DL Eb-Tw001

From the Foreword by Billye Brim
I believe that this book is published at exactly the right time. I read it aloud in
meetings. The result is a manifestation of Gods Presence and an extreme
hunger for these things in the people of God. I read it aloud on my radio pro-
gram and our phones light up after each broadcast.
Billye Brim

Meet Bro. Tommy Welchel, who at the age of seventeen, running
from the law, ran right into the arms of God at Venice Beach, California.
There Tommy met the Lord and settled at Pisgah where
he began six years of preparing to be used of God by lis-
tening to the Saints of Azusa tell their stories over and
over until they were indelibly etched in his memory.
These retired saints recalled their stories of their days at
The Azusa Revival when they were just teenagers and
young people being used of God in mighty ways, per-
forming breathtaking miracles and wondrous healings.
This book is the fulfillment of a prophecy made
by Jean Darnall in 1966 that the stories that were etched
on Tommys mind would be preserved in a book. Tommy kept her words
and these exciting stories close to his heart until the day God was ready to put
His plan into motion.

A MUST READ! This book will change your life, renew your hope, and
inspire you to seek Gods face in preparation for His outpouring as we
begin this new century.

Pisgah / Christ Faith Mission

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AZUSA STREET:
THEY TOLD ME THEIR STORIES

The Youth and Children of Azusa Street
Tell Their Stories

Retold by Brother Tommy
A Life Transformed by the Azusa Story

Tom Welchel, Storyteller

Captured in Print by
Dr. J. Edward Morris and Cindy McCowan

Azusa Youth Tell Their Stories
ii

AZUSA STREET:

The Youth and Children of Azusa Street
Tell Their Stories

Retold by Brother Tommy
A Life Transformed by the Azusa Story

Original Copyright 2006,
Revised First Edition 2008, 2010
See the last page for details of copyright

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or
otherwise, without the prior written permission of the authors,
except as provided by USA copyright law.

Printed in the United States of America by
Dare 2 Dream Books 405-642-8257

Tom Welchel 405-410-9201

Publishers Cataloging in Publication
Welchel, Tom
Azusa Street: They Told Me Their Stories
1. Christianity, 2. Inspirational, 3. Revival,
4. Historical
ISBN 0-9779688-0-4

They Told Me Their Stories

iii

DEDICATED
TO THE YOUTH OF THIS WORLD

The Azusa Street Experience was as much about
what God was doing through teenagers and young people
as it was about leaders such as William Seymour and
Frank Bartleman.
The stories contained in this book are about young
people performing miracles, exercising Gods gifts, and
witnessing about Gods power. These are stories about
young people being a vital part of one of the greatest
outpourings of Gods Presence in history.
If you are a teenager or young person, these stories
are meant to inspire and encourage you. God canand
wantsto use you now, not sometime in the future when
you grow up. This book introduces you to many great
Christians from the glorious Azusa Street meetings who
went on to proclaim the message of God, and be used of
Him in mighty ways. Some even were instrumental in
helping start great religious movements such as the
Assemblies of God. But, first they were touched and used
by God when they were as young as twelve and thirteen
years old.

iv
Without question, God is orchestrating yet another
great outpouring of His Shekinah Presence on this earth.
The signs of His impending visitation are everywhere as
even now revivals explode across the world.
Those of us dedicated to bringing these stories to
the world are convinced that one of the main reasons that
God ordained this book to be published at this time is to
inspire our youth! Forty years after a prophecy that these
words would be published, God brought together those He
wanted to use to make it happen. Each and every one on
this team believe that God wants young people to know
that He can use them in a mighty way just as He did a
century ago with the young men and women you will
meet in the following pages.

_______________________________

That which was from the beginning,
which we have heard, which we have
seen with our eyes, which we have
looked at and our hands have touched
this we proclaim.
I John 1:1 (KJV)


v

Table of Contents

Introductory Material:
Foreword by Billye Brim vii
A Book of Many Authors ix
Acknowledgements xi
Preface xiii
A Word Concerning the Shekinah Glory xiv
Divine Appointments (Foreword by the Editor) 1
Introducing Brother Tommy 7
The Pisgah Connection 15
Introduction to They Told Me Their Stories 19
Stories from Azusa
Azusa from Under the PewMeet Sister Darnall 21
In the BeginningMeet Sister Carney 27
A Modern-Day ZacchaeusMeet Bro. Anderson 41
Music Filled the AirMeet Bro. Sines & Christopher 53
Mother, Behold Thy SonMeet Bro. Riggs and Mom 61
The Topeka ConnectionMeet the Lankfords 69
Living ProofMeet Sister Mangrum 81
A Different Claim to FameMeet Sis. Lucille & Laura 87
A Lifetime of MiraclesMeet Bro. Cantrell 95
Crossing Racial BarriersMeet Bro. Garcia 99
Suffer the Little ChildrenMeet Sister Dundee 107
Preparing for the MiraculousMeet Bro. Fox 113
Found FaithfulMeet Sister Goldie 119
Life Beyond AzusaMeet Bro. Brown 123
H.O.P2.E: The Azusa Code 128

vi

312 Azusa Street


vii

Foreword by Billye Brim

Charles Parhams granddaughter told me a
few years ago about an amazing prophecy given
through her grandfather. He prophesied that in
about 100 years there would be another great
outpouring of the Spirit of God to surpass what
happened in Acts 2, Topeka, and Azusa. As you will
read in this book, William Seymour also gave such a
prophecy.
I had already seen this in Scripture. The
former rain outpouring was Acts Two. The latter rain
outpouring was the Azusa Revival 1906-1910. And
the former and latter rain together, prophesied in
Joel 2:23 and James 5:7, will precede the coming of
the Lord.
This book, published 100 years after the Azusa
outpouring, is filled with thrilling eye-witness
accounts of the manifestation of the Glory of God and
the resulting miracles that drew people from all over
the world to the little warehouse in Los Angeles. I
believe that this book is published at exactly the
right time. I read it aloud in meetings, and the result

viii
is a manifestation of Gods Presence and an extreme
hunger for these things in the people of God. I read it
aloud on my radio program, and our phones light up
after each broadcast.
There are elements to an outpouring of God.
There is a God part. And there is our part. On our
part, one of those elements is prayer. This book will
stir you up. It will stir up your congregation. It stirs
us to believe, to pray, to expect, and to prepare our
own livesand, I believe, to the love and unity
manifested in the congregation at Azusa.
Billye Brim


ix

A BOOK OF MANY AUTHORS
Oral Traditions Captured in Print

The first authors of this book are the Saints of
Azusa Street who relived the stories of Azusa over and
over again. They captured the attention of a young man
affectionately called Brother Tommy. He would not only
cherish their stories but would hide them in his heart
until God was ready to have them memorialized in print.
The second author of this book is Tom Welchel, or
Brother Tommy. He spent hours upon hours listening to
these dear Saints for several years, allowing these stories
to be indelibly engraved in his mind. For forty years he
waited for the right moment that God had ordained for
him to share his stories with an writer/editor who would
capture the essence of the stories in written form.
The third authors are Dr. J. Edward Morris and
Cindy McCowan, who took this oral tradition, and staying
true to the accounts recalled by Tom, crafted the stories
into an organized record of events of Azusa. The stories
and book are told through Toms eyes. The personal
references refer to Tom. Whenever a first person personal
pronoun is used, it is referencing Tom.
The most important author is God, who ordained
forty years ago that this oral tradition would become

x
available to the world in print. God, in His magnificent
power, has kept Toms mind clear and precise, preserving
these stories in minute detail.

A work concerning Oral Traditions

It is not unusual to find errors in oral traditions.
Remember these stories were passed on to Brother
Tommy over 40 years ago. We have made some
corrections in this book and have researched questions
folks have sent to us, and most of the time we have found
Tommys version to be correct.
If you feel you have information that will help us
preserve these stories in their most accurate form, please
contact the publisher at [email protected],
and we will diligently research your concerns and make
any corrections necessary.


xi

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
A Labor of Love

A special thank you goes to members of Faith
Family Church in El Reno, Oklahoma, for their dedication
to making this book become a reality. For several weeks,
members met on Monday and Friday nights to listen to
Tom tell the Azusa Street stories. Others would assist in
transcribing the tapes from the weekly sessions. Pastors
Paul and Samantha Roach gave invaluable support by
opening their home each Monday and Friday night for the
recording sessions. This was truly a labor of love as the
excitement grew each week. Everyone involved
understood how important it was to get a written record
of these stories while Tom was able to recall them with
clarity and detail. I want to especially thank Mary
McMahan, Jennifer Williams, Bob Reese, Nicholas Karis,
and Paul and Samantha Roachthe listening group who
meet on a weekly basis.
A big thank you goes to those who transcribed
the tapes. This group includes Samantha Roach, Gina
Casey, Jana Ford, Lisa Cosentino, and Cindy McCowan.
Another group to which we deeply are indebted is the
group of editors that assisted in making sure that the message

xii
is as error free as humanly possible. These editors include
Lisa Consentino, Natalie Roach, Bob and Traci Clegg,
Charles and Trelita Mickle, Gary and Jana Ford, Dr.
Morris, Cindy McCowan, Mikkah Mickle, Mary
McMahan, Jennifer Williams, Bob Reese, Nicholas Karis,
and Paul and Samantha Roach.


xiii

PREFACE
Azusa Remembered

Azusa Street has been the topic of a multitude of
books. Writers have attempted to tell the Azusa story
from a historical perspective, a doctrinal perspective, and
a personal perspective from those who had experienced
the awesome outpouring of Gods Spirit. What is unique
about this book is that it is a compilation of stories about
those who were there but were mostly mere children or
young people.
These stories are fresh and revealing and are told
from the eyes of youth as recalled up to sixty years later.
The Saints recalled these stories over and over again in
the mid-sixties to a young man called Brother Tommy.
While these stories were being retold, the sixtieth
anniversary of the Azusa Street Revival was being
celebrated.
From a three-year-old child sleeping under the
pews during the revival to other amazing, first-hand
memories, Brother Tommy recounts the stories of Azusa
Saints who had settled together at the Old Pisgah Home.
This home had become a mission post that ministered to
those who were less fortunate and in need of some sincere
Christian ministering.

xiv

A Word Concerning
The Shekinah Glory

Throughout this book, you will read about the
Shekinah Glory that fell on the Azusa Street Revival.
Although the word Shekinah is not found in the Bible,
the Jewish rabbis used this non-biblical term, which they
derived from a Hebrew word that literally means He
caused to dwell, to signify that this dwelling was a divine
visitation of the Presence of God on the earth.
The Shekinah Glory defines the mist or cloud that
is present when God is physically present. In Exodus
24:16-17, we are told, The glory of the Lord settled on
Mount Sinai. For six days, the cloud covered the
mountain and on the seventh day the Lord called to
Moses from within the cloud. To the Israelites, the glory
of the Lord looked like a consuming fire on top of the
mountain.
The term Shekinah Glory is accurately and
appropriately used to describe what happened at Azusa
Street from 1906-1910.

DIVINE APPOINTMENTS
Foreword by the Editor

I made it a point to arrive early. I had no idea
where I was going, and I had an important appointment
with potential authors. As I drove into the Faith Family
Church parking lot in El Reno, Oklahoma, 45 minutes
prior to my appointment, Pastor Samantha Roach, who
was about to leave, greeted me. Remember, I was 45
minutes early and just seconds before she was to leave
the church, I just happened to run into the very person I
was to meet with. She had forgotten about our
appointment, and if I had not arrived exactly when I did,
she would have been gone for the afternoon. Samantha
apologized that she had double-booked her time and
suggested we meet for lunch in an hour at a restaurant in
Yukon.
Since there was another person in the parking lot
of the church, and having time to kill, I greeted a man
who introduced himself as Tom. We exchanged a few
friendly words and then spent the next several minutes
talking about the .357 magnum he had holstered on his
side. Within minutes, I had met both the pastor and the
man who, by divine appointment, just happened to be in
the parking lot at that exact moment.

2
As I left the church parking lot, I could see Tom
walk over to talk with his pastor. Little did I know that
their brief meeting would turn out to be the fulfillment of
a 40 year old prophecy.
Divine appointments! Forty years ago? Let me
explain.
Four weeks earlier, I was driving up and down the
streets of Oklahoma City calling on pastors and
introducing our publishing ministry. I was having little
to no success. Even though it was Wednesday, I could not
find a pastor in his study anywhere. I called on Baptist
Churches, Churches of God, Assemblies of God, and
Nazarene Churches. Each time, the results were the
same: Nobody was in. After about 90 minutes of this
frustrating process, I had a clear message from God. I
was told to go back to my office and call pastors in my
hometown and in the neighboring town. With a huge sigh
of resignation, I got on Interstate 40 and headed for
Mustang.
I went right to my office, opened the phone book to
the church listings and began to call. My very first call
was to Faith Family Church. Pastor Paul Roach
answered, and when I told him I was looking for pastors
with a desire to publish, he asked me to hold while he got
his wife, Samantha, on the phone. In response to my
introduction, I discovered that they were interested in
publishing and that they had been in the process of trying
to find a publisher. We set a time to meet four weeks into
the future, and I hung up certain that this truly was a

3
divine appointmentI just didnt know the magnitude of
Gods plan.
Four weeks later, I found myself at a restaurant
with Paul and Samantha Roach and the man I had met in
the parking lotremember Tom, the man with the .357
magnum. My assumption was that Tom must have been
the other appointment, and Samantha wisely combined
the two meetings. My assumption was wrong. An hour
earlier, God continued His intervention. Samantha had
invited Tom to join us because she believed that he was a
vital part of why we were meeting.
After brief introductions and a brief overview of
my publishing company, Samantha explained why Tom
had been invited to join us. Tom also had a message that
needed to put into print.
Tom began to tell his story. It took me a few
seconds to sort out what was happening. I discovered
during the conversation that he was a private
investigatorhence the cannon on his hip. I wasnt sure
what his story was, but I was a captive audiencea man
with a .357 magnum has my undivided attention. As Tom
began to tell his story, I forgot about the gun. I knew
immediately that his storyor storieshad to be told.
Now remember, my agenda was to meet with Paul
and Samantha and set up the process to publish their
books. But, on this day it wasnt about my agenda! It
wasnt about Paul and Samanthas books. It was about a
divine appointment between Tom, Paul and Samantha,

4
myself, and God that had been written into Gods day-
timer forty years prior.
Through an amazing work of grace, back in 1960,
Tom found himself at the feet of several Azusa Street
Saints listening intently to their stories about this great
Movement of God. Heres Toms story in his own words
about an amazing prophecy:
The woman that prophesied to me was
Jean Darnall. She is the woman who took over
for Aimee Semple-McPherson when she died in
1944. At Pisgah, they had this publication
called the Herald of Hope, and there was quite
a large mailing list of about a quarter of a
million names or more.
If Jean was going to appear in some
town, she would call Brother Smith and he
would call me into his office and let me know
what Jean needed. Then I would go and get
that citys mailing list and some surrounding
towns and with the envelopes Jean would send,
I would print addresses for her.
It just so happens that one time there
was going to be an international convention of
the Full Gospel Businessmens Fellowship in
1966, which was the 60
th
anniversary of Azusa,
and it was to be held at Angelus Temple.
Demos Shakarian, the founder of the Full
Gospel Businessmens Fellowship, had come to
Brother Smith, who was a member of the board

5
of Pisgah. He said that he wanted to get the
Azusa Street Saints to come down to the
convention and tell their stories. Well, they
only had time for about three of them.
Jean Darnall was coming to Pisgah to
get some envelopes I had finished, and stopped
by to see some of the ladies who were to tell
their stories. During conversations, several of
the ladies told Jean, If you ever want to get
the whole story, go talk to Brother Tommy over
there at the Herald of Hope, because he knows
every one of the Saints stories and can tell um
better and more accurately than we can.
Thats exactly where Pastor Darnall headed
next.
Jean Darnall came to the Herald of
Hope office and when she saw me, she just
looked at me and said, Brother Tommy, come
over here, I have a word from the Lord for you.
The Lord is showing me that all these stories
that the Azusa Street Saints have been telling
you, and you have been learning and
memorizing, will some day will be put into a
book.
I thanked her for her kind words,
thought about what she had said, and then hid
her words in my heart. Im not one that goes
and starts trying to make Gods prophecies
come to pass. If its prophesied to me, I just

6
never forget em; I never do forget, but I let God
take care of it. He will work the timing out.
What is it now, 40 years later? Hes working it
out for the 100-year anniversary.
I remember a Christian song that was popular
many years ago. The lyrics said, God has something to
say to you, God has something to say. Listen, listen, pay
close attention, God has something to say. I dont think
there is a better application for these lyrics than the
message in this book. God has waited 40 years to have
these stories told. That is significant. Noah was on the
Ark for 40 days. The Children of Israel wandered 40
years in the desert. Saul, David, and Solomon each ruled
40 years each. Jesus was tempted for 40 days. And now
God waits 40 years to keep this divine appointment. I
think that if God had a specific time in mind to publish
this message, there must be a divine reason. The stories
that are told in this book are of particular relevance for
todays generation of Saints, and I believe are even the
seeds of a new outpouring of Gods Spirit. William
Seymour and others prophesied during the days of Azusa
that there would be another great revival and outpouring
of the Shekinah Glory around the turn of the next
century.


7

INTRODUCING BROTHER TOMMY

As many of the Azusa Street Saints were
migrating to Pisgah, being drawn there to join other
Saints for fellowship and divine purpose, Tom Welchel
was headed to Pisgah from Chickasha, Oklahoma. God
had a divine appointment with Tom and these dear
Saints. Just as Jesus told His disciples that He needed to
go to Samaria because God had a divine appointment set
with the woman at the well, Tom would keep two God-
ordained appointments: his Venice Beach appointment
and his Pisgah appointment. The first appointment had
to do with his salvation and the second appointment had
to do with Gods plans for Tomincluding a plan that
would span four decades before it was fulfilled.
At the age of 17, Tom thought he was running
from the law as he headed for California. What he didnt
know is that God had prepared for him a homecoming of
the prodigal son and that he was running right into the
open arms of God Himself.
Recalling his childhood, Tom noted,
Mama took me to all the great
revivalstent revivals. Im talking about
Brannum, Cole, Allen, and Roberts. From a
little bitty kid on up, Mama would take me to

8
em. I didnt know what was going onshe just
wanted to punish me as far as I was concerned.
When I saw Brannum in 1954, I was
only 11 years old. I saw that halo thing on top
of his head when he was in Houston. I was
glad I was sitting way in the backscared the
tullies out of me. That was one man I didnt
want to get close to.
So, I knew about the Gospel, but I didnt
want it at that time. I was fourteen when I
stopped going to revivalsalmost fifty years
ago. By the time I was fourteen, I was no
longer afraid of Mama. In the past, if I got
mean, she would say, Alright, Ill talk to your
Daddy. Well I didnt want Daddy to talk to me
because he had a razor strap that would cut the
blood right out of me and he would use it.
But my daddy went to the state prison
in McAllister when I was 14the revenuers
caught him selling corn liquor.

