CLAPHAM LONDON

Churches throughout Britain recognised the hand of God which rested upon the two brothers and invites flooded in from churches willing to host their 'revival' meetings. George sensed that the Holy Spirit wanted him to relocate from Ireland to a more appropriate venue. So in 1921, it was with great sadness that the Elim work I Ireland said 'good-bye' to George as he left for a new an exciting venture, that would result in him seeing the biggest building filled to capacity with people hungry to hear the words that came from the heart of God.

A series of meetings were held in Leigh on Sea, Essex, where the first building on the mainland was purchased for this memorable occasion. Crowds of people came from neighbouring communities to support the revival meetings and as a result, an Elim fellowship was left in that town.

In January 1922 preparations were under way for George and Stephen to hld revival services in an old disused Methodist church in Clapham Park, Clapham. Meetings were held nightly for a month with wonderful results - "Conversions, healings, and baptisms in the Holy Spirit have followed at every meeting. Souls have been saved even at the open-air meetings. The large hall in the rear of the building is frequently filled, and sometimes overcrowded with anxious souls The following press reports will demonstrate the general effect of the meetings upon the minds of the public:-—
IRISH REVIVALIST AT CLAPHAM COMMON.
The Revival Meetings conducted by Pastor George Jeffreys, of Belfast, the old church at Park Crescent, attracting much attention by the testimonies of the converts who claim to have derived benefit from his ministry, it is evident that a Revival of the most apostolic type is in progress, Not only are they claiming to be relieved of burdened consciences. but publicly testifying to being healed of diseases through the faith cures. By the intense fervour of the worshippers one would conclude that the Revival is being enthusiastically supported by the congregation, which is composed of staid men and women of all classes and creeds."

This article was reported in the press at that time and later published in the Elim Evangel.
"HEALING IN CLAPHAM
A building, from the outside looking as if it belonged to a bygone age, vet viewed from within, bright with glowing lamps. Such is the setting for the strange scenes winch are being enacted in a church in Park Crescent Clapham Park Road, where Pastor George Jeffreys, of Elim Tabernacle, Belfast, is preaching, The meetings are decidedly strange and in many ways are reminiscent of early Methodist Revivals, for one can hear the Hallelujahs and Amens resounding on all sides as the address is given. Many of those who claim to have received good at the meetings believe the preacher has been sent in answer to the prayers of the old Methodist saints, who in years gone by had reverently prayed and worshipped God within its walls The old church has been converted into a real apostolic centre, where people claim to have received miraculous gifts through the ministry of the Scriptures. Most remarkable testimonies have been given, including deaf people hearing suddenly. Some who were diseased prior to the application of the olive oil, which is lavishly used by the Pastor, now give glowing testimonies of faith healing. Conversions of a most striking type are reported daily as the irresistible power of his sermons penetrates the stoutest hearts. That a Revival is in progress no one can doubt.

The writer has had personal dealing with each of the following eases, and others just as remarkable are of constant occurrence — A. sister was healed of deafness after ten years' suffering. A brother was healed when anointed for deafness so that he could hear the ticking of a watch. A 78.year-old Christian lady, who had six cancers, was so overjoyed at the glorious result of the anointing that she is testifying everywhere of her deliverance from pain and suffering. A young man who came from Scotland on purpose to attend the meetings, and who described himself as a physical wreck," testified that he had received the full assurance of salvation, the baptism of the Spirit, and perfect healing of body, all within a week. The evening on which this brother received the baptism will be remembered by all present. Here was Acts x , 44, repeated in this twentieth century. While taking notes of the preacher's message the power of God came upon him, and, like Paul, he was prostrated. Every part of his being seemed charged with supernatural power, and his face shone with ineffable light. Those about him gave the following testimony —" We heard him speak with tongues and magnify God. Up to the present over fifty have received the Pentecostal baptism, and over one hundred have professed conversion.

The building was originally rented for twelve months, then purchased for the then pricey sum of £4,525.1s.9d, and the first Elim church in London was purchased. This was a great sacrifice, but the young movement rose to the challenge and within a very short space of time the debt was cleared and the 'revival services' were continuing in the now 'Elim Tabernacle, Clapham', which was to play a vital role in the life of the movement's history in the UK.

Clapham also played an important role in taking the Pentecostal message to other parts of the world. In March 1922 it was also reported that Miss Adelaide Henderson said farewell from Elim Tabernacle, Clapham to go to work in the Congo as reported in the April edition of the Elim Evangel. Later on people fare-welled from Clapham to work in many parts of the world.

