Pentecost Comes to Savage, MD

In this small cotton mill town named for John Savage, a merchant of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, God sent a young man with the message of Pentecost. His name was Pastor Bennie M. Slye. The first meetings were held in an upstairs room of Pickett's store on Baltimore Street. The year was 1929. Great preaching, singing, and worship brought town people to the meetings. Some of the folks remember how hot it got from the heat of the pot-bellied stove. Whenever the windows were opened passers-by could hear the joyous singing and lingered, blessed by the music when the congregation sang with all their heats. Ellnetta Buckingham remembers singing a solo as a young girl. She is one of the Frazier family, all of whom have sung the praises of God through music. The family sang as a group through the many years. Edward Frazier attended Sunday School at 8. Thelma Frazier, who later married Pastor Richard Baggs, accepted the call to serve God, and attended Zion Bible College in Rhode Island. She was saved at the age of 14. Thelma was the first of many from Bethel to become a minister and preached and sang under the anointing of God's Holy Spirit. She graduated from Bible School in 1935.

TENT MEETINGS

Pastor Slye, as Pastor, invited Pastor Jerome DeFontes from Baltimore to hold special meetings. A tent was set up on a vacant lot on Washington Street. The worshippers sat on benches and walked on straw spread on the ground down the aisle, when the altar calls brought many to salvation. Many children and teenagers attended these meetings, among them the Frazier family.

Pastor Jerome DeFontes

God poured out His Holy Spirit under the anointed preaching of His Word. Among those attending were the Simpson, Duvall, Updyke, Sherman, Williams, Wheatley, Riley, Sargent, Ford, Gill, and Stonesifer families, to name a few. Pastor Slye's mother and Louise Marshall, an evangelist, attended the meetings too. The newly paved U.S. Route 1 from Baltimore to Washington, called Washington Boulevard, made the trip and traveling much easier so people could come out to Savage to be revived. As Pastor Slye began meetings on Montgomery Street in Laurel, Pastor Jerome DeFontes became Pastor.