Penticostal Evangel Revival touches whole city with Jerry Gaffney Newspaper Headlines

"And I'd much rather be weird for God than weird for the devil," says the church's pastor.

The "weirdness," as Bates calls it, brings more than 30 people per day to the 10:30 a.m. Bible study and keeps them there until 2 p.m. It also brings more than 200 people per night to a 7 p.m. service that sometimes lasts until midnight.

It also led four teen-agers to walk down Tower Avenue Monday, encouraging more teens to come to the evening services. They urged others to come to listen to Jerry Gaffney.

Gaffney, a Seattle area evangelist, has been leading 11 services per week at the church, beginning the day after Easter, April 20.

Originally, he was scheduled to stay for two weeks, but has now extended his stay indefinitely. Bates says Gaffney stayed at another church for 11 weeks.

Gaffney says he decides week by week how long he will stay. He says he has never asked to come to a community, and has never been asked to leave.

Four years ago, at age 45, he was in a prayer meeting at his church in Edmonds when he heard God speak to him, he says.

God, he recalls, told him to go to Port Angeles and share what happened during the prayer meeting, and "I've now had 2,000 services in four years."

"My burden is to see Washington come to the Lord," he says.

Bates says Gaffney tells people how horrible his life was to show Jesus is the only way, and to demonstrate the Lord can change anyone.

"It's phenomenal what God has showed to him," says Bates.

Gaffney visits churches in the area known as the "Ring of Fire" a circular area throughout Washington. The "ring" was a 1929 vision by Smith Wigglesworth, an evangelist. He imagined 1 million small fires representing each person in Washington saved by Jesus.

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It's more about empowering and energizing," he says.

Yes, some people have decided to accept Christ and be saved, but the whole church has been uplifted, he says.

It's obviously not a trick or slight of hand, Bates says, "It's a God thing."

June, a 72-year-old woman from Montesano, says she had stroke like symptoms in December and started feeling like a prisoner in her own home, afraid to go anywhere.

One day, she says, she decided to depend on God.

"I was then freed up and not afraid," she says.

June met Gaffney at a church in Central Park, near Aberdeen. One day she went up to the front during an alter call, when all those wishing to be healed go to the front of the church.

"And I've been going to meetings hwenever he is close," she says.

Bates says people have come from throughout Western Washington for Gaffney's teachings.

He teaches people to walk and take it with them, June says, "to get filled up and take it and have it all the time."

She adds the congregation at the Central Park church seemed to find more of a reality of God during Gaffney's visit.

Sheila was reared as a Chrisitan, but at 20, she "backslid" out of the church, and started living in sin, she says.

"I hung on to the Lord just enough to get into Heaven," Sheila says, but concedes she concentrated on personal happiness.

A person can only make himself or herself happy to a certain point, she says, "but I was still seeking that one thing."

While Gaffney was at another church, Sheila once attended a meeting with her mother. She admits she didn't feel touched by God at the time, but says her husband was.

Sheila finally came to one of Gaffney's meetings in Centralia, and says the Lord touched her. She says she just went home and cried it all out.

Now, Sheila says, she is a completely different person.

"The Lord did open-heart surgery on me," she says.

The Lord, speaking through Jerry Gaffney taught her she didn't go too far, she says. The "big zap didn't come from Jerry Gaffney, but from God."

"I'd been listening to the lies of the devil," she says, "All I had to do was ask forgiveness and admit that (Jesus) loved me."

"It's neat to be freed up like that." she says.

Gaffney is not trying to convert people, she says, but is teaching how to get tuned in with God -- and then to go home and do it alone.

"Any religion can do this," he believes.

The meetings are very loud, Gaffney says.

"Most of us have been trained to comfort the 'owee'," he says, "but I'll rip off the bandage."

Gaffney says lots of people in the world need hope, and children especially need a place to find peace and hope.

"Let's get rid of the drugs and the anger, and come to God," he urges.

Not everyone who comes to him receives healing, Gaffney says.

Jesus is the one who heals, he says "I just pray he will have mercy on someone that day."

"(Jesus) has the power and (Jesus) uses it," Gaffney says. We are just as surprised as everyone (when it happens)."