Bruce Brenner

I praise God for this wonderful salvation. I am glad the Lord ever looked on me. He looked over thousands the day He reached me, and brought me here to save my soul. I had blamed this church for breaking up our home, because my mother had left to come to Portland and was saved.

It was during the WWI that God commenced calling after my soul. I was living in Arizona, practicing dentistry without a license, when the United States declared war on Germany, and I was called into the service of my country. When I was through with basic training and was home on leave, I received orders to go to France. My mother tried to give me a Bible to take with me, but I said, “No, I am going over there to shoot people. I don’t need a Bible.”

I went to the dump, and there I found myself a little Testament to read.

As we crossed the ocean, they sang that song, “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” God took us through the landing in England, across the English Channel, and through France. I was taken into the battlefield where I saw some of the horrors of battle, bloodshed, and men lying in mutilated positions all around me. All of those bloodcurdling sights brought tenderness to my heart that had always been calloused. I went to the dump, and there I found myself a little Testament to read. God took me through that awful battle of Saint-Mihiel without a scratch. During the night we went through terrible shell fire, and I saw villages just wrecked and torn to the ground by the guns of prophecy of that Bible. I looked in the Bible and saw what was coming to pass, and I saw what I had been doing. My sins that I had committed against God rose before me like a black curtain; but that night when the shells began to light all around me, I got excited and commenced to think of God, and a hunger for the love of Jesus gripped my heart. I got down there on my knees in that mud in the trench where the shells would reach within an arm’s length of me, and I began to pray.

On November 1, 1918, just ten days before the war ended in the last battle of the Muse Argonne, God permitted me to be wounded. The shrapnel struck me in the leg. I turned blind for a few seconds and I thought I was sinking into Hell. I called on God for mercy, and He got me out of that thing. I looked at one of the soldiers who came around, and he said to me, “Do you need help, old buddy?” He was the sergeant in our Battalion who helped me to the First Aid Station. That wound took me to the hospital and later back to the United States.

It seemed the floodgates of Heaven poured down in my heart.

I drifted away from God and went out across the mountains of Arizona, and there I started the old game of practicing dentistry without a license. The Lord always held me to the things I had promised Him out on the battlefield.

God brought me to Portland, Oregon, and to the Apostolic Faith mission at old Front and Burnside, and he continued talking to me. I was so miserable, and after the meeting was over, I went to the altar and called on God for mercy. He heard that prayer and made a new man out of me. The soul inside of me turned right about face. It was “to the rear march” with me. And I have been going in the opposite direction since then. A new heart came into me. It seemed the floodgates of Heaven poured down in my heart.

When the load of sin rolled off me, it was like a pack rolled off my back when they gave the command, “Unsling Equipment.” It seemed like a lull in one of those battles. It seemed like an infinite calm that flowed over my soul. I arose from that bench at the Apostolic Faith Mission, a new creature. I praise the Lord for a new life.

Later on, God sanctified me, and when I continued consecrating my all to Him, He baptized me with the Holy Ghost and fire upon that clean heart.

I praise the Lord for a new life.

God kept me during thirty-five years of service in the Portland Fire Department. I could never tell how many times God spared my life. I do remember one time the Captain ordered us out of a large building that had been on fire. When he got us out of there, it exploded into flames—another minute and it would have killed every one that was in there.

I praise God for His love and mercy to me. He looked over the thousands that day that He reached me and brought me here to save my soul. I had been fighting and resisting the Spirit of God for years. But He forgave me all that back record, and I can say He has kept me all these years. I praise Him for all he has done for me and for His watchful care over me.

A lingering quote from Bruce A Brenner “I wasn’t born in the United States.” The obvious question: Where were you born? Answer: “The territory of Arizona.” Arizona became a state on February 14, 1912. Bruce was born on November 21, 1895, in Safford, Arizona. He was water baptized in Portland on August 13, 1920 and faithfully gave his testimony in the Portland church until he passed away on October 5, 1983.