Mary Weems Chapman, First Assemblies of God Missionary to South India: Called to the Prostitutes and Untouchables

Mary Weems Chapman’s passport photo, 1921.

This Week in AG History — April 18, 1925

By Darrin J. Rodgers
Originally published on AG-News, 18 March 2024

When veteran missionary Mary Weems Chapman (1857-1927) felt God’s call to return to India, her family told her she was too old. But she persevered and became the first Assemblies of God missionary to South India. A veteran Free Methodist missionary before identifying with the Pentecostal movement, Mary was well-known in Holiness circles for her preaching, teaching, and writing. But she was perhaps best known for her advocacy of ministry to girl prostitutes and the “untouchables” — members of India’s lowest social caste.

Mary and her husband, George, were pioneer leaders in the Pentecost Bands, a Free Methodist missions organization known for promoting both holiness and social ministry. They founded the Free Methodist work in Monrovia, Liberia, in 1889. They returned to America in 1893.

Mary was a prolific author. She edited a volume of writings by Holiness advocate Eunice Parsons Cobb, Mother Cobb, or Sixty Years with God (1896). She also served a one-year stint (1898) as founding editor of Missionary Tidings, published by the General Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society of the Free Methodist Church.

George seemingly disappeared from Mary’s writings in the 1890s. Whether he died or something else happened is unknown. But she continued in ministry as a single woman. She moved to India in about 1900, where she worked at a Pentecostal Rescue Home that plucked young girls out of prostitution and provided education and spiritual help.

Single and aging, in about 1909 she returned to America. But she could not shake the sense that God wanted her to help the suffering girls of India. By 1911 she surfaced in Pentecostal periodicals, writing gut-wrenching articles about the great need to rescue girls in India who had been sold into sexual slavery.

Feeling a holy restlessness, Mary decided to return to India. She was approaching 60 years old. Her family tried to dissuade her, telling her she was too old to endure the rigors of missionary work. But her mind was made up. She told her family, “If young people are not able to go, old people must go.”

Mary arrived in India in 1915 and established her first missionary base in Doddaballapur, near Bangalore. She conducted evangelistic meeting in numerous parts of South India. In 1917, she affiliated with the Assemblies of God and became the Fellowship’s first missionary in South India.

Mary’s extensive writing and editing skills proved useful in her missions work. She was concerned by the poor discipleship of new converts and by the vast amount of anti-Christian and anti-Pentecostal literature that was causing confusion. To help remedy these problems, in 1925 she co-founded a magazine called Penthecosthu Kahalam (Pentecostal Trumpet) in the Malayalam language. She also wrote over 50 articles and letters published in the Pentecostal Evangel from 1913 to 1927.

In one of those letters, published in the April 18, 1925, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel, Mary described the plight of the Dalits, also called the “untouchables” because of their low social position. She described the joy of the Dalits who accepted Christ and were “adopted in the family of heaven.” She noted that her missionary colleagues started a school to educate young converts, because Dalits were not permitted to attend school with people from other classes in Indian society.

After 10 years of ministry under the Assemblies of God banner, Mary Weems Chapman died on November 27, 1927. She was 70 years old.

Samuel Jabarethnan, Chapman’s interpreter for the last eight years of her life, wrote the following tribute: “I found Sister Chapman to be a most devoted and spiritual missionary. She stood not just for the Pentecostal experience, but emphasized the need for a deep spiritual, sanctified life . . . Sister Chapman was never satisfied with shallow, superficial things, either in a worker, a Christian, or an assembly. She demanded reality and set the example in her own life . . . Sister Chapman loved to spend much of her time in prayer. She never allowed the duties or responsibilities of her work to interfere with her prayer life. She labored and groaned in deep intercessory prayer for the souls of men to be saved, and as a result the Lord richly blessed her ministry.”

Read Mary Chapman’s article, “Ministering to the Untouchables,” on page 11 of the April 18, 1925, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel.

Also featured in this issue:

• “Faith in the Invisible,” by Ernest S. Williams

• “Gleanings from the Book of Ruth,” by A.G. Ward

• “Denying Self,” by Alice Rowlands Frodsham

And many more!

Click here to read this issue now.

Pentecostal Evangel archived editions courtesy of the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center.

Do you have Pentecostal historical materials that should be preserved? Please consider depositing these materials at the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center (FPHC). The FPHC, located in the Assemblies of God national offices, is the largest Pentecostal archive in the world. We would like to preserve and make your treasures accessible to those who write the history books.

Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center
1445 North Boonville Avenue
Springfield, Missouri 65802 USA
Phone: 417.862.1447 ext. 4400
Toll Free: 877.840.5200
Email: archives@ag.org
Website: https://ifphc.org/

John and Ella Franklin: Pioneer Assemblies of God Missionaries to Guatemala

This Week in AG History–April 11, 1942

By Ruthie Edgerly Oberg
Originally published on AG News, 11 April 2024

John L. Franklin (1910-1999) was orphaned shortly after birth by the death of his mother, and he spent the majority of his young life in an orphanage. Yet even as a young boy he felt that God had laid His hand on him for a greater work — that of missionary service.

While attending Southern California College (now Vanguard University) in the early 1930s, this call grew ever stronger. Franklin believed he needed more of God’s power if he were to attempt such an undertaking. He began to seek for the infilling of the Holy Spirit. After a time of prayer and fasting, he traveled to a mountain top overlooking the city of Pasadena. There he committed to give himself fully to God for the cities of the world. The next morning in the college chapel service, Franklin started to praise the Lord in his usual manner when he found himself speaking in a language he did not know. He was consumed with a burden of prayer for nation after nation.

Franklin soon became involved with evangelistic efforts on the Mexican border. From this experience he believed God was sending him to Guatemala in answer to the request from a small group of Pentecostal believers who were looking for help with discipleship and in reaching their neighbors. Assemblies of God missionaries Christopher and Inez Hines went to Guatemala in 1916 and stayed until 1925. No others had been sent in the interim to minister to their converts. Franklin and his new wife, Ella, responded to the call.

