Lake Paw Paw - William Branham Life Story
Paw Paw Lake, Michigan is an unincorporated resort community located northeast of Benton Harbor just off of Lake Michigan, across the lake from Chicago. At the turn of the century, it was nicknamed "The Playground of Chicago" due to the large number of people from Chicago that visited. It was also a favorite vacation spot for many people throughout Illinois, Ohio, Iowa, and Indiana. Paw Paw Lake is also part of some versions of William Branham's fictional life story accounts.
Paw Paw Lake, Michigan is an unincorporated resort community located northeast of Benton Harbor just off of Lake Michigan, across the lake from Chicago. At the turn of the century, it was nicknamed "The Playground of Chicago" due to the large number of people from Chicago that visited. It was also a favorite vacation spot for many people throughout Illinois, Ohio, Iowa, and Indiana. Paw Paw Lake is also part of some versions of William Branham's fictional life story accounts.
When William Branham spoke about his conversion experience in Roy E. Davis' Pentecostal Baptist Church of God sect and described what he claimed to be his first Pentecostal experience in versions of his stage persona that used a "Baptist minister" back story, Branham described fishing at Paw Paw Lake. According to Branham, he visited the resort community shortly after his conversion into Davis' Pentecostal sect, which would have also been shortly after marrying his first wife, Hope.
According to those versions of his stage persona, William Branham left Hope in Jeffersonville while he went fishing at the resort. Branham claimed that he accidentally stumbled onto the General Pentecostal Assembly as they met to merge the Pentecostal Assemblies of Jesus Christ and the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World. Though he did not specifically mention the General Assembly, Branham gave the location and the description of the event. Though William Branham was ordained as a Pentecostal minister in Roy E. Davis' Pentecostal sect and later founded the Billie Branham Pentecostal Tabernacle, Branham claimed that he ignored the "Pentecostal call" which resulted in delaying his "gift of healing" and the deaths of his father, brother, wife, and daughter.
When William Branham visited the General Assembly, however, he was driving a panel truck with advertisements of his "healing revivals". Witnesses in the meetings held in G. B. Rowe's church in Mishawaka noted Branham's advertisements. As a Pentecostal minister visiting the General Assembly of Pentecostals in Mishawaka while advertising those "healing revivals", it would appear that Branham's visiting Paw Paw Lake resort community was actually a recreational stop on the way to the General Assembly.
Lake Paw Paw:
https://william-branham.org/site/research/topics/lake_paw_paw
Pentecostal Timeline (Branham at the General Assembly):
https://issuu.com/charismata/docs/apostolic_faith_and_pentecostal_tim_f1466ac0c35c77
Mishawaka:
https://william-branham.org/site/research/topics/mishawaka
Billie Branham Pentecostal Tabernacle:
https://william-branham.org/site/research/topics/billie_branham_pentecostal_tabernacle
Pentecostal Baptist Church of God Sect:
https://william-branham.org/site/research/topics/pentecostal_baptist_church