Bishop H.E. Honea

[Sam]

One Accord,
next time you see Bishop Honea, tell him that Jim Ellis in Ohio is praying for him. I'm quite sure he will remember me. If I remember correctly, we were not introduced nor did we speak to one another. He and I and some others were in a conference in Niles, Michigan in 1958 (might have been 1959). The church was pastored by Sis. Johnson who took over as pastor after her husband died. Bishop Steinbarger was on the Board of Bishops and was also part of that local church in Niles, I think. The organization was the Church of Jesus Christ Pentecostal Faith. Bishop G.R. Brock was the Presiding Bishop. Elder Bob Winstead and his wife Lena Mae were there and an African American minister named Sis. Jackson. There was also an Hispanic minister with quite a strong accent but I don't remember his name. I don't remember the names or anything else about any others. Sis Johnson used to teach off of charts. She was probably in her 70's then or close to it.

Bishop Brock told about going to preach in a church that Eld. Honea was trying to establish. I think it was in Chicago. It was so cold that Bishop Brock said he kept his overcoat on while preaching.

I was not a licensed minister with the Church of Jesus Christ Pentecostal Faith at that time but did take out a license in the early 1960's. I was going to a UPC church at that time. When we left the UPC church and started going to an ALJC church, I let my license expire.

I'm sure Bishop Brock and Sister Johnson have been dead for years. I heard that the organization they were part of (Church of Jesus Christ Pentecostal Faith) later merged with a group called Church of Jesus Christ with headquarters at Kingsport, Tennessee but maybe their headquarters were in Oxford, Pennsylvania at that time. I did meet up with Bob Winstead in Eskdale, WV in 1959 when I was there for a conference of the Church of Jesus Christ (Bishop Lawson's group) and at that time I took out a license with the Church of Jesus Christ.

Two pictures are attached to this email. The single one is my 12th grade high school picture taken in the fall of 1955. The other picture was taken in 1959 in Indianapolis, Indiana at the church pastored by Bishop Brock. It was in an old theater building. At that time Bishop and Sis. Brock were living in the garage of one of their church members. Emily was the daughter of those members and she played piano at Bishop Brock's church. I preached for Bishop Brock at least once that weekend. We were there on a Saturday night and a Sunday morning. We stayed with Bishop and Sis. Brock in that garage and we slept on a couch. My wife was pregnant. That's a maternity top she has on in the picture. Our first child was born a couple months after that picture.