Azusa Testimony: 35 People Healed of Deafness in One Evening

Listening to all the church bells in Tiberias, Israel reminded me of the stories that Brother Sines and Brother Christopher told me.

They were both part of the leadership team at Azusa. Although singing in the Spirit was already part of the worship services there, it was enhanced when Sines and Christopher joined them. With the addition of their piano and violin, the new heavenly song went from ordinary to extraordinary. Sines was about 26 years old during the Azusa Revival.

I met Brother Sines in 1960 at Pisgah. I stayed in a three-story dormitory where Sines was the dormitory director for all the single men staying at Pisgah. I had a deal with him that I would clean his apartment if he would tell me his stories. After I finished mopping the linoleum floors, we would get my favorite snack, and the amazing stories would begin.

Brother Sines had been a concert pianist, even working at one point with Tommy Dorsey. He brought his piano to the Apostolic Faith Mission. Without sheet music or a hymnal, whatever song Brother Seymour wanted him to play and sing, he would do it. “Tommy, when I was at Azusa, I’d sit and watch my fingers move, and it sounded like a thousand pianos playing,” he said. It brings to mind Revelation 5:11 (NIV), “Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand….” Can you imagine how glorious that must have sounded? It was like a heavenly choir singing.

One of the miracles Brother Sines told me about was performed through Seymour. At that time, flames of holy fire were shooting into and out of the old warehouse. The whole place was full of the Shekinah Glory. This particular miracle involved a man who had smoked cigars for most of his life. He always had one stuck in the corner of his mouth. Where the cigar rested in his mouth, cancer grew. The cancer had eaten a hole in the man’s cheek. In his mouth, what wasn’t eaten away was black and rotten. Several teeth were missing.

He told Brother Seymour and Brother Sines that the doctor had given him no more than a year to live. Seymour told him that the doctor was right, but God could change it. He laid hands on the man and prayed; when he took his hands away, the black tissue had disappeared! They stood there and actually watched missing gums, teeth, and flesh fill in until he was made whole. We serve a mighty God!

Now, about six months after Sines had been at Azusa Street, Brother Christopher joined the congregation. He owned a Stradivarius violin and would accompany Brother Sines when he played his piano. In the years following Azusa, Sines and Christopher played many concerts together.

Brother Christopher also lived at Pisgah when he grew old. He lived in the dorm at the same time I lived there. He was one of the most polite and trusting men I have ever known. He was of Italian ancestry and still had coal-black hair in his 70s. He told me that when he played at the Azusa mission, he played in the Spirit: “I played at a level I never achieved even in my greatest concert,” he said. He once tried to bottle the Shekinah Glory; to his dismay, the bottle was empty the next morning. One of the miracles he was involved with concerned a blind man brought into the meeting by the man’s wife. In his left hand, he held a white cane with a red tip; with his right hand, he held onto his wife. The woman walked straight up to Brother Christopher saying, “My husband is blind. Heal him.” Christopher quietly explained that he couldn’t heal him, but he could pray for him, and Jesus would heal him. She insisted that he do so. Humbly and obediently, Brother Christopher prayed for the man. Instantly, he was healed!

Brother Fox

All this talk about music makes me think of all the people who have never heard singing or even the spoken word. Which leads me to Brother Fox. When Fox was in his late teens, he went to Azusa Street to prepare to go to the mission field. By the age of 20, he was performing miracles and bringing the word of God to India. I met him in 1963 when he retired to Pisgah; he was very happy to renew his friendships with many Azusa saints. He was about five feet, nine inches tall and kept his silver hair rather long and combed straight back. His hair was so shiny it would glow when he was around a light.

Occasionally, I would ride the trolley with him when he would go witness to those people riding the cable cars. In between his witnessing, he would tell me stories about India. What a mighty ministry he had! The Azusa Street miracles were told to me at his apartment while I sat at his feet listening intently.

Brother Fox said he was awestruck by the move of God! He said the manifestation of God’s power varied according to the degree of the Shekinah Glory present—the thicker the cloud, the greater the miracles! Fox had tremendous love and respect for Brother Seymour, saying he was a very deep man of God.

Brother Fox loved to pray for the deaf and the mute. One evening, a sign-language teacher at a school for the deaf brought in about 35 of his students. “If you want to teach them to sign, then why did you bring them to a place where they would get healed?” Fox asked the teacher. Looking surprised, the teacher said that Fox was talking like they would all get healed. Fox, emboldened by the Holy Spirit, replied that they would! Brother Fox asked them to form a circle and join hands. Without hesitation, Fox whispered in the first man’s ear and told the bad spirit to come out.

Immediately, the miracle happened! When the man could suddenly hear, he got very excited. When the others saw his excitement and amazement, they started getting healed one by one like a line of dominoes. All Fox had to do was whisper in the first man’s ear, then God took it from there. In just a few minutes, every single one of them was healed! Brother Fox had a strong belief in the power of Jesus.