Revival Stories

The 1949 Argentina Revival



Prayer is always an essential precursor to revival breaking out. However, the revival at Argentina in 1949 highlighted its importance once again. Argentina, located in the southeast region of South America, had for years maintained a reputation as one of the least spiritually fruitful mission fields in all the Western Hemisphere. Many people openly worshipped spirits and engaged in occult practices. Witch doctors were summoned routinely to deal with ailments. On top of all this, the Roman Catholic Church, which was designated the official national religion, was often adversarial towards any Protestant attempts to share the Gospel. While the average person was not hostile to Christianity, they viewed it as devoid of any real power to make an impact on their life. Typical churches had less than a dozen members, and apathy was the norm.

Dr. R. Edward Miller, an American missionary, was called in 1948 to oversee a young church in the city of Mendoza, Argentina. In January of 1949, Miller went down to the nearby town of Lavalle with another minister to hopefully break new ground for the Kingdom. The plan was to hold 2 weeks of evangelism meetings, preaching from a large tent each night. They eagerly set about their work, anticipating many salvations and supernatural works of God. They canvassed the homes, prayed daily, and passed out Gospel tracts. Yet, from the very first evening until the last one 14 days later, not a single lost person attended.

Miller was crushed and dejected, and he contemplated giving up the mission and heading home a failure. However, God put on his heart the verse from Zachariah that says, “Not by power nor by might but by My Spirit…”. And Miller sensed God proposing the crazy idea of praying 8 hours a day for a whole week in order to seek an encounter with Christ and for revival. Despite struggling with self-doubts and the words of his critics, he secluded himself in a little attic room to pray, and finally he finished the one week. Nothing. Miller pressed in to keep on praying. One week turned into two, then three and four, until he had fasted and prayed and meditated on Scriptures for more than two whole months. Then on one very ordinary day, the presence of God filled the room abruptly. Miller was inundated with Heaven’s glow as he heard God reveal His heart for this nation.

Six more weeks passed, this time with Miller drinking in the Spirit’s presence each day. Then, in early June of 1949, God told Miller to call his church to gather in prayer starting Monday night 8PM until midnight. It would continue everyday. If someone could not make it for four hours, then they should not come at all. Miller obeyed and told this to his church of only 8 members. Surprisingly 3 people showed up to pray with Miller and his wife. That night, it was quiet. The people were timid. No one heard anything from the Lord, except one woman who admitted she felt like God wanted her to go to the center of the room and hit the table. But she was too embarrassed to actually do it. This went on every night until Thursday. The woman confessed that God still wanted her to strike the table, but she didn’t want to do it. Miller led the group to sing and to pray more and then one by one they all hit the table. Except the woman. Finally, she gathered up her faith, stepped up to the edge, and she banged the table. Suddenly it was like a rushing wind surged throughout the room from one end to the other, and God’s presence was manifest in that place.The individuals there boldly jumped up and began praising God, some fell to the floor, and a river of joy from the Spirit flooded the room. One act of obedience done in faith opened the floodgates of revival for Argentina that day.

From that time onwards, the church multiplied rapidly. Teams went out with the Gospel in the power of the Spirit. Many folks were healed miraculously. Many more were saved. Others relinquished their professions to become full-time ministers. Over the next few years, teams carrying revival would ignite spiritual fires birthing a multitude of churches across more than a dozen other cities like San Manuel, Villa San Martin, and Buenos Aires. God had softened the heart of this hard nation to bring her back to Himself in response to the extraordinary prayers and faith of a few believers.


QUESTIONS TO DISCUSS:

  1. When have you longed to see God do great things in your midst? Have you ever encountered spiritual warfare and resistance? How did you try to handle it?
  2. What do you think you would have done in Miller’s situation, right after the spectacular unresponsiveness to the Gospel meetings in Lavalle? How do you think you would have reacted to God’s call to a week of long and intense prayer? What verses come to mind that would have helped you persevere in not just one week but the almost 4 months of seeking the Lord?
  3. Why do you think that one woman was unwilling to strike the table despite hearing from the Lord multiple times? How have these factors affected your own life or caused to shrink away from obedience to Christ?
blog comments powered by Disqus