10/09/2026
Legacy Steve Hill and The Brownsville Revival 🔥🔥🔥
Some encounters with God mark your life forever. For me, the Brownsville Revival was one of those defining moments, and Steve Hill was one of the voices God used to change the total direction of my life.
I was at Brownsville School of Ministry from 1997–1999, during the years when the fires of revival were burning so powerfully in Pensacola.
What I experienced there was more than a series of meetings. It was a season of spiritual suddenlies and supernatural encounters.
Revival changed my life. It set my heart ablaze and deepened my hunger for God. It changed my understanding of His presence, and forever marked my heart with a passion for His Kingdom.
Steve Hill carried a burning passion for souls, a call to repentance, and an uncompromising message about the transforming power of Jesus Christ.
His preaching was urgent, his heart was focused on the lost, and his life reflected the conviction that an encounter with God should lead to genuine transformation.
His ministry was powerful and set the atmosphere of repentance and revival that impacted so many of us who were there.
For me, the impact went far beyond those years in Pensacola. God called me out of business and into ministry. The Lord redirected my life and gave me a passion to see people encounter His presence, experience His transforming power, and walk in the fullness of their Kingdom calling.
And the fire has never gone out.
Today, through Eagle Worldwide Ministries, we continue to carry that passion for revival, awakening, and the advancement of God’s Kingdom.
What God began in my heart during those years at Brownsville continues to influence how I live, how I minister, and how we in ministry pursue His purposes today.
There is another remarkable part of this story that makes the legacy even more personal. We now own and operate Camp Ablaze, the very property Steve Hill owned during his years as an evangelist at Brownsville.
To us, this is very prophetic and more than a property. It is land connected to a significant chapter in my life and the history of revival. It carries a legacy of prayer, evangelism, and Kingdom purpose.
We recognize that we are stewards of something that reaches beyond buildings and boundaries.
We believe the Lord has entrusted us with a place where the saints can be equipped for the work of ministry, the legacy of revival can continue to inspire a new generation to seek His face, and encounter His presence.
Steve Hill’s story reminds us that revival begins with hunger. A hungry evangelist walked into a praying church, and the impact reached around the world.
The story of revival does not end with one man, one church, or one generation. The flame must be carried forward.
I will always be grateful for what God did in my life during those Brownsville years, for the influence of Steve Hill, and for the calling He placed on my life as a result.
The same fire that marked my life at Brownsville continues to burn through all of Eagle Worldwide Ministries and at Camp Ablaze.
We honour the legacy. We embrace the responsibility. And we believe the greatest days of Kingdom advancement are still ahead as we contend for another generation to encounter the living God.
Revival is not just something we remember. It is something we carry.
STEVE HILL: A HUNGRY EVANGELIST WALKED INTO A PRAYING CHURCH
Long before the Brownsville Revival made Steve Hill known around the world, he had already experienced a remarkable journey with God. Hill had come out of a destructive life of drugs and rebellion, surrendered his life to Christ, entered ministry, and eventually spent years with his wife, Jeri, ministering in Argentina during an extraordinary season of evangelism and spiritual awakening. He had witnessed powerful evangelistic meetings, conversions, deliverances and reports of miracles. Hill knew what it was like to be around people desperately seeking God.
But he was still hungry.
By early 1995, Hill wasn't satisfied to live on yesterday's experiences. After years of ministry and seeing God move overseas, he wanted a fresh touch from God. He had heard about an unusual spiritual awakening affecting Holy Trinity Brompton, an Anglican church in London, and in January 1995 he went there and met its vicar, Sandy Millar. Hill wasn't looking for another ministry conversation. He wanted prayer.
Millar laid hands on him and prayed simply, “Touch him, Jesus. Bless him, Lord.” Hill testified that the power of God came upon him and he went to the floor. Millar knelt beside him and encouraged him to rest in God's love. Hill had gone to England hungry for a fresh encounter with God, and he left believing that God had answered that hunger.
Five months later, another story was unfolding in Pensacola, Florida. Pastor John Kilpatrick and Brownsville Assembly of God had been deliberately praying for revival for approximately two years. They wanted God to move. But by June 1995, Kilpatrick was exhausted and carrying deep personal grief. His mother had died of cancer only weeks earlier, and he was still grieving when his friend Steve Hill arrived at Brownsville.
On Father's Day, June 18, 1995, Hill preached the Sunday morning service. Even Kilpatrick would later remember much of the early service as fairly ordinary. Their worship leader, Lindell Cooley, wasn't even there that morning; he was away on a missions trip. There was no indication from appearances that this particular Sunday was about to become the beginning of something that would eventually draw people from around the world.
Hill spoke about needing a fresh touch from God and told the congregation about what had happened to him in England. Then he gave the invitation.
Many came forward for prayer. As Hill began ministering to people, the atmosphere of the service changed. People prayed, wept and sought God, and some testified to being overwhelmed by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. Then Kilpatrick himself was suddenly overcome. He later described the power of God coming over him so strongly that he went to the floor and remained there for hours.
That Father's Day service did not remain an isolated experience.
They came back.
The meetings continued. As word spread, the crowds grew dramatically. People began traveling to Pensacola from across the United States and eventually from around the world. What started that Father's Day became known as the Brownsville Revival, or the Pensacola Outpouring. The revival continued for years, with Hill becoming its fiery evangelistic voice, preaching repentance, holiness, the cross and salvation as people crowded the altars.
But one of the most powerful parts of the Brownsville story happened before the revival ever began.
Steve Hill had already spent years in ministry. He had already been a missionary. He had already witnessed remarkable moves of God in Argentina. But yesterday's experience wasn't enough for him. He was still hungry. So he went looking for a fresh touch from God.
Meanwhile, in Pensacola, a congregation had spent two years praying for revival.
Then on Father's Day 1995, a hungry evangelist walked into a praying church.
And the meeting didn't stop.
Revival Press
