Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Pioneers
Pioneers
2
Pioneers of Faith
by
Lester Sumrall
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Pioneers of Faith
by
Lester Sumrall
3
Pioneers of Faith
Pioneers of Faith
ISBN 1-58568-207-1
Copyright © 1995 by LeSEA Publishing
4th Printing August 2018
LeSEA Publishing
530 E. Ireland Rd.
South Bend, IN 46614
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Dedication
I dedicate this volume to the memory of Stanley Howard
Frodsham (1882-1969): a man who loved people, a man who
blessed people, a man who helped pioneer the move of the
Holy Spirit in this century.
He inspired my life from the first day we met. We were
together again and again in his home, his office, and in public
meetings. He was present in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, when
I was twenty years old, and the Lord showed Howard Carter
that I was the young man to go with him around the world.
Stanley Frodsham wrote for posterity most of the chal-
lenging story that the world knows about Smith Wigglesworth.
For this the Church of all time will hold him in honor. I will
never forget his humility and his prolific producing of spiritual
material — much of which does not have his name on it. He
never received royalties, just produced fruit to bless others.
Frodsham told me when I was thirty-four years old, “You
will come to know that all flesh is corrupt without Christ.” I
pray that the entire Church will learn this fact today.
I was never in the presence of this great pioneer without
leaving with a teaching and an admonition from God’s Word,
and I have tried to follow his example.
Lester Sumrall
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Contents
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Part One
Introduction
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An Overview of My Journey
Through the Twentieth Century
These are the last days of the Church age, I believe, and
they should be fulfilling days for God’s people. In order for
that to happen, Christians need to understand their roots.
Our primary “Root,” of course, is Jesus Christ (Isa.
11:1, 53:2), and He lives in us through the Holy Spirit. In
John 15, Jesus called Himself the “Vine” and us “the branch-
es.” He is the Root, and we are His fruit. And He wants us
to bear fruit for Him in our turn. He called Himself “the root
and the offspring of David” (Rev. 22:16).
In the closing days of this century, it is important for the
Church to know the roots of the present move of the Spirit.
This century has seen the mightiest moves of the Holy Spirit
since the Day of Pentecost.
God said He would pour out His Spirit upon all flesh
in the last days (Acts 2:1-18; Joel 2:28, 29). At Pentecost,
shortly after Jesus ascended, the Holy Spirit came in power.
This move, I believe as do many others, was the equivalent
of the “early rain” God had promised.
I also believe the twentieth century saw the beginning of
the “latter rain” stage of God’s pouring out His Spirit upon all
flesh, and it has continued through move after move during
the past ninety years. However, the greatest outpouring of the
“latter rain” is virtually upon us.
About 1900, the world was in a state of “false peace,”
thinking there would be no more wars. People wanted to
close the patent office, because all the possible inventions
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Overview of My Journey
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Overview of My Journey
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My Personal Roots
I have been in every move of God throughout the entire
twentieth century. I grew up in the aftermath of the Pentecos-
tal move of God. After World War II, I saw the Latter Rain
movement, which divided the Church in the United States.
After that I saw the Healing revival, of which I was very much
a part. Then I saw the Charismatic revival and the Word of
Faith movement that followed. I endorsed it and became part
of that flow of the Spirit of God. I am now ready for the last
outpouring of God on the face of the earth.
My mother received the baptism of the Holy Spirit be-
fore I was born, so I grew up in an awareness of the Holy
Spirit. I was reared in the atmosphere following the Azusa
Street revival, which began in 1906.
My mother’s roots stretched back to those revivalists of
the nineteenth century. Her uncles were circuit-riding Meth-
odist ministers. They rode on horseback from town to town,
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Overview of My Journey
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Overview of My Journey
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show the flesh and blood men and women whom God used
to birth a global outpouring of the Holy Spirit — men and
women in whose homes I stayed and at whose tables I ate.
I am offering a personal observation of those whose lives
and ministries I witnessed who were true pioneers of a new
move of God’s Spirit in the earth. They are listed alphabeti-
cally to make it easier to find specific names. However, I did
not meet them in this order. The first “pioneer” whom I knew
was Raymond T. Richey of Texas, and the one who had the
greatest influence on my early ministry was Howard Carter
of Great Britain.
I am not intending to slight anyone who counts as a
pioneer; however, I am only writing about the ones I knew
personally. Because of the circles in which the Lord led me
to minister, the majority of the people in this book were, at
one time or another, connected with the Assemblies of God.
I knew some from other denominations; however, I did not
have close fellowship with many of them.
My personal experience with these spiritual pioneers
began while I was still a child. Graham Bell, first general
superintendent of the General Council of the Assemblies of
God Church, stayed in our home several times. In fact, our
little church split when he agreed with the Jesus Only group
that separated in the Twenties from the Assemblies of God.
I met the great evangelist Billy Sunday.
In Great Britain, I personally visited with Stephen Jefferys
at his home in Wales, and I met his brother, George. I knew
Donald Gee, John Carter, Harold Horton, and traveled with
Howard Carter and Smith Wigglesworth.
I have preached in churches founded by T.B. Barratt in
Norway, Lewi Pethrus in Sweden, Douglas Scott in France,
and for pastors of other churches founded in those pioneer
days in Australia, Great Britain, and Europe.
