A great man with a great vision to which he worked hard to achieve in order to serve the Lord. His life affected thousands all over the world. “His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.”

Dr John Edward Haggai joined his Lord after being in the service of Him for 75 yrs. He successfully completed his probation on this planet. We celebrate his life and also celebrate the certainty of our hope to see him on the other shore.

It was on 1st June 1973, that I met Dr. Haggai in Atlanta for the first time. I remember spending a day together in his office, then known as Office of Evangelism International before the name changed into Haggai Institute for relevant reasons. We discussed and shared a number of things in training leaders. Also, he took me to his home and introduced me to his family, Christine, Johny (on wheel chair) and Christines’s mother, mother Barker.

While in his office, he showed me a place in which he fell prostrate and prayed for guidance before sending messages to the prospective participants of the very first session. It was due to a last minute financial crisis. But, after he got up from that prayer, he received a message over phone from a generous donor informing him about transferring the required money to the bank account.

I owe very much to Dr Haggai, especially in learning many useful aspects of the ministry through the opportunities given to me. Surely, spending 35 years on the faculty and as the Dean of the Haggai Institute were opportunities to listen to the lectures of eminent men and women and also to listen to Dr. Haggai’s messages, and learn a lot of insights.

We experienced as a family (my wife cared for our two sons Johny & Ronnie and Annie) his humility to stay at our home (in Tiruvalla, Kerala) for 4 days and his tender care and participation in our family prayer. He and Christine and a group of friends from USA under the leadership of Mr. John Bachman, spent an entire day with us by taking a (bus) road trip of 200 kms (both ways) from Cochin.

My active participation with the Haggai Institute activities in Singapore, Maui and a few countries (during national level session) keep coming fresh to my memory at this time. Now I am 81 years old – I was 33 and Dr. Haggai was 48 when we first met.

I pray that the God of all comfort will continue to comfort all of us who are grieving at this time.

Visionaries are born one in a generation. Dr. Haggai was one of them. He impacted an entire generation with the gospel. I am fortunate to be one beneficiary of his ministry. I am fascinated by his zeal, hard work and passion for the Lord. God raised him up for the entire globe. He lived a full life and created a legacy which will impact the generations to come. So I celebrate his life and ministry and thank God. May God continue to impact many with the gospel in times to come

A man whose life has been a blessing not only to me but to nations! I was blessed to be a part of the 2007 international leadership program in Maui! Even though I never met Dr Haggai personally, Dr Haggai was a close friend of a friend of mine, Fr Anthony Dsouza & they both had a special admiration & mutual respect for each other. On Dr Haggai’s home coming, my heart goes out to the thousands of Haggai members who are an integral part of his family, and will miss him ! May his vision carry on bringing in the great end time harvest. God bless! Ralph Menon / Mumbai – India.

“His last command ,our first priority.” As you left the stage at the African Summit of Alumni of Haggai International in 2013, you keep repeating these words. The struggle within me was ” If a man approaching 90 years of age can be this committed to spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, what am I doing with my life” I re-devoted my life to the great commission.

Such is the impact your ministry on earth had on some of us. I became an Alumni of HI in August 2006, and I have not recover from the impact the training back then had on me. By the grace of God, this is one training that the things I learnt am still practicing till date. Such is the impact of your sojourn on this side of eternity. I can go on and on to share the great impact that your accepting to do God’s bidding have had, and still having upon our generation.

Bodily it’s painful because you will be greatly missed. Even though, some of us don’t have the privilege of seeing or interacting with you daily, but your emails to us, your birthday celebrations that Alumni had to come together to evangelize makes us to know you are not far from us.

Your legacies lives on with us. As God will help me, I promised to be active in carrying on your legacies. Your passing will make me evaluate my life, to see if am actually doing the work that the Master will have me do, or am just playing to the gallery to get the applaud of men. Sleep ON DR JOHN EDMUND HAGGAI. HOPE TO SEE YOU ON THE RESURRECTION MORNING BY THE GRACE OF GOD.

Seye Awopetu. Senior Pastor with Foursquare Gospel Church, Lagos Nigeria. Secretary, Haggai International, Nigeria, Lagos Chapter.