Bitterness Replaced with Peace

God had truly performed a miracle in her father’s life. Would He do the same for her?

By Ethel Hodson

Fifty years ago, a drunkard heard some music while in a skid road hotel in Portland, Oregon. He went downstairs and out to the street to see what it was all about. There he saw the Apostolic Faith people holding a street meeting, and they offered a way out of the awful life he was living. He had left his family three years before, on the East Coast, and had traveled across the country, working for the railroad and using his pay checks to drink. He had even reached the point of selling his blood to get money for liquor.

During that street meeting, something spoke to his heart and let him know that those people were talking about something real. He later said he had a pipe in his mouth and a sneer on his face, but as he listened to the service, he took the pipe out of his mouth and God wiped the sneer off his face. When the meeting ended, he walked with the group to their downtown church. He said that walk took him right out of Hell and into Heaven, because there he learned of the way out of his drinking and gambling.

He didn’t get saved there at the church, but he went back to the hotel and prayed all night. By morning he was changed; God had come into his heart. He walked by a saloon, and the smell of liquor made him sick. It was a complete transformation!

That man was my father. Before he left our home, our lives were a nightmare. There was violence, fear, and poverty. I can remember how, late at night, my brothers and I would stand behind the curtain separating two rooms, afraid to go into the next room because of the state my father was in. My mother was a battered wife, and we went through difficult things because of that. I was in high school when my father left home. Once, he sent a telegram and money to us, saying there would be more later, but we never received more. We never knew where he was. He would send postcards from time to time, but they had no return address.

When my father told the people of the Apostolic Faith Church that he had a family on the East Coast, they began to pray for us. He wrote and told us what God had done in his life, but it took nine months of letters and prayers before my mother was willing to bring us out to Portland. Finally the church overseer sent her a letter and verified what my father had told her—that God really had changed him. Then my grandmother told my mother she had heard of the old-time religion. She said that if my mother went to Portland and found that the Gospel wasn’t real, she would give her the money to return home; but my mother never needed to return.

I had received an offer of a scholarship, so I didn’t want to come out to Portland. Mom said my dad would want to see me, though, and that she needed my help on the trip with the younger children. She promised that if I still wanted to go back, after a month in Portland, she would let me.

One month later, I think to the very day, I prayed, and God saved me. I hadn’t thought I was a sinner, although I knew my dad was. I thought a person had to be very wicked to be a sinner. I had always wanted to be good and to do good, so I didn’t see that I needed the Lord. God made me willing to pray anyway, and He made such a change in my life. He took out the bitterness that was in my heart over the way my life had gone, and He gave me real peace.

That has been a long time ago, but I am thankful God has been with me through the years. He gave me a Christian husband, and we have five children, ten grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. A lot of things have come our way during these years, but God has been faithful. I did well in school, but I feel I was very slow to learn in serving the Lord. I am thankful for His patience. I try not to need to learn the same lesson over and over, but there is always a new one around the corner. I am thankful He is always there for me, and I want to be faithful to Him.

Ethel Hodson is a member of the Apostolic Faith Church in Portland, Oregon.