1950s Awakenings in Latin America: J. Edwin Orr on the History of Revival

One reaction we get from people who hear about these great times of revival in the past is, why don't things happen like that today? Did you know that in Cuba, which is the problem child of the Americas, a great movement of revival began in 1950 in Santiago de Cuba in the east? An evangelist came to hold two weeks of meetings. Soon there were fifteen thousand gathering each night, and a mighty wave of revival began sweeping all over Cuba. In Baní, a very small place, ten thousand people were gathered on the north shore. Great meetings outdoors everywhere; there wasn't a church or a theater able to accommodate the multitudes. In Holguín, a church of two thousand four hundred was born in less than three weeks, and an offering of nine thousand dollars was made by poor converts, just enough to purchase a disused shoe factory, which they used as a sanctuary.

In 1951, another evangelist from Phoenix, Arizona, began with great overflowing crowds in Havana, and the work accomplished was reported as something that several missionaries couldn't have done in a lifetime. One of the leaders, H. C. Ball, insisted that all the churches in Cuba are enjoying the benefits of this revival, which had strong Pentecostal charismatic overtones. Now, as I said to you before, there have been many great awakenings without all these accompanying signs, but in Cuba, it had these overtones. For instance, the Episcopalians increased to thirty-seven hundred, Presbyterians thirty-two hundred, Methodists eight thousand, the Baptists fourteen thousand seven hundred and ten, and by the end of the fifties, there were two hundred and sixty-four thousand nine hundred and twenty-seven evangelical Christians in the Cuban population. Now, that of course would include only active church members.

During the first two years of the awakening, there were prophetic messages with regularity that the revival would flow like waters from an artesian well all over the island, but the trouble with the government would put a stop to this great flow of living water. Now, in 1952, Batista set up his dictatorship and began to suppress the churches. Many Christians were stoned, some were killed, others lost their homes just because they didn't support Batista. But then, of course, what happened was they thought they were going to be delivered by Castro, and of course, when Castro took over, he eased all the missionaries out. Yet the work of God has continued. You must not assume that under a communist dictatorship the work of God stops; it does not. But it seems to be rather interesting that God sends revival like that before trouble comes—not always the case.

Now, I could talk to you about revival in other parts of the Caribbean, but there wouldn't be time. Perhaps I may give you something of a personal testimony of the great revival in Brazil that began in 1951. Now, in 1951, I had a strong urge to go to South America. My wife wasn't too happy about it. We've been married 44 years; I'm sure I've been out of the country more than 22 of the 44.

Now, a missionary on the field has his wife with him. Sometimes, they have to send their children home to school, but in this particular case, I've had these long separations for the sake of the Gospel. My wife said, "You're just restless." I said, "No, I feel I must go." So, I gave her all the money I had. I didn't have a salary; I didn't have much money, but I gave it to her and I started off for San Diego.

I preached for Youth for Christ. They gave me a thank offering. I went across to Tijuana and flew on the Mexican airlines down to Mexico and on down to San Jose in Costa Rica. There, I ran out of money. When I arrived there, Kenneth Strachan, a very famous Latin American missionary, said, "You couldn't have come at a better time. They've just moved the language school from Colombia because of the civil war to Costa Rica." So, I had a week of meetings with American students of every denomination, and we saw revival among those students.

My big problem was how do I go on from here? I went to Pan American on Saturday morning and I said, "I want to fly on Monday right across the top of South America across to Trinidad." I think the fare at that time was about $239, something like that. I didn't have it. They said, "Because you're not Costa Rican, you must pay in American dollars." Where was I to get the money? I was told also, "You must get your ticket before 12 o'clock noon because the plane leaves at five o'clock in the morning and the new offices open on Monday morning."

I was walking up and down outside the Pan American office when a jeep pulled up, and there was Kenneth Strachan with the president of the student body. "We've been looking for you," they said. I said, "Well, here I am. I'm done talking about my travel." They said, "You know, we took up an offering behind your back, and we didn't have time to bank it or give you a check, so we just brought it here in American dollars." I said, "How much?" It was 29 cents more than I needed. Maybe I shouldn't have done it, but I blurted out, "What an answer to prayer!" Kenneth Strachan said, "Look, I have a credit card. You take my card and buy your ticket right around South America back to Los Angeles." I said, "No, thank you. I'm not going to borrow money. The Lord can provide." "But you've got to eat," they said. "They always feed you meals on the plane."

