Harrison Irvine

I have so much to thank the Lord for today. First of all I should thank all these ministers and people of God for the earnest way they prayed for me when I got sick on the job, passed out, and woke up in the hospital. I wasn’t able to pray for myself, but everybody else prayed. I know prayer brought me through and into this service. I am going back to work tomorrow at the Post Office. Jesus is so kind and wonderful, and I thank Him for my friends and coworkers also.

I thank the Lord for the way He has been with me all these years. We received literature from this church in the prairies of Canada, and my parents accepted the Gospel. When my mother passed away, my father finally brought my little sister and me to Portland, Oregon, to be able to be in these meetings.

World War II came along, and I enlisted in the Seabees. The Lord was very good to me. I was able to let my light shine before those with whom I came in contact. In a wonderful way the folks at home backed me up in prayer. It was a great experience. I will never forget the privilege I had to serve the Lord while in the service of my country. I praise God for His mercy in allowing me to return safe after being away for thirty-one months in the South Sea Islands, the New Hebrides, a Seabee in Ship Repairs. About two weeks ago I got back from a 6000-mile ocean trip.

I can say the Christian life is the most sensible way of living. I have no regrets for my time spent in the service of my country, for the Lord was good to me and enabled me to live a Christian life in the service. The Lord was with me all the time, and I couldn’t help but feel the prayers of the people of God and see the results. I lived among the boys. I had the goodwill of the fellows I worked with and still I kept the Christian standard as far as my own conduct was concerned.

I remember shortly after I signed up in July 1942, one of the boys said, “I’ll bet that by the time he has been in the Navy for a year he will lose whatever makes him different from us.” It has been three years and six months, and I haven’t lost it yet.

I remember the night in October 1942, which was the last meeting I was in for thirty-one months. The Lord was good to me. I will never forget how one of the ministers prayed with me that night. That is the kind of a send-off they give, and they pray for you while you are away.

Now the Lord has taken a hand and led me these twenty-seven years I have been out of the service. He has given me a better job than I had before in the United States Post Office. Everything is better. I surely thank Him for His hand that has been over me all these years. I am so glad the Lord saved me from sin at this altar of prayer some years ago, and I am glad for the old-time religion.

Harrison Irvine was born June 7, 1908 in Saskatchewan, Canada, and was baptized October 13, 1946 in the Clackamas River, Carver, Oregon.