No one likes us…
… Jesus does!
God Called a Millwall Fan
In January 1994, I suffered a heart attack in Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire, while taking a series of New Year conferences for the Faith Mission. This led to a week in the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. Looking back, I assume it was a near miss for me. Jo, my wife, was concerned that she wouldn’t know details of my background to pass on to our children and asked me to make a record of family dates and details – hence the reason for this account! The more I sought to record, I realised it would be better to go beyond just facts and figures. It is by no means a full account and I appreciate that it will be lacking in journalistic flair, but as it was a request from my son, Thomas, to produce a book for my 75th birthday, this is the outcome. Many people, not mentioned in this account, have influenced my life and I thank God for allowing them to cross my path – they know who they are and I treasure their memory.
I would like to dedicate this to Jo, who has been my wife for over forty years. How she could put up with someone like me is a mystery I will always marvel at. Without her input, I would be a poorer specimen.
1. Birth and Family
Mother was born into the Arnold family and was the second child of thirteen. Two died in infancy and were unknown to me. The first child of that family, Jenny, suffered with asthma and was often ill, thus leaving Mum (Sue) to help her mother care for the younger members of this large family. Her schooling suffered somewhat as a result, but then most children of her generation were the same. As soon as possible, school was left behind to commence work and thus bring in some extra money to the family home.
She fell in love with Thomas Spain, a drummer and very accomplished dancer, who no doubt swept her off her feet in more ways than one! They were married when she was seventeen and had their first child (Tom) that year. Dad was one of six children – five boys and a girl. Grandad Spain died before my birth. Granma Spain was a ‘bookie’ (before betting shops were allowed by the government) and I was named after her son, Harry. He was known as the ‘bookies’ runner’ (ironic when you consider he only had one leg and used crutches to get around). Billy was a boxer but was badly managed, and become ‘punch-drunk’ as a result of his pugilistic profession. George died at the early age of twenty-eight with TB – a scourge across the country. Edward (Uncle ‘Nut’) was a lorry driver and as tough as they come! The only sister had some disagreement with the family and was little known to us.
Europe was in the throes of the Second World War with the scourge of the jackboot resounding across one country after another. Hitler had dragged his nation from depression into a formidable force. Dad and his brothers were conscripted into the forces in various branches of the army. Fear, anxiety and all the emotions of war were rife. Many children were conceived during leave spells, with passion driven by the uncertainty of not knowing when partners would see each other again.
Tom was born in 1937 and I came along in 1940 at a time of war. I was born at home in the basement flat of a row of houses. My earliest recollections were of being wrapped up in a blanket during an air raid – the blight of London in those days. The events of war are obviously very sketchy, but the aftermath was very clearly etched on the mind. A playful youth was enjoyed among the bombed buildings and the specially built water tanks (purpose-built concrete tanks for fire brigades, used to put out buildings on fire as a result of bombs). Also scattered around the area were special fire alarm posts. These were iron pillars around four feet high with a glass section and alarm activator. Alas, many a game was played breaking the glass, activating the alarm and waiting to see the fire engine chasing to the scene of emergency, only to discover it was a false alarm.
A sister was born, Lillian Mary, in 1942, but she sadly lived but a few days. Just before the birth of George, we were evacuated to Leicester where George was born in 1944. The stay was only for a few weeks, with Mum longing to be back on home ground in South East London. There, we saw out the rest of wartime. Vague recollections come to mind of a street party, the euphoria of victory and the relief of peace.
Many dangerous games were enjoyed across beams of bombed buildings, slippery tiles on roofs, broken stairs and piles of debris. One favourite game was to hang on the back bar of a dustcart (a rubbish lorry) for a lift along the street. This was made all the more exciting if you could taunt the dustmen as you went along. Alas, the danger of this only hit us when one of us, Sammy, fell off and was killed by the next lorry running over him. The memory of Sammy dying like this, with the mark of his blood on the road, kept us away from the game for a couple of weeks before the challenge was restarted.
2. The Early Years (A Terror in Short Trousers)
Being a working-class area, money was very scarce with top-paid machinists, like Father, only earning ten pounds per week (including an extra penny per hour because of his knowledge of working all the machines). Most did a five-and-a-half-day working week, commencing at eight in the morning until six at night.
One of our favourite times was ‘Beano’ (the name given to an annual outing for a firm or a pub). Those going to either Margate or Southend would be on the coach while children gathered on the pavement. Just as the coach left, money would be thrown out of the windows for the children to scramble for. It was possible to get as much as two shillings (twenty-four pence of old money) if you were quick and rough enough in the pile of bodies seeking to pick up the treasure. This outing would be the only time in the year that some parents got to the seaside, although it did turn out to be a pub crawl and a tour of the fairgrounds of each place. Fish and chips, jelly eels and other shellfish were a favourite with the folks on the outing.
Money was short and various schemes were adopted to try to make some. With the aftermath of the war, paper was in short supply and collecting old newspapers to sell at the merchants was one way of making extra. Another was collecting old clothing and rags. At this time, it was possible to hear the call of the rag-and-bone man in the streets calling out for any old lumber. Clothes would be given and balloons exchanged to children or small amounts of money to parents. Quite a few children gave ‘Dad’s suit’ to the rag-and-bone man in exchange for a good hiding later! The popular TV programme Steptoe and Son was based on this activity. Our next door neighbour, Tommy White, had his own horse and cart, and a stable under the railway arches, where I often helped to change the harness.
Another job was chopping up firewood and selling it (smokeless zones were unheard of and, as a consequence, London was often wrapped in a fog, or smog, as it was latter called). In the worst of these, it was not possible to see beyond an arm’s length, literally. Poor Dad suffered with his breathing in these conditions. Both of these ways of making money led to my run-in with the police.
Where does one get wood to chop up and sell? We knew of one bottle factory that had wooden boxes to pack large pickling bottles in – four to a box – just the right size for our use. We broke into the yard, stole the boxes and wood, chopped up the wood and then sold it at a shilling a box. One day in the factory yard, which was by an estuary running into the Thames, we had a bright idea for a game. Throw a bottle into the water and then throw others to try to break them. Of course, we missed more often than not and scores of these bottles began floating down the river. Our escapade made a real dent in the factory’s resources, with the loss of a lot of money on their part, and the police were called in. Someone had written my name on a wall and I was a suspect. This landed us in court with the ultimate outcome being a fine to my parents. I later understood it had been considered to send us away to Borstal. Richard Attenborough starred in a film about life in Borstal called Boys in Brown, which gave a fairly accurate account of such places. I knew what it was to be a ‘boy in brown’ – brown being the colour of the prison uniform.
Six weeks later, we were collecting paper in Brockley (the posh part). Being a hot day, we were thirsty and decided to ‘nick’ a bottle of milk from a doorway. Unbeknown to us, the police were watching and we finished up in the police station and then later in court. This time, I was sent to a remand home in Shepherd’s Bush for assessment. When we returned to court, we were put on probation. This meant a weekly visit to the probation officer. The trick on these visits was to tell the officer all they wanted to hear and leave no time to question us about activities that would go against us. How true the Bible words, ‘The love of money is the root of all evil!’
These were just the things we were caught doing, but many other worse crimes were committed. I had developed a reputation of being somewhat tough and one not to be crossed. When fighting, the Marquess of Queensberry rules (the rules that govern boxing) were not adhered to. A knee in the groin, a punch in the bending opponent’s face and a kick on the ground usually finished any skirmish. With the increase of years and a stronger body, this toughness grew.
It was also the days of the wireless, which had an accumulator that needed recharging – meaning a trip to the railway arches (many of which were turned into small workshop units) to exchange it. These two jars were full of acid and with Mother’s warning ringing in their ears not to spill the acid, many a boy would carry the jars for new ones. It was worth it to hear Dick Barton: Special Agent and his partners, Snowy and Jockey, at 7pm on weekdays!
The ‘Teddy Boy’ era had arrived, with fighting at pubs, dance halls and pre-arranged venues commonplace. The youth were beginning to earn more money and entertainment was more readily available. Hotheads through drinking, fights over girlfriends and other aggro were rife. Although I was young, I was big for my fourteen years of age (one of the biggest at my school). My reputation went ahead of me and I did things that those three to four years older were doing. I could get away with seeing films meant for those aged sixteen upwards and drinking in a pub. The whole atmosphere of those places really attracted me.
The cinema was a regular weekly attraction and if we did not have the money, we ‘bunked in’ through a side door or used an old ticket stub, claiming to have been to the lavatory! Fights would sometimes break out in these places, too. The film would be forgotten and the ‘bundle’ (fight) became the all-consuming passion. It was obvious I was heading for a life of trouble and potential run-ins with the police. I hated being hurt in fights and would have gone mad. Looking back, my fear would have been to go too far in hitting an opponent. This lifestyle could, of course, be said of many young people in those days.
Dad with his brothers, Edward and George
50th birthday with my brothers, Tom and George
3. Life Boys and Boys’ Brigade
During this growing-up stage of my life, I had contact with a small Shaftesbury Society Mission Hall, which was literally three hundred yards across from where I was born. We were sent there for Sunday school between 3pm and 4pm – I suspect it was an opportunity for Mum and Dad to have a little respite from three boys in a small flat. At Sunday school, the basic lessons of Christianity were taught. I don’t know if I learnt much consciously, but I am sure the subconscious was fed. I would often miss going for weeks in order to go to the park with the collection pennies! However, I was always careful to give full attendance three to four weeks before the Christmas party or summer outings.
The dedicated workers certainly had to put up with a lot from us rowdy children – I was considered to be a troublemaker. Some of their names could have been chosen from Biblical attributes: Miss Welbeloved, Miss Goodenough, Miss New, Miss Freeman, Mr Thoroughgood. The Wigner family (owners of the Medina Edible Oil Refinery), George Bushell, and the Games, Richards, Vickerys and Rigbys all gave sterling commitment to the Princess Louise Institute (so named because Princess Louise, the Duchess of Argyll, opened the building). Affectionately known as the PLI, it was the social life of scores of Deptford people. Organisations such as the Boys’ Brigade, Girl Guides and the Covenanters were run there. Most of us young folks only knew a holiday through the camps run by these movements. Our trips to the seaside were also through them.
The Life Boys (Junior Brigade) provided great fun with various games and outings, and learning to work together as a team. Playing for their football team on Saturday mornings (football being the passion of my life) was great – when not playing for the school team. While I was in the remand home, the leader, Miss Rita Coleman (later married to Mr Everett), wrote to my mother stating they still wanted me to come back. This was a keystone in the plan of God to get hold of my wayward life.
Moving into the Boys’ Brigade was an extra boost with table tennis, billiards, darts and stiffer competition at football and cricket. Parade nights and club nights all made up for boring Bible class at 10am on Sunday mornings. Nobby Hewitt, the captain, gave his all for the boys, with Charlie Cuthbert and George Walker assisting as officers. Later, Bob Vickery became captain, with George Maslin and John Wilkinson as officers. A group of us formed a strong friendship, which still exists today. These friendships became stronger through the annual camps, mainly on the Isle of Wight. Things were primitive but they were the event of our year. Digging the latrines, wood collecting for the fire and cooking, rain pit-a-patting on the tent, the smell of boots, burnt porridge, bread and jam – what lovely memories! The shorts some of us wore were the product of jumble sales held at the institute (and it showed!).
Boys’ Brigade Bible class, 1958
Boys’ Brigade Camp, Isle of Wight
The PLI Over 20s vs Under 20s
21st birthday
Kitchen
4. Conversion
In 1954, an event took place at Harringay Arena that was to have a marked effect upon many at the PLI and, indeed, throughout London in particular and Britain as a whole. Billy Graham, the American evangelist, came for the Greater London crusade. Coachloads of people were transported across London to the venue. The London tube stations would resound to the singing of great Gospel hymns that were used at the crusade meetings. Such trips were made from the institute and some of our friends were ‘converted to Christ’ – born again of the Spirit of God. I was encouraged to go, but found I had other, better, things to do! The following year, in 1955, the Billy Graham team held a Gospel campaign in the Kelvin Hall, Glasgow, which held around 17,000 people. This time, through the advance of technology and the vision of various Christians, relay meetings were held around the country. The PLI was one such venue. Loudspeakers were placed in the halls and run through the post office landlines, so we could hear the meetings some four hundred miles away.
Leaders of the institute decided to close down all organisation meetings and encourage members to attend the relays. Many came forward to surrender their lives to Christ, including some of my best friends. Wednesday night Boys’ Brigade was cancelled and we were told by a very forceful captain to go to the relay. Earning badges depended upon attendance and this relay would count as one. I went and gave hymn books to those coming in, until the captain ordered me to get inside.
The hall was packed with a choir on the platform and I managed to get a seat in the back row. I was going to bear the gathering out! After congregational singing and special solos from George Beverley Shea, Billy Graham began to preach. It was as though I was the only one in attendance, for all he said came right home to my heart. I knew I was a sinner and destined for Hell in eternity. The preaching sent arrows of conviction into my heart. At the end, an appeal was made for people to come to the front if they wanted to accept Christ as saviour (Billy Graham referred to these as ‘enquirers’). I wanted to get up, but could not move – it was as though I was pinned down to the seat. One of the Boys’ Brigade officers, Charlie Cuthbert, asked me if I wanted to go forwards, but it was a big move and I made excuses about wanting to ‘live my life’ and not ‘get religious’.
We were living at Greenwich at the time, about three miles away. Cycling home, I was counting the cost. In bed that night, I listed off all the things I would have to stop doing if I became a Christian: drinking, smoking, gambling, swearing, lying etc. It would be a big decision. However, I could not get away from the conviction of the Holy Spirit in my life and I made a vow to go back again the next night to ‘get saved’. I thought you could only be saved by going to the front in the meeting.
The next night saw me in the meeting, but I hardly remember anything about it – all I wanted was for the appeal to be made. During the singing of the wonderful hymn ‘Just As I Am, Without One Plea’ – which continues ‘but that Thy blood was shed for me, and that Thou bidst me come to Thee, O Lamb of God, I come, I come’ – I made my long way down to the front, being the first to move forwards. Perspiration was running down my body and, at the front, I was shaking like a leaf. Everyone could see this rebel going forwards.
