Northern Lights 57-58
Yearbook of Western Christian College for 1957-1958.

My grade twelve graduating class

First row: Brenda Meneer, Sharon Fisher, Betty Bailey; Second row: Margaret Anderson (behind Brenda), Loretta Williams; Third row: Roy Davison, Willene Dunn, Janice Mooney; Fourth row: Morris Brown, Gordon Hobbs, Lloyd Hotchkiss, Milton McCaslin, Manley Gilpin, Alex Muller; Not shown: Robert Hillis.

 
Margaret Anderson, hidden in the above picture
Robert Hillis, not in the above picture

The quality of a school is determined not only by the quality of its teachers but also by the quality of its students. I had the blessing of going to secondary school with some of the most wonderful people in the world!

Because of the move to Weyburn, the school had to open two weeks late. Ernest Andreas and Allison Parker, the new custodian, assisted by his sons, had worked very hard all summer to get the old World War II, wooden air-force buildings ready for school in the fall. I went to the campus early and helped by hanging doors in the boys’ dormitory.

Teachers and staff were assigned sections of the buildings that could be remodeled into apartments. One day I noticed a saw blade protruding from the side of a building. I knew from the vigor of the sawing that it must be Cecil Bailey working on their apartment. Mary Bailey happened to come around the corner. When she noticed my amusement, she joked, “Yes, we locked Dad in the bathroom. Boy is he mad!” He, of course, was sawing a hole for a window in the bathroom.

This is a picture of my corner in our dorm room at Weyburn. Fred Brehaut and Manley Gilpin had a bunk bed against the other wall. I had brought my own bed to the school.

I was class president and enjoyed being in the chorus and mixed octet. I was assistant editor of the yearbook and helped Alex Muller print it. Although I enjoyed drama, I decided not to be in plays that year so I could spend more time on my studies. My roommate overheard a visitor at one of the programs complain: “But the main reason I came was to see Roy in a play!”

Travelling chorus

As a member of the travelling chorus, I really enjoyed our trip to Carman, Manitoba at the end of November!

Full chorus

Christmas holiday 1957

Since Morris Brown was not able to go all the way to Nova Scotia for the Christmas holiday, I invited him to come home with me to Fargo. After graduation Morris became a journalist and continued in that profession until retirement.

Unjustly selected as valedictorian

The valedictorian had to be selected before the end of the year on the basis of grades up to that point. I was selected, but a year later I learned that Betty Bailey’s grades were slightly (less than 1%) higher than mine! Yet her father, who was principal, insisted that I be selected. I certainly would have objected if I had known this at the time! As it turned out, Betty’s grades on the final exams were much higher than mine. I am glad that she received the trophy for the highest grades at the end of the year. She should have been valedictorian! The award was presented to Betty by T.C. Douglas, Premier of Saskatchewan, in a ceremony at the school on October 8, 1958.

Because of depression, I did not do well in my studies the latter part of the year. Actually, based on the first grading of the final provincial exams, I failed the year because I got only 42% for Composition! When, on request, the paper was checked by another grader, it was increased to 62%, allowing me to pass. Possibly one of the section scores was missed when adding up the total points, or possibly the first grader did not like the religious theme of one of my answers, or possibly the second grader was merciful!

Basketball

I enjoyed being on the basketball team in grade twelve. We were all short - as basketball players go - and our best player, Vaughn Warriner, was the shortest man on the team! But he could make about half of the baskets he tried from the middle of the court! When you are short you have to be fast. Vaughn called me “Speedy Gonzales” because of the contrast between how I was on the basketball court and how I was off the court! “Speedy” has never been one of my recognizable characteristics! Except on the basketball court.

We placed second in the provincial quarter finals. Our last two games were against a school that gave basketball scholarships. Their shortest man was taller than our tallest. The first time they saw us they openly ridiculed us. They won, but they soon discovered that they would have to work for their victory.

Depression

During the second half of grade twelve I went through a period of deep depression. I fell in the habit of thinking too much about my shortcomings and being discouraged. As the Lord helped me out of the “dungeon of despair” I learned a valuable lesson about the grace of God. Before, I knew full well that salvation is possible only by grace! But I came to understand that God’s grace must be drawn on every single day! “O to grace how great a debtor, daily I’m constrained to be,” from the third verse of “O, Thou fount of every blessing,” by Robert Robinson.

Among the many valuable lessons I learned from Cecil Bailey was that being overly weighed down by one’s shortcomings can be a form of self-centeredness. I gradually overcame depression by concentrating on how I could be a blessing to others in spite of my weaknesses. This became an important principle for the rest of my life. “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us” (2 Corinthians 4:7).

Confronted by a classmate

“Faithful are the wounds of a friend” (Proverbs 27:6).

After chapel one morning, as we were crowding into the hall to go to our classrooms, a classmate turned to me and said, “I know what’s wrong with you! You are just too proud!” If she had slapped me in the face, it would not have shocked me more. It was worse because I had “admired” her since the first time I met her four years earlier. I then recalled that I had once overheard her say, “Pride is God’s gift to little men.” If I had been more mature and confident I would have sought an opportunity to ask her what she meant and why she said it. After mulling it over for a while, I concluded that, for whatever reason she said it, she was no doubt right. After a week or two I went forward at services and requested prayers that I might learn to be less proud.

A man is “not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think” (Romans 12:3). Many times in my life I thought I knew the answer when I should have been asking questions rather than giving answers.

Thomas Ward Bailey

I count it a great privilege to have heard Thomas Bailey preach! He and his wife, Edith, visited the campus at Weyburn. He was 83. (He passed away a year later on June 13, 1959.) His and Edith’s eight children had a tremendous impact for good. I knew J.C. and Cecil well and met several of their other children.

When Thomas spoke at the school on May 7, 1958 he had about seven points he wanted to make. They were not closely related. They were just things he wanted to say. He joked, “I may ramble around a bit, but that’s OK. You will follow me wherever I go!”

When he started discussing each point he would be standing behind the pulpit. When he finished the point, he would be standing in front of the pulpit. He would slowly walk around the pulpit (it was quite large), look at his notes, and then start the next point. Each time he finished a point, he was standing in front of the pulpit, but his speaking was so intriguing that I never saw him walk around to the front even though I had decided I was going to watch for it.

I thought, “Well if I can still preach like that when I am 83, I don’t mind getting old!” I thought that was really old back then! Now, for some reason, it doesn’t seem so old any more! [Additional information about Thomas Bailey can be found here.]

A leadership conflict

During my last year at WCC a leadership crisis began to develop at the school that would have sad consequences. The conflicts were facilitated by poorly defined and overlapping leadership roles.

At Radville the high school was led by what could be called a headmaster system in which the principal, being the only administrator on campus, had much authority, and led the daily activities of the school. Cecil Bailey had served in that capacity at Radville for one year before the school moved to Weyburn.

After serving on the Board as chairman, Richard Dacus had been appointed as off-campus president in 1956 while the school was still at Radville. He was one of the finest and most dedicated men I have known, but he was in an extremely difficult position as president when he was not on campus! He preached full time for the church in Estevan. I once saw him break down and weep because of something that had happened at the school for which he felt responsible, although he had had nothing directly to do with it!

At Weyburn, the school had for the first time an on-campus full-time business manager, Ernest Andreas, who was instrumental in accomplishing the draconian task of moving the school.

There had been virtually no financial planning for the move to Weyburn. I was at the shareholders’ meeting that made the decision to move. There had been no feasibility study and there was no business plan estimating what the move would cost or what the operating expenses at Weyburn would be. As a result, after the move, the school was urgently in need of additional funding.

In February of 1958, during my last year at WCC, to meet this need, D. W. Dryden Sinclair was hired as full-time Public Relations Director. Dryden was the son of D. A. Sinclair who was a pioneer preacher in Saskatchewan, and Dryden’s brother, Robert, had founded the Gospel Herald.

Although Dryden was an effective fund raiser, I questioned at the time the wisdom of appointing someone as director of public relations who was not well-liked among the older, core supporters of the school. After his three-year term as public relations director, Miss Torkelson gave this description of the situation in her history of the school: "The College was suffering from both financial and public relations problems. The Board and Administration were fighting indifference and some open antagonism in the brotherhood." “To aggravate further the financial situation this year, the enrollment was low. In the fall (1961) we started with 79 pupils but we concluded in June with only 66.”

Thus, after the move to Weyburn, there was an off-campus president, and there was an on-campus principal, business manager and public relations director, whose various roles and areas of authority had not been clearly defined by the Board of Directors. This was a formula for disaster. To make matters worse, the next year Dryden was appointed as vice-president! This made it even more difficult to know who was responsible for what.

To illustrate the kind of thing that happened, while I was preaching at Sarnia, Ontario (61-62) a brother in Michigan wanted to talk with me when he learned that I was a graduate of WCC. He showed me a two-page letter he had received from Dryden Sinclair when he was vice-president asking him if he would be interested in serving as president of Western Christian College. This brother would have been academically well-qualified.

At his own expense he made a trip from Michigan to Weyburn to investigate the school. When he arrived, Dryden was not there and he was greatly embarrassed because no one at the school knew anything about the letter or understood why he was there. He said he heard no more about it and no one ever thanked him for making the trip.

At the same time, someone was circulating criticisms of Cecil Bailey, mainly with regard to how he dressed, and suggesting that he was not qualified to be principal. Cecil was the typical genial, lost in thought, absent-minded professor, whose hair might sometimes be messed up and whose shoes might not always match the color of his suit. At one time while I was there, he ran out and jumped in his car to drive away, and then discovered that he was in the back seat. To most of us, this just endeared him to us, and certainly did not disqualify him from being principal!

This picture of Cecil Bailey was taken a few months before he resigned.

Dissatisfied with the conflicts and criticisms of his person, Cecil resigned in June of 1960 hoping that this would cause the Board to improve the situation. Instead, they just accepted his resignation.

In my opinion, accepting Cecil’s resignation was the worst blunder the Board ever made.

Cecil and Lavine were part of the original group of young people who dreamed and planned and sacrificed to prepare themselves to teach at a Christian school in Western Canada. The last two years I was there, Cecil beamed because he was so happy to finally be teaching at the school of their dreams for which they had sacrificed and worked so hard.

Cecil and Lavine were devastated. Cecil was hired as a principal in the public school system and WCC lost a tremendous teacher.

Miss Torkelson describes it thus: “In June, as a protest against certain Board decisions, Cecil T. Bailey shocked everyone by resigning as principal of the College after four years in that position. Both parties acted in good faith, with high purpose, but the disagreement could not be settled. This resignation had far reaching consequences, not only because Western lost an exciting teacher loved by young people and a Christian gentleman who had devoted many years preparing himself to fulfill a dream, but also because some brethren blamed the College for his resignation so that for a period of time the College did not enjoy the wholehearted support of the Western Canadian brethren which it had previously sustained.”

My reaction would be: If it was not the fault of the school, whose fault was it? Although he resigned as a protest against how he was being treated, he certainly did not want to leave the school!

Cecil sent me this poem written at midnight on October 27, 1960 at Forbisher, Saskatchewan. He explained that he did not want to react to his detracters and defamers in an unchristlike way.

I Am Resolved

Stealing softly through the midnight’s sorrow
Comes a Peace that overshadows pain;
Bringing balm-of-Gilead for the morrow,
Comfort, rest and healing from life’s bane.

No more shall the bickerings and the slander
Pierce the quick or fest the cankering sore;
He has tuned my heart to sing a grander
Song than earth had ever heard before.

Mighty God and Everlasting Father,
Praised be Thy Name most Excellent and Great!
Life’s storms may beat and vicious tempests gather,
But open are Thine arms and Heaven’s gate

To those by Christ empowered to say anew,
“Father, forgive them; they know not what they do.”
 Cecil T. Bailey

Dan Wieb appointed as president

The Board realized that they needed a president who lived on campus, so in September of 1960, E. D. Wieb was appointed president with the understanding that he would move to Weyburn in a year.

In January of 1961 Dryden and his family moved to Wichita Falls, Texas, where he became executive director of Western Christian Foundation which he had helped to establish in 1958. A portion of the funds raised by this foundation was passed on to WCC for 25 years. Legal regulations made it necessary for the Foundation to raise funds for more than one charity, so funds were also raised for other good projects as well. A significant amount also had to be deducted for salaries, travel expenses and other fund-raising expenses. In an open letter dated November 27, 1984, Dryden notified the school that he and the foundation had decided to stop raising funds for WCC and to devote their efforts to a Spanish Literature work. The literature was published by the Foundation.

In June of 1961 the school was in a terrible state financially. An emergency shareholders’ meeting was called in which it was announced that if $25,000 were not raised by August 31 to pay certain bills, the school would have to close. The minimum amount was found and the school was able to open in the fall.

That fall I was at a shareholders’ meeting and lectureship at the school. As I sat in the cafeteria, an older farmer, a longtime supporter of the school, asked me: “Aren’t there any books people can read to learn how to run a school?”

My own evaluation is that the school had some of the best teachers in the world, but that the business administration was often defective and some extremely bad management decisions were made.

Through the years, however, because of certain excellent and doctrinally sound teachers, the school was a blessing to many students. My brother Dale was there in 59-60 and my sister Sandy was there 61-62 and 62-63.

Closure of the school in 2012

Western Christian College closed at the end of June in 2012. In a news item in the Christian Chronicle of January 31, 2012, Bill Schwarz announced:
“An economic crisis created by a steady decline in enrollment, donors and donations over the past decade has affected our cash flow to a point where we can no longer consider Western Christian a fiscally viable entity. A recommendation to close the school was made by our Board of Directors and our Chief Operating Officer, Karen Cooper, and supported by myself and three other school administrators. After reviewing the data presented, the Society voted 97 percent in favor of three motions which initiate the process of closure. ... Western Christian has been around for 67 years and will leave behind a rich and impressive legacy with alumni stretching all over the globe. Our great sadness is for our students, both those who are here presently and those who dreamed to be alumni one day. We also lament the ripple effect this will have on Churches of Christ in Canada. We are one of only two Church of Christ-affiliated high schools and colleges in the entire nation. Western Christian was a spiritual center and a hub for ministry and missions training among churches in Western Canada. It is important to state that this was a logical and necessary decision. Our goal now is to finish our history well and be God honoring in all we do, especially in dealing with our staff, students, vendors and creditors. Glorifying God through a necessary ending is just as important as glorifying Him through new beginnings.”

The following comment of mine was published under this news item on February 1, 2012: “As an alumnus of WCC I have fond memories of the dedicated and Biblically sound teachers and staff who were at the school when I was there in the fifties. I have been saddened over the last few decades by certain changes in stance and emphasis, which in my opinion have contributed to the lack of students and support, leading to the decline and demise of the school.”

Eugene Perry also made a comment: “Evelyn and I taught at Radville Christian College in 1950-1952 and treasure the experience and find satisfaction in the fruitful service of many of the students of those days. These were my initial years in the classroom and prepared me for service at Great Lakes Christian College in Ontario and later at Namwianga Christian Secondary School in Zambia. Now in my 90th year and having had all these years to observe, I, as Roy Davison, wonder whether supporters have lost confidence in the school because of recent trends. Whatever the causes, we are saddened to learn of the closing.”

A brother who taught at the school when it was in Regina told me that one reason he left was because the school was having a bad influence on his children!

Our family moves to Abilene, Texas

This is in Nebraska on our way from Fargo to Abilene. My poor Henry J burned out its valves pulling that heavy trailer, so had to be sold for scrap.

My parents moved to Abilene so I could continue my education at a Christian school. They could afford putting me through school only if I could live at home to avoid dormitory expenses. I had chosen Abilene Christian College because it offered a major in journalism. A higher standard of education in Saskatchewan enabled me to begin as a sophomore.

Back then, most of the professors at ACC still believed in the necessity and attainability of the restoration of New Testament Christianity. Unfortunately this is no longer the case at Abilene Christian University. So much so that I am embarrassed for people to know that I am a graduate of Abilene Christian, for fear that they might not realize that the school was still true to the intentions of its founders when I was there.

Our family when we moved to Abilene, Texas.

Dad established a TV repair business in Abilene: A1-TV. Because of his expertise, he could repair TVs in people’s homes which saved on overhead since he did not need a shop. I helped by distributing advertising door-to-door. On the cards it said, “No service calls at church time.” This let people know that he was a believer and that he was willing to make evening calls. He also gave free service to shut-ins. First we lived across town but later moved near the campus so I could walk to class.

I met a friendly Dutchman

Cornelius Van Ewijk

For two weeks before school started, I worked in the maintenance department with a crew that chopped weeds (called goatheads) out of the lawns. A fellow worker was a Dutchman, Cor Van Ewijk. We became good friends. I was already planning to do mission work someplace but had not selected a field. Cor invited me to come to Holland and I began preparations to do so. During my Senior year I took private Dutch lessons from Cor.

