Dr. Wang Yun Wu: The Leading Chinese Scholar Who Abandoned Atheism after Witnessing a Miracle

This Week in AG History — May 2, 1931

By Darrin J. Rodgers

Originally published on AG-News, 04 May 2023

A prominent Chinese scholar, Dr. Wang Yun Wu (1888-1979), abandoned atheism in 1924 after he witnessed the miraculous healing of his sister’s eyesight. Dr. Wang later became Vice Premier of the Republic of China (Taiwan). His story was recounted by W. W. Simpson (1869-1961), pioneer Assemblies of God missionary to China, in the May 2, 1931, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel.

Wang’s sister was healed in an unplanned revival. Simpson and fellow Assemblies of God missionary Florence Hanson were in Shanghai for the purpose of printing a Chinese-language hymnal. Their business trip quickly turned into a spiritual awakening. Hanson prayed for someone whose name is now lost to history, that person was healed, and residents clamored to find out what happened.

Local Christians organized services and invited Hanson to share the Pentecostal message. Numerous residents, including community leaders, flocked to the meetings. Many were healed or baptized in the Holy Spirit. One of the first people swept up in this move of God was Wang’s sister, Mrs. Ching. Not only was she baptized in the Holy Spirit, but God also corrected her eyesight! For 10 years she had been dependent upon her eyeglasses for daily life and for her writing duties at work. She was employed at the Commercial Press, a large publishing house where her brother, Dr. Wang, served as editor-in-chief.

Mrs. Ching’s healing astounded her family. Wang asked to speak to Simpson, who had prayed for his sister. Simpson gladly consented to this invitation. Simpson recalled how Wang ushered him into a rich library stocked with books in many languages and espousing many religions and philosophies.

Wang explained that he was reared “a strict Confucianist, believing in no God and worshiping his ancestors not as gods but simply to show his respect for them.” He had also studied Western philosophies extensively and had accepted the modern theory of evolution. He had not discovered anything that “could not be explained by evolution” or which “required a God in order to exist.” But all that changed once he witnessed his sister’s healing.

Simpson wrote, “I shall never forget that afternoon in the library with one of China’s greatest scholars, and that moment when he said he was forced by the reception of the Spirit by his sister to admit there must be a living and a true God.”

Wang began the day a Confucian atheist and ended the day convinced of the deity of Christ. Wang went on to become a noted scholar of history and political science and also invented Shih Chiao Hao Ma, a form of Chinese lexicography. He opposed the communists during the Chinese revolution, entered politics, and served as Vice Premier of the Republic of China (Taiwan) from 1958 to 1963.

According to Simpson, Wang’s story demonstrates how the “baptism in the Spirit is more effective in combating atheism than all the learned disquisitions of the Fundamentalists, for it is God giving a sign to this unbelieving modern world.”

Read W.W. Simpson’s entire article, “A Confucian Atheist Convinced of the Deity of Christ,” on pages 1 and 7 of the May 2, 1931, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel.

Also featured in this issue:

• “See and Hear,” by P.C. Nelson

• “To Seekers after the Baptism in the Holy Ghost,” by Donald Gee

• “My Pentecostal Experience,” by E.S. Williams

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: www.iFPHC.org

Lula Bell Hough: Assemblies of God Missionary to China and Japanese P.O.W.

This Week in AG History — April 21, 1934

By Darrin J. Rodgers
Originally published on AG-News, 20 April 2023

Lula Bell Hough (1906-2002) did not take the easy road in life. She sensed God’s call to ministry and was credentialed as an Assemblies of God missionary at the age of 23. She left her comfortable life in America and devoted herself to sharing the gospel in China, where she spent the next 45 years. As an unmarried woman in her 20s and 30s, she endured great deprivation and the ravages of war.

Hough’s greatest challenge on the mission field came during World War II, when she spent seven and one-half months as a Japanese prisoner of war. She did not know whether she would survive the ordeal, which began in December 1941. She later recalled that soldiers kept placing their bayonets to her throat, threatening to kill her. Women around her were raped, and thousands died from starvation. Some resorted to eating human flesh to survive. For the first two weeks of her captivity, she lived on nothing but wheat that was wormy and moldy. After that, she was given small food rations. The food was enough to keep her alive, but she lost 38 pounds in about six months. She was freed in a prisoner exchange — American prisoners were swapped for Japanese prisoners of war.

Living in difficult circumstances for over a decade in China had prepared Hough for the hardship of the prisoner-of-war camp. Hough sent regular letters to her supporters back in the United States. One of these letters, published in the April 21, 1934, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel, described a trip to areas in south China where there were no Christians.

