Biography of Dr. T.L. Osborn
T.L. Osborn Biography
T.L. Osborn Biography – Dr. T.L. Osborn, who was born in 1923, was a linguist, designer, pianist, administrator, statesman, author, publisher, and global missionary evangelist. Millions of people were blessed by Dr. T.L. Osborn’s ministry of mass miracles. In 1949, they moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, to establish their headquarters with his wife and associate pastor, Dr. Daisy Washburn Osborn. Over the course of more than 50 years of world-changing missionary evangelism, they preached the gospel to millions of unreached people in over 90 nations, with God confirming their message with numerous amazing miracles. Together, they preached to crowds ranging from 20,000 to 300,000 people every day.
Declare the existence of Christ and ask for signs and wonders to confirm it.
The first missionary evangelist, Dr. Osborn, went to wide fields or parks in non-Christian countries to preach Christ and ask for miracles to prove His existence. It is now considered a conventional practice. Millions of people have been influenced to believe in the gospel by the Osborn DocuMiracle films and videos, which have been screened in thousands of cities and villages throughout 150 countries in 70 different languages. Over 30,000 national men and women have been sponsored by the Osborn National Missionary Assistance Program to serve as full-time missionaries to unevangelized tribes and villages. With this evangelism campaign, over 150,000 new churches have been founded and are now self-sufficient.
More than 30,000 missionaries—more than 150,000 churches—through this campaign of evangelization.
Dr. T.L. Osborn is a prolific writer whose works have sparked the modern global miracle-evangelism and Soulwinning awakening in the poor world. Since 1951, his timeless book “Healing the Sick” has sold over a million copies in the English language alone, inspiring hope in readers.
Dr. T.L.’s writings, including “Soulwinning,” “God’s Love Plan,” “The Good Life,” and most importantly, “The Message That Works,” are trailblazers in inspiring people to live extraordinary lives and have positive faith. They are regarded as essential reading for prosperous pastors and church leaders, and they are used as textbooks at Bible schools all across the world.
On December 23, 1923, Tommy Lee (T. L.) Osborn was born to Charles and Mary Osborn on a small farm close to Pocasset Township in Oklahoma. Tommy Lee was one of thirteen children, and his family endured hardships during the Great Depression. The family relocated to Skedee, Oklahoma when Osborn was six years old in order to try a different farm. Although little is known about our family background, T.L. stated in his testimony that he was converted when, at the age of 13, he was brought to a little church in Mannford, Oklahoma, by his older brother. In the middle of the 1930s, Oral Roberts, the pastor of a tiny church in Sand Springs, Oklahoma, became acquainted with his family. T. L. would accompany Roberts to assist in holding evangelical gatherings. He went on to say “Oral did the preaching, and I did just about everything else.” He was responsible for playing the accordion during the meetings’ musical interlude.
When he was fifteen years old, he experienced a spiritual awakening while out searching for milk cows. He knelt to pray and asked God what it meant, and God answered him that he was called to be a preacher. Osborn laughed and wept simultaneously, not realizing what was happening to him. In 1939, after finishing the eighth grade, he left school to travel with evangelistic leader E. M. Dillard, helping out and leading the youth services in the evenings. Dillard took him through Oklahoma, Arkansas, and finally ended up in California.
In Merced, California, on September 23, 1924, Daisy Washburn was born to impoverished fruit growers. There were eleven children in the household, and Daisy experienced severe trauma early in life. Daisy lost her mother and older sister in an automobile accident when she was just eight years old. Daisy accepted Christ after experiencing salvation at the age of twelve. Regrettably, she was not shielded from hardship by this. Her father was killed and two of her brothers committed suicide in a matter of years. When T. L. Osborn was in California in 1941, he met Daisy. On Easter Day of 1942, they were married in Los Banos, California, after falling in love. At the time, she was 17 and he was 18.
The Osborns were evangelists and members of the Pentecostal Church of God denomination. They started out in rural Oklahoma, but after two years of traveling the West Coast as itinerant pastors and preachers, they went back to California. The couple established Montaville Tabernacle and became preachers after relocating to Portland, Oregano, around 1944. At the new church, the denominational superintendent gave a speech. In India, he had served as a missionary. His love of India and the loss left a lasting impression on the Osborn family. At the ages of 21 and 20, they left their young church in 1945 to become missionaries in India.
