Raise the Dead transcription
Raise the Dead, Transcription
Edited by Daniel W. Patterson
(a series of historical photographs of revivalists and revival tents, over somber instrumental music)
H. RICHARD HALL: The Pentecostals came to our country. My mother took me down to the camp meeting. Mama went down just to see what was going on, curiosity, and was carried away with it. So she entered into it. My grandfather didn't like it at all. After two or three days, we came in, and he met us at the door and said, "Honey, I love you, you're my daughter. And that little fatherless boy has a home here as long as I live, and you do too. But you can't bring this Pentecostal faith in here." So rather than capitulate, my mother went out, left on out.
(over shots from a moving automobile of leafless trees and a clouded sky the voice of Ozark singer Almeda Riddle singing “Wayfaring Stranger,” with instrument added; three names appear one after another: H. Richard Hall, Mike Ferree, Eula Shelton)
I'm just a poor wayfaring stranger
I'm traveling through a world of woe
But there's no sickness, toil or danger
In that bright land to which I go.
I'm going there to see my mother.
She said she'd meet me when I come.
(music fades; photographs end with woman’s face)
RICHARD HALL (continuing): And I said, "Mama, where are we going to sleep tonight?" And a great big tear dropped down and hit me right in my forehead here, went all down over my face. And she said, "Honey, I don't know, but I do know that God will make a way."
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(film title): RAISE THE DEAD
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(over shots of traveling in a car down mountain roads, leading to a tent revival where a woman is singing):
Once I was down in sin's dark prison.
No one 'round did I blame.
Though I had no more hope,
Had no joy in living, then Jesus came
He broke my chains.
He broke my chains.
(shots of walking and riding in cars to revivals, with Richard Hall arriving at a revival tent by night)
Immediately after my mother received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, she felt led to preach or prophesy. We went from church to church, little tent meetings and brush arbors, people put up, made out of parts of trees. Mom and I, I like to think, worked together. And being a child evangelist, many doors were open because of curiosity.
(in a revival service, taking one person after another by the hand)
RICHARD HALL: I want this man healed of his stomach ailment-- just trying to return to him--on the right side. You're healed in the name of Jesus. You don't have it again.
I want this woman healed of these attacks. She had one last Wednesday, and you thought you were going to die. I know exactly when it was, it was 3:14 in the afternoon. You'll never have another one. Thank God. (a phrase in an unknown tongue)
If you love Jesus, raise your hands and praise God.
I'm looking for the miraculous tonight, and it's already happening.
If you love Him raise your hands and praise God. Hallelujah!
And there's an angel came to you, came to you December the 14th, 1987. That's in the wintertime. Angel came to you, and he touched you, and you'd be dead now if he hadn't have come to you. But you're healed tonight in the name of Jesus.
And you don't have glasses on, but your right eye's getting dim. And it's healed in the name of Jesus. Oh, what's the mat . . .?
(Hall’s words fade out, although shots of him preaching continue as Ferree begins speaking)
MIKE FERREE: I first met Brother Hall when I was living on a farm in southern Indiana. And one of my neighbors asked me to go to church with her that night, and I said, "Well, sure." She said, "Well there's a long-haired preacher." And said, "He is exciting." And I said, "Well, let's go hear that exciting preacher." Well, for a week, for seven days, I'd been fasting and praying, hadn't eat much, and seeking God. Because I read a scripture in the Bible that said-- about faith, and I didn't feel like I had any faith. And every day, I'd pray and seek God about my faith. I don't have any faith. I thought, Lord, I don't have enough faith. And you can only know God by faith. And I was seeking God about my faith. So I went to this meeting with Brother Hall, and sat on the front row, Sally and I did. Brother Hall was preaching and walking up and down the aisle. And you know, I hadn't never been to anything like it in my life. And he backed up the aisle, and looked down at me, and he said, "Son, I love your faith." And when he said "faith," I heard a voice in my mind, and it said, "He said face, F-A-C-E." And Brother Hall looked back at me, and he said, "No, faith, faith, F-A-I-T-H, faith. I love your faith." And walked off, and I've never forgot.
(camera resumes shots of Richard Hall preaching)
RICHARD HALL: You love the Lord, praise God, got your Bible there, you go to church, but there's a power that's coming against you. (says a phrase in an unknown tongue( You had a battle with it last Saturday. You're not going to have another battle. You've got a (another phrase in unknown tongue) . And I feel more of God right now, because this is a power over the power of the enemy. Praise God, and you just won. If you love Jesus, raise your hands and praise God. Can you believe? If thou canst believe, all things are possible.
(over other shots of Hall leaving the meeting, walking out into the dark outside)
RICHARD HALL (continuing his narrative): I received this thing one day, alone—not in some church, not under some person, not under a preaching, just walking along the road, carrying a bucket of milk. . . .
