The western half of the Island of Timor is part of the Republic of Indonesia, the eastern half is the independent sovereign nation – the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste.

Introduction
The Timor Revival in Indonesia was a very controversial occurrence, as many of the reported miracles were too much for the western mind to accept. Among those who embraced theology leaning toward cessationism, this revival drew a tremendous amount of criticism. (Read more about the controversy with this link.).

In spite of the difficulty believing the reports, one of the most respected revival historians, the Baptist revivalist J. Edwin Orr, stated that

But questioning or discrediting of the more sensational reports has not invalidated the corroborated accounts of an unusual awakening on Timor.

Two of the sources used for this revival report were written by those who visited the Timor Revival in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

►Don Crawford, a trained reporter, was sent to Indonesia by Tyndale House Publishers to verify the accounts, as some of the revival reports had the tone of being extremely embellished, or even outright fictitious. Though initially skeptical and suspicious of the miraculous claims being made, Crawford embraced the accounts after having heard the reports in person, as well as seeing the results with his own eyes. Crawford stated that by seeing transformed individuals as well as communities demonstrating a passionate devotion and obedience to God, he was inclined to believe their reports of miracles.

Dr. Kurt E. Koch

►Kurt Koch, a German theologian who has written extensively on the occult, has presented the world with the most detailed accounting of the Timor Revival. Though Koch was clearly not Pentecostal and wrote firmly against what he called “the tongues movement,” his book confirmed that every gift of the Holy Spirit recorded in the New Testament was repeatedly witnessed during the Timor Revival, and that he himself was an eyewitness to some to them.

A Christian and Missionary Alliance missionary in the Timor city of Kupang, Rev. Marion Allen, also stated that every type of New Testament miracle had been repeated during the Timor Revival.

I (Chet Swearingen) lived in Indonesia for over five years and witnessed multiple occurrences which can only be explained as being supernatural powers at work—God’s and Satan’s. Our book Risk, describes details of some of those accounts.

Conditions on Timor Prior to the Revival

►Beginning in the 1600s the Dutch had colonized Indonesia. They had introduced Christianity, and the people were “Christianized” but never evangelized.

►Before the revival came to Timor, “Christians” were still clinging to their occult practices. If a “Christian” possessed charms, amulets or fetishes, they would always return to them in their hour of need.

Picture from June 2011: Phyllis Swearingen holding an Indonesian child with an amulet (jimat) tied around its wrists. Not shown is also strings around its ankles.

►The former magic, sorcery, promiscuity, and alcohol use was common and acceptable, even for Christians.

►Most of the Indonesian pastors saw no problem with their own or their congregation’s continual involvement with occult practices. Some pastors claimed that their powers of sorcery were God-given, having been handed down from their grandparents.

►According to some estimates, 90 percent of the Christians routinely used the services of local shamans.

►There was a huge shortage of trained ministers. One pastor had 48 congregations to care for.

►The island of Timor was ripe for a visitation from God!

Events that Led to the Timor Revival

Summer of 1964: Johannes A. Ratuwalu, an Indonesian healing evangelist from the island of Rote, conducted highly successful ministry in the Timor city of Kupang. Among those healed were those blind, deaf, mute, lame, and mentally ill.

Extraordinary Prayer: A man from the Maranatha Church in the city of Soe had a vision of the judgments of God, similar to the imagery found in The Book of Revelation. A woman in the same church had a vision of Jesus with the woman at the well (John 4), and this left her thirsting for more of God. Both visions led to a small group of people that started praying for revival.

Maranatha Church in Soe, on the island of Timor

October 1964: Johannes A. Ratuwalu conducted a healing evangelistic campaign in the Timor city of Soe. Hundreds of people were healed and a greater hunger for a manifestation of the power of God was awakened among the people.

January-February 1965: Pastor Binjamin Manuain (one of the two pastors at Maranatha Church in Soe) preached a series of evangelistic messages that was said to have awakened the congregation with a greater desire for revival.

