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SEVERE TRIALS DURING FESTIVAL PERIOD REDIRECT MEMBER TO GOD

October 28, 1981

Greetings:

If I were not in God's Church, I really do not know what I would do in response to the series of events of the last six weeks.

Acting upon the advice of my local minister and three professional organizations, as well as my own convictions, I stood my ground on a very important principle and was promptly fired from my job a few weeks before the Feast. I was planning to quit anyway but not until the Feast, so for a month I was out of work.

The day after I lost my job, on a Saturday, my telephone went out of order, and I was told by the telephone company that repair crews did not work in my area on weekends. Twelve hours later, partly due to no telephone service, my foster father died in my wife's arms in our car on the way to the hospital. Within fifteen minutes of being notified of the death, the telephone company suddenly found a way to take care of the problem and my phone was again in order. Because of later problems, this issue is still not resolved. Two weeks later, the same problem occurred.

Before the Feast, I wanted to try out my homemade camper which had been parked out in the weather and, because of lots of high winds, had been somewhat the worse for wear. I reattached it to a utility trailer and took it out on a trial run to see how it fared. I drove a few miles in high traffic on an interstate highway without a problem, but as soon as I turned off onto a service road, where no one was behind me, the body blew off and smashed on the road into a "million" pieces. No one was hurt or involved, and there was no real loss. I got home and worked feverishly on doing something with the trailer frame in order to be able to haul the camping equipment to the Big Sandy feast site. However, the tow car broke down so I had to use a loaner.

While at the Feast, we experienced flooding rains in the area, so I called home to find out if any damage occurred in my home town. I learned that a tornado had passed within a thousand feet of our mobile home without touching it, but created considerable damage to at least three neighbors.

Later the same day, I had sent my wife off to town for a luncheon with other ladies. While she was gone, I received a message relayed from Salt Lake City via the Tucson feast site that one of my wife's nine children--her 26-year-old son--had been almost fatally injured in an accident. By the time I was able to call Salt Lake City, he had already lost both arms to the mid-forearm and the use of his right lung, and had less than a 10% chance of survival.

I took my wife to the airport and got her on a plane to Salt Lake City, where she still is, and I've been "baching" ever since....

After my wife's arrival in Salt Lake City, things changed slowly. Only two days ago, her son's mind returned to awareness and memory of the present. He lost more of his right arm to halfway to the shoulder. His right lung is totally destroyed and his right rib cage completely exposed. He still has only 10% chance of survival, with at least six months in the hospital if he does survive.

Your prayers for my wife's emotional, physical and spiritual state are urgently requested because, at the same time, one of her four daughters is in the last few weeks of a very difficult pregnancy and she, too, is in Salt Lake City and looking to my wife for help....

The Feast is over and, for at least some reasons, I cannot say it was the best ever as far as pleasure and enjoyment are concerned, but because it has directed my mind more to where it should be, I suppose I have to say that for more far reaching reasons, this Feast was the best one yet....

Here's hoping this finds you all no less well and happy than I am.

L. Z.

(Alvarado, TX)back to top

SURGERY BROUGHT HER CLOSER TO GOD

April 13, 1981

Dear Mr.Armstrong,

I want to thank you for your prayers for healing after my recent hysterectomy. When I came home from the hospital, your letter was there with an anointed cloth. I was so happy to hear from you....

All the brethren here prayed that God would heal and guide me. I later learned that one woman friend even fasted for me on the day of the surgery. All that love has been so special and wonderful. You should see the stack of cards and letters....

This surgery or trial was one of the best things that ever happened to me in terms of what it accomplished spiritually (and to a lesser degree, physically). I had been too busy for adequate Bible study and prayer. I am grateful to God for putting me on my back and making me call out to Him for help, healing, and sustenance. My priorities were wrong. I am still human and need God's help in putting sin out and overcoming. I am grateful that He is working with me.

What really got me through the surgery was asking for more of Christ's faith and being thankful; also thinking about others and realizing that I was in God's hands like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego when in a fiery trial. I don't mean to compare myself with them, but I have drawn from that example in God's Word for strength. I also think there was an angel at the foot of my bed watching over me.

After the surgery, my family was amazed how well I could move as there was hardly any pain. Even now people are surprised by my getting around. Because I have gotten well so quickly, I have to be even more grateful and remember that God is the giver of such good gifts. Praise be to such a loving Almighty Creator God who intervenes and hears our prayers!