(shots again of leafless trees seen from a moving automobile, over the voice of Almeda Riddle singing “Wayfaring Stranger”:
I'm only going over Jordan
I'm only going . . . )
RICHARD HALL: A realization, that there's more to me, than I know.
(over shots of men and a boy working to erect a tent for an outdoor revival)
MIKE FERREE: I believe Brother Hall has influenced me, and that's intentional. I wanted him to, because he is of an old order, of days gone by, that'll never come back. (aside to a helper: Louisa, bring me that pin.) This old tent ministry really is what built Oral Roberts's ministry, a lot of others, but all that's changed now. Things have kind of got uptown, and Brother Hall, he still kind of lives that lifestyle. And I liked it. Like Brother Hall, I'm on the road around 300 days a year. In the colder months, we go in little churches. In the summer, we raise the tent. I'll go into a town for a few weeks, and then Brother Hall will come in for the last few nights to close it out. My wife Sally and the kids travel with me in the summer. It's a good education for them. (aside to a helper: Get that stand.} The kind you can't get at Harvard, or places like that.
SALLY FERREE (cautioning a small boy as they all work to get the tent set up): Down, boy.
MIKE FERREE: We believe in the nine gifts of the spirit that the Bible speaks about-- the working of miracles, the gift of faith, the gift of tongues, the gift of interpretation of tongues, the gift of the word of knowledge, the gift of wisdom. And we've leaned towards the idea that any person that has the infilling of the Holy Spirit would have at least two gifts that should work for them. The wind blows through the trees, and you can see the leaves moving, but that's not the wind. You didn't see the wind, you just saw the leaf move. So you saw the attributes, or the after effects, and that's kind of the way the moving of the Spirit is. It pat moves through, but you may see somebody jerk, or somebody jump, or maybe somebody speak in tongues, or maybe a prophecy go out, but you didn't see the Spirit. You just saw the aftereffects of it. So it is very hard to explain.
DAUGHTER: The anointing is hard to explain, because I don't rightly understand it myself, and I don't know hardly anyone that does. Brother Hall, I guess he understands it. But I don't know. When Dad says it's energy-anointing preaching. It's not him that's saying that, it's something that's come over him that's just putting the words in his mouth. And if you're under the anointing, then they're right.
(the tent is set up; the scene shifts to shots of the landscape of rural West Virginia)
MIKE FERREE: Brother Hall travels all over these mountain parts. He's been coming to War, West Virginia, since I guess the late 40's or so, back when coal was king, and man, McDowell County was the place! Back when the coal was really running, there were upwards of 20,000 people living in the area around War. I believe in the last head count, they were lucky if they could find 4,000.
(over an instrument playing the melody of “Wayfaring Stranger”)
Brother Hall just keeps going back to these little mountain towns, and his people are there every year waiting for him.
(over shots of Eula Shelton as an elderly woman with some of her family on the porch of her home)
Sister Shelton started going to Brother Hall's meetings back in 1953, when she was a young wife and a mother.
EULA SHELTON: . . . working good today.
MIKE FERREE, continuing: That was before she understood her call. And before she had to face her demon.
EULA SHELTON (laying out food and eating utensils on a table): I'm just trying to think what else I need to do. First, come here, I've got another one of this sitting there. It's raspberry.
(younger family members gather)
MIKE FERREE: She lives on a pension from her late husband's state job. And her kids have stayed here, too.
EULA SHELTON: Now, boys, come on here and sit down.
MIKE FERREE: When Sister Shelton first went to Brother Hall's tent meetings, it must have seemed like the whole world was there.
RICHARD HALL: In, uh, '48, '49, '50—and I was a very young man then, but I entered into it—we had a tent that was 125 feet wide and 300 feet long. And wherever we'd take it, we had great crowds. No advertising. And people reached the height of emotion—we felt like their spiritual emotion—but others can call it what they want. In the 50's and the 60's, there was this physical movement, to reach for healings of the body.
(over shots of healings, the leader and congregation singing Albert Brumley’s “How Great Thou Art”)
. . . My Savior God, to Thee.
How great Thou art. How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Savior God to Thee . . .)
RICHARD HALL: Brother Roberts acquired a tent to seat 20,000 people. Jack Cole acquired one. Jack was very competitive. Brother Cole acquired one to seat 22,000.
(singing ends): How great Thou art.
RICHARD HALL: I knew another man by the name of William Branham. Very unique man. Couldn't be termed educated. He only went to the fourth grade. Born in the hills of Kentucky in a one-room log cabin. William Branham never owned a tent, but there was no auditorium large enough to hold the people.
