Prayer and the Hippie Revival
Profile by Dr CUTHBERT CHIDOORI
My First General Conference of the Assemblies of God
The Congress on Mission and Evangelism held in Durban
W F P Burton and some Congo Missionaries
Nicholas
Bekinkosi Hepworth Bhengu
– His Youthful Dreams
– His Preaching
- Bhengu and Education
- Bhengu and Money
- Miraculous Experiences
- Spiritual Happenings
- The Sanctifying Spirit of God
– His Departure
Bhengu’s “Isinthunzi”
- Government and Politics
– Some Faults, Virtues and the Burden
of His Heart
President Lucas Mangope of Bophuthatswana
William
Frederick Mullan
The Fairview Assembly
Fred Mullan and the Gifts of the Spirit
A Miracle and a Vision
The Revival in Norwood
James E Mullan
Paul O Lange
William Branham in Durban
Oral Roberts in South Africa
Billy
Graham in Salisbury and Durban
The American Missionaries from Springfield, Missouri
C. Austin Chawner and the Portuguese Work
August Kast and the Mount Tabor Mission Station
Colin
La Foy and the Coloured Leadership
The Work in Zimbabwe
Mauritius and Reunion Island
Special
Answers to Prayer – 1
Special
Answers to Prayer – 2
A Beautiful Square with Good Vibes
Prayer and the Hippie Revival
The Young Turks
Tensions within the Group
The Split
of 1981 – Part One
The Split
of 1981 – Part Two
The Beginnings of the Faith Movement in South Africa
The Statement of September 1989
The Charismatic Renewal
The Start of the Pentecostal Revival World Wide and The Swedish Pentecostal Assemblies
Epilogue
APPENDIX 1 : How to be Filled with the Holy Spirit
APPENDIX 2 : The National Church by Nicholas Bhengu
APPENDIX 3 : Article from the Argus 5/02/1981
APPENDIX 4 : Pointers to the future of the Assemblies of God in the New South Africa (10/06/94)
The
church building at Harfield Road had a minor hall that could hold
at a maximum 112 people. The assembly prayer meetings which we held
there grew steadily in numbers to the point where folk had to stand
because all chairs were occupied. The prayer meetings were times
of heavenly bliss. Their effect was a river of blessing flowing through
the whole congregation.
One night the Lord gave me a prayer to pray. It must have been the Lord,
for left to myself I might have prayed for Him to send in nice people who
could help the church, the rich, the powerful and the good. As it was,
I prayed that night, “Lord, send in the needy; the drunkards, the
drug addicts and the broken!”
Paul Watney preaching to Hippies during a babptism on Clifton Beach
View photos in Jack's Facebook album
God certainly answered that
prayer. In they came, the hippies. One of the first was Johnnie Weber,
converted in prison when a friend hitch-hiked all the way from Salisbury
in Rhodesia to the prison in Beaufort West in the Middle Karoo, to tell
Johnnie that Jesus loved him. Johnnie had never before ever been told
that anybody loved him. To this day I have warm fellowship with Johnnie,
a man with a blessed ministry and a sweet spirit.
Johnnie was in prison awaiting trial for stealing petrol out of a car.
On the day appointed for the trial, the businessman who laid the charge
against him did not bother to show up in court. The case was quashed so
Johnnie walked free.
Another early convert in that revival is Brian O’Donnel. Brian owned
a night-club, The Headquarters, a place banned to army and navy personnel
because of its bad name for purveying drugs. When Brian got converted The
Headquarters changed too. We had meetings there. What an experience to
preach there to young people and have crowds of them surrender to Christ
and then get filled with the Holy Ghost.
Brian also owned The Market, a sort of flea-market conglomeration of clothing
stalls and the like. Crowds of young people frequented it and they all
were challenged with the Gospel.
Brian proved to be an entrepreneur. He used his talents for the Lord by
arranging a number of “Give God a Chance” events held in places
like the Green Point Football Stadium. Several thousand people would gather
to hear Gospel concerts and the preaching of the Gospel there.
The whole of Cape Town was made aware of spiritual things. In the town
centre, walking on the pavements, one could notice every lamp-post bore
a little sticker, “Jesus loves you”. Some person even climbed
up to a naked wall on a multi-storey building and expertly in beautifully
done lettering wrote, “Jesus saves” for all the office workers
in Cape Town to see.
Ultimately our assembly followed suit by having a parade and a lengthy
massed meeting in Greenmarket Square one Saturday. In the morning a thousand
people marched through the city carrying placards, Jesus loves you”; “Christ
unites”; “Turn or burn”; “Repent”. At least
one indignant citizen found the Gospel hit her right in the eye when a
careless marcher accidentally poked her with his placard.
In the afternoon that day 5 000 people gathered in Greenmarket Square.
A platform was rigged up and a series of preachers gave out a stirring
Gospel appeal. Among the speakers were Trevor Goddard, the famous cricketer,
Pierre Spies, the hurdling champion of South Africa, and Nicholas Bhengu,
the great Zulu evangelist.
Much of the Hippie Revival started with the vision of the Reverend Jack
Cook, the Methodist minister and his “Narnia Club” which had
started in Johannesburg. Jack Cook had been transferred to Cape Town. He
proved most helpful to our event. He gave his church on Greenmarket Square
as a rallying point and a counselling place for those with spiritual needs.
I will ever recall those marchers with placards issuing from his church
ten at a time to parade through the Cape Town business area. It seemed
to me on that sunny Cape morning that they were like posses of knights
going forth to a holy war.
When I prayed, “Lord send in the needy, the drunkards and the drug
addicts” I had no idea the Lord would use our assembly to launch
such a series of stirrings in Cape Town.
Some more stories of the Hippie Revival can be found on Jack's Blog Jesus People in Cape Town