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The following article was published in the October 12, 2007, AG-NEWS Issue #1457. This article provides an overview of the testimonies of General Superintendent George Wood and AG US Missions Executive Director Zollie Smith. Related blog posts include “Garrison, Palmer Start Off Services, Share Testimonies,” “Meet New AG Leadership Online October 9-12,” “New Assemblies of God Leaders Accept ‘Charge of Office’,” “Meet the New A/G Leadership,” and “52nd General Council Updates.”

The following article can also be found online at the A/G web site.

The special series of services featuring the new members of the Executive Leadership Team sharing their testimonies came to a conclusion Friday, as General Superintendent George O. Wood spoke on Thursday and Assemblies of God U.S. Missions Executive Director Zollie Smith spoke on Friday at the AG national headquarters in Springfield, Missouri.

Again, Wood opened the door for the Holy Spirit through fluidity in the services, calling for volunteers to come and pray for one of the five core values - the fluidity proved important, as a number of spiritual gifts were manifest as the core values of planting new churches and skillfully resourcing the church were lifted up in prayer.

On Thursday, Wood provided a transparent look at two great influences in his life: his family and the church.

Wood shared about his immediate family - how he and his wife, Jewell, met, about his children and grandchildren.

But then he moved onto his mother who was called to be a missionary to China and how she and his father met while itinerating, courted on the boat to China and were married upon their arrival.

He shared two impacting moments. First, when a Tibetan chief purposely poisoned his father, but as he lay dying, his mother was awakened and prayed the night through for him - and he survived. Later, it was learned the chief had given him enough poison to kill 10 men. The second being when his sister, who used to wear thick glasses, was given clear vision during a revival at Central Bible College.

Moving on to the church, Wood explained that when his parents returned to the United States, they never pastored a large church, but the church impacted his life. He recalled the second church, where he was first converted and preached his first sermon. He also shared transparently that this second church is where he learned to dislike the word “spiritual” - preferring Christlike - as it seemed to him, that some of the self-proclaimed “spiritual” people, lacked the fruit of the Spirit in their lives.

He told of a failed church plant in Jeffersonville, Indiana, that his parents had attempted, but later said, that out of the ashes of that failed plant came a Pentecostal church that now has more than 3,000 members and has planted more than 2,000 churches worldwide.

Mixing family and the church together, Wood went on to explain that his father only had a fifth-grade education as his stepfather made him work in the glass factory. By age 16, he was an angry young man that ran with a rough crowd.

However, his father’s mother, Clara was saved in services held by a street evangelist. Later, she would invite her son to attend a service. He did and he accepted Christ that day, transforming his life.

Wood emphasized that not only did the destiny of his father change that day, but the destiny of those who followed him - his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, along with those reached through the churches his parents would later plant.

Wood concluded by stressing the importance of church planting, stating: “Planting new churches is probably, in our culture, the single most effective means of evangelizing a community.” He then went on to express displeasure in how his parents had to plant churches - without support, without encouragement and sometimes against jealousy - and to encourage the Fellowship to be one that enables, strengthens and works together in advancing the gospel of Jesus Christ.

On Friday, U.S. Missions Executive Director Zollie Smith came to the podium to share his testimony.

One of six children from a single-parent home, Smith said that he grew up in Dade City, Florida. He explained how segregation was still a big part of life in those years, and the challenges that presented to him.

However, his mother and grandmother kept him in church, and he was involved as a Sunday School teacher. He also vividly remembers being encouraged to “call out to Jesus” as a young man, and how he desperately wanted more of Christ in his life.

Although his grade school years were God-focused, as an older teen, he fell away from the church, beginning to drink and isolating himself from the church. Then, having done poorly in school, he entered the military at age 17, and in 1967, had his first tour of Vietnam.

At that point, Smith shared how his life went into a black hole of sin, as he was introduced to drugs, prostitutes and more alcohol than ever before.

He then told how he and his buddies were ambushed, pinned down and running out of ammunition. His gun jammed, wounded and with the enemy closing, he called out for help. He saw one friend lined by machine gun fire, and then another, who came to his aid, was ripped up by grenade shrapnel. Yet, somehow, he survived.

Smith would return home, join the police force and continue doing drugs and drinking. He got married to Phyllis during this time, and called “the first seven years of our marriage chaos . . . , due to me.”

But God was still working, trying to get his attention. While going through a procession at a funeral of a high school teacher, someone tapped him on the shoulder. It was one of the kids he used to teach in Sunday School as a youth - he was now a preacher! Smith could only hang his head in embarrassment.

One day, unemployed, with a wife and two children, Smith demanded of God, “Why are you doing this to me?”

Soon after that, Phyllis was saved, and invited Zollie to church, where the pastor told him he needed to get up to the altar and get saved. He did.

“I began to cry out to the Lord,” Smith says, “It was like a thousand pounds of weight was lifted off my back - I was set free!”

He recalled his life being spared in Vietnam, and how that if he had died then like his friend had, he would have been sent to hell.

“I vowed to God to do whatever I can that no one would pass by me that I don’t share Jesus with,” Smith says.

To view any of the four testimonies in their entirety, go to http://www.ag.org/.