(scene shifts to historical b&w footage labeled Washington D.C. 1954)
WILLIAM BRANHAM: Now I believe this is the lady. Is this the patient? Come near, Sister. Of course, that won't hurt you now. That's just His presence, that you're conscious of. And I, and audience, I'm, I’m your brother. This is not psychology. I felt that come in from the audience, it isn't. It's almighty God.
RICHARD HALL: In the late '40's and early '50's, William Branham had it all. The crowds were unbelievable. He and Oral Roberts were the tops.
WILLIAM BRANHAM: Now Sister, I just want to speak with you just a moment. We're strangers, I suppose, but Jesus Christ knows the both of us. And this is our first time meeting on Earth. Now, I want you to look this way just a moment. Of course you're sick, and you're suffering with a condition. It's a dark spirit around you. It's death. And it's a form of cancer. And the cancer is located on the breast. I know there's a dark spirit of fear hanging at you yet. It's something very serious. Say, I see you. Your name is Eva.
WOMAN: Yes.
WILLIAM BRANHAM: And your last name is York.
WOMAN: Yes.
WILLIAM BRANHAM: And you live in this city, -
WOMAN: Yes.
WILLIAM BRANHAM: And your house number is 613 Sixth Street, is that right?
WOMAN: Yes.
WILLIAM BRANHAM: You're going home to be well. In the name of Jesus Christ you will be whole and be made well.
MIKE FERREE: They say Brother Branham could even raise the dead. But when he died in a car crash back in the 60s, not many people even remembered his name.
WILLIAM BRANHAM: Just have faith. Don't doubt.
(shots of landscape and sign reading Cleveland, Tennessee)
MIKE FERREE: Brother Branham, Brother Hall, none of us pin our hopes on this world. We rely on the unchanging word of God, yesterday, today, and forever.
EULA SHELTON: The last time that I was in H. Richard Hall's meeting, he looked at me, and he said, "You were supposed to be dead." He knew that what I had was a killer.
(Richard Hall with several others before the start of a service)
RICHARD HALL: Did Sandy and them get here yet? Maybe they're not coming. That'd be great, wouldn't it? Slow start tonight, huh?
(shots of Hall entering the auditorium and of various people there as he approaches a young man who is singing “I Can’t Even Walk” by Colbert and Joyce Croft):
. . . the mountain's too high and the valley's too wide.
Down on my knees I've learned to stay.
You see I can't even walk without You holding my hand.
(Hall joins him on the last line and takes his microphone)
RICHARD HALL: Give him a cheer, folks. We love Wade.
(Hall begins singing “I’m Thankful”):
Oh, this is why I’m thankful,
Why I pray and sing and shout.
God put something way down within,
And the devil can't get that out.
EULA SHELTON (over the song): I had to take a mammogram and an infection, the swelling in my breast. And when they found what they said was cancer. And they told me how small it was. I think to the thousandths of the centimeters or something, but then they's other things in biopsies they were doing, that caused my breast to swell and things. And I, eventually, went ahead and had my breasts removed, and they wanted to give me chemotherapy.
RICHARD HALL (still singing): I'm thankful that God heard me.
EULA SHELTON: I came back home and I was very troubled, because as a minister, I preach divine healing unto the people. And I knew that I had a decision to make in my heart. And so my decision was to call the hospital, cancel all appointments. And I took it upon myself to refuse the chemotherapy. I laid their pills down, and I cast my all upon my God.
RICHARD HALL: Thank God, you've got a power.
(taking Eula Shelton by the hand and drawing her toward him)
Some of these folk may look at you and say, "Poor little woman." I'll tell you one thing. Until you've been delivered from cancer, praise God, don't you ever dare say some “poor little woman.” When they told her she'd be dead in four or five months, and she said, "You just wait a minute. I'm gonna take this cancer to Jesus." Did you take it to him?
EULA SHELTON: "Yes."
RICHARD HALL: Did he move it?
EULA SHELTON: "Yes."
RICHARD HALL: Did he heal you?
EULA SHELTON: "Yes."
RICHARD HALL: Thank God, and the doctors have to say amen to Him. I don't care what kind of a disease you've got tonight. Let this old woman lay hands on you. (speaks a phrase in an unknown tongue) Right on down the line.
(an instrument plays and another man sings, the camera shows shots of other women coming to her and of several other men leading or laying hands on the heads of other people)
MAN SINGING:
Oh, I believe, Lord, I believe
All things are possible
Thank you, Lord.
MAN: I come to thank the Lord. Let it be so. Let it be so.
(singing)
Lord, I believe. Lord,. . . I believe in prophecy. . . That all faiths. . .
