This is an account written entirely from memory, that should have been written long ago, but now is being produced on a ship sailing across the Pacific Ocean, leaving San Pedro Harbor in Los Angeles under a blood moon hanging low in the sky on the southern horizon enroute to the South Pacific
A brief look back at our ancestors is called for, John Arthur Anderson was born in the little farmhouse out in the Palouse River Valley about 3.5 miles from the tiny town of Diamond, Washington.
His father Allen Arthur Anderson had farmed this small 180-acre farm after inheriting it from his father, who with his brother left their home country of Sweden and came to this portion of southeast Washington state to start a new life. This is the first glimpse of the indomitable Pioneer Spirit that was passed down to John Anderson and on down to myself and to my children. I suppose that it was this same independent spirit that made it impossible for Grandpa Anderson’s father and brother to peacefully co-exist, and they parted ways, with my Great, Great Uncle then lost to history. When I was building our family tree, no one could even fill in the name of this strong ancestor.
John Arthur Anderson was born on Friday the 13th, in August of 1927. Grandma Anderson, who was Ruth Brown prior to her marriage to Grandpa Anderson, was a small woman of 60 inches in height who was exceedingly strong and embraced the Pioneer life completely. Grandma Anderson was half Irish and half Scottish, so that made John half Swedish, ¼ Irish and ¼ Scottish.
The importance of the life of John Anderson was foretold by the extreme conditions of his birth. Back in 1927, childbirth was not in a hospital with unlimited resources to assist. Our dear Grandma Ruth Anderson went into labor, and the doctor was called for. He arrived on horseback, confirmed that labor had commenced, but had to leave a couple days later, on his rounds. This routine went on for not three hours, not for three days, BUT FOR THREE WEEKS. To all you gallant mothers who have given birth to children, I expect it’s inconceivable that you would be in labor for three weeks on end.
This sequence of events came to a head, when after three weeks, the doctor came. He took Grandpa Allen Anderson aside and said plainly, “It’s either the mother or the baby, I do not think I can save both!” We cannot understand what Grandpa was thinking as he took down the butcher knife and began sharpening it up. Grandma Ruth Anderson fortunately had her mother in attendance throughout this ordeal, and Dad’s Grandma Brown is about to play a key role in saving his life. The doctor produces forceps and with great trauma and agony, was able to deliver my Dad whole but not breathing. I never asked Grandpa Anderson what he went through, when he saw his wife and child there as the doctor worked on Grandma to save her life.
Grandma Brown was unwilling to see her grandchild not survive, so she went to work to save John’s life. Building a fire in the wood stove to get the oven warm, she took this helpless child and plunged him into cold water, then into the oven to warm him up, and did her best to clear his airway so he could breathe. We do not know how long this went on, but eventually John took his first breath and came to life. He bore the purple marks on right side of his face for the rest of his life from the forceps that the doctor used to deliver him.
Grandma Ruth Brown Anderson was only 60” tall, and the astonishing fact was that John was 30 inches long at birth, half the height of his mother and weighed 12 ½ pounds. So, we see the first miracle was John’s life and the unseen impact it would have in the decades to come. He, today, like Abel, yet speaks in his example of strong faith.
Life on the farm was one of unrelenting work, and the chores day by day never stopped. I never thought anything of the fact that we kids in John Anderson’s family started working at about 8 years old, and I personally never had a day off for 10 years. After I was grown, and we were visiting Grandma Anderson in Colfax after the family had moved her from that little house in Diamond, Washington that was 3 1/2 miles from the farm over the hills where she stayed over the winters while Grandpa was snowed in at the Ranch so the kids could go to school, I suggested a trip somewhere and she looked at me with great intensity at about 80+ years old and said, “BUT WHO WILL DO THE CHORES?!!!”
From this hard upbringing, John Anderson learned the value of hard work, and the love of the farm, where for all its’ hardships a good living was provided with his parents that loved their children. Grandpa Allen Arthur Anderson was a God-fearing man who was saved as a child in the revival of 1898 and wrote in the flyleaf of his Bible that he had received Jesus Christ as his Savior.
He read his Bible regularly, but never shared his faith with his children at all, having told Grandma Ruth Anderson that neither of them was educated or good enough to teach their children about God. John said that his father had been deceived by Satan to never share his faith or his Godly Fear of the Creator by the false narrative that he wasn’t a good enough man to do so.
