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Shillong Revival |
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Surely the presence of the Lord is in this place |
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Glowing Cross at Malki |
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My name is Barkos Warjri. I was born is Shillong, my hometown, into a Christian (Presbyterian) family. I am presently working in Bangalore, South India. I am ethnically a Khasi. Background on the Khasi: The following is a continuation of the records, which I am attempting to keep concerning the Christian revival currently sweeping the Khasi and Jaintia Hills of Meghalaya, starting from the centenary celebrations of revival of 1906, which was held on 23rd April 2006, in the village of Mairang, in the West Khasi Hills. The Cross at Malki My son, Keith, 23 years, had been visiting the Mawngap Church on the 2nd and 3rd September and had told me of interesting things he had seen. The church there had experienced the revival spirit for a few days by then. (Mawngap is a village about 25km from Shillong, where a good number of the population still follow the native Khasi religion). On the first day, he did not feel comfortable. He said he was seeing more of what demons were doing than of what God was doing – that was his understanding as this was the first time he was seeing a manifestation of spiritual struggles. On Monday, the 4th September 2006 the activity in Malki Church had picked up from the morning when many kids had been taken to the church after they had fallen down, fallen asleep, or had demonic encounters, which were manifested as physical struggles. (There was a strong inner urging in these children to go to the Malki Presbyterian Church). Sitting in Bangalore about 3000kms away I sensed that the day was building up towards something special. I told Keith in the afternoon (4th September) that he should go to Malki church (I knew he was curious and I felt that he would be able to see some interesting things). At about 10:30pm that night I called up my sister and her sons and spoke to them. My nephews told me that they would be going to the church. By then the activity in the church and picked tremendously with many people singing songs of praise and others having manifestations of demonic possession. Banlam (26), my elder nephew, told me he was going to the church and Lamshai (24), the younger one, also showed his keenness to go, in a tone that suggested he was curious to see what would happen. My sister was also going to the church for a little while. I went to sleep at 11:00pm and kept my mobile phone switched on. I usually switch off my mobile before I sleep, but that night I knew I had to keep it on. I must have been fast asleep when I heard me mobile ring. A glance at the display told me that it was 1:50 in the morning. The call was from my sister, “Bah,” that is what she calls me, meaning elder brother, “I …I don’t know what it is,. …what’s this? “What’s happening?” I ask, now wide-awake. I think she is hallucinating or maybe having a vision, like many others throughout the previous day, and I try to calm her down. “What cross?” I ask. I hear my nephew’s voice, “Mama, (which means ‘maternal’ uncle in the Khasi language) this is unbelievable!! I can see him clearly there on the cross above the pulpit!” I hear my elder nephew’s, somewhat sheepish voice on the other end, “Mama, what is this? I can’t see anything and everyone is seeing.” Some minutes later I get another call. Keith has reached along with my brother-in-law and his friend. They were already on their way when Keith got the call. My brother-in-law, quite generously endowed had huffed and puffed his way up the slope to the church, while his friend was frantic. He thought the rapture had taken place. Neil, my brother-in-law, his friend, and his niece, can see the figure on the cross immediately. Keith, my son, cannot see it. I check up on what had happened during the time I was asleep. My sister had come to the church and gone back home at about 11.30pm and gone to bed. It was about 12.50 that she was woken up. At about 12.30-12.45am Lamshai and three other friends were sitting in the porch of the church building, directly in front of the central door and straight in line with the pulpit. There was a lot of activity around when Lamshai saw a small boy, perhaps about 4/5 years old pointing towards the pulpit and saying, “Look, Jesus, there, Jesus!” Lamshai and his friends initially ignored the boy, thinking he was just another one seeing visions. When some excitement built up a little later, he looked and was stunned by what he saw. The wooden cross above the pulpit was bright, showing a blurred image of what looked like a man. The four friends were initially silent, struck dumb by what they saw, so too were the many others around them. My sister immediately changed and rushed to church as soon as she was called. Her initial reaction on seeing the cross was shock, surprise, simply amazed at what she was seeing. In her words, “I was