Hough humorously described having to share her accommodations with loud farm animals:

“When we reached the inn we were soaking wet and cold. After warming ourselves by an open fire in the center of the room we retired to our room. Cobwebs were hanging everywhere, and one corner was occupied by geese, which entertained us with special music at intervals during the night. Our room was really a hall where people had to pass through, and our bed was only a board. The next night we spent in Sha Hoh, and were thankful to find no geese in our room, but soon discovered there were pigs in the room just below us.”

New Christians often suffered for their faith. Hough described several instances of persecution in heart-wrenching detail. She wrote that one 18-year-old woman was beaten by her husband because of her newfound faith. Her mother-in-law scratched the young woman’s face until there were “deep sores and scars.” The villagers joined in the persecution, encouraging the family to sell the young wife into slavery if she didn’t recant her faith in Christ.

Why did Hough and other early missionaries leave their homes in the West and endure difficulties? They were motivated to be faithful to Christ in fulfilling the Great Commission.

Hough explained, “In some of these villages we were the first foreigners the villagers had ever seen, and in many, the first to preach the gospel. God has promised that His Word shall not return unto Him void, so we believe that if we are faithful in proclaiming the gospel, He will be faithful in drawing souls unto himself.”

Lula Bell Hough’s life illustrates the early Pentecostal worldview that encouraged full consecration to Christ and His mission. Hough and countless other Assemblies of God missionaries spent their lives sharing the gospel, at great personal cost, and helped to lay the foundation for a worldwide Fellowship that now numbers over 70 million adherents.

Read the entire article by Lula Bell Hough, “Missionary Travels, S. China,” on pages 8-9 of the April 21, 1934, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel.

Also featured in this issue:

• “A Revelation of the Love of God,” by Kate Knight

• “Spiritual Awaking Follows Earthquake,” by Hilda Wagenknecht

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: www.iFPHC.org

Leonard Bolton: Pioneer Assemblies of God Missionary to China

This Week in AG History — December 16, 1939

By Ruthie Edgerly Oberg
Originally published on AG News, 15 December 2022

Leonard George Bolton (1900-1961), veteran missionary to China, served 37 years as an exemplary servant of God and people. Despite burying his wife and three children, a God-given love for the Lisu people drove him to dedicate his life to establishing a strong Pentecostal church beyond the Mekong River.

Bolton was born in Bournemouth, and his family were nominal members of the Church of England. When his father, William, became ill with tuberculosis it depleted the family’s finances. In 1906, news came of a Pentecostal revival taking place at Emmanuel Hall in their town. The family attended the meetings where William was saved, healed, and filled with the Holy Spirit.

After that, church became a regular part of Bolton family life. Once, when Bolton was about 12 years old, he and his siblings were playing “church.” The older sister gave a Bible lesson and Leonard felt the presence of God speaking to him about his soul. He knelt by his chair and poured his heart out to God, vowing to serve Him only. Soon after this, he received the baptism in the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues.

At 17, Bolton joined the Royal Air Force to fight in the first World War. Fired upon by Germans while on a rescue mission, his companions were killed and he was blinded by mustard gas. Though sick with trench fever and his eyes feeling as though they were on fire, the illness provided a respite from the fighting, giving time for the young soldier to consider his direction in life. Despite the bandages on his eyes, Bolton had a vision of Jesus who told him, “I want you to be my soldier. I need you to carry my message to the ends of the earth.”

Bolton received complete healing from the attack and, after armistice was declared, he returned home ready to fulfill the call of God on his life. He began by preaching in a Romani (sometimes called Gypsy) camp set up near his town. Among the others working with him was a young lady named Olive Chin Chin. They later married and began plans together for missions work wherever God would send them.

After hearing a missionary from the Tibetan-Burma border, the Boltons began to make plans to assist him. There were no Pentecostal mission sending agencies so they organized what came to be called “The Tibetan Border Mission.” They embarked on a tedious sea voyage from England on Oct. 20, 1924, landing on Burma soil four weeks later. After three days of anxious waiting, they learned that their host missionary, Alfred Lewer, fearing to take the rope bridge across the Mekong, had attempted to swim the river and drowned on his way to greet them.

Not knowing what to do, they traveled to the next town where they met David, a Chinese evangelist, who helped them find the missionary’s widow. God quickly began to bless the new missionary as he picked up the unfinished work of his predecessor.

Soon Leonard and Olive anticipated the birth of their first child. But joy turned to sorrow as both mother and baby died in childbirth. Bolton struggled deeply and questioned whether the work was worth the cost. After a time of grief, God brought peace and flooded his heart with a new love — the Lisu tribe, a mountainous people who had known only hardship, poverty, and oppression by their Chinese neighbors.

