Sid: My guest is Tommy Welchel. Tommy Welchel was a young boy and he ran away from home, he was out of money, he didn’t have any place to live, and a woman took him in that was involved in the Azusa Street Revival introduced him to many of the others that had first hand experiences in Azusa Street. He heard these stories so many times that God told him to write them in a book. And the most amazing thing is happening, when you read these stories out loud you’re faith grows, miracles occur, and the same presence that was on the Azusa Street Revival it starts falling on people. Now Tommy Welchel of all the stories, and you were telling me yesterday about one that’s almost hard to believe a woman had her ear bitten off. And did the total ear grow out? What were you told?
Tommy: Completely, she had a brand new ear.
Sid: Now of all the stories in your book, “Azusa Street They told Me Their Stories,” tell me your favorite.
Tommy: My favorite is the story of Brother Garcia, David Garcia, and he is Seymour’s miracle. He wasn’t there when the leg grew out, but he told me that he was right there, he could look right down into the sock of the man that had his arm ripped out on a job accident. And he said, “Brother Tommy the joints, ball joint in his shoulder had been ripped out. You could look down there and just the bone was starting to turn kind of black because it was getting you know rotten. And Seymour prayed for him and he’d asked the people if they wanted to have some fun? It was like they had about a year ago and that let grew out, he said, “Watch this,” So he commanded the leg, he said “That he was standing there where he could look right down into that joint. He said, “Brother Tommy, that bone started growing out and it would grow a little bit and then right behind it was coming flesh, and he said that it looked like slow motion to him but it really happened in just a few seconds that arm grew completely out.” He said, “Needless to say Seymour did not preach that night everybody was shouting, and that man you couldn’t stop him from running around screaming and shouting and waving that arm.
Sid: Now, you know this generation, I mean we haven’t seen miracles like this in a hundred years. As a child your mother use to drag you out to meetings of people like A. A. Allen, and Branham and Coe. Tell me this is kind of an amazing story, I’m familiar with a picture of Branham and that light that is right above his head, many people have seen that picture, you actually had an experience, how old were you?
Tommy: About seven.
Sid: Okay, tell me exactly what you saw.
Tommy: Well, Momma got us a ride to Houston, I was glad we were setting way up high, Branham kind of frightened me, he’d read your mail.
Sid: You know, for those that aren’t familiar with William Branham, I wonder if you could tell us a bit about what his ministry looked like.
Tommy: Well, not only have great miracles he had the greatest gift I’d say of knowledge than anybody.
Sid: Give me an example of this gift of knowledge.
Tommy: Well, my wife and I were in Los Angles once when he was praying for people and he stopped you know and back then he had them old cards, and he stopped me and he said, “There’s a man here and that doesn’t have a card, I can’t pronounce your name I’ll have to spell it.” So he spelled it and it was a man from Ensenada, Mexico and he called out this man’s name, his address and he stopped me and he said, “You’re not sick, you’re a minister you want revival.” And the man went to shouting and said, “Yes,” and so they prayed for him and right now today that church of his is the biggest church in Ensenada.
Sid: I mean Branham would know people’s names, their addresses, he would know what was wrong with them before he was even told.
Tommy: Yes.
Sid: Did he miss it much to your knowledge?
Tommy: That know of that cannot find any place where Branham did miss it but he did tell ya, “Now if I missed this just stop me and sweetly tell me where I’m going wrong and I’ll correct it. But he never got stopped, he never did miss it.
Sid: So tell me that experience you had as young child of going to a Branham meeting.
Tommy: Well, that was in I believe 1950, but I was a – we were there in Houston and all of a sudden this thing appeared over his head and I’m leaning forward.
Sid: Now, now explain what this thing was, what did it look like to you.
Tommy: A very bright light, round light over his head, and it glowed and I leaned forward to look at it and I thought that thing looks like it’s breathing and that really scared me. It took my mother and an usher quite awhile to get me out from under that pew up there I crawled under and I got a hold of its legs,
Sid: And what was that light that was over his head in your opinion?
