NE Indian state we come
from. You may have heard of the Welsh revival of 1904.
The same spirit spread to the Khasi and Jaintia Hills
of Meghalaya in 1906. My grandfather was born in that
year and had some stories to tell me of the faith of
our ancestors. The Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Mission
had sent missionaries to these hills early in the 19th
Century. They won the first convert about the year
1846 and then set up the Presbyterian Church, which
grew to become the largest denomination among the
Khasi-Jaintia tribe. This church had been praying for
another revival and in the centenary celebrations to
commemorate that event, in a village called Mairang
(where the revival broke out in 1906), in the month of
March this year, there were fervent prayers
accompanied, I believe, with a strong hope among some,
that God would indeed do something new.
Soon after, the revival fervour picked up in some
villages. It did not move to the urban areas for
several, months. When I had occasion to visit
Shillong, for a week, in August, I heard some
inspiring stories about what God was doing. There were
some miraculous incidents which took place, and which
encouraged many to a renewal of their faith.
On the 3rd August I heard of interesting developments
in a church in Shillong, the capital city of
Meghalaya. Daily evangelistic meetings had begun in
the church from the 10th July. From the 13th July
there was a preacher from the Mizo tribe (from the
state of Mizoram). He could not speak English so his
messages were translated into Khasi. (The Lingua
Franca among the different peoples of NE India is
mainly English among the educated or Hindi). The
enthusiasm was such that the preacher was asked to
continue for another week, which he did, having no
scheduled programme then. From then on the daily
services continued. I visited the Laban Presbyterian
Church on 5th August 2006, and saw there a completely
different service from what I had been used to in the
Prebyterian environment. I was struck by the contrasts
between the lack of a proper scheduled programme and
the evident order. There was no confusion. The first
thing I noticed on entering the evening service was
that some people were standing while some were sitting
as they were singing. It was evident that there was no
rule to sit or stand or clap or raise hands, yet all
was in order. ‘Let us all rise’ and ‘Kindly be seated’
were conspicuous by their absence.
Another thing was very evident, there was an unusually
large number of children and youth for an evening
service. They were the ones who were most active in
the singing as well as the prayers. The singing
continued for an hour after which testimonies were
shared followed by a sermon. Half the congregation
responded to the altar call. During the closing prayer
I heard something that I had never heard before, an
instant sound, which I thought was rain, so even yet
sharp and intense. I looked up and realised that all
the people in the front of the church had
simultaneously broken out in prayer, and two weeks
later I remembered a verse of the ‘voice of many
waters’ (Rev.14.2 & 19.6). It felt like there was a
spontaneous laying siege of heaven. (I was not really
surprised when I read a description, a few days ago,
in similar terms of event in a church during the
Korean Revival of 1907).
It was uplifting, and this, in an orthodox
Presbyterian church! The praying and singing went on
for another hour after the benediction, very few
choosing to leave at that point. Through this extra
hour the children were delightfully active in group
prayers and singing, walking around in an open space
in front, where several pews had been removed to make
an open space.
Beginning 1st September, however God seems to have
poured out his spirit without any holding back. It
looks like he has overturned the barrel and it hit the
church like a dam which had broken. Children are
prophesying, young people are seeing visions. School
administrators were shocked to see children break out
in prayers, songs, or falling down unconscious. This
happened in school after school, often during the
morning assembly, or even during classes. Children
were also taking their Bibles to school at no one’s
bidding. At one school, a catholic school, a teacher
(I know him well and spoke to him a few days ago),
while taking a class noticed that there were a few
small slips of neatly cut paper with the hand-written
words ‘Jesus Loves You.’ He asked who had done it and
a boy stood up. He stated that he wanted to do it and
that he wanted to pass on similar messages, which he
had with him, to as many as he could. He could not say
why he did it beyond the urge that he had, to do so.
The teacher was taken aback for a few moments; the boy
comes from a Marwari family, who are strict Jains and
would not have heard the gospel in any substantially
coherent form.
The demons also seem to have come out full force and
the battles are raging. In school after school, and
church after church stories of spiritual struggles
abound. In one school, a girl who was undergoing such
a test recovered only after her mother, a pagan, most
reluctantly agreed to burn the amulet her witch doctor
had given her just a few days ago. The burning was
followed by frightful screams and wails by that
mother. I heard this from a pastor friend who prayed
for the girl.
Interestingly, the streets are peaceful. No drunkards,
no fights, just young people singing even rather late
at night. The midweek meetings in the churches are
full — no place to sit. In fact all churches are now
having packed daily evening meetings. A friend whom I
spoke to yesterday said that they could not find even
a place to sit though he and his family had reached
the church 15 minutes before the afternoon service,
last Sunday (10th September).
Last evening I spoke to a girl who had just returned
to Bangalore from Shillong, and she told of the
reconciliation in her family. Such was their joy that
she took two days off from college in the last weekend
and flew to Shillong to join her parents and siblings.
For the first time they were praying as a family.
There are countless such stories of repentance,
reconciliation (a divorced couple close to our family
got back together last week), forgiveness and renewal.
There are also the miraculous.

