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Hi Pastor Solbrekken,
My name is Tilda Harder I wanted to let you know that if you had not been faithful to God in 1965 when you came to Steinbach Mb. I don’t believe I would be alive today and if I was, I don’t believe that I would be a Christian.
I wanted to thank you and tell you just how much it meant to me and my family that you preached God’s word and introduced us to the Holy Spirit.
We were never the same again!
I gave my testimony at a women’s retreat a number of years ago and if you have the time to read it all, feel free, and if not towards the end I write about the impact you made on my life for eternity. For ETERNITY!!
Thank you for giving the little girl in this story, me, hope in Christ, and just hope. I had none at all, but your tent revival gave me hope and I sensed the love of God for me for the first time that I could remember. God bless you!
Here is an excerpt of her horrible childhood with an unbelievably wicked father who abused her in every possible way: M.S.
When I was about 11 or 12 years old God intervened in our lives again. This was an intervention that would change the course of my life for eternity. Even though I had accepted Jesus as a young child, the way Christianity was playing out in our home was having quite a negative impact on me spiritually. Powerless religion was not enough to keep this wounded family spiritually alive. God knew this.
Something was about to happen in spite of dad’s free will. My father became interested in Pentecostalism, if there is such a word. We would go to Calvary Temple in Winnipeg once in a while. But where I experienced church as a living, breathing, life changing, powerful revelation of God and His love was when dad took us to camp meetings where a Norwegian evangelist from White Rock, Max Solbrekken was preaching.
The power of God was so strong in that old canvas tent. There were many miracles and testimonies. Testimonies that moved this young girl so deeply. Testimonies of God’s power. Power to deliver. Power to save and to heal. In those tent meetings is where my worship experience with God began. Oh, it was like water being poured on a desert. God breathed something in me that Satan would try to destroy over and over again, but he would not win.
The experience of God's power through the Holy Spirit was indestructible!! I needed to experience God’s power in order to continue to live.
I NEEDED SOMETHING THAT WAS BIGGER THAN MY DAD! Something that was bigger than the demonic. And even though I would become quite the prodigal later in my teen and young adult life, the power of God was something I never could forget. That God was real, I now knew beyond all doubt.!!
I would not have survived apart from that. THIS WAS PART OF GOD’S PLAN AND PURPOSE FOR MY LIFE!! Part of His plan was to give me a future and a hope. I encourage you to look deep into your life and look for those interventions that saved you. Look for the miracles that brought you to the Cross of CHRIST
I NEEDED HOPE!
My dad continued to have free will and he continued in spite of everything to abuse. His brutality did not stop. But God had breathed new life into me. Something that would keep me till I could spiritually breathe again. Nothing in hell could separate me from this new found love. But hell would try.
Worship became a very big part of my young life. I remember playing accordion, sometimes guitar in my room and singing worship songs and the power of God would fill the room as I would worship. God gave me very intimate times in His presence. I had no other intimacy.
I had found Someone who cared for me even though I could not seem to receive it or believe deeply as I would have wanted to. But in worship that was not my reality. In God’s holy presence I was in heavenly places, in Christ Jesus.
The last 12 years or so I have been very actively involved in the worship team at Gospel Chapel in LaBroquerie Mb. About 6 weeks ago we began going to a local church here in Steinbach, the Evangelical Free. I have worked for Child and Family Services since 1981 as a care provider for mentally and physically challenged adults.
I sing in a group called "The Goodwill Singers" and we minister in song regularly to seniors in apartment complexes, and also in nursing homes and at Gospel music festivals in Manitoba. This I enjoy very much.
I have written and recorded several songs with the hurting and wounded in mind and I was wondering if you would mind if I sang one at the end of my testimony? It's one of the two I have a sound track for. It is entitled, "Lord send a Healing." You can listen to it on You Tube if you would like. http://youtu.be/esDG6FT0rAs
I wonder if I could ask you a personal favor? I have never had a father's blessing prayed over me and I would so love if you would do this for me. You were the first really spiritual father I had. How fitting that would be.
I would be honored to give my testimony at Christ the Healer Gospel Church in Saskatoon. If it would be okay with you, it would be the same as the written testimony. It's about 3/4 of an hour long.
I gave God my testimony to use in whatever way He wishes, and believe as you do that there are so many hurting and wounded people in need of encouragement and hope. I want to honor God because it was His call on your life that brought you to Steinbach.
But had you not been obedient and preached the whole gospel under the powerful anointing of the Holy Spirit, I do not believe my story would have been one of redemption. My sister and I talk often about what would have happened to us had God not brought you into our lives that way. We siblings are all Christians and serving the Lord.
In Christ,
Tilda
