05 - Chapter 05

Davies’ Pentecostal Movement: Chapter 5 The Beginning of the Pentecostal Movement in the Merthyr Borough by Davies, Price THE PENTECOSTAL MOVEMENT. For some time after Miss Annie Griffiths’ healing, Cottage Prayer Meetings were held weekly at their home where many were blessed of God. Also through those meetings and our acquaintance with the family and O. M. Owen, we became acquainted with many other ministers who had been wonderfully blessed during the Revival. R. B. Jones. W. S. Jones LLwynypia, D. S. Jones Bridgend, Hill Penyfair, Thomas Penprisk, Evans LLwynendy and Thomas Madog Jeffreys Waenlwyd (who later was the Officiating minister at our Wedding on 16th September 1908 at the Market Square Chapel Merthyr Tydfil.) Prof. Keri Evans Cwmarthen and others. We used to frequent also Conventions held for the deepening of the Spiritual Life at various places where these ministers were speakers at different times, especially the Keswick Convention held every August at LLandrindod Wells. But although receiving much blessing through and in these meetings, yet we were not satisfied. We believed that the Lord did have something more for us. The Lord had also been enlightening our understanding in the Word that there ought to be an Enduement with Power from On High, and that Acts 2:4 ought to be our experience. Also about this time Annie Griffiths use to receive papers from Spokane, American with the news that large numbers were receiving this experience according to Acts 2:4. Then in the Autumn of 1907 came the news that the Lord was pouring out His Spirit in All Saints Vicarage, Sunderland, where Pastor Body was the vicar. All this news was creating a deeper hunger and thirst in many of us boys in Dowlais for the same experience, Thomas Madoc Jeffreys, Congregational Minister Waenlwyd, Mr. Ebbw Vale had been in those meetings in Sunderland.

Easter Monday 1908, a few of us from Dowlais, including Willie John Phillips, Bedlinog, (the brother of Pastor J. H. Phillips) heard that the Lord Jesus was pouring out the Holy Spirit at T. M. Jeffrey’s chapel at Waenlwyd. T. M. Jeffreys was having Special Meetings with Pastor Niblock from London and brother A. H. Post from Los Angeles California, who was in this country at the time and both of these had also attended the meetings in Sunderland. So on Easter Monday 1908 four of us decided we would go over to Waenlwyd the following day, Tuesday. We met the next morning and went. We had never been to Waenlwyd before. We got to the chapel just as they were coming out of the afternoon meeting and a sister in Christ by the name of Mrs. Jenkins took the four of us home to have tea with her, and then, after tea, back to the chapel. The meetings were held in the vestry, and being in a strange place the four of us sat together in the back seat, Willie John Phillips, John Daniel Jones, Gwilym Gunter and myself-Price Davies. The meeting commenced with a hymn and was then left entirely to the Lord-and Oh what a wonderful meeting. There was a wonderful outpouring of the Holy Spirit on that congregation and there, in that meeting the four of us, sitting side by side, in the back seat were filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak in Other Tongues as the Spirit gave us utterance-Acts 2:4 had become our experience Hallelujah! We stayed the night at Waenlwyd and came back the next day. We walked over the mountain to Tredegar, and caught the train at Nantybwch to Dowlais. I was at that time living with my sister Jemima at number sixty Dowlais Top. Whilst I was away my sister’s little girl-who had been seriously ill with pneumonia-died; the funeral took place the following Saturday afternoon. After the funeral a number of us gathered together at my brother’s home at number seven Ivor terrace, off Pant Road, Dowlais. My brother’s name was David John Davies, his wide was Edith Davies, both had been saved in the Welsh Revival and both were following on to know more of God’s wonderful provision for us in Christ Jesus our Saviour and Lord. And there in that gathering that evening, when we were witnessing of the Blessed and Wonderful Experience we had received the previous Tuesday at Waenlwyd, the Lord Jesus blessed us with another outpouring of His Holy Spirit and another four were filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave utterance. So that made eight in Dowlais (including Willie John Phillips, Bedlinog) that had received our baptism in the Spirit according to Acts 2:4. The four brethren baptized that night were Isaac Roberts (Pastor David John Robert’s father); William Jones, Station Terrace; Evan Jones (William’s brother living in Pengarnddw); and David John Davies my own brother who in later years was Pastor D. J. Davies Ystrad Rhondda and the Treasurer of the South Wales District of the Assemblies of God. The following week two sisters received their Baptism at number seven Ivor Terrace, they were Janet Hill and Edith Davies my brother’s wife who had also received in the same week a wonderful healing of a serious internal complaint. So the dear Lord was working with us with Signs following. Morris Davies was another Dowlais boy who had been saved in the Welsh Revival and who was living at this time in Brynteg Cottages Gorseinon. During the Easter of 1908, a Convention was held at Swansea, where the children of God gathered together from many parts of South Wales. On the Easter Tuesday night, a few stayed at Brynteg Cottages with Mr. and Mrs. David Evans, and there also that night the dear Lord poured out the Holy Spirit and two were filled with the Holy Ghost and spoke with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. The two brothers who received were Hodges Hereford, and Morris Davies, who soon afterwards came back to Gellifaelog to live. When the Lord was blessing Morris that night, He revealed to him (and Morris told those that were there) that Price Davies and others were getting the same blessing as well. One of those who stayed at Brynteg Cottages that night was George Vale (Garfield Vale’s father) he was at that time living at Tylacelyn Road Penygraig, Rhondda Valley where he pioneered and became pastor of the Tonypandy Assembly prior to moving to Gorseinon to live. We used to visit their home in Tylacelyn Road and have some precious times of fellowship together when Garfield was still a boy at school I remember one time especially, when over in the Rhondda during a Convention, with W. S. Jones at Jerusalem, LLwynypai: When George Vale brought thirteen of us home for tea when Willie my wife’s brother was wonderfully blessed during a time of prayer in an upstairs room, maybe Garfield (who received