By the time Tom was seventeen, he had been
living on the streets for fourteen months and was a
criminal wanted by the police. Society was pretty much
fed up with his lawlessness and was ready to lock him up
and if possible, throw away the key. According to Tom,
the police wanted him and were looking for him big time.
Here are Toms own words:

9
An old friend of mine, Glen, came by
and said, Tommy, the police know whos been
breaking in all those houses. They told me
they have my finger prints. So I says, I guess
Im going back to prison.
The cops say, No! We want Welchel! Were
gonna get him off the streets and the rest of youll
split up. In fact, they have a warrant for your
arrest and they are gonna come by and get you.

But God had a different plan. God would use
Toms choice to run from the law as a life-changing
decision. Tom could escape the reach of the law from
Chickasha, Oklahoma, by running to California, but he
couldnt escape the reach of Gods love.
Tom tells the story like this:
A guy named Teddy and his grandma,
who were con artists, wanted me to go to
California with them. Things were rough in
Oklahoma. More than once, Teddy got his
teeth knocked out, his nose broken, and his
eyes blackened cuz he would smart off.
They were from Venice Beach and they
wanted to go back, and they invited me to go
with em cuz I had a reputation as a good
thiefI could be sitting there talking to you
and leave with the stuff from your pockets in
mine.

10
I didnt really want to go to California
and leave Oklahoma, but Glen reminded me
that it was either go to California or go to jail.
So I went to Grandma and Teddy and asked if
the offer was still open to me.
They said Yeah. I told them okay, but
that I had two big boxes of loot that we needed
to go and get early in the morningstuff Id
stolen. So the next morning we got my stuff
and I got to runnin from the authorities to
keep from going to prison.
When we got to Venice Beach, Teddy
and I got into a fight over a girl. I didnt get
the girl, but I whipped Teddy. Grandma said,
Look, I dont care. I like you Tommy, but you
cant stay here with you and Teddy fighting
like this. You hurt him pretty bad! So I got
kicked outlost my place to stayand the girl.

The stage was set for Gods loving intervention.
God used the fact that Grandma and Teddy were from
Venice Beach in a powerful way. Tom was back on the
streets but in an unfamiliar world. His situation was ripe
for him to continue his lawless ways just to survive. But
remember, Tom wasnt alone. Grandma may have turned
her back on Tom, but God had not abandoned him. Those
childhood years of sitting under the ministries of the
great revivalists of that time planted seeds that were soon
to be harvested. Mamas faithfulness in bringing up her

11
child in the atmosphere of Gods Word would not go
unrewarded. Tom was about to meet God like he had
never experienced Him in the past. Tom continues his
story:
Im down on Venice Beach, not knowin
what to do. It was probably four or five in the
evening. Im sitting there thinking, What am
I gonna do? Uncle Ed lived in California but
he was up there in Bakersfield and I didnt
know which way Bakersfield was.
Then I saw these two old ladies walkin
down there, and I was sure they were lookin
for someone to witness to. Well, Im sitting
there with this long face, feeling sorry for
myself, not knowin where to go or what to do.
I was really mad cuz the girl could have at
least been nice, and now I am all alone feelin
sorry for myself.
These two ladies came over and sat
down, one on each side of me, and started
talking to me. One of the ladies was the
landlord at the apartment where Grandma and
Teddy lived. The other lady, kinda small and
dainty, was called Sister Goldie.
Sister Goldie did most of the talking
while the Landlord sat there and held my
hand. That felt goodshe reminded me of both
of my grandmas. They were talking about the
Lord, and Sister Goldie asked if I knew

12
anything about Him. I said, Yeah, my
grandparents were devout Christians and
would tell me and my mother about the Lord.
When they asked me if I wanted to pray
the sinners prayer, I decided why not, what
have I got to lose? I thought, Man, youre here;
you dont know anybody. What else are you
gonna do? At first, I really wasnt serious but
rather kinda in my con mode. But as soon as
I said the prayer, to my astonishment, I felt
something warm come all over me, and I began
to cry. I looked at them and again to my
surprise, I told them that I was now a
Christian.
Somehow these two women broke
through a wall that had been built up for years.
Preaching to me never worked. Id rebel and
you didnt want to get me mad. I was libel to
hurt you. I said the prayer for these ladies
because I was hoping these women would do
something for me. It was time to eat and I was
hungry.
Even though I began the prayer
insincerely, God heard it, and it was like I just
had a heater go off in me. The love and
kindness of these dear women touched me
deeply. That day, that prayer changed me
completely.


13
Toms divine appointment had been kept. Tom
took a 1500-mile journey that brought him to two sweet
ladies whose love ushered Tom into his new life with
Christ. The power of the Gospel caught Tom at a very
vulnerable time. He had hit bottom with no place to go
and all of the sudden he was touched by love. Two
grandmotherly-type women who reminded Tom of his
grandmothersperhaps the only two people who had ever
been kind to Tomtouched his soul. So the plan of God
unfolded as Tom was led from Chickasha, Oklahoma to
Venice Beach, California. But that was just the
beginning of Gods awesome plan.
After Tom told the ladies of his predicament, they
brought him back to the landlords apartment where he
spent the night. The next morning, Sister Goldie
returned to take Tom to a place called PisgahToms
ultimate destination!
Upon arrival at the Pisgah community, Sister
Goldie introduced Tom to many of her friendsAzusa
Saints who had moved to Pisgah. In 1960, Tom would
meet many whose lives were touched and changed by
Azusa. These were the children and youth of the Azusa
Street Revival, now retired or near retirement. For six
years, Tom would literally sit at the feet of these Saints
and listen over and over again to their stories about the
Azusa Street Revival and its impact on their lives.


14

Early leaders of the Azusa Street Mission, 1907
William J. Seymour front, second from right


15

THE PISGAH CONNECTION

In July of 1894, Dr. Yoakum was critically injured
while on his way to organize a Class Leaders Association
for his Methodist Church. He was struck by a piece of
metal extending from a buggy operated by a drunken
man. The piece of metal pierced his back, broke several
ribs, and caused internal hemorrhaging. The wounds
were so severe, a medical examination of his injuries
showed that the injuries should have been fatal.
Due to the extent of his injuries and the infection
that lasted for several months, Dr. Yoakum moved to Los
Angeles hoping that the milder climate would give him
relief from his suffering. The climate helped, but his
relief came in the form of a miraculous healing from the
ministry of W. C. Stevens. Dr. Yoakum, almost in
desperation, visited a Christian Alliance Church on
Figueroa Street in Highland Park. There, Pastor Stevens
prayed for him, and he was instantly healed.
That was in February of 1895. By that summer,
he had moved to Highland Park and opened up his
mission in fulfillment of visions he had directing him to
create a mission for the needy. Giving up his medical
practice, he vowed to spend the remainder of his life
serving the chronically ill, poor and destitute, and social
outcasts.

16
During the Azusa Street Revival gatherings in Los
Angeles in 1906 and 1907, Yoakum hosted many followers
at the Mission site in Highland Park. The Mission was
named Pisgah Home after the Mountain where Moses
stood to view the Promised Land. Now you can
understand the Azusa connection.
Dr. Yoakum was extremely important to the
continued effects of Azusa Street in a very practical way.
He often gave his workers pockets full of nickels, then told
them to go down to the skid row area of Los Angeles and
provide passage by way of a streetcar to Avenue 60 (the
fare to ride was five cents). From Avenue 60, they walked
one block to Pisgah where they were allowed to stay and
become part of the community. It wasnt long before
Pisgah became a large community. Again, it is important
to point out that the ministry to skid row started by Dr.
Yoakum was still ongoing when Brother Tommy arrived
in the Sixties.
After the death of Dr. Yoakum in 1920, Christ
Faith Mission, Inc. purchased Pisgah Home under the
direction of Arglee Green. Sister Green and her sister
restored Pisgah Home and renamed it Echo Home.
Aimee Semple-McPherson conducted services at
the Arroyo Seco River during the 1920s to tens of
thousands of worshipers who later retreated to the
Mission site for massive barbecues and meetings.
In 1950, Reverend Harold James Smith came to
manage the mission operations with a vision for revival.
Reverend Smith re-named the site, Old Pisgah Home,

17
restoring its historic name. He also began a publication
of a salvation and healing newsletter called the Herald of
Hope.
By the time Reverend Smith took over, many
Azusa Street Saints had come and settled at Pisgah. A
variety of reasons drew them there such as fellowship and
the opportunity to minister to those who gathered at
Pisgah.
By the time Brother Tommy arrived in 1960,
Pisgah had become home for many of the Saints of Azusa
who were mere children and young people back in the
1906 revival at 312 Azusa Street.

November 17, 2006
Dear Friends,

We are privileged to recommend Brother Tommy Welchel
to you. He endeared himself to many Azusa Street Saints
during his stay at Pisgah in 1960-1966 and had a
marvelous bond with themalways loving to listen to their
stories of days gone by. Our father, known to all as
Brother H. J. Smith, was pastor at that same time that
Tommy was at Pisgah and we resided on the grounds with
our family. Indeed our fathers pastoral ministry was truly
that of a dedicated life for others including being Tommys
Pastor while he resided at Pisgah.
Vivian (Smith) Detiege
and Viola (Smith) Hoover

(Vivian and Viola are the daughters of the Harold Smith
mentioned throughout the book.)


18

Brother Tommy in 1962, age 19
Wearing the clothes that Sister Goldie purchased for him (pg. 112)

Feburary 4, 1991
Dear Pisgah Alumni:
Nova Seals and I have been in touch and
thought it would be great for all of us to get
together for a reunion of all who attended Pisgah
in Highland Park. I would appreciate your input
soon so we can get the plans started.
Ruth (Milke)Rinker
818-353-5434


19

INTRODUCTION TO

When I got to Pisgah, I soon realized that many of
the people there had been a part of the great Azusa
Revival. As I heard people talk about Azusa Street, I said
to myself, Wait a minute, Momma talked about this
Azusa Street thing. Some of the preachers that Momma
would take me to hear would talk about Azusa Street.
Brother Smith, the overseer of Pisgah, told me more
about the revival and also told me who at Pisgah had
experienced Azusa.
I was so shy back then. I was afraid to go talk to
these Saints until one of the Saints, Brother Cantrell,
prayed that I be given the gift of holy boldness. After he
performed that miracle in my life, I went down on skid
row and witnessed to the men and women there about
Jesus. No longer shy, I started going to these different
Saints at Pisgah and asking to hear their stories.
I was privileged as a teenagerI wasnt but 17
when I first started sitting and listening to these old
Azusa Street Saints. I spent several years getting to
know quite a few of these dear Saints of God.
I heard the stories of the Azusa Street Saints over
and over, every month for years until they died or until I
left. I went to their apartments or wherever they were.

20
Most of them lived on the grounds of Pisgah, but a few
lived elsewhere. It didnt make any difference; wherever
they were, I would walk to them. Once in their homes, to
show respect, Id sit down at their feet. Of course, I had
told them that I liked chocolate chip cookies and milk. So
when Id go to hear their stories, they had cookies and
milk for me. I never grew tired of sitting with each
personsometimes up to a few hoursso I could hear
these great Saints share their memories of the incredible
move of God and His use of these willing and faithful
teens at Azusa Street. Ive got the stories right here in
my head where they have been for over forty years.

William Seymour and his wife Jenny Moore


21

AZUSA FROM UNDER THE PEW
Meet Sister Darnall

As they turned the corner, the little three-year-old
could see the dingy white warehouse that people crowded
into 24 hours a day. Although she was just over three
years old, the journey was a daily affair and with the
evening dampness in the air, she couldnt wait to get
inside the Azusa Street meeting place. Now a daily
tradition, she would take in all the excitement that filled
the room, marveling and wondering about all that was
happening around her. Although the child didnt
understand why people were shouting and crying, nor the
miracles that were taking place, she liked the
atmosphere. But, what she liked most was that in a few
minutes after entering the room, Mom would find her seat
and she would be able to crawl under the pew, get
comfortable, and take a nap.
This toddler had also become comfortable with the
thick mist that filled the room. Being in a playful mood
when she woke up from her nap, she would try to gather
the mist into her arms. She loved the cloud that filled the
Azusa Street Warehouse for almost three and one-half
years during what is now historically called the Azusa
Street Revival. It would be a few years before she was old
enough to understand that she was trying to capture the
Shekinah Glory of God.
Azusa Youth Tell Stories
22

As a mere child, she literally breathed the
Shekinah Glory into her young, developing lungs. She
experienced Azusa through the eyes and mind of a young
toddler. Although her mind could not comprehend all
that was going on around her, she knew she was in a very
special place among some very special people at a very
special time.
As she grew older, she would learn of the miracles
and Presence of God in the form of the Shekinah Glory
so thick during those meetingswhere she found comfort
under the pew. She would be able to tie together the
experiences recalled by family and friends with the
experiences her heart captured but her mind was unable
to comprehend at that tender age.
This story was told by Jean Darnall, who followed
in the steps of Aimee Semple-McPherson. Without
question this story had a profound effect on her life and
ministry. When I met her, she was in her early forties,
and I was a somewhat permanent fixture at Pisgah. A
dark haired woman, with a few streaks of gray accenting
her attractiveness, Sister Darnall was quiet and soft-
spoken, standing about five feet and four inches. Anyone
that met her fell in love with her sweet, gentle nature.
I share her story of this child because it illustrates
how Azusa impacted even the youngest of children. But
also to introduce Jean Darnall (Darnell). Jean played an
important role in my life for she also was the person who
told me something forty years ago that was finding

23

fulfillment on the one-hundredth anniversary of the
Azusa Street Revival.
The impact of the story of the three-year-old would
be life-long for Sister Darnall. Her exposure to God and
His mighty works would come throughout her youth as
her mother took her to meetings such as those at the
mission on Eighth and Maple led by Frank Bartleman.
Although the great Shekinah Glory was unique to Azusa,
and the story of the child happened some fifteen years
prior to her birth, young Miss Darnall loved to hear the
stories of Azusa and the time she spent at Eighth and
Maple.
In 1944, she found herself to be one of the
successors to the pulpit of the famed Aimee Semple-
McPherson at Angelus Temple. I personally had attended
many of her meetings at Angelus Temple and marveled at
her anointing when she preached the Word of God.
This mighty preacher of God would often talk of
the three-year-olds experience at Azusa and about the
Shekinah Glory that she had fallen in love with and tried
to capture. That experience was so profound that it would
be a part of her very soul.
Although Pastor Jean was not as demonstrative as
Aimee Semple-McPherson, she was in many ways a better
preacher. Normally quiet and soft-spoken, when she
began to preach or teach, an anointing would come upon
her and you could feel Gods power within her. I will
never forget what it was like to have Pastor Jean pray for
me and lay her hands on my head. Whenever she laid
24

hands on me and prayed for me, I felt the Spirit of God
through her touch and tender words.
Pastor Darnall had taken a special liking to some
of the young people around Pisgah, including me.
Whenever she came to Pisgah to speak, she always made
it a point to come early to spend time with some of my
friends and me. Because of her willingness to talk with
us on a personal level, I had the privilege of knowing and
spending time with Pastor Darnall on several occasions.
Once, when I asked her why she chose to spend time with
Mike and me, she said, You two men are very young, but
you know what you are doing and you know God!
Coming from her lips, I took that as a great compliment.
My relationship with Pastor Darnall was one that
I cherish to this day. Her compassion and care were
instrumental in helping me develop as a young Christian.
Today, I have no doubt that God ordained our
relationship. In fact, Pastor Darnall is indirectly
responsible for this book being written forty years later.
In 1966, the Full Gospel Businessmens Fellowship
was having its international convention at Angelus
Temple and was planning to celebrate the sixtieth
anniversary of the Azusa Street Revival. Demos
Shakerien, the founder of the Full Gospel Businessmens
Fellowship, had come to Pisgah to talk to Brother Smith,
who oversaw the Pisgah ministry. Shakerien wanted to
get some of the Azusa Saints who were living at Pisgah to
come to Angelus Temple and tell their stories.

25

Jean Darnall, the pastor of Angelus Temple, came
to Pisgah. While waiting for some envelopes to be
addressed that she had ordered from Herald of Hope, she
visited with some of the Azusa Saints about coming and
telling their stories at the convention. One of the Saints
Pastor Jean talked to was Lucille, her former secretary.
She explained what Shakerien was wanting and Lucille
told Pastor Darnall, If you really want to know all the
stories, all you need to do is to get Brother Tommy
Welchel to go to the convention and tell the stories. He
knows all the stories down pat. Then Sister Carney, who
we will introduce in the next chapter, said, He knows
them better than we do.
Jean Darnall left these Saints and came over to
the Herald of Hope where I worked to pick up some
envelopes I was addressing for her. As she drove over,
she pondered what she had been told about me and my
knowledge of the stories about Azusa, and during a time
of prayer, the Lord spoke to her concerning my future. I
came out to put the addressed envelopes in her car, and
while she was getting out of the car to open the trunk, she
called for me. Her words were simple but stunning.
Brother Tommy, come over here; I have a word from the
Lord for you. The Lord is showing me that all these
stories that the Azusa Street Saints have been telling you,
and you have been learning and memorizing will someday
be put into a book.
I thanked her for the word from God, but never
intentionally tried to make it happen. I told a few of the
26

Saints and Brother Smith about Pastor Darnalls word
from God, but other than that, I just kept her words in my
heart. I want to be clear that I did not personally seek
out anyone to write these stories. In fact, I was surprised
when my pastors suggested that we make a record of
these accounts. When we began to record the stories, I
finally told one of my pastors about the prophesy from
forty years ago. God is not slack in His promises. His
revelation to Pastor Darnall now finds fulfillment
according to His perfect timetable.


27

IN THE BEGINNING
Meet Sister Carney
Azusa Age: 17

The police officers were polite, yet firm. Either
shut it down or rent a place like a regular church or
auditorium. You have gotten too big to continue to meet
at this home.
This revival meeting began as a small gathering
led by William Seymour in a home on Bonnie Brae Street.
It now flowed out to the front yard, the neighbors yards
and onto the street as Brother Seymour preached from
the porch of this small home in the Los Angeles area.
Seymour had been warned several times before
and realized that he needed a much larger gathering
place. The power of God was evident as the crowd grew
larger and larger each passing day. He had been looking
for a place to meet and had found an abandoned
warehouse that at one time was used as a Methodist
Church. The warehouse was perfect, and the only thing
that was keeping Seymour from renting the building was
money.
That night, the need to move was heavy on
Seymours heart. He prayed to God for direction and
before the evening was over, he had received his answer.

