In 1947, Oral and Evelyn Roberts lived and worked in Enid, Oklahoma. Oral was a minister with his own little Pentecostal Holiness church right here in Enid.

Roberts, who believed he had been healed of youthful tuberculosis directly by God through a faith healer, was frustrated and felt trapped as a dirt-poor, small-town preacher in Enid. He was making fifty-five dollars per week and he and his family of four had moved into a two bedroom house to live alongside a family of six.

Oral was 29 years old and had not seen one miracle in the church in Enid. He became dissatisfied with his ministry and his complacent congregation. It was at this time he said God spoke to him and his awakening began.

One morning he picked up his Bible, and he read III John 1:2: “I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.” It changed his whole understanding of God. Roberts then believed that God wants us to be healthy; God wants us to succeed; God wants us to be rich!

God told him to read through the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and the book of Acts three times consecutively on his knees for thirty days. Roberts said God then showed him Jesus and His healing ways.

Roberts considered this new way of thinking a revelation. The Roberts' have described it as their `point of embarkation' and their `liberation.' Soon after his revelation, Roberts bought his first new car, a Buick. Roberts said it became `a symbol to him of what a man could do if he would believe in God.'

Not long after that, Roberts had his second encounter with the voice of God. On his way home in Enid one day, God's voice told Roberts to concentrate his ministry on healing. `You will have the power to pray for the sick and cast out devils,' Roberts has said the voice told him.

In April of 1947, Roberts began holding healing services in his church on Sunday afternoons. His first healing was in Enid and it was a woman whose hand had been crippled for 38 years. Word of the healing spread. By May of that year, the crowds were so large at his small church that he rented facilities in a large downtown Enid building. In June, he announced to his congregation that he had received invitations to conduct healing services in eight states and had decided to resign his pastorate.

And as they say... the rest is history. So, now you know.

Does anyone know where Roberts lived or where his church was?