<TITLE>07. Par 27-28</TITLE>L-27 I was going along, humming it to myself. And I noticed this old lady as she looked across the gate, great big smile across her face. I stopped humming, started on by. She said, "Good morning, Parson."
Said, "How do you do, Auntie." She just started grinning, the great big tears running off of those cheeks.
I said, "How did you know I was a parson?" Now, a "parson" means "a minister."
And she said, "I knowed you was coming."
I said, "How? Auntie, how did you know I was coming?"
She said, "Well, I'll tell you how it was, Parson." She said, "Did you ever read that story in the Bible about the Shunammite woman, who the Lord gave a baby by the promise that he'd--the Elijah, the prophet gave her?"
And I said, "Oh, sure. I'm well acquainted with the story. I just preached on it a few weeks ago."
"Well," she said, "I's was that kind of woman. And I didn't have any children, and--and the husband and I wanted a baby so bad. And I prayed, and the Lord gave me this baby. And I told Him I'd dedicate the baby to Him." And said, "I's washed over the washboard, Parson." She said, "I's a wash woman in this district." And she said, "I--I raised that boy the best of my knowledge to love the Lord." She said, "He got out in the wrong company and he taken a social disease. And we's didn't know nothing about no social diseases. And our boy got sicker and sicker. And finally we taken him to the doctor man, and he said there's no hopes for him, he's gone, that the--the venereal disease had got into his blood stream and eaten up the parts of his heart. And when his blood would pump up, so much of it would drop back through. The valves in his heart was eaten off by the disease." And said, "The doctor man said there was no chance for him." And said, "He's laying in there on the bed." And said, "He's been unconscious now for two days." And said, "I just can't stand to see my baby die like that, and I prayed all night last night, 'Lord, You's give me the baby, but where is the Elijah?'"

L-28 You can imagine how I felt. I thought, "Lord, is this it?" I never said a word. "I's..." to her about being led over there. I said, "My name is Branham. Did you ever hear of me?"
She said, "No, sah. I don't believe I ever did."
And I said, "Well, how did you now I was coming?"
She said, "I went to sleep about three o'clock this morning. And I dreamed that I saw a man coming, wearing a little tan suit with a little Western hat stuck over on one side of his head. He had some letters in his hands." And said, "The Lord said, 'Go out and wait for him.'" She said, "I've been standing here ever since."
I patted her on the back, and her back was wet with dew. It was true. And I said. "Well, my ministry is praying for the sick, Auntie."
She wasn't interested in that. She said, "Won't you come in?" She opened up that little old gate with a plow point hanging on a a chain. I walked into that little old hut that morning, little two room hut, no rug on the floor nor nothing, a little old poster bed, cracks in the floor big enough that, oh, the wind just sweep up through it.
I've been in king's palaces. And I've had the privilege of being in some of the nicest homes, I guess, in the world. But I never felt any more at home in all my life, than I did in that little hut that morning. When I--I looked on the wall, it was not pin-ups, it was a--a little motto on the wall, "God bless our home." A little old chunk stove set in the corner. And on this poster bed laid a fine looking big man, look like he'd go about a hundred and seventy pounds and some six foot tall. And he had the blanket in his hand, going, "Humm. Humm. Oh, it's dark," he said.
And I said, "What's he saying?"
She said, "Parson, he's been talking about... the last two days since he's been unconscious." Said, "In his unconsciousness, he thinks he's in a great sea somewhere lost in the dark. And he's pulling a boat trying to find land. And I can't stand to see my baby die like that, Parson."


<A HREF="P8">Next Page</A>