God knows my Grand Mother!

           My father’s mother was born in Denmark. Her family lived on a farm in Jutland and they really were dirt poor. There were 13 children born to my Great-Grand parents and after a certain age they all worked the fields. My Grandmother, Marie, was taken out of school after the fourth grade and became a laborer on a nearby farm working in fields where potatoes and other crops were grown. Marie had two brothers who were both seamen who travelled around the world as merchant marines. Their tales of live in America inspired my Grandmother to save up money to go to the United States. She was just 16 years old when she left Denmark, did not know any English and only knew of some cousins who lived near Boston in Waltham.

           When she arrived in Waltham a family hired her to be a servant and she gradually learned English. What she heard about California inspired her to move to San Diego where she met a Catholic man who took her to a revival. Marie had never had any religious training and the whole church scene was new and interested her. At the revival she accepted Christ as her Savior, stopped dating the Catholic man and regularly attended a church and revival meetings. At one of the revival meeting she heard a young Swedish Pastor named Samuel speaking and felt God telling her that this man would be her husband. After the meeting was over, Marie went up to talk to the Swedish man since their native languages were so similar. They began to date and only later did Samuel tell her at the meeting where they first met God had told him that this woman was to be his wife.  Samuel was a very focused man of God who spent a lot of time in prayer. He was what people of the time called “Prayed up.”

          They were married and initially pastured a church in Turlock California where they had two daughters, before moving to San Diego where my father was born. After 15 years of marriage my Grand Father died of heart attack leaving my dad who was 12 years old at the time to be the man of the house who could only attend school four hours a day and then had to go and work to provide money for the family to live.

         My Grandmother was not educated, but was a scholar via experience when it came to wisdom about walking with God. She was very independent and strong willed, but a helpful prayer warrior. Waking up about 4 AM every morning Marie would start the day off by praying for everything that God brought to her mind. She worked as a waitress in downtown Seattle at Frederick and Nelsons until she was 60 years old. When she retired they gave her a retirement of $1 per month for each year she had worked there.

                           Dad and his mom when she was 86

         Often she spent her days after retirement riding on buses in Seattle and witnessing to those she came in contact with. One day a drunk man got on the bus and sat across from her. The bus stopped to pick up a woman who held two large bags of groceries in her arms. As the woman bent to take coins from her purse a bunch of oranges rolled to the floor. Bending over to pick up the oranges the woman loudly expelled a burst of gas, and the drunk laughing stated in slow slurred voice that every person on the bus could hear,

                                                 “That’s it lady……..

                                            If you can’t pick’em up…..

                                                    shoot em!”

Everybody on the bus laughed. This was one of many stories my grandmother would tell and she would laugh so hard her eyes would tear up. Her humor balanced out a warm,  loving and firm side that was concerned for the salvation of others.

         When my grandmother died there were dozens of people who shared stories with me about how she had helped somebody, led them to the LORD or prayed healing prayers for them. There are a lot of stories I know about my grandmother, but my favorite is about a time she was visiting the sick in a downtown Seattle hospital.  

         Marie was going from room to room and praying for the people. She was a spirit filled woman and would pray in the spirit for each of them. Her prayer life was so active that she would know when she had gotten God’s attention (what they used to call “Prayed Through”) and then she would move on to the next patient. Going into a different room she saw a woman alone lying on a bed who did not speak English, so my grandmother began to pray for the woman in the Spirit until she felt like she had prayed through. When she was praying and when she was done the woman spoke to her in a language she did not know or understand. Getting up, my grandmother saw that a man and woman had entered the room and were standing waiting for her to finish communicating with the woman. The man started talking to my grandmother and she told him I do not understand your language but can speak English. The man looked her in shock and told her in English that she had been speaking to his mother in her native language. He proceeded to tell her that she had been telling his mother about Christ and his mother accepted Him as her Savior during this conversation. I get goose-bumps and misty eyed every time I think about this.

       That was my grandmother. A woman educated to just the fourth grade in schools and with the most spiritual knowledge and discernment of anyone I have ever known. It always make me think of Paul writing that “God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him" (1 Cor 27-29). When my grandmother would hear of a need she would always pray for the need to be satisfied. Usually she went off by herself to seek God’s face and her prayers were simple used a lot of Scriptures and were powerful. She is the best example of a woman of faith that I have ever known.