The Hills are Alive - True Story

This is an exciting true story of how a storm turned the hills turned alive with revival fires in Darjeeling during the 1980s and its fires are still spreading downward to the plains, burning brightly and cannot be stopped and it is thrillingly the fire of the Holy Spirit... and not the work of man. Shared in 2015...when we pray for revival, things happen..but we have to be ready!!!


Darjeeling, India

Happy Sleepy, Peaceful Town

In the 1980s, the town of Darjeeling was a little happy town with good-natured gentle simple people, with few wants in life, content with all they had, very little crime, all the happenings in town centered around tourism because of snowy Mount Everest looming in the distance, with trek camps organized, Darjeeling had good schools and colleges, two cinema halls, sometimes rock shows performed by youth as Nepalis loved to sing and have beautiful voices, and a lot of football games and other games.  Those were the days when rock music was rampant.  The sad dampening event was the drug infiltration was insidiously silently sliding in like a mammoth hungry snake, drugs coming in from the Golden Triangle (Southeast Asia) and taking over many youth.

Many were deeply drawn to rock and pop music and on winter holiday nights, young people would burn bonfires where they would gather around a bonfire and sing gustily with guitars.  The influence of the Scorpions, Led Zeppelin, Rush and Pink Floyd was infused in many young Nepali hearts, and they held many rock concerts in the little town sometimes, singing these songs heartily.

In the early 1980s, two women got together regularly each morning after finishing their household chores and met at one of the woman's cottage to pray.  They both were ladies who were touched deeply by the Lord, and had a God-given burden to intercede for Darjeeling for old and young people to turn their hearts to God, give their lives to Him, and grow in Him.  This was the prayer of their morning meetings.

The Rise of A New Movement - The Storm

In 1986, I was in my house down the mountain, (Mount Hermon School) when I heard a terrible screaming, it was unimaginable and horrifying and a chill ran down my spine and I shivered.  My house helper said, "Boini (little sister), I will go down and see what it is.  She raced down the hillside road to the big main road on that mountainside.  When she came back, her face was blotched and red, and she was shaking and crying.  Weeping, she gasped, "One boy was killed, there is a big protest down, and one boy came forward to see what they were shouting about.  The protesters maddened to see anyone coming in their pathway slashed a kukri (curved knife used for fighting and as a tool by Nepalese) against the boy and cut off his head.  His mother who was behind ran forward and when she saw this, turned mad and screamed without stopping, she was inconsolable.  Her cries were unforgettable and haunted everyone for days.  I was in shock for days after this horrific event.  This was the start of that long movement where unprecedented killings occurred in a town of simple, good-natured folks who stood up for each other, protected their women and cared for each other.  But now, the random killings continued.

This was the start of the Gorkhaland movement, where activists wanted a separate state for themselves out of West Bengal, as they felt deprived of a lot of their rights.  In a strange turn of events, while the Gorkha's were fighting for Gorkhaland, a fight where Nepalis wanted to be separated from West Bengal, the state they were in, and create a state of their own called Gorkhaland.  But sadly, this evoked a lot of aggression among themselves and a lot of personal fights and feuds started erupting between them, the end result would be murder.  Sometimes, someone was just simply walking in an agitator's pathway of fury and they were mercilessly murdered.

On one occasion, a young boy was going to Government College and the protesters were matching forward.  For no reason, they turned on the young boy who was walking that way and started to growl something to him, in fear he started to run, and they chased him mechanically without knowing why and killed him with a khukuri without knowing why they killed him.  It was a senseless killing.  Several acts of violence happened.  Sometimes, when students were going to college, the protesters would round them up and order them to go home immediately if they wanted a curfew, flashing knives menacingly.  . I myself have had a knife flashed at me once when I was in town!

 The town folks and those living on the mountainsides lived in fear all the time.  In the shared passenger taxicabs, there was a deathly silence whereas before the town folks would chatter with each other happily.  Noone knew who was an informer, who would inform the Gorkha activists if someone was against the movement.  They could not speak a negative word against this violent movement for fear of death.

Eventually the Central Reserve Police Force, (CRPF) was planted in Darjeeling.  Many nights, the folks in Darjeeling heard gunshots.  The CRPF was firing any violent Gorkha protesters, but many times, innocent people got shot.  In fact, many of the most violent protesters were never nabbed, but innocent boys were victims of those gunshots.   Many youths did report that some of them were caught and tortured by the CRPF.  The CRPF would randomly catch suspected boys, many of them were not real activists, the real dangerous activists were untouchable and inaccessible.  Local Nepalis reported that the CRPF would torture these caught boys by covering them with wet blankets and beating them so badly they would get internal injuries, but no outward wounds were reflected because of the wet blankets.  All this was done under cover and would never be admitted openly by the CRPF.  So innocent people were wronged during this time.

