Jesus and Charles Essay

Submitted By earthkage
Words: 1173
Pages: 5

MARK PANGA MAJOR ASSIGNMENT

Charles Cowman was born on the 13th of March in 1868 in Toulon, Illinois. Charles met his wife Lettie Burd in the same town in 1889. His parents were strong Methodists as well as farm owners; going to church on Sunday was a must regardless of how Charles felt. Charles received the Lord as his savior at a very young age at an altar call but the church saw this as a fail because there was only one boy that received the Lord. Charles dropped out of school and began working as a telegraph operator at a railway station. Through this job Charles was able to expand his skills as a worker and moved up in the station becoming chief dispatcher at the age of 17. By the age of 19 Charles moved to Chicago where he was able to make a living for himself.

When Charles was 21 he married Lettie Burd and they moved to Colorado to have a more quite lifestyle compared to that of Chicago. While Charles worked this often overshadowed his spiritual life, he would often disregard church and make work a priority. Lettie became very ill and was on her deathbed, Charles cried out to God asking him to forgive him and heal his wife and in return he would serve God for the rest of his life. Lettie recovered miraculously; but after a while Charles' prayer had been forgotten.

There was a children service that Charles and Lettie were invited too and although it was very simple it was powerful; Lettie went forward to receive Christ as well as many other children. This sparked a fire in Lettie and she continued to come to “Grace Methodist Church”. Eventually after much invitations Charles joined her. He heard the message to accept Christ but he refused to go to the altar; at home he felt deep conviction from the Holy Spirit and once again gave his life over to God.

This conviction sparked a fire in Charles' heart and he began to witness at his workplace. Although at first he thought his efforts were failures it led to him winning over 70 souls in one month alone! There wasn't much time for church due to his working hours so Charles' began running his own church services in which many of his employees attended. This was the beginning of the Oriental Missionary Society. Holy Spirit was using Charles who had now been a Christian for one whole year although was not yet filled with the Holy Spirit. He went on a search to find it and boy did he ever. Once He was filled with the Holy Spirit he said that he was now truly sanctified and holy. His new message was to emphasize the infilling of the Holy Spirit and its power.

Being filled with the Holy Spirit he raised much money to support the Lords work and gave up his nice home to support another worker in Africa. When asked “How can you afford to support so many native workers? He responded, “I can’t afford it, I sacrifice it” Charles opened his own mission starting in a basement where drunks and gamblers were welcome to sleep as long as they attended his preaching in the morning. Hundreds of men were reached by the Gospel this way. Despite his busy work schedule he had a burning desire for bible training so did half day sessions at the Moody Bible Institute and kept this busy schedule for six years!

It was at a missionary convention at the Moody Bible Church that changed Charles'’s life. Charles was moved by the sermon and is by character an “all or nothing” man so gave his whole months salary and his watch in the offering. Later in the service, a call was made for those who are called to be missionaries to stand up and commit to God to do so. Charles and Lettie stood up. Charles met a man named Nakada from Japan and became good friends with him. As Nakada returned to Japan, Charles had a burning desire to save the millions of souls that live there. God called Charles to Japan on August 11 1900 as noted in his own bible. He went to tell his wife, although God had already told her 6 weeks prior.

God called the Cowman’s to go to Japan, trusting him alone and