overwhelmed, overawed by the sheer wonder of the whole experience.” Most of those who were there could see the figure. The glow could be seen by anyone, but only from the central door of the church building and along the central aisle. The cross, from any other angle looked the same way as we had been seeing it all these years, right from our young days, a wooden cross. What my sister noted after the cross glowed was that the crying and screaming, of those who had demonic possession, died down. It was quiet. What I could hear, even as I repeatedly talked to them through that night, was singing. It is only much later that they think about the boy. They realise that a child of that age if he was at the church at all, at that time of the night should have been with his parents or elders. No one had questioned at that time who the child was, or how he could be there. When they look for him they cannot find him, nor was he familiar to anyone in the church. At about 3.30am I call again and find that my lively 15-year-old niece has been roused from her sleep and has also reached the church. “Mama, I don’t know, I can’t see clearly because of my eyes (in her excitement she had forgotten her glasses), but I can see the blurred figure, and Lamshai thinks he can even see the head now. Mama, I just cried with joy when I saw, I just wanted to cry.” ‘Don’t you feel sleepy?” I ask her. “No I am fully awake now, I am not sleepy at all.” I spoke to my sister again. She can see the head too now. She can even make out the crown of thorns. Keith and Lamshai by this time were trying to do a sort of documentary for me using Keith’s mobile phone. They see some pictures on a video camera, which had been brought there, and there the pictures are clear. Lamshai says, “Wow, Mama, it’s very clear on the video, a very bright and strange colour. The colour is beautiful, very beautiful.” I cannot sleep any longer. I sense the overwhelming excitement as I speak to them. It gets to me too. I get a virtual running commentary through the night, as I try to read portions of the Bible in between the calls. When I ring up again at 4.30am I sense the excitement growing. It is Lamshai on the phone, “I can see the arms now, till about the elbow, and the legs, but I can’t see the feet. The head is also clear now.” “What? The head?” I am very curious now. I wonder if all this has something to do with the effect of the lights. I know the lights in the church well. I picture the chandeliers and the lights behind the cross. The cross is made of light material and not solid wood as it hangs on the wall. It is a wooden frame and is covered by laminated plywood. The hollow behind holds some bulbs, which when lit, light up the wall behind the cross and silhouette it starkly against the wall. The effect of this is that that the cross stands out dark against the white background. Now, from what I was being told, I can picture it, totally different. The cross, which should be dark, was glowing brightly. I knew that I had to wait for the morning light. I would know then if it was merely an effect of the lights, if was merely some reflection. I knew that Shillong is quite bright by about 5.15am at this time of the year. I can hardly wait to see. I was sceptical. I did not want to be taken in by any play of the lights. When I call, my sister is still in the church. By this time the place is filling up with the eager, the credulous, and the curious. “It must be light there now?” I ask my sister. “Yes, it already quite bright, but the image has become clearer. Now the colour is white, almost like marble.” I still wait for some more time. I needed to be sure. I would wait till the sun was well up. At 6.30am on 5th September, I call again. My sister had just returned home. She has to be ready for work now. The cross has become bright white, even though sunlight is filtering in through the windows. “The brown, dark, wooden cross is just so bright and white now,” she says. I sat back, stunned by what had taken place. It is 7am in the morning as I contemplate the possibility of grabbing a few winks before going off to work. Some Reactions a few days later: I spoke to my sister-in-law a day later. She said she felt the presence of God as soon as she entered the church the next day. She is a member of another church. “I did not feel like leaving the church. It was so peaceful.” I spoke to my cousin’s husband who is a member of the church. “When I entered I stood at the door and felt all the hairs on my body stand. I simply wept.” I spoke to my father who did not want to go and see what he thought was the effect of mass hysteria. A staunch Presbyterian he would not be taken in by manifestations of the Holy Spirit. He went only four days later. When I spoke to him that afternoon and asked him what he felt, he paused, then said slowly, almost in a whisper, “This, … this is genuine,” he said, in the voice of a man who had at last, accepted the inevitable. He said nothing more, but there was no need to. |
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Account from Mr. Warjri, IAS |