Memorial - Lloyd Ballhagen

Keith Young

I first met Lloyd Ballhagen in 1983 when he came into the store where I was working and asked me if I was sure of heaven. The Lord had been dealing with me and Mr. Ballhagen shared the Scriptures with me which led to my salvation. This was his lifelong exercise. He felt responsible for the souls of others and was much inclined to share a gospel tract and speak a word to those he met.

Mr. Ballhagen loved to tell how God saved him as he shared the Gospel with others. In 1936, on a road near Charles City, Iowa a car stopped and some young men invited him to attend gospel meetings among the Methodists. Their friendly, earnest appeal encouraged him to go and he was impressed with the preachers’ earnestness about hell and eternity. He became troubled about his lost condition and wanted to be saved. As Lloyd stood in the aisle after one of the meetings, he heard someone asking how to be saved. The answer was "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Lloyd took it in and was saved on the spot.

He went away to Bible schools but wasn’t satisfied with denominational teachings. He became a singer-evangelist with denominational preachers and in his travels he met Mildred Williams, whom he married in 1941. When he was assisting in a tent in Iowa, some Christians invited them to their home to discuss assembly truths. His first visit to an assembly impressed him with the reverence for the Lord’s presence and their worship from the heart. He soon gathered to the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ alone. He was received into fellowship in the Des Moines, Iowa assembly and was commended to the work of the Lord in 1948.

In 1951, he came to the Tylertown, Mississippi area to preach the gospel in street meetings and then cottage meetings. Some souls were saved and an assembly was formed in 1956. The work was slow and often discouraging, but he pushed on and a small assembly continues to this day.