It's a privilege to be here today and what a wonderful
space. What what a great day it's been to hear from many
presenters and we we still have one yet to go.
In 2016, I completed a Master of Theological Studies degree in
Pentecostal studies here at Tindale, under the supervision
of Doctor Van Johnson.
As I engaged in the serious study of Canadian
Pentecostalism, I realized that this was a field of research
that was largely untapped and full of potential.
There were only a handful of researchers engaged in this
study. I mean, one of the most engaged writers is here today.
Doctor Linda Ambrose.
With a few exceptions, this academic academic treatment of
the subject had generally been done within only the last decade
or so.
I was astounded to find that some of the basic research
materials were not publicly available and still had to be
harvested from archival sources by enterprising students. So I
dug in.
Where were the where were the written Pentecostal stories?
Pentecostals, as I knew from experience and research, were
people of story.
To borrow the words of an old hymn written by a Wesleyan
missionary woman, Catherine Hanky, Pentecostals love to tell
the story of Jesus and his love.
While the Pentecostalism of the past was primarily an oral
tradition.
Where testimonies flowed freely, there surely must have been a
few Canadian Pentecostals who wrote their testimonies down.
Well, this apparent lack of available primary research
materials has led me to two major projects.
The first, completed in 2021, was a textbook collection of
primary source newsletters written by Canadian Pentecostals
between 1907 and 1925. This book was co-authored and Co edited
with Doctor Martin Middlestadt, who teaches a course regularly
here at Tindale, and we called it Canadian Pentecostal Reader.
The second project when I'm currently working on is an
ambitious enterprise of collecting and republishing out
of print Canadian Pentecostal autobiographies and biographies.
I have today collected 28 such works and, having secured
copyright permission for each of them, have been working on cover
design, typesetting, editing and other publishing work for these
over the past two years. These will eventually be available on
Amazon and are being published as a series I am calling
Canadian Pentecostal Library Classics. It is from these
books, this series, that I draw my material from today.
Pentecostalism was historically a woman that affected both men
and women and motivated them to mission and testimony.
Women tended to write more, by my quick count, in the existing
issues of two early Pentecostal newsletters, the promise and the
Apostolic messenger. There are roughly twice as many published
testimonies from women as there are from men.
A couple of decades later, in 1931, the first year that the
census of Canada distinguished between male and female
adherents of a religion.
There were slightly more women than men.
In pentecostalism.
Anglican, Baptist, Lutheran, Mennonite, Presbyterian, and
United Churches all had more men than women. Pentecostals were
the outliers in this respect, along with the Salvation Army
and Adventists.
Women were quick to apply their calling.
In the early years of the Pentecostal movement, many women
left Canada as missionaries, assuming leadership of mission
stations, preaching and teaching duties, and many other roles
upon their arrival in a new region.
A very small subset of these women published autobiographical
accounts.
In this paper, I've selected five books authored a
co-authored by the following women, Emma Channer.
Marianne Keller, Ruth Lapeyre, Amy Semple McPherson, and
sisters Jean Bolton and Marion Bolton.
In preparing these works for republication, I've read these
works multiple times and have noted instances where they had
something interesting to say about themselves. So what did
they say? The simple answer, spoiler alert, is not much.
They were focused on the missionary tasks that God that
they felt God had called them to.
However, each of these works include brief moments of
transparency where the women allow the reader a glimpse of
their self perceptions and the nature of their calling.
Emma Austin Mckendry, chawner.
Emma Tonners account occurs in a book co-authored in 1914 with
her husband Charles after eight years of ministry in Africa.
Their book is called.
Is entitled called to Zululand a story of God's leading.
The chanters were from Toronto. Emma says that she's writing
this book to try, with my father's guidance, to tell
something to his honor and glory.
The story of Charles Chawner's first missionary journey to
Zululand, the northeastern section of present day Kwazulu
Natal in South Africa, is legendary in Pentecostal
circles.
At the introduction of the book written by a Presbyterian
minister in Toronto, Stephen S Craig, he he categorizes it
well. The story of his talking about Charles Channer, the story
of his wanderings and guidance, reads more like the leadings of
some of the Old Testament prophets than any modern tale.
Charles would receive directions by way of visions, or inner
directions through words such as go to this place or go to that
place, leading him to places he'd never even heard of before.
Even before leaving Canada, he testifies, my Lord had told me
that I should find a man between a column and a post at the
London, England train station who would show me a quiet place
to rest for the night.
He goes on to say.
Praise him. This all came to pass.
And telling her own side of the story, Emma speaks of her
husband's call and subsequent journey to Zululand, even though
both of them and their three children would later join in the
missionary endeavor.