Stephen left Wales and joined his brother in pastoring the new church, which was later to become known as 'Clapham Central Church' as this became the headquarters of the Elim movement. For five years the brothers pastored the work here, and at the same time took many opportunities to conduct services elsewhere in the UK. Everywhere they went signs and wonders followed the preaching of the Word of God.

Even though a building had been purchased in Clapham, members of the Evangelistic Band conducted further meeting in a tent nearby at Clapham Junction. People were still being converted and Christians were "being brought into a deeper Life with Him." (Oct 1923).

Another account of the many healings reported in the Elim Evangel:-
"....I was suffering from rupture, and was trusting the Lord for healing. I went to the Elim Tabernacle, Park Crescent, Clapham, on Thursday, April 5th. to the Water Baptismal Service, and while the service was going on the presence of God was felt all over the building, and I felt the Lord operating inside my body and, praise the Lord, He has healed me. I never shall cease to praise Him! G. Ryder (Notting Hill, London W 11)"

The many healings and miracles prove beyond a shadow of doubt that the 'gifts of the Holy Spirit' are as much for today as they were at the commencement of the Church 2,000 years ago. Here is a copy of a doctor's letter of a woman who testified in the Clapham Church in 1923 of being miraculously healed:-

180, Kennington Park Road. S.E 11.
15 April, 1921."I hereby certify that Edith May Cufiley has been under my professional care since December, 1917, and before that date, under my predecessor, the late Dr. it Foster Owen, for several years. She was rendered unfit for work in June, 1916, by reason of pulmonary tuberculosis, which was followed by spinal tuberculosis. She was more or less prostrated from that time until the 4th of April last, when she appears to have mysteriously recovered, having received no systematic treatment since her removal from a sanatorium in August, 1920. For the last two years she was crippled. bed-ridden, and believed to be incurable. In my opinion, she is now recovered and will soon be quite fit for work, and her cure can only be ascribed to her wonderful faith in prayer.
"(Signed) P. EUGENE GIUSEPPE, M B., C M., J.P., "
Late Government Medical Officer, Trinidad, B.W,I."

Short Version of the history of George and Stephens work together

It is no wonder that George Jeffries became the founder and leader of the Britain’s Elim Pentecostal Alliance. He was arguably the most influential and most gifted preacher that the British Pentecostal Movement has ever produced. Donald Gee’s record of him is revealing: ‘He had a voice like music, with sufficient Welsh intonation to add an inimitable charm. His platform personality at times was magnetic. His face was appealing. Although lacking academic training he possessed a natural refinement that made him acceptable in all circles. He pre­sented his message with a logical appeal and a note of authority that was compelling. With all that he was baptized in the Holy Spirit.’

He was converted in the Welsh Revival on Nov. 20th 1904, with his brother Stephen, under the evangelistic ministry of Glassnant Jones. It was the provocation of Stephen’s son, Edward, who first received the Spirit and spoke in tongues that caused him to seek God for a deeper experience. Soon afterwards he received a personal healing from extreme physical frailty, a speech impediment and a developing facial paralysis. He was also baptised in the Holy Spirit and was soon preaching the Gospel publicly.

At Cecil Polhill’s instigation he resigned from his job at the Co-operative Stores in Maesteg, and began a period of training at the Pentecostal missionary college in Preston under Thomas Myerscough’s leadership and was set apart for the ministry by the Independent Apostolic Church known as Emmanuel Christ Church, Maesteg, on the 13th Nov. 1912.

He helped his brother in a mission in Jan. 1913 and began to conduct small campaigns in Wales with increasing success. Attending the Sunderland convention in 1913 he was given opportunity to preach for Alexander Boddy and an Irish visitor immediately invited him to Ireland, offering to pay the fare. Unfortunately, when the owners of the hall in Monaghan that was secured for the series of meetings, learned that he was a Pentecostal, they cancelled the booking! During a further invitation in 1915 to minister in Monaghan, Northern Ireland, George met a group of zealous young men and they joined together forming the Elim Evangelistic Band, registering it as the Elim Pentecostal Alliance. The members were Margaret Streight, R. E. (Ernest ) Darragh, William Henderson, and Frederick Farlow.

Initially they worked exclusively in Ireland, establishing his first church in Belfast in 1916. After this he accepted many invitations in England planting churches there from 1921. With Stephen he conducted highly successful crusades in London and Hull before entering London in 1922. In this year the headquarters of Elim were moved to Clapham in S.W. London. "Elim Woodlands" was purchased and it also housed the Elim Bible College, with other local properties added for administration of the growing movement.

George spent the next ten years in sustained evangelistic activity with remarkable success. During this time his ministry enjoyed a fresh anointing causing a meteoric rise to fame across the land. His evangelistic and divine healing campaigns soon filled the largest public halls in the country. There were thousands of converts, scores of healings and dozens of churches planted. In Birmingham 10,000 converts were recorded. British Pentecostalism enjoyed a quantum leap forwards during this time.

