Testimony from Earlier Years

I would like to tell you a story about a life that was inextricably changed by the power of Jesus Christ. It is the history of a man spanning 50 years and a fellowship that came up out of denominational rubble simultaneously.  

 I974 brought much change.  I was in Washington, DC, at the May Day anti-war celebration. I was involved in an alternate lifestyle that is not aligned with Biblical reality. I had one son and another child on the way.  I had believed since 1973, but had not acted on any belief that I espoused.  I received an invitation to a wedding rehearsal dinner and was seated next to the Pastor from the Assembly of God Church in Urbana, Illinois. He informed all present that they were having a Baptismal service on the coming Sunday. How fortuitous, I thought, as the Lord had ministered to me that I needed to be baptized. I thought I was baptized as a baby, no need for that now, and I asked the Lord again. He did not answer me. He had told me already that Baptism was something necessary for me. So, on Sunday, February 2, 1974, in the evening, I was baptized in front of a packed house, and I didn’t know one soul in the place. I confessed that I was the chief of sinners and asked the Savior for forgiveness in front of a house full of strangers. I did not care that they were strangers. It was Him I needed.

Romans 10:10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

For the first time in my life, I confessed I believed Jesus Christ was the son of God, died on the cross for my sins and was raised on the third day, and is very much alive today. I was a new creature when I came up out of the water.  The Pastor, who did not know me in the flesh, began to prophecy over me about the call of God on my life. The Lord also gave me a directive via the scripture;

Revelation 18:4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. 

I left that church immediately and began to look for a place with foundations whose builder and maker was God. That place was called The Living Word. It is where I met Brother Al Johnson. He was already in his 70s and white haired. He was a man of God who waited on God to do anything. He was like Biblical Simeon in the New Testament. He didn’t know what he was looking for, but he waited on God just the same. There was a man talking with Al, I found out later his name was Brother Poole, but no one else was there. It was the Sunday night prayer meeting, and only two men were there. Brother Poole was interested in becoming the Pastor of that small congregation, but Brother Al told him God had other plans. When I came through the door, Brother Poole exited.  I never saw him again.

I told Al that God had sent me. He said he knew I was coming, but he just didn’t know I was so young. In 1974, I was 23, a new father and husband. He was such an encouragement to me. It wasn’t always roses or sunshine, either. He told me whenever God anointed me to preach to preach. Don’t be afraid. He said if you go off, I will be watching and listening, so will the Holy Ghost, and we will let you know. He was truly a man of God. He became a good friend as well as a mentor who taught me and others about grace and humility. It is at that place that God began to tutor and train me for the work of the ministry. My two brothers got saved and joined me there.

I also met Dick and Joyce Shaffer, their sons Reid and Steven, and their daughter Leslie. Dick became one of the elders there as Br Al had been in oversight since the beginning of that work, and he turned over the deed to the building, which he had paid for, and asked my Br. John, Dick Shaffer, and myself to be the “elders” of the place.

My brother and I were in our 20s, and it seemed odd for us to be “elders”.  Br. duCille, whom we met in the late 70s, confirmed to us and the rest of the congregation that we indeed had oversight responsibility. The people who were fellow pilgrims besides the Shaffers were as follows: June and Bobby Robinson, and June’s mother, Mattie. June taught the children with her flannel graph board and did an exceptional job. Richard and Pat Burmeister were stalwarts, with Dick getting to church early to turn on the heat or the AC, and Pat would sometimes play the piano.

Our first overhead was an artist’s large drawing notebook that was about 24 x 36 inches with tabs for the songs that turned on a spiral.  I wish I had that still as a piece of historical significance.  Virginia Schlorf, who later moved to Florida, Virginia Schuler who played the piano and loved us and the Lord.  She sent me a letter before she passed when I had gotten back from California.  Woods family, Don and Carol and Kids, Don and Elaine Rund with their boys Todd and Thad, Mace and Betty Mullikan also joined us. Betty was Elaine Rund and Terri Smith’s mother.  Ruth Jervis was with us also and was exceedingly generous.  She opened her house to many of the young, single women who lived with her and as they moved out tended to get married.  Ruth also took under her watch, some of the fatherless and the widows as she really lived the scriptures that spoke of undefiled religion in James.  It was a small congregation, but the fire of God was among us.  It was at a pivotal time in history that had been called the Charismatic Renewal.  Many of those we are currently in fellowship with were born again at this juncture.  

Herman Moore and Erica, his wife, formerly from Jamaica and Florida also joined us a few years later. We first met Herman at the conference in Rockford Illinois in 1982. Emmanuel Udegbunam and family came to Urbana when Emmanuel went to work for the geological survey at the University of Illinois We met Cecil and Mavis duCille in 1978.  Br Al had known Tom Campbell as well and he ministered at the church before we met the duCille’s.  We were called Living Word church and had a sign to declare that.  We were surprised to learn there was a Living Word Church in a nearby small town and we did not want to confuse anyone.  Joyce Shaffer suggested that we add Omega Message to the title and so we did.  After all, we had what we thought to be the final message for the church. The power to overcome was in Jesus Christ and that the third temple was the body of Christ the church, not a building or denomination but a people that were called and anointed for the task.  It was not about doing but rather becoming.  John 1:12.