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Overview of My Journey
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time when I was exactly the same. The little Pentecostal church
where my mother went was not very popular in town. The kids
made fun of me, and even the teacher mocked and laughed.
I would come home looking terrible, and my mother
would say, “What happened to you?”
I said, “It’s your crazy religion! If you would just go to
the Baptist church, I would get along fine. That church you
belong to gets me in trouble.”
Being very high-tempered, the minute we walked out of
school, I would knock the daylights out of those kids and curse
them. My mother, however, was determined that her children
would serve God, so she never talked about persecution to us.
She would read the Bible to us and pray after my father went
to bed. He was not saved until later in life.
Only a few of the hundreds who started out preaching
about the same time as those in this book stand out in history
as “giants.”
I trust this book will serve as a sort of “mentor” of
knowledge and wisdom to the reader because of the foundation
for revival which has been built by these twentieth century
spiritual pioneers.
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Part Two
“Roots” of Today’s
Spirit-Filled Christians
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Thomas Ball Barratt: An Unusual Servant of God
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Thomas Ball Barratt: An Unusual Servant of God
table, laid our breakfast on it, and we ate in the snow. He loved
nature. He loved what God had made, and he wanted to be
outdoors as much as possible.
When I stayed in his home, we would talk and talk and
talk about the miracles of Jesus and what Jesus did for the
people. It was a joy to meet, to know, and to love T.B. Barratt.
Though he died four years after I met him, he left an indelible
imprint upon my life.
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and a year later, a revival broke out at which about two hun-
dred students were saved, as well as numbers of townspeople.
He returned home to Norway in 1878, where he studied
art with a well-known artist and music with Edvard Greig. The
same year he started a Sunday school in his home for people
who worked in the mines.
In addition to his parents, he was influenced by the
sermons of John Wesley and Dwight L. Moody. When he
was seventeen, he read one of Moody’s sermons aloud at a
women’s meeting his mother was hosting, and then prayed.
Many at the meeting came forward for salvation.
At eighteen years of age, Barratt prepared his first ser-
mon, after spending time in playing religious music, quiet
study, and prayer. His journal notes indicate that he went
up on top of a high mountain and preached this sermon to
the winds.
Barratt also became active in preaching salvation in the
mines where he served as his father’s assistant. During this
same year, Barratt shared his first extemporaneous sermon.
Moody’s sermons continued to serve as a foundation to what
he taught, but he had no definite plans to become a preacher.
He planned to be either a musician or an artist.
However, in 1882, when he was nearly twenty, Barratt
passed an examination at the Methodist Episcopal Quarterly
Conference, held at Bergen, Norway, to become a “local
preacher.” This was sort of a layman to speak to small groups
and churches or to substitute for fully ordained pastors.
About this time, his recreation included translating
English books into Norwegian — he spoke both languages
fluently — and fighting with a bear. The bear lost, accord-
ing to reports of the time! Also, he responded in writing
to an attack on Methodism written by a pastor of another
denomination.
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Thomas Ball Barratt: An Unusual Servant of God
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2
Adolf Vingren
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Daniel Berg and Adolf Vingren: Men Who Would Not Compromise
returned the money, and they had what was needed for the
fare.
In 1910, the two men were able to travel to Brazil where
Berg found a job as a foundryman. He used part of his salary
to finance lessons in Portuguese (the language of Brazil) for
Vingren.
Berg and Vingren did not have much success at first
with their missionary work among the Baptist congregation
which they had found. However, they held prayer meetings
in the cellar of the Baptist chapel, where they also lived, and
waited for revival.
Within a short time, a number of the Baptists began to
speak in tongues. This encouraged the fledging missionaries,
and they began to carry out their work with fire and zeal.
However, the Baptist pastor stopped them, accusing them
of being separatists and sowing doubt and unrest among the
people. The pastor told Berg and Vingren to put away their
“dreams and false teachings,” or he would warn other mis-
sionary organizations about them.
Berg and Vingren refused to compromise. When they
could no longer live and meet on the Baptist premises, they
established Brazil’s first Pentecostal church. This was offi-
cially registered on June 11, 1918, as the “Assembly of God.”
Brazil’s largest Protestant body, the Assemblies of God, grew
out of this church.
After Vingren’s death in 1933, Berg continued to support
Pentecostalism in Brazil. Two years before his own death in
1963, Berg attended the fifteenth anniversary celebration of
the Brazilian Assemblies of God. Berg attended our crusades
in Brazil.
The success of Berg and Vingren can be attributed to their
refusal to compromise what they knew to be truth.
My connection with these two men is that the church I
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They were quite a team. It was the old and the new moves
functioning together. Richey came out of the nineteenth-
century holiness move, and Bosworth was Pentecostal.
Our people in South Bend had never seen such men
before. In fact, the city of South Bend had not had a move of
God in it since the days of Billy Sunday.
At the time of the Richey-Bosworth meeting, many
people in South Bend were Roman Catholic because the
Studebaker Automobile Association brought people to the city
from Poland and Hungary to work in the plants. Many of these
people came out of their religious traditions and received the
power of God in this meeting.
God discovers men in the most remarkable places and
under the most amazing circumstances. He will not let these
people go to third base first. He makes them go to first base,
then to second base and finally to third base.
