Rodney Howard-Browne was born in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, and grew up in the Eastern Cape and Transkei. His wife, Adonica, was born in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, and raised in Johannesburg. Rodney gave his heart to the Lord at the age of five and Adonica gave her heart to the Lord at the age of seventeen. They met and married in 1981 and immediately went full-time together into the traveling ministry. Over the next six years they traveled across Southern Africa, including Zimbabwe and Namibia, preaching the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. In 1983, they pioneered a church in the Northeastern Cape and pastored there for two years. After that, Rodney taught classes in a leading Bible School for another two years.

During this time, they had three children: Kirsten, born in 1982, Kelly May, born in 1984, and Kenneth, born in 1987. Rodney and Adonica knew, even before they married, that they were both called to travel around the world to preach the gospel and they had a particularly strong calling toward the United States of America. In 1987 the door opened for them to go to America. Rodney visited America twice that year, preaching in several churches, and in December 1987 the whole family traveled to America to fulfill the call and plan and purpose of God and to move into the new phase of ministry that God had called them into. The Lord supernaturally provided for their air tickets and they came to America with only $300, four suitcases, and their three children, then aged five, three and seven months.

Rodney and Adonica came to America with a passion burning in their heart to see souls saved and lives touched and also with a commission from the Lord. He told them to, “Stir up the churches and tell them to get ready for the coming revival.” In order to see a great harvest of souls, the Church must be stirred up and a fire must be lit on the inside of them to see souls saved and the lost brought into the kingdom and family of God. The Lord also told them that He would use them in the same way that He used Joseph in Egypt. He told them that in the end, they would be a greater blessing to their homeland by living in America, than they would if they had stayed in South Africa. Since, then they have had some wonderful meetings in various cities in South Africa, including some that went for up to four weeks, with thousands of people in attendance. In one week of revival in Johannesburg, they registered over 22,000 people at their South African campmeeting. However, they feel that this word from God has truly been fulfilled through the Good News crusades in South Africa!

From January 1988, they traveled across America for fifteen months, all the time praying that God would pour out His spirit upon His people and that they would have a supernatural encounter with the Holy Spirit that they would never forget. In the sixteenth month, April 1989, the glory of God was poured out in a Tuesday morning service in a church in upstate New York, beginning a revival that continues to this day. That week, hundreds of people were dramatically touched and changed by the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit and since then, hundreds of thousands of people, around the world, have experienced the life-changing power of God.