Inetta Staley

From the time I was born, my parents did their best to teach me the right way to live. I was raised under the sound of the Gospel and heard the story of Jesus, but I only listened with my ears and not with my heart. I decided that someday I would leave that Christian home, go my own way, and do the things I wanted to do.

However, in 1931, my mother and I attended the Apostolic Faith camp meeting in Portland, Oregon. The Lord began to speak to my heart, and for the first time, I experienced real Holy Ghost conviction for my sins. He said if I ever expected to find happiness, it would only be in serving Him. At the end of a service, I made my way down to the altar of prayer. In the sawdust and straw, I knelt and asked God to be merciful to me a sinner, to take the sin out of my life and to save me. I am glad we are never too old or too young to pray. In simple childlike faith I believed, and the Lord made a real change in my life. He put love and peace in my heart where there had been turmoil and strife.

My grandmother was there when I was saved. She said to me, “Keep praying.” I did, and the Lord sanctified me! I felt so clean inside and out. The following Sunday night the Lord baptized me with the Holy Ghost. Throughout everything that has happened in my life since then, the Lord has been near and has helped me.

When I went to school that fall, I was tempted not to pray over my food because of what someone might say. However, I did pray, and that was a victory. When the other girls talked about the worldly places they went, I could just walk away, because the Lord had taken the desire for those things out of my life. In my teen years, I took piano lessons and, in time, played the piano for church services.

How would I support a fourteen-year-old daughter and clothe and feed both of us?

After I was out of school, I began working for one of the people from the church. When that employer moved away, I started my first job where I worked among people who were not Christians. I was amazed at the language I heard! Those who cursed the worst worked at a different table that I did, and I thanked the Lord that the woman I worked with most directly was very nice. Then after about two weeks, the boss asked me to move to the table where those whose language was so bad worked. My heart sank! I wondered if I could handle that. I went home and prayed until I knew that the Lord would be with me, and He worked it out for me to be at the opposite end of the table. The Lord is good, and He pays attention to each detail.

When I was twenty years old, I became acquainted with Don Dibble, a wonderful Christian man, who had a good business. We were married in 1943, and after a couple of years, we had a daughter. In 1952, we moved to Portland, Oregon, and Don went to work in the Apostolic Faith printing plant. He was very happy working there. I started to play the organ at church, and we had a wonderful life serving the Lord with all our hearts. Then Don’s health started to fail, but we were young (he was forty-six and I was thirty-seven). We trusted the Lord to heal him, but as time went by, he grew worse.

One day, he came home a very sick man, and a week later the Lord took him to Heaven. Because he seemed too young to die, it was hard for me to accept. It was the darkest time in my life. I was left without money and with a very limited education. How would I support a fourteen-year-old daughter and clothe and feed both of us? My life was in a shambles, and it seemed there was no way out. At that point, I could have lost my sanity. Instead, I reached out to the Lord. He took my hand and helped me back to my feet. Soon I had a job offer. God proved to be the answer to my every problem. The best Friend I’ve ever had is Jesus.

Just over a year after my husband died, my daughter and I were involved in a terrible car accident. It was only the mercy of God that we were not killed. My daughter was hurt so badly the doctors did not expect her to live through the night. Twice her heart stopped and they started it again. Her facial bones were crushed, her jaw broken in two places, her leg and pelvis crushed, and she had numerous other injuries. The doctor said all he could do was put her in a body cast that extended down one leg and over the foot, and then let it heal. She spent six months in bed. Then she used crutches for a while, but in the end, God caused her body to heal so perfectly that she did not even have a limp. We had many people praying for us, and God hears the fervent prayers of the righteous. All the glory goes to God.

Not too long after that accident, I met John Staley. He had been invited to a camp meeting and liked the service because it made him think of the services held by Billy Sunday that his mother had taken him to as a child. He kept attending church even though he did not completely understand everything. I was working in a restaurant that he frequented, and started talking to him about the Lord. One night after a service, someone asked him to pray. He did, and the Lord saved him. He got right into the Gospel and received his sanctification and was baptized with the Holy Ghost. In 1962, we were married, and our lives were built around the Gospel.      

Just over a year after my husband died, my daughter and I were involved in a terrible car accident.

My daughter married a Christian man in 1966, and they had two beautiful children we loved very much. Then on March 8, 1978, my daughter was with a group from the church who visited nursing homes to sing, play instruments, and testify. She had just resigned from her job so she would be free to do this. The sun was shining and there were beautiful white clouds in the sky. She looked up at them and remarked, “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the Lord would come and take us up through those clouds today?”

The Lord had plans for that day. About three hours later, she and her two children started driving from Dallas, Oregon, to Portland for a Friday night church service. The road went up a steep hill, and at the top, she met a car on her side of the road. There was no chance for her to swerve out of the way, and my daughter and her two children went to be with the Lord.

John and I were in Florida at the time, and while we flew toward Oregon, the tears flowed down my cheeks. As I looked up in the heavens, the Scripture came to me, “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21). What a comfort to know that God was still in control. He wiped away the tears, the heaviness, and the grief. God’s ways are the best ways even when we don’t understand them.

After John and I had been married for thirty-three years, he passed away. I live alone, but I am not lonely or afraid, for God is only a prayer away. He has never failed me. One morning a while back, I awoke with such a sore and swollen throat that I could hardly swallow. As I started my morning worship, I told the Lord how I needed His healing touch. I laid my whole situation out before Him. After praying for some time, I got up and sat in my chair, still asking for help. I knew God could heal me if I would furnish the faith, so I quoted some promises such as “For I am the Lord that healeth thee” (Exodus 15:26) and “With his stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). God heard me. At that moment, I felt a hand on my shoulder, and it startled me. I looked up expecting to see Jesus standing there. Although I could not actually see Him, I knew I’d had a visit from the Lord, and I was healed. The Lord has been a wonderful Friend to me, and I thank Him.