A
Personal Testimony
By Wade E. Taylor
(Given in 1993)
Pinecrest Bible Training Center has just finished its 25th year of operation. Looking back
on my life, and all that brought us to this time is a miracle of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Truly, all the glory
and praise can be given to Him.
During 1944, while stationed in an Army camp near Savannah Georgia, I entered a small
Chapel and when I was sure no one was there, I knelt down and told the Lord that I would go into the ministry if He would
get me through the war alive. I was discharged from the Army in the Fall of 1945 and hardly went to Church for the next five
years.
In 1950, I attended a service in an Assembly of God Church, and was saved. Gradually, the
Lord worked in my life until in 1956, I sold the businesses I owned and enrolled as a student in Eastern Bible Institute,
an Assembly of God Bible School.
The year I graduated, the Italian branch of the Assemblies of God opened a Bible College
known as Pine Crest Bible Institute. I knew this but was planning to go to Philadelphia and begin a ministry there. On July
4th 1959, along with my family, I began a trip to Philadelphia with the thought of renting a building to use as a Church,
and finding a place to live.
The Lord sovereignly stopped me from going and clearly told me that I was to go to Pine Crest.
A short time after we arrived at Pine Crest, the Lord again spoke to me that I was to enroll as a student, which I did the
next day.
While praying in a room at Pine Crest during October of 1959, I was taken up into a very
clear visitation of the Lord, into the area of the Throne of God. During this time, an understanding of my calling was imparted
into my being and somehow I knew that I would be the president of a Bible School at Pine Crest.
Also, I came to understand that I would have a part in the preparation of a people for the
end-time visitation of the Lord and for His intervention in the affairs of man. I left Pine Crest in the Spring of 1962 and
shortly after that, the school closed and the property remained vacant for the next six years.
In the Fall of 1962, the Lord in a very unusual way led me to another Bible School where
I became a teacher. I was there until the Spring of 1968 when the Lord again began to stir me concerning Pine Crest.
Pine Crest had been purchased by a land developer in Virginia. He, in turn, donated the property
to Pat Robertson who was just beginning his Television ministry. Through a leading of the Lord, I wrote to Pat Robertson,
telling him that I had a burden for Pine Crest. He later contacted me and I was given a one year lease on the property, and
began the present ministry of Pine Crest. Later, through a very unusual set of circumstances, the property was donated to
Pinecrest Bible Training Center.
The present ministry of Pinecrest began with a convention over the Labor Day weekend of 1968.
The Bible School began shortly after this with 40 students enrolled for classes. The Banner gradually evolved and was distributed
on an irregular basis for several years, until it took its present form. This present issue of the Banner is the 80th Banner
to be printed and mailed.
During 1964, I received a very clear prophetic word through Costa Deir about my having a
writing ministry. I wondered what this meant as I had never written anything. A short time later, as a result of this word,
I wrote the article on prayer that follows this testimony.
In looking back over the years since 1959, when I received the vision and calling for Pinecrest,
I can rejoice in the goodness of our Lord, and in all that He had done within my life and ministry, and in and through Pinecrest
as a ministry.
I wish to thank each one of you who, in numerous ways, have been a part of the development
and success of this ministry over the past 25 years.
Should the Lord tarry, it is my prayer, desire, and intention, that Pinecrest will yet see
another 25 years of ministry to those who seek a closer relationship and walk with their Lord.
