BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

Palm trees blew in the Florida breeze as 16-year-old Daniel Kolenda arrived at Brownsville Assembly of God in Pensacola. Daniel wasn’t the kind to roll his eyes at his parents. But if he were, he would have rolled them when his father decided to bring the family here to attend yet another revival. As if he didn’t get enough of that at home. Daniel’s father was a pastor. So was his grandfather. Going back five generations the men had all been pastors. His mother’s father also was a pastor. Daniel pretty much lived at the church. He attended all the services, and attended school there. He was even the janitor. While some kids dreamed of being firemen or policemen, Daniel had known since he was 8 that he was called to preach the gospel in Africa. He dreamed of preaching in Africa. He loved God, and he wanted to fulfill his destiny. But revivals? They were boring. “What’s happening at Brownsville could be historic,” Daniel’s father had explained. “If you’d been alive during the time of the Azusa Street revival, you’d wish you had seen it with your own eyes. I want to make sure that when you’re grown you can say you saw this with yours.” Inside the church, any thought of boredom left Daniel’s mind. There were a lot of young people on fire for God. He loved the music. He loved the messages. It felt as though he’d been lit on the inside by the Holy Spirit. The second time, he went with his youth group. There was a lady there named Suzette Hattingh who was the head intercessor for Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke. She didn’t speak. She didn’t minister. All she did was pray—and the power of God fell in that place. When it did, Daniel felt an explosion of power on the inside so great he knew he’d never be the same. He also heard the Holy Spirit: 'You’re going to work with Reinhard Bonnke.' That night, Daniel wrote a letter to Reinhard explaining that the Lord said he was to work with him. Letter written, Daniel needed an address. Who was this guy? He’d never heard his name before that day. Researching Reinhard, Daniel saw pictures of him ministering to hundreds of thousands of people in Africa. He was the most famous evangelist in the world. Daniel put the letter in an old shoebox and went to bed. Never the Same “I was never the same after attending the Brownsville revival,” Daniel recalls. “I started gathering friends together to pray. We prayed for two hours every morning. We met again and prayed over lunch. That lasted through my teenage years. After graduating, I attended the Brownsville Revival School of Ministry, which was a two-year program. We attended classes all day and revival meetings all evening. It was 12 to 15 hours a day, every day for two years. I met Rebekah, the woman I would later marry, while I was there.” During those two years, Reinhard Bonnke was in Florida to film the movie "Full Flame." Daniel was one of about 20 students from Brownsville selected to be extras in the movie. During one part of the filming the producer instructed the extras as to where they should stand. “I was standing in my spot when he brought Reinhard Bonnke to stand next to me,” Daniel recalls. “I introduced myself and he perked up at my name, Kolenda. “It hadn’t occurred to me the name might be familiar to him, but it made sense. My family had emigrated from Germany before World War I. Later, one of my uncles, John Kolenda, had returned there as a missionary. He helped start the Assemblies of God in Germany and Brazil. Today, Brazil has the largest population of Pentecostal churches in the world. BVOV : 23

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