One thing I could no longer be sceptical about, was
the unexplained illumination of the wooden cross in
the church I grew up and where my parents still live.
It happened on 5th September early in the morning at
about 0045hrs when the church was full with people
singing. It sounds strange, but events had picked up
in this church throughout the previous day that it was
not possible to stop the unscheduled singing and
praying which started on the morning of the 4th
September from about an hour before noon. My nephew
heard a young boy shout ‘Jesus, Jesus, look Jesus,’
and he and his friends, who were sitting near the main
door of the church building ignored the shout,
thinking it was one of many people seeing visions.
When an excitement picked up later, he looked up and
was shocked to see the cross above the pulpit shining
and showing what appeared to be the form of a man on
it. Stunned, he called his mother (my sister) who
rushed immediately to the church and who called me,
dazed and shocked at 0150 hours. (I usually switch off
my mobile phone at night but that night I knew I had
to keep it open). I could not get another wink after
that. I was excited by the virtual running commentary
I got after every half an hour. I wanted desperately
to see what would happen at daylight. If the
illumination was caused by an effect of the lights it
would be normal in the morning. Instead it became
clearer as the sun rose and remains so even till
today.
It is a wooden cross, covered in sun mica and hollow
behind. The bulbs behind it light up the background
and silhouette the cross starkly against the wall.
Today even as I write, it is not merely that
background which is bright. The wooden body itself
remains bright with the x-ray-like image still
present. The view is seen only from the central door
of the church and not from the sides or near it. From
any other direction it looks as normal as on any other
day. It became, I am afraid a sort of idol for some
time until the church leadership came out clearly on
the matter. Even then it has not stopped countless
people streaming in to see it, especially
non-Christians. There are also several testimonies of
people who have been touched by simply entering the
church building and who know that it is God who has
done something to them. I would be able to send you
photographs if you would like so.
The events have opened my eyes to the immensity of
God. He just seems to have burst out of the box. When
God does His work it simply floors us. He is beyond
what we ever comprehended, and…… beyond the boxes
we tend to put Him in.
Pauline and I felt inclined to share our joy and, at
times our moments of sheer stunned silence with you.

God bless you, and once again. Pauline appreciates the
short time she shared with you.

Yours Sincerely,
Barkos Warjri

18th Sept 2006

The revival moves on. Changes are taking place in our state.
Yesterday in the EGF (Evangelical Graduate Fellowship)
meeting I shared about how God answers beyond what we
ask or think (Eph 3.20). In our evangelistic work we
need to be prepared for what is beyond our
expectation.
Many times, when God answers and it is not according
to our expectation we tend to reject it. One friend
asked me, “..but how can people repent if they had not
heard any word?” He questioned the genuineness of the
experiences. I remembered Paul who though he was
already an authority on Jewish theology, accepted
Christ not through preaching, by a miraculous
manifestation of the Saviour.
‘Your ways are not my ways.’ For many years I had kept
God in my box. If He functioned beyond those
parameters I rejected the work. I have now realized
that I cannot keep Him in the box any longer and I
have been struck by the immensity of his abilities. I
thought he is indeed God. I have realized that he is
not a Baptist, Methodist, or Pentecostal God, but that
He is beyond all these puerile boundaries.
My mind was broadened by what a good old friend and
mentor said to me exactly two weeks ago. “The
unfortunate thing about much of our Christian work is
that, in the more traditional persuasions, we have
thrown the baby out with the bath water. The other
extreme is that of swallowing everything hook, line
and sinker.” I have understood more clearly how narrow
the way is.
I am enclosing an old report of the
Korean revival I picked up from the net. I am amazed
at the similarity of the narrator’s experience to
mine, especially ‘no confusion’, (I saw order); ‘the
falling of many waters’, (I recalled later the voice
of many waters). It struck my wife as unusual that two
people a century apart, in two very different
countries would have such similar feelings about two
events separated by 99 years.