REMEMBERING R.W. SCHAMBACH by Steve Eastman

“You don’t have any trouble… All you need is faith in God.” tag line from R.W. Schambach’s radio program

Every weekday morning in the late 70s I pulled the lever on an Ampex recorder and the voice of R.W. Schambach thundered across the thousand watts of WBZQ in Greenville, North Carolina. I had only been a charismatic a few years. Schambach’s message encouraged me as he told of blind eyes seeing and other notable miracles.

As often happened in Christian radio in those days, the Pentecostal preacher’s program ran back to back with an independent Baptist’s, Bobby Jones, who spent much of his daily 15 minutes tearing down what Brother Schambach was saying.

I am saddened to hear of the famous evangelist’s passing this week of heart failure. Bob Schambach was 85 years old. He’s preached on every continent except Antarctica. Those who heard his radio program usually assumed the speaker was a black man, because of his preaching style. Schambach was actually white, but had a large following among blacks and whites alike.

Years ago young Bob responded to an altar call on a street corner given by C.M. Ward, who would later become a spokesman for the Assemblies of God on Revival Time, a national radio program. Ward ended up ordaining Schambach, who gained experience working with two other well-known healing evangelists T.L. “Tommy” Osborn and A.A. Allen, both associated with the Voice of Healing Movement. By the time the 50s were drawing to a close, that movement and a related one the Latter Rain Movement had lost some of their steam.

But Bob kept traveling with his large circus-style tent, drawing crowds, which is where I met him in person in the late 80s. I had heard that R.W. was coming to Winston Salem, North Carolina and skipped my own church’s Sunday night service, with my pastor’s blessing, to help Brother Schambach with his tent, specifically taking it down. He was very friendly and approachable, and rewarded his make-shift crew with free pizza!

In recent years R.W. Schambach has made frequent appearances on TBN and other Christian television networks. His daughter, Donna Schambach, is president of the ministry her father founded and plans to keep moving forward.

Original story from: Faith Issues

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