"After church this morning I was talking..."

After church this morning I was talking with an American business man who was just overawed by THE WAY THE LORD IS WORKING. He had lived in Mexico for years, and travelled on business throughout much of Latin America. For some years he had been growing in the Lord, and the spiritual was taking over an ever more important place in his thoughts and time. He asked in his hotel what Evangelical Church was near. He was rolled off a long list. Start of his amazement.

When questioning further about so many churches so near each other he thought the answer might be that they were a lot of little store front places with 50 or a hundred people each. He was told one was in a tent, another in a large principal theater and two more in prominent hotels besides the more formal building churches. More amazement.

Well, they may have started as campaigns, but have been going on a long time more than 2 weeks. He set out to visit. One group was in the finest hotel in the city and their sala [large front hall] was full. He went to the tent. The congregation had grown in a year and a half, so that they had knocked out a partition and joined a house to the tent, seating a thousand besides the platform; the president of Guatemala was giving a Bible study of a passage. He went on to the big theatre, found it filled, 1000 approximately, and had been going for less than a year.

"My goodness," he said to me, "one expects congregations to grow slowly and if very successful reach 500 in 4 or 5 years. What is happening?"

He came to the place where we were. I've been helping a group start up a work, starting without congregation nearly, in a hotel sala that seats 500. We\they had been going for about 5 months, but it was filled.

"I know Mexico and I know various other countries down here in Latin America, but I never saw anything like this, nor had any real comprehension when others mentioned it. What is happening? What hath God wrought!"

One hundred years ago the Presbyterians were the first evangelicals that started in Guatemala. Later came others and the Baptists were the most vigorous. Then came Holiness and Independents and others. There were some wild groups and often some scandals connected with them, but they soon cleaned up or died out. The great bulk of the Evangelicals are old fashioned, primitive sincere, real Christians, Baptist, Holiness, Pentecostals or Independent.

Meanwhile during the last 20 years or so our little Mission, started with next to nothing but faith, starting preaching in the open air and distributing tracts, scrounging small quantities of tracts from wherever they might be available, then began printing them and paying for them also by faith, which is to say, starting on faith and then you hearing from the Lord, sending your love offerings to pay for them, until now we print more than 100,000 a month or more than 1,000,000 a year. Nearly all the other groups come by here for their tracts. We probably have going through our distribution hands twice as many tracts as any other 2 groups have printed. But my point here is not just thanking the Lord for His faithfulness and miracle working power toward us, but in using this kind of work in helping the revival wave that has been sweeping the country for the last several years.

How many Guatemalan evangelists are going to old troubles Mexico in campaigns. While Cuba and Russia are exporting their atheist revolution we seem to be the cutting edge or fountain the God is using to export Salvation and Love of the Prince of Peace, to other Latin American countries. So God has been answering your prayers. A great victory has been won. Press on to prevail for similar Revivals in the other countries.

Your servant in the Lord,

Brother Orland

Orland Wolfram