F.F. Bosworth was such a person. He became so attached
to the Lord’s gift of healing the sick that he wrote a master-
piece of a book, Christ the Healer. Still available today, this
book tells of the great healing power of God and influenced
evangelist T.L. Osborn in his worldwide ministry. However,
Bosworth did not start out “on third base.”
Bosworth was born on a farm near Utica, Nebraska, in
1877 to Burton and Amelia Bosworth. His father was a Civil
War veteran. The young boy was discovered to have musical
talent early in his life. When Bosworth was nine years old,
he traded his cow and a calf for a cornet.
In a short time, he played the lead in the Nebraska State
Band. He later led a series of twenty concerts at Madison
Square Garden in New York City. Also, as part of the Lord’s
getting him to the right place, he led the award-winning band
for John Alexander Dowie at Zion City, Illinois.
At sixteen, Bosworth and his brother, Clarence, went to
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Fred Francis Bosworth: A Man of Humility and Honor
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Fred Francis Bosworth: A Man of Humility and Honor
off the back of the tent for white people who visited the
campmeeting.
The white people who attended were impressed by the
power of the Holy Spirit and the moving testimonies of the
blacks. Because they did not want to seek the Holy Spirit at
a “black altar,” they asked the leaders of the campmeeting
to call a white preacher to come and teach them about the
baptism of the Holy Spirit. Bosworth was the man selected
to go.
Bosworth arrived at the campmeeting at Hearne on
Saturday night, August 6, 1911, to see where his meetings
were to be held. He had no intention of preaching that night,
but when the people recognized him, he was persuaded to
preach. He spoke for a few minutes to both groups of people
— the white side and the black side — standing on a platform
between the tent and the brush arbor.
After the service was over, Bosworth was invited to stay
that night with another white preacher. On the way to this
man’s room, they were stopped by a group of extreme
racists who were going to kill Bosworth for “putting them
on a level” with black people. Bosworth told them that he
was there in obedience to God, and that the white people
had asked for him to come. He also said that if God wanted
him to die, he would gladly do so. The men finally allowed
Bosworth and the other man to go on the condition that
they would leave town immediately.
Bosworth went directly to the train depot, and the other
man went back to his room to get his things. Bosworth was
met at the train station by another mob of about twenty-five
men. They took him from the depot, knocked him down,
and beat him with heavy wooden clubs and broken boat
oars. They told Bosworth he would never preach again when
they were through with him.
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Fred Francis Bosworth: A Man of Humility and Honor
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I had heard about him all of my life, but I first met him
as a young evangelist when I was asked to speak at a
Maranatha Campmeeting in Pennsylvania. Brown had his
own cabin on the campmeeting grounds where he would
come up to rest a couple of weeks in the summer.
When he and his wife were there, he did not miss a
service that I preached. He loved the zeal in me as a young
man that was similar to the zeal he had possessed years
before.
Every day of the campmeeting, we had fellowship
together. I learned many things from him, and I learned to
love him very much. Later, I preached for him in his
downtown New York church. I especially remember
speaking at one of his missionary conventions. For the first
time in my life, I saw tens of thousands of dollars given to
foreign missions.
Later, as I traveled around the world with Howard
Carter, we met missionary after missionary sponsored by
Glad Tidings Tabernacle. Brown was truly a veteran and a
spiritual pioneer.
He once told me a funny experience which illustrated a
lifetime of courage in following his convictions and not
caring what other people thought.
He had traveled to speak at a conference, and when he
arrived, one of the other speakers said, “I am so tired after
being up all night on the train.”
Brown replied, “I am not tired. I also traveled all night
by train, but I slept in a berth.”
A Pentecostal preacher rebuked him and said, “Aren’t
you ashamed to waste God’s money that way?”
Brown replied, “No! God loves me more than He does
money. He would rather I arrived here rested and ready to
preach than ready to go to bed.”
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Robert Alexander Brown: Marked by Courage and Conviction
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Robert Alexander Brown: Marked by Courage and Conviction
connected in Ireland.
Because of his hunger for God’s best, he attended as
many other meetings as possible, not wanting to miss any-
thing God was doing. In 1907, he attended a service that
was a divine appointment, if I ever heard of one.
Two young women were holding meetings at which
they preached the message of Pentecost for today. At first,
Brown adamantly opposed the idea that he was not already
completely filled with the Spirit. Finally, however, he was
convinced and sought the baptism of the Holy Spirit in
fasting and prayer for three months.
At the end of this time, he fought discouragement and
accusations brought to him by the devil. A short while after
he withstood this strong attack, the baptism which he
sought occurred.
The two young women, one of whom was named Marie
Burgess, continued their Pentecostal ministry in the homes
of those who wanted more of God. Because of the urgent
need for a place to worship God, an empty store was
acquired for services.
Robert Brown was asked to bring the opening message
at this facility. His sermon, based on Luke 19:1-10, was,
“Zacchaeus, Come Down!” Some forty years later, this also
was his last message to the Glad Tidings Tabernacle
congregation and radio audience on February 8, 1948, just
before his death.
Marie Burgess wanted to be a missionary and did not
want anything to be in the way if God were to call her to go.
One evening, as she was praying and asking God for a
definite call to the foreign field, she received a strong urge
to read Matthew 19:4-6. Those are the verses in which Jesus
talked about God making mankind “male and female” and
a man and woman cleaving together as husband and wife.
