HAZEL'S STORY - Part 1

I was blessed to be raised in a Christian home with parents that loved me. At the age of five years, Jesus Christ was very real to me and I knew He would answer even my simplest prayers. In our small village in Canada, there were only three churches. Our church had just a few families, so the bond of love was tight and comforting as I learned the stories of Jesus. At the age of thirteen, my family attended revival meetings in another town and I heard for the first time about the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the gift of speaking in tongues. I couldn't wait to be prayed for. This infilling was probably one of the most significant events of my life. The joy and encouragement of this gift has sustained me in many dark hours, and continues today.

Following graduation from nursing school I made the decision to go to the USA where there was a group of believers functioning in the gifts of the Spirit, as in the early church, and I wanted to learn more. Here I studied God's word and had time to meditate. However, after one year this group began to disintegrate as the leader left. Many of the believers were wounded aand disorientated by this experience, and my faith grew cold as well. Quickly my mind turned to other things; I returned to nursing and looked for another group of believers to fellowship with, but found none. Within a short time I met a young man in college and married him.

Now, my husband, a non practicing Catholic, did attend church with me after moving to Colorado, spiritual things were not particularly high on his radar as he was interested in getting estabished in his career. For the next two years I again was being convicted by the Holy Spirit about my lukewarm condition and repented. By this time we had moved back to Canada where my husband accepted a veterinarian position in a small farming community.

Here, I became very isolated and lonely. To establish a practice required long hours of work and many days on call. Because I felt like a wife alone, I desperately wanted fellowship and friends. I also wanted to grow spiritually. In this small community I found a group of believers studying the bible in their homes and was invited to join. How excited I was. Soon I discovered they were talking about an end time prophet named Marion Branham. This man had held large tent meetings with healings in the USA. Apparently God had given him many revelations about what was to happen before the final rapture of the Bride of Christ. Though Branham was now deceased, they were devouring his books to learn abuot the end times and the book of revelations. All of this was very stimulating to someone so hungry to learn more about the things of God. It was all so new.

Little by little I began to withdraw from things of the 'world' and prepare myself for that day. I wore long dresses and long hair, and had all the outward signs of a believer; so I believed. It was then discovered in some of his writings that he foretold of a man that would succeed him, who would come from the east and gather the Bride of Christ together in a desert area. As people were reading these books all over the world it wasn't long before someone came from India declaring that he was this person.

He began to produce his own writings that dovetailed with Branham. Many people questioned this, however, the group that I was with were convinced that this was the fulfillment of prophecy. Paulaseer Laurie then made a trip to Canada and further convinced the believers that he indeed was called by God for this purpose. He was masterful at using the book of revelations to prove his point. So it happened that after he left, two Canadian men actually made a trip to India to see where they were to take their families and test if this really was true. Upon their return, the 'believers' began to sell their houses, farms and rid themselves of all their material possessions.

We had by this time returned to the United States for my husband's job, and though I was absent from the group, I was still in contact with them and now in a personal quandary. I had two beautiful children, how could I possibly go to India and leave my husband? Yet, I was convinced that this is what I needed to do if I truly loved Christ. I felt it was a test. Did I love earthly things more than I loved to be with Christ? Therefore, my prayer was, "God, if this is of you, then make a way. I need airfare, I need my husband to agree that I take the children, and to sign their passports." My husband had noticed the changes in me, but because I was still a good wife and mother, he chose to ignore these signs. He continued to be very busy with his practice. I continued to move forward to my goal and get rid of all my earthly things, taking many trips to the Goodwill. Finally my husband said, "I don't understand this pull that you have to go to India, but I can tell you that if you are there for 1 month you will get your fill of heat, snakes and bugs, and then maybe you will be able to come home and put this foolishness behind you. So I will sign for the children's passports."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing, surely this could only be from God, right? So, with my two year old daughter and three year old son, we drove to Canada to join the others that were headed to India. My husband and I said our sad good-byes; very difficult, he believing that his wife would return soon and forget all this, and me believeing that it would all soon be over and I would be raptured and all earthly sorrow behind me. It was July 1971.