EULA SHELTON (in her home saying) And I (phrase in an unknown tongue), I proclaim my healing in the mighty name of Jesus. And (speaks in an unknown tongue) . . I proclaim my healing in that name, for he said by his stripes I was healed.
(singing continues) Lord, I believe . . . All things . . .
(a line of people seeking healing; it moves toward Eula Shelton, Richard Hall, and others who lay healing hands upon them, several talking at once, some talking in unknown tongues)
RICHARD HALL (clearing the cords of his microphone): Got me tangled up, and I can't even perform for you. Praise God! Got to teach you boys better. Give 'em a cheer, folks. Just be yourself, and let God do the rest. You don't have to put on an act. If you put on an act, you're not being yourself.
In these areas, they don't have the theaters that you have in the larger cities. And it's not that I'm against them, but the people need someplace for a release of their emotions. (to one young woman) You were smiling. So that's one way to get attention.
(AN OLDER WOMAN (to Hall): I just pray for that tooth right there. It's the filling of it. I'm praying that the Lord will let it grow back in the root so I won't have to have it pulled.
RICHARD HALL: We'll pray, okay?
THE WOMAN: Bless you, Brother Hall.
RICHARD HALL (in an interview): And I do, I pray for people, and you see that. Momentarily, I can help them, but after I'm gone, what do they have to lean on?
(a night scene with traffic, fade out to blackness, then Sister Shelton in her home, with her head bowed, praying softly, followed by her telling of her life, over shots of rural West Virginia—accompanied by gentle string music, the “Night Piece” composed by Ezra Sims)
EULA SHELTON: Permission to speak to God. In the name of Jesus. I was raised in the coal camp at Bartley, West Virginia. Most of it has been destroyed by floods, somewhere in the '50s. And since then, '70s, that the floods came, and camp has been destroyed. A whole row of houses that went down through here, and the floods got all of them. In fact, that might even have been the house that we lived in. I don't know. It was along close in here somewhere that we lived.
INTERVIEWER: You told me you were shy.
EULA SHELTON: Yes. Yes, I was. I was real shy that I couldn't even hardly talk to anyone. My face would turn red if I was trying to speak to anyone. I used to think as a girl growing up, I would watch my mother, how outgoing she was, and how she could talk to people and associate with them. And I'd think I wish I could be like my mother. I wished I could be able to talk to people and not be backward like that.
(shots of the river running by Bartley and of events during the flood)
MIKE FERREE: By the time the flood hit Bartley in 1957, some folks had already left for factory jobs in cities like Detroit and Pittsburgh. By 1963, the mines were shutting down all altogether. So others left for the mill towns of North Carolina. But these were the same waters that had run through Sister Shelton's childhood. The one she was baptized in as a girl.
EULA SHELTON, speaking, (over Ernest Phipps and His Holiness Singers’ recording of “A Little Talk with Jesus”): The first Holiness revival that I ever attended was in Ohio when I was about fourteen years old. I went under Brother Bill Gurganus, and he had a great healing ministry. I went to a meeting, and I was under conviction, and after the service was over, I thought I could go up and shake hands with Brother Bill Gurganus. And then I could go back to my seat, and I'd be all right. But I went up and shook hands with him and turned to go back to my seat, and I didn't get back to the first bench. I had to turn and run back to the altar because I was under conviction so bad, a-weeping and a-crying.
(the singing grows louder and closes)
I tell him all my fears. He wipes away my tears.
A little talk with Jesus makes it right all right.
(historical shots of a river baptism, followed by shot of a tent Mike Ferree and his family are setting up)
YOUNG MAN (to Mike):- You don't have an extra bulb for your trailer do you? Trailer brake light.
MIKE FERREE: I may have.
YOUNG MAN: Know where it is? In your toolbox?
MIKE FERREE: Look in the toolbox.
BOY: I know where it is. (leading the man off)
MIKE FERREE: A lot of our people live in suburbs now, outside mill towns like here in Kannapolis, in the upper Piedmont of North Carolina. Their lives are busy and fast. So if I'm gonna have a good meeting, I have to start low, because that's where the people are at. They've been working all week. They're tired. They have problems. They have home problems. They have wife problems. They got kid problems. And so their spirit is small. So you start low, because that's where they're at.
(Mike enters the tent, takes a microphone and starts singing a Dottie Rambo song, backed-up by his wife and other musicians)
Oh, there's too many sunsets that lie behind the mountain
And there are too many rivers my feet have gone through.
Too many treasures are waiting over yonder.
There's just too much to gain to ever lose.
