Elsie Dubs

A friend of ours traveled to Portland and when he arrived at the train depot he was given a church paper. When he got back to South Dakota where we lived he told us he didn’t care for the paper he received; but he thought that my husband, who was so very ill, would like to read it. My husband played the piano and organ for the Lutheran church. When we read the paper we decided we would go to Portland, Oregon.

We had a sale and sold our cattle and other household items. The man who bought our belongings paid us with a bad check. We needed to buy a car to make the trip to Oregon, so we went to a Ford dealer in town to make a purchase; I told the man, “we need to buy a car, but all we have is this check with no funds in the bank.” The car dealer said, “Don’t worry, that’s my brother-in-law. Go ahead and pick out a car.”

“These people have church every night and no collections."

We got a Model T and we got the car home somehow. When home I drove the car around the fields until I was able to manage driving it. My husband was too sick to drive. We made a bed in the back seat for my husband to lay down and my two little girls, ages two and four, and my sister (Mary Frohreich), all started for Oregon.

One of my uncles was so concerned and told Mary that we would come in contact with Indians on the trip, so he gave her a pistol. We thought perhaps we wouldn’t be able to get my husband there alive. Coming over the mountains we would camp along the roadside; and many times we backed over the mountains because the car would not go uphill forward (no fuel pump).

When we got into downtown Portland we found a little restaurant to have some soup. I told my husband to stay there while I went to see if I could find the church. After enquiring of the church whereabouts I found it; there was no one there but the schedule of services was posted on the door. I went back to where my husband was waiting and told him, “These people have church every night and no collections. They have more than we have!”

We returned in time for the meeting and a tall man named “Slim” met us at the door. We wanted to get saved. I prayed for days and the devil told me, “These people have it, but you can’t get it.” I talked with Sister Crawford and kept praying for about ten days when the Lord saved me.

I got a job in the laundry, but I had one bad arm that I was unable to lift up. I was prayed for at the church and the Lord healed me.

I was prayed for at the church and the Lord healed me.

We lived here for about a year when we went back to South Dakota due to so much pressure from our family. We finally returned to Portland, and when we did Sister Crawford advised us to move to Medford, Oregon. We moved in town in Medford on Marie and May Streets. We named one of our daughters Marie May Dubs. We built two houses here and did farming.

When Camp White was built near Medford, all my husband did was hang doors for months. In later years he built a spec-house; also built our house on Spring Street.

One day my husband and Paul were trying to load a cow into a trailer but the cow was not cooperating. They worked and worked with a rope tied to the cow trying to force into the stanchion on the trailer with no success. I came out from our garden a little disgusted with them and said, “You fellers, just work yourselves to death!” I went into the house to pray about it.

They had tied the cow up to rest. Soon the cow went up in the trailer and put its head right through the stanchion. I told them when I came out of the house, “If you fellers would just learn to pray,” and headed back to the garden.

He has done a thousand times more that I expected when I gave Him my life.

Often when heading to church there was a lost shoe, so I would get on my knees in the kitchen and tell them to get their shoe. God allowed me to help a sick woman that lived up on a mountain east of Medford. I lived five miles south of Medford. I walked up the mountain in bad weather to take care of the lady. I cared for her for a week or so and was able to walk back home. God was good to us.

I thank God that He ever brought me into this wonderful Gospel. He has done a thousand times more that I expected when I gave Him my life. He gave me such health and strength. It is true I have a little rheumatism but I go right on. I thought I couldn’t go on a trip and I pretty near gave up, but Brother Ray Crawford said, “I think Sister Dubs should go too,” and that gave me courage and faith. My mother was so sick, but God just undertook and took her pain away. Sister Allen told you a little about the trip. When we were down there we were on a ranch. We gave out papers and a little girl got hold of a paper. She told her cousin to write in to Portland. I guess you sent papers and the newsletter. When we got there, we went to look them up and the girl asked questions and we told her, “We want to tell you about Jesus.” We had three prayer meetings with them. She wanted to come. I want you to pray that God will help them and that they will stay true. The storekeeper there wouldn’t let religious people in his place, after the meetings he said, “They have got something the others haven’t got.” A bartender sat through the meetings with such hunger. I know he is going to be a mighty warrior for God. Please pray that he will get work. I want you saints all to pray for him.