THANKFUNESS

WHY I AM THANKFUL . . .
When I came across the Gospel, I was desperate to recover from spinal meningitis. I often took drugs for this condition. Someone who was working for a drug store and went to the Apostolic Faith Church told me that, if I would believe, God would help me. I went to their church service, but the message preached was on salvation, which I did not know about. I wanted to die in the right condition with God, so instead of praying for healing, I prayed for salvation. Instead of giving salvation, God healed me. Then I put my trust in God, so I put away my medicine and professions. I had made a decision, and I trusted God so much that I prayed through to salvation in two days. God also sanctified me and baptized me with the Holy Ghost.
At times, when I was a sinner, I was in pain and was desperate. When I went into deeper problems but had my God, I had peace in my heart. I thank God for all my blessings. � Maurine Mwanza, Lusaka , Zambia

I praise God today for His grace and mercy. That was not always so in my life but I thank God that He looked beyond my faults and reached out to my soul. I was out in the world doing my own thing, having my own way. God had spoken to me on many occasions, but I continued to rebel.
One weekend I went from Friday night right to Sunday night partying and dancing. I remember that I went from St. Thomas over to another island to dance. We had to catch a boat to go over. During the dance, the band rested for a few minutes, and while I sat waiting, the Voice of the Lord said to me: �What if Jesus would come tonight?� I knew that there was a Heaven and a Hell, and I said, �Well, I will go to Hell,� because I knew that I was not right with God. In my ignorance, I did not really know the depths of Hell, and that it was eternal. But thank God that He is merciful. When the dance was over and I was going down to go over the water again to St. Thomas, a fear gripped my heart. I said, �Lord, take us over safely.� Thankfully, He did.
However, I still continued going my own way and doing my own thing. One afternoon, I was on my porch, and as I sat there, it seemed that in the clouds I saw a hand opened wide and beckoning. I said, �Lord, is that You calling me? Or are You coming to take Your people home? Let it be that You are calling me, because if You are coming to take Your people, I am not ready.�
Sunday morning I went to church and the power of God was real. People were being baptized in the water. When I looked at them the Holy Spirit said to me, �At the next water baptism, you will be there.� The Spirit of God was witnessing to my soul and conviction was upon my life. When the service was over I went outside but it seemed there was a thick, heavy cloud upon me. I couldn't stand it. At last I said, �Lord, if You will spare my life and take me home and bring me back tonight, I will not leave this building without You saving my soul.� I kept my commitment, and that Sunday night the Lord delivered me from the hands of the enemy. Today I have victory in the Name of Jesus. � Thelma Blyden, St. Thomas

I am so glad I know who Jesus is. I don't know what people do without Him. I am thankful that my spiritual roots go way back. I was saved when I was seven years old, and I have had many years to prove the Lord.
Some time back, I had a �thorn� come into my life�the most severe I have ever faced. When you have a wonderful loving husband, who has been with you for forty-seven years, and he is pinned under a three thousand pound machine in the hills, you had better have an Anchor that holds. You had better know who Jesus is. How grateful I am that God was with me after my husband went Home to be with Him.
I am so glad for what Jesus has done for me and for what He is going to do. I am not discouraged or dissatisfied with the Gospel. I love the Lord more today than I ever have. Heaven is much more dear and precious. I know this is not the end of the story. I thank the Lord that someday I am going to live forever with Him. � Joy Burton, Grants Pass, Oregon

I want to thank God for saving me when I was sixteen years old, and that has been ten years ago now. He sanctified me and filled me with the Holy Spirit. I thank God for leading me through my education. My life was going on smoothly until things started turning bad. Still, I thank God for both the bad times and the good times.
Last year, I lost my job all of a sudden, and my future was bleak. I was trying to figure out how I was going to make it when God opened the way for me to come to the United States from my homeland of Zimbabwe . God brought me to New York , and He has blessed me there. I am enjoying the fellowship with the saints in Brooklyn . They love me and I love them too. I thank God for giving me this opportunity to come to Portland for the camp meeting. I really have had a beautiful time worshiping God in one Spirit with the saints. � Hardwork Mugota, Brooklyn , New York

