As a Christian aboriginal, it’s a great privilege for me to acknowledge in this book some of the great things that God has done in our time. In 1979, we had revival that began at Galiwin'ku on Elcho Island and it affected the whole of Arnhem Land. It spread south-west to Warburton Ranges, and then north-west to the Kimberleys. We also had teams going to north Queensland to minister and spread the revival.

This has set a course for the church at Galiwin’ku to become an outreach church. Ever since that revival, we have been going to places and sharing what God has done and what he is still doing. I am one of the products of that revival and I’m not the only one. There are a few of us still on fire for the Lord. Every year, on March 14, we celebrate that spiritual awakening and pray for a fresh touch from God through the power of his Holy Spirit. These are exciting times for the church in Australia. We must repent more and more so that times of refreshing will come to our churches.

Since 1977-1978, I have had the privilege of working as community worker with John Blacket. He is one of the Balanda (white man) staff who witnessed that revival from the very beginning. My perception is that John is a different man now since the revival. John is one of those people who can communicate to an Aboriginal person anywhere, because he has learned to listen and understand Yolngu (Aborigines), then takes the time to share with them. I admire him for this task and particularly for his endurance and patience with people. Now God has given him this important ministry of reconciliation and bridging of Christian Balanda and Yolngu in Australia. We want to see unity come to the church of God right across the land, then we will see revival come to the whole of this Great South Land of the Holy Spirit. This book is a milestone for that revival. I would like to commend John in his careful efforts in documenting and compiling these anointed stories. I’m sure you are going to enjoy reading this book and will be blessed by the Lord.

1. Gathering firewood: The background to the Aboriginal revival
2. Lighting the fire: The Arnhem Land Aborigines and Christianity to 1970
3. A strong wind fans the flame: The preparation for the revival during the 1970s
4. Creating a hot fire: The Arnhem Land Revival, 1979
5. Sustaining the hot fire: The Arnhem Land Revival, 1979-1981
6. Igniting the tinder-dry desert: Revival spreads to Central Australia
7. Lighting many new fires: The rapid spread of renewal in Central Australia
8. Fuelling a raging bushfire: The crusades across Western Australia
9. Stirring the smouldering embers: The first years after the Aboriginal revival
10. Fighting and lighting fires: The late eighties and early nineties in the Aboriginal church
11. The coming of rain: The legacy of revival in today’s Aboriginal church

Vinson Synan is dean of the School of Divinity at Regent University in Virginia Beach, Virginia. This review from the back cover of the book summarises the seep of this book writen by a world recognised Pentecostal historian.

Called "a pioneer contribution" by Church History when it was first published in 1971 as The Holiness-Pentecostal Movement in the United States, this volume has now been revised and enlarged by Vinson Synan to account for the incredible changes that have occurred in the church world during the last quarter of the twentieth century.

Synan brings together the stories of the many movements usually labelled "holiness," "Pentecostal," or "charismatic," and shows that there is an identifiable "second blessing" tradition in Christianity that began with the Catholic and Anglican mystics, that was crystallized in the teaching of John Wesley, and that was further perpetuated through the holiness and Keswick movements of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to the appearance of modern Pentecostalism.

Synan then chronicles the story of the spread of Pentecostalism around the world after the heady days of the Azusa Street awakening, with special attention given to the beginnings of the movement in those nations where Pentecostalism has become a major religious force. He also examines the rise of various mainline-church charismatic move- merits that have their roots in Pentecostalism. Because of the explosive growth of the Pentecostal movement in the last half of the century, Pentecostals and Charismatics now constitute the second largest family of Christians in the world.

"This could well he the major story of Christianity in the twentieth century," writes Synan. "Pentecostalism has grown beyond a mere passing ‘movement’ . . . and can now he seen as a major Christian ‘tradition’ alongside the Roman Catholic, Orthodox, and Reformation Protestant traditions."

The Holiness-Pentecostal Tradition will continue to be an important handbook for shaping our understanding of this phenomenon.