At the end of the meeting, Bert Thoroughgood (a man I would later admire, love and respect) took me into the counselling room. I could not speak to answer his questions (being trained as a counsellor to ask such). He opened the Bible and showed me God’s way of salvation. We prayed and I confessed my sins to God. I said that I believed Christ died for my sins and asked Him into my life to forgive my sins and make me a Christian.
It is difficult to put into words how I felt, but I knew my sins were forgiven and I had peace with God. I cycled the three miles home to Greenwich, hardly knowing energy was going from my body I was so free! Charlie, who had travelled with me on a moped, said, “Goodnight, Harry, and God bless.” It hit me like a punch; God was now my God and every blessing in His book, the Bible, was for me. Hallelujah!
My first task, I had been told, was to tell my parents – a frightening thought. I expected a barrage of opposition. I popped my head into the kitchen and at the door said, “Mum, I became a Christian tonight,” and waited for the response. Mum just turned her head from the sink and replied, “Oh, did you, love,” and carried on with her chores. A simple reaction but what a relief to me, she being the first person I had witnessed to.
I was in the last term of my school life and head boy of the school. I don’t remember making much of a witness that term, but God did give me the wonderful privilege of going back there in the last week before it closed down to speak at a morning assembly. I told the story of the young man, raised from the dead through Christ, having compassion on his mother. The first headmaster at that school, Mr Guttering, was of the old type who insisted we learnt passages from the Bible and this was one of them. There had been two new heads since I left school; the last was taking up a position in a remand home and wanted me to speak there, too. Alas, the opportunity did not come. To testify in front of most of my old teachers and tell what Christ had done in my life was quite something and, I am sure, hard for them to believe.
I have to mention my last form teacher, Sid Jennings. He was a native of the area and went to the John Roan School and teacher training college. He came from our area and understood the ways of tough cockney boys. He reckoned that when you had reached his class, if you didn’t know much by then, you wouldn’t learn a great deal from him! He spent many lessons telling us about life and particularly his experiences in the army during the First World War. He was tough and you learned not to cross him, for when he caned a boy, you certainly knew it. Mr Gutteridge carried a cane up his sleeve when going around the school and was not slow to use it – I had to bend over for him or hold out my hand a couple of times.
Going back to Sid, I must say I had the greatest respect for him and learnt a lot about life from him. He could make you work hard when he wanted or if the class upset him. Apparently, just before I came to speak, he said to the assembly that I had been the best boy the school had had for ten years. I had been head boy, form captain and captain of the school cricket and football teams, as well as having that role for the district schools teams as well. At that assembly, I also learnt that I had, until the previous week, held the school record for running in the 220 yards.
Sid encouraged me in sporting activities and made sure I got the best school football boots to play with (these were free boots for boys to use) because we could not afford any. Six weeks after my conversion, my father died, having lived two years longer than the ten predicted when he was discharged from the army on ill-health grounds. Sid asked me why I was not at school on the day of the funeral and I told him. He took a soft spot for me and from then on tried to help in any way he could. My great regret was that I never had the opportunity to go and see him witness more about Christ.
I ought to say that school life began at Frankham Street, one street down from where I lived (a couple of hundred yards away). I passed the eleven-plus exam to go to the central school, which was one stage above the secondary modern. One problem was that you had to have a uniform and I can remember my folks got a Bradford Clothing Supply Co voucher for £20. This allowed them to buy a blazer, two pairs of short trousers, socks, shoes, satchel etc. However, there was no money to buy a special apron for woodwork and metalwork classes and, embarrassingly, I had to wear one of Mum’s flowery aprons – all to avoid getting the cane for not having an apron! It was a small price to pay for a ‘tough’ boy.
One feature of primary school life after the war was the ‘play school’, a scheme set in motion to help the families with mothers going out to work and leaving schoolchildren to come home to an empty house. The play school began just after school and, for a couple of pence, you would have a tea (bread, butter, cake and drink) and then various games until 7pm. It was here we got to know Mr Falkner, a Yorkshire man who worked for the gas company and gave up time to help youngsters. He taught us ‘crab football’, handball, rounders, football and cricket – the last of which was the love of his life, sports-wise. It would be difficult to gauge the influence he made on our lives. George Henning, a special pal through school, Life Boys and the PLI was also one of the group. Quite often during the long summer holidays, George, Alfie Smith, Dennis Scanlan and I would indulge in regular games of Monopoly – Denis owned the board so he had to be one of the number!
During this time, I also developed the habit of using dinner money to play ‘Up the Wall’ – a game of pitch and toss. Each would pitch a penny towards a wall and the nearest then tossed all the coins in the air. All those that landed showing the head were the tossers and, depending on the number of tails, decided who had the rest in order of merit. Many a dinner money was lost and then it was a case of going to another school, standing in the queue and, when your turn came, saying, “Free, Miss.” Poorer children received free school meals. In our case, the sums I remember most were: the first boy paid five pence, the next paid four pence and the third, three pence. Any more children and all got it free. Many an orange came from Canada to the poor children of Deptford (and other parts of the country) to help with our diets. Of course, there was also the free third of a pint of milk each day and a teaspoon full of malt.
At that time, in the long, light evenings, it was possible to play rounders and ‘rin tin tin’. In this game, a tin can would be placed in the middle of the road with one person delegated to mind it – the ‘minder’. Our task, after hiding from the minder, was to get back to the tin without being caught and rattle it on the ground, saying, “Rin Tin Tin!” in the street. The only interruption would be a horse and cart or odd dustcart lorry, before the street was widened to make a dual carriageway. The irony was the working-class people all had cars parked outside in the street, so such games would be impossible. Such was the improvement in materialism. The house where I was born and bred was knocked down to make way for the wider road of Church Street, Deptford.
After five months in Greenwich, we moved to Peckham . To avoid me being on the bus for an hour each day (let alone having the fare for it), I was to go to a local school. The problem was that the central school had a different uniform and my parents were still paying off the old one. This meant going to Leo County Secondary Modern School, which was, in fact, a very good one within its level. I became captain of the football team and we began to beat the major schools in our league. I also had a trial for the South London District Schools team. Nine months later, we moved again and this time to Greenwich, but to a new flat (a dwelling in a block of flats). Our balcony overlooked a school and with Dad far from well, it was the easiest thing for me to go to the nearest school, Glenister Secondary Modern. In all honesty, it was considered by many as the worst academic school in the area, full of boys who could not ‘make it’ in other schools. For me, it was easy to come top of the class, as they were much behind the previous schools. I finished my schooling the month before my fifteenth birthday.
Football was one of my passions in life and I had the opportunity to play on the team for every school I went to. I also played for the district schools at each age. Friday afternoon at Frankham Street was exciting with lads going to a special room to open the big wicker basket full of football boots, shorts and jerseys. I don’t remember anyone having their own boots. We had to put dubbing on the boots (they came up above the ankles) and clean them. Saturday morning meant going up to Blackheath, finding out which pitch your team was playing on, collecting the goal posts and erecting them for the game. Sometimes it was so cold we could not undo the laces of our shoes or football boots. Because of this, a number would go to the game in wellington boots that did not have laces.
Our local team was Millwall, for whom I still have a real interest and remain a fan. They were mainly Third Division South material – not very good, but our heroes. When living at Greenwich, I did go to see Charlton from the First Division (my uncle, Wally Nunn, played for them as centre half just after the war). It was the thrill of my life when, at the age of sixteen, I went to play with Millwall Juniors. To run on the pitch at the Old Den and to train twice a week (Tuesdays and Thursdays) under the first team coach, John Short, was just magic to me. I met up with some of the old schools district team and so was not too out of place. I joined them towards the end of the season, after being recommended by a friend of the trainer. To play against West Ham, Chelsea and, later, the Charlton ‘Robbins’ are memories I treasure.
The following season, the church started a team and, as I felt I would be going to Bible college when twenty-one, the idea of professional football was put aside. The thoughts of getting lads to play for the PLI – and attend the Gospel Service in order to do so – was far more important. The prospect of seeing mates come to faith in Christ, a real challenge.
Work:
On leaving school, I got a job at the London showroom of Cooper Bros., a Sheffield silversmiths, for the princely sum of two pounds, ten Shillings per week. The showroom was situated at Holborn Viaduct near the area of Fetter Lane where many of the Gold- and Silversmiths worked – being quite near to ‘Goldsmiths Hall’, where the London seal mark could be stamped on the various items of worth. My main task was to deliver special silver tankards, trays and salvers to various shops, embassies and rich apartments around London. Often, I would have to take a taxi in order to have more security. This gave me a very good insight into the geography of the City and the West End of London. At lunchtimes, I began to practise on the old typewriter (I had booked to learn typing at evening classes) with scrap paper. Within three months, I could touch type up to thirty-eight words per minute and eventually rose to sixty words per minute (something that would stand me in good stead for a summer job when at Bible college). It was an activity I thoroughly enjoyed.
The wage was small and I began looking for another job with more pay. I saw an advert for a Lloyds Insurance Brokers called Hugh Paul & Sons. After an interview, I got the job and then began almost six years of working for them. I started as the office boy and finished up working in the Re Insurance Department. It was work I greatly enjoyed and some of my work colleagues became good friends.
Before I left for Bible college, a lad called Len Chipping came to work there. I taught him the office boy job and I began to pray for him. It was a real thrill when he came to faith in Christ and, later, went to Bible college and then to New Guinea with Wycliffe Bible Translators. He met his wife there and has, for some years, been the chief administrator for that society at their English headquarters. I also had the joy of pointing his mother and father, Louise and Sid, to Christ after preaching at the PLI during my first Easter of Bible college life.
5. Christian Endeavour
From around the age of sixteen, I threw myself into the life of the church. Boys’ Brigade was my number one commitment with Wednesday night parades, Friday night club and Sunday morning Bible class. The lessons learnt through this disciplined movement began to shape my life. I rose through the ranks to be a staff sergeant, but – knowing I was going to Bible college – declined to be an officer.
I was asked to be a Sunday school teacher, quite a privilege in those days, and after spending some weeks observing the way it was done, took up the role. Preparing lessons for the under-nine boys became my weekly endeavour for some five years. I managed to utilise the time on my train journey to work to read over lessons and then made Thursday evenings the night to really prepare. What times they were on Sunday afternoons. On each of the five years, I managed to get at least one boy (one year, twins) who made it hard for me. They would ask questions in the middle of the story, which had no relevance to what I was seeking to teach. Indeed, questions with no answer, such as ‘Who made God?’ in the middle of a story about Noah, were commonplace. This, coupled with the sly kicking of the boy on the next seat or turning around to listen to the story told by the next group leader. Sometimes, you wondered if it was all worth it. Then I would remember the teachers who put up with me doing the same things years before and had the courage to plod on!
A group of us young people, under the leadership of George Maslin, started a youth Bible study on the Saturday night. For George to be given a key to the institute was a major decision by the Committee. Most of us had been converted through Billy Graham’s ministry. With the Teddy Boy era in full swing and the pleasures of the world beckoning with Saturday Night Fever, we needed something positive to fill that particular gap in our youthful lives.
What fun we had going through the Book of Romans. In turn, we would be given a chapter to study and then lead the group on Saturday night. Our theology depended on whose books we had, but it was a great learning curve for us all. I think the scripture ‘God winked at their ignorance’ was most appropriate. However, out of that group: George, who married Pat, became pastor of the work at the institute; Pat Sower became an ordained vicar with the Church of England; John Cuthbert has been an Elim pastor for over thirty years (having been to the International Bible Training Institute in Sussex); and I went into the Faith Mission Bible College in Edinburgh.
The group grew until we had a regular group of between thirty and forty attendees each Saturday night. Out of that group, Pat McElligott has been a missionary in Japan for over thirty years; Alan (Midge) Pain went to Moorlands Bible College and became an assistant headmaster of a school in Deptford; Len Chipping has spent over thirty years with Wycliffe Bible Translators; Valerie Diggins became a pastor’s wife until her death in 1997; Janet Thoroughgood became a consultant anaesthetist and, with her husband, David (an eye specialist), has given various periods to help missionary work overseas; Pat Sower became a teacher, but later was ordained as an Anglican priest, though because of age was never to have a ‘living’ of her own; George Henning, after working in the Stock Exchange, has been a teacher in the East End of London; John and Sue Marchant sing with an Evangelical choir and he was a manager of a bank – upon retirement, he has become an assistant pastor at a Baptist church and completed his studies part-time with Spurgeon’s College. Others have made their way in various walks of life, but sadly some have left their love of the things of Christ and we have no contact with them now.
Around this time, the institute committee decided it was time to have a full-time worker to act as superintendent of the mission. As a result, George and Anna Roberts left Northern Ireland for London. It would be extremely difficult to estimate the value of influence they had on us as young people.
George Roberts took a real hand in the young people’s work and sought to encourage us to go on with God. At one stage, he introduced some of us young men to half nights of prayer. It was hard going at first, but then became a delight and a regular feature of our programme. He also sought to encourage some of us in preaching and study of the Bible. Their home was an ‘open house’, with us making our way there time and time again. Some of the girls helped George and Anna with babysitting, thereby releasing them for other engagements.
Anna Roberts started a Bible club at the mission, which reached scores of young people with the Christian message. Her total and utter support of her husband was obvious and as a team they worked with us for some three and a half years before leaving and starting the Christian Telephone Ministry. After ten years of that work, they became pastor of a Baptist church in Thaxted, Essex, and doing part-time work with the Christian Police Association (CPA). The latter grew so much that, in time, George left the church to take up the role of general secretary of the CPA in a new headquarters based in Leicester.
Throughout all these years, they kept in contact with us young people. On his retirement from the CPA, a group from those old days came up to Leicester to share in the fellowship of that gathering.
Around those years of our late teens onwards, Youth for Christ was very strong in the country with an active group in South East London. I was asked to take over the leadership of the Late Night Specials, a coffee bar outreach to youth. Each Friday night, they were held on a rotation basis in Peckham, Deptford, Greenwich and Catford. When there was a fifth Friday in the month, it was a night of prayer for youth evangelism, which became the title for our group. Peter Honor became the organising secretary and Ted Hubbard, the overall leader. Peter later became extension secretary for the Pocket Testament League. Seeking to reach souls for Christ was the great desire of life and these activities were a great training ground. Out on the streets, this would involve ‘fishing’ people into the meetings and then seeking to share the Gospel with them. It was a particular joy to be invited to a special reunion some forty years later in 2006 and find out what God had been doing with so many of us young folks.
