At first, Lester wasn’t going to take the request seriously. A small church in Indiana? What about the billions of lost souls in the cities of the world? But the Lord began to speak in the quiet of Lester’s heart, saying, “You’ll never understand My heart if you don’t pastor…a pastor gets into the sorrows of the family….He understands what it means to be a shepherd because I am a shepherd.”
It was a hard decision, but Lester knew he had to obey. When he arrived at the church, he found the building to be too old and confining for use. After convincing the congregation to sell it, he soon chose a new location in the center of town. The new, larger building that would house Calvary Temple was built nearly debt-free because of the miraculous offerings that poured in. The Lord brought well-known evangelists like Oral Roberts to the new church to preach. Within months, the small congregation was averaging 2,500 participants in Sunday school, and all of the people were growing in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. There were salvations and healings regularly at Calvary Temple as God moved among His people. The Sumrall family grew there, as well, with the birth of a second son, Stephen.
Roberts Liardon tells us that in the midst of all of these marvelous blessings, the call to the mission field continued to burn in Lester’s heart.
During a short-term mission trip to Asia in 1950, Lester conducted a three-day crusade in Manila, Philippines. Even though it had been five years since World War II, the country was still shrouded in a spirit of gloom. During the crusade, hundreds of people responded to the hope and joy found in the gospel of Christ. When Lester left the city, he despaired that there was no shepherd to guide these new sheep in his absence.