MIKE FERREE (beginning to preach) Let's all give Jesus a cheer. Give him a big cheer. Why don't you lift your hands to heaven and God and call upon the name of the Lord. The name of the Lord is a strong tower, and the righteous can go and be safe. Lord, we've got it tonight, friends, for our healing is here. Our victory is here. Our joy is here. Our peace is here-- because Jesus is here. How many brought him with you? Christ in you, the hope of glory. I brought him with me. How many brought him with you? Hallelujah, He came with me when I came under this tent tonight. He'll go out with me when I leave. He said, "I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you." I'll go with you even to the end of the world. Do you feel like you're at your end? How many feel like you're at your end? You feel like you're at the end of your life? You feel like the Lord's left you? You feel like the Spirit's took its flight? Well, I'll tell you something, Friends, when you can't feel the Holy Ghost too much, it's because he's went away from you for a season, to search out some deep things. For the spirit searches out the deep things, Yea, the deep things of God. And when he gets them, he brings them right back to you. So if you feel like something's left ya, the Spirit's searching something deep, and he's getting ready to reveal it to you. You're getting ready to make a change. Lift your hand to heaven on high, and say, "Lord, make a change in my life." Hallelujah. Give Jesus another cheer.
(over closing shots of audience members, then of hands waving, then darkness and a moon)
When it's late and I'm under that tent, I feel like I'm closer to what God called me to do.
(preaching again) Brother Branham was a great man, but I don't want his, I want mine. Brother Abbott was a great man, but I don't want his, I want mine. They were born for their time. I was born for my time. Hallelujah, this is your day. This is your time. This is the day for me to pray. This is the day for me to prophesy. This is the day for me to talk in tongues. This is the day for me to heal the sick. This is the day for me to cast out the Devil. This is the day for me to raise the dead. I've read about others that did it in their day. God's my day.
(Richard Hall driving into a cemetery in Indiana and walking to the gravestone there of William M. Branham)
RICHARD HALL: Only Branham was really solid on just the Bible as it was written. Just exactly. No, uh, no explaining, just took it verbatim, just exactly. He was a gifted man, a psychic, he really was. There's no if's, and's, or but's. He really had an uncanny power from some source, and I believe it was God. I personally believe. I never met anyone in my book, in all of these 48 years of preaching, I've never met anyone like him.
(begins to pray)
Father . . . . And we thank you for men that were so dedicated to God and to faith, and to the Bible, even as it is written. And that one thing we know about, as we even stand here, as our brother waits for that resurrection. We know that he was in contact with you. And we only pray that others will do the same. In Jesus' name.
(returning toward his automobile)
Anyone can study to be an artist, but only one that has that certain aptitude, or gift, can become a real artist.
(in the background ethereal music—the voice of Karol Bennett singing Tod Machover’s “Flora”—begins to play and continues to be heard over shots of leafless trees and a cloudy sky from the window of a moving car and then through the William Branham material that follows)
All the churches have those that are taught in the ministry, but we contend that there has to be a gift or a calling from God. And then, that particular person that feels like that he is directed of God, will proceed as if God is directing him, watching him, speaking to him, consciously or subconsciously. And we perhaps call that subconscious thing a spiritual thing.
WILLIAM BRANHAM (in more footage from the service held in Washington, D.C., in 1954): God in Heaven who created the Heavens and Earth, dwelled in Jesus Christ, promised to return again in us, and what he done we'd do also. Do you believe me to be his prophet? The reason I say that--the Angel of the Lord told me to get the people to believe you. If they won't believe you then you'll know the very secrets of their heart and they'll have to believe a thing, but you do believe me, and besides the reason that you do believe me, you are a minister of the gospel yourself, and you're here for a good cause, you're not sick, you're in need. And you want an old-fashioned revival to break in your community.
(the audience is roused, a hubbub begins, and someone calls “Praise the Lord.”)
BRANHAM (continues): Lift up your hands. Every one of us wants that. Let's all stand for an old-fashioned revival. Almighty God that has created the Heavens and Earth, I ask now that every demon power in this building of people, the power of Jesus Christ be made manifest. Lord, we are not defeated. Satan, I adjure thee in the name of the Lord, Jesus Christ, come out of those people. Stand up, you crippled people out of wheelchairs. Give him praise.
EULA SHELTON (over b&w shots of a newborn colt trying to rise to its feet): When the Lord called me, and I was down praying, and I seen just a little young colt. I said, "Lord, what is this?" I said, "What's the meaning of this?" And he said, "It's just trying its legs. How about trying yours?”
(shots of colt standing are followed by shots of a deserted building, and of Eula Shelton climbing stairs in it to a large room full of clutter, where she walks about; at the close of her account the clutter dissolves into a scene where she has it nearly cleared away)
I had walked out here to this building and seen it, and I thought in my mind that it would just make a good church. I knew that the building had been offered for $10,000, and I had the telephone number, and I walked out this way and came out to the building, and the Lord spoke to me, told me now was the time to go call about the building and get it. So I went home and I made the call, I didn't know if $2,000—but it came out of my mouth, the offer that I made to the man, so we got the building for $2,000, and it was only two, and by the Lord.