In 1981 Br duCille announced a conference in Rockford Illinois for all of those who believed they were called into the ministry to be held at the end of January 1982.  We met in the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Rockford Illinois. The temperature was -25 degrees on the thermostat.   I met many of those who we worked with in the gospel at that meeting. Rockford was pivotal for many of us. John Baynes and Jerry Gadwa of Michigan, Burt and Joy Asbill of California, Gordon Gerber and James Thiele of Schuyler Nebraska, George Herrig and Sue from Iowa, Tom and Rene Sigwarth, who were newlyweds at the time of Iowa now in Wisconsin. 

My brother John traveled with me to the Good Shepherd Church one day after the conference began. We were late because of the snow and extremely cold temperatures. We slept on the floor of the church the first night and were invited to spend the rest of the time in one of the elders’ homes with Cecil and Mavis.  We considered ourselves extremely privileged.  It was a tremendous time in the Lord and many of those we met in 1982 remain very close to us today.  It was indeed a benchmark for many of us in the work of the ministry.   In September of 1982 I got a call to go to California.                                                                                                              

This is a history of Living Word Omega Message Church, but my life history and the history of this church community seems to be much intertwined.  In December of 1978 I went to a meeting in East Peoria Illinois in a place I did not know among a group of strangers.  The preacher came to the front and said he could not start as he was in a vision and all he could see was a beer.  He did not know that I had stopped for lunch and wanted to drink a beer but was afraid I would smell like a brewery in front of a lot of holiness people and it might affect my religious standing.  So, I had iced tea.  A man raised his hand and said His brother-in-law had a liquor problem and the preacher said not you.  The preacher said the beer was in a glass.  It was becoming the picture on the menu where I ate lunch.  A woman raised her hand saying her husband was a drinker and again the preacher said no not you.  He said the glass was full of beer and had foam all over the outside of the mug.  It was the exact picture of the menu I had looked at and wanted a beer.  I finally raised my hand, and he said you have a holiness problem, right?  I acknowledged that was true and then in another vision, he was seeing a chicken back divided into four exact pieces.  He said I saw the Hand of God reach out and take the piece in the top right corner, (my piece).  He asked if that meant anything to me.  I knew what God was showing.  He walked away and then turned and asked if I had any plans soon, I told him no plans.  He said, “I see waves in the spirit, you will be on one of the coasts in 4 periods of time and I don’t know whether it is days, weeks, months or years.”  I left and completely forgot the waves.  Four years later I believed it was four years to the day (although I cannot pinpoint that exactly in my mind or calendar) I came to a stop with my family and all of my stuff on Santa Monica Beach.  God brought the bison of waves to my mind, and I knew then God was in my California trip.  California was a wonderful experience.  The chicken back vision was also fulfilled in California.  I wanted to get out of business with 3 others in a construction partnership, but it had a cost of a substantial amount of money.   We had lost a great deal of money building two houses.  The estimator underbid them, and we ended up losing huge sums of money. My boss asked me to go to his office at the end of my first year working for him.  He told me his secretary had something for me and not to send my wife.  I went in and there was a bonus check that paid off my debt and left enough for an offering.  Glory to God, He had delivered me from bondage of an unimaginable debt.  After about 2 years, my wife told me she had a dream and that in the dream we moved back to Illinois.  I said nothing verbally to her but thought If God wants me back in Illinois, then it’s going to take more than my wife dreaming about it.  I had to go to Illinois in 1985, so I planned to go over at convention time in May.  Br Campbell was there, and I was really looking for God to direct me concerning the dream.  I was in the last day of meetings I would be able to attend, and Br duCille was teaching.   He suddenly said that he believed Br. Campbell should take over the meeting and he took his seat.  Br. Campbell called me up front and said the Lord had a word for me seeing that is what I was looking for from the Lord.  He spoke of all the experiences I had and was having and told me that God’s purpose was to train me for the work of the ministry and He was calling me back to the place he sent me out from. As I was returning to my seat he said “And thy wife shall be happy, because I was speaking to her in the night season but now, I am speaking loudly to you so that you know that you know.  It took about 0ne year to get my affairs in order and move my family back to Illinois. We lived in California for 42 months.  Forty-two would be a significant number in my experience with the Lord going forward.   We had one hundred dollars, a trailer, parked in my brother’s front yard and little else.  We knew that we were in the place God had called us to labor and we were happy.