Difficulty with the local dialect

In the first lesson of a class on the history of English literature, the teacher began talking about poh tree. There was not enough context for me to understand the meaning so I raised my hand and asked, “What is poh tree?” She gave a patient explanation, thinking that I was a poor soul who did not even know what “poetry” was! As soon as it dawned on me what poh tree was, I was very embarrassed.

The cat that didn’t fly

I really enjoyed a gymnastics class! We learned limbering-up exercises that I still use regularly now! At the end of the semester I was invited to join the gymnastics team, the Flying Cats, but I thought it would detract from my studies.

Selling Bibles

I tried to sell Bibles to earn money the first summer. I was a terrible salesman! Yet, like a moth attracted to a flame, I tried it again the next summer, and even sold for two weeks after graduation!

It taught me a lot about people, including myself: namely that I was not cut out to be a door-to-door salesman! You must keep a positive attitude. I could not. You had to knock on that next door even if it was the last thing in the world you wanted to do. Often, I did not. Yet, I did learn that even a bad salesman can earn money selling something if he cannot find a better job!

They made the mistake in sales school of telling us we could find books on salesmanship at the local library. The problem is that libraries contain books on other subjects too! The second summer that I was supposed to be selling Bibles, I read Carl Sandberg’s six-volume biography of Abraham Lincoln! It was educational! Sandberg was a great writer! So, I guess you could say that I studied the life of Lincoln in my own private summer school.

I felt guilty, of course. One day, when I came back to our room, I said to Charles Yeats, my selling partner, “I’m a failure!” He began to laugh. I asked, “What’s so funny?” He said, “That’s quite an accomplishment! Twenty years old, and already a failure!”

Oral interpretation

I intended to major in journalism until I was in Mrs. Montie McGinty’s class on The Oral Interpretation of Literature! Oral interpretation is not acting. You do not ask the listener to believe that you are the character, but by reading aloud you create the character in the mind of the listener. I knew immediately: “This is what I want to study!” I obtained my B.A. degree majoring in Oral Interpretation, with minors in Bible and Greek.

Mrs. McGinty was an excellent teacher. She helped me improve my pronunciation and diction.

Personal study of writing

Since I would not be studying journalism, I read books on creative writing in the library to improve my writing skills. I was a member of the Pickwickian creative writers’ club and was its president my Senior year. We wrote material to read at the club meetings. Here is a poem I wrote:

I remember “Time Remembered”

In December of 1959 our oral interpretation class presented a group reading of the play, “Time remembered,” a comedy by Jean Anouilh. Larry Black was narrator and the two main parts were read by Kay Howard and Annita Hartsell. Other readers were Doug Young and Stanley Mallory. I read the minor part of a French waiter. At one point I was supposed to answer a question with “Yes”. Instead I said “No”. I froze, not knowing what to do. Without a moment’s hesitation, Kay Howard corrected my error by adlibbing, “Oh yes she is!” I was grateful!

The Book of Job

During my Junior year, on January 11, 1960, the oral interpretation class presented a group reading of the Book of Job. Mrs. McGinty asked me to make a cutting of the book. All speeches of the various characters were retained but with portions omitted, so the entire reading was about 45 minutes.

I read the part of Job and Doug Young read the voice of God from off-stage. Eliphaz the Temanite was read by Stanley Mallory, Bildad the Shuhite by Larry Black and Zophar the Naamathite by Maurice Week. Larry Black also read the arrogant young Elihu, who speaks after the three friends, and he also read Satan. The narrative sections were read by Kay Howard and Annita Hartsell.

About 200 people attended. My parents said that some in the audience were crying from sympathy for Job.

Ecclesiastes

My Senior oral interpretation project was a public reading of the book of Ecclesiastes. Effective oral reading of the Bible is powerful! We need more of it in our public worship. I love to read the Bible aloud!

Matters of the heart

There was one classmate for whom I had great respect. In fact, I held her in such high esteem that I could not fathom why a girl like that would be interested in me, although she seemed to be. Only later in life did I learn that matters of the heart are too deep to fathom, and one should not try.

I did have one date with her, if you could call it that. I had no money for dating. But I asked her to go with me to Sunday services. The problem was that I drove the church bus to take students to Hillcrest. So I took her to services and back in a forty passenger bus. We had lunch together at the school cafeteria. I admired her for accepting the invitation, but I was embarrassed.

Another time she was giving a presentation in Sewell Auditorium that I really wanted to attend. But the admission was $1.90 and I did not have money for a ticket. I wanted to see her, if only briefly, so I waited until the program had started and went in the back for a few moments. She inserted, “Asseyez-vous!” into her presentation, inviting me to sit down in French, which she knew I understood. But I considered it wrong to stay when I did not have a ticket! So I slipped out, as I had slipped in. I was too dull to realize that she could invite me to stay if she wished, since it was her presentation!

I was disappointed when I learned that she married a young dental surgeon about a year after graduation, but I also thought: “Yes! He can give her what she needs!” From the beautiful family pictures on Facebook, showing their four children and many grandchildren, taken at their home on the shore of Lake Buchanan, I am sure he did!

Another little prayer

I remember a brief prayer I said while in Abilene, “Lord, help me make good use of the talents you have given me.”

Bible and Greek

My minors were Bible and Greek. I had enough classes in Bible that I could have selected Bible as my major rather than Oral Interpretation.

My study of Koine Greek has been valuable in my preaching and writing. Through private study since, I have increased my knowledge of Greek significantly.

The Bible classes at ACC were helpful but not really significant. I already had a good foundation from daily Bible reading and from Bible classes at Radville Christian College. The Bible is an inexhaustible source of spiritual nourishment. What I learned at ACC was only a smidgen compared to what I have learned since.

Discussion and conference leadership

A valuable class I took was on discussion and conference leadership, taught by Milton Copeland. We learned how to chair and how to participate in decision-making groups, how to facilitate decisions and how to deal with various types of participants, for example, people who tend to be against everything and people who get offended if their ideas are not accepted.

We were given a logic test as part of the course. Texts stating certain facts were provided, on the basis of which various statements had to be evaluated as true, probably true, not enough information to know, probably false or false. I asked if I had done something wrong, since my score was way off the top of the chart. Milton said, “No you just answered more questions right than those who drew up the test thought was possible!” It was interesting that all the errors of most students were either in one direction or the other. One student would think things were probably true or false, when actually they were definitely true or false, whereas another student would think things were definitely true or false, when actually they were only probably true or false.

Psychology classes

Because I had been careful to take all required subjects first, I could take three elective courses my last year. I decided to take psychology and counseling courses.

I appreciated Dr. Max Leach, head of the psychology department, because he believed, and was not afraid to teach, that a Christian should not be an active participant in war.

He introduced a general psychology class by saying, “If you notice that I make a mistake, do not hesitate to tell me. The combined knowledge of this class is greater than my knowledge! I know some things, however, that most of you do not know, and we will be discussing those things as much as possible!”

One day a student said, “Brother Leach, when we drove by your house the other day, you had your nose in the grass, and you stayed that way for a long time!” He replied, “Have you never watched ants?”

In a class on personal counseling taught by Dr. Paul Southern, a student would slightly pull down one of the roll-down maps at the front of the room before brother Southern entered the room. He would notice it and fix it. The student did this many times, and each time brother Southern would fix it. If he ever realized it was being done on purpose, he did not show it.

I had much respect for brother Southern. He was biblically sound without being fanatical. He was scholarly, yet his sermons and classes were easy for everyone to understand. He was dignified, but not haughty. His New Testament in Survey and his doctor’s dissertation on the use of the Greek presposition KATA are in the Old Paths Archive: Works by Paul Southern.

Canadian students

There was an active group of Canadians at the school. Since I had studied in Canada, I participated, and gatherings were sometimes held at our house.

During my Senior year, Blenus Wright, a prelaw student, was leader. (He became a judge with the Ontario Court of Justice on April 15, 1991 and served until June 2, 2009. Blenus passed away on June 6, 2017.)

Two evangelistic efforts in Canada were being planned. One group was making plans to move to Port Arthur - Fort William, Ontario after graduation, find employment, and establish a church of Christ.

Evangelistic campaign to Western Canada

Another group, of which I was a part, spent many hours during the 1960-1961 school year planning, raising funds and making preparations to help with two evangelistic campaigns in Western Canada. The Hillcrest congregation in Abilene provided oversight. US participants were of course also welcome.

Since we were not scheduled to leave for British Columbia until several weeks after school was out, Jimmie Roden and I decided to sell Bibles for two weeks. Actually, I sold almost as much during those two weeks as I had sold the whole summer before! Maybe it helped that I knew it was only a temporary ordeal!

This is the car I used for the campaign. Jimmie Roden, Mary Morren and Audrey Wright rode with me. Blenus had decided to go on a campaign to London, England and to skip the campaign in British Columbia.

My car did not have much power and was heavily loaded. Jimmie Roden said it had two speeds, uphill and downhill!

The trip took several days, so at night we rented two rooms, one for the girls and one for the boys, but requested that they be side by side for security reasons. At one motel they misunderstood our intentions and gave us a suite! We clarified the matter and got two rooms as requested.

We had an excellent month-long campaign at Salmon Arm, BC where Lynn Anderson was preaching. They had just put up a prefab, log building that was not finished. So first they wanted us to help finish the building! We varnished the exterior and laid tile in four classrooms.

Participants at Salmon Arm were Manly Gilpin from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan; Jack Close from Winnipeg, Manitoba; Mary Morren from Barrie, Ontario; Jimmie Roden from Hubbard, Texas; Eugene Craig from Highlands, California, and Roy Davison. There was also a group of seven brethren from Glendale, California who had come with Paul Harper who preached for the gospel meetings in the evening.

Extensive advertising was done for the meeting via leaflets, newspaper and radio. We went door-to-door to enroll children for the Vacation Bible School. Although the congregation had less than 20 members, we had an average of 103 children in the VBS. Four were baptized during the meeting and ten home Bible studies were arranged. After the campaign Gene Craig remained to help with followup. Lynn Anderson had to be away for a gospel meeting elsewhere.

None of the girls wanted to teach the youngest children! So Gene Craig volunteered and did a good job. It was too hot to close the door, so to keep the toddlers from escaping, Gene blocked off the door with a big box. One day he was sitting on the floor making a cow of clay. One little boy commented, “You forgot the tits.” The children were pasting trees on a sheet of paper. Another boy slapped Gene on the back and said, “There’s a tree on your back!”

We had planned one day at the end of the month for rest and recreation. Brother and Sister Armstrong invited us to their cabin on Shuswap Lake, which is shaped like an H and has 700 miles of shoreline! It is fed by snow from the mountains. Gene and I decided to row the mile across the lake and climb the mountain on the other side. We made the mistake of trying to come down a different way, ended up at the top of a cliff, and had to make a long detour to get back down. At one point I said to Gene, “I am so tired that I can’t go another step.” He replied, “But you have to.” I learned two things that day: (1) never try to go down a different way on an unfamiliar mountain; (2) you can keep going even when you can’t, if you must.

The mountain across the lake is the one we climbed. The cliff in the middle of the picture is the one we had to skirt when we tried to come down a different way.

They were worried about us because it was so late, so sent a motorboat across the lake to look for us. We were very relieved that we did not have to row that mile back across the lake.

Brother Armstrong provided T-bone steaks for everyone, so large they would not fit on a plate! I am usually a light eater, but I ate the whole thing!

Louie Armstrong is the tall brother at the back in this picture of the Salmon Arm congregation in 1961.

The Armstrongs told us about their baptism into Christ (Galatians 3:27). Brother Armstrong was an insurance salesman, and a member of the million dollar roundtable. You must sell a million dollars’ worth of insurance a year to be a member. He had been very active in the Baptist church for many years. But some members of the church of Christ in Glendale, California had irritated him because they suggested that he was not yet a Christian because he had not been baptized according to the Scriptures. The Baptist church does not baptize for the forgiveness of sins.

So Brother Armstrong decided he would make a thorough study of salvation when they went to their cabin in BC during the summer. Sister Armstrong said she remembered the day when, after he had been studying for two weeks, he suddenly jumped up from the table and said, “It says it right there: Be baptized for the remission of sins”! His Bible was open to Acts 2:38. He paced around the room for a while, picked up his Bible, looked at it, laid it down, and paced some more. The next day they drove seven hundred miles to the nearest church of Christ they knew about, and were baptized into Christ. Brother Armstrong said he had known that verse by heart for many years, but had never noticed what it actually said!

I decided to drive to Alberta through the Rockies. Most people went through the States via better roads. The all-Canada route included 150 miles of gravel road. The Trans-Canada highway had not yet been completed. It was a beautiful drive, but very bumpy for that 150 miles. It almost shook the teeth out of my little car!

Next we helped with a month-long evangelistic campaign at Edmonton, Alberta. Gerald Fruizia was preaching there. And guess what they wanted us to do first. Help finish their classrooms and build benches! Jimmie Roden joked, “Maybe next year we should conduct a campaign to finish buildings!”

Pictured above are Gerald Fruizia, Mary Morren, Barrie, Ontario; Audrey and Blenus Wright, Toronto, Ontario; Jimmie Roden, Hubbard, Texas; Maureen Knight, Meaford, Ontario; Roy Davison and Ron Zavitz, Toronto, Ontario.

An amusing incident was that Mary Morren had insisted, when guidelines were being drawn up, that no dating be allowed between members of the group during the campaigns. She may have wished she had not made that rule, because at Edmonton she became interested in Ron Zavitz! But their not dating during the campaign did not prevent them from getting married eventually!

Once again mass advertising was done and we went door-to-door enrolling children for the VBS. There was an average of 201 in attendance for the VBS and 260 were present at the closing exercise. A gospel meeting was held from August 11th - 18th on the theme The church of 20 centuries with preaching by H. R. Little of Houston, Texas.

Looking for a place to preach

After the campaign at Edmonton I went to Saskatchewan where I knew many people and where I thought I might find a place to preach for a year or two before going to Holland. I wanted some experience preaching in English before preaching in another language. I also still had to prove to myself that I could make a living! I had depended on my parents’ help so far!

This had also prevented me from forming a serious relationship with a view to marriage because I thought: “How can I be thinking of forming a family when, so far, I have not even taken care of myself?”

I visited with Jim Williams at Saskatoon and accompanied him on a visit to the Red Pheasant Indian Reserve where a congregation was meeting. We visited in the home of Chief Wuttunee.

Then I went to Weyburn where Western Christian College was having a lectureship and shareholders’ meeting in November.

I spoke with Rita for a few minutes at the lectureship and told her how sorry I was that she had lost her husband. She was visiting her sister and brother-in-law in Regina, Betty and Wayne Kemp. That is when I saw Stuart for the first time who was one year old. I had no idea that seven years later he would be my son!

An amazing thing happened at the lectureship. Otis Gatewood was present to give a lecture. They had a panel discussion on mission work with several Canadian brethren on the stage, most of whom had never been overseas. Brother Gatewood was left sitting in the audience! He was one of the most experienced and knowledgeable men in the brotherhood in the field of missions! I was flabbergasted!

Miss Torkelson encouraged me to be involved in the future of the school but I told her that I planned to go to Europe in a year or two, so would be too far away to contribute much.

I visited with Cecil Bailey and his family who were still hurting from the events that led to Cecil’s no longer being a teacher at the school. I invited Betty Bailey to go with me to Radville to visit Janice Mooney. They both were in my graduating class at WCC. I viewed them as two of the finest Christian young women in the world! The husbands the Lord later gave them were blessed indeed!

I asked J.C. Bailey where I might find a place to preach. He said he knew of nothing in Saskatchewan but that Windsor, Ontario was looking for a preacher. His son, John Bailey, had preached there for a year but had left to continue his education. J.C. added, “Windsor wants a Canadian, but since you went to Western, you might get in under the wire!”

I went to Windsor and preached for them one Sunday. At a meeting in the evening I explained that I would want to emphasize personal evangelism. I was instructed to go to the home of one of the elders at 10 o’clock on Monday morning to learn their decision. Brother Bruce was at work but his wife opened the door and told me they had decided not to have me come. After I came to Europe, the Windsor congregation helped with our support.

From Windsor I went to Beamsville to ask Eugene Perry if he knew of a congregation looking for a preacher. He and Evelyn were very hospitable and invited me to stay in their home for a few days. Eugene said that Sarnia, Ontario was looking for someone but he also explained, “They cannot provide full support, but since you are single, you might be able to get by on what they can pay.”

I also visited with Geoff Ellis, who was president of Great Lakes Christian College at Beamsville. He showed me around the campus and told me about the school. GLCC is a Christian high school in Ontario similar to the former WCC in Saskatchewan.

Arrangements were made for me to visit Sarnia.

Preaching at Sarnia, Ontario

Christians really are the most wonderful people in the world! “A royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own special people” (1 Peter 2:9). The Lord could not have given me a better congregation as the first place for me to preach full time.

This picture was taken early in the summer of 1962.

