Tillie Nelson

My first night in India as a missionary, I was told, ‘Pay no attention to the lizards on the ceiling, but be sure to shake your slippers in the morning before you put them on. Scorpions like to crawl into slippers to keep cool. And be sure to tuck the net in tightly around your bedding so nothing can crawl in beside you.’ There were not only scorpions and lizards crawling around, but also snakes, including cobras! I went to bed that night wondering how I could ever stay there to fulfill my six-year assignment. But I did!

While there, I found what it was like to live in a land where God was not known. I saw the superstition and darkness that enveloped that land, and the suffering and sorrow that accompanied it. All this caused me to realize the responsibility I had to teach the truth of God’s Word.

I considered myself well qualified for this assignment. I had a good educational background. After graduating from the University of Wisconsin, I taught high school for a number of years and then worked as a congressional secretary in Washington. D.C.

How could I confess that I was not saved, after having been a missionary and active in the Christian work for years?

From the time I was a little girl, I had attended church. My family members were professing Christians, but we knew little about salvation. Still, I had taught Sunday school and been active in youth organizations. I was just as active in worldly amusements, however, and deep in my heart, I felt that a Christian should not do the things I was doing. I didn’t know that if I gave my heart fully to God, He would take the love for those activities out of my heart. One day I decided to do what I knew was right. I gave up those worldly amusements in my own strength. I read the Bible and prayed. Surely now I was a Christian!

It was after this that I accepted the missionary call to teach in India. At the end of my six-year term, I returned to Washington, D.C., on furlough. I was disappointed when the door of my return to India was closed, but accepted a position in my church as Welfare Secretary, and later I was employed by the board of missions to visit the churches of our denomination and arouse interest in missions. I also taught a Bible class and organized a Young Women’s Missionary Society.

He was gracious to me and saved my soul. I knew I was saved!

My brother was a member of Congress, and I took the position of his private secretary. About this time, two of my brother’s sons, who had been quite incorrigible, were out on the West Coast visiting relatives. While there, they attended an Apostolic Faith Church service and were converted. My brother was so impressed with the sudden change in their lives that he urged me to attend an Apostolic Faith Church convention being held in Portland, Oregon.

That summer I attended the camp meeting. While there, I decided to seek what I thought I needed—the baptism of the Holy Ghost—but I didn’t get far. Afterward, I heard a teaching on sanctification. I decided that maybe sanctification was what I needed. So, I began to pray for the Lord to sanctify me, but again there was no answer. Then I heard that if a person is really born-again, he knows it. That sounded reasonable, but I did not know when I had been born-again.

I searched my heart and compared my Christian experience with the Word of God. The Lord revealed to me that I had merely a profession of Christianity. What was I to do? How could I confess that I was not saved, after having been a missionary and active in the Christian work for years? After the service ended, though, I could not keep back the tears. I knelt at the altar of prayer and I asked God’s forgiveness. I asked Him to show me my true self; and what He showed me wasn’t very pleasant. But I admitted it all. Then I stood on the promise that if we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. He was gracious to me and saved my soul. I knew I was saved!

How good it was to have a salvation that I knew about! After I had that solid foundation on which to build, I soon received my sanctification and the baptism of the Holy Ghost.

My only regret is that I did not have this spiritual equipment while serving on foreign soil. God had a missionary work for me to do at home, though, and what a rewarding life it has been! I wanted to remain with the people of God who had prayed for me and with me.

I have never been sorry I made that decision. The Lord rewarded me by permitting me to work in the Apostolic Faith headquarters office. For many years I have had the glorious opportunity of helping to send the Gospel into all the world, in many different languages. I do thank the Lord with all my heart. Best of all, I can look forward with assurance to the prize of Eternal Life.