Many years ago in Toronto, Canada, there was a young man by the name of Tony Titchlon and he learned of a Bible Institute down on the hillside off of the Hudson River at Nyack. He had a mother to support so he came down only for one semester or two.
He went there under Dr. Simpson and went to Dr. Simpson and said, “Look, I want to go to Nigeria, West Africa.” Just about that time the alliance had committed itself to the Congo and there wasn’t any possibility of it.
He had to go back home to work in Toronto and take care of his mother and his family. He applied to the mission and the mission said, “Sorry, we can’t take you. You aren’t well enough educated, you’re far too small, far too frail, you have a mother that’s dependant on you, you’re just not missionary material at all and we can’t take you.”
He could’ve gone back home and taken a job, but, you see, the Spirit of God had burdened him for West Africa and he was following the Lord and wasn’t following the dictates and the decisions of the board. He was following the Lord Jesus Christ and knew that the mission working there was the Sudan Interior Mission and so there wasn’t any question in his mind. They had to take him, so he arranged for his mother to be cared for.
He got his outfit and his passage (he carried his whole outfit in one little suitcase) and arrived in West Africa. He went up to where the whole staff was having a field conference. The whole staff consisted of Dr. Steeron. Now he represented 100% of the missionaries, so when Tony came, it just doubled the entire staff and so they had a field conference and they decided that it wasn’t right for one tribe to have all the missionaries so they divided half the missionaries which was Tony. Tony was to go out and open the work in the Yagba area.
So he picked up his outfit and started off walking down the jungle path until he came to the Yagba area, where the chief was. Now he knew he had arrived because strung across the path were human skulls and any way you went through that aperture into that village, those skulls were going to rattle. So he gave them a little clout and went on through, walked into the village, saw the chief, threw down his bundle, and said, “Where am I going to stay?”
Well, they were too surprised to kill him right then, but they thought if they had him right there, they could make a meal later. And so they pointed and said, “Go over and stay with that old widow. She’s got a place.” So he went over and slept on her husband’s grave; that’s where he put his blanket and he stayed there.
He ate and he knew sometimes what he ate. And he took Paul very literally, “Ask no questions, for consience sake” because it may have been somebody’s cousin that they were eating. He was very careful about that.
He started to preach and they said, “You can’t preach here, we won’t listen to that stuff,” and the witch doctor got after him. So, Tony, at night, as he learned the language, would speak out up on the hills that overlooked the valley. And Tony would go out and lean over the rocks. Now he was a frail little man, maybe about 5’ 2” and he had a high-pitched sqeaky little voice until he was there in Yagba territory and he would lay down on those rocks and shout the gospel down. It filtered through them and they didn’t know what had happened but there was this voice coming and it sounded like thunder. It couldn’t be that little white man. It couldn’t be him.
So, anyway, he would preach the gospel and he was over there and he didn’t talk like that. God gave him a bass voice, and so here he was shouting the gospel down.
Then one time these people snuck out, and, by this time, he had built a little house out by the edge of the village. And, there at the village edge, he had this experience of having 11 other men that would meet together with him for prayer in the morning. But the witch doctor was not excited about this; he was very angry!
He kept festering the people, and finally one day when they were midst the morning prayers, they heard this dancing. It was the death dance. He opened the shutter (he didn’t have glass) and outside were all the people gathered, all the men with all their stuff on, and it meant that somebody was going die and be sacrified. They were dancing around the hut. Well, they had a supply of water, a supply of corn, and a little fuel, so they just decided to extend the prayer meeting because it didn’t look to hospitable out there and so they stayed there for 13 days.
For 13 days, that witch doctor went up and down railing at the people and screaming. They took turns eating and sleeping. The men were getting a little discouraged and could hear their names being called and they knew what these men would do if they had a chance. (They didn’t know, as they later found out, that they didn’t need to worry, because afterwards the men said, “You know, who were those white men who stood out there who had those very white clothes on that kept us away when we wanted to come at you?”)
The Lord Jesus appeared to Tony during those days and spoke to him and he encouraged him and told him that there was going to be a great harvest in that village.
They waited till the 13th day and then it was silent and they looked and saw that the people had all gone up the hill to pray to the evil spirits and Tony said to his friends, “Now, follow me and do just what I tell you. Come with me.” And they went out of the house, right down to the center of the village, and stood under the spirit tree that was just eschew with skulls, and waited there.
All this time, the others had been singing a song with a native tune, one of those death dance tunes, and after a while they came down from the top of the mountain and came by and saw the door open and the tracks leading into the village.
Rushing into the village, they saw Tony and his eleven brethren and they were singing the same tune, but with Holy Ghost words. Tony was there standing in front of them and worshiping Jesus and adoring Him.
With the witch doctor at the head and all the warriors coming with their guns, Tony waited till they were just in front of them where they could release the spears and they would reach for them and he put up his hands and said, “Stop, in the name of Jesus Christ the Son of God.” And it was as if a cable were stretched across, men were leaning over it, they lost there balance, and stood back.
Tony kept singing and said, “Do you like the song?”
The witch doctor said, “Listen, you be quiet.”
