stirs eagerness for revival

A video depicting the transformation of four cities when Christians began
to pray is being distributed around the world. "Transformations" describes
how cities in Colombia, the United States, Guatemala, and Kenya were
changed by the power of God, the Lynwood, Wash.-based Sentinel Group said.
The 60-minute video, released last year, demonstrates how "informed,
sustained prayer can change a community," spokesman Alistair Petrie told
Religion Today.

Distribution of the video "has absolutely exploded," Petrie said. More than
80,000 copies, about 75,000 more than expected, have been sold since its
release last June, he said. Almost all sales have come by word of mouth.
"People hear about it third- or fourth-hand and decide they have to see
it," he said. Sentinel offices in Lynwood and Canada receive requests for
the video daily.

The film has been seen by an estimated 25 million people in 150 countries,
Petrie said. It has been shown on television in some countries, and 40
international ministries use it. It is being translated into 25 languages,
including Arabic, Mandarin, Chinese, and Hebrew.

The video is a tool for churches to change their communities, Petrie said.
It depicts how churches identified the cultural, historical, and other
influences that blocked revival, then "prayed against them," he said. It
"helps churches see their communities through the eyes of the Lord."

Spiritual revival in the four cities has reached all levels of society, the
video shows. In Almolonga, Guatemala, rates of alcoholism and crime dropped
dramatically and the once-poor town began prospering economically after
churches began praying. The crime rate also has dropped in Cali, Colombia,
where more than 60,000 people come to all-night prayer meetings twice a
year, the video says.

Christians in more than 700 cities have started prayer groups since
watching the video, Petrie said. Churches in Cape Town, South Africa, are
holding all-night prayer meetings with as many as 2,500 people. Pastors in
dozens of U.S. communities are meeting to pray for their cities after
watching it, he said.

Government officials are embracing the video's message that prayer can
change a city. The mayor of Cape Town showed it to his municipal leaders,
Petrie said, and the mayor of Pretoria, South Africa, received 100 copies
and promised to distribute them to other leaders. The mayor of London,
Ontario, Canada, said her city needed the blessings depicted in the video,
as did the Mormon mayor of Boise, Idaho, the Sentinel Group said.

A New Mexico sheriff sent a letter and a video to 90 churches asking them
to pray for their community. Michael Davidson of San Juan County asked the
churches to "enter into partnership" with his office to defeat pornography,
drugs, and domestic violence. Twenty-five pastors held a news conference
backing his call, news reports said.

The strong response is an indication of people's desire to see revival
pervade their communities, Petrie said. Most such spiritual movements last
only about three years and "never leave the church," he said. The media,
government, and schools are rarely affected and destructive social
conditions such as poverty, crime, and drug abuse remain unchanged, he said.

That will change when people develop a longing for God's presence in their
cities, Petrie said. He and Sentinel Group founder George Otis, Jr., hold
seminars in churches, teaching Christians to find "spiritual pathologies"
to discover what blocks revival in their cities, he said. Change comes when
people "come to the end of their own answers and begin to ask God for the
answers," he said.

Phone number at the Sentinel Group is 800-668-5657.

Source: Religion Today