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Alfred Howard Carter: A Man of Whom the World Was Not Worthy
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Alfred Howard Carter: A Man of Whom the World Was Not Worthy
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Alfred Howard Carter: A Man of Whom the World Was Not Worthy
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Alfred Howard Carter: A Man of Whom the World Was Not Worthy
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Alfred Howard Carter: A Man of Whom the World Was Not Worthy
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Alfred Howard Carter: A Man of Whom the World Was Not Worthy
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Alfred Howard Carter: A Man of Whom the World Was Not Worthy
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6
Dr. Finis Dake was one of the best friends I have ever
known. I met him when he was president of the Great
Lakes Bible Institute in Zion, Illinois. The school later
moved to Minneapolis and is known today as North
Central Bible College.
Dake had secured the premises of John Alexander
Dowie’s home and carriage house for the Bible College. He
used the giant stables where Dowie kept his horses and
carriages for the dining area and kitchen and used the
magnificent old home for classrooms and offices. Dake
loved that spot.
When you met him, you saw a man whose eyes were
red, and you would wonder, “Why are his eyes so red?”
He would timidly say, “Well, I haven’t been to bed in
two days. I have been working on annotating the Bible.”
I can see him now, me looking over his shoulder, books
stacked at least two feet high on every side of him, working
away late at night writing his giant Bible that is now sold all
over the face of the earth. He had a very large body, not fat,
not heavy, but strong. He was a big man.
He said to me when I was first there, “Lester, I am going
to do you a great favor. I have had the ladies prepare Dr.
Dowie’s private bedroom for your stay. You will actually
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Finis Jennings Dake: A Pioneer in the Word of God
people were being healed everyday, one who knew there still
were people who needed God’s power.
However, I probably am one of the few people still living
who saw those four walls full of leftovers from the mighty
power of God. Years later, I revisited the site, after everything
had burned to the ground. All of those evidences of God’s
miracle-working power had been destroyed.
I lectured to Dake’s students for several days having
just returned from Germany and Russia where I had seen
the gruesome Nazi and Communist regimes destroying
humanity. The students were especially interested in
prophecy. He also pastored a church in the city, and I spoke
there several nights. We were together constantly on this
visit.
He told me it had taken a hundred thousand hours to
write the notes for his Bible. I saw the office where he
worked. He taught in the Bible school by day, and after
dinner each night, he would work on his Bible, often
working all night long.
He was a different kind of pioneer, a pioneer in the
Word of God. He learned Greek and Latin by staying up
all night. He could tell you the true meaning of every
word in the Bible and give you the opinions of various
scholars.
When we opened our church in South Bend in 1967, Dr.
Dake was one of the first spiritual pioneers to teach in our
Bible seminars. He came at least once a year to teach our
people.
A Gift of Memory
Born in 1902, Dake was born again and baptized in
water at seventeen. Until then he had rejected Christianity
because of what he thought were the hypocritical attitudes
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Finis Jennings Dake: A Pioneer in the Word of God
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Stanley Howard Frodsham: His Pen Was Tuned for Greatness
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Donald Gee:
Ambassador-At-Large
(1891-1966)
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Donald Gee: Ambassador-At-Large
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Willis Collins Hoover: Father of Pentecostal in Chile
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Harold Lawrence
Cuthbert Horton:
Defender of “Initial
Evidence” Doctrine
(1881-1969)
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Lam Jeevaratnam1:
A Messenger of Jesus
1
Photograph and dates were unavailable.
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Lam Jeevaratnam: A Messenger of Jesus
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George Jeffreys
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Stephen and George Jeffreys: Two Brothers with Sad Endings
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have a craving for the same kind of anointing that you used
to have. I want you to know I will remember this day as one
of the happiest in my life.”
For several hours, I stayed and enjoyed the presence of
a man who once operated under a great anointing and
power, although he had lost it. Later, I asked my mentor,
Howard Carter, how this could happen.
He said, “Lester, God will not permit His servants to
have the gold or the glory” [that belongs to Him].
Out of possible ignorance, this boy from the mines of
Wales accepted the glory that was lavished upon him by
thousands of people. Stephen died soon after that, but he
told me many things that have helped me.
Numerous churches had been started by Stephen out of
revivals, but not one of the pastors from those churches
ever came to see him in his last illness.
However, I learned from his example possibly one of
the greatest lessons of my ministry. I try to pass it on to
those young men who look to me for advice:
Stephen Jeffreys lost his power because no one had
taught him not to touch God’s gold or His glory.
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Stephen and George Jeffreys: Two Brothers with Sad Endings
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Carrie Judd Montgomery: A Bridge Builder
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Carrie Judd Montgomery: A Bridge Builder
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Peter Christopher Nelson: A Pilgrimage Through Darkness
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Peter Christopher Nelson: A Pilgrimage Through Darkness
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Peter Christopher Nelson: A Pilgrimage Through Darkness
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Petrus Lewi Pethrus: The Great Organizer
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Petrus Lewi Pethrus: The Great Organizer
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Petrus Lewi Pethrus: The Great Organizer
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Victor Guy Plymire: “Fenced With Iron”
about fifty years of age at that time and did he have stories
to tell!
Carter and I had just returned from Tibet ourselves. We
had gone the southern route, from Hong Kong through
French Indo-China, which is now called Vietnam, on a boat.
There we took a little French railway train back into Hunan
Province, China. We had meetings all through that province
and, from there, we began to move north and west for Tibet.
