What is the best thing that we can give our children? We can give them nice clothes or gifts, but what they really want is our time. It often seems that our time is the most difficult thing for us to spare. This is a testimony of a brother who made a great sacrifice to do something very special with his daughter. He feels like he was not a real daddy for her during the first years of her life, so he is taking a wonderful opportunity to make up for lost time.
Noelle is 39 years old and requires constant care. The doctors gave her penicillin for a high temperature when she was three months old. It caused brain damage and partial paralysis. Brother Nelson’s wife passed away in December, 2005 leaving no caregiver for Noelle. Rather than turn his daughter over to an institution, he retired early from his job at General Motors. This was not an easy time in his life. GM would not grant him early retirement, so he went five months without pay until the Lord answered his prayers with a retirement package. He has spent almost every day since then with his daughter.
Two years ago, a friend asked Brother Nelson how he liked the retirement schedule of six Saturdays and one Sunday. This comment made him think. Why should there be only one Sunday? “I want every day to be Sunday.” Brother Nelson had a talk with his daughter and asked her if she would like to listen to every tape Brother Branham made. They could spend the time driving around the beautiful Ontario countryside, and listen to the Voice of Revelation 10:7. Noelle liked the idea, so they took the first MP3 CD out of the case, placed it in the car’s player, and started out on their way. The sermon was titled, “Faith Is The Substance” preached on April 12, 1947.
One outstanding thing that happens is when I will be noticing a certain tree or maybe a flock of sheep, and Brother Branham will say something in the sermon that relates to exactly what I’m looking at. Many occasions it becomes real live time, where it changes from listening to a Message to having “no time gap” between the Message when first given and now! Wonderful! Often we will be driving, and I will say something to Noelle. She will be listening to Brother Branham and look at me, “Shhh!” “Sorry honey.” Sometimes Noelle will want to listen to another tape, so we will let the MP3 play for another sermon. Sometimes it feels like we are on our way to the next meeting!
Brother Nelson and Sister Noelle recently accomplished their goal and listened to Communion, preached on December 12, 1965. What is the next project? They are beginning again. This time they will listen to all the tapes preached in Jeffersonville.
What a great blessing it has been to be able to hear all the Messages in order! When Brother Branham refers to something he preached before, we are able to understand better! I thank the Lord for this opportunity and would encourage others to make the best use of their time; hearing and heeding the Message we have! God bless you all a lot!
Christian Love,
Brother Nelson
In the coming days, we will post Brother Nelson’s personal testimony of how he received a book wrapped in plastic from a friend. From that book, the Lord laid a very special thing on his heart.