In Christian love,

D. H.

(Onalaska, WI)

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GOD'S TRUTH HELPS MOTHER FACE DAUGHTER'S DEATH

November 16, 1981

Dear Mr. Armstrong,

This is a very difficult letter for me to write, yet I must.

Very recently, my 25-year-old daughter died of cancer. Almost a year ago, she was being treated for hemorrhoids until they did a minor surgery and found cancer. (We had two daughters--the other is twenty-eight and divorced with a two and a half-year-old son. They are living with us and I take care of my grandson.)

My younger daughter was baptized four months ago. She was very happy about being baptized and studied and attended Sabbath services when able to. She was in a great deal of pain and suffering to the end, but still had faith that she would be healed.

From the time she was little, she was always a happy, loving child--opposite of my older daughter. She was always giving, thoughtful, thinking of others first. She gave us a lot of joy and happiness. I couldn't have wished for a more perfect daughter. I miss her presence, but I know that she is sealed until Christ's return, and I have that to look forward to. I have to work hard so that I can also be with her.

My husband is not in the Church, but he was impressed with our minister, and the support, prayers, and phone-calls of members asking if they could help in any way. He couldn't get over all the gifts, post cards, letters, flowers, etc. He has been going to Sabbath services with me, thanking everyone and listening to the sermons.

My own relatives helped some, but mostly stayed away during my daughter's illness. If it wasn't for the frequent counseling and prayers of our minister and the concern of the brethren, I don't know what we would have done. I can't thank our minister enough. He kept me from falling apart and helped me keep my sanity through all this!...

It hadn't rained in a long time, but the day of the funeral it rained as was forecast.... However, it stopped long enough for the people to get into the chapel. Then it started to pour, but as soon as the services ended, the rain stopped, and we went out to the burial site which was only a few feet away. As soon as that part was over and every one got in their cars, it started to pour again. We received so many comments on the rain from non-members, and many were also touched by the minister's words....

My daughter touched many people. They loved her and will miss her like we will. But we know that we will see her soon and that she is only asleep. I have much to look forward to, but I know that I must really work hard so that I can be with her again. Even in the hospital, when she could walk for exercise, she would go and see other patients and cheer them up. The nurses and others would go to see her to get cheered up themselves.

To the very end she held on to her Bible and her faith and fought a good fight. God did not choose to heal her, but I think it was to perhaps keep her from further pain and suffering. I know He will tell her why when He returns. We have been blessed in other ways, even though our daughter wasn't healed. She left a good example to remember and follow and so much love. She was so precious. People would say that she lived a full, happy life, even though it was short. She graduated from U.C.L.A., did water-skiing, swam like a fish, made her own patterns and sewed--you name it, she could do it.... I feel my daughter lived her 70 years crammed into 25 years so to speak.

I want to thank you for the truth. It is giving me a lot of peace of mind which I need right now. I don't know what would have happened to me if I didn't know the truth--I would probably be a hospital case. God gave me the strength and courage to go on. It's not easy, but the truth makes it easier.

M. K.

(Hacienda Hts., CA)

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HAD ONLY GOD TO TURN TO AFTER HUSBAND'S DEATH

January 14, 1982

Dear Mr. Armstrong,

I feel happy to be helping God's Work in some way, however small, as I don't have much of this world's wealth....

Some years ago, I was left a fairly young widow, and penniless, when my husband died after a long illness. I was not old enough to get any kind of assistance, so I prayed for help. Soon I got quite a nice job, after I had sold everything in my house to pay bills and debts. I didn't even have a chair to sit on when I came home from work. But I really got my legs in good shape getting down and up on that floor. I am sure I could have run a country mile or more.

This is a small town, and everyone knows the kind of life others are living. So I was whispered about--no one could understand why I had sold my house furnishings, pots and pans, etc. I have replaced all these things now, and I suppose people have forgotten, for I have a lot of good friends.

But only God knew what I was going through at that time. I was scared and needed help from somewhere, and He was the only one I ever asked for help. I know He heard me when I prayed because He has blessed me in so many ways. I could have never gotten to first base on my own. I held my. head high and never lost my faith.

I thank God for my good health and every door of opportunity that was opened to me. I don't ever want to get my head so high and my neck so stiff that I forget that without Him I am nothing. I desire to do something for Him and obey His laws.

I have been listening to your radio program for a number of years. I thank God for you--you have had such an impact on my life.... And I thank you for allowing me to be a co-worker with Jesus Christ, in the Worldwide Church of God....