Emma had lost her first husband, Robert Mckendry, while pregnant
with a daughter, who she named Roberta. After marrying Charles,
she had two more children, Eileen and Austin.
They came into Pentecostal experience at the Hebdon
mission, speaking in tongues, interpreting tongues, and giving
and receiving words of prophecy, often through spontaneous Bible
verses taken out of context.
Emma, though reticent at first to her husband's call, likely in
light of the thought of losing her second husband, felt the
Lord calling her to give up all.
As her husband was scheduled to leave for his first journey on a
Wednesday, she writes Monday morning, on waking, the word
strength and glory floated into my mind. I thanked the Lord for
his strength and he proved my strength as at the farewell
meeting in the evening, he allowed me to say publicly that
the Lord was definitely calling, that I was willing to trust in
him. She goes on to preface her story, her husband's story,
concluding her own with.
And so on that Wednesday, the 12th of February 1908, my
husband left all to follow Jesus to that dark land alone with his
God.
Writing in retrospect, she knows full well the testimony of how
the Lord had tangibly and supernaturally directed her
husband while in Africa and, she concludes having been left at
home alone in Canada.
And we, the children and I, were cared for by the same loving
hand that guided and directed him.
Her husband returned almost a year to the day later, and after
a brief stay in Toronto, the entire family moved permanently
to Zululand. Their son, Austin, became a renowned missionary to
Mozambique.
What does Emma Chawner say about herself?
Her words demonstrate that in parallel with her husband, she
too trusted the Lord. She too left all. She too was strong.
And she too was loved, definitely called, guided, and
directed by the loving Hand of God.
Marion Weller, whittick Keller.
Marianne Keller from Parry Sound ON published a book entitled 20
Years in Africa, 1913 to 1933, retrospect and prospect.
Keller's first husband had died in 1914, and at the time of
publication she had been married for over a decade with her
second husband. Marianne says she has written this book for
God's glory.
Marion was a school teacher after receiving the fullness of
the spirit.
She left her job to attend a Pentecostal friendly Bible
College in New York.
This course of action was suggested to her by the same
minister who prefaced Emma Chawner's book.
Stephen S Craig.
The same Presbyterian pastor.
Maria describes being questioned at the US border on her way to
this New York school.
Where are you going?
I replied to Bible school.
How much money do you have with you?
$6, I answered. Who is going to support you while in school?
The Lord, was my reply.
With that, the officials allowed me to pass, saying if you have
that kind of faith, we will let you go.
This was my first real step of faith and in all the 20 years in
Africa, he has never failed me praise his name forever.
Marion met her first husband, Carl Whittick, who was two years
younger than her, while at Bible College in Rochester, NY she
writes that God, by many infallible proofs, showed us
that he desired for us for his service in Africa. We both had
the call of God upon us. Emphasis mine.
Marion describes that her faith was strengthened when her sister
Sarah Weller left her good job, friends home and all personal
property to go to India as a missionary.
The newlyweds embarked to German East Africa's present day
Tanzania in Africa in 1913.
In less than a year, her husband Karl and the young missionary
who lived with them, Clarence, died suddenly because of bad
drinking water.
Marian was also suffering with the same sickness and despaired
at the point of death in her own words.
When I realized that my husband had gone.
I too long to go. I prayed the Lord to take me to himself.
Just then, a voice seemed to whisper to me, thou shall not
die, but live and declare the glory of God. Propelled by this
and other encouragements she received from the Lord, she
stayed in Africa and continued to work. In 1914, war broke out
and travel was nearly impossible. Marian recounts,
captains and officers in the armies marvel to find a young
girl in the lonely jungles of Africa.
They wondered what was keeping me there. Little did they
realize that mine was a high and holy sorry, how high and
heavenly calling it is. True, there were dangers of every kind
on all sides. Yet somehow it never dawned on me. The presence
of the Lord was so great that I did not seem to have any fear
whatsoever.
Marianne made her way to Kisumu, Kenya, where she met up with
Otto Keller and the two became engaged. After an adventurous
trip back to Canada, she returned to Kenya in 1918 and
married him.
She had a holistic view of ministry, stating teachers,
evangelists, agriculturalists, Masons, carpenters and all kinds
are needed in the work of the Lord and each one to his or her
calling.
Perhaps the most striking example of this is her own son,
Philip Weldon Keller, who became an agriculturalist, missionary,
teacher and author of over 20 books, including the well known
a Shepherd, looks at Psalm 23.
Marion's most fulfilling work was her work with African women.
