May Allen

There is such gratitude in my heart to God for His love to my hungry heart. I have seen both sides of life. My mother was religious and had sent us to Sunday school and tried to bring us up right, while my dad was a drunkard. We lived in Iowa, where they had a large farm. In the fall of the year Dad would take the grain to Chicago and come home, and many times he had been drinking and his money was very scarce. My mother couldn’t stand it any longer; it broke her heart. So she took her three children and came west.

I did not know Christians could live above sin.

I had joined the church when just eleven years old on six months’ probation but I didn’t have a change of heart. Our Sunday school teacher used to let our class attend the revival meetings. My heart longed for a change so I would know I was a real Christian, and would be able to get along with my brothers and sisters. I’m glad that out of thousands of church members God found me. I sang in the choir, taught a Sunday school class, joined different societies and did many things in the church, but I never had victory in my heart, even though there were not many visible sins in my life. I did not know Christians could live above sin. I had such a temper, and loved the things of the world just as other ungodly people do, and our home was about broken up.

Our home had gone through the divorce court because of drink; and I thought if I ever had a home of my own it would not be like my parents home. But when I had a home of my own and saw my husband take his first drink, it nearly broke my heart.

We had two little boys and I longed to bring them up right, and to see them give their hearts to God. But no one ever told us the way out of that kind of life until one of these Apostolic Faith people came 300 miles to our farm home in Eastern Oregon. She had attended an Apostolic Faith meeting in Portland and the Lord had told her to go home and tell what great things the Lord was doing. She had an assurance of victory, and told us God could take away the very desire for sin, and we would know that a change had taken place. That was news to me.

What a happy change God has made in our lives!

About two months later we came to Portland, and one of these dear people met our little family at the depot in Portland on October of 1917. One night, as I bowed my knees at the altar of the Front and Burnside Mission, I repented of all my sins and God came into my heart and made a real change, just as big a change as in a drunkard or down-and-outer. I didn’t have to guess about it; He spoke peace to my soul. God had saved my husband earlier, took the sinful habits out of his life, and gave us a Christian home. That took place many years ago, and our boys don’t even remember their Daddy’s drinking, smoking and cursing, as his life was so changed when God saved him.

Before I was saved I thought I would have to give up all the music I loved. But I consecrated my love for music to the Lord, and found that He enhanced my ability to sing in the choir and play an instrument in the orchestra. I was able to give this talent to the Lord for many years.

After we had done all we could to bring up our children right, God in His mercy saved them. When they were riding on their bicycles across a busy street the younger one was struck by a car. As the little one lay with his head in his brother’s lap, sitting on the curb after the accident the older one promised God he would give Him his life if he would heal his little brother that he thought was dying. God heard his prayer and our prayers, and He healed that child and saved both of them through that accident. One day the older boy came home and said, “Mother, you know we have the happiest home in Portland.”

He healed our little boy when he was down in the jaws of death. God raised that child up when he was blue with spinal meningitis. His fingernails had turned purple. His mind was left in such a terrible condition, but one day God instantly healed him and restored his mind.

Those two little boys are now grown men and are serving the Lord. The younger one was a missionary in Japan for nine years; the older one is a Pastor, preaching this wonderful Gospel here in the States.

What a happy change God has made in our lives! I wouldn’t exchange it for anything in this world. I surely thank God for the old time religion.