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MY FIRST PASTORATE.

            In the Autumn of 1911 I received a unanimous invitation to be the Pastor of the Aberaman Assembly, so late in November we moved from Aberhondda Road Porth to Aberaman.

            The Induction Service, at number one Gladstone Street the home of Johnny and Alfi Griffiths, took place on the first Sunday of December 1911, with the laying on of hands by the brethren and the Confirmation of the Holy Spirit through His gifts, Prophesy, Tongues and Interpretation of Tongues.  It was a very wonderful and precious time in the presence of the Lord. Present at that service was Charles Noble from Brynmawr who previously had been coming over the Aberhondda Road, Porth for fellowship.  During that meeting the Lord had been speaking to us through the gifts telling us to avail ourselves of every Open Door and every opportunity to Speak and preach the Gospel and the Pentecostal Message.  Charles Noble, who for a long time had been inviting us to come to Brynmawr to preach Pentecost, held us to what the Lord had been telling us-he said "Now what about coming to Brynmawr?  Here is an Open Door waiting for you."  After a little talk among ourselves, we decided that we would go to Brynmawr and hold meetings over the Christmas Holidays.  On the Saturday before Christmas 1911, five of us went believing that the Lord was surely leading.

            We stayed at Noble's house, he was then living at Castle Rag on the Mountain Top near Waenavon.  Oh how wonderful and sweet Pentecostal Fellowship was at that time.

            The meetings were held at Mr. and Mrs. John Morris' home, near the Heathcock Pond, they were a large family and it was marvelous how they were able to arrange for three meetings a day.  The five of us were ministering-Johnny Griffiths, Arthur Davies, Alfi Griffiths and myself, Annie was also ministering through the gifts Prophesy, Tongues and Interpretation being exercised.  The Lord graciously poured out His Spirit-decisions were made.  God's Healing Power was manifested and there was a real stir in Brynmawr.

            The meetings were on until ten at night and later.  Water Baptism and Second Advent were having due Prominence in all our ministry-the Coming of the Lord was Imminent to us all.

            On the Tuesday night, Boxing Night, after the meeting ended at about ten thirty, Mrs. Myrddin Davies, Mrs. John Morris and Mr. James Bunn came to me and told me that they wanted to be baptised in water, and so I said we would arrange it for tomorrow.  "No!" they said, "Not tomorrow, we want to be baptised NOW tonight. The LORD MAY COME TONIGHT and we don't want to meet the Lord not baptised in water." Mrs. Davies husband tried to persuade her to wait until morning, but no use, it had to there and then.  "Well", I said, "If you do not want to meet the Lord not baptised in water-I don't want to meet the Lord having refused to baptise you!"

            There was nothing else we could do, but "straightway" (Acts 16:33) arrange to baptise them. So on Boxing Night 1911 in the depths of Winter, between 11.00 P. M. and Midnight, those three-two Sisters and a Brother in Christ-were baptised in water in the Heathcock Pond, Brynmawr.  The following morning another four were baptised in the same place-Hallelujah, Glory to God, Bendigedig.  Fyddo Duu.

 

Six weeks later Arthur Davies and myself went again to Brynmawr to conduct meetings; we were there for nine days and there were many decision and thirteen were baptised in water, in the Nantyglo Pond.  Four of these thirteen were two sons and two daughters of Mr. & Mrs. John Morris.

            I would like to relate one special baptism.  A brother by the name of Tom Withers had been very ill for six months with Chronic Gastritus, and owing to his illness and the weak and delicate state of his body had refrained from being baptized during our Christmas visit.  In one of our meetings (during the second visit) I preached on "Abraham considered not his own body, nor the deadness of Sarah's womb, but was strong in faith giving Glory to God" (Romans 4:19, 20.) The Lord revealed to me while I was preaching that the Word had been blessed to Tom Withers, and that he was gong to be baptised in water.  When we were at the table having supper together later I told them with me "Tom Withers will be up here tomorrow morning wanting to be baptised in water," although Tom himself had not said one word to me about it.  We had just finished breakfast the following morning when there was a knock on the door, it was Tom Withers, we asked him to come in and sit down.  "I am not going to sit down" he said, and to me he went on "Mr. Davies, are you coming out for a walk?"  "Yes, all right" I said and putting on my overcoat and hat we went for a walk.

            "Let's go this way" said Tom and the way he indicated was in the direction of Heathcock Pond, but he did not say one word about what his purpose was.  When he go to the pond it was covered with ice, not a spot of water to be seen, and then he said "Let's go down this way".  This way lead to another pond, the Nantyglo Pond, but still Tom had said no word about being baptised.  When we got to this pond it was covered with ice except for a spot where the brook was running into it, here also was a fair depth of water.  Then he looked at me and said "Are you ready?" and I looked at him and said "Are you ready?"  "Yes!" he said.  I undressed except for my underclothes and there Tom Withers was baptised with his suit on him.  He had a good distance to walk home in his wet clothes, in cold, frosty weather. But a wreck in body as he was through Chronic Gastritus, in His Obedience of Faith Tom Withers was gloriously healed.  Hallelujah.  Soon after he went back to his employment in the pit.

