"He was the greatest example for Jesus Christ I have ever known in my life," said Pastor Janet Kusuhara of First Assembly of God. "He was a pastor’s pastor. He allowed us to dream. He let us see those dreams come true."

Born in Willis Point, Texas, Sapp entered the ministry at age 16, getting his high school education by correspondence and later going on to get his doctorate from the California Graduate School of Theology.

By age 20, Sapp was pastor of an Assembly of God Church in Texas.

Three of his brothers also went into the ministry. Later, his daughter, Diane, would marry the Rev. Rick Seaward.

Sapp moved to California in the 1950s, becoming the senior pastor at a church in Santa Ana in 1953, and continued to move up in the Assembly of God organization in that state and later at an international level.

He did extensive missionary work in the 1960s and 1970s, including the development of a rubber-tree plantation in Liberia that made a 600-resident Cape Palmas leprosy mission self-sustaining.

In addition to Africa, Sapp also worked in Central America, Asia and the Pacific.

In 1976, he was asked to come to Hawai'i.

"At first, he and his wife didn’t know whether they should come," Kusuhara said.

Sapp wrote in his Bible that on the plane ride over, he felt God telling him that Hawai'i was the place he should be, and directing him to a verse that read:

"We are setting out for the place about which the Lord said: I will give it to you."

Under Sapp’s leadership, the First Assembly of God church became one of the largest and fastest growing in the state.

Church members built a new facility at 3400 Moanalua Road and moved from Lunalilo Street to Red Hill in October 1990. The congregation now includes nearly 3,000 people, Kusuhara said.

Sapp resigned in 1994, after he was diagnosed with a rare illness.

Services will be tomorrowat First Assembly of God. Visitation is at 6 p.m. A memorial service is at 7 p.m.

Senior Pastor Klayton Ko, Sapp’s replacement, will preside.

Sapp is survived by his wife, Odelle; his daughter, Diane Seaward; his brothers Ben, Max and David and two grandsons, Jonathan and Jeremy Seaward.