Azusa Street

The house at 216 North Bonnie Brae Street could not contain all the people attending the prayer meetings. So the group relocated a two-story building at 312 Azusa Street. The building had last been used as stables and was not in a good area of town. Nevertheless, the group cleaned the building and prepared it for meetings. On April 14th, 1906, the first meeting was held in this larger facility. 

Word spread and people came to 312 Azusa Street. There were rich people and there were poor people. There were men, women, and children. Many nationalities were represented. At a time when society separated people according to race and ethnicity, the Spirit of God moving at 312 Azusa Street brought everyone together without racism or bigotry.  

Until sometime in 1915, revival continued. After this, William Seymour continued to pastor the core group of people until his death in 1922. His wife Jennie led the group until 1931.  

Thousands of people passed through the doors of what came to be called Apostolic Faith Mission. People were healed, filled with the Holy Ghost, and the gifts of the Spirit were in operation. There was preaching, singing, and prayer. A newsletter called The Apostolic Faith was produced which spread news of the events around the world. People left Azusa Street as missionaries to many parts of the world. 

The importance of the events that occurred at 312 Azusa Street cannot be overstated. Millions of people have experienced their own personal Pentecost and have spoken in tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Apostolic Pentecostals today enjoy beautiful buildings, many among us are highly educated, and we are able to support missionaries around the world. 

Yet, we would not be where we are today if not for the spiritual hunger of a small group of people in Los Angeles who knelt at rough wooden benches in a poor area of town. Their prayers, desire, and fervency ignited the moving of the Spirit that we enjoy in our services and prayer meetings. 

The location of the Azusa Street Revival is marked by a sign that says "Azusa St. Mission - Site of the Azusa St. Revival From 1906 to 1931 - Cradle of the Worldwide Pentecostal Movement."

If you look closely at the photo of my husband standing beside the Azusa Street sign, you will notice a delivery van that happened to be parked there during our visit. Comfort LA (Los Angeles) is a caterer specializing in Southern comfort food like fried chicken, corn bread, and banana pudding. I thought it was appropriate that the delivery van was parked there, considering that the Bible refers to the Holy Ghost as the "Comforter" (John 14:26). The theme song of the Azusa Street revival was "The Comforter Has Come." The Holy Ghost is better than the best southern fried chicken, that's for certain!

You can visit this site, which is located beside Little Tokyo in downtown Los Angeles. Street parking is hard to locate. There are parking garages but we opted to park in the Starbucks/Office Depot parking lot. As long as you buy something, your parking ticket will be validated for one hour. That gave us ample time for the five minute walk to the site and time to look around a little.