Anna’s Story
by Alice
E. Jones
"Fill’er up!" young Roy Warner exclaimed to the waitress
at Zion Bible Institute.
"I was pouring coffee at President P. C. Nelson’s
table," recalled Anna Warner, then twenty-one years old and
a student at the college. "I was saving room in his cup for
cream," she explained, "but I quickly filled it to the
brim."
That scene was the Warners’ first meeting. Sixty years
later, what Anna knew in her heart that day proved to be true.
Roy and Anna Warner were a match "made in heaven," just
as she had requested of the Lord — a team who worked together,
laboring to fulfill God’s plan on the earth.
Although Roy Warner and Anna Base lived hundreds of miles
apart, they both accepted the Lord when they were teenagers and
took their individual relationships with the Lord very seriously.
"My salvation was very dramatic," Anna recalled.
"My father was very opposed to my attending an Assemblies
of God church, but my uncle invited me and encouraged me to go.
When I got saved, it was as if I was having a vision. I saw myself
lying on the floor in heavy chains. A man I recognized as Jesus
came within six feet of me and the chains wrapped around me just
fell off. He turned around and I knew I was supposed to follow
Him. He led me to a round room with wood panels filled with tables
of books. I watched as Jesus wrote my name in one of the books
and then the vision was over."
"Some people cannot understand it," Anna said, "but
after I got saved, I prayed, and I prayed earnestly, ‘God
show me the man you want me to marry.’"
Anna’s pastor and his wife in Hutchinson, Kansas, at
that time, Brother and Sister C. E. McCarrell, took her under
their wing and guided her young life. When Pastor McCarrell accepted
a pastorate and the position of dean of students at Zion Bible
Institute just north of Chicago, Illinois, Anna followed right
along with them. Taking the time to nurture Anna and look out
for her best interests, it was Brother McCarrell who told Anna
one day that a young man from Masland, Ohio, was coming to the
school.
"That’s all he said," Anna recalled, "but
something clicked in my mind and God told me, ‘He’s
the man.’" Keeping it to herself, Anna continued to
wait.
"We weren’t allowed to date in Bible college back
then, but we saw each other on campus and in the dining room and
occasionally Roy was allowed to walk me home," Anna said.
It wasn’t until Valentine’s Day the spring before
Roy graduated that Anna had any indication that he truly cared
for her. She said, "He sent me a little valentine that read,
‘The hunt is o’er if you’ll be my valentine.’"
Then she knew that plans for marriage and ministry were sealed
as God put two people together for the purpose of serving Him.
But before there could be a wedding, Roy Warner began his ministry.
Graduating in 1940 from Zion Bible Institute, Roy didn’t
waste any time getting out on the field to spread the gospel message.
He and Vern McKinney, also a graduate of Zion, began working as
a team "evangelizing." They traveled to West Virginia
at the invitation of Sister Alva K. Stump. They worked through
the summer with Sister Stump, holding revival meetings on the
streets, in back alleys, in an old abandoned Methodist church
— any place they were invited to have a service. They preached
salvation, water baptism, and the baptism in the Holy Spirit.
They got results — the fruits of their labors proved the
call of God on their lives.
If there was any persecution, it did not come from the townspeople
in the various villages where they preached; people welcomed them
to come and tell the gospel message. Persecution did come from
another denomination attempting to start a church in the same
region, but that didn’t stop Vern, Roy and, in time, Anna.
They knew hardship and lack because "money wasn’t flowing
in those days," and living was simple. Sister Stump fed the
boys, but "she didn’t feed them very good." She
would gather dandelions and "green things," bring them
home, cook and season them up and that was what they ate. Occasionally
she had potatoes, but food was very meager. When that particular
summer was over, she took up a special offering explaining to
the congregations that "these boys have worked hard and they
deserve a good offering." They both received a little over
a dollar.
From Weston and Mount Hope, eventually they traveled to Beckley,
not far from Charleston, West Virginia. The district provided
them with a little round tent and they conducted revival meetings
every night in Beckley proper.
At the end of the summer of 1941, after graduating from Zion
Bible Institute, Anna Base traveled to Beckley by bus at Roy’s
request and proposal to meet and marry him. Accustomed to the
flat lands of Kansas, Anna found the hills and valleys of West
Virginia very taxing as she traveled the long night and following
day to meet her husband-to-be. Finally arriving in Beckley, Anna
was surprised to find no one at the bus station to meet her. Frightened
and alone and not realizing there had been a mix-up in the bus
schedule, this young woman, hundreds of miles away from home experienced
God’s protection and provision.
True to God’s faithfulness, an older couple, who "just
happened" to be Christians, crossed Anna’s path and,
seeing her in her distress, offered to help. In a town of almost
20,000 people, this couple knew of the revival young Roy Warner
was holding at a nearby town and arranged for her to be taken
to the home of the pastors, Brother and Sister Hill. What seemed
to be a bumpy welcome into her new life, may have been a forewarning
of the road Roy and Anna Warner would travel during their ministry,
but God always proved faithful.
In November of 1941 the district officials came to Beckley
and organized the first Pentecostal church in an old store building,
the Warners’ first pastorate. The time spent in Beckley also
brought the birth of their first of three children.
"Without proper medical facilities, we almost lost her,"
Anna said about the almost unbearable breech birth of little Charlotte.
Born in the home of Brother and Sister Hill, the little newborn
wasn’t breathing and had to be dipped in warm water, then
cold, repeatedly. Finally the baby let out a little whimper and
the doctor exclaimed, "We made it!" Charlotte lived
and the ministry flourished in other pastorates in West Virginia,
Ohio, Indiana and Illinois.
Anna battled pernicious anemia for over twenty years, the
disease that prevented the Warners from fulfilling God’s
original call to India. At one point, the doctors found Anna gravely
ill and gave Roy no hope of her recovery, but God miraculously
lifted Anna from the bed of affliction and she was completely
and totally healed.
"I often quoted the passage in Isaiah, ‘with his
stripes we are healed.’" (Isaiah 53:5), Anna said.
In one pastorate, Roy was struck down with a heart attack
while preaching on a Sunday morning and the full responsibility
of the ministry fell on Anna. During Roy’s recovery she preached,
conducted a local radio broadcast, took full care of all the business
of the church, and cared for her family. Repeatedly she experienced
the faithfulness of God at times when she felt she couldn’t
go on.
"It’s amazing what you can do even when you think
you can’t," Anna said.
Throughout her life, Anna said quoting Scriptures from her
King James Bible, her favorite version, strengthened her during
the hard times. Her favorite verse has always been, "My God
shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by
Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:19).
She leans heavily on that truth today as she faces perhaps
the greatest challenge of her life, the loss of her beloved husband
in January of 1999.
The Warners never owned their own home; they didn’t
accumulate any of this world’s wealth. The emphasis of their
ministry was all about souls. Now that she is alone, Anna, always
grateful when her needs are met, relies on her monthly support
from AMA perhaps now more than ever.
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Alice E. Jones
Editorial Assistant
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