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I suppose you can call it revival,
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but it was a move of the Spirit anyway.
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It wasn't really any historic revival.
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But as we think of, you know, where cities were
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swept into the Kingdom overnight,
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that type of thing.
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One of the most outstanding things in my mind
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was up there with Keith McCloud for 8 months
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I believe it was,
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and we made it a practice to meet
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for open-ended prayer every day
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if not twice a day.
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And there was about four of us.
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And so it was just sort of a log cabin
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Bible school type of thing.
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It was just a matter of meeting every day
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for preaching and prayer,
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that's all it was.
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So, in the middle of that time,
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Keith had accepted an invitation
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to hold meetings at a big
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evangelical Mennonite church.
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And so we began to pray regularly
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for those meetings that were coming up.
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I suppose we prayed for maybe four months
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every day.
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And the meetings began in Wymark, Saskatchewan.
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God came in power in the very first meeting.
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I mean, the very first meeting
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God was there in power.
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People were weeping, people were coming to the front.
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He never gave any altar call;
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he didn't believe in an altar call,
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but people, they couldn't take it,
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and they could not keep their seats,
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they got up and they went to the front,
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and they were confessing their sins.
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And every night, as I recall,
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there was probably 20, 30, 40 people
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up front there doing business with God.
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Every night the meetings lasted
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till 1 or 2 or 3 o'clock
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with people asking for help.
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They were in distress of soul.
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I remember one young girl,
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she was about 12 years old.
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It was ten minutes before she could even talk.
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She was under such deep conviction.
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And so we got to bed at like 4 o'clock
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every night.
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And sometimes people couldn't even wait
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until the sermon was over.
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They were crying out under
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conviction of sin
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and he would have to stop preaching
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and ask the pastor to take them
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to the basement.
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I remember one fellow, he was under
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such conviction of sin, it was like
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he was just screaming,
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and as the pastor took him to the basement,
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you could hear him crying down there
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like an animal going to the slaughter.
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And so it was a very powerful time.
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People were starting to come from many miles away.
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The report was spreading.
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I know Keith McCloud said if he had any
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regrets at the end of that time,
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it was that he didn't continue the meetings longer.
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And so at the end of the time,
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it was estimated that half of the church;
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there were probably three or four hundred people attending;
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half of the church either had a fresh
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or a new meeting with God.
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Brother McCloud said that
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every night it was like he could hardly wait
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to get into the pulpit.
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He was full of unvented wine.
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God just gave him such authority,
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such clarity, such utterance,
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such an ability to magnify Christ.
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It was like when he was done with his sermon,
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every tree in the forest was chopped down
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except one. Just one was left standing.
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He just cleaned the slate.
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Knocked down every idol.
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Routed every sin.
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Christ alone was left standing.
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I remember one time, one woman,
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right in the middle of the sermon,
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she was under such conviction
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she just stood up and called out
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across the aisle and asked somebody else
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for forgiveness in the middle of the sermon.
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It was holy chaos.
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One time, another remarkable thing,
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about a half a year after I was converted,
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and I was converted when I was a member
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of a fraternity at Iowa State.
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So about a half a year after I was converted,
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this company that I was working for,
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they were going to have a regional meeting
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back in the town where I had gone to college.
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So I thought maybe this would be an opportunity
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to organize a Gospel meeting for my fraternity brothers.
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This fellow who was friendly with me,
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he set up this meeting for a Gospel meeting
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after the supper in the living room.
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And probably about 40 guys gathered in there.
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And another older Christian by the name of
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Vader Zudtke from Northeast Iowa,
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he came down, and also my brother was there
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and another fellow.
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So anyway, here Vader was sharing the Gospel
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with these fraternity brothers,
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and God began to settle in.
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And what was designed to be a 40 minute meeting
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in that living room floor
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guys sitting around,
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it turned out to be, as I recall,
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about 7 hours before we were done that night.
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One fellow sitting there just came under conviction
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and began to weep and cry out
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in front of all of these fraternity brothers
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calling on the Lord.
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There was conversations going on up in the rooms.
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People would leave - some had to go leave
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for wrestling practice at 8:00 type of thing,
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and here when they got done with
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wrestling practice, they came back in
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and sat down again.
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Couldn't get away.
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One fellow came in and heard what was going on,
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and he was pretty huffy,
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you know what's going on in there?
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And he came in blowing smoke,
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and it wasn't about two minutes before Vader had
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had his Bible open and this guy was
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just eating out of his hand.
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Another guy came in, a former roommate of mine,
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I said, "Hey Wayne, come on in the living room here,
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we're having a Gospel meeting."
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And he mocked and said I don't need that
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such and such.
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And you know what, it was about a year later,
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and I heard that this guy had
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committed suicide.
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His girlfriend left him,
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and he put the shotgun to the roof of his mouth.
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Maybe a couple years after I was converted,
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I began to see the narrowness
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of the narrow way,
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and I began to wonder,
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Am I really in or not?
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And I was sharing this with an older Christian
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and he began to share some Bible verses with me
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whereby I could evaluate myself,
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and I remember God just deeply whispering
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to my soul: That's enough.
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That's enough, Bob. Don't question it anymore.
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You are Mine.
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And it was not long after that,
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where I was in a meeting one night,
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and a missionary was back from Italy,
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and he was sharing about the Fatherhood of God.
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God's Fatherhood, His tender care as a Father.
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And God settled in.
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I don't know if anybody else felt it like I did.
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But it was, for me, special.
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And I was just being melted, melted, melted,
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as he was talking.
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And after the meeting, probably three fourths
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of the church congregation had left,
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there were just a few of us
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hanging around talking about the things of God,
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and this older saint, he came up to me,
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and shared a truth with me.
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And my heart - I just was flooded
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with the love of God right there.
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This fellow, he says, men, let's gather for prayer.
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We had a time of prayer in the back of that church building.
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And I don't remember anything ever like it
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before or since, where all I could say was
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Abba, Father.
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At the top of my voice.
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It was just the most special time for me
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that I've ever had.
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I think that's the Spirit bearing witness
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with our spirit that we are children.