July 1965: Detmar Scheunemann, the German senior lecturer at the Indonesian Evangelistic Institute in the city of Batu on the island of Java, visited the island of Timor with a team of students from that school and conducted evangelistic campaigns in the Timor cities of Kupang, Soe, and other inland villages.

July 2013: Students Chet & Phyllis
Swearingen recruited from the Indonesian
Evangelistic Institute

I (Chet Swearingen) have been to the Indonesian Evangelistic Institute and have recruited students from there to work on the island where we were living.

Following Scheunemann’s ministry, many Christians began bringing their amulets, magic charms, and fetishes to the church, where they were burned.

August 16, 1965: A 25-year-old girl from the Maranatha Church in the city of Soe, Hennie Tunli’u, also known as Priscilla, after having received a dramatic calling into ministry through hearing the voice of God and having multiple visions of Jesus, began sharing with young people, and 87 of them became followers of Jesus.

Priscilla then felt led to attend the Indonesian Evangelistic Institute. Maranatha Church held a farewell service for her, and during the service Priscilla preached from 8 p.m. till 12:20 a.m. Her appeal to young people at the end of the service brought more than 100 to make a profession of their faith in Christ.

Detmar Scheunemann

September 1, 1965: The team from the Indonesian Evangelistic Institute held a service concluding their ministry visit to Timor, and during that service, the team’s leader, Detmar Scheunemann, prophesied.

God will raise up teams to preach the word of the Gospel, and they will not only fill this half of the island with their message, but the Portuguese half as well. How and when this will take place I do not know. But the one thing I am certain of is that God is at hand and ready to fulfill these words.

That prophecy began to be fulfilled on Sunday night, September 26, 1965, following a mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit at the Maranatha Church in Soe.

Conversion Story (there were many): Nahor Leo was an 18-year-old nephew of Pastor J. M. E. Daniel of Maranatha Church. Though he had been raised in his uncle’s home, he was not living the Christian lifestyle.

Nahor was sitting in his room studying English when suddenly everything around him went black (he was temporarily blinded). He put his face close to the lamp, but the only result was that he singed his eyebrows. He thought it would pass if he would just lie down on the bed and wait. After about ten minutes, a white figure appeared in a long robe and long hair. Nahor knew it was Jesus. He then fell to the floor in fear and could not move.

Pastor J. M. E. Daniel

Jesus then told him to get his fetishes (amulets) and give them to Pastor J. M. E. Daniel. He obeyed, and when Nahor returned to his room, Jesus told him that he would have a healing ministry and even the dead will be raised. He was also told that at the next church service he was to testify about what he was currently experiencing.

At the next church service, after Nahor shared what had happened to him, the power of the Holy Spirit fell upon everyone present. Many began confessing their sins and then hurried home to get their fetishes and other occult objects and brought them back to the church and burned them.

When Nahor shared that same story at the school he attended, the same thing happened again, with all the students running home, getting their occult objects, bringing them back to the school and burning them.

Sunday, September 26, 1965: Nahor Leo shared his testimony at the morning and evening service at Maranatha Church.

Soe Maranatha church building

On Sunday night, September 26, 1965: Two-hundred people gathered to pray in Maranatha Church. During the prayers, the Holy Spirit suddenly descended on the group just like upon the disciples on the day of Pentecost. Some reported that there was a sound like a tornado within the building (“a rushing mighty wind”).

During this outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the congregation, the presence of God was so powerful that many were weeping uncontrollably while lying on the floor.

At the same time the officer at the police station close to the church sounded the fire alarm, as he saw that the church was on fire. The people in the community, who were the only functioning “fire department,” rushed to the scene to extinguish the fire. When they got to the church they saw the flames but saw no evidence of the church burning. They then recognized that it was the “fire of God.” (Fire on buildings was reported as having happened on several occasions.)

