Grandma Personeus was a storyteller. As newly weds in 1917, she and Grandpa went to the Territory of Alaska as pioneer missionaries with no promise of financial support. She enriched my childhood with her wonderful stories, keeping everyone spellbound with her vivid descriptions of their early days in Alaska living by faith and the miracles God performed on their behalf.
In 1974, while my husband was preparing for the ministry and I was working on the editorial staff at the Assemblies of God Headquarters in Springfield, Missouri, my grandparents, Charles and Florence Personeus, visited us for several weeks. The first Assemblies of God missionaries to Alaska, they were still ministering there during their retirement years.
Before they returned home, Grandma placed in my hands a packet of her written accounts of their many miraculous healings, adventures, and God's provision. "People want me to write a book of my stories," she said, "but I'm too old to see it through by myself. I'm giving you this material to do with as you think best."
Then she explained that she and Grandpa had chosen a particular verse of Scripture for their senior years: "Once I was young, and now I am old, yet I have never seen the godly forsaken, nor seen their children begging bread" (Psalm 37:25, NLT). Wherever they traveled across Alaska and the Lower Forty-eight States after retiring from full-time pastoring, they spread that message.
When I read her stories, I was struck by not only the stories but the truths they contained. As a working mother, though, I had no time then to write a book, but I began to collect additional stories and do the necessary research. Eight years later, I was able to set aside a week to hole up and write the manuscript. Before my grandparents died in 1985 and 1986, I was able to read that first draft aloud to them.
After many attempts, I was finally able to get Frontiers of Faith* published in 2002, sixteen years after both of my grandparents had gone to heaven. My purpose in writing the book, as was theirs, was to "write down for the coming generation what the Lord has done, so that people not yet born will praise him" (Psalm 102:18, TEV).
Everyone has a testimony--a story of what God has done in your life. You may not be able to write a book, but today there are many ways to record your story for your children and grandchildren: storytelling, handwritten or computer journaling, letters, scrapbooking, camcorders, CDs, DVDs, YouTube, Facebook, blogging, to name a few. What a blessing it has been to me and my family, as well as to other who have read my book, to hear of the ways God performed miracles for my grandparents to provide for their needs. Now I am blogging our stories of what God has done for us.
I encourage you to write or record your own accounts. Your experiences can encourage your loved ones in their times of need because "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever" (Hebrews 13:8). What He's done for you, He'll do for them too. Hearing your experiences will give them confidence that God will see them through whatever life throws at them.
Some years ago, during a very difficult time in my life, I was encouraged by a song that said what God has done for me, "He'll Do It Again" for you. And He did. How are you sharing what the Lord has done in your life?
*Available at http://www.annaleeconti.com.
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