Kentuckians Flock to Revival Meetings
A spontaneous religious revival in western Kentucky is in its eighth week and is prompting some comparisons to Pentecostal revivals in Toronto and Pensacola, Fla., which started in the mid-1990s and are still going.
It’s also drawing comparisons to Kentucky’s large-scale camp meetings of the 19th century.
Organizers said crowds averaged 1,000 a night as worshipers of all ages from the western tip of Kentucky and nearby states were flocking to a gym-auditorium owned by Trace Creek Baptist Church and set amid country roads and tobacco fields.
The revival in Graves County, population 35,000, started spontaneously at two small neighboring churches when a husband-and-wife music ministry team, Gerald and Cindy Simmons of Gulfport, Miss., appeared on a Sunday morning in early May at Sedalia Baptist Church and at Enon Baptist Church.
“God just showed up,” Sedalia Pastor Tim Allred said. Some people became Christians or promised to renew a sagging faith, while others wept over past emotional hurts and forgave each other for old grudges.
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