Rev. David Wilkerson
(1931 - 2011)

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General Details

Name:	Rev. David Wilkerson
Gender:	Male
Age:	79 years old
Lived:	Tuesday, 19 May 1931 - Wednesday, 27 April 2011

My Story

May 19th 1931-April 27th 2011-David Wilkerson

Taken from interview on CBN with Scott Ross called Person to Person. "I'm not a prophet, I am one of his many watchmen, prophets they die young they are crucified I don't know if I'm ready for that."

Here is his ministry's web site about his life and ministry time line. http://www.worldchallenge.org/david_wilkerson_timeline

This is my personal memorial to him and not a history of his ministry.

Everyone talks about his ministry, though impressive, but few talk about him as a person and a pastor. He was one of the most loving gentle humble servants I have ever known! Too many pastors today want to be the Lord over the congregations, not the shepherd. Pastor Dave never lorded himself over anyone. He was a true servant and always understood who was Lord. His reputation was that he was a strong spiritual giant who was uncompromising (which is well deserved). More importantly, from my experience, I knew him for his great love for God and all the people he came in contact with.
I first met Pastor Dave Wilkerson in 1986. He came to preach at a very small church (about 20 members) in a bad neighborhood in Brooklyn. I was asked to watch the children while he preached. Because no children showed up I got to hear him preach. I was truly impressed with his humility. I soon started attending Times Square Church when it first opened. It was a time of freshness and excitement. I became one of the first Sunday school teachers teaching Kindergarten Sunday School. Maybe a few years later he chose me personally as a youth leader for the teens. Everyone was shocked that he chose me including me because there were far more experienced ordained pastors up for the position. I never did ask him why he chose me, but I know that Pastor Dave’s belief in me changed my life.
He made decisions based on hearing from God. He simply said that I was the one God wanted to work with the youth and that was the end of that. He came into the room full of candidates and announced it and left the room. He listened to God over people and did not judge by appearances. The youth group back then was called Impact. It was a time of great growth and excitement for me.

He had great respect for all people no matter what their background. Unlike many pastors he was not a control freak. He trusted God to move in a person’s life and did not try to control them. I had the privilege of doing street meetings with him, sometimes it was just me and him. Sometimes there was me, him and a girl named Karen who worked with the children at the time and musicians. We did outreaches in Tompkins Square Park (when the park was really bad). I recollect one time I was sitting on a park bench and a homeless man said "excuse me miss you're sitting in my living room!" It was a time of great growth and excitement for me. We did out reaches in Spanish Harlem, the Bronx, Astoria Park and McCarren Park in Greenpoint Brooklyn. He was fearless and so innocent that he did not care if he got assaulted or was in danger. He was just so full of love. The Bible says perfect love casts out fear! That was true for Pastor Dave. He really helped me through the darkest times of my life in spite of the protests of others.
On a few occasions I did give him gift certificates to have ice cream with his grand children which I know he really enjoyed. What many do not know about him is that he suffered greatly. I saw him face persecutions and betrayals due to the jealousy from other pastors. The Bible says in Ephesians 5:11: “Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them." It is not just my opinion I know this as fact. I saw him suffer as his wife and daughters would get cancer, recover and get cancer again. Praise God for their healings. I saw people slander, attack and betray him. He was truly misunderstood by these deceitful people.

The Mafia and their kind keep secrets but believers in Christ are not criminals and deceitful and are called to expose evil. We are called to live in the light, secrets thrive in darkness. Anything in the dark has power over you.
The New Testament standard is truth not covering up evil. The answer to sin is repentance not pretending it doesn't exist. Christians are held to a higher standard than the world not a lower standard and pastors are to be held to an even higher standard. Further instruction from the New testament on how to deal with people who do God's ministers harm: 2 Timothy 4:14-15: "Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: the Lord reward him according to his works. You too should be on your guard against him, because he strongly opposed our message." I am saying this to express my total disagreement with those who used the ministry to cover up evil and to hurt Pastor Dave. To continue to support those people who are no longer doing God's will would be a betrayal of Pastor Dave's ministry and a betrayal and denial of the holiness and purity of The Lord. The Bible continues to speak about these kind of people with 1 Corinthians 5:5: "Hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord." God can restore them but they are not to be in a position of leadership over vulnerable people.
Isaiah 5:20 says "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter." A believer not being able to identify and name evil is not biblical. If nobody else is brave or honest enough to say it I will , evil was done to Pastor Dave. I am simply stating a fact. Pastor Dave is in heaven now where he can't be hurt or betrayed any more.

I have memories of Pastor Dave’s suffering because of the death of his granddaughter Tiffany who died of cancer. She died in his home. I remember right after her death he preached about Heaven. He said he was looking forward to a day with no more tears. Now he is in heaven with no more tears joy unspeakable and full of glory! There are no pastors that I know of who have a pastor’s heart like his! In all of the suffering I saw a meek and humble servant with a purity and no guile. I believe his behavior and attitude was the same as Jesus who was led like a lamb to the slaughter. He gained the respect of hardcore criminals and was well respected by street people.

I had planned to and hoped to see him on his 80th birthday on May 19th when he was planning on preaching at the pulpit of Times Square Church in NYC. I wanted to give him an update on answered prayer in my life as he prayed for me for years. Recently God has brought me into a new season in my life and I was hoping to encourage him. I regret that I did not get to tell him. But I will see him again in heaven. I would not be who I am if it were not for him. Millions can say that too. One of his strong points is that he respected all people but it was also one of his weak points. The one thing that stands out in my mind about what Pastor Dave taught me is to never compromise the standards or word of God. As I said earlier truth is the standard. Pastor Dave was known for his message of holiness of uncompromising truth.

I want to end on a lighter note. People who went to the church when it began know this because he used to talk about it but people who only know him from his books or news letters might not know this. Everyone knows that he is known for being skinny. I think he was skinny partially because he used to fast so much. Because he was skinny and actually rather frail (I know he did not come across that way when he preached but that was the Holy Spirit in him) he was frail and he would lose even more weight because he fasts serious fasts. But after fasts to put weight on he would eat Haagen Daz ice cream. His favorite flavor was vanilla fudge swirl. I always thought that was so cute. That flavor has been discontinued. http://www.silive.com/teens/index.ssf/2009/06/where_has_the_vanilla_fudge_go.html
I went onto be a counselor with the Billy Graham ministry until they closed the NYC location in 2009 at Calvary Baptist Church. To be a counselor you have to have a pastor’s signature and he was the one who signed off for me so I would minister starting with the 911 tragedy where I was trained through the Billy Graham ministry as a crisis counselor with SCOPE ministries who also trained the counselors for the Oklahoma City bombing.
I would not be who I am if it were not for him. Any ministry or missions I do in the future will always have his influence in it. My focus now is to work with women who have been raped and children who have been sexually abused.
One final thing he taught me there can't be love without truth.
Matthew 25:21 "His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant"
Picture courtesy of Indonesianblogspot.com

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From: Pinksugarbaby

There was not enough space to write everything I wanted to I actually had to delete a lot before posting due to a lac...

Biography

Spouse's Name:	Gwen Wilkerson
Children's Names:	Greg, Bonnie, Debbie, and Gary
Marital Status:	Married
Religion:	Born Again Christian

Interests

Favourite Book:	The Bible
Favourite Charity:	World Challenge
Other Interests:
http://www.worldchallenge.org/david_wilkerson_timeline

Passing

Place of Passing:	Texas
Date of Passing:	27 April 2011
Cause of Passing:	car accident
Place of Burial:	Texas

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Rev. David Wilkerson (1931 - 2011)