TESTIMONY OF REV. PAUL CONTENTO

Dr John Sung had the power. "What power?" you may ask. He had the power spoken of in Acts 1:8: "You shall receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you."

I began church planting on the China-Mongolian border of Ningsia province. After eight years of relentless, seven days a week itinerant preaching, people's hearts seemed as dry and barren as the sand dunes in the area.

Around 1933, we began hearing of a Bethel Band consisting of five very bright young Chinese evangelists having much success in bringing revival to many churches in the main cities of China. Christians were truly repenting of their sins, and the transformation in their lives made them strong witnesses to the unconverted.

The star revivalist was a Dr John Sung with a doctorate in chemistry from Ohio State University, who having had a deep spiritual experience and renewal of the Holy Spirit, threw his doctorate parchment into the sea on his way back to China. He was so dynamic and dramatic that people came to listen to him and not the others, so it was inevitable that the team eventually split up and Dr Sung campaigned not only in the cities of China but in most of the countries of Southeast Asia. Where he went churches were revived, teaching seminars were held and witnessing bands were formed. Pastors, elders, deacons came under conviction of sin, and when they confessed and changed, whole congregations were trans­formed.

In 1938, Dr Sung held a campaign in Kunming, S.W. China with the same results. Then he came out to Tali in west Yunnan where we were temporarily working. Because of a typhoon, few of the tribes came to the meetings, so he began with only fifty people in the audience. He was our guest for two weeks. He preached three times a day - morning, afternoon and evening - two hours each time. We met at meal times and engaged him in some conversations, but he ate sparsely and kept to his room until preaching time.

One day he told us he was going to pray for us missionaries. He said, "Come at two o'clock." We met and he asked us to kneel down. There was no excitement. I was not feeling anything, then suddenly he put his hands on my head and said, "In the Name of Jesus, be filled with the Holy Spirit."

Suddenly, I felt like an electric shock go right through me from my head to my feet. I began to tremble and the shock waves continued for some time. When we left the room, I did not tell anyone, not even my wife. But I knew that I was a changed person. Up until then I preached from a sense of duty, but now I suddenly loved to preach the Gospel. The church preaching hall open to the street was mostly closed because neither the missionaries nor the church evangelist cared to preach in it. Now I began to preach, and for three months preached everyday with much joy and pleasure in doing so.

The Word of God became more real and I could preach with a zeal I never thought I had in me. It is over 40 years since that experience, but even now, when my mind goes back to that experience, I feel a new urge to witness at every opportunity. It has been a driving force in my life.