April 8, 2002
TOGETHER:
Pray for our youth & revival today
___Fifty-seven years ago this month, God brought remarkable revival to the Baylor University campus. It marked the beginning of the Youth Revival Movement in Texas that spread across the South.
___The earliest leaders of this spiritual renewal were Baylor students who had been praying more than a year for revival. Six ministerial students spoke under a tent just west of downtown Waco--Angel Martinez, BO Baker, Reiji Hoshizaki, LeRay Fowler, M.D. Oates and Ralph Langley. In one week, attendance soared above 3,000, and young people made 281 public commitments to Christ and to Christian ministries.
___WorldWar II was drawing to a close. By the fall of 1945, thousands of young men and women would return to college studies, bringing hearts broken by the sights and sounds of war and a fierce determination to make up for lost time and get on with their lives. Charles Wellborn and Buckner Fanning were two of the returning servicemen whose lives were touched by the youth revival prayer meetings.
CHARLES WADE
Executive Director
BGCT Executive Board
___The Baptist Student Union at Baylor, directed by Robert Denny, chose the college preachers who preached the youth revival in 1946--Jess Moody, Jack Robinson, BO Baker, Mark Moore, Howard Butt and Bruce McIver. Crowds were even larger than in the first meetings, and more than 500 decisions for Christ were made.
___Word spread, and revival began to break out at Howard Payne and Hardin-Simmons. Houston, Dallas and Fort Worth Baptist churches asked the youth revival preachers to come lead citywide revivals. Missionaries in Hawaii asked them to lead a revival in Honolulu, just minutes from Pearl Harbor, a trip that marked the beginning of the Baptist Student Union summer mission program.
___As these remarkable events unfolded, the young preachers drove to Dallas to ask the advice of BGCT Executive Director J. Howard Williams. He introduced them to W.F. Howard, state leader for Baptist Student Union ministries. It was a blessed moment as these two great Baptist leaders sensed immediately that these young students were filled with a passion for God and an unwavering willingness to be used by him. They understood that you can't buy passion for serving God, but you can support it when you find it.
___Bruce McIver was involved in the first Waco revivals. He later served as a Baptist Student Union minister and, for more than 25 years, pastor of Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas. He wrote the story of the youth revivals in "Riding the Wind of God." Published by Smyth & Helwys since Bruce's death in December, it is a wonder-invoking story of God's gracious willingness to answer prayer and use lives humbly devoted to doing his will.
___For all of us who lived through that time, it is a gracious and encouraging word that rekindles some of the spiritual power that enriched our lives. For all who love young people and want to see how God can use the young, this book is a treasure from which to draw inspiration and encouragement.
___Our Baptist young people are remarkable Christians. They are dedicated, and they are serving God through their churches. Pray for our young people that they will be strong and true. And pray that they will hunger for God to use them to change America and to bring the world to know the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
___Pray for this harvest.
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