            After we moved from the Rhondda valley to Aberaman the meetings were held in our home in Commercial Place, Aberaman where our oldest son, Pastor D. J. Davies,* (now the Pastor of the Assemblies of God Church at Newton Abbot, Devon,) was born the following July.

*David John Davies was in South Wales when my grandfather dictated this account.  He moved to Newton Abbot in about 1966 and my father Glyn Davies made the alteration afterwards.

 

            In the year 1917, the brethren asked us if we were willing to go to live in the Old Prince of Wales Public House.  We would have five living rooms and then use the front part, (where the Bars used to be,) as a Mission Hall.  We did so, and that old Beer House became the birthplace of many precious souls, Yes! those meetings were times of Heaven on Earth. I remember one Prophecy especially which told us not to look at things as they were for the time was coming when we would marvel at the greatness of the congregation.  This Prophecy was wonderfully brought to pass.  When Pastor Stephen Jeffreys came to Aberaman hundreds were saved and that old Prince of Wales, Mission Hall became too small.  The partition was taken away and the whole of the ground floor was used for the meetings, and still it was too small.  After a while the premises were bought, together with the adjoining house and the Present Hall was built seating five and six hundred people.

            When we moved to Abertillery Danny Davies took over as pastor and was Pastor the Aberaman Assembly until he went to be with the Lord in 1953.

            Re that Word of the Lord that came in Prophecy, that we would marvel at the greatness of the congregation.  I remember one night in particular.  The night I was baptising twenty-nine people in water after Gordon Gove's Campaign.  The Present Hall was overcrowded, they were standing in the aisles both sides of the hall for nearly the whole length of it, and the  vestry and both sides of the pulpit were packed so that many could not get in.  One of those baptised that night was Pastor Elvin Lee the missionary.  That prophecy we had received through Annie was vividly brought back to memory that night when looking at that congregation.

 

            When the Lord laid it upon my heart to go to Aberbeeg and LLanhilleth to start Pentecostal Meetings, I knew only one brother-living in Meadow Street LLanhilleth-John Martin. One Friday night I told Annie that I was going to see John Martin to tell him I believed the Lord wanted us to come to the area to start Pentecostal Meetings.

            I arrived and told him, he was delighted and eager to start, "Let's have a cup of tea" he said "Then we'll go and see Hopkin Davies, he may hear of a house up where he lives before we hear of one down here."  So after tea we went to see Hopkin Davies and told him our purpose, he was also delighted.  He said "My sister is living close by you, and if I hear of a house going empty, I will send the boy up at once to let you know."

            The following Monday the boy was at our door telling us that his father had sent him to tell me to come up, that there was a house going empty.  I went home with the boy, then his father and I went to see the owner and the house was let to us that night.

            The following Monday we moved in, and that night we had our first meeting in Aberbeeg-John Martin, Annie and myself.  The result was that in 1921 we built the Hall on Brynithel the house having been too small for some time to hold the congregation.  Before the Hall was built we used to hold Pentecostal Meetings at Percy Morgan's Home, Hafod Arthan, Abertillery.  Percy Morgan opened his heart to the Lord out on a ploughed field when brother Frank Jones and myself paid him a visit and the three of us knelt in prayer.  The tears flowed down his cheeks and opening his heart to the Lord resulted in Percy later opening his Farm for meetings.  Oh what wonderful meetings an times of blessing they were then.  Mrs. Percy Morgan received healing herself of Consumptive Bowels and her daughter of Measels (her name was Rosie) and her healing was instantaneous.  Elijah Bevan was baptised with the Holy Ghost at a meeting here, and after one meeting at the farm a number were baptised in water on the Mountain Top nearby a pond, among these was William Ellis who later was Pastor at Aberbeeg and Abertillery.  While we were living at the farm in July 1923, Annie was healed of a large growth on her face.  I was down at a business meeting in Brynithel and when I arrived home the large growth had gone completely.  Praise God for ever.  Pastors in the Western Valley can verify this healing. 

            Later we commenced Pentecostal Meetings at Six Bells, Abertillery in the homes of Baker Jones and Mr. & Mrs. David Thomas and afterwards we converted a stable into a Mission Hall.  Our son Idris Davies, (who is now and has been for fourteen years preaching the Glorious Gospel of Christ to the Natives in Africa) was baptised in water in Bethany Baptist Chapel, Six Bells near the Pit (where the explosion was), when he was eleven years of age, at the same time as Mr. Watson who was then seventy years of age.  Idris was definitely saved at Brynithel when he was only seven years old.  Praise God.

        *   When we were living at Sunnyside, Aberbeeg, Glyndwr our youngest boy (he was nine years old) came home from School one morning, his face beaming and he said to his mother "Mam, I have had my Baptism".  Knowing he was in school his mother asked him where.  "In the wood behind the School, under a tree when I was praying to God asking for my Baptism."  "Oh well" said his mother "Were you speaking with Other Tongues?" "Yes" he said.

