A big yellow and white tent was a prominent sight along Dry Bone Road in Ash Flat earlier this month as several churches came together to host Revival in the Pines.
The idea for the interdenominational revival came from Tammy Martin, who moved to the area and opened Pioneer Living RV Park in Ash Flat with her husband in October 2023.
“It came about in a vision while I was cutting grass here at the RV Park. Last summer, every time I cut the grass, I would feel this overwhelming sensation come over me along with a vision of an ‘old tent’ revival,” she said.
“Finally, near the end of the summer I was doing my thing, cutting the grass in the pine trees, and this time I could not ignore God’s vision. I stopped the mower and said, yes.”
Although she decided to move forward with the idea, Martin was not sure where to begin. Knowing she needed more people to make the vision happen and knowing folks from Fellowship Southern Baptist Church in Hardy, Martin reached out to Pastor Terry Linderman and some other friends.
She met with them and shared her vision, which was a community revival, just children of God coming together. Martin, who is a retired coach of 32 years, called it a “pep rally” to worship Christ and get the community fired up for Him. She began to recruit other Christians from the area, and they pulled together a team to organize the event.
“We would meet and plan. The team gave me names of pastors and worship teams. I then contacted them. I knew none of them, but I have realized you only need to have one contact and that is God. He totally put the people in place, all I did was say, yes,” she said.
The first Revival in the Pines was held May 1-3 with Mike Nelson, Jared Russell, and Joey Barnes bringing the Word. The revival tent was rented from the Arkansas Baptist State Convention (ABSC), one of the many resources available for Arkansas Baptists.
“The revival was amazing. The Holy Spirit was here throughout it all. There were just under 500 hundred people here for the three nights. We held a worship service on Wednesday night, a ‘kick off’ service, praying for the revival and our community,” Martin said. “There was a woman driving by Thursday night that turned around and came back. She said the Lord spoke to her as she was driving by to stop.”
In pulling this event together, Martin said God led the team the whole way.
“He put people in place and made everything come together. I have never experienced anything like it, but I have never been obedient to His calling. Absolutely amazing what can happen when we obey,” she said.
The plan is for Revival in the Pines to become an annual event. Team members were from Crossroads Baptist Church in Portia, First Baptist Church in Ash Flat, Fellowship Southern Baptist Church in Hardy, First Assembly of God, and Myron Baptist Church in Ash Flat.