Rufus & Martha Nicholson Awards

In 1913, the family of Rufus and Martha Nicholson were poor sharecroppers in Oklahoma when God ignited a flame in their hearts that forever changed them and the world. Before then, Rufus was a drunken brawler, feared by his wife, children, livestock, and even his dog.

One day, God spoke clearly to the man: “This morning your wife is going to ask you to give thanks at the table.” His children had never seen him pray or ask the blessing at meals, but as surely as God said, Martha asked him that morning to bless the food. He bowed his head to pray, but instead tears flowed down as the Lord touched his soul and he shouted, “Glory! Hallelujah!” Rufus’s children knew he had met God. His four-year-old son, Coy, said, “Papa, I saw a bright light coming down from the ceiling and it stayed on your head.”

Rufus never touched alcohol again and was also freed from a strong tobacco addiction. From the day he met God, he began to tell everyone he knew about what Jesus had done for him. He and his whole family became witnesses of the Lord’s goodness to people near and far, holding evangelistic meetings at night while picking cotton during the day to support themselves. Over the ensuing decades they planted seventeen churches in the southern states.