The Secret Place of Lester Sumrall

Lester Frank Sumrall was born on February 15, 1913 in New Orleans to George and Betty Sumrall. As a teenager he chased his own plans until a crisis brought him to the edge of eternity. Weak with tuberculosis and burning with fever, he dreamed in the night that a coffin stood at one side of his bed and an open Bible at the other. Choose, came the inward command. By morning he rose with a vow sealed in prayer. He would preach Christ as long as he had breath. Within months strength returned and with it a single minded hunger to know God and to make Him known. Years later he would still measure every new assignment by the same altar. Did the Lord speak. Then obey at once.

He began to preach in the American South before he turned twenty, then God widened his steps. He met the English faith teacher Howard Carter and agreed to travel with him in a long circuit through the nations. Together they crossed the Pacific and pressed on through Australasia, Asia, and Europe, ministering in halls, schoolrooms, and open fields. On one of those journeys he sought out the aging apostle of faith Smith Wigglesworth in Bradford. The older man prayed over the young evangelist with tears, urging him to keep the cross central and to live in the power of the Spirit. That blessing became a quiet mandate threaded through the rest of his life. In the 1940s he began to anchor his work in the American Midwest while continuing to carry the gospel overseas. He would never surrender travel or the prayer habits that sustained it. He rose early with an open Bible, prayed aloud until assurance came, and kept fast days during demanding seasons so that his spirit stayed tender before God.

In the early 1950s the Lord sent him to the Philippines. Manila's streets were crowded, its prisons full, and its churches hungry. In May 1953 city officials pleaded for help for a teenage inmate named Clarita Villanueva whose violent torment had defeated doctors and guards. Sumrall went to the Old Bilibid Prison with local ministers, prayed over the girl in Jesus' name, and returned again the following days until the attacks ceased and peace came. The event shook the city, opened doors for evangelism, and pressed on him a new burden for planting a strong worshiping church in the capital. The congregation he founded grew and later became known as Cathedral of Praise, a witness that continues to gather thousands in prayer and in the Word in the heart of Manila.

Sumrall's calling was never only a meeting. It was the building of people who pray, obey, and work. He founded the Lester Sumrall Evangelistic Association in 1957 to steady the growing web of crusades, literature, and churches. He settled his family in South Bend, Indiana, and from there launched ventures that joined proclamation to practical mercy. With a shepherd's heart and an organizer's patience he trained teams, produced tracts and books, and poured himself into pastors and young workers. The disciplines of the secret place governed the pace. Scripture first. Honest confession. Specific petitions. Courage to act. He believed the Lord had called him to use every available means to carry the gospel and to strengthen the church. In time those means would include microphones, transmitters, and cameras as well as pulpits and tents.

The late 1960s and 1970s brought a new chapter. After prayer and long wrestlings with red tape he launched radio in South Bend, then added television that carried Bible teaching, worship, and missions vision into homes across the heartland. Stations gathered under what became LeSEA Broadcasting, later known as Family Broadcasting Corporation, with WHME in South Bend serving as a flagship outlet. Sumrall did not treat media as a stage for personality. He treated it as a loudspeaker for Scripture and as a prayer bell to call the church to labor for souls at home and abroad. He added shortwave to reach nations beyond ordinary lines and turned studios into prayer rooms where teams asked the Lord to use every signal to awaken the lost and strengthen the saints.

In 1987, after a journey to the Middle East that confronted him with famine and war, he founded Feed The Hungry. He told the story simply. The Lord had made plain that His church in the hard places must not die of hunger. He mobilized partners to deliver food in Christ's name while connecting aid with local churches so that relief became relationship and mercy became discipleship. The work spread to scores of nations, always with the same core practices. Pray first. Move quickly. Honor local pastors. Keep accounts clean. Feed the body while pointing every heart to the Bread of Life. He never retired from preaching while he built warehouses and logistics networks. He simply added one more stream of obedience to a life already braided with many.