So, I traveled on down, went to Brazil, spoke in the cathedral in Rio. One minister got up and said, "It's interesting to hear of these great revivals in other countries and other centuries, but we don't expect such a revival in Brazil where Protestants are a minority." I got up again. "I'm from Ireland, an island where Protestants are a minority, but we have seen great revivals in Ireland." We went to São Paulo, and after I left and got back to Los Angeles, I found that 81 churches had started weekly prayer meetings for revival in Brazil. So, I said to my wife, "Let's go down there for a year." "What about the children's schooling?" "We'll find a place."

When we're done, you say, "How was it provided for?" I got a letter from the Presbyterian Church of Brazil through the Presbyterian Church United States of America asking me to go down and help the Presbyterians celebrate their centenary. Now, I'm a Baptist minister. Why do they want me to come? Well, they said that 1959 would be the 100th anniversary of the first missionaries to Brazil. They thought the best way to prepare for it was to tell them what to do to pray for revival. I wrote and said, "Well, I'll come if you invite the Baptists and the Methodists and the other denominations to join."

When I got back down there, I was disappointed. The commission told me, "We don't want you to preach." I didn't understand. They said, "Brazil is very nationalistic. There are more than 50 million of us here. The people say if this man wants to talk to us, why didn't he learn our language?" He said, "You couldn't learn it in time, but most pastors and theological students speak some English, and you can lecture to them." I was disappointed.

On Friday, the secretary of the commission called me and said, "I want you to come and preach for me on Sunday night because I have an interpreter for you. I've been so busy writing letters on your behalf, I don't have a message for my congregation." I went down there. An Englishman interpreted for me. He was married to a Brazilian lady, and in the vestibule, or rather in the pastor's vestry, four of us were praying when the Lord told me, "Don't speak on revival. Speak on the way of salvation." I know when the Lord speaks, so I decided to do this. I spoke on Romans chapter 9, 10, verses 8 to 13, with special stress on "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."

I spoke on who must decide, why we must decide, how we decide, what we decide, where and when we decide, and I made it as plain as I could make it. There were 310 people in the meeting. You said, "How would you know?" There were 300 seats filled and 10 people standing. At the end, I said, "If there's anyone here for the first time in his life who wants to declare his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, let him stand up." To my amazement, more than 100 stood. I said to my interpreter, "Did they understand me?" He shook his head. So, I said, "Now, please sit down again. Look, I'm not calling for rededications. Oh, if you want to dedicate your life to the Lord, do that, but this is for people who must confess with their mouth Jesus as Lord to be saved. Now, would you stand again?" I understood. I said to the pastor, "Did they understand?" He shook his head.

I was told afterwards that the average pastor in Brazil was delighted if he could report 10 conversions in a year, and here were a hundred people standing. I was going to explain it again when an American friend of mine in the meeting said in a hoarse whisper, "Do something." That's all right. "If you really mean this, will you go to the social hall where my friend Reverend Bonaires Ribeiro and my colleague William Dunlap will talk to you?" And 103 professed conversion that night, one-third of the audience.

We just stayed on for 11 weeks. Only, we had to move to bigger and bigger places, and finally, our biggest meeting in São Paulo was in the Pacaembu Stadium. The revival had begun. We went to a place called Campinas, and there we saw the churches fill at six o'clock in the morning for prayer. The biggest church in town was Presbyterian, and it was just packed out. We went from there to Belo Horizonte, started in a tiny little Methodist church so small it was like an upstairs room, and the stairs came right up into the middle of the room. But we had to move from there to the big auditorium of the Secretariat of Health and then out to the open air.

Then we went to a town called Governador Valadares. The churches were excited about the revival that was coming. They had been bickering among themselves. Brazilians were very competitive and individualistic, but they decided they'd meet in a sports field. I felt sorry for people standing for five hours at least. By the way, all the meetings lasted until midnight. We closed always at midnight. I said, "No meetings after midnight," but then the churches were filled at six in the morning again. So, I said, "Tomorrow night, we're going to have benches here. I want the Presbyterians and the Baptists, the Methodists, the Pentecostals to bring their pews." Nobody had ever done that before, but they had emergency meetings. They said, "Well, oh servado Dios, the servant of God has asked us. We must do what he says." There were Presbyterian pews and Baptist pews, Methodist pews. The Pentecostal pews squeaked a little, but otherwise, there's no difference.

But then guess what happened? The believers came and sat in the pews. I said, "No, no, that's not for believers. This is for our visitors. If any believer wants to sit during the meeting, let him bring his own chair." Next night, supposing you're a Brazilian, never darkened a church door, and you're walking home from your work, and you meet two thousand people coming along the street, each with a kitchen chair over his head, looking through the bars, what would you do? You'd follow them. Oh wait, the crowd's all right.