So, John Anderson said plainly, “I grew up in a good home with loving parents – but I was a heathen who knew nothing about God!” The only exceptions were two Bible truths Grandma Anderson taught him, First, “Never take the Name of the Lord in vain”, and Second “Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins”. Seems odd and unconnected, but he taught us the same truths, and I never heard him speak a swear word in our families’ life. On the one occasion he swore as a child in Grandma Anderson’s hearing, she got the old lye soap and washed his mouth out good – a real deterrence to profanity.
Having a good natural Father, but lacking a real Spiritual Father, John Anderson grew up with various quirks and traits that made him stand out but didn’t always serve him well. Dad had a physiological condition where his system was chemically basic, not acidic enough, so he wet the bed for years, even though he hated doing so. This left him with a terrible self-image, and he never learned to be literate until he became an adult.
Grandma Anderson did his homework for him for years and this insecurity drove him to be a prankster and jokester, and he tormented some of his teachers that he didn’t like so well while in school. He said when he was in the Army as a young man, he began drinking coffee, and the acid in the coffee caused his physiology to change and that condition was left behind him. Finally, his self-image slowly began to improve, helped immensely by those Army instructors who saw his outstanding Pioneer traits and trained him in Army Intelligence and Long-Range Reconnaissance before he was sent to Korea between WWII and the active Korean War. He was trained to operate behind enemy lines, on his own as a spy.
As part of the occupation forces sent there to rebuild the country, ravaged by WWII Dad had many miracles happen even though this was before he had his dramatic conversion experience that we will come to soon enough. Drafted after his only older brother, Allen, had left and joined the Merchant Marine in the WWII effort, and when the draft notice arrived in the mailbox, Grandpa Allen Anderson cried. He had suffered for years with severe arthritis, and was functionally disabled for couple years, earlier when Uncle Allen and Dad ran the farm as he sought relief from the hot mineral springs in Washington state.
My Grandpa Anderson didn’t know how he was going to run the farm without the help of his sons. Regardless, as Dad put it, “Greetings, a Letter from the President” called him away into service for his country. God had his hand in the whole situation, as Grandpa Allen Anderson managed alone on the farm with the dogged help of that little dynamo, Grandma Ruth Anderson, John’s mother.
Now we begin to see God intervening more specifically in his life, with the entry of Charles Parsons, known in the Army as Charlie. Dad was always known growing up as Johnnie, and we kids knew him that way for a good part of our life, until he was asked one day by Bro Ernest Hawtin right here in EOA in the 1970’s what name was on his birth certificate and when he went and looked it was John. Grandma Anderson always called him Johnnie, and my cousins, of the Goring family still think of him that way.
Charlie and Johnnie went through basic training and advanced training at Fort Ord and Camp Roberts near Monterey, California. Charlie Parsons was a strong Christian brother, and he would say to Dad EVERY NIGHT, OK, Johnnie, time for Bible study and prayer. Dad appreciated Charlie, as he was no part time Christian hypocrite, but stuck to his principles even when all the rest of the company tried to get them to go out drinking and chasing women. These two did a lot of fire watch in the barracks, while the other soldiers partied on the town.
Dad was always interested in fighting to win in physical altercations, so he had studied some judo and his prankster came out in basic training, when they were being trained in hand-to-hand combat and bayonet drills. The sergeant doing the training asked for a volunteer in the sand pit, and when Dad stepped out, he extended his hand to shake before the physical altercation ensued. Dad grinned when he said, “It just hit me, here’s my chance!”
He took that moment to execute on the instructor what he referred to as a Mule Throw, where he jerked the sergeant off his feet and threw him across the sand pit where he could have finished him off in a real fight. The enlisted men in the company were impressed, but the sergeant wasn’t and when I asked what followed, he said, “It was his turn and he tuned me up really good, but I didn’t care, I had got to him first!”
The Army saw beyond his bravado and made him a squad leader right away. As responsibilities grew, so did his self-image. Now, let’s take a step back a few years to when John was about 16 years old, and the neighboring farmer in that wheat farming country had a combine (the key big machine that cuts the standing wheat in the field), that holds the keys to the crop either being profitable or painfully a loss and he hired John Anderson, just a kid, to rebuild this key piece of equipment. Dad said, “I tore into that machine, took it down into pieces, saw what needed improvement and rebuilt it to run better than ever.” Impressed, the farmers, who depended on wheat yield to feed their families, began calling on John to run their combines in harvest to get the most wheat out of their fields.
