Ambassador of The Way Caravan - Corps Notes -January 11, 1977
Publication Date: 01-11-1977
Victor Paul Wierwille was a Bible scholar and teacher for over four decades.
By means of Dr. Wierwille's dynamic teaching of the accuracy and integrity of God's Word, foundational class and advanced class graduates of Power for Abundant Living have learned that the one great requirement for every student of the Bible is to rightly divide the Word of Truth. Thus, his presentation of the Word of God was designed for students who desire the in-depth-accuracy of God’s Word.
In his many years of research, Dr. Wierwille studied with such men as Karl Barth, E. Stanley Jones, Glenn Clark, Bishop K.C. Pillai, and George M. Lamsa. His formal training included Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Theology degrees from Mission House (Lakeland) College and Seminary. He studied at the University of Chicago and at Princeton Theological Seminary from which he received a Master of Theology degree in Practical Theology. Later he completed his work for the Doctor of Theology degree.
Dr. Wierwille taught the first class on Power for Abundant Living in 1953.
Books by Dr. Wierwille include: Are the Dead Alive Now? published in 1971; Receiving the Holy Spirit Today published in 1972; five volumes of Studies in Abundant Living— The Bible Tells Me So (1971), The New, Dynamic Church (1971), The Word's Way (1971), God's Magnified Word (1977), Order My Steps in Thy Word (1985); Jesus Christ Is Not God (1975); Jesus Christ Our Passover (1980); and Jesus Christ Our Promised Seed (1982).
Dr. Wierwille researched God's Word, taught, wrote, and traveled worldwide, holding forth the accuracy of God's "wonderful, matchless" Word.
Ambassador of The Way Caravan
January 11, 1977
A number of months ago I asked Donnie Fugit to recapture for me, with the best of his ability,
the original “Ambassador of The Way Caravan.” The one that preceded the first WOW’s in the
fall of 1971 at the time of the Rock of Ages. Wasn’t it ‘71? That summer I felt in my heart I
would like to send out a group of people just to do a test run. Simply send them from one area
to another and start them out at some difficult places. I started them out at what I thought was
the most difficult place I could think of at the time and that was Springfield, Missouri, because
that was solidly Assemblies of God, the headquarters up there, Pentecostal. I just thought it
would be sort of nice to see if we could infiltrate that and what would happen when our people
hit the town. At that time I asked Donnie Fugit if he would head up the group. I wrote letters to
all of our Advanced Class grads, because everybody had to be an Advanced Class grad, I think,
to make it. And then Donnie wrote this up and I would very much like to share it tonight
because I think it needs to go on the tape and on the film for our people for the future.
An individual reads what was written by Donnie Fugit:
In the spring of 1971 Dr. Wierwille sent an invitation to all Advanced Class grads of
Power for Abundant Living to be a part of the original and pilot “Ambassador of The
Way” Caravan. Responding by a letter to Dr. Wierwille, eleven saints accepted from
around the country. Each Ambassador was sent a letter of accept-ance welcoming them,
telling them to meet at the Fair’s home in Wichita, Kansas on June 4th. In the letter of
acceptance was a set of suggestions of what to bring for ladies and for men.
We were told to furnish our own money, only bring one suitcase or a large backpack,
and one book, our Bible. Also Miss Barbara Fair, Dale Fair’s daughter, was asked in
her letter of acceptance to be coordinator of the women of The Way Caravan. Donnie
Fugit was to be the coordinator of the Caravan. In his letter of acceptance, he was asked
to meet Dr. Wierwille at John Townsend’s apartment no later than 8:00 p.m., Thursday,
June 3rd. Also in the letter was included a list of all the ambassadors accepted that he
would be responsible for.
The Planning and Commissioning
The logistics, organized by Rev. Townsend, were sent to Dr. Wierwille, who in turn
gave them to Ken Klug to work into detail. The planning and commissioning was all
day Friday and part of Saturday, June 4th and 5th at the Fair’s house. Rev. Townsend
was very involved with us during the two days. At that time the ambassadors were split
up in four teams.
Team #1 was Donnie Fugit and Francie Morse.
Team #2 was Tommy Crabb and Michelle Poore.
Team #3 was Barbara Fair, Jim Halliday, and Sue Wiebers.
Team #4 was Tina Ranyak, Jack London, and Cathy Yeremian.
Also Gerald Wrenn was present and was instructed on driving and maintaining Dr.
Wierwille’s camper that he let us use for the Caravan. He was also to take care of the
food and housing for the Ambassadors.
Each Ambassador was given a syllabus, put together by Ken Klug. During the
planning, we went over each page of the syllabus together in detail. The title page was a
map of the eastern half of the United States, with each city circled that we would be
going to, beginning in Wichita, connecting each city, and ending in New Knoxville.
Page one had the Ambassador Teams and general information. Page two a calendar of
events including cities, dates, teams, names of each Ambassador, and their assignments,
witnessing, classes, follow up with all the dates. Page three had separate instructions
and assignments for each team. All of this we covered extensively and in detail with Dr.
Wierwille and Rev. Townsend.
We were given the addresses and phone numbers of the city police departments, and a
time to meet there. We were instructed to call home, “Headquarters,” each Sunday from
our new location at a specific time to give our new number to Dr. Wierwille. (The first
Sunday we forgot, but we never forgot again.) At the end of the week we were to be at
that phone number at a given time. Rev. Townsend acquired AAA traveling maps for
the tour and contacted the chief of police for the various towns.
