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Shillong Revival |
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Surely the presence of the Lord is in this place |
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Eyewitness: Keith Warjri |
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KEITH AND THE ANGELS
We had just finished our evening family prayers that evening of 25th October 2006, in Bangalore, Karnataka, South India, and the kids were drifting back to their rooms. My wife, Pauline had had a busy day and wanted to sleep early, as the next day two of her pupils were having their piano exams, being conducted by the Trinity College of Music, London, at its Bangalore centre. Manroi, our niece was not sleepy; she had a good day’s rest as her college classes had stopped in preparation for the semester exams. Our son Kenan and his friend, Trinajit were somewhere pottering around. Trinajit is a young man of twenty-one, who was Pauline’s piano student in Kodaikanal International School and who had by now become like an adopted son to us. A SMS message came from Neil, my brother-in-law, in Shillong, asking me to call him. The time was 10.38 p.m. Neil, my wife’s youngest brother, is a pianist and talented musician who had lived in England for fourteen years, and who has now built up a choir (adult and mixed) and a children’s choir in Shillong, Meghalaya, North East India. He has been touched by the revival in a very personal way and has been brought closer to God. This change has brought him even closer to children, of whom he is very fond, some of them being members of his choirs. He has taken upon himself to help several of these children and some have been staying with him. One of them Mika (13), suffers from Down’s Syndrome and has been witness, in her own way, to the effect of the revival on the other children. Iba (13), a lovely girl and wonderfully gifted singer, Evangelist (12), a village boy from a desperately poor and dysfunctional family along with Wanki (18), a house help and neighbour, were also there. Damon (21), who had thought that the rapture had taken place when the cross in the Malki Presbyterian Church had miraculously lighted up one midnight in early September (and remains so even today), and son of an old friend, was there with Neil along with our son Keith (23). With so many children experiencing the manifestation of the Holy Spirit in different ways, even in that group, Mika also tried to be a part of the proceedings. She said that she had a vision of Jesus. When asked to describe the vision, she told of a Jesus who was wearing lipstick and nail polish and high-heeled shoes. Evangelist, who had been affected by the revival in a powerful way, was distraught. He told Mika not to lie. Mika stormed out into the garden. She was simply trying to get attention in her own simple way. The other kids followed her and told her that the angels would be sad and would not clap their hands if she said such things, but that if she repented they would be happy. Angels have not been too far away these days in Shillong. Angels had been seen, mostly by children, in several churches. Most of the children and young boys and girls in Neil’s choirs had seen visions of angels. Mika repented, cried and asked for forgiveness. A little later the children came rushing back into the house. There were angels in the sky they said! It was then that Neil called us. I immediately called up Neil and after listening to him I talked to our son, Keith. “I’m fed up of these ‘angels’ and ‘revival, revival’,” he grumbled. He was tired of the interest the revival was stirring at the expense of other subjects more down to earth. I could not blame him, I had been responsible in sending him, Neil and Damon, on a wild goose chase just five days earlier (see my report ‘Angels in Smit and Other Stories’), mistakenly thinking that the angels had appeared that night (20th October), when they had actually appeared the previous night. Keith had picked up the mobile phone footage of that angel sighting a few days later, and forwarded it. After emailing it to me on Tuesday, 24th October, he asked in an incredulous voice, “Do you believe that was an angel?” I had agreed then that the picture was not clear but that I knew the person who took that shot well, and that he had taken it from the lawns of the church. He almost dismissively asked me if I did not think that the picture looked more like a bat. “Don’t you think it’s a bat?” He had asked again. My wife had then sincerely asked God that our son would see a big, mighty angel. He needed something spectacular. When I called him up later that 25th October night, he admitted that there was unusual activity in the sky and that there was something flying, but that they could have been owls, he said. By about 11.15 – 1130 p.m. Keith’s tone had changed quite considerably, “Look I want to verify anything first before I come to a conclusion.” I switched on the speakerphone as I spoke to Keith and all five of us were listening intently as Keith was giving a live commentary. We knew he would not be carried away easily. “Now I see something different,” he described. There was a pause, “Another one…., they are like shooting stars, but they are lower and they are not burning out. I’ve seen a whole lot, at least twenty of them.” Then we heard a shocked voice, “Oh my God!” There is a long pause, and then his voice comes back on the line, “I definitely saw something! You know a shooting star? You know how it looks? Well this one was like that except that there is no trail or flame, and nothing burning up. This is a star, streaking and yet continuing to look like a star, while moving very fast, actually it was not one star but