Making matters worse, when he was nine years old, he caught rheumatic fever, which weakened his heart, a condition that troubled him throughout his life.
His parents adhered to no particular religious faith but they were God-fearing people. Parham embarked on his own theological journey, first joining the Methodist faith in 1886 after he was converted during an evangelistic meeting. An intelligent youth and avid reader, Parham taught Methodist Sunday school and then, when he was only 15, he became a minister.
Parham's religious beliefs and the later teachings of his ministry were greatly influenced by two deeply spiritual experiences he had as a youth. The first occurred, he claimed, when he was 13 years old, when he became bathed in a bright light while performing a repentance prayer ritual. The second event, which he claimed took place when he was 18, involved a miraculous cure of his rheumatic fever and resulting heart condition. Though Parham would continue having heart troubles, he came to see himself on a mission to provide the same healing experience for others.
Beginning in 1890, he attended Southwest Kansas College in Winfield, studying religion and then medicine. After he suffered a recurrence of rheumatic fever that nearly killed him, he returned to his evangelistic pursuits.
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