We had gone to the end of the road, to a place where
there was no road and rented seventeen mules. One mule
carried wooden boxes of rice, and another mule carried
boxes of vegetables. As we traveled through the villages,
the man we took along as a cook would buy anything he
could find to eat and put it in those boxes to cook for us in the
evenings. Sometimes, there was not much to find.
However, in those high mountains we found “food” for
our eyes. We saw beautiful butterflies, eight to ten inches in
width. When they fluttered around your head and hands,
you were more excited than you could ever imagine. There
were many of them in those high mountains. Orchids grew
wild on trees. We saw hundreds of them. They were so
beautiful. You could reach up and get one or two to put in
your lapel at any time.
Also, there were birds of many different colors. Those
mountains seem to be a world apart. All the traffic was by
muleback. No vehicular road had yet been made. And the
mule road was just wide enough for two mules to pass. If
you were not careful, your leg might get caught between
the two mules passing one another and get smashed.
You not only had to remember to pull the leg up on the
passing side, but you had to remember that below you, on
the outside, was a long drop to the bottom. Each mule tried
to steal as much of the road for itself as possible, so the ones
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Victor Guy Plymire: “Fenced With Iron”
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Victor Guy Plymire: “Fenced With Iron”
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Charles Sydney Price: A Prince Among Preachers
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want to thank you for giving out the truth in such a remarkable
and beautiful manner.”
And he was so gracious, saying, “Well, I’m so glad my
sermons are usable, and I’m so glad that God is going to use
them with value through you as you travel.”
So I continued on my way around the world, and Price
continued in his mighty tent meetings, auditorium
meetings and sometimes church meetings. In later years,
when I preached in Belleville, Illinois, he was there.
Thousands of people came to know the Lord in the Missouri
and Illinois sides of the Mississippi River because of the
preaching of Dr. Charles Price. He was a man of great
intellect, great force, and great faith.
In Granite City, the church where he preached ended up
with one of the largest congregations in the area, mostly
from the converts made during Price’s meeting.
He Was a “Regimenter”
So we rejoiced in the ministry of a man who was born in
London, who was a resident of Canada, and who now
worked for the Lord in the United States. Dr. Price was a
“regimenter.” For example, when you came to his tent to
receive healing, you had to hear at least three sermons,
indicating the three sermons you had heard on the prayer
card. He would not permit anyone to be prayed for until
they had heard him preach at least three times.
At first I did not understand why he did this, but later I
realized he was building faith inside of them for healing.
He preached at least two hours every service.
He handed out cards and each person who wanted to
be healed was given a number. Before he got up to speak, he
had created a healing line. He would say, for example,
tonight we will take numbers 216 to 275. That may not
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Raymond Theodore Richey: A True Pioneer
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Raymond Theodore Richey: A True Pioneer
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Raymond Theodore Richey: A True Pioneer
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James Salter:
“Wise Counselor”
of the Congo
(1890-1972)
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James Salter: “Wise Counselor” of the Congo
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James Salter: “Wise Counselor” of the Congo
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Douglas R. Scott:
Apostle to France
(1900-1967)
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Douglas R. Scott: Apostle to France
Germans, and they do not like the British. But they liked
Douglas Scott.
Scott started a large church in Rouen, France, a great
industrial city. I was there when he had over a thousand
people in his church. Then he began a church in Paris. He
began churches in Marseille, Nice, and Monte Carlo, all
along the French Riviera.
Scott’s wife was sweet, but as different from him as
chalk from cheese! All she could do was smile for her
husband and agree with everything he said. She would
read the Bible to him in French and try to get him to repeat
it so he would speak it right.
At that time, the wealthy people of Europe came to Nice
for their vacations. Scott’s church was full of these people,
and they loved him. Monte Carlo was the gambling capital
of the whole world, yet the people there loved him.
The French had no ability to raise up these churches,
but Scott would go and “beat the devil to pieces.” Then he
would bring people into the church, baptize them in water,
and get them full of the Holy Ghost.
Scott was influenced in his Christian growth by Howard
Carter, Donald Gee, and Smith Wigglesworth in England,
so he organized the churches he started in France as the
Assemblies of God of France.
God took Scott, a man who belonged in a factory, and
made him one of the greatest spiritual leaders I have found
anywhere in the world. Scott never said what he was going
to do. He just did it. He never stayed anywhere long
enough to own a home. He went from city to city in France
and raised up churches full of the Holy Ghost, God’s
blessing, and His anointing.
Scott left his mark on France for a whole generation,
and he endeared himself to the French people. Scott loved
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people and the French people loved him in spite of all the
funny things he did. Because he was full of the Word of
God, he led the French people in the right way, and a
French revival was brought about.
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Lillian Hunt Trasher: The Great Mother of the Nile
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Lillian Hunt Trasher: The Great Mother of the Nile
An Unlikely Missionary
Lillian was an unlikely “missionary,” who reached
Egypt via Ohio, the Carolinas, and Africa. Born in Florida
to a successful Roman Catholic businessman, in her late
teens she got hold of a Bible of her own and became
converted at a friend’s Bible study group.
She wrote once that she was “appalled” to realize that
she grew up in “so-called Christian America” without
knowing anything about the greatest book ever written.
Once she saw one at a friend’s house in Atlanta, however,
she did not rest until she had a Bible of her own.
