At Charles Parham’s Bethel Bible College in 1900, he commissioned his students to study the topic of the baptism of the Holy Spirit for themselves and was astonished when the Pentecostal blessing fell on them. One student, Agnes Ozman, asked for hands to be laid on her that she might receive. When Parham, who himself wasn’t even filled yet, laid hands on her, she began to speak in the Chinese tongue supernaturally, and was unable to speak in English for three days. In fact, when they handed her a pencil to write what she was experiencing, she could only write in Chinese, although she had never learned Chinese before! This was “the first wave.”
When Parham went away to preach in another church, his students decided to go into the prayer room and wait on the Lord for two days and nights. When Parham returned, he heard a glorious sound coming from that room. Every student along with 12 denominational ministers were speaking in other tongues and trembling under the power of God. Parham desired this blessing for himself and said, “Right then and there came a slight twist in my throat, a glory fell over me and I began to worship God in a Swedish tongue, which later changed to other languages and continued so until the morning.”
Soon the news of what God was doing had Stone’s Folly besieged by newspaper reporters, language professors, foreigners and government interpreters and they gave the work the most crucial test. They had to agree that Stone’s Folly’s students were speaking in the languages of the world, with the proper accent and intonation. The newspapers broadcast the headlines “Pentecost! Pentecost!” Newsboys shouted, “Read about the Pentecost!”