Cynthia Brown

Testimony

Praise belongs to my Lord and Saviour for the great and mighty things that He has done in my life.  At the age of 8 the Lord convicted me during a revival service that I was a sinner and that I needed Him to forgive me of my sins and to come into my heart.  As Jeremiah said in 33:3, I called to Him that night at the altar and with sweet peace He cleansed my heart and lifted the burden of sin.  He also gave me a desire to be a pastor’s wife and to serve Him with all my heart.  I learned of another step of obedience at the age of 14 and followed the Lord in baptism.  Upon this step, I became active in helping with the youth in camps and in Vacation Bible School.  By the age of 16 the Lord had allowed me to teach in Vacation Bible School and in Sunday School, seeing little ones come to Christ.  At an old fashioned teen camp meeting that year, I surrendered my life to the Lord for whatever He needed me to do.  As we gave our testimonies that Sunday in church the Lord had my minister-husband sitting in the congregation.

The Lord provided a husband, David, for me for twenty years.  He gave us two wonderful sons, Jeremy and Joshua.  Jeremy was saved in Sunday School at the age of 5 and Joshua saved at the age of 3 at home.  The Father gave us some rich training ground in each place that He planted us.  After twenty years of marriage and ministry, the Lord took David home.  Through those last two years, God proved Himself to our family over and over again of His faithfulness (Proverbs 3:5-6).  He is my Jehovah-jireh ~ The Lord will provide!

A few years later the Lord began to deal in my heart about missions.  But who would take someone my age, with no skills, and no husband?  Each year at teen Bible camp, I would struggle with the Lord during Missionary hour about going.  In July of 2002, I was headed from home, Enid, Oklahoma, to Camp Joy in Ava, Missouri.  I began to pray during that six hour trip that the Lord would remove any stumbling block from me and others that there would be no hindrance at camp.  He immediately brought up “Missions”.  With a broken heart I told Him if He would open the door, I would go.  I was there two weeks.  The second week the door flew wide open.  Brother Paul E. Pritchard was the Missionary Evangelist Speaker.  He began to speak of Biblical “Missions”.  This point was very important, for in my husband’s and my life, everything should be based upon His holy word.  As I saw the need and burden presented for the Portuguese-speaking people, the Lord dealt quickly with my heart.  By the end of the week Brother Paul had shared the need of help with the PREACH Evangelistic Ministry team and requested that I come for a visit.  The Lord provided a ticket and on September the 9th He gave assurance of this new step.  David had always made these decisions and had the responsibility of taking care of details.  This was a new path not traveled before.  The Lord provided miraculously a truck, the selling of 70% of my belongings, money for travel, an apartment, and safe traveling.  He brought me to the PREACH team on October the 8th and sold the home He gave us two weeks later. 

I have a great desire in my heart to be used of Him to see many come to know the Lord as their Saviour.  Pray that I will “Redeem the time, because the days are evil”.  May we see great and mighty things happen which we know not!