In mainland Europe he was also a great success, seeing an astonishing 14,000 converts in Switzerland in the years 1934-36. He visited Sweden several times and was the main preacher at the European Pentecostal Conference in Stockholm in June 1939.

New Book
I would like to commend a website to you

“Pentecostal Pioneers Remembered”
by Keith Malcomson.
Here is a story long untold and mostly forgotten, of faith, power and glory.
http://www.pentecostalpioneers.org/pentecostalpioneersremembered.

See Article below, click on picture of book for website link.

Why I am recalling these stories

You may wonder why I am recalling these stories, the Bible tells us why!
• Miracles should be remembered.
1 Chronicles 16:12 Remember his marvelous works that he hath done, his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth;
Psalms 105:5 Remember his marvelous works that he hath done; his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth;
• Stories of Miracles should be told to future generations.
Exodus 10:2 And that thou mayest tell in the ears of thy son, and of thy son's son, what things I have wrought in Egypt, and my signs which I have done among them; that ye may know how that I am the LORD.
Judges 6:13 And Gideon said unto him, Oh my Lord, if the LORD be with us, why then is all this befallen us? and where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt? but now the LORD hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.

Confirmed the Word with signs following.

God has graciously honored the ministry of Pastor Stephen Jeffreys, brother of George Jeffreys, in the salvation of souls, and has continually confirmed the Word with signs following. J. W. Adams, an Episcopal minister of Wall, Litchfield, Staffs., writes: "While in London I went to Surrey Tabernacle, Walworth, and though at first somewhat prejudiced, I was profoundly impressed that Pastor Jeffreys and his helpers were instruments of the Lord Jesus in healing all manner of sickness. After being given up by doctors and turned away from hospitals, the blind received their sight, the deaf heard, the dumb spoke, cancer was cured, and the lame leaped for joy. Above all, the gospel was preached to rich and poor alike."

One who attended Stephen Jeffreys' campaign at Bishop Auckland wrote as follows: "There have been as many as 1,500 turned away disappointed after waiting in line two hours before the commencement of the service, who have complained, `When we have a bit of gospel we cannot get in to hear it.' There have been some wonderful divine healing cases-- the lame walking, the deaf hearing, and all manner of diseases healed in the name of Jesus. A born-blind girl, twelve years of age, from Newcastle on Tyne, received her sight, and the first face she saw in the world was the pastor's. A dear man who had been in an invalid's carriage and on crutches for seven years, came to the meeting on Friday night and could hardly move on his crutches, an object of pity. The pastor laid hands on him as he sat helpless in the chair. Immediately he came to his feet, and putting his crutches on his shoulder, walked home. This man walked into the meeting on Sunday night, and as soon as he was noticed the whole congregation of 1,000 began clapping their hands as they saw him mount the platform. This man has come every night since, dancing and leaping for joy. Another woman, Monday night, never able to walk from birth, of about forty-five years, was prayed for. As the evangelist laid hands on her she stood and walked, and then in sheer joy sobbed."

Mr. T. D. Dorling writes: "During the month here at Bishop Auckland, over 2,000 souls confessed the Lord as their Saviour, a church being formed which now fills the Eden theater holding 1,200 people on a Sunday evening."

"On September 3, 1927, a campaign commenced at Victoria Hall, Sunderland. The Lord came down in mighty power and testified to His presence in a manner that set the county heaving. Crowds gathered from distant towns, creating a situation which had to be taken in hand by the police. Twice a day thousands of people were divided into queues by mounted and foot police, and when 3,000 had been admitted to the hall, often a larger number remained outside to be dispersed by the police or reformed into queues to wait for the next meeting. Probably never before in England have such services been witnessed in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. So mightily was the Spirit outpoured that at ten p. m. queues were formed, standing or sitting, throughout the whole night till three p. m. the next day, sympathetic hearts ministering to the crowds-- some with their sick-- throughout the night, supplying hot tea and eatables.

"An inspection in the early hours of the morning revealed some stirring examples and deep pathos of human love and sympathy. An aged mother reclining on the flagstone was holding the place for a crippled son, who could not spend the night in the open. A young woman resting on the pavement was ministering throughout the night to her sick husband. Each story told a need and a sacrifice through love. Ambulances, cabs and a variety of vehicles brought the sick and suffering and numbers were immediately raised from stretchers and testified in a practical manner of their healing. Such mighty demonstrations of the power and virtue of Calvary increased the interest, and the crowds, from which the Lord drew an abundant harvest -3,300 souls passed through the enquiry rooms or confessed the Lord as their Saviour; forming a church so numerous as to create a difficulty to find a place to accommodate them. This work has since spread to Seaham Harbour, where a second church has been formed in a hall holding 1,000."