Tommy: I believe it was an angel.
Sid: Now, why don’t you read another story from the Azusa Street people that were eye witnesses?
Tommy: Now, I want to tell you this it is one of the greatest, even our pastor thought it was just a—there was this lady that she had lung cancer, and she lived three miles from Azusa and to get there she had to put this staff in front of her and she’d scoot up to it and it took her three hours to get those two miles.
Sid: She must have been dedicated to get to that revival meeting.
Tommy: Yes, she had to. She told Sister Laura that if she didn’t get healed that night she would die, so she took her time, she got there, she got into the meeting and she looked around and got a hold of Sister Laura and Sister Laura came over. She just pointed to Laura and said, That’s the woman there that I want to pray for me.” Laura went over and she just said, “Mother what can I do for you?” And she said, “If I don’t get healed tonight I’ll die.” She weighed, she’s 5’6” she weighed 65 pounds she was like a skeleton. And Laura prayed for her, she said “The pain, her lungs quit hurting and she could breathe normal.” And she was there for three hours, and she didn’t eat anything, all she done was breathe the Shekinah Glory and she gained forty pounds in those three hours.
Sid: You’re telling me I’ve heard of people instantly losing weight this is a woman that instant, well over three hours gained forty pounds. Don’t you have difficulty believing that?
Tommy: Well, not from who it came from. But yeah, but see I met some of the people that got healed okay. Some of these stories I got to meet some of these people.
Sid: Tell me one person that you actually met and what they said to you.
Tommy: Okay it was Azusa Anderson the lady with the tumor on the side of her face, she had to carry, it was about the size of a basketball. He prayed for her and it went away; and I got to meet sister Diane talked to her and she let me know that things like this happened all the time when this Shekinah Glory was there. She totally got healed and I saw a lady that had gotten healed of her legs that convinced the lady that prayed for her, she was still alive. She’s almost a hundred years old. She took me down to her, the lady didn’t want to, the lady finally let me see her legs that had been healed. Permissibly bowed legs she could hardly walk, and I got to meet a man named Aubrey Lee. He was in a wheelchair, he was crippled and he formed later on the Sky Pilot Program. And his choir director leader was Doris Acres, she wrote the song, “Walking up the Kings Highway,” “There’s a Sweet Sweet Spirit in This Place and “I got to meet him several times and talk with him and he said that he was just totally crippled and he was prayed for there at Azusa and was totally healed.
Sid: And you know what exciting to me it’s wonderful to have history but that same Spirit that was in Azusa Street is on this book the title is “Azusa Street They told Me Their Stories.” And why do you believe God is releasing this book now? You know you we were told to write the book forty years ago, why now?
Tommy: Well, I believe it’s God’s timing, I believe it’s the perfect timing of God. We got that book started and finished in Sixty days and ever since then everybody that’s been reading it we’ve been getting calls all the time of people that are having miracles, after miracle. We just got a call today for me to go speak while I’m here in Phoenix at a church that is just hungry, starving for this stuff.
Sid: Tell me about this woman Lucille and the ministry she had with teeth.
Tommy: Oh, Sister Lucille, Sister Lucille was wasn’t but 4’10” she said “That she was there some of the turbulence rotten disgusting looking teeth she had ever seen. And she would go to them and she would put her finger in their mouth and lay the finger on the tooth and pray for it and all the stuff would come off and they’ll be a new tooth there.
Sid: Now, I’ve heard of a lot of lot of people that ‘ve pray and people get gold teeth, but this sounds even better than a gold tooth, a brand new tooth.
Tommy: No, it was just normal enamel.
Sid: But did this just happen once or twice or often?
Tommy: No, no, no she had hundreds of these well she was there about 2 ½ years and she had hundreds.
Tags: It's Supernatural, Sid Roth