Following this miraculous occurrence, the conviction power of the Holy Spirit became evident, and many of the thousand or so assembled outside the church to extinguish the fire received Jesus Christ as their Savior. After the Gospel was preached to them, they then ran to their homes, collected all their occult paraphernalia, returned to the church, and burned them in a fire.

After Nahor Leo had shared his testimony on that evening, and after many people had made a decision to follow Jesus, Nahor chose 23 young people to join him on an evangelistic team. As they set out to preach all over the island, the Holy Spirit accompanied them with authority to preach the Gospel, with the power to heal, and with tremendous evangelical success.

After Nahor Leo’s team was assembled, many other teams also formed and began their evangelistic work throughout Timor and beyond.

A group of evangelistic team leaders

Early October 1965: A revival team from the Maranatha Church visited the town of Niki-Niki, and during a two-week evangelistic thrust, 9,000 people professed their faith in Jesus Christ.

October 19, 1965: In a letter on this date, Pastor J. M. E. Daniel (one of two pastors at Maranatha Church) wrote to the 35-year veteran Dutch missionary, Dr. Pieter Middlekoop, who had served on Timor for 35 years, and gave him a report of the revival. Here are the highlights of that letter:

1. The revival was started by Hennie Tunli’u (Priscilla), and it affects mostly the youth.
2. Many of the youth have turned over their fetishes to be burned, along with their secret medicines, books with incantations and charms, and dice and objects for gambling.
3. The youth arrange groups for prayer, scripture reading, and choir singing, specifically to prepare for evangelistic efforts.
4. The youth form teams and go out sharing the Gospel throughout the region and they are having great success in their work.
5. Signs and wonders are taking place, with thousands being healed from various diseases.
6. Lives are being renewed.
7. Many people are converting to Christianity from paganism.

October 4, 1966: A group of leaders assembled in the city of Soe to evaluate the revival. It was evident that there were imbalances, and to correct the situation, Pak Octavianus, who was the chairman of the Indonesian Evangelistic Institute, conducted a series of 4-hour teachings to bring balance to the movement and give it increased forward momentum.

AMULET FASTENED TO A BABY’S PILLOW: August 11, 2013: During a young mother’s visit to the Swearingen’s Indonesian home, her baby was placed on our sofa, with its head resting on a pillow. The pillow had the above scissors and roots pinned to it. This amulet’s purpose was to scare away evil spirits.

UNIQUE FEATURES OF THE REVIVAL

Visions and Dreams
Many of those involved in the revival experienced visions and dreams. These served the purpose of calling people into ministry roles, as well as giving direction to ministry decisions.

Prophecies
Men and women alike during the revival had been given the gift of prophecy to recognize certain sins individuals were committing, and they used their discerning ability to call them out. Often this gift was used to tell people that they had occult objects hidden, and specifically where they had them hidden in their homes.

Some of the pastors opposed these young evangelistic team leaders because of their unique spiritual powers. They not only felt intimidated, seeing they did not possess similar powers, but they were also fearful that their own sins would be exposed.

Conviction of Sin
As is common in most all revivals, there was an overwhelming conviction of sin that accompanied the preaching of the Gospel.

Public Confession of Sin
Public confession of sins was made before the entire church, in small groups, and in private settings.

Team Ministry
Many evangelistic teams were formed following the pattern portrayed by Johannes A. Ratuwalu in 1964 and Detmar Scheunemann in 1965 during their evangelistic visits to the island of Timor.

Evangelistic team leaders

The focus of these teams was to:
1. Preach the Gospel.
2. Call people to repentance, burning their amulets, charms, books of incantations, and other occult objects.
3. Heal the sick

Within 6 months following the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on September 26, 1965, Maranatha Church had assembled 100 teams, numbering 4-25 people in each team.

Some reports say that as many as 200 teams were formed over the course of the revival. These teams were mostly comprised of young people, but some older adults also participated. This was a fulfillment of the prophecy given on September 1, 1965 ,by Detmar Scheunemann, the senior lecturer at the Indonesian Evangelistic Institute.

