THE LEWIS AWAKENING 1949-53
1. In 1949, on Lewis, one of the Hebrides Islands off the coast of Scotland, two sisters became burdened with the spiritual coldness of their land. One sister was 82. The other was 84 and blind.
2. They devoted themselves to prayer and “waiting on God”. One night one of the sisters had a vision of the churches filled with young adults. {Currently there were none attending.} They took it as a sign of coming revival.
3. The sisters called the minister and explained their vision. “Give yourself to prayer; give yourself to waiting upon God. Get your elders and deacons together and spend at least two nights a week… in prayer. If you will do that…my sister and I will do [the same] from 10 o’clock at night until two or three in the morning.”
4. For three months the sisters and the church prayed. In one group meeting in a barn, a young deacon stood up and read Psalm 24:3-5 “WHO SHALL ASCEND INTOTHE HLL OF THE LORD? OR WHO SHALL STAND IN HIS HOLY PLACE? HE THAT HATH CLEAN HAND, AND A PURE HEART…” He then lifted his hands and prayed “O God, are my hands clean? Is my heart pure?” One account reads “something happened in the barn at that moment in that young deacon. There was a power loosed that shook the heavens…”
5. REVIVAL SWEPT THROUGH THE ISLAND. Duncan Campbell was invited to come and preach. His preaching schedule was booked well into the next year. However in a matter of days the entire schedule had cancelled. Arriving on the island, he relates, “They had arranged for me to address the church at a short meeting beginning at nine o’clock that night. It was a remarkable meeting. God sovereignly moved and there was an awareness of God which was wonderful. The meeting lasted until four
...