A trip to visit these people was an adventure in faith that included crossing the rope bridge on the Mekong where Lewer lost his life. The rope bridge consisted of two parallel ropes – one to grip with your hands and one to walk upon. Bolton wrote about this adventure in the Dec. 16, 1939, Pentecostal Evangel: “Fifty miles on the trail brought us to a rope bridge crossing the Mekong. Although one strand was broken, we praise God we were enabled to cross safely with all our supplies … we entered a Lisu village where no foreigner had ever been … we stayed for a week, holding meetings every night … before we left, many families had repented and were rejoicing in their newfound Savior.”

When a civil war broke out in the province, all missionaries were evacuated. Bolton then visited the United States where he married Ada Buchwalter and joined the Assemblies of God in 1928. After returning to China, God blessed the union with four children, although two of them did not live past infancy.

In 1949, the Communist Revolution forced all missionaries to leave China. The Boltons spent their remaining years serving in Jamaica, Pakistan, Burma, and Formosa (now Taiwan). After only seven months on the island of Formosa, Bolton experienced a fatal heart attack. His last words to Ada spoke of his life’s passion and his love for the mountainous people who were so responsive to the gospel: “The record is finished and I will meet you in the morning … I can see them coming …the Lisu.”

Note: The rope bridge over the Mekong River is still considered one of the most dangerous bridges in the world.

Read the article, “Journeying Among the Lisu,” on page 10 of the Dec. 16, 1939, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel.

Also featured in this issue:

• “Hidden Ministry” by John Wright Follette

• “God’s Delightful Surprises” by Stanley Frodsham

• “The Birth of Our Unique Savior” by Walter Kallenbach

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: www.iFPHC.org

1927 Revival in China Sparked by Miracles, Including the Raising of a Dead Woman

This Week in AG History — February 12, 1927

By Glenn W. Gohr
Originally published on AG-News, 6 January 2022

Divine healing is one of the four cardinal doctrines of the Assemblies of God. The pages of the Pentecostal Evangel contain many testimonies of healing from various ailments. As people of faith, the Assemblies of God also believes in the miraculous. In 1927, missionary W.W. Simpson reported several miracles, including a dead person being brought back to life, in Taochow, Old City, China. These miracles confirmed the truth of the gospel that was being preached, causing many to place their faith in Christ.

Simpson was an early missionary to Tibet and China. He was already on the mission field prior to the formation of the AG, serving with the Christian and Missionary Alliance. He was baptized in the Holy Spirit in Taochow, China, in 1912. He transferred his ordination to the AG in 1915 and served two years as principal of Bethel Bible Training School in New Jersey before returning to China in 1918 to continue his missionary work. His first wife, Otilia (Ekvall) Simpson, passed away with cancer in 1917 at Old Orchard Beach, Maine. He had three children, William, Louise, and Margaret who accompanied him on his return to China. In 1925 he married Martha Merrill in China, and they had seven more children.

While ministering in Minchow, Simpson gave an account of a mighty revival which was able to send out 27 additional gospel workers in China. He reported, “This revival came in a series of conventions beginning in Taochow, New City, and ending in Minchow.” He also reported meetings in Gospel Garden, Choni, and “a mighty miracle at Taochow, Old City.”

Simpson said the theme of these conventions was “Overcoming in Preparation for the Lord’s Coming.” One aspect of overcoming, included “fighting actual battles in conquering disease, death and the devil.”

He told of a 16-year-old girl who was brought into the hall at Gospel Garden and was laid down on the floor beside the platform while the meeting was going on. Her eyes were closed, her face pale, and her form was limp. It was reported that she had been demon-possessed for over a year. One young man, a cook, who was newly saved, began praying for her to be delivered. A Tibetan woman began following him and imitated his actions as if she also was under the anointing. Finally, it was revealed to the man that the Tibetan woman was actually demon-possessed and that the girl would not be delivered until the woman was also prayed over. He brought the girl to the altar, and he began rebuking the woman and commanded the evil spirit to come out of her. When he did, the demon left the girl, but it was some time before the Tibetan woman was delivered from satanic power. The next day both the young girl and the Tibetan woman became baptized believers.

In another incident, a man from Taochow, Old City, asked if Mr. Chow, who was in charge of the work there, would come and pray at his niece’s bedside. She had been sick for about three months and was dying, but she wanted to be saved before she passed away. After she was prayed over, she confessed her sins, and the Lord saved her. Mr. Chow and the woman’s uncle then asked for the Lord to heal her, and they had the assurance that He would. By the next morning she was near death, and according to Chinese custom was already dressed in her burial clothes. Her limbs had lost all feeling and were growing cold and stiff. Her father was a doctor, and all the family knew she was dying. The two men continued in faith, praying and believing for her healing, but she sank into unconsciousness. Finally, she quit breathing, and her tongue dropped back into her throat. She was gone. Still the two men continued to pray for victory over death.

