Hello everyone. Praise the Lord!
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I first met Carrie Judd Montgomery in 1934 at her Home of Peace in Oakland, California. I spoke at a couple of her Friday healing meetings in a downtown auditorium and prayed for the sick. Her husband had passed away some years before, and she ran her home for missionaries by herself.
She had people from all continents staying at her home at one time or another. A member of her family would make wooden crates in which the missionaries could pack their belongings for shipping overseas. He also would haul the crates down to the ships for the people and make sure they were shipped correctly to the right countries.
One morning when I stayed at her home as I passed through the San Francisco area headed out on the mission field, we were at prayer together. She turned to me and said, "All the money God gives me today, I will give to you, because you are a missionary." I thought, "Boy, I've got it made today."
However, all that was collected was $12, so I did not get much. But with the little money I did have, I bought some necessities for traveling and, when I started off on the boat, I still had $12.1 suppose you could call them "Carrie Judd Montgomery" dollars.
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She was more advanced in the knowledge and exercise of faith than many Christians in those days. Missionaries on furlough stayed with her to rest in a spiritual atmosphere, as well as missionaries enroute overseas. Somehow, through faith, she was able to support this work, even after her husband, a successful businessman, died.
Many people have asked me how she was accepted among male ministers. As far as I can tell, there was no sense of competition with her, mostly because of the home that she kept. In the earlier days, however, women on the average were not very well-accepted. However, Carrie Judd was like a mother to young ministers. She was a true "mama" to those around her.
When I was there once, she said, "Come into my room, young man." So I went into her private room, which was very large. It had its own fireplace and a sitting area, as well as her bed.
She said, "Now, you're going to take a journey of faith. I know Howard Carter. You had better be going in real faith, not hope. You get faith by studying the Word. You get in there and study that Word until something in you 'knows that you know' and that you do not just hope that you know."
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I think she was trying to find out what was in me, what kind of backbone I had, and if I would quit and run home under difficult circumstances or go forward as God led. Later, my wife and I and our children stayed with her on our way to The Philippines to build a new church in Manila. The children enjoyed the freedom and joy of her home. And we appreciated her so much.
She was everyone's friend in the ministry. Sometimes, she might have twenty different missionaries staying in her home at one time. And each one felt he, or she, had all of her attention. No one felt belittled or left out. Making everyone feel welcome is a special gift.
At that time, you could just give her whatever money you wanted to, or not give her anything, when you stayed at her home. It seldom made a difference to her anyway. She trusted God to meet her needs. I usually tried to pay my own way there so that we would not be a liability to her.
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William James Roop
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