She attended God’s Bible School in Cincinnati for one
term, then left to work in a North Carolina orphanage. Then
she attended Altamont Bible School in South Carolina,
where she received the baptism in the Holy Spirit.
Although the church she pastored was very successful,
she left to accompany an evangelist on tour, then returned
to the orphanage in North Carolina. During the tour, she
became engaged and later proved that she meant it when
she talked of giving up everything for God.
The young man’s heart was not in missions, so she
broke off the engagement only ten days before the
scheduled wedding in 1910. Then she traveled to Africa in
the face of her family’s strong objections. However, a sister
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1
Crouch, Philip. “Why They Called Her the Greatest Woman in Egypt,” Assembly
of God Heritage, Winter, 1984-85, pp. 7,8.
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did go with her and was a great help during the times of
severe persecution which Lillian went through before
finding her true calling.
She was ordained with the Church of God in Cleveland,
Tennessee, in 1912, and by 1916, she had fifty children in a
home in Assiut, which is more than two hundred miles
south of Cairo, Egypt. She joined the Assemblies of God in
1919.
As part of her role as “mama,” she delivered hundreds
of babies, which if they were girls, usually were promptly
named “Lillian.” She is buried on the orphanage site in
Egypt. She was one of the most unusual women I have ever
known and a pioneer of a different kind.
Lillian was a true pioneer of spiritual strength. Full of
the Holy Spirit, she was a woman who demonstrated
Christianity in its rarest form. No doubt at this very
moment she is enjoying the riches of heaven because she
gave so much away while she was on this earth.
Her life is a testimony that the only way to do great
things for God is to do small things first.
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that time because the altar counselor did not explain the
necessity of repenting for his sins.
After high school, he was appointed home missionary
for the Methodist Church of Canada. This made him “a
pioneer circuit rider on the great western frontier under the
shadows of the Canadian Rockies on the Calgary-
Edmonton trail.”1
Even on his second circuit term, he called himself a
“young preacher without a real experience,” and would tell
often of preaching himself under conviction as he held
meetings in homes. There were no church buildings and
sometimes not even a school in which to meet.
During his second tour of duty for the Methodist
Church, he was on the Blindman Valley circuit in what later
became the province of Alberta in western Canada. At the
most northern point of his circuit, he found a group of
people who believed in divine healing. Originally from
Kansas, they had moved to Alberta to homestead land.
When he accepted Christ, he found that the deep,
mysterious longing that had been in his heart for years was
realized. Instead of going on to seminary as was required in
the Methodist Church, he decided to attend a holiness Bible
school. He realized that, even in those days, much unbelief
was already being taught in mainline seminaries.
Not many years later, Ward joined the Christian and
Missionary Alliance (CMA) denomination. He became a
friend and acquaintance of its founder, Dr. A.B. Simpson,
who had been a major figure in the holiness movement of
the nineteenth century. Simpson was a strong believer in
divine healing.
Of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, Ward said that it was
___________________________________________________
1
Ward, C.M. Intimate Glimpses of My Father’s Life, Assemblies of God, Springfield,
Missouri, 1955, p. 10.
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Alfred George Ward: A Man Who Knew His Weapons
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4
Intimate Glimpses, p. 4.
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Smith Wigglesworth:
Apostle of Faith
(1859-1947)
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for two years. Man, some of those stories about casting out
devils! I like that. And your trip up to Tibet and back — I’m
just glad you’re not afraid.”
So we kind of made a friendship there. Wigglesworth
heard me preach that night. Now, remember, I was still a
very young man, and not extremely experienced although I
had been preaching since I was seventeen. I preached the
best I could, and I did give a successful altar call. When I
was through and turned around on the platform, there was
Smith Wigglesworth looking at me.
He put his hand on my shoulder and said, “Son, you
need to come see me.”
In school, I had been called into the office, and I knew
what it meant to face the principal and work on a problem.
My first thought when Wigglesworth said I needed to see
him was that I was being called to the principal’s office.
I said, “Yes, sir, when can I come?”
He said, “Anytime. I live in Bradford. Here’s my
address and telephone number.”
I said, “How often can I come? Do I need to let you
know I am coming?”
He said, “You can come as often as you want to. These
days I am home, so you don’t have to let me know. Just
knock on my front door, and I will open it. I’ll always be
glad to have you.”
The next day, they had what we call “dinner on the
grounds” in the southern United States. They had long,
long tables loaded with good food. In the center was a
roasted pig, which had been basted with oil and other good
things as it was roasting.
However, they made a big mistake — they asked Smith
Wigglesworth to say grace. He walked over to that table, a
big, healthy man, raised one hand to heaven, and said,
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Smith Wigglesworth: Apostle of Faith
“Almighty God, if you can now bless that which you have
cursed, bless this foul pig to their bodies.”
I looked around and thought, “Dear Lord, and we have
visitors here!”
But those Welshmen tried to hide from him. They were
the ones who had brought the pig and roasted it.
I went over to him and said, “Are you having a piece of
pork today?”
He said, “I never touch the stinking stuff,” so I had an
introduction to the way he would say anything he thought
ought to be said anytime and anywhere. He had no fear of
man whatsoever.
