The Spontaneous Revivals of Asbury

Asbury College, located just south of Lexington in Wilmore, KY, was founded in 1890 as Kentucky Holiness College. Its founder, the Methodist evangelist John Wesley Hughes, said that God had directly instructed him to open a college where students and faculty were "always endeavoring to tear down the works of the Devil and to build up the Kingdom of God". (Years later though, in 1905, he was ousted from his own board of directors for unknown reasons.)

Asbury is famous for the "Spontaneous Revival of 1950" and the "Spontaneous Revival of 1970". According to Asbury's website, "In February 1950 a student testimony led to confessions, victories, and more testimonies. This went on uninterrupted for 118 hours and became the second leading news story nationwide; it is estimated that 50,000 people found a new experience in Christ as a result of this revival and witness teams that went out from it." And of the 1970 incident: "In February 1970 student confession and testimonies led to 144 hours of unbroken revival; some 2,000 witness teams went out from Wilmore to churches and at least 130 college campuses around the nation."

But actually, Asbury has had a long history of these "spontaneous" revivals, usually taking place in the month of February for some reason, and dating all the way back to 1905. From Asbury's website again:

In February 1905, during a blizzard, a prayer meeting in the men's dormitory spilled out to the rest of campus and the town of Wilmore.

In February 1908, revival broke out while someone prayed in chapel; the revival lasted two weeks and was signified by prevailing prayer and intercession.

In February 1921 the last service of a planned revival lasted until 6 am, and services were extended for three days.

Apparently the zeal around the school has fallen a bit lackluster in these space-age secular times. There have been only two "spontaneous revivals" at Asbury since 1970 - one in 1992 and one in 2006 that is described rather sketchily as "four days of continuous prayer and praise". I note this not to mock anyone, but to hopefully instill them to greater heights of religious fervor this February, and to urge them towards disseminating their beliefs on a grander scale as was done by their esteemed alumni in 1950 and 1970.

(On the other hand, in an anonymous Forerunner article credited to "Editorial Staff", the idea is proposed that the great Spontaneous Revival of 1950 never actually ended, and that we are still in the midst of its reverberations even today. An interesting and beautiful idea, but marred somewhat by its association with The Forerunner, known for hateful and tinfoil-hatted articles like "Islam and Mormonism: Kissin' Cousins". They also claim to know the true identity of the Beast of Revelation, but you have to buy their DVD to find it out.)

Also located in Wilmore is the Asbury Theological Seminary, which was originally part of Asbury College but has been a separate institution since 1931. This is an interdenominational graduate school of theology, whose graduates now serve in more than 80 denominations in over 57 countries around the world.

Both the College and the Seminary are named for Bishop Francis Asbury of the Methodist Episcopal Church (as is Asbury Park, NJ, made famous by Bruce Springsteen).

High Bridge

This railroad bridge crossing the Kentucky River between Jessamine and Mercer counties is simply known as "High Bridge".

It began in the 1850s as a suspension bridge with stone towers, designed by John A. Roebling (designer of the Roebling Suspension Bridge that takes you from Covington to Cincinnati, as well as the Brooklyn Bridge in NYC). That project went unfinished, however, and its remains were later revised with a cantilever design. At its completion in 1876, it was the first cantilever bridge in the United States and the tallest railroad bridge in the world.

The bridge was modified and expanded greatly in 1911, and then again in 1929. It's still in operation today, serving the Norfolk Southern Railway.

Ebenezer Cemetery Vandalized

Just noticed this news story of yet another instance of cemetery vandalization a couple of weeks ago. This time it's in Jessamine County, at the Ebenezer Cemetery - A historic site with many Revolutionary War and Civil War graves. According to the story:

More than a dozen headstones were knocked over, vandalized, and destroyed over the weekend.

Jeff Smith says it's not what he ever wanted to see.

"It kinda hurts my feelings someone would come out here and destroy things. It's disgusting", says Smith.

Smith says not only did people destroy the headstones of people he knows, they also broke into the church.

"They used a cinder block trying to break the door down. When that didn't work they tried to kick the door in", says Smith.

In fact, whoever was responsible left their footprint on the door of the church doors. Smith says within the last month they have recently done other damage around the cemetery.

"A lot of trash and beer bottles and things like that", says Smith.

However, this time around it hit Jeff Smith hard. That's because he knows a part of history is now damaged.

Other recent cemetery desecrations have occurred here and here and possibly here.

New MRSA Strain in Jessamine Co.

Uh-oh. Just saw this on FOX News:

West Jessamine High School junior Ryan Robinson was placed on life support at the University of Kentucky Hospital after being diagnosed with methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus — or MRSA.

The Lexington Herald-Leader reported that was confirmed by Sam Pile, who coaches the youth's soccer team.

Pile said Robinson played well Thursday, but said his mother said the boy fell ill that night. His ailment was first diagnosed as influenza, but MRSA was later discovered.

Jessamine County Schools Superintendent Lu S. Young said the school and the Career and Technical Center have been thoroughly cleaned.

MRSA, aka Necrotizing Fasciitis, aka the "Flesh Eating Bacteria", stands for "Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus", and it's seriously scary stuff. Just a few weeks ago, ABC News ran a story about how some say it's becoming a dangerous new sexually transmitted disease, and is increasingly being treated as an epidemic. The Mayo Clinic says:

Most MRSA infections occur in hospitals or other health care settings, such as nursing homes and dialysis centers. It's known as health care-associated MRSA, or HA-MRSA. Older adults and people with weakened immune systems are at most risk of HA-MRSA. More recently, another type of MRSA has occurred among otherwise healthy people in the wider community.

That new wider-ranging superstrain is known as Community-associated MRSA, and is apparently what we have here in Nicholasville.

Just how swift and how scary is it? Well, this teen was healthy and playing soccer in the afternoon. By evening, he was severely ill. By morning, he's in critical condition.