To India with Love

To India with Love, by Mabel Hicok Snyder and compiled and edited by Jean Snyder. Springfield, MO: Jean Snyder, 2007.

Mabel Hicok Snyder has witnessed the growth of the worldwide Pentecostal movement firsthand. Her family began attending a Pentecostal church in the Detroit, Michigan area in the early 1920s. Soon after her Spirit baptism in 1924 at age 16, she felt a calling to serve as a missionary to India. After graduating from T. K. Leonard’s West Park Bible School in Findlay, Ohio, she set sail for India in November 1929. She and her husband Emery — whom she married in 1936 — spent the next four decades as Assemblies of God missionaries to India, working primarily in Kurebhar.

Now 99 years old, Snyder — with the help of her daughter-in-law — has written her memoirs. To India with Love is a careful retelling of the story of the lives and ministries of one missionary family. Readers will appreciate the numerous faith-building missionary stories, such as the rescue of a girl who was raised by wolves. Approximately 45 of the book’s 60 richly-illustrated pages detail the Snyders’ work in India. This book will be of interest to those who counted the Snyders as family and friends, and also to those who wish to better understand the development of the Assemblies of God in India.

Reviewed by Darrin Rodgers

Paperback, 60 pages, illustrated. $10, plus $2 shipping. Order from: Jean Snyder, 1415 E. Buena Vista St., Springfield, MO 65804 (phone: 417-887-0345)

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Biography, History, Pentecostal, Assemblies of God, Missions, India, Kurebhar, Mabel Hicok Snyder, Book Review
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My Journey: An Autobiography of Dr. Lula Baird

My Journey: An Autobiography of Dr. Lula Baird, by Lula Baird. Turlock, CA: The Author, 2004.

Lula Baird is part of, to use Tom Brokaw’s words, “The Greatest Generation.” Lula — along with thousands of other mostly unheralded men and women who were born in the first two decades of the twentieth century — built the Assemblies of God. Born in 1908 in Utah to a family of Mormon lineage, few could have imagined that Lula Ashmore Baird would serve as a leader in the emerging Pentecostal movement. But she did — serving as an Assemblies of God missionary and pastor to the Chinese people in Asia, Cuba, and the United States.

A Desk for Billie

A Desk for Billie. Film produced by the National Education Association, 1956. Rereleased on DVD, 2007.

Dr. Billie Davis, one of the best-known educators in the Assemblies of God, started life in the hopyards of Oregon. She spent her childhood during the Great Depression of the 1930s traversing across America with her parents, who were migrant farm workers. They were “homeless” before the term became fashionable. They lived and traveled in a battered Model A Ford with a makeshift wooden frame constructed on the back to provide shelter. She describes herself as a child as “a small ragged hobo” who would “[sit] on the ground beside a campfire, hungrily licking the fishy oil from the lid of a sardine can” while studying her school lessons.

Testimonies of Signs and Wonders

Testimonies of Signs and Wonders: Evangelistic Crusades of Maria Beulah Woodworth-Etter in Moline, Rock Island, Illinois and Davenport, Iowa in the Years 1902-1903-1907, or Redigging the Wells of Holy Spirit Renewal: Our Forgotten Heritage in the Quad Cities, compiled by Kenneth Richard Kline-Walczak. Revised version. Davenport, IA: The Author, 2006.

Maria Woodworth-Etter, among the most prominent of the healing evangelists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, became one of the best known Holiness preachers to embrace Pentecostalism. Her popularity was due in large part to her practice of faith healing and other charismatic gifts, which began occuring in her meetings in about 1885. Her ministry attracted large crowds, fierce detractors and fervent supporters, as well as widespread coverage in newspapers from coast to coast. Newspaper editors, who often deemed the excitement and large crowds sparked by the woman evangelist to be worthy of critique, helped to spread her fame. The standard biography of Woodworth-Etter, Maria Woodworth-Etter, For Such a Time as This (Bridge-Logos, 2005), was authored by former Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center Director Wayne E. Warner.

