In 1904, India Christians and western missionaries gathered for the first of an annual series of convention Sialkot in what is today Pakistan. To support this time of spiritual renewal, John Hyde and his friends formed the Punjab prayer Union, setting aside half an hour each day to prayer for revival. The result of their player was plainly seen at the Sialkot convention at a special anointing fell upon those gathered. Year by year the prayer union fasted and prayed, and at each convention a growing urgency for evangelism and intercession filled each attendee. John Hyde emerged as the prayer leader, and all were amazed at both the depth of his spiritual insight, and the ferocity of his burden for India.
By 1908, John Hyde dared to pray what was to many at the convention an impossible request: that during the coming year in India one soul would be save every day; three hundred and sixty five people would be converted, baptized , and publicly confess Jesus as their savior. Impossible yet it happened.
Before the next convention John Hyde had prayed more than 400 people into God’s Kingdom, and when the prayer union gathered again, he doubled his goal to two soul a day. Eight hundred conversions were recorded that year, and still Hyde showed an unquenchable passion for lost souls.
At the 1910 convention ,those around Hyde marveled at his faith, as they witness his near violent supplications, “Give me soul, oh lord, or I die” Before the meeting ended, John Hyde revealed that he was again doubling his goal for his coming year. Four souls a day, and nothing less. During the next twelve months John Hyde’s ministry took him throughout India. By now he was known as “Praying Hyde,” and his intercession was sought at revivals in Calcutta, Bombay, and other large cities. If on any day four people were not converted, Hyde said at night there would be such a weight on his heart he could not eat or sleep until he had prayed through to victory. The number of new converts continually grew.