A One-Eyed Preacher
William Seymour was a one-eyed son of former slaves. He could barely afford to live in Los Angeles. But he carried a burning conviction that God wanted to pour out His Spirit again.
In April 1906, Seymour began holding meetings in a rundown building at 312 Azusa Street - a former stable. The floor was dirt. The pews were planks and nail kegs. The congregation was poor and racially mixed.
The Fire Fell
Then the fire fell.
People spoke in languages they had never learned. The sick were healed. Racial barriers dissolved - remarkable in Jim Crow America. "The color line was washed away in the blood," wrote one participant.
The Color Line Washed Away
Newspapers called it madness. Religious leaders condemned it. But pilgrims came from around the world. They returned home and started churches. Within a decade, the Pentecostal movement had spread to every continent.
600 Million
Today, over 600 million Christians trace their spiritual heritage to those prayer meetings in an old stable - where a poor Black preacher believed God could do it again.
