THE 1988 ARGENTINE REVIVAL

VISITATION IN URUGUAY

ACROSS THE RIVER TO URUGUAY

God has a people in the land across the River Plate - just across the river from
Buenos Aires. There Ken and Annie Schisler have been working for several years in a
very difficult place. God has been working in many hearts; little by little, He has
brought together a lovely group of people who love and follow the Lamb. We visited
them a short time ago for a weekend of meetings. There, too, God is visiting His
people and doing a precious work in their midst. We saw several healed during those
days and many met with God as He drew near to work in their hearts.

With each day that passes, we marvel more and more at the love of our faithful
Saviour expressed toward His unfaithful people. Who can understand the reason for
so much love? We are more and more conscious that we are living in memorable times,
so we want to live these days with all our hearts, our strength and our consecra-
tion. Our gracious Saviour, Healer and Deliverer has poured out of His oil upon His
people and they will never again be the same as He heals spirit, soul and body in
this hour of visitation.

IN MONTEVIDEO, URUGUAY

In Uruguay, we also saw His sovereign workings in much the same way as in Argentina.
There, too, our gracious Saviour, Healer and Deliverer is pouring out of His oil
upon His people and they will never again be the same as He heals spirit, soul and
body in this hour of visitation.

One of those who has met with God in this church is Luis, a man who had been
going to church for over fifteen years, but confessed that he never knew God. He
realized that he only had a head-knowledge of God, but had never experienced true
conviction for sin or repentance, nor had he ever come to the foot of the cross. He
described himself as a very religious, formal and self-righteous man. But one day
back in February of 1988, Luis met with God. He had fallen to the floor under the
power of God and gotten up only to fall down again. Suddenly his heart began to
pound and he was conscious of the fact that he was dying and that he was in hell.
He was desperate and cried out to Jesus to save him, but couldn't find Him.
Suddenly, he began tearing at his shirt, ripping it open and popping all the buttons
off as he screamed, "The fire is burning me; I'm going to hell; I'm going to die."
Everyone in the meeting that day could feel the heat of that fire; it was terrible.
Then Jesus came and rescued him. He found the cross and the cleansing blood and he
was born-again that day. Luis will never be the same.

THE MOVE OF GOD IN URUGUAY
Pastors Ken and Annie Schisler
(After trip to Atlanta and Argentina)
We returned to Uruguay still with some doubts that God could do the same
in a country as closed and as difficult as Uruguay. In missionary manuals,
Uruguay is considered one of the most difficult countries in all of South
America to evangelize - one of the most closed countries. So with all of this
to be reminded of and with all our past experiences to add to our sentiments,
we returned wondering, "God, is it be possible that this glorious thing that
we have seen - this fire and power and holiness - can be channeled to our
people here; will You do that same thing here?" With these questions in our
hearts, we returned to take the risk and to launch out into what God wanted.
We felt in our hearts that if God wouldn't work in Uruguay, then it would
indicate that our time there had ended. But God in His tremendous mercy and
compassion over this people, from the very first meeting after our return, He
began to sovereignly move in lives. This people which is known to be rebel-
lious, hard and closed - and atheist - began to experience and to taste of the
power of God. He began to introduce to them the reality of His Holiness and
Fire and Presence. These hearts impacted for the first time, began to feel
the sting and entrance of conviction as they had never felt before.

In the beginning, I ought to admit that the cry was a bit "disorderly."
Even in our own hearts, God was teaching us to walk with the people and with
what He was doing. In the beginning there was a lot of noise. Sometimes in
the midst of the shouting, some were able to hide their specific needs - the
sins that God really wanted to take away and deliver them from. But God in
His grace began to channel the word and the truth to focus specifically upon
the sins of each person. Principally He touched upon areas such as the
uncleanness of which Uruguay is known - immorality, lack of ethical and moral
values. God began to deal specifically with sin.

