Identical Twin,
Identical Purpose

By Robert and Reuel Green

Bob tells his story:

I am thankful for what the Lord has done for me. I was brought up carefully in an old-fashioned Christian home. The family altar was established there, and I heard the Word of God read every day by my mother and father. But today I am a Christian because I had a real experience of my own.

The Lord dealt with me as an individual, striving with my heart for many days before I yielded. Some people tell how the Lord delivered them from drink, smoking, dope, and other sins. I had never tasted that side of life; however, I did not have peace in my heart. I was always condemned for the way I was living. God convicted me of the little sins that were in my life, and I didn’t want to miss Heaven because of them. I am so glad the Lord showed me my need of salvation. One night, I prayed and gave God all my future and my plans. God came into my heart and made a wonderful change. The most outstanding thing about that night was the peace I felt. I was a new creature in Christ Jesus and had new hopes, new ambitions, and new desires.

The Lord helped me through my school years, and through military service during World War II. God gave me a wonderful wife, and we had many years of serving the Lord together until the Lord called her Home.

There have been some hard places in life. Some years ago, I had an accident and broke my back. From the very first day I said, “There must be a reason for this.” It might have been an accident on my part, but there are no accidents with the Lord. I prayed, “Lord, You can heal me, but I want Your will to be done above all. Work out what You want in my life, even if it takes a hard road to do it.” The following nights were long. I never had a good night’s sleep for four weeks. I would watch the dawn break when I couldn’t sleep, and would think, Lord, it says in Your Word, “This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” I did my best to keep a spirit of rejoicing in my heart. I didn’t want to waste my time so I would spend hours in prayer there in the hospital. God blessed me and I shed many tears of joy. Sometimes I would listen to a tape of hymns, and the words would just ring a bell with me. Through many long hours they were such a help.

Another time I fell off a six-foot ladder and broke my wrists. I was alone in the church at the time, and my first words were, “Oh, no!” Then I began to pray and ask the Lord to help me. I walked over by the altar, and I said, “I am going to get down and pray.” My wrists were too sore to let myself down and my legs were sore too, but I put my elbows on the altar and got down on my knees, and I said, “Lord, I want to change that ‘Oh, no!’ to an ‘Oh, yes.’ I don’t want to leave this building until I can say, ‘Oh, yes,’ with all my heart.” I wanted to have something in my heart that was willing to go through the valley—to go through anything that God sent my way.

The Lord has given me the privilege of working full time in His service for many years, and that has been a real joy. I am glad that I can trust God. Day by day, I try to put my hand in His and commit my ways unto the Lord, even in little things. Sometimes I get too many jobs and I write them down in a little notebook and shove it in my pocket and try to do the important ones. I ask the Lord to help me to do the right ones on the right day. I believe He answers those prayers because I believe He is with me.

I cannot tell you what great things I have done or how much of this world’s goods I have accumulated, but I believe I have the best this world has to offer. I have the Lord’s salvation, and it is real in my life. I praise God for all He has done for me, and I want to give Him the rest of my days.

Reuel tells his story:

I cannot remember the first time I heard about Jesus. Both of my parents were saved and sanctified before I was born, but the time came in their lives when they didn’t know what church to go to. The ones they had been in had failed the Lord. My father went into the woods and prayed, asking if there were a people on the face of the earth who were still preaching and living by the whole Word of God, that God would lead him to them. He told my mother that their biggest responsibility was to raise their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

A number of years earlier, my grandmother had received an Apostolic Faith paper. She was hungry for the Lord, and she saw in that paper exactly what she needed. She sent her daughter to Portland to investigate, and from then on, she told my parents that they should go to investigate this work. One day, my father came to Portland and went to the services. After the first meeting, he talked to Sister Florence Crawford, the founder of the work, and told her, “There is enough power here to convert the world.” The next day he found a job, and that night he went to the campground and started to help build the tabernacle. That was in 1920. In May of that year, my mother brought us children to Portland, and we have been with the Apostolic Faith work ever since.

I have never wondered what church to go to. I recognized the truth, and when I was only eleven years old, the Lord dealt with my soul. One night, in my bedroom, conviction became so heavy upon my heart that I prayed. I confessed the sins that were in my life, and the Lord saved me and made a real change in my life. My twin brother was saved the same night.

My brother and I served in the United States Army in World War II. The Lord never forsook us. I remember the last service I was in just before going overseas. After the service, we prayed at the altar for several hours. There the Lord gave me a song, and it was, “Keep me true, Lord Jesus, keep me true.” I felt that from the depths of my heart.

We were stationed for a time on Okinawa, and while we were there, a devastating typhoon struck the island. We were living in tents, and that day I had become desperately ill. Then the typhoon came, and it blew! The air speed indicator broke at a little over 135 miles per hour. Back in the United States, newspapers said the winds got up to 175 miles per hour. The wind blew down the pole that held up the middle of the tent I was in; the lights went out. My twin brother said he was going to see if he could move me into the supply house which was a corrugated iron building, but when he took a look, he said it was about to go. We could do nothing but pray. That night, above the howl of the storm, I got a promise. The Lord said, “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.” Bless God! The Lord doesn’t always move the storm out of the way, but He is there in the storm to see you through.

I remember the day my brother and I finally headed home after the war was over. As we walked up the gangplank in Yokohama, boarding the ship that was to take us back across the ocean, I looked up into the sky and thanked God. I was glad to be going home, but more than that, I was going home a Christian. The Lord had kept me with the victory.

Not long after arriving home, our overseer talked to me about giving my time in the service of the Lord by working in the church printing department. What a great privilege I felt that would be. Since then, God has given me many other privileges in His service. Although I have not gained anything great from a worldly standpoint, I don’t feel I have missed anything by giving my life to God. Life hasn’t always been easy, but God has been with me every step of the way. I know my road to Heaven is clear, and I am looking forward to the day when I meet my Savior.

Epilogue

In the years since these testimonies were recorded, these two men gave themselves faithfully to His service. As teenagers, they helped in the remodeling and construction of a number of churches, and countless other church projects. As time went on, one became a minister; the other a full-time Gospel worker. Into their eighties, in spite of a stroke that partially paralyzed one of them and a bone disease that has slowed the pace of the other, they still faithfully did whatever they could in the work of the Lord. Reuel passed away at the age of 82 in July, 2002.