According to Marian, African women were treated as beasts of
burden, doing most of the hard labour in the communities. They
were uneducated and knew nothing about training or disciplining
children. Although she faced a great deal of opposition on all
sides and educating African women, she found encouragement.
From the Lord, she writes. I taught them how to read, how to
sing, to pray, to take care of their babies, to treat their
husbands well, and best of all, to get acquainted with Jesus as
their personal savior.
According to Marion, when the Lord saved and cleaned up a few
of these women, it was enough advertisement of God's power.
As a parent, she believed that God gives parents a great
responsibility in the care and training of their children,
which is a mother's first duty.
One of her guiding principles, borrowed from Doctor James Agri,
was train a man, you train an individual, train a woman, you
train a family.
What does Marion Keller say about herself?
Marianne has a high degree of faith. The Lord will support her
as she pursues his will.
She knows she has the call of God upon her specifically for
service in Africa. At death's door, she receives divine
confidence that she will live and declare the glory of God.
This leaves her with No Fear, a great sense of the presence of
God, and serves to reaffirm what she terms a high and heavenly
calling. She understands that her calling as a missionary into
Africa is unique to her, but that God will likewise call
other uniquely in their spheres of life.
As a strong woman of Faith, Marianne finds it rewarding to
see African women rise to a higher ideal in their culture.
Marian views herself as sure and confident about her calling as a
missionary, as a mother and as a wife.
In this confidence, she trains African women to recognize their
calling, too.
As a result of this training and what she says is God's power,
many of these women become literate and engage members of
their families and communities.
Ruth lapeyre.
Ruth Lapaire from Winnipeg published a book in 1933
entitled Living in the Land of the White Man's Grave.
The land she writes about is Liberia, where at the time of
publication she had lived for seven years as a single woman.
She remained unmarried for the rest of her life.
Ruth was methodical and steady in her missionary work.
Undaunted by daily challenges and she writes in a more
scientific and detached manner.
In her introduction, she says she aims to present the human
interest side of Liberia native life.
And that her hope is that the book serves as a humble channel
for the message of the Holy Spirit and speaking to the
hearts of those who may not realize their privileges in
respect to Christians service.
Ruth describes normal life as a missionary in Liberia. Clearly
from personal experience, she describes a few of the commonest
sorts of things.
You are rudely awakened at night by the frightful growl of a
leopard a few yards from your door.
Compose yourself, get the rifle, and see if you can shoot him by
moonlight.
You are for the first time discovering that in the soup so
kindly offered by your native hosts, there are the odds and
ends of a rat or two.
Do not be alarmed, but try to feel at home.
She describes her role as a missionary. The missionaries
watchword is undaunted. Whether man or woman we need to know a
great many things. Many occasions arise where we must
act as an architect, builder, Carpenter, mother, Nurse, Judge,
doctor, teacher, preacher and undertaker. If you would live a
life of variety, I know no better than that of a
missionary.
In Ruth's autobiographical account, she often refers to the
term the missionary, as opposed to speaking in personal
pronouns.
However, one can almost certainly read of the
experiences of the missionary as if they refer to Ruth herself.
She was comfortable with a gun, occasionally shooting monkeys
for meat for the villagers, though she never ate that meat
herself.
She also used the novelty of her white skin as a way to establish
friendly relationships with people who had never seen white
skin before.
The presence of a missionary station near a tribal community
brought a great sense of honor to that people. The chiefs of
these tribes knew that this meant there would be a school
and gradual, gradual, positive improvements in the lives of the
people in their community.
Thus Ruth writes.
There is great rejoicing when the village people hear that a
missionary is coming to build a mission station near them.
Soon after she arrives, she chooses a site where she wishes
to build a station.
The chief man sends the town men to clear off the site.
Ruth was theologically engaged with her mission, reasoning that
if Paul had gone E instead of West, Canadians may be in
spiritual darkness instead of Africans.
If Canada were in spiritual darkness instead of Africa, she
would hope that those in the east would bring the light of
the gospel westward.
Leaving the comfort of life in Canada was a necessary decision
for Ruth. In one of her most transparent passages, she speaks
about the sacrificial nature of her work.
To Gary, to carry God's message to the heathen is a privilege. I
feel that I owe my Lord a great debt which I cannot pay.
It is emphatically no sacrifice if we are only doing our duty.
Anxiety, sickness, suffering, or danger now and then with a
forgoing of the common conveniences and charities of
life may make us pause and cause the spirit to waver and the soul
to sink.
But let this be only for a moment.
We are must do our part to carry the good news to those who wait
in distant lands.
