Book of Witnesses: Accounts that Reveal the Greatest True Story of our Time

I Saw the Apostle Paul

by Sis. Amy Odevilas

One night in Tamayong, the atmosphere in the worship service was different. Pastor Apollo was around from Kitbog and came to the small chapel to preach.

The night was unusual because even before the service began, we felt the cold breeze that carried the heavenly scent with it. So, there was rejoicing; there was overflowing gladness. We were jumping for joy.

When he started to preach, the fragrance became even stronger, filling up the whole chapel. But there were those who were not able to smell the heavenly scent. We knew because they were not rejoicing with us.

“Who among you here does not smell it?” Pastor Apollo asked though he knew who the unbelieving was.

He went down from the pulpit and came near to where we stood. The fragrance followed him. It was all over the place and filled us with elation.

As soon as we arrived home, we checked Pastor’s room. “What is happening?” I asked myself because his Bible and cabinet were filled with the scent.

“Smell my clothes,” he told me. It struck me then that I was standing in front of a man who was not an ordinary person at all.

He told us that the fragrance was called spikenard. It came to us so often that it became a normal occurrence to us who stayed with him.

Old Memories Turned into Ashes

by Sis. Edel “Toding” Macato

One evening, the spirit of worship was high in the UPC chapel.

Pastor Apollo had arrived from Kitbog to get supplies and came to the chapel to preach.

The presence of God was very, very strong. We were shouting joyfully, bursting into praises for His mighty presence while Pastor Apollo preached about the fruit of the flesh and the fruit of the spirit, when all of a sudden, the chapel was filled with an unusual fragrance.

“Do you smell that?” He asked. Those of an enthusiastic “Amen!”

There was a coldness to the perfume that entered our whole being. It made us shout with even greater praises to the Almighty.

“Line up and come to the pulpit,” Pastor Apollo told us. He wanted us to pass by the pulpit to feel the spikenard and then go back to our seats.

As I came near him, I was astonished to see myself and others floating above the ground. I could not stop the tears that rolled down my face.

Up ahead, I saw a white pillar on one side and two on the other.

“What is that?” I was in awe.

“Can you see them?” he asked, his face full of elation.

“Amen, Pastor, I do,” I answered.

That very night, the Almighty Father anointed him with a heavenly oil. It was the same sweet scent from the chapel. It exuded from Pastor’s body and went with us when we headed back to the one-hectare lot. It also filled Pastor’s house. The fellowship continued at the house, and everybody was truly overjoyed with what occurred that night of March 20, 1974.

The fellowship ended when we heard the rooster crow.

“It is morning already. Go home first and rest,” Pastor Apollo told us. He was very, very happy.

I Dreamt for Him

by Sis. Brillia “Billy” Quiboloy

One Wednesday night, on March 20, 1974, when he went down from Kitbog, he preached at the UPC chapel. He was still welcome there. But that night was different. There was so much rejoicing! In the midst of praises and worship to the Almighty Father, an unexpected heavenly scent spread all over the worship place.

“Where is that scent coming from?” And then, we realized that it was flowing from Pastor.

“What is that white thing over there?” I asked myself as I looked to the front of the chapel where there stood a pillar exuding cold. We heard Pastor Apollo say, “Line-up and walk towards the pulpit.” The smell was indescribable. I closed my eyes to bask in the mystery of the experience. I felt my elbows hit other people, which prompted me to open my eyes. But to my surprise, I saw no one with me in front because everybody was back at their seat.

“What was that? I hit someone with my elbow but I saw no one,” I told Pastor the odd experience.

“They are angels,” he said. 

Those who did not smell the scent were not happy. They felt awkward when we were all praising because of the miracle that they did not see.

We went home filled with so much gladness. We were now in the house. While everybody was talking about what happened earlier, Pastor suddenly called me. “Billy, come!” What I witnessed was incredible. The Bible was anointed, too. The Books of Psalms and Proverbs oozed with the spikenard as we flipped through the pages.

The Heavenly Scent and Miracle Oil

by Sis. Nilda “Otet” Linda Ogata

I was only 12 years old at that time, and still outside of the compound with my family, but I thirsted for the nightly fellowship with Pastor Apollo. I looked forward to going every day at six o’clock in the evening to the one-hectare lot where the Sanctuary stood.

I was young, but my mind fully captured everything that happened, especially when the heavenly scent came that night.

And though the praise and worship at the start of the service were very strong, exceptionally so, never did it occur to us that a heavenly scene would take place.

It was a Midweek service at the chapel of the United Pentecostal Church (UPC) on March 20, 1974.

Pastor Apollo was preaching about the fruit of the flesh and the fruit of the spirit when suddenly he stopped and stood still.

“What happened? Why did he stop preaching?” I wondered, and so did the others around me.

What we could not see, because it was invisible to our eyes, was that heavenly visitors had come into the chapel and had come up to Pastor Apollo. One held a cup and poured oil all over him. And a sweet fragrance like no other filled the chapel.

And then he said, “Whether you believe it or not, today, God has anointed me.” There were those who doubted and did not believe, and they could not smell the heavenly scent.

“Repent and ask forgiveness for the doubts you have in your heart,” he told them, but they were faithless, and so they could not discern the beautiful smell, that heavenly perfume.

But for those of us who believed—the witnesses—there was rejoicing, and celebration.

So, when Pastor Apollo made to leave for home and asked, “Who wants to go with me?” We all excitedly went with him and planned to sleep there in his house, but we did not get any sleep that night because the fellowship and the miracles continued.

When he went to his room to change his clothes. We heard him call out excitedly to his sister.

“Praise the Lord! Billy, come quickly! Look at my cabinet,” and we all saw that all his things, including his Bible, were anointed with oil.