Bringing along their possessions — consisting of a mattress, an accordion, a typewriter, and a barrel of household items — they arrived in Jutiapa in April 1937. Securing a mule to ride out into the countryside, they located the five small congregations scattered among the mountains. These believers had prayed fervently for someone to come and lead them. They knew the Pentecostal message, but few had received the experience of the baptism in the Holy Spirit. The Franklins stayed with each group, in turn, sleeping in hammocks, bathing in mountain streams, drinking unsafe water, and eating many meals of beans and tortillas. They struggled with illness in growing accustomed to the new way of living, but were very happy to see God working in the lives of their new friends.

By early 1938, 300 people gathered together to form the first council of the Assemblies of God in Guatemala. John Franklin was named the first superintendent and Socorro Ramirez as secretary.

In 1941, Franklin opened a church in Guatemala City holding services every day for five months. The attendance was mostly children. On Good Friday of that year, God moved in a special way and seven people were filled with the Holy Spirit. This service sparked a revival, and the meeting room was always full after this. Soon a large evangelistic center was established in Guatemala City.

In a report in the April 11, 1942, Pentecostal Evangel, Franklin wrote of several healings and expressed thanks for the gift of a 1938 Chevrolet “in splendid condition and undoubtedly good for many years of service if Jesus tarries.” Even though the roads were primitive and, in many places, nonexistent, the car enabled them to carry abundant supplies and provisions. Franklin explained, “You cannot imagine how much easier it is than traveling by mule back.” (This was before the advent of the Assemblies of God Speed the Light program which purchases transportation for missionaries.)

Franklin also shared in the article the system of church planting they were using. “Each pastor is made to feel responsible for the villages surrounding the assembly of his charge … he is encouraged to evangelize and seek to bring other assemblies into being. In this effort he is assisted by his congregation which accompanies him on preaching trips to the new fields. Thus every pastor become an evangelist, and every member a pioneer worker.”

Church planting was not easy for the young Pentecostal movement in Guatemala. Franklin describes, “There is hardship entailed — hunger, fatigue, inconvenience of every kind. It means miles and miles of walking … intolerable heat at noonday and the chill of mountain heights because of scanty clothing or lack of sufficient covers at night. It means hours of torture because of insufferable plagues of mosquitoes or fleas. At times every effort to do good is repulsed and the works are reviled or threatened. Some have been stoned, others cruelly mistreated… it seems that a price must be paid for every victory gained — but how can we expect it otherwise? Our Lord paid a tremendous price for our salvation.” Franklin believed that there was no price too high for him or the believers he discipled to pay for the salvation of the people of Guatemala.

In 1977, 40 years after arriving in Guatemala, the Franklins retired from full-time ministry, returning to the United States. They made numerous short-term trips back to Guatemala to rejoice with the people who had become their family. From the five small groups of believers they found in 1937, God had blessed them with 600 established churches, 700 licensed ministers, and 55,000 Assemblies of God believers.

Read more of Franklin’s report, “A Harvest That Rewards the Sacrifice,” on pages 6-7 of the April 11, 1942, Pentecostal Evangel.

Also featured in this issue:

• “A Plea for Wholehearted Service,” by P.C. Nelson

• “Shut Out – the Fate of the Foolish Virgins,” by James Salter

• “Portions for Whom Nothing is Prepared,” by Margaret Ann Bass

And many more!

Click here to read this issue now.

Pentecostal Evangel archived editions courtesy of the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center.

Do you have Pentecostal historical materials that should be preserved? Please consider depositing these materials at the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center (FPHC). The FPHC, located in the Assemblies of God national offices, is the largest Pentecostal archive in the world. We would like to preserve and make your treasures accessible to those who write the history books.

Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center
1445 North Boonville Avenue
Springfield, Missouri 65802 USA
Phone: 417.862.1447 ext. 4400
Toll Free: 877.840.5200
Email: archives@ag.org
Website: https://ifphc.org/

Frederick Martin Lehman: Pioneer Holiness and Assemblies of God Hymn Writer

This Week in AG History–April 5, 1953

By Ruthie Edgerly Oberg
Originally published on AG News, 04 April 2024

Frederick Martin Lehman (1868-1953) was a German-born hymn writer, pastor, and publisher who accepted the message of the Pentecostal movement after many years as a holiness preacher. His songs encouraged congregations to press in to holiness and consecration. One of them, “The Love of God,” is consistently listed as one of the great sacred songs of the 20th century and has been published in hundreds of hymnals and translated into scores of languages, yet his Pentecostal connections are little known.

Born in Schwerin, Germany, his family emigrated to the United States when he was just 4 years old. They settled in Iowa where Frederick grew up among other German immigrant farmers. At the age of 11, he had a deep experience with God that impacted the direction of his life. He enrolled at Northwestern College in Illinois to study for ministry with the newly formed Church of the Nazarene. He later pastored in Iowa, Indiana, and Kansas City, Missouri. It was while he was pastoring in Kansas City that he helped to found the Nazarene Publishing House in that city.

When Lehman was 23, he married Emma Lou Dermeyer, in a process he poetically described thusly: “I wooed and wed one of the loveliest maidens outside the gates of Eden.” They were married for 61 years and had nine children, many of whom also followed in Christian service.

During his ministry, Lehman did editorial work for several religious magazines and wrote a number of books, but his real knack was for poetry, which he often set to music. He wrote his first song in 1898 while pastoring in Kingsley, Iowa, and followed it with hundreds more. Many were published in 1919 in his first collection, Songs That Are Different. It was this collection that included the first publication of “No Disappointment in Heaven,” “The Royal Telephone,” and “The Love of God.”

At some point between 1912 and 1927, Lehman left the Church of the Nazarene, which had rejected the Pentecostal message of baptism in the Holy Spirit as evidenced by speaking in tongues. In the Sept. 24, 1927, issue of the Assemblies of God paper, The Pentecostal Evangel, Lehman wrote an article on “Self and Grace” in poetic form telling of this change in his life and experience:

“Once the ‘Second Blessing Movement’ moved and did exploits a few. God knocked at this Wesleyan portal, saying, “I have more for you. You are fitted best to carry news of this great latter rain — but they closed the door in blindness, hence the Master pled in vain. So He left that once-blest Movement and the boasted talent there; poured His Spirit on the simple and the unlearned everywhere … Yes, the latter rain is falling all around this sin-sick world. And recruits that number millions march beneath this flag unfurled … Savior mine and great Baptizer, Healer, and my coming King! Unto Thee ascribe we honor! Unto Thee we praises sing!”