After a few minutes they heard one word from the dead throat, “Faith!” With reassurance, the men began praising God, and “soon the mighty Spirit of Life from Christ Jesus filled the lifeless clay and all heard clearly the dead lips speaking in a tongue as He gave utterance! And the same Spirit who gives utterance in tongues raised the dead woman to life.”

When the woman became alert, she told her father, “Except you believe in Jesus, your daughter cannot live,” and he dropped to his knees and accepted the Lord he had rejected for 30 years. She also told her husband that he too must accept Jesus as his Lord. When he said, “Yes, I believe,” she said, “It must be with all your heart.” Then he confessed his sins and accepted the Lord. Then the woman said there were three who were making fun of the services. Her uncle looked outside and found three mockers and brought them into the room. She challenged them to prove their religion, and the Spirit of God declared through her: “To show you that Jesus is true and your religion false, I will cause this woman to stand on her feet today, sit up tomorrow, and walk the third day.”

It was reported that immediately, with no assistance, and to everyone’s surprise, the woman who was believed to have been dead a few moments before, stood right up in their midst and preached the gospel for two and a half hours! The next day she sat up, and the third day she walked in the presence of many. As a result of this mighty miracle, her entire family and a host of others became saved. Afterwards, her father came 60 miles to the Minchow Convention, being conducted by W.W. Simpson, to tell everyone about this miracle and to be baptized.

Read W.W. Simpson’s article, “Raised from the Dead,” which was published on page 6 of the Feb. 12, 1927, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel.

Also featured in this issue:

• “Love and Spiritual Gifts,” by Donald Gee

• “Amidst Poland’s Poverty,” by Mrs. Gustave Schmidt

• “Report of Assiout Orphanage,” by Lillian Trasher

And many more!

Click here to read this issue now.

Photo caption: W. W. Simpson, family portrait, with 2nd wife, Martha and 5 children, ca. 1936: Alberta, b. 1926 (back, center); Lorena, b. 1927 (front, left); Wallace, b. 1930 (front, right); Richard, b. 1933 (in W. W.’s lap); Paul, b. 1934 (in Martha’s lap).

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: www.iFPHC.org

L. M. Anglin and the Rise of the Indigenous Pentecostal Church in China

This Week in AG History —September 2, 1922

By Darrin J. Rodgers
Originally published on AG-News, 02 September 2021

Christianization does not equal Westernization. The success of Pentecostals in world missions has been due, in large part, to their reliance on spiritual transformation, rather than on Western cultural education, in spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Assemblies of God committed itself in 1921 to a missions strategy of establishing self-governing, self-supporting, and self-sustaining churches in missions lands. Alice E. Luce, a Spirit-baptized Anglican missionary to India who transferred to the Assemblies of God in 1915, influenced the Assemblies of God to adopt this indigenous church principle long before it was embraced by most mainline Protestant groups. The policy was not uniformly implemented, and some Assemblies of God missionaries continued to follow the paternalistic practices of other Western churches during the early decades of the 20th century.

Leslie M. and Ava Anglin, early Assemblies of God missionaries to China, were quick to grasp the importance of establishing indigenous churches. The Anglins arrived in China in 1910 under the banner of the Baptist Gospel Mission, a small missionary sending agency. Leslie Anglin learned the Chinese language, began preaching in various villages, and assembled a small flock. By 1915, the Anglins had been baptized in the Holy Spirit, which caused the Baptist missions agency to cease its support of their ministry. They transferred to the Assemblies of God and became prominent Pentecostal pioneers in China. Over the next 20 years, the Anglins wrote over 50 letters reporting on their missions work that were published in the Pentecostal Evangel.

In 1916, the Anglins established the Home of Onesiphorus — an outreach in the city of Taian, Shantung, China, for orphans who had been abandoned by their families. As it expanded, the Home of Onesiphorus added a school for poor boys and girls, many of whom were beggars. The school provided both academic and technical training. Children were taught reading, writing, and arithmetic, as well as trades such as weaving and making furniture.

In a Sept. 2, 1922, Pentecostal Evangel article, Anglin described his approach to implementing the indigenous church principle. His goal, he wrote, was not “to create an American out of [the Chinese man],” but “to take in the outcast, clothe him, house him, and feed him in Chinese fashion.” The Home of Onesiphorus trained hundreds of lay people and Chinese Pentecostal preachers who helped lay the foundation for a strong indigenous Pentecostal church in China.

