HINGWA PENTECOST
1909-1913

One event in the young life of Chu Un that had made such an indelible impression upon his soul was what has become known as the "Hinghwa Pentecost." This happened in the year 1909. At that time Pastor Sung had transferred to a big Church in Hinghwa city. Under his ministry the number increased from two hundred to six after one year and to one thousand in the third year. "I have never seen such a prosperous Church", said John Sung when he testified of his father in another sermon. But God had greater blessings in store for the people of Hinghwa. As it is said that "the wind bloweth where it listeth," so the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Pentecost of Hinghwa came all of a sudden one afternoon when the parishioners met in annual convention to commemorate the death and sufferings of our Lord.

The preacher was a young pastor surnamed Lim who had earlier impressed Chu Un as an effective and interesting speaker at Sunday School. But as he spoke now on "Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane" there was felt a penetrating power never experienced before. His words, like arrows, pierced the heart. As he preached his hearers were moved to bitter tears. The preacher himself also broke down and wept for his own sinfulness that sent Jesus up the cross. Under a similar conviction of sin, more and more of the congregation capitulated - weeping and groaning. No more were the arguments as to what was sinful and what was not sinful. Under the searchlight of the Holy Spirit the people confess­ed their faults one to another. Feuding elders and deacons in the same Church held one another's arms in mutual forgiveness. Stolen articles were returned to their owners. According to John Sung's "My Testimony" published two decades after the event, several hundred stolen balls were returned by convicted young people! Wherever possible restitution was made and if not possible "trespass-offerings" were directed to the Church Treasury.

As the fire of God swept on, as many as three thousand, like the first Pentecost, were saved! The Hinghwa Pentecost was so noised abroad that visitors came from as far as Amoy in the South and Foochow in the North, yea, even from distant America.

Among the repentant was nine-year-old Chu Un. He also was moved to tears so much so that his coat lapels became soaking wet. Leslie Lyall, in his book on John Sung - Flame for God in the Far East - thinks the young lad had found the Lord as Saviour at the Hinghwa Pentecost. Liu Yih Ling in his Chinese version on the Life of Sung Shang Chieh, quoting John Sung's own testimony of his spiritual crisis in America concludes differently: "At the time of this revival John Sung was nine years old (by actual reckoning, only seven-and-a-half, if we count from September 27, 1901 to Easter 1909). Although he went everyday to the meetings he had not gone through the experience of repentance from sin nor received the new life, though he had felt a power bringing him to the meetings." "Nevertheless," continues Mr. Liu, "this was a beneficial lesson John Sung had learned for his future evangelistic ministry. Thanks to the Lord, from such a young age there was inculcated in him such an important lesson - the secret of revivalistic evangelism. Such an indelible impression of such a great work on his young heart."

"The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is everyone that is born of the Spirit" (Jn 3:8). Birth is a mystery. The spiritual birth is a greater mystery.

Now, while it is true that revival is sent or withheld by the good pleasure of a sovereign God, the human factor in­volved in revival as evidenced in the Hinghwa Pentecost cannot be by-passed. As there was a ten-day prayer meeting held by one hundred and twenty disciples of the early Church preceding the descent of the Holy Spirit, so there was united intercession by two elderly ladies in America for revival in response to a request made by a missionary in Hinghwa. As the two American women were pleading for Hinghwa month after month suddenly they felt a quickening assurance within that God would do something great by the  Good Friday of 1909, whereupon they wrote to tell their friend in Hinghwa about it. As mail by sea was slow, this letter did not arrive until after Easter. Nevertheless Pente­cost did come down on Hinghwa, to be exact, the afternoon of Maundy Thursday, eve of Good Friday, 1909.

Lord, send the old-time power, the Pentecostal power,

Thy flood-gates of blessing on us throw open wide!

Lord, send the old-time power, the Pentecostal power,

 That sinners be converted and Thy name glorified.