I love you, Mr. Armstrong. Thank you for helping me

Sincerely,

L. J.

(Fletcher, OK)

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GOD SAW THEM THROUGH HEALTH AND FINANCIAL TRIAL

May 5, 1980

Dear Mr. Armstrong,

Two years ago, my husband suffered a massive coronary attack while at work. He stayed in an intensive care unit for almost four weeks, which ran up an immense hospital and doctor's bill. But because of answered prayer, he made it and is doing well now.

We tried to get the company he worked for to pay his medical bills and compensation since he was permanently disabled, but they refused, so we hired a lawyer to persuade them otherwise. Even the doctors agreed that his job definitely brought on the heart attack. Well, to make a long story short, after two hard years the judge ruled in my husband's favor, and we received worker's compensation retrospectively. Here is our offering to God.

God watched over us, fed and cared for us through some rough times and we give Him thanks. We had a lot of medical bills (approximately $12,000 worth) and are also supposed to get some of that back. We had to borrow money to pay these bills at the time. People--both in God's Church and outside--were moved to help us. If it wasn't for that, I don't know how we would have made it with four children.

We pray for you to have good health and continue to lead God's Work here on earth.

Sincerely,

C. H.

(Waynesboro, MS)

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GOD STRENGTHENS PT SUBSCRIBER IN BATTLE WITH CANCER

May 21, 1980

Dear Mr. Armstrong,

For the last five months, I have been going to the hospital for cobalt treatments. To put it mildly, the 90-mile round trip each day has been very tiring. But God has been with me every step of the way!...

I have no car and depend on a few kind people to take me. If one has no money, like myself, one has to go for treatments daily. Although the doctor is kind, this predicament of mine was nothing to him. But God has shown me in no uncertain way that He was there. Though I have been in an organized church (Catholic), I have only found God and His Christ the last three years. Oh, I thought I knew Them, but I really did not.

During these thirty-nine awful trips, God held me up to walk the long stone corridors. And may I say that He literally pulled me along. Sometimes I said, "God, I can go no further. No, no more! I simply cannot." But immediately, although I heard no audible voice, there would come a surge of strength that I could hardly contain it. There I was clinging to a wooden railing which stretches along the corridors and had anyone noticed, they would have seen me propelled along in spite of myself.

And do you know that God has a splendid sense of humor? For at times this sudden push would strike me so funny! I always have a bubbly humor and tend to laugh at so many things. And God and Christ would laugh with me! For They know me so well. What a timid coward I can sometimes be.

In spite of the other side of the coin--pain, fright and horror--I never found God so near. I found myself praying for the other victims of this dreaded disease and consequent treatment. I had a supernatural compassion for them that I never knew existed in me.

Thank you for the beautiful and relevant literature without which I would never have known my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, nor my God! God pulled, hauled and pushed me through the thirty-nine treatments and trips. The doctor says all looks promising to him. Thank God. I am now to have a biopsy and then more check ups.

Thank you, Mr. Armstrong, for your prayers. Please keep on praying for me as I do for you.

Yours in Christian love,

P. S. (Woman)

(Dexter, ME)

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FAMILY REJOICES AFTER A SEVEN-YEAR-LONG TRIAL

January 19, 1982

Dear Mr. Armstrong,

I wanted to take this time to thank you for your willing obedience and servitude to our Lord Jesus Christ and God, our loving Father. It has been through your concern and faithfulness that I am blessed to know the true God and to have a personal insight into His tremendously loving mercy! At this time my wife and I would like you to join us in the thankfulness and rejoicing at the recent death of our little girl of eleven years.

Why would anyone rejoice at the death of his child? Sir, her entire life and personality were molded after the instruction of our God that we received through you.... I had the wonderful experience of having been baptized into God's Church as a single person and later being married to a lovely young lady in the Church.... One year or so after our marriage, we were blessed with a beautiful little girl and followed God's instructions through you to train her. Those methods certainly paid off, for our daughter didn't become the "brat" that so many children turn into. This alone was a tremendous blessing.

At the age of three she was so beautiful in action, that we could not take her anywhere without receiving some comment from people both in and out of God's Church. Then, suddenly, this beautiful child was stricken with severe convulsions and symptoms of a terrible illness. Immediately, she was anointed per God's instruction and three days later was swinging on her backyard swing with a great big smile. About a month or so later, at the Feast, she again became very ill. Again we asked God to heal her and He did. The brethren rejoiced with us at God's intervention.