Their time in India lasted less than a year, and when they returned home with both T.L. Sr. and Jr. very sick, they took over the pastorate of the Full Gospel Church in McMinnville, Oregano, and tried to learn from their mistakes. They knew they needed more of the power of God, so they read biographies, books, and sermons, and searched the scriptures. They prayed for more power. Things did not go as planned for the couple. People were kind, but because they did not believe the Bible was the Word of God, they wanted some other proof that Jesus was actually the son of God. Though they never succeeded in making the connections they yearned for, they attempted to get in touch with people through miraculous ministries.
Charles S. Price passed away, and the Osborns learned about it in March 1947. T.L. lost it, and started crying. It seems that he had missed all the giants of the faith in healing and miracles since they had all passed away. He went on to say “I thought of Wigglesworth, Gipsy Smith, of Kenyon, of Price, of Dowie, and of others, not one of whom I had met or heard preach, but they were gone forever from the world’s scene of action.” The couple was informed that Hattie Hammond was going to be speaking at a gathering on the topic of “Seeing Jesus.” They decided to go since they were hungry for more. After being disturbed, the Osborn family went back to their house and prayed long into the night to see Jesus. T. L. Osborn testified that when Jesus appeared to him, his senses were completely overwhelmed, causing his body to become immobile and tears to flow from his eyes as he lay before the Lord. This experience drove home one important lesson: Jesus was the Lord of Osborn’s life, and Osborn would be His forever. It made him truly understand that the Lord loved him and had a plan for his life. Old notions of success vanished, and from that moment on, he wanted only the glory of Jesus.
God has not yet given up on the Osborn family. He had listened to their pleas for proof that Jesus was still performing miracles. The couple went back to pastor Montaville Tabernacle in Portland, Oregon, in September 1947. William Branhan was holding healing meetings while on the road with Gordon Lindsay and Jack Moore. They met in the Portland Civic Auditorium in November 1947. T. L. was attending a denominational convention, so Daisy went to a meeting first. T. L. was informed about the meetings by her, and he felt he had to go. At Branham’s gatherings, there were spectacular healings and miracles. He would address individuals by name, informing them of their ailments before offering prayers for their healing. The Osborn family was struck with a fresh understanding of Jesus’ love and the assurance that He remains the same “yesterday, today, and forever.” T. L. was most impressed by Branham’s exaltation of Jesus and demonstration of Jesus’ capacity for love and healing. He perceived Branham as a modest man merely carrying out Jesus’ instructions. T. L. started crying over what he witnessed Jesus doing. The crippled walked, the deaf heard, and the blind saw. It seemed to T. L. like he heard a thousand voices telling him, “You can do that too.” The couple was rocked to their core once more.
It was the Osborns’ decision to read the Bible anew. They were told about the healing and how Jesus granted His disciples the power to carry out His instructions. For three days, T. L. abstained from all food and liquids in an effort to commune with God. “I will be with you as I have been with others,” the Lord stated in a voice to him. I will give you the land to possess wherever you go. If you can encourage people to believe in my Word, then nothing—not even a demon, illness, or power—can stand in your way for the rest of your life. At their church, they started having healing meetings. They saw healings and miracles right away. A woman who had suffered severe injuries in an automobile accident and was hardly able to walk without crutches was their first miracle. With her eyes closed, she began to move regularly around the room as if she were under the influence of God. She was fully recovered when she opened her eyes, and she testified that she had heard a heavenly chorus praising God.
The Osborns’ missionary spark flared up once more. They believed they had the solution to finding the missing in distant places as they were witnessing healings and miracles at this point. Despite their lack of wealth, they accepted an invitation to preach in Jamaica at the beginning of 1949. They joined the Voice of Healing Organization as affiliates. After their return to the US, they met with Gordon Lindsay, F. F. Bosworth, and William Branham. The Osborns’ sympathies were for the loss in other regions, but T. L. received national notice as a result of these meetings. The pair conducted extensive crusades in 40 countries between 1950 and 1964. To develop churches, the Osborns organized the Association of Native Evangelism in 1953, which was composed of nearby pastors. Until then, these were some of the biggest meetings ever conducted. Tens of thousands of people would frequently attend the sessions, and a significant number of individuals would be rescued. Their ministry was characterized by striking healings and miracles wherever they went. Additionally, there were frequent reports of people seeing Jesus during a gathering. Over a hundred people witnessed Jesus walking among the masses at a gathering in Thailand. The Osborns established a one-year training and support program for local pastors in 1958 while their congregations were just getting started. Osborn Ministries supplied movies, audio and video gear, and supplies. It is believed that the Osborn family has contributed to the preaching of the gospel in 50,000 communities and sponsored over 30,000 local pastors during their lives. Their goal was to see the Gospel taught all throughout the world, not only themselves, as the center of the ministry. Many of the healing and deliverance ministries that had begun in the 1940s and 1950s were either disappearing or shifting their focus to other areas, such as education, by the 1960s. The Osborns relocated to Tulsa, Oklahoma, for corporate headquarters. They strove to make themselves relevant to the culture and to reach the lost internationally. Their ministry continued when many others closed down. Daisy also grew increasingly active in the ministry ministering to women globally about their place in God. The duo was incredibly media savvy and created many books, media recordings, and a magazine called “Faith Digest.” In 132 languages, their publications and pamphlets were produced. There were 67 translations available for the video miracle meetings.