In a sovereign way, He caused many to have dreams during the night about
death and hell. Many of those who had never believed that hell and heaven
existed, began to see visions and dreams about death and hell. They saw
themselves dragged by the power of demons to that bottomless pit that is the
place of eternal death and perdition. Many of these then began to go to the
services under much pressure and convinced of their terrible need to make
things right with God.

God was working not only through dreams, but also through the Word and
through personal counsel. The time came when we could see that the people
were now ripe for that first encounter with the truth and with the fire. In
the month of February of 1987, Papi arrived accompanied by John. He brought a
specific word about the need of each one to come with truth before the Lord.
I remember that he used the analogy of the prodigal son - that it was neces-
sary for him to get up from his pig pen, to leave that place behind and, of
his own free will, face the truth -- to face what he had done.

In Uruguay the moral standards are very low. People are amoral; it is
almost a circumstantial morality. The emphasis at the beginning of this move
in 1987 when the reality of the power was introduced was upon righteousness,
sanctification and the judgment of God against sin. People didn't view sin as
being sinful. Many sermons were preached on this, but only later did they
understand them. People's philosophy was that of Voltaire - do what you feel
like doing or - in other words - If it feels good, do it! During this time,
God has dealt very strongly in the areas of immorality and uncleanness and He
has cleansed and delivered His people in these areas of their lives. God's
sentence against sin has been pronounced against this nation of 65% nominal
catholic and 30% atheist.

During a two week period in October of 1988, conviction of the Holy
Spirit was the strongest. A large number of the people came into the Cross
experience during this time. People said, "How just of God to pass the
sentence of death upon us because of our sin." Before they could enter in and
take hold of faith in the cross and the blood, they had to accept the sentence
of death.

They learned the difference between a true cry and what it means to
protest against God's dealings with them. They learned the difference between
a true cry and a temper tantrum - which was only an expression of their
resisting God's dealings with them. They accepted God's dealings and His
sentence, being upset with their situation of sin. Many felt as if they were
in a pit or a dungeon.

MORE COMMENTS BY PASTOR SCHISLER:
Uruguay isn't a great vacation resort for Argentina. It's a country, a
nation of almost 3,000,000 inhabitants where there is a people that needs God.
It's a people that lives in much darkness, but a people that God nevertheless
loves. It is a place where eight years ago, God put us to serve Him and to do
His will. We can say that throughout those eight years that we have been in
Uruguay, it has been a long and tedious battle. I imagine that all those who
do a pioneer work will be able to identify with the battles, emotions and
adversities that happen when one is opening a gap for God in a new place.

We can recognize that there have been many occasions when in various
situations we were at the point of giving up and leaving it all. I believe
that in more than one occasion our suitcases were almost prepared and we were
tempted to lift up the telephone to tell Papi or whoever, "We can't stand it
anymore." I believe it is a natural sentiment in those whom God sends to open
new places. But by the grace and mercy of God we could see how God began to
gather together a people in that country that we knew so little of. Little by
little, a small nucleus of people was being formed - that at least gathered
together under the same roof (in itself a miracle!). At least they took
certain days of the week to come and listen to the Word of God. And God was
giving us direction, indications and promises of His grace and His mercy.
Even though there were tremendous battles, God promised to our hearts that the
moment and the day would arrive when He would free His power and His grace
upon us.

Almost all the visits by Papi and Robert brought a renewing of this
promised in our hearts. I think that - more than ministering to the people -
they ministered to these poor discouraged pastors. On more than one occasion,
the word was enough to give a fresh encouragement and strength to continue
fighting. Even though God indicated that the moment would arrive, in spite of
the promises and the words of God, there were always in our hearts the
questions, "Is it true or isn't it? Will the day come?"