Then, when she was a little past four years of age, she went into extremely severe convulsions. I've never seen a child so ill. To have a child with convulsions is very scary. We certainly knew she was close to death. Again we called on our Father, trusting Him to take care of the situation. The next morning she was nearly in a coma and her temperature was 105 degrees. We called the assistant minister, and he advised us not to let her die at home, for the authorities had only a year ago attempted to take the children from a church family after the death of one of their children at home.

I've not had any trust in the false god of medicine since I became a member of God's Church, or maybe before. Knowing the possible consequences, I had refused to take my daughter to a doctor, even with increased pressure from without. But after having talked with the elder, we thought it wise to act on his advice. The doctors knew we had waited a long time to admit her. They refused to even speak to us and looked on us as some sort of monsters. The only way we could find out what was going on was through a family member who worked in the hospital.

We were increasingly of the opinion that God's answer to our request for healing was "not now," as our beautiful little girl died five times that day! Each time they revived her until she finally could breathe without the aid of manipulation. A week later, the doctor transferred her to another hospital 75 miles away--one that was supposed to be better equipped. It made me shudder. After the doctors' statements, we began to prepare for a funeral, but she remained alive. They still had not found what source of infection had caused all the trouble--for she had spinal meningitis, a dreadful disease.

The doctors were about to give her back to us without knowing the reason for the disease, but just before they released her, she became ill with chicken pox! It seems that a nurse failed to wash her hands after leaving a patient with the disease. So while the girl was being treated for the chicken pox, they decided to look at the mastoid bone behind the right ear. When they opened the inner ear area, they saw a hole behind the stirrup in the ear and this aroused their curiosity. They checked the inner ear fluid and found it to be spinal fluid. This was the source of the infection. After patching this little hole, which was a birth defect, our daughter was not ill again until last year when she caught a cold. This she quickly threw off after being anointed.

However, the daughter the doctors returned to us was no longer the beautiful little girl she had been, for now she was blind, extremely thin, and screamed nonstop at the top of her lungs with an eerie cry that sounded totally inhuman. The doctors call it a "brain cry." Her little body was so deformed from paralysis that you could not pull her arms from tight against her chest. She was stiff and bending in a backward arch.... The drugs given to her did not seem to help much at all. Her little brain was badly damaged all over the surface. ("Profuse brain damage" they called it.) This caused her muscles and organs inside the body to lock up or function sporadically.

Needless to say, our whole life style centered around the little girl, her therapy and care. Through the next seven and a half years, she inspired many people in and out of God's Church....

Recently, we again asked our Father to make her well, but this time His answer was definitely "not now." I really don't think that God caused her condition. It was simply a birth defect, and He did not intend to heal her completely back seven years ago. I truly believe that since the doctors had revived her, God decided to use the condition as a chance for us to build some badly needed God-like attribute, patience.

Two weeks ago, our little girl went to sleep for the last time in this life. Her heart stopped--there was no apparent pain. We were sad only for a moment for we know God's promise, and we certainly do rejoice in that both our trial and that of our daughter is over. A thousand of our years is no more than a day to our Father--so how long is almost eight years to Him? God is not limited by our time, and in the very next instant in the consciousness of the little girl, she will be healed. It is as certain as Christ's return! If that's not a quick healing, nothing is.

So now you see why we rejoice! Isn't it something? The world celebrates birthdays, but we can celebrate death days, thanks to God's love and mercy. We feel this is the best possible answer God could give. What was His answer? "Certainly, I will heal the little child instantly." She is no longer ill and her next thought will be "Wow! I can walk! and run! and jump!"

Mr. Armstrong, I think you can imagine what an eleven-year-old child can and will do when in her next thought she looks down and sees a new body. I am sure she will want to climb every tree around and swing in every swing she sees for at least a year. Won't that Last Great Day also be wonderful? It certainly will be for us.

Love,

H. C.

(Edmonton, KY)

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FROM RICHES TO RAGS AND BACK

September 28, 1982

Dear Mr. Armstrong,

After being in the Church for nearly 12 years, I felt compelled to write you this letter and let you know of God's grace, mercy and love.

Prior to my baptism in 1971, I was told that I was required to remain single because of a previous marriage. After deep thought and prayer, I took God at His word, and was baptized into the Body of Christ. A short three years later, the ruling was rescinded and I met my wife through a Worldwide News pen pal ad. In six months we were married. God then blessed us with a job that had everything on our prayer list.

From 1975 to 1980, God blessed us and increased us with goods. I was making in excess of $50,000 per year, and we had a large, five-bedroom house, a summer home in the mountains, a rental property, big cars, and a motor home. We were able to spend the 1979 Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem. As things kept escalating upward, our attitude was becoming that of Deuteronomy 8:17, "...my own strength and energy have gained me this wealth" (New English Translation).