As young people in the Mission we did door-to-door work with the little Christian magazine, Emergency Post. Each person would have twenty homes to visit each month; we had to seek to engage in spiritual conversation and try to encourage people to come to the church.
Open-air meetings were another training ground. One of the men at the mission (George Bushell) built a unit to hold the equipment and battery. And so we became a mobile unit; going to the different blocks of flats and street corners. We also formed two preaching teams, with Charlie and John Cuthbert leading one and George Maslin and me leading the other. One would lead the service and the other preach, with young people testifying and singing. Next time, the roles would be switched and thereby we began to develop skills in communication.
Camps in the summer became a special feature of our lives. The girls were involved with Brownies and Guides; the fellows in Boys’ Brigade and Covenanters. For the boys, it was Battalion Camp at Dymchurch first, then Burgess Hill, but mainly Shanklin on the Isle of Wight. Ninham Farm, some twenty-minute walk from the town, became special to us. Going on the advanced party to set up camp or just arriving with the others was all part of the fun. Even the rain (which we had at least some time each year) could not spoil it for us. A deep bond of love and fellowship developed among us. Wooding, digging the latrines, erecting tents and a kitchen area, washing in the stream in cold water (particularly harrowing when needing to shave!) all added to the memories. Morning and evening prayers, games on the field, swimming in the sea and the special trips to the Solent Café after a spot of pitch and putt or table tennis all made their mark. It is difficult to tell today’s generation what such holidays meant to a group of London boys.
Experience gained through these camps later led to starting the Faith Mission (FM) camps in 1972 in East Anglia. These have developed to become a major part of the summer outreach of the mission with over thirty camps a year and 1500 to 2000 campers, around the UK and Ireland.
6. God’s Call and Bible College
As a youth fellowship, we often went to other churches for special meetings and it was at one such gathering that a missionary aviation fellowship programme was being shown. Throughout the programme, the representative kept repeating the verse, “Other sheep have I which are not of this fold, them also must I bring.” It was as though God was saying to me, “Will you help me bring them?” This reminded me of an occasion when, as a small boy at Sunday school, we had a missionary come to tell us of the work in India. The superintendent of the Sunday school, George Wigner, said, “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if someone from here was to go for God like this?” and I remembered saying, “I’m going to be that one.” That childish commitment came back to me and became a call of God to me. I knew it would mean going to Bible college, but as my mother was a widow, I felt I had a responsibility to help her until I was twenty-one, when George, my younger brother, could help her. This sense of a call never left me during the next few years.
George and Anna Roberts had both trained at the Faith Mission Bible College in Edinburgh, where the workers were known as pilgrims. The mission was established in 1886 by John George Govan to evangelise the villages and country districts of Britain, going from village to village holding missions and looking to God in faith to meet their needs. I had never heard of them being born and bred in London.
Perhaps the most well-known worker in the mission was the Rev Duncan Campbell, who had become the principal of the college. He was used of God in Revival in the Hebrides and outer islands off the Scottish coast.
I wrote to five Bible colleges – Emmanuel, Birkenhead, BTI Glasgow, London Bible College and Faith Mission – for a prospectus. It came down to Emmanuel and FM. After prayerful reading, I believed I was being called to be an evangelist rather than a missionary, so the FM seemed to fit the bill relative to training for that. Therefore, I applied to the college.
For some time, I had the opportunity to preach under the auspices of The Evangelisation Society (TES) – Marshall Shallis being their general secretary. They were trustees for a number of churches around the London area and arranged speakers for them. Through this, I further developed skills in seeking to be an evangelist. I wondered if this was what God wanted me to do and joined up with TES. This was always at the back of my mind in seeking to go to Bible college for training.
An interview was arranged for me to see the Rev Duncan Campbell at Westminster Chapel, where he was speaking at a quarterly meeting of the League of Prayer organisation under the leadership of Rev Percy Hassam. In a state of fear and trembling, I attended the meeting and saw the great man. At the end of the interview, he said he felt I should come to the college. I knew nothing of the way the mission worked relative to candidates (I learnt this years later, when I also interviewed), but just waited for the Lord to prompt them to reply. Some months later, I received a letter stating that I was accepted for training and it would commence on the 29th September 1961. I was to report to the college in Edinburgh on that day.
How I remember that first day of travel to Edinburgh and then on to the college. I had one large suitcase and a small one with a hole in it. On arrival at the men’s residence, I knocked on the door to be greeted by a welcome, “Hllo, Brother Spain, we are pleased to have you with us.” The man then said, “Follow me, brother,” and as we climbed the stairs, I wondered if I should tell him that my name was Harry! After a few more ‘brothers’, I said, “Who are you?” He apologised and said he was Mr Douglas, the assistant principal and men’s supervisor!
I was taken to room three and shown a bed next to the head brother – seven of us sharing the room. We had half a wardrobe and two drawers to keep our clothes and belongings. Thus began my training, two years of college and a one-year practical. The college had started life in the Victorian era and still had much of that way of life about it. The matron had the ability to go through you like a dose of Andrews Salts! The assistant matron was a superb partner. The Rev Duncan Campbell was the principal and Edward Douglas, his assistant and men’s supervisor. The cook was a delightful lady from Northern Ireland, Miss Harbinson, and the secretary was a delightful older pilgrim named Miss Ogg. The assistant cook was Susan O’Driscoll from the South of Ireland.
College life was run by the staff and used a system of head brother and sister with group leaders. Billy Campbell was our head brother and Tom Shaw (later to become the president of the mission) was group leader – these being the only two second-year male students remaining. One had drowned in the summer, Victor Moynan, and the other didn’t return – for some reason unknown to me.
In my year, ten lads began college at the same time: Keith Percival (later to become a superintendent and then general director of the mission), Dick Leftley, Andrew Woolsey (later to become editor of Life Indeed for a period and then a Presbyterian minister), Mike Tewkesbury (later to join the London City Mission and then into the Church of the Nazarene, and then the Railway Mission), Mervyn Langrell (later to join the European Mission Fellowship in Southern Ireland), Winston Leask (who also became a Nazarene Minister), Cyril McCorkill, Jim Nealey, Donald Charlecraft and me. Nealey left before the end of the first term, McCorkill after the second (the first two terms being probationary, so that either the mission or person could realise they had mistaken their ‘call’) and Charlecraft after the third term.
Quite a number of the girls had a nursing background and part of training was that we were not encouraged to get too close to them. Mind you, some of the lads did find their life partner from this group or the year after! Mervyn Langrell married Flossie Moynan, Keith Percival married June Pratt, and Winston Leask married Alice Cowe.
The full programme of college life, between lectures and practical work (such as cleaning, polishing, gardening, painting, maintenance, errands etc.), took up most of the time. There was outreach with open-air meetings at The Mound, off Princes Street, each Sunday night and other places. Door-to-door visitation with the Bright Words magazine (subtitled ‘For Pilgrims Heavenwards’), later to become Life Indeed, and the little magazine Emergency Post to be sold. Forty-eight Bright Words and twelve Emergence Post each week. The first Saturday of the month was always the Edinburgh conference in the afternoon, which we had to attend. That day, it was public house visitation, with the magazines in the evening. Each student was given set places to visit each Saturday. Here, we were to learn many lessons about communication and seeking to get people to take what they did not want. This was a wonderful training for later mission life.
From time to time, we would be asked to speak at or share in church or mission meetings. Between this and the open-air meetings, we sought to learn the ways of preaching. For me, the lectures from the Rev Stanley Collins of Currubbers Mission on ‘Homiletics’ (the art of preaching) were a great help. Learning to laugh at mistakes and mannerisms was very helpful. The following year, the Rev Peter Donald enhanced the experience. He also taught evangelism.
Lectures and study took up most of our time – what a job to keep awake in the afternoon study period in a room full of other lads, where, on the cold days, windows were shut to keep the heat in! I devised a system of spending the first fifteen minutes of each study period reading a book. By this method, I got through quite a few of them.
It involved trying to cope with taking study notes on such subjects as Bible survey, the Old and New Testaments, Christian doctrine, Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament), the synoptic Gospels, Romans, Corinthians, Hebrews, Psalms and Duncan Campbell taking us through the Acts of the Apostles. Along with this, homiletics, child evangelism, elocution, tea table talks with the matron, singing and music, and church history (with the Rev Prof Renwick, related to the Covenanter martyrs). For someone who left school before fifteen years old, and with no ‘O’ level in English, it was quite an effort. I had the audacity to ask the Rev Duncan Campbell to arrange for me to have New Testament Greek lessons, which he did, at St Colm’s Church of Scotland Missionary College, Leith. These had to take place on my free day, Friday, and meant getting up at 5.30am to put in an hour’s study on the subject. Donald MacPhail, a Gaelic-speaking man from the island of Lewis, and Dr Brian Drever, both training to be missionaries, took my lessons. The first thing Donald had to do was to teach me English (at least English grammar), which was like a foreign language to me – as was coming to terms with such as the aorist tense, the present continuous tenses and declensions (ending or start of words denoting how the root meaning was used in a sentence). Discovering there are over forty-five ways of using the definite article (the) and no indefinite article (a) in Greek was quite something to a cockney!
College days began at 6.30am sharp with half an hour to wash, dress and get ready for half an hour’s ‘quiet time’ with God in prayer and Bible reading. At 7.30am, it was the first period of duty (cleaning a room, hallway, stairs or washing the clothes). Breakfast was at 8am, with one student set to give a devotional word on the verse of scripture we learnt that day. Along with this message, the student also had to start the singing of grace – once of the four times you could say it. When my turn came, I always had to stop and start the singing again – it was my cross throughout college life as I could not sing or pitch the right note! After breakfast, there were more duties for around three quarters of an hour.
Lectures began at 10am, three each morning with some in the afternoon. A missionary prayer meeting was at 12.30pm (covering different parts of the world each day) and lunch at 1pm. From 2pm to 4.30pm was study time and tea at 5.30pm. Some had to have the weekly bath after study. After tea, those not on duty were free until evening study at 7.30pm. Each Thursday, we went to Charlotte Chapel Bible study – the Rev Dr Alan Redpath became the pastor during our time.
Friday morning was given over to a morning of prayer for ourselves and the Faith Mission workers on missions. Duncan Campbell mainly led these gatherings and what times of blessing, battle and challenge they proved to be. Friday afternoon (after lunch) was our ‘free day’, where we were expected to be back for 9pm in the evening. On Sundays, we were allowed to choose which church to attend, but had to go around the various places of worship in order to appreciate the different denominations. Being an interdenominational mission, this was great experience, especially for those who had only known one type of church.
During the first and third term, we only had one day off for half term, but in the second term we had a whole weekend. Students were encouraged to go away for the weekend and I had the joy of going to Wishaw, about fifteen miles from Glasgow. There, I stayed with Sam and Betty Ross (Sam was a former pilgrim) and formed a friendship that has lasted over forty years. On the two one-day half terms, I took a college bicycle and peddled out to Hailes Castle near Haddington for a picnic – a ride of about eighteen miles. Alone, I could relax and enjoy the quiet surroundings of this historic place.
As I was not doing a government-recognised course, I did not qualify for a grant for the studies and was left to look to the Lord in ‘faith’ for all my needs. The first term I had sufficient for the fees, but from the second on, it was quite a test of my faith. I remember preparing to go back for the second term with only twelve pounds and some pence to my name, with a train fare of some three pounds two and sixpence to face. I knew the post would not arrive before I needed to leave for Kings’ Cross station, but held on just in case it was early – surely the Lord was going to send me gifts this way! Trusting the Lord, I did my Bible readings and the only thing that hit me was the word ‘patience’. I determined to go right to the college, explain my situation and if they turned me out, then I could look God in the face and say, “I went and you did not supply my need”. This way I could go back to live in London, with my head held high.
Three other lads got on the train: Dick Leftley, Donald Charlcraft and Michael Tewkesbury. Later, they said they were going for a cuppa, but I did not have the money and said I did not want one. On arrival at college, the first event was tea with an announcement to see the secretary, Miss Ogg, with fees after tea. I could hardly eat anything and went to see Mr Douglas, the man in charge of male students, to explain my situation. I had a few pounds and three promises to have patience. I fully expected him to tell me to go home, but he replied, “If God has told you to have patience, then you must have it. We are a Faith Mission and look to Him to supply all the needs.” The last five pounds of my fees came to me during the final week of the term. I learnt a great lesson in trusting the Lord. If we walk in obedience, then we can trust Him.
Finance never came easily and, many a time, I had only a hole in my pocket. The most embarrassing thing was to attend church and have nothing or just a penny to put into the offering plate. Sometimes I would go to the church where I knew they used bags, so nobody could tell if you had put money in or not! Even buying some sweets to suck was a big decision at times. However, I have to say that I left college with nothing owing and I don’t, to this day, know all who gave to help me through those two years. It was not easy, but I thank the Lord for the way He taught me to trust Him and prove the scripture: ‘My God shall supply all your needs!’
Part of our training was to spend two months, in the summer, on missions. This could be in a church, portable hall or for some open-air campaigns at the seaside. My first appointment was to be with a team at Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The captain of the team was Ken Thompson and the musician, Bob McMurdock, both from Northern Ireland. We should have had four on the team but due to a withdrawal, we only had three.
Home for the next seven to eight weeks was a caravan, parked opposite a Kipper curing factory. The seagulls would perch on the factory roof waiting for any scraps of fish. We would have to cross the road to the Ugie Street Mission Hall, where the indoor meetings were to take place. It was like crossing ‘dive-bomb alley’ with the gulls using us as target practice!
Two daily open-air meetings and a nightly Gospel rally in the hall was our programme. On top of this, we had door-to-door visitations selling our magazine Bright Words – five hundred each month! The open-air meetings for children were at the lido and all ages at the harbour (again, dodging the gulls, especially when a fishing boat was unloading). Numbers at the open-air gatherings varied a lot, depending on the weather and the day (Fishermen went out just after midnight on Sunday and returned Friday or Saturday morning).
