A Miracle and a Vision

Foreword by MICHAEL CASSIDY

Profile by Dr CUTHBERT CHIDOORI

JOHN BOND by Peter Watt

Prologue

Some Personal Notes

My First General Conference of the Assemblies of God

H. C. Phillips

The Congress on Mission and Evangelism held in Durban

W F P Burton and some Congo Missionaries

Nicholas Bekinkosi Hepworth Bhengu
– His Youthful Dreams
– His Preaching

- Bhengu and Education
- Bhengu and Money
- Miraculous Experiences
- Spiritual Happenings
- The Sanctifying Spirit of God
– His Departure

- Mylet Bhengu

Bhengu’s “Isinthunzi”
- Government and Politics
– Some Faults, Virtues and the Burden of His Heart

President Lucas Mangope of Bophuthatswana

Early Days in Durban

The Glad Tidings Assembly

William Frederick Mullan
The Fairview Assembly
Fred Mullan and the Gifts of the Spirit
A Miracle and a Vision
The Revival in Norwood
James E Mullan

Paul O Lange
William Branham in Durban
Oral Roberts in South Africa

Billy Graham in Salisbury and Durban
The American Missionaries from Springfield, Missouri
C. Austin Chawner and the Portuguese Work
August Kast and the Mount Tabor Mission Station

John and Yvonne Stegman

Colin La Foy and the Coloured Leadership
The Work in Zimbabwe
Mauritius and Reunion Island

Special Answers to Prayer – 1
Special Answers to Prayer – 2

A Beautiful Square with Good Vibes
Prayer and the Hippie Revival
The Young Turks
Tensions within the Group
The Split of 1981 – Part One
The Split of 1981 – Part Two

The Beginnings of the Faith Movement in South Africa

The Statement of September 1989
The Charismatic Renewal

The Start of the Pentecostal Revival World Wide and The Swedish Pentecostal Assemblies

Letting Go of the Reins

Epilogue
APPENDIX 1 : How to be Filled with the Holy Spirit

APPENDIX 2 : The National Church by Nicholas Bhengu

APPENDIX 3 : Article from the Argus 5/02/1981

APPENDIX 4 : Pointers to the future of the Assemblies of God in the New South Africa (10/06/94)

Fred and Gladys Mullan had three children. The eldest, Joy, married Bob Arber, a young minister whom I first contacted in my early days in Cape Town.

Speeding away on honeymoon after the wedding, Joy, who was driving, rolled the car. Bob was unhurt but Joy was seriously injured. The Mullans received an urgent call to come to the hospital in Welkom; Joy’s life was in danger. They hastened off by car to Welkom. By now it was quite late at night. Fred drove and Gladys was dozing at his side in the passenger seat.
He described to me his experience in the Spirit on that journey. He was praying without ceasing, interceding for Joy’s life. At a certain point in the journey, the Holy Spirit came on him in a special anointing. He began to pray urgently in another tongue. He felt he was praying with authority for his child’s life. By a quirk of memory, he was able to tell me that it happened precisely as he crossed over the Vaal River on the barrage near Vereeniging. A peace came to him there. He was given the assurance that Joy would be all right.
Describing to me his feelings at the time, he confessed that he did not dare to waken Gladys to tell her what he felt God was saying to him. His exact words were, “I know my wife. She would not let it rest there. She would grill me to be sure I had really heard from God. My faith was too fragile to face such a test. I let Gladys doze on.”
When they found the hospital in Welkom, Bob and Joy Arber weren’t there. The doctors had decided Joy’s injuries were too bad to be treated in Welkom. They sent her on to Bloemfontein.
At Bloemfontein they found Bob waiting for them. He told them an amazing story.
On arrival at the Bloemfontein Hospital, Joy was rushed into the operating theatre. After a while, a young doctor came out to Bob looking grave. He told Bob, “Mr Arber, I’m sorry to tell you your bride is dead. She had five ribs broken. One rib pierced a blood vessel causing internal bleeding.”
Shattered by the news Bob remained, waiting for the Mullans to arrive. To his surprise, while he was waiting, the same young doctor appeared again, this time looking confused. He told Bob that there had been some mistake. Joy was not dead but alive. He said, “We don’t understand what has happened, Mr Arber. She has regained consciousness and seems to be well.” The hospital kept Joy under observation for a week, then discharged her to enjoy her belated honeymoon, none the worse for her ordeal. Only then did Fred Mullan tell Gladys what had transpired as they passed over the barrage.
Since she was a child, I have known Joy as a devout gentle-hearted young lady. I believe God raised her from death and repaired her five broken ribs in answer to Fred Mullan’s intercession.
~
Fred Mullan also told me of a vision he had not long before these events. I connect his vision with the happenings recounted above. It amazes me that Fred Mullan himself did not seem to see it in that light when he told me of it. It is my belief that the Lord gave Fred Mullan the vision to prepare his faith for the coming attack of the Devil in the ordeal he was about to pass through. He received it on a Sunday morning during worship in the breaking of bread service in the Fairview Assembly.
He saw the assembly hall he was in change into a large cavern of about the same size. He saw there a man, elegant, dressed in a well-fitting suit made of a material that seemed shot with greenish tints. Fred Mullan knew it was the Devil. When the Devil noticed Fred Mullan, he immediately dropped into a fighting pose, stalking Fred Mullan who retreated in fear before the advance of the Devil.
Then all at a once the thought came to him, “Oh good! If the Devil is here then Jesus must be here too! Jesus will protect me!”
With that he saw Jesus and Jesus was smiling. Oddly enough, Fred Mullan did not see Jesus smiling but nevertheless he knew within himself that Jesus was smiling. Fred Mullan thought to himself, “Good! Jesus will come to me and stand by me and the Devil won’t touch me. He’ll stand to my left or my right or in front of me or behind me and He will protect me from the Devil.” Sure enough, Jesus did come to him; but He did not stand to the left or right or in front of him or behind him. When he came, he stood all around him. When the Devil saw that, he grimaced in rage and fled.
Does not the Scripture say, “The name of the Lord is a strong and mighty tower; the righteous runneth into it and is safe”?
~
Gladys Mullan passed away a few years before Fred. In his latter years, Fred became lonely and forlorn, sadly dependent upon people for company. I count it a personal privilege to have laid both Fred and Gladys Mullan to rest when they died. They each were buried from the Fairview Assembly, the church Fred had pioneered which became a mother to so much spiritual development on the Rand.
Fred Mullan was a good man, a caring pastor, beloved of his congregation.
He was a diplomatic and astute General Chairman of the Assemblies of God, a position he held for a number of years. He had a keen business acumen and entrepreneurial talent.
Although he was unhappy with my commitment to the leadership of Jim Mullan and the principles of church government that I held (and he expressed his displeasure to me), he nevertheless used to show a paternal pride in pointing out that I had come to the Lord through his ministry in 1935. He was clearly pleased when I took over from him as General Chairman in 1967.