Because of God's infinite mercy and correction, in January, 1980, I received a new boss who was a tyrant, and in less than 30 days I was fired. Communication in our marriage became stilted and strained. I was sick with gout for most of the year. I worked hard at various jobs, but received no money, so for the Feast in 1980 we had no second tithe. However, we received help from the Church and the brethren and were able to have a beautiful Feast. That year, the summer home was put up for fore-closure, yet God delivered us and we were allowed to keep it.

During this time I read Psalms and Job a lot and cried openly to God. Over the next three years, I counseled repeatedly with God's ministers. I returned to work in February, 1981 for one-third of my previous income. I was learning some valuable lessons. After nine months the local office was closed, and I was terminated.

During the next ten months, the following events took place:

• We were threatened with foreclosure on the rental property. This was postponed through a fluke.

• I started my own business in December, 1981, with no money, no credit and in a recession.

• I was hospitalized with a gall bladder attack. There was no insurance. God's minister anointed me, and God healed me. However, I had repeated attacks of painful gout and was in nearly constant pain, unable to walk, much less work.

• We were four months behind on our $650 per month house payment and six months behind on the car payment.

• We received a second foreclosure notice on the rental property with 14 months owing.

• The phone company shut off the phone, and required a $200 deposit even though the bill was current.

• We expected a $3,400 income tax refund, but the IRS sent it to another state for alleged child support owed. The child support had been paid in 1978, but so far the money has been kept.

• We were $12,000 behind in financial obligations and almost had all utilities shut off.

• The day before the Feast of Trumpets, 1982, we had $17 in our business account and owed $2,000 in business taxes and to suppliers. We had no offering for the Holy Day.

And now, Mr. Armstrong, the good news:

We prayed for an offering and shortly before 5:00 p.m. a customer had called, insisting that he wanted to buy and pay for a computer terminal before the close of business that day. God had provided a Feast of Trumpets offering!

Monday, two days after Trumpets, I received orders from clients which gave us enough money to cover our debts three times over. In one day God had wiped out our debts and given us double that as income! He saved us physically--financially--in the last hour!

I truly KNOW Christ's promise, "I will never leave you nor forsake you" and the promise in Proverbs, "no evil can come upon a righteous man..." (we are counted as righteous because of Christ's sacrifice).

I had to tell this. Praise God, He DOES deliver. I want to encourage others. Sometimes we are like Israel standing in front of the Red Sea, wondering how it can open. Or like David before Goliath--he's so big! Or facing a recession--no work, no money, no food, sickness. Yet God DOES love His people. I know He loves me. He has given me the gift of faith. He ALWAYS delivers.

Thank you, Mr. Armstrong, for your faithful service and your example of perseverance and love.

With deep Christian love,

W. T.

(Bothell, WA)

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AN UPHILL STRUGGLE TOWARD A BETTER LIFE

January 29, 1981

Dear Mr.Armstrong,

This is a letter that I have been meaning to write for a long time.

I have been a baptized member for a couple years now. My first contact with the Church was as a teen-ager back in 1966 when I first attended services in Wisconsin on my way to SEP. When I graduated from high school in 1970, I had decided to move to California to live with my father. I was turned down from Ambassador College and my memories of church were not enough to even consider attending services once I arrived in the San Francisco area.

Like many I grew up with, I went out into the world and tried all that it had to offer--all the things that I had been protected from for years. Only after a rocky marriage, numerous mistakes, and beginnings of a divorce, did I once again start to read The PLAIN TRUTH. The magazines had piled up in the closet for years, unread. After reading The PLAIN TRUTH for about eight years, I wrote and asked for a minister to visit me. This was the first time in my life that I have sought a minister's advice.

One of the first things I asked was, "May I go back to church? I've been gone for almost nine years. How soon can I come back?" The very next Sabbath I restarted attending services and a couple of months later, I was baptized. Since then, I have been very thankful for the truth.

Even though, since the day I was baptized, there have been some real trials and tests, God has always come through for me. At times I feel, however, that He pushes me to my utmost limits. When things get very bad, I still would like to just give up and get myself out of things any way possible. But after a time I can see how all things do work out for the good.