Many of the songs he wrote as a Nazarene preacher spoke of the Pentecostal blessing, as it was a term used to describe the experience of sanctification in the holiness churches. These holiness songs were picked up by early Pentecostals. The first known recording of a Lehman song was by a female African American Pentecostal store-front preacher in Memphis, Mary M. Nelson, who released “The Royal Telephone” on an album in 1927, including these lyrics:

“If your line is ‘grounded,’ and connection true
Has been lost with Je¬sus, tell you what to do:
Prayer and faith and promise mend the broken wire,
’Till your soul is burning with the Pentecostal fire.”

As evidenced by Nelson’s early recording and the publication of songbooks, early Pentecostals adopted much of the music of the holiness churches from which many of them came. A few of the songwriters associated with these churches accepted the Pentecostal message and provided songs for the fledgling movement, among them Thoro Harris, R.E. Winsett, and Herbert Buffum.

Lehman wrote the music for “Loyal Christ’s Ambassadors,” the 1935 song for the Assemblies of God youth ministry, Christ’s Ambassadors. However, he became well-known in the broader church world because of songs such as “The Love of God,” which has been sung in churches of all denominations:

“The love of God is greater far than tongue or pen can ever tell;
It goes beyond the highest star, and reaches to the lowest hell;
The guilty pair, bowed down with care, God gave His Son to win;
His erring child He reconciled, and pardoned from his sin.

Could we with ink the ocean fill, or were the sky of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill, and every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole, though stretched from sky to sky.

Oh, love of God, how rich and pure! How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure — the saints’ and angels’ song.”

When Lehman died in 1953, he was a member of Trinity Assembly of God in Pasadena, California, and the Pentecostal Evangel published a notice honoring him in the April 5, 1953, issue. In 1955, the Men’s Ministry department of the Assemblies of God published an article in its TEAM publication stating that “F.M. Lehman forever laid down his pen … America lost a great song writer, and the Assemblies of God its greatest.”

Read the announcement of Lehman’s death on page 13 of the April 5, 1953, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel.

Also featured in this issue

• “The Empty Sepulcher,” by Alice Reynolds Flower

• “Channels of Resurrection Power,” by Robert Cummings

And many more!

Click here to read this issue now.

Pentecostal Evangel archived editions courtesy of the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center.

Do you have Pentecostal historical materials that should be preserved? Please consider depositing these materials at the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center (FPHC). The FPHC, located in the Assemblies of God national offices, is the largest Pentecostal archive in the world. We would like to preserve and make your treasures accessible to those who write the history books.

Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center
1445 North Boonville Avenue
Springfield, Missouri 65802 USA
Phone: 417.862.1447 ext. 4400
Toll Free: 877.840.5200
Email: archives@ag.org
Website: https://ifphc.org/

Clement Le Cossec: The French Pentecostal Pastor Who Became an Apostle to the Roma (Gypsies)

This Week in AG History–March 30, 1969

By Ruthie Edgerly Oberg
Originally published on AG News, 28 March 2024

When Clement Le Cossec (1921-2001) was growing up in Brittany, a province in northwest France, his mother warned him, “Be careful! If you are not good, the [Roma, formerly known as] Gypsies will come and steal you away!” Frightened, Le Cossec promised his mother he would be good, so that he would never have to live with the Roma. Yet, God had a plan for him, and when this French pastor died in 2001, more than 2,000 Roma from across Europe attended his funeral, mourning the loss of the man who came to be known as “The Apostle to the Gypsies (Roma).” 

The March 30, 1969, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel shared the fascinating story of Le Cossec and his ministry to the Roma. 

In 1952, while pastoring a church in Rennes, France, Le Cossec held a preaching campaign in Brest, near Normandy. At the end of one of the meetings a strongly built, dark man approached him and asked if the pastor would visit “us” at an encampment in the hedges alongside the road leading into town. When Le Cossec arrived, he found a caravan of trailers and a group of people with a story to tell. 

Two years earlier, one of the young men, Zino, had been given a terminal diagnosis. A traveling Pentecostal preacher prayed for him and he experienced healing. Upon hearing what had happened to Zino, his brother, Mandz, determined to tell the story of how God had power to heal in the name of Jesus. Since that time, many of the Roma in this caravan had come to faith in Christ, but they had a serious problem. They heard that to be obedient to Christ they must be baptized. Mandz had gone from pastor to pastor asking for someone to come and baptize them but none were willing. 

Le Cossec invited them to come to a prayer meeting in a church member’s home. He opened the meeting by saying, “We are going to change the form of the meeting. We are not tied to a routine. We want to be sensitive to the direction of the Spirit. We are going to pray with our [Roma] brothers and sisters to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit.” After a brief meditation, the Roma knelt on the earthen floor and began to praise the Lord with all their hearts. Mandz suddenly lay on the floor, with his face down, and started to speak tongues. Many others shared his same experience. Le Cossec announced to the group, “The baptisms will be next week!” 

After the baptismal service, the police made the Roma caravan move from the area, and Le Cossec returned to his church in Rennes. One year later, in 1953, both Le Cossec and the Roma returned to Brest for a meeting. After the baptisms of the previous year, more than 100 Roma had come to know Christ, but Le Cossec could see that they were troubled. They shared with him, “Brother, on the road we have no one to lead meetings with us. Each evening when we stop, we light a fire and we gather around to sing and pray. If there is someone in the group, even a child, who knows how to read we ask him to read from the Bible. We need a servant of God.” Le Cossec replied, “That is impossible. There are no servants of God in Brittany who are free” to travel with you. 

Le Cossec felt he must help the Roma in some way. When the caravans came close to his church he would hold reading and Bible classes. But by 1958, more than 3,000 Roma had been converted, and Le Cossec could no longer be indifferent to this flock of sheep without a shepherd. A decision had to be made. He had a house and an assured salary and eight children who depended on him. The church in Rennes was doing well. Wouldn’t it be folly to leave a secure position and join his family to a caravan of traveling Roma? “There was a battle in my heart … but putting all my trust in the Lord, and refusing to count the cost, I threw myself into an adventure of faith … how very meaningful Christ’s words: ‘Go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in that my house may be filled.’” 