Tommy Lee (T.L.) Osborn asked His Lord Jesus, “Take me home!” not long before he peacefully crossed over into eternal on February 14, 2013, at home surrounded by four generations of his cherished family. He was eighty-nine.
The globe has witnessed an extraordinary influence from T.L. and Daisy Osborn’s ministry. They have likely witnessed more amazing healing miracles and led more unreached souls to Christ than any other family in history, along with their daughter Dr. LaDonna Osborn. Over fifty years ago, evangelist T.L.
Osborn organized open-field crusades in underdeveloped nations with his late wife Daisy, who passed away in 1995. Attendees ranged from 250,000 to 500,000 at each event. Over the course of its more than 60 years in business, Osborn International, based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, has personally impacted millions of people. The first missionary evangelist of the contemporary era, Dr. Osborn, went to open fields or parks in non-Christian countries to preach Christ and ask for miracles to prove His existence.
In addition to preaching at the Crusades, Osborn prayed for the masses without touching anyone, and as a result, he witnessed a great deal of miracles occur. The quick cure of leprosy, the recovery of blindness and deformed legs, and the liberation from demonic possession had been among the more amazing events. The Osborns saw misaligned limbs grow out to the correct length more than once.
Among the earliest charismatic pastors to disseminate large volumes of translated evangelical literature was Osborn. The standard procedure had been to present a collection of six books written by Osborn to every person who attended the crusade and accepted the gift. For every outreach event, up to 70,000 copies of each title have been printed; in one case, the shipping of these enormous amounts of copies took 56 tons.
Without any fanfare, without any attempt to fit in with the personality-driven culture of the American church, and with little care for their own comfort or safety, Osborn and his family have carried out their ministry.
“We’ve decided to plant our lives there, and I’m happy about it,” Osborn stated in a rare interview given to Charisma. “I lead a contented life. I’m excited to return and assist them once more.I think of Paul when I think of how horrible travel is. It was Paul. Paul didn’t grasp when he rode a donkey, a camel, or a boat. I won’t be critical. I simply keep moving forward.
How Everything Started
If you ask 100 native Oklahomans at random where the town of Skedee is, at least 99 of them will haphazardly respond that they have never heard of it. However, the unremarkable rural village gave birth to a child in 1923 who would genuinely alter the course of history. Tommy Lee Osborn belonged to a family of thirteen children, the youngest being the seventh. Paradoxically, his father was the seventh son as well.
He joked, “That’s supposed to mean something.”
As it happened, it did have significance.
Osborn’s dad was a conventional Baptist who wasn’t religious, but T.L. went to a Pentecostal church and played the accordion and piano there. After seeing him perform, a nearby evangelist asked if he would accompany him on his countrywide tours. Osborn was the only son remaining to assist his 60-year-old father on the potato farm at the time; his brothers had all left.
Osborn acknowledges that he was hesitant—even a little afraid—to ask his father for approval before departing Skedee and going on the road. He was shocked to learn that his father had accepted when he was sorting potatoes in the cellar that fateful day.
After traveling for around two years, Osborn discovered a revival in California. He realized at the end of the event that he would not be returning to the farm. It was love at first sight when he finally got a good look at the evangelist’s daughter.
The adolescents, T.L. at eighteen and Daisy at seventeen were married a year later, in 1942. They soon assumed the role of pastor for the Pentecostal Church of God of America in Portland, Oregon. However, they were quickly drawn to global outreach after seeing a female Indian missionary speak at their church.
Deaths in 2013 for Dr. T.L. Osborn.
