Over eighty years ago, a young man with life before him was sitting on a hillside on the Island of Arran. Below, on the Firth of Clyde, steamers and liners bound for America were passing, and yachts sailing hither and thither. As he watched, God spoke to him, challenging him as to what his life was to be -- like a pleasure yacht sailing to and fro, or like a liner bound for its ocean goal. He had trusted Christ as his Saviour: now he determined to yield his life utterly to Him, to do His will. Later, he heard of the fullness of the blessing, and by faith received this wonderful gift, and God's purposes became clear: He was calling him to evangelize the villages and country districts of Scotland. So in obedience to the heavenly vision, leaving business and home, with a few kindred spirits, John George Govan launched the Faith Mission.
The early years were glorious times of revival, with awakening in many communities, when many were saved and others became inspired with the same heavenly vision, joining the new band of missionaries as Pilgrims -- the name by which the workers are still known. The work has continued strong and vigorous throughout seventy-seven years, and today almost one hundred are engaged in it.
The vision was carried to South Africa in 1916 by the Misses Garratt, who went forth from the Mission in the homeland and formed the Africa Evangelistic Band. In 1927 the work was extended to Canada. An invitation from a nucleus of friends in Toronto came as a clear call from God to the Founder, just before his Home-call. In 1960 an associate Mission came into being in France, commenced by the Kremer family who had worked in the Faith Mission in Britain.
Working in pairs the Pilgrims give missions of three to six weeks or more to rural and industrial villages and scattered country or highland districts; included in the work have been the Shetland and Orkney Islands, as well as the islands off the west coast of Scotland, and many out of the way places in Eire. Recently work has been commenced in Yorkshire and the English Midlands. Over two hundred missions are held each year, including seaside campaigns in the summer, for which the Pilgrims usually group in fours. Missions are held by invitation of the various evangelical denominations, or independently -- frequently in places where no one locally has any concern to see such work done. The Pilgrims devote much time to meeting the people in their homes, and at night evangelistic meetings are conducted -- in public halls, churches, schools, barns, portable halls, tents and kitchens or drawing-rooms; in recent years the difficulty of getting lodgings in remote places has been overcome by the use of caravans.
The Mission is interdenominational and the work itinerant: not the establishing of permanent mission stations. The co-operation of all who are favorably disposed is sought, and denominational preferences and distinctions are not interfered with. Those who get help are encouraged to witness for Christ in their own churches. Contact with converts and others who may be blessed is maintained through the Prayer Union, the members of which gather on a suitable week-night for fellowship and prayer, and receive a quarterly visit from a representative of the Faith Mission to take the weekly meeting. There are more than 500 of these little fellowships throughout Scotland, Ireland, East Anglia and Yorkshire and the English Midlands, and often the Prayer Union is the only prayer meeting for many miles around.
Well over 200 Christian conferences are held annually, to which Christians in outlying places, who have opportunities, gather to hear of the fullness of the blessing. The annual Conventions in Edinburgh, in the end of August and early September, and at Bangor, in Northern Ireland, at Easter, are looked forward to with expectancy by very many.
Much interest and support for work in other lands is created, and from among the Pilgrims and Prayer Unions a great number have gone forth into the Christian ministry at home, and in connection with well-known foreign Missions.
In the well-appointed Training Home and Bible College in Edinburgh there are some fifty students in session for a two-year course of instruction in the knowledge of God and His Word, the Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ and of the Holy Spirit, the prayer life, holiness in every-day living, the art of preaching and personal work, work among children and other related subjects. Experience is received in visiting, preaching, personal work, open-air witnessing and many practical things of everyday life. Lecturers with regular classes include ministers of most denominations, and other leaders in Christian work, with members of the Mission's own staff, also have regular appointments.
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Duncan Campbell (1898 - 1972)
Used of God in the Hebrides revival in Scotland in the 1950's where the presence of God was manifest in a powerful way. In this later years he became the principal of the Faith Mission Bible College.His burden was for revival in the Church and also holiness in daily Christian experience. He clearly shared the burden of the Lord for His body to be purified in the last days. He preached the true baptism of the Spirit that makes men holy in light of a Holy God.
Recommends these books by Duncan Campbell:
Revival in the Hebrides by Duncan Campbell
The Price and Power of Revival by Duncan Campbell
The Lewis Awakening by Duncan Campbell
Duncan Campbell was a fiery Scottish preacher, whose main claim to fame is that he was a leader in the Lewis Awakening or Hebrides Revival, a mid-20th century religious revival in the Scottish Hebrides.
Campbell was outspoken about two aspects of the work of the Holy Spirit. The first was that, in his view, a true revival was a move of God that affected, not only church members, but the surrounding community in a way that was visible to all parties concerned (work stopping, bars closing, crime ceasing, etc). The second was the definite and profound experience of the baptism of the Holy Ghost subsequent to conversion.
His practice in evangelistic meetings was not to make the usual altar call, but to invite people to come to another room to pray and seek God. In his ministry in Lewis, he sought to transcend denominational boundaries, but this was at times difficult.
Duncan Campbell was, before everything else, a man of prayer and almost invariably started the day with a period of prayer and study of the Bible.
The minister at Barvas, the Rev James Murray Mackay, had been led to write to Duncan through the prayers of his congregation, and in particular two elderly sisters named Peggy and Christine Smith who had received the God-given assurance that Duncan would be the instrument that God would use to fulfil His purposes on the island.
Duncan was quite unaware of these things and he intended to stay in Lewis for just ten days and then take a rest from his mission work. However, despite his tiredness, he immediately recognised the feeling of spiritual expectation amongst the people who had invited him to Barvas, and after the preaching service on the second evening he was there, the congregation lingered outside the church and were joined by others who had not attended the meeting. At that moment, the voice of a young man was heard praying aloud inside the church, and many were moved to join him as a sense of deep conviction came over the crowd. The church was soon filled with people calling upon God for mercy and praising Him for His goodness, and even when they separated in the early hours of the morning, small groups went on praying in various parts of the village.
The powerful awakening which swept through Barvas in the following days was not an isolated event, and although Duncan Campbell's preaching was similarly blessed when services were hastily arranged in villages such as Tarbert, Leurbost and Arnol, the revival was felt throughout the whole of Lewis, to such as extent that he later described it as "a community saturated with God".