Within a week after that conference I was on my way to
Bradford. When I showed up at Wigglesworth’s house, I
had “gone native.” I was a real Britisher with a bowler hat,
similar to the one you saw Charlie Chaplin wear in his early
movies, a black jacket, striped trousers, and a dark blue
raincoat that came just above my knees. I wore beautiful
pointed black shoes and had an umbrella under one arm
and a newspaper under the other. I carried my briefcase in
one hand.
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Smith Wigglesworth: Apostle of Faith
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Smith Wigglesworth: Apostle of Faith
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Smith Wigglesworth: Apostle of Faith
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Smith Wigglesworth: Apostle of Faith
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Smith Wigglesworth: Apostle of Faith
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Smith Wigglesworth: Apostle of Faith
beating his water glass. Then he raised his hand and said,
‘Ladies and gentlemen, I have noticed since arriving here
that none of you prayed over your food. You resemble a
bunch of hogs to me. You just jump in and eat without
giving thanks to the One Who provided it for you. Bow
your heads, and I’ll pray for you.’”
The pastor told me, “I could have crawled under the
table very easily and gotten out of the way so people
wouldn’t see me. Wigglesworth raised his hands and
prayed for those people. Before we left the restaurant
however, two families came over and got saved. Then I was
ashamed of myself for not being as strong as
Wigglesworth.”
Wigglesworth’s ministry centered on salvation, healing,
and the baptism of the Holy Spirit. He was strong in char-
acter and created his own atmosphere wherever he went.
After receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the Lord
spoke to Wigglesworth to prepare a banquet for the poor,
the lame, and the blind. He secured tickets and hired two
people to go throughout the city and find the afflicted, the
tormented, and the crippled and bring them to a supper he
would provide at the mission.
He often said the sight of those suppers was beyond
description, and that this was the happiest time of his life.
The mighty healings that took place during those times
increased Wigglesworth’s faith.
During the 1920s, he came to America on several
evangelistic tours. The first time I heard any specific details
of his ministry was in San Francisco before starting around
the world with Howard Carter.
I was preaching at the Glad Tidings Tabernacle, which
seated more than three thousand people.
People said to me, “Have you met Smith Wigglesworth?”
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I said, “No, not yet,” and they told me he had been there
in the same tabernacle where I was preaching. They told me
of a cancer patient brought to the healing service.
Wigglesworth went down the line, saying, “What’sup?”
British-ese for “What is wrong with you?”
When he got to this man lying on a bed wearing only a
little hospital gown that tied in the back, Wigglesworth
asked the doctor with the man, “What’sup?”
The doctor explained that his patient was dying of
cancer.
Wigglesworth asked, “Where is it?” and the doctor
replied, “In his stomach.”
The evangelist promptly balled up his fist and hit the
man in the stomach so hard the man appeared to die. His
hands fell off the bed, and the doctor began to scream,
“He’s dead! He’s dead!”
He looked up at Wigglesworth and said, “You’ve killed
him! The family will sue you!”
Wigglesworth calmly looked at the doctor and said,
“E’s ‘ealed.” He talked with a Cockney accent, not
pronouncing his “h’s.”
He did not stop but kept on walking down the line
praying. About ten minutes later, the man came down the
line behind Wigglesworth on the platform. He had stood
up, moved the doctor to one side, and was walking around
in that funny little hospital gown with his backside hanging
out before more than three thousand people!
He did not have one thought for his appearance,
however. He had his hands up over his head and was
screaming, “I’m healed! I’m healed!”
Even the doctor had developed faith. He was right
behind the sick bed yelling, “He’s healed! He’s healed!”
The man caught up with Wigglesworth and said, “I have
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Lilian Barbara Yeomans: She Mixed Medicine and Divine Healing
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Part Three
Conclusion
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186
Moving With the Last
Blaze of Glory!
And these all, having obtained a good report
through faith . . . .
Hebrews 11:39
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We are to ask the Lord for special rain in the time of the
latter rain. And James 5:7 says:
Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of
the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the
precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it,
until he receive the early and latter rain.
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be fanatics!”
If God does a new thing, I believe it is time to look into
what He is doing and move with Him.
In Acts 19, we are told that Paul went to Ephesus. He
walked into a church with only twelve people in it. They
were having it rough. They could not afford a preacher with
only twelve people. Paul found out the twelve had been
baptized by John the Baptist, who had his head cut off
twenty years earlier. They followed a headless man for
twenty years.
Paul began to preach Jesus to them — and they listened.
They burned their idols — worth fifty thousand pieces of
silver (One piece of silver was one day’s pay at the time)
(Acts 19:19). That is called revival! They got out of the past
groove and into the next one.
People will praise you for buying a new Lincoln, but
they will curse you for receiving the Holy Ghost and
allowing the gifts of the Spirit to operate through you as the
Spirit wills. I believe God has some new things.
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Moving With the Last Blaze of Glory!
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Moving With the Last Blaze of Glory!
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Moving With the Last Blaze of Glory!
devil does.
If something is not right, you can say, “You aren’t right
according to the Bible. Line yourself up with the Bible or
keep your mouth shut.”
Very simple! If you will stand that way, you will always
abide in truth.
I have been constantly in God’s blessing every day of
my life. You cannot retire from a blessing. If you are a
healing preacher, and you stop going to healing meetings
for about ten years then think you’re going to jump back in
and do the same thing, forget it! You will be as a tinkling
cymbal, an empty drum. If you want God’s blessings, you
have to follow Him constantly.
I have preached for some of the great pioneers when
their properties were being taken away.