Back Row (Standing): 1. Barry Hopwood, 2. Ken Sparling, 3. Bob Hibbard, 4. Russ McNeill, 5. Aubrey Hibbard, 6. Len Dennis, 7. Don Brown, 8. Andy McNeill, 9. Ralph Hibbard, 10. Bill Culley, 11. Harry Stevens, 12. Bill Yeates, 13. Bruce Waldeck, 14. Mr Winters, 15. John Forbes. Second Back Row (Standing): 1. Jack McNeill, 2. Roy Davison, 3. Jim Whitfield, 4. Bertha Hopwood Sparling, 5. Mickie McNeill, 6. Marie Hibbard, 7. Nancy Dennis, 8. Vilma Brown, 9. Leah McNeill, 10. Charity Hibbard, 11. Hazel Hibbard, 12. Clara Culley, 13. Edith Stevens, 14. Mauvie Yeates, 15. Beulah Waldeck, 16. Ethel Dennis, 17. Doris Barnard, 18. Dave Hibbard. Second Row of Chairs: 1. Fred Whitfield, 2. Unidentified Woman, 3. Margaret Brown (Granny Brown), 4. Blanche Hopwood, 5. Carol Adams, 6. Wadene Adams, 7. Bob Adams, 8. Jim Adams, 9. Evelyn Hopwood, 10. Ruth Burley, 11. Unidentified Woman. Front Row of Chairs: 1. Isabel McNeill, 2. Carlene Brown, 3. Unidentified Girl, 4. Al Hibbard, 5. Jim Stevens, 6. Murray Hibbard, 7. Bonnie Hibbard, 8. Phyllis Hibbard, 9. Ron Adams, 10. Cathy Adams, 11. Judy Adams, 12. Vern Hibbard, 13. Clara Hopwood, 14. LuAnn Barnard, 15. Ron Barnard, 16. Sue Barnard. Children on Floor: 1. Unidentified Girl, 2. Sheldon Brown?, 3. Unidentified Girl, 4. Gordon Brown?, 5. Laurie (Larry) Dennis, 6. Vicky Brown, 7. Helen Stevens, 8. Unidentified Boy.

After hearing me preach on November 18, 1961 the brethren decided that they wanted me to work with them. They could provide $50 a week support. I was paying my car off at $50 a month. I would not have enough to operate a car, so I arranged to leave my car in the US in the garage of Bill Smart in Port Huron, Michigan, just across the river.

The brethren wanted me to preach only once each Sunday and one of the men in the congregation would preach for the other service. That corresponded exactly with my own conviction that it is better for a congregation if more than one brother does the preaching!

I told them that I planned to be there only one year because I wanted to go to Holland as a missionary.

It took me a while to find suitable housing. First I rented a room in a boarding house. The woman in the next room watched wrestling on TV until late at night and cheered for her favorite wrestler with loud exclamations such as, “Kill him! Knock him down! Don’t let him up!” I stayed there only a week until I found a better room!

Sister Hibbard senior in the congregation rented out rooms in the house she had formerly lived in, so I was first able to rent a room there. Later, when a small one-roomed apartment in that house became available, I was able to rent that. It was ideal. Actually, it had been the back porch of the house! It had a bathroom and shower, kitchen facilities, a bed and a desk. Everything I needed! And it was quiet.

I visited all the members.

I first visited all the homes to get acquainted. The congregation was made up of some of the most loving people I have ever known! There were a few doctrinal disagreements caused by a false teacher who had been there previously, but the prevailing love had enabled them to make compromises to preserve unity.

When I visited an elderly couple who had moved to Canada from the United States, the brother pointed to something in his driveway and said, “I bet you don’t know what that is!” I replied, “Well, it looks like a hydraulic ram.” He was surprised that I knew what a hydraulic ram is.

I kept track of how I spent my time and made a report to the monthly men’s meeting. One brother exclaimed, “Why you work as many hours as we do!”

I budgeted $5 per week for food. I went shopping on Monday, cooked my meals for the whole week, and froze a meal for each day.

Most of the families in the congregation invited me to their homes for meals on many occasions. Bob and Wadene Adams would often invite me to their house for dinner after services on Sunday. I learned much from them by observing their loving family relations, and I was included in the family!

I was able to set up home Bible studies and through them several were baptized including the husband of one of the members, Andy McNeil, who was baptized on June 7th.

I arranged to take Dutch lessons from a school teacher who had come to Canada from Holland.

Now where do you find that in be Bible?

After I made a certain statement in the adult Bible class I was teaching, one of the older brethren asked with a nice smile, “Now where do you find that in the Bible?” I said I did not recall, but would investigate it. I discovered that what I had said is not in the Bible. So I acknowledged my error the next Sunday.

Excellent children’s Bible classes

Brother Ralph Perry who was preaching at London, Ontario had conducted a training series at Sarnia to teach the sisters how to improve their children’s Bible classes.

The parents of young children decided they wanted to have children’s classes during the week as well as on Sunday morning. They wanted to do this on Friday nights because the children did not have school the next day, but some of the older brethren wanted to continue having midweek services on Wednesday nights. So they compromised and had midweek services on Wednesday nights and children’s classes on Friday nights! I taught the teenage class.

ACC Lectureship - April 17-20, 1962

In April the brethren allowed me to go to the ACC spring lectureship. Alvin Jennings, who was preaching at Montreal, Quebec, was driving down and had asked if I would like to go along and help with driving.

My parents lived in Abilene so I was able to see them. I enjoyed visiting with several former classmates from Saskatchewan who had also gone to the lectures.

This picture was taken at my parents’ house.

Back row: Laveena MacLeod, Janice Mooney, Jean Harkness and Betty Bailey.
Front row: Roy Davison, Jelsing Bailey who was studying at ACC, and Greg Close.

Ray Jacobs

Ray Jacobs at Sarnia.

Ray Jacobs came to Sarnia in February of 1962 to work as a store manager. On Saturday, May 19th, I rode with him on a quick trip to Ottawa, Ontario (the capital of Canada) where we saw the tulips in bloom. The queen of Holland had lived in Canada during the German occupation of World War II. After the war she sent a large number of tulip bulbs as thanks, and since then beautiful tulips bloom in Ottawa each spring.

On Sunday morning, May 20th, I preached for the church in Ottawa. In the afternoon a chorus from GLCC sang and in the evening we had supper with Ron Zavitz. We visited with Ron Zavitz and the Roy Merritts on Monday and then drove back to Sarnia Monday evening.

Omagh Bible Camp

From July 8th to August 5th, Bob Adams of Sarnia directed the Omagh Bible Camp at Omagh, Ontario. During the first two weeks, I taught a daily Bible class for young teenagers.

At Omagh I met a fine young Christian lady who was secretary to the president at GLCC. I dated and corresponded with her for a while but finally decided that she was not the one for me. I felt bad about it because she was dating someone else when I first showed an interest in her, and it was many years before she found someone.

The miracle arm man

The first part of August in 1962 a “faith healer,” Leroy Jenkins, set up a big tent outside Sarnia and conducted healing services. Supposedly his arm had been chopped off when he was a boy but by prayer it had been stuck back on, and after that he could heal people with that arm!

I went one evening but stood at the back. I was asked to either sit down or leave, so I went outside the tent. Two reporters had also been asked to leave because the girl was wearing pedal pushers rather than a dress. When I asked them what they thought of the proceedings they were cagy until I told them I was a preacher for the church of Christ and did not agree with what Mr. Jenkins was doing. I suggested that they could provide a great service to the city if they would just observe and describe what they saw.

The next day an excellent news item appeared in The Sarnia Observer. They described an instance where Mr. Jenkins had pronounced a man “eternally healed” but that he hobbled off the stage afterwards obviously no different from when he had hobbled on!

They also reported that although Mr. Jenkins claimed he received only $200 a month, he drove a new Cadillac, so must really know how to budget his money!

I knew the newspaper would get flak from Pentecostals in the city, so I wrote the following letter to the editor and walked to the post office in the middle of the night to be sure they would get it the next morning.

They published excerpts from a few negative letters and then printed my letter in full:

“I want to commend Mr. Neil Reynolds for his good reporting in his article ‘Fervor Goes Hand In Hand With The Miracle Arm Man.’

“As was complained at the big tent, only one of the religious groups in town was willing to sponsor Mr. Jenkins’ big show.

“This is no wonder, for I am sure that Jesus does not approve of the spectacle either.

“The healing of Christ was done as inconspicuously as possible. In Luke 8:56 Jesus told the parents of a girl He had raised from the dead (and there is a challenge for Mr. Jenkins if he really has the power of God) that “they should tell no one what was done.”

“Also, we have no record of Jesus asking for money. I can’t quite picture Him passing buckets around after one of His healings. And, do you really suppose that Jesus would drive a 1961 Cadillac convertible if He were here today?

“There is a power behind Mr. Jenkins, all right. But I am afraid that it is not the power of God. And I feel sorry most for those who are honestly deceived.”

The next night Mr. Jenkins accused me of trying to run him out of town, but assured the audience of about 3000 people that he was going to stay. And to prove that he was not interested in money, he announced that God had told him not to take up a collection that particular evening. (He resumed collections the next night.) In the next three services he repeated criticisms of the church of Christ and said it was a dead church and that he was going to attend next Sunday and put some life into our services! We had one visitor who came just to see if he would keep his word, which he of course did not do!

An elderly man who roomed across the hall from me said he had gone to the healing meeting. I asked if he had been healed. He said, “No, I went for my leg. He grabbed my walking stick, broke it over his knee and told me I would not need that anymore!” I asked, “Did your leg get better?” He said, “No. All I got was a broken walking stick! And it was an expensive one too!”

When one of the brethren went to an office supply store downtown the owner said, “You are a member of the church of Christ aren’t you? I want to commend you because your preacher was the only one in this city who dared speak out against that man!”

Vacation Bible School

I directed a summer vacation Bible school at Sarnia from August the 13th to the 18th with an average attendance of 139. My parents, Bessie and Charles Davison, and my sister, Sandy, came to help. Seven were baptized during the week.

My father would close his business during the summer months and help with vacation Bible schools in the north. That summer they helped at Minot, North Dakota; Nelson, Wisconsin; and in Ontario at Sault Ste. Marie, Sundridge, Huntsville and Sarnia.

Bible readings

Once a month while I was in Sarnia I presented a Bible reading on Sunday evening rather than a sermon. Readings included: “In the beginning,” “Abraham - the friend of God,” “Job,” “Moses - the servant of the Lord,” “David - a man after God’s own heart,” “Ecclesiastes,” “The Life of Christ,” “Acts of the Apostles,” “Our beloved brother Paul,” and “Revelation”. From Sunday October 21st through Sunday the 28th I presented these ten Bible readings at the congregation in Beamsville, Ontario.

Three-week gospel meeting

Beginning on Sunday, November 4th we conducted a gospel meeting for three weeks. There was a different speaker each week: Harold Hawley, Ray Miller and Ralph Perry. The theme was, “What does the Bible say?” Average attendance was 59 and more than 30 different outsiders came.

On two Saturdays, a group from Michigan Christian College came to help distribute advertising and knock on doors inviting people to attend. Lunch and supper were provided in the basement of the building for those who came.

Leaving Sarnia

My last Sunday in Sarnia was December 30, 1962. After I left, the brethren placed this news item in the Gospel Herald:
SARNIA REPORT
We, the church in Sarnia, were fortunate to have Brother Roy Davison work with us for about fifteen months beginning in November, 1961. Roy has a deep knowledge of God’s word and shows much wisdom in using this knowledge. Although he is still a very young man he has shown us a wonderful example of Christian living and dedication to Christ. As he left us on December 30 to begin making plans to enter the mission field in Holland in April, there was sadness in the hearts of many. May God bless him in the work for the Master.
During the year 1962 there were nine baptisms in Sarnia including seven young people during our vacation Bible school. Brother Andy McNeill was also baptized during the summer and Allan Redmond was baptized December 30th while in Sarnia on a visit. Allan is a nephew of Brother and Sister Ralph Hibbard and attends the Strathmore congregation in Toronto.
Aubrey Hibbard

The Aubrey Hibbard family, Charity Hibbard (Aubrey’s mother), Roy Davison & Vilma Brown

Marie and Aubrey Hibbard with three of their four children

The Ralph Hibbard family and Charity Hibbard (Ralph’s mother)

After I went to Holland, the Sarnia congregation started contributing to my support and continued to do so for many years. Many of the brethren who were there then, have gone to be with the Lord. I look forward to a glad reunion with them after this life is over!

A car with a smokestack

The heater in my English Ford was not designed for Canadian winters. More heat was needed for a trip from Sarnia to Saskatchewan in the middle of winter! I bought a little kerosine space heater with a round wick and had a tinsmith make a cap and stovepipe for it. The right front seat folded completely under the dashboard, so the stove stood beside me and the pipe went back and out the side sliding window that was closed off with a piece of flat tin. I failed to have a damper installed in the pipe, so there was too much draft while driving but it did provide some extra heat. And when the car was stopped it was as warm as toast in there, even if it was 20 below outside! If I should get stuck in a blizard, I could keep warm. When I came out of a restaurant after a meal, a whole group of men would be gathered around my car!

On my way west I stopped at Michigan Christian College to talk with Otis Gatewood, who was president, to get advice for raising funds. In Europe, many years later, when Otis was speaking where I was present he said, “Roy Davison is the only man I ever knew who had a smokestack on his car! But here he is in Europe and he seems to be doing a good job!”

Seeking support to go to Holland

The congregation at Utrecht, Holland had invited me to come and work with them to assist brother Dan Boyd who was a missionary there at the time. [Danny Douglass Boyd, October 18, 1933 - June 11, 2009.] Christians had started meeting in Utrecht in 1952 and they had a Sunday attendance of about 25.

I left Sarnia after morning worship on December 30th. That evening I spoke at Windsor, Ontario on behalf of the Dutch work. On Wednesday evening, January 2, 1963, I spoke at the Strathmore congregation in Toronto. On Thursday evening I spoke at Fern Avenue and on Friday evening at Bayview, also in Toronto.

From January 6th - 13th I gave the series of ten Bible readings at Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario and from January 20th - 27th I gave the same series at Weyburn, Saskatchewan. My sister, Sandy, was in school at WCC. I also told these two congregations about my proposed work in Holland. In time the brethren in Weyburn would become our most faithful supporters. First a few ladies in the congregation started helping personally, and later the congregation decided to start helping. I was a member of the Weyburn congregation the first year it met.

From Weyburn I headed south, visiting congregations where I knew someone. I was naive enough to think I could raise support in three months and go to Holland in April of 1963. It turned out otherwise. At the end of February I had spoken to sixteen congregations about the Holland work and had promise of only $20 a month regular support.

A providential visit

Seeking support to go to Holland, I visited a congregation in Kansas where I knew the brethren because I had sold Bibles there. They agreed to provide $10 per month support if I could find a sponsoring congregation. I never did, so they discontinued their support when I arrived in Holland.

From there I was going to Abilene, Texas where my parents lived, and a sister in that congregation asked to ride with me to visit her daughter in Abilene. Because I did not understand a certain situation, I said something, however, that offended her, and she decided not to ride with me after all!

If she had gone with me, I would have driven straight to Abilene. Since I was alone, I decided to go via Mulvane, Kansas and visit Rita Hamm (nee Lewis), a former schoolmate from Radville Christian College. She had been a widow for two years and had a son, Stuart Jay, who was three. We visited as friends for a couple of hours and I went on my way. But I did notice that she was an extremely attractive young woman!

Rita and Cliff

Rita Lewis attended ACC for the spring semester of 57-58. She then transferred to York College in Nebraska where she sang in the chorus and in a girls’ quartet, and was in drama.

At York she met a young man by the name of Clifford Hamm who was planning to become a preacher. Cliff and Rita were married by Rita’s father, Marion Lewis, on August 21, 1959 at Livingston, Montana, Rita’s home town. After Cliff completed his schooling, he was hired to preach for the church in Mulvane, Kansas.

On Tuesday, July 11, 1961 Cliff, Rita and Stuart (who was ten months old) went on an outing to Lake Afton. Although he could not swim, Cliff decided to go wading. He did not know that there was a deep hole near the shore. He stepped into it and was swept into the lake by an undercurrent. An experienced swimmer had drowned there a year earlier because of the undercurrent, yet the area had not been marked as dangerous.

Cliff was only 22 years old. His funeral was held at the building of the church of Christ in Isabel, Kansas where many of his relatives attended. He was buried at Cairo Cemetery near Pratt, Kansas. Cliff was born at Pratt, Kansas on October 11, 1938 and passed away on July 11, 1961.

Rita and Stuart continued living in Mulvane until 1965. The congregation showed Rita much love during that difficult time, especially Bertie and Ray Ramsey. In 1965 Rita and Stuart moved to Lubbock, Texas where Rita was employed as secretary to the Dean at Lubbock Christian College.

Potential support that fell through

From Abilene I went to visit a congregation in east Texas where the elders agreed that they would provide support if I would visit each member of the congregation and see if they would be willing to increase their contribution to help cover my support.