Here a singular miracle did occur, when Dad fell once into the machinery and sustained a severe cut on his thigh that could have easily been fatal if it had reached the femoral artery. He bore that scar for the rest of his life. His toughness or tolerance for pain was on full display here, as they were harvesting peas and the wound nearly severed a main muscle in the front of his thigh, and he said that the peas and grease were embedded into the wound, and it took a serious effort to clean them out.
Years later, when he had cut his hand open with a very sharp knife, and Sister Jeanette Johnson witnessed him sew it up with a needle and pliers and dental floss we knew that these stories were all true. He said that it took the pliers to get the needle thru his skin it was so tough.
Now, John’s experiences with machinery began to play out in the US Army, as in Korea, Dad was made the personal driver for the Commanding Officer, a Colonel. He was sent on missions across the country to acquire the jeeps for the officers in charge of his outfits and to fix them as he also maintained these vehicles. Stories about days traveling in the Jeeps as they were being transported by railcar to keep them from being stripped of key parts and fighting off bandits were just SOP, or Standard Operating Procedure.
Here too, the stark contrast between his life of hardship as a boy and that of the countless orphans was driven home when he saw a young boy of about 9 years old reach down alongside the railroad tracks near the Army base in Korea for a banana peel that an American GI had discarded. He took it and eagerly ate it as he had nothing else to eat and was trying to care for his 7-year-old sister. Dad took him to his unit and the GI’s adopted him and began looking out for him and his sister. This boy was nicknamed Popeye and did odd jobs for the GIs to earn his keep.
Here Dad said that his whole attitude toward his father and upbringing changed in a moment, as he had said, “I thought I was hard done by, until I saw Popeye eat that banana peel and realized that my garbage was better than anything these orphans had to eat.” From this he was taught to NEVER COMPLAIN ABOUT ANYTHING, and I did my best to teach my kids, “There is NEVER ANY EXCUSE TO COMPLAIN ABOUT ANYTHING!” Furthermore, the lesson was established that when we pray and ask God to change our circumstances, he gets busy on CHANGING US INSTEAD.
While in Korea, several notable miracles occurred that were preparing John to come to understand God in all His Mighty Power. Satan was out to get John, as Satan fears any believer that learns to live by faith. It rained a lot there in Korea, and one day while it was raining hard, John walked around the outside of the barracks where the rainwater was running off in a ditch along a slippery bank. John slipped and grabbed the drainpipe to keep from sliding down into the water in the ditch, not realizing that the electrical lines had rubbed against the rain gutter on the building and when he grabbed on, the 220VAC electricity grabbed him.
When you are shocked with any significant amount of electricity, it causes your muscles to contract, so he couldn’t just let go. He wondered for those seconds as the electricity was flowing through his body if this was the end and he would die of electrocution. His life flashed before his mind, and John realized that he WAS NOT READY TO DIE. That wasn’t God’s plan either, so as John slid down the side of the ditch gravity pulled him from the drainpipe, and he was left gasping for air and considering the very close call that had just occurred. God Hand was on John, and he was wondering what this all meant.
On another occasion in Korea, John was driving a 6x6 truck about the size of a dump truck along a winding dirt country road as he was following another GI driving a Jeep. The other GI was familiar with the route and knew where they were going, and because he was driving as fast as he could in the Jeep, John was having a hard time keeping up in the bigger truck. They came into a stretch where the road curved in an S shape and in spite of John’s best efforts, he began to lose control of the 6x6 as the truck began to slide sideways.
Furthermore, this S turn was lined with trees spaced very close together, and the threat of a catastrophic wreck was imminently looming up. To John’s astonishment, the truck turned completely sideways on this gravel road, and slid sideways all the way around the S turn without touching the trees at all until it finally came to a stop. The road was just wide enough for the truck to fit between the trees and John had to go back and forth about a dozen times to get it back in line with the road and ready to drive forward again. Clearly, there were angels on duty in this situation, saving John from disaster.
After his time of service was completed, he returned home along with Allen his older brother and his reputation as a combine operator placed his services in demand in harvest. He had seen God’s hand upon him in these many experiences, but he was still an ungodly man, who had not yet turned his life over to Jesus Christ. He spoke little about this phase of life, but did say that he would get drunk, smoke cigars and curse – hard for us to see him that way since we never saw anything like this later in life.
