In May 1997, I greeted my congregation in the city of La Plata, Argentina, and I said, "I will come back to you in a week; I am going to see a couple of places of revival in the United States and I will bring reports back to you of what the Lord is doing in the world. Basically, I thought I was doing so well with the Lord, that all I needed was another touch from Him at these places of revival to strengthen my ministry.

However, there had been a cry, a very strange prayer that I had been praying for the previous months. Several times I was kneeling down and I found myself praying, "Lord if you are not going to bring another revival, take me home, I do not want to live anymore." And then I tried to rebuke my soul, because I have three little kids and my wife and the ministry was not doing so bad. I thought, "I should not pray this way, because the Lord might answer my prayer!"

Then I realized that the Holy Spirit was putting a burden in my heart to see revival. There was a holy hunger for more of God. John Knox used to say, "Lord give me Scotland or I will die." I pray that you will desire revival more than your own life, that you will desire more than to be alive to see your entire nation shaken under the power of God.

Like many others, I was praying for revival but I was not preparing for it. I was going to bring reports of revival back to my congregation. So I went to a place of revival and rejoiced in the Lord with what I saw. I was excited and then I left the next morning very early for northern Indiana, where my wife's family lives.

In a Rush to Get to the Next Meeting...

Two days later I went to greet people in a church. I only had a few moments in the program, as they had another guest speaker that Sunday morning. It was not my turn to preach there; as a matter of fact I was supposed to leave very quickly that Sunday morning, (May 18, 1997) to go to another church to preach, but I didn't know that the Lord had other plans.

I shared a greeting, and then the pastor said, "Let's ask Pastor Sergio to come up front and we are going to pray for him before he goes to the other church, so he can carry fire them." Those were his words. He called young people to pray for me.