Lucille Glenn

In the year 1933, I was visiting a neighbor of mine, who was ill with pellagra. While there, a traveling saleslady from Akron, Ohio, came to bring the sick woman a blessed handkerchief and a paper from the Apostolic Faith Church in Portland, Oregon. The saleslady began to tell about how these people had prayed for her and had sent the handkerchief to her and that through their prayers the Lord had healed her of a tumor.

I asked to see the paper, and while sitting there I began to read about this wonderful Gospel. I became so interested that I asked if I could borrow the paper and finish reading it at home. I had never before in my whole life read or heard of people like these. As I continued to read the in paper about the wonderful Gospel, tears began to flow down my face. I stopped reading for a moment and raised my eyes to God. I began to pray, “Please God, if you will open the way, I want to go to Portland, Oregon. I would like to meet these people and have them pray for me, that I, too, may get more of God’s grace.”

I knew I was saved, sanctified, and baptized with the Holy Ghost and fire. (I had received all my experiences in 1930 after having attended tent meetings that had been conducted by a group of holiness people from Birmingham, Alabama.) However, after I read the testimonies and sermons in the Apostolic Faith paper, the Lord brought me into the knowledge that I was living in adultery (my own husband was dead, but the man I was then married to had been divorced from his first wife who was still living). I had never been told that to marry a divorced person was adultery, but oh, after reading about how others had paid the price of this wonderful Gospel, there came into my heart such a deep desire to pay the price also. I wanted to get down at the altar and have these people pray for me. I wanted to know more of God’s grace and the wonderful things I had read about.

I wanted to know more of God’s grace and the wonderful things I had read about.

When the minister of the church I was the affiliated with came to Columbus with his wife, I immediately began to question them and asked them if they had ever heard of the Apostolic Faith people in Portland, Oregon. I was very surprised when they answered, “Yes,” and that one of the sisters in the group, who lived in Birmingham also, had gone to live in Portland and was still out there. As I began to question them more and more, they finally gave me her address. This sister was none other than “Sister Kindness Houston,” who is now deceased. I wrote to Sister Kindness concerning my coming out to camp meeting in 1934. She answered my letter and referred me to Mother Crawford.

I then wrote to Mother Crawford and told her of my desire to attend camp meeting. She answered my letter and also sent me the book on rules and regulations concerning those planning to live on the campground. Mother Crawford and I corresponded regularly after that. Finally, the Lord answered my prayers by opening the way for me to go to Portland. My young teen-age daughter and I arrived at camp in July of 1934, to attend the last weeks of camp meeting. As soon as we were registered and settled, I attended my first meeting. I made my way straight to the altar and prayed all the way through in this mighty Gospel while the workers prayed earnestly with me. At the time, even though I was suffering with tuberculosis very badly, I did not get my healing right then: I had a price to pay to get God’s Gospel. God let me go back home.

My daughter also attended the children’s meeting and was saved and sanctified in her very first meeting. The next day she received the baptism of the Holy Ghost. My minister and his wife, after learning of my desire to go to Portland, had decided to go also. They, along with Brother and Sister Barney from Anniston, Alabama, had arrived ahead of me, so we were all there together and received our water baptism. We all became affiliated with and received the fellowship of the Apostolic Faith, at Sixth and Burnside, Portland, Oregon.

. . .God has truly rewarded me many times over for my obedience to His Word.

I heard the testimonies of those out here who had been living in adultery and how God had brought them out. I read a little tract on divorce and remarriage. How that found me! I told God, “If You just bless me to go back to Columbus, I’ll pay the price.” I wanted to pay the price and come back here to Portland, but I told Him if He wanted me to be a witness in Columbus, Georgia, I would pay the price and stay there.

We returned home determined to take a stand for this Gospel. He did not heal me until I promised I would stay there if it were His will to be a testimony for Him. Then He healed me of tuberculosis when I was almost nothing but skin and bones. In the year of 1935, the Lord gave me grace to pay the full price of this Gospel and brought me out of adultery. I can truthfully say that I have never regretted taking this step, for God has truly rewarded me many times over for my obedience to His Word.

Our first meeting place in Columbus was a tiny little storeroom (rented from a widow for $2.00 a month). We held our meetings there for several years until the woman sold her place. We didn’t have a regular minister, but a minister and his wife along with the Barneys would visit us occasionally. We were blessed with an elderly sister who had received the call to preach, and so we struggled on. After our first meeting place was sold, we held our meetings in this sister’s home until she lost her health and went to live with her daughter in Chicago, Illinois. By this time, God had blessed our little group to grow by adding a few more faithful ones, and then we moved our meetings to another sister’s home, next door to where our present church now stands, which the Lord blessed us to build in 1943—the Apostolic Faith, 648 11th Avenue, Columbus, Georgia.

We are very grateful to God for His goodness and how He has so wonderfully blessed the work here. For many years we were few in number, just a small group of faithful sisters, willing to carry this wonderful Gospel on. We encountered many obstacles and privations, but from these courageous few, the work has increased immensely. We have been blessed with some brethren, and give God glory for His goodness, His mercy, and the many wonderful blessings He has bestowed upon the work here.

I personally want to thank God for letting me learn of the Apostolic Faith people and this mighty Gospel when I was visiting a sick room way back in 1933 and for His faithfulness to me. I am also grateful to Him for ever deeming me worthy to carry His blessed Word. At first I felt I was too unworthy and that I could not accept the call, but He made His will so real to me until I knew that I could not get around it. So I humbly submitted myself to His divine will, and I can truly say that He has proven Himself over and over through these many years. I can also truly say, “Great is Thy Faithfulness to me, oh God.”