Now, it was time for God’s plan to definitely call John in a supernatural dramatic way that he could not avoid. In harvest when the wheat is tall, and waving in the breeze, it must be cut at the right moment to get the very best yield for the farmer who depends on this crop for his living.
Therefore, with John on the combine, and his older brother Allen driving the Caterpillar tractor pulling it, they went to work as a team for the farmers nearby who called upon their services to bring the wheat in. At exactly 1:00 PM every day just after the group lunch meal when pulling into the cut at exactly the same place every day for two weeks, John began to hear the angels singing over the roar of the tractor and the howl of the combine.
He said that the most beautiful music would flow down over the header on the top of the combine, and he began to be convicted in his heart to find God. Moreover, during this phase of God’s dealing with him, he would see a little green demon on his left shoulder speaking into his left ear that he was going crazy and losing his mind. At the same time, he heard the Holy Ghost in his right ear telling him to begin seeking God.
It was a personally confusing and turbulent time for John, so after two weeks of this, he went to his brother on a Saturday night and said, “I’m going to church tomorrow!” His brother responded by saying exactly what he had been hearing in his left ear, “Are you going crazy or losing your mind?” Here we see the Predestination of God in action, as his strong brother Allen never would acknowledge God until the day of his death, to our understanding.
Like another man of God said, “It’s not good people who go to heaven, but BELIEVERS who go to heaven!” So, John’s search for God began, as he went from church to church in Colfax, Washington looking for the God who had his hand on John. The town of Colfax, Washington has remained about the same size over the years at about 2,500 inhabitants, with about 13 different churches and John as began going from church to church he heard the gospel message for the first time and dedicated his life to Jesus Christ.
God saw fit to work with John in a very dramatic way, as he would come home after work and kneel and pray, and God would enter the room behind him and speak to him like we speak, person to person. He would ask God questions, and God would answer and tell him what was coming before it happened and how to handle each situation. In his simple naivete John thought that God dealt with everyone that way. The folks at the church that he began attending, were very proud of their new convert, and they wanted to harness his zeal for the Gospel by sending him to Bible School.
The details of how he applied and was accepted at Northwestern Bible School in Minneapolis, Minnesota are lost to history, but this was the next phase of life where he would meet Dorothy Jean Harris, my mother.
John’s zeal for the Gospel was tested, as he promised God that if God would provide for all of his daily needs he would testify to everyone he could about his faith. With little money and lots of determination, he hitchhiked across the country in the winter snows to get to Northwestern Bible Schools. While on this journey he was picked up along the highway by a trio of young men in a van. He began to share his story of the Gospel and his conversion, as he rode in the back of this van, and the passenger in the right front seat got agitated and told him to just be quiet.
He considered, but the promise to God was present, and he felt that he had to continue to hold up his end of the bargain with God. This other passenger was so opposed to his testimony that he whipped out a .38 revolver pistol and put it to John’s head and told him to shut up. Now the proverbial rubber really met the road and quickly John thought of his options, keep quiet or really trust God. He thought that if the gun went off, he would die but be with Jesus, so he continued speaking.
Having passed the test, the driver of the van reached back and pushed the gun away and told the other passenger to put the gun up. His ride with these men was quickly ended but his faith had passed the test.
In 1947 the founder of Northwestern Bible Schools, Dr. W. B. Riley of Baptist roots selected a young evangelist named William Franklin Graham to succeed him as school president, better known as Rev. Billy Graham, before he went to Los Angeles for his first big crusade that made him famous.
So, we now approach the meeting of John and Dorothy with Brother Ernest H Hawtin, as the Latter Rain Revival had begun on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 1948 following Brother and Sister Hawtin attending the meetings of Brother William Branham in Vancouver, BC that led them to fast for 40 days after seeing the discernment and miracles that followed Brother Branham’s ministry. This gave rise to God’s pouring out his Spirit, in a way that the Prophet Bro William Branham described as a Baptism of Perfect Love.
Brother Hawtin and his revival party were traveling around holding meetings, and the very first time that John Anderson was exposed to this ministry was in Minneapolis, MN and Bro Hawtin was preaching on the topic of Predestination, quite appropriate for John’s life and experience.