The next place we went to was a college town called Presidente Soares. There, we saw the streets packed from wall to wall so the buses couldn't run. Brazilians are very easygoing. They enjoy an interruption with their routine. Young people sat on the roofs of the buses. I had to go and speak to the people outside this great auditorium as well as inside, and a lot of them knelt in the street and crossed themselves. Four churches packed from about 10 till midnight, and they came back to the auditorium for a prayer service. That was revival.

I had to fly over the great sierras there to the state of Espírito Santo. When I arrived in Cachoeiro, I was met by six ministers. Now, they had difficulty arranging a place. The rainy season had begun, and they said, "Where are we going to have the crowds when the revival comes?" They knew a revival was coming. They prayed for it. Somebody said, "Well, let's take the Gloria Theater." The pastor of the First Baptist Church said, "My church is bigger than the theater." They said, "Well, we don't want it really in the church to get everyone to come, but all right, let's use your church." He said, "My church would be full of Baptists. What are you going to do with the Methodists and Presbyterians and others?" They said, "Maybe you should try the open air." They should maybe drown out the first night.

A circus had come to town, so the six ministers went to see the manager of the circus. Now, in America, you go straight to business. You say, "Look, you're a busy man, and so am I. Let's go right to the point. Could we do this and so?" Not in Brazil. You ask first of all about the señora and the children, and you drink coffee, and then you all mention the business by accident, you know, as if it weren't too important. They said, "How is the circus going?" "It's very poorly." "Oh, what's the trouble?" "Well, our lion is old. He can roar, but he can't bite, and the clowns are on strike. The monkeys have dysentery, and people are just not responding." They say, "How much money are you making?" He said, "I'm losing money." "Well, how much would you need to make to break even?" He mentioned so many thousand cruzeiros. They said, "Could we rent the circus for that?" "What would your reverences want with a circus?" "Oh, we don't want the circus. We want your big top. You get the lion fitted with false teeth or whatever he needs and have that medical attention for the monkeys and just give us the man to work the lights."

Now, the arena was filled with church pews. The amphitheater was very primitive. You walked on a plank and sat on a plank higher up, left your feet dangling. I waited five nights before I gave any kind of invitation. I couldn't give a Billy Graham invitation. They couldn't walk forward. You had a captive audience, so I just said, "If anyone wants to declare his faith in Christ for the first time, let him stand up." The first man to stand up forgot he wasn't standing on anything. He just disappeared away into the depths. There was a great roar of laughter, and I thought, "Oh, they've spoiled my meeting," but no, the Brazilians are very humorous. That was the talk of the town. Next night, the crowd was bigger than ever, and there was the Catholic priest in his cassock and girdle and sandals, concert head, listening very intently. We offered him a seat, but he didn't want to compromise his position. But he went back and told the people at mass, "I have been to hear the Irish evangelist." He said, "No, a protestante, a Christian. He's a Christian," because I preached Jesus Christ and didn't attack his denomination. We had maybe one-third of all the converts were professed or nominal Roman Catholics.

By the way, before we started, I said to the minister, "Are we all here?" "Yes, six churches." "Yes," I said, "You're Baptist and Presbyteriano and Methodist. Is there any Pentecostal church here?" "We don't count the Pentecostals." I said, "We adjourn the meeting until our Pentecostal brother comes." They hadn't much choice. They got a taxi and went looking for him. They arrived outside the pastor's house. His wife was quite surprised to see six competing ministers. "What did you want him for?" they said. "We want him." "He's praying with the sick. He's going to visit the congregation. Where will you find him?" "Well, you'll find his bicycle outside some house. That's all I can tell you." When they told him, "We want you. Leave your bicycle. We don't want your bicycle, just you," he didn't know if he was going to be taken for a ride. He came back, and he sat in the middle, and the other three on each side, and all the believers were there, so we went ahead.

Oh, we had immediately that all over Brazil. The great city of Bahia, downtown, there are nine churches, old, old churches with gold ornaments and so forth, and we started in the open air in the great praça, about 5,000 people. Now, do you know that there are more Protestant Brazilian ministers than Roman Catholic Brazilian priests? Nearly all the priests in Brazil are foreign missionaries from Spain and Portugal and Holland and Germany and the United States and so forth. These were Italian Franciscans, and they ran from one church to another. They were affronted by us having a meeting there in the praça, so they started to ring their bells to drown us out. Oh, it was a cacophony of sound, all the bells ringing at once. I didn't like it, but the Brazilians didn't seem to mind. They just turned the microphone, the loudspeaker, louder, and it almost became like an artillery duel.