Read the article by L. M. Anglin, “The Home of Onesiphorus,” on pages 12 and 13 of the Sept. 2, 1922, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel.

Also featured in this issue:

• “How Can We Know that We Have Received the Baptism?” by Bert Williams

• “The Basis for our Distinctive Testimony,” by D. W. Kerr

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: www.iFPHC.org

Assemblies of God Founders Supported Missionaries AND Famine Relief, Despite Opposition

Assemblies of God missionary B. T. Bard baptizing a convert in China, 1920

This Week in AG History — April 16, 1921

By Darrin J. Rodgers
Originally published on AG News, 16 April 2020

The Assemblies of God, in its first decade, provided significant financial resources to the alleviation of hunger in other nations. A devastating famine hit China in 1920 and 1921, causing the deaths of an estimated half million people. This tragedy from a century ago inspired Assemblies of God leaders to make an extended appeal for donations for Chinese famine relief. This decision was not without controversy.

J. Roswell Flower, Assemblies of God missions treasurer, in the April 16, 1921, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel, recounted that church leaders expressed concern that an appeal for famine relief would likely decrease giving to support missionaries already on the field. This fear was realized, and Flower reported that total missions giving did not increase in the first four months of the year. Donors shifted from supporting missionaries to famine relief. Missionaries were in danger of not receiving sufficient monetary support on which to live.

Despite this challenging financial situation, Flower defended the appeal for famine relief. He explained, “The famine need was so great…that we took the risk with such good results as you have seen.” To make up for the decrease in giving toward missionaries, Flower asked readers to contribute additional offerings.

How did Assemblies of God members respond to the challenge to expand their giving to include support for both missionaries and famine relief?

The 1921 General Council minutes reported that missions giving increased by almost 19 percent. The Foreign Missions Department received a record $107,953.55 during the fiscal year ending August 1921. Of that total, almost 10 percent ($10,383.12 — nearly $150,000 in today’s dollars) was given to Chinese famine relief.

Read the article, “The Famine in China,” by J. Roswell Flower on page 12 of the April 16, 1921, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel.

Also featured in this issue:

• “Looking from the Top,” by Christine Peirce

• “Tithes and Offerings,” by Elizabeth Sisson

• “Unity,” by C. W. Doney

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: iFPHC.org

Annie Bailie: Pioneer Assemblies of God Missionary to China and Hong Kong

Photo: Ecclesia Bible Institute, Hong Kong campus, 1959.  Annie Bailie is in the front row.

This Week in AG History — April 2, 1949

By Ruthie Edgerly Oberg
Originally published on AG News, 02 April 2020

Annie Bailie (1900-1986) immigrated from Ireland to the United States with her family in 1906, settling in Pennsylvania. She served as a tireless missionary for 58 years in southern China and Hong Kong, despite imprisonment and relocation during World War II, where she trained workers and built churches that would last through the communist revolution.

Bailie’s parents prayed fervently that their nine children would find success and happiness in their new country, and that they would serve God wholeheartedly. When she was 14 years old, Annie, the youngest child, consecrated herself to Christ and a few years later was filled with the baptism in the Holy Spirit at a camp meeting.

Annie Bailie took a job in a manufacturing plant to earn enough money to support her real passion — ministry. While in her early 20s, she passed out gospel literature on her lunch breaks, visited local hospitals on Saturdays, helped with street meetings, conducted a prison ministry, held Sunday School in rural areas, served in a young people’s group, and attended the many services at her church. Somehow, she also managed to find time to assist her brother in his outreach to African Americans.

She felt God calling her to leave her home and travel across the world to China. She was reluctant to go, explaining to God that she was a worker, not a preacher. She fought the inclination for several months but, in simple obedience to God, Bailie submitted herself to God’s call and boarded a ship for China on Oct. 28, 1928, sailing for the land that would be her home for the next 58 years.

Arriving just in time to experience the early years of the Chinese Civil War, Bailie spent much of her first missionary term dodging the fighting and assisting local Christians to find safe places while discipling them to put their faith in Christ.

Three years after her arrival, the situation became more difficult when Japan invaded mainland China. Bailie and those living with her slept in their clothes each night, always ready to make a quick escape to a safer place. One night, robbers came into their home and demanded money. A Chinese person living with Bailie told them that they were preachers, and that preachers did not have any money. While this conversation was happening, Ballie began to pray and soon found herself praying in tongues. This panicked the intruders and they hurriedly left with no further harm to the women.

In 1934, the Holy Spirit spoke through a Chinese believer who knew no English, speaking in perfect English with instructions to go north. Bailie moved to Pak Noi, where she experienced many fruitful years of ministry, despite the heavy fighting and bombing of the city by the Japanese army.