Northwestern Bible Schools had a “Dyed in the Wool” Methodist Episcopal denominational administration that was very opposed to Holy Ghost infilling and operation, so when John and Dorothy were attending meetings in the Minneapolis area that were emphasizing the Hold Ghost experience, the school dean took at hard stance against such activities, and let John know that the official position of the school was against such beliefs. However, it was too late to influence John and Dorothy, who had already had their own Holy Ghost infilling, and were not to be dissuaded by such religious opposition to the truth.
Dad and Mom were followed to the Pentecostal meetings that they attended by the dean of students, who was an extremely legalistic man, who in the meetings kept the collar of his overcoat turned up high as if to keep the spirit moving in the meetings from penetrating his heart. Ironically, the same dean prophesied their own drifting from their Methodist roots, by saying, “If we were to endorse those beliefs, they would soon write Ichabod over the door of this place!” For those who haven’t heard, refer to I Samuel 4:21 where that means, “The Glory Has Departed!”
During this phase of life, God spoke to John, saying, “I have given you Dorothy Jean Harris to be your helpmeet for life!” John was somewhat reticent to share his revelation with Dorothy, not knowing that God had put it in her heart to be his wife and cast her lot with this Pioneer who had many more adventures ahead to share with her and their children.
We also can take a lesson from John’s naivete while at Bible School when Dad’s close friend and roommate Joe Button heard Dad’s testimony, he was astonished to hear how God chose to communicate with Dad, in an audible voice that never was wrong. He expressed his astonishment to Dad- leaving Dad surprised when he innocently asked, “Doesn’t God talk to you like that?’ When Joe Button said, I never heard of this before, you must be pretty spiritual! Sadly, in the light of Dad’s issues with self-image, this went entirely to his head and pride began to creep in. To his sadness, when this happened, God went silent in that mode of speaking, after telling Dad that it would not resume until he had sufficient character to handle it humbly.
I believe that it was on the 2-year anniversary of the revival at North Battleford, Saskatchewan, Canada that John and Dorothy were there. In these days, the power of the revival was very present, and often as the saints were praising God, they would actually hear the angels and the music of heaven over the singing of the congregation.
John and Dorothy were married on June 10th 1951, in Kansas City, and Grandma Harris never did hear of all their travels together hitchhiking across the country, trusting in God and being led by the Spirit before their wedding day. Mom simply said that her mother wouldn’t have understood.
Dad, ever the Pioneer, took his bride back to the farm where he grew up, and wanting to give here the full experience drove in their car over the hills, instead of along the county roads, and up the flat, fording the river – driving thru the water over the rocks and up to the farmhouse. It was quite a shock to Mom, and although she embraced the farm life and work, it was culture shock in the extreme.
We will pass by the sequence where on their honeymoon, they rebuilt the engine in an old car that was given to them in a process that Dad called spooning the bearings on the crankshaft.
Mom ended up having a sort of emotional breakdown, and was sent back to be with her mother, and Dad ended up moving to Kansas City where he worked as a welder, building gasoline trucks from raw steel to finished units. Dad became an expert welder – in those days, only stick welding was done and he could burn rod with the best of them, uphill and overhead in the most difficult working conditions. His hearing was permanently impaired in these days, as the riveting machines pounded on the tanks, with the welders inside and there was no PPE in those days. Stuffing your ears with cotton did little to protect your hearing.
Dad and Mom moved back to Washington state and my older brother Mark was born in Yakima, Washington, and I came into the world in Colfax, Washington. I was born in St. Ignatius Hospital, and my youngest siblings used to laugh about that 25 years later when it had been converted according to them to a mental hospital. Reading about it today on Wikipedia refers to it as haunted, but I don’t know anything about that.
Our little family found a living on a farm owned by Dick Largent and Dad worked in the fields, and we lived in a farmhouse across the road from the Largent household. Memories from those days include Mom chopping the heads off of living chickens headed for the cooking pot and watching them run around headless until they fell over and were still. Picking green beans from the vines and helping to prep them for dinner. Mark and I going out into the fields with Dad with him fixing fence, and Mark standing up on the bench seat at the wheel with Dad in the back throwing out the fence posts with Mark, the 4-year-old worker standing up on the seat at the wheel as the farm pickup bumped along in first gear.
This brings us to my first memorable encounter with angels. While we lived there on the farm, my younger brother Daniel Wayne was born. He was born with a congenital heart defect, with at heart valve issue that prevented it from closing properly, also known as a “blue baby” due to the effect of not properly oxygenated blood in the system. As a result, Daniel Wayne Anderson died at the age of 3 months old. The night that he died, I was about 2 ½ years old, and saw the angels come into the house to escort Daniel to heaven.
