Aimee Semple McPherson;
(Her Storms, Her Victory, Her Legend)

Aimee Semple McPherson was born October 9, 1890, was a Canadian-American Los Angeles based evangelist and media celebrity in the 1920’s and 1930s.
McPherson was born to Aimee Elizabeth Kennedy, her mother, on a farm in Salford ,Ontario Canada. She had early exposure to religion through her mother, Mildred (known as “Minnie”) who worked with the poor in Salvation Army soup kitchens.
As a child she would play “Salvation Army” with her classmates, and at home she would gather a congregation with her dolls, giving them a sermon. She began to quiz visiting preachers and local pastors about faith and science, but was unhappy with the answers she received. She wrote to the Canadian newspaper, Family Herald and Weekly Star, questioning why taxpayer-funded public schools had courses, such as evolution, which undermined Christianity. This was her first exposure to fame, as people nationwide responded to her letter. While still in high school, after her Pentecostal conversion, McPherson began a crusade against the concept of evolution, beginning a lifelong passion.
HER STORMS
Marital Challenges:
Her first husband was Robert Semple, whom she met at a revival meeting. She decided to dedicate her life to both God and Robert, and after a short courtship, they were married on August 12, 1908, in a Salvation Army ceremony, pledging never to allow their marriage to lessen their devotion to God, affection for comrades, or faithfulness in the Army. The pair’s notion of “Army” was very broad, encompassing much more than just the Salvation Army. Robert supported them as a foundry worker and preached at the local Pentecostal mission. Together, they studied the Bible and became very knowledgeable. Robert Semple died on an evangelistic journey to China, making her a young widow.
She soon met her second husband shortly after her recuperation in the United States, Semple joined her mother Minnie working with the Salvation Army. While in New York City, she met Harold Stewart McPherson, an accountant. They were married on May 5, 1912, moved to Providence, Rhode Island and had a son, Rolf Potter Kennedy McPherson, in March 1913.
Her husband, McPherson soon filed a divorce and was it was granted in 1921 because he felt as though Aimee his wife and her ministry was taking him out of his comfort zone too often than he could manage and felt abandoned. But first, he filed for a separation 1918 before the divorce in 1921.
She married again on September 13, 1931 to actor and musician David Hutton, followed by much drama, after which she fainted and fractured her skull. While McPherson was away in Europe to recover, she was angered to learn Hutton was billing himself as “Aimee’s man” in his cabaret singing act and was frequently photographed with scantily clad women. They divorced on March 1, 1934, as the scandal created by Hutton put her church, Foursquare in jeopardy.
Ministerial Challenges:
After embarking on an evangelistic tour to China, both contracted malaria. Robert also contracted dysentery, of which he died in Hong Kong. Aimee recovered and gave birth to their daughter, Roberta Star Semple, as a 19-year-old widow. On board a ship returning to the United States, Aimee Semple started a Sunday school class, then held other services, as well, oftentimes mentioning her late husband in her sermons; almost all passengers attended.
After she got married to McPherson felt as though she denied her “calling” to go preach. After struggling with emotional distress and obsessive–compulsive disorder, she would fall to weep and pray. She felt the call to preach tug at her even more strongly after the birth of Rolf. Then in, 1914, she fell seriously ill, and McPherson states she again heard the persistent voice, asking her to go preach while in the holding room after a failed operation. McPherson accepted the voice’s challenge, and she suddenly opened her eyes and was able to turn over in bed without pain. One spring morning in 1915, her husband returned home from the night shift to discover McPherson had left him and taken the children. A few weeks later, a note was received inviting him to join her in evangelistic work.
Her husband later followed McPherson to take her back home. When he saw her, though, preaching to a crowd, he witnessed her transformation into a radiant, lovely woman. Before long, he became her fellow worker in Christ. Their house in Providence was sold and he joined her in setting up tents for revival meetings and even did some preaching himself. Throughout their journey, food and accommodations were uncertain, as they lived out of the “Gospel Car”.
When she married, his stage acts publicized personal scandals which were damaging the Foursquare Gospel Church and their leader’s credibility with other churches. McPherson and Hutton separated in 1933 and divorced on March 1, 1934. McPherson later publicly repented of the marriage, as wrong from the beginning, for both theological and personal reasons and therefore rejected nationally known gospel singer Homer Rodeheaver, a more appropriate suitor, when he eventually asked for her hand in 1935.
Ministerial Challenges: (Kidnapped)
The kidnapping of Aimee Semple McPherson became national media uproar and changed her life and the course of her career. After disappearing in May, 1926, she was found in Mexico five weeks later, stating she had been held for ransom in a desert shack there. The subsequent grand-jury inquiries over her reported kidnapping and escape precipitated continued public interest in her future misfortunes.
On May 18, 1926, McPherson went with her secretary to Ocean Park Beach north of Venice Beach to swim. Soon after arriving, McPherson was nowhere to be found. It was thought she had drowned. Searchers combed the beach and nearby area, but could not locate her body. The Angelus Temple received letters and calls claiming knowledge of McPherson, including demands for ransom. McPherson sightings occurred around the country, often in widely divergent locations many miles apart on the same day. As a precaution, the ransom notes were sent to the police who investigated at least one of them. Mildred Kennedy, though, regarded the messages as hoaxes, believing her daughter dead.
As the Angelus Temple prepared for a memorial service commemorating McPherson’s death, Kennedy received a phone call from Douglas, Arizona. Her daughter was alive. The distraught McPherson was resting in a Douglas hospital and related her story to officials.
On the beach, May 19, 1926, McPherson said she had been approached by a young couple who wanted prayer for their sick child. McPherson went with them to their car and was suddenly shoved inside. A cloth, presumably laced with chloroform, was held against her face, causing her to pass out. Eventually, she was moved to an adobe shack far in the desert. Two kidnappers, Steve and Rose, were her constant companions, with a third unnamed man, occasionally visiting. When at last, all her captors were away on errands, she escaped out a window.
Using a mountain as a landmark, she traveled through the desert for around 11–13 hours across an estimated distance of 20 miles. Around 1:00 am she reached Agua Prieta, Sonora, a Mexican town, and collapsed near a house there. She was assisted by the residents and finally taken across the border to adjacent Douglas.

