As the young people of the Providence, Rhode Island, Temple walked the streets of the city singing for Ingathering, my husband led the group, and I helped solicit. It was our first year of work together. That year I was young people's leader during and following the Ingathering campaign.
The next year we were transferred to Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and it was there that one of the godly sisters organized a prayer band designed to pray the clock around from 6 A.M. to to P.M. The Lord blessed our work, and some fine souls were added to the church through the two efforts which we held in that vicinity.
On one occasion the local elder's wife and I interviewed a man in a restaurant with our good literature. He accepted our invitation to attend our effort in the city, and in turn he invited five other people, who later were baptized and joined the church.
Occasionally I spoke in the place of my husband. I conducted the music, played the piano, and visited the interested. I usually accompanied him to his cottage meetings and ran the stereopticon machine. I did Ingathering in some sections in the business places. I assisted in a successful Dorcas Society sale and sold several hundred Life and Health a month. Then there was the housework to be done, too, and long board meetings to attend.
Our next move was to Connecticut, where I spent my time keeping house, attending services, going to Bible studies with my husband, assisting in Ingathering, and working with our literature.
We were then transferred to Aroostook County, Maine, a place where ten ministers could be kept busy. Physically I was born in Vermont; but spiritually I think my birth took place in Maine. It was there I learned the necessity of prayer and the fact that God hears and answers prayer and protects His own. The absolute necessity of keeping close to God through prayer and Bible study was etched into my soul.
Those were days of trial and living close to God and holding sweet communion with Him. When we moved to Brewer, Maine, I made the habit of rising early in the morning to pray and read and write. While in Aroostook I visited from house to house and gave Bible studies. But "hanging on to the arm of the Lord," was my most
important exercise while there.
While in Aroostook we had a tent effort in Caribou. I had a smaller tent beside the big one in which I conducted Bible studies before the evening meeting, and reviewed subjects already considered in the large tent.
It was close, soul-wrenching work. Gone was my old self-confidence, but as I relied wholly upon God for strength, He gave me words to speak, and some of those who eventually joined us were those who faithfully attended these Bible studies.
Our next district was in Bangor, Maine, where we lived for two years, and from there we were transferred to Olean, New York, where we now reside. By this time our family has increased, and two precious children have come to bless our home. Naturally my home duties have mutiplied with the coming of the children, and my outside
activities have been more or less restricted. However, the children are getting older now, and the desire to see souls won to this truth is increasing rather than diminishing. Certainly I can devote some time each week to the salvation of souls!
My neighbors, with heavier home duties than I, find time to attend dances, card parties, and movie shows. Surely I can do for the Lord what they do for fun! It will take careful planning and hard work, but "I can do all things through Christ which strengthened me."
