A Work of Righteousness - 1994

Going Into the Cities

O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God! Isaiah 40:9 

Meeting Lester Sumrall. After being on LeSEA broadcasting for a couple of years, Lester Sumrall’s office called the ministry and told us Dr. Sumrall would like to come visit our church. I told them, to their surprise, I would pray about it and call them back. I accepted with a returned call about six hours later. He came for a Wednesday night service. He flew into the Addison Airport and I went to pick him up. I had never met Lester and God told me to give him a $10,000 check at the airport. I said to him, “This should make it easier for you to obey God.” The man who scheduled his meetings was traveling with him. As we were driving toward Plano he asked me what I did before I started preaching. I answered I was a practicing veterinarian. He replied, “Just like Dr. George Jackson from Murfreesboro, Tennessee.” I said, “Yes, he is my brother-in-law.”

After the service Lester Sumrall, his scheduler, Terry Mai and I talked for about an hour and a half over sandwiches at Denny’s.

The next morning Dr. Sumrall introduced me to a man in Garland named Reed. Reed was buying Lester a shipload of rice. Lester said to Reed, “I have met a lot of preachers but this is one of the most unusual I have ever met.” I didn’t realize at the time what Lester was saying. This man knew Smith Wigglesworth and Howard Carter.

I knew when I met Lester Sumrall and fellowshipped with him that he had a right spirit. While Lester was here I was his transportation. As we were driving with his Crusade Scheduler, I said to him, “Lester, I want to tell you something, you are different than any other Charismatic Preacher I have met.” We had a mutual respect in the Spirit.

The Beginning of the Crusades. God directed me to go to the Holiday Inn in Joplin, Missouri and do a Crusade. We scheduled a three day seminar for July 14th–16th. I spoke for the three evenings and we had special music by Terry and Kathy Mai. We all drove to the hotel from Texas.

We were not yet known by the hotel management, and on Saturday they scheduled a wedding in the adjacent room to us with a live band, drums and all, right next to the wall of our room. My mother, dad and a couple of my sisters were there. As I was teaching the band started up with those drums, just “boom boom boom!” I just kept on teaching. God was trying to show my family I was not easily removed from His purposes. After about thirty minutes of that band playing, I said, “Let’s bring Terry Mai up to minister a special song and let’s see if he can quiet the neighbors.” Those that knew Terry knew he had a powerful voice. I forgot the song but I never forgot the results; the wedding party was quiet the rest of the evening and the hotel management got the message. They gained a lot of respect for our ministry.

The next city God directed me to have a Crusade was Tulsa, Oklahoma. We booked a meeting room from the Hilton Hotel for July 28th – 30th. The hotel at that time was owned by Oral Roberts University, it was located right across from the famous Praying Hands. During my speaking I reiterated what God had shown me earlier, that the Word People were full of covetousness and idolatry.

There was a gentleman that attended every meeting sitting on my right, next to the wall. I could tell in my spirit he was a preacher. On Saturday morning he walked out of the room with me. As we walked this man said to me, “Could you be wrong about Brother Hagin being full of covetousness and idolatry?” I said, “No sir, God told me that.” The man asserted, “Brother Hagin is a good man!” I replied, “Jesus said there is none good, only God (Matthew 19:17).” He repeated the same again, “Brother Hagin is a good man!” My reply was the same, “Jesus said there is none good, only God.” He repeated it yet a third time, my reply was the same. He then remarked, “What if I call you good?” I replied was the same again, “There is none good, only God.” He couldn’t stop, “I’ll say this, both you and Brother Hagin have a kind heart!” I said again, “There is none good, only God!” I found out later that he had graduated from Rhema Bible Training Center fifteen years earlier.

I was on television in Tulsa for sixteen years, first on LeSEA Channel 47 with a one hour program on Sunday night and then on FOX TV Channel 23, with a five one-hour programs five days a week. We had our first meeting in Tulsa this year in July. Those meetings continued in Tulsa and Broken Arrow until March of 2010. When I think how God sent me to speak to Tulsa with all these meetings and on television, my heart grieves because they did not know the time of their visitation. God has moved me out of Tulsa and Broken Arrow and as Matthew 10 states:

14 And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet.

15 Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city.

I was removed from KODE Channel 12 in Joplin by their management in 2007, after 15 years of television. Joplin was hit by a devastating tornado on May 22, 2011.

Our third crusade was in South Bend Indiana on August 11th –13th at the South Bend Marriott. We flew to South Bend through Chicago. This was the first meeting that we served a breakfast paid for by Water of Life Ministries. There were about 175 people there for the meal. It was the beginning of serving a breakfast or meal at every Crusade. We did this for several years.

We went on to conduct meetings in Joplin Missouri, Tulsa Oklahoma, South Bend Indiana, Houston Texas, Anaheim California, and various other places in the United States. From those meetings, Water of Life Churches were established in Indiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, and Plantersville, Texas.

Terry Mai completed his first production of a recording tape and began distributing them free of charge. The special music tape, “Ministering in the Spirit” was released in November.

Water of Life expanded our weekly television ministry to include New Orleans, Louisiana.

Overcoming the Station Formats. Television stations began pressuring me to change my one-hour format to a thirty-minute program. They said the hour long programs were coming to an end and there would no longer be room for our longer broadcast. In trying to accommodate their wishes I began a 30-minute daily television program on November 14 in Dallas, Tulsa, Oklahoma City, South Bend, Indianapolis, Kenosha, Grand Rapids, Honolulu, New Orleans, and Denver, as well as on satellite and short-wave radio. The program lasted for only eight weeks. I overcame that spirit and dropped the thirty-minute programs and continued on with the hour-long format for the rest of our television programming.

All the Apostles on Radio. We expanded the radio ministry to include the other seven Water of Life Apostles. Ralph Edge and Terry Mai broadened out to include Europe short-wave radio on November 14. Beginning November 12, the other apostles began broadcasting on KPBC 770 in Dallas. They were Randy Brooks, Dwyane Jackson, Wally Edge, Jim Horton, Basil Clark, Bob Buckner, and Steve Brown.

Christmas Dinner at El Chico. Water of Life Ministries in cooperation with El Chico Restaurant in Plano provided a complete turkey dinner of the needy, homeless, handicapped, and travelers on Christmas Day. With donated and purchased food there was enough to feed up to 2,400 people. Allowing for what the 150 volunteers that ate, somewhere between 2,150 and 2,200 people enjoyed the dinner at the restaurant or took food home.

Water of Life Ministries purchased 60 coats and 60 pairs of shoes for children at Dobie Primary School in Richardson, Texas in December.

We stopped ministering in nursing homes but continued the jail ministry.

The Mission distributed $66,800 of food for the year.

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