The Teen "Faith" Healer

There was a rumor told by some in those early years, that if you took Dr. Wierwille's Advanced class that you could become a faith healer. I never really knew if my parents believed it or not but a few events led me to suspect that they did. That's a rather high expectation of a 15 year old country boy. But I can't otherwise explain what happened in Adrian Michigan in the fall of 1962.

My father was always interested in spiritual things, much more than any of his siblings. He was the only one of six children to pursue teachers of the Bible, evangelists and others in his quest for Biblical and spiritual knowledge. When he found new insight he was also eager to share it.

I think this must have been his motivation to take PFAL. We continued to attend church. Dad was church song leader, Sunday School teacher and I became president of our Youth Group in 1962. Dad endeavored to share his foundational class knowledge in his Sunday School classes and I at the Sunday night Youth Group meetings. One of the Youth Group became a grad and remains, to this day, Dad's closest friend and helper.

During the Spring of 1962 an evangelist, Rev. Doug Heinz, came to our church for revival meetings. (I had not yet attended the Way Summer School.) Dad got real excited about him because instead of the usual emotional pleas to come to the alter, he set up a drawing stand in the front of the church and began to teach foundational Bible with illustrations. Dad said it was the closest thing to Dr. Wierwille's foundational class he had ever seen in the church.

In the Fall of 1962, Dad wanted to see Rev. Heinz, the evangelist who taught so well in our church. Now that I had taken PFAL foundational and advanced, I could appreciate Dad's enthusiasm for the man's ministry. Dad contacted our preacher for his address and found that he had a church in Adrian Mich. Wow, that was only about a forty five minute drive. Dad phoned ahead and set up a Sunday to visit not many weeks away. Dad had to get coverage for song leading and his Sunday School class. When the appointed Sunday arrived we all got into Dad's 1958 Rambler and headed for a Sunday night service in Adrian with Rev. Heinz. His directions were good and we found the church with no trouble but Rev. Heinz was not there. The church had split up that week and another man was now the preacher. Whoops! What kind of mess is this? We were directed to the home of one of the former Sunday school teachers where we found Rev. Heinz, his family and most of the Sunday school teachers and a few others from his former church, gathered for a meeting. All in all a group of well over a dozen people.

It seems the church had split due to Rev. Heinz's teachings, not what he taught but that he had special teaching sessions for his Sunday school teachers. The church became jealous of this special attention to some but not all the people. They were jealous that he taught holy spirit to only a few, so they ousted him. Just like that. That's the way his teenage daughter explained it to me. Worse, Doug had an appointment with a Bible society about a job in the morning and he really needed to go home and pack for the trip.

Surprise! He asked Dad to teach in his place instead of anyone in his own congregation! Dad agreed without any hesitation or preparation. Dad was always ready to teach Bible. So the meeting came to order with a few songs and a prayer time. Then Dad began to teach Bible. The group was very pleased with him and his message. It was similar to listening to their own preacher. They invited Dad to come back next week and teach a Sunday night service.

The following week Dad did his song leading and teaching at the Missionary Church in the morning. In the afternoon we all piled into the Rambler to head to Adrian to do the evening service. This was a real adventure for a teenage advanced class grad. Outreach in the churches! We were living a dream of Dr. Wierwille that the churches would listen to the rightly divided Word of God. Expectations and excitement was high. We could hardly bear the drive to get started with this event.

We arrived at the house early and greeted the people arriving for the meeting as any good pastor would do. We met in a combination dinning room and living room which had a very large archway between so that it almost seemed like one large room. However there were more people here than last week. It seems that others who were not happy with Rev. Heinz's former church heard about the meeting and wanted to see this new guy teach. So now the place was nearly full. We must have had over twenty people in that room. They had gathered folding chairs and were arranged in rows. Dad took a position near the kitchen with his back to the piano which some one could play and did for the songs.

Every one expected Dad to do prayer time after the manner they expected from thousands of church services. They didn't know my Dad very well. He started with explaining about perfect prayer and did a mini teaching right there. Then he called on me to demonstrate speaking in tongues with interpretation. He then did it himself and called on Mom too. The quiet in the room was deafening. They were stunned. From then on everyone was glued to Dad's every word. I had no idea at that point what Dad would be inspired to do next.

Some how Dad got on to healing as part of his message about God's love and deliverance. Now you must remember that this was the "early years" of our ministry where "do it" was equally important as knowing what was right. Dad was getting fired up about healing. I wondered how the group was taking this so I began to look around. One lady kept leaning one way then another. It was weird, so I asked God what was the matter with her. He told me she was deaf in one ear and was trying different positions to see if she could hear better.

I began to suspect after a while that Dad was going to have to "put up or shut up". Since he put up for all to see manifestation of tongues with interpretation, I suspected he expected to show them healing too. Great! What an adventure in the things of God!