28
God instructed him to get on a trolley car as soon as the
service ended and to go to Pasadena.
True to Gods leadership, Seymour didnt argue,
but rather, headed for Pasadena where it was illegal for
blacks like Brother Seymour, to be after dark. He rode
the trolley until God instructed him to get off, and then
followed as God directed him to an apartment nearby.
Sister Carney, just a teenager but married, had
arrived in Pasadena earlier that day. She was to meet
with several of her friends who had been members of the
First Baptist Church until they had received the Baptism
of the Holy Spirit. Somehow that didnt fit Baptist
doctrine. This evening they were coming together to pray
for revival.
Meeting together for months now in the apartment
of one of the members of the group, this particular
evening these ladies continued in fervent prayer for
several hours. They were certain that God was about to
do something big in the Los Angeles area.
Just after 10:00 p.m., God brought together two
elements of a force that, when joined together, would
usher in one of the greatest manifestations of God ever
experienced by man since the birth of Christ.
Seymour walked up to the apartment that God had
led him to and knocked on the door. Sister Carney
remembers the time to be about 10:30 p.m. The ladies
went to the door together and when they opened the door,
found a black man, blind in one eye, standing before
them. For many people in that day and in that area, a

29
black man showing up at their door late at night would
have been a sign to slam the door and call the police. But
that night, God was in charge. The owner of the
apartment, with some apprehension, asked, Can I help
you? The answer to this simple, and somewhat fretful
question would startle and astonish those gathered for
prayer. After several months of fervent prayer, God
responded in an unusual manner.
Seymour replied, Youre praying for revival,
right? When the ladies responded with a unanimous
yes, Seymour made a bold statement: Im the man God
has sent to preach that revival.
Without hesitation, the ladies invited Seymour in.
After some exciting chatter, he preached to them and took
up an offering that was more than enough to rent the
Azusa Street Warehouse.
This story is told to introduce Sister Carney. The
prayer meeting that evening and those present at the
meeting were not coincidental. God had been preparing
many for the miracle of Azusa. Without this ordained
meeting, Azusa may have never happened and the
meeting would have never taken place had it not been for
the work of Sister Carney.
Her story begins two years prior to Azusa. In
1904, Brother Lankford, whose story you will read later,
returned from attending Bible school in Topeka, Kansas,
which was under the leadership of Charles Parham.
Coming back to Pisgah, Lankford met with Dr. Yoakum,
the founder of Pisgah, and introduced him to the infilling

30
of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in other
tongues. Dr. Yoakum immediately embraced this
teaching and began to share this experience with all that
came to his meetings. While attending services at Pisgah,
at the young age of fifteen, and already married, Sister
Carney responded to Dr. Yoakums teaching and was one
of the first to receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.
In 1904, her love for the Lord and her desire to
introduce others to the exciting experience of being filled
with the Holy Spirit led her to Pasadena. There she
witnessed to several of her friends who were members of
the First Baptist Church. By 1906, these ladies had been
asked to leave the Baptist Church because of their beliefs.
Unknown to them, God was setting the stage for a
miraculous work of the Holy Spirit.
When I met Sister Carney in the early sixties, she
was in her mid seventies, standing about five feet, nine
inches tall with a slender build of about 130 pounds. She
was a typical little old granny, with a glory bun sitting on
top of her gray hair. She walked slowly with short steps
always wearing a pleasant smile. She had an older face
with a little pointed chin and when she smiled her lips
kind of sunk in. She still wore those flowery dresses
ladies wore at the turn of the century. And yes, she wore
granny bootsthose little boots with little hooks and
eyes.
About every third Monday night, I would walk to
Sister Carneys apartment. As I approached her home, I
would smell the enticing aroma of fresh baked chocolate

31
chip cookies waiting for me. I had the privilege once a
month of sitting at Sister Carneys feet on a small throw
rug in front of her wooden rocker. While eating cookies
and drinking a cold glass of milk, I listened to her tell her
Azusa stories like the one that begins this chapter.
Appreciated by everyone because she could tell the
stories of Azusa in detail better than anyone, Sister
Carney was also one of my favorite storytellers. Although
she normally had a little high-pitched voice, when she
told her stories, her voice was soothing, yet filled with
excitement.
The story we began with concerning the start of
Azusa didnt end there. In the beginning, Sister Carney,
then 17 years old, was there. In fact, Mrs. Carney was
there from raising the rent for the building, to the first
day they entered to clean the building, until they
padlocked the door.
Sister Carney told of those first days at Azusa
Street with an excitement that had stayed with her for
over sixty years. Even with the money Seymour raised
for the rent from Sister Carney and her friends, the old,
dingy white warehouse still needed a lot of physical labor
to get it ready for use.
Sister Carney and her friends from the apartment
joined the group from Bonnie Brae to prepare the dirty,
cluttered building to serve as a worship center. They
removed all sorts of junk that had accumulated through
the years. The warehouse had even been used as a barn,

32
housing all sorts of animals, and with the animals came
mounds of animal waste.
Sister Carney recalls that Brother Seymour
assigned each of the volunteers an area to clean. With a
warm smile, she told how grateful she was for the task of
cleaning up the area that housed the small goats with
their small droppings rather than cleaning up after the
horses and cattle.
After cleaning out the warehouse, the volunteers
gathered and set up wooden fruit crates they had found
thrown away behind the nearby grocery store. They
placed 2 by 12 planks, twelve feet long to serve as benches
throughout the meeting room. With only meager funds
and their ingenuity, these volunteers labored side by side
until the meeting place was ready to be used however God
desired to use itthankful that God had provided them a
place large enough to house the anticipated services.
During one of those Monday night meetings, I
asked Sister Carney, What miracle do you remember
that happened through you? She smiled and her lips
kind of sunk in as the excitement welled up inside her.
It was the woman who caught her husband with
another woman. She had gotten into a fight with her and
the adulterous woman bit off her ear. Sister Carney was
smiling but I laughed out loud. She gently chided me for
laughing and said, Brother Tommy, its not funny to
catch your husband with another woman and then for the
two of them get to fighting and then the other woman
bites the wifes ear off.

33
Heres the story as I recall. When the wife entered
the meeting room, she was holding a bloody bandage to
the side of her head. Sister Carney noticed she appeared
to be in tremendous pain and went over to minister to
her. While waiting for Seymour to come down and the
meeting to begin, Sister Carney asked her what had
happened, and the lady told her about the fight. She told
her that she didnt have the ear with her, and Sister
Carney reached over and kind of pulled the bandage off to
see the wound that basically looked like a bloody, raw
piece of meat. Without hesitation, she began to pray for
the woman. After praying for her, the lady said that the
pain was gone so Sister Carney looked at her wound
again, and to her astonishment, right before her very
eyes, a brand new ear began to grow out. Sister Carney
sat there with her mouth open and simply exclaimed, Oh
my God!
This wasnt the first miracle that Sister Carney
witnessed, but it was the first one she witnessed as a
result of God working through her own prayers. As she
told me this story, she recalled it as if the miracle had just
happened the night before.
I asked Sister Carney about other miracles she
witnessed or participated in. With a smile and a twinkle
in her eyes, she talked about the mighty works of God.
According to Sister Carney, many people were there in
wheelchairs and cots brought in from the hospitals
around the area. Often, before Seymour would come
downstairs or even when he was sitting with the box on

34
his head, Sister Carney and others would go to the sick
and crippled and pray for them, and they would get their
healing. She and the others would go to those in
wheelchairs, pull up the footrests, pray for them, and
then watch them walk off, pushing their empty
wheelchairs.
One of these wheelchair healings stayed with
Sister Carney in a special way. One man had heavy
braces on his legs and had not walked in years. She
recalls that the wheelchair he was in had wheels made of
wood. She prayed for him, and he was miraculously
healed. His name was Brother Aubrey, and he was pastor
of a big church in Los Angeles. I actually got to meet him
because he would come to Pisgah to see his precious
Sister Carney because she was the one who had prayed
for him when he was healed at Azusa.
During one visit to Pisgah in the sixties, Brother
Aubrey shared his version of the healing miracle. Sister
Carney didnt say a word to him. She just walked up,
pulled the footrests up, put his foot down, then got the
other foot, lifted it upremember his legs had very heavy
braces on themthen laid it down. Next, she told him to
get up and walk, but Aubrey told her he couldnt walk
because of the heavy braces. Sister Carney responded by
getting the people with him to take off his braces so he
could walk. They did, and he did! He got up and walked.
I was amazed at the story and asked Sister Carney
about how many miracles God had used her to personally
perform. She told me that God blessed her by using her

35
two to three times a day the three to four days she
attended each week. Thats six to eight miracles a week
for over three and one-half years. Sister Carney
explained that miracles abounded at Azusa. People with
bones twisted were restored. You could hear bones
popping and see arms and legs growing out.
Our talks turned from miracles performed by God
through faithful saints attending the meetings to the
difference in miracles when Brother Seymour was
preaching. Sister Carney explained that when Brother
Seymour would come down, there were even greater
miracles. Seymour never had a set pattern; rather he
would come down and put the box over his head and then
later would take the box off when directed by God, get up
and do what God told him to do.
Sometimes, he would go to a certain section of
wheelchairs or to a certain section of cotsthe cots were
for people who had been carried in from the hospital. She
explained that to her astonishment, Seymour would point
at them and say, Everyone on the cots or wheelchairs,
youre healed in the Name of Jesus. Everyone on the cots
or in wheelchairs would get up and walk around fully
healed of whatever malady they suffered from
Some of the greatest miracles were when the
flames were above the building. Bones that were cracked
and broken were totally healed.
Our conversation would turn from the miracles
performed by Seymour to Seymour personally. I wanted
to know about this great man, and Sister Carney was a

36
treasure chest of information. Her story began with the
box on his head.
When Seymour came down to the meeting, he
would sit down and put a box on his head. At first, it
startled Sister Carney. Sometimes he would sit with the
box over his head for ten minutes and sometimes it would
be an hour or more. Although the practice seemed
ridiculous, Sister Carney realized that he was obeying
God, no matter how silly or ridiculous it appeared. That
apparent act of humble obedience led to mighty power
when he removed the box. This box and act of humility
were critical to the power God displayed through Brother
Seymour. When Brother Smith asked Sister Carney what
caused the miracles and Azusa to stop, she replied, It
stopped when Brother Seymour stopped putting that box
over his head. When he quit coming down and putting
the box on his head, it started dying.
Seymour and Sister Carney became friends, and
after Seymour married, Sister Carney would often join
them for dinner. Even in a social setting she would feel
the anointing on Seymour. She recalled that Seymour
was very pleasant to be around. He was a humble man
who always had a gleam in his eye, a smile on his face,
and a deep, resonating voice.
There was no question about his anointing of God.
She recalled that if you touched Seymour, a kind of
electricity would shock you. The current was so strong
that the first time she touched him during a meeting she
almost passed out.

37
Of course, any discussion about Azusa turned to
the Shekinah Glory. When I asked about her experience
with the Presence of Gods Spirit, Sister Carneys face
would light up. She described it as being a part of
heaven. To her, it was like breathing pure oxygen, and to
her wonderment, it was always present.
When I asked her to describe the Shekinah Glory
Fire reported by many, she told her story. She recalled
the fire department coming because of a call that the
building was on fire. When they arrived, they didnt
smell any smoke or see any evidence of fire. She didnt
run out with the firemen. She remembered that it was
Seymour, Bosworth, Lake, Smith, and Sines that ran out.
Sister Carney did go out one time to see the flames
for herself. Remember, the fire department had been
called on several different occasions, as passers-by would
report seeing flames leaping up from the roof of the
building. Finally, Sister Carney asked John Lake why
the fire department kept coming and looking for the fire.
He explained that the fire was coming down from heaven
into the building and fire was going up from the building
and meeting the fire coming down. Fascinated, Sister
Carney went out, walked about a half a block and saw the
awesome sight for herself. To her, this divine connection
of fire coming down from heaven and going up to heaven
was just further evidence of Gods mighty Presence in
that place.
Sister Carney noted that although the Shekinah
Glory was present all the time within the building, this

38
divine connection wasnt an everyday occurrence.
Whenever this connection was present, the power of God
was even more intense within the meeting.
Sister Carney was a wealth of information. As we
talked, she would mention some of the other young people
she had associated with at Azusa. She was not the only
young person running around being used of God to
perform His miracles. She was kind of a team with C.W.
Ward and Ralph Riggs, and she would invite them to go
with her as new people arrived and see if they could
minister to them. These young men were around 13 or 14
years old, partnering with Sister Carney, going through
the crowd, wanting to be used by God to perform miracles
and help people get healed. These were kids running
around having a ball, praying over people and looking for
people who needed healing. (These two young men would
later become instrumental in helping to found The
Assemblies of God Church, the largest Pentecostal
Movement in the United States and the world.)
Sister Carney was also very close to John G. Lake,
who had received the Baptism up in Zion, Illinois, and
came to Azusa as a young man to see what was
happening. He later became a great missionary and was
used mightily in South Africa.
She also recounts her friendship with Brother Fox
while he was at Azusa for about a year and one-half when
he was around eighteen years old. Brother Fox later
became a missionary in India. In fact, Fox came back to
the States and Pisgah around 1963. He had retired from

39
the mission field and settled at Pisgah, where the
friendships with Sister Carney and other Azusa Saints
were renewed.
Sister Carney is what I would call an Azusa
legacy. She validates the mighty workings of God and the
Presence of His Glory through the eyes of a young person
in her late teens. Not only was she there as an
eyewitness observer, she was also a vital participant in
this awesome work of God. Her excitement and
enthusiasm as she relived these stories with me each
month allowed me to experience Azusa through her eyes.
Truly, like John the Apostle*, she shared with me that
which she had heard, she had touched with her hands,
had seen with her own eyes, and experienced in her own
heart from the beginning.

*1 John 1:1


40

Bonnie Brae House


41

A MODERN DAY ZACCHAEUS
Meet Brother Anderson
Azusa age: 15

The Azusa Street Warehouse filled quickly in
anticipation of seeing and hearing Brother Seymour as he
proclaimed the Word of God. The crowds had grown from
a handful of faithful followers to hundreds now gathering
several times a day to witness and experience the
miracles of Azusa and the anointing of Brother Seymour.
Among those attending was a fifteen-year-old
named Brother Anderson, who attended the Azusa Street
Revival faithfully. He was one of first to receive the
Baptism of the Holy Spirit at Azusa and be a part of this
mighty work of God. Although he was just a few inches
under six feet tall, when the crowd gathered, Brother
Anderson often found it difficult to see what was
happening throughout the building as miracles were
being performed by many of his teenage friends.
The sight of Brother Anderson climbing on top of
the benches was not uncommon. Like Zaccaeus of old,
who climbed into a Sycamore tree to get a better view of
Jesus, Anderson wanted a better vantage point to witness
the marvels and moves of God.

42
I met Brother Anderson at Pisgah where we
became great friends. Whenever I would see him,
whether at church or at his home, Brother Anderson
would see me coming a block away and would come
bouncing down the street saying, Well, Brother Tommy!
Im so glad to see you. And I was always glad to see him!
Brother Anderson had a medium build and shiny
eyes that glowed. His slicked back, gray, balding hair
accented his ruddy complexion. You could recognize him
from afar off because of the bounce to his walk. Perhaps
his most memorable characteristic was that he always
had a beautiful smile on his face and was always bubbly
and happy. In all the years I knew him, never once did I
ever see him frown.
I had the privilege of going to Brother Andersons
home about once a month on Thursday evenings. I would
be at least a block away when he would bounce out to
meet me halfway and welcome me to his home. Unlike
the ladies, Brother Anderson didnt have homemade
cookieshis were store-boughtbut hed have cold milk
and cookies waiting for me. I still remember the way he
would dress. He would have on a plain, long-sleeved shirt
buttoned all the way up including the top button and
always tucked in. He wore slippers and regular slacks
with a belt rather than suspenders. Out of respect, I
would sit at his feet on a barren wooden floor as he settled
into his vinyl-covered rocking chair. Perhaps settled in
is not quite the way to describe this adventure. He didnt
really sit in his chair; he would sit on the edge of it.

43
When he began to tell his stories, he would throw his
hands up, bounce in his chair, and excitedly explain
different miracles he had seen or prayed for at Azusa.
The image of Brother Anderson and his home live
in my memory. Here is this old man, living in a sparsely
decorated apartment, with few furnishings. One picture
hanging on the wall that stood out was of John G. Lake
and Brother Anderson side by sidea picture taken about
sixty years earlier. Although his possessions were few,
this man was rich in priceless memories and invaluable
experiences that gold could never buy.
Tell me again about your days at Azusa. I would
begin the discussion and Brother Anderson would come to
the edge of his chair and begin to bounce as he began his
stories.
Many times he would begin with his own personal
experience. Although he was born-again before attending
Azusa, there he received the gift of speaking in tongues
shortly after the revival began. He recalls that when he
began to speak in tongues, he would do so in a loud voice,
as if some one had turned up his volume. As soon as he
blared out tongues, to his amazement and shock,
someone interpreted what he was saying. When recalling
the entire experience, he would describe it as being in
heaven. He longed to see another revival like Azusa.
From tongues to healings was a logical pro-
gression. I always wanted to know about the miracles the
Azusa Saints had been a part of. Brother Anderson told
me that many who were blind and deaf were healed and

44
that he was a part of many of those healings. Some were
older people, some were middle age, and some were
youngteenagers just like him. If he wasnt part of the
miracle happening, he was most likely standing on a
bench watching other miracles happen.
He told me that he was only about fifteen years old
and had attended Azusa about ten times when God first
used him in helping people receive healing. A young
man, not much older than Brother Anderson, had a
clubfoot and when he entered the meeting, he tried to
hide his disfigurement. He explained to Brother
Anderson that he didnt want people feeling sorry for him.
Brother Anderson asked the young man, Are you
aware of the Shekinah Glory? We are in the miracles of
God. You dont have to have this. He went on to explain
to the young man that Jesus, when He died on Calvary,
got 39 stripes on His back, and they were for his healing.
The young man replied, But that was for sickness
and disease; I just have my foot turned sideways.
Brother Anderson replied, God will heal it! You
should see some of the miracles here.
The young man finally believed a miracle was
possible, and Brother Anderson began to pray for him. To
their astonishment, shortly after the prayer, the foot
didnt just pop out, but rather it just started to slowly
move outward. In a matter of minutes, the young man
was jumping, running, and shouting. The foot had been
deformed since he was a young child, and it had just

45
gotten worse as he had gotten older. Yet, in just a few
minutes, the foot was healed and perfectly formed.
Brother Anderson was right behind this young
man dancing and shouting also. This may have been the
first time God used Brother Anderson to work a
miraculous healing through faith and prayer, but it was
far from the last.
Brother Anderson recalls praying for a woman
much older than him with a big knot just above her wrist.
She didnt know what it was, but it hurt. When he asked
her about the pain, she told him that she couldnt even
work at home. Rather than lifting, she would scoot things
with her arm. Brother Anderson told her that she didnt
have to do that, because Jesus would heal her. He
reached out, barely touched the knot and said, In the
Name of Jesus, be healed. In seconds, the knot was
gone. Immediately, she got so excited that she started
doing a dance right there on the spot, and Brother
Anderson became her dance partner.
I was captivated by his stories. I asked him about
the greatest or most unusual healing or miracle he had
witnessed, and he told of a miracle that left me full of
wonder. A younger woman named Diane, maybe in her
late teens or early twenties, with two young children,
walked into the revival meeting with her hand supporting
a large growth or tumor about half the size of a basketball
on the side of her head. She looked pitiful.
Before she could even get seated, people, including
Brother Anderson, started surrounding her. Anderson