What does Ruth Lapeyre say about herself? In the same way she
speaks of her book, she considers herself a humble
channel for the Holy Spirit to use.
Ruth illustrates that she is independent and comfortable with
a gun. Whether to hunt monkeys or to chase off leopards. She is
undaunted by different foods or customs. She describes herself
in her missionary context.
As a grand list of occupations.
Ruth acknowledges the novelty and privilege of her white skin
and how it has opened doors for her in various villages. Yet she
acknowledges occasional difficulties and such as
anxiety, sickness, suffering, danger and the lack of common
conveniences.
But with gratitude, Ruth speaks of these sacrifices as a
privilege of serving the God who has extended forgiveness and
salvation to her. Ruth views herself as a highly capable yet
human vessel for the Lord's work.
Amy Kennedy, Semple McPherson.
Amy Semple McPherson was from Salford, Ontario, and in 1919
first published her autobiography, this is that.
Before she became a famed evangelist and denominational
leader in the USA.
She was a Canadian missionary to China.
In the preface, Amy says that she writes this book because the
realization that Jesus is coming soon and that whatever is done
must be done quickly has put a hurry up in my soul to get the
message to the greatest number of people in the shortest
possible time by every possible means.
More than the other women so far in this paper, Amy provides a
much fuller account of her inner dialogue about the nature of her
role and calling. She was confident and had ready answers
for those who might challenge her.
She dramatically rehearses her salvation as she writes of a
moment of intense prayer. Oht God. If there be a God, reveal
yourself to me.
She continues. Oh, if every doubter and professed infidel
would just breathe that one sincere prayer to God, he would
reveal himself to them as he did to me, for he is no respecter of
persons. Hallelujah.
Amy came into Pentecostal experience listening to her
first husband, Pentecostal evangelist Robert Semple.
After their marriage, they went to Chicago, where Amy
experienced a miraculous instantaneous healing of her
broken ankle.
At the same time, Amy describes, my husband and myself were made
to realize in a very definite way that the time had come for
us to obey the call to China, which the spirit had been laying
upon his heart more and more for some time.
Although she makes it clear it was her husband's call to China.
Amy's language demonstrates 2 things. First that she was
included in this call, and 2nd that the Lord had made her
realize it was time to obey this call as well. They returned to
Toronto and prepared to leave by train to St. John, NB where they
would leave for London, England and then on to China.
Amy's writing is full of hymn lyrics. These also serve to
illustrate her inner dialogue.
At her marriage, looking to a future of Christian ministry,
she cites the hymn lyrics, perhaps with dual commitment to
Lord and to husband.
Love. So amazing.
So divine demands my love, my life, my all.
She recalls leaving Toronto by train on route to China. Two
people singing God be with you till we meet again.
And upon leaving Pentecostal people in London, England, by
boat, she remembers them singing as she embarked further for
China, singing the hymn God will take care of you.
Together, these songs and lyrics reinforced her calling and her
conviction that the Lord would indeed be with her and with
Roberts.
However, not long after their arrival in China, Robert
contracted malaria and died.
At his bedside, beside his lifeless body, she describes.
Then at that moment when all the world seemed to be crumbling and
slipping from beneath my feet.
The comforter, the blessed Holy Spirit, whom Jesus had sent,
made the will of God so sweet, showed the prepared mansion so
real that I showed a glory by the deathbed of Robert Semple,
from whom I had never dreamed of parting.
Waves of joy rolled over my soul, and I was lifted from
Earth to heaven, and it seemed as though I accompanied him
right to the pearly gates.
The Lord gave, and the Lord taketh away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Later on, as she prepared for her husband's funeral with
little money remaining, she prayed for provision.
And that afternoon in the mail, she received a letter from two
sisters in Chicago with $60.00 dated a month previous, stating
that the Lord had awakened them in the middle of the night,
saying little sister Semple is in trouble, rise immediately and
send her $60.00.
This further demonstrated her belief that, yes, the Lord was
with her.
Amy returned to the USA and gave birth to her and Robert's child.
Naming her Roberta.
Not long after, she married her husband, her second husband,
Harold McPherson, whose name she never once mentions in her book.
Amy again heard the call of God of God. Preach the word. Preach
the word, will you go, go do the work. In event of an evangelist,
preach the word. The time is short. I am coming soon.
She resisted this call in part because her second husband was
not of the same mind, nor was he interested in the Pentecostal
experience of the spirit. At the same time, Amy was hospitalized
with symptoms of depression and physical conditions requiring 2
surgeries that further climaxed with acute appendicitis.
In agony, this led her to a prayer of oh God, please Take Me
Home to be with you.