One who attended the revival meeting held by Stephen Jeffreys in Bury, wrote: "We have daily seen wonderful miracles of healing and salvation. Seven blind eyes have been opened, deaf have regained their hearing, the lame have discarded crutches, and the dead in trespasses and sins have been raised to newness of life. One Thursday afternoon two cases of cancer were prayed for and both were healed. One of these two was Mrs. Wall, The Homestead, Woodland Ave., Gorton, Manchester.

The Lord’s healing power in Brighton, Portsmouth & Bournemouth

Over 1,200 were swept into the kingdom in one campaign held , and 300 gave testimony to the Lord’s healing power. One who attended this meeting writes: ‘Hundreds of people have testified in the meeting to having been healed. People who only a few weeks ago were bedridden, or wheeled about in chairs, are today walking and praising God for His kindness in healing them. Lame ones, who moved only by the aid of crutches, are able to dispense with these. Deaf ones have been made to hear, blind ones to see, fourteen testified to having been cured of cancer, tuberculosis, or tumor’.

Mr. Percy G. Parker wrote of a revival campaign held by George Jeffreys at Portsmouth: ‘Hundreds testified to healing, two at least had been wheeled into the meetings a few days before. One for fifteen years and the other for twenty years had been wheeled about helpless, but lo! they walked before us healed! The useless leg of one had faded to a skeleton. Not only was she instantly healed but her flesh returned as fresh and full as the other. A little girlie of about three years of age had been healed of paralysis of both arms. She held them up before us. Another had been blind in her right eye for many years. Now she sees! Growths, dislocations, deafness, rupture, even sugar diabetes have all disappeared before the touch of the Master.

We are living in the days of the acts of the Holy Ghost – thank God for it! Our eyes are seeing what hundreds of thousands of the redeemed ones have been groaning for. At this last meeting no less than 130 people signified their acceptance of Christ’.

The following is a newspaper clipping from the Bournemouth Times and Directory, by a special reporter, Marion Holmes: ‘If I had gone to the big tent – where Principal George Jeffreys has been holding revival and healing meetings – to scoff, I should certainly have remained to pray. But I did not go to scoff, I went to see if the wonderful cures of which I had heard were really taking place, and to decide – if I could – whether they were due, as some said, to hysterical excitement, or to something much greater and more permanent in its effects. I went, I saw, and I was conquered …. The gift of sight to a boy, who – so I was told – was born blind, was conferred at the same meeting; and I was given the particulars of the healing of a severe and long-standing case of spinal trouble by the grateful patient himself. Cases of cancer, goiter, rheumatism, nerve trouble, curvature of the spine, hereditary deafness, asthma, and numerous others have been cured at other meetings’.

The following incident is one of the after-effects of the revival meeting held at Bournemouth. It is taken from the Daily Chronicle, a London newspaper: ‘After being crippled from early childhood, owing to a diseased hip, Lindley Lodge, aged 26, of Highfield Road, Salisbury, has been cured by prayer. She has cast aside a surgical shoe, a splint, and surgical irons, and now wears ordinary shoes. Miss Lodge has been a patient in Salisbury infirmary about 20 times since she was five years old, and has had a number of operations, yet for the most part she has had to be wheeled in a chair. When last discharged from the infirmary a few months ago she was told that, failing relief of her pain, it would be necessary to amputate the leg. She agreed to this course, but decided to wait until after Christmas. In the meantime, however, a friend communicated with Pastor Fergus Trevor, of Bournemouth, who sent a message that at 3:20 p. m. on a certain day, special prayer would be offered for her. ‘I had heard of a person at Bournemouth being cured of curvature of the spine by prayer’, she told a Chronicle reporter, ‘and just before three o’clock that day I went into my room, took off my splint and irons, and feeling sure that I should not wear them again, I began to pray. Then something happened – I do not know what – but when I came to myself I could walk around the room. That was at 3:25. I flew downstairs to tell my parents. They were dumbfounded’. Within a week Miss Lodge had discarded her shoe, which had a sole 3,5 inches thick, and has worn shoes one of which had merely an extra layer of leather on the sole. The leg which was previously four inches short is now pratically normal’.

Time to move on

As you have seen I have tried to bring you some of the stories of how the Jeffreys brothers were used to preach the Gospel message and include teaching on the subject of the Holy Sprint and Divine Healing. This then lead to the planting of many churches which were called Elim churches.

If you would like to add your story please feel free to email me pandasimpson@taltalk.net

For now I will endeavour to share some stories from around the world.