Edwin and Mette Hess

When this Gospel was carried to the city of St. Paul, Minnesota, in December 1906, it was the most wonderful thing I ever heard—that God was pouring out His Spirit in these days as on the day of Pentecost. Oh, my heart was so hungry for God! My sister came to our home and told my husband and I what God had done for her. She had been an invalid for ten years with ulcers of the stomach, and God so wonderfully healed her. I could hardly believe it. She was able to eat anything. We fell on our knees, and God saved and sanctified us in our own home. Then, the first day of the year 1907, God baptized us with the Holy Ghost and fire. We have had sickness in our home since, but never thought of giving our children medicine. I count it a privilege to trust God. - Mette Hess

I praise God that over twenty years ago I heard the story of mercy—and I needed it. I was a church member, with my name on the church roll for years, but it never brought any reality into my soul. I was lost and undone. If any soul in the world needs God, it is the one who thinks he is a Christian and is not. The Word says, “Therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation” (Matthew 23:14).

When I heard the Gospel of Jesus, the Latter Rain Gospel, I believed it immediately; I never doubted it for a single moment. It brought something real to my heart that made me realize I needed to be born again. I went on my knees and prayed like a lost soul, “God, be merciful to me a sinner.” In a moment of time sin was broken from off my life; the habits and appetites were gone. The peace of God filled my soul, and there was joy in my heart.

I then had to make a crooked life right. I had failed in business and owed hundreds of dollars. I had to work for about ten years to pay back the men I owed, but I praise God for the privilege that I might make Heaven my home. I treasure above all things, the hope that is down in my breast of seeing Jesus face to face someday. I thank God for the old-time religion. He saved me, sanctified me, and baptized me with the Holy Ghost and fire. He has kept me all these years and put something in my heart that the powers of Hell cannot shake. I thank God that my name is written in Heaven. - Edwin Hess

In a letter written to the Apostolic Faith Church in 1986, their son, Harold, further explained how they came into the Gospel:

The two people responsible for bringing the Latter Rain Gospel to my parents were Florence Crawford and Jackson White. Sister Crawford attended the 1906 Azusa Street meetings in Los Angeles, California, and received the baptism of the Holy Ghost. While there, she met Brother Jackson who at about that same time received that experience also. Brother Jackson returned home to St. Paul, Minnesota, and began holding Gospel meetings while corresponding with the leadership at Azusa Street which Sister Crawford had joined.

[In December 1906, Sister Crawford left Los Angeles to preach among and encourage different groups that had sprung from the Azusa Street meetings.] When she preached her first sermon in Portland, Oregon, in a hall over a blacksmith shop, she was on her way to visit Brother Jackson in St. Paul. My parents lived in St. Paul at the time and were members of a Presbyterian church. My mother’s youngest sister had begun attending Brother Jackson’s meetings. She heard Sister Crawford preach during the week following Christmas and was so impressed that she invited my parents to attend a service with her. During that week, they prayed through to salvation and sanctification in their home.

On New Year’s Eve, Sister Crawford held a watch night service. She preached a long sermon and finally looked at her lapel watch and said, “It is three minutes until midnight. If we are going to pray in the new year, I had better stop preaching.” My mother was receiving the baptism of the Holy Ghost when she heard the midnight whistle blow. Four hours later, my father received the baptism.

While Sister Crawford was there, she told my parents that she felt the call to work for the Lord, but did not know where. She considered continuing on to Illinois to work with a group there, but a day or two later told Mother, “I have received a letter from the people in Portland, Oregon. They would like me to come be the leader of that group.” She said she felt the Lord leading her in that direction, possibly because she was a native of the Northwest and acquainted with that region.

My parents corresponded with Sister Crawford for thirteen years while holding street meetings and cottage meetings in the Midwest and Canada. Then, in July 1920, they moved to Portland in time for camp meeting and remained there until their deaths.