Leo Humphrey
GNIA Founder
2009 All rigths reserved. © Good News In Action
ESPAÑOL
Who would have ever thought that a skinny, little, red-headed farm boy from Checotah, OK would ever be in a position of meeting and talking with thousands of lost and dying people, searching for fulfillment to their life problems? Here was a man who had been so timid and bashful as a young man, but now found himself loving people of all cultures and backgrounds. What he had always said he had wanted to do "soon" was not soon enough.
Leo was born October 23, 1934 and was saved when he was 12 years old. He remembers vividly, when he was 15 years old climbing a mountain near Tehachapi, California with his dog and hearing God's silent voice calling him to the ministry. He often lamented that, at that time, he had no one talk to that could counsel him about a call to the ministry. Ignoring the call, Leo entered the Air Force at age 20 and rose through the ranks working as a radar electronics instructor. His job would take him to Puerto Rico, Argentina, and other parts of the world where he would later minister. When he was 28 years old, God got a hold his attention again through the preaching of Arthur Blessit. Finally, after 14 years of running from God, Leo answered God's call and moved his family to the Sunset Strip of California. While ministering there, a man who had seen Leo's ministry with the hippies and street youth, offered to pay for his seminary studies.
Good News In Action was only an idea in the mind of Leo Humphrey back in 1968 when he moved his family of four to the New Orleans area so Leo could attend the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. He moved to the "City that Care Forgot" knowing little of what was ahead for him in the years to come.
Leo began his seminary training in the fall of 1968. He knew he had a call from God on his life but didn't fully know just what that was. Only that he knew he was called to the Streets to be a "Street Preacher". During his studies, he ventured to the area known as the "French Quarter of New Orleans." There he found thousands of young people who were involved in the new "drug culture" that had seemed to follow him from the streets of Los Angeles and the area known as the "Sunset Strip." In 1970, Good News In Action was incorporated as a ministry that would reach and touch thousands.
This ministry was one that would eventually touch many cultures of the world. From Sunset Strip of Los Angeles, CA to the Bourbon Street of New Orleans, LA This ministry would reach out to countries such as Honduras, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Mexico, Hong Kong, Romania and then to his beloved El Salvador. Many lives were touched with this love of Jesus Christ by this man who loved people and wanted more than anything else to be known as a "Street Preacher." Now, Good News in Action could touch lives of people in the Market Places of the World.
Leo came to El Salvador for the first time in 1978 and here he found the love of a country and peoples that would change the hearts of thousands. When groups came to El Salvador to minister and share Jesus in areas of the country, so many people knew Leo or had heard of this ministry. It was never a desire of Leo to be known for what he did but for what God did through this effort of winning people to Jesus. That was his aim. To simply take the Gospel message to people who are hungry to hear that true Salvation comes only through the shed blood of Jesus and His atoning grace. Thousands have come to know Jesus personally through the efforts of Good News In Action, Inc, especially in El Salvador.
Leo met his Savior face to face on March 26, 2006 at the age of 71. We truly know that his entrance into that precious place prepared for him, (John 14) was one choreographed by his Savior, especially for him.
I remember just before his death in the early part of March 2006, as some of the men on a trip preached in the Central Park of San Salvador. Leo turned to his friend Julio Contreras, pastor of "Iglesia Bautista Vida Nueva Church" in San Salvador, and asked Julio: "Come with me, let's go touch some people." He and Julio walked on the out-skirts of the crowd; they touched, patted, and smiled as the people stood to listen to the Gospel message being preached in the Central Park that day.
This was my husband, Leo Humphrey. He was a man who wanted to "touch" people with the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That "touch" of Leo Humphrey is missed.
Written by Loyce Humphrey, 2007
Leo (1934-2006) and Loyce Humphrey
