Amy Strang, Early Pentecostal, Dies at 93

Amy A. Strang, mother of Stephen Strang, founder of Charisma, died Jan. 25 in Altamonte Springs, Florida, at age 93.

Born in 1928 in Kansas, her parents Roy and Alice Farley pioneered many Assemblies of God churches in Kansas. Her mother was ordained as an evangelist, as a single woman, in the Assemblies of God in 1914, a few months after the fellowship was formed. Both her grandmothers became early Pentecostals, making her a third-generation Pentecostal only 22 years after the Azusa Street Revival of 1906.

As Stephen Strang says on a Strang Report podcast dedicated to her memory, she always followed God and didn’t know when she was saved. Because she said the devil tormented her and told her she wasn’t saved, she once walked the aisle in a salvation call to put that issue to rest once and for all. She never strayed from the Lord and was an intercessor years before that word was even used in charismatic circles.

She is also the one Stephen Strang remembers that lead him to the Lord at age 5 or 6 in their home. When Charisma started as a small church magazine, she was one of his biggest fans. In retirement, she worked for Charisma for a short time.

Amy Strang graduated with a three-year degree from Central Bible Institute in 1949 and with a BA from Southeastern Bible College (now Southeastern University) in 1963. She became a school teacher in both public, and later in Christian schools, and stayed in touch with some of her students. Her most famous student was Katherine Harris, the Florida Secretary of State in 2000, when the contentious recount of the presidential election thrust her into the national spotlight. Harris told “Mrs. Strang” years later that she decided to go into politics in fourth grade in her class in Bartow, Florida, when they studied civics and Florida history.

Besides teaching school, she served alongside her late husband, A. Edward Strang, who pastored several churches over the years as well as serving as a Bible College professor. In their retirement years, the couple served as temporary missionaries in India and Portugal.

Stephen Strang remembers his mother as being passionate in praying for the persecuted church. He tells this and other stories about her in his book How We Fit In (available on amazon.com). To read her life story from the book, click here.

Amy Strang is preceded in death by her husband, A. Edward Strang, and all of her immediate family, as well as one great grandson, Milo Whittington. She is survived by her three children Stephen (wife Joy), Karen Strang Whittington (husband Bob) and Paul (wife Hazie), as well as seven grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

Amy Strang’s memorial service will take place Saturday Feb. 12 at 11 am at City Church at 1711 S. Orange Blvd., Sanford, Fla. {eoa}

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