Spiritual revival is on the lips of many throughout the area, and even internationally, this month and over the coming year, with at least three otherwise unconnected events over a two-week period starting yesterday in different parts of Allegany County.
A group of residents and students, along with visitors from the Rochester area, were joined through virtual conferencing with churches and Christian schools in Colombia and Ecuador Saturday as they prayed for the healing of the land and spiritual reawakenings in Allegany County, the country and the two international communities.
Starting tonight at Houghton University, where at least two recorded revivals have occurred in prior decades, an annual four-session Rooted Revival series is scheduled.
Next week, a Wellsville church will hold three evening Revival Meetings.
Yesterday’s day-long series of events started in Alma in the southern part of Allegany County, with a vehicle prayer caravan of participants ascending Alma Hill Road to an area identified as being the highest geographic peak west of the Catskill Mountains, praying for revival in the land.
They then continued to Island Park in Wellsville for prayer for unity on the bank of the Genesee River, which happened to occur in the midst of the weekend Park in the Park Car Show.
Ron Garrow, a Native American from the Rochester area, also offered petitions for a healing of the land, with prayer by a pastor of Laotian descent and others of American and multicultural heritages, including virtual prayer and participation from the churches and Christian schools in Colombia and Ecuador.
The day-long event grew from the association of Houghton University students who were participants in a weekly Bible study with Houghton resident Bruce Hess, a One Mission Society missionary who had served in Latin America for many years, which included development of many Christian churches.
Hess, who with his family were prisoners of war, died at 88, described as a multicultural evangelist seeking revival and unity until his death.
The group also poured water into the Genesee River at Wellsville, which eventually flows into Lake Ontario and the North Atlantic Ocean to reflect the healing waters in the Bible which symbolize God’s power to cleanse, restore, and give eternal life throughout the land when His people are revived from their contrary ways and return to Him.
The group’s journey then continued on to the Mill Street Crossing in the Village of Cuba where additional water was poured into Griffin Creek, which eventually runs into the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico, the Canacadea Creek at Alfred Station where the water flows to the Chesapeake Bay and then into the Atlantic, and Houghton University for a concluding dinner.
Allegany County is a unique New York county in the Triple Continental Divide east of the Mississippi River in which waterways are split among three major drainage basins.
The groups will re-convene at the same time next year to review what God has been doing in the areas being prayed for and to seek additional discernment as to next steps in His desire for revival and unity.
The free, unconnected public Rooted Revival series at the University will be held from 7PM to 8PM tonight through Tuesday and from 11:10AM to 11:50AM Monday in Wesley Chapel at 1 Willard Avenue.
Crystal Kirgiss, vice-president of discipleship for Young Life international ministries and a Christian author and speaker, will lead the sessions.
From Tuesday-Thursday, September 22-24, South Carolina Pastor Ernie Spence will speak at 7PM nightly Revival Meeting sessions, hosted by the Anchor Baptist Church of Wellsville, New York, at 83 Chamberlain Street.
This story first was reported by the What God is DoingTM in Allegany County ny group Facebook page at https://tinyurl.com/God-in-Allegany-County-ny.