(Eula Shelton stands outside the building looking at train cars roll past)
MIKE FERREE: Sister Shelton acted on her vision and started her church.
(over shots of Mike and other men putting up a new tent for one of his services)
All right, you ready? Pull. Sally computerized our mailing list. We bought a new tent and continued on the road. We wore the other tent out. It was dry rotted. We'd had it about, all told, it's about thirteen years old. So I wanted a little bit bigger tent. I wanted to go to 60 wide and 120 feet long, so I could have the equivalent of three tents, a 60 by 60, and a 60 by 90, and a 60 by 120. (shots of them men at work: “I see you got it right.” “Right then?” “That's right.” (Mike continues talking) And it's a vinyl tent. It's cooler. I like the white because it reflects light better. They're easy to light up. And it's just what I wanted.
(The men continue working, “Ah, d'y'all pull?” “Yeah. Yeah.” “That's right .” “He's a big man.” “All right.”)
MIKE FERREE (sitting in an automobile with Richard Hall and thumbing through a calendar note book): September 7th through the 11th, you're supposed to be in Bath, South Carolina, which is Clearwater.
RICHARD HALL: What would be, would there be something between . . ?
MIKE FERREE: From the 4th to the 7th would be your traveling time. But you're gonna be in, 3rd and 4th, you're going to be in Vine, Illinois. The 23rd, 24th, and 25th is what you gave me to come to Cumming, Georgia. But you know that they sent word to me the other day that them Church of God folk down there are really excited about you coming. You might want to come for a week ahead.
RICHARD HALL: Well, I been-- see that's close to that big meeting we had.
MIKE FERREE: Yeah, it's just about 30 miles from Gainesville.
RICHARD HALL: Well, you know, Griffin's where we had a big meeting.
MIKE FERREE: So if you want to come in for a week, that's up to you.
RICHARD HALL: What date do you have?
MIKE FERREE: Brother Hall still spends most of the year on the road. Last year, he traveled over 50,000 miles. Some of the same places he traveled with his mother as a boy.
RICHARD HALL: What's the name of the place?
MIKE FERREE (over shots of Hall outside a tent where they are ready to hold a meeting): And though he and I go all over these mountain parts, and know people all over the country, we spend most of our time driving to these places. Sometimes I feel like our best friend after Jesus is the road that takes us there.
(singing of Albert E. Brumley’s “I’ll Fly Away” starts within the tent; the two evangelists sit inside waiting to start their efforts)
Oh, I'll fly away, oh glory.
I'll fly away in the morning.
When I die, Hallelujah, by and by,
I'll fly away
And my load of trials
I will fly away . . .
(over shots of the landscape of rural West Virginia)
MIKE FERREE: Brother Hall and I and Sister Shelton aren't looking to build towers, and none of us are affiliated with any major denomination. Holiness people have always sought to go where the Spirit leads them.
(over shots of a service in Eula Shelton’s church, where the members of the congregation are praying aloud simultaneously)
Sister Shelton, and her sisters in Christ support the Jesus Church, not by passing the plate, but with their own time. Like Paul, mountain preachers look to God to supply their needs, not to those who hear them preach.
EULA SHELTON (over shots of the service itself): When the Lord called us, he told us that we would have no other discipline, no other book to go by except the Bible. And he said, he'd set us to mix with poor people, and we was to see that we rob 'em not.
(addressing the gathering)
You know tonight, as I sat there and looked about, and knowing, that you got your friends about you, and brothers and sisters in Christ, it humbles your heart, doesn't it? Sometimes to see God never fails us—does he, Sister Melba—and how that he supplies our needs, it doesn't make any difference what it is. And it seemed like for a little while, this last week, that the Devil—we thought he had it all bound up, and winded up. My telephone went out, my car went down, a little bit of everything. And I said, "Devil, I know ONE line that's not out. Get a hold of that line that reaches out of the Heavens. I want you to know things began to happen. A little bit earlier the telephone man came, fixed my telephone. Boy came, cut my grass. It wasn't long till my boys was knocking on my door. And I said, "This all about joy," again. And I said, "Devil," I said, “No such words fit in God's category. And victory is on the way.” And I want you to know one thing, the Lord said, when we'd done all, just say it. I believe today, that it's a high time for us to know the voice of almighty God.
MAN’S VOICE: Yes, indeed. Yes. Yes.
EULA SHELTON (continuing): I believe that even I hear Brother Hall say the day of the flute was over, but it's time for the trumpet. And I believe that the trumpet sound, Sister Melba. Lift up your voice like a trumpet and show his people their sins. Led them to understand, led them to know, led them to know that they have to bow to the truth and the living God. Yes. Hallelujah.
