Pearl Holmes

Aaron Holmes and his young family migrated from Florida to Liberia, West Africa, in the early years of the twentieth century in search of affordable land and a better life. Tragically, Aaron’s wife died two years later. Shortly thereafter, he met a young widow named Pearl Graham who also had emigrated from the United States. After a brief courtship, the Holmes married and settled in the Gola region of Liberia. Aaron Holmes was a Methodist, but it didn’t take long for his new Pentecostal wife to convert him to her faith.

The Holmeses soon opened Zoradee Pentecostal Mission, which included a school and a farm. Aaron Holmes taught his neighbors farming techniques he had learned in Florida. But most importantly, in 1924 Zoradee Mission became the site of the first outpouring of the Holy Ghost in Liberia.

At times, life was very difficult at the Zoradee Mission. In her book Profiles of Pentecostal Missionaries, Mary H. Wallace shares the story of how the Holmeses responded to a locust infestation that hit the region. Pearl (who was affectionally known as “Mother Holmes”) cooked the edible insects for dinner. Wallace records, “Daddy Holmes changed his grace from ‘Father, we thank thee for what we are about to receive . . .’ to ‘Father, make us thankful.’” One of the Holmes’ daughter said the family “washed the locusts down with lemonade.”

Sacrifice for the sake of the gospel was a way of life for the Holmeses. When Aaron Holmes decided to seek ordination, Wallace records that he walked sixty-five miles to Monrovia, Liberia’s capital city. On another occasion, the Holmeses visited a nearby village to teach a weekly Bible class. When they arrived, they found that the villagers were preparing to brutally punish a young girl for the crime of theft. Aaron Holmes intervened and ordered the villagers to punish him instead. When they protested that he wasn’t guilty of the crime, Aaron Holmes seized the opportunity to share the story of Jesus’ death on the cross for the sins of humanity.

The Holmes family witnessed many miracles during their ministry. Medical care usually was inaccessible or completely unavailable, so trusting God for healing became a way of life. In one instance, their daughter was miraculously healed after eating poisonous mushrooms. Sister Holmes suffered a broken leg and had to use crutches for quite some time, but she did not let it stop her from completing her duties on behalf of Zoradee Mission.

Brother and Sister Holmes were both credentialed ministers with the Pentecostal Assemblies of Jesus Christ, and thus became founding members of the UPCI when it was formed in 1945. In the 1950s, Zoradee Mission had grown to eighty-five students. In 1958, Aaron Holmes traveled to the United States to raise funds for the mission and to visit their oldest daughter, who now lived in Brooklyn, New York. He died of a heart attack before he could begin his fundraising efforts, however. Because she was still in Liberia, Mother Holmes was not able to attend her husband’s funeral.

Not long after Aaron’s death, Mother Holmes was able to visit the U.S. She had been struggling for quite some time to recover from the previously mentioned broken leg. She was invited to attend a missions meeting in Connecticut, where fellow missionaries and church leaders prayed for her. As they prayed, God performed a miracle and healed Mother Holmes’ badly crippled leg.

Mother Holmes continued serving as a missionary, not leaving Liberia until shortly before her death. In total, she served sixty-three years as a missionary. Zoradee Mission still stands today, and the Holmeses descendants still are members of the United Pentecostal Church of Liberia.