The Rise of Prayer

The two praying women were pained and shocked.  They had prayed for revival. What was God doing?  They did not understand what was happening, but kept on praying.  In the meantime, a heart-sickened town was terrified and afraid amidst the broken-hearted who had lost loved ones. The Nepali Christians and also the Christians from outside, started praying more in their homes and as they started praying, the burden rose to pray for Darjeeling and the people of Darjeeling, and then they decided to meet together to pray.  It was quite common to see prayer meetings held in people's homes where very strong fervent prayer cries touched the throne of God, a roaring intercession moved the very heavens.  Many parents were afraid of losing their children through that insurgency and children and youth started praying for protection and for one another.  The level of love and concern grew for one another.  People started sharing dinners and meals together, more for togetherness, oneness and prayer.  In 1992 onwards, the Gorkha movement calmed down to a great degree, but with the loss of over 1,200 lives.

The people of other faiths were watching this interchange of Christian life and prayer, and they saw the love of Jesus shining in Christians, who were strengthened deep within through their powerful prayer times.  The spirit of fear left the Christians.  They now simply trusted God.  The seed fell in the very fertile God-hungry hearts of the other people and many wanted to know Christ.  There was one family in particular, a Malwari where the father used to specialize in making silver idols and had a shop in Darjeeling where all the people of his faith bought his idols.  When he learned about Jesus, that the God of the Bible commanded not to make idols, he stopped making them and lost his business.  He did this at the risk of his own life as people were angry he stopped making idols, and he also lost great wealth.  From being a very rich man, he lost a lot, but he did not care.  He had found the pearl of great price.  He insisted on being baptized along with his family in the name of Jesus.  The pastor was almost afraid of such a strong decision, but the man was certain, finally this man and several others were baptized in a river in the vicinity of Darjeeling district.  The Nepali Christians with their simple and clean faith continued to pray fervently for all the people and have prayer meetings in their homes.  Pray was the force and backbone and powerful breath of fire that started burning through the land.  Great strongholds started breaking down.

Springs of Revival

This awakening continues forcefully even today, 2013 and has spread like a burning fire to the foothills of Darjeeling, in Siliguri.  This revival moves and multiplies on its own, a very mighty force moving forward like a river.  In fact, the preachers and pastors themselves feel overwhelmed by the response of the people from other faiths.  They are simply drawn to Christ, they are tired of the fighting and violence they see among themselves and see the peace, love and power of Christ in believer Christians who are truly walking in Christ.  They know they are sinners in need of a Savior and want to follow after Him.  They all want to be baptized.  It is not something pastors propagate, but it is a step that the new converts want.  The pastors take that step and baptize those that are requesting it, often several are baptized together and there is a mighty crowd of spectators.  Just on Sunday, May 19, 2013, some new believers rented out a hotel hall to have services.  They are so hungry for the Word and so hungry to worship God and know Him more that they are fervently making these moves.  The only True Converter is the Spirit of God who convicts the world of sin and draws them to Christ.  No man can do this.

The secret of the subterranean springs of the revival is the continuous prayer meetings and Bible studies.  In retrospect, in Christianity, a lot of attention is given to Bible studies.  We need very strong interceding pray in revival times along with the Word.  It is the united prayer that break down the walls of Satan to let the power of the God impact a village, a town, a city, and a nation.   It is not in one's own efforts of even sharing the Gospel or teaching the Word.  Without prayer, no one can do it.

My friends, when we pray for revival, it will come, but be prepared for the stormy upheaval that may accompany it, sometimes.  Be prepared to keep on having strong prayer meetings as Satan's army awakens with revival.  We need the fire of prayers constantly burning in our hearts to never stop prayer, the Bread of Life in Bible studies to teach and strengthen each other constantly, and the Springs of Living Water of the Holy Spirit to continuously refresh, wash and cleanse our souls.  Then the revival fires cannot dim down easily and they would burn even brighter each coming day.  As the hills are alive, may they continue to burn brightly with revival fires.

It is my prayer, and many others I have discovered recently have this same strong burden, that we have one last revival all over the world before the Rapture, so a harvest of souls will come to Christ.  I pray that we will be burdened to fast and pray for this.

© Rita Farhat Kurian

Only God is the true  converter of a human soul.  No human can convert anyone.  It is God's Spirit to a human's spirit that converts.