Joseph Ho

I was not raised in a Christian home, but God sent missionaries to the Hawaiian Islands that this heathen might be saved. I was invited to a revival service. Slides were shown, and pictures of the old rugged Cross flashed up on the screen. I did not get saved that night, but I was impressed by the images of the Cross and the people kneeling in prayer afterward. I went to another meeting and heard a stirring message. The minister said, “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3). I realized if I did not get rid of my sins, I would go to Hell. After the service, I went to the altar and I meant business with God. I knelt and prayed a simple prayer, “God be merciful to me a sinner.” God came into my heart and my burdens all rolled away. I was a child of the King, a joint heir with Jesus Christ.

God changed my heart and life, but I had gotten saved in a denomination that did not teach the full Gospel. My wife and I felt that something was lacking. We went from church to church looking for what would satisfy. I praise God for leading us to this Gospel. In 1935, a Chief Petty Officer in the U.S. Navy who was stationed in Honolulu handed me an Apostolic Faith paper. I took it home and my wife and I read it. She said it had the Spirit of God on it. I searched the paper for sanctification, because our minister did not preach that doctrine and I did not know much about it. As I read the paper, a glow came into my heart. The Spirit seemed to say to me, “This is the way, walk ye in it,” and I knew it was the truth.

My wife and I began to correspond with Raymond Crawford, who was the overseer of the Apostolic Faith work. Then in 1946, we traveled to the camp meeting in Portland, Oregon, for the first time. We loved that the Gospel standard was held high. On our return home, we began holding Apostolic Faith meetings. For a while we met in a run-down building owned by the Japanese and taken over by the government. Then in 1957, Chester and Ruth Owen moved to Honolulu and we procured a two-room school cafeteria. There were many marvelous answers to prayer during that time, including when our church in Medford, Oregon, sent us sixty hymnals. On Sundays, we held jail meetings, Sunday school, hospital meetings, and an evangelistic service. In 1962, the Owens helped us buy a church building and John Friesen came from the main land to be the pastor.

I am sorry to say I backslid for three years in the 1960s. Then an evangelist, Cliff Friesen, came to Hawaii to hold revival meetings. The Lord spoke to me and said, “All your friends and family are in the Gospel, but where are you?” Then my wife told me, “If you don’t come back now, you will never come back.” I made up my mind and went to one of the meetings. During the sermon I could hardly wait to get to the altar. When I did, I said, “Jesus, Your wandering boy is coming home.” Kneeling there at the altar, I gave the Lord my life, and He gave me a wonderful joy and peace in my heart. I renewed my consecrations and God sanctified me and baptized me with the Holy Ghost.

Today, my determination is to seek more of God and make Heaven my home. I am looking for that glorious hope.