The nightly rallies also varied in number, rising to over ninety Sunday nights. Some were saved, some backsliders were restored, and some sought the fullness of the Holy Spirit in their lives. It was hard going trying to get new sermons – the others who had had some time in the work would have had a stock to browse over.
We had no maid, so had to do our own washing, cooking, cleaning and ironing. Mind you, the people were kind to us and we had a number of invitations to go out for meals. It was a regular feature on Friday night, after boats had come in, for fishermen to tell us there was a parcel at the back. This constituted a number of large fish – sometimes as many as four parcels a night. We had so much fish we cooked it for breakfast, dinner and tea. I thought I was growing a fin out of my back eating so much fish. That summer, I put on a stone in weight, rising to over eleven stone!
The mission gave me an allowance of eight pounds at the end of the Summer work. The fare from Peterhead to London was over six pounds, so I managed to get a lift in a fish lorry down to York and then paid two pounds two shillings and sixpence from there to London.
During September, I got a job ‘temping’ – I could type over sixty words a minute – and this helped me to save for the start of the second year’s fees. I took over twenty meetings in thirty days, which helped with the preaching skills I was learning.
The second year of training was much the same routine as the first in lectures, finance and living. God kept His word and met all my needs. The big difference was there were more students – fifty-three in all, including some seventeen nurses. I was never asked to come back early to college to be head brother or group leader. I was a close seventh out of the seven men who came back for their second year!
Summer work this time was in Leven and Cellardyke in Fife. The weather was quite good, with some really hot days. Ken Thompson was captain again and Mike Tewkesbury (learning to play the accordion) was musician. Tommy Scott from Ballymoney made up the fourth member of the team. Going around the caravan site in uniform on sunny days was quite something and trying to get scantily clad people to buy our magazine, now called Life Indeed, was hard work.
We made some great friends, especially twins Mary and Katie Cordiner (Mary having been a pilgrim). These two ladies were to become a great encouragement to me throughout my pilgrim life of some twenty-five years. Their home was always open to us to relax in and enjoy fellowship with them and other friends, mainly from the Baptist church.
I had finished my college life and was allocated to the West Scottish district, under the superintendence of Sam and Elizabeth Clarke. The headquarters was in Glasgow, near Jordan Hill. I found Glasgow people rather like London folks and felt at home with them. My captain was Henry Kaminski, a lad originally from East Germany, who had been converted at Kinghorn, Fife. He was an excellent player of the accordion. We had missions in Dennystown, Dumbarton, Sanquhar, Dumfries, Rothesay on the Isle of Bute, Govan, Glasgow and Carstairs Junction.
These places were very different and hard going. We were lavishly cared for in Dennystown where a mission hall was used. The people were very kind and generous to us. Sanquhar was very different and to get twelve people was like revival. Our weekly free will offerings amounted to a maximum of £1 six shillings and nine pence, on which to live. I got used to having meat, potatoes and peas for lunch. One tin was our meat for two days. The caravan was very cold and often the water froze and our blankets froze to the inside of the caravan. However, we were young men in the prime of life and I thought this was missionary work! I got quite a shock when two of our girls told us they treated themselves to chops! Now, to be true, no superintendent would have agreed to us going without like this and instead would expect us to ask them for advances. However, we wanted to prove our ‘faith’ and never did ask. On the other hand, we were often invited out for meals and fed very well.
The mission worked on a basis of having free will offerings and we could live off these. At the end of each quarter, we would receive an allowance (normally, you would be able to earn in ten days the sum we were given for three months), but were expected to look to the Lord to meet all our other needs. It was not easy but we did prove the Lord and never suffered as a result.
On missions, we would generally have meetings nightly Monday to Friday and after church on Sunday evenings. Study and prayers would take up the mornings and in the afternoons we would do door-to-door visitation, seeking to get people to come to the meetings. Although numbers were often small, and sometimes nobody came, we still had the joy of pointing people of all ages to Christ.
Henry left the mission after some six months of my working with him, I was joined by Mervyn Langrell. We were to use the new Lanarkshire Christian Union Mobile Hall. It was able to seat thirty-seven people, and had a brand-new harmonium and pulpit. We began in Allanton, a mining village between Shotts and Wishaw, and throughout that mission counselled some forty people of various ages for different needs. Often the hall was packed and we had an overflow into the Church of Scotland hall, on whose grounds we had parked the mobile hall. We were able to have youth meetings, with coffee or tea and a biscuit, sometimes a testimony and then a message. Up to forty young people attended these gatherings.
One amusing aspect was the singing – I was learning to play the harmonium, but neither Mervyn nor I could start the singing, though he was much better than I. Often we would have difficulty in not laughing at pitching the wrong note. We made some great friends, some I still keep in contact with, especially Bob and Margaret McArthur, whose family were very kind towards us.
Listing each mission around various parts of Scotland would take too long, but being sent to the Isle of Arran, situated at the mouth of the Clyde, for five months was quite an experience. For a person from London, the most difficult thing to get used to was the quiet. In one place, a bus would only come three times per week. Our mode of transport was two Faith Mission bicycles. One kept jumping out of gear and the other was constantly stuck in top gear! Most afternoons, we would cycle up to six miles to visit people – going down lanes to a farmhouse, only to have to cycle back out again to the next lane.
It was on this island that I encountered my difficulties with the free Church of Scotland, with its very strong Calvinistic theology. People were bound in fear of not being among the ‘Elect of God’ and any endeavour to encourage them to seek the Lord was ‘man-made’. They did not have a permanent minister in some areas and depended on students from the Free Church College in Edinburgh filling the pulpit. I remember one such student preaching on the Law and the Ten Commandments as primary requirements of scripture. I was so distressed at this legalistic standpoint, I dared to ask him after the service if he felt calvary was a complete failure. One elder overheard part of the conversation and spread around the district that I believed in sinless perfection. I heard this third-hand and so decided to visit him and say if he had a problem with me, he should come directly to me as scripture stated. We managed to put things right and I was asked to preach at a Free Church service. I confess I naughtily took up the subject of ‘blessed assurance’ based on the words of Paul: “I know whom I have believed.” The elder did confess to me that he wished he had my assurance of faith.
Over the years in the mission, I had many opportunities to preach in various Free Church pulpits and did my best not to abuse the privilege. Some ministers became friends or those I admired. A number of former Faith Mission workers also studied to enter their denomination and remained friends.
After leaving Arran, I was sent to Workington in Cumbria to be a part of the first mixed team of pilgrims to have a mission. Christine Todd and Ruth Youngjohns were the girls working in the area, and Tommy Scott and I were sent to join them. Unfortunately, Christine was unwell for the most of the month, so it left to the three of us to continue the mission.
Ruth was an excellent pianist and was able to help our meetings go with a swing. We had youth meetings with the best part of a hundred attending each Saturday night and we saw young people profess faith in Christ each week. Although the meetings were held in the Baptist church, where the Rev Guy Finnie was minister, who later married Rosemary Douglas, a pilgrim who worked in that area, we had support from other churches and the brethren. A march of witness with over forty young people was a highlight of witness to the town, and two girls, Valerie Tyson and Wendy Mossop, came into the mission after this campaign. How different this was from Arran in every way. It was, to be true, my kind of place to work.
After Workington, we went to Blindcrake, a small village in Cumbria. Christine was fit to join us, but Tommy went to help the superintendent in Glasgow with practical work, as dry rot had been discovered in the district house. It was here that I experienced being snowed in – the only time in my twenty-five years – and was unable to leave the village. We stayed on a farm with a dear Christian man called Joe Etherington. I was also confronted with the unusual way of speaking English in which the ‘h’ is left off and put on where it should not be. It was difficult to keep a straight face when Joe called his cat, who had different-coloured eyes, ‘hodd eyes’. I, of course, was always known as ‘arry, who had just come from the Isle of Harran!
After this period, I was sent to work under David Howden, the new director for England, and posted to Countesthorpe, Leicestershire, to work with Paul Jinardu, a converted Muslim from Nigeria. We were to use a portable hall, erected on the paddock, and live in a caravan. It was my first experience of sharing a three-quarter caravan bed with a black man. Paul had trained at the Swansea Bible College where a tremendous emphasis was placed on intercessory prayer. He told me I could preach and he would pray! He was, however, an excellent preacher with a real evangelistic burden. We counselled twenty-eight the first week, though I suspect many were just professions. He felt we could evangelise the whole of the midlands in a couple of years. The truth was that the way the mission worked would only allow for around two missions per quarter, excluding the summer work.
Paul was a delightful fellow to work with and introduced me to many a native Nigerian meal – not all to my liking. We had close contact with the Baptist church and became friends with the secretary, Brian Warburton, and his wife, Valerie.
After Countesthorpe, we moved to Peatling Magna where Paul unfortunately took ill for the best part of a month and I worked alone. The summer work came next and I was joined by David Williams from Birmingham and we worked the villages of Willoughby Waterleys and Ashby Magna. We then moved to Markfield for a nine-week mission in this large village.
A Faith Mission prayer union was held at the home of Cliff and Pearl Jones in Markfield. They and their three daughters were very kind to us and gave tremendous support to the work. The oldest girl, Glenda, came to faith in Christ and later married one of the young people from Woodhouse Eaves, Peter Mann. They later went to Bible college and have spent over thirty years as minister and wife within the Church of the Nazarene Denomination. The youngest girl, Cynthia, made a profession of faith in Christ after I preached at Woodhouse Eaves Baptist church. The second, Jennifer, was already a Christian and I fell in love with her. We had a friendship for some time until it was realised our lives would take different paths in the Lord’s will.
After Markfield, we went to Ratby and, just before Christmas, a follow-up mission in Ashby Magna. David was a skilful player of the accordion, which was a great asset when having open-air meetings. On top of our missions, we also keep links with the nine prayer unions that had been formed in Leicestershire. We preached at many churches during this period and also helped with the Whitsun Weekend Convention in Woodhouse Eaves. Friendships were made with many people and especially young people in the area. These folks would seek to encourage us in our regular mission meetings by attending and seeking to bring others along. This support meant a great deal to us and allowed new people to feel less awkward in the portable hall gatherings.
Most times, we used portable halls, sectional wooden buildings, that held around fifty to seventy people. It would usually be the best part of a day’s work to dismantle them, load them on a lorry or trailer, tow them by a tractor and re-erect them. We usually finished a mission on Sunday night, had three to four days off and then returned on Thursday or Friday to visit the next village, before commencing on Sunday. It is with a real sense of privilege that I don’t remember one mission where we did not see someone coming to faith in Christ.
During this time, we were able to arrange for a coachload of people to attend the ‘barn meetings’ in North Duffield and Barmby on the Marsh, Yorkshire. At the end of the summer work, we would go to Edinburgh for the annual convention meetings, preceded by a series of pilgrim meetings for fellowship and prayer.
Sometimes, the superintendent would want us to join him for conferences, which usually took place on Saturdays. There, we would testify or report on the work and thereby encourage supporters to pray for us and, where possible, attend the meetings. For those working in England and Scotland, we would end the summer work by attending the Edinburgh Convention. We had pilgrims’ meetings from Wednesday teatime to Sunday afternoon, then began the convention from Tuesday to Sunday. The First Saturday of the month was always a guideline to the date.
Pilgrims meetings were great times of catching up on the activities of other workers, sharing our experiences, having prolonged times of prayer, and being ministered to prior to the convention. These times all served to strengthen the ‘family spirit’ that prevailed in the mission.
Convention meetings usually numbered around three to four hundred, with up to eight hundred on Saturdays, when coachloads of people came from distances of up to 120 miles for the day. At the meetings, we had the privilege of listening to some of God’s choice speakers from the UK and abroad. People like the Rev Philip Hacking (later to become the chairman of Keswick Convention), Alan Redpath, Maynard James, Jack Ford (principal of the Nazarene College), George Duncan, Stanley Banks (principle of Emmanuel Bible College), J B B Friend (from South Africa), Brian Russell Jones, Bertie Rainsbury, Alex Passmore, Charles Stern, David McKee, Duncan Campbell, Colin Peckham (later to become the principal), Percy Hassam (general secretary of the Pentecostal Holiness League of Prayer), Stephen Orford, Albert Lown, Gordon Brayshaw, Sam Workman, David Watson, Mary Morrison (now Peckham), Stanley Voke, Francis Dixon etc. These missionaries from around the world all shared to stir our hearts, challenge our lives and inspire our service for Christ.
Those working in Ireland were expected to attend the Bangor Convention over Easter for a similar convention. In my early days, five churches would be taken over and around 7,000 would attend the meetings with churches packed some forty-five minutes before each meeting. Each student was expected to attend this convention at least once during training. For a number of years, two special trains were used to bring people from various parts of Northern Ireland to the convention. It was a wonderful experience to see so many Christians thronging the streets of Bangor over the Easter period.
Budding Evangelist
7. Pilgrim Life
During the Bangor Convention, young people would join the house parties using three large guest houses, with numbers reaching up to 150 in attendance. As a result, the mission started the Young People’s Fellowship (YPF) with Isabel Story (later to marry James Monihan) as secretary. Groups were encouraged to meet together and, over a period of time, some nineteen groups met around the UK.
For some time, I began to feel drawn towards youth work, as opposed to normal mission work. I spoke with the president of the young people’s work, David Howden, and later applied to the mission council for a post within the YPF, as it became known. At the New Year council meeting, it was agreed that I should become the field representative for this side of the work and I made plans for this to begin after the summer work. However, at the Easter council meeting, the decision was changed and I was asked to come down from Banffshire, where I was on missions, to see the general director, Albert Dale, to be informed of this.
It was a bitter blow to me as a young man of twenty-five years, having informed all my prayer partners that I was to do this work and now it had changed. I was never told the reason, though later learnt why, but don’t want to put it into print in order to protect some people. I felt I was put into a no-win situation having said I believed God did not want me to continue with normal mission work. This being so, I felt I had to resign, not knowing what I would do, and went back to London to live with my mother.
