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Read about A woman who broke the glass ceiling in the early 1900's and who opened the way for women to minister God's word in creative ways. Also read about the Gopel Boat Ministry.

Aimee Semple McPherson
 Evangelist, Woman of Destiny

by Marilyn Stroud, PAOC Archivist

Aimee Kennedy was born near Ingersoll, Ontario, in 1890. At 17, she attended a Pentecostal meeting in Ingersoll conducted by Robert Semple from the Hebden Mission in Toronto. She accepted Jesus and was baptized in the Holy Spirit. Robert Semple became more than an evangelist to her, and they were married on August 12, 1908, while serving in Stratford, Ontario. Their vision was to serve the Lord in China, and they left for Hong Kong in 1910. Aimee faced great tragedy after they arrived in Hong Kong—Robert became ill and died. She was left destitute and eight months pregnant. That day, Aimee received a letter, mailed many weeks prior, from a supporter who was urged by the Lord to send her $65. It was the exact amount needed to pay for her husband’s funeral. One month later, her daughter, Roberta, was born. She was quite sickly and Aimee decided to return to Canada. On the ship, she conducted Sunday services. When she embarked, the purser gave her an envelope with $67, donated by the passengers who had been blessed by those services. The money paid her way to New York, where her mother was working in The Salvation Army headquarters. But Aimee was restless, lonely and confused and didn’t know what God wanted her to do.

      
                    
Clockwise from top left: Aimee Semple McPherson, 1924; Aimee and her Gospel car, 1918; Aimee and her son, Rolf; a marquee advertising Aimee's service; Aimee in her later years;  a portrail picture of Aimee

In New York, she met and married Harold McPherson and settled down to married life. Her son, Rolf, was born in 1913. But her restlessness and God’s call to minister became stronger and stronger. Aimee returned to Canada and began to minister in camps and evangelistic meetings. For a time, Harold supported her calling but couldn’t reconcile her ministry and their relationship. Another tragedy! The marriage ended. But God continued to bless her ministry.

“Sister Aimee,” as she was called, ministered in Montreal in 1920 at the great Montreal revival under C. E. “Daddy” Baker. Hundreds came to the Lord. Montreal has never seen anything like it before or since. God used her mightily in large evangelical meetings across North America. She eventually established the Foursquare Church in Los Angeles, California. Aimee was destined to become one of the most famous personalities of her time. In fact, she rivalled such names as Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin when it came to newsworthy items! Her life has even been depicted in a Canadian ballet and a Broadway musical as well as in several biographies.

People know the name “Aimee Semple McPherson,” but usually people say, “Didn’t she get kidnapped for a publicity stunt?” Her story reads like a modern media star with tragedy licking at her heels! Her famous kidnapping experience is enough to raise the hairs on your neck. The debate has continued for over 50 years—was it a publicity stunt? Douglas Rudd, a former PAOC archivist, wrote Aimee Semple McPherson—Read the True Story. He examined original documents and the work of historian Dr. Edith Blumhofer, author of Aimee Semple McPherson—Everybody’s Sister. He tells of her tumultuous life and verifies the kidnapping as legitimate. His book proves that “Sister Aimee”, though much maligned in her lifetime, was called of God to win souls for Him. Her dramatic lifestyle was fodder for the paparazzi, but the real story will be revealed in heaven when the true impact of this great lady’s ministry is disclosed. The fact that she was a woman and also an evangelist was unique in those early days, but she prepared the way for women in ministry today. She ministered to hundreds of thousands of people who needed to hear about God’s love and was faithful to God’s call on her life, regardless of the sacrifice.

She said, “Soul winning is the most important thing in the world. All I have is on the altar of the Lord, and while I have life and strength, I will put my whole being into carrying on the Great Commission!”1 Although in poor health, she spoke to 10,000 people at a meeting in the Oakland Auditorium on September 26, 1944. Hundreds were saved and brought into the kingdom. Later that night, at age 54, she passed into the presence of the Lord in her hotel room. She lay in state at the Angelus Temple for days as thousands of people paid homage to this woman of God. Rudd said, “Aimee may not have left a great deal of money behind, but she certainly left a legacy that money could not buy. She was a successful evangelist whose ministry of love and compassion reached out to multitudes of people and brought them to Jesus.”2

1Foursquare Online, p. 3 of 3. March 8, 2005. on-line posting, http://www.foursquare.org/landing_pages/8,3.html.

2Douglas Rudd, Aimee Semple McPherson—Read the True Story (Belleville, ON: Guardian Books, 2006), p. 138.

"Here We Go A-Sailing"

PAOC Coastal Missions


In the early 1930's, a great challenge faced the emerging church in British Columbia. With over 12,000 kilometers of the Pacific coastline as the parish, it became a challenge of how to take the Gospel to the many isolated families and Native peoples living along the coastline. There were no roads to reach these souls; there was only one way – water! How was the PAOC to solve this challenge?

It was decided at the BC District Conference in 1939 that churches be asked to meet this great need through special designated finances. Through the help of the local churches who saw the vision of reaching souls and the International Office in Toronto, a 32-food fish packer vessel was purchased. Alternations were made with the addition of living quarters and by 1940, the first "Gospel Light" was launched. 

A second vessel was later purchased, with a third vessel called "Speed The Light" added to the fleet. A 17-foot boat was purchased for Alert Bay and renamed the "Glad Tidings". At Pander Harbour, another 17-foot boat was used by Walter Ackroyd and his wife in 1943. Eventually there were 5 Gospel Boats, including the "Gospel Light II" acquired in 1973 after a devastating fire destroyed the first boat. This was not an easy ministry, yet it continued along the BC coast into the late 1970's.

Accounts of the many adventures of these pioneers have been carefully preserved in the pages of the early issues of the Pentecostal Testimony. Here is one of those reports by Rev. P Jones, BC District Superintendent. Heroism was the operative word for these men and women who guided these boats through difficult waters:

• "The island waters along the BC coast are treacherous. Many a boat has floundered on these stormy seas. The Gospel Boat navigators have fought many a battle against riptides, sloppy seas, high winds and blanket fogs. They have been mercilessly thrown around by mighty, rolling seas, trying to make port. Their boats were comparatively small, their equipment was not of the best, and their living quarters were cramped. Yet while there was one lost soul to be rescued, the men and women who manned the Gospel Boats would pull out to sea."

 These pioneers in the Gospel Boat Ministry were Frank and Mabel Harford, the first "Skipper" of the Gospel Light I and John Elwood and Mary Shannon. They brought the Gospel to the many isolated fishing folk, lighthouse keeper, loggers, native and coastal peoples on a regular basis. At Alert Bay, John and Elizabeth Nygaard ministered in the surrounding areas establishing many congregations along the way. Some of the other "Skippers" were Robert and Evelyn Starrett, Ingemar and Audrie Tingstad, Herbert and Gladys Deardon and Marjory and Bryon Personeus. Rev. Fehr was also involved with the Gospel Ship ministry in those early years. As a result of the heroic efforts of these men and women, churches were established at Gibson's Landing, Powell River, Alert Bay, Port Hardy, Coal Harbour, Quatsino, Fort Rupert, Bella Coola and Bella Bella.

The sighting of the Gospel Boat on the horizon caused great rejoicing from the inhabitants of the regions being visited at the time. Now the spiritual lives of their families and their communities could be refined and renewed because of the faithfulness of the "skippers" of the Gospel boats. In these early years, British Columbia could easily have been named an "Access Restricted Nation"!!! Maybe not as we understand it today, but the dangers and the restrictions placed upon these brave men and women then is no different from today. And like today, the call to evangelize was strong and could not be ignored.