The Trickle at Moriah Chapel

In the autumn of 1904, a twenty-six-year-old Welsh coal miner named Evan Roberts asked his pastor if he could address the young people after a Monday evening prayer meeting at Moriah Chapel in Loughor, Wales. Only seventeen stayed to listen. Roberts spoke simply, urging them to confess Christ openly, put away doubtful habits, obey the Holy Spirit promptly, and profess faith publicly.

That trickle of prayer became a torrent. Within two weeks the chapel overflowed nightly. Within two months over one hundred thousand people across Wales had professed faith. Coal miners emerged from the pits singing hymns instead of cursing. Taverns shuttered for lack of customers. Magistrates reported empty dockets. Even the pit ponies in the mines stumbled in confusion — the miners had stopped using the profanity the animals had learned as commands.

Ezekiel saw water seeping from beneath the temple threshold, barely enough to wet the stones. Yet that trickle deepened to ankles, then knees, then a river no one could cross. Wherever it flowed, death gave way to life, and barren shores bore fruit in every season. The Almighty delights in beginnings so small they seem negligible. He takes seventeen people in a forgotten chapel and floods a nation with His healing presence. What matters is not the size of the stream but the Source from which it flows.