The congregation had grown while we were away and we were aware of a need for a meeting place that would accommodate more people for conventions, teaching seminars etc. A lot of the brethren were convinced that the building would be a ministry center for all of us.  Many people financially supported the work.   We began to pray for God’s direction.  Many all over the nation were praying for direction.  We had a word from the Lord that He would show us the land and when we saw it we would know it.  Cecil was very excited that someone else had a vision for a place to gather.  We looked at a Lutheran place in Penfield, Illinois but they wanted over a million dollars for the place.  My brother John and I looked at it and thought it was a money pit.  We opted to keep looking.  Cecil agreed that we should keep looking. It was in the late 80’s we thought of selling our meeting place. At that time, my brother, John, thought we should ask Br Al, who had moved to Arkansas, before we sold it.  We were meeting on a Thursday night, at the church building waiting for Br duCille to show up for an unscheduled teaching session, when Br. Al Johnson came through the door.  He had been up to visit his sick sister and decided to go past the church just to see if we might be meeting.  While he was in his car, Al told us that the Lord had ministered to him that we should sell the building.  He told us to sell it in obedience to the Lord. We had the ok to sell, so we put it on the market.  The church next door negotiated with us for a time and finally bought it for their children’s Sunday School.  Canaan Baptist Church still is utilizing it for children’s Sunday School today.

Joshua Schneider owned some land in Mahomet on route 47 and was moved by God, gave us 9 acres to build the gathering place. In our prayer time, the Lord spoke to me about the place.  He said it would be a place of learning, a place of prayer and a place of Refuge. It is a place of learning and is becoming a place of prayer. Also, the prison work, Bethel House of Refuge is headquartered there.  Some 30 years ago God directed us to begin the work.  It took some time to get the ball rolling.  Joyce Shaffer, who had been with us since the beginning, sold a farm south of us in Effingham Illinois and had the farmer make out the check for purchase to the church.  I was instructed to go to the farmer and get the check.   We bought a metal building from Jewell Building Systems.  Burt Asbill and I visited their home office in Dallas North Carolina.  We did not know what the dimensions were at the time we set out to build. We really had no idea regarding size, shape or the interior of the building.  Herman Moore was a draftsman with an engineering background, and he designed the building.

The lord told me to look in Ezekiel 42:2 and get the building dimensions.  I looked in Ezekiel and put the dimensions exactly as written in the book.  That was how we decided the building should be 50 x100 feet.  It was L shaped and had two buildings, each 50×100. There was input from others regarding the design, but Herman Moore drew up the plan for the county permits. We got the building system for builders’ cost, and it laid on the ground for about 10 years.  Finally, we started the foundation in 1993.  We put in caissons (concrete support posts 18 inches across 7 feet deep with rebar cages) 10 feet apart.  A friend of mine owned a concrete company and he got a crew out to pour the slab of 10000 square feet.  We paid for the concrete, and he poured it for free. The underground plumbing was done before pouring concrete and rebar was in the floor. The anointed plumber, Al Martindale came from Arkansas to do the work.  We had a lot of help from quite a few people across the country and the globe.  It took a while, but we finally got the infrastructure up and began to apply the roofing and siding.  Many hands helped with the construction.  We were galvanized as a body by a common goal of getting a gathering place erected.  We had meetings there with no finishes, no carpet, minimal sanitary facilities and no kitchen.  My wife fixed sandwiches with the help of many ladies to feed the workers.  It seemed like an endless task, but all of us were together with one purpose.  The sound system was installed by Jerry Gadwa from Michigan, and most of the electrical work was done by two California brothers, Melvin Price and Bruce Buckmaster Jr.  We were so thankful for the many that came to help get the building up and functional.  Burt Asbill did most of the oversight in conjunction with me.

We finally erected the outside walls of the building and had windows and doors installed in time for the July convention in 1995.  It was not finished at that time, but we could wait no longer for a meeting place.  It took us a long time to get the interior finished. We hired a drywall contractor to tape and finish the drywall with Burt and Barak Asbill, Jansen and Tyson Asbill working on the trim and cabinets.  By that time Emmanuel Udegbunam and family had moved to Texas and Herman Moore to South Carolina.  When Emeka and Dr.Ona Osaji were married, in 2007 we had installed the carpet.  From 2007 to 2015 we worked on rooms in the rear of the church.  Br duCille said “as a people we have started much and finished little”.  That declaration was an impetus for me.  Wes Schell installed much of the ceramic tile in the rear hallway.  Jansen Asbill installed the ceramic in the men’s and women’s bathroom.  Tyson did the ceramic in the two south rooms and Burt Asbill did most of the trim out for the plumbing fixtures in the rest of the building as well as the electrical trim out.  Drop ceiling was installed by Phil Pankau for no charge.  It was almost 5000 square feet in the sanctuary. He saved us a bundle.  We finished the church construction and finally paid off the loan in 2016.  From 1998 the Mahomet brethren have shouldered the cost of the church and its equipment.  Many of those from the early days left over personal squabbles about teaching styles, doctrinal differences and general dissatisfaction with the leadership.  In 2012 a large contingent left to go their own way.  Again in 2022 another contingent left, dissatisfied with the ministry to the children. We are left with a few brave souls who will not compromise what God has spoken many years ago.  The scripture is “Where there is no vision the people perish” .  We are persevering until the vision is fulfilled.  Remember Jesus said I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.  The church of Jesus Christ is a gathering of people whose head is Jesus Christ.  We are endeavoring to be that people called by his name. Living Word/Omega Message