Don Deffenbaugh

I don’t know how to praise God enough for all my privileges. God has been so good to me. My mother used to pray for me. She also used to reason with me and teach me the Word of God. She tried to bring me up right, but I turned my head and it wasn’t long until I acted like the other boys.

I knew this was the way to go; I had examples all around me. My uncle (a captain in the Army) lived the life, my mother and father lived the life, and my brother got saved and lived the life. These were examples I couldn’t deny, but it takes more than just having folks pray for you and teach you right from wrong.

One day when I was in my last year of grammar school, God poured down such conviction on my heart that I couldn’t stand it. I went to the altar. I remember so well how a couple of the workers knelt and prayed for me. I was just a child and probably insignificant to many people, but they took an interest in me. I laid my life before the Lord and asked forgiveness. Though my sins were not great (they seemed great to me), God forgave what sin I did have.

I thank God for what the Gospel means to me. I went on to high school, and to college for a few years, and now I am in the Army. I can still say that the Gospel is good. I have it deep down in my heart.

When a person is right with God, he has something that guides him through the stormy waters. Now that I am in the Army, it is the mighty Arm I am leaning on.

God gives me the privilege to be near the Apostolic Faith Church that I might be fortified, so that some day, when I get my chance, I will be a missionary for Him.