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While most of my classmates went off to different seminaries I was just not feeling led in that direction. Janice still had another semester to complete before she graduated and I definitely wanted to stay and support her just as she had me. Plus at this point I was having some real reservations as to whether I wanted to serve in a Church at all. The great thing about Mississippi College was they didn't try to brainwash you into thinking just like them. Nor did they try to tell you what your call was. Most all the professors taught all aspects of religion and left it up to the Holy Spirit to be your guide.
In the summer of 1997 we were looking for a cheap and family-friendly place we could take the kids for vacation. Being college students we didn’t have a lot of extra money but still always did our best to do things as a family. My parents used to live in Gulf Breeze, Florida and told us about a nice camp ground at Fort Pickens. We decided we would go down there for a week and camp out. We had some friends named Mike and Darlene who we went to church with who had a camper so I asked if we could borrow it for the week. They agreed and when I went to pick up the camper Mike told me that while we were down there we may want to check out this revival that was taking place in Pensacola. Well to this point my idea of revival only came from my Baptist Church experiences; some quest preacher coming in for a few days and preaching evangelical messages. But as he spoke I could tell that something was different about him. He was normally a very quiet guy but there seemed to be a spiritual fire lit inside and the zeal in his voice kind of peaked my interest. So I wrote down the details of the revival and didn't really know if we would go or not. After all we were going to the Florida beaches and I couldn't see us spending the week at some revival service.
We arrived at the camp grounds and got everything setup. The camp grounds were amazing. On one side was the bay and the other side was the ocean, with beautiful white sand beaches all within walking distance. When we arrived across from us was a large group of teenagers and a couple of adults supervising. I went over and introduced myself and discovered that they were troubled youth from a rehab ministry. Something prompted me to share my testimony with the group leaders and when I was through they excitedly asked me if I would mind sharing my testimony with the group. I knew God had opened a door here so I eagerly shared the amazing transformation the Lord had done in my life. After my testimony I prayed with the group and began chatting with the leaders a little more. I discovered that they were there to take the youth to the Brownsville Revival in Pensacola. He said that it was an amazing work of God going on and we ought to check it out. Well Mike had already told me about this revival before we left and here I had another invitation. I thought perhaps this was just confirmation from the Lord that we needed to go. So I talked to Janice and we decided to take the kids that evening.
When we arrived we were amazed to see people waiting in this long line to get in the church. I certainly had never seen people wait in line to get in church before. So we got in line and began talking with people. Most all had been there many times before and were so excited to be there. We met people from all over the world who had come to Pensacola for the sole purpose of attending this revival. We found out that this was nothing new and that it had actually started on Father’s Day 1995 and they had been meeting seven days per week. Well as you can imagine I was in shock. How was it that I was in college as a religion major and never once heard of this amazing move of God? Well after a very long wait in line they finally started letting people in. It was a huge church but we were still concerned if we would even get in the main sanctuary or not. Fortunately we did but had to sit in the very back.
Once the praise and worship started we knew we were in a special place. To this point all we knew were Baptist hymns and Christian Radio. But this was something completely new. Lindell Cooley, the worship leader for the revival began leading the praise and worship and it was like nothing we had ever experienced before. You could see the hunger in people’s faces and they were actually singing to the heart of God. You couldn't help but to get caught up in the worship and by the time we were through you actually felt like you had been in the presence of almighty God. Then the Evangelist for the revival, Steve Hill brought a powerful message on repentance and when the invitation was given, the alters were full of people weeping and repenting before a Holy God. It was so far beyond anything I had ever experienced. I was a bit numb. I really did not feel a need to repent; after all I was in Bible school and trying to serve the Lord. What could I possibly need to repent of? We stayed and watched after the alter call as the ministry team began walking through the crowds praying for people. We were seeing people fall under the power of God for the very first time and this kind of freaked me out. I had never seen anything like this before.
We left and went back to the campground where we discovered quite a few people who had been to the revival. All were extremely blessed as we talked about our experiences. I met a guy who had a truck stop ministry and he explained to me many of the things I did not understand which had taken place. It was like a whole new side of Christianity had been opened to me. This was so much closer to what we read about in the New Testament than the dull excuse for religion I had been experiencing. All I knew was I wanted more. We continued having our fun during the day but each night we went back to revival. By the end of the week God showed me the religious pride in my own heart and after repenting of my sin I felt a newly found power emerge. I thought I had experienced some pretty amazing things in Mexico but this was far beyond anything I had ever felt in my life. I could not wait to get back home and share with everyone about the amazing week we just had.
Check back tomorrow for Chapter 10, A Season of Disappointments
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