46
told the woman that God was going to work a miracle for
her. She kind of rolled her head and her eyes but didnt
say a word. She came to get a miracle, and all she could
do was nod her head yes.
As the people began to lay hands on her, the tumor
or growth began to shrink. The woman was speechless,
standing there gasping and finally yelled Im Healed!
Through the Grace of God, I got to meet Sister
Diane while I was at Pisgah in the Sixties. She wasnt
obese, but she wasnt a little woman. She stood just
under six feet tall with a broad face and a marvelous
spirit. I asked her about the healing, and here was what
she shared with me. She had heard that things like
miracles were happening at the Azusa Street Warehouse.
She even saw the flames going up and coming down. So,
she thought to herself, What have I got to lose? Im
dying and if I go there, and I die, so what! The doctors
cant do anything. They cant operate because it is too big
to cut off.
So, she says, I waddled myself down to Azusa,
holding my growth in my hands. A little embarrassed,
she walked into the meeting and shortly after, the miracle
happened. She remembered Brother Anderson being
right in the middle of the miracle and just fell in love with
him.
That miracle not only saved her life but propelled
her into a ministry that would impact thousands of people
over the years. With just 25 cents to her name, she
started a soup kitchen when she was in her early twenties

47
and was still serving soup to the needy and downtrodden
when I met her.
Of course, I wanted to know more about Brother
Seymour, and Brother Anderson was more than willing to
oblige. He loved when Brother Seymour would come
down to the service. Young Anderson would sit near him
and try to peek under the box to see if Seymour was
praying at all. He would lean as far down as possible to
try to see, but he could never see under the box.
Sometimes, Seymour would sit for ten minutes and
sometimes for over an hour, doing nothing but sitting
with the box over his head. During that time, Anderson
would spend the same amount of time fascinated by the
box and watching Brother Seymour to see even if his
hands or feet moved. Young Anderson remembers that
much like a statue, Seymour sat perfectly still during
almost all of the time he was under the box.
Brother Anderson was in awe of Brother Seymour.
He told me that Seymour was one of the sweetest men he
had ever met. Tradition tells us that when Seymour got
married to Jenny Moore, two women got upset because
they felt he didnt have time for marriage with the return
of Christ so eminent. These ladies got so upset that they
stole his mailing list and ran off to Portland. That
incident really upset young Anderson.
Anderson was so enamored of Seymour that he
tried to imitate him. A few times he would get up and say,
Everybody in this section that needs healing stand up
and be healed. Anderson learned very quickly that what

48
God had blessed Seymour with could not be duplicated
except as God willed, so Anderson would go back to laying
hands on those needing miracles.
Young Anderson believed that Seymour was a man
of faith who never doubted anything. Every time he
opened his mouth and said something, it happened. I
learned from Brother Anderson that Seymour was a
brilliant preacher. Anderson watched how Seymour
spoke. Seymour would come out with phrases that were
so intelligent and yet simple enough that the most
uneducated could understand him. Anderson told me
that the wisdom of this man was phenomenal.
The greatest thing that impressed Anderson was
when the Spirit would fall on Seymour and he would start
working the gifts. Anderson would get up on the benches
so he could see Seymour talking to the people. There
were quite a few times that there were people with what
looked like rheumatoid arthritis, and Seymour would
point to maybe a dozen of them and say, You want to see
a miracle over there? Everyone of you within a few
minutes are going to be up and walking in the Name of
Jesus. And every one of themyou could hear their
bones poppingwould be up shouting as their legs and
arms and hands straightened out.
A few times Anderson witnessed Seymour perform
one-on-one healings. One such healing stood out in
Andersons memory. A man whose face was deformed
with small growths all over his face came to Brother
Seymour. The deformed man looked very homely and

49
ugly. Brother Seymour prayed for him, and immediately
the growths began to fall off his face, restoring his face
and making him whole. Perhaps the most stunning detail
is that volunteers had to come and clean up those growths
that had fallen from the mans face to the floor.
As long as Seymour was there, young Anderson
didnt shout or dance. His eyes were totally focused on
Seymour. Anderson confirmed that this power stayed
with Seymour until the time he stopped placing the box
over his head.
Anderson told me that when Seymour stopped
putting the box on his head, it was the first time he was
ever disappointed in the man. Anderson felt that
Seymour had surrendered to the pressure of the people
rather than staying obedient to God.
After talking about Seymour, the transition to the
Shekinah Glory was logical. I asked Brother Anderson to
describe what the Shekinah Glory was like, and he again
brightened up as he came to the edge of his rocker.
Anderson told me that the Shekinah Glory was
hard to explain because it could only be described, but not
understood. At times, he would come into the building,
and there would be kind of a glow. There were times that
God would start moving and working, and a smoke-like
substance would begin to glow even brighter. People
could walk through it, and sometimes it would sort of roll.
You couldnt take a fan and blow it out, nor was it
something you could pick up. Brother Anderson confessed
that he tried because it looked so tangible. He

50
remembered that at times the mist would get so thick
that it would fill the whole building. Anderson also noted
that at times even Seymour was fascinated with the
heavy mist that filled the room. In fact, there were times
that Seymour would take his feet and kind of play with
the thick Shekinah Glory.
Brother Anderson was awed by the Glory and
described it as a part of heaven coming down. You could
walk in it, sit down in it, run your hands through it, and
breathe it into your lungs, but you could not capture it.
I pressed Brother Anderson to tell me about the
fire. Although he was not one of the first to go out and
witness the event, he told me that he had seen it. He said
it looked like flames about fifty feet in the air coming
down and was also going up out of the roof to meet,
merge, and go on through the flame coming down. Young
Anderson would just stand there with his mouth open.
He didnt know how to explain it, but it was real. He told
me the burning bush described by Moses now made sense.
One event, confirmed by others, that Anderson
noted was that whenever the people worshipped by
singing in tongues, the power was greater. Every time
this happened the anointing fell on the service.
Anderson was absolutely awed by the Shekinah
Glory. One of the favorite songs sung by the Saints
gathered at Pisgah was intricately linked with their
encounter with Gods Glory. The song that they sang
with great enthusiasm was appropriately entitled,
Heaven Came Down and Glory Filled My Soul.

51
Before the stories ended, I wanted to know about
the other teenagers Anderson hung around with. Much
like Sister Carney, Anderson also remembered both Ralph
Riggs and C.W. Ward being a part of the group of young
people who went around praying for people to be healed
and being used by God to perform His miracles.
Anderson recalled a story about Ward that he
thought was somewhat comical. Ward had a unique way
of praying for somebody. He would swing his hips and go
through all sorts of dramatic gestures. It was almost a
theatrical production. He would do these big long
prayers, swing his shoulders and hips, and yell out In the
Name of Jesus.
I asked Brother Anderson if God used Ward to
bless others. Anderson would smile and say, Well, they
did get healed! Ward was young just like the rest of
them and was going through his teenage years. Although
his actions may not have been orthodox, those years at
Azusa prepared both Ward and Riggs to be used of God in
mighty ways.
As I mentioned earlier, young Anderson also
became good friends with John G. Lake. One of
Andersons prized possessions was the picture of Lake
and himself that still hung on his living room wall some
sixty years after Azusa.
The stories Brother Anderson told were firsthand
accounts both of his observations of what transpired at
Azusa and what he actually participated in during this
great revival when he was just a teenager. His vivid

52
recollection of the miracles and the Shekinah Glory that
he witnessed validates the great outpouring of Gods
Spirit for over three years, beginning in 1906. Brother
Anderson allowed me to experience Azusa through his
eyes and captured for me the excitement and awe of this
unprecedented revival.
My prayer echoes the prayer of Brother Anderson
that someday soon we will experience the outpouring of
God like during the days of Azusa.


53

WHEN MUSIC FILLED THE AIR
Meet Brother Sines and Brother Christopher
Azusa Ages: 26 and 18

Seymour was unpredictable. Once he took the box
off his head, everyone knew that something was about to
happenthey just never knew what was next. Many
times Seymour would take the box off, get up and instruct
the people to sing a certain song. The melodious sound of
hundreds of people blending their voices was a bit of
heaven. Seymour would sit and sing with them, his eyes
closed as if the music itself were an offering to God.
Soon after the singing started, Seymour would
instruct the people to Sing in the Spirit. Whenever that
happened, heaven itself came down and filled the room.
The music was beyond description, pure yet powerful.
This heavenly music became known as a new song as
the crowd began to sing in a heavenly language,
sometimes in tongues, sometimes without words. At
times it seemed as if angels joined in the singing.
Singing in the Spirit was a new song led by the Spirit of
God.
Although singing in the Spirit was already a part
of many of the services, when Brother Sines and Brother

54
Christopher became part of the leadership team, the
heavenly music was enhanced. With the addition of piano
and violin, the new heavenly song went beyond the
ordinary to the extraordinary.
Brother Sines was about 26 years old when he
came to the Azusa Revival in about 1907. He was a bit
older than the youth we have been sharing about in this
book but still quite young to be a part of the leadership
team that led the services.
I met Sines at Pisgah in 1960. I stayed in a three-
story mens dormitory where Sines was Dormitory
Director for all the single men staying at Pisgah. He
stood about five feet, nine inches tall, and was heavyset
but not obese. When I met him, he walked stooped over a
little bit but didnt use a cane. I can still see his receding
hairlineabout one-third of it grayhis dark eyes and a
goodsized nose.
Like the others, I would go to Brother Sines room
about once a month. I would sit at his feet, and while
munching on chocolate chip cookies and drinking some
cold milk, listen to his stories about Azusa. He had a
mild, pleasant voice and spoke softly.
Unlike the others, I had a deal with Sines that I
would come and clean his apartment if he would tell me
his stories. True to my word, I would first mop his floors
with a dry mop and then with a wet mop. The floors were
covered with linoleum so they were easy to clean. When I
was finished, we would sit down and Sines would tell his
stories.

55
A concert pianist, Brother Sines was all about
music and fondly recalled his role in the music at Azusa.
Seymour would lift the box from his head and often ask
Sines to begin singing a certain hymn or song. At first,
Sines would begin the song and lead the crowd in singing
the request of Seymour. Later on, Sines brought his own
piano to the meeting place and when he was instructed to
sing, he would begin playing the song on his piano and
leading the music. Without sheet music or a hymnal,
whatever song Seymour wanted, Sines would sing and
play the song from memory.
Sines recalled with joy the experience of singing in
the Spirit. He remembered that virtually every time
Seymour instructed them to Sing in the Spirit,
something wonderful and beyond understanding would
happen. The music would rise to a new level, and the
sound that came from Azusa was like a heavenly choir
singing.
I asked Brother Sines about the miracles at Azusa
and if he personally was ever involved in them. He would
smile and in his soft voice, begin to share with me his first
and favorite miracle. Seymour had not yet come down to
the meeting. Sines was on the platform leading the crowd
in songs when he saw a young crippled boy on crutches
sitting off to the side unnoticed by those going about the
crowd performing miracles. Sines came down from the
platform, approached the young boy and asked him why
no one was ministering to him. The little boy shrugged
his shoulders with a kind of I dont know shrug and

56
said, Im just waiting for someone to come over and pray
for me. Sines asked the child, Do you believe that God
is going to heal you? The boy, with a look of anticipation
on his face, said, Why, yes!
Sines took the crutches from him, laid them down
on the floor, and then laid hands on the boy and prayed
for him. At first, nothing happened, but then the boy
began to exclaim, I feel it, I feel it, leaping to his feet,
dancing, running, and shouting with Sines right behind
him. Sines would tell me about other miracles, but none
were so engraved in his memory as the joy of seeing this
young crippled boy healed and so full of joy and
thanksgiving.
Like many others, Sines was drawn to the power
and anointing God had given Brother Seymour. Unlike
others, Sines was on the platform with Seymour, and at
least fifty percent of the time he was able to sit right next
to him.
Brother Sines was obsessed with the box. The
reason he would try to sit next to Seymour whenever
possible was so that he could get close enough to the box
to see and hear what was going on inside. It did not
matter if the box was on Seymours head ten minutes or
one hour, during that time, Sines could not pay attention
to anything else, observing the box and Seymour the
entire time. He would sit there thinking, God, are You
talking to this man or is he just sitting there waiting,
listening or meditating?

57
When Sines was out eating or fellowshipping with
Seymour, he would ask him about what was going on in
the box. Seymour told him that he was meditating,
waiting on God. Seymour noted that when he would
speak to God, he could hear himself talk, but it was
always a whisper, and always in tongues. When Sines
asked Seymour if he understood what he was saying,
Seymour responded that he knew what he had said, but
he would hear himself say it in a different languageyet
he still knew what he was saying.
Sines recalled that there was a glow around the
box while it was on Seymours head. He observed the
glow but told me he dared not touch Seymour or the box.
He was afraid of what would happen. He would lean over
as close to the box as possible and just listen, but he
would never get close enough to accidentally come in
contact with the glow or the box.
We talked a little bit about what Sines observed
from the platform, and he commented on young Wards
style and his silly facial expressions. Sines recalled that
Ward was comical to watch, but that God worked through
him in a mighty way. He also commented that Brother
Anderson must have been kin to the kangaroos the way
he bounced around. He would watch Anderson get so
excited that he would climb on a bench to see everything.
He also noted that Sister Carney was the ringleader of it
all. She kind of directed the floor events. By way of a
side note, Sister Carney and Brother Sines were the best

58
of friends and spent many hours in the gardens at Pisgah
talking and reliving Azusa memories.
Brother Christopher, a young man around 18
years old, joined Sines about six months after coming to
Azusa. I met Christopher while I was at Pisgah and
actually lived with him at the dorm. I found him to be
one of the politest men Id ever known. He was a very
small, frail man, weighing around 110 pounds, and
standing about five feet, five inches tall. By the time I
met him, he was in his seventies but still had a full head
of coal black hair. He was somewhat dark-skinned and
told us he was part Italian. Extremely shy and quiet,
Brother Christopher didnt just talk; you had to pull it out
of him.
He and Sines were great friends and played many
concerts together. Christopher owned a Stradivarius
violin and would bring it to Azusa to accompany Sines
when he played the piano.
Like Sines, Christopher loved the music at Azusa
and confirmed that the experience of singing in the Spirit
was unequalled by anything he had ever experienced in
his musical career. An accomplished concert violinist
equaled by few, he would share with me that when he
played in the spirit, he played at a level hed never
achieved even in his greatest concert.
Brother Christopher talked a little about the
Shekinah Glory and told me that he even tried to bottle it.
To his disappointment, there was nothing in the bottle
the next day.

59
Brother Christopher was an observer. Because of
his shyness, he didnt go out into the crowd. Those he was
involved with when used by God for healing came up to
him while he was on the platform. Christopher remarked
that people must have thought he was someone important
because he sat on the platform. I asked Brother
Christopher, Did anything happen to the people you
prayed for? He would quietly say with a smile, Oh, yes,
Brother Tommy, oh, yes.
He fondly told me about praying for a blind man
whose wife had brought him to Azusa. The wife led her
husband by his right handhis white cane with the red
tip in his other hand. She brought the man up to
Christopher and said, My husband is blind, heal him.
Christopher quietly said, I cant heal him, but I
can pray for him and Jesus will heal him.
She said somewhat demandingly, Okay, do it!
Brother Christopher humbly and obediently prayed for
the man and he was instantly healed.
I asked, Didnt that excite you and make you want
to do more? Christopher replied, Why, yes, I wished
more would have come to me.
Brother Christopher told of a young man who had
burned his arm at work. The arm was badly infected and
green with gangrene. It was badso bad that Brother
Christopher said that his arm should have been
amputated. Christopher prayed for him and told him to
go home and clean the wound because there were things
working in his armbad stuffand then bandage it. The

60
man went home, cleaned and bandaged the burn, and
came back the next night completely healed. Christopher
was impressed with the mans willingness to be obedient
to Gods instructions and do what he was instructed to do.
The following evening when the healed man returned,
Brother Christopher rejoiced with him as they celebrated
the awesome miracle from God.
Although Christopher only performed a few
miracles because of his shyness, they were mighty works
of God and bore witness that if you were at Azusa and
your heart was right, God found a way to involve you in
His miraculous works. If something like shyness kept you
from going to the people, God in His marvelous ways
would bring the people to you.
Many times while at Pisgah, I had the privilege of
hearing Brother Sines play the piano and Brother
Christopher play his violin. Sometimes my mind would
wander. I would sit at Pisgah wondering what it must
have been like to hear them play at Azusa when Gods
Spirit took the music to a heavenly realm as the people
sang a new song in the Spirit. I believe that soon, we too
will join a heavenly choir and be lifted to a new level of
worship as we sing in a heavenly atmosphere as Gods
Spirit falls upon us.
I remember someone writing or saying that the
music was like the very breath of God coming forth from
human vocal cords. For now, I can only imagine!


61

MOTHER, BEHOLD THY SON
Meet Brother Riggs and Mom

We have talked about how God used youth and
young adults to manifest many of His miracles. In
chapter after chapter, we find kids as young as twelve
years old being used of God in a mighty way. What we
havent talked about are the parents of these children
how they felt and what they experienced as their children
were so involved in the Azusa experience. This chapter
takes a brief detour as we meet not only Ralph Riggs but
also his mother.
I met Mother Riggs at Pisgah in 1960. I must
confess that Mother Riggs made the best chocolate chip
cookies, bar none, and she made them big and round.
When she was at Azusa watching her son run
around and be used of God, she was in her late thirties.
By the time I met her, she was in her nineties. She told
me that she mainly watched Ralphy run arounda
nickname that wasnt Ralphs favorite. Mother Riggs told
me that Ralph and his best friend, C. W. Ward, didnt
complain that they had to be at church. In fact, they
preferred to be in church rather than anywhere else!

