Forward To My Wife Marge from Tony Abram:
I am very happy to write this forward to say that my wife Marge has been a faithful fellow worker in the Vineyard of God with me for these past 40 years. They have not all been easy years as God has sent us into over 120 countries to preach and declare that Jesus Christ is Lord!
She has not complained but in fact has encouraged me time and time again. When living conditions have been difficult she has always reminded me that we are doing it for Jesus. Her conversion to Christ over 50 years ago in a village called Glendon, Alberta, Canada where she as a young girl, experienced the saving grace and keeping power of Jesus.
I will let her now tell her testimony in her own sweet words.
I do congratulate you, Marjorie Abram, for your 50+ years of serving our Lord Jesus Christ and more so thank our Father in Heaven for your life and ministry, that He gave you to me my helpmate and fellow worker in the Vineyard of God, in the ministry of World Evangelism. I am sure that her testimony will be a blessing to you as you read this.
Before telling the story of my conversion, I want to begin with my grandparents leaving their homeland of Ukraine to start a new life of pioneering a farm in Northern Alberta, Canada.
When they arrived in Canada in 1911, my father, the third child, along with his sister and two brothers, was only three and a half years old. Life was very difficult for them. They were very poor so Grandpa and Grandma both worked to help other farmers.
It was one such evening that a horse and rider arrived at their farm. They did not know it, but he was a Bible salesman! Grandma invited him in and prepared some food for him. After the meal, he brought out the Bible and began to read to them. It sounded so wonderful! But it was late and time to retire for the night. Grandma prepared a bed for him on the floor.
The next morning, they all rose and Grandma prepared some breakfast. He read the Word of God to them again. He saw that they were too poor to purchase the Bible so he left it with them. Every day Grandpa read the Word to the family. They began to have knowledge of the Word, God sending ministers to them, especially calling a minister from the Ukraine, Rev. Karp Hrycauk, to go to his own people in the far away land of Canada.
This precious man sacrificed much, walking many miles in snow and bad weather to bring the full gospel message to this needy people. How I thank God for these pioneers of faith who brought the message of God’s Love, Redemption and the need for the Empowerment of the Holy Spirit! It was in this setting that I was born. The family all attended church and Sunday School.
1948 Revival brings salvation to 8 year old girl - MARGE!
In 1948 a revival swept through Northern Alberta deeply affecting our Slavic churches and many others as well. I was eight years old at this time when a visiting evangelist came to our church. I do thank God for our pastor at that time, Pastor Toman, who did not hinder the moving of God’s Holy Spirit in our midst As the evangelist ministered, he asked for those who wanted to invite Jesus into their hearts. I felt a tug on my heart and wondered, "Would Jesus really come into my heart?"
Shyly I raised my hand and went forward in the altar call. That night, while we were praying, my friends had visions. One had a vision of Jesus! Praise the Lord! That night Jesus came into my heart. I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus had come into my life and washed my sins away! Oh, the joy and peace that flooded my heart! The next day at school I shared the Lord with my classmates. I obtained a Bible. Since no one told me where to begin, I began to read the Book of Revelation. This is deep reading for a young eight year old. However, I learned that I should read John and the gospels.
Some time later, a young man, Michael Brandebura and two other Bible students visited our church. God planted a hunger in my heart to one day attend a Bible School and study His Word. Michael and his wife Ann are good friends of ours today. After my conversion, we moved to Vernon, British Columbia. Desiring to attend Sunday School, my six-year-old sister and I ventured out to find the church, which we were told, was only three blocks away. However, we soon discovered that we were lost and on the main street of the city.
I remember the terrible feeling of being lost. My sister began to cry. I tried to comfort her, feeling terrible myself. Perhaps almost an hour went by. Suddenly up the street we saw my eldest brother Andy coming. How happy we were! We knew we would be safe now. We just wanted to go home. I thought of our elder Brother Jesus Christ who found us when we were lost and brought us back into fellowship with our Father God!
I have shared this testimony around the world before singing the song, ’Had it not been for Jesus, then my soul would be lost.’ Shortly after we moved to Edson, Alberta and then on to Prince George. B.C. because of my father’s work in the lumbering trade. We attended Sunday School and church during this time and shortly after we moved again to Williams Lake, B.C. By this time I was a teenager. I often say now that perhaps our moving so much made it easy to leave all to follow the Lord into over one hundred and twenty countries as God has led us to minister the gospel these thirty-six years!
We had a fine pastor here as well in whose home I was blessed to spend a year while attending high school. Pastor Fawcett and his wife were a blessing and inspiration to me. My teen Sunday School teacher, Olive Unrau, also was a great inspiration to me, having us learn many portions of scripture, which I recall today. This has been such a source of blessing and help to me as I have prayed for and led many to the Lord myself. Olive and George have been a blessing to Tony and I through the years as they have prayed for our ministry. Here I began to teach a Sunday School class and later became Youth leader.
