Stood for the cause of the Lord Jesus Christ

Brother Ralph Gordon Stair was truly one of love and compassion for the church who walked after the Spirit and ordained by the Creator God to be the Prophet before he was born. He didn't have the love of money, for what he gained he bestowed it unto all the churches especially to the ones of low estate.

He leaves 6 children, 19 grandchildren and 23 great grandchildren.

Birthed on Fire Lane in Bethlehem during the Great Depression. He grew up attending The Nazarene Church , Hellertown Evangelical Sessions and Christ Rescue Mission. Then the onslaught of WWII brought nationwide travailing and all night prayer and fasting leaving a deep impression throughout his christian life. By 12 years of age he was attending Pastor Garner's 70783970 church, in whom this Pastor pulled the young man Ralph out of the skating rink by the ear back to the prayer meetings until he was saved by the Blood of Jesus, baptized in the Holy Spirit, then sent out by God as a firebrand to preach the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Youthful distractions hindered until Sister Louise Ankeville's meeting where at by 16 years of age he ran out, afraid of her Word of Knowledge gift. Then God spoke to him on Union Blvd., "Now or Never" in regard to being what God called him to be. At this time, he was working at the Allentown Food Fair and attending Pastor Garner's all night prayer meetings as soon as he got off work. They urged him to go to bible college but he decided to be ordained in the Methodist church rejecting Pentecostal beliefs at that time.

Brother Stair married in 1951 and had 5 children by 1970. His calling started in the 1950's as a youth director with him singing and wife playing piano to the Lehigh Valley churches. He roamed preaching as an evangelist and pastor at the German Eldership near the coal regions of Pottsville and Frackville. Then to Christ Rescue Mission, where he first started to get rejected and The Nazarene Church where his dad attended and his brother Foster was deacon until Brother Stair was voted out by the church board . He gyrated to various Holiness churches, the Free Methodist Church in Lancaster and studied 4 years under Herbert W. Armstrong's World for Tomorrow. This too was the time in the cow pasture while seeking God, who gave him the vision of the power structure of the world, 100 men and the top three; the unions, international bankers and the Vatican.

With winter time pending, migration to the south like the tent revival preachers would do, the aspiring Methodist preacher puddle jumped his old " Healing Tent Revival" truck that carried the "main support" telephone pole on the side, tent, stakes and chairs in the truck bed into the sand dunes of Florida. Over much frustration with his patched truck spinning it's wheels in the sand, God mocked him saying "and what are you going to do?". Then valiantly a black man on a tractor appeared and pulled him out by God's mercy. Bro Stair worked with Dan Cooley preaching tent revivals in many places like Davenport, where they ran revivals next to a vegetable packing house that threw away tons of food amongst an area of oppressed black folk just living off collards and turnip greens. The revelation of this demonstrated the power structure's greed and waste in contrast to it's surroundings.

The young evangelist entered the coal region of Carbon Hill in Alabama where he built "Faith Gospel Tabernacle". This is the incident he fell off the wall while laying block and broke his ankle. He adamantly refused medical treatment and God miraculously healed him when he leaped for joy during service and the compound fractured bone went back into place. Brother Stair got well known nearby in places like New Bethany, Jasper AL on WARF 1240 and Haleyville where he witnessed to Lum Tittle, the old bootlegger in Winston County, who eventually protected him from the KKK for having Gladstone Louis, a colored man and his wife in the church. Incidents like this got him tarred and feathered plus held at gun point a few times by the Klan, as a result from threats, he went back north but not without dealing with the Bill Busbee tragedy 144866145 in the spring of 1958 in Walker County Alabama. Assuming pastorate at the Bethlehem Methodist Revival Center in Pennsylvania for a season he suffered rejection again since his firebrand approach and unorthodox theology wasn't received. Crusading on to Lancaster Pennsylvania to the Assembly of God and Pentecostal churches that were in need of funds in whom were Pastors Elwood Bell 135966257, Paul Parrish 179442155, and Howard Pfoutz 65882800. They were blessed with tremendous offerings but the people rejected him for preaching about the church going through the great tribulation stated in Matthew 24. He moved on to the Philadelphia arena to the "Met" and the Miracle Revival Center assisting great men of God.