When non-Chinese residents were imprisoned, Bailie was able to avoid detection due to her mastery of the language, dark hair, and petite frame. A local villager, fearing retribution from their oppressors, ended up betraying her. Though she was placed in a Japanese internment camp in China, Bailie reported that her captors were not overly cruel. They allowed Chinese Christians to bring food to her and she was able to freely minister to others in the camp.

In June 1942, Bailie and other Americans were released from the camps and returned to the United States. In 1947, after the end of World War II, she returned to Pak Noi to find that the village had been leveled but that the church was rebuilding. In 1947, through joint efforts between the Assemblies of God and the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada, Ecclesia Bible Institute was established and began to train workers to minister to the Chinese people with the gospel of Jesus Christ and the healing of the Holy Spirit. In a letter published in the April 2, 1949, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel, Bailie asked for prayer that more of the students would receive the infilling of the Holy Spirit.

Bailie worked freely in Pak Noi until 1949, when forced to leave due to the Chinese Communist Revolution. She entrusted the church to the care of a local pastor and moved to Hong Kong. In Hong Kong, she helped to establish and operate four schools, provided scholarships to young Christians, and returned to the ministry of hospital visitation and tract distribution like she had done in her early years in Pennsylvania. Many were saved, healed, encouraged, and filled with the Spirit due to her loving ministry.

In the late 1970s, Bailie was able to return for a visit to her beloved friends in Pak Noi. She discovered that the government had recently returned the church building to the congregation, which was still being led by the pastor who Bailie had discipled and left in charge in 1949. Not only had the government returned the property, but it paid rent for the many years the church building had been used as a warehouse, giving the congregation enough money to renovate the church and to purchase Bibles for every member.

After Annie returned to Hong Kong, her health began to deteriorate. She died at the age of 86 and, in accordance with her instructions, she was buried in Hong Kong, not far from the church she started almost 40 years before.

Read Annie Bailie’s report, “In South China,” on page 11 of the April 2, 1949, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel.

Also featured in this issue:

• “The Salt and Light of the World” by Donald Gee

• “The Meaning of Spirituality” by Myer Pearlman

• “The Promise is Unto You” 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: iFPHC.org

Paul Bettex: Early Pentecostal Linguist, Missionary to China, Martyr

This Week in AG History — February 25, 1928

By Darrin J. Rodgers
Originally published on AG News, 27 February 2020

Paul Bettex (1864-1916) possessed one of the most impressive academic and social pedigrees of any early Pentecostal. Yet when Bettex accepted Christ and felt a definite call to be a missionary, he gave up all his advantages and set sail for lands afar, where he suffered war, famine, and persecution.

The Swiss-born Bettex was the son of a distinguished Christian educator and theologian, Jean Frederick Bettex. The elder Bettex, an evangelical Huguenot, contributed a chapter to the noted series of books, The Fundamentals (1910-1915), which affirmed orthodox Protestant beliefs against the emergence of theological liberalism. Despite his evangelical heritage, Paul Bettex did not make a personal commitment to Christ in his youth. Bettex studied at the University of Geneva, various Italian schools, and the Sarbonne. He studied ancient languages and political science, purposing to enter the French diplomatic corps.

While at the Sorbonne, Bettex was struck by the courage displayed by young women associated with the Salvation Army in Paris. He began attending Salvation Army meetings and yielded his heart to God. Following in his father’s footsteps, Bettex felt drawn to ministry. He moved to America, where he attended Princeton Theological Seminary and pastored several churches. He also served as a missionary in Uruguay, Argentina, and Brazil in the 1890s. While Bettex originally planned to be a French ambassador, he ultimately served a much higher king and became an ambassador for Christ.

Bettex’s linguistic training served him well on the mission field; he was proficient in 13 languages. He put his scholarly and theological abilities into practice by living amongst the people to whom he ministered. Stories of the hardships he faced in South America circulated among American Christians, and he returned in 1903 as a missionary hero.

Upon his return to America, Bettex taught at Central Holiness University (Oskaloosa, Iowa). He attended meetings at the Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles, joined the ranks of the Pentecostals, and in 1910 headed for China as a missionary. Bettex published a periodical, Canton Pentecost, of which there are no known surviving copies. His wife, Nellie, died in China in 1912. In 1916, Bettex disappeared and was never again seen alive. Chinese Christians expended great energies in searching for Bettex and finally found his body, buried six feet under the ground with three bullet holes in his chest.

