I first met Mr. Lloyd Ballhagen in 1983 when he came to the store where I was working and asked me if I was sure of heaven. The Lord had been dealing with me and God guided him to read the Scriptures that I needed. This contact led to my salvation. This was Mr. Ballhagen’s life. He felt deeply responsible for souls and was much inclined to share a gospel tract and speak a word to those he met.
He loved to tell how God saved him. In 1936, he was walking along a road near Charles City, Iowa when a car stopped and some young men invited him to some Methodist gospel meetings. He was impressed by the earnest appeal of the young men, then with the earnestness of the preacher and of the reality about hell and eternity that he heard. He became troubled about his soul, admitting that he was lost and needed to be saved. As Lloyd stood in the aisle after one of the meetings, he heard someone ask how to be saved. The answer was, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” Lloyd took it in and was saved on the spot.
He went to Bible Schools including the Moody Bible Institute, but wasn’t satisfied with denominational teaching. He sang with an evangelical group and in his travels met Mildred Williams whom he married in 1941. It was while he was assisting in a tent effort in Iowa that some assembly Christians invited him to their home to discuss assembly truths. His first experience of looking on as believers remembered the Lord deeply impressed him. Shortly afterward he was received into an assembly.
He was commended to the work of the Lord in 1948 and about 1951, he came to Tylertown, MS to preach the gospel in street and cottage meetings. In 1956, he had the joy of seeing an assembly formed. The work was difficult and often discouraging, but the assembly has been preserved to this day.