This went well and various ones were happy that the congregation was going to support mission work, which they had not done before. A significant amount had been promised, but when I visited one of the deacons, he blew his stacks! He said that if the elders wanted the congregation to give for missions, they should visit the members themselves and not send someone else around to do so! He caused such a stink that the whole project fell through.

A young couple in the congregation, Brother and Sister Larry Speers, offered to mail out reports for me at their own expense and did so for several years.

Chart I used when seeking support.

I must be one of the world’s worst fund raisers. I visited many congregations, and some of them gave onetime donations toward travel fund, but very little regular support was found.

One elder told me point blank that he did not think I was qualified to be a missionary. He no doubt was right, but I recalled that David was not qualified to fight Goliath either, and I was depending on help from the same God who helped him. I did not impress people as a dynamic, powerful preacher I guess.

I had hoped to find support in three months and go to Holland in April of 1963. In June, after six months, I had contacted over 200 congregatons, spoken to 35 in Canada, Michigan, Kansas, Texas, Arizona and California and I had promise of $70 a month support!

I was discouraged and when visiting my parents in Abilene I asked Carl Spain, who was preaching at the Hillcrest congregation, and for whom I had great respect, if I could speak with him.

Visiting my parents,

Carl Spain, June 1963.

Brother Spain came by the trailer and we had a talk. He asked how much promise of support I had and if I had travel fund. I had enough for a ticket to Holland. Many congregations are willing to give a small lump sum before they send you on your way! Brother Spain said, “Well, why don’t you just go on to Holland. Maybe the Lord will provide what you need after you get there.” I was not quite ready to take that advice yet, but I kept it in mind.

I went to Houston so I could take a concentrated course in Dutch from the Berlitz language school. I took a Dutch lesson every day and tried to find support from area congregations.

One congregation had lost many of their members because their building was not air-conditioned, so they had just spent much money on air-conditioning and on more comfortable seats. Their budget was full.

One of the elders of another congregation said they were looking for a place where they could be in charge of all the mission work in a whole country! I had to do some mission work on the spot and explain why such would not be scriptural. Other workers were already in Holland supported by various congregations, so it would not be possible for them to be in charge of all the mission work in Holland, nor would “being in charge” of other congregations be right.

I learned about a four-week summer course on mission work at the Harding Graduate School in Memphis, Tennessee so decided to enroll. Wendell Broom, who had been in Africa; George Gurganus, who had been in Japan; and Otis Gatewood, who had preached in Europe, were teachers. I gained many valuable insights.

While in Memphis I had the privilege of hearing Marshall Keeble speak for the second time. He baptized 40,000 people during his lifetime. You can find information about him and listen to some of his sermons here. He told a group of preacher students that it is important how the gospel is presented. He said, “If you go to the meat market to get a pound of hamburger, you don’t want the man to just stick his hand in the hamburger and splat in on the counter! You want him to wrap it up first. It’s the same with the gospel, you need to wrap it up so people can take it home with them!”

From Memphis I went to visit my parents who had moved from Abilene, Texas to Burlington, Vermont.

This picture was taken at Burlington, Vermont shortly before I went to Holland.

An agreement with my brother

I decided to take Carl Spain’s advice and just go on to Holland. I did not think it was responsible to go, however, if I might not have enough to live on! My brother Dale was working to save money to go back to school. I made an agreement with him that if I did not have enough, he would loan me money and I would come back after a year and work to repay him so he could go to school.

As it turned out, brother Spain was right. When I got to Holland various brethren I had visited, who had not promised anything, started helping and I had enough to get by. I did not have to borrow anything from Dale! My first five years in Europe I averaged a little less than $200 a month support. Being single, not having a car, and by tightening my belt, I was able to make ends meet.

It was amusing that after a year, a congregation in Toronto wrote to say that they were sorry but they would have to discontinue their $30 a month support. That was strange because they had never sent anything! The letter explained that they had put my support on the end of their budget! But for a whole year they had not been able to get that far down their budget, so had been unable to send anything. Thus they decided to “discontinue” their support!

Off to Holland

With my brother and mother at the airport

Thus on September 11, 1963 - four days before my 23rd birthday - I flew with KLM from Montreal to Amsterdam. The least expensive ticket I could find was by taking a prop plane KLM was still operating. It took ten hours to fly from Montreal to Amsterdam.

As a way to integrate into Dutch society, I had enrolled at the University of Utrecht to study mathematics. It was helpful but my knowledge of Dutch was not sufficient for me to keep up, so I discontinued those studies after a while.

My room from the balcony. The bed folded down almost to the door.

In Utrecht I rented a student room in the home of a fine Dutch family. This was an excellent way to become familiar with Dutch home life (and Dutch frugality). The room was very small! The single bed folded up against one wall and a desk folded up against the other wall! The rent included two bread meals a day with the family, and I ate my warm meals at a student restaurant that offered good food at low prices by having only two items on the menu each day, but each day the items were different.

My fund-raising ordeal illustrated

After I had been in Holland for a few months, two different friends, who knew how much trouble I had for nine months trying to raise support, sent me the same Peanuts cartoon!

Ways to learn a language

I viewed my first two years as preparation. The first year, I averaged 22 hours a week studying Dutch. I had studied Dutch for two years and had studied Dutch with Berlitz in Houston each day for three weeks, but I like to joke that when I arrived in Holland I could understand everything I said in Dutch! But when the Dutch started speaking Dutch, that was something else! Yet my Dutch studies prior to coming were extremely helpful.

My study of phonetics at ACC was helpful. I had annoyed Sister Clevenger at ACC by writing down all the extra diphthongs and triphthongs of her southern accent when she gave dictation, but although she did not want to admit it, those really were the sounds she was putting in!

Most European languages have about fifty basic sounds. If one learns to form them correctly in the beginning it is helpful. Otherwise you learn everything incorrectly and it is difficult to correct your pronunciation later. The first year I took regular lessons from two speech therapists to master the phonemes of Dutch.

I would prepare a sermon in Dutch and take it to my regular Dutch teacher to have the language corrected. Then I would take the corrected text to the speech therapist and learn how to read it aloud correctly. I took regular Dutch lessons from private teachers the first five years.

Reading the New Testament in Dutch.

Knowing the Bible is extremely helpful in learning another language. When you read the Bible in the new language, you already know what the passage says, so you can figure out many of the words! I read through the New Testament in Dutch during the first six months I was in Holland.

Reading children’s books is also helpful. If you try to read an adult book in the beginning you do not know enough of the words to fill in the blanks from the context. But children’s books use a limited vocabulary and usually deal with concrete situations, so you can enjoy reading the story and figure out the meaning of new words as you go along!

I became a member of a children’s library and would stand in line with the little kids to check out my books!

Learning a language is tiring! Your brain must work at full capacity trying to figure out the meaning of words from the context. I found that I needed ten hours of sleep the first year when I spent so much time in language study.

I also enjoyed going to plays to learn Dutch. They are better than films because real people are speaking, and since they are using stage diction, the words are easier to understand than everyday speech.

It takes about two years to gain a rough working knowledge of a new language and about five years to be able to say just about anything you want to say fluently.

Lifetime dedication is needed for world evangelism.

Much mission work has been done on a tour-of-duty basis, with people going to the mission field not even intending to stay for more than four or five years! This is ridiculous, especially if one must learn a new language. It is as if a medical student would say, “I only plan to be an MD for a few years, then I’ll do something else.” Of course many flunk out of medical school. And it is also difficult to adjust to another culture, so it is no dishonor if one discovers that he is not able to adapt to another country. But the goal ought to be to serve on the mission field for life.

Brother W. N. Short went to Zimbabwe (Rhodesia) as a missionary in November of 1921 and served there for 59 years until his death in 1980. In 1962 I had the privilege of meeting him in Michigan on one of his few trips to the States.

William Newton Short (1894-1980), Nancy A’Delia Short (1896-1982)

Will and Delia Short before they went to Africa in 1921

Will and Delia Short around 1970

After I was in Holland I wrote brother Short a letter and received this reply:
Dear Brother Davison,
Your letter received some time ago, too long ago. What with company and work - but no need to offer excuses.
J.D. Merritt came to Africa in 1926 and is still here. S.D. Garrett came to Africa in 1930 and is still here. O.D. Bixler went to Japan in 1919 and is still there. Myself, came to Africa in 1921, still here, and hope to be the remainder of my life.
What is mission work? Is it a job, working for some concern? Is it a pleasure trip? Is it a holiday occasion? Or is it a life work for the Master to save souls?
Brother Sherriff came to Africa in 1897 and stayed here until his death. He did not have to run home every two years, making the excuse ‘health’. The wife and I stayed on the field for 17 years without a break. Brother and Sister Scott stayed 20 years before he went back home. Then he returned to Africa and stayed until he was 80 when he passed away.
People are always saying, “But you must get away every two or three years for health.” I do not believe it. I believe that is only an excuse to get away.
Even in Nigeria where we are told you must get away every two years, I do not believe that either. Mary Slessher stayed there forty years without a break doing mission work.
Certainly if I do not have any interest in saving souls, two years is long enough, or five, or seven. But if I am interested in the souls that are lost, why should I try to run home every few years to save my earthly life? What do I love most? Earthly pleasures, my life, mother, father, children, possessions, worldly profit? Is that what I prize most? Or our Lord Jesus Christ and lost souls?
Certainly I know a few individuals are exceptions. But when these exceptions include three-quarters of the workers, there is something wrong.
The statement you heard, that five to seven years is as long as a man can do effective work is not true. The ripe years of a man’s life are some of the most powerful.
And why run home just because I might die on the field? Do people not die in the homeland? Is that a guarantee that I will live?
The task before us is tremendous. Then let us be at it, and stay at it, until the Lord calls us home. If we do not, I fear that dreadful sentence may be ours: Depart from me, I never knew you.
Wherever the Lord calls a man, there let him labor for the Master until his laboring days are done.
Please excuse the pen, my typewriter refused to work any longer.
May the Lord bless you abundantly.
In Christ, W.N. Short

May brother Short’s letter encourage others to dedicate their lives to world evangelism!

First sermon in Dutch

At the end of December 1963, three months after arriving, I preached my first sermon in Dutch. It was written out and read, after having been corrected by my language teacher. Within the next couple of months I preached the same sermon at two other congregations.

With much help to perfect the Dutch, I also wrote an eighteen week series of newspaper articles. Several visitors attended after reading the articles.

Gospel meeting in January

In January 1964 Gary Adams from The Hague preached a series of gospel messages in Utrecht. No mass advertising was done, but the members were encouraged to invite family and acquaintances. On the last evening 28 were present, half of whom were visitors.

An English language congregation near Utrecht

While I was at Utrecht there were several families stationed at a nearby NATO air base who could not understand the services in Dutch. In addition to my help with the Dutch congregation I started helping them conduct services in English in a school near the base.

In October of 1964 we rented a church building near the base for a week and invited Bob Wilkerson from Basel, Switzerland to conduct a gospel meeting. I put together an audio system using headphones, and Dan Boyd translated the lessons simultaniously into Dutch.

In the fall of 1964, one year after arriving, I began preaching in Dutch every other week in addition to working with the English-language congregation.

Preaching in Utrecht was shared by Dan Boyd, Cor Van Ewijk and Roy Davison

Most Sundays I was in Utrecht, Cor and Jetske Van Ewijk would invited me home for dinner. I enjoyed the children and the cosy, home atmosphere.

Cor and Jetske Van Ewijk and their children

A trip to Ostend, Belgium

My original intention had been to be in Utrecht for two years as a period of training, and then establish a new congregation at Rotterdam, a city of one million with no church. I conducted home Bible studies with some people in Rotterdam hoping they might become Christians to form a nucleus there, but they did not accept the Word. Now, fifty years later there is still no congregation in Rotterdam, although some Christians did meet there for a time until they emigrated.

From March 17th through the 24th, 1964 I made a trip to Ostend in the Flemish (Dutch) speaking part of Belgium to meet the Christians there.

In June of 1960 they had studied their way out of the Jehovah’s Witnesses and wanted to simply be Christians. One of the men saw a French magazine ad placed by Christians in Paris that said, “The Bible is neither Catholic nor Protestant! You can be a Christian without being either Catholic or Protestant!” That was what they were trying to do!

They were given the address of the church in Brussels and one member of the group went to talk with Hilton Terry. He suggested that they contact brethren in Holland since they were Dutch speaking. Arrangements were made for Bill Richardson to visit Ostend at the end of September and study with them for several days. At that time there were no freeways, so it was a whole day’s journey for Bill to go to Ostend.

The Flemish are extremely independent minded. They had fifteen questions for him when he arrived. They had agreed among themselves that they were not going to let him know what they thought about his answers while he was there because they wanted to study his answers first. The questions were actually test questions! They had already concluded from their Bible study how the questions should be answered!

On three evenings, studies were held from 7:30 p.m. to 2 or 3 a.m. with about twenty present.

Brother Schram said it was hard not to let him know what they thought because he answered every question exactly the way they thought it should be answered! They thanked him for coming and said they might contact him again!

For six weeks he heard nothing from them because to be absolutely sure, they had a Bible study on each of the questions and listened to the recording they made of Bill’s reply. Bill Richardson had a tremendous knowledge of the scriptures. I listened to the tapes myself and he answered each question simply by reading appropriate verses from the Bible.

In November Bill Richardson and Hilton Terry were invited back for two more visits. In December two men from the group visited the church in Brussels to see what the services were like.

It was a teenage girl in the group who first suggested to the others that their baptism by the JWs was not valid because they did not believe in the deity of Christ and did not baptize for the remission of sins. Nine were baptized on January 14, 1961 and started meeting the next day as a church of Christ in the Loontien’s home. In July another lady was baptized and in October four more of the origianl group were baptized.

When I visited them, they were the only congregation meeting in Flanders. About five million people in the north of Belgium speak Flemish which is a form of Dutch. About four million in the south speak French. There were five churches of Christ meeting in the French-speaking part of Belgium.

At the invitation of the brethren in Ostend I began making plans to move there to help them in the fall of 1965.

The sound of music

While in Holland I corresponded with Betty Bailey, a former classmate at WCC. She had gone to Zambia (Northern Rhodesia) in July of 1962 to teach for two years at Namwianga Mission. On her return to Canada in 1964, she said she would be in England for a while and would be going on a bus tour.

I arranged to meet her and was able to visit with her for a couple of days. I took her to a musical in London, “The sound of music”! On the day she left on the tour, I went with her to the bus and then headed home. On the boat and train from London back to Holland, I was extremely lonely.

Campaign in The Hague

In the fall of 1964 a large-scale evangelistic campaign was conducted in The Hague that resulted in eleven baptisms, which almost doubled the size of the congregation. One of those baptized was Henk Rog who, after studying at the Sunset School of preaching in Lubbock, Texas, has dedicated his life to preaching the gospel in Holland.

Bill Richardson came from the States to preach in a two-week meeting with the theme, “Christ, the way to unity.” In preparation, two-hundred thousand folders were distrubted in the city of six-hundred thousand people. Large posters were placed throughout the city and large banners were placed at the train station and other strategic locations. I wrote a three-week series of ads that were placed in the three newspapers of the city.

During the week before the meeting and during the two weeks of the meeting, all workers in Holland and two from Belgium made about 9000 house calls inviting people to the meetings.

The first evening 44 were present including 26 visitors. Many of the visitors returned night after night. On the last night 60 were present. There were 50 enrolments in a Bible correspondence course.

Dan Boyd was leaving Utrecht

Dan and Mary Ann Boyd with children

After five years, Dan Boyd decided to return to the States because his wife, Mary Ann, was having health problems. Personally I believe her problems were caused by being cooped up with several small children in an apartment on the fifth floor! If a missionary wants to stay on the field he must provide suitable housing for his family!

It was unfortunate that Dan was leaving because his Dutch was very good. He spoke almost without an accent!

I did not agree, but Dan felt that he should arrange for a full-time Dutch worker when he left. Cor Van Ewijk had studied Bible in the States and other men in the congregation helped with services, so I did not see the need for it.

When Dan first started talking with Henk Kelfkens about supporting him to preach full time, he had not even been attending services regularly! After several years Henk was unfaithful to his wife and left the church. He caused me problems when I went to Ostend because he made negative comments about me to the brethren there. One brother discounted what he said and recognized it as improper, but another brother was influenced by it. The problem was worked out but caused some destress until I won the confidence of the congregation.

A summer in Amsterdam

The first of April 1965 I moved from Utrecht to Amsterdam to work with the church there during the summer while Tom and Dottie Schulz were away to the States.

From July the 25th through August the 6th I was at the Aylesbury Bible school in England. Len Channing had invited me to teach a two-week course entitled NT teaching and preaching. When Phil Slate, who was doing the followup for a Herald of Truth broadcast from a ship in the English Channel, learned that I was going to Flanders, he gave me the name of a good contact in Roeselare.

