Heather Bellamy spoke with missionary Sheila Jones about her experiences of revival.

Sheila Jones

Revival is a word often spoken of amongst Christians, but few of us have actually witnessed it. Sheila Jones worked in Argentina and India as a missionary for many years and saw an outpouring of God's Spirit in both nations. Heather Bellamy spoke with her to find out what she experienced.

Heather: Could you begin by telling us some of the things that you saw God do in India?

Sheila: Yes. I was in there in the 1960's, working in a children's home. At that time we had special meetings for the staff and they really met God! The preacher was talking about fear and when he offered to pray for them to be released from fear, they came to receive prayer, but were all touched by the Holy Spirit. They began to sing and praise God and were full of joy, even speaking in tongues. They were quite transformed.

Gradually over the next couple of days, the children noticed that their teachers and house mothers were quite different. They were happy, laughing and embracing each other. They said, "What's going on? Can we have it?" So by the weekend on the Sunday, they were allowed to leave their normal homes and go visiting in each other's houses. They all happened to gather in one house and were asking their house mother to pray for them. As she was explaining to them, they became deeply convicted about their sin and they began to cry. They were saying, "Oh God forgive me. I was stealing from the kitchen," or, "I was stealing from my friend," or, "I've been telling lies", or "I've been fighting." They were deeply distressed about their sin. It went on for a little while and then one of the teachers stood up and she said, "Now stop crying. Jesus has forgiven you. Jesus died to take away your sin and He's forgiven you. Stop crying and put your heads up and lift up your hands and start to give thanks. To say, "Thank you Lord". Well, the children just sat up, put their hands up and began to praise, rejoice, sing and shout for joy. There was a real depth of joy among them.

That was the weekend. Of course, only the boarding orphan children were there, so, on Monday morning, all the children from the town came, many Muslim and Hindu children came into school assembly as usual and the teacher explained how God had met them at the weekend and the same conviction fell upon all the children. It was to such an extent that the teachers couldn't pray with them and so she sent the Christian children who had been blessed at the weekend, to go among the other children and pray for them. I'm afraid the school timetable got somewhat neglected that day and for several days.

Even one day, about a week later, they were trying to have an arithmetic class and one respected boy was missing. The teachers said, "Where is he?" And they said, "Oh, he's under his desk miss. He's crying because of his sin." The awareness of God among the children went on for a long time.

One day I remember two teenage girls came and it must have been a weekend, because they were out in the field. They were telling us that they had just seen two angels, who had come to talk to them. So things went on and that was India.

Heather: What happened in Argentina? What did you see?

Sheila: Argentina was completely different. It was 25 years later. The country was just coming out of the rule of junta. That revival really took the form of worship. There was hours and hours of intense and beautiful worship. People would fall under whole blocks of seating; the people would just fall and they would laugh. There was such a release of joy and laughter. I asked God, "How is it that there's so much joy?" And He said, "My people in this country have suffered under military rule. They have suffered for so many years. It's time that they laughed." There was a tremendous outpouring of laughter and joy and the little children would leap and jump about with joy, just as if they were playing in a swimming pool. It was an amazing time.

Heather: What impact has it had on you as a person, on your faith and on your relationship with God, being part of and witnessing those things in both India and Argentina?

Sheila: In times when I did begin to doubt, He rebuked me. He said, "Look at what you've seen in your lifetime and you dare to doubt!" That was a good rebuke and a good reminder and helpful to me when I had bit of doubting at times.

Heather: Did the fruit of those revivals in India and Argentina last?

Sheila: Yes, in individuals. I met some of the children from the children's home when they'd grown up and married and they had never forgotten. It was deep in their hearts what God had done. The staff and me also.

As for any profound change in the church, not there, because that took place in the children's home. In Argentina, I think it has. The church is alive more, but I was only there two years and I haven't been back since, so I don't know.

Heather: Often we hear of moves of God, or what we call revival, and then it stops, or peters out. Why doesn't it carry on?

Sheila: I've pondered over that often and I think it's natural. In the rhythm of life, we enjoy a feast and we gobble everything up, but we can't do the same the next day and the next day and the next. The rhythm of life has to be maintained and revival is intense. People love to live in the presence of God, but it's intense. It's wonderful, but it's exhausting and it's not possible to maintain that.