Pearl O'Brien

I am glad I found this old-time religion, for it has meant so much to me. I was brought up in Sunday school and joined a church when a girl of about thirteen, but there was no change in my heart. Later on I married and moved out West.

When God found me, four years later, I was seriously ill. I had been crippled through an affliction, and the doctor gave me no hope of ever walking again. I knew I wouldn’t make it through this illness, and I was afraid to die, so I looked toward Heaven and prayed.

God was faithful to me and sent two people from the Apostolic Faith Church to my bedside to tell me of Jesus. No one had ever told me that one had to be born again. But those people told me that story, and they made it sound very simple. They told me, too, that God could heal my body. They prayed for me, and God did heal me. It is true that I had to learn to walk again, but God completely healed this body of mine.

One Sunday, when I was alone in my home, I knelt by my bedside and asked God to come into my heart and give me what these people had. He didn’t disappoint; He saved my soul and made salvation real to me.

Since then, God has been faithful all down through the years. I have gone through many hard places, but I have always found Him there to comfort and to bless. He has given me strength to carry the Gospel to many who are sick and suffering as I was, and to those who are in hospitals and homes for the aged. He has also given me the opportunity to tell this wonderful story of victory to women in the jails.