DAWN Fridayfax 1997 #3

DAWN News from Pensacola, USA (Special Report)

Pensacola, USA: 86,000 converts, 1.5m visitors

"Since Father's Day, 18th June 1995, the Brownsville Assemblies of God church has been experiencing revival-like phenomena in which thousands of people have been saved," said Clive Calver, General Secretary of the English Evangelical Alliance following a recent visit to the church. According to the church leadership, pastor John Kilpatrick and evangelist Steve Hill, around 1.5 million people from all over the world have visited the church, and 86,000 have decided to follow Christ since June 1995. The Brownsville Assemblies of God (3100 West Desoto St., Pensacola, FL 32505, USA) has a service at 10am on Sunday and "Revival Services" from Wednesday to Friday at 7pm and on Saturday at 6pm. Friday evening is a baptism service. The following is a selection from the many reports which we have received through official channels:

Out the back door, but caught by the gospel

Joseph Justiss tells that through a life of homosexuality, drug addiction and occultism, he ended up feeling totally unimportant. His life seemed so senseless that he had to take medication against depression. One day, he returned to Pensacola, his home town, where his mother persuaded him to visit the services at the Brownsville Assemblies of God. He didn't like what he experienced there, but was somehow drawn back there. When evangelist Steve Hill approached him, he ran out of the back door, but the evangelist caught up and prayed with him, at which point he experienced a great spiritual freedom. He says that he went home and burned 4 rubbish sacks full of occult and pornographic material in his parent's garden. Today, he works in a Christian TV station.

Even an unmovable plastic knee moves

Rev. Dan Livingstone, pastor of the First Assemblies of God in Pensacola, had been invited to speak in a church outside Florida. On the final evening, he saw a woman jumping around in the church to the excited cheers of the congregation. When he asked what was going on, he was told that the woman was the elder sister of the church's pastor, and had been involved in a serious car accident in 1954, in which both of her legs had been badly injured. Since then, she had undergone 24 operations, and had had an unmovable plastic knee in her left leg for the last three years; she could only walk with difficulty, and could not climb stairs. Since the service that evening, she no longer has problems with stairs, and was able to go up to the first floor of her own house for the first time in years!

Modern lost son returns home

19-year-old Patrick Waters, an impressive-looking 264lbs (19 st.), worked as a bouncer at nightclubs. He had left home and lived alone for some time, and had no idea how often he had been high on drugs. "But," he said, "what I experienced that evening was incomparably better, as I kneeled and gave my life to Jesus." Surprisingly, as Patrick told the church of his conversion, his father walked up to the podium; as the small father embraced his gigantic son, nobody in the congregation had a dry eye. Patrick had decided to follow Jesus only the day before his testimony.

Concert cancelled - drug dealer is saved

A well-known drug dealer from Meridian, Mississippi, had been invited to a concert in the Pensacola Civic Center by two of his old colleagues, both of whom had become Christians after a recent visit to the Brownsville AoG church. Due to unforeseen circumstances, the concert was cancelled. The two new converts took the opportunity to drive to the church, where they persuaded the drug boss to come in with them. He also decided to become a Christian.

"I am the door" - salvation in the parking lot

A woman asked for prayer for her husband, a non-Christian. The church has a prayer table, on which people can place photos of those who need prayer. Her husband was a long-distance driver, and often away from home. One day, he returned to his truck after stopping in a resting place in the Mid-West. However hard he tried, he could not open the door with the key. He tried everything he could, but without success, and was unable to climb back into his truck. He could feel that something unusual was happening to him, and started to cry, fell to his knees and asked Jesus to come into his life there in the middle of the parking lot. Testifying about the experience in the church with his wife, he said that he had heard no sermon, and nobody had accompanied him in prayer. He simply felt the Holy Spirit calling him to seek salvation in Jesus.

Hot Stuff

The young attorney Jeff G. lived a life full of drugs, alcohol and was a slave to rock music. Even following his salvation, the hundreds of albums and CDs were precious to him, but he could feel that God wanted him "to clean his house". Whenever he touched T-shirts, pictures, books and CDs, it seemed that they were hot, and he felt that he should throw them away. As he touched a basket full of "Grateful Dead" tapes, he burned his hand so much that he had to cool it under the tap. That evening, he threw hundreds of albums and CDs away - and felt richer than ever before. He had peace with God.

Police bring criminals to church

The police had arrested three suspected drug dealers in Brownsville, but instead of taking them to jail, drove them to the church. Two of the three decided to become Christians that evening. A recent article in the Pensacola News Journal reported that the crime rate in the town has declined dramatically in the past months.

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