That's when I got sober and remembered that Dad had not taken the Advanced Class and might not really know what to do to "put up". That's when I broke a sweat, thinking that he might be talking about me ministering healing. Oh oh. I can't let Dad down... what am I going to do?

Surely as I sat in my chair, Dad was building to a no way out conclusion. I noticed that Dad kept looking my way. Get ready, here it comes. Yep, Dad placed a chair in front of him as we had done in fellowship many times and invited people to come up to receive healing deliverance. Then he called me up to stand behind the chair to minister. I came up and stood there looking at a silent majority with a few people stealing glances around wondering who would be first to try out this novel approach to preaching. I couldn't stand there forever so I announced that one person should be in this chair. I raised my hand and pointed to the weird lady and told her that she was deaf in one ear but God could heal her.

The emotion that washed over that room was like a wave breaking at the beach. The weird lady was on her feet and plunked herself down in that chair pronto. I ministered healing by laying on of hands and commanded the healing power of God in me to bless her and heal her deafness. She started to cry. (you don't do that to a teenage boy!). She said that she could hear! For the first time in many years since her sickness she could hear!

After that there was a line for the "healing chair". About the third or fourth person was a pregnant lady. I hesitated. Was I about to minister to one or two people at once? I asked God and HE only said proceed. So I put my hand on her shoulders and ministered to her. I was a little confused as all God showed me was that both she and the baby were in perfect health, so I told her that. Again, another flood of female tears. She was blessed and I was confused. The session finally ended and we started for home after ten o'clock at night, many miles from home on a school night.

Dr. Wierwille had taught in the Advanced Class that if you did not act on revelation, HE would not give you any more. I had kept back one thing from the pregnant lady - she was going to have a little girl real soon. Frightened that I might not hear from God again, I thought I should act on this but we were already miles from Adrian. I told Mom that I needed to tell her something. Well, after this night Mom was all ears. So I told her my fear and that the lady was going to have a girl real soon.

The following Sunday we again headed for Adrian. We arrived early and were greeted by half of last weeks group already assembled. But the guest of honor was not us but a new born baby girl. It seems that her doctor had missed her due date by a month and she was panic stricken that something was wrong until I ministered to her. They had checked out mom and baby a day sooner than the doctored wanted so they could come to the meeting house to show the "Teenage faith healder" the baby. That event left me feeling backward. I hardly knew how to act around a girl much less a new mom gushing about me. I was glad when they said they weren't staying for the meeting as they needed to get the baby and mom home. That was a relief.

Dad and a couple of others started getting chairs out for the meeting and I went for a walk with Rev. Heinz's daughter. I was a little afraid of her, not that she scared me any, but there was already a mystique about me and I didn't want to do or say anything to diminish the level of expectation for deliverance in any one in the group. I feared that a mis-spoken word or act might queer deliverance for others. The walk was short and quiet.

My next surprise came upon arriving back at the house. The chairs were all setup and filled already. The meeting didn't start for another twenty minutes. People were still coming to see the teenage faith healer and hear his Dad preach. Wasn't it just last week that it was Dad preaching and brought his family along? Now it's the teen healer and his Dad.

The meeting started with standing room only. I mean five or six people were standing... no chairs left. Dad did his teaching as before but the room seemed more interested in something else. At the end Dad put the healing chair in place and called for me to come up. Immediately a line formed to get into the chair. I ministered for over an hour until I told Dad that I tired and wanted to go home.

I think I fell asleep for the ride home. I went to school the next day thinking how my classmates would never believe that "Smoky the bear" (my nickname in high school) was known in Adrian Mich as a faith healer. But I couldn't wait for next Sunday!

The following week was a repeat of last week except the standing room only was now on the front porch. At least twelve people couldn't get inside the room to stand. We opened the windows to the porch and some squatted at the windows for the whole meeting. When the healing chair was presented at least one person climbed through the open window to get an early place in line. What a night!! We counted over fifty people in attendance. Immediately After the meeting we were presented with a shock. Our hostess for the meeting informed us that we were not to come back any more. She had been ordained as a minister in the Assembly of God Church before she was married and now that there was a church in her home it was time that the properly ordained minister should take over. She thanked us for building her church for her but was very clear that we should never come back.

We stayed away for a couple of weeks but not knowing what was going on was too much for Mom and Dad. They left us kids at home one Sunday and went to Adrian with addresses and phone numbers to see how the "flock" was doing. In only three weeks after we left, that woman's church ceased to exist. My parents offered to come back and do meetings at another person's home or even a rented hall. Without exception they all had drifted back into other churches and were going to stay there. My parents were hurt and confused. My mother went to prayer asking God for an answer to comfort her heart.

God responded by speaking to her as she had never known before and told her that HE loved those people and they were given the opportunity to see the power of God even if they were going to soon reject it. They were not good ground. A bit of adversity and they were gone but they will never forget that the power of God to heal and deliver in our day and time is very real.