EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE FIRST HALF OF 1900; FUCHSIA PICKETT 1918 P/19

 

In this post I will focus on a woman named Fuchsia Pickett. Fuchsia lived from 1918 - 2004. She was born in Virginia, USA. Fuchsia came to faith in Christ through the influence of a Presbyterian co-worker and was called to preach shortly afterward. The Lord sovereignly opened a door for her to attend Bible College while her husband George Parrish, was stationed oversees and her only child, Daryl, was small.

As soon as Fuchsia graduated, she began to minister across the country. For seventeen years she preached and taught as an ordained Methodist minister and pastor of a church. Then in 1958, Fuchsia became seriously ill. She thought the service she attended at a Pentecostal Holiness Church in Virginia after planning her funeral might be her last. But the Lord prompted her to go forward for prayer, and she was completely healed and filled with the Spirit.

From that moment on, Fuchsia began to receive revelation from the Holy Spirit that made the Scriptures come alive to her. She wrote, "My Teacher moved in. For the first time in my life I began to understand, through revelation, the same Scriptures I had studied and taught faithfully for many years." This revelation became the foundation of her teaching and provided the content for more than ten books she wrote, including a definite work on her Teacher titled "Presenting the Holy Spirit."

 

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE FIRST HALF OF 1900; ADDIE ELIZABETH DAVIS P/18

 

 

In this post I will focus on a woman named Addie Elizabeth Davis. She lived from 1917 - 2005. Addie was born to a Baptist family in Covington, Virginia, USA. In 1942, she graduated from Meredith College with a major in psychology and a minor in speech. She became an education director at First Baptist Church in Elkin, North Carolina, and later dean of women at Alderson-Broaddus College.

Addie's early career was interrupted in 1944 when her father's death forced her to return to Covington and help her mother with the family furniture store. While in Covington, she briefly served as the interim pastor of Lone Star Baptist Church.

In 1960, Addie began attending the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina. While in Seminary, Addie attended Watts Street Baptist Church, which, along with its pastor Warren Carr, was known at that time for social progressivism and participation in the civil rights movement. For a History of Christianity course, Addie wrote a paper on the issue of women's ordination. Addie graduated in May 1964 along with six other women.

In 1963, Addie was granted a license to preach by the Watts Street church. On 9 August, 1964, she was formally ordained at Watts Street Baptist Church after having been rejected by several other churches, becoming the first woman to be ordained as a Southern Baptist pastor.

Following the ordination, Addie and the Watts Street church were subject to some criticism. Nevertheless, her ordination was, in practice, "entirely unnoticed" within the Southern Baptist Convention as a whole.

Following her ordination, Addie was rejected by Southern Baptist churches as a pastor. She, instead, became pastor for a series of American Baptist churches. In June 1972, Addie became a pastor at Second Baptist Church in East Providence, Rhode Island. She later became president of the East Providence Clergy Association.

 

 

 

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE FIRST HALF OF 1900; JEANNE ZURCHER P/17

 

In this brief post I will focus on a woman named Jeanne Zurcher, She lived from 1917 - 2007. Jeanne's father was of Swiss origin and her mother was American. She had an early calling which her family refused to acknowledge. Jeanne started her theology studies in Geneva and completed them in Paris. She was an assistant with the Etoile Reformed Church in Paris, with the Mission Populaire (Working Class Mission) in the suburbs, and then with the Evangelical Lutheran Church. When Jeanne was fifty-eight years old, she was ordained at the Suresnes Parish near Paris.

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE FIRST OF HALF OF 1900; FREDA SCHIMPF LINDSAY P/16

                                                                                                                                                                           

In this post I will continue to share the story of a woman named Freda Schimpf Lindsay. She lived from 1914 - 2010. In 1938, Freda completed her studies at L.I.F.E. Bible College in Los Angelos, California. In 1944, Freda and her husband accepted the pastorate of an Assemblies of God Church in Ashland, Oregon. 

During the 1940s and the 1950s, Freda and her husband travelled with healing evangelists across America and around the world. In 1948, Freda and her husband began an evangelistic ministry and publishing house called Voice of Healing. They continued to travel extensively in the mission fields of the world in the 1960s.

In 1970, Freda and her husband founded the Dallas-based Christ for the Nations Institute (CFNI). The two-year Bible School also included practical training for evangelism, planting churches and raising up disciples and leaders. It has trained many thousands of students and established more that 48 associate Bible Schools in such nations such as Germany, Belarus, Moldova, Romania, Brazil, Japan and India.

Freda served as the president of the international ministry after the death of her husband in 1973. Her son Dennis Lindsay says this of his mother, "She was forced into a leadership role as a woman." She stepped down as CFNI president in 1985 but remained active in ministry until she retired in 2008.

Freda died in 2010.                                                                                                                                                                

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE FIRST HALF OF 1900; FREDA SCHIMPF LINDSAY P/15

                                                                                                                                                                         

In this post I will focus on a woman named Freda Schimpf Lindsay. She lived from 1914 - 2010. Her parents were Gottfred and Kaity Schimpf. The family lived in Burstall, Saskatchewan, Canada but they moved to Oregon. 

One of twelve children, Freda began working in the fields of Oregon when she was nine years old to help put food on the table. At age thirteen, Freda got a job cleaning houses, washing, ironing, and cooking, earning £3 per week, enabling her to go to Jefferson High school in Portland, Oregon.

In 1932, eighteen year old Freda attended a revival meeting in Portland. As she was making her way to the door, evangelist Gordon Lindsay stopped her and said, "Freda, I thought this would be your night." Convicted, she rushed to the altar. "I was no big sinner, but I knew I wasn't serving the Lord," she said. "That night, I felt the Lord spoke to me and said, "Freda, if you follow Me, obey Me, walk faithfully in pureness, you will one day marry this evangelist." In 1937, Freda married Gordon Lindsay. They pastored a church Gordon had started in San Fernando, California. 

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN THE FIRST HALF OF 1900; ELIZABETH SCHMIDT P/14

 

In this brief post I will focus on a woman named Elizabeth Schmidt. She lived from 1908 - 1986. Elizabeth was the daughter of a Member of Parliament and studied philosophy at the Sorbonne in Paris and then theology in Geneva. From 1935 - 1941, she was assistant with the Saint Croix Vallee Francaise Parish in the Cevennes region and then in Sete until 1958. The parishioners themselves asked for her ordination.

 

 

 

 

                        

                                              

           

           WISHING EVERYONE A BLESSED                                                                                                                    AND HAPPY NEW YEAR