Mark and I and Daniel were sleeping upstairs in the house, and I awoke one night to see three angels coming through the room to his crib to escort his spirit back to heaven. One nearest to me, looked directly into my eyes and never spoke a word, but communicated mind to mind and assured me of three things, first- Daniel was going to be all right, second, I would see him again, third, he had a home in heaven that he was being escorted to.
In the morning, I recall Dad calling Mark and I downstairs to the small kitchen nook table that overlooked the front window where we could see the country road and the fields across the road where Dad would go to work every day.
Mom and Dad were heartbroken as any new parents would be, but Dad opened his Bible to John 11:25-26 where Jesus states unequivocally that HE IS THE RESURRECTION and the LIFE, as he did his best to explain that our baby brother had died and was gone to heaven.
I still remember sitting there thinking, Yes Dad, I already know what happened, and the Angel told me what I needed to know. In the days following, I would see angels in the house during the daytime on occasion, surely there to help Mom deal with the loss of her baby. As a result of these unique experiences my curiosity was inspired, and I have always since desired to know all the mysteries of God that await his children.
Dad then built a small pine coffin and Daniel was laid to rest in the small private cemetery on the bluff overlooking the Ranch where Dad grew up. I’ve been there several times, and the only marker is a metal one with his name and dates on it that stands on a metal post above his grave.
Years later, God told Bro Hawtin to call me up here in this room and this Apostle prophesied over me that I wanted to not only know, but to understand these mysteries, and that was my calling. I have therefore pursued understanding these mysteries ever since. It has been made very real to me lately that in heaven there will be no secrets, no divisions, and no controversies in heaven, but the eternal nature of God will provide everlasting mysteries for us to pursue as we learn more about him as the eternal ages roll.
Brother Hawtin explained the first mystery of how God will achieve perfect unity in heaven, as all who enter there must pass through the “Sea of Glass” described in Revelation 4:6 & 15:2, and this corresponds to the “Laver of Cleansing” in the Tabernacle in the Wilderness where the Israelites were cleansed before they could approach God in the Holy Place.
As Bro Hawtin explained, “God is not the least bit interested in our opinions, and doesn’t need our input, everything in Heaven is already perfect, and there in His “Sea of Glass” these old ideas are washed away in the Grace of His Love.” After all, original sin was in heaven, when Satan and his opinions opposed God long before Adam and Eve ever showed up here on earth.
Dad and Mom’s connection to Bro Ernest H Hawtin was well established and Mom’s natural gift of piano playing music prompted Bro Hawtin to ask Dad and Mom to come to Oakland where Mom could play the piano in his meetings as she did until she passed away more than 50 years later.
I remember the night that we arrived in Oakland in 1957, knowing no one, but the Hawtins. The Warren Freeway was under construction and the only address we had was for a house that had been eliminated by the road construction. In those days with no cell phones, it was either a rare land line pay phone or a physical address. We finally found the Johnson house on the hill above and were very relieved.
Thus began my upbringing of attending East Oakland Assembly 4 times a week, which I did for over 50 years. Considering Dad’s prior experiences with God, it is not too surprising that he tended to be quite legalistic, seeing things in black and white, and it took years of experiences and many further hardships to work that out of him and have more of the Grace that Bro Ernest Hawtin showed to all and did his best to teach all who would listen.
Dad remained faithful to Bro Hawtin’s ministry, especially when at various times certain people rose up in opposition to him. I clearly remember the early 1960’s when certain individuals spoke out strongly against Brother Hawtin, and as an 8-year-old child, I could clearly see that they were not in the right spirit and God spoke to me plainly by the Spirit saying “Bro Hawtin is a true man of God!” It was not surprising when the most vociferous or outspoken person died in a car accident three weeks later in a display of God’s displeasure of speaking against a ministry that he had vindicated.
With over another 60 years of living to go to completely cover John’s remaining years on earth, we shall hit only a few highlights, and examine a few lessons learned from this extraordinary life to wrap up this life review.
Working in the 1960’s Dad began working with a company in Richmond for Belford Termite Control. He was blessed to work with Brother Robert “Bob” Knight from the church here, and we kids even went to work on some jobs, cleaning out debris under houses that they were repairing. Bro Jeff Knight (one of Bob Knight’s sons) kindly offered a few memories in a letter he wrote to remember what he learned from working with Dad.
