July 28, 1922 – July 25, 2007

 

John Wesley Hurston of Gulf Breeze, Florida, died three days before his 85th birthday, on July 25, 2007.

John was born on July 28, 1922, in Columbus, Georgia to William and Easter Hurston. John graduated from Central Bible College in Springfield, Missouri in 1943. He met Maxine Poston in 1943 and they married on October 24, 1946, at Pensacola’s First Assembly of God.

John distinguished himself in more than 65 years of ministry. John founded and established churches in Liberia, West Africa, Korea and Vietnam. In 1948 he traveled to Liberia and helped usher in a national revival where many were miraculously healed. In 1956, Liberia’s President William V. S. Tubman conferred knighthood on John Hurston for his part in the nation-wide revival.

In 1960 John and Maxine moved to Seoul, Korea where he assisted Yonggi Cho in co-founding the second stage of a church in Sodaemoon that later became Yoido Full Gospel Church, now the largest church in the world.

In 1976 the Southeastern University of the Assemblies of God conferred a Doctor of Divinity on John Hurston for his outstanding ministerial service. Then in 1981 California Graduate School of Theology conferred a Doctor of Letters on John Hurston. In 1981 he was appointed lifetime “honorary pastor” of Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul, Korea.

Preceding him in death were his wife, Wanna Maxine Hurston; sisters, Leta Hurston Chitwood, and Aimee Hurston Loats; and brother, Daniel Hurston.

Left to treasure his memory were his daughter, Karen Hurston; his sister, Ann Hurston Collins; among his many nephews are Daniel Collins, Billy Loats, Mike Poston; among his many nieces are Carolyn Collins Grice, Becky Loats Meadows, Rachel Chitwood Tyree, Rachel McElhenney, April Brabham, Collette Micallef.