Changes

Believers’ Fellowship, now meeting in a rented building in Yardley, northeast of Philadelphia, began in 1983 in the home of Paul and Joy Karleen in nearby Levittown. The assembly was started by the Karleens, Sam and Mary Lou Hardman, and Dan and Sue Matlack. Sam Hardman, John Avery, and Paul Karleen have been the leaders of Believers’ Fellowship.

In November 1922, a young Christian, Chester Myers, became burdened about people living in Plumsteadville and surrounding villages north of Philadelphia. Having tried various means of spreading the Gospel, he invited Mr. Harold Harper, then preaching in the Germantown Gospel Hall in Philadelphia, to come to the Plumsteadville schoolhouse for Gospel meetings. The school was packed to capacity and the meetings were continued beyond the original closing date.

Ten automobiles were used to carry interested believers to the annual Thanksgiving Day conference at Collingdale Gospel Hall in Philadelphia. As many of them had learned the truth of Christian baptism from the scriptures, 19 took the opportunity to be buried with Christ in baptism. Among this number were Harvey Huber, Mrs. Benjamin Snape, Hilda Snape, Mr. and Mrs. Arlington Myers, Howard Tyson, Carrie Leatherman, Helen Lear, Lloyd Tyson; and Monroe, Wilmer, Mabel, and H. Welcome Detweiler.

A meeting was arranged for the benefit of a number who had expressed desire for teaching about New Testament church truths. As a result, 22 believers met to remember the Lord at Fountainville Chapel in December 1923. Much persecution followed. So intense was it for some believers that they were forced to leave their homes. The Lord sent many of His servants to help the new testimony.