Jerry Gaffney, an itinerant evangelist from the peninsula area of northern Washington, began witnessing unusual sign of revival in the various churches in his area beginning at his home church, Westgate Chapel in Edmonds, WA., part of the Fellowship of Christian Assemblies, on August 23, 1992. Since that date over 700 people have meet every Wednesday night for prayer and worship. This church was touched by the revival in greater way February 11, 1994, when all but four in the congregation at a morning prayer meeting fell to the floor under the power of God. This had never happened at Westgate before this. Prior to this, he had spent over a year and a half praying forty or fifty hours every week.
In late February, Jerry and his pastor went to New York City and Washington D.C. to visit various people in ministry, including Jim Simbla, David Wilkerson's church, and Rodney M. Howard-Browne. He said that when he was at the Rodney Howard-Browne meetings at a Church of God in Washington D.C. on February 28, 1994, that the Lord seems to have put this mantle upon him for the spreading of revival in an unusual way.
In March, after he returned to his home church in the state of Washington, in a series of three services held in two days, at Lighthouse Christian Center 300 people came forward for prayer, almost all falling under the power of the Holy Spirit. Over 70 people gave their hearts to Christ and a lady with a broken back was healed. The following Sunday, Jerry spoke at a Four-Square church, where thirty people ran forward for prayer and twenty fell under the power of God. Among those who ended up running forward for prayer was a young man who had been brought there against his will by his parents. At the meeting, he was still high on drugs. He was gloriously saved and delivered from all the drugs.
Beginning April 10, 1994, Jerry started meetings at Lighthouse Assemble of God in Port Angeles for three weeks, than at Sequim, Forks Bremerton, Blaine, Silverdale. These meetings were held twice a day, six days a week and continued for 26 weeks without stopping. The meetings at Sequim had to move from the Four-Square church to the Assemblies of God church after the first week due to the crowds. The meetings at Sequim lasted five weeks. Then , at a Friday meeting in forks, one-third of the entire town showed up, a corrections officer from the prison was healed of a dislocated shoulder. A man who was blind was healed and many others. After two weeks at Forks, he went to Bremerton, where people would show up at 5:00 for services starting at 7:00. People could not wait for the altar call. During the meeting they would stand up and say, "Do I have to wait till the end of the service to get saved?" They wanted to respond to the altar call hours before it was going to be given. In many cases people came running to the altar during the song service and at one time during the offering to get saved.
Jerry spent five weeks in Blaine, Washington after leaving Bremerton. There were eight weddings in Blaine in one meeting. Please see attached letter from a news paper reporter hearing the sound of the mighty rushing wind. Jerry went to Silverdale for another five weeks, where five people ran down to the front of the church during the offertory to be saved. They asked if they had to wait till the altar call. There were eight weddings and or renewal of vows there in one meeting. After a two-week holiday, Jerry went to Ocean Shores for four weeks, and Central Park for the first four weeks of the new year. Then, for the next six weeks he was in Sequim again. There were three weddings there.
One of his most unusual practices is that the pastor performs wedding ceremonies, for people who repent of fornication, as soon as they get a license, in order to prevent them from falling back into sin. He said one Sunday service, they sang two songs, baptized fifteen people (many of whom were on heroin, and who began falling out under the power when they were being baptized), held a wedding, had a sermon, sang songs, took up an offering, had an altar call, about 50 for prayer and 7 saved, then had a reception for the wedding.
When he held meetings in Marysville, Washington, almost 7,000 people came. One of the people present said the next to the day that he received his salvation, it was the holiest day in his life because there was such an intensity of the presence of God. One of the most conservative people in the church began shaking under the power of God for six days. This happened to many people. In the meetings at Sequim the Holy Spirit came down in such a way that people started crying out to the Lord for their souls and for the souls of others, this lasted three hours. A Pastor Green started crying and said he hadn't seen this in fifty years. Roy and Ann Collins from the Blaine meetings, who were at the Branham meetings and Kathryn Kuhlman meetings years ago. They cried and said "It's starting all over again"
In his meetings, between fifty and sixty percent of those who come to Christ have typically continued in the faith. John Wilcox, who attended one of Jerry Gaffney's meetings at Lighthouse Assembly of God in Port Angeles, remarked that "The Power of God to save and heal was evident, and many were slain in the Spirit. Jerry is a humble man, and this move of God through him is very evidently a sovereign one -- there is obviously no fakery or self-glorification (involved)."