Sophia Magel

I thank God that I was born into a family that believed in prayer. I was born in Texas in the year 1900, and while I was still a baby, our part of the country faced a disastrous hurricane. In preparation, my mother dressed all of her children and then they all knelt in prayer together. The storm lifted our house and buried it part way into the earth. My folks were able to cut their way out of the house and the whole family was spared. Six thousand lives were lost in the Gulf of Mexico during that storm, but God answered the prayers that were prayed.

After the storm, our family moved to Canada and I lived there until I was married and had two children. Then we moved to Oregon, not too far from Dallas, where two of my brothers lived.

When our fourth child was born, he became very sick and was not gaining weight. One of my brothers told me about a people that would pray for the sick and the Lord would heal them. He asked me if I wanted them to come and pray for my baby. I said they could if they wanted to, but deep in my heart I really wanted them to come and pray. They came to our home and anointed the baby with oil, as the Bible said they should, and they prayed for him. The very next day he smiled for the first time and started gaining weight. He grew up to be a strong man and later gave his heart to the Lord.

My brother continued inviting me to attend the Apostolic Faith Church in Dallas. I finally agreed to go. They were having special meetings and Reverend Raymond Crawford was the guest minister. As he was preaching, I felt like he was telling my life story. I thought my brother had told him all about me.

I was sitting behind my brother, so I tapped him on the shoulder and said, “Tattletale.” Of course, he had not said anything; the Lord was using the message to talk to my heart.

By this time we had five children and I was holding the baby. After the service someone offered to hold the baby so I could pray. I said, “No, thank you,” as I claimed to be a Christian already. As I went to the back of the church the Lord started talking to me. He spoke to my heart and said, “If you are a Christian, surely you could go pray.” I gave my baby to someone to hold and went to the altar and knelt to pray. The Lord began revealing my life to me and I realized I had never asked the Lord to forgive me for the sin in my life. I had never been saved; I just had a profession. That morning I gave my life to the Lord and became a new person in Christ Jesus. I was changed to live a new life for the Lord.

When we were ready to leave for home after church, someone invited our whole family to have dinner with them. As we sat around the table, bowing our heads and giving thanks for the food in prayer, I believed God’s Word and was sanctified and made holy in the Lord.

In our years of serving the Lord we had eleven children, and we experienced the healing power of God in our family many times. God has always been faithful to us in the good times and during the difficult times. He is the Rock of my life. I am so grateful for the family of God and their many prayers. I love the Lord with all of my heart.

Sophia married at seventeen years old, was saved at age twenty-five, and lived to serve the Lord for sixty-five years before He took her home at the age of ninety.