I ran across this interesting story in an article in November 2006 Christianity Today: “Behold the Global Church” by Brenda Salter McNeil. The whole article was good but this particular part is incredible and I pass it along to all of you seeking and looking for Revival:
I once met a brother from Ghana, West Africa, who was completing his Ph.D. in the School of World Missions at Fuller Theological Seminary. During one of his trips home, he attempted to share the gospel with several people who lived in his community. Although they listened respectfully, no one turned to Jesus Christ. He later learned that they were intimidated by a witch doctor who lived nearby. The witch doctor kept a symbol of his authority hanging outside his home: a lattice basket, filled with water, that never leaked.
My friend decided to pray that God would empty the basket.
He stayed outside the home of the witch doctor and prayed all night that God would demonstrate his power. At some point he fell asleep. The next morning he was awakened by a commotion. The basket was empty. That town saw a mass revival as people learned about the God who caused the water to come out of the basket. There had been a power encounter and God had won.
Brenda McNeil also gives several ‘spot on’ comments and observations following the account:
We who were raised in the West, with the West’s rational worldview, can try to explain that story away. But I believe we need African Christians to teach us how to preach the gospel in power. The West is overwhelmed with information for information’s sake and wary of truth that is rational yet impotent. The next major evangelist may well emerge from Africa or Latin America or China or Singapore.
We will need them, and simply saying that we will need them is a big step for many of us. The culture of America, of American Christianity both white and black, has been one of self-sufficiency and independence. But what God may be doing in this dramatic, perilous kairos moment is calling us to something different”a culture of interdependency, where we depend on one another across racial, ethnic, and national boundaries.
Many of us in America and the West have thought about going to Africa or Asia to preach the Gospel. What if the next move of God in the USA and Europe is helped along by African or Asian evangelists? An interesting possibility.