tors who cannot accept the book hands down are being rejected by their members. "They tell me I am unspiritual, or I would believe it," one pastor wrote. Some laymen find their faith shaken because no matter how much they pray, such miracles do not happen to them. They are writing me because a statement of mine — lifted out of context from a story I wrote in 1967— is quoted in the foreword and an implied endorsement of the contents. They want to know if l do indeed endorse the book. The simple answer is: l do not. But more needs to be said. Some additional light should be shed. The whole issue needs a broader perspective. When I wrote my report, I cov ered mainly the evangelistic and church growth aspects of the In donesian revival. To be sure, l heard stories of miracles in hours of interviews with Indonesians and missionaries. I chose not to report these, although a few others were telling these stories in the United States even then. My reasons were three: First, I had no way of personally verifying these stories, even though I did not doubt that some of them may have been true. An Indones- Page 29
Anything which moves the Church toward renewal and con tributes to a deeper God-con sciousness in this country should, 1 suppose, be welcomed with re joicing. Some people tell me that is what a recently-published book is doing. But if the book, Like a Mighty Wind, is having a positive effect in some places, there is no ques tion that elsewhere it is creating serious problems. It is a collection of stories from the Indonesian re vival compiled from talks given in the United States by a 24-year-old Indonesian, a one-time member of an evangelistic team on the island of Timor. The stories he tells are enthrall ing — resurrections from the dead, water turned into wine, playback of children's voices without bene fit of tape recorder, and clothes that never got dirty. These tales of miracles make it the kind of book which would be passed from hand to hand by ear nest and honest people who long to see the supernatural power of God demonstrated in their lives and churches. But my mail — and even tele phone calls — indicate that all the results are not happy. Some pas
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