I encouraged them, “It does not matter about the
property. God will give you another piece of property. Just
stick with the blessings of God.”
Jesus is coming soon. Let us fill the earth with His
praises. The more fanatical we are, the greater impact we
are going to make on this generation. When people see that
we are sincere to the core and not playing with religion,
they will believe in us.
I believe the great athletic coliseums are not for football
and baseball. They are for the last big breath of God! With
the great breath of God that is coming, no one is going to
get tired. We are going to flow in the dynamics of the
supernatural.
You will find from studying the history of Israel and
Judah that God blesses by generations. We need a new
generation today, and I can see it beginning. We have some
of the strongest young men preaching the gospel today that
we have ever had.
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Bibliography
Assemblies of God Archives, 1445 Boonville Avenue,
Springfield, Missouri 65802.
Assemblies of God Heritage, “A Church Grows in Chile
Because Willis Hoover Took a Stand,” Vol. 8, #3, Fall 1988.
Autobiography of Peter Christopher Nelson, unpublished,
Assemblies of God Archives.
Barratt, Thomas Ball, When the Fire Fell.
Blumhofer, Edith, The Assemblies of God, Vol. I,
(Springfield: Gospel Publishing House, 1988.)
Brumback, Carl H., Suddenly . . . From Heaven.
Burgess, S.M., McGee, G.B., and Alexander, P.H.
Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements (Grand
Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1988. Copyright by
the authors.)
Crouch, Philip, Why They Called Her the Greatest Woman
in Egypt, (Springfield: Assemblies of God Heritage, Winter
1984, 1985).
Glad Tidings Herald, Vol. 27, #1, May 1948, New York.
Hollenweger, W.J., The Pentecostals (Minneapolis:
Augusburg Publishing House, 1972. Translation Copyright
SCM Press Ltd.)
Salter, James, “Called to the Congo” (February 1948),
“Pioneering for Christ in the Congo, “In God’s Hands,”(March
1936) The Pentecostal Evangel; “A Life Given Back
for the Heathen,” The Latter Rain Evangel, March 1924.
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202
Dr. Lester Sumrall
1913-1996
The voice of Dr. Lester Sumrall remains
prominent in the Christian world today.
More than 65 years of ministry in over
100 nations made Dr. Sumrall a respected
source of wisdom and understanding.
He was an author, teacher, missionary, evangelist, and the
pastor and founder of Christian Center Church in South Bend,
Indiana. Throughout his lifetime, Dr. Sumrall worked tire-
lessly to fulfill the Great Commission by carrying the Gospel
to the ends of the earth. In 1957 he founded LeSEA, a multi-
faceted global outreach. Today, with the help of our faithful
partners and friends, the ministry continues to blanket the
world through television, satellite, FM and shortwave radio,
LeSEA Publications, and LeSEA Global Feed the Hungry®.
www.leseapublishing.com
www.feedthehungry.org
www.familybroadcastingcorporation.com
203
Pioneers of Faith
LeSEA Publishing
530 E. Ireland Rd, South Bend, IN 46614
1-888-584-4847
www.LeSEAPublishing.com
204
Prayer of Salvation
A born-again, committed relationship with God is the key to
the victorious life. Jesus, the Son of God, laid down His life and
rose again so that we could spend eternity with Him in heaven
and experience His absolute best on earth. The Bible says, “For
God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have
everlasting life” (John 3:16).
It is the will of God that everyone receive eternal salvation.
The way to receive this salvation is to call upon the name of Jesus
and confess Him as your Lord. The Bible says, “That if thou shalt
confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine
heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be
saved. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall
be saved” (Romans 10:9-10,13).
Jesus has given salvation, healing and countless benefits to all
who call upon His name. These benefits can be yours if you
receive Him into your heart by praying this prayer.
Heavenly Father, I come to You admitting that I am a
sinner. Right now, I choose to turn away from sin, and I ask
You to cleanse me of all unrighteousness. I believe that Your
Son, Jesus, died on the cross to take away my sins. I also
believe that He rose again from the dead so that I might be
justified and made righteous through faith in Him. I call upon
the name of Jesus Christ to be the Savior and Lord of my
life. Jesus, I choose to follow You, and ask that You fill me
with the power of the Holy Spirit. I declare that right now, I
am a born-again child of God. I am free from sin, and full of
the righteousness of God. I am saved in Jesus’ name, Amen.
If you have prayed this prayer to receive Jesus Christ as your Savior,
or if this book has changed your life, we would like to hear from you.
Please write us at:
Christian Center Church
530 E. Ireland Rd.
South Bend, IN 46614
206
* Prayerline — contact 1-800-365-3732
to receive encouragement and prayer support,
and to share the miraculous answers you have seen.
* LeSEA Tours — is travel agency specializing
in tours to the Holy Land
• LeSEA Publishing — Dr. Sumrall’s prolific
writing ministry continues with the production
and distribution of his books, study guides, MP3s,
CDs and DVDs.
• World Harvest Bible College — based in South
Bend, Indiana, Dr. Lester Sumrall founded World
Harvest Bible College. WHBC is an accredited,
faith-based Bible College offering certificates and
degrees to Christian workers and ministers who want
to advance their education with courses in Bible, the-
ology, preaching, Christian counseling, and church
operations.
www.familybroadcastingcorporation.com
207