On Wednesday, in the Diário, the daily, there was an editorial apologizing to me. It said, "Do these Italian Franciscans realize the best protection His Holiness the Pope has in Rome is not the Italian police but the United States Army? How then dare they insult a chaplain of the United States Air Force of our sister republic to the north?" That's me. "We urge all Brazilians who feel indignation at such a breach of hospitality to attend these meetings. Take bus 11A to the college gates, and there you'll find the crowd." There, we had the crowds again.

Now, you might say, "What was the result?" We lost track of the converts. We just couldn't keep track. The Bible Societies of Brazil, British and Foreign, American Bible Society of Brazil said it was a year of triumph, the largest distribution of scripture in the century-old history of Bible distribution in Brazil. They mentioned in their annual report, "In a nationwide evangelistic crusade that crossed denominational lines and drew the interest of the multitudes, a special evangelistic team went from center to center calling for repentance and dedication to Christ. Time and time again, the largest auditoriums could not seat the thousands who came to hear the Gospel, and hundreds upon hundreds came forward accepting Christ as Savior. Some there were who compared this movement with the great nationwide revivals that laid the foundation for Protestant growth in the United States, and there was a strong feeling that 1952 had been a crucial hour of victory in the winning of Brazil to Christ."

The churches in Brazil are multiplying about ten times as fast as the population, and there's a population explosion. I won't say more about that movement, but we took a little vacation down in Argentina to get away from the crowds. We couldn't go anywhere without being mobbed by friends. We went down to Buenos Aires and spoke in several Bible schools, and they wanted us to come there next. I said, "No, I feel called to go to Africa, but the Lord will send someone." An evangelist from California went down, a novice. Tommy Hicks was his name. He was so much of a novice that he asked the stewardess in the plane, "There's a name in my mind. I wonder, does it mean anything? It keeps repeating itself in my mind." The stewardess, the Argentinian girl, said, "What is it, sir?" He said, "Does the name Perón mean anything to you?" She thought she was being put on. She said, "You mean our president?" "Oh, is that your president's name?" "Well," he said, "the Lord just told me to go and see him." So, he went to see him. Now, he was there for a campaign for the Christian Missionary Alliance and the Assemblies of God, and they were taking a little auditorium seating, I think, 500.

He said, "I want a stadium." So we went to see Perón. Of course, Perón wouldn't see him; he turned him over to the Minister of Cults. While he was talking to the Minister of Cults, in came a man limping, and he said, "What's the matter?" "Oh," he said, "my leg is so swollen. Nobody—I've tried everything. Even Jesus Christ couldn't help me." Tommy Hicks couldn't understand Spanish, but he said, "What did he say about Jesus Christ?" He said, "Well, he said Jesus Christ couldn't help him." Tommy Hicks, Godanda's niece, put his hands around the man's leg and prayed for him, and it was healed. It was Perón's bodyguard. He went back to tell the President. So Perón said, "What can I do for you, my boy?" And he said, "I want a stadium."

Do you know that the attendance at the meetings was a hundred thousand a night for 60 nights, and it shook Argentina? Now, another thing: when I said Tommy Hicks was a novice, he was a novice. I heard him declare there were three million conversions. So we asked, "How did you count?" Well, he said, "There were six million attended the meetings, and I used to give an invitation, and many wanted to be Christians, but half of them raised their hands every night, so that makes three million." That was very naive because Latin Americans will raise their hands for any invitation you give them. If you want to love Jesus more, of course they want to love Jesus more. Is there any other kind? Well, about a hundred thousand took decision cards, but if you're piling out of a stadium and somebody's holding up handing out cards, you take one.

But one of my students made a research into the movement. He found that more than eighteen thousand—not three million, but more than eighteen thousand—had joined the church, the biggest number in the history of Argentina. It shook Argentina, but it just shows you how the Lord uses people. Tommy Hicks was a novice in that sense, but the Lord used him because of a simple faith.

Now, there are many other things we could say about times of revival in Latin America. There was a great revival that began in Ecuador. Why? You killed among Foursquare missionaries. It's too long a story to tell. Perhaps I could—maybe I'll be invited back again, so maybe I could tell you about other great revivals. I'd like to talk to you about the Indonesian revival, but revivals in India, but there isn't time tonight.

But this is a testimony of what happens in our own lifetime: the power of revival. Everywhere, the churches are increasing. It's through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in times of revival, and it is also interdenominational. God doesn't read labels. When he sends a revival, he sends revival to those who pray in simple faith, trusting him to answer their prayers. God grant we may see another great time of revival throughout the world.