I got a job, wonderfully opened up to me, with Castrol, the oil people, in preparation for a new type of office work. This meant doing the figures for the blending of oil for the computer and would mean working alongside factory workers. The money was very good and the prospects, excellent. I could help Mother out, she having moved to a new flat in Deptford, and also pay my own way.
During my time at Castrol, Billy Graham conducted a campaign at Earls Court, London. I was able to arrange for nine men to come to one of the meetings. We used the brand-new sports club minibus and the manager, Mr Barnes, arranged for the driver to get time and a half wages for the trip. This was in order to keep sweet with the union.
I would join in with the men as much as possible, playing cricket on the top of one of the roofs. They said about me: ‘With God as my guide, I was worth two on any side I played with’. Some would make fun of my faith, but others would take time out to ask me ‘serious’ questions!
At that time, the general foreman, Jim, was the Grand Master of a Masonic lodge and, from that standpoint, we had many discussions about religion. He did not realise I had knowledge of so much of this mainly secret organisation. Mind you, his talks were always conducted with the door shut and just the two of us in conversation.
It was a year until I was able, once again, to face the realities of working-class people and the problems they faced and had, especially with regard to any Christian faith.
At this time, I had an interview with Marshall Shallis regarding becoming a staff evangelist with the Evangelization Society, but had no peace about it.
As I was now free, I decided I would go to the Bangor Convention over Easter as a visitor. God worked on my heart and made it clear that I should ask to come back into the Faith Mission. I saw the Rev Duncan Campbell, who was one of the speakers, and he with Albert Dale put it to the council. I still felt I should do youth work. The council agreed to take me back but with no promise of youth work. Mr Dale said it would have to be a step of faith on my part. So, in the autumn, I came back into the ranks of the mission.
Within a year, the mission asked me to take up the leadership of the YPF, as Isabel Story was about to be married. This I did and for the next couple of years travelled around the UK seeking to encourage young people in their Christian faith and also seeking to reach others. I had the joy of speaking in all sorts of youth meetings in universities, colleges, youth clubs, churches, camps and house parties. With Mr Howden, we organised a youth house party at the Edinburgh Convention, using the Bristo Baptist Church as a base. Over forty young people attended and this greatly enhanced those attending the main convention.
I went through the Correspondence Course Bible Studies, produced through the mission, and was able to produce a new one for new converts and, later, a Topical Bible Correspondence Course. The former to help people in their new faith and the latter to help young people understand various topics, such as false cults, evolution and the holiness of life.
On one occasion, I had a word with Mr Howden, president of the YPF, about whether my being the field representative would prevent me being able to get married. In the mission at that time, only superintendents were married people. I did not have a lady in mind, but wanted to understand the position. I did have an interest in a couple of girls during my years in the mission, but, after prayer, either they or I felt it was not right for us.
One of the students I worked with on a summer beach campaign was Jackie Weinberg. He was the son of a Belgian doctor and a Congolese native. His being of mixed race was bought up by missionaries. Sadly, after working for some time in the mission, he was killed on a return journey from Yorkshire to Southampton, where he had arranged for a Land Rover to be shipped out to Congo. Christian friends wanted to remember him in a special way and a mobile literature unit was specially made in his memory.
One quarter, there was nobody to operate the unit and Mr Howden asked me to use it from October to December. This would entail travelling around England, taking meetings most days and setting up a bookstall. It was a unique experience that I enjoyed a great deal, meeting many new friends and being able to sell over £2,000 worth of literature.
Jackie was one of the most winsome workers for Christ that I ever met. During his last mission, the justice of the peace in that area was converted to Christ. A booklet was produced by the mission entitled In Heaven for Christmas. It was a fitting tribute to such a delightful Christian man.
The unit was so designed to accommodate two people, with loudspeaker equipment and a side opening to display literature. David Williams and I used it one summer for open-air missions in the Redcar area of Yorkshire and South Shields, where we worked with the People’s Mission.
Sandy Moynan and Hillis Fleming, with whom I had spent time as students in college, were working in the area around Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire. Hillis left the mission and I was asked to join Sandy for a time as there was no other worker to send with him. We began with a mission in Macduff, Banffshire and as part of the work opened a bookshop – literature outreach being a particular burden for Sandy.
At that time, Sandy had fallen in love with a girl from Fraserburgh, called Christine. On his free day, he would stay with her grandparents in order to see her. He arranged for me to stay with William and Joan Tait, and Alec, Maureen and Wilma, their children. It would be difficult to put into words the kindness and love these ‘fisherfolk’ showed to me.
I had difficulty, at first, understanding their Buchan language and I am sure they struggled with my cockney, too! Try combining their greeting of “Fit like” with my “Al’ right then!”. However, we had such fun with tears of laughter often filling their house. They became true friends and accepted me as one of the family.
8. Marriage and Superintendency
Around this time, Jo Parker, a nurse from Greenwich, London, who I had met at the prayer union held in the home of George and Anna Roberts, came into the college. It was at the time when I was staying at the college while doing the youth work. Greenwich was the next district in London to Deptford – indeed, I had gone to my last school there. I had always maintained I would need to marry a Londoner in order for them to understand me.
Although we were friendly, it was not in a special friendship way. In fact, I thought she was interested in Len Chipping. Some people within the mission did link us together, but we had not developed an interest in each other.
Jo went to Bangor during her second year and I met her there, being with the YPF house party. It was then that Len, who was also there before going to Papua New Guinea as a missionary, met with us. I discovered that my understanding was wrong and that he and Jo were not ‘friendly’. I began to pray about it and sought to see how she felt at the Edinburgh Convention, at the end of the summer work. Jo just thought I was being friendly, coming from London, and we arranged to meet in the September holiday. She then realised my intentions and also began to pray – I don’t think she was immediately keen. After some time, we both felt it was right, but as the mission had rules that a person usually had to complete one year in the work before any relationships could be sanctioned, we planned to that end. Jo was posted to the South Scottish district with Ann Smith, in the Calders, and I was down in the English midlands.
After a couple of hiccups regarding mission policy, our relationship became accepted with the mission. There was a need for a superintendent, one having left the work, and the council felt I should do it. Alastair and Pat Fraser, superintendent for East Anglia, were to go into the pastoral ministry and I was asked to join them for a couple of months at the start of the autumn work. Jo and I planned to be married on 9th January 1971 and thus began seven years of very happy work in that district. Jo’s grandparents had come from the Suffolk/Essex borders, so it was almost home territory for her.
The wedding took place on a Saturday at a Baptist church at Blackheath, just a few doors down from the home of one of Jo’s great aunts – from where she was married. Her mum and dad lived in a two-room dwelling off Coldharbour Lane, Camberwell.
With my mum being a widow and Jo’s dad having been out of work with illness for years, we had to pay for everything ourselves. What a miracle with my aunts doing the cooking and the waitressing at the PLI in Deptford, where my church allowed us to have the reception.
Under the suggestion of Bert Thoroughgood, church secretary, the fellowship gave us a gift of a honeymoon at a Trust House Forte hotel of our choosing. We chose one in Tavistock, Devon. Bert told me he knew I would not spend any money this way, hence his suggestion. It gave us a great start to life together.
Our married life commenced with us living at the headquarters, 110 Christchurch Street, Ipswich, Suffolk. We had fifty-two prayer unions, nineteen conferences and three pairs of pilgrims in the district. Each prayer union was to be visited once a quarter and, with pilgrims usually having two missions a quarter, I was expected to speak at each mission. Each Sunday Church service were taken with two to three meetings – one year, I was involved with over four hundred meetings. Needless to say it was a very busy programme with very few days off. Towards the latter part of the seven years we were there, I made a point of keeping one Sunday a month for us to go to church together and at least take in food for my soul. Mind you, the conference speakers were such that listening to them was like having a feast.
The autumn to Christmas quarter was even busier with most midweek days taken up with ladies’ meetings in the afternoon, as well as prayer unions at night. This was in order to take around a selection of Christmas literature. Some of those in the villages would have a real trek to a town or city to find a Christian bookshop and greatly looked forward to the visit.
The first eighteen months was not only a learning process of the work of a superintendent, but also of finding one’s way around the counties to the villages – especially Norfolk! Prayer unions being held mainly in homes, it was quite a job to find the right house down a lane, or a farmhouse out in the country outside a village.
Two days each year were spent at the Suffolk Agricultural Show, working with the committee of the ‘Good News Stand’. Our marquee and a portable hall were used on the site. The first couple of years we were delighted if four hundred came to our stand. However, a new venture called ‘the grotto’, an idea taken from friends in the Liverpool area, changed everything. In the marquee (‘grotto’), we set up moving model figures in set scenes to depict a Bible story, the first being the rich fool (farmer) who only had time for this life, but forgot it would end. The last scene was a miniature coffin with the nameplate ‘a fool’ on it. From having four hundred visit the stand over two days, we had between 10,000 to 12,000 visit the ‘grotto’.
Ted and Stella Rose, farmers and irrigation specialists, were great stalwarts – Ted being a genius at making a stand attractive and also making the figures and parts move. Bob and Grace, who owned a village shop, provided the secretary, and various Christians formed the committee, with the Faith Mission superintendent being one member. It was hard work and very tiring, but so rewarding to present the Christian message to so many.
Summer work took on a different outlook with seaside campaigns in Clacton-on-Sea, Southend-on-Sea, Lowestoft and Gorleston – usually a team of four spent a month in each place. The effectiveness of these efforts depended so much on the weather. Sometimes it was damp, raining or overcast with few people on the beach. At times, you felt the only listeners were the seagulls!
At the start of the summer, a special ‘barn meeting’ was held at the farm of Cyril and Masie Buchannan (she having been a pilgrim). Both were from Northern Ireland and lived just outside Ipswich at Witnesham. They had a farmhouse and some farm dwellings, including a big barn, where they lived, but they farmed land some three quarters of a mile from there. This venture had been started by Willie and Isabel Porter, when around 150 would attend, though numbers dropped to around seventy.
On visiting the farm and talking to Mrs Buchannan, I mentioned that it would be an ideal site to host a young people’s camp weekend, in conjunction with the barn meetings. Leaning on the iron swing gate, she said, “Well, Mr Spain, if you think you can use them, then do.” The lofts above the barn on one side could well be made into a dormitory, the downstairs into a kitchen and dining area, and erecting a couple of portable halls and the marquee would mean more sleeping areas and a meeting place for the young people. We would seek to borrow trestle tables and chairs from various fellowships (mainly the Ipswich Town Mission – later known as the Clarkeston Street Mission).
The first year, we had twenty-two young people. It grew to over fifty with one young person being ‘called’ into the mission each year.
It became a vision to make this barn meeting weekend the main feature of the district work for the year. Conferences were held around the district, but this would be a chance to encourage friends from Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk (the main counties we worked in) to make an effort to come. Numbers built up to around 350 (the biggest), but on a regular basis it was around 250. A coachload from Norfolk, where the pilgrims were working, one and sometimes two from Essex, with various vehicles bringing people from Suffolk and other parts of the counties.
It was a lot of hard work – sweeping, cleaning, erecting the halls and the tent, providing toilets, and finding chairs and tables (usually from the Ipswich Town Mission, but wherever we could borrow them). We went to auctions, looked in junk shops for Calor gas cookers, pots and pans, and any other camp equipment.
In the summer, after gaining permission from the Faith Mission Council (by no means easy), we decided to run our first children’s camp. We were not allowed pilgrims as staff – they were to go on preaching to the seagulls! – so Robin and Betty Moscrop (superintendents for the East Scottish district), Irene Cummings (assistant to the English director) and Len Pickering (who was set aside for children’s work) joined us to became the nucleus of staff. Without their help, it would never have got off the ground! Having spoken to the founder / leader of WEC Warrior Camps and former pilgrim director of the Child Evangelism Fellowship, along with my knowledge from Boys’ Brigade camps, we set about to achieve it. Hoping for volunteer staff, we planned the camp.
In the event, sixty-three campers booked in with around fifteen staff, including four grammar school girls (they proved to be more interested in the farmer’s sons than seeking to keep discipline in the sleeping quarters). It was a hectic week (I lost over half a stone in weight), but we determined to make it work. I knew we would make mistakes, but decided to learn from them.
I was determined that the children who came would have a Christian-based holiday to be enjoyed and remembered. Of course, we would give time to teaching the message of the Gospel, but also make sure it was a fun time. We planned to vary the programme so it included days on the farm and outings. One outing was a trip to London for the day. Another was to the seaside at Felixstowe, some fifteen miles away. In later years, we stopped going to London and instead went to Clacton-on-Sea.
One source of campers was through a Christian social worker in Norfolk, who passed on children who would not normally get a holiday or who had difficult family backgrounds. There were also some from divorced or one-parent families.
Throughout the years of running camps, we had to thank the Lord for His protection and help. Very few accidents happened and potential trouble was overcome. Looking back, one is conscious of the way we were protected by God.
Thus began the camp work that is now established as a major summer work activity for the mission, with over thirty-five separate camps per year throughout the British Isles – from East Anglia to Braemar in Scotland, across to Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland, Nairn, Edinburgh, various parts of England and the Shetland Islands. Well over 1,500 young people attend the camps each year, with some saved, called into God’s service and now working full-time in Christian ministry.
Along with the main work of the district, a coach party to the Edinburgh Convention was planned each year. This meant spending all year selling the idea of folks making their holiday in Scotland. As with campers, you had to find roughly half the numbers from new people each year. Sometimes it was a real headache keeping everybody happy and one year, the YWCA double-booked the places so we had two days to find alternative accommodation with no chance of cancelling the trip. This would be considered an impossibility during the Edinburgh Festival! In answer to prayer, we discovered a party had cancelled at a college in Linlithgow, some dozen miles outside of Edinburgh. For no increase in costs to the party, we were also able to pay extra for the more miles of the coach coming and going to the convention each day. It was a never-to-be-forgotten experience! And one that was fortunately never repeated either!
Another feature of our time in East Anglia was to start a prayer and fellowship weekend. The vision was to get friends of the mission to come away for a weekend to give extra time for prayer, ministry and fellowship. For the first two years, we used the WEC headquarters premises Bulstrode, Hertfordshire. With the prayerful atmosphere created by this great missionary society (started by C T Studd, the great England cricketer, and also where my dear friend of youth, Patrick McElligott, became deputy international head, having spent many years as a missionary in Japan), it was easy to slip into the whole idea of giving time for God.