The quality of Dad’s work and his innovation showed up, even on these old houses that they were fixing up, as I saw other workers ask Dad how to solve construction problems, and he seemed to always have an answer for them. As a few years passed, Dad began to take on more and more of his own work, and that displaced his working for others. Then for over 10 years John had all the home remodeling work that he could handle, and we boys learned how construction was done from digging forms and pouring foundations, to roofing, painting, wiring and plumbing by actually doing all that and much more.
As these years passed, I witnessed him countless times share parts of his testimony with people in their homes, and they would be transfixed in the telling as the reality of the testimony bore into their souls. Only eternity will show how many people were impacted by these testimonies. That is an operation that I still carry on often today with many people that I meet for the very first time in work settings, asking them about their relationship to God and what do they expect when this life is over.
I have seen the power of the Holy Ghost come into a room and touch a person’s heart many times both when Dad or I have shared faith with a person in need, with answers following because God is always faithful and vitally interested in meeting the needs of people.
Here are a few experiences we had where I learned to trust in God in difficult circumstances out on the road.
In 1965 our family set off on a trip to Kansas City, MO to visit my mother’s parents just before the 4th of July. We were traveling in a 1957 Ford station wagon that Dad had gotten the 390 V8 rebuilt in. It had a 3-speed manual transmission with an overdrive unit on the back, and we were towing a small U-Haul box trailer. After leaving Highway 395 at Lone Pine, CA and heading across the Panamint Valley on the edge of the Death Valley desert, 53 miles from Lone Pine and the nearest telephone, the car stalled in the heat coming up the other side of the valley. Dad was driving and when he threw the transmission into reverse and let out the clutch as it rolled backwards to start the engine under compression, we heard a noise like a shotgun going off and the engine did not start.
Looking under the car, we saw oil running out on the road, and knew that there was a significant problem. Here again, we see the providence of God as about 15 minutes later, just long enough for Dad and Mom to ask God to send help, it began to arrive. A pickup truck pulled up and stopped, and two 20 something young women jumped out and asked if we needed help. They cheerfully towed the trailer back across the valley and parked it across from an isolated gas station, and came back and towed the car to the same spot.
I was the lone person who stayed in the car by myself while they were towing the trailer, and still remember the feeling of utter isolation, as you may not see another car pass by for hours on end and the temperature was about 120 degrees. A short visit to the old hermit that owned the gas station quickly showed us that he was not inclined to help us at all. We jacked the car up on a stump and began removing the drive line and transmission. I still have the magnet on a handle that we used to recover the needle bearings from the sand when they fell out of the universal joints. With the transmission removed, we found that the case had split down the middle when a broken gear had been forced between the other gears and split it open.
Now the next phase of help arrived when two young nurses drove up to our little camp site declaring that they had come out for a picnic. When they heard about our situation, they immediately offered to take Dad back to Lone Pine in their car and to give him a place to stay for the weekend, since this was now a Friday evening. The one said, I’ll go to my friends place for the weekend and you can stay in my apartment until you get the car parts you need to fix this car for your family.
So, Dad disappeared into the night and we had no word from him for the next 5 days as we camped out there, Mom with a baby in diapers and the rest of us kids to look after. Our little camp was in an abandoned chicken coop. Us boys snuck across the road in the night and filled a 5 gallon bucket with water from the hose outside and let the sediment settle out to have water for the next day. With the little cash money we had, we purchased a half gallon ice block in a carton of water frozen in the Hermit’s freezer about every other day.
I did find a love for the desert at night, as it’s a magical place where the temperature would drop into the 70’s and with a full moon, the beauty of the plant life could be appreciated. Looking at the stars, I considered our Father of Faith, Abraham had seeing the same stars as I was gazing up at. I understood why Bro Hawtin would in years following go out into the desert on a yearly trek to spend time with God.
Late one afternoon about 5 days later, Dad climbed down from a road service truck with a new transmission under his arm. We installed it and late that evening were finally ready to go on. Seeing the few people that came by and exactly when we needed them, was an object lesson in exercising faith in the face of immediate need.
