A Wonderful Childhood Memory

On Monday, I received the latest issue of Heritage magazine. It is an Assemblies of God publication that chronicles the history of the Assemblies of God and the Pentecostal movement. The first two articles in this issue were accounts of the early Hispanic Pentecostal movement in the United States, particularly in the Southwest. I read these articles with great interest because my grandfather was a pioneer pastor in the Spanish speaking Assemblies of God and I attended his church in San Jose, California until age 15. It was fun to see pictures of people that I knew, including one of my uncle's graduation from Bible College in 1940. I knew many of these people because they were friends and contemporaries of my grandparents and they hosted many people over the years in their San Jose home. When I was old enough to go places with my grandfather, I would attend many ministerial meetings and events with him. I think I became his shadow. One of the great times every summer was going over to Bethany University (then Bethany Bible College) for the Spanish District Council. It was great to run around with kids from all over the western part of the United States while our parents and grandparents attended the various church services and business meetings.

After reading the articles, I was reminiscing about memories from my Spanish church days. One incident from the 1950s stands out in particular. One of the stops that Oral Roberts made with his huge 75,000 seat tent was at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds in San Jose. The organizers had met with all of the ministerial associations in the city to gather support for the crusade. The "reward" for the leaders of each group was that they could sit on the platform for one of the healing crusade services. Since my grandfather was a Spanish Assemblies of God leader at the time, one of those nights, he and his fellow leaders were ushered to the platform for a unique perspective of the crusade service. Since I went everywhere with him, there I was, a child, sitting among the Spanish ministers, watching the power of God in action. I do not remember anything about the service. I can't remember any of the music, the preaching, or any other aspect. I do remember the healing line. At the end of the platform there was a ramp that started on the right side of the platform and came up to the platform height just about the center of it. Oral Roberts sat in a chair at the top of the ramp and people lined up, to a child it looked like blocks, to get prayed for. After awhile, wheel chairs, braces and crutches started to accumulate on the stage. Even now, if I close my eyes and think about that evening, I can see every detail in my mind. The opportunity to experience God's power in action from about 20 feet away will always be with me. This experience has fueled a life long desire to see God supernatural manifest Himself in the lives of His people. I hope I never lose that desire.