The Story From Bonnie Brae to Azusa Street
The witnesses' accounts, from the letters to Wales to the mission's last years.
On 8 April 1905 Frank Bartleman of Los Angeles heard F. B. Meyer of London describe the revival then going on in Wales.
Bartleman wrote to Evan Roberts in Wales in 1905 and printed three replies, the first of which, he wrote, "linked us up with the revival there".
O LORD, I have heard the report of You; I stand in awe, O LORD, of Your deeds. Revive them in these years; make them known in these years. In Your wrath, remember mercy!
Bartleman asked Wales to pray for revival, as Habakkuk asked God to revive His work in his years.
Habakkuk 3:2BSB
In Houston, before he came west, a Black preacher, William J. Seymour, attended Charles Parham's daily Bible lessons under the segregation laws of Texas.
He came to take charge of a mission on Santa Fe Street, and he wrote that "one night they locked the door against me".
But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.
The church that called him shut him out, and Paul says God chooses the weak things of the world.
The paper wrote in December that "on April 9th the fire of God fell in a cottage on Bonnie Brae", and that its preacher "received his Pentecost" three days later.
Jennie Evans Moore, who was in that meeting, wrote that she played the piano there by the Spirit, "although I had not learned to play".
And afterward, I will pour out My Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.
The Spirit fell on a small company in a house, and Joel promises the Spirit on sons and daughters alike.
Joel 2:28BSB
The meetings moved to 312 Azusa Street. On Thursday 19 April Bartleman found "about a dozen saints there, some white, some colored".
"We did not even have a platform or pulpit in the beginning," he wrote in 1925. "All were on a level."
For where two or three gather together in My name, there am I with them.”
A dozen met in an old building, and Jesus promises to be where two or three gather in His name.
The Times of that week mocked the meetings.
Its report opened, "Breathing strange utterances and mouthing a creed which it would seem no sane mortal could understand, the newest religious sect has started in Los Angeles."
But others mocked them and said, “They are drunk on new wine!”
The city mocked the speaking in tongues, as some mocked the apostles at Pentecost.
Acts 2:13BSB
Lucy Farrow, who had come from Houston, sailed for Monrovia, Liberia, at the end of that year and spent seven months at Johnsonville.
A. G. Garr and his wife received tongues, "especially the language of India", the paper wrote, and made ready to go to India.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
The mission sent its people abroad within the year, as Jesus sent His witnesses to the ends of the earth.
Acts 1:8BSB
Parham came to the city in late October, Cecil M. Robeck Jr. writes. In December the paper said that he "is not the leader of this movement of Azusa Mission".
In his own paper in 1912 Parham called the work a "counterfeit Pentecost", as Robeck quotes him.
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. For many false prophets have gone out into the world.
Each side judged the other's spirit, and John tells the church to test the spirits.
1 John 4:1BSB
In 1908 the paper moved to Portland, Oregon, "which will now be its headquarters". In February 1911 William Durham began meetings at the mission while its pastor was in the east.
On 2 May Bartleman found the doors "all locked, with chain and padlock", and after the crowds went with Durham, "Azusa" "became deserted", he wrote.
Now we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this surpassingly great power is from God and not from us.
The work outlived its quarrels, and Paul says the treasure is kept in jars of clay.
The mission became a small Black church, Synan writes, and its pastor led it until his death on 28 September 1922.
His wife, Jennie, led it after him until her death in 1936.
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
He kept the small church to the end, as Paul says he finished the race and kept the faith.
Bartleman wrote in 1925, "The "color line" was washed away in the blood." The Assemblies of God's archivist writes that its founders at Hot Springs in 1914 "were mostly white".
On 18 October 1994, at Memphis, Pentecostal leaders dissolved a fellowship that had been "a predominantly white organization", and the next day they formed a new one of many churches.
For He Himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has torn down the dividing wall of hostility
The mission took down the wall between the races for a time, and Paul says Christ has torn down the dividing wall.
Joel 2:28, Matthew 18:20, Acts 2:13, Acts 1:8, 1 John 4:1, 2 Corinthians 4:7, 2 Timothy 4:7, Ephesians 2:14