62
Dont misunderstand; Mother Riggs wasnt just a
spectator. She too was actively involved in healings and
miracles and spent much of her time with Sister Carney.
Although she mainly participated with others, God also
used her when she was by herself.
Mother Riggs had bright beady eyes that would
just glow as she started talking about Azusa and they
glowed as she told her story. She told me of her
experience with about a dozen elderly people who
reminded her of her parents. They were all brought to
the meeting in wheelchairs and didnt have any major
deformities or diseases. They were just old and feeble.
She learned well from Sister Carney about expecting
miracles, and if anybody in a wheelchair needed to be
ministered to, she would put the footrests up before she
prayed for the person. Immediately after the prayer,
these frail, old people got up, hooked their arms together
and began to dance. Sister Riggs was so thrilled to see
old people up dancing and worshipping the Lord that she
joined right in.
She told me that she also prayed for a man
because he couldnt put any weight on his ankle due to
the pain. Sister Riggs asked him, Did you come to be
healed?
He told her, Well, everybody is getting healed
here they tell me. They just come and they get healed and
I want my ankle healed.
She laid hands on his head and prayed for him.
Within moments, the ankle that had been twisted popped

63
and was healed. He stood up and began to dance and
shout, and Mother Riggs just marveled at the miracle.
Like all the others, Mother Riggs loved the
Shekinah Glory. She told me that the main thing she
missed was the power of the mist or cloud as it glowed.
She was convinced that the Glory they experienced was a
part of heaven, and she was walking in it, living in it, and
breathing it in.
She was also convinced that the abundance of
miracles was happening because of the Shekinah Glory
and the Presence of God in the meetings.
I loved her stories and I loved the fact that she not
only supported her son, but she was right there with him
as he enjoyed being used by God.
On occasion, Ralph Riggs would stop by Pisgah to
visit with his mom. During four of those visits I had the
honor of spending time with him. As mentioned earlier in
this book, Ralph and C.W. Ward were instrumental in
founding the Assemblies of God. Even though I knew he
had stories in abundance about the Assemblies of God, I
wanted to know about Azusa and his teenage years there.
Brother Riggs told me that he appreciated the fact
that he wasnt just a spectator watching older people do
miracles; God also used him to do them. He was given the
liberty to go to anyone he wanted to and pray for them,
and to his astonishment they all got healed. He worked
with his best friend, C.W. Ward, who was two years his
senior. Riggs noted that each of them had six or more
miracles or healings every night. When it came to

64
miracles, they werent a team; it was every man for
himself.
I asked Brother Riggs about the kids he hung
around with at Azusa. He told me that Sister Carney was
his favorite. He commented, You kind of did what she
told you to do. No one appointed her to be in charge, she
just was a natural leader. Riggs also told me he loved to
talk to and play with Brother Anderson, and of course
there was Brother Ward, his best friend.
When I asked Brother Riggs about his most
memorable miracles, he shared a few of his many, many
experiences. His biggest miracle was this big, gawky guy,
in his early twenties, who stood over six feet, five inches
tall and weighed over 250 pounds. He came into the
meeting with alcohol on his breath, slurring his words,
and reeking of stale alcohol.
Riggs felt a voice inside of him saying, Pray for
him. Finally, Brother Riggs went over to the man,
realized that not only had he been drinking but was also
blind. Somewhat stunned, Riggs looked at him and said,
You cant see, can you?
The man said, No, thats what I came here for.
Riggs, now somewhat more compassionate, prayed for
him and he was instantly healed. Not only were his eyes
healed, even the stench of alcohol was gone. The man just
sat for a while crying and sobbing and finally said, Well,
its true. Its true. Im healed.
Here was a homeless, blind, alcoholic restored
through the miraculous power of God, who later in life

65
was used of God to preach revivals and establish many
Pentecostal, and later on, Assemblies of God Churches
across the Midwestern United States. Riggs noted that
he had the privilege of visiting many of these churches in
his travels with the Assemblies of God.
Brother Riggs also told of his one and only mass
healing. A group of people came from a retirement home
and had minor problems like aching joints. Riggs decided
he would try a Seymour and have a mass healing. He
looked at them and said, Everyone of you are going to be
healed in the Name of Jesus. Now, all of you be healed!
Unlike every other time he tried to mimic Seymour but it
never worked, this time Riggs witnessed a mass healing,
as the joints cracked and healed.
Although God used Brother Riggs in countless
miracles, he chose to share only one last story. Two
people, a husband and wife, came down in wheelchairs,
pushed by their teenage children. They were both very
sick and had either pneumonia or really bad colds.
Brother Ralph went over to them and asked, Did
you come down here tonight believing God is actually
going to heal you? The husband said, Yes. Riggs began
to pray for them, but he stopped suddenly as he
remembered the Carney Rule. He said to himself,
Sister Carney wont let me do that, and put up the
footrests before finishing his prayer.
The stage was now set for God to work a miracle.
Riggs got between the couple, placed his hands on their
foreheads, and prayed, commanding them to be healed in

66
the Name of Jesus. They both had had terrible fevers and
the first thing Riggs noticed was that their temperatures
had gone down. Within moments, the woman began to
shake and shortly she was up and running. The man just
stood up, raised his hands and screamed in a very loud
voice, Thank you, God; Thank you, God. God had healed
them instantly.
Most of the time the Shekinah Glory was spoken of
with reverence, but there was one time that Brother
Riggs shared revealing a lighter side. He told me that
when Seymour would get down there, the Shekinah Glory
would get so thick that you could hardly see the ground.
With a smile, he confessed that there were times when it
was so thick that he and Ward would get in the back of
the room and play hide-and-go-seek in the mist.
Since they were just young teenagers when at
Azusa, I asked him if he ever tried to put Seymours box
on his head. He said with great reverence, Nobody
touched Seymours box even when he wasnt down there.
It was sacred.
I asked him to seriously talk to me about the
Shekinah Glory. Brother Riggs explained the experience
much like his mother. I tasted a bit of heaven. Ward
and I would talk and share that Azusa must have been
what Heaven is like. God must have sent some part of
heaven down here.
Mother Riggs and her son were a joy to talk to and
to learn even more about the Azusa Revival. I met Ralph
Riggs when he was in his seventies after God had used

67
him mightily to advance His Kingdom. After talking with
Brother Riggs, my mind would wander back to his days at
Azusa. I could see him running around full of life as he
and other teenagers and young people were involved in
the awesome outpouring of God. Instead of waiting until
he was older to begin his ministry, by the time he reached
adulthood, he had already been used of God in a way that
most adultsespecially in their twilight yearsonly
dream about.


68


69

THE TOPEKA CONNECTION
Meet Mr. And Mrs. Lankford

Three years before the Azusa Revival there was
Topeka, Kansas. In 1903, Dr. Charles Parham had
started a Bible School in Topeka where he taught about
the Baptism of the Holy Spirit accompanied by the gift of
tongues, which he personally had experienced.
In 1903, a young man of seventeen, Brother
Lankford, was led of God to leave Highland Park,
California, and travel to Topeka to learn about this new
teaching. Under Parhams witness, he received the
Baptism and gift himself. Little did Lankford understand
the significance of his venture to Kansas.
He returned to California in 1904 and introduced
this new teaching to Dr. Yoakum, the founder of Pisgah.
Dr. Yoakum, after receiving the Baptism and gift of
tongues, in turn, taught others at Pisgah about this
exciting experience. You will recall that it was because of
Brother Lankford and Dr. Yoakum that Sister Carney
received the Baptism and gift in 1904, two years prior to
Azusa.
Azusa was not an after-thought of God. This great
visitation of God was ordained long before the actual

70
experience took place. The prayers offered the past
several years that focused on seeking revival were but the
final stage of this God-ordained experience. Even before
the first prayer was offered, God was preparing many
people to participate in this magnificent outpouring of His
Spirit.
One such Saint was Brother Lankford, who had a
hunger to know all that he could about yielding himself to
God. This desire led him to Topeka, then back to
California, and eventually to Azusa where he would be
used of God in mighty ways. According to Mrs. Lankford,
he was personally involved in over 100 miracles and
healings.
I had the privilege of getting to know Brother
Lankford and his wife during my time at Pisgah. He was
a few inches taller than six feet, and she stood about five-
ten. Mrs. Lankford was a good-sized lady who was soft-
spoken and very sweet. On the other hand, Brother
Lankford was tall and slender but gruff at times.
Unlike my other visits, when I came to their home,
I wasnt greeted with cookies and milk. Brother Lankford
had discovered my weakness for strawberry ice cream,
which was also his favorite. So I sat at their feet and
enjoyed ice cream while listening to their stories.
The Lankfords were all about being used by God to
bring about healings and miracles. When we talked, the
entire evening was one story after another about the
miraculous works of God at Azusa.

71
I would often begin by asking the Lankfords to tell
me their most interesting miracles. Once the question
left my lips, there was no turning back. Brother Lankford
would begin and Mrs. Lankford would add her memories
to those of her husband.
I witnessed a mans fingers actually grow back.
That statement would grasp my attention as I begged for
more details. Lankford told me about a man who had
gotten two fingers caught several weeks earlier in some
type of machine, and before he knew it the machine had
ripped off two of his fingers. The man had heard that
astonishing miracles happened at the Azusa Warehouse,
so he came with the expectation of getting healed.
Brother Lankford shocked the man by asking,
Can we see what God will do?
The man, somewhat puzzled, replied, What do
you mean?
Lets ask God to grow them out! Lankford was
very bold and outspoken. With the mans approval,
Lankford grabbed the mans hand and instructed him to
put it up in the air. Holding the mans hand up high, and
with Sister Lankford holding his arm, Lankford began to
pray. As soon as the mans fingers began to grow out,
Sister Lankford passed out from the sight of such a
miracle. As Brother Lankford held firmly to the mans
hand, they watched the miracle happen before their very
eyes!
Lankford started taking the man around shouting
that his fingers had just grown out. You could hear

72
Lankford cry out, These werent here before. Look, God
grew these fingers out. The man stood next to Lankford
in shock with his mouth open in amazement. Before the
miracle was over, even the mans fingernails grew out as
the man was made whole.
Mrs. Lankford smiled as her husband told about
the greatest miracle he had been a part of and as soon as
he finished, she said, Let me tell you my most
memorable miracle.
Sister Lankford didnt wait for approval and began
to tell about her story. At the time of this miracle, the
Lankfords were engaged, and she said somewhat
forcefully, Honey, come here!He wasnt used to her
talking like that because she was very sweet and very
soft-spoken. She said, Look here at this sister of ours
that God is going to heal.
The lady had a very bad hunchback. Her back
didnt just curve over; it was twisted. She was an older
woman, probably around 50 to 55 years old. She told
Sister Lankford that the problem had started when she
was about 30, and it had just gotten worse and worse.
The doctor wanted to put her into a nursing home, and
even her husband felt that she should be there because
she could hardly get around. Well, her husband brought
her, thinking that maybe God would do something at the
revival meeting. Brother Lankford came over and laid his
hands on the hunched back and started praying for her.
You could hear the popping of the bones. Within minutes,
right before their eyes, she was healed. She broke into

73
dancing and even went up onto the platform dancing and
screaming. Right behind her was Brother Anderson, who
had been standing up on a bench where he saw the
miracle happen and also could hear the bones cracking.
I asked Sister Langford, What did you and
Brother Langford do?
She responded, Well, we were both running with
her.
You mean you were dancing?
She smiled and said, That was a long time ago,
Brother Tommy.
I smiled and just said, Oh.
Now it was Brother Lankfords turn. Another
memorable miracle is the crippled man in a wheelchair
who wouldnt let the doctors cut off his legs. Lankford
went on to explain that the man had worked as a
brakeman for the railroad and had been crippled in an
accident when a train pinned his legs down and broke
many of his bones. You could tell through his pant legs
that the bones in his legs were kind of knotty, but he was
too shy or embarrassed to pull up his pant legs to show
his injuries.
The Lankfords came up to this man, and Brother
Lankford asked, Well, what happened to you? The man
explained why he was confined to a wheelchair. Brother
Lankford replied, Well, we cant allow that to happen, its
about time you came here.

74
The man quietly said, Yeah, Im sorry, yes, Im
here. Lankford said that he wasnt sure if he had come
alone, but he had pushed himself into the service.
When Brother Lankford saw him sitting there, he
said it brought him to tears. He said to the man, Its a
miracle they didnt cut your legs off.
The crippled man answered, I have been
paralyzed from the waist down like this for about 2 years.
They wanted to amputate, but I wouldnt let them.
Brother Lankford started praying for him, and
Sister Carney, who was observing, broke in and corrected
him. No, no, no, thats not faith! She went over to the
man and picked up his legs and put the footrests up, so he
could get up. She expected him to get up! After Sister
Carney was done, Brother Lankford prayed for the man.
You could hear the bones cracking and see the legs just
straighten up. The man got out of his wheelchair and
went flyingand of course, a bunch of those who
surrounded the man went with him.
I thought that was an extreme phenomenon, and I
asked Brother Lankford, Did God have to put the bones
back together?
Lankford nodded and said, Yes, God had to put
the bones back together. You could see when the man
came to Azusa that he was pathetiche couldnt walk,
and he couldnt move from the waist down. And here this
man was running around the place shouting and dancing
and leaping.

75
I sat there and would think, It is no wonder they
had such a revival, no wonder this thing went worldwide.
Yes, they received the speaking in tongues and that was
great, but many of the miracles that were performed were
not done by big preachers. Many of those being used by
God were just ordinary teenagers and young people doing
extraordinary works through God.
Brother Lankford also was blessed with the great
gift of helping those people that had cleft palates or lips to
receive healing. Some of those who came there for healing
had never had operations or medical treatment. There
would be big gaps in their mouths and he would pray for
them and the gaps would be filled in. Sometimes some of
their teeth would be gone and the teeth would be
restored.
I said, Teeth and all?
Brother Lankford nodded, and said, Teeth and
all.
Lankford said that over the three-year period he
was there, God used him in healing around 100 people,
many with cleft palates.
Mrs. Lankford wanted to continue with more stories,
but Brother Lankford wasnt quite finished. Two more
stories. Let me tell you about the tumor on the spine. Even
though the tumor was covered by the mans shirt, you could
see the outline of the tumor. It stood out about 3 inches, and
was about a foot long, and 4 inches wide. Brother Lankford
described the man as middle-aged and according to him,
had had the tumor for about 3 years. The man came in with

76
a bunch of people, and someone let Brother Lankford know
about him and that the next day he was to have x-rays taken
to find out what was wrong. Lankford told how he prayed
over the tumor and it just sunk into this bodythe man was
totally healed.
Without taking a breath, Brother Lankford went
on to the next miracle. There was a woman with part of
her nose gone from cancer. He prayed for her, but nothing
happened immediately. He told the lady that sometimes
miracles dont happen instantly and to have faith. She
came back the next night and her nose was perfect.
Now it was finally Sister Lankfords turn again.
She told about the time four or five blind people were
brought in from a home for the blind. Sister Lankford
walked up to them and announced that God was going to
work miracles. Brother Lankford ran over to them,
covered their eyes, and prayed for them, laying hands on
each of them. Every time he removed his hands the
results were the same: they could see! Instant healings!
The whole place erupted in shouting and dancing.
I broke in and asked Sister Lankford if they had
ever seen or participated in miracles where limbs or body
parts were actually re-grown. They both confirmed that
personally they only participated in the miracle where the
mans fingers were restored but that such miracles did
happen through Brother Seymour as he was anointed by
God.
I asked if they remembered any specific miracles
where God used Brother Seymour, and Sister Lankfords

77
eyes lit up. I recall witnessing two of the greatest
miracles where Seymour was greatly used by God.
I was all ears! First, she told about the man with
the wooden leg. Seymour had approached a man with a
wooden leg and asked, What did you come here for?
The man replied, I want you to pray for my leg. It
is starting to get gangrene where the wooden leg
attaches.
Seymour replied, Im just upset because you have
the wooden leg on. It would be a challenge for God to
grow a leg out when the wooden leg is attached.
The man removed the wooden leg and stood before
Seymour standing on his one good leg. Seymour laid
hands on the man and proclaimed, Let Thy Name be
Glorified. In the Name of Jesus, I command this leg to
grow out. The gangrene is gone; you are healed.
Seymour didnt preach that night. The miracle spoke for
itself. Rejoicing was continuous as the crowd went wild.
The man ran upon the platform and around the room. No
one could get him to stop rejoicing and praising God.
Next, Sister Lankford told of the man with no arm.
Seymour spoke with a man who had lost his arm ten
years earlier through a work-related accident. The arm
had been totally severed at the shoulder.
Brother Seymour asked the crowd, Would you like
to see God have a wonderful time here tonight? Some of
you may remember the mans leg that grew out about a
year ago.

78
Seymour then asked the one-armed man, Can you
work with just the one arm?
Im just given minimal paying jobs and I barely
make enough money to even eat.
Seymour shook his head and responded, Thats
not good. Are you married?
Yes.
Got kids?
Yes.
This man needs to be able to make a living. This
man needs to work and he needs to be able to pay his
tithe. Will you tithe if I pray for you and God gives you
your arm back? Seymour said teasingly.
Yes!
Seymour burst out laughing. Im just having
fun. He then slapped his hands on the shoulder itself and
commanded the arm to grow out. Almost instantly it
grew out. The healed man stood in total shock, then
started moving his arm and feeling of it with his other
hand, awed by the miracle.
A few weeks later the man came back, bringing
about 200 people with him, telling many at the meeting
that he had gotten his old job back. Many of those he
brought with him needed healing and left that evening
fully restored as people in the crowd prayed and laid
hands on each of them.
As always, time passed quickly at the Lankfords
home. The evening always ended too soon. As I would
walk to my dorm room, I would relive the stories in my

79
mind, marveling at the mighty works that the Azusa
Saints witnessed and participated in. I longed for the day
that the Shekinah Glory would fall againand this time I
wanted to be right in the middle of it.


80


81

LIVING PROOF
Meet Sister Mangrum
Azusa Age: 22

Remember these inspiring words from the song, I
Believe In Miracles?
Creation shows the power of God, theres glory
all around. And those who see must stand in
awe, for miracles abound. I believe in miracles,
Ive seen a soul set free. Miraculous the change
in one redeemed through Calvary. Ive seen
the lily push its way up through the stubborn
sod. I believe in miracles for I believe in God.

This is a book about miraclesgreat miracles as
recalled by faithful Saints of God who were eyewitnesses
to the miraculous. Only the fool can say in his heart that
God is not a God of wonder-working power, not only
transforming lives on the inside, but often bringing
healing and miracles for those who need Him to touch
them in a special way.
Many of the Saints at Pisgah only had the
memories of Gods mighty, wonder-working power at
Azusa, but that wasnt true for all of them. One such

82
Saint had living proof of Gods power near her even when
I met her at Pisgah. You see, I not only got to meet Sister
Mangrum, I also got to meet a Saint that had been
miraculously healed through the ministry of Sister
Mangrum when she was at Azusa. Living there at Pisgah
were both the one who was used of God to perform a
miracle and the one who had received this miracle of
healing. Since the lady that was healed was in her mid-
forties at the time of the healing, I considered it a
privilege that I got to meet her as she neared her
hundredth birthday.
Mother Mangrum, as she was later called, was in
her early twenties at Azusa but in her mid-seventies
when I met her at Pisgah. She stood around five feet, two
inches, and weighed about 110 pounds. She was always
very well dressed, very prim and proper, well spoken, as
well as kind and courteous.
Mother Mangrum often called me her little boy,
and I had the honor of going once a month to her home,
which was one of the larger apartments on the grounds.
As tradition would dictate, she would bake chocolate chip
cookies and serve cold milk during our time together. I
sat on a big huge throw rug that almost covered the entire
floor. She sat on a good-sized, antique, wooden rocking
chair that had belonged to her great-grandmother.
Mother Mangrum was part of the Carney crowd, and
like Sister Carney, was married at the time of Azusa and
attended the revival services with her husband.