Also, each team leader was to keep a diary for his team. Saturday morning we took care
of the details of the cars; gassed up, put on our plastic “Ambassador of The Way” plates
on the sides of our cars and met back for lunch. Then on the front lawn we all met for a
very high and tender commissioning. In the com-missioning all the Ambassadors sat in
the middle of a circle of many believers from Wichita. Dr. Wierwille taught the Word,
and talked from his heart about his dream that he had for years of Ambassadors of The
Way finally happening today. He then prayed for each Ambassador individually, and
sent us off.
Touring Ambassadors
We always witnessed; beginning on Sundays and ending on Saturdays. All we did
basically was; witnessed, ate and slept. In the mornings we would have prayer,
manifestations and believers meetings and a little bit of time to study and write in our
diaries. Sundays were travel days.
June 6th – 12th, teams 1, 2, 3 and 4 witnessed in Springfield, Missouri. In Springfield,
we got two people interested. The last Saturday night we called in and told Dr.
Wierwille we didn’t have a class which wasn’t very encouraging to him. On the
following Sunday morning Dr. Wierwille called us at our campgrounds and told us that
we were the best he had, the best the city had ever had, and that they had a chance to
hear God’s Word. June 13th we were off, rejoicing, wiping the dust off our feet, on our
way to Little Rock, Arkansas. We were in Little Rock between June 13 th and19 th.
Team 3 stayed to run that class, which ran between June 20 th and July 2nd.
June 20 th, Teams 1, 2, and 4 left for Greenwood, Mississippi. There, a couple of our
women, about the middle of the week stayed at a local women’s house. The rest of the
Ambassadors stayed at an historic Civil War park right by the Mississippi River. (Two
war ships had been sunk about one hundred yards from where we were camped.)
That is the city where all the kids started to drive out to the park to see us. We finally
ended up witnessing a lot in a church youth group in town. Most of the P.F.A.L.
students came from this youth group. Tommy and I would play our guitars, they would
sit and listen, and then we all would witness to them. At one point, a minister came up
to us and hassled us about taking his beautiful youth people away and called our
camper, “a camper of sin” (because we slept in it to get away from the mosquitoes, of
which there were a million and one). He’s the guy that prayed that if we weren’t of
God, then by the end of the week, we would be gone. Team 2 stayed there to run their
class from June 27 th to July 9 th.
Then Teams 1 and 4 went to Birmingham, Alabama. Here is where Gerald Wrenn and
Jack London were dismissed. Randy Anderson, who was presently a member of the
First Way Corps, replaced Gerald. This was the time period of June 27th to July 3rd. In
Birmingham we ended up teaching a Christian fellowship that was already there, but
we were harassed by the adults. The young people were really interested. One night the
adults told us to leave and not come back. So the next night we went back to their youth
night and started witnessing. The young people were very interested, most of them.
Then the adults had these big men come and they chased us off. The kids were not sold
enough to go with us instead of them yet.
Then we went back to the streets in Birmingham and to the college in Birmingham. Out
of that witnessing we got one girl that wasn’t even really interested. Teams 1 and 4 left
July 4th to go to Atlanta, and met Team 3. There we went down to the “Haight-
Ashbury” of Atlanta, where all the dope, etc. was. We lived right down in the heart of
the city and day and night were right with the people witnessing and sharing our lives.
It was a very hard and calloused area at that time. We encountered a different kind of
darkness than the religious darkness that we had encountered previously.
I feel we must have at least softened that city for that period of time. Saturday, July 10th
we called Dr. Wierwille to tell him that we didn’t have a class in that city. He asked me,
“What could we do with Ambassadors that it would work better?” We agreed that we
would need to have Ambassadors in a city 6 months to a year in order to really do it.
(That is how, in part, the WOW Ambassador program came about.)
July11 th, Sunday, we left from Atlanta, Georgia to Nashville. Teams 1, 3 and 4 met
Team 2 in Nashville. In Nashville is where we met Christoph Stoop, who is now a
member of the Fifth Corps. We witnessed most of the time at the park where all the
people hung out. We talked and witnessed to a zillion people in the city. It seems like
that is all we did. There were people at the park most of the time, and so were we. We
stayed at a KOA camp outside of town. Even though we stayed for one extra day, we
still did not get a class together in Nashville. July19th we left for International. The
night before we left Nashville, we weren’t all that happy, until we read in I Corinthians
15, which crescendos in verse 58, which says, “Therefore my beloved brethren, be ye
stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know
that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.”
There were people at the park most of the time, and so were we. We stayed at a KOA
camp outside of town. Even though we stayed for one extra day, we still did not get a
class together in Nashville.
July19 th we left for International. The night before we left Nashville, we weren’t all
that happy, until we read in I Corinthians 15, which crescendos in verse 58, which says,
“Therefore my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the
work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.”
Therefore Monday morning, July 19th, we left with joy and rejoicing to go back home.
Coming Home
We came home in the middle of Way Family Camp. We met Dr. Wierwille out under
the apple trees and we sat out on the front lawn. We didn’t say much. Dr. Wierwille did
share his heart and love with us. We were very blessed. Then we went out to the woods
where the campers were all meeting and we just moved in and became a part of
summer school, in which we didn’t have to register nor pay because The Way paid our
bill. We stayed the last two weeks in August for the Advanced Class and for the
original Rock of Ages, for the commissioning of the first wave of W. O. W.
Ambassadors.
Conclusion
This tour, I know for me and I think I can speak for the rest of us, was the richest and
most challenging experience of our lives to this point. We all felt so privileged and
joyed to be a part of it and go out and hold forth God’s Word in such a dynamic,
wonderful and life-filled journey. We learned things about life in the ministry that
could have been learned, I feel, in no other way. I know this will live joyfully in our
hearts and memories as long as we live.
Written by Donnie Fugit