WOMAN’S VOICE: We love you.
EULA SHELTON (continuing): Sometimes we look around us, and we think that we're looking for some great revelation. Hey, the revelation's done been come to us—Revelation of Jesus. Revelation of the Godhead. All the fullness of the Godhead brought and dwelt in Him.
WOMAN’S VOICE: Amen.
EULA SHELTON (continuing): But I believe, Sister Michaels said these our times. Brother Jay, I believe that the thunder's about to utter. I believe they're about to sound. I believe they're about to sound, Sister Melba. And I believe that when they sound the world will stand up and take notice. In a great way.
MAN’S VOICE: Praise God.
EULA SHELTON (continuing): That Devil said, "Eula, you're finished. Eula, there ain't no more you can do." I said, "Devil, you're a liar." Hallelujah. I take my stand in Jesus.
RICHARD HALL: When you get in that light, you'll walk. When you get in that light, you won't need the crutches. When you get in it, we're preaching about it tonight. But when you get in it, the blind sees. When you get in the light, the deaf hears. When you get in God's light—I’m not talking about some preacher's teaching, I'm talking about the light of God—When you get in the light of God. And it's time God's children get in his light! If you love Him, raise your hands and praise him. (shot of Hall laying healing hands on an individual) You have this difficulty in your right eye, but the Lord God hath moved this heart condition from you, and you'll never see it again. If you love Him, raise your hands and praise God. Why don't somebody magnify the Lord? If thou can't believe .(a phrase in an unknown tongue) God just spoke to me and said every last one of you that can come running to these altars, will receive an anointing you've never had before. I don't care whether you like me or nobody else. He said, you'll have an anointing that you've never had before. Take it. Take it.
(people with both arms raised crowd forward, “Come on, preacher, lay your hands on me,” music starts, close-up shots of ministers laying hands on people—some blacks as well as whites—in lines passing by them)
MIKE FERREE: We're taking in the big picture. We're going beyond just a little revival meeting. And we believe, I believe, that there's going to be another move, greater than the day of Pentecost. We're talking about a world-wide revival that would hit every nation in some degree. An awakening that will make Brother Branham's day, Brother Hall's day, seem like a warm-up.
(shots of ministers including Eula Shelton, holding up their linked hands and speaking, and of the congregation, while in the background strings begin to play softly)
And for all anyone knows it just might start here, in this little church, in a once-proud county, now forsaken by man. For Eula, her brothers and her sisters, circle around, and lay their hands on the ravaged land of their forefathers.
EULA SHELTON: Shake hands with me, Friends. Love one another!
MIKE FERREE: Who knows? It just might raise the dead.
(scene dissolves to the closing of a night service in a tent and Richard Hall in casual conversation pointing at someone and saying, “I haven't seen him in 37 years.”)
MIKE FERREE: But, till that great day comes, we'll keep on day-to-day, each of us, looking for own revival.
RICHARD HALL, departing in an automobile: We'll see you. God bless you all.
(scene shifts to the end of the service in Eula Shelton’s church)
WOMAN: Oh, hallelujah! Hallelujah!
CREDITS ROLL AS RICHARD HALL’S VOICE SINGS
They tell me of the man that walked
On the shores of Galilee.
They tell me that he had such powers
He could make the blind man see.
They tell me that he had great powers.
He made dumb to talk.
They tell me that He had such powers
He made the lame to walk.
(speaking)Raise your hands to God, know him.
Oh, this is why I love him,
Why I praise and sing and shout.
God Himself, put something in here.
No devil can get that out.
I'm thankful that God heard me
when I didn't know how to pray.
Now see, my friends, that made me.
I'm thankful that He saved me
for time and eternity.
(speaking) Don Warren on the saxophone, playing, playing "Something I Love".