83
One of Mother Mangrums favorite stories was
about the pigeon-toed woman. She was in her mid-forties
and couldnt walk very well as her knees bowed inward
and had been that way since her teenage years. Mother
Mangrum immediately noticed her as she came scooting
and wobbling in, walking kind of funny. Mother
Mangrum went over to her and asked, Have you come to
be healed?
The lady responded, I came to see what was going
on. You say I can be healed? Of What?
Mother Mangrum pointed to her legs and said, Of
your legs. She sat down with the woman and tried to
convince her that God would straighten up her legs.
The woman responded in a slight stutter, Well,
ah, ah, its worth a try. She told Mother Mangrum that
people had made fun of her a lot since she was a child.
Mother Mangrum eagerly responded, Yes, what
have you got to lose. She prayed for her, keeping her
hands on the womans head. She explained that it was
kind of like heat coming out of her hands onto the woman.
Finally the woman started shaking and said,
Somethings happening, somethings happening!
Mother Mangrum looked down at the womans
legs and excitedly told the woman to look. Her feet and
legs were straightening out, and in about two minutes,
she was completely restored. Knees, twisted legs, and
pigeon-toed feet were totally straightened and healed.
She asked the woman, Would you like to walk
normal now? We could do a dance all over this place.

84
She looked at Mother Mangrum and said, I have
never danced in my whole life.
Mother Mangrum smiled and said, Well, lets
learn now, and began to dance with her.
Soon, the woman realized that a miracle had really
happened to her and went wild dancing before God
Before Mother Mangrum knew it, the lady had run out of
the building and several minutes later came running back
in screaming and holleringshe wanted to get back into
the building, afraid she might lose her healing if she
wasnt inside. After she settled down, she looked around
and asked, What is this stuff?
We call it the Shekinah Glory.
While at Pisgah, I got to meet this lady, who by
then was near 100 years old. For years she operated a
rescue mission down on skid row for homeless women on
the streets. After the miracle, she gave the rest of her life
to ministering to homeless women. When I would go to
see her, she was all but on her deathbed. Her one
question to me and all the Saints was, I just want to
know what happened to that Shekinah Glory.
Of course, my curiosity got the best of me, and I
asked to see this elderly womans legs that had been
healed. At first she was reluctant, but then with some
encouragement from Mother Mangrum, she showed me
her legsstill completely healed after all those years.
She was living proof right before my eyes that God had
visited Azusa in a mighty way.

85
Mother Mangrum always shared one other story.
It was about the woman with the hooked nose. When she
first noticed the lady, Mother Mangrum told me she
thought that maybe a doctor could help fix her ugly nose,
but God had other ideas. She heard a small voice within
her say, I am a better doctor than any doctor here on
earth. With that message from God, she looked at the
lady again and felt that she needed to pray for her.
She went to the woman and prayed, but the results
were not immediate. Later on in the service, Mother
Mangrum noticed that the hook was gone and went up
to her and commented about the healing.
The woman was somewhat happy but told Mother
Mangrum, I know the hook is gone, but I dont like the
little point at the end of my nose. Mother Mangrum
understood her concern and prayed for her again, and
before the lady left the meeting a few hours later, she had
a perfect nose. Looking at Gods miracle, Mother
Mangrum silently rejoiced as she thought how wonderful
it was that God even cared enough about a persons
feelings to straighten out this ladys ugly nose.
Mother Mangrum was somewhat theatrical when
she told her stories, and with many gestures made the
stories come alive. Although I was impressed with what
God had done back at the turn of the century, I knew that
not far from where we were, there was a lady in her late
nineties who was living proof.


86


87

A DIFFERENT CLAIM TO FAME
Meet Sisters Lucille and Laura

In the 1950s, Lucille had a small claim to fame.
Lucille Ball had made Lucille McGillicuddys name
famous by paying handsomely to use it as the maiden
name of her television character in I Love Lucy. But her
name is not all that she is remembered for. In fact,
Lucille McGillicuddy made quite a name for herself by
becoming the secretary for Aimee Semple-McPherson and
her successor, Jean Darnall. In addition, she was part of
the youth group that impacted the lives of many during
the Azusa Street Revival.
I met Sister Lucille at Pisgah. She couldnt have
weighed much more than 90 pounds and stood under five
feet tall. She was very slender and petite. Like many of
the Pentecostal women of that day, she had long hair that
almost touched the floor but wore it in a glory bun held
together by a host of hairpins.
Since she was one of the Azusa Saints, I had the
honor of sitting down at her feet and listening to her
recount her Azusa days. Yes, she made homemade

88
chocolate chip cookies and always had a cold glass of milk
waiting for me.
During her Azusa days, she was part of the
Carney-Riggs-Ward-Anderson group and was instru-
mental in helping many receive healing. I would begin
our time together by asking her to tell me about the
greatest healing or miracle in which she personally
participated. She always told of two miracles that were a
vivid part of her memory.
First, she told me about the lady who had one leg
shorter than the other. Her name was Goldie, and she
had polio, causing one leg to be over four inches shorter
than the other. Sister Lucille kept insisting that Goldie
take the brace off and allow God to heal her. Goldie told
Lucille, If I take the brace off, I better be healed.
Sister Lucille smiled and said, You will be! Now
take it off. She took off the brace, and Sister Lucille
immediately prayed for her. As Goldie and Lucille sat
there, the leg straightened up. Lucille told her to get up
and walk. She took her first steps and almost fell over
because she was not accustomed to walking with normal
legsmiraculously both legs were the same length.
Next, with a twinkle in her eye, she would tell me
about the woman who had had her wrist shattered in a
domestic squabble. The woman couldnt use her hand at
all. Sister Lucille said, It looks like your wrist has been
crushed!

89
She responded, My husband hit it with a mallet.
He was mad at me and thought he would teach me a
lesson and crushed my wrist.
Sister Lucille told me that it just broke her heart.
She earnestly wanted the lady healed and when she
prayed, she all but begged God to heal her. After her
prayer, she said to the wrist, I say in the Name of Jesus,
you do what I told you and be healed! Immediately, the
ladys wrist was totally restored.
Sister Lucilles next story was not a cookies and
milk story. She would tell about the miracles performed
on people who had very bad teeth, and usually I would
lose my appetite. Lucille would have them open their
mouths, and she would stick her fingers on the teeth that
were bad and pray for healing. I asked her, Were they
infected and filled with bad stuff? She would look at me
with a half-grin on her face. I said, You stuck your finger
on their teeth?
With that half-grin on her face, she said, Yeah.
What if there wasnt a tooth there? I would ask
playfully.
Sister Lucille took her story over the top. I would
stick my finger on the bare gum. In fact, many times I
would push against the gum and let the new tooth push
my finger out. On the really decayed teeth, all the bad
stuff would come out, and we would use a handkerchief to
rub the bad stuff off and there would be a new tooth. Even
crooked teeth would straighten up.

90
I just sat there shaking my head. Even though her
descriptions of the teeth often caused my stomach to turn,
I sat in awe at the miracles she described.
She would ask me, Tommy, wouldnt you love to
see those kind of healings in our services today? I would
just nod in agreement.
What impressed Sister Lucille was that the
miracles were not confined to Brother Seymour. She
would comment, A little bitty woman like me could walk
up and command a leg to grow out, and it would grow out.
A busted wrist would grow back together. Rotten teeth
would be replaced with brand new teeth, and missing
teeth would grow back in.
I asked her if she ever worked with someone who
had all their teeth missing. She said No, I never tried
that.
I teasingly said, Well, you should have.
She rebukingly replied, I just never tried that
Brother Tommy.
I would meekly change the subject and ask her to
describe what the Shekinah Glory was like. She would
get such joy in her eyes as she told me how much she
loved to be in the center of the mist-like cloud. She was
so little, she would sit down in itwhen it was thick, the
mist was about up to her neck. Like a kid, she would
have fun and play in the mist. She would often lie down,
breathing in the mist. She would tell how she could feel
the energy of it and described that it was like being put
into an oxygen tent.

91
When Brother Seymour was there, and they would
sing in the Spirit, Sister Lucille told me that the
Shekinah Glory would just rise and fill the whole room,
and you could breathe so much betteras if the room
were filled with pure oxygen.
Sister Lucille had a best friend, Laura Langtroff,
who moved to Pisgah in 1955. Sister Laura became a part
of Azusa when Lucille invited her to attend the revival.
When I met Sister Laura at Pisgah, she was in
her seventies, stood about five feet, seven inches tall, and
weighed around 170 pounds. She had dark brown, very
long hair and kept it up in a glory bun. Sister Laura
came from a very well-to-do family and was a wealthy
woman in her own right, but she chose to live at Pisgah
with her Azusa friends.
When I would talk to Sister Laura, she would tell
me about Azusa through her eyes. She and Lucille both
worked with a lot of people who had trouble breathing.
They loved ministering to women and especially those
who were old and feeble. Legend has it that if a woman
came in with a cane or crutches and got near Sister
Laura, she would be healed and walked away from the
meeting, free of canes or crutches.
I remember asking Sister Laura, How many
miracles or healings did you participate in?
She thought for a moment. I attended every
night, and there were at least three or four a night!
Not long into our talk, I would ask the same
question of Sister Laura that I asked of every Saint:

92
What was the greatest miracle or healing you personally
were a part of? Sister Laura would tell me about one of
the most exciting miracles she was involved inand one
of the most exciting miracles ever at Azusa.
Heres her story. A woman came into the meeting
holding a staff. She could hardly breathe and looked like
a skeleton. She only lived about two miles from Azusa and
had started walking to Azusa about three in the afternoon
but didnt reach the Warehouse until six in the evening.
She literally took one baby step at a time, placing the
staff in front of her then scooting her feet up to it and
repeating the slow, tedious process until she reached the
revival meeting. She reminded me of the woman in the
Bible* who knew that if she just touched the hem of the
garment of Jesus she would be healed. That evening at
Azusa, this woman was determined to get healed. She
came in, and looked around as if she were studying the
room. At some point, her eyes met Lauras and she said,
Thats the woman I want to pray for me, pointing to
Sister Laura.
Sister Laura walked over to her and said, Mother,
what can I do for you?
The next words the lady spoke were almost
haunting. I wont live through the night if God doesnt
heal me; Ill die. Doctors say my lungs are ate up with
cancer, and I can hardly breath. Ive been losing weight
for about a year.
This dear, feeble, elderly woman weighed about 65
pounds, standing at about five feet, six inches tall. She

93
was nothing but bones. Sister Laura laid hands on her
and prayed for her. Immediately, she was able to breathe
normally. In the next three hours she would gain about 40
pounds while at the meeting, yet she ate nothing and only
breathed in the Shekinah Glory. She said, My lungs are
not hurting; I can breathe like when I was young!
Yes, there was a great celebration that evening.
Sister Laura was a shouter. Her glory bun shook loose
and hairpins flew everywhere as she celebrated with this
dear Saint.
But thats not the end of the story. This lady went
to her doctorThomas White, who later founded Wings of
Healing. When she went to his office, he asked her if she
had filled out the forms that first-time patients had to fill
outhe did not recognize her. When she told him who
she was, he could not believe she was the same person.
After running some tests and checking her out, he
told her that her insides were just like newlungs and
all. In amazement, he told her, There is no way you
could have gained that much weight back since the last
time I saw you. It is impossible!
She boldly replied, I know I couldnt, but God
could.
The doctor exclaimed, Youre going down to that
warehouse, arent you?
After attending the revival with her, in a few
months, he was no longer practicing traditional medicine!
He founded Wings of Healing where he experienced
miracles galore. He told the Saints at Azusa that the

94
woman cured of cancer and lung failure should have died
six months earlier. Truly, her faith not only made her
whole but also sustained her on her determined journey
to find God and His miraculous power waiting for her at
Azusa.
Sister Lucille and Sister Laura, both very wealthy,
found something at Azusa money couldnt buy. They
found a common bond forged by the mighty acts of God
during Azusa. That bonded friendship was still strong
and unbreakable sixty years later as these Saints
fellowshipped with others who were touched by the
Shekinah Glory poured out at Azusa.
Oh, dear God, find us worthy and allow Your Spirit
to fall fresh on us with a new outpouring of Your Glory.

* Matthew 9:20

95

A LIFETIME OF MIRACLES
Meet Brother Cantrell
Azusa Age: 21

A myriad of Miracles happened at Azusa daily as
people by the hundreds experienced the mighty power of
God. Many understood that the miracles were a part of a
unique visitation of God and were a direct manifestation
of His Glorious Presence. One of the sad commentaries on
the Azusa Street Experience is that many who were being
used of God daily to perform miracles and healings rarely
were ever used again for such mighty works.
Miracles were not unique to Azusa. They
happened before Azusa and didnt end after Azusa. Some
of the Saints of Azusa continued to be used of God to
perform miracles their entire lives.
One man God continued to use was Brother
Cantrell. I personally experienced two miracles from his
hands that changed my life completely. It was Brother
Cantrell who miraculously caused me to quit smoking and
prayed for me for holy boldness that gave me the ability
to speak in front of a large number of peoplea gift that I
certainly didnt have before he ministered to me.
Brother Cantrell was somewhat tall, standing five
feet, nine inches. I vividly recall that he wore a hat all
96

the time except when he was in church. Even though he
was single, he baked fresh cookies and always had cold
milk waiting for me for our long talks. Once a month I
would go to his apartment, which was caddy-corner from
Pisgah. When he told me his stories, I sat at Brother
Cantrells feet on a throw rug, and he sat in an
upholstered chair.
Even when he told his stories, he never showed
much emotion. He was pleasant, nice, and friendly but
not big on emotions.
When our meetings first started, I asked him if he
personally had had any great miracles. He replied,
Anyone who attended Azusa very long had great
miraclesespecially if a person attended at least once a
week you had miracles!
In fact, Brother Cantrell said, God taught me a
valuable lesson at Azusa. There was a man there who
started quacking like a duck after receiving the Baptism
of the Holy Spirit. I thought that the man was making a
mockery of the Baptism and got upset with him. I
thought, This is not a language.
Many years later in the 1930s, I saw a
documentary about a tribe in a place called Quackland.
Their language was just like that of a duck. I realized
that I was upset with this poor man and all he did was
speak in the language of Quackland. I have learned since
never to question the acts of God, no matter how unique
the act is.


97
I smiled at the story and asked Brother Cantrell to
tell me about his most interesting miracle. He sat almost
emotionless and told the story of the man who was what
Cantrell called tongue-tied. The man was in his late
twenties, and instead of talking, he just mumbled.
Brother Cantrell couldnt understand a word he said and
finally told the man, Lets stop talking and get you
healed first so I can understand you.
The man nodded his head and Brother Cantrell
laid hands on him and told him to stick his tongue out.
The man gestured that he couldnt, so Brother Cantrell
reached down in the mans mouth and touched his tongue.
In an authoritative voice, he commanded, In the Name of
Jesus, tongue, I command you to be free. And
miraculously he was able to stick his tongue out. Brother
Cantrell looked at the mans tongue, now loosed, and
asked the man, Can you talk now?
The man said, I dont know. Then he realized
that he was talking in a normal voice and got all excited.
He ran shouting, Glory, hallelujah! He could speak
perfectly. He didnt have to learn how to talk; he just
needed his tongue loosed.
Brother Cantrell was personally involved in one or
two miracles a week, but he observed thousands of
miracles performed over the years. He was just about 20
years old himself but told me that he loved to watch
teenagers like Riggs, Ward, Anderson, and Carney. They
would be running around having an exciting time, smiles

98
on their faces, and praying for people as God
supernaturally worked miracles through them.
When the subject turned to Brother Seymour,
Brother Cantrell told me that he stood in awe of him. He
was impressed that what people thought did not influence
Seymour. Brother Seymour had such an anointing that
Cantrell stood back in awe, especially when Seymour
participated in the leg and arm growing out.
Brother Cantrell was a man who was quiet and not
given to much emotion, but continued even when I knew
him to be used mightily of God. I loved his stories, but
they were even more powerful when told by a man who
continued to live out a small portion of Azusa even sixty
years later.


99

CROSSING RACIAL BARRIERS
Meet Brother Garcia
Azusa Age: 18

Of all the stories told about Azusa Street, perhaps
the most astonishing is that it was the first totally
integrated Church in America. All barriers were broken
as all races worshipped together as one, regardless of
color, nationality, or creed. Those who gathered for over
three years were truly one in the Spirit. When Seymour
came down to the meeting, if he saw that the people had
segregated themselves into racial groups, he would insist
that they integrate.
Such an openness of worship and acceptance of
every person regardless of race was one of the critical
factors that led David Garcia, a young Mexican-American,
to attend services at Azusa every evening after work as
well as Saturdays and Sundays.
I met Brother David at Pisgah where he had lived
since about 1955. He stood five feet and seven inches tall
and weighed about 200 pounds. At the time of Azusa,
David was around 18 years old and lived just about a mile
from the Warehouse. He began attending the revival
shortly after the meetings began in 1906.

100
When we got together to talk about Azusa, Brother
Garcia broke tradition and served strong coffee rather
than milk and cookies. That was basically the only
difference as I sat at his feet in respect and listened to
him re-live his memories of Gods mighty works.
The story Brother David began with was the
Grand Central Station experience. David lived about a
half a mile on the other side of Grand Central Station and
walked right by it coming to the Azusa Street Warehouse.
One evening he ran to the meeting to find Frank
Bartleman and told him that he needed to come to Grand
Central Station.
Why? Whats going on there? Bartleman asked
out of curiosity.
Brother Garcia, while trying to catch his breath,
exclaimed, Youve got to come and see this! The
anointing is far beyond where it had been in the past.
You have to come on down and see!
Together Bartleman and Garcia ran down to the
station that was a half-mile away from the Warehouse.
There they witnessed people come in from all over the
world, get off the train, walk across the platform, and fall
out in the Spirit often speaking in tonguesSomeone had
commented that the phenomenon had been happening all
day long.
When Garcia first saw the people laying all over
the platform area, he thought it was a disaster until he
realized what was going on and ran to find Bartleman.
Frank had talked about a line or circle of bloodseveral

101
blocks around the Azusa Warehousewhere the power of
God extended outward. Several blocks before reaching
the Warehouse, people were being healed, falling out in
the Spirit,and speaking in tongues for the first time. This
was the first time Gods power had reached all the way to
Grand Central Station. Although no miracles were taking
place, the Presence and power of God, without question,
had now moved out a half-mile from the actual
warehouse!
Brother Garcia was awe struck by the Shekinah
Glory that lingered for over three years at and around the
Warehouse. He would tell me, We have got to get the
Shekinah back if we want to see a worldwide revival!
I asked Brother David, Did you ever see the
flame? He told that there were times he was coming to
the meeting late and would see the flames as far away as
Grand Central Station. Brother Garcia would think,
Whoo, Gods moving again, and would run to Azusa
because he knew that when the fire was falling, there was
more power at the meeting and he wanted to be a part of
it. He explained that the experience was greater than
breathing pure oxygen. There were times the Shekinah
Glory was only a foot high, and he would lie down in it to
breathe Gods Glory.
He often stressed that the greater the Shekinah
Glory, the greater the power. He would note that the
flames were there when God, through Seymour, per-
formed the miracles where a leg re-grew and another
where an arm re-grew.