Shortly thereafter, on the edge of consciousness and on the
brink of death, she heard God call one more time. Now will you
go?
She responded.
Yes, Lord.
I'll go.
Immediately the pain left and she was healed of all of her
physical ailments.
This experience bolstered Amy's confidence in her calling and
also fueled her rhetoric to defend her calling despite the
inconvenient matter of her gender.
She writes, ohhh, don't you ever tell me that a woman cannot be
called to preach the gospel. If any man went through 100th part
of the hell on Earth that I experienced those months when I
was out of God's will and work, they would never say that again.
What does Amy Semple say about Semple McPherson say about
herself?
She had the assurance of her salvation.
She felt that Jesus was coming. Soon, Amy knew she was called by
God first to missions and then subsequently to preach the
gospel as an evangelist. Through her her, through her own words,
and through words she expressed in song, she continually
rehearsed that God would take care of her. Through every day
or all the way. Amy was aware of the obstacles she faced as a
woman in a man's world.
But was ready to admonish any who opposed her based on her
gender. She used her life experiences and spiritual
experiences to legitimize her call to others who might
question it.
How we doing for time, OK.
Gene and Marion Bolton.
Self effacing missionaries.
Gene and Marion Bolton from Regina SK, published he sendeth
forth two in 1970. These two biological sisters never
married, and they work together as vocational missionaries for
several decades.
At the time of their book, the Bolton Sisters had worked for
six years in Zimbabwe, six MORE in Thailand and 1 1/2 years in
Nicaragua.
They write this book to the honor and glory of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ. They go on to quote Revelation one, verse 7
in full uppercase to demonstrate that they believe Jesus is
coming soon. Behold, he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall
see him.
Gene and Marianne were self effacing despite their
remarkable accomplishments.
Aside from a brief dedication, their very first words in this
book are.
As we took pens to compile the work, it was fitting that we
should offer an apology for a memoir of two non entities.
Just shorten this up a little bit here. Marion was called to
Africa in a vision at age 16 and over a decade later embarked as
a vocational minister missionary to Africa with her sister Jean.
In their book, they describe miracles such as a miraculous
healing of Marion's eyesight.
They describe Miriam's gift of visionary premonitions of things
that would happen.
And they express a great deal of faith for numerous projects,
both in finances and other provision.
As missionaries abroad, the Bolton sisters worked for a
department store and International College, an
embassy and engineering firm, and the United Nations while
simultaneously pursuing their missionary purpose.
Marion had a vision of a large building where classes were
being held with forty teachers, Gene writes. Launching this
program would necessitate a great step of faith. Marion had
no doubt regarding the supply of teachers and students, and the
Lord gave to me faith for the finances. They were soon joined
by numerous highly qualified reinforcements for teachers.
I'll just read one more quote before I conclude this this
section.
At one point, Marion transparently broaches the
subject of marriage.
She says now, considering the all important theme of marriage.
It was at the age of 21 that I turned this matter completely
over to God's control, praying that if it were his will, I
should not marry, he would erase from my mind the contemplation
of conjugality.
So what did Gene and Marian Bolton say about themselves?
These resourceful sisters speak about themselves as non entities
and downplay their role in any success they may have had,
attributing it only to the Lord's work. Through prayer.
They expressed faith in God's healing power and for finances.
They write about trust in God's communication to them through
Mariano's visions, which led them to Africa in the first
place.
Varian speaks about turning the matter of marriage completely
over to God's control, which is the pattern for their lives.
In soliciting teachers for their school, they write or they wrote
that God could use anyone, regardless of rank, colour or
education, when that one is fully yielded to him.
Thus the reader can assume.
That this has been their experience, and they consider
themselves fully yielded to God.
What are we to conclude about these Canadian Pentecostal
missionary women who wrote about themselves?
Curiously, two of these women, Emma Chawner and Amy Semple
McPherson, had first husbands named Robert, who died shortly
after their marriage.
While the women were pregnant.
Both subsequently named the daughter Roberta. So I wonder,
should we conclude that it is best not to marry a husband
named Robert?
OK. I just sorry, Robert.
Yeah, 38 years, you're you're good.
Sincerely, these women believed that Jesus was coming again
soon.
And they wrote their accounts to give God glory and honour and to
motivate others to Christian service.
If we take these women at their word, we can conclude that God
calls and empowers women for the task and privilege.
Of Christian and vocational service.
God continues to call women to all areas of ministry and
leadership today.
May we listen to their voices acknowledging and celebrating
their calling.
We do this for the glory of God, as Co laborers with Christ until
he comes again. Thank you.