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Thursday, 06 August 2009: Adrienne S. Gaines
Evangelist Rodney Howard-Browne says a revival has
broken out in his native South Africa that has seen more
than 138,000 people make decisions for Christ in the
last 46 days.
“In 30 years now of ministry, I’ve never seen anything
like this in my life,” said Howard-Browne, founder of
Revival Ministries International and pastor of The River
Church in Tampa, Fla. “It’s not about a meeting and it’s
not about me; it’s about the power of God. It’s about
Jesus. I’m just here with a message and people are
grabbing a hold of it.”
Howard-Browne said since the services began June 21,
they have reached viewers in more than 220 cities, where
he says the sick are being healed in hospitals and
people are being delivered of demonic oppression.
In each city, participants also have been mobilized to
evangelize using a soul-winning script Howard-Browne’s
ministry developed for its Great Awakening Tour, which
has reportedly seen more than 1 million people across
the U.S. make decisions for Christ since February 2007.
But Howard-Browne, who became well-known in the 1990s
for leading revival services where attendees often
laughed uncontrollably, said the “awakening” in South
Africa is unlike anything he has ever seen.
“What is happening here is everything that I prayed for
in America,” Howard-Browne said. “I don’t know why God
did it here first.”
Although he said there have been reports of cancer being
healed and tumors miraculously disappearing, he points
primarily to testimonies of salvation as signs of
revival. He said a witch doctor came to Christ in one
city, and a 92-year-old woman caught a passion for
evangelism and led seven people to Christ using the
“Gospel Soul-Winning Script” that opens with the
question, “Has anyone ever told you God loves you and
has a plan for your life?”
“The purpose of the meetings ... was people coming back
to their first love, falling in love with Jesus all over
again, and the upper room experience, the power of
Pentecost to go outside the four walls of the church,”
Howard-Browne said. “That’s the way the early church
started, and that’s the way this end-time church has to
function.”
With unemployment at 65 percent in the nation’s Eastern
Cape, which includes East London, and hundreds
contracting HIV each day, Howard-Browne said many South
Africans are desperate for change. He believes the
“fire” will continue even after the meetings end on
Sunday, which will mark 50 days of consecutive revival
services.
He said God told him to end the meetings after 50 days
because that number speaks of the biblical year of
Jubilee, which was celebrated every 50 years, and
Pentecost, which means “the 50th day” in Greek.
“What is happening here is not going to stop,”
Howard-Browne said. “The people are desperate enough
here, they’re not going to let this fire go out. And
they realize it’s not something that revolves around
these 50 days. It’s not about a meeting; it’s about a
passion.”
Howard-Browne, who came to the U.S. as a missionary with
his wife, Adonica, more than 20 years ago, believes a
similar revival will happen in the U.S. within the next
two to four years “as people get desperate.”
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