Many people dream of being used of God to touch people around the world . . . The life of Lonnie Rex was not a dream; it was a reality.
It has been said of Lonnie Rex that he was the most connected Christian in the world in the second half of the 20th Century. He connected with world leaders and the most influential religious individuals on the planet. Among the people in Lonnie's realm were Oral Roberts, T. L. Osborn, Pope John Paul II, Mother Teresa, Mikhail Gorbachev, President George H. W. Bush, President Ronald Reagan, John Osteen, President Vladimir V. Putin, and Mohammed Ali.
Lonnie and Betty Rex will be in Oklahoma City this weekend for the 2015 Homecoming at Southwestern Christian University located in Bethany, Oklahoma. Lonnie has been asked by Rita Williams-Tate to play one of the pianos for the Gospel singing on Saturday afternoon, November 7, and Lonnie and Betty will play two pianos for a special concert of several of the most popular and requested Gospel songs and hymns. You may Click Here to watch and hear Lonnie and Betty Rex playing twin 9 foot Baldwin concert grand pianos.
Lonnie Rex will have book signing table to promote the sale of his incredible book, My Amazing Adventures With God.
Betty Rex had this to say about Lonnie and his worldwide ministry in the book:
"My dear husband was stricken with polio in 1937 when he was nine. He spent over a year of his childhood in the Oklahoma Children's Hospital for several operations. He wore leg braces until college. Even with one leg shorter than the other and limping in pain, he touched the world. He led international ministries and humanitarian organizations that supported orphanages, jungle hospitals and leper colonies. As his wife it has been my joy to be by his side visiting the many projects around the world. It has been an amazing adventure with God and my husband, Lonnie Rex.
"God Bless. Betty Rex."
Little did I know when I met Lonnie and Betty Rex at the National Pentecostal Holiness Church in 1954 that Lonnie would do all the extraordinary things that took him around the world. I was a young Marine at Quantico, Virginia, where I was a trombonist in the celebrated Quantico Marine
Band when General Dwight D. Eisenhower was the President of the United States of America. Our band and drum and bugle corps, the finest in the nation, often played in concerts and parades for the graduating second lieutenants in the Marine Officers School.
My love for the Pentecostal Holiness Church and desire to worship with Spirit-filled Christians was reflected in my regular attendance at church on Sunday mornings and Sunday nights. I did not own a car, and therefore, my means of transportation was hitchhiking. Lonnie would take me to military pickup stop in front of a small restaurant on 16th Street near the White House. My friendship with Lonnie and Betty Rex has endured through the decades that have passed. When I was elected to serve as President of Southwestern College in 1975 and resigned my regular commission as an officer and chaplain in the United States Air Force at Wilford Hall USAF Medical where I was a certified supervisor in Clinical Pastoral Education, I sought out Lonnie Rex to advise me with regard to raising funds for the college. I remember a letter he helped me to write brought in $75,000 in one weekend. He had helped Oral Roberts with his fund-raising through the mail. And I believed he could help me, too. He continues to be a consultant to me in raising needed financial resources for Hugh's News. He does his work behind the scenes. I am a blessed man to know these two great musicians, world changers, and humanitarians who have blessed the world and have met so many world leaders, and touched countless thousands of lives. I want you to know and love them as I do.
One last thing, many of you will remember the great Sunday School Conventions conducted by Karl Bunkley and the General Conference choirs and orchestras directed by Lonnie Rex. He introduced our churches to the finest Gospel songs and hymns that we took back to our churches and sang them to the glory of God and the blessings of our people. Betty Rex has a unique Pentecostal style of playing the piano unlike anyone else. She always played the piano for those choirs. Whenever I have visited in their home in Spring, Texas, I am blessed by the piano playing Betty does for me. I like a real piano. In addition, she prepares the best breakfasts in the known world with coffee and orange juice. It is a joy to stay in their home.
As Colombo often says, "Just One More Thing." It was in October of 2014 that our pastor, J. Brian Williams, dedicated what was named "Stephanie's Place" in grateful and loving memory of our daughter, Stephanie Ellen Morgan, who was a professional educator, having taught 21 years at Statham Elementary School in Statham, GA, near Athens. She taught first grade and kindergarten. She died on August 3, 2012, after a battle with cancer for almost eleven years. She won. She is in heaven today.