It would be impossible to gauge the value of such weekends, to those who attended and the work we sought to do for Christ. Friendships were made and enthusiasm for the work generated on a level hitherto unknown.
During the last three years of our term of office in East Anglia, we used Sizewell Hall, which was owned by the Ogilvey Family (who are connected to royalty). Victor Jack, an evangelist with the Counties Evangelist Association, had the vision to use these premises for conferences and camps. Much work was needed to repair, decorate and bring the buildings up to scratch, with teams going to help. A twenty-one-year contract was taken on board and extended. In fact, the owners were so impressed with the venture, they offered other premises for similar use.
In those days, we could book just over sixty for the weekend and self-catering would keep the costs down. Once or twice, we offered opportunity for prayer, counselling and healing for any that wished it. Most of the sessions would be given to a short devotional word with prayer sessions. Saturday afternoon was mainly free, but groups were given half-an-hour slots to pray. By this method, prayer went on throughout the day.
These events still take place and encouraged other such events around the UK. A Highland district weekend in Skye has proved to be an excellent gathering for well over twenty years.
One of the notable events in the yearly calendar was the series of Easter conferences throughout the district. These lasted some ten days, with two gatherings most days. We had the privilege of giving hospitality to some of God’s choice servants. Often, we would have eleven to thirteen people staying in the house (fortunately, it was a three-storied building with a basement). It was very busy and tiring, but such a blessing to see God touching the lives of many people around the district.
During the seven years we were looking after the work in East Anglia, we longed for a family of our own. Somehow, we seemed to be denied such joy. Visits to the doctors, hospital, various tests (some quite embarrassing) all proved to no avail. Why did God not answer our prayers? It was a most difficult, testing and trying period of our marriage. During the last year, we heard of a vicar, the Reverend Trevor Deering, who held healing missions. People asked us about him, but having not heard personally was in no position to think of passing judgement!
We did attend a meeting of his, having one of our own cancelled, and found nothing in the gathering to disturb our spirit. Indeed, we could not but believe God was using this dear man for His glory. Miracles of healing took place, including the saving of souls. After praying about it, we felt we should make an appointment to see this dear man.
His parish was in Havering, Essex, on the London border. We made the visit, shared our burden for a family and he prayed for us. He said he believed we would have a child. Jo was convinced it would be a son that God promised to us. In the September of our last year in East Anglia, we received confirmation from the hospital that Jo was pregnant.
Our Engagement 1970
Our Wedding
9th January 1971
The Faith Mission Council had decided we should leave East Anglia and take up the post of superintendent for the East Scottish district, based in Aberdeen. At first, the idea of leaving did not appeal to us at all. We felt we needed a couple more years to cement what God had done for us in the work. However, this was not to be and in 1978 we moved to Scotland.
Looking back, it would be difficult not to believe God kept us back from having a family in order to establish the camp ministry for the Faith Mission. It is true that an odd camp had been held before, but nothing like the way it had since flourished around the UK. Our freedom from parenthood enabled us to take up the hard work of commencing this new avenue of work in the mission. It is most heartening to know that children of our camps send their own children to camps, with some becoming leaders at camps in their own right. The mission itself has rejoiced in new workers through this ministry, and indeed the work of God around the world has benefitted, too, in some small measure.
Jo and I had both worked in the East Scottish district as pilgrims on teams. My first summer work being in Peterhead in 1962 and she having been in Fraserburgh. I had also been in Leven, Anstruther, Cellardyke, and Kinghorn in Fife, which marked the lower boundary of the district. It was not completely new territory, but quite an experience for two Londoners to work in Scotland and the Shetland Islands.
During our time in the East Scottish district, I was asked to go down to Barrowden in the Midlands to help start camps there. A Christian couple, David and Daphne Mounteney, had a property with six acres of ground attached to it. This was more than sufficient to set up a camp. Billy and Mable Wright had been working as area workers around Oakham and saw the potential for a children’s camp. I also helped with camps in Southern Ireland where Stanley and Shirley Hay were superintendents.
The district was very different with only thirteen official prayer unions, but geographically this meant me spending the best part of four months of every year sleeping away from home – two trips per year to Shetland for two to three weeks at a time, and one and a half weeks each quarter visiting prayer unions in Perthshire and Fife making up most of the programme. Fisherfolk would make up a vital part of the supporters of the district. Fortunately, unlike previous superintendents, I would not need to live in Dunfermline, where running a Faith Mission Hall was also part of the work of the district.
We commenced in the autumn and Joanne was born in April of our first year there, having been conceived in East Anglia. The whole pattern of our life changed from English work to Scottish, and moved into parenthood. Nobody could have outlined what this would mean to us! This began a pattern of some four years of broken sleep with Thomas being born in January 1980. Both children were unfortunate enough to have rare viruses. Compounding the problem was our being some 550 miles away from family and thus had no regular help from grandparents to ease the burden of childcare. Having said that, we were extremely grateful to have Charlie and Ann Donald, who proved to be as great as grandparents to us. We met them some sixteen or so years before, during the Peterhead campaign, and their kindness, love, practical help and friendship went beyond mere description! They and their married daughters came to our rescue often.
Being in Aberdeen gave us opportunities to reawaken old friendships with people we knew in the district. On top of this, trips to Shetland opened up new horizons for us. The history of Faith Mission work in Shetland goes back to the start of the twentieth century. Around 1928–31, pilgrims saw some remarkable incidents of the Spirit of God at work. On Burra Isle, an island off the western side of the main isle, two pilgrims saw over three hundred make professions of faith in Christ during one mission alone.
Shetland has one of only two Methodist churches named after the great theologian, Adam Clarke. With five Baptist churches, three with pastors and two as mission stations, along with the Church of Scotland, there is a long history of Christianity in the islands. Pilgrims have missioned there over the years, but it had been some time since they last were there. I felt the need for some missions and during our five years as superintendent began them. A number of people were blessed in the Cunningsburgh district, where the United Free Church of Scotland had a real influence. Former pilgrims became ministers in various parts of Shetland with a good measure of success, and their fellowship added to the value of the work there.
One former pilgrim, Alex Tait, had been in training at a time when the founder’s wife was in charge of the college. He spent much of his time as her driver. Alex had a real love for the mission and spoke of days when he and his brother, George, had taken a mission in Cunningsburgh in which many had come to faith in Christ. He was the leader of the Garthspool Mission Hall, Lerwick, where his wife, daughter and son-in-law had much to do with running that work. He was very much of the old school, but I found him a great help. It was usual to stay with him during most of the visit to Shetland. John West, a former worker with the Deep Sea Mission, allowed us to use his car for most of the visit. His wife, Mary, was also very kind and supportive.
The people of Shetland had a great love for the Faith Mission. One fisherman, John Pottinger, who was converted in the Burra Isle revival in January 1931, had a Faith Mission crest on his boat. He was a regular attendee at the Edinburgh Convention. I had the privilege of speaking at his memorial service.
One unique feature of Shetland was that it had very few trees and nearly all were bent by the very strong winds. It was not uncommon to have winds of over one hundred miles per hour. Leaning into the wind to do visitation was quite a physical ordeal and, when coupled with lashing rain, quite something.
Many of the people seemed to live to a ripe old age, with some hardly ever leaving their area of the isles. One-lane roads with passing places were commonplace in many parts. Being a fourteen-hour boat trip north of Aberdeen, daylight was quite a feature in May. It was possible to read a newspaper at 11pm outside. On the other hand, from October to November, it was around 10am before it became light and then was dark again around 4pm.
One of the highlights for me was tasting the local fish and chips. The freshness of the fish really spoilt having a similar meal in London. Alex Fraser, Alex Tait’s son-in-law, ran a local fish shop and would send me home with a supply of fresh fish to take to Aberdeen. This was a real treat for Jo and myself.
During one mission, Jo and I had twin brothers and two ladies who were saved in Cunningsburgh. One of the twins married the young lady, a schoolteacher from Elgin. One day, she hired a taxi to take her from the school to the caravan we were using, in order to seek the Lord.
Youth leaders in Lerwick ran a special Sunday night after-church coffee bar meeting, to which I was invited to speak. A few times, young people responded to seek the Lord at these sessions. Marshall Shallis, general secretary of the Evangelization Society, and Jackie Ritchie, the North of Scotland Representative, had been up for meetings and also saw souls seeking the Lord.
The death of a dear friend, Jean Smith, and a family gift resulting from it in memory of her, enabled us to buy fifty sets of melonware crockery, which was a tremendous help with equipment. These camps continue to this day and again have produced much fruit for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
We also started prayer weekends at St Ninian’s, Crieff. These ventures helped to draw the Highlands and East Scottish districts together. Times spent in the presence of God enriched the work and fellowship of prayer union members and friends.
I had become a member of the executive council of the mission, as well as one of the Bible college committee members. These positions gave deeper insight into the workings of the mission and college and, I believe, enriched my own ministry. Interviewing potential candidates for the college took up more time, along with marking one of the Bible Correspondence courses.
Having been linked with the YPF, it was a further step in seeking to forward that work. House parties at the major conventions, camps, Bible study notes, group meetings and special events all became part of the work. Sadly, from my point of view, I resigned after four years, believing we could not progress with the work in the UK when too much attention was given to the restricted views of a couple of extreme denominations in Northern Ireland. Trying to bring our work into the latter part of the twentieth century was hard work and became the saddest part of my ministry along these lines. The camp work still goes apace, but much of the other is non-existent or at a very low ebb.
Travelling around the British Isles was a very rewarding experience. To see young people develop in their faith, going on with God and becoming leaders in their area gave deep satisfaction for which I give glory to God.
During our time in Edinburgh, the centenary of the mission was fast approaching. The mission began in 1886 and 1986 was upon us. It was a joy to arrange for all of the monthly Edinburgh conferences of that year to be taken by former pilgrims – usually one to preach and one to testify. It gave a glimpse of how the Lord had used the mission in the wider work of the Kingdom of God. Being part of the centenary tour around England and Scotland, as well as the conventions in Bangor, Northern Ireland and Edinburgh, were real highlights. The privilege of having the Rev Dr Stephen Orford and his wife come to our home was a special treat. I was able to thank him for the radio ministry from Calvary Baptist Church, New York, where he ministered. This ministry had been an oasis of blessing while working on Arran way back in 1964.
Part of the time on the executive council, including council meetings at this time, was given to potential changes of superintendents, with some nine changes to take place (out of the twelve districts). On average, a superintendent would be moved each five to seven years. During the course of the twenty-five years I was in the mission, new districts were added and the boundaries of others changed. England had its own director for the first time; the North West Irish district was formed; Midlands of England district and South West of England district were formed. The old West Scottish district became the Anglo Scottish Border district.
I had seen how planned changes were prepared and moves made only for superintendents to leave the work a short time after being in a district, thereby causing real upheaval to the work. Jo and I were beginning to feel the Lord wanted to close this chapter of our work for Him in the mission. To put all the pointers down in print would be to cause pain and hurt, as well as misunderstanding, so I leave that aspect to God’s own history. Suffice it to say, although we were due to move to the Anglo Scottish Border district, based in Carlisle, there was a real unease in our souls. We loved the mission, but increasingly felt we could contribute little more to its ongoing work. We could keep cogs turning, but was it God’s will for us? Quite a difficult and painful decision was becoming clear to us. After twenty-five years for me and nineteen for Jo, the time had come to resign.
At the time of resigning, we had no idea what we would do, but knew it would not be honouring to the God who called us to stay put in the work. It seemed the right time to move out before the major changes took place. Joanne was nine and Thomas seven by this time and we realised it would be a massive move for them as well as us. Our emotions were torn, but it was a step we had to take if we were to continue in the will of God for our lives.
During the course of our married life, our dear friends George and Anna Roberts, who now headed up the work of the Christian Police Association (CPA), had twice asked me if I would consider joining them as his assistant in that work. I had no peace about this at all. However, when we had put in our resignation to the mission, another offer was given and this time it seemed to be the Lord’s leading. This being so, we left the Faith Mission on the 28th June 1987 and travelled down by hired van to Leicester, where the headquarters of the CPA was situated.
9. Christian Police Association
In 1883, Catherine Gurney, the daughter of a longhand writer for Parliament and the law courts in London, started the work of the Christian Police Association (CPA). She was an enthusiastic Christian of the Victoria era. One day, being escorted across one of London’s Commons by a police officer, she offered him a Christian tract. On receiving this, he replied, “Do you think a policeman has a soul?” This caused her to begin her work among the police. She hired a room in London where officers could come and relax, have fellowship with others of like mind and generally unwind from the rigors of their working life. This was the forerunner to the social clubs that have become a feature of constabulary life. She ran a Bible class for officers and sought to fulfil the three-fold aim of the association: to foster fellowship among Christians in the police; to encourage righteousness on and off duty; and to encourage them to share their faith with their colleagues.
The work quickly expanded under the leadership of this energetic Christian lady. She also had a great concern for the welfare of officers, at a time when pay was quite low and before the Welfare State came into being. She opened up convalescent homes, as well as an orphanage for children of officers who had died. Her sterling work along this line was ultimately rewarded with an OBE (Order of the British Empire). The work spread from the shores of Great Britain to overseas. Exploits of such ventures were recorded in the monthly magazine On and Off Duty. In the early days, the movement was known as the International Christian Police Association.
The magazine was also used to inform members and its readership of events around the country, as well as new edicts for police officers. Some of the world’s best known preachers graced the CPA platform when rallies were held around the country. The American evangelist, D L Moody, featured in the magazine when he was in this country conducting missions and campaigns.
The foundation set by Catherine Gurney has been the basis on which the association runs to this day. Over a century of witness and work among the police service personnel has borne much fruit for the glory of God.
George had promised us the opportunity to live in his house – he lived in the headquarters of the CPA as part of his contract of employment. This was to give us unhurried time to find a place for ourselves. We left the Faith Mission with little more than £1,500, which was soon eaten into. It certainly did not give great expectations for buying a property of our own.