102
Garcia was there when the arm grew out. He said,
Brother Tommy, he didnt have a ball joint in his
shoulder, it had been ripped out of there. I was close
enough to be looking right at the shoulder, and all of a
sudden I saw the bones start to come out and then flesh
started coming around them. His arm just shot out in
what seemed mere seconds as I watched. For Garcia, it
seemed like he was watching in slow motion as he was
awed at what God was doing.
Brother Garcia was the first to tell me of
Seymours prophesy that in about 100 years there would
be a return of the Shekinah Glory and a revival that
would surpass the Works of God at Azusa.* When we
talked in the Sixties, Garcia realized that the prophesy
was still forty years away from being fulfilled, but still
longed for God to accelerate His plans and allow the
Shekinah Glory to fall again in his lifetime.
I loved to hear about the cloud or mist that filled
Azusa signifying the Presence of God. I also loved to hear
about the great miracles that happened in that mist. I
would ask Brother David to describe the greatest miracle
he had ever participated in. Without hesitation, he would
tell of the multiple healings that took place all within a
few minutes. There were two women and a man all with
crippling arthritis and couldnt walk. They were in
wheelchairs and had come from a nearby nursing home.
One of the women couldnt even feed herself. Brother
Garcia asked, Did you come to get healed? All three
responded yes or nodded their heads.

103
First, Garcia laid hands on the head of the lady
who couldnt feed herself and couldnt even talk and
prayed for her. Immediately, her head quit shaking. She
looked up at Brother David and said, Are you Jesus?
Brother Garcia laughed and said, No, Jesus is in
me, and I prayed for you in the Name of Jesus, but Im
not Jesus. But Jesus just healed you!
She looked at him for a long time and finally said,
Can I get up?
Garcia smiled and said, Yes, I told you in the
name Jesus, get up and walk!
The once-crippled lady got up and started walking
and then started doing a waltz type dancea beautiful
dance as if she were a young woman. She danced for at
least an hour.
Brother Garcia smiled at her beautiful dancing
then looked around at the other woman. With a big smile
on her face, she simply said, Im ready.
He came over and prayed for her, and in a minute
she was up. She kind of stood there shakingas if she
were afraid. Brother David reached out to steady her, but
she said, No, leave me alone; pray for him. Sister
Carney had already gotten the footrests up on all the
wheelchairs and had moved on to someone else.
Brother Garcia prayed for the man and the
crippled man asked, What is this? Its like electricity.
Garcia simply replied, Its the Power of God.
Youre healed in the Name of Jesus, and you can get up
and walk or run or dance or whatever you want to do.
104

I asked, Well, what did he do?
Garcia replied, He took off in a streak running as
I just stood there marveling at all three of them
celebrating their healings.
Brother David then would tell me his most
endearing miracle. A little Hispanic girl, about the age of
six, was blind. Her eyes were graya scary looking gray.
Her parents told him that she started going blind at about
the age of two and was completely blind by the time she
was four. He prayed for the child, and when she opened
her eyes, the gray was gone, replaced with beautiful black
eyes. She had been instantly healed. The child started
dancing and celebrating, screaming the Name of Jesus
while her parents tried to keep up with her.
Brother Garcia also recalled a man in his mid-
thirties, who had a gum disease. His face was almost a
dark red due to poison in his gums, which were a blackish
color because of his teeth rotting. He laid hands on the
man and prayed, and then told him to open his mouth.
He asked the man if he felt anything and the man replied,
Yeah. I feel something.
Brother Garcia said, I dont think so. You didnt
feel anything because nothing happened here. Close your
mouth again. Garcia prayed a second time and asked,
Feeling anything?
A little.
Garcia replied, Were not getting it done. Before
he prayed a third time, he asked, Do you believe God is
105

going to give you new gums, new teeth, and Hes going to
clear up this infection in your face? Do you understand
that is what were praying for? Youre going to get
healed,
In obedience, the man said, Okay.
Garcia prayed and this time the redness
disappeared from the mans face. When the man opened
his mouth, his gums were turning pink, and to Garcias
astonishment, he saw rotten teeth heal. By the time the
man left the meeting that evening, he was completely
healed!
I had the privilege of meeting the mans son, Bill,
at Pisgah when Brother Smith introduced him to me. I
had several conversations with Bill and finally asked the
question I was dying to ask. Bill, I said, Did your dad
have bad teeth when he died? Bill just grinned at the
question and told me that in fact, at the time of his death,
his dad had a full set of perfect teeth in his head.
Brother Garcia summed up his experience with
God at Azusa with these words: When you came into
Azusa, you got healed. The more you attended, the more
faith you had, and the more things would happen.
Because your faith was building up as you saw other
people believing and you believed, soon you had no doubt
when you walked up to someone that they were going to
get healed. After a while it was easy to have the boldness
to walk up to someone and proclaim God is going to heal
you tonight!
106

I understood why Brother Garcia desired to once
again be a part of the Shekinah Glory and see the
miraculous hand of God move among His people. It was
forty years ago that we spoke, and Brother Garcia told of
the 100 year prophesy by Brother Seymour concerning the
fresh outpouring of Gods Spirit. As this book is being
written, people all over the world are celebrating the
Azusa Centennial.
I pray the prayer of my dear friend and brother,
David Garcia, that soon we will see Brother Seymours
prophesy fulfilled and the greatest visitation of God ever
known to man fall fresh on this world.

*Charles Parham also prophesied that another great
revival would happen in about 100 years. Seymour, who
made the prophecy around 1909 or 1910 may have made
this prophesy after Parham.


107

SUFFER THE LITTLE CHILDREN
Meet Sister Dundee
Azusa Age: 22

Every miracle at Azusa Street was a time for
rejoicing. Twenty-four hours a day the Warehouse was
full of people celebrating over the mighty movement of
God as the blind were given sight, the crippled were able
to walk, the sick were made well, and the diseased were
made whole. The thought that God visited us in a barn to
introduce His Son and revisited us through the Shekinah
Glory in a warehouse that was once a stable confounds
the minds of scholars and skeptics. These miracles were
happening in an old, run-down church that had been
abandoned and once used to house animals. By the time
the building was rented for the revival meetings, it wasnt
even fit for animals.
We keep building great temples and cathedrals
with lavish decorations and furnishings, and He keeps
showing up in the most humble of dwellings. Perhaps
there is a lesson here as we watch for the outpouring of
His Spirit and the return of His Shekinah Glory to fall
upon us once again.
For over three years at Azusa, there was much to
rejoice about but nothing more precious than the healing

108
of His little children. What gives us more joy and grateful
hearts than to see a little child restored? A dear Saint of
Azusa, whom I had the honor to know, understood and
experienced such joy over and over again as she was led to
seek out the little children and assist in bringing healing
to their sick or broken bodies.
Sister Dundee had been around Pisgah since the
years of Dr. Yoakum. She even had a grandson, Teddy,
who lived with Brother Smith and his family. While I was
at Pisgah, she remarried. I often thought about her new
husbands devotion to Sister Dundee and how they were
such a beautiful, sweet couple. I also was kind of partial
to him because he would take Teddy and me to eat
breakfast at a lot of the better restaurants. Sister
Dundee was close to 80 years old when I met her. Her
hair, black with a bit of gray, was pulled back into a glory
bun. Italian by birth, Sister Dundee was a very quiet,
sweet woman. She wore gold-rimmed glasses that hung or
slid down to the end of her nose. Like Sister Carney, she
wore those small granny boots with the hooks and eyelets.
She was very healthy for her age and very well spoken.
She had experienced all kinds of miracles at
Azusa, but I would have to coax and pull the stories out of
her. When she was at Azusa, she liked being around
Sister Carney and adored Brother Anderson
relationships that continued at Pisgah. When I went to
her home to hear her stories, her husband would sit on
the floor right next to me, his face beaming. He was just

109
as excited as I was because he couldnt get her to tell him
those stories when they were by themselves.
Sister Dundee began her stories by telling about
the crippled child on crutches, about seven or eight years
old, brought to the meeting by her mother. The child had
normal-sized legs but wore braces and needed crutches to
walk. The child told Sister Dundee that she had been
prayed for before, but nothing had happened to her. Sister
Dundee sat down and talked to her and explained that if
she got healed, it would bring great glory to Jesus. She
told the child, You are supposed to get healed at Azusa.
The little girl listened to her and said, Okay. Pray
for me.
Sister Dundee asked, Has anyone ever taken your
braces off before they prayed for you?
No.
Sister Dundee said, Well, that needs to stop.
Together, they took the braces off the little girl
while she was sitting down, and then Sister Dundee took
the braces and crutches over to the other side of the room
and came back to her. She gently smiled at her and said,
Now, you cant get those back because I wont bring them
back to you, and I will keep your mother busy so she cant
get them for you. Youre just going to have to get healed.
Darling, weve got to glorify Jesus. It would break His
heart if you didnt get healed.
Tears welled up in the little girls eyes as she
almost started to cry. Sister Dundee told her, All that is

110
left for us to do is to start praying and obey Jesus and you
will be healed. Then Jesus will get the glory.
The little girl agreed, and Sister Dundee prayed
for her. Within a few moments, the little girl said that she
felt something in her feetsomething she had never felt
before! Sister Dundee told her to stand up and to start
trying to move her feet. The little girl said, I cant!
Sister Dundee gently responded, You need to
try.
You could see the excitement rise as the little girl
started moving her feet up and down. She looked down and
started doing a dance like a little stomp. Then she started
screaming that she was healed. Sister Dundee turned her
loose, and she went dancing and stomping all over the
warehouse. This time, the little girl was healed.
Sister Dundee loved picking out children and
ministering to themthe younger the child, the better
she liked it. Her next story was the most tender of all the
Azusa stories. She went to a child not yet a year old with
a bow in the neck. The baby would not cry or make any
noise, but the mother said that she could tell that the
baby was in pain. Sister Dundee asked the mother if she
could pray for her baby. When the mother agreed, she
took the child from her, putting the baby blanket over its
head so that the mother couldnt see.
She prayed for the baby, and tried not to get too
excited because she was holding the baby in her arms.
She had to contain herself when the bow started to

111
disappear. She told me that she had to make sure not to
throw a Pentecostal fit.
When the bow straightened out, Sister Dundee
just stood there crying as the baby looked up at her and
smiled. Finally, she heard the mother ask what was
happening. Why are you crying? Is there something
wrong with my baby?
Sister Dundee was standing there loving on the
child as she pulled the blanket back and showed the
smiling, healed baby to her.
I asked, Did you give the baby back to its
mother?
Sister Dundee said, Oh, Lord, no, I couldnt have
caught that mother if I had wanted to. The mother just
went running around rejoicing!
I asked about the father, and she said that the
father wasnt at the meeting, but Sister Dundee had met
him later. The mother took the baby back home and
showed the father his healed baby. Not only did he come
to the revival after that, he got saved and became the
pastor of one of the larger churches in the Los Angeles
area for about 35-plus years.
Sister Dundee also told of a little boy that had to
have his head and his body strapped into his wheelchair
to hold him up. She went over to the boy, and asked his
parents, What is wrong with him?
The parents were not exactly sure. He had some
kind of paralysis but could breathe on his own. She told
them, Well, this is good, for the Lords Name will be

112
glorified, but we cant just pray for him and leave him tied
up here. Sister Dundee started undoing the strap on his
neck and told his parents to hold his body up. After she
got everything loosened, she laid her hands on him and
cried out, In the Name of Jesus Christ, be made perfectly
whole. Sister Dundee said that immediately the boy
jerked and then wanted to get down to play.
I asked, Well, how old was he?
Sister Dundee said, Maybe he was six.
I said, You mean a little bitty kid?
Sister Dundee just smiled and said, Yes, a little
bitty kid. I no longer had gotten the words In the Name of
Jesus out, and he was healed.
Sister Dundee told me that she got to see this boy
many times over the next three years during the revival
and about a year after that. The little boy affectionately
call Sister Dundee Mammy from the time of his healing
up until the last time she saw him.
There were other miracles Sister Dundee participated
insome of them with adults. She too loved the Shekinah
Glory and loved the music that fell on the people as they sang
in the Spirit. She described the music as like a choir from
heaven coming down to join in the singing. She was part of
Azusa almost the entire time the revival lasted. She loved it
all, but nothing compared to the love she felt for the children
in need of a miracle. Throughout her life, including while
she was at Pisgah, God used her to touch the lives of children
with miracles and healings.

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PREPARING FOR THE MIRACULOUS
Meet Brother Fox
Azusa Age: 18

Azusa had global ramifications. Not only did
people come to Azusa from all over the world, many went
back home to their native countries, healed, renewed,
inspired, transformed, and ready to be used of God.
Azusa was a hands-on workshop for the miraculous led by
God Himself. God used this great outpouring not only to
meet immediate needs but also for preparation to serve
Him throughout the world. He brought young people
there to train them for the mission field both at home and
across the world. Men and women alike discovered the
awesome power of God and how to be used of Him to
perform His mighty works.
One such man was Brother Fox. When he was in
his late teenage years, he went to Azusa in preparation to
go to the mission field, or in particular to India and labor
for God. By the time he arrived at Azusa, Ralph Riggs
was about fourteen and C.W. Ward was around sixteen.
For about 18 months, Brother Fox experienced and
participated in the miracles and healings at the
Warehouse. By the time he reached his twentieth

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birthday, he was using what he had learned at Azusa to
bring the mighty life-changing power of God to India.
When I met Brother Fox in 1963, he had just
retired and settled at Pisgah where he renewed his
friendships with many Azusa Saints. He was in his early
seventies, stood around five feet, nine inches tall, and
weighed about 150 pounds. He kept his shiny silver hair
kind of long and combed straight back. His hair was so
shiny that when he got around a light, it would glow. I
had the privilege of riding with him on a trolley from time
to time when he would go and witness to those riding the
cable cars, and in between his witnessing, as we traveled,
I would listen to his stories about India. But, when it
came to stories about Azusa, I went to his apartment,
settled at his feet with my cookies and milk, and listened
intently.
He shared with me that he was awestruck by the
movement of God and how the manifestation of Gods
power varied according to the degree of the manifestation
of the Shekinah Glorythe thicker the cloud, the greater
the miracles. He was also in awe of Brother Seymour.
Fox said that this man had to be a very deep man of God.
Fox was present at the miracle when the mans
arm grew out of the socket. During that experience,
Brother Fox heard from God that he himself would have
miracles like Seymours, but in a foreign countrya word
that proved itself over and over again as Brother Fox
labored in India. Fox took the anointing with him when
he left Azusa, but he could not take with him the

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Shekinah Glory. He explained to me that as far as he
could tell, the Shekinah Glory was unique to the Azusa
Street Revival.
While at Azusa, Brother Fox went around being used
by God to heal everybody he could. He loved to pray for the
deaf and the mute. He would pray for them and whisper in
each ear, You deaf spirit, you come out in the Name of
Jesus. He said he could hear a little pop and whishing
sound as the ear would be healed, then he would go to the
next person and do the same.
If they couldnt talk, he laid hands on their necks.
He said, Im not one of those who would stick my hand
down their mouthsthey might get excited and bite a
finger off. He told me that he prayed in the Name of
Jesus and sometimes they would start talking. Most of
the time though they would have to learn how to talk but
they would start making audible sounds.
Brother Fox remembered a man with his neck
blackened by a cancer that had eaten up his throat
leaving him unable to talk. Fox prayed for him, laying
hands on the lump that protruded from his neck. Looking
down at the blackened area after the prayer, Brother Fox
said, I dont see anything happening; something is wrong
here. He asked the man, Are you believing?
The man nodded his head.
Lets do it again. With those words, Brother Fox
prayed again. This time when he took his hands away,
the blackness and lump were gone. He commanded the
man, Talk!

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The man blurted out, I cant!
Fox said, Say that again.
The man realized that a miracle had taken place,
and he could talk. The cancer was gone, and his throat
was restored. Immediately, the man started rejoicing and
shouting. Brother Fox just stood there being the reserved
gentleman that he was, but you could see the smile as he
stood in awe of the miracle.
God was preparing Brother Fox for great and
mighty works in India. One lesson he was taught by the
Spirit was that you didnt have to heal people one at a
time. He recalled when a sign-language teacher brought
his class of totally deaf people from a school for the deaf to
the meeting.
If you want to teach them to sign why did you
bring them to a place where they would get healed?
Youre going to be out of a job because these people are
going to be healed tonight. Brother Fox took the teacher
by surprise.
The teacher responded with apparent disbelief,
Youre talking like they are all going to get healed.
They are! They all are going to be healed!
Brother Fox spoke, emboldened by Gods Spirit.
This was a group of around 35 deaf people.
Without wavering, Brother Fox gestured and told them
all to join hands and form a circle. He looked at the
teacher, standing nearby, and told the teacher,
Evidently, you dont have much faith, so stand off to the
side.

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Now, Im going to lay hands on this man and start
with him. Immediately, Fox realized that they couldnt
understand a word he was saying, and the teacher was
laughing at him because he too understood that they
couldnt hear him. Without hesitation, Brother Fox
simply whispered in the first mans ear and told the spirit
to come out. The miracle was immediate. As soon as the
once-deaf man could hear, he got excited and when the
others saw his excitement and that he could hear, they
started getting healed one by one like a line of dominoes
in just a few minutes all of them were healed. Fox had
only touched the first man in the circle. From that point
on, God took over and allowed His power to flow through
the connected hands touching each and everyone gathered
in the circle.
I sat and listened to Brother Fox tell his stories
both about Azusa and India and the mighty miracles God
used him to perform. I couldnt help but remember the
words recorded in the Gospel of John.* Jesus told His
disciples, He that believeth on Me, the works that I do
shall he also do; and greater works than these shall he
do
Brother Fox had a strong and mighty belief in the
power of Jesus. He went to Gods workshop and saw with
his very eyes the wonder-working power of God. He was
used of God at Azusa to perform mighty works and took
the lessons he had learned at Azusa and applied them to
his work in India. There the blind found sight, the lame
could walk, the sick found health, and mighty healings

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were commonplace. The Spirit of God worked mightily
through Brother Fox. The only thing he didnt have was
the Shekinah Glory.

