Daughter of the Sanctuary: My Life as a Woman Evangelist

“Don't go to that church across town where that woman is preaching or you will go to hell!” I could not help but laugh when two children told me what one of their teachers said. It was funny because it was absurd, but it was completely inaccurate.

Yes, I am a woman, and I am a preacher. I cannot help it. Take it up with God, He did it! My husband says it is in my DNA. Just look at my eleventh great grandfather through my grandfather, Alonzo Yancey’s line. His name was Alexander Leighton, a Scottish medical doctor and Puritan preacher. He was best known for his 1630 pamphlet that attacked the Anglican Church, and which led to his torture by King Charles I in the Star Chamber.

I am thankful God did not let me know about the stigma of "women in ministry.” It was many years later I found out there were a few unbelievers. LOL! I grew up under the ministries of Maria Woodworth Etter, the healing evangelist Kathryn Kuhlman, faith healer and evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson (founder of Four Square), and I even had a woman as my pastor. I never heard a sermon for or against women in ministry. They just did what they did. They made us laugh, cry, pray, learn, get closer to God and throw the lifeline out for others.

Daughter of the Sanctuary was first published in 1984. In this revised edition, I have added approximately nine chapters and included a few pictures. This is the story of my life as a woman evangelist.