On arriving in Leicester at the end of June, we were told the house would not be available, but a Christian lady, Mrs Keats, who we had known through the Faith Mission, was willing to put us up. This was a major blow to us for we were to go on holiday expecting to live in a house and now became lodgers – no easy prospect with two young children. Of course, the question of our leaving the mission came under scrutiny – had we made a big mistake? However, as we went back to the Lord in prayer, we were convinced He had directed this and we would trust him.
The next few months became a real trial of our faith, starting with bouts of living with Mrs Keats. After two weeks, she said we could not stay any longer as a sister was coming from abroad and would stay with her. Having left her home for the office at 9am and to be told by 11am that we had to leave was quite a shock to the system. That day, a missionary couple working in Africa with WEC and from the church we attended had returned to the mission field. Their home would be free for three weeks and we could use it. After this period, we then lived in a ten–twelve foot caravan. Each morning, we had to dry out the cushions we slept on because of the damp. Heather Roberts, who had lived with George and Anna, moved to London and we were given her room for the children to sleep in and ourselves in an upstairs room. Two families in one home was a breeding ground for difficulty and we had our share. To save pain and hurt, I will not go into detail. Over the Christmas holiday period, we were able to have the use of the Faith Mission home of Victor and Maureen Bennett in Oakham where they were area workers. Maureen had worked with us in the South Scottish district and Victor was a welcomed visitor at that time!
In a wonderful way, after some disappointments, a house became available in Oadby. God wonderfully provided the deposit for a mortgage on the house. It needed much done to it: rewiring, a new floor from entrance through to extension, plumbing for central heating, damp proofing, decoration from top to bottom, carpeting all over, furnishing, re-roofing to the small extension and PVC windows.
At first, I was to assist the general secretary, but also to do the work of the office administrator. George was soon to fall foul to his health conditions, which put extra pressure on my side of the work. I had received a couple of hours’ instruction from Rick Saunders, the previous administrator, on how to do the work. One nightmare was the computer and an electric typewriter. I had learned typing on an old manual machine and seemed to have fingers too large for the keyboard, which worked on a very slight touch.
Just over a year later, George had to retire on health grounds, but prior to this I had become editor of the magazine, and organiser of the national assembly and leader’s conference. Trying to do all this work alone, whereas previously two others had done it, the pressure began to tell. It came to a head at the Swanwick Leaders’ Conference. The speakers booked had pulled out with ill health and I had just a fortnight to deal with the subject of revival. The final morning I took ill and finished up in Derby Hospital with extremely high blood pressure, coupled with a bout of sickness. This downside of illness led to my sustaining a heart attack in the Faith Mission. As a result, I finished up in Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, after a forty-odd mile trip by ambulance from Fraserburgh.
Prior to my ill health, I sought to travel around the British Isles, encouraging the branch secretaries and members. It was a work I greatly enjoyed and, because of the experience gained as superintendent in the Faith Mission, something I managed to cope with.
One great feature of the annual round was a trip to the Northern Ireland branch. With so many in the branch, scattered around the Province, and because of the Troubles, they operated on a zone system with seven to eight gatherings. They also ran an annual campaign in Portrush for a week with Bible studies, open-air meetings and Gospel rallies. My previous knowledge of the area, when travelling with the Faith Mission, was another great help. The courage, dedication and sheer professional work of the police officers there was something to behold.
Many times, I went to places just before or after terrorist bombs were used. The pain, suffering and hurt would be difficult to quantify. Visiting widows, widowers and injured officers told its own story. Consciously leaning upon the Lord, I sort to give counsel, encouragement and support to these dear people. How much I learnt of faith and commitment to Christ through these brothers and sisters in Christ. Friendships were forged that will last throughout my life. It has been a real joy to have a number stay with us for the Council and Branch Secretaries Standing Conferences.
In particular, friendships began with John Manson, Tom Davison, Sam Gamble, David Mitchell, Sam Kirk, their wives and a host of other officers, who daily risked their lives in the service of those living in the Province.
After George retired, I was advised to apply for his old position in the CPA. The irony being I had to set out the terms of employment, answer the phone to enquiring candidates for the post and still keep on with the job. I was told that in the light of new government legislation, the post would have to be advertised. This put us through some six months of real testing. I was offered the post of pastor and even had one person within the CPA telling me I should take it!
However, I still believed God had called us to the association and that our sheet anchor was this calling. After six months or so, the council decided to offer me the post. This meant living at the headquarters as part of the contract of employment and we were to work on an open-house policy.
Working with the council
Having a body of men consisting of officers and retired officers, ranking from police constables to chief constables, plus a civilian treasurer (a former bank manager), meant I had to be on my toes for they were people trained to investigate and probe – there was no chance of pulling the wool over their eyes!
One lesson I learnt early on was that if I was wrong or made a mistake, I shouldn’t try to cover it up but own up. It then meant no further discussion would take place with embarrassing moments. An upfront apology was always the best way.
Planning the ongoing work of the association and seeking ways to advance the cause of Christ among those working in the police service was always a challenge, thrill and privilege. To spend time in prayer with these people was both humbling and inspiring. I have to say that getting to know such men and women was a real joy to me. Robin Oake, who finished his service as Chief Constable of the Isle of Man Constabulary, Commander David Bicknell, Inspector Jim Green and Don Axcell of the Met; Chief Inspectors Tom Davison and John Manson of the Royal Ulster Constabulary; Cliff Harries of Leicestershire (for many years, chairman of the council); Sergeant Gordon A’Court and Chief Inspector Gareth John of South Wales Police; Alec Catto from Aberdeen (formerly the Met); Ron Perrott of the Met; Inspector David Walls and Joan Simpson of West Yorkshire Constabulary; Sergeant Richard Wiggins of Hertfordshire Police; Bert Sharp of Strathclyde Police; Gill Green of Suffolk Police; Mike Quinnell of Cleveland Police; Pete Kay, Lincolnshire Police; Doug Hayball (who became a vicar and vice president of the CPA); John Buxton of Northumbria Police; Andy Varney of Hampshire Police; Derek Morrison of Northern Constabulary; Inspector Paul Cook and Mick Clyne of Thames Valley Police, and Assistant Chief Constable Ian McDonald, who became acting head of the Bramshill Senior Command College, and a host of others, have all served to sharpen my Christian walk and witness.
Being able to council, pray with and share vision and burden with such people is something I will treasure for the rest of my life. To think that I, who was once caught by the police, could now work with them for the glory of Christ is something only to be marvelled at!
My role as executive director of the CPA gave me a standing with many senior officers throughout the country. I have to say they were very gracious towards me and never looked down upon me as inferior to them. Indeed, I was humbled to have some ask my opinions regarding various issues within the police service. On one occasion, meeting with the Commissioner of Police for the Met, Sir John Stevens, I told him we would be praying for him and he replied, “Please do. I believe in the power of prayer.”
It was a particular joy to me to realise that at one time there were Christian officers at the top of the constabularies for South Yorkshire, Nottingham, the West Midlands, Northamptonshire, Hertfordshire and the Met. This meant a Christian influence running down the backbone of England.
In my early days of being executive director, I prayed about how we could be a real influence for Christ within the police service. I felt the role of chaplains was one area we could work in and encourage (most forces did not have a systematic approach to chaplains). The Rev Jim McKinney was chaplain at Bramshill College and I shared my burden for a chaplains’ conference. He rejoiced in that he had been offered the facilities for such a gathering and, hence, the first chaplains’ conference was held with just over fifty attending. The following year, this doubled in numbers and a fellowship of chaplains up and down the country was set up. Not all would be evangelical with a mixture of denominations, including Roman Catholic and a Jewish rabbi.
Some church men did not appreciate my evangelical stance, but most were perfect gentlemen and we sought to find common ground on which to work for those within the police service. I was able to share with the then president of the Catholic Guild at various gatherings, although we both made our beliefs quite clear to each other! At this time, there were only three full-time chaplains working in the country – most were giving voluntary help when possible.
The other avenue I felt we could work with was to encourage Christians around the UK to pray for the police. Our then president, Ian McDonald, was a tremendous encouragement and wrote a tract outlining the need for prayer. We also produced a bookmark with one side of bullet points for general prayers for the police and on the other, specific points about the CPA. These became very popular with thousands taken by Christians of various denominations.
At the same time, a Christian officer based in Brixton (a place of riots in the past) had a vision to get churches and fellowship to pray specifically for their local police station workers. Thirty-three churches in that area agreed to pray and requests were ferried out to them, as well as answers to prayer. This commenced a Police and Churches Together (PACT) scheme of prayer around the UK. There were notable signs of answers to prayer with significant reduction of crime in areas where people prayed. One CPA member in Nottingham started his own prayer support on his area and such was the impact that it was reported in the national papers and also on TV. I used to say there was more prayer for the police than had ever been before.
For part of my time, I was able to link up with Christian fellowships in various sections of the law and order system within our land. Groups such as the Lawyers’ Christian Fellowship, Probation Service Christian Fellowship, Prison Fellowship (whose executive director, Peter Walker, was a man I greatly admired). From these links, a group was formed called the Christian Justice Alliance with its express desire to see how we could raise the profile of justice based on Biblical standards. The chairman was a high court judge who attended Holy Trinity Brompton (where the Alpha course was started and produced). This group began as a result of Chuck Colson, the converted American politician, who became a Christian in prison after the ‘Watergate scandal’ that rocked the Nixon Administration, holding a meeting in the House of Lords.
Convalescent homes for police officers was an inspiration of Catherine Gurney, founder of the CPA, at a time before the Welfare State. The first was at Hove in the South of England and later moved to Goring-on-Thames, near Reading. Another home was opened in Harrogate, Yorkshire, with Mary Hopkinson as a driving force along with Miss Gurney. A further home was added in Auchterader, Scotland. These places gave officers an opportunity to recover from serious illness or injury and today are places of excellence in helping officers to get back to work or recover use of limbs etc. It is a tribute to the dedication of those working at these places that care and treatment have reached such a high standard. Catherine Gurney started this work with help from voluntary gifts and today police federations have taken up the cause to keep the places running, and their buildings improved and extended at a cost of millions of pounds.
As an association, the CPA was allowed a place on the management board of the Goring Home in recognition of the founder’s work. More recently, Don Axcell, who became my assistant director and then took over from me, has had the role of chaplain to this home and greatly enjoys the challenge this position brings. It was my privilege to be invited as a special guest to the annual open day of the home. It was an honour I cherished to mix with the various dignitaries on those occasions and to be able to seek to bring encouragement to those staying for treatment. Lyndon Filer, the administrator, became a man I greatly admired for his commitment and loyalty to the work there.
Miss Gurney also started an orphanage for those whose fathers had died while in the police service. Widows and children were helped to come to terms with life when the rigours and demands of the ‘job’ took away the breadwinner.
Parliamentary bodies
With government concerns over law and order issues, as well as race and equality matters, in society, there came about an endeavour to ‘Listen to the Churches’ and, at least on the surface, seek to hear what the general public had to say on these things.
Meetings were arranged and, with my position in the CPA, I was invited to a number of meetings at the Houses of Parliament or adjacent buildings, where members of Parliament spoke or chaired gatherings dealing with these issues. The Christian groups within Parliament, with members from all sides of the political spectrum, also wanted input from groups like ours. I found it an opportunity to express a Christian standpoint and seek to support Christians with the police service.
Links with the Evangelical Alliance (drugs and alcohol abuse committees)
As an association, we were members of the Evangelical Alliance (EA) and, again in my capacity within the CPA, I was invited to various groups. I well remember a selective audience being brought together to discuss what became known as ‘false memory syndrome’. This involved a form of counselling that urged candidates to look back into their past in order to see if there was any sin unconfessed. One high-profile case at the time had a woman accusing a minister of sexual misdealing with her as a young teenager and the man was taken to court. It transpired it was a case of puberty cravings going over the top. Through various sections of the charismatic groups within Christianity, great emphasis was brought to bear on such in-depth counselling with often sad outcomes.
Part of my time with the EA included membership of a committee dealing with drug and alcohol abuse. This not only opened my eyes to the increasing abuse of substances, but the part Christians were seeking to play in helping addicts. It was encouraging to see how many rehabilitation centres had opened up around the country with dedicated people giving so much of their energy to bring the strength of the Gospel to such people.
Interestingly enough, it was alcohol abuse more than drug abuse that caused most deaths in our land. It seemed to me that the difficulty from a government standpoint was that more taxes were collected through alcohol producers than drugs, mainly because the latter was illegal.
Through our links with the EA, it was great to join with our London branch, the director general of the EA and the commissioner of police, to gather for an evening of prayer for London at Westminster Chapel. This was followed by a march of witness to Scotland Yard, headquarters of the Met Police, for prayer inside and outside the building.
Church life in Leicester
On leaving the Faith Mission and moving to Leicester, we felt the need to join with a local church for our own spiritual fellowship. At first, we went to Knighton Evangelical Free Church, where Sydney Lawrence had just retired as minister. I had met with him through his links with the Faith Mission and speaking at a number of conventions. We enjoyed going to the church and made many friends there, with our children, Joanne and Thomas, attending Sunday school and other gatherings for their age groups.
Interestingly enough, a girl I had been to college with had become the deaconess at the church, Mary Bates. She had originally come from Leicester and after a spell with the Overseas Missionary Fellowship, returned to this country. She did sterling work for Christ and kept her missionary vision alive.
Throughout this time, I would often be away preaching around the country and representing the CPA. Sometimes the family were with me, but most times I was on my own. This gave me opportunities to meet many more people across the Christian denominations and increase my knowledge of the Lord’s work through them.
In some ways, it was source of interest to me to be back in Leicester, as during the war (1944), we were evacuated there when my younger brother was born. I also spent time in the mid-sixties doing work for the Faith Mission in villages around the city.
Coming to Leicester, my first role was to be assistant general secretary to George Roberts in the work of the CPA. Part of our contract was to live in our own premises. We had very little money on leaving the Faith Mission, certainly not enough to put down a deposit on as house.