Now Kenneth Kline-Walczak has cataloged Woodworth-Etter’s influence in one corner of the world — the Quad Cities on the Iowa-Illinois border. His book consists largely of an impressive collection of articles (1884-1907) about Woodworth-Etter from regional newspapers, assembled in chronological order and reprinted for the purpose of introducing the region’s readers to its Pentecostal past. The compiler also includes a helpful guide to the people and places mentioned in the articles. Kline-Walczak’s detailed research will aid not only historians, but also people in the Quad Cities as they seek to recover the sacred stories of God’s work among them in previous generations.

Reviewed by Darrin Rodgers

Paperback, xxvi, 194 pages, illustrated. $20, plus $4.00 shipping. Order from: Griggs Music, c/o Ken Kline, 3849 Brady Street, Davenport, IA 52806 (email: woodworth65@yahoo.com ; phone: 563-210-3282).

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Evangelists, Biography, History, Maria Woodworth-Etter, Pentecostal, Healing, Quad Cities, Book Review
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Uldine Utley: Why I am a Preacher

Uldine Utley: Why I am a Preacher, compiled by T. J. Lavigne. Kissimmee, FL: Cloud of Witnesses Publishing Co., 2006.

Ted Lavigne has developed a passion for discovering and researching child evangelists and their unique role in presenting the gospel. To my knowledge, this topic of child evangelists has never been discussed in a book or dissertation. This makes his research all the more important. It is significant that just as child preachers of yesteryear filled a vital role in communicating the gospel, there are still child evangelists today in the U.S. and abroad. You will be blessed by reading some of their stories.

In this volume, which is the opening text in a child and teen preacher series, he focuses on the life of a well-known girl evangelist, Uldine Utley. She preached in Madison Square Garden in 1926 at the age of 14 and ministered other places across the U.S. She was also featured in American Magazine, the Boston Sunday Post, the New York Times and many other publications.

Lavigne includes a timeline of significant events concerning her ministry, rare photographs, an extensive bibliography, and interesting bits of information about Utley and her family that previously were unpublished. This book includes excerpts from Uldine Utley’s book, Why I am a Preacher: A Plain Answer to an Oft-repeated Question (1931), and from her Petals from the Rose of Sharon newsletters, with related information about some key evangelists connected with her ministry.

The serious reader of church history will be delighted and inspired by the testimony of this girl evangelist and will look forward to additional volumes in this series.

Reviewed by Glenn Gohr

Paperback, 149 pages (8.5×11 in.), illustrated. $29.95, plus $6.00 shipping. Order from: Cloud of Witnesses Products.

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Evangelists, Ministry, Pentecostal, Book Review
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PAON View of Divorce and Remarriage

The Pentecostal Assemblies of Newfoundland View of Divorce and Remarriage, by Rick Walston and Clarence Buckle. St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada: Good Tidings Press, 2006.

Rick Walston and Clarence Buckle have collaborated to present a view of divorce and remarriage that will serve as a guiding document for the Pentecostal Assemblies of Newfoundland. It is part of a teaching resource for churches. Dr. Walston is president of Columbia Evangelical Seminary, a distance-learning school. Pastor Clarence Buckle is the General Secretary of the PAON.

The book is a tightly written document consisting of eight chapters. The arguments are concise and to the point. The first two chapters introduce and define the issues of marriage and divorce. Chapters three and four summarize the material on divorce from the writings of Paul and the Gospels. Chapters five and six deal with the restrictions and exceptions as related to the remarriage issue. Chapter seven is a discussion of how the matter of divorce and remarriage impacts ministry and membership in the denomination’s assemblies.

The authors are seeking to help people steer a course between the conflicting views on marriage and divorce prevalent in our culture and to determine the biblical principles and scriptural basis for effective pastoral care as it relates to this matter. They have accomplished their task admirably. I expect the book to be well received.

Reviewed by Dr. Garry E. Milley, Lead Pastor, Park Avenue Pentecostal Church, Mount Pearl, Newfoundland, Canada

Paperback, 84 pages. $6.99 retail, plus tax and postage. Order from: Religious Book & Bible House, 57 Thorburn Road, P.O. Box 8895, Station “A,” St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada A1B 3T2 (email: BackRoom@paon.nf.ca), or Religious Book & Bible House, 10 Hardy Avenue, P.O. Box 558, Grand Falls-Windsor, Newfoundland, Canada A2A 2J9 (email: rbbh@bookandbiblehouse.com).

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Ethics, Theology, Culture, Divorce, Marriage, Remarriage, Book Review
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