Revival in Marysville
Reports of revival are spreading throughout the Pacific Northwest. In the small town of Marysville, Washington, young people are flocking to church altars, attracting a lot of attention in this spiritually lukewarm part of the country.
The most "un-churched" part of the country, the Pacific Northwest, brimming with witchcraft and New Age influence, is where Billy Graham has said America's last great revival will begin. And if you look at the First Assembly of God Church in Marysville, Washington, you'd say revival has already started. Since becoming pastor five years ago, Ken Squires has seen attendance rise from 300 to 1,500 weekly. Its youth group, maybe the most dynamic ministry to Generation X-ers anywhere, has grown from 35 to over 700 on Wednesday nights, when miracles always happen.
"Our people are getting involved in the ministry, and that's what I think excites me the most is the fact that people are not just sitting in the pews but that they are rolling up their sleeves and getting involved in serving Christ," says Pastor Squires.
So excited that up to 75 adult workers come early and stay late for the teen services, discipling and counseling the teen-agers. X-ers who normally wouldn't go to church drive three hours, from as far away as Idaho, Oregon and Vancouver, British Columbia, to meet a life-changing God on Wednesday nights.
"I left it all behind--you know, left the heroin, left every drug I've ever done, you know, left the drinking," said one teen. "Just now I'm just worried about Jesus and my relationship with Jesus."
"I was going through heroin withdrawals and I got prayed for and then -- I don't know; I got saved, and I just wanted to come back," said another teen.
"I think the second time I came here, the power of God hit me," agreed another member of the youth group. "I was on the floor for hours, crying, and I'll never be the same."
"You can have energy, you can have the flash and bam and all this video stuff and MTV effects and everything like that, but I'm telling you what: in this generation, they're finding out that the world is hollow -- that true power and true love come from Jesus Christ," says Marysville's youth pastor Benny Perez.
The youth revival is such a phenomenon that Marysville has become the North American training center for youth ministries. All of the credit goes to three years of daily fasting and prayer.
"We're talking about really praying and pressing in and really finding God and seeking God and hearing what he has for our particular ministry," says Perez. "You have to take it seriously. They have to take it seriously because the devil is serious about what he's doing to the youth culture."
Marysville is also serious about caring for people. And according to Pastor Squires, this healing character, whether relational or physical, began during his first Easter sermon on the Resurrection when church senior Jessie Miller dropped dead of a heart attack in front of everyone. EMT efforts in the sanctuary failed. But several hours later, Jessie miraculously came back to life before astounded doctors.
"Their eyes are just open because they can't believe that I'm back here and have as much health as I have," she says.
As a healing body or as a place where young people come to meet a real God, Marysville's First Assembly seems to be the early wind of a great revival in the Northwest.
"God will get all the glory for all that happens in our church, and I would say that that's the primary reason that God is sovereignly blessing our church, is because he knows that he's going to get all the glory for all that happens," says Pastor Squires.
