CHAPTER 2
God Lives in Saskatchewan

In October of 1971 the Rev. William McLeod of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, had scheduled an evangelistic crusade in his church with the Sutera Twins. Ralph and Lou, of Mansfield, Ohio. It might have been an ordinary campaign or even an extraordinary one since the Suteras were experienced evangelists who had travelled widely over the years and had consistently demonstrated the evangelistic gift.

But in a pattern which we shall discuss later. God began to do something very unusual in Saskatoon. The Ebenezer Baptist Church in Saskatoon was soon filled to capacity-and most important. key members of that same church began to be reconciled with one another. Two brothers who had. not sung together for ten years and had not spoken for two years were reconciled. Love flowed like a river. And the fire burned.

In need of larger quarters, the meetings were moved to an Anglican church which in turn proved unable to hold the crowds. Then in an unprecedented move, Pastor Walter Boldt of the University Drive Alliance church cancelled his missionary convention in order not to stifle what God was doing and wanted to do in Saskatoon. Use of the large sanctuary at University Drive, seating eight hundred, was offered to the Baptists. And they accepted.

Pastor Boldt himself took an obscure seat in the balcony, and as he later confessed, critically watched the service unfold. The song service in his opinion was sub-normal. The movement of the service clumsy and inelegant. Previously he had wondered, why had God sent the revival to the Baptists and not University Drive? After all, he had reasoned, we are the largest evangelical church. We have the people. We have the prestige.

Suddenly, as Pastor Boldt related later, God came upon that service. It was taken over by the Holy Spirit of Almighty God and everyone knew it. When the invitation to get right with God was given many believers and some unconverted responded to the appeal. Pastor Boldt sensed the Holy Spirit saying "You need to go to that altar." He did not go then. but when the call for counsellors was made, he went - but not to counsel. He went to get right with God himself.

The revival continued to grow until thousands were attending, hundreds were finding Christ and many, many lukewarm Christians were getting right with God.

The story of how the revival spread to Regina and later to the Okanagan in the interior of British Columbia will probably be written by others at the appropriate time.

We were not in any of the meetings in Saskatoon. But something was in the air in Western Canada. And if the general populace did not sense anything unusual, those with spiritual discernment certainly did. There was, in the words of one, "an incredible sense of destiny" upon the evangelicals in Western Canada.

Our first-hand introduction to the revival was in the Okanagan, scenic fruit valley of British Columbia. About one thousand people were gathered in a public hall in Kelowna. Lou Sutera was the preacher but because of the length of the service I could not stay long enough to hear him preach.

Still, though no one told me it was revival, suddenly I sensed that it was. The suddenness of the realization shocked me. And for the first time in my ministry I knew that revival was distinct - it was not evangelism though it was evangelistic; it was not blessing though it was blessed. It was a fire-ignited by God among people who had for years been evangelized and blessed.

Chapter3