We raised the money to renovate the kitchen--purchased a new commercial ice make with a 100 pound storage bin, a new upright freezer, newq counter tops and cabinets, new tile in the kitchen, and renovated the hallway, and purchased a new drinking fountain, as well as a renovation of the fellowship hall that is also a large room for Sunday school classes, and other meetings of the church.
Well, in order to honor Stephanie whose handbell choir won the National Teen Talent Competition in Chattanooga, TN, when Lonnie and Betty Rex were present, they drove from their home in Texas to be with us and to play a special rendering of Gospel songs and hymns on two pianos. They came early so they could attend the Home Coming at Emmanuel College. Bane and Barbara James invited them to stay in their lovely home until Sunday morning when they all came, and our church was filled that Sunday. David and Mary Roberson who gave significantly to the project for "Stephanie's Place" as well as Joe and Linda Thomas were attendance, as well as members of Stephanie's handbell choir and their families.. Linda Thomas is the Chair of the Board of Education for Emmanuel College. What an honor it was to see such a turnout with so many wonderful people. I must not leave out Jeanette Herndon Phillips who gave vision and leadership to this project, and served as our project manager. She is a high school math and science teacher, as well as a teacher of youth in our church.
In addition, Melvine and I were blessed to be asked to dedicate the baby girl of Marcus and Jodi Eason, Maddie Morgan Eason, named after our daughter, Stephanie, that Sunday. Our pastor gave his approval for us to do that. Jodi is the daughter of my former associate pastor at Tarkenton Memorial Church, Wayne Butler and his wife, June. Stephanie was a big sister to Jodi, and Jodi asked Stephanie if God gave her a baby girl could she name her after Stephanie. Of course, Stephanie gave her approval. Jodi brings Maddie Morgan to visit at our home often, and we drive down to their lovely home in Bishop, GA, to visit with our adopted granddaughter, her mother and parents. Maddie Morgan Eason is stunningly beautiful.
It has been said of Lonnie Rex that he was the most connected Christian in the world in the second half of the 20th Century. He connected with world leaders and the most influential religious individuals on the planet. Among the people in Lonnie's realm were Oral Roberts, T. L. Osborn, Pope John Paul II, Mother Teresa, Mikhail Gorbachev, President George H. W. Bush, President Ronald Reagan, John Osteen, President Vladimir V. Putin, and Mohammed Ali.
Lonnie and Betty Rex will be in Oklahoma City this weekend for the 2015 Homecoming at Southwestern Christian University located in Bethany, Oklahoma. Lonnie has been asked by Rita Williams-Tate to play one of the pianos for the Gospel singing on Saturday afternoon, November 7, and Lonnie and Betty will play two pianos for a special concert of several of the most popular and requested Gospel songs and hymns. You may Click Here to watch and hear Lonnie and Betty Rex playing twin 9 foot Baldwin concert grand pianos.
Lonnie Rex will have book signing table to promote the sale of his incredible book, My Amazing Adventures With God.
Betty Rex had this to say about Lonnie and his worldwide ministry in the book:
"My dear husband was stricken with polio in 1937 when he was nine. He spent over a year of his childhood in the Oklahoma Children's Hospital for several operations. He wore leg braces until college. Even with one leg shorter than the other and limping in pain, he touched the world. He led international ministries and humanitarian organizations that supported orphanages, jungle hospitals and leper colonies. As his wife it has been my joy to be by his side visiting the many projects around the world. It has been an amazing adventure with God and my husband, Lonnie Rex.
"God Bless. Betty Rex."
Little did I know when I met Lonnie and Betty Rex at the National Pentecostal Holiness Church in 1954 that Lonnie would do all the extraordinary things that took him around the world. I was a young Marine at Quantico, Virginia, where I was a trombonist in the celebrated Quantico Marine
Band when General Dwight D. Eisenhower was the President of the United States of America. Our band and drum and bugle corps, the finest in the nation, often played in concerts and parades for the graduating second lieutenants in the Marine Officers School.