After high school I began work in a bank. Later a new pastor came to take charge of the flock, Pastor Funk and his wife. He also taught us much from the Word of God. Since there was a vacancy, the pastor had confidence in me as a seventeen year old, asking me to become bookkeeper for the church. This experience was to prove invaluable in the years to come. God’s Hand was on my life and I felt the need for further study of the Word.
When the dean of British Columbia Bible Institute in North Vancouver and a quartet from the college came to our town, I prayed, "Lord, if it is your will for me to study at this college, let the dean approach me with an enrollment application." This he did and the following year I was enrolled there. Pastor Funk drove me to the college in his Volkswagen Beetle to begin my three-year study. That little car was full to the top with suitcases and boxes with only enough seating room. You can see why I appreciate my pastors who shepherded me and have great respect for these men of God!
While at Bible College, we were required to make a church in the area our home church. Pastor Peter Kerychuk and his wife Jean were the pastors of a Ukrainian church there. Since Jean and I were cousins, she asked me to attend their church. I had been away from hearing the language so many years so it was difficult to understand Bible language. However, this experience was also invaluable as my husband and I would minister in the former Soviet Union during communism and after and plant 59 churches ourselves to date. Praise God!
While at Bible College I was very busy with my studies as well as being voted in as class secretary and Student Council secretary. I was also praying, asking God for His direction in my life. I had chosen Matt.6:33 as my favorite scripturec(Mat 6:33 KJV) "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."
May I say here, if you are earnestly desiring God’s perfect will for your life, God will give you the very best. It was during this time that my future husband, Tony Abram, a Co-Evangelist with the T.L. Osborn ministry came to Vancouver to precede his crusade there. I was assistant youth leader at this time. Tony was invited to our church to share his testimony and preach there. He visited many churches in the area asking for their co-operation in the crusade. He was staying with friends at the church, Metro and Veronika Fedow. Veronika had told me of his dedication and prayer life and that he was going to ask me out . When he asked me to dinner, I answered in the affirmative as I had already prayed, asking for God’s direction.
Two months later we traveled back to Williams Lake for my parents and Tony to meet. Tony and I had planned to meet in England and be married there. However, my parents wanted me to be married at home. The following week on a Tuesday evening, November 20th, 1962, we were married in a candlelit ceremony. My family were all there. The church family and many friends were there. However, Tony’s parents and brother Frank could not be there as they were 3,500 miles away in Pennsylvania. The church ladies made my reception lunch and dear Sister Dunn who has since gone on to be with the Lord, even made us a beautiful wedding cake. My brother Bill teases, that during the wedding reception, the cake started to topple over as it was filled with fruit.
After the wedding reception, my sister Evelyn and her husband Ed drove us to Vancouver where I helped Tony pack to leave for home before going to England. There at the airport we said goodbye trusting to meet again in England. I gave notice at my job and in two weeks I was able to join my husband in Pennsylvania, meeting his family there. We had a short time of ministry in the area before leaving for England. That cold winter was to be the coldest year in 248 years of recorded history. God did many wonderful healings and miracles in England that year. A spiritist came to one of our meetings and she was saved, delivered of a spirit of wickedness and healed of a partially paralyzed side. God created a new eyeball in place of the glass eye, which she took out, feeling an irritation in it the next morning!
We preached the gospel in Southern Africa near Buchuanaland, where for the first time the Africans heard the message of salvation. They told us they had never heard such a story of love, that God would love them so much that He would give His only son to die for them! We went on to Mexico, Central and South America. We ministered in the former Soviet Union where God gave us many wonderful deliverances and angels even preceding our coming with many souls being saved.
I have been especially blessed as I have been able to share in Women’s Ministries telling women that they can also be used of God. I have been so blessed as I, with my husband, have seen two Nation-wide revivals in Bolivia and Paraguay, South America. In the city of Santa Cruz, Bolivia, during our crusade in the stadium, three nights in a row, ten deaf and dumb testified of healing. Their first words were, "Jesus!"
What a privilege it has been to go with my husband to share the wonderful good news of the gospel! I can truly say that my eyes and ears have been blessed to see and hear the wonderful works of God!
What a joy and thrill to celebrate my 50th Jubilee year of salvation at the Glendon Pentecostal Church while they celebrated their 70th year! The Glendon church, where my brother Bill is now pastor, is the mother church to the Slavic Churches of Northern Alberta.
Matt.13:16&17 "But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear. For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them".
Luke 10:24 "For I tell you, that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them."
If you would like to have additional copies of Marge Abram’s testimony, please write to Mother Abram and request it. We want you to know that without your prayers and faithful support we would not be able to take the Gospel to the Nations. God bless you and yours is our daily prayer. We love you all!