The 1960's brought a recourse in "speaking in tongues" after the Lord corrected him "is that of the devil?" at a revival conducted by one of God's Generals in Philadelphia. God exalted him to assist with the Full Gospel churches throughout the nation. He drove truck at times and set up big tents for these great men of God. He even went with Jack Coe and his entourage to a steak dinner which didn't last long enough for Brother Stair to eat his steak, "Jack and the rest got up and left a big tip". Then on to Miracle Revival Center where A.A. Allen 16562169 gave him a suit from his wardrobe and Brother Stair asked him about all the pestering want-to-be big time preachers in the lobby, Brother Allen replied, "The Light always draws bugs". He placed Brother Stair as an assistant pastor with Stanley Karol. Then the drive to go West where prosperous revivals were happening and so he bought a new 1958 Roadmaster Buick for $600 after talking the dealer down. A year later he traded it in for a newer model and drove to California only to trade it in for a 1930's Pontiac that kept breaking down. He also assisted in the Full Gospel Fellowship of Churches International. The prosperity doctrine still troubled him during this period and God made it known the direction he should take. So there at the meetings in Bakersfield and San Diego, CA, Prophet Thorn gave him the Word of the Lord in regards to "My servant Brother Stair isn't in the right place you are to go back to the east coast".

Enroute East bound, Brother Stair travelled on into places where God brought deliverance in Muskogee, Oklahoma and also in Corinth MS which was the time his parents died and finally he was back in the south. The era of civil rights movement was starting to make headway and in fact was due to the great tent revivals breaking the segregation barriers. There were special preachers and healing testimonies published in the local papers like Ronnie Coyne 8536050 who did his miracle eye presentation. He got air time on WJBB in Carbon Hill Alabama, WXRG and WXRF in Atlanta Georgia. About that time preaching in Jonesboro Georgia, A.C. Valdez Sr. 45211079 was invited to preach at the church where Brother Stair pastored and in return he was invited to the Milwaukee Revival Center Convention. There Brother Valdez offered him a pastor position in Oshkosh (didn't accept) and told Brother Stair two major things God is going to do for the church in the latter time: Heal His people until they know they are healed and save His people to they know they are saved.

He ventured on working for Gene Ewing, Fay Spencer and David Epely as their manager which took him to places like San Bernardino, California, then to Grand Prairie, Texas, St. Louis, Missouri and all over the United States including the Bahamas. He preached at E.E. Cleveland's church in Los Angeles for a moment's tour, meeting Bishop Crouch and Bishop C.H. Mason 6806201. In one instance Brother Stair was in the pulpit when the very elderly Bishop Mason walked through the door being supported by his 2 helpers. Brother Stair kept on preaching even being motioned to stop but said "Who's that? Doesn't he know the Holy Ghost is more important than him". Then Bishop Mason shook off his men and marched up to the pulpit and looked him square in the eyes and said while shaking his hand, "Thank God someone knows the Holy Ghost is more important than Bishop Mason!" Circuit preaching moved on to New Orleans, then to Chicago and into Douglasville GA where he worked with Pastor Barfield. By the end of the 60's family separation became one the most difficult parts of his life at that time, but he resided in Savannah Georgia as the "Praying Prophet" running his printing press in his home on Alaska Street. One of his notable messages preached at a church there was during the Moon Landing service in 1969, the topic being "The Moon shall be turned into blood" because wherever men go they shed blood.

In the 1970's the Lord began to route him near his final destination with meetings in Sumter, Manning, Saint George and other localities taking highways 15 and 61 since Interstate 95 wasn't completed from South of the Border (NC/SC line) to Yemassee SC. For 10 years of his going back north and south he pastored 2 churches in Hamstead, NY and Cambridge, MA also preached at the Waldorf Astoria and New England Life Hall. He met his second wife in Boston in the mid 1970's. The biggest choice came when he was deeply led to start a community in which he could've received a big building in Philadelphia for just a donation but didn't after being told by God to "Get out of the cities". Finally he moved with his second wife to Walterboro South Carolina in 1978 after buying the Carolina Motel on Highway 15 to work entirely on his own under God. This is where and how Brother Stair became "The Overcomer Ministry" at the Old Campgrounds.

Small tent meetings continued in Florida, New Jersey and many other places but the divine calling as "The Last Day Prophet God" came to reality when going to China and Russia in the early to mid 1980's so that the chapters 37, 38 and 39 of Ezekial would come to pass. His youngest child came into this world after returning home from Russia in August of 1986. Shortwave AM/FM radio stations and others made the Overcomer widely known and the 1987 prophecies of 20 American cities being nuked were uttered in which caught the attention of ABC News, Current Affairs and other media outlets in 1988 of the warning of nuclear war. Negative limelight was shed on him and the church quickly by the media to discredit what he pronounced but he continued preaching, rebuking and exhorting as a brother and prophet in the Lord throughout trials and imprisonments, 2001 and 2007 Prophecies, key trips to Boston and Washington D.C.: to faithfully fulfill his calling on shortwave, AM/FM, satellite and internet streaming: "This Gospel shall be preached into all the world, then shall the END come. Prepare to meet thy God!"

Hebrews 9:16-17 For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth."