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Our Founder - Sis. Carney
Opha Pearl Carney
In 1950 she began to get a hunger for God. Our family didn’t believe in women preachers, being out of
a line of old-time Baptist preachers that goes back as far as our family tree can be traced. So she tried to dismiss any thought
of being called. She began to attend all the services she could. She tried many churches and was warned not to go to any of
those latter rain churches. But something seemed to be drawing her to just such a place. She attended Pastor A.D. Marney’s
church and Pastor Conley’s, being in services with Bro. & Sis. Alaman, who she eventually brought to Collinsville
as the first black man to preach in Collinsville. In at least one of those services a word of knowledge was given to an evangelist,
that she was called to preach His Gospel.
She was living on north Cincinnati at the time, and as soon as she would
get the older kids off to school she would begin to seek God’s will for her life. She would pray all day at times, crying
out to God, with tears and strong intercession, looking in His Word for the answer. Her neighbor, a Mrs. Hyde once asked what
was wrong, what was she always crying about, what was going on over there. Unable to explain it at the time, she simply offered,
come and see. It seemed the more she prayed the more certain she was that the Lord was calling her to minister. But her traditions
kept her bound.
At the time my dad, Larry, was only 2 years old. He had asthma that left him breathless many times.
One of those times, he lost consciousness and was unable to breathe; he turned lifeless in her hands, she believed he was
dead. And the Lord spoke to her and said “Will you preach my gospel’ she responded, “Yes, even if my whole
family turns against me”. His life returned back in him and from that day forward he was healed of asthma completely.
She
began pastoring in 1952, a church in Sand Springs at Vern Station, which she named “Little Church Beside the Road”.
She soon had a radio broadcast on KAKC radio and in Pryor on Sunday afternoons for 4-5 years. Reba was very young and grandma
would get her a box to stand on in order to sing. God would use her mightily in the gifts of the Spirit. One such story that
I recall was as she was preaching God stopped her and had her describe a man in an old shack or shed, which she described
in vivid detail, she even described the very actions of the man at that very moment. She told him of God’s love and
desire to save him. He fell on his face and was gloriously saved. He later contacted the station and informed her of what
had happened and how he was about to take his own life.
She didn’t know how to drive and had relied on the congregation
and her oldest daughter Wilma Lee to get her to church. In 1955 she decided she needed to drive. So she and Elmer her husband,
who had always discouraged her from driving, went to get a car. They paid the down payment on it and God told her the rest
would be taken care of. A man in her church, who had had a daughter that had been in a terrible accident, whom Grandma had
prayed for and she was healed, asked for the payment book for the car and paid every payment.
In 1956 she was ordained
at Living Way Bible College by Bro. Conley.
She had given up pastoring “The Little Church Beside the Road”
and established a church in Turley called “Anchors of Hope”. The Lord moved mightily in the services, not only
in the adults, but in the young people as well, many coming to the Lord and being filled with the Holy Ghost. She also preached
in a storefront church in Turley.
In 1958 in Bixby, she preached out of a tin building that had been used to store
feed.
In 1960 she pastored a church in West Tulsa called “River’s of Life” where both of her youngest
children were saved and filled with the Holy Ghost, the night they were saved the children were ministering to the adults,
laying hands on them and prophesying.
In 1961 she pastored a church called “Rascal Flats” in Catoosa,
which they now call “Fellowship Tabernacle”. They said they got all the rascals out of there.
In 1962 she
opened a storefront church called “House of Prayer” in West Tulsa and was ordained through Lighthouse Gospel Center,
by Sis. Thelma Chaney, which was her spiritual mother/mentor someone she always looked to and relied upon. Sis. Chaney was
President of Lighthouse Gospel Center and held high standards of excellence. Not compromising the Word, but holding fast the
form of sound doctrine given by the Word. She encouraged Grandma to go on with God, although she was a woman, had very little
education and wasn’t wealthy. Sis. Chaney’s ministry was to the underdog and that would become my grandma’s
ministry.
