160 were baptized. Although there were several un related movings of the Spirit al most simultaneously, that story is as good as any to mark the begin ning. But it should be noted that the revival has never touched the whole country. Neither has it touched the entire church. Miracles oc curred almost exclusively in the more animistic areas, and even there current reports indicate that these begin to drop away when the new converts get into the Scrip tures. A missionary who has just returned from many years on Ti mor says that presently physical miracles are almost as scarce there as they are in America, but the work of evangelism and renewal may now be more solid than in earlier days. Another missionary writes: "It has long been a concern to many of us that the gracious work of Cod here has been commercialized. The deeper spiritual work of church renewal has been neglected in favor of the charismatic mani festations." The big question everybody asks is, "Were people raised from the dead?" If you cannot believe it, you should not be troubled since there is not one medically con firmed case. Nothing is going to come unglued if your faith does not stretch that far. But if your faith does not stagger at the prospect, you can join the company of some Timorese—and at least one mis sionary—who believe it happened. However, no one I have talked with endorses the book's claim that one man had been dead four days. The two or three cases to which they would give some credence Page 31
was Indonesia — fifth most popu lous nation in the world, strategi cally located off the tip of South east Asia, in imminent danger of going Communist. In a dramatic reversal which many Indonesian? believe was Cod's intervention, the nation was spared. The demigod, Sukarno, was overthrown. Politi cally and economically, the nation was on the ropes. The people? Animists (worship ers of spirits) for the most part, yet claimed in the Islamic fold. Although the church in the main was theologically orthodox, it was sadly deficient in spiritual life. Many church members continued idolatrous practices. Into this setting the Spirit of Cod wonderfully moved. It is hard to pinpoint the beginning of the re vival because no one was looking for it. It may have started on the island of Java in 1964 with a Bible. A boy who had been attending a Christian school in Salatiga re turned home to central Java for the holidays that year with a New Tes tament in his pocket, a gift from the school. Religion seemed to have died out in his Communist village, but every evening the boy would read the stories about Jesus to his brothers and sisters. Soon some adults joined the group. Then friends and neighbors dropped in. All agreed they never had heard such beautiful stories. Anxious to have the gospel ex plained, they sent a message to Salatiga asking for a preacher. When Pastor Soesilo came a group of 150 gathered to hear him, all of whom were baptized six months later. These told others, and before long 12 adjacent villages had re quested a preacher and another
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