Tony replied, “They’ve listened to you for 13 days; what have you done? They have listened to you too long. Do you want me to go on singing?” And the people said, “Yes.” Tony said, “Then you tell him (the witch doctor) to go away.” And they said, “Go away, we have followed you long enough.”
And Tony began to sing to them the gospel. God gave him the words and then they had prayer and he preached and then he went back home.
The next morning when he got up he went out and there in the yard were groups of 10, and 3, and 12, and families all sitting alone around in the yard, no one talking to each other, just little groups alone. “What are you doing here?” he asked. “We want your talk.” So he said to the near ones, “Come in.”
So he talked to them and they wanted to receive Jesus Christ. He led them to the Lord and they went out the back door and another group came in the front door. That went on for over 1,500 people. The Spirit of God settled down on that area. It wasn’t everyone, but God had given a great harvest. It had gone from 12 to over 1,500.
It went on and the church was built. Then one day Tony was working in the dispensary and he reached up to get a bottle of sulphur acid. It slipped out of his hand, hit a shelf, broke, and the raw sulphur acid came into his face and his eyes. He picked up some water, threw it in his face, laid down on a bed, wrapped his head in a wet towel, and called one of the people to him. “Go to the next station and ask for help,” which was about 40 miles away.
The Christian brother went as fast as he could, but it was sometime before he got there and the other missionary could get back.
But shortly after this happened, two of the godly women came outside the door and started to pray. They prayed and they prayed and one of them was there all the time praying and worshipping.
When the missionary came from the other station, Tony was lying there, and he peeled back the towel and saw what the acid had done to his face and to his eyes. He just laid down on the bed, took him in his arms, and started to sob like a baby. Tony said, “Don’t sob, it’s all right. God’s going to heal me.” “Oh, Tony, Tony, you’re eyes are gone.” “It’s all right, God’s going to heal me.” “How do you know Tony?” “These 2 women have been praying ever since it happened and God told me that he is going to heal me.”
As time went on, he would see a little bit of daylight, and then he could see forms. The skin that had been replaced had no scar, the only thing about it, the new skin that God gave on his eyelids and on his cheeks never tanned, it just always stayed white and it wasn’t like the rest. But his eyes are just as bright as could be.
There came a time when there was a surge of smallpox. It was just taking the people and so Tony went to the Lord about it and said, “Lord, what are we going to do?” And he went out to the people afterward and said, “Listen. God has told me that he wants a testimony here. Anyone who moves in on the compound will not be affected by this disease.” Now that’s a brave thing to do, but the people moved in. Some did, some didn’t, but as the surge moved through the place, there was not one person who had moved his family under the compound that died from the disease.
There was a drought in that area. They planted corn once and it didn’t come up. They planted their corn again and it came up and died. They had to have food or else everyone was going to be hungry. The Moslems had gone to their sacrifice, the Pagans had gone to their sacrifice, and the elders of the little church now came and said, “What are we going to do, what are the Christians going to do?” And he said, “Well, what does the scripture tell us?” And one of the elders said, “It tells us that Elisha was a man of like-passion and he prayed and it didn’t rain and he prayed and it rained.” And Tony said, “Tell the drums that there is going to be a meeting tonight in the church to pray for rain.”
So the drums carried the message to the believers to gather in the church and then the Pagans drums went and the Moslems drums went and they said, “We’ll see who’s God is God!” Tony didn’t know, but he did know that the Lord Jesus said, “You go and as you are going, lo, I am with you always.”
When he went into the church that night, these people had all brought their rain hats. And there wasn’t a cloud in the sky as big as your hand! They came to chruch to pray for rain and they weren’t going to get wet going home! They sang 2 songs, had some prayer, and then they heard a patter on the roof. They sang a third song, but they couldn’t finish it because they couldn’t hear. That tin roof rattled with the rain till it sounded like the inside of a drum. And, anyway, all they wanted to do was to praise the Lord because the rain had come.
I happened to be with Tony just after he’d come back from his last trip to that part of the world. He had gone around to the churches to see the people and the day had come when he was to leave to come back to America. He’d come in from preaching in the morning and had lunch with one of the missionaries. He didn’t know what was going to happen. When he came out from lunch there was over 50,000 people that were there. They had been walking for 2 or 3 days from various villages because they were all coming to see him and bid him goodbye because they wouldn’t see him till they met him at Jesus feet. There was a truck and they had a little pulpit on it with a chair and a canopy over it and he got up on it and they parted.
He went out into the square near the front of the church and there they were. There were some of these old men that had been dressed in war paint who had danced 13 days with their spears to call for his blood. But instead of seeing Tony die they had received the Lord Jesus Christ and had been faithful followers of Christ for all these years. There were 2 of the men that had been with him for those 13 days in that prayer meeting. And there they were, over 50,000 people, who had come in from all over the area to see this little man that had walked in under the skulls strung across the path and threw his bag down and said, “Where am I going to stay?” There they were. And when the last message had been given and the last testimony and last embrace of the leading brothers, they started the motor of the truck and it slowly moved out and Tony said, “50,000 voices lifted up and sang, ‘All hail the power of Jesus name, Let angels prostrate fall, Bring forth the royal diadem, And crown him Lord of all’!”