From August the 9th through the 13th I helped Jim Krumrei conduct a Bible school in Haarlem. Twenty-two young people, nine and older, came from various congregations in Holland and Belgium and stayed in the building. We had Bible classes all morning, recreation in the afternoon and a sermon each evening. Lee and Wil Goodheer served as supervisors.

I moved to Ostend in September of 1965.

On the sea dike at Ostend

Ostend is on the coast across the Channel from Dover, England and had a population of about 70,000. The congregation had fifteen members.

The Ostend congregation

The brethren had found and furnished an apartment for me on the top floor of a large house near the sea. It had to be heated by a coal stove and was rather cold in the winter. There was no running warm water so I took a bath in a washtub after heating a bucket of water on a gas burner. But I had a kitchen, office and bedroom. It was quite nice.

One month, shortly after I moved to Ostend, I received only $30 support. A congregation that had been forwarding funds to me decided to stop doing so, and sent all the checks back asking people to send them directly to me. That was better, actually, but meant that there was a time lag. I bought a bag of dried beans and ate beans for a couple of weeks!

Finding a meeting place

The church had met in homes but the brethren asked me to look for a public meeting place. Many owners did not want to rent to a religious group but the first of December we rented a shop that would seat about forty. It was a good location, behind a Catholic church building and two doors down from the Jewish synagogue! After getting it ready, we met there for the first time on Sunday, February 13, 1966. All expenses for the meeting place were paid by the local church and they contributed $14 a month to my support in 1966.

Evangelistic campaign in Amsterdam

In September of 1966 a campaign was held in Amsterdam similar to the one held in The Hague. I helped with door-to-door work the week before the meeting and during the two weeks of the meeting. Bill Richardson preached on the theme, Christ, the way to unity. I wrote a tract with the same title that was distributed in large numbers.

Evangelism in Ostend

A four-page teaching paper was distributed to all homes in Ostend (28,000) in September of 1966 and in March of 1967. In April of 1967 another distribution was made that included advertising for a weekend meeting held on the 4th and 5th of May.

Jim Krumrei, Roy Davison, Tom Schulz, Bobby Bates, Aad Scharroo, Martin Rozestraten, with Stephen Schulz in front.

These brethren from Holland (shown standing in front of the meeting place) helped with door-to-door work the week before the meeting.

Aad Scharroo presented two lessons: Christ, the only head of His church and The oldest church, the church of Christ. Len Channing from Aylesbury, England showed slides of his trip to the holy land after each lesson. There were four visitors the first night and seven the second.

Assembly on the first night of the meeting

The School of the Bible

Don Taylor and I opperated The School of the Bible in Verviers, Belgium for three years, from 1967 to 1970. It was a worthwhile project, but we never had the funding we needed and when the Taylors returned to the States it was impossible to continue.

Don and Virginia Taylor with their children

Robert Limb from England, who studied Bible and French at the school, has since spent his life preaching the gospel in Paris! I pray that all the students and staff were blessed. For the record I will give a brief history of the school.

In the spring of 1965 when I visited Verviers I noticed that within easy driving distance there were preachers who spoke four languages: French, German, Dutch and English. I concluded that Verviers would be a good location for a multi-lingual Bible school. After discussing this with Don Taylor who was preaching in Verviers, we decided to investigate the possibility.

We learned that the preachers in the area would be willing to help and a tentative plan was drawn up. We wanted to learn more about other training programs in Europe and to get feedback from brethren in the various language areas.

The first part of 1966 I made several trips to gather information. In February I visited Glen Boyd to learn about Peperdine’s program at Heidelberg. In April I visited Reiner Kallus in Wiesbaden to learn about a school he had conducted previously. Then I visited the two schools in Italy. I spoke with Harold Paden and Fausto Salvoni about the Bible Chair in Milan and with Earl Edwards about the Florence Bible School. I also visited Joe Gibbs in Torino who had been director of the Florence Bible School for seven years. In May I visited Bob Eubanks, Wayne Harris and Bent Hensen in Denmark. On the way back I went to Berlin to speak with Richard Walker and Betty Roemer about the proposed school.

Taking the suggestions of brethren throughout Europe into account, plans were made in the summer of 1966 to open the school in the fall of 1967. Don Taylor would be director of the school and head of the French Bible department, Jack Nadeau in Cologne would head the German Bible department and I would co-ordinate the Dutch and English Bible departments. Bible and preacher training courses would be offered in German, French and Dutch. John Murphree would head a nine-month mission training course in English for people planning to work in Europe. Language instruction would be offered as needed for students who attended. The meeting place of the Verviers congregation would be used for larger gatherings and a large house with sixteen rooms was rented for the school.

In making plans I failed to consider the consequences of the short-term commitment of many American missionaries. In less than five years, three of the men who agreed to help with the school were no longer in Europe.

During a trip to the US from December 66 to March 67 I spoke to students at Christian Colleges about the School’s mission training program. I spoke at LCC, ACC, Harding, Freed-Hardeman and Lipscomb.

The first academic year I went from Roeselare to Verviers by train to teach two days a week, going on Tuesday morning and returning on Wednesday evening. I used the three and a half-hour train ride each way to study. I taught Bible and Greek in English, and taught English to French-speaking students. After I was married in 1968, I went back and forth on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Don Taylor taught Bible in French and English, and taught French to English-speaking students. Virginia Taylor cooked for the school and was in charge of buying supplies.

Mary and Ron Zavitz and their daughter, Lenora

During the 69-70 school year, Ron and Mary Zavitz from Canada were a great help, serving as supervisors and cooks for the school. Their children, Lenora, Timothy and Sylvia were also with them.

Don Daugherty translating a lecture into French

In February of 1968 a yearly five-day lectureship was launched at the school called “Concentration”. Each day there were five 45 minute lectures in which teachers from throughout Europe and from the US presented concentrated advanced teaching on their topic. Each evening a different speaker gave a lecture. The lessons were presented in English and simultaneous translation over headphones was available when needed in French, German and Dutch. Among the speakers during the first few years were Leon Crouch, Everett Ferguson, Andrew Gardiner, Otis Gatewood, Jim McGuiggan, Jack McKinney, Gottfried Reichel, Fausto Salvoni, S.F.Timmerman, Ed Wharton and Bob Wilkerson.

Fausto Salvoni speaking at the Concentration Lectureship.

Otis Gatewood speaking at the Concentration Lectureship in February 1972. Notice the red light on the speaker’s stand. We had a tight schedule and speakers were not allowed to run overtime. Five minutes before their time was up, I flashed the red light three times. When their time was up I turned the red light on and it stayed on! As one speaker said, "You might as well stop when that light comes on because everyone turns you off anyway!"

The first year 40 brethren attended, coming from ten countries. The second year, 70 attended coming from Belgium, England, Finland, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Ireland, Norway, Scotland and Switzerland. After the school closed I turned organization of the Concentration Lectureships over to Richard Wolfe in 1972 and he organized them until 1988.

The Herald of Truth
Broadcast by Radio London

Radio London broadcast from this ship

As a business venture, brother Jack McGlothlin of Abilene, Texas and two partners (Mal McIlwain and Tom Danaher) operated Radio London that broadcast from December 23, 1964 to August 14, 1967. They transmitted from international waters at a time when commercial radio broadcasting was not allowed in most European countries. They had ten million listeners in England, Holland, Belgium and France. The station accepted paid religious broadcasts, including The Herald of Truth. Phil Slate, who was in England at the time, took care of followup for The Herald of Truth.

A new congregation at Roeselare, Belgium

When I taught a class at the Aylesbury Bible School during the summer of 1965, a few months before I moved to Flanders, Phil Slate gave me the address of Josef Denys of Roeselare, an insurance salesman, who had enrolled in a Bible correspondence course after hearing The Herald of Truth broadcast.

In October of 1965 I sent several tracts and offered to make a visit if he had questions. A month later I visited the Denys family for the first time. We had a good Bible study that lasted several hours. I went again on a Sunday afternoon in December and we spent several hours studying the Bible. I was to return after the first of the year, but for first one reason and then another I was not invited again until August of 1966.

Mr. Denys had continued to follow the Bible course from England and to study his Bible, however. On August 7, 1966 we discussed many questions dealing with doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church. After this visit, Mr. Denys said in a letter: “In principle I am completely in agreement with the church of Christ: Only the Bible gives us all the answers. But you must not think that I will suddenly throw all the old overboard and gratuously accept something new. Everything must be proved by the Bible. I must see everything documented as I wish to build only on THE ROCK. May the Lord help me to do so.”

Then the real study began. Through letters and visits we studied hundreds of questions dealing with Roman Catholic doctrine. At this time Mrs. Denys also began taking an active interest in Bible study. They were baptized into Christ on November 24, 1966. A few days later, I left to visit the United States. The first Sunday they attended services in Ostend. After that they began meeting in their home to worship God and to remember the Lord’s death at His table.

Brother and Sister Denys on the day they were baptized

The Denys family

Brother and Sister Denys prayed that their children, four daughters between the ages of 10 and 19, might also obey the gospel. They had not followed the Bible studies as closely and were upset when their parents were baptized. The priest had phoned to warn that the children might have trouble in school if they left the Catholic Church.

Len Channing and Roy Davison 1967

Upon my return in March, I began going to Roeselare each week for a Bible study. On May 6 & 7, 1967 the same gospel meeting was held in Roeselare that was held in Ostend. Brother Len Channing from Aylesbury, England showed slides on the holy land and Aad Scharroo from Holland preached. His subjects were: Christ, the only head of His church and The oldest church, the church of Christ. Although the meetings were held privately in the home of the Denys family, six visiters attended each evening. A week later the four Denys children were baptized into Christ.

At the invitation of the brethren, I moved from Ostend to Roeselare at the first of July, 1967.

Trip to Canada and the US: December 66 to March 67

Originally I had planned to leave in September but postponed my departure so I could help with the campaign in Amsterdam and also - because I did not have enough money for the trip. My sister, Sandy, who was at Harding College requested help for my travel fund among students and commendably $285.50 was given!

On November 30, 1966 I flew from Brussels to Toronto. I spoke at Windsor, Ontario; Michigan Christian College; Port Huron, Michigan (who were giving $40 a month support); Sarnia, Ontario; Beamsville, Ontario and at the Fern Avenue congregation in Toronto. On December the 8th I flew on from Toronto to Columbia, South Carolina.

There was a weirdo on the plane!

As part of my exercise program, I was accustomed to jogging in place while I shaved with my electric razor. On the flight to South Carolina where my parents lived, I decided that I would go ahead and jog very gently while I shaved. While in the restroom I noticed that the engines slowed down and then sped up again. When I came out, the stewardess gave me a quizzical look. But I thought nothing more about it.

I few years later, however, I was reading a magazine article in which pilots were telling about strange things that had happened during their carreers. One pilot said that on a flight to South Carolina a thumping sound suddenly developed in the plane that caused them consternation. They slowed the engines to see if they were the cause, but the thumping did not change. They were examining their instruments to see if anything was abnormal when the stewardess came in the cockpit and said, “There is some weirdo back there jogging in the restroom!” They were relieved and gave her a hug! I laughed and laughed when I realized who that weirdo was!

But that is not the end of the story. As we landed at Columbia, the plane suddenly made a violent turn to avoid colliding with a small plane that was also landing. If they had not slowed the engines, would they have hit the other plane? Or did they almost hit the other plane because of the weirdo? In any case, by the grace of God we had a safe landing and I was greeted at the airport by my parents whom I had not seen in three years.

The whole family was home for Christmas


Bessie, Charles, Sandy, Dale and Roy Davison

A few days later my father brought my sister, Sandy, home from Harding College and a couple of weeks later my brother, Dale, came home from Illinois where he had been working. It was the first time in six years that we were all together at Christmas. We had an enjoyable time, but how quickly it passed!

People and churches we visited

On January 8, 1967 I left to give reports on my work and to speak at various colleges about a new mission training program we were developing at Verviers, Belgium. My brother, Dale, went with me to help with driving. It was a good opportunity to get reacquainted as adults.

Dale and I before we left

First I spoke with the elders of the church in Corsicana, Texas. In Irving, Texas we visited friends of Dale. In Cisco, Texas we stayed with Dennis and Beth Johnson who had helped with my working fund. (They have now been missionaries in India for many years and we are in regular contact by email.) In Cisco we also saw Gary Adams who formerly preached in Holland. At Abilene, Texas we visited with David Lidbury, a former teacher at WCC, and I made arrangements to return later to talk to students. I spoke at Santa Anna, Texas where Jimmie Roden was preaching.

Bob and Wadene Adams with their children: Jim, Kathy, Judy and Ronnie. Carol was away to school.

We then went to Benson, Arizona to visit the Bob Adams family. They had been in Sarnia when I preached there and were like second parents to me. In that area I spoke to churches in Benson, Bisbee and Wilcox. The Wilcox church decided to start helping with my support. In Tucson I spoke at the Catalina and Palo Verde congregations. In Tucson we also visited with the Edsel Longs and Kenneth Waitts who helped with support.

We started back east and arrived in Lubbock in time for a sand storm. We visited with Manly and Marie Gilpin. Manly had been my roommate at WCC. He was studying at the Sunset School of Preaching. I spoke to a group of students at Lubbock Christian College.

An evening with Rita and Stuart

While in Lubbock, Dale and I enjoyed a meal one evening with Rita Hamm (nee Lewis) a former schoolmate from Radville Christian College who was secretary to the Dean at Lubbock Christian College. She had worked during the day, so was stressed and concerned that supper was going to be late. I told her not to worry about it. The delicious meal was well worth the wait! Stuart, who was six, had a little projecter and showed us some pictures in his darkened bedroom. I went that evening to visit an old friend and left thinking that Rita would be a very good wife! I did not tell her that then, of course. She told me later that she wondered that night what it would be like to have me as a husband. Now, more than fifty years later, she is still finding out!

We returned to Abilene where Hugh Mingle had arranged for me to speak to a group of students. Next I spoke at Montalba, Texas to a congregation that helped with our support for many years.

Then we went to Searcy, Arkansas where we stayed for a week and I was able to spend more time with my sister, Sandy.

Sandy and Carol Adams were good friends. They attended high school together at GLCC and were both at Harding for college.

While in Searcy, I spoke with a group of students and to a Bible class. Dale and I visited with J. Lee Roberts who had preached in Belgium for fifteen years. We then went to Memphis where I spoke with W.B.West, Jr. whom I had met at Aylesbury, England. On Sunday evening, February 20th, I spoke at West Helena, Arkansas. Then I spoke to students at Freed-Hardeman and at Lipscomb. In Nashville I also spoke with the elders of the Hillsboro congregation. They were supporting work in Holland, had given $250 for my travel expenses and had given $50 a month support for six months, when I was urgently in need of help.

As our last stop before heading back to Columbia, we visited with John and Linda Bramblett in Shelbyville, Tennessee. John had been in Ostend for several months in connection with his work and Linda was with him. They were a great encouragement to the brethren. They would cut short their sight-seeing trips, so they could be back in Ostend for Sunday services.

After 5000 miles of driving, we returned to Columbia where I spent another week with my parents before heading back to Belgium via Ontario. I spent a few days in Sarnia, where I had preached before going to Europe, and I enjoyed visiting once again in the homes of many of the members. In Toronto I visited with Audrey and Blenus Wright and with David Olson. I also spoke to the Strathmore congregation. At Beamsville I visited with Ron and Mary Zavitz.

Then on the evening of March 21st, 1967, the first day of spring, I left Toronto and its six inches of snow for Europe. The next night I was back in my apartment in Ostend.

Regular Bible studies in Roeselare

Upon my return I had weekly Bible studies with the new Christians in Roeselare. They asked if I would be willing to move to Roeselare to help them. Since the brethren in Ostend were well grounded in the faith, I agreed to do so, and moved in July of 1967.

During the summer, Josef Denys and I went to the annual Training for Service Series, a two-week Bible school conducted by Len Channing in Aylesbury, England. We visited the British Museum and a few places in London that brother Denys wanted to see.

Josef Denys in London 1967

Josef Denys, Roy Davison, late fall 1967

Although we did extensive advertising in Ostend, I was not able to arrange a single home Bible study in the city during the two years I was there! In Roeselare there were visitors in the assembly almost every Sunday. In October of 1967 we started a series of small weekly ads in a local paper that also invited people to send in questions about the Bible. Through contacts made from those ads I was able to arrange Bible studies with non-Christians and usually had from one to three studies each week.

A special trip to Lubbock, Texas

Rita and Roy engaged to be married

After returning to Belgium I began corresponding with Rita. At the end of 1967 I flew from Luxembourg to New York with Icelandic Airlines (the cheapest way to go) and took a Greyhound bus from New York to Lubbock. Rita and I enjoyed each other’s company and were engaged to be married the following June.

I believe our marriage is 100% providential. The Lord pulled many strings to allow me to marry the one I needed as a companion and fellow worker.

Back in Belgium

After Rita and I were engaged, I returned to Flanders in January of 1968 and resumed weekly Bible studies in the homes of non-Christians. During the spring semester, I continued teaching classes at the School of the Bible in Verviers, Belgium two days each week.

