On returning home in December, he shared his testimony with people there, resulting in a move of the Spirit that aroused great interest, as well as some opposition. Visitors arrived from many places.
Roberts Liardon tells us that one of them was an Anglican minister, Alexander Boddy, from Sunderland in the north of England. On his return home, he invited Barratt to hold meetings in Sunderland, testifying that what he had observed in Norway was greater than that which he had witnessed during the Welsh Revival.
On the last day of August 1907, Barratt arrived, and he stayed in Sunderland until early October. A number of people were baptized in the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues, including Boddy’s wife, Mary, and their young daughters, Mary and Jane. It was during the last few days of Barratt’s meetings that the local newspaper took an interest in what was taking place. The news then spread to larger newspapers and Boddy soon found his home besieged by reporters. Boddy himself was not baptized in the Spirit until December, after Barratt had left. The following year, Boddy organized the first in a series of Annual Pentecostal conferences in Sunderland that continued until 1914 and the outbreak of World War I. It would be at these meetings that Boddy’s path would intersect with that of Jeffreys.
Roberts Liardon tells u ss that Some of the people of Wales welcomed this Pentecostal teaching. Early in 1910, George and Stephen Jeffreys began to attend Petnecostal meetings held by the Welsh Baptist minister, William George Hill. Previously, the brothers had been opposed to this teaching, but shortly thereafter, they had accepted the scriptural basis for this as a present-day experience, specifically, Matthew 3:11: “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire.”
