Leona (Gander) Ewers

As a child I felt close to the Lord. I knew He heard when I talked to Him. After the long Wisconsin winters when the snow melted and the ground became warm, I used to go into a little woods looking for spring wildflowers. When I found some, I thanked the Lord for them.

Before I was old enough to read, I enjoyed looking at the pictures in the large family Bible. The picture that especially impressed me was of the “Great Flood.” It showed people desperately trying to get into the Ark. Once when it rained for several days, I told my mother that I was afraid there might be a flood like in Noah’s time. She told me the Bible said God had promised never to destroy the earth again with a flood. That put an end to my fear because I knew that the Bible was true.

At times it occurred to me that a Christian should be living according to the Bible. I tried, but before the day had ended I knew I had failed.

My mother taught me to pray, and I was taken to Sunday school and church. This put a desire in my heart to be a Christian. Periodically, our church held revival services. When I was thirteen years old, I went to the altar of prayer in one of those services. I was not under conviction for my sins, but I went because I thought it was the thing to do.

From then on, I called myself a Christian. Later I sang in the choir and taught a Sunday school class. At times it occurred to me that a Christian should be living according to the Bible. I tried, but before the day had ended I knew I had failed.

I told the Lord that if He would help me to know I was really saved I would serve Him. From then on, I knew I was saved because I had victory over sin.

After finishing my education, I went to a different community to teach school. I no longer felt close to the Lord, and started going to dances and playing cards with other young people. Four years later, I met my husband. His upbringing was very different from mine. His parents did not attend church and he had no Christian training.

After a few years of marriage, I became very unhappy with my husband’s way of living. He started playing his violin for dances and began drinking liquor with “the boys.” I wrote to my brother, who was an Apostolic Faith minister and told him my problems. No doubt he prayed for me, for soon I was under heavy conviction. At the time I had no opportunity to attend a church and pray at an altar, so I prayed at home. I told the Lord that if He would help me to know I was really saved I would serve Him. From then on, I knew I was saved because I had victory over sin.

Then I started praying for a Christian family. Three years after that my brother, Melvin Gander, started holding some meetings in an abandoned church near where we lived. He invited us to the meetings and we went. My husband’s health was failing. Inflammatory rheumatism had damaged his heart, and the doctors said he would not live long. In the first service, he rushed to the altar and was saved. He made restitution to those he had wronged. He never took another drink of liquor or smoked another cigarette. His bad language also was changed.

The Lord sanctified and gave the baptism of the Holy Ghost to my husband and to me in those family worship services.

We started having family devotions. We had no place to worship, but we received the publications put out by the Apostolic Faith Church in Portland, Oregon. On Sundays we gathered our children together and held worship services in our home. We sang hymns, read a sermon or article from the church paper and prayed. The Lord sanctified and gave the baptism of the Holy Ghost to my husband and to me in those family worship services.

We had trials, but we had encountered trials before we were saved, too. Now we had the Lord to help us. When the children were still young, my husband had another attack of rheumatism. He was in great pain and so helpless that he could not even get his hands to his face. One day his pulse became so weak, I thought he was dying. I gathered the children around his bed and we started praying for him. His pulse became stronger and then, each day, he slowly began to improve. Eventually he was able to get out of bed and walk and use his arms and hands.

That same winter the weather was very severe. One blizzard after another came along with temperatures well below zero. One day, we did not have enough wood to last through the night and no money to buy more. However, God was watching over us. About dusk that evening a young man drove into our yard and left a load of wood. We had no idea he would be bringing it. Many times the Lord helped us in situations that seemed hopeless.

I have never wanted to turn back into the life of sin that the Lord saved me from. The Lord has been good to our family. My husband passed away thirty years after the doctor told him he would not live over a year. I thought I could never live alone, but the Lord helped me to adjust to it. I still live alone at ninety-two years of age. Whether I leave this world by death or the Rapture, I expect to be with the Lord and praise Him for His goodness and mercy to me.‍

Leona lived alone until she was ninety-six years old, when she went to live with one of her daughters. She lived to be one hundred years of age, and died with the victory in her soul in 1995.