R A Z I L - . •; • | H ' . ’Vi" IIPP
revival
the baby was passed from mother to mother; happy men embraced the father; there was singing, testifying, praise, prayer, conviction, confession, decision and an informal meeting until midnight. Medical evidence? Well, Reverendo Raul said that he was satisfied, be cause among the 87 professedly con verted that night was the Roman Catholic family doctor who had de livered the blind child. Did the re vival last? Well, next year’s report showed that 178 had been added to the church in the revival, the church having had only 60 members when Dunlap first went there. It must not be deduced from this that either Dun lap or his other colleagues featured healing in their campaigns. Rather the healings were incidental in a campaign aimed at revival and sal vation, which I believe is better than conversions incidental in a campaign aimed at healings. When the comparatively unknown young Los Angeles pastor returned to the United States it was to find that the Foreign Missions Board of the Presbyterian Church (USA) had made a minute of record regarding his work in Brazil for General As sembly praising God for the outpour ing of His Spirit through His servants in Brazil. The revival movement is continuing. The aggressive congre gation in Sao Paulo where Dunlap and his colleague preached has now completed the building of their cathedral, seating more than 3,000. The 127 Baptist churches in Rio are engaged in an evangelistic crusade. Everywhere there are signs of bless ings, and the Brazilian believers like to think that Brazil (a country with the possibility of outstripping the USA in population )w ill be the first Latin country to become Protestant. END.
after the service, in the vestry. The importunate woman protested that Reverendo William Dunlapi had said that it was when the 120 were to gether in one accord and one place that things happened. (Dunlap had passed on that thought from Armin Gesswein!) There happened to be 120 Brazilians in the packed opt chapel. So Reverendo Raul took the baby in his arms, and prayed a very ‘iffy’ prayer: “ Lord, if it be Thy will, heal this little blind child; if not, give the mother strength to bear the burden.” He confessed later that he felt sure the answer was in the nega tive. So he handed the baby back to its mother. The mother screamed. The peli- cula (to use the Brazilian word) or film covering both eyes of the infant had split and curled backwards. The mother could see that her child was healed. Then followed what the Rev erendo Raul described as “the most un-Presbyterian meeting” of his ex perience. People stood on the pews; FACTS : BRAZIL. The active membership of the evangelical churches of Brazil is increasing 12 times as fast as the population, and the Protestant con stituency now numbers more than two million. In Brazil today there are more evangelical Christians than in France, Italy, Spain, Portu gal, Belgium and all the rest of Latin America added together. Bra zil is enjoying a revival of religion which has been marked by the crowding of churches for prayer at six in the morning, by the winning of thousands for Christ, bv the building of new churches in many cities and by reconciliation of brethren. In land-size, Brazil is more than 2 5 0 ,0 0 0 square miles larger than the U.S.
Dunlap continued in revival min istry, preaching in great united cam paigns throughout central Brazil. It was a far cry from ministry in Los Angeles. One Saturday, Dunlap returned to headquarters feeling rather depressed. He reported that he had been preach ing in a small town named Nepomu- ceno, in a Presbyterian church too small to have a pastor. The people were largely illiterate, and the re sponse was poor. To his friends he protested: “ Sure, I preached the Word. Half of what I gave them was my own, and the rest borrowed from Billy Graham and Edwin Orr. But it was all the Word.” He had sowed the Word deeper than he thought possible. After Dun lap’s departure from Brazil, a Pres byterian minister in metropolitan Rio received an urgent telegram from Lavras, where there is a flourishing church, to come and hold meetings in Nepomuceno— to him, a very odd request, seeing that the mission church there depended upon month ly visits from the nearest two pastors. But Reverendo Raul agreed to go. During the second evening, at the commencement of his sermon, Rever endo Raul was interrupted by a peas ant woman coming forward with a baby in her arms, loudly demanding that he pray for the healing of her totally blind child. The pastor- evangelist tactfully suggested that they had better talk together in the vestry after the service. After all, he was a Presbyterian! But the distressed woman quoted Reverendo William Dunlapi (as he was called) “ Greater things than these shall ye do!” which Dunlap had applied to the need of revival, whereas the poor woman ap plied them to her closest need. The evangelist promised that he would pray for the blind child—
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