In this faded photograph, my father’s kneeling in front of a (heated!) revival tent, with his preaching Bible spread across an open palm. My father said his hands were anointed by God, as evidenced by the fact that when he pressed that open palm on worshippers’ foreheads, their eyes rolled back and their bodies went stiff as corpses. He called that being “slain in the Spirit.”
Revival Poster in a storefront theatre, 1955
This photograph pre-dates me, but not by much. Over time, the lettering has faded to the point where some of it’s illegible, but here’s what my father’s Pentecostal revival poster says:
COMING! Nation’s Leading Miracle Evangelists
Liberation Night! Demonology: What is demon power
Where are the 144,000? Predictions of Coming Events
I can’t identify the evangelist on the left, but my father’s on the right. Can you make out the line at the very bottom?
My father’s just 29 years old in this photograph, taken well before my time and stashed among my sister Coral’s belongings for a good many years.. The canvas cathedral’s been lifted into place, and preparations are underway for a Pentecostal revival meeting in Johnson City, Tennessee. Coral is sitting on my father’s lap, eyes keened on the family dog, Chow-Chow, who’s shaking my father’s hand. My brother Roger is lingering in the background, taking in the entire scene as it unfolds.
We lived like nomads when I was younger, so it’s no surprise that only a handful of family heirlooms survived. But when my father died, I found that very hat in his belongings. Or at least, one that’s remarkably similar. It rests on my bookcase, next to my own Rebecca-of-Sunnybrook-Farm straw hat.
Happy Birthday to my father, Clifford Suva, who would’ve been 98 years old yesterday.