In Pursuit of Destiny Biography of Wayman Mitchell

101 Pages·1996·43.566 MB·English

by  Wayman Mitchell, Ian Wilson

IAN WILSON
BY
Destiny is not a matter of chance: it is a matter of choice.
Destiny is not to be waited for:

It is to be pursued.

IN PURSUIT OF

DESTINY

The Life Story of

Wayman Mitchell
Table of Contents Page
1. "THERE'S GOLD IN THEM THERE HILLS" ..1

2. EARLY YEARS . .4

3. CONVERSIONANDTHECALLTO PREACH ........ . .7

4. FOLLOWING THE CLOUD 9

5. LINCOLN STREET AND REVIVAL AT LAST 15

6. THEBIRTHOFAVISION ... ........ . 21

7. OPPORTUNITIES AND OPPOSITION . . . . . . . . .27

8. BRANCHES OVER THE WALL; GOING INTO ALL THE WORLD . .33

9. A MILITANT CHURCH WITH A RADICAL APPROACH 39

10. NELDA - PARTNER IN ALL THINGS . . . . . . .44

11 . THEMEDIA .............. ......... ......... ... .49

12. MITCHELL: THE MAN AND HIS METHODS. . . 63

13. GROWTH WITH DISAPPOINTMENTS .72

14. NEW DIMENSIONS . ..79

15. WORDSFROMTHEFAMILY ..... ... ...87

16. "THE BEST IS YET TO BE?" 93
INTRODUCTION

In the spring of 1995 I happened to be in San Antonio, Texas.
Richard Rubi had invited Pastor Wayman Mitchell to address a
discipleship class for men.
During the first session on prayer, Pastor Mitchell remarked that no
matter where he had lived he always had found a place to pray. "In
one house it was so crowded that I prayed in an outside shed. It was
hot enough to fry a lizard in there."
The description struck me with such force that, in afterthought, I
realized that the treasures of wisdom and experience in Pastor
Mitchell should be captured and, if possible, passed on to those who
might not be so fortunate as to meet him personally.
Shortly thereafter I wrote to him and phrased the letter thus:
'I feel that the Lord is leading me to write your life-story, if I don't
hear from you within a month, I'll assume that you have no
objections.'
Silence reigned, and from it came this present volume "In Pursuit of
Destiny.'
Recently I read this quotation from a leadership book entitled 'A
Vessel of Honor':
"Most vessels of honor are known only to a small
company of their peers. Always pouring out and then
seeking to be refilled only to pour out again, vessels of
honor are a true blessing. The source of their greatness
and the secret of their victory lies in their commitment
to go to God first and then to the people. They are thirst­
quenchingly special."
In my opinion this description well fits Wayman Mitchell. What
the definition fails to cover, I trust the following pages will supply.
As you read on you will doubtless arrive at a similar conclusion to
my own that, in Wayman Mitchell , God has seen fit to raise up a
truly remarkable man.
Chapter 1
"THERE'S GOLD IN THEM THERE HILLS"

