Charlotte Atseff

How thankful I am for the mercy and long-suffering of God! The Lord took me out of the life of sin that I had gotten myself into.

When I was a child, we had a good home; my parents taught me to pray and read the Word of God. One of my earliest memories is of having severe blood poisoning in my foot and leg from stepping on a rusty nail. My parents took me to church, where the ministers prayed for me, and the Lord healed me.

While still young, I was saved and told my playmates about it. They laughed at me, because they didn’t understand, but that did not deter me. Later, the Lord sanctified me and, soon after, baptized me with the Holy Ghost and fire. At that time I really wanted to do right.

When my teen years came, my heart became filled with rebellion. I would not let anyone tell me what I should or should not do. Also, I would not take any advice about who my friends should be and I was ashamed to pray over my lunch at school.

Soon a love for the things of the world crept in. Although I never did smoke or drink, I loved the movies and dances. Often, I spent all day Sunday in the theatre, watching one movie after another. My heart would be so empty when I went home, but the next week I would do the same thing again. My attitudes and desires took me a long way from the faith of my childhood.

I married and had a good home life; I wasn’t in need and my problems were few. The Lord let me go my own way for some time.

Then one evening, I faced up to the question of eternity while sitting by my mother’s bed. She was very ill, and we didn’t know if she would live. I knew that if she died, there was light at the end of her journey. There was no light for me. I wondered who would pray for me if I needed prayer after she was gone. The Lord spoke to my heart, “You will pray for yourself.”

I did start to pray. I also began attending a little church in our neighborhood. There, the Word of God melted my heart like sunshine melting ice, but somehow I could not grasp the faith to believe that I could be forgiven. I did not think there was any hope for me.

One Sunday I heard Mark 16:7 read, “But go your way, tell his disciples and Peter…” Instead of hearing Peter’s name, I heard my very own name in that verse, and hope sprang up in my heart. The next morning I knelt and prayed in my own home, confessing all my sins. I felt such sorrow for sinning against Jesus and His Gospel by going my own way. The devil cried into my ear, “You’ve gone too far!” But at that very instant, the Lord showed me the Cross and the awful price He paid. On that Cross were all my sins. He showed me that He still loved me and would take me back. Then I knew my sins had been forgiven. What joy filled my life!

I got up from my knees a changed woman. Jesus had taken out the love for the pleasures of this world. He satisfied the desires that I had tried to satisfy with other things. In my heart was the determination to be true to the Lord forever.

It was some time before I realized that I needed to be sanctified. Even though I had received that experience as a child, the enemy had robbed me of everything that I had ever known or understood. I had to learn all over again. One day I asked the Lord for the experience of sanctification, and I asked Him to make it very real to me. Such a thrill went through me! There was no doubt in my heart that God had done the work. That same week, He filled me with the baptism of the Holy Ghost.      

My husband was not a believer and could not understand why I did not want to go to the movies anymore–or why I did not want to sell beer, wine, and cigarettes in our store. The Lord kept me true through those difficult times, and through many critical decisions. A number of years later, my husband was also born again and had a sweet peace through to his last day.

I thank God for the opportunity to serve Him, and to see the Gospel go out across the world. It is my privilege to work in the foreign correspondence office of the Apostolic Faith Church and to read some of the letters that come to our headquarters office from foreign countries. In those letters, I learn of the heartaches and sorrows of the people who write. The Lord puts a real burden on my heart to help pray for them. Oh, the joy when we receive letters that tell us God has undertaken and answered prayer!

Truly the Word of God has been my anchor, my encourager, my helper, and guide through these forty-three years, and for that I thank God with all my heart. I have never wanted to turn back or give up the good fight of faith, because it’s been a fight of victory from the very first. I know the Lord will see me through to the end.