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Raymond
and Eloise May Richey
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"What God Hath Wrought"
Raymond Theodore Richey was born September 4, 1893 in Atwood, Illinois.
He was the sixth child born to Eli Noble (E.N.) and Sarah Jane Richey.
The Richey family experienced several miraculous healings over the years.
E. N. had been healed of several physical conditions, including cancer,
when God spoke to him from the scripture about Hezekiah's deliverance.
Another was the healing of Raymond's younger brother Frank. When he was
a year and a half he was diagnosed with spinal meningitis and the family
was told he was about to die. The family came around the baby and prayed
for him. He was healed and recovered.
In 1901 the family
heard John Alexander Dowie and they were baptized by him and became members
of his church. E.N. was ordained a deacon and led a Zion group in Atwood,
Illinois. Their daughter Mollie moved to Zion and married Jesse C. Wilder,
a deacon in Zion City. The family retained close ties to Zion and moved
there in 1904. E. N. was the Mayor of Zion for a time. Sarah herself became
sick and was diagnosed with the "white plague", which was tuberculosis.
Their parents visited several areas of the country to alleviate the problem,
leaving the children with relatives. Sarah was eventually healed through
prayer.
When Richey was
eight a cousin was playing with him and he was struck in the eyes with
a stick. His eyes were so bad that he eventually could not even attend
school. Then came the point where an eye specialist told his family that
he was going to go blind. He had a nervous breakdown. On New Years day
1911 he came to the end of himself and cried out to God. His sister had
been writing about a revival occurring in Texas and he told God that he
would go. He went and heard Arch P. Collins, a spirit-filled Baptist evangelist.
He gave his heart to God. After the meeting he asked Collins to pray for
his eyes. Collins did, and although there was no immediate change by the
next morning his eyes had cleared and he never wore glasses again. He
told God he would go into service for Him.
Richey made attempts
at ministry. Nothing seemed to be successful and he would go back into
regular work. He came under intense conviction to minister, but didn't
know how. One day while visiting his brother's house he prayed for a woman
with rheumatism. She was instantly healed. News traveled and he began
to get calls to pray for the sick. His father was called to pastor a small
church in Texas and Raymond went with him as an assistant. The work was
hard, but fruitful.
Still Richey's
heart's desire was to have greater impact in the kingdom. When WWI broke
out he worked in evangelizing the troops. He organized the United Prayer
and Worker's League in Houston. He would cry out to God for hours at a
time for the lost in the military. He would cry out for hundreds and thousands
to be saved. God provided money to buy a gospel tent and the local training
camp needed to use the space for teaching. The church provided the space
and every man was required to listen to the gospel and take a tract so
the army could use the church. They would see two hundred converted at
a time. Thousands were saved. F. F. and B. B. Bosworth occasionally preached
in the church. A young woman, named Eloise, from the local community also
came and was led to Christ by B. B. Bosworth. Eloise eventually married
Richey During the flu epidemic of 1918 Richey was called out to pray day
and night for the dying. He pushed himself so hard he developed tuberculosis.
He was told to go to California and rest completely for a year. While
there God spoke to him from Psalm 103 and healed him completely.
In 1920 Richey
was an assistant to an evangelist. While preparing for a meeting the evangelist
canceled and God told Richey to preach the meeting himself and pray for
the sick. The third night a woman's crippled arm was healed and the place
filled to capacity. Healings and salivation occurred every night. This
opened the way for a new itinerant healing ministry. They struggled through
financial hardship and attacks by the enemy. Then God called them to hold
a citywide revival in Houston, Texas in 1921. They did not have the money
for it but pressed on. They started in a tent but it was too small. They
moved to the City Auditorium and filled it. The revival went forty days
and they saw 5,000 conversions. People came out of wheelchairs, deafness,
tuberculosis, arthritis, blindness, and other diseases were healed. 40,000
people had received healing prayer. At one service 13 people were brought
in on stretchers and 12 walked home. Richey then held meetings in Galveston
and San Antonio. One meeting, held in Spanish, brought in over 10,000
Hispanic residents. In Forth Worth the auditorium was too small and when
people were refused entrance they climbed the walls to sit in the windows
to hear. They went back to Houston twice in 1923. After one of the revival
meetings a parade was held for those who had been healed. It was 13 blocks
long! In a meeting in Tulsa there were 11,000 conversions and a truck
was piled high with crutches and other medical supports that had been
left behind. Sometime in 1923 Richey must have come into relationship
with the Christian and Missionary Alliance organization, possibly through
his friendship with the Bosworth Brothers. He dropped his Assembly of
God ordination and became ordained with the C&MA. They began to report
on his meetings in their denominational magazine, and did so for the next
few years. Richey's wife Eloise wrote a book called "What God
Hath Wrought in the Life of Raymond T. Richey" in 1925 that covered
his miraculous meetings.
By 1931 Richey
was the President of the Southern Bible College in Goose Creek, Texas,
a college associated with his evangelistic association. In 1936 Richey
spoke at the Denver Tabernacle for Kathryn Kuhlman, teaching on healing
for three weeks. He was often in Los Angeles during the 1930s, as well,
and spoke at Angelus Temple for Aimee Semple McPherson. In 1936 Richey
returned to the Assemblies of God and his ordination was reinstated. In
the 1940's Richey held tent meetings for the armed forces. He traveled
with a red, white, and blue striped tent and led thousands to Christ.
After the war Richey went to Seoul, Korea to minister to the soldiers
there. A revival broke out. In 1945 his father died and he returned to
pastor the Evangelistic Temple for a few years. He evidently came in contact
with William Branham because they ministered at some meetings together
and were friends. There are records of them ministering together in Dallas
in 1949, and Minneapolis and Houston in 1950, and in New York in 1951.
Richey began to
travel internationally. He held meetings in Central and South America
in 1951. In 1951 he was elected the International Editor of the "Voice
of Healing" magazine, joining with Gordon Lindsay. He traveled to
Germany, Switzerland, Japan, and Korea in 1957 and 1958. Richey loved
to see the lost saved. He was reported saying "Divine healing is
the dinner bell. Keep ringing that bell and people will come." Richey
died on April 22, 1968. It is believed that more than one million people
had responded to his calls for salvation or healing over the lifetime
of his ministry.
Would
you like to read more about him or read the book his wife wrote about
him?
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© 2004 by Healing and Revival Press. WWW.HEALINGANDREVIVAL.COM All
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