During his missionary work in South America, Bettex wrote, “And the more truly a Christian is a Christian the hotter rages the battle about him. All heaven and hell take part in his fate. Here there is no place for amateur Christians. It is a fight for life and death … Few are the martyrs on whose heads crowns have been lighted while they were asleep. Their preparatory school has ever been sorrow, suffering, poverty, year-long fulfillment of duty.” For Bettex, these were not mere words. He lived and died in absolute surrender to Jesus Christ.

Stanley Frodsham, long-time editor of the Pentecostal Evangel, took it upon himself to document the life story of Bettex, the fallen Pentecostal missionary hero. Frodsham wrote a tribute to Bettex in the Feb. 25, 1928, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel and later wrote a book, Wholly for God: A Call to Complete Consecration, Illustrated by the Story of Paul Bettex, a Truly Consecrated Soul (Gospel Publishing House, 1934).

Read the tribute by Stanley Frodsham, “A Remarkable Pentecostal Missionary,” on pages 4 to 5 of the Feb. 25, 1928, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel.

Also featured in this issue:

• “How the Dog Trainer Was Won,” by Mrs. Walter Searle

• “Starlight: A True Story of a Chinese Girl,” by A. O. Stott

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: iFPHC.org

Dr. Wang Yun Wu: Leading Chinese Scholar Abandoned Atheism after Witnessing a Miracle

Dr. Wang Yun-Wu, Vice Premier of the Republic of China (1958-1963)

This Week in AG History — May 2, 1931

By Darrin J. Rodgers
Originally published on AG-News, 2 May 2019

A prominent Chinese scholar, Dr. Wang Yun Wu (1888-1979), abandoned atheism in 1924 after he witnessed the miraculous healing of his sister’s eyesight. Dr. Wang later became Vice Premier of the Republic of China (Taiwan). His story was recounted by W. W. Simpson (1869-1961), pioneer Assemblies of God missionary to China, in the May 2, 1931, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel.

Wang’s sister was healed in an unplanned revival. Simpson and fellow Assemblies of God missionary Florence Hanson were in Shanghai for the purpose of printing a Chinese-language hymnal. Their business trip quickly turned into a spiritual awakening. Hanson prayed for someone whose name is now lost to history, that person was healed, and residents clamored to find out what happened.

Local Christians organized services and invited Hanson to share the Pentecostal message. Numerous residents, including community leaders, flocked to the meetings. Many were healed or baptized in the Holy Spirit. One of the first people swept up in this move of God was Wang’s sister, Mrs. Ching. Not only was she baptized in the Holy Spirit, but God also corrected her eyesight! For 10 years she had been dependent upon her eyeglasses for daily life and for her writing duties at work. She was employed at the Commercial Press, a large publishing house where her brother, Dr. Wang, served as editor-in-chief.

Mrs. Ching’s healing astounded her family. Wang asked to speak to Simpson, who had prayed for his sister. Simpson gladly consented to this invitation. Simpson recalled how Wang ushered him into a rich library stocked with books in many languages and espousing many religions and philosophies.

Wang explained that he was reared “a strict Confucianist, believing in no God and worshipping his ancestors not as gods but simply to show his respect for them.” He had also studied western philosophies extensively and had accepted the modern theory of evolution. He had not discovered anything that “could not be explained by evolution” or which “required a God in order to exist.” But all that changed once he witnessed his sister’s healing.

Simpson wrote, “I shall never forget that afternoon in the library with one of China’s greatest scholars, and that moment when he said he was forced by the reception of the Spirit by his sister to admit there must be a living and a true God.”

Wang began the day a Confucian atheist and ended the day convinced of the deity of Christ. Wang went on to become a noted scholar of history and political science and also invented Shih Chiao Hao Ma, a form of Chinese lexicography. He opposed the communists during the Chinese revolution, entered politics, and served as Vice Premier of the Republic of China (Taiwan) from 1958 to 1963.

According to Simpson, Wang’s story demonstrates how the “baptism in the Spirit is more effective in combating atheism than all the learned disquisitions of the Fundamentalists, for it is God giving a sign to this unbelieving modern world.”

Read W. W. Simpson’s entire article, “A Confucian Atheist Convinced of the Deity of Christ,” on pages 1 and 7 of the May 2, 1931, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel.

Also featured in this issue:

“See and Hear,” by P. C. Nelson

“To Seekers after the Baptism in the Holy Ghost,” by Donald Gee

“My Pentecostal Experience,” by E. S. Williams

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: www.iFPHC.org

Victor and Grace Plymire: Pioneer Assemblies of God Missionaries to China and Tibet

Victor Plymire with first wife, Grace, and infant son, John, in Tibet

This Week in AG History — January 19, 1935

By Ruthie Edgerly Oberg
Originally published on AG News, 17 January 2019

Assemblies of God missionary Victor Plymire (1881-1956) was a man who never backed down from an adventure — if the adventure included being able to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. Serving in China and Tibet from 1908 through 1949, Plymire did not waver from his passion for sowing seeds of good news wherever he went and whatever the cost.