From an early age I knew that you had to be a Christian in order to make Heaven your home. I want to skip over the part of my life where I wasn't serving the Lord. Suffice it to say that I spent a good part of my life out in sin rejecting what I knew was right. But I am thankful that the Lord got me to a spot, just a few weeks before my twenty-fourth birthday, where I found myself heartbroken. I had just ended a long relationship with a girl. I was hurting and nobody could take that hurt away.
At that point in life, I realized that the Lord was speaking to me, and I found myself out of excuses. I went to a Sunday night young people's meeting in Roseburg, with the intention of getting saved. I had tried praying at home, because I was too proud to let anyone see me cry. I thought I was too tough for that. But I got to the point where I knew that the only thing holding me back was my pride. I went to church that night, and after the service, I got down on my knees to pray. I don't even remember what I said, but my heart was speaking for me. The Lord saved me right there. He took out all the wrong desires that I had and those things that I couldn't seem to get away from.
About a year later, He sanctified me when I was in Portland. I came for a young people's meeting, and there I ran into that same young girl who had broken my heart. I got a chance to tell her what had happened to me. She saw the difference in my life, and the very next day she came down to Roseburg, and in my mom's living room, she gave her heart to the Lord. A couple of years later we were married, and the Lord has given us two wonderful children. We have the opportunity and privilege now to raise them in the Gospel. God has led and guided our lives, and I thank Him for all He has done for me. � Matt Chasteen, Roseburg, Oregon

I didn't get far in this life before the Lord started dealing with my heart. As a girl in high school, I was wondering about all of these things: why am I here, where am I going, and what is the point of all of this? Life didn't make a whole lot of sense without the Lord. On top of that I had a lot of problems and I felt trapped and hopeless. Really, there was nowhere else to turn except the Lord.
One night, I just cried out to God to help me, if He was really up there. I knew that God listened and that God cared. Shortly after that, I found myself in God's house with God's people, where I could get the help that I needed. I just prayed and prayed. One morning, as I was seeking Him, the Lord came down and He took my sins away. That was my problem; my sins were separating me from God. All of a sudden life made sense. I knew that God was my Creator; I knew that Jesus was my Savior, and I knew I was going to Heaven someday. Until I get there, He holds my hand.
I want to praise God for all the marvelous things that He did for us recently. He answered my prayers and I feel if I could just thank Him a million times that wouldn't be enough. � Kathy Green, Portland, Oregon

When I came into the Gospel, I didn't know what salvation was all about. I thank God that He led me to a people who pray to God in Spirit and in truth. That was twenty years ago, and I thank God that He has kept me through the storms of life ever since. I can tell you many things of what God has done for me, and I thank God that He has preserved me and upheld me.
In 1990 my wife was sick unto death, and I made a promise to God that I would serve Him in whatever capacity He wanted. I didn't know what was ahead, but God remembered my vow. Two years later, our pastor passed away in Lusaka . I was in a little town a hundred and fifty-five kilometers from Lusaka at the time, but since I was a member of the church board, I had to go there to attend to that emergency. At the time of the funeral, God reminded me of the vow that I had made two years earlier. Then it was announced that I was to take the position of my late overseer. I was shocked, but I thank God He gave me the grace to assume that responsibility. I just had to submit to the will of God. I can tell you that God understands our hearts, and He will keep a record of whatever we say to Him.
When I received the letter of invitation to attend the Portland camp meeting, I didn't understand it either. It was not in my plans, although for many years I had a desire to come to Portland. I didn't have the means, and I was too involved in my particular employment, so when the letter came, I just prayed to God His will would be done. God opened the way for me. My coming here was not without hindrance. We had a lot of problems in getting a visa, but the Lord was there. When God opens the way, no one will close it. I thank God that I could attend the Portland camp meeting for the first time, and I pray that God will help us and uphold us in Zambia. We are seeking your prayers that the Word of God and the grace of God will continue to abound for us. � Timothy Kabula, Lusaka , Zambia

