On December 31, 1900, at the Bethel Bible School in Topeka, Kansas, Charles F. Parham and his small band of students gathered for a watchnight prayer service, earnestly seeking the baptism of the Holy Spirit as in the book of Acts. Parham had challenged his students to search the Scriptures for the initial evidence of Spirit baptism, and they concluded it was always accompanied by speaking in tongues. With that conviction burning in their hearts, they spent hours in prayer, worship, and expectation as they crossed into the new century.

On January 1, 1901, Agnes N. Ozman, a young student, approached Parham and asked him to lay hands on her to receive the baptism. Though at first hesitant, Parham prayed, and suddenly the power of God fell upon Ozman. She began to speak fluently in tongues, a language she had never learned, and was reportedly unable to speak English for three days. Witnesses described her face shining with glory and even claimed she wrote in foreign script under the Spirit’s inspiration. The room was filled with awe as they realized they were experiencing the same Pentecostal power that shook Jerusalem in Acts 2.

In the days following, many other students at Bethel received the same outpouring, including Charles Parham himself. What began in that humble Kansas schoolhouse quickly spread as reports of the Topeka Revival ignited hunger across the nation. The event marked the beginning of the modern Pentecostal movement, leading directly to the later outpouring under William J. Seymour at the Azusa Street Mission in 1906, and from there, to a worldwide revival that transformed Christianity in the 20th century.