*John 14:12


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FOUND FAITHFUL
Meet Sister Goldie
Azusa Age: 18

Moreover is it required in stewards, that a man be
found faithful.* Pauls words are timeless but never
more appropriate than for those touched by God at Azusa.
The parable of talents found in Matthew 25, stresses that
God gives us abilities according to His divine purpose,
and we are to be faithful with what we have been given.
With God, it is not the number of abilities that is
important; it is the use of our God-given abilities that God
rewards.
The abilities of those used by God at Azusa were
diverse. God was preparing some for great and mighty
tasks and others simply to be found faithful day-by-day
using their God-given abilities for His Glory.
Sister Goldie is one of the Azusa Saints who is
worthy of the commendation that she was faithful in her
service to God. You may remember her when we first
started this book, for she was the one used of God to lead
me to know Jesus Christ as my personal Savior. She was
also the one who introduced me to many of the Azusa
Saints residing at Pisgah. In the initial chapters, I told
you about her ministry at Venice Beach and Pisgah. In

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this chapter, I want to share her stories about her days at
Azusa.
Sister Goldie came from Venice Beach to Pisgah
once a month. She always arrived early so she could tell
me her stories. Faithful to the tradition that was common
among the Saints, she brought with her homemade
chocolate chip cookies and cold milk that she had
purchased from Dicks Market after she got off the bus.
With cookies and cold milk in hand, she would walk down
to Pisgah.
The truth is, she spoiled me rotten. She bought
me my first Bible, engraved with my name on it. She
bought me my first dress coat and dress shoes. I was her
little project, and she loved ministering to me. I was
like a son to her; in fact, at times she even referred to me
as her son.
We would meet in the back of the dining hall
where there were couches and chairs. At first, it was just
us, but after a few months, she began to draw an audience
of young people and adults who just wanted to hear her
stories about the mighty works of God. She needed very
little coaxing. One of the main reasons she came to
Pisgah each month was to tell her stories, and she loved
the opportunity to relive those moments she spent serving
God at Azusa.
When she was about 18 years old, she started
attending the Azusa revival in 1908, and attended for
about two years. She was already a Christian and didnt

121
need healing, but she wanted to be a part of what was
happening at Azusa Street.
She got involved with Sister Carney and asked her
how she did what she did. Sister Carney explained that
they were part of a great revival that she and others had
prayed for God to send. Sister Carney further explained
that they worked with the people gathered for the
meeting until Brother Seymour came down. They
continued to minister to the people even while Brother
Seymour had the box on his head. She told Sister Goldie,
Even after he comes down, we have between ten minutes
to an hour while Brother Seymour has the box on his
head. When he takes the box off, you go sit down. Goldie
watched Carney for a few dayswhat she did and how
she did itthen started finding people to bless.
Sister Goldie was drawn to people with obvious
disfigurements. One such young man had a bow in his
arm. He had broken his arm in a ballgame at school
several years prior. For some reason, he never saw a
doctor, and the bones had never been reset. She looked at
the man and said, This is going to be fun.
The young man looked at her and said, Its going
to be what?
Sister Goldie repeated herself, Its going to be
fun. She took his deformed arm in one hand and touched
the bowed bones with her other hand. She looked
straight at the arm and said, I take all authority over
you and I command you in the Name of Jesus, straighten
out! Immediately and miraculously, the arm healed and

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straightenedno noise, no poppingand quietly became
normal.
She was drawn to people who had disfigurements
or ugly growths on their faces and would pray for them.
After the first couple of healings where the growths or
tumors just fell off in her hand, she began to carry towels
with her. Sometimes she had to bandage the area where
the growth had been because the tumors or growths
would come off and leave a wound in the flesh.
Sometimes, the total miracle was not instantaneous. The
tumor would come off, but the complete healing may have
taken hourseven overnight. As she prayed for these
people, the growth, goiter, tumor or whatever would come
off in Sister Goldies hand.
She would seek people out. Most people just
tolerated small growths on their faces and didnt seek
healing, but Sister Goldie had other thoughts. She was
instrumental in healing perhaps 3,000 tumors and facial
growths during the two years she attended the revival
services.
From Azusa to Venice Beach, from 1908 until her
death, this dear Saint was found faithfully serving God
with each and every gift and ability He had entrusted to
her. She has since gone on to be with the Lord, and I am
certain she heard the words, Well done My good and
faithful servant.

*1 Corinthians 4:2

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LIFE BEYOND AZUSA
Meet Brother Brown
Azusa Age: 16

I shall be telling this with a sigh someday ages
and ages hence. Two roads diverged in a yellow wood
So wrote Robert Frost in his famous poem, The Road Not
Taken. Throughout this book, we have shared the
stories of Azusa Saints ages and ages hencesome 60
years later. The Azusa Street Revival ended in 1910. For
a host of possible reasons, the Shekinah Glory leftnever
to return. The effects of Azusa on the lives of those who
were there were as varied as the people themselves.
At least two great denominations, The Assemblies
of God and The Church of God in Christ, were born out of
Azusa by leaders such as Ralph Riggs, C.W. Ward, and
Charles Harrison Mason. We met two men, Brother Fox
and Brother Lake, who went on to serve the Lord in a
powerful way as missionaries to India and South Africa.
Two of these dear Saints went on to establish missions for
the downtrodden and needy. One man traveled
throughout the Midwestern United States leading
revivals and founding churches. There is no question that
for many, life beyond Azusa was but a continuation of
serving God.

124
There were others who just allowed Azusa to be a
footnote in their lives. Once the miracles ceased, and life
got back to the normal and ordinary, Azusa just lived in
faded memories. Then there were others so impressed
with Azusa that life just stopped there. Like Peter on the
Mount of Transfiguration*, who wanted to build three
tabernacles and just stay there with Jesus forever, there
were some Saints who spent the remainder of their lives
just reliving the memories and basking in the glory of
days past when Azusa was alive and well.
I met such a man in 1960. Bill Brown had arrived
and retired at Pisgah just about six months before my
arrival. When I met him, he stood several inches over six
feet, and had a medium build, weighing around 200
pounds. He lived in the dormitory with me and
constantly wanted to talk about Azusain fact that is all
he wanted to talk about. From time to time, we would go
down to the dining hall, and he would be in heaven as
he got a chance to relive his days at Azusa.
At Azusa, Brother Brown loved ministering to
those who were blind. He shared with me that while
there, he was involved in participating in the healing of
over 50 blind people, and each and every time the healing
was instantaneous.
I asked Brother Brown if any particular healing
stood out in his mind, and he shared the story of a woman
whose eyes were totally dark, almost black, with no white
showing anywhere. The whites of her eyes had never
developed, and she had been blind from birth. The reason

125
this miracle stood out in his memory is that when she
opened her eyes after he prayed for her, and she realized
she could see, the lady let out a loud, blood-curdling
scream that caused him to jump back in momentary fear.
When her eyes opened and Brother Brown saw the whites
of her eyes, he was just about ready to start shouting
himself, but her scream was so sudden and unexpected it
caught him by surprise. After the shock wore off, they
both began to rejoice.
All of his miracles were not with the blind. He
participated in miracles for the crippled, deformed, and
those confined to wheelchairs due to illness or physical
disabilities. He recalled one time going up to a man who
was lying on a cot. Brother Brown asked him, Do you
want to be healed? Do you want to take up your cot and
carry it home?
The man looked up and smiled. Yes. His response
was simple, but clear. Brother Bill prayed for him, and
immediately, he got up, folded up his cot, then went
around worshipping God. Before the man left the
meeting, he went back to where he had been confined to
the cot, picked it up, and carried his cot away while
rejoicing that he had been healed.
While Sister Carney and Brothers Ward, Riggs,
and Anderson were running around seeking out people to
minister to, Brother Brown was more subdued. Being
more of a loner, he wandered around looking for blind
people to whom he could minister.

126
That was then. Even after the departure of the
Shekinah Glory, for the next several years, Brother
Brown would return to the Azusa Street Church where
Seymour still preached. He didnt go there with
anticipation of seeing God move mightily, rather he went
back there moping around, saddened by the loss of what
had been. He would sit in the service and weep for the
loss of yesterday.
In 1960, there were no blind people being healed
by Brother Brown. There was no legacy of being used by
God as a minister or missionary. In fact, he had nothing
but regrets. He told me that he had spent a lifetime
remembering Azusa, but never moved on. He would
wistfully tell me that he should have been preaching the
Gospel, or that he should have been a missionary like
Brother Fox, but regretfully, he told me, he had missed
Gods purpose or will for his life. For over fifty years, he
lived in the past, sitting around daydreaming about the
yesteryears of Azusa. Wasted years!
Now retired with his productive years behind him,
he settled among the Saints of Azusa where he could
share his stories with those who would understand and
welcome his additions to the Azusa legacy. But when he
wasnt sharing his past, he was sad, if not miserable.
Somehow, yesterday doesnt fulfill todays cravings to
experience God in a fresh and vital way.
Often, I would leave my meeting with Brother
Brown with mixed emotions. I shared his joy of Azusa,
but I felt helpless when faced with the sadness of this

127
dear brother. How could one who had been used of God to
heal so many who were blind, have been so blind?

*Matthew 17:4

__________________________

MAY WE SEEK AND EXPERIENCE GOD DAILY

My prayer for all of us is, Dear Lord, dont let me miss
You! Use me everyday in a mighty way. Let me feel Your
Presence and Your fresh renewal each and every day of
my life. I thank You for the memories of yesterday, but I
need to experience You today and expect great things
from You tomorrow. Yesterday is gone, but today and
tomorrow I live in expectation of a new and wonderful
outpouring of Your Mighty Spirit all around me. Amen!


128


129

Discover the Azusa Code

Prophecies made during the Azusa Visitation of
God at the beginning of the twentieth century tell us that
100 years after Azusa, God will once again visit us
sometime between 2009-2010, depending on exactly when
this prophesy was made. Although we dont know the
exact date, God does, and He will be on time. From all
that we can discern, the year of 2008 is the year of
preparation! We who hunger for His return and the
return of the Shekinah Glory must prepare the way.
What are we to be doing? The Azusa outpouring gives
us the blueprint for preparing for His Visitation just prior
to the Second Coming of His dear Son.

The Uniqueness of Azusa
The dawning of the twentieth century ushered in an
event that was so powerful that it changed the course of
Christianity. In 1906, God actually, physically, took up
residence at 312 Azusa Street in Los Angeles, California.
This was the first time since the Wilderness Wanderings
of the Israelites that God had a physical address here on
earth. Then His address was the Tabernacle in care of
Moses, in 1906-1910 His address was Azusa Street!

130
Since the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ and
Pentecost, the most significant, most influential, life-
transforming event in the life of Christianity was The
Azusa Visitation beginning in 1906. Approximately 2000
years prior, Jesus was born, cradled in a lowly stable and
publicly God dwelt among us in the form of His Son for
about three and one-half years. In 1906, God chose to
visit us publicly and chose a stablean old Methodist
church that had been converted to a stableto cradle His
visitation for about three and one-half years.
Azusa was a planned, well-orchestrated work of
God brought to fulfillment when all the pieces were in
place, and at least a small group of people were prepared
to host His visitation. God reintroduced His mighty
powerpower that is available to anyone willing to
surrender to the Spirit that dwells within. For over three
years, God performed miracle after miracle and healing
after healing as people entered into His holy presence.
Heaven truly came down and thousands who came into
His presence experienced His glory.

THE AZUSA CODE
There is much about Azusa that will remain a
mystery, but there is much we do knowespecially about
what was going on in Los Angeles that both prepared the
way and created the spiritual environment where God
could dwell for over three years. There is much about

131
Azusa that suggests that there were certain behaviors,
disciples, and desires that were significant.
As we study the stories, we discover a code. A code
is simply a systematic collection of rules of procedures or
conduct. Azusa is more than an historical event to be
celebrated every 100 years. Azusa was Gods blueprint
for constructing the elements necessary before His
visitation and dwelling among His creation. Within the
experiences of Azusa is a collection of procedures or
conduct that was critical to the event of Azusa. In fact,
the Azusa Code resembles a code given to the Children
of Israel in II Chronicles 7:14. Read the words that God
spoke to Solomon after the building of the temple:
If my people, which are called by my name
shall humble [humility] themselves and pray
[prayer], and seek my face [obedience], and turn
from their wicked ways [purity]; then will I hear
from heaven [exectation], and will forgive their sin,
and will heal their land. (Italics added)
This is a code. Note that there are a collection of
procedures or conduct that when practiced will bring
about desired results.
Not only was there a specific Azusa Code, it is the
exact code spoken in II Chronicles 7:14. Those involved in
the Azusa Experience did not copy this code from II
Chronicles. Nobody was preaching this code for people to
follow. In fact the code only becomes noticeable by

132
overlaying the Azusa Experience over the code given to
Solomon.

Heaven Came Down
Miracles and healings abounded at Azusa, but if
you focus on the miracles and healings you will miss the
most important aspect of Azusa. Miracles and healings
were the signs of a far greater wonder that was taking
place at Azusa. Spiritual gifts were in abundance during
the days of Azusa, but if you focus on the gifts you miss
the greatest gift ever bestowed on man since the
incarnation and sacrificial life and death of Christ.
Azusa was a time when the Shekinah Glory came
down and manifested itself for over three years at 312
Azusa Street. Shekinah Glory is the physical
manifestation of the elements that form the sanctuary
that houses the very presence of God. This was the
uniqueness of Azusa. This is what makes Azusa different
from other great revivals and movements.
Using the foolish and common to confound the
skeptics and the scoffers, God Himself intersected history
once again in a most unexpected manner. God pitched his
tent and dwelt among us. Allow me to introduce you to
the AZUSA CODE


133

GODS FORMULA HASNT CHANGED
H.O.P2.E. For the Outpouring of Gods Presence

Azusa has often been imitated but never
duplicated. God has a formula and a timetable that is His
and His alone.
In about 1910, William Seymour prophesied that God
would visit His people in about a hundred years. Now that
the hundred years are upon us, there is anticipation that we
will soon experience the Shekinah Glory like the Azusa
Saints at the turn of the twentieth century. This will only
happen if Gods people follow Gods formula. Thousands of
years ago, God told His people that if they would humble
themselves and pray and seek His face and turn from their
wicked ways, then He would hear their prayers and forgive
their sins and heal their land (2Chr 7:14).
Azusa showed us this formula in action. This great
outpouring can be summarized by five basic
characteristics: Humility, Obedience, Prayer and Purity,
and Expectationthe foundation of 2 Chronicles 7:14.
These five requirements spell out the acrostic H.O.P2.E.,
and indeed within these requirements is our HOPE for
Gods outpouring of His Presence on His people.
Humility is Gods style. Remember the stable that
was used at Bethlehem? Remember the stable that was

134
used at Azusa? Remember the box over Brother
Seymours head?
Obedience was obvious. Those involved in
ushering in this manifestation of Gods Mighty Presence
sought His face and truly turned from their wicked ways.
There was a holiness at Azusa where people lived in strict
obedience to Gods commandment to love one another and
to love God with all their heart.
Prayer was vital to Gods visitation. Men and
women had gathered months and years on their knees in
fervent prayer, earnestly imploring God to send renewal
and revival.
Purity is mandatory within the presence of God.
Purity manifests love that is the environment in which
God chooses to dwell.
Expectations were high. These men and women
believed in their prayers. They were persistent and prayed in
one accord, believing that God would hear the prayers of His
Saints who in purity of heart and thought, totally
surrendered to His Lordship. They prayed without ceasing
and without doubt that soon they would experience the
desires of their hearts.
Hope! Azusa is our anchor. We know God is listening
and waiting to fall fresh on His people and His creation once
again. He will come again and visit us before it is all over.
We will see God in a Cloud of Glorythe Shekinah Glory
come and dwell among us. We will see His Mighty Spirit,
clothed in fire, fall on us, exulting the Power of God. This is
our HOPE, and steadfastly we hold to these beliefs.

135

DEAR LORD, USE US!
We know the time draws near for Your return.
Someday soon, You will come in might and splendor. We
know that someday soon every knee shall bow and confess
You as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, triumphant in
Your mission to bring redemption to creation.
We believe that soon, before Your final appearance
as conquering King, we will again be honored by a great
and might visitation and outpouring of Your Spirit. We
believe that Azusa was but a foreshadowing of what will
come just prior to the final days. As we seek to make
ourselves worthy, hear the prayers of our hearts. Convict
us of our sins as we seek Your face and turn from any
wickedness that would separate us from You.
Isaiah captures our hearts. We are all as an
unclean thing, and all our righteousness is as filthy
ragsbut now, O Lord, thou art our father; we are the
clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy
hand.
Use us, as we humble ourselves, and fervently
pray, and seek Your face and turn from our wicked ways,
use us to usher in Your Visitation. Amen


136
DOES GOD WANT TO TOUCH YOUR LIFE?
If you have been touched by these stories and want to
make Jesus Christ your personal Savior, all God
requires is:

1. You Acknowledge you have sinned
We are told, All have sinned and come short of the
Glory of God (Romans 3:23).
2. You Believe and Confess that Jesus Christ is
the Son of God who came to save you from
your sin
Paul tells us, If you will confess with your mouth
the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God
raised Him from the dead, you will be saved
(Romans 10:9).

If you desire to make Jesus your Lord and Savior,
simply pray a prayer such as this:

Dear Jesus, I confess I am a sinner in need of
your saving grace. Forgive me of my sins, and come into
my heart as my Lord and Savior. Thank you for hearing
my prayer and giving me everlasting life.

If you just prayed that prayer, then welcome to the family
of God! If you want to know more about your new life in
Christ or more about the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and
the Gifts these stories talk about, please contact us at
Faith Family Church. You can contact Pastors Paul and
Samantha Roach by calling: 1-800-611-4909.

137

To Order Additional Books

You can order individual copies by
Going to azusastories.com,
Contacting Dare2dream Books at 405-642-8257,
Or by contacting Billye Brim Ministries at
417-336-4877

Bookstores, Ministries, and Church Groups
can order in bulk:
20-99: $9 each s/h included
100+: $7.30 each s/h included
Call Dr. Jim Morris
405-642-8257
0r go to azusastories.com

To get in touch with Bro. Tommy call
405-410-9201

To get in touch with Dr. Morris
Email at [email protected]
Call: 405-642-8257

To get in touch with Cindy McCowan
Call 405-473-0704

Copyright 2010
Revised edition
Concerning the copyright of this book
Tommy Welchel chose to be known as the storyteller. He is
responsible for all the facts used to create each story. For several
weeks Tom met with Dr. Morris and Cindy McCowan and
tirelessly shared every fact he could remember about each
character. Although he chose not to be named as the author of
the book, he is indeed the author of each fact recorded.
Dr. Morris and Cindy McCowan choose to simply be known as the
ones who captured the stories into print, taking the facts
presented by Bro. Tommy and crafting them into the stories
within this book, writing each word under the leadership of the
Holy Spirit. They claim no ownership to the stories. According to
them, they were simply a vehicle God used to write the stories led
by the Holy Spirit, staying true to the essence of each story
preserved for forty years in the heart and soul of Bro. Tommy.
The copyright protects both the facts as shared by Bro. Tommy as
well as the work of Dr. Morris and Cindy McCowan as they
collaboratively worked together under the leadership of the Holy
Spirit. As co-authors of this great work, they all three give the
credit for the final product to God, and give Him the glory.
Ownership belongs to God and God alone.

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From the Foreword by Billye Brim

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