ST. GEORGE — For seven nights starting Friday, a farmer’s field in Hurricane will play host to a Christian revival organized by a Missouri man who says God called him to Washington County to help others come to Christ and “be set free.”

“I’m proud and excited about what God has done in my life, so much so that I want to go and share it with other people,” Aaron Garcia told St. George News as he related why he and his family had come to Southern Utah to organize a Christian revival.

Nearby, several chairs were set up under a large tent that also had a small raised platform where preachers and worship bands would be featured starting at 6 p.m. Friday night. While there are 400 chairs and a few rows of hay bails providing additional seating, Garcia said he hopes attendance at the event will grow with each passing day until it concludes next Thursday.

“I hope that people realize through the preaching and the songs and the actual, tangible presence of God, that they would feel his presence and know he’s here,” Garcia said.

Originally from Joplin, Missouri, Garcia describes himself as an apostle whose purpose is to take the Gospel to various locations and plant a seed of belief or rekindle faith in others. Once he departs, local pastors then help the believers continue on their new – or renewed – journey of faith.

A number of local churches will be involved in what is referred to as the “Revival Nights” event. Among these churches are Solomon’s Porch and the New Life Christian Center. Pastors and members of other Christian churches from northern Utah, Missouri, Texas, Idaho and Arizona are also slated to come and take part in the revival, Garcia said.

The revival event is being held at 2020 Flora Tech Road. The entry can be accessed through the gateway at the end of the road before it turns east at the Elim Valley sign. The events will run from 6-9 p.m. each night with a dinner served at 5:30 p.m. The revival is free to all those who wish to attend.

“We hope people feel the love of God and feel inspired and that people feel change and go home feeling different and not so hopeless anymore,” Garcia said. “We want to empower people. We want to empower the church here, so it can increase and thrive. … Come and see the Lord is good.”

One man’s journey of change and freedom

Garcia said the genesis of his story and how he ended up in Washington County goes back to being one of his hometown’s biggest drug traffickers. Then he found God and was able to turn his life around because of it.

While staying at a drug house he called the “Devil’s Den,” Garcia said he began to realize his life as an addict was hitting rock bottom. This prompted him to cry out and ask God if he was real and if so, to help him change. A few days later he was kicked out of the drug house and soon after found himself on his mother’s doorstep. She would only let him stay if he committed to becoming clean, and so he did.

“I started to understand that God’s hand was in my life,” he said. “I’ve been set free.”

Garcia has since become a nurse practitioner specializing in mental health by way of vocation. Beyond that, he is a preacher and author who shares his faith with others. This has led him to preach to convicts in inner city detention centers and help organize street churches and other ministries. According to his website bio, he has also traveled to India and Pakistan, where he distributed Bibles and helped start churches in remote areas.

“The calling of God is that I would travel for him and plant places and bring about revival in those areas so America can be saved by the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

It is a journey that Garcia said can be summed up in a passage found in Psalms:

I called upon the Lord in distress: The Lord answered me, and set me in a large place. The Lord is on my side; I will not fear: What can man do unto me?

— Psalms 118: 5-6

Since then Garcia has shared his journey of faith with others through both the spoken and written word. Most recently, however, he said God called his family sell their home, get an RV and travel to a place of God’s choosing and that his purpose would be revealed along to the way.

From Missouri to Utah

“In 2020, we heard from the Lord to get an RV and start traveling for him. So that’s what we did,” Garcia said. Accompanying Garcia has been his wife and their three children who range from 2-5 years old.

As they traveled through parts of the Midwest, there was a feeling God was telling them to go to Washington. Garcia said he initially though that meant Washington state. However, as they traveled into Texas, the idea of going to the state began to be replaced with Washington County.

This become more apparent to Garcia and his wife as they met a man from Utah while on the road and learned more about Washington County. The connection to Zion National Park – and Zion being another word for “heaven,” he said – clinched it for them.

“We felt the Lord was calling us to Washington,” he said, “but not Washington state.”

From there came visions, as Garcia described them, of a large tent and a field. The only problem was he had neither a tent nor a location at the time, yet he believed God would provide.

Before leaving a church they had visited in Texas, an anonymous party left a large tent at the doorstep of the church for Garcia. He now had the tent but no field in Southern Utah yet where he could set it up. That would also change.

“We came here and kept hitting roadblock after roadblock trying to find a field,” Garcia said.

“One day after I was really desperate and wondering why the Lord was calling us to a field, the owner of this place,” he said, motioning to farmland around him, “messaged me (over Facebook) and said, ‘Hey, I have a field you can use.’”

It all fell into place after that, Garcia said before returning to help a couple of other men from a local church set up a sound system. While doing so, a question arose about something lacking for the event, to which came the response of, “God will provide.”

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