Biography
Vandeman was born in 1916, on 21 October. At the age of 21, he attended Emmanuel Missionary College (now Andrews University) in Berrien Springs, Michigan. He found a job working at a weekly 15-minute radio broadcast in Elkhart, Indiana. While there, he met Nellie Johnson and they were married the following year on October 2, 1938 in South Bend, Indiana. After completing his second year of college, Vandeman began working as a full-time evangelist. During a series of meetings in Muncie, Indiana, Nellie gave birth to their first child, George Jr. The birth of their sons Richard and Robert soon followed. The Vandeman's fourth child, Connie, was born in 1956.
Vandeman received his Master of Arts degree in speech and communication from the University of Michigan. His 1946 thesis was entitled, "Spurgeon's theory of preaching". He was then ordained as a minister, and worked as a field instructor in evangelism at Emmanuel Missionary College for four years. He then joined the Ministerial Association at the General Conference (world headquarters of the church) in 1947, taking the position of associate secretary, and at age 33 becoming one of the youngest to work in Adventist church leadership.
In the years following World War II, Vandeman and other charismatic Adventist speakers like Fordyce Detamore spearheaded a drive for the public evangelism of major cities. He conducted campaigns in Pittsburgh in 1948, Washington, D.C. in 1951 and London in 1952, amongst other places.
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