Edith Chance

How I thank God that He ever counted me worthy to bring me among the Apostolic Faith people! I was a brokenhearted woman when Jesus found me. I was an awful sinner and had sin in my life that would have put me behind prison bars, yet I was proud and haughty and had an awful temper.

Brought up in a Christian home, I cannot remember the time my mother did not pray for me. I could not get away from my mother’s prayers. Liquor or cards were never allowed in our home; all of my people were church members, but it took more than that to make a Christian out of me.

I came to this western city, thinking, “I will have a good time in this world. I am not going to church but will try everything else; I can do just as I please.” I tried the picture shows, lodge rooms, and theaters, but I would come home and cry myself to sleep and wonder what was the matter with me. I ran a rooming house and rented rooms to the wrong kind of people and charged them double price. The time came when I got so tired of the whole thing that I wondered what I would do.

One night, I heard the Apostolic Faith people telling this story of Jesus on the street corner, and God convicted my soul. I don’t know where I would be had it not been for that street meeting. I was just a proud worldly woman. I tell you, I needed a Savior when I came among these people—my heart all covered up with sin. Nobody dreamed what an awful sinner I was.

He took out the heartaches and gave me joy and peace and happiness.

The reason I am here is because I heeded the call of God. I went home and told my brother I would rather have what these people have than anything else in the world. Ten days after that I came to this hall and went to the altar, a sinner. I got down on my knees and cried out to God for mercy. I didn’t care who heard me pray. God saved my soul that night and took the burden of sin away, took out the temper that had me bound, and gave me power to live right. He took out the heartaches and gave me joy and peace and happiness.

I had loved the theaters and thought I could never give them up. I will never forget the next day when I went downtown and I happened to pass a theater; I looked up to God and thanked Him that I didn’t have a single desire to go in. He also took out the love for the things of the world out of my heart. He took the love of money.

He helped me to go back over my crooked past and straighten it up. No one knew the sins that were in my life. I had fourteen different restitutions to make. I had to go to three different stores and confess what I had stolen. I had set fire to the rooming house to get the insurance. I kept that crime covered up for eight years. I never told my troubles to anybody. Not even my dearest friend knew anything about the sins that were covered up in my life. But God revealed to me that I must straighten it out. I thought I could not do it for awhile, but God gave me the grace. Today I have a clean life.

I used to hate “fallen women,” but when God saved me, He put it in my heart to go on the streets, behind the prison bars and elsewhere to tell them about this wonderful salvation.

God has done much for my people. Many of them have come into this Gospel since I heard that Apostolic Faith street meeting many years ago. I praise God for the joy, peace, and happiness, and for something to live for.