Fern Beckner

My heart is full of gratitude to Jesus for what He means to me. I am so glad the Lord ever dealt with a little family back in Minnesota, where He saw a broken-hearted mother and a broken home.

My mother was sick, and the doctors told her there was no hope for her, but said if she would try the weather and the climate on the West Coast, maybe she would get well. So we started for Port Angeles, Washington. On the way we stopped to visit an uncle of mine, and there she found an Apostolic Faith paper. As she read that paper, my uncle, my mother, and our family knelt in prayer, and God saved their souls.

I was afraid to go to sleep at night.

We settled in Port Angeles, and there I was brought up in the Gospel. I knew the right way to go from my earliest childhood, but I didn’t want to get saved. I thought I wanted more of a good time, as I thought my school friends were having.

But God was dealing with my heart. I was afraid to go to sleep at night. I would come home from school and would run through the house, and if mother wasn’t there I was sure the Lord had come and I was left. Oh, how frightened I was! The Lord troubled me night and day. But I’m so glad that one Sunday night when I was twelve years old, I knelt in a little church and the Lord saved my soul.

I promised the Lord that night that if He would make a change in my heart so I could live this old-time religion, I would give Him my life. And you know, the Lord didn’t disappoint me. Even though I was just a child, I could take you to the very boards I knelt on that night when the Lord saved me, and made a real change in my heart. I could go to school and live for Jesus, and He kept me out in the business world for many years, living the life of a real Christian. I can truly say that Jesus is the dearest friend I have. I am glad that the change He made in my heart that night has lasted all these many years. The Lord has been so good to me.

I knelt in a little church and the Lord saved my soul.

He has given me so many blessings I never could count them. For several months I had something wrong in my stomach. When I would eat I could hardly swallow, and then afterward I would have such pain in my stomach. I did not know what it was, but I knew the Lord knew and on an ordinance night on the campground the Lord touched my body. I forgot all about it for several days and all of a sudden it dawned on me: I am healed! Another time I had suffered with my back for several weeks. I did not know just exactly what was wrong with it but I knew it was terrible painful. But then on another ordinance night as I knelt to take the emblems, the Lord touched my body, and I haven’t had one trace of that pain since.

Just recently, for several weeks I had a real bad pain in my side. I could hardly stand, and just two weeks ago as we knelt to pray, I looked up and asked God to please take care of me. And you know, I woke up the next morning and that pain was all gone. I just want to give Him special thanks and praise for His love to me and give my life more fully to Him.