The teams made many sacrifices to carry out their work. They rarely had enough food, and they had to travel long distances by foot.

The teams would seek God with fasting and prayer, and then the leader of the team would usually receive a dream, a vision, or a very strong impression as to where there should go on their ministry trips.

Miracles
Critics have questioned the reliability of reports of some of the miracles, but the reality of the fruit that remained cannot be disputed.

1. Healings
Reports were that over 30,000 people were healed from various sicknesses and diseases

2. Raised from the Dead
Multiple people were reported as having been raised from the dead.

This man raised two from the dead

This man was raised from the dead

3. Amulets Embedded Under Skin Miraculously Come Out
Susuk (amulets embedded under the skin) miraculously emerged out of people’s skin after conversion. Indonesians often have gold or silver needles, stones, or other objects embedded under their skin, after first having gone through a ritual by a dukun (shaman). These objects are to empower the individual with a wide assortment of powers.

A dukun (shaman) inserting
susuk into a ladies face.

I (Chet Swearingen) was speaking with a missionary in Indonesia in 2009 and he gave a report of susuk coming out automatically upon a person’s conversion.

4. Speaking in Unknown Languages
German theologian Kurt Koch visited Timor with an international team, and he tells the story of the illiterate lady named Mary, who was also a leader of the evangelistic team #49. Mary was telling the gathered international team her story of a song the Lord had given her, but she couldn’t understand the words. The following is Koch’s account:

She then began to sing her song out loud. We were amazed. It was in English, and she sang it without making any mistakes. The words were as follows: “I hear my Saviour calling, I hear my Saviour calling, Take the cross and follow me.”

What was so remarkable about this miracle was that Mary was not only illiterate, but she also only knew one language—her tribal dialect. She didn’t even know the national Indonesian language, and she surely didn’t know English, yet she was singing a song in English–a language no one in the area could speak.

5. Calming of Storms
►On one occasion a 15-member team was traveling by boat from Timor to Rote on an evangelistic trip. The boat they were on was owned by a Muslim. During the 30-plus mile boat trip, a storm developed. The Muslim man said, “If your God will answer your prayers and calm this storm, then I will believe in him.” The team prayed, and within a few minutes the sea was completely calm. The Muslim man subsequently was converted and renamed his boat “New Life.”
►On another occasion rains came during an open-air service. After prayer was offered for the rain to stop, the rain ceased, and only began again after the service was over.

6. Supernatural Ability Given to Preach
Team members, even illiterate ones, were known to possess an “unction” to preach sermons lasting up to 5 hours.

I (Chet Swearingen) know of illiterate people in the jungles who have preached with tremendous evangelistic success. 

7. Time Stood Still
During some church services the time seemed to stop. When the presence of God was manifested and people sensed Him, they lost all sense of time. Some church services would last over 6 hours.

During the 1970 Asbury College Revival, one student described how “time stood still” with these words:

Time itself seemed to collapse. It was almost as if…, we were in a suspended state of reality, and people could sit, hour upon hour and it seemed like only minutes or seconds.

8. Water Turned Into Wine
On many occasions water was turned into wine for communion services. The sequence of events leading up to this miracle is as follows:
►The believers at the Maranatha Church in Soe didn’t have wine for a communion service that was to be held in October 1967, so they prayed and asked the Lord to show them what to do.
►On September 9, 1967, a female leader of one of the evangelistic teams said that the Lord spoke to her and said “I will change water into wine at the communion service in October.”
►This prophecy was repeated on the 13th and 17th of September.
►On October 5, 1967, the day of the communion service, the containers were filled with water and then prayed over by the believers—and then the miracle happened—the water turned into wine. Rev. Joseph, the superintendent of the denomination of which the Maranatha Church was part, was present and witnessed this miracle occur. That denomination is the Christian Evangelical Church in Timor (Gereja Masehi Injili Di Timor – GMIT).
►Water turning into wine occurred no less than 10 times. The German theologian Kurt E. Koch said he was an eye-witness of this miracle on the 9th and 10th times it occurred.