" I fear nothing in God's will" - lY.M.
The roar of two thousand voices raised in fervent praise slowly
subsided and a burst of spontaneous applause began to spread
across the congregation. From where I stood I could see an array
of faces upturned - Hispanic, Caucasian, Oriental, African - a
colorful spectrum of the human family, united in joyful worship.
Above us, the yellow and white stripes of the big top undulated
gently in the warm Arizona breeze. Flags from nations of every
continent on earth hung in silent testimony of people now
reached with the good news of salvation. Their silks of red, blue,
yellow, green, white and crimson seemed to ripple in unison with
the cadence of praise that still rolled forth across the vast
assembly.
Prescott
To the left, through the open wall of the tent, the dark outline of
the Arizona hills shimmered in the July heat and, closer to hand,
the highway miraged in sunlight, bent its way towards distant
rocky outcrops. A truck rumbled by headed for the city of
Prescott. Distracted, I followed its journey in my mind's eye, past
the orange humps of Granite Dells and the picturesque waters of
Watson Lake, to the valley head where the streets of this small
Arizona town begin to fan from the highway into the pine-clad
bluffs that encompass Prescott on all but its eastern flank.
Early History
This town, founded in 1864, had history to it. Once it was the
territorial capital perched over a mile high in the Southern
Rockies. No doubt its citizens were only too glad to live there and
find relief from the searing desert heat a short journey to the
south. Prescott had been a major stopping place for the stage to
the west, but later, engineers had forced steel across the desert
plains and had conquered the buttresses to bring the Santa Fe
railroad to Prescott before the close of the eighteen hundreds. In
the surrounding hills, miners had burrowed for copper and had
eagerly panned the stream beds for gold.
A piece ofthe Wild West
A succession of Wild West characters had passed through
Prescott in the closing days of the last century. Their arduous
journey is eloquently recorded in markers up the winding trail
from Phoenix, Horsethief Basin, Bloody Basin, Bumble-Bee
Canyon , Dead Man's Wash. The place names tell their own story.
Most of these travellers were hopefu l pilgrims on their way to
California. Others had elected to stay in Prescott. Their portraits,
yellowed in sepia, stare from the walls of local restaurants and the
city museum, drooping mustaches, battered Stetsons, cheeks with
hairy sideburns and women folk dressed in long, faded denim and
bunned hair, faces stem as the country they sought to subdue.
Rip Van Winkle arrives
By the late 1920's, Prescott had seen it's heyday. The status of
State Capital had passed to Phoenix , veins of ore petered out and
the main road to the west now ran through Flagstaff, 90 miles to
the north. Rip Van Winkle came to town and fifty years of sleepy
seasons were to pass before a second wave of visitors began to
arrive in the city ofPrescott - this time young people, hippies,in
their scores began to appear in the square of the city, long hair,
bedrolls,beads-Californiabound. Withtheir adventwastodawn
a most remarkable era in the history of this sleepy Southwestern
city. A visitation of God was at hand.
"Please shake the hands of a few people near you, and
tell them you're glad that they are here."
The voice cut across my drifting thoughts. Behind the
microphone stood a figure of medium height, in blazer and
slacks. Wayman Mitchell had come to the pulpit, at the front of
the large platform. Bespectacled, with receding hairline, and in
his mid sixties he scarcely fitted the image that one would expect
from a leader of a world-wide movement of God. Nevertheless
his voice had a timbre and tone of authority to it. He spoke again,
"would you please be seated I have a few announcements to bring
to your attention." I found myself musing once more, a face that
could be lost in a crowd in a place that could be lost on a map,
2.
and yet God had brought both together to trigger one of the 20th
century' s most amazin g revivals.
An unknown name in the largely unheard of place of
Prescott, Arizona had witnessed twenty five years of continuous
growth and unparalleled blessing from God. The scripture from
Paul's letter to the Corinthians came to mind.
"God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to
confound the wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of the
world to confound the things which are mighty, and the base
things of the world, and the things which are despised, hath God
chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught things
that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence."
Truly God was at work and was fulfilling His Word,
choosing to do so by the most obscure vessels in the most obscure
place
The ensuing chapters of this volume will seek to tell how
God took hold of one of these obscure vessels, Wayman Mitchell,
and by His sovereign power and mysterious means, raised him up
as a uniquely prepared servant to spearhead a spiritual revival that
has encircled the earth.
It is a book that we have chosen to call "In Pursuit of Destiny" .
The life story of Wayman Mitchell - a man sent from God.
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Chapter 2
EARLY YEARS
"People are serious about the non-essentials of liJe"-lf.M.
It was after the conclusion of the
Sunday morning service at the
25th Reunion that I had spoken
with George Mitchell. He was a
white-haired gentleman who
bore a faint resemblance to his
brother Wayman. I later found
that he was the elder brother in
the Mitchell family, now a man
in his mid-seventies. In a quiet
voice he filled in the details of
the early days in the state of '
Arkansas and helped trace some
of the events that led the family
uo;:..;.....J;::::-'--:
from the town of Mitchell to the Corporal Mitchell Guam 1951
- Doing his duty ­
city of Prescott in Arizo na.
Arkansas to Arizona
Coincidentally, the tiny town of Mitchell had been named after
earl ier forbears and it was here that the Mitc hell fam ily eked out
a meager living as sharecroppers. As the years of 1920's drew to
a close, life for the Mitchells and multitudes of others living in
the Southeast, became a struggle for existence. There were surely
places where jobs could be found and a family raised without
hovering above subsistence level everyday. Mitchell Sr. decided
to make the trek west, and in 1933 he and his family arrived in
Prescott, Arizona. There were five children, Wayman being the
baby.
Here in Prescott Steve Mitchell Sr. worked successfully
as a mail truck driver but, within a short time, he applied for a
private contract delivering star route mail. He was to keep this job
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for 11 years, running a rambling route through the Arizona hills
and tiny villages and mining towns, some now ghost towns of
yester-year.
Unfortunately, during this period, mother and father
divorced and it was left to the father to raise his children after
Mrs. Mitchell departed to Phoenix. By the advent of World War
Two, the two elder sons had joined the military and the sisters had
married and moved. Only Wayman was left with his father who
in 1946, passed away.
After a brief spell with his mother in Phoenix he returned
to Prescott to complete his schooling. He was now old enough to
follow in his brothers' footsteps. So off to the recruitment office
he went. It was 1948.
Private - First Class
Initial training was in Texas and Illinois and, with bootcamp and
school behind, it was off to Guam. While working there on the
ground crew for flight line aircraft, the Korean War broke out.
Tours of duty were frozen and enlistments were extended
as the Army went into battle preparation.Men in senior rank were
gone at a moment's notice on their way to the Korean theatre of
war. Within six months, Private First Class Mitchell found
himself in charge of the whole maintenance shop on the tiny
island of Guam.
Doing his Duty
It was here, during this period of isolation. that God began to
work on aspects of Mitchell's character. He was not a Christian
and had never made church going part of his life, but God was
using this period on a remote Pacific island to form convictions
in the young man's soul. Away from family and friends, and with
the responsibility of millions of dollars worth of equipment and
mens' lives depending upon the excellence of his performance,
Mitchell decide he was going to do the job to the best of his
ability. He became deeply conscious that his job was a vital
contribution to the war effort.
Promotions had ceased. Pay was pegged at the vast sum
of $34.00 per month. His civilian supervisor was usually drunk­
so he supervised the boss. He gave himself to excellence of
service and to studies beyond his job, knowing there would be no
reward and little appreciation. He was motivated to do his job
well since duty required that he should.
Doing the task assigned to him to the highest level of
ability would be his incentive although, to all intents and
purposes, nobody would ever recognize or remember what was
going on in this tiny U.S. base.
By 1952 he had returned to the States and, to his surprise,
discovered that his labor in Guam had not gone unnoticed. He
was given two promotions to Staff Sergean t and offered a
candidacy at officer trainin g school.
But destiny was moving him elsewhere. The Bible
declares that
"The King's heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers
and waters, He turneth it whithersoever he will."
God had put in place the necessary disciplines - patterns
of work and study that were to remain alive in His servant's heart
for the future years of labor and ministry.
To this day, Pastor Mitchell is a strong advocate for
military training. He says that any pastor with a military
background is immediately observable. In the absence of
conscription he has incorporated the principles learned in his
early days into his discipling of men, but more of that in coming
pages .
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