2024 Smith Wigglesworth Legacy Award Recipients Honored at Evangelist Conference

When British evangelist Smith Wigglesworth began his ministry in the early 1900s, he had no idea how God would anoint it. He also probably didn’t dream that his name would one day be attached to the highest honor given to Assemblies of God evangelists.

Since 2020, the Smith Wigglesworth Legacy Award has been given to these evangelists for their faithful, fruitful service. A few of the past recipients include Dave Roever, Reinhard Bonnke, Nikki Cruz, and Martha Tennison.

This year’s recipients, announced Nov, 20-21, at Evangelist Recharge, are Steve (deceased) and Jeri Hill and Christopher and Britta Alam. Like the honorees before them, they labor with Pentecostal passion to reach the lost.

STEVE AND JERI HILL

In their youth, the Hills never imagined they would become evangelists. Steve started drinking at age 12, and by the time he turned 21, he was a heroin addict. He was arrested 13 times for selling drugs, breaking and entering, and stealing cars.

With Steve facing 25 years in the penitentiary, a minister asked that he be probated into Adult & Teen Challenge. By God’s grace, the request was granted — a huge turning point for Steve.

Jeri, 67, was born out of rape and raised in a dysfunctional home. She started smoking and drinking at age 12, which led to doing and selling drugs and jail time when she was 18. An AG pastor witnessed to Jeri for two years every Saturday, telling her God loved her and had a plan for her life.

“There was nothing pleasant about my life,” she recalls. “It was full of hate and bitterness, and I felt like I was going to be [stuck in this lifestyle] forever. But he would not give up.”

That pastor helped her get into Adult & Teen Challenge, where she gave her heart to Christ. There she developed a deep love for Jesus and a passion for souls. She went on to David Wilkerson’s Twin Oaks Leadership Academy in Lindale, Texas, and met Steve. They married in 1979.

For the next 35 years, the Hills lived in four different countries and ministered in the U.S. and in 40-plus countries as AG ministers and through their ministry, Together in the Harvest. Among their numerous accomplishments, they built churches and started a Bible school in Argentina.

When Steve preached at home and abroad, the anointing was evident. Countless thousands ran to the altars to find Christ and physical healing. One of those services took place in Pensacola, Florida, on Father’s Day 1995. While Steve was preaching at the Brownsville church, revival broke out. It lasted five years.

Jeri says that though the Brownsville revival has been highlighted over the years, their whole ministry was a highlight to her. Talking to one or to a multitude, it was about lifting up the name of Jesus. Steve’s faithfulness was manifested daily.

General Superintendent Doug Clay agrees. For several years he and his wife, Gail, served in various countries with the Hills. “Steve was not just an evangelist professionally,” Clay recalls. “Whether he was speaking behind a pulpit or sitting in a restaurant, he was always talking to people about his relationship with the Lord and their potential relationship with the Lord. He truly was a soul winner.”

In 2014 at age 60, Steve died after a six-year battle with cancer, and Jeri assumed the mantle of Together in the Harvest. Today she also teaches at the Evangelism Bootcamp and the School of Evangelism at Christ for All Nations.

CHRISTOPHER AND BRITTA ALAM

The Alams have a different story. Britta, 66, accepted Christ as a child in her native country of Sweden, and her love for the Lord led her to attend Bible school there.

Christopher, 70, from a Jordanian family, was born in Bangladesh and raised in Pakistan. A direct descendant of Mohammad and son of an army general, he was steeped in Islam and seemed destined to follow the ways of his family.

At age 13, Christopher left home, joined the army, and at 17 went to war. His exposure to combat, mixed with bad family relationships, led to thoughts of self-harm.

In what could be described as a divine appointment, Christopher heard about Jesus through an Englishman who was handing out tracts on the streets of Lahore, Pakistan. “Nobody had ever witnessed to me before,” he recalls. “I knew nothing about Christian beliefs, but there was something about his words that gripped my heart, and I felt my need to be saved right there.”

Christopher’s newfound faith brought disgrace to his family, and he endured death threats from them. The army placed him in a psychiatric hospital, thinking he was mad. But after his release, Christopher hit the streets witnessing and winning souls. This led to his arrest and imprisonment for nearly a year.

Once again released, Christopher faced execution for continuing to preach the gospel, so he fled to Sweden for political asylum. He met Britta in church, and they married in 1979.

Evangelist representative to the general presbytery, Tim Enloe, 53, describes the Alams as “people of intense character, intense personal sacrifice, and intense vision and focus.”

Through their partnership in the gospel, they founded Dynamis World Ministries. The Alams have planted many churches and two Bible schools, and they mentor others in the ministry. The myriads drawn to their crusades, held in over 80 countries, have found healing and salvation in Christ.

Jeri Hill and the Alams are deeply humbled to receive the Wigglesworth Award. Placing the recognition aside, they do what Wigglesworth himself was called to do.

“At the end of the day, there's only one thing that matters,” Christopher says. “Did a human being die with or without Jesus — heaven or hell? That's really the bottom line.”

IMAGE: Steve and Jeri Hill (left), Christopher and Britta Alam

Sherri Langton

Sherri Langton, associate editor of Bible Advocate magazine and Now What? e-zine, is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in Focus on the Family, Decision, Upper Room, Today’s Christian Woman, and other publications. Langton, who lives in Denver, also has contributed to book compilations.