We had visitors in services at Roeselare most Sundays. Paul and José Huyghebaert concluded after study that their previous baptism had been in accordance with the Scriptures. They and their nine children began attending services.

On May 20th I left Belgium to go to Lubbock, Texas to prepare for the wedding on June 8th, and for a three-month visit to the US and Canada.

While I was away, the brethren made good progress. Two men I had been studying with were baptized, one on June 3rd and another on July 7th. Attendance on Sunday was about 25. Since the Denys home was becoming too small, a public meeting place was found above a Cafe.

Starting our new life together

Rita had made plans and preparations for the wedding with much help from Lois Harms. Norman Keener performed the ceremony at the building of the Woodlawn Church of Christ. He was Dean of Lubbock Christian College for whom Rita had worked as secretary.

Bertie Ramsey from Mulvane, Kansas was Rita’s bridesmaid. My brother Dale was my best man and Stuart Jay was the ring bearer.

Reception

Family and friends from far and near attended the wedding and reception.

My sister, Sandy, registered guests

Stuart’s grandparents, Donald and Mabel Hamm, and his great grandmother Edith Neidhardt from Kansas attended the wedding

After the wedding

Other than my baptism into Christ on March 4, 1951, the greatest day in my life was June 8, 1968, the day Rita and I were married and became one. On that day I also gained a wonderful seven-year-old son, Stuart Jay, whom I adopted officially on July 26, 1968.

Stuart and his longhorn bicycle

After the wedding Stuart went to Tucson with my parents to get acquainted with his new grandparents. Rita and I spent our honeymoon getting Rita’s things ready to ship to Belgium! During those two weeks we also visited a supporting congregation in Montalba, Texas. We also visited with Dennis Johnson and Gary Adams in Cisco, and with R.S. Bell and Alex Muller in Dallas.

To Tucson, Arizona

Rita and a yucca plant

From Lubbock we began a tour of the western United States and Canada to visit family and supporting congregations. Rita and I first travelled 635 miles (1025 km) to Tucson, Arizona to visit my parents who had moved there from South Carolina. Dad worked for the University of Arizona as an electronics technician. We were glad to see Stuart again who had gone home with my folks after the wedding.

Charles and Bessie Davison in Tucson

We spent two weeks in Tucson visiting my parents. I also spoke for three area congregations and we visited the Bob Adams family.

To Alhambra, California

Heading west

From Tucson we travelled 480 miles (775 km) farther west to Alhambra, California where Rita’s brother, Bob Lewis, was preaching. We visited one week with Bob and Martha and their family, and I spoke to the Alhambra congregation. They decided to start contributing $200 per month to our support.

Martha and Bob Lewis

To Livingston, Montana

Rita’s parents: Thelma and Marion Lewis

From Alhambra we travelled 1115 miles (1795 km) to Livingston, Montana, Rita’s home town, where we spent two weeks visiting her parents, Marion and Thelma Lewis. I also spoke to the congregation.

Rita’s aunt and uncle, Edna and Wes Haven, visited while we were in Livingston.

With the Havens and the Lewises

View of the mountains from the street where Rita grew up

To Saskatchewan

We then drove 585 miles (945 km) north to visit with the families of Rita’s sisters in Regina, Saskatchewan, Shirley and Walter Straker, and Betty and Wayne Kemp. We enjoyed a visit with Lillian Torkelson in Weyburn, and I spoke to congregations in Regina, Weyburn, Estevan, Bengough and Perryville. I also spoke at Kinosee Lake Camp.

To Ontario

We then started our journey to eastern Ontario (1675 miles, 2690 km). After spending a night with Rita’s aunt and uncle, Doris and George Husband, at Wawota, Saskatchewan, we headed east. On the way I spoke at Manson and Winnipeg, Manitoba and at Port Arthur, Ontario. We had a pleasent visit with brethren in Sarnia, Ontario where I preached before coming to Europe. I also spoke at Windsor, Toronto (Strathmore) and Beamsville.

To New York for our flight to Belgium

After seeing Niagra Falls, we left Ontario to go to New York City (490 miles,789 km). On the way we visited with the Robert Hamms in Norwich, Connecticut and with the Dan Boyds in Wilmington, Delaware.

Home base: Flanders, Belgium, Europe, World

From the cover of Voice of Truth International, Volume 84

From New York we flew with Islandic Airlines to Luxembourg. (Our dog, Frisky, went with Sabena to Brussels.) We arrived at my apartment in Roeselare on August 30th and Stuart started the third grade on September 1st. He made rapid progress learning Dutch and by the end of December was making grades of 75%.

After a few weeks Rita started taking two Dutch lessons each week and within a year was able to understand most of a normal conversation. It was difficult for her in the beginning when her husband knew Dutch and she did not. But the congregation showered love on her and Stuart, and most of them could communicate with her in English. She was proud of herself the first time she was able to bawl someone out in Dutch! One of the teenagers in the congregation was scolded for being unfair to his little brother!

Growth of the church in Roeselare

There were five baptisms during 1968 and the congregation found a public meeting place.

At a men’s meeting on the last Saturday of each month all decisions were made with regard to the activities of the congregation and the schedule for the worship services was drawn up for the following month.

The various parts of the service, including the preaching, were shared by all of the men who were qualified. I considered it part of my task as an evangelist to train and encourage the men of the congregation to develop their abilities.

The church paid for its meeting place and a small weekly classified advertisement for a Bible correspondence course.

In March of 1969 a series of four sermons was presented by Jim Krumrei from Haarlen, Holland. Nine different visitors attended. A few weeks after the meeting there were two baptisms.

On the first Sunday afternoon of each month the church had a fellowship period to which the brethren from Ostend were invited.

In January of 1970 the congregation appointed two elders, Josef Denys and Paul Huyghebaert.

There were two baptisms during September of 1970.

I wish I could say that all those mentioned above who were baptized remained faithful. In the parable of the sower, however, Jesus made it clear that only a portion of those who received the word would remain faithful and bear fruit.

An addition to our family

On May 27, 1970 Tonia Lynette Davison was born! [Now as I write this in 2019, she and her husband Mario Nyeki are faithful servants of the Lord. They live about 15 minutes from our home.]

Tonia Lynette Davison

Stuart Davison - Ten years old

Roy, Rita, Tonia, Bessie, Charles and Stuart Davison

My parents, Bessie and Charles Davison, came for a two-month visit at the end of June. They went to England to help with vacation Bible schools at Loughborough and East Ardsley the last week of July and first week of August.

A visit from a former teacher

Lillian Torkelson and Gertrude Weeks 1970

At the end of July 1970 we were pleased to have Lillian Torkelson and Gertrude Weeks in our home for a week. Both Rita and I studied under Miss Torkelson and we appreciated and loved her very much. The alumni of Western Christian College had given her a summer tour of Europe as a token of appreciation for her many years of selfless service. Another teacher at the school, Gertrude Weeks, had volunteerd to accompany her at her own expense.

The Roeselare church of Christ in 1970

Evangelism throughout Flanders

The northern half of Belgium is called Flanders. Flemish is a form of Dutch. Although pronunciation and vocabulary differ somewhat, it is the same language. The difference is similar to that between American English and British English.

In a men’s meeting of the Roeselare congregation we discussed our responsibility to do what we could to preach the gospel in all of Flanders.

Locally, in addition to placing ads in the newspaper, 10,000 enrolment cards for the Bible correspondence course had been distributed by the young people of the congregation.

At that time, free advertising newspapers were being placed in all mailboxes of Flanders each week. Since local newspaper ads had been effective, in 1969 the congregation (at their own expense) started placing want ads once a month in one and a half million homes throughout Flanders to advertise our Bible correspondence course. It was agreed that the other brethren would follow up local contacts and that I would study with those who were farther away.

We asked for financial help so we could place the want-ads each week. Brother Jimmie Lovell, publisher of Action Magazine, provided funds for five weeks and made the project known in his paper.

By experimenting we discovered that small want-ads resulted in more responses than larger ads, and of course were much less expensive.

The congregation brain-stormed to produce texts for the ads. Everyone, including the children, suggested texts. Then everyone gave each suggestion a grade from 0 to 10. An ad written by Josef Denys received twice as many votes as any other ad. Translated into English, the text was: “To be a Christian means to follow Christ and not to be bound to a worldly church. To learn how this is possible, follow 8 free lessons by correspondence. Ask for a trial lesson without obligation.”

Several of the ads that received the highest scores were published, and the above ad received twice as many responses as the others! Thus we used that ad repeatedly for a period of time.

I drove throughout Flanders visiting those who had completed the correspondence course and tried to set up regular Bible studies. I usually had three or four studies each week and sometimes drove one or two hours each way for a study. After a while, there were too many studies to schedule in one week, so studies were held biweekly. This was not as effective as weekly studies because if a study had to be skipped for any reason, it was a whole month until the next study. But that was the only solution.

As a result, couples were baptized in Kortrijk and Kessel-Lo, whom I taught to worship in their homes and visited regularly for study. Unfortunately both fell away. In Kessel-Lo they were afraid they would lose Catholic social services. In Kortrijk they decided it was a burden to worship every Lord’s day, and that they could worship God just as well by going for a walk in the woods!

There was good response from the Antwerp area and the first part of 1971 I studied with several families there, but none became Christians.

On April 2nd, 3rd and 4th of 1971 Tom Schulz from Amsterdam presented four lessons at Roeselare on “Science and faith.” Between 30 and 40 attended each lesson including several visitors. Some visitors came to all four sessions. Members of the congregation had distributed 5000 invitations.

A former neighbor was baptized

In November of 1970 a man in Ostend enrolled in the Bible course. He had lived downstairs in the same building where my apartment was when I was in Ostend. After he finished the course brother Schram and I visited him, and a study on the book of Acts was arranged between him and brother Schram. After attending services in Ostend for some time, he was baptized on July 4, 1971.

Trip to Canada and the US during the summer of 1971

We flew to Toronto on May 25th and stayed one night in a hotel to recover and adjust to the time change. In Ontario I spoke at Toronto (Strathmore), Sarnia and Windsor, and in Michigan at Port Huron.

We then went to York, Nebraska to visit Rita’s brother, Bob Lewis and his family. Bob was working with the East Hill congregation where I preached on Sunday morning and told about the Belgian work.

From there we went to Mulvane, Kansas to visit Bertie and Ray Ramsey and to give a report to the congregation. Bertie and Ray were a big help to Rita after Cliff died and faithfully supported our work through the years. I also spoke at Isabel, Kansas.

This picture of Bertie and Ray with their children was taken in 1968

We then went to Texas where I spoke at Montalba and Waco. From there we went to Arizona to visit my parents and sister in Tucson.

Bessie and Charles Davison in Tucson

In the area I also spoke at Willcox and Ajo where the Bob Adams family lived. We then went to Flagstaff, Arizona to visit my brother, Dale, and I spoke to the congregation there. After that we went west to give a report to the Alhambra, California congregation that was contributing to our support.

From California we went to Livingston, Montana to visit Rita’s parents. My parents had visited us in Belgium the year before, but this was the first opportunity for Rita’s folks to meet Tonia and to see Stuart again after three years.

Children get tired of riding long distances in the car. Once when we stopped so Stuart could play at a playground, I made the unwise decision to go down the slide holding Tonia in my arms. It was much faster than I had expected, and I realized that it would be impossible for me to stay on my feet when we hit the sandpit at the bottom! Fortunately, my university gymnastic ability was still in my bones, so when I hit the bottom I spun around and did a backwards roll and landed on my feet with her still in my arms, and thankfully unharmed! She shouted, “More! More!” She wanted to go again! Once was enough for me!

Rita and her parents with Tonia and Stuart

Stuart and Tonia with their grandparents

While in Montana I also spoke at Billings.

From there we went to Saskatchewan. In Regina we visited Rita’s two sisters, Shirley Straker and Betty Kemp.

Walter and Shirley Straker with their children

Betty and Wayne Kemp with their children

The Lewis sisters in 1971: Betty Kemp, Rita Davison and Shirley Straker

In Saskatchewan I spoke at Weyburn, Regina, Saskatoon, Estevan and Wawota, where we visited Rita’s aunt and uncle, Doris and George Husband before heading east. On the way, I spoke at Winnipeg, Manitoba and in Ontario at Port Arthur, Sarnia and Beamsville. From Toronto we flew home on August 27th.

A new congregation at Antwerp

After returning to Belgium, I was extremely busy catching up on correspondence related to the Bible course, restarting home Bible studies and placing newspaper ads. (We placed no ads during summer months when response was low because many people were on vacation and spent much time outdoors.)

On October 6, 1971 Richard Amssoms, who lived in Merksem (a suburb of Antwerp), wrote a letter requesting the Bible course after seeing the ad, “To be a Christian means to follow Christ and not to be bound to a worldly church.”

He explained that he and several others had left the Jehovah’s Witnesses and were striving to be Christians only. They were happy to discover others with the same goal and wanted more information. I sent the first lesson of the course and a booklet entitled, “Unity in Christ”.

Usually I visited people after they completed the course, but the letter Richard wrote on October the 16th after receiving the first lesson was so positive that I told Rita, “We’re going to visit this family today!”

The first question Richard asked after inviting us in was, “Do you baptize for the remission of sins?” I opened my Bible, read Acts 2:38 and replied, “Yes, we baptize for the remission of sins.” Richard said, “Then I want to be baptized.”

One reason the group left the Jehovah’s Witnesses and also did not join a Protestant church, was that they had discovered through Bible study that baptism must be for the forgiveness of sins.

On November 21, 1971 Richard Amssoms Sr was baptized, and two weeks later his wife, Gilda, was baptized. On March 9th, 1972 Richard’s mother was baptized and on April 29th, 1972 another one of the former Jehovah’s Witnesses was baptized. They conducted their own worship on Sundays and I started going for a Bible study each Thursday evening. This involved a three or four hour trip each way because there was not yet a freeway between Gent and Antwerp. It took an hour just to get through Gent and sometimes we had to wait in line 45 minutes to get through the one small tunnel under the Schelde River to Antwerp.

After being baptized, Richard said, “Now this doesn’t mean that I’m going to accept whatever you say! You must prove everything with the Bible!” I replied, “That is what we do!” In the Thursday evening studies, that often lasted till midnight, we dealt with many subjects, including a study of the Kingdom of God that lasted for a whole year.

Teaching and preaching in Machelen

Machelen is a town on the northern edge of Brussels. We helped a couple conduct worship services there from September 1971 until June of 1973. We went each Sunday afternoon, after attending morning services, first at Roeselare and later at Antwerp. From Roeselare it was about a two hour’s drive each way.

Mr. Vandenborre had been an atheist. But when a Pentecostal group rented a large room in his house for their services he started studying the Bible, came to believe in God and was baptized. When I asked what the purpose of his baptism had been, he said: “Christ taught that one must be born of water and the Spirit to enter the kingdom of God.”

He was very upset, however, by what happened when he requested baptism. The Pentecostals gathered around him and said they would first have to cast an evil spirit out of him before he could be baptized. They started praying for him and suddenly one of the girls started screaming. They said, “O no! The evil spirit has gone into her!” So they formed a ring around her and started praying for her. Mr. Vandenborre was disgusted by this. He told me, “I was a sinner and needed to be baptized, but I did not have an evil spirit!” Later his wife was also baptized. They both had understood that their baptism was for the remission of sins

I began regular Bible studies with them about the first of 1971. They eventually decided that they should be Christians only and not be associated with any human religious organization.

The Pentecostals stopped renting from them when they learned that they no longer agreed with them.

They invited me to help them form a church of Christ, so we started going each Sunday afternoon in September of 1971. I taught the adult class and Rita taught a children’s class.

I encouraged brother Vandenborre to take part in the services and after a while he would preach one Sunday and I would preach the next. We usually and several visitors.

There was a problem, however, in that although they had rejected certain outlandish aspects of Pentecostalism, they continued to believe in gifts of healing and present-day tongue-speaking. Even after an in-depth study on the Holy Spirit, they remained firm in these views and it was problematic because of comments made on this subject in the Bible class. When we were not able to come for a few weeks, they invited a Pentecostal preacher to preach for them!

Thus I concluded that I could no longer support their assembly and I notified them that I would stop coming. In the year and a half that I taught there, I did not neglect to declare the whole counsel of God (Acts 22:26, 27), but they did not grow in their knowledge and acceptance of the truth as I had hoped.

When is a prior immersion valid?

In a series of lessons on conducting home Bible studies taught by Mid McKnight in his home, he warned us that people sometimes project new knowledge about baptism back to a former immersion that actually was not scriptural.

He suggested that when we first study with people we ask them if they consider themselves to be saved and if so, how they became Christians. He would then write down the process they described on a piece of paper. Often they would say that they were saved when they believed in Jesus and were baptized later.

After learning that baptism must be for the remission of sins (Acts 2:38), if they claimed that their prior baptism was for that purpose, brother McKnight would take out the paper and show them what they had told him previously.