Eleven years later, in the 1969 Pentecostal Evangel article, Le Cossec shared with American readers how more than 20,000 Roma were serving the Lord. He told of their meetings in caravan conferences across Europe, including in Germany, where Hitler’s Nazi regime had exterminated tens of thousands of Roma in concentration camps. 

Le Cossec and his family traveled with the Roma through France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and India. By his death at age 80, Le Cossec had traveled in more than 40 countries sharing the message that the Roma, who had been “a rejected community,” have instead become “an elect community” in the Lord. On his tombstone, his friends and family engraved the words of Luke 14:22: “The servant said, ‘Master, what you have commanded has been done.’” 

Read more about Le Cossec’s Roma conference in Germany in, “One People from Many Nations,” on page 16 of the March 30, 1969, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel. 

Also featured in this issue:

• “Gifts of Healing,” by Howard Carter

• “How Can I Know God’s Will,” by J.W. Jepson

• “The Balm of Gratitude,” by Mel De Vries

And many more! 

Click here read this issue now. 

Photo caption: Roma musicians with Clement Le Cossec, back row center.

Pentecostal Evangel archived editions courtesy of the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center.

Do you have Pentecostal historical materials that should be preserved? Please consider depositing these materials at the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center (FPHC). The FPHC, located in the Assemblies of God national offices, is the largest Pentecostal archive in the world. We would like to preserve and make your treasures accessible to those who write the history books.

Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center
1445 North Boonville Avenue
Springfield, Missouri 65802 USA
Phone: 417.862.1447 ext. 4400
Toll Free: 877.840.5200
Email: archives@ag.org
Website: https://ifphc.org/

Amanda Benedict: Pioneer Pentecostal Prayer Warrior in Springfield, Missouri

This Week in AG History — March 19, 1927

By Glenn W. Gohr
Originally published on AG News, 21 March 2024

Amanda Benedict (1851-1925) is remembered as a fervent prayer warrior and one of the early participants in the Pentecostal movement in Springfield, Missouri. When she died, Assemblies of God leaders credited her prayers for the success of the local congregation and national ministries located in the city.

When Benedict moved to Springfield around 1910, she was 60 years old and had already served the Lord with distinction in a rescue home for girls in Chicago and in a faith home for children in Iowa.

Soon after moving to Springfield, while working as a door-to-door salesperson, Benedict met Lillie Corum. The two ladies got acquainted and, in conversation, Corum shared about her experience of the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Corum had been baptized in the Spirit on June 1, 1907, under the ministry of her sister, Rachel Sizelove, who had brought the Pentecostal message from Azusa Street.

Benedict expressed interest in receiving this blessing and began seeking it. The two ladies began praying together regularly, and soon Amanda herself was filled with the Spirit. Corum, Benedict, Birdie Hoy, and a few others prayed fervently and helped with the beginnings of what became Central Assembly of God.

With a burden for lost souls, Benedict prayed and interceded for days on end, until she felt the burden lift or victory came. She often prayed all night in a grove of trees near the corner of Campbell Avenue and Calhoun Street, which later became the site of Central Assembly of God. She prayed many times for Springfield to make a spiritual impact on the world, and that God’s blessings would flow through Springfield to the ends of the earth. At one point, she felt led to fast and pray for Springfield for one entire year — living only on bread and water.

In 1915, Benedict moved to Aurora, Missouri, where she started a Pentecostal church that became affiliated with the Assemblies of God. After pastoring in Aurora for almost a decade, she died in 1925 at the age of 74. At her funeral service at Central Assembly of God in Springfield, church members, Bible school students, and others gave inspiring testimonies of her life.

Stanley Frodsham, the editor of the Pentecostal Evangel, reported that Benedict helped to launch a tent meeting in the early days of revival in Springfield and “spent whole nights praying under the canvas.” Among other things, “She prayed for a Pentecostal Assembly in Springfield.” And on the very site where she prayed, the first building for Central Assembly was erected. Frodsham and others believed that Central Assembly of God, Central Bible College, and the Assemblies of God national office, all located in Springfield, resulted largely from Benedict’s fervent, effectual prayers.

Benedict was buried without a grave marker in Eastlawn Cemetery in Springfield. In 2007, 82 years after her death, a marker was finally placed on her grave. The marker features a fitting tribute: “She prayed and fasted for the city of Springfield.” On the back is a Scripture verse: “Pray without ceasing” 1 Thessalonians 5:17.

Frodsham published a sermon by Benedict, titled, “Abundance for All,” a couple of years after her death. The sermon compared the blessings of the baptism in the Holy Spirit to a multitude of savory items held in a locked bakery. She said, “I would fail to satisfy a vigorous physical appetite to look through the windows of a locked bakery.” She continued: “Just so it is unsatisfying to a healthy spiritual appetite to see what Pentecost meant in the years that are past, and yet not partake of it now in this present day.” She felt that the baptism in the Holy Spirit was necessary to receive all the blessings of God. She said, “Pentecost means appetite and a free table loaded with solid food and with dainties hitherto unknown.”

She exhorted the reader to depend on God and ask Him for this blessing: “If you are a seeker of the baptism of the Holy Ghost, see to it that you receive with the God-appointed sign, promised by Christ himself (Mark 16:17), that the disciples received when they were first filled with the Spirit (Acts 2:4).”

Read “Abundance for All,” by Amanda Benedict on page 5 of the March 19, 1927, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel.

Also featured in this issue:

• “Holy Ground,” by James H. McConkey

• “Judgments of God and Revival Fires in Poland,” by Gustave H. Schmidt

• “Job,” by Ernest S. Williams

Click here to read this issue now.

Pentecostal Evangel archived editions courtesy of the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center.

Do you have Pentecostal historical materials that should be preserved? Please consider depositing these materials at the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center (FPHC). The FPHC, located in the Assemblies of God national offices, is the largest Pentecostal archive in the world. We would like to preserve and make your treasures accessible to those who write the history books.

Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center
1445 North Boonville Avenue
Springfield, Missouri 65802 USA
Phone: 417.862.1447 ext. 4400
Toll Free: 877.840.5200
Email: archives@ag.org
Website: https://ifphc.org/

Raymond Hudson: From Ministry in Texas and New Mexico to Assemblies of God General Treasurer

This Week in AG History — March 10, 1974

By Glenn W. Gohr
Originally published on AG News, 14 March 2024

Raymond H. Hudson (1918-2010) is remembered as a faithful pastor, evangelist, district officer, and Assemblies of God National Office executive. His final appointment was general treasurer of the Assemblies of God. He was highly esteemed by his colleagues. General Secretary Joseph R. Flower said, “Brother Hudson’s gentle demeanor and infectious wit and sense of humor, combined with a depth of spirituality, have made inroads into the hearts of all with whom he has had contact.”

Hudson was born in Celina, Texas, and grew up as the son of a sharecropper in McKinney and Limestone County, Texas. At age four or five, he was already sensing the call of God on his life. He remembered standing at the top of the stairs in his home with a little New Testament and preaching to an imaginary congregation. That urgency to preach never left him.

“I can never think of a time when I didn’t want to be a preacher,” Hudson said.

Life was simple and hard. There was no electricity in their home. Hudson liked to tell the story that they had running water: “I ran to the well and back with the water bucket.” That was the running water. There were also cows to milk every day. Hudson learned to pick cotton in his boyhood years. By the age 13, he was the fastest cotton picker in the area. No one could equal his speed and agility.

In 1926, A.E. Davis first brought the full gospel message to the nearby community of Thornton, Texas. It was during his ministry that a miracle happened in the Hudson household. Raymond’s mother, Lessie May, became critically ill with diabetes. She had reached the last stages of the disease when she requested special prayer. She could hardly make it onto the platform, but when she was prayed for, she received an instant healing.

Hudson said, “She threw her hands in the air, shouted, and ran across the platform.” This experience affirmed to young Raymond that God answers prayer.

Although he had long sensed the call of God on his life, he did not fully surrender to Christ until he was 14. Two years later, he received the baptism in the Holy Spirit in a prayer meeting, and two years after that, at age 18, he accepted his first pastorate in Thornton, Texas, in 1936. It was there that he met Onie Marie Stewart, who later became his wife.

After three years of pastoring, he felt a need for a greater understanding of God’s Word. So he resigned his church to attend Shield of Faith Bible Institute in Fort Worth (now Nelson University). Onie Marie was also attending the Bible school, and their friendship blossomed. He graduated in 1943. During his last year of school, he began pastoring the Assembly of God in Perrin, Texas. While pastoring at Perrin, he married Onie Marie Stewart on Oct. 15, 1943. Hudson was ordained by the Texas District Council of the AG on June 9, 1944, and his wife also became an AG minister.

Following his ministry in Perrin, Hudson pastored a short time in Aubrey, Texas, before accepting an invitation in 1946 from First Assembly in Hobbs, New Mexico, where he pastored for nine years. During his tenure there, Hudson helped the church to grow from 40 to over 300, and a new church facility was constructed.

In April 1955, Hudson was elected superintendent of the New Mexico district, where he served for 13 years (1955-1968). During that period, he oversaw the building of new district offices and established a home missions program to reach out to both the Anglo and the Native American people of New Mexico. He also set up a Church Builders Plan in New Mexico which served as a working model for the Church Loan Department at the AG National Office for many years.

After a brief period pastoring First Assembly in Carlsbad, New Mexico, and a short time working at Southwestern Bible College in the area of development, Hudson was invited to head the Stewardship Department at the AG National Office. The Hudsons moved to Springfield, Missouri, in 1969. He traveled extensively with estate planning and stewardship seminars. Then in 1972, Hudson was appointed as church loan officer. In that capacity, he set up the Church Builders Plan on a national level, which provided low-cost debt retirement loans to churches. He headed the Church Loan Department until October 1973.

Because of his years of service in church finance, Hudson was nominated and elected to serve as general treasurer (1973-1988). In that position, he had oversight of several departments — Audit, Benevolences, Central Mail, Church Loan, Finance, Stewardship, and Deferred Giving and Trusts. He was chairman of the board for Hillcrest Children’s Home and Highlands Child Placement Services. He oversaw Aged Ministers Assistance and Disaster Relief for the Assemblies of God. He also served on boards for Evangel College (now University) and Maranatha Village.

After 15 years as general treasurer, Hudson and his wife retired and moved to Hobbs, New Mexico, where he had time to enjoy fishing and other pastimes.

Looking back on his life of ministry, Hudson shared a pearl of wisdom: “Every person needs to recognize that life and all its resources and the responsibilities that come with our jobs constitute a trust given by the Lord. We need to sharpen our skills to the finest degree and ask the Lord to help us do our very best.”

Read one of Raymond Hudson’s sermons, “Entertaining a Royal Guest,” on pages 4-5 of the March 10, 1974, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel.

Also featured in this issue:

• “It’s Just the Beginning,” by Paul Radke

• “New Life Singers in Japan,” by Jim Braddy

And many more!

Click here to read this issue now.

Pentecostal Evangel archived editions courtesy of the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center.

Do you have Pentecostal historical materials that should be preserved? Please consider depositing these materials at the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center (FPHC). The FPHC, located in the Assemblies of God national offices, is the largest Pentecostal archive in the world. We would like to preserve and make your treasures accessible to those who write the history books.

Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center
1445 North Boonville Avenue
Springfield, Missouri 65802 USA
Phone: 417.862.1447 ext. 4400
Toll Free: 877.840.5200
Email: archives@ag.org
Website: https://ifphc.org/

Giving out of their Poverty: Florence Steidel and the Lepers of New Hope Town, Liberia

This Week in AG History — March 4, 1951

By Darrin J. Rodgers
Originally published on AG-News, 07 March 2024

In 1950, an Assemblies of God congregation of lepers in New Hope Town, Liberia, caught the vision of missions and desired to help those who were less fortunate than themselves. On Christmas Eve, they took up an offering of $2.65, which they sent to the Leper Home of Uska Bazaar in North India.