three stars moving together, like a triangle, in a formation.” Keith continued, “Yes the first may have been a meteor shower first but now it’s different. They move across the sky. I am seeing so many of them, Sooooo... many! They go Whoosh! Whoosh!” He is then quiet, “There was a flash across the sky, like a tube light being turned on,” he said, “the light is mild and did not come on suddenly. I saw some…(a pause), here’s another one,” as he handed the phone to someone else beside him. There is quite a flurry on the other side, as we hear the excitement, and the line went dead. We call again. The phone is then with Iba. She had, only three months ago, gone along with Pauline to a music conference in Caux, Switzerland, and had become very close to my wife, having also touched many hearts with her talent and the purity of her voice and spirit. We heard her sweet voice saying, “I saw angels, big ones, and they are fast, and fly straight. There, there, there!!…” she rattled, “I saw some even waving there wings, gently. Look, look, that one!… Very big!!….There, there, there!!…. I can’t count them any more……a big one!! Shining! He’s very fast!! Neil then came on the line, “The sky is full of them! There, there, there!…Three of them, like human beings, they are white! Oh wow! Like human beings….past us!” Neil exclaimed in excitement and shock, “There were three of them, white! Massive!” We tried to speak to Keith but he had disappeared. No one knew where he had gone. It was about twenty minutes before he returned. He straightaway spoke to us, breathing heavily, “They are as quick as a plane,” he panted, “They are white! Oh my God! So fast, I couldn’t see them anymore. They had massive wings, each having a span of at least ten feet perhaps, and they were huge, but their bodies, torsos, not too huge, looked as big as Ambassador cars, but at that speed you cannot see clearly.” (The Ambassador car has been the mainstay of the Indian roads for decades. Built like a tank it could take a very big load and a lot of punishment). “I ran after them. I don’t know why. I was too dumbstruck! They were AWESOME! I ran up to Dum Dum (about 500 metres). I was lucky it was midnight and there were no cars, I could have been run over. You forget you’re alive at such a moment. It’s like ‘Wow! What on earth is that?’ Awesome!” Keith then tried to recount for us what happened, “I was watching what looked like shooting stars, from the north, when I suddenly saw these three massive creatures. They just appeared in one particular spot. I did not see them come from anywhere. I was transfixed by the sight of the wings that I did not quite note their body. The wings are similar to the pictures we see of angels. Their bodies seemed humanoid, but I did not see clearly. Maybe, Seraphim? They flew south and I ran after them, but I was surprised at how quickly they had disappeared. Ten seconds! They fly that quick! They seemed to move at about 100 to 150 kilometres an hour. They did not fly like birds. I am not sure if they flapped their wings. They flew more like planes.” “That was not any bird! Sure! They were large, glowing. Three glowing things, not too bright, glowing subtly, you know like glow friends? They glowed with a bluish white light. Now you know that’s not normal? They looked at first like shooting stars but they are not! They come in a barrage, but these three were big! That was just AWESOME! That was something supernatural! This is all I needed! If I had a camera I may have been able to take a shot. That was completely real! Oh my goodness!” “If it was birds, why only three? They seemed to have some inner kind of propulsion, and maintained constant altitude! They sort of glide, but not quite. It looked like they could have gone faster. I am shocked in a way. I thought I was dreaming. They seemed to fly over H. Elias School, not too far above the pine trees. That close! Maybe only 1000 feet above. Oh I want to see it again!” “The others saw exactly what I saw. Earlier the lights were much higher. Later they were much closer. Remember, Pa, I told you earlier that I saw three stars like shooting stars higher up? It seemed like they were very similar. Perhaps they let me see them, it’s like they entered my orbit. It looked like hyper jump, like they were accelerating at the speed of light, and then they enter your orbit. It is like something I’ve seen in my dreams. What I saw just now – I would die to see it again!” “I was in a state of shock. I forgot to even try to take a shot. If I had a video camera I would be able to prove to the world that angels exist,” this from a guy who just an hour earlier said they were owls, “But perhaps God would not want me to do that.” “I was grumbling today,” he went on, “Why is it I don’t see these things, I asked God, why don’t you show me something conclusive? I believe God answered my prayers, and let me see the angels people were talking about. I asked and God has shown me, if I despise this, then I am asking for punishment.” He then impressed further, “What I sent you,” i.e. the video of the October 19th sighting, which he had dismissed earlier, “ was nothing like what I saw today. What I saw today was completely awesome, in all its might! Like a giant swan!” He was awed and thrilled by his experience. He continued describing the scene, “Even now you see what looks like shooting stars every five minutes. They seem to come in batches, after every ten seconds there’s another batch. It’s not a disorganised thing. It looks like it comes from Orion (constellation). If they come again I’ll try to video whatever I get (on his mobile phone). The flashes have started again. I pray that I can capture something. You have to see this in person.” |