9. Clothes Miraculously Washed
The evangelistic teams did not take extra food or clothing with them on their evangelistic ministry trips. After having to travel many days to different locations, the clothing needed washed. The Lord directed a team on at least one occasion to simply stroke their clothing with their hand, and when they did, their clothes became clean.

10. Walking On Water
One team reported having walked across a flooded river, which was 300 yards wide and 20 feet deep. The report was that the water only came to their knees.

11. Miraculous Provision of Food
On several occasions miraculous provision of food was provided for the evangelistic teams, who always went on their ministry trips by faith, trusting God to supply their needs.

12. Supernatural Light Provided While Walking at Nights
Evangelistic teams would often need to travel after dark (the sun goes down around 6 p.m. every night on the equator). There were several occasions when a miraculous light would appear along jungle trails, not only providing light, but also guiding the teams along the dark trails to their destinations.

13. Translation of Space
Similar to what Philip experienced in Acts 8:39-40, an entire evangelistic team was “translated” to their destination.

14. Divinely Given Songs
As in almost all revivals, many new songs were written. During this revival, there were songs that were said to have been received via:
►Birds
►Rocks
►The wind

15. Blind People Received their Sight
There were many reports of blind people receiving their sight.

16. Tens of Thousands Healed
It was revealed that there was an obvious association with sin and sicknesses and diseases. When people would confess and turn from their sins, healings would often occur.

17. A Shelter from the Heat of the Day
One team reported that a cloud had followed them on their long walk to a village, giving them shade from the hot tropical sun.

Results of the Revival
►The revival in Maranatha Church spread to other churches.
►A new layman’s Bible institute was established in Soe beginning in 1967.
►A large core group of Christian workers in Maranatha Church became very supportive of the church’s ministries.
►From 1966-1967, the Maranatha Church’s membership increased by 1,000—reaching a membership of 4,000.
►The police reported that there was a dramatic change in social conditions, with harmony taking place in families and in the communities. Stolen goods were returned.
►A lethargic atmosphere of the church was changed to a life filled with exuberance and a holy enthusiasm. The new life in the church was recognized in the fellowship, the singing, and in the public prayers.
►There was a renewed love for the Bible and the Lord.
►Many were sent out to start Christian schools in remote villages.
►Evangelistic teams were sent out from Timor to neighboring islands.
►Missionaries were sent to Japan, Thailand, Pakistan, Germany, and other locations.

Indonesian Evangelism Institute

►Over 40 people from Maranatha Church alone went to the Indonesian Evangelistic Institute in the city of Batu to prepare for various types of ministry-related roles.
►There was a new openness in obedience to the leading of the Holy Spirit.
►The spiritual fruit remained. In 1972, a church in Kupang, which prior to the revival found it difficult to fill its building one time per week, began conducting three Sunday morning services. Many other churches in Kupang and other cities were also experiencing the same lingering effects from the revival.
►Kurt Koch, Mel Tari, and Don Crawford all affirm that 200,000 converts were won to the Lord between 1965 and 1970.

Sources:
Devosi Kelompok Persekutuan Doa by Jance Sandro Toenlioe
Evangelical Awakenings in Southern Asia by J. Edwin Orr
Indonesia Revival by George Peters
Like a Mighty Wind by Mel Tari and Cliff Dudley
Miracles in Indonesia by Don Crawford
Revival in Indonesia Part 1 by Kurt Koch
Revival in Indonesia Part 2 by Kurt Koch
Ribuan Anggota Persekutuan Doa GMIT Rayakan HUT GKR by Sinode GMIT
The 10 Greatest Revivals Ever by Elmer Towns
The Revival in Timor by Frank L. Cooley
Timor Revival by Gani Wiyono

Return to List of Revival Stories

Chet & Phyllis Swearingen:
Office: (260) 920-8248

romans1015@outlook.com

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