Oral Roberts
Granville Oral Roberts was born January 24, 1918 in Pontotoc County, near Ada, in Oklahoma. His parents were deeply religious. His father was a farmer who also preached the gospel and established Pentecostal Holiness churches. His mother regularly prayed for the sick and led people to Christ. While she was still pregnant, Robert’s mother committed…
Read MorePhoebe Palmer
After languishing in obscurity for many years, the work of Phoebe Palmer (1807-1874) has been rediscovered by church historians and scholars. Although virtually unknown today, Palmer was a widely-recognized religious figure in her day—a woman whose concern for the holy life enabled her to transcend the limitations of both gender and denominational affiliation. As a…
Read MoreJohn Chacha
Born and raised in Tanzania, poverty was prevalent all around him and he yearned for something more. In 1979, Dr. Chacha received a sponsorship to go to the United States for Bible School. After completing Bible School and college, he went back to Kenya and Tanzania to seek the Lord and there he received a…
Read MoreBilly Graham
Billy Graham passed away February 21st, 2018 at the age of 99. His impact reverberates everywhere. The numbers are simply astounding: 215 million people make up his total audience with more than 3 million becoming born again Christians in his seven decades of ministry. His 400 crusades were given all over the world, in more than 80…
Read MoreRobert Pierce
Robert “Bob” Pierce (1914-1978), relief worker, para-church administrator, founder of World Vision and Samaritan’s Purse, was born in Fort Dodge, Iowa but his family moved to southern California in the mid-1920s. He attended Pasadena Nazarene College and studied for the ministry. In 1937 Pierce took the road as a traveling evangelist in California. In 1940…
Read MoreCharles E. Fuller
Charles Fuller’s call to Gospel ministry began with hearing Ephesians 1:8, preached by Paul Rader in 1917. “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened,” Paul writes, “in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people.” After that day…
Read MoreFrank Buchman
When Frank Buchman issued his call for a rededication to Christian values in May 1939, Europe was only months away from the explosive outbreak of the Second World War. That spring, however, Buchman was one of the nation’s most popular and influential religious evangelists. His call for a “moral re-armament,” which was also the name…
Read MoreWilliam Seymour
William Joseph Seymour was born May 2, 1870 in Centerville, Louisiana to Simon and Phillis Seymour. His parents had been slaves prior to the Civil War. Seymour was the oldest of ten children, but only three lived to adulthood. Information about Seymour’s early years is generally sketchy. The family’s religious affiliation appears to have been…
Read MoreBilly Sunday
Billy Sunday (1862-1935), evangelist. Born near Ames, Iowa the son of a tenant farmer and wife, he spent most of his teen years in an orphanage and working as a hired farm laborer. A superb baseball player with lightning speed he was signed to a contract with the Chicago White Stockings (today’s Chicago Cubs) in…
Read MoreLottie Moon
It is said that Charlotte Digges Moon (Lottie, for short), born December 12th, 1840, was a precocious child, somewhat unruly, and irreverent. Many prayed for her salvation, but she was a scoffer. Later, after a series of revival meetings, she decided to seriously consider Christianity. Shortly after her 18th birthday, she received Jesus as her Savior…
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