Assemblies of God missionary Florence Steidel (1897-1962) wrote a letter recounting the sacrificial spirit of the congregation. The letter, published in the March 4, 1951, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel, explained that the offering was quite generous, given the meager wages earned by the lepers (7 to 10 cents per day).

Steidel had founded New Hope Town in 1947 with $100 and the help of lepers. Tribal chiefs gave her 350 acres of land upon which she could build a town for people with the skin-eating disease who were unwelcome in their own communities. Steidel, a nurse who came to the mission field in 1935, took a class in elementary building construction. She rallied those with leprosy to work alongside her in building roads and houses. From 1947 until 1962, she oversaw the construction of a well-laid-out town, including 70 permanent buildings and six main streets.

While the lepers were diseased, they were not helpless. Steidel established a school to train them to become carpenters, weavers, brick makers, and clinic workers. They also planted 2,500 rubber trees, which helped the town to become economically self-sufficient.

Steidel realized that economic poverty has roots in poor spiritual and social conditions, which she worked to ameliorate. And only four years after establishing New Hope Town, its residents were already giving of their very limited resources to help others.

Steidel is remembered as one of the missionary heroes of the Assemblies of God. She melded compassion with proclamation of the gospel. Her work among the lepers helped to give credibility and strength to the Assemblies of God in Liberia.

Read the article by Florence Steidel, “I Still Have Strong,” on page 9 of the March 4, 1951, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel.

Also featured in this issue

• “Pentecost’s Lost Coin,” by Paul Gaston

• “Our Greatest Need,” by Robert J. Wells

• “Words of Life,” by Wesley R. Steelberg

And many more!

Click here to read this issue now.

Pentecostal Evangel archived editions courtesy of the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center.

Do you have Pentecostal historical materials that should be preserved? Please consider depositing these materials at the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center (FPHC). The FPHC, located in the Assemblies of God national offices, is the largest Pentecostal archive in the world. We would like to preserve and make your treasures accessible to those who write the history books.

Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center
1445 North Boonville Avenue
Springfield, Missouri 65802 USA
Phone: 417.862.1447 ext. 4400
Toll Free: 877.840.5200
Email: archives@ag.org
Website: https://ifphc.org/

Beulah Buchwalter: Pioneer Assemblies of God Missionary and Linguist in Gold Coast, Africa

This Week in AG History–February 26, 1938

By Ruthie Edgerly Oberg
Originally published on AG News, 29 February 2024

Beulah Buchwalter (1907-1942), an Assemblies of God missionary in Gold Coast (now Ghana), served from a place of weakness made perfect in God’s strength. Despite needing rest, she volunteered during World War II to stay an additional term without furlough since no one was able to travel to take her place in Africa. When she died at age 34, she left behind the resources needed for an entire people group to read the Bible in their own language.

Born into a minister’s home in the early days of the Pentecostal revival, Buchwalter grew to love both the work of God and the Word of God. She helped her parents in pioneering an Assembly of God church in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, through teaching Sunday School and learning new skills to meet emerging needs around her.

In April of 1931, Assemblies of God missionary Lloyd Shirer came to their church and presented the need for help in his mission. Before the services were over, 23-year-old Beulah said “yes” to the call. Because of the urgency of the need, it was only a few short months from her call to her arrival on the field. A busy summer of raising funds to pay for her trip enabled her to sail in September 1931.

The first word her family received by cablegram was that Buchwalter was critically ill in Kumasi with typhoid fever. After a period of rest, she was able to begin her first term of missionary service at Yendi, home of the Dagomba tribe. The first order of business was to learn to communicate. After learning enough of the language, an alphabet needed to be created, the language written down, a dictionary compiled for use in translation, and then the people taught to read. The Dagomba people proved very receptive to the gospel message and needed discipleship.

Growing up in a minister’s home, Buchwalter was accustomed to learning new skills to meet needs as they arose. Her diary documents the mental strain of concentrating for hours at a typewriter, translating, and proofreading papers in a language she was just learning herself. Buchwalter also felt that it was vital for the people, who loved to sing, to have joyful songs about the Christian faith in their own language. So along with language work in the Gospels, she added the translation of choruses and hymns, and began to hold literacy classes for the boys of the village.

However, the climate, change in diet, and the demanding work began to take its toll on her health. After three years, her body was so weak that she wrote in her diary, “I do not understand what is happening to me, but I am trusting in the Heavenly Father.” Doctors finally diagnosed her with pellagra, a disease caused by lack of certain vitamins that causes inflammation and temporary dementia. She was told that if she ever wanted to work in Africa, she must return to the United States for treatment. Her heart was set on finishing a Dagbane songbook and she worked feverishly to complete it before her sailing date of Feb. 16, 1935.

While in the United States, her health improved and Buchwalter finished two years of study at Central Bible Institute in Springfield, Missouri. The Feb. 26, 1938, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel carried the announcement that Beulah Buchwalter, along with Florence Blossom, was sailing again for the Gold Coast. Buchwalter’s first letter home after arriving stated, “Oh the joy of returning … my heart was thrilled when I landed at Accra on Sunday, March 27, 1938. Even with all the tropical heat … excitement reigned within me.”

After traveling over 500 miles on difficult roads, Buchwalter and Blossom arrived in Kumbungu. The two single women moved into a small hut and began to reach out to their new neighbors. Soon they were having daily prayer with their cook in the More language, the cook’s wife in the Ga dialect, their carpenter in Basari, and their errand boy in Dagbane. Within two years, these two women traveled to 50 of the outlying villages sharing the first gospel message, working with the words they knew in whatever language they encountered.

Again, Buchwalters’s passion to see the people read and sing in their own language consumed her. Although her parents asked her to consider coming home after the outbreak of World War II, Buchwalter decided to stay put. She felt the need was too great and that no one would be able to take her place, writing, “If the soldier boys can die for their country, why should we be afraid to carry on the work of the Lord?”

In February 1942, Buchwalter began work on a new primer in the Dagbani language, using Bible text to teach the people to read. Though struggling with weakness, she worked tirelessly until, finally, in September, she traveled to Tamale for printing. A few days after her return, she was confined to bed with a burning fever, drifting in and out of delirium. In her lucid moments, she sang and left messages for her newly converted friends.

