Never in
the history of
the Pentecostal Church has there ever been as much progress in missionary work as there has been in the last decade. The Assemblies of God General Superintendent, Thomas Trask, now in his seventh year at the helm of the church in Springfield, Missouri, said this recently in Springfield, Illinois, at First Assembly of God, "I just returned from Brussels, Belgium. In that meeting of the World Pentecostal Conference Executive Committee they said there are now 500,000,000 Pentecostals around the world. In the last days it says I will pour out My Spirit Upon All The Earth. The last days revival is going to escalate, no not maybe, you can take this to the bank with you. The Word of the Lord and God have spoken it. It will come through the Pentecostal Church, because the Pentecostals believe in the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit.

Recently at First Assembly of God of Springfield, IL. Pastor Eric Hanson took a mission team into Kenya where they took a van for four days into the center of that nation. The area they were in was very dangerous. They were in a predominantly Muslim area. The small group of four had assembled a group of 500 natives in a small building one evening. Pastor Eric Hanson preached the gospel of Salvation and at the end the interpreter asked those in the group if they wanted to accept Jesus -- the entire group accepted Jesus. With very little room and no light, the next question which was asked was, "If you would like to receive the Baptism in the Holy Ghost place your hands upon your head." Immediately the power of God came down in the building and from the small dimly lighted stage you could hear the manifestations of tongues all over the building. In America it takes some people months and years to receive the Baptism. These natives who had never seen a white man before received the power of God without teaching, or very much understanding as to what was going on. Tim Shultz, Tommy Faeth, Bob Barnett, and their Pastor, Eric Hanson, were amazed at what happened. Eric said, "We did what we had to do. They might not have ever seen another missionary and we were probably the first Christian Missionaries they had ever seen. We were amazed at how fast God moved. This was the first time we had ever traveled into the jungle . We went away amazed at how much the power of God can do."

Dwain Jones, visiting Calvary Assembly of God in Mobile, Alabama, said this, "More than 35% of the world’s population live in China and India. Slowly the work is increasing in these areas." Jones works with Mission of Mercy, an arm of the Assembly of God that goes into desperate areas of the world to establish new works. "Mark Buntain worked in Calcutta, India, and established a kitchen that fed more than 40,000 meals a day and never closed. More than 19 million people live in Calcutta and two million of those live on the streets. In Orissa, India, they sell children for $.65 a piece. Fifty percent of the world’s hunger problem is in India. We established an orphanage in the area.

In Romania we showed the Life of Christ on television and we had over one million conversions the night it was shown. In Romania one new Assembly of God church is built every 10 days.

District Superintendent of Illinois, Paul Martin, spoke about the great move of God in San Paulo, Brazil, and said that in that city there are 3,800 Assembly of God Churches -- in the City of Chicago there are only 90 Assembly of God Churches at this time . Brazil is in revival and the end time harvest can be seen in these churches. I thought these works would be small in nature but some are very large, numbering 2,000 in membership. God is moving all over the world.

In Madras, India, I was asked to preach an early morning service at 6 AM. I didn’t think there would be anyone there, but as I walked to the platform I saw 5,000 people ready to hear the Word of God. Four more services would be held that day, each containing the same amount. David Mohan, an Assembly of God missionary, has been very successful in launching new works there. The churches are really seeing tremendous growth in these areas.

In Dhaka, Bangladesh, Larry Smith is a missionary for the Assemblies of God.. Smith said recently he has never seen as much growth as he has witnessed in the last four years. Smith has served in Bangladesh for 16 years, four 4-year terms . In Dhaka there are 10 million people in a 32 square mile radius. The Assemblies have been in this area since the 1930s and could only manage to establish 12 churches in the region. We have spent four terms of four years. The first term we witnessed no increase but things have changed and where there were only 12 churches, in our second term it grew to 17. One fifth of the world’s population is in this tiny area. Now we are in our fourth term as missionaries and more than 154 churches have been established. Smith mentioned that beaming the gospel on television and radio is beginning to touch the large population areas of this part of the world. Despite having no sanitation in the hospitals and humans being homeless on the streets of Dhaka tremendous strides are being made in this area to reach people with the gospel.

Brother Thomas Trask has been General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God for the last seven years. He would be the last person in the world to want to be recognized but when something is going right in an organization you can only look to the top.

Thomas Trask has led the Assemblies of God into the most intense move of God the denomination has ever seen. He is the friend of revival. We have seen him on more than one occasion go after religion to chop it off at the roots. He has built bridges to others in revival and has fostered the good will that it takes to move in the body of Christ. Trask and his wife, Shirley, are surely blessed of the Lord.