My love for the Pentecostal Holiness Church and desire to worship with Spirit-filled Christians was reflected in my regular attendance at church on Sunday mornings and Sunday nights. I did not own a car, and therefore, my means of transportation was hitchhiking. Lonnie would take me to military pickup stop in front of a small restaurant on 16th Street near the White House. My friendship with Lonnie and Betty Rex has endured through the decades that have passed. When I was elected to serve as President of Southwestern College in 1975 and resigned my regular commission as an officer and chaplain in the United States Air Force at Wilford Hall USAF Medical where I was a certified supervisor in Clinical Pastoral Education, I sought out Lonnie Rex to advise me with regard to raising funds for the college. I remember a letter he helped me to write brought in $75,000 in one weekend. He had helped Oral Roberts with his fund-raising through the mail. And I believed he could help me, too. He continues to be a consultant to me in raising needed financial resources for Hugh's News. He does his work behind the scenes. I am a blessed man to know these two great musicians, world changers, and humanitarians who have blessed the world and have met so many world leaders, and touched countless thousands of lives. I want you to know and love them as I do.
One last thing, many of you will remember the great Sunday School Conventions conducted by Karl Bunkley and the General Conference choirs and orchestras directed by Lonnie Rex. He introduced our churches to the finest Gospel songs and hymns that we took back to our churches and sang them to the glory of God and the blessings of our people. Betty Rex has a unique Pentecostal style of playing the piano unlike anyone else. She always played the piano for those choirs. Whenever I have visited in their home in Spring, Texas, I am blessed by the piano playing Betty does for me. I like a real piano. In addition, she prepares the best breakfasts in the known world with coffee and orange juice. It is a joy to stay in their home.
As Colombo often says, "Just One More Thing." It was in October of 2014 that our pastor, J. Brian Williams, dedicated what was named "Stephanie's Place" in grateful and loving memory of our daughter, Stephanie Ellen Morgan, who was a professional educator, having taught 21 years at Statham Elementary School in Statham, GA, near Athens. She taught first grade and kindergarten. She died on August 3, 2012, after a battle with cancer for almost eleven years. She won. She is in heaven today.
We raised the money to renovate the kitchen--purchased a new commercial ice make with a 100 pound storage bin, a new upright freezer, newq counter tops and cabinets, new tile in the kitchen, and renovated the hallway, and purchased a new drinking fountain, as well as a renovation of the fellowship hall that is also a large room for Sunday school classes, and other meetings of the church.
Well, in order to honor Stephanie whose handbell choir won the National Teen Talent Competition in Chattanooga, TN, when Lonnie and Betty Rex were present, they drove from their home in Texas to be with us and to play a special rendering of Gospel songs and hymns on two pianos. They came early so they could attend the Home Coming at Emmanuel College. Bane and Barbara James invited them to stay in their lovely home until Sunday morning when they all came, and our church was filled that Sunday. David and Mary Roberson who gave significantly to the project for "Stephanie's Place" as well as Joe and Linda Thomas were attendance, as well as members of Stephanie's handbell choir and their families.. Linda Thomas is the Chair of the Board of Education for Emmanuel College. What an honor it was to see such a turnout with so many wonderful people. I must not leave out Jeanette Herndon Phillips who gave vision and leadership to this project, and served as our project manager. She is a high school math and science teacher, as well as a teacher of youth in our church.
In addition, Melvine and I were blessed to be asked to dedicate the baby girl of Marcus and Jodi Eason, Maddie Morgan Eason, named after our daughter, Stephanie, that Sunday. Our pastor gave his approval for us to do that. Jodi is the daughter of my former associate pastor at Tarkenton Memorial Church, Wayne Butler and his wife, June. Stephanie was a big sister to Jodi, and Jodi asked Stephanie if God gave her a baby girl could she name her after Stephanie. Of course, Stephanie gave her approval. Jodi brings Maddie Morgan to visit at our home often, and we drive down to their lovely home in Bishop, GA, to visit with our adopted granddaughter, her mother and parents. Maddie Morgan Eason is stunningly beautiful.