Page 221 - LD215 History of the Church in Africa A4 final

The Church Returns to the Upper Room

Seymour generally sat behind two empty shoe boxes, one on top of the
other. He usually kept his head inside the top one during the meeting, in
prayer. There was no pride there” (58). John G. Lake also testified about
Seymour, writing: “I do not believe that any man in modern times had a
more wonderful deluge of God in his life than God gave that dear fellow,
and the glory and power of a real Pentecost swept the world” (quoted in
Synan in Enrichment, Spring, 2006).

Signs and wonders were common, as Owens indicates:

Articles which explicitly compared the events at the Azusa Street
mission to the original day of Pentecost were emblazoned across
the myriad of Holiness newspapers. Many of these articles revealed
that people spoke with tongues, the lame walked, the deaf heard
and the blind recovered their sight at the humble mission in Los
Angeles.… Within months of the initial outpouring on Bonnie Brae
Street, thousands were making pilgrimages from around the world.
Few of these visitors stayed for any great length of time. Most
received the baptism with the Holy Spirit, absorbed a smattering
of teaching, and then returned home to spread the fire. (82)

Many people misunderstood the revival, and this generated
considerable controversy—controversy indicated by an article in the Los
Angeles Times on April 18, 1906:

Meetings are held in a tumble-down shack on Azusa Street, near
San Pedro Street, and the devotees of the weird doctrine practice
the most fanatical rules, preach the wildest theories, and work
themselves into a state of manic excitement in their peculiar zeal.
Colored people and sprinkling of whites compose the congregation,
and night is made hideous in the neighborhood by the howlings
of the worshippers, who spend hours swaying forth and back in
a nerve-racking attitude of prayer and supplication. They claim
to have the “gift of tongues” and to be able to comprehend
the babel. (1)

The news spread rapidly and people from many denominational
backgrounds and nations came to Los Angeles to seek the Pentecostal
experience. Thousands of other people heard the news and responded

::: 211 :::