c. 1997 Religion News Service

UNDATED _ As a teen growing up in Huntsville, Ala., Stephen Hill spent more time taking drugs and committing crimes than doing homework.

Today, the former drug addict is on another kind of high _ a spiritual one. Hill, 43, is at the center of a revival at a Florida panhandle church that has drawn 1.5 million people in less than two years.

Although Hill is now riding the crest of a tidal wave, at one time he was drowning in an ocean of drugs and crime. Before he turned 16 _ when his father died unexpectedly _ he had tried nearly every drug available on the street. He was even high at his father’s funeral.”I was cold-hearted,”said Hill, whose autobiography is told in a booklet,”Stone Cold Heart.””I didn’t shed a tear when my father died. Drugs just separate you from reality.” Hill’s faith journey has taken him from the depths of the drug culture to leading evangelistic meetings four nights a week at the Brownsville Assembly of God Church in Pensacola, Fla. What began on Father’s Day 1995, when Hill substituted for the church’s pastor and his good friend, the Rev. John Kilpatrick, has become arguably one of biggest religious events to hit the southeastern United States in recent memory.

On that June Day, nearly 1,000 worshipers responded to the altar call at the end of Hill’s message. Some were new converts and others were Christians rededicating their lives to God.

Today, interracial multitudes _ old and young, rich and poor, Catholics and Protestants _ line up before daybreak to get inside the church, where thousands participate in person, or watch on monitors in overflow rooms and hallways.

The services typically last six to seven hours, ending in the early morning. And hundreds arrive daily _ by car, bus and plane from across the United States and around the globe _ to experience the phenomenon that Hill has dubbed the”Pensacola Awakening.” Hill moved his family from Texas to Pensacola after he realized the revival would last more than just a few weeks.”This is a visitation from God,”he said.”… It is awesome to watch. It’s a very violent revival and people are being set free. There is a hunger in the land. … It is the answer for America.” Carol Simon of Huntsville has made several trips to the Pensacola revival.”It’s really exciting,”she said.”People are running to the altar to be saved.” Many at the revival faint or become paralyzed for no reason. But those manifestations are not what the revival is truly about, said Jim Summers, who counsels people responding to the altar calls.”The revival is not about people falling out, jerking, or fainting,”said Summers, who helped Hill put his life back together after years of drug addiction and crime.”It’s about souls being saved, and ministers and Christians coming back to their first love and taking it back to their churches and cities.” As a teen, Hill was in and out of jail for drug offenses and other crimes, such as theft, which supported his habit.

In his autobiography he writes,”By the age of 12, I had put myself in compromising situations and faced fears that many people never face in a lifetime.” Following his father’s death, his mother was saddled with the burden of raising her children alone while trying to put her personal life back together. As Hill became more rebellious, she spent more time praying for him, always fearing she would find him dead of a drug overdose.

Hill eventually left home and traveled anywhere the drug scene drew him, sometimes sleeping in the streets. Most of his friends died from overdoses, accidents or were murdered, he said.

Through it all, Hill’s mother, a devout Lutheran, never lost faith he would someday return to his Christian roots.”I was broken-hearted and my heart was very heavy,”said the 75-year-old Ann Hill.”I had a couple of friends I could confide in, which helped. Each Sunday night I would go to … church and pray. It helped knowing people cared.” She believes Hill”had to hit rock bottom to get where he is today.” For Hill, the bottom came in October 1975, when he returned home to Huntsville to crash at his mother’s house.

It was there, while high, he said he heard a voice say,”Steve, this is it.”He began convulsing and thought he was about to die. His mother stayed with him as he went through what he calls”an incredible three days of hell on Earth.” On the third day, a Lutheran minister came to visit Hill and convinced him to put his faith in Jesus for salvation. At that moment, Hill said, he felt a transformation take place and a peace engulf him as he had never known.

Two weeks later, the police arrested Hill for outstanding warrants. He was taken to jail and faced a possible 25-year prison term.

Enter Jim Summers, who met Hill in the early 1970s while ministering in the streets of Huntsville. Seeing something worth redeeming in Hill, Summers asked a judge to turn Hill over to Outreach Ministries, a Christian drug-rehab program.

Hill still remembers the judge, who had sentenced him on numerous other occasions, saying,”Although it’s against my better judgment, I’m going to sentence you to Outreach Ministries. If you don’t make it there, you’re going straight to jail.” While few believed Hill’s conversion had staying power, Summers had faith in his new charge.”When Steve came into our program, he had his eyes set on the Lord,”said Summers, who frequently travels to Pensacola to help counsel new converts.”The ministry Steve has is awesome, and I truly feel honored to help him.” After graduating from Outreach, Hill entered Teen Challenge, a national Christian drug-rehab program founded by evangelist David Wilkerson. Hill was later selected to attend Wilkerson’s Bible College in Texas, where he met his future wife, Jeri, who had come from a similar background.

The couple married in Huntsville in 1979 and worked for Outreach Ministries. They later served churches in Florida, Argentina, Spain and Russia. The Hills have three children, all schooled at home.

Hill doesn’t know when the Pensacola revival will end, but he believes he’s been assigned the task by God.”I think I was chosen because God told me, `Steve, you’ve been faithful in the small things, so I can trust you in the big things,'”he said.”I’m not taking one drop of God’s glory because we are all dust. This is not about Steve Hill. It’s about saving souls.”

DEA END WHITE