This testimony may date back over 60 years ago, but it tells the amazing testimony and impact that God's prophet had on the life of this sister when she was just a child.
In January of 1947, the pastor of our little church announced that a young preacher from Indiana had the same manifestations in his ministry that the apostles had had. My dad, who did not profess to be a Christian, told mother, “We are going to hear that man.” We lived in Imperial Valley, California, not too far from the Salton Sea. It was almost a 200 mile trip to Long Beach, where the services were held. I had just turned nine years old.
We never imagined we would ever see or hear a man speak like Brother Branham did. He was so humble and simple. He had an unusually sweet, quiet spirit about him, but spoke with authority. He told us plainly that Jesus Christ was the Healer, and not himself. What impressed my dad was that Brother Branham did not ask for or take up an offering. In fact it was the very opposite.
My dad took me by the hand and walked me up to the front of the church after the service was over. He wanted to see the jars of tumors, cancers, and goiters which people had been healed of. They had brought these to the service to testify of their healing and deliverance. With my artistic eye, I can still see those jars sitting on the card tables which had been set up for that purpose in front of the altar.
I was aware that people were shouting about their healing on the platform, but could not really see what was happening. But one little girl about my age was a deaf and dumb mute. Her healing was so remarkable that my dad decided to stay for another night's service. My mother’s aunt lived in Buena Park, so, against my mothers wishes we barged in on her relatives at midnight. As mom and dad related the testimony about the little girls healing, they were so excited. My great aunt Minnie said, “Bob, we know that family, and I am going to call them.” She did, and the family was still up rejoicing and praising the Lord Jesus for what He had done for their little girl. My Aunt and that family attended the same Assembly of God church in Fullerton.
Brother Branham announced that he would be going up on the coast for a series of meetings. He also announced that in the summer, he would be in Jonesboro, Arkansas for a two-week meeting in Brother Reed’s church called the “Cow Palace.” My parents determined in their hearts to attend all those meetings. Dad was a farmer and as the summers in Imperial Valley were too hot to grow his crops of tomatoes and squash, he was free to go as he pleased. My parents bought eight little baby calves with the dysentery and brought them home to raise and sell for money for the trip. Two of the baby calves fell to the ground and would not get up to take their bottle of milk we were trying to feed them. Mom said, “Let's pray for these calves.” We prayed, and in just a few minutes the baby calves were able to get up and eat. In July, we traveled to Arkansas and rented a motel for the two weeks. This was to change my life forever.
We saw people running up and down the isle shouting that they had been healed; they just could not be quiet about it. One man stopped my mother and me as we were looking for a restroom down in the basement. He said that he had been healed the night before from crippling arthritis and had been unable to walk. He could not stand still, he was so happy to have the use of his legs again. Another man, I think he was a guard, pointed to a roped off small platform and told us that is where the woman who had been demon possessed had been kept before her healing.
During the meetings, we were told to bow our heads and the mothers to hold their babies eyes closed for them. He explained that when demons and diseases left sick people, they would look for somebody else to “Enter.” Brother Branham said they entered into other people through their eyes. There was such a holy reverence upon most of the people, but, if they weren’t reverent, Brother Branham said he was not responsible for what might happen to them. The fear of God was so strong on me that I would not have for any reason opened my eyes until Brother Branham gave us permission to do so.
We tried every day to get into the prayer line. My dad’s mother had serious heart trouble and was unable to do anything. My mother wanted to take me through because I was always getting sick and had hay fever and asthma. But she did not really know what was wrong with me. One day we went to see a distant relative of my mothers who had a son who was blind. Mom talked this 16 year old boy into going to a Sunday morning service with us. She was able to get him into a fast prayer line, but left me with my grandmother. There were three services that day, and grandmother and I stayed there all day in the prayer line to keep our place. In the beginning of the service, we saw a little cross-eyed baby girl about one year old whose mother stood near us holding her. I talked and played with her and my mother held the baby to give the mother a rest. When he prayed for her, she was right in front of mother, and after the prayer, her eyes were straight and normal when she looked back at my mother. I did not see her, but mother did. There was a man so swollen from kidney failure that had been flown in by the US Air Force to be prayed for. I thought he looked like Goliath in the Bible. He was huge! The testimony of his healing is relayed in the Life Story book.
When our turn came in the fast prayer line, grandmother was in front of me and the men rushed her off the platform after she was prayed for. They had to keep the people moving as there were thousands waiting to be prayed for. When Brother Branham took my hand, he stopped and looked at the usher and said, “What’s on her prayer card?” The usher said, “The mother has written she doesn’t know what is wrong with her daughter.” He asked my mother to come up to the platform so he could talk to her. While waiting for her, Brother Branham turned me to the audience and said, “Look at her hair, isn’t it beautiful!” It was to my waist in long curls with braids across the top of my head.
Mother did not come, and so I said, “Brother Branham she had to leave and maybe she could not get back into the building.” Brother Branham then asked the pianist to have me sit on the outside of the piano bench next to the audience so that my mother could see me. He told her that he wanted to talk to her as soon as she came. When mother was finally able to get through the solidly packed crowd, they were carrying Brother Branham out. He was so weak he had collapsed. She never talked to him, because Brother Gordon Lindsey told us not to bother Brother Branham with letters or phone calls.
As I was leaving Brother Branham, I reached up and patted him on his right shoulder, and he turned and looked at me very stern. I was a little frightened by his look. But when I said, “Brother Branham, would you pray for my daddy that he would be saved?” His face crumpled and he took me into his arms and told the audience that “This little girl has asked us to pray for her daddy to be saved.” He pulled me up to his chest, and smashed my face into his wool suit coat. He prayed and sobbed, crying out loud, as he rocked back and forth with me in his arms, my feet off the floor. I had never felt such love as when he looked into my eyes. He could not have prayed with more sincerity for his own father than he did for my daddy.
That prayer for my dad was answered, because at 93 years old, he still attended services at the Branham Tabernacle faithfully. My mother wrote to the Voice of Healing magazine that I had been healed of asthma. My grandmother lived another 19 years, to the age of 77. Eight members of my family now work at VGR helping to get the Message of Brother Branham’s to the world.
What did I learn as a nine year old child? I saw in action that “Jesus Christ was the same yesterday, today, and forever! All I had to do was call upon the name of the Lord Jesus, and He would always be there and hear my cry.