This was a trying and interesting time for us in our life of faith. We had been promised the opportunity to live in a property for up to a year in order not to rush moving into the first property available. The month before commencing the work we had time for a holiday and discovered then that the property promised was not available. This led to a hotchpotch of living with a short spell in the home of an old friend, terminated one morning as I arrived at work. In a wonderful way, a property belonging to missionaries was available that day for three weeks. After this, we lived in a ten foot caravan in the front of the CPA headquarters. There was just enough room for the four of us to get to sleep with beds in it. Then, we lived in two rooms in the headquarters for a few months. All the time, we were looking for property and then one day a house came on the market (it had been withdrawn after some months but was now back up for sale). A member of the CPA offered to loan us £5,000 and, with the little we had made, it was sufficient to put down as a deposit.
The house was in Oadby and needed to be rewired, for the central heating and damp course to be put in, and a new floor from front door to the back kitchen and one front room. On top of this, it needed decorating from top to bottom. We slept in bare bedrooms and, on one occasion, when I developed stones in the kidney, had to see the doctor while lying on a couple of mattresses in one undecorated bedroom. The owner had been the first occupier of the house from 1946 and had been unable to keep up with its needs – hence the price we bought it for and the state it was in.
At this time, a former Faith Mission colleague, Victor Bennett, along with David Mounteney (who owned a property where we had started the FM Midlands camps), were a tremendous practical help to us. Both men had the ability to do plumbing and rewiring. We will never be able to repay them for their love, kindness and generosity to us at this time. While this work went on, we lived again in the small caravan on our driveway. Each morning, we took out the soaking wet mattresses in order to dry them in front of a convector heater. The children had started at a school at the bottom of the road, so it was a great help.
To say this was a stressful time is to understate the situation. In order to get a mortgage, I was required to have a medical and it was discovered I was diabetic and had blood pressure problems. This would later lead to a heart attack in January 1994 while on a preaching tour in Aberdeenshire.
Jo did a ‘back to nursing’ course and began working again in this area – it was one she loved and she was delighted to return to it, beginning with the British Nursing Association as a bank nurse and then working at two Christian nursing homes. This helped us on the financial front, too. After a year or so, George had to retire from the work of the CPA on health grounds and I was encouraged to apply for his post, as mentioned previously.
We were very happy at Knighton until we discovered that Joanne had been introduced to drink through leaders of the youth work she was involved with. Since my conversion, I had given up alcohol – it not seeming compatible with my new Christian life and commitment. I spoke with the new pastor, who personally saw no problem with the occasional drink, and I felt I could not continue at a church where the leadership had this attitude. It led to us starting to attend Melbourne Hall Evangelical Church (the place where FB Meyer had preached and pastored). One of the Elders there was the national chairman of the CPA (Cliff Harries), a man with a sensitive spirit and greatly esteemed in the church and district.
Cliff was a man whose love, kindness, support and fellowship I could never fully express in words – we became like soul brothers! He would constantly travel with me to various CPA functions and, being a police officer driver, did all the driving. Our two biggest journeys were to Aberdeen and Northern Ireland, the former involving travelling back through a snowstorm. There were times I would have left the CPA had it not been for this dear man. He always seemed to be in the right place at the right time for us.
Joanne and Thomas got involved with some of the youth work, although Joanne still had friends at Knighton and at their new plant church at Meadows called the Kings Centre. Thomas joined the football team and was later asked to head up the Tuesday night outreach work in the city centre with a friend he had made, who lived in a street behind ours and attended Melbourne Hall.
On finishing schooling with ten GCSEs and three A levels, Joanne when to the University of Kent in Canterbury to study for her BA Hons degree. Reaching this new stage in her development was a tough time for her and us. Three years of student life certainly gave her insights into a different way of life.
To her credit, she put in the hard work of study, catering for herself and seeking to live on a meagre budget during this period. It was a joy to go down from time to time and catch up with her movements and new circle of friends. It was not all easy-going leaving the Christian environment we moved in and being exposed to other pressures. During her time, she linked up with a local church and helped with the ‘soup run’ to the less fortunate at the weekends. Of course, we had the joy of her being with us during the term breaks and summer holidays.
It was our great joy to attend Joanne’s graduation when she received her degree certificate at Canterbury Cathedral, with all the ceremony that such an occasion brings. Having photos taken with her in her university cap and gown was a proud moment for Mum, Dad and brother.
Thomas, meantime, worked at getting his quota of GCSEs and three A levels. However, he had felt the call of God into Christian service and so went to the Faith Mission Bible College in Edinburgh, where he completed the two-year course they offered and did a third year towards a degree (this with the Cheltenham and Gloucester University by way of correspondence course).
Having both been at the FM college, Jo and I were delighted to have this link once again and I made sure to visit when in Scotland with my CPA work. At the same time, Paul – Thomas’ friend – had also gone to the college, so their continued academic studies helped to sharpen their resolve to increase knowledge.
After his time in the Faith Mission College, Thomas was asked to join the staff of Melbourne Hall Evangelical Church. They had supported him and Paul throughout their training days. During his last year in college, Thomas met a young American girl who was visiting friends in the college. Her name was Mary Beth and she came from Roanoke, Virginia. The friendship blossomed and on October 12th they were married in the USA. Jo, Joanne and I, along with some friends from Leicester, travelled to the States for the wedding. The date coincided with the birthday of Beth’s father, who had sadly passed away.
Because our family could not afford the time or funds to travel so far, we arranged for a celebration of the wedding on 2nd November in the Kings Hall, Leicester.
10. Retirement
Things were beginning to change within the police service with recognition of staff support agencies. This attitude was fed to a large extent by the somewhat militant groupings of ‘gay and lesbian’, the ‘Black Police Association’ (including Asian) and the ‘Women Police Officers’ Association’; also Hindu, Sheik and Islamic officers wanting space for their religions, and the emphasis on equal opportunities and politically correct language and conduct. These issues came more and more to the fore from the beginning of the nineties. This, coupled with the emergence of new Christian police officers seeing no reason why they should not receive financial and procedural support from their constabularies. Up until then, the CPA had maintained a completely free role within the police service, looking to the Lord to support the work through gifts of Christians both in and out of the service. This attitude over the years had kept the movement free from interference of non-Christian peoples. The issues of Christian beliefs, standards and attitudes within this developing culture led to differences of opinions, with some believing we could lose our spiritual emphasis and others disagreeing.
With the above issues, plus real financial constraints on the association, Jo and I began seeking the Lord regarding our own role. I had been of the opinion that the headquarters in Leicester were no longer the right type of premises, and the idea of an office or premises that lent themselves to development without too much extra cost seemed better. On top of this, a power struggle in some quarters made us realise that staying in situ until I was sixty-five would only restrict the association. We believed it was God’s work, not ours, and as such His will was paramount! This being so, I offered to leave a year early and so free up the CPA executive to plan ahead.
We left the CPA at the end of 2004 and in February 2005 moved into our three-bed house in Oadby, Leicestershire, thus ending almost eighteen years of work with the association. The move meant downsizing, with us filling an attic, garage and garden shed with various items accumulated over the years of our marriage.
I still have the opportunity to preach at various churches and rallies for the Faith Mission and we continue to hold a monthly prayer union in the home. However, with increasing heart problems, resulting in having stents put into my artery, along with seeking to keep on top of diabetes and blood pressure, I find my activities somewhat curtailed these days.
At the start of February 2011, I had triple bypass surgery and was told I could have another heart attack, stroke or infection – a risk for five per cent of those going through this procedure. Most were out of hospital after a week, but I unfortunately had an infection. This resulted in three trips to the surgeon’s table, five weeks in hospital and a return for another week soon after release. Various Christian friends visited me and prayed for my recovery, which God was gracious enough to allow. Since then, a pacemaker has been inserted and has made a great difference. With the passing of time and old age creeping up, arthritis has slowed up my life and the use of a walking stick is a constant companion.
Grandparents
Thomas and Beth had a baby boy, John Asher (to be known as Asher), on 19th December 2003. He arrived a couple of weeks early due to Beth having a difficult pregnancy and requiring an operation for delivery. His early life was marked with some difficulties, but he has now developed into a wiry little fellow who loves his nana! On Christmas Day 2006, Beth gave birth to a little girl, Cayman Grace. This meant she celebrated her birthday with her grandmother, Judy, from America. Unlike Asher, she managed the full term of pregnancy, but sadly developed whopping cough and went through a very difficult time as a result. However, her first trip to America suited her, well with the climate agreeing with her health-wise and the whopping cough being overcome. She is now a delightful bundle of life, having completed her first year and now taking her first steps in walking. Sadly, Tom and Beth got divorced after a three-year drag through the courts with issues of custody being decided. This broke our hearts and, as usual in these situations, the children suffered. Tom had to move on and we believe God enabled him to set up his own business and pass many exams to work as a chartered stockbroker and financial adviser. He also met Tara, a very attractive lady. They became parents to a handsome young boy, Finnley, on 15th September 2011.
On the 6th August 2010, Jo, Joanne and Thomas booked Kilworth House to celebrate my 70th birthday. It was an emotional thrill to have family, friends from my Deptford days, and others I have come to know and cherish all together. My one great sorrow was not having my big brother, Tom, present to celebrate the occasion as he had died.
We started to worship at Oadby Baptist Church, where I had the opportunity to preach a couple of times during an interregnum. We found the people very open and welcoming with a wide section of Christian members and adherents. We have joined a house group and thank the Lord for the love, friendship and fellowship enjoyed there. We feel as though we are part of the family of Brian, Richard and Jayne, Marilyn, Ann and Alison. They have taught us so much and we count it a privilege to be a part of their group. How long God will allow me to continue is in His hands and I am content to do what I can when I can.
Reflections
Looking back over my life, I have great cause to thank the Lord for taking a boy from Deptford and allowing him to share a little in His great work of salvation.
President Nixon of the USA was involved in what became known as the ‘Watergate Scandal’, leading to one of his men, Charles Colson, being sent to prison. During his time there, he became a Christian and after release began a work of Christian witness to prisoners. He visited Britain and had a meeting at the House of Lords to which I was invited, as were Christian leaders of various associations working within the law, such as The Lawyers’ Christian Fellowship, Probation Service Christian Fellowship, Prison Fellowship (Peter Walker being the general secretary), the Anglican Prison Chaplains (hence myself for the Christian Police Association). Judge Richard Crompton (a member of Holy Trinity Brompton) became the chairperson to the committee that was formed to see how we could bring back Biblical principles onto our statute book. It was my privilege to be part of that group.
One of the joys of practical input was to be at Belmarsh prison for the final meeting of the first course of the Sycamore Project. This was a five-course programme based on the Bible story of Zacchaeus climbing the sycamore tree to see Jesus and the effect of that meeting between Jesus and a criminal. Salvation came to the man and his life was changed. The final meeting involved ‘restitution’. Prisoners doing the course would meet with victims of crime and realise how much it affected their lives. For instance, burglars often thought it did not matter that they had stolen something as insurance would cover the losses to victims, never taking into account the sentimental value of items that could never be replaced. Those on the course would be encouraged to make a token offer of restitution to a victim. This course became a government-approved course to be used in prisons around the country.
At a similar time, some police constabularies began to introduce the idea of ‘restorative justice’ by bringing criminals face-to-face with victims and thereby encouraging a different way of thinking into the minds of criminals.
London Police Authority
The then Mayor of London, Ken Livingston, along with other politicians and pressure groups wanting to use more power and influence and accountability over the police, decided to form this new authority. I was invited to this meeting along with religious, race and ethnic groups. At the end of the meeting, while the mayor was being interviewed by the TV groups, I went to the Commissioner of Police, Sir John Stevens, to assure him we would be praying for him. His reply was, “Please do. I believe in the power of prayer.” Sometime later, our London branch of the CPA, along with the Evangelical Alliance, whose director general’s son had just joined the police, arranged an evening of prayer for London at the Westminster Chapel (the place where I had my interview with the Rev Duncan Campbell before going to Bible college). Around 1,000 people gathered, including Sir John, and at the end, the congregation marched to Scotland Yard headquarters for a special prayer.
Race and Equality and Political Pressure
At the time when riots had taken place in various parts of the country, including Brixton and Liverpool etc., along with a rise of feminist, homosexual, religious and ethnic groups wanting more equality and representation, I was invited to another parliamentary-organised meeting to air these views. The CPA had been refused places to meet at various headquarters. However, because of the above pressures, and requests from Muslims, Hindus and Sheiks, special rooms were set aside for multicultural religious gatherings.
At the time, Birmingham City Council had decided not to have a Christmas emphasis and instead call it a ‘Winter Fest’. It was interesting at the meeting to have two Asian leaders ask whether we were ashamed of our Christian festivals and say that they had accepted that such festivals would be part of the scene when they came to our country. It would seem that a number of our church leaders were willing to tone down Christianity so as not to offend, but other religions were willing to accept our traditional celebrations.
Privilege of meeting God’s servants
In the fifties, when Billy Graham was used of God in Britain, a number of evangelical endeavours began to take place, including holiday week at Butlins in Filey. Lindsey had the inspiration to provide a Christian holiday for the many new Christians so that they could benefit from good Christian teaching. He and Ben Peake, his co-worker, came to our church to explain how this vision worked. He said that Billy Butlin had been approached and had wondered why they had not asked about this before. Thousands went each year and the MWE (Movement for World Evangelism) provided speakers. Little did I realise that I would be involved with a team of police officers, who provided specialist security, as a result of my role with the CPA.
In a similar way, I was delighted to encourage a group of police officers to help with the Keswick Convention. We also provided security for the Billy Graham teams that visited Britain using members of the CPA. At the Faith Mission Centenary Convention in Edinburgh, we were delighted to have Stephen Orford sharing lunch with us. His ministry around the world and through Christian Radio ministry was deeply appreciated and I was able to personally thank him for the times when we were able to listen to his broadcasts while doing missions on Arran, which were a real weekly uplift. It was a joy to be with him again as he spoke at the thanksgiving service for Dr Alan Redpath, the CPA’s vice president.
The London Evangelistic team came into being and also the London Crusade Choir, which had annual meetings at the Royal Albert Hall. Meeting up with many of the evangelists of the Evangelization Society was another privilege. I need to finish this reminiscing unless it appears that I boast as a somebody, which I am not, for it was only the grace of God that allowed me to go along the pathway I have trod and to meet with His choice people. I never forget where I came from and the honour of being able to serve God.
Harry's Story:
God Called a Millwall Fan
No one likes us…
… Jesus does!