I have taken this precaution through the years, if not actually writing it down, at least having it stated verbally in a clear enough way that those I was studying with would remember what they had said.

Only recently, however, I have come to question whether it is enough for someone to understand that baptism is for the forgiveness of sins.

In 1 Corinthians 12:13 we read: “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body.” According to Colossians 1:18 Christ “is the head of the body, the church.” In a valid baptism, one is therefore baptized into the one body, the church of Christ!

Through the years I have at times accepted someone’s statement that he was baptized for the forgiveness of sins, when at the time of his baptism he thought it was acceptable to be a member of some denomination. In that case, was he actually baptized into the one body of Christ?

In recent studies I have emphasized that in addition to being baptized for the remission of sins, one must understand that he is being baptized into the one body, the church of Christ.

Errors of the Watchtower Society

On Sunday evening, April 30, 1972, Richard Amssoms presented a lesson in Roeselare on the errors of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Forty-five were present including nine visitors. Richard spoke for two and a half hours, and then anwered questions from the audience for an additional half hour. Several new contacts were made and two Bible studies were arranged. The young people of the congregation had distributed 9000 leaflets during the two weeks before the meeting.

Move to the Antwerp area in 1972

We rejoiced when our son, Stuart Davison, was baptized into Christ on Wednesday, July 19, 1972! [As I write this, 48 years later, he is an active Christian in Simi Valley, California.]

After working in Roeselare for five years, we moved to Beveren-Waas near Antwerp the last week in August 1972. The Antwerp brethren had invited us to work with them. Although we were sorry to leave the fellowship of the Christians in Roeselare, the move was useful for the work in many ways.

The Roeselare congregation had 20 members and an attendance on Sunday of 25 to 30. Several men in the congregation were able to teach and preach, and to conduct home Bible studies. Thus we felt that the need was greater in the Antwerp area with its metropolitan population of one million.

The new location was also more centrally located for driving to conduct home Bible studies throughout Flanders and to visit those who responded to the newspaper ads. At the end of 1972 I was conducting eight regular Bible studies scheduled at two-week intervals. These studies involved driving from one-half hour to two hours each way.

Student evangelists

In 1971 the elders of the church in Weyburn, Saskatchewan agreed to select a qualified young man each year from among the graduates of Western Christian College to work with me in Flanders for one year.

In keeping careful records of how my time was spent, I had discovered that about 20% of my time was spent on tasks that could be done by someone else who did not know Dutch.

The student evangelists helped with various kinds of office work, printing and door to door distribution, in addition to spending time on language and Bible study. Not only did they relieve me of much routine work, enabling me to spend more time teaching and preaching, but they did much additional work, that I did not have time to do.

The first young man came in January of 1972. Eight came in all: Mark Brazle, Wendell Bailey, Blair Roberts, Kerk Roberts, Lyn Meter, Brian Olson, John Smith and Dave Pennington. They were a tremendous help in many ways!

Rita is to be commended for her contribution because the boys ate their warm meal with us five days a week. While here, they were a part of the family!

After eight years, in the summer of 1978, I turned the program over to a team who had come to work in the Leuven area.

Offset press purchased

At the end of 1972 I rented a separate office where the student evangelist could live. I purchased a small second-hand offset press and a large paper cutter. Each year I taught the student evangelist how to operate the press. (One of the boys who came, made use of this knowledge later in life to set up a printing business doing small jobs for school teachers.) Through the years more than a million enrollment cards for the Bible correspondence course were printed on the press.

Summer campaigns

During May of 1973 the first of several summer campaigns was conducted. Six young men from Canada and the US distributed 176,000 enrollment cards for the Bible correspondence course, resulting in 220 new enrollments. Cards were distributed to about 12% of all homes in Flanders. Mark Brazle, who had worked with me in 1972, assembled the group after returning to Oklahoma Christian College. Wendell Bailey, the resident helper, was the “detail man” in charge of physical arrangements. The boys stayed in my office and travelled throughout Flanders with a month-long rail pass. They completely covered six smaller cities and distributed in portions of Antwerp and Gent.

Similar campaigns were held each summer for the following three years. In 1974 seven workers distributed 196,000 cards resulting in 205 enrolments. In 1975 seven workers distributed 250,000 cards resulting in 222 enrolments. In 1976 two groups came. Five workers in June distributed 73,000 cards and seven workers in July distributed about 100,000 cards. It was the hottest summer in Belgium in 200 years, which made the work difficult.

Two of the young men who came on summer campaigns, later returned to Belgium as missionaries.

Another addition to our family

On June 1, 1973 Connie Yvonne Davison was born! [As I write this in 2020, she and her husband Ian McGuiggan have been working with the church in Connecticut for fifteen years.]

Connie Yvonne Davison

A congregation that went astray

In 1972 I began regular studies with a family in Oudenaarde. On November 17th the mother was baptized and on February 16th, 1973 her son and daughter were baptized. They started meeting in their home and a brother who lived in Gent started meeting with them. Before that we had been going to Gent every other Sunday to help him start a congregation there.

In 1977 seven were meeting in Oudenaarde, but after a few years the congregation disbanded and decided to join the local Protestant Church, supposedly to help them learn the truth from the inside. That, of course, never works. How can you encourage people to abandon a bad tree while nesting in it? They were unfaithful to Christ and joined a human denomination. They blew out their candle. There was no longer a church of Christ meeting in Oudenaarde.

Trip to Canada and the US in the fall of 1973

We had intended to go in the summer of 1974, but decided to go sooner because of loss of support and a devaluation of the dollar. The fall is a better time to find support when many congregations prepare their budget.

It was arranged that Stuart would stay with Rita’s folks and attend school in the States for a year. This would mean losing a year in Belgium but he was among the youngest in his class and the study in the States would improve his English. Stuart was all for the idea!

Stuart attended the first month of school in Belgium.

On October 3rd we flew from Antwerp to London and then the great circle route over the far north directly to Winnipeg, Manitoba in western Canada, and then on west to Regina, Saskatchewan. At the airport we were greeted by a group from the congregation and were surprised by being given the keys to a car they had purchased for our travels. We stayed with Wayne and Betty Kemp, Rita’s sister. From the 5th to the 8th we attended the WCC lectureship where I gave a mission report. I also spoke at Weyburn, Regina and Perryville.

On October 16th we went from Regina to Livingston, Montana for a two-week visit with Rita’s parents.

Marion Lewis 1973

Rita’s father, Marion Lewis, was a self-supporting preacher. He worked at a lumber yard. A relative going over his books after his death was amazed by the large number of good works that he supported financially. He used income from wise investments for this purpose. He contributed $400 a month to our support for many years.

Rita’s mother, Thelma Lewis, with Connie and Tonia in 1973

In Montana I spoke at Livingston, Billings, Butte and Bozeman.

We then made a three-day journey south to Mulvane, Kansas to visit Bertie and Ray Ramsey. In Kansas I spoke at Mulvane, Wichita and Isabel.

We then traveled two days on south to Oklahoma City where I spoke to students at OCC and to the Putnam City congregation. From there we went to Montalba, Texas. I spoke twice to this country congregation on Sunday, November 11th. They contributed to our support for many years. In the Dallas area we visited Dan Boyd, John Baily and Alvin Jennings.

After crossing west Texas and New Mexico, we arrived in Tucson, Arizona on November 15th for a three week visit with my parents and sister.

In Tucson we visited the theme park “Old Tucson”.

Stuart posing with a donkey

Cowgirl Tonia

Rita with my mother and sister Sandy at Old Tucson 1973

While in the area I spoke for three congregations in Tucson, and at Casa Grande, Marana, Benson and Wilcox. Wilcox decided to increase their support from $50 to $250 per month and gave $2400 for our plane fare.

On December 10 we went to Flagstaff, Arizona to visit my brother, Dale.

My brother Dale Davison with Tonia and a goose

From Flagstaff we traveled west to California where I spoke at Alhambra and at the Central Congegation in LA on December the 16th. Alhambra decided to increase their support from $400 to $500 per month. We then made a four-day journey to Livingston, Montana.

After we stopped at a motel in the small town of Dubois, Idaho, all of us except Connie came down with food poisoning. Connie was the only one who had not eaten hamburgers at noon. It takes food poisoning five hours to develop. Although the town did not have a doctor, a paramedic, who was in radio contact with a doctor in Idaho Falls, checked our temperature, blood pressure, etc. The doctor concluded that we were not in an emergency situation. The next day, December 20th, we were unable to eat anything except a little juice sucked from an orange as we went the last 500 miles to Livingston, Montana.

The families of Rita’s sisters had arranged to spend Christmas at Livingston.

Marion and Thelma Lewis with daughters, Rita, Betty and Shirley

Stuart with his little sisters

Stuart traveled with us until Christmas but then stayed in Livingston to go to school there for several months. At the first of May he flew back to Belgium with the boys who came to distribute advertising, and he attended school in Belgium again during May and June.

From Livingston we went to Regina, Saskacthewan on January the 4th, and I preached at Regina on Sunday morning and evening. On January 9th we flew to Windsor. In Ontario I spoke at Windsor, Sarnia, Beamsville and Toronto (Strathmore). We left Toronto to return to Brussels and arrived home on January the 16th, 1974. On the trip we found the additional support we needed.

Blair Roberts was on his own

One disadvantage of the fall trip was that Blair Roberts, the student evangelist that year, had to fend for himself while we were away. He developed close ties with the brethren in Antwerp, however, and although at that time he concluded that mission work in Belgium was not for him, he later changed his mind and returned as a missionary.

Baby Connie had two operations

Shortly after we returned we discovered that Connie had a hernia on one side that would require an operation. You cannot explain such things to an eight-month-old baby. We knew of a case where a baby developed emotional detachment after a hospital stay.

Wanting to limit the trauma as much as possible, we found a hospital that allowed the mother to stay in a private room with her baby. We were impressed by the surgeon who prided himself on being informed about all the latest developments in his field. He described a special technique he used to close wounds that left virtually no scar.

It was hard on baby and parents on January 23rd when a nurse took Connie screaming to the operating room, but all went well and recovery was as expected.

After Connie was home from the hospital, however, a hernia also developed on the other side, so the ordeal had to be endured again on February 13th.

We are thankful for the excellent medical facilities in Belgium and for the universal hospitalization coverage by which everyone pays for the exceptional medical expenses of the few.

Because of the hospitalizations, I postponed restarting my regular home Bible studies until the end of February.

Is it worth the bother to be a Christian?

On February 10, 1974 a man in Tienen was baptized, even though his Catholic wife objected. He remained faithful for a time, but then fell away. When I visited him after he stopped attending services, he said it had caused him nothing but trouble and it was just too much bother to be a Christian.

Many years later, he bought a house in Spain where he intended to retire and enjoy the Mediterranean weather. He had a heart attack and died, however, before he could retire.

Jesus said, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” (Mark 8:34-36).

Fellowship gathering

On June 3rd, 1974 the Merksem (Antwerp) congregation hosted a fellowship gathering for Christians in Belgium and Holland. There were 130 present including 21 visitors. Richard Amssoms’ lesson, “What does it mean to be a Christian?” played a role in two of the visitors being baptized a couple of weeks later.

Connie had pinkeye, so I stayed home so Rita could go. One of the visitors I had invited, who was somewhat macho, was amazed that after organizing the event myself, I would stay home with a sick child so my wife could attend! It had been well-enough organized, however, that I did not really need to be there, and Rita needed the fellowship with brothers and sisters from the various congregations.

Rita’s day off

Rita was caring for two small, hyper-active children while her husband was away most evenings till midnight conducting home Bible studies. She was also preparing supper five days a week for the student evangelist.

To give her a day off, I avoided arranging Bible studies on Monday evening and would take care of the children all day Monday, so she could go shopping, visiting or do whatever she wished!

At first I tried doing this every week, but then I was overloaded myself along with my regular busy schedule. Thus I reduced it to giving her a day off every other Monday, and trying to work slightly less myself on the other Monday!

My garden had produced many large pumpkins, so I usually included pumpkin in my supper in some creative way. Pumpkin mixed with fried hamburger, for example, is nice. The children would complain, “What! Pumpkin again!” Many years later Stuart admitted, “Actually it was pretty good sometimes, but we didn’t want to encourage you!”

Family scenes at Beverenwaas

It takes determination to feed a baby, even if it is cake

Dad helped with the children too

Rita telling Connie and Tonia a Bible story

Kirk Roberts and Stuart playing chess

Connie and Tonia (wearing dresses Rita made) shortly before we moved to Wellen

Once when we were sitting at the table, Tonia said to Connie, “Daddy’s the boss! You need to do what he says!” Connie looked at me out of the corner of her eye and said, “But you’re not the boss of the whole world!”

A forbidden Bible study

A few months after we moved to Beverenwaas in 1972 the phone rang with a strange request. A man introduced himself as a Jehovah’s Witness and asked if I would come to his house for a Bible study on the deity of Christ. The request was strange because JWs are forbidden to have Bible studies with preachers of other religions. I, of course, gladly accepted the invitation.

I checked my files, and his name was not in my files. When I arrived three men were present, the man who phoned, his brother who was also a JW and a certain Mr. Joan Van Dessel. (Joan sounds like a woman’s name, but in this case it is an abreviation of Johan.)

The two JWs had been studying with Mr. Van Dessel. When they knocked on his door they asked if he had a Bible. As a devout Catholic, he was embarrassed to admit that he did not. So he bought a Bible and began studying with them, intending to defend his Catholic faith. He also began reading the Bible on his own and was disturbed by certain passages that condemned Catholic practices.

His wife saw our ad and shoved the newspaper in front of him: “Look! Here’s something for you!” He enrolled in our course and showed it to the JWs, saying: “These people claim to follow the Bible too. How do I know who is right?” They replied, “Oh they probably believe in the deity of Christ!” So they arranged for me to come so they could prove us wrong!

As we began the study, wanting to prevent the JWs from jumping to a different topic when proven wrong, I suggested that we deal with that one topic only, that we take turns suggesting a passage, and then discuss that passage thoroughly before going to a different text. They agreed and I let them select the first passage. They started with John 1:1!

Every passage they or I selected, when the context was considered, proved the deity of Christ! They were visibly shaken and felt at a disadvantage because they did not know Greek. So they suggested having another study to which they would invite one of their members who knew Greek, a former Jesuit priest!

They selected a different topic for the next study, however: whether man has an immortal soul. It was somewhat in the form of a debate. The Jesuit JW spoke for 20 minutes and I spoke for 20 minutes. I gave everyone a sheet with examples of people who clearly still existed even after they died. They evidently had invited the whole local JW group because about twenty people were present, including my host’s brother’s wife who was not a JW!

My host was distraught because their champion had not done well defending their position, so he challenged me, “And I suppose you have a cross hanging on your wall! If someone had used a gun to kill your best friend, would you hang a gun on your wall?”

I replied, “No, I don’t have a cross on my wall, but I do glory in the cross of Christ.”

He responded, “What? How can you glory in a cross on which the son of God died?” (Actually, JWs claim it was not a cross but a pole, but he was using my terminology for argument’s sake.)

His brother, who was more astute, warned him, “Watch out! Watch out!” He had noticed that I said nothing unless I could back it up with Scripture.

As he spoke I was turning to Galatians 6:14. “But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”

As I left I said, “You have chosen the topic for the first two studies. May I choose a topic for the next study?” They could hardly refuse, so I suggested the question: When was the kingdom of God established?

The next time I went, several leaders of the JWs were seated at the table. I tried to hand out my outline, but Joan Van Dessel was the only one who accepted it. A man with cold eyes asked me who had authorized the publication of the material I wanted to give them. My original host, who was very nervous, popped up and said, “Mr. Davison. This is the third time you have come and each time you have taught false doctrine. You are no longer welcome here!”

With a smile I replied, “Each time I came at your invitation. I am not accustomed to going where I am not welcome, so of course I will not come again. But I am always willing to study the Bible, so if anyone here wants to study with me, I will be glad to do so.”

The next day the phone rang and Joan Van Dessel was on the line: “What did you think of that meeting last night?” I replied, “Well, what did you think of it?” He said, “That was really something!” I was invited to begin studies with Joan early in 1973.

He continued studying with the JWs for a time. When they said something about Revelation, Joan replied, “I have not gotten that far yet in my Bible study. We can discuss Revelation next week after I have read it.” The following week he asked them, “Did you not tell me that you do not expect to go to the heavenly city?” They said, “No, that is only for the 144,000.” Joan said, “But look what it says here: ‘Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city. But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie.’” The JWs decided they were wasting their time studying with Joan.

On February 26, 1975 Joan Van Dessel was baptized in his basement that was flooded because of heavy rains. For several months he drove to Antwerp to attend services. When I baptized another man in his area near the end of 1975, they began worshiping together. On June 26, 1976 their wives were also baptized and that was the beginning of the congregation at Boortmeerbeek.