(music fades)
CREDITS
Directed, written and produced by
JAMES RUTENBECK
Cinematography
STEPHEN McCARTHY
Film Editors
ROBERT TODD
JAMES RUTENBECK
Composer
NICHOLAS CUDAHY
Vision Photography
ROBERT TODD
Production Assistant
QUENTIN MOSTOLLER
Assistant Film Editors
KATY MOSTOLLER
PATRICIA KELLY
Sound Recording
JAMES RUTENBECK
Sound Design and Mix
HEARTPUNCH STUDIO
Archival Research
SHAE DAVIDSON
TODD BERGMAN
Stills Animation
BERLE CHERNEY
EDWARD T. JOYCE
Music Research
ABIGAIL KENDGE
ROSS GERSTEIN
Title Design
FRANK CAPRIA
Negative Match
J. G. FILMS
Opticals
THE EFFECTS HOUSE
Consultants
ALEXANDRA ANTHONY
WILLIAM FAUPEL
DAVID E. HARRELL
GLENN HINSON
DEBORAH V. McCAULEY
PATSY SIMS
JOHN CHRISTOPHER THOMAS
Archival Sources
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
AUDIO-VISUAL ARCHIVES
SPECIAL COLLETIONS & ARCHIVES
UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY LIBRARIES
H. RICHARD HALL
B. L. FISHER LIBRARY, ASBURY THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
WSAZ-TV NEWSFILM ARCHIVES, MARSHALL UNIVERSITY
CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP
DUKE UNIVERSITY RARE BOOK, MANUSCRIPT & SPECIAL COLLECTIONS LIBRARY
Musicians
Violin & Viola MIMI RABSON
Violin & Viola BETH COHEN
Cello SANDRA KIEFER
Dobro, Acoustic Guitar,
Synthesizer and Bass Violin NICHOLAS CODAHY
Bass Guitar GEOF THURBER
Engineered by
BRIAN CAPOUCH at SOUNDWORKS STUDIO
Watertown, Massachusetts
“POOR WAYFARING STRANGER”
performed by Almeda Riddle,
as recorded by Alan Lomax
courtesy of Rounder Records
By arrangement with Ocean Park Music Group
“HOW GREAT THOU ART”
composed by Stuart K. Hine
Manna Music (ASCAP)
as recorded by Gene Martin
courtesy Don Stewart Association
“I CAN’T EVEN WALK
(WITHOUT YOU HOLDING MY HAND”
composed by Colbert & Joyce Croft
©1975 Dayspring Music, Inc.
All Rights Reserved. Used by Permission.
“A LITTLE TALK WITH JESUS”
as recorded by Ernest Phipps and His Holiness Singers
courtesy Yazoo Records, Schanachie Entertainment Corp.
“TOO MANY RIVERS”
composed by Harlan Howard
Combine Music Corp. (BMI)
“NIGHT PIECE”
composed by Ezra Sims
Frog Peak Music (BMI)
as recorded by Dinosaur Annex Music Ensemble
courtesy of Composers Recordings, Inc.
“FLORA”
composed by Tod Machover
produced by Tod Machover ;with the voice of Karol Bennett
courtesy of Bridge Records
“I’LL FLY AWAY”
composed by Albert E. Brumley
Albert E. Brumley & Songs (SESAC), administered by ICG
This film was made possible by grants from
SOUTHERN HUMANITIES MEDIA FUND,
a joint program of the state humanities councils of
Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North
Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia & West Virginia,
all of which receive support from
The National Endowment for the Humanities
These state programs of
The National Endowment for the Humanities
NORTH CAROLINA HUMANITIES COUNCIL
WEST VIRGINIA HUMANITIES COUNCIL
TENNESSEE HUMANITIES COUNCIL
& KENTUCKY HUMANITIES COUNCIL
THE NEW ENGLAND FILM/VIDEO FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM
OF THE BOSTON FILM/VIDEO FOUNDATION,
through a grant from
THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS and
THE MASSACHUSETTS CULTURAL COUNCIL
LEF FOUNDATION
and with the contributions of these individuals:
STEVEN ASCHER JEANNE JORDAN
CHRISTINE DALL RANDALL CONRAD
WILLIAM AND RUTH RUTENBECK
JUDITH WECHSLER
The filmmaker also wishes to thank:
ALEXANDRA ANTHONY BRIAR HILL FARM
JANE BEAL YEZID CAMPOS
FRANK CAPRIA BERLE CHERNEY
BETY CICCARELLI REVEREND JACK COE, JR.
ED & ICK DASH KENNETH ELLER
RICHRD FAUSS MIKE FERREE FAMILY
LULI HADDAD H. RICHARD HALL
HENRY HAMPTON NATHAN HENDRIE
PAULINE HILTON GLENN HINSON
ALISON KENNEDY LYDA KUTH
TOD MACHOVER JULIE MALLOZZI
DEBORAH McCAULEY DAN O’GRADY
CONRAD OSTWALT E.G. PARROM
HENRY PLATT LAURA PORTER
CARL SCHAEFFER EULA SHELTON FAMILY
MIKE SHREVE VINCENT STRAGGAS
ANNE MARIE STEIN FRANK TOMMASINI
MARIANNE TOMMASINI JOE VIOLANTE, TECHICOLOR, INC.
DON WARREN SCOTT WHEELER
BOSTON FILM/VIDEO FOUNDATION
Produced in association with
IMAGE FILM/VIDEO CENTER
© 1998 James Ruterbeck
All rights reserved
