John and Mary Modrall

I was raised in a church—spent thirty-five years in that church—and was counted as one of their best Christians. Even sinners said if ever there was a Christian, I was one. I was a Deacon, but I knew nothing about the Bible. I couldn’t answer a question in Sunday school or quote a verse from the Bible. Then God sent some of His people to a street corner in Puyallup, Washington, to tell what He had done for them. I had never heard such testimonies and singing. Those people gave me a church paper, and when I opened it, I read a passage of Scripture and said, “That’s not right. God’s Word doesn’t read this way.” I took the paper home and compared it to my Bible, and to my surprise, it did read that way. I told my wife we had to do something.

We had no one to talk to about spiritual things, but I continued to read that paper and my Bible. Such conviction seized me that I promised God I would go to the camp meeting in Portland, Oregon, if He would open the way.

In the winter of 1919, I came down with the flu and was so sick. I wasn’t able to sit up, and I was burning up with a fever. I didn’t know anything about divine healing—I was taught there was nothing to it, but the church paper I had received told about people being healed. When another one came in the mail, I laid that paper on my face and asked God to answer the prayers of His people. God said to me, “If you believe, get up.” I jumped out of bed and as soon as my feet touched the floor, the power came down and I was made every whit whole. The fever was gone, and I walked the floor singing praises to God for what He had done for me.

In August of 1920, God opened the way for my wife and I to attend camp meeting. I was saved on the first day I was there. God sanctified me two days after that, and two years later, He baptized me with the Holy Ghost and fire.

Oh, how I praise God for this mighty Gospel! He has kept me for many years and provided all my needs. Since the day I became a Christian, I have not needed a doctor or medicine. God has done all the healing for my family. Glory to His name!

God is using me now to tell the Story to a lost world. Oh, what a privilege! How I love Him for what He has done for me! - John

I praise God that He led some of the Apostolic Faith people, in 1917, to come to the streets of Puyallup, Washington, to tell the Story of Jesus. That was the sweetest story I ever heard. It was something I had hungered and thirsted after for years. Although I had joined two different churches, it had never brought the joy and peace to my heart that I had thought a Christian ought to have.

The Apostolic Faith people gave me a church paper which showed me how I looked in God’s sight. I was a Sunday school teacher, a Deaconess in the church, president of the Missionary Society, and treasurer of the Aid Society—yet I had sin in my heart. When I read that paper, such conviction seized me. I took it home and read it by the hour with tears running down my face.

After three years, God opened the way for me to attend the camp meeting in Portland, Oregon. He saved my soul on the first day I came under the sound of this mighty Gospel. Praise His name!

I praise God for His healing power. At the time God saved me, I was almost paralyzed. It was caused by a fall some thirty years before, which bent my spine. After God saved me I asked one of the ministers to pray for me. They anointed me and prayed for me according to the fifth chapter of James, and God heard and answered that prayer. He healed my body and straightened my spine. I give God all the glory for it.

I praise God for His keeping power. I am not resting on what God did for me in 1920, but on what is in my heart today. I have the joy and peace that He planted in my soul. Many times I wake up in the dead hours of the night with a song in my heart. - Mary

When the Modralls returned home from their first camp meeting, they felt the call of God to start a work in Puyallup and began holding cottage meetings in their home. In 1922, they built a new house with a very large living room for the express purpose of having a more suitable place to hold meetings .They continued to lead the Puyallup work until Brother John’s passing in 1942.