When I was a young girl, Sunday school was held in my home. The teacher told us children that when we reached nine years of age we would be held accountable for our sins. The day I turned nine, I looked up in the sky and said, “I am nine years old today and I am held accountable for my sins.”
I prayed many times, but as I grew older, the world had an attraction for me. I used to go to the dances and other places of worldly amusement. A Christian man used to talk to me about getting ready to meet the Lord. I told him, “When I get married, I will get saved.” I married at the age of seventeen. At twenty, I had my first child, a boy. I began to wonder how I could bring him up for God.
Old-time conviction took hold of my heart so that I could not sleep at night. My husband drank, which caused me much sorrow. I cried and prayed and was sorry for my sins, but I did not know how to get saved. One day, I went up to my room and got on my knees. I said I had to know that morning that my sins were forgiven, and this verse of Scripture came to me, “. . . seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you” (Matthew 7:7). I said, “Lord, I am seeking and I am knocking.” I waited for God to answer and the Lord said, “Don’t try to do it yourself; I have done it all, I paid it all, just follow Me.” I said, “I will, Lord.”
I got up from my knees saved. I had the answer that I was born of God. I was so happy. The Lord kept me for sixteen years. I used to pray to know the Lord better. I always had a desire to go deeper with the Lord, but did not know how.
My husband and I were financially successful; we had a nice home and we had everything to make us comfortable in this life. Then the time came when my husband’s business failed. In one year, we had everything taken away; nothing was left. We decided to leave Ontario, Canada, and move to Winnipeg to start anew. I attended the Baptist church there and was still hungry to know more of God when a friend of mine invited me to go to some religious meetings in a mission. I went and was glad that I did, for it was in that meeting that I heard about sanctification for the first time. I thought, This is just what I need. God’s hand was on me to fulfill my heart’s desire.
The young preacher’s name was Raymond Crawford. He had come all the way from Portland, Oregon, to hold those meetings. I sought the experience of sanctification and God fully satisfied that hunger I had in my soul. Then, I heard them tell about the baptism of the Holy Ghost, and I also obtained that wonderful experience.
The morning after I received my baptism, I was going to take my medicine and went to get the bottle from the shelf when the Lord spoke to me and said, “I am your Healer as well as your Savior.” I never took any more medicine. God has healed me many times.
About five years ago, I was stricken with arthritis in my feet and could not walk without someone’s helping arm. My feet and my hands were numb. I had no power to control my feet and they would turn around. My son would hold out his hands to help me to walk as a toddler walks. When I visited my other son in Vancouver, B.C., Canada, I had to have help getting on and off the plane. I could not ride a bus or a streetcar. I spent two months in this condition in Winnipeg and three months in Vancouver. I went to see the doctor and received a thorough examination. I asked him, “Do you think that you can heal my feet?” He just shook his head, for there was no hope.
Some people from the Apostolic Faith Church began picking me up for church on Sundays. Four of the ladies were going to Portland to attend the annual camp meeting. I went along with them. While there, I was prayed for and God wonderfully healed me; I have never had to use my cane since.
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