On Nov. 15, 1942, Beulah Buchwalter slipped away quietly to be with her Lord. Her funeral was held in three languages with more than 300 people in attendance. She was buried at the mission station she founded, which is now the home of the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary of Ghana, where men and women are still being taught the Word of God in their own language.

Read the announcement of Buchwalter’s sailing, “Missionaries Sailing,” on page 9 of the Feb. 26, 1938, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel.

Also featured in this issue:

• “The Need of Vision,” by Archibald Cooper

• “Much Blessing at Egyptian Council”

• “Separation and Revelation,” by Stanley Frodsham

And many more!

Click here to read this issue now.

Pentecostal Evangel archived editions courtesy of the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center.

Do you have Pentecostal historical materials that should be preserved? Please consider depositing these materials at the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center (FPHC). The FPHC, located in the Assemblies of God national offices, is the largest Pentecostal archive in the world. We would like to preserve and make your treasures accessible to those who write the history books.

Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center
1445 North Boonville Avenue
Springfield, Missouri 65802 USA
Phone: 417.862.1447 ext. 4400
Toll Free: 877.840.5200
Email: archives@ag.org
Website: https://ifphc.org/

Loren and Millie Triplett’s Legacy in Assemblies of God World Missions

This Week in AG History–February 18, 1979

By Ruthie Edgerly Oberg
Originally published on AG News, 22 February 2024

Loren Triplett, with his wife, Millie, invested their lives in ministry — first as pastors, then missionaries, and even after Loren served as director of AG World Missions, they continued their passionate quest to see the lost won to Christ.

Loren O. Triplett (1926 – 2016), the son of pioneer Pentecostal church planters, led the Assemblies of God into world-wide growth as director of its world missions efforts. He lived by the motto: “You don’t measure yourself by your success but by the unfinished task.”

Born to L. Otis and Gladys (Behnke) Triplett, Loren Triplett was the eldest of eight children who grew up trekking the nation with his family, planting churches in places like California, Michigan, Iowa, and Oregon. It was while his father was pastoring in Newberg, Oregon, that he felt his own call to ministry and enrolled in Glad Tidings Bible Institute (later Bethany University) in San Francisco, California.

After graduation, Triplett was invited back to his home church in Newberg as interim pastor. While there, he chose a life partner in a girl from the youth group – Millie Johnson. The two were wed on New Year’s Day in 1949 and in October, they accepted the pastorate of a small church in Syracuse, Nebraska.

By 1953, Triplett was serving as vice president of Christ’s Ambassadors (the Assemblies of God youth organization) for the Nebraska district, but he felt the call of God to serve in Latin America. During family camp that year, Triplett asked for prayer from those in attendance, sharing his desire to follow God in mission work. One of the pastors stood and said he believed in Loren and Millie Triplett and wanted to be the first to give toward their support. This ignited somewhat of a competition to see who could give the most toward the young couple’s missions budget – including one man who went to the auto dealer in town and drove up with a station wagon offering it as their first Speed-the-Light vehicle.

Somewhat overwhelmed with the response, District Superintendent Lester Dickinson called Noel Perkin, the director of world missions for the Assemblies of God, asking what he should do since the young couple had not yet even applied for missionary appointment. Perkin responded, “If you folks have this much confidence in these young people, proceed with your plans to raise support during the camp. Just hold the funds until we can meet with the Tripletts and make our decision as to appointment.”

Approval of their application was soon granted and the Tripletts, having their budget already raised from that one camp meeting, enrolled in a language school in Costa Rica. Within one year of their initial prayer request for guidance, they arrived in Nicaragua, their home and ministry base for the next 12 years.

Due to the previous groundbreaking work of Melvin and Lois Hodges, the Nicaraguan church made good use of Nicaraguan preachers who were able to evangelize effectively within the cultural context. It was during these years that Triplett became convinced of the wisdom of the indigenous church principle, believing that fostering dependence on the Holy Spirit would produce a more lasting work than encouraging a dependence on missionaries.

In 1966, Triplett was asked to take leadership of Editorial Vida, the new Spanish-language literature ministry that was operating out of the basement of the Gospel Publishing House in Springfield, Missouri. After tearful goodbyes to their Nicaraguan church family, the Triplett family moved to the United States to oversee the publication of Spanish-language Assemblies of God Sunday School materials, songbooks, Bible school textbooks, and discipleship materials. He moved the publishing office from Springfield to Miami, Florida, which allowed Triplett to hire more Spanish-speaking employees and to cut shipping costs. Editorial Vida soon became a leading publisher of Spanish-language materials throughout the Spanish-speaking world.

When Triplett was named regional director for Assemblies of God World Missions in Latin American and the Caribbean in 1973, succeeding Melvin Hodges, he moved forward in providing leadership and support to 280 missionaries in 26 countries. During the 16 years that he held this post, he oversaw the development of a Pentecostal study Bible that was the brainchild of missionary Don Stamps. Stamps’ dream to provide a “one book library” that would resource pastors and students in Portuguese eventually developed into the Full Life Study Bible (also known as the Fire Bible) which is now available in over 40 languages, making it the most widely published study Bible in existence.

In 1989, Triplett was elected to succeed J. Philip Hogan as the director of Assemblies of God World Missions. In the eight years he served in this position, the world-wide Assemblies of God family grew by 55 percent. Perhaps even more meaningful to Triplett, the number of national ministers increased by 48 percent, showing his continued commitment to the indigenous church principle.

After their retirement in 1997, the Tripletts continued to minister in both the United States and overseas, strengthening local churches and encouraging young people to follow the call of God in giving of themselves to the great task of world evangelization. Loren Triplett passed away at age 90 in 2016, followed four years later by his beloved, Millie, having done much to resource the Pentecostal world for the unfinished task of world evangelization.

Read Loren Triplett’s article on the importance of women’s contributions in missions in, “The Challenge of Open Doors,” on page 10 of the Feb. 18, 1979, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel.

Also featured in this issue:

• “Divorce is a Lonely Road,” by Thelma Harris

• “Elijah’s God Still Lives Today,” by Phyllis Taylor

And many more!

