In December of 1987, Rodney M. Howard-Browne arrived in the United States to engage in evangelistic work, but it was not until April of 1989 in Clifton Park, near Albany in upstate New York, that he began experiencing continuous revival during his meetings. In a 1994 interview on TBN with Paul Crouch, Rodney Howard-Browne said of the outset of the revival that, while he was preaching, "The power of God fell in the place without warning suddenly. People began to fall out of their seats.... rolling on the floor. The very air was moving. People began to laugh uncontrollably while there wasn't anything funny.... The less I preached, the more people were saved."
From this point onward, these phenomena accompanied his ministry regularly. A description of some of his meetings at Emmanuel Christian Church of Spring Hill, Florida, pastored by Bill Wilson, appeared in the February 14, 1993 issue of the St. Petersburg Times ("Signs and Wonders" by Dan DeWitt): "The revival was not only the largest in Hernando County history, say the believers, but the most inspiring. As many as eight hundred people gathered by nighttime services.... Some worshipped ten hours a day. Almost all claim to have been reborn, to have been gripped by the joy of God, or to have been healed of a long-standing emotional or physical ill[ness]." At a meeting at Tabernacle Assembly of God in Orchard Park, New York in May of 1994, Bill Wilson reported that the revival at his church had continued unabated since it had begun. He estimated that 1500 people had become Christians during the previous sixteen months in Spring Hill, Florida as a result of the revival.
Rodney Howard-Browne's influence soon reached worldwide proportions. Ken and Nancy Curtis of Clearwater, Florida, have recorded a videotape, "The Laugh Heard Round the World," documenting the spread of this revival throughout the Philippines, Singapore, Russia and Africa after they received their own initial impartation at a series of Rodney's meetings in the United States.