HER VICTORY;
The challenges that should have taken her out the track of destiny built her and made her strong. Her victory is this; she didn’t allow challenges and even confusion, emotional distress to weigh her down completely. Her victory is paramount to the fact that she didn’t allow these storms to make her stray from God. She held on to Jesus, her relationship with Jesus was consistence, far more than her challenges. Without this, she couldn’t have found a solace of grace to build one of the biggest cathedral of Foursquare as at that time. Here is her greatest victory, she met Christ and followed Him and fulfilled destiny, majorly winning souls to the kingdom of God.

HER LEGEND;
Despite her major challenges, her marital challenges nearly damaged her dream to serve God at all instance. According to this note, what we’ll like to call her victory is the birth of the Foursquare Gospel Church which is still running till date and in several nations, even very popular here in Nigeria, having 25,000 churches and over 3 million members. She became internationally famous as the leader of the 5,300-seat Angelus Temple in Echo Park, Los Angeles.

Also the birth of her children, Roberta Star Semple and Rolf McPherson, a new family, who helped the ministry to move forward and preserve her generations and here is the height of her Legendary Life, ‘when you see Foursquare, you will remember that a woman did what you can do and Foursquare Gospel Church is still progressing.
SIGNIFICANCE;
If she followed Christ Jesus to fulfill destiny, with the fame, glamour, storms, sickness, death, still she didn’t give up. WHAT ABOUT YOU, GIVE YOUR LIFE TO JESUS CHRIST AND DO WHAT JESUS HAS CALLED YOU TO DO. Hold on to Him for all your wants and needs and He will supply all of it.

(Source; Wikipedia)
AmenRadio…Keep On Believing

By; Adedeji Oshigbesan