I confess that recently I had begun to think negative thoughts about the future of our Assemblies of God movement. I was looking back at the glory of our “old temple”. I even was thinking maybe the Lord will have to start over with another group who are willing to seek God on their faces until the fire falls. After hearing Supt. Dr. George Wood's message tonight my hopes were raised. I am convinced that there is still hope for the Assemblies of God. Brother Wood gave us a clarion call back to the moving of the Holy Spirit.
He took the little book of Haggai as his text. Haggai was given the task by God to stir up His people to complete the task that they had begun. 18 years had passed since work had stopped on the temple and only the foundation had been laid. Delay, Discouragement and Defilement set in. But Haggai knew that he had a message from God Almighty and He was calling them to quit looking at the past, at how great the first temple was, or even on the present depressed situation, but to focus on the future. The fourth D was Destiny. We are called to lift our eyes and know that if we focus on the future with Holy Spirit anointed leadership, anointed preaching and anointed ministry we will become a people of Destiny.
He closed with the touching story of John and Cuba Hall, missionaries to Africa. He told how He, when visiting Africa, found in a cemetery a marker with the name “Billie Hall 6 months.” Later he happened to see Cuba Hall and asked her if that was their baby. With tears in her eyes she told the story of their beautiful firstborn boy who was so sickly. They prayed fervently for his healing. And they heard the African Christians discussing if God would hear their prayer and heal little Billie. The Africans wondered how the missionaries would react if he died. Would they pack up and leave? In the extreme heat and unhealthy environment and far from doctors… their firstborn, little Billie died at only six months.
They packed his body in ice to carry him the four hours to the city to bury him in a cemetery. They refused to become bitter and accepted his death as God’s will. And this fact became a major factor in opening the doors of the people’s hearts… because the fact was that most of the mothers there had lost at least one child in infancy. Little Billie’s death allowed them to identify with them in a way nothing else could have provided. The Halls translated the New Testament into the Mossi language and spearheaded the translation of the Old Testament. John personally typed the entire Bible in Mossi on mimeograph stencils six times! When he finished mimeographing a book of the Bible they would have pastors with their bicycles lined up at the door ready to take those sheets and pedal out to distant places to preach that Word. Today the Assemblies of God have almost one million faithful believers in a country of only 16 million!
At the close he called us to our knees and many of us hurried forward for a time of fresh dedication.
Sorry, I did not intend to give so much detail, but there you have it.
Ralph