All the praise and honor belongs to God. I thank Him for His love to me and for how He saved me. As far back as I can remember, I went to Sunday school and church, and read the Bible. When I was about nine years old, I prayed and asked the Lord to forgive my sins. But growing up, I did things that were not right. I finally ended up in a life of adultery.
The day I prayed again to the Lord to forgive me and to change me, I wasn't in a prayer meeting or in a church. I was in the kitchen. I had finished the meal and was cleaning up. I just prayed out of my heart, �Lord, help me. I need help!� I am so thankful that He knows the heart. I didn't have to say a lot of words but He knew exactly what I meant.
I was living in Wichita, Kansas, at that time, and the Lord put it on my heart to move to Denver, Colorado. I did not know why, because I didn't have any relatives there. My son was living in Los Angeles, so I contacted him when I got to Denver. He told me what church I should go to. I don't remember who took me to the church, but I remember how the people of God befriended me. They helped me to really get strong in the Lord.
When I arrived in Denver, I had just two suitcases. The place I found to stay was a little room like a nursery off the landlady's bedroom. One day, I was complaining, �Lord, I don't have this, and Lord, I don't have that.� The verse came to me, �I will never leave you nor forsake you.� I didn't know where it was found in the Bible, but I got out the Bible and looked it up. I found out that the verse also says, �Be content with such things as ye have for I will never leave you nor forsake you.� I will always remember that verse, and it is not because I am so smart, but it is because the Holy Spirit brings it back to me occasionally. I haven't thrown a pity party since then.
Later, I received my sanctification and then the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I am so thankful for the love of God. I am so thankful that He is with me. I know that the Lord loves me and He cares for me. As long as the Lord gives me breath, it is my desire to live for Him and to please Him. � Luretha Reed, Anchorage, Alaska

Some time back, I was in Los Angeles and I had a chance to testify. We were asked to speak about our favorite song and I selected, �Jesus Loves Me,� because I am so thankful that I heard that Jesus loves me. I am so glad that when I was thirteen years old I prayed. I have to confess that I prayed because I wanted to escape Hell. It wasn't because I really understood the love of God, or particularly even wanted to go to Heaven so much as I wanted to make sure that I didn't go to Hell.
Since then, I have had a chance to learn about Jesus' love. It was not very long ago, at a camp meeting, when I was praying that I finally understood that Jesus really loves me and that I didn't have to strive to earn His love� I could just accept that He loves me and then serve Him in that love. It was such a blessed moment.
I also want to thank the Lord for the peace that He gives. When I flew to Los Angeles shortly after the terrorist attack on September 11, a lot of people asked me, �Are you nervous?� I said, �No, I am not. I really am not scared.� I had read in the papers, even if you are not scared, to be aware that when you get on the plane and the door closes you probably are going to have some fear. So I was prepared, though I didn't really think I would be. I had absolute peace, absolute confidence that my life was in God's hand, that I was where He wanted me to be, and that He would take care of the details. He certainly did, and I think this is a great time to be a Christian. There are people who are looking for the Lord and I want to be one that is going to be telling them about Him. � Yvonne Wilson, Portland, Oregon

If I were to take you to Medford, Oregon, right now, you will find a car lot there where the old Apostolic Faith Church used to be in that city. If you look around, you will find a spot underneath one of the pick-ups; it was about in that area where the Lord came down and made a wonderful change in my life.
I was raised in a Christian home and we had a lot of difficulties when we were younger. My folks got sick and passed away when we were fairly young. I seemed to blame God for a lot of things. I look back on that and realize that He deserved a lot of praise and not a lot of blame.
Life went on, and I married and had a family of my own. I wasn't doing right; I was uncomfortable; I was condemned. One Sunday morning in Central Point, Oregon, where we were living, my oldest daughter asked, �Dad, are you going to go to Sunday school with us this morning?� Those words seem to be so simple; they were like a dagger through my heart, yet I knew that I should be up and going to Sunday school and doing what I needed to do. Well, I got up and went with them.
At about four o'clock that afternoon, at the end of a Young People's meeting at Third & Central in Medford, the old weight of sin was so heavy that I just didn't know what to do. I was fed up with being miserable and uncomfortable. After the service I grabbed one of the old chairs there and pulled it against the outside wall of the Young People's Chapel. I got down and said, �Lord, You just have to help me. I can't go any further, and I don't know what to do. I need Your help.� He heard the cry of my heart and took that heavy load off my back. The Lord saved me!
He has been a Healer in my life, both spiritually and physically. He gives new life and joy. He leads and guides. I don't know what the next step is going to be sometimes, but the Lord knows. He is good and I am thankful today for what He has done for me. � Allen Friesen, Portland, Oregon.
PAUL.