*Glyndor, my father, was normally called Glyn.

 

(Confirmation.)  That week Billy Lewis, Cross Keys, was conducting a Week's Mission with us at Aberbeeg and in the meeting that night out Idris, at the end of the meeting, had gone to the front for prayer for healing.  After praying for Idris, Billy Lewis said "You have other boys haven't you?  "Yes" I said "Glyn is back there, call him."  I told Billy Lewis how Glyn had come home from school that morning and told his mother he had received his Baptism when praying under a tree in the woods during playtime at School.  "Have a talk with him" I concluded.  While they were actually talking together Glyn broke out in Tongues so that all in the Hall heard him speaking with Other Tongues.  "The promise is unto you and to your children" (Acts 2:39).  Glyn was saved when he was only five and a half years old when he went out to the front of the hall in Ystrad Rhondda and accepted the Lord Jesus as his Saviour.

            While I was Pastor at Aberbeeg, D. J. our oldest son was filled with the Holy Spirit speaking with Other Tongues and prophesying-he was only nine years of age when he received his Pentecost.

 

            In the Autumn of 1929 we took over the Pastorate of the Penrhiwceiber Assembly.  I have often thought that the four and a half years at Penrhiwceiber and the three years at Ystrad were the most blessed and Precious years of our life of service for the Lord.  We took on the Penrhiwceiber Assembly with only a very few members and left it a flourishing assembly.  During the time of my pastorate here, Ernie Crew who was an Elder with us, went out full-time into the Lord's Service.  D. J. Davies my son, went to the Bible School at Hampstead under Mr. Howard Carter then the Principal, and then went full-time into the ministry in the Assemblies of God.  There also at Penrhiwceiber Idris Davies, my son, had his calling to the Missionary Field when God spoke to him through a vision during a cottage meeting.

            On February 4^th 1930 my brother Pastor D. J. Davies, Ystrad Rhondda died and on February the 9^th was buried at Penrys Cemetery.  Pastor Tom Mercy, Crosskeys, and Pastor Clement Morgan, Dowlais, officiating, when there were about one thousand people at the graveside.  The following week Mrs. D. J. Davies, with the Elders and brethren of the Ystrad Assembly sent a letter to the Elders and the Church at Penrhiwceiber, asking them if they would please release me and let me come to be in charge of the work at Ystrad until Mrs. Davies, who was ill in bed at the time, could take over.  They kindly granted their request.  I was there for two months under much blessing from the Lord.  During those two months thirty were added to the Assembly, in two meetings; twenty three were filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with Other Tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance according to Acts 2:4; and, the last night I was there, twenty four were baptised in water in Nebo Baptist Chapel, (the oldest chapel in the Rhondda which had been kindly lent to us) and there were about seven hundred in the congregation. 

            The meetings at Penrhiwceiber were indeed wonderfully blessed of God.  The Ministry of the Word was good, the Gifts of the Spirit were continually in operation during the meetings and there was grand liberty in the Lord for Worship, Praise and Adoration.  I was speaking to an elderly and experienced Pentecostal sister in recent years and she told me that the most wonderful and blessed meetings she ever attended were those at Penrhiwceiber.  The fellowship was very blessed indeed.  Praise God for ever.  There was a grand band of workers in the Open Air Meetings.  Ted Bowden, E. Crew, G. Summerill, D. J. Davies, Idris Davies, Annie and myself, Mrs. Wilkins and other too.  The singing was lovely, a number of singers with excellent voices attended regularly. 

            The time came when we decided to take over the Pastorate for the Lord in Bwilth Wells at the invitation of Brother Percy Morgan and the others.  All of us that gathered for our farewell meetings in Penrhiwceiber cannot easily forget it.  That was an unforgettable meeting for it was then we realised how deeply our hearts were knit together with the love of God-all that most of us could do was weep. 

            We laboured for the Lord in Radnorshire for two years not without some fruit for our labour. 

            Then came a unanimous invitation from nineteen brethren of the Ystrad Rhondda Assembly to come as Pastor.  After I had been in a successful ten day campaign (when sixteen came to know the Lord) three years of Blessed and Fruitful service for the Lord followed.  During my Pastorate at Ystrad I was for a period the Chairman of the Rhondda District Presbytery.  We moved from Rhondda to Dowlais Top.  In 1947 here we were asked to take charge of the Mission Hall in Talke.  After four and a half years in Talke, Stoke on Trent (in fellowship with the North West Staffordshire District Presbytery), in 1952 I retired, from full-time Pastoral Work. 

            I was then in my seventy first year, and we moved to Cardiff to my *son Glydwr and his wife Grethe.  During our stay in Cardiff we had a very blessed time of fellowship (occasional ministry too) in the Assembly there under Pastor H. Weare. 

*My mother's name is Anna Margrethe, normally she is known as "Gretha", which is pronounced "Greta".