This was a picture that was a confirmtion of a Word given to my grandma from the Lord concerning her enemies. He had
put a hedge up that her enemies would not be able to cross. She had a lady who was attending and was working witchcraft against
her. Grandma would realize that someone was working witchcraft against her and pray that it would go back on whoever was sending
it out, so that they would know that they were fighting against God. Each time it would go back on this woman. Each Sunday
she would wait for the worship to get good. Then she would dance across the stage and up to my grandma. She would say Sister
Carney please forgive me. Each time my grandma would say well of course I forgive you. After a time in prayer of asking the
Lord why does this seem to keep coming back? The Lord revealed to her that every time she sent it back and it would go back,
but then she would release her from it everytime she came to her. The Lord said He had put up a hedge and she would not be
able to cross it. The next service, the lady danced across the floor and could not get over to my grandma. She tried several
times to no avail. She then stormed out of the church and did not return. This picture was taken during a service and it was
a confirmation of the Word of the Lord.
This picture was taken during a time period where the neighbors had called the fire department a couple of times seeing
flames leaping from the roof of the Church. The fire department actually came in the back door the first time and asked if
there was a fire. They said the neighbors had reported seeing flames in a huge column on the roof of the building. This
was another confirmation of the "Fire of the Holy Ghost" that was being poured out in our services. These pictures were just
another confirmation of what God was doing in the services.
It was in 1963 that she began to take food and clothes to native American’s
in the Collinsville area. This began an outreach that would connect her with people in the area. The late Darrell Ervin of
Skiatook was having church here on this corner in an old house. It’s wood plank floor was so bad that women would break
the heels off their shoes between the planks; it was known as “The House of Refuge”. She had been preaching for
him and he asked if she would buy the house. She began to pray about it. She was living in Tulsa at the time and she had uterine
cancer. Her doctor said there wasn’t one place that he could touch that didn’t have cancer. She would drive to
Collinsville to preach and on the drive home would nearly pass out from blood loss. Praying about the decision to Pastor this
church she would drive up on Cincinnati hill, by where she lived and pray at night. It was there that she got her direction
from the Lord “to move to Collinsville, obey him and He would heal her of the cancer”, which He did. She and my
dad, Larry, were walking and praying over the lot where the church was located and God spoke to her and told her to build
a church and even showed her where on the property to build it. She couldn’t get a man to get a loan with her, but she
and Sis. Minnie Thomas borrowed the money. My grandfather and men of the church built it and the house was torn down. She
incorporated it and renamed the church “Miracles of Faith” for she said it, the church was a miracle and it had
been accomplished by faith.
God’s word over this ministry is that “it will be streams of living water flowing
out to the four corners of the world”. It has been just that ministers have been sent out from here into all walks of
life, besides the surrounding area in Collinsville and many other parts of Oklahoma, the reservations of Arizona and New Mexico,
all across the U.S., Central & South America, Mexico, Africa, Israel and who knows how far her influence has reached,
all the way to Heaven. It will continue to expand and fulfill the call of God.
Her most recent outreach was at Evergreen
Care Center in Owasso where she lived until her death. During the last few days of her life here on earth, we heard many wonderful
testimonies, like the woman who was told by the Lord through grandma, what both of her grandbabies would be, both granddaughters
in fine health, although the doctors had told the family that one was definitely a boy. And the resident Baptist woman being
filled with the Holy Ghost which one of the nurses supposed her to be speaking Cherokee. Or the hospice nurse, that grandma
laid her hands on and spoke a word of knowledge, it’s going to be all right as the power of God flowed into her, changing
her countenance, as she was going through a very tough time. One by one they came, some unable to speak, but visibly moved
by their connection to “Sis. Carney”, as they all called her.
There are too many people to start naming
names that meant so much to my grandma. But I want to mention Sis. Janis Brown, whose own professed calling was to look after
my grandmother while she lived at Evergreen, who passed up much better job offers in order to stay with grandma. And Sis.
Sharon Hollowell who has always been a loyal friend, but not just a friend but also a daughter in the faith to my grandma.
Who was always there, right up to the time of her departure.
Her calling was to the weak, the despised and the rejected.
To the black sheep, the one who no one else wanted or cared for. She loved them all!
She Always asked the Lord to not
let people see her, but to let them see Him. She always gave God the glory, never taking any herself.
Collinsville Area Churches
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