The Coal Miner Who Set a Nation Ablaze

In the autumn of 1904, Evan Roberts was a twenty-six-year-old coal miner in Loughor, Wales, known mostly for his quiet temperament and calloused hands. He had spent thirteen years underground, hauling coal in narrow shafts before dawn. No one would have picked him to change a nation.

Then something shifted. After months of intense prayer, Roberts stood before seventeen people in a small chapel on October 31 and spoke with an urgency that startled even those who knew him. His words were plain, his theology uncomplicated, but the power behind them was unmistakable. Within two weeks, the chapel could not hold the crowds. Within two months, over one hundred thousand people across Wales had professed faith. Coal mines fell quiet as workers gathered in tunnels to pray instead of curse. Pubs emptied. Magistrates in several towns were presented with white gloves — the traditional symbol that no cases awaited trial.

Roberts had no seminary degree, no denominational backing, no publicity campaign. What he had was what Peter had on that first Pentecost morning — the Holy Spirit turning a trembling soul into a blazing witness.

When the Spirit fell in Acts 2, the Almighty did not choose the eloquent or the credentialed. He chose fishermen and tax collectors, and He filled their mouths with fire. The same God who transformed Peter from a man who denied Christ by a charcoal fire into a preacher who converted three thousand still delights in setting ordinary lives ablaze.