Plymire was born in 1881 in Loganville, Pennsylvania. His first career was in the new electrical industry. After achieving the highest wage one could be paid for such work, he felt that God wanted him to leave the electrical field for the gospel ministry. Exchanging his well-paying job for pastoral work was an act of faith and obedience that would lead him to adventures he could never have imagined.

After pastoring for three years, Plymire once again responded to the call of God into unfamiliar territory. On Feb. 4, 1908, he left the United States as a Christian and Missionary Alliance missionary to northwest China. During these early years he learned the language and the culture, developed friendships, shared the gospel, bandaged sword wounds, pulled rotten teeth, amputated fingers, lanced boils, and applied himself to whatever else his hand found to do. He worked in extremely difficult living conditions and did not see his first convert for more than a decade.

Plymire married fellow missionary Grace Harkness in 1919 and, on a return visit to the United States, they were exposed to the Pentecostal message and received the baptism in the Holy Spirit. They affiliated with the Assemblies of God in 1920.

Adding a son, John, they returned to China in 1922. God blessed their ministry and they began plans for a long trek into the deepest part of Tibet for evangelistic work in 1927. However, Grace and John, now 5 years old, became ill with smallpox. Victor nursed both his wife and son and asked God to spare their lives, but God had other plans. In January 1927, both Grace and John died from their illness. Victor made a coffin for his small son and villagers helped to provide one for Grace. A local farmer sold him a small plot on a mountainside and Victor placed both Grace and John into one grave in the frozen ground in Tangar, China.

Despite his grief, Plymire continued to make plans for the 2000-mile trek into Tibet, leaving behind the lonely grave and trusting God that He would honor his family’s commitment and sacrifice.

Taking along 47 yaks and five companions, the group trekked through mountain passes, navigating some of the world’s highest peaks, facing blizzards, avalanches, bandits, attempted poisonings, and hostile chieftains. Upon arriving in India on Feb. 26, 1928, his small expedition had passed out 74,000 Gospels and 40,000 tracts in the Mongolian and Tibetan language. Many of their recipients having heard the gospel for the first time.

Victor traveled from India back to China and met other missionaries in Peking. Among them was Ruth Weidman, whom Victor married in August of that year.

Together Victor and Ruth served in China for 21 more years, sending back many fascinating reports to their Assemblies of God supporters in the States. One such report, “A Great Door and Effectual” was featured in the Jan. 19, 1935, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel, detailing their evangelist outreach after having been invited to the wedding of the brother of a tribal chief. Victor shared with readers of his opportunity to share the gospel with a member of each of the 1,200 families in the tribe at this important wedding.

In 1949, Victor and Ruth, along with their children, David and Mary Ann, had to leave China due to the Communist revolution. The churches were closed and many of their converts suffered imprisonment and were forced to worship in secret. Victor and Ruth passed away in 1956 and 1975, respectively, spending the remainder of their lives praying for their beloved churches behind the Bamboo Curtain.

In the 1980s and 1990s change came to China and, eventually, some churches were allowed to reopen. The government returned property to churches who could show legal written proof that the church had previously owned the property.

In Tangar (now Huangyuan) the son of one of Plymire’s associates requested the return of the church property, but he had no legal deed to show to authorities. He contacted Victor’s son, David, and asked him to look through his father’s papers for a deed to any property in Tangar. David was able to find only one deed — not to any church property but to a lonely burial site on a mountainside. For unknown reasons, the deed had been made out to the church rather than to Victor himself. The officials accepted the deed and the property was returned to the church. Sixty-seven years after Victor buried his wife and son, God used their gravesite to restore a church to His people.

Victor’s son, David, wrote a book about his father’s life in 1959, titled, High Adventure in Tibet. In the foreword, Noel Perkin, Assemblies of God World Missions director from 1927-1959, wrote, “Victor Plymire fought a good fight, and he kept the faith. He rests from his labors, and his works follow him.” Even though the Plymires had to leave China, the church they began continues.

Read Victor Plymire’s report on a Tibetan wedding outreach on page 10 of the Jan. 19, 1935, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel.

Also featured in this issue:

• “The Manifestation of the Holy Spirit” by Howard Carter

• “Quietness and Confidence,” by Alice Luce

• “North Dakota Revivals,” by Wesley R. Hurst

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: http://www.iFPHC.org