There was always a word for the FUTURE, but in the PRESENT, we couldn't
see the fruit of that which God had said would happen. As I said before, we
saw the blessing of God and the grace of God, but one thing that really
bothered us greatly was that we didn't see those great changes and transforma-
tions in the lives and the hearts of those who congregated in this church. So
many times we left the services weeping and lamenting in our hearts, because
we saw that the grace of God came, there were indications of the mercy of God,
but the people left the same as they had entered. Many times, in fact, they
had barely left the doorway of the church until they were again surrendering
to the dominions of wrath, contention, uncleanness and the other forces that
controlled them.

I remember a couple of times, I felt so discouraged when two "brothers"
of the church, fought with each other as they left the meeting. There was a
strong argument. I don't know what the motive was, but I went home lamenting
in my heart, saying, "God, how can this be? You seem to be there, yet these
lives apparently can continue retaining in their hearts the hatreds, the
violence and the filth.

NOTES ON URUGUAY
Eleanor Miller

THE FIRE - for a period of about 4 months the FIRE was manifested in the
church of Uruguay. During every meeting, everyone felt as if they were burn-
ing. The fire - as a light - illuminated their sin within...the first time
they had recognized their sin. Everyone felt the fire. The fear and dread of
the Lord fell upon them and they fell under the power, crying, "I hate you,
God." They grabbed parts of their body when they felt the burning. All over
the church this fire could be felt. People hit the walls and the floor and
cried out against their sin. They hit against the benches with their heads.
They felt pain in their chest. People who opened and confessed sins had
dreams of hell. They saw hell and they were in it...even children. After-
wards came a revelation of the cross and that they were dead in their sins.
The time of fire was a time of confessions of terrible things. People went
back to the sins of their childhood. One old lady - Doņa GRACIA - under
conviction cried out, "Help me. Save me. I'm dying."

BEGINNINGS - When Dad went in February, 1987, something broke. The
opposition in the people broke. God touched everyone. Dad preached on sin
and there was deep conviction of sin. Comments by people: "God showed us
about the sin in us. We didn't like what God was showing us. He showed us
that we were resisting and protesting. There was fury, cries. Violence was
manifested because of the resistance. God was working to take away sin, not
to destroy us. We began to ask, 'Am I born again or have I only made a
profession of faith in Christ.' We saw it was a process for life - not to
destroy us. We had to come to God in truth. We began to lose our fear of God
and His fires. Understanding came to one after another and the violence
lessened. God knocked away the barriers of unbelief and gave us faith. He is
not a God of vengeance and judgment. We could believe in a God who would free
us. The call of God was strong upon us."

DREAMS - Many people had dreams of hell and they found themselves in
hell. They said, "I don't want to go to hell." Pastor said, "You're already
there." They saw their condition as sinners. People knew about sin, but they
had never realized its awfulness. They knew that they would have to define
themselves and choose either heaven or hell.

THE CROSS - May and June of 1988 the Cross worked in a special way in
lives. Many had visions of Jesus, wounded and broken. They realized that
they had been the ones to wound Him. At church, at home, in visions and
dreams. Some while under the power acted out - as if with pantomime - that
they were wounding, striking or hitting Him. Some experienced this during 6
or 7 services . . . others only in one service. This happened for 2 or 3
weeks. Ken spoke to them individually and people were seeing in vision what
he was saying to them. See the girdle, the keys, He is unlocking the doors.
Pastor did not know what they were seeing until afterwards.

People expressed with their bodies what their spirit was seeing; they
acted it out in pantomime. They showed pain, covered their heads, and thrust
against Him. The blood covered them, the love of Christ was manifested on the
cross. They discovered not only that they were sinners whom Christ had
forgiven, but that it was THEIR sin that had wounded Him. They saw the pain
it cost Him to take upon Himself their sin. They saw what their sin produced
in Christ. Before, they took it lightly. Now, they saw how much Christ had
to suffer because of their sins . . . that they could wound Jesus because of
their sins. From this time on, there were real changes in lives in the
spiritual and in the natural. We saw people delivered from great bitterness,
anger and violence - they are a violent people.

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