Click here to read this issue now.

Caption:(L-r): Dewey Hatley and Randy McMaster explain Vida’s ultra-modern, computerized typesetting system to Loren Triplett and J. Philip Hogan, 1970s.

Pentecostal Evangel archived editions courtesy of the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center.

Do you have Pentecostal historical materials that should be preserved? Please consider depositing these materials at the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center (FPHC). The FPHC, located in the Assemblies of God national offices, is the largest Pentecostal archive in the world. We would like to preserve and make your treasures accessible to those who write the history books.

Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center
1445 North Boonville Avenue
Springfield, Missouri 65802 USA
Phone: 417.862.1447 ext. 4400
Toll Free: 877.840.5200
Email: archives@ag.org
Website: https://ifphc.org/

Lilian Yeomans: From Physician to Drug Addict to Pentecostal Evangelist and Educator

This Week in AG History–February 17, 1923

By Ruthie Edgerly Oberg
Originally published on AG News, 15 February 2024

Lilian B. Yeomans (1861-1942), a Canadian physician, became one of the most prominent healing evangelists in the early Pentecostal movement. Her remarkable ministry resulted from her own deliverance from the downward spiral of drug addiction. After she found spiritual and physical healing in the power of Jesus Christ, she committed herself to introducing others to the “Great Physician.”

The daughter of a Civil War surgeon, Yeomans was born in Ontario to a nominal Anglican family. Following in her father’s footsteps she entered medical school, first in Canada and then in the United States, graduating from the University of Michigan Department of Medicine in 1882. 

Serving as the first female doctor in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Yeomans specialized in women’s and children’s health alongside her general medical practice. She was also active in humanitarian work and had a pressing social calendar.

Believing in the power of medical drugs to assist in health for daily living, she began to prescribe herself medication when she was stressed or having difficulty sleeping. Doses of sulphate of morphine and chloral hydrate provided occasional relief from the excessive strain of anxiety or overwork. However, the relief lasted only briefly and she found her occasional doses becoming a daily habit and then a life-controlling addiction.

In her book, Healing from Heaven, she described how drugs gradually took over her life: “I thought I was toying with the drug but one day I made the startling discovery that the drug, or rather the demon power [in] back of the drug, was playing with me.”

When she realized the hold the drugs had on her, she began to try to stop using them. She tried decreasing the dosage and even disposing of large amounts of the drugs in her possession. She later estimated that she had tried to conquer the habit at least 57 times through varying means, including self-control and willpower, quack medicine, and Christian Science mind-control.

Knowing that her drug addiction could soon kill her and not having confidence that she was ready to die, she turned to the Bible. She thought, I have tried everything that will-power and medical science and suggestion and all the rest can do, and there is absolutely no hope for me unless it lies between the covers of this Book.

In early January 1898, Yeomans moved into a Christian healing home in Chicago, Illinois, led by John Alexander Dowie. Her sister, Charlotte Amy, accompanied her as caretaker. Dowie did not believe in the use of doctors and immediately confiscated all her medicine, leaving her to face drug withdrawal using nothing but the power of prayer.

For almost two weeks, Yeomans felt herself close to death. On Jan. 12, someone encouraged her to try to get up and go to church. Believing the effort would kill her, she declined until she felt the voice of God telling her to get up and go. With the aid of her sister, she got out of bed and made the strenuous walk, feeling no difference in her body. However, on returning back to her room she began to feel better, as if God was waiting on an act of faith on her part to be the catalyst for healing.

After this experience with God through divine healing, Lilian and her sister both felt that they owed their lives to Him in service. They moved north of Winnipeg to do missionary work with the Cree Indians. As the only doctor in the area, she treated both physical and spiritual needs. This work brought her into daily contact with the drugs she swore she would never use again. The constant pressure of her work and the demands of the people could easily have been too much to handle for the former morphine addict. Yet she found her healing complete, testifying that God enabled her to handle the drug in its proper use without feeling the desire for it herself.

When A.H. Argue brought the Pentecostal message to Manitoba, Canada, in 1907, Yeomans received the baptism in the Holy Spirit and soon became a fixture in the burgeoning Pentecostal movement in Calgary and later in the United States.

Yeomans was also a prolific writer. She wrote six books published by Gospel Publishing House, almost 100 articles published in the Pentecostal Evangel, and numerous tracts. 

In an article in the Feb. 17, 1923, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel, Yeomans contrasted the limitations of human medical remedies to the power of God, which can heal all diseases. She wrote, “[In] Back of disease lies a cause, and that cause no drug can reach. We know from the Bible that the cause of sickness – a process ending, if unchecked, in death – is sin … and this cause can be reached by one remedy only, the Precious blood of Jesus Christ.”

When Yeomans passed away at the age of 81, she had served as physician, missionary, evangelist, author, Bible school teacher, counselor, and encourager. She touched countless lives, preaching the gospel with a passion and conviction that only comes from knowing through firsthand experience that Jesus Christ is the Great Deliverer. 

Read Yeomans’ article, “Divine Healing,” on page 5 of the Feb. 17, 1923, Pentecostal Evangel.

Also featured in this issue:

• “Soul Food for Hungry Saints,” by A.G. Ward

• “Deliverance to the Captives,” by Smith Wigglesworth

• “Little Is Much When God Is In It,” by Mrs. Cyril Bird

And many more!

Click here to read this issue now.

For a deeper look at Dr. Yeomans life see, “Encountering the Great Physician: The Life and Ministry of Dr. Lilian B. Yeomans,” by Desiree Rodgers in the 2015-2016 issue of Assemblies of God Heritage.

Pentecostal Evangel archived editions courtesy of the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center.

Do you have Pentecostal historical materials that should be preserved? Please consider depositing these materials at the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center (FPHC). The FPHC, located in the Assemblies of God national offices, is the largest Pentecostal archive in the world. We would like to preserve and make your treasures accessible to those who write the history books.

Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center
1445 North Boonville Avenue
Springfield, Missouri 65802 USA
Phone: 417.862.1447 ext. 4400
Toll Free: 877.840.5200
Email: archives@ag.org
Website: https://ifphc.org/