In 1966 with the other East Oakland Assembly folks and others around the USA, Canada and Mexico we began traveling to Colorado for convention meetings at Covenant Heights Camp above Estes Park, Colorado. I saw other circumstances like those mentioned above, out on the road on many occasions when God sent angels or other human helpers, and sometimes it was hard to know the difference to meet our needs.
After the 10-year span of plenty of work for John, then came lean times in the early 1970’s when no one had money to spend on property improvements so, after serious consideration, Dad went up to Washington looking for work to continue to support the family. After a few months, the decision was made that the family would follow him and move there to live.
I was 19 years old at the time, and had to make a decision, would I go with the family or stay and strike out on my own? I felt led to stay, mainly because of East Oakland Assembly and my desire for stability in spiritual life. I did make a trip to Washington to help them move, and my younger siblings began life over there. They may speak of those times, as I was not present, except for a couple of visits over the next 8 years.
John was able to obtain a contractor’s license and began a business of building pole buildings for farmers, large structures to house farm machinery for the most part. Dad built buildings all across the Pacific Northwest, some very large in size. Again, his engineering abilities were able to shine and set him apart as an effective builder. Here he finally realized that he needed to hire a foreman to manage his help, so he could focus on what he was best at, and avoid his propensity to micromanage his employees.
Dad and Mom looked for those like-minded folks who were interested in going on with God, and found some fellowship, however, it wasn’t the same as what they had here at East Oakland Assembly. Therefore, I would call them often and speak about what was preached here at East Oakland Assembly, and they appreciated that a lot. I was only able to visit one time during the next 8 years when they lived in the house in Green Hollow down on the river. The account of my brother Joel’s antics during these years, and the indelible impression he left on Colfax High School I will leave to him to tell.
The painful experience of my brother Nathan falling down a grain elevator and being seriously injured was another chapter in the story that I also heard, a test for Dad who was tempted to blame God but had to repent of that initial feeling. The innate human desire for balance and fairness in life is a hard thing to relinquish but we must leave that in God’s hands as He is the only one who can bring balance in the broken world that we now live in.
Romans 12:19 tells us that vengeance belongs to God alone. John had a hard time learning that lesson, as legalism and this innate desire to avenge any real or perceived wrongs against ourselves arises up in our minds first before any action is taken in this vein.
God saw fit to allow John to suffer hardship, pain and loss after his return to Oakland in the early 1980’s as a prophecy that was spoken over him in East Oakland Assembly foretold. He started a roofing business that was doubling in revenue year by year, but it failed because his material supplier would not stand behind their product when it proved to be faulty after it was applied.
Dad and Mom had to declare bankruptcy and then were forced to move into an apartment complex in Hayward, CA and manage it. John then began a carpet cleaning business that carried on for about 10 years, mainly due to Mom’s kindness as she answered the phone and made appointments for Dad to fulfill. During this time, John had his car stolen with all his carpet cleaning equipment in it and had to start over once again.
Do you spend time thinking about how and what you might do to avenge any injustices or wrongs perpetrated upon yourself or those you care about? Dad told me that God worked on him to bring him to a place where he would entirely trust God to not only protect him but to balance anything that he saw that was out of balance in this life.
The good news is that Dad went through these hard experiences and gave up all those old ideas of self-executed justice to find a place where his Faith in God became so strong that he trusted God completely for protection. Some would call his simple faith foolhardy, but that is the view of those who haven’t found this place of simplicity. Dad would leave his car keys in the side pocket of his door when he lived in the mobile home in Union City after Mom passed over. When I asked him about that, his answer was an intense comment, that said, “I have protection that most know nothing about!”
I, personally, have embraced that position and have seen it work ever since on my behalf, as I travel all over the area with my work van full of tools and equipment knowing that I and all my goods will be protected anywhere that I go. Living by Faith is the only way to live that pleases God, and the more Faith anyone exercises, the greater the blessings that will flow out of that way of life.
Our final conclusion is as follows: Hebrews 12:28 KJV
28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:
29 For our God is a consuming fire.
So, we see that the Kingdom of God comes NOT by observation as Jesus said in Luke 17:20-21, but rather is within us embodied in righteousness, joy and peace in the Holy Ghost. Romans 14:17
John Arthur Anderson received his kingdom and has gone to his reward, may we follow in this great example of faith and receive the kingdom God has prepared for each of us.
FEAR NOT, ONLY BELEIVE.
John Arthur Anderson rests now in peace
August 13, 1927 – November 2, 2022
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