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Born July 22, 1844 in New Lisbon, Ohio, little Maria learned terror and hardship because of a father addicted to alcohol. Although Maria longed for an education, her desire would be denied by the shocking and untimely death of her father. His death imposed financial hardship on the family and forced her to find employment. At age 13 Maria made the long walk down a church aisle to give her heart to the Lord. When speaking later of her conversion, she said: "It seemed so far to the front seat, that it looked as though I could never make it." As a teenager Maria knew that she was called to the ministry.
Perhaps dazzled by the whirlwind courtship of a spiritually shallow man, Maria married John Woodworth and became a farmer's wife and mother, and her calling became a distant dream. Everything we undertook seemed to be a failure:' Maria recalled. Although God continued to nudge her toward the ministry, at 35 years of age, Maria's situation seemed hopeless. Five of her six I children had died; she herself was often ill; and at the loss of their only son, her husband became deranged and refused to allow her to minister.
Maria had little formal education and no theological training. Her denomination taught that women had no business in the pulpit, and she had a deadly fear of being in front of people. Yet Maria's call was reaffirmed through a series of visions where Jesus said to her, "Go, and I will be with you." From that first and most frightening meeting in her home county with her husband's relatives in attendance, the power of God was evident. As would often be the case in the future, not until she took the pulpit did God give Maria a text and then He literally filled her mouth with words. The Holy Spirit descended in such power and conviction that some ran from the meeting house but many of those who were in attendance became born again.
Maria became an immediate success and each new meeting increased in size and in the intensity of the presence of the Holy Spirit. Soon the Lord added incredible healings to her ministry. Many who attended stood for hours entranced, had visions, shook, quaked, and rolled while infused with a power beyond physical control. Some even began to speak in a gibberish that 18 years later, at the turn-of-the-century Pentecostal outpouring, would be recognized as the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Maria, unlike the other notable healing evangelists of her day, embraced the charismatic experience and Pentecostal movement, and was one of its foremost evangelists until her death.
Maria is heralded by many as the greatest woman evangelist in the history of the church. Over 30 years before women could cast a vote, she paved the way for other notable women in the pulpit such as Aimee Semple McPherson and Katherine Kuhlman. After celebrating her 80th birthday in 1924, Maria B. Woodworth-Etter went to her heavenly reward
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