Joan was able to bring his brother, two sisters and his mother to Christ. His mother had one request for her 80th birthday. She wanted the whole family to get together to hear the gospel! They felt unable to deny her request, so on a Saturday I was able to tell them the good news about salvation in Christ.

“This is the greatest day of my life!”

In November of 1975, Gus Amssoms was baptized into Christ at the age of 72. He said, “This is the greatest day of my life!” He had been attending services for some time. His son, Richard, was the first one baptized in the Antwerp area and Richard’s mother had been baptized previously.

Gus immediately took active part in the services and was a forceful speaker. He had received public-speaking training in the labor union movement many years earlier at a time when workers were being exploited in Belgium.

When Gus retired, after working for 45 years as a laborer in Antwerp, he had not missed a single day of work because of illness. He was a dedicated and trustworthy man.

After Gus retired, he was given a part-time job as a diamond courier. Antwerp is the diamond-cutting capital of the world. About 2000 gem-related businesses are located in a one-square-mile area near the central train station.

If you had been a tourist in Antwerp, you might have seen an elderly workman with a gentle smile walking through the narrow streets of Antwerp carrying an old, worn-out briefcase. You would have never dreamed that his briefcase contained diamonds worth thousands of dollars. He did not have a gun or a bulletproof vest or an armored vehicle. He had something that the diamond merchants considered much safer and more secure. He had a gentle, innocent appearance and he was a completely dependable man.

As Christians we have been entrusted with the unsearchable riches of Christ (Ephesians 3:8). We must be reliable couriers of the gospel.

In 1987 Rita and I visited our beloved brother, Gus Amssoms, in the hospital in Tienen shortly before he went to be with the Lord. There is no other person of whom I am more confident that he heard the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Lord.”

Goodbye Antwerp air pollution

We concluded that Rita’s continual sore throat was being caused by air pollution. Oil refineries near our home belched out foul smelling gases in the middle of the night. (An oil executive told me that stricter regulations have decreased this problem in recent decades.)

An air pollution report of the Belgian Royal Meteorological Institute indicated that the province of Limburg had the cleanest air. Thus we made plans to move to Limburg. That was also where many of my Bible studies were being held.

As we drove around looking for a place to live, the children kept an eye out for “zoedels,” smoke stacks belching out pollution. “Zoedels” was our nickname for “luchtbezoedelaars,” Flemish for air pollution sources.

We found a nice house to rent in Wellen and moved there July 1st, 1976. Rita’s health improved. The Lord also blessed us with a very good school for the children.

Stuart wanted to go to Western Christian College at Weyburn, Saskatchewan, Canada, so we arranged for him to go for grade ten in the fall of 1976. Rita and I had both attended the school and we thought he would benefit from it. Although it was difficult to swing financially, we made it possible for him to come home at Christmas by finding an inexpensive student ticket. We were all missing him. The girls would sometimes cry because they were missing Stuart.

We considered leaving Flanders

When Rita and I married she knew that I intended to spend my life preaching the gospel in the Dutch-speaking part of Europe. Her own dedication to the Lord caused her to be in complete agreement with the idea, even before she knew what it entailed!

In time, however, certain comments made me realize that this had placed her under pressure. So I made it clear that other options were possible, and we seriously considered moving to the US, Canada or Scotland. When we weighed key aspects, however (such as where we could contribute most for the Lord, schooling, medical care and hospitalization) we concluded that Flanders was where we wanted to be! Here our language knowledge can be used for the Lord! We were happy with the schools! Medical and social facilities are good! Since then we have never looked back, although we still understand that our lives are in God’s hands and He can send us wherever He wishes!

I stayed closer to home

After moving to eastern Flanders in 1976, I decided to focus my work closer to home for the sake of the family. I forwarded contacts from western Belgium to area congregations (Ostend, Roeselare, Bruges and Antwerp).

For example, around the end of 1978, Willy De Groot responded to an ad I placed with financial help from various congregations in Flanders. I forwarded his name to Boyd Williams in Bruges. After studying with Boyd for six months, He and his wife Christine were baptized on April 1, 1979. Eventually their three daughters were also baptized and just recently Willy baptized one of his granddaughters!

Boyd and Nell Williams came to Ostend on December 6, 1973. They moved to Bruges in 1978, where several had been baptized as a result of Boyd’s teaching. The Williams continued working full time in Flanders until 1984, although they made many periodic visits after that until 2000.

Background of the church in Eindhoven, Holland

Ten days before we moved to Wellen in July of 1976, Hans and Ans Van Erp sent a letter requesting information about the church of Christ. They were both school teachers and lived in a village in Holland, north of Wellen. They had learned about the church from a friend in Hannover, Germany whom Hans had met during his studies. On a visit, Hans learned that she had recently become a Christian. An evangelistic campaign was being held and Hans heard a few lessons. Back home, he shared his experiences with Ans. They visited the church in Amsterdam and were given our address by Tom Schulz.

Because of the move, I did not reply until July 16th, when I arranged to conduct a Bible study in their home every two weeks.

Hans and Ans were baptized the last week of November in 1976. (For baptisms, I had a long plastic tub that I transported on the top of our car!) For a time, we worshiped with them every other Sunday and I taught a Bible class. On the other Sundays, they went to Amsterdam. Later they worshiped in Hasselt, Belgium and after that in Aken, Germany.

In 1985 they decided to worship in their home every Sunday for the benefit of a Christian lady and her daughter from the States who were in Eindhoven, the nearest city. In 1988 a “Let’s Start Talking” campaign was held and in 1989 the congregation began meeting in Eindhoven.

Troy Albers from the US preached full time in Eindhoven from June 1997 until May of 2000. Remco Dijkstra preached part time from October 2001 until March 2004.

In 2001 the congregation bought a building in the Jan Tooropstraat, where they now meet. At this writing (2020) the congregation has a Sunday attendance of about 50. Several men teach and preach.

Except for a few years, I have preached in Eindhoven one Sunday each month since 1990. The dedication, love and support of the brethren there have been a great encouragement to us!

A team effort in Leuven, Belgium

Three couples formed a team for evangelism in Flanders: Mark and Jill Brazle, Larry and Gayle Good, and Blair and Susan Roberts. Mark and Blair had worked with me as student evangelists for a year, and Larry had participated in summer distribution campaigns.

In May of 1976 the three couples came for one month on a survey trip and to introduce the wives to Flanders. Although we had not yet moved, we had already rented a house in Wellen, so allowed them to use it. They distributed 30,000 enrolment cards and interviewed 700 people in a door-to-door survey. They decided on Leuven, a university city, as a place for the team effort.

On Friday, November 11, 1977 we went to Luxembourg to pick up Mark and Jill, and Larry and Gayle with baby Thessali. They stayed with us in Wellen for a week until they found temporary housing in Leuven. Blair and Susan Roberts joined them on January 11, 1978.

At first the Leuven team worshiped with the church in Boortmeerbeek. In 1979 they started a new congregation in Leuven.

In 1980 Blair began to focus on Antwerp. He had worked with that congregation as a student evangelist.

Paul and Carol Brazle came to Belgium in 1986 and worked with the Leuven team for three years. In the fall of 1989 Blair Roberts asked them to help in Antwerp. Early in 1991 the Roberts family returned to Canada. Paul and Carol have continued working in Antwerp until the present (2020).

Mark and Jill Brazle, and Larry and Gayle Good left Belgium in June of 1993.

The congregation the team established now meets in Rotselaar, a village near Leuven. Richard Amssoms Sr, who was the first one I baptized in Antwerp (in 1971), now preaches for them (2020).

Getting up to speed in Limburg

Limburg is the most eastern province of Flanders. I first worked at Ostend on the coast in the west, then moved to Roeselare, slightly inland, then to the Antwerp area, and then to eastern Flanders.

After moving to Wellen on July 1, 1976 we sometimes worshiped in English with an American couple, Ernestine and David Tillman, who lived near Tongeren. They invited English-speaking contacts to services and Rita attended a ladies’ Bible class at their home on Tuesdays. The Tillmans also attended the French-language congregation in Liege.

I preached for various congregations in the area. One Sunday I preached for a “Christian Church” in Genk (they did not use instrumental music when I spoke there). In November we started worshiping in Asten, Holland with Hans and Ans Van Erp every other Sunday. I helped with a Bible study at Boortmeerbeek every other Monday and sometimes preached there on Sundays.

Early in February of 1977 we learned that Rita’s mother had lung cancer. This concerned us greatly, but we were told that it was a type that usually responded well to treatment.

From February 21st - 25th 1977 I taught a daily class on the Deity of Christ at the annual Verviers Concentration Lectureship. I had begun the lectureship twelve years earlier, and it was being continued by Richard Wolfe who was preaching in Liege.

A Flemish man was baptized on February 25, 1977 who lived near Liege. David Tillman had distributed French literature in his area and because he was Flemish, his letter to Richard Wolfe was forwarded to me. After I studied with him for several weeks he was baptized. We began conducting Flemish services for him in our home in Wellen in March of 1977.

Justin and Rosa Mulkers who lived in Hasselt started worshiping with us as well. They had enrolled in our Bible correspondence course in December of 1974. I had regular Bible studies with them starting in January of 1975. Although they were raised as Catholics, they had been immersed previously and were convinced that they had been scripturally baptized.

Trip to Canada and the US in the summer of 1977

We left Belgium on May the 24th and flew to Glasgow. After spending a day in Scotland, we flew on to Halifax, Nova Scotia in Canada. We enjoyed getting acquainted with Pat and George Mansfield and worshiping with the congregation on Sunday. On May 27th we celebrated Tonia’s seventh birthday and on June 1st, Connie’s forth birthday, in Halifax.

We bought a car for our summer travels and left Halifax for a three-day drive to Toronto. On Saturday evening, June 4th the Strathmore congregation had a special fellowship gathering for us and I preached there on Sunday. On Monday evening I spoke at Windsor, Ontario and on Wednesday evening, June 8th (which was our 9th wedding anniversary) I spoke at Sarnia, Ontario. From there we went around the north of Lake Superior to Thunder Bay, Ontario where I spoke on Sunday, June 12th. (Lake Superior is about the size of Belgium!) We left on Sunday afternoon to go to Wawota, Saskatchewan, where Rita’s Aunt Doris Husband lived. We arrived there late Monday evening and I spoke to the church on Tuesday evening.

Tonia and Connie at Doris and George Husband’s in 1977

I spoke in Weyburn on Wednesday evening and at Regina on Friday evening. Sunday the 19th I spoke at Perryville and on Tuesday evening at Lloydminster. On Wednesday evening, June 22nd, I spoke with the Weyburn elders. Stuart, who was studying at WCC in Weyburn, got out of school on the 24th and on Saturday evening we arrived at Livingston, Montana where Rita’s parents lived. I spoke at Livingston on the 26th and at Bozeman, Montana on the 29th.

The whole family at Livingston 1977

After visiting with Rita’s folks for two weeks we went to Tucson, Arizona to visit my parents. On Sunday, July 17th, I spoke at Willcox and on July 24th I spoke at the Mountain Avenue congregation in Tucson.

From Tucson, we went to Alhambra, California. I spoke there on Sunday morning, July 31st, and at the Central congregation in L.A. that evening. We returned to Tucson and - concluding an enjoyable visit with my parents - left Tucson on August 5th to go to Montalba, Texas. We forgot how big Texas is, and had to drive all Saturday night to be there in time for me to speak on Sunday morning. Rita said, “I’m so tired, I might just go to sleep and topple over during services!” Tonia said, “Well, I’m not going to sit beside you!”

From there we went to Isabel, Kansas to visit Stuart’s grandparents. Then we went to Clearwater and then on to Mulvane, Kansas to visit the Ray Ramseys. Next we went to York, Nebraska where Rita’s brother Bob Lewis preached. I spoke there on Wednesday night, August 17th. We returned to Livingston, Montana to visit Rita’s folks for another week before going to Vernon, British Columbia to visit Rita’s sister, Betty. I spoke there on Sunday, August 28th. We then took Stuart back to Weyburn, Saskatchewan for his next school year at WCC and flew from Regina back home via Halifax, arriving on September 8th.

Rita’s parents came back with us!

We enjoyed their three-week visit very much! Rita’s dad built a kitchen cupboard for us while he was here. We had nice fall weather and took them to see a castle in the south of Belgium. One weekend we visited Volendam, Holland where we saw a diamond cutting factory and a farm where they made cheese.

At different times during our travels, Rita’s dad would ask to look at the map. He finally asked, “Where is that city, ‘Centrum’? There are signs pointing to it everywhere! But I can’t find it on the map!” We laughed and explained that ‘Centrum’ means ‘city center’!

We were sad to see them leave on Thursday, September the 29th.

We visited the church of Christ at Peterhead, Scotland

Children in Belgium have a week’s holiday in the fall. From October the 28th through November the 3rd 1977 we made a quick trip to the north of Scotland. We slept on an overnight ferry from Rotterdam to Hull, England and then, except for two nights, slept in our Ford van.

On October 30th we worshiped with the brethren at Peterhead, Scotland and I preached for them Sunday evening. The congregation of 60 had been meeting for more than a hundred years. They did not know exactly when the church first started meeting. Many of the men were fishermen who were away on their boats all week. When they came home on Friday, they would select the nicest fish they had caught and take them to the widows of the congregation. We really enjoyed the fellowship!

On our way back to Glasgow and Hull, we visited Inverness and Lach Ness. The boat we were to take had engine trouble so could not sail. Thus, we spent the night at Hull and took a different ferry to Hoek van Holland the next day.

Tony and Erzie Geens baptized

On Saturday, December 3, 1977 Tony and Erzie Geens were baptized in Hasselt. I had been introduced to them by the Mulkers. They had three children, two boys aged 13 and 10, and a baby girl. Tony was a TV technician. He had been studying the Bible for many years but had never found anyone who would baptize them in accordance with the Scriptures. Tony was a dedicated Christian and a mainstay in the Hasselt congregation until his death.

Hasselt congregation starts meeting in the Cultural Center

On Sunday, December 11, 1977 the Hasselt congregation began worshiping in the Cultural Center. It is a complex with a large auditorium and stage for plays, and with many rooms that can be rented for cultural activities.

Roeselare congregation buys building

After meeting in rented facilities for many years, the church in Roeselare bought their own building in 1977 that would seat about 40 people.

They had a Bible exhibition in December showing old Bibles and giving information about the Bible as a way to attract visitors. I loaned them Greek and Hebrew Bibles and my Dutch Keur Bible, printed in 1729, that I had purchased in England for $15!

Old Dutch Bible

When we lived in Roeselare, I had the Bible displayed in the living room. An electrician who did some work in our apartment told me, “You know, I’m 40 years old, been a Catholic all my life, but this is the first time I have seen a Bible!” He wanted to find an old Bible like that for his living room, but he was not interested in a Bible study.

Lectures about the primitive church

From February 17th to May 12th 1978 evangelistic meetings were held in the Cultural Center of Hasselt each Friday evening for 12 weeks. The theme was “The primitive church: The church as it was in the first century.”

An advertising flyer listing the dates and topics for the entire series was printed and distributed door-to-door to every home in Hasselt. One hundred wall posters were printed that were hung on public bulletin boards that were often located near village churches. Newspaper ads were placed, and each week the topic, time and place was announced on the radio. Invitations were also sent to all in the area who had taken our Bible correspondence course.

At our first service on February 17th, 65 were present including 17 visitors. On the second Friday, 56 were present with 10 visitors. Brethren from other congregations in Holland and Belgium supported the effort. The average attendance for the entire series was 41 with an average of 11 visitors.

Here are English translations of the titles of my lectures:

• Are the New Testament documents reliable?
• Which writings were considered authoritative by the first Christians?
• What did the first Christians believe?
• The concept of Christ in the primitive church.
• Significance of names worn by the first Christians.
• Worship in the primitive church.
• The form and purpose of baptism as practiced by the first Christians.
• On which rock did Christ build His church?
• What was the organizational structure of the primitive church?
• Were the first Christians “communists”?
• Did Paul change the teaching of Christ?
• What were the eschatological expectations of the first Christians?

There was a question period after each lesson.

Gospel mission at Peterhead, Scotland

From Saturday, July 1st, until Saturday, July 29th, 1978 I conducted a gospel mission for the church of Christ at Peterhead, Scotland. Lessons were given only on Saturday and Sunday evenings. Many of the men in the city are away on fishing boats during the week, so weekend meetings are best for getting visitors to attend. The theme was: “The church as it was in the first century.” I used English translations of some of the lectures I gave in Hasselt.

Stuart was with us, being home from school in Canada for the summer. During the week we vacationed near Loch Ness, setting up our camping trailer below a vacant farmhouse on a dead-end road in Glen Moriston. It was a tranquil place beside a babbling burn, with a river below and mountains above. Stuart made a beautiful pencil drawing of a stone bridge near our tent.

On weekends we enjoyed the hospitality of various brethren in Peterhead. When I asked one brother where he lived, he replied: “Go to the sea and