Right now, God has been putting me through one of the hardest tests I've ever dreamed of having. For the first time in my life I had a proper dating relation-ship with a man--following all the rules and guidelines in the dating booklet. When the book on the "new morality" first came out, I had ordered a copy, but for years it sat in a closet. Now the result of ignoring your booklets and God's way is etched deeply in my mind. I am divorced with two children. I have had a number of relationships that have led to affairs--even men in the Church are not always able to follow God's way of dating.

It had felt good to try God's way--to take time to sit and talk and get to know each other. Having eight hundred miles between us helped. We were able to talk and visit and not get physically involved with each other. For me it was a very different way of doing things.

Last summer, we were able to spend time with each other--dating, and doing it God's way. By the time the Feast arrived, it looked like God was really blessing us and we would soon be married. Then we broke up, and since then I have been really tested.

For the last couple of months, I have been trying to find a place to live. The minister has been very helpful, and so have the brethren in the local church. A family has taken me and my two children in, for which I have been very thankful, as well as for all they have taught me. I have seen how needed a father is to properly raise children. How badly mine need to have a man around ruling. My three-year-old son has never had that.

Having had to deal with welfare lately has given me an active hate for Satan and his society. When women struggle to stay home and be mothers, Satan will do everything possible to get to them. There are times when I fear he will succeed--when there are car problems, a lack of money, no housing in sight, rebellion from the children (encouraged by their father), and when it looks like that even doing things God's way doesn't work. It can be hard to see how God will work things out and how all this is for my own good.

Yet having read your books, your experiences have given me hope that God will prove to me that proper dating and coming to love without physical involvement was all worth it. I hope that it will eventually lead to marriage and God's blessings will dim any memories of past "pleasures" that have come from doing it Satan's way.

I hope and pray that young teens will not have to go through what I did in order to learn that God's way to marriage is best; that they will never incur the punishment for doing things the wrong way; and that they will at no time have to wonder, as I do now, if God will bless for having done things His way, or if past mistakes may not make it possible.

There are times when the hardest thing to do is to wait for God to work things out, as it is hard for me not to try and do something.

I thank God for you and the truth and knowledge I have received. I pray that you will continue to lead us and provide the teens and young people with the knowledge desperately needed to attain a good marriage.

Thank you again. May God help you to help us.

K. W.

(Sunnyvale, CA)

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YOUNG TEENAGER WOULDN'T COMPROMISE ON GOD'S WAY DESPITE PERSECUTION

February 2, 1981

Dear Mr. Armstrong,

My parents used to be dedicated members of the Church but were disfellowshipped in the sixties. When I was fourteen, I decided to return to the Church. I could see the bad direction my parents were headed. I had to come back against their will, but was determined to put God first.

A year and a half later, I truly repented, and wanted to be baptized. However, my minister said I was very young and should wait awhile. I was baptized when I had just turned seventeen. It was a real blessing to have God deal with me since the age of eleven, later adding me to the Body of Christ....

I chose the Church, even though my parents were against it. I knew at a very young age what it was like to be persecuted because of God's way. Before I even started attending services, I was beaten, whipped, burned, choked, and cut for what I believed and for even believing in God. My older brother-in-law, who lived with us at that time, contributed to much of this. However, God moved us away from the violent part of Chicago to my home state, Tennessee, where this could no longer take place. Shortly after that I was able to attend services....

I wish all teenagers in the Church could hear my life story and realize how fortunate they are to be in the Church, with their parents in it to look up to. Unfortunately, I was cheated of this blessing....

I sincerely want to thank you for your help. Keep up the good work.

Sincerely,

in Christ's name,

K. S.

(Kenton, TN)

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PROBLEMS OUTNUMBERED BY BLESSINGS

September 4, 1981

Dear Mr. Armstrong,

We must be nearing the end because Satan has lately been causing all the trouble he can to try to discourage God's people. We have had a rash of things happening to our brethren here--health problems, family problems, etc. My wife and I came home from grocery shopping in the middle of the afternoon recently and found burglars ransacking our home. They tore out the back when they heard us, ripping out our big sliding door screen without taking the time to slide open the door.

But we have no complaints, for our blessings certainly always exceed our problems. We are most thankful to be together and in God's Church. We quietly and thankfully passed our golden anniversary a few months ago which, in itself, is a blessing few seem able to experience these days--and what a mess the world is in, partly as a result of family breakdowns!

Our only hope is the coming Kingdom, and we are trying hard to be prepared and accounted worthy to help teach the world the "way" when that day comes.

We pray daily for you and all of God's faithful ministers to keep up the good work--and speed the day for the coming of His Kingdom!

With love in Christ,

J. S.

(San Antonio, TX)

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