(April 08, 2024) Honouring the late Dan Wooding founder of ASSIST, we share this story he published some years ago…

On Sunday, April 14, 1912, the unsinkable ocean liner Titanic sank to the bottom of the ocean after hitting an iceberg. About 700 people survived, but some1,500 people perished in the frigid north Atlantic because an insufficient number of lifeboats were placed on the ship.

 One of the passengers, John Harper, served as pastor of Walworth Road Baptist Church in London, England. He was a 39-year-old widower with Nan a six-year-old daughter. Harper was en route to Chicago, where he was slated to preach for several weeks at the Moody Church, according to an account in AoG News.

Self-sacrificing
His daughter and niece accompanied him on the trans-Atlantic voyage. After the Titanic hit the iceberg, his daughter and niece boarded a lifeboat and survived.

Harper, however, refused to save himself and instead helped others to the crowded lifeboats. According to survivors, Harper preached the gospel until his dying breath, first on the sinking ship and then in the frigid waters.

The October 1928 issue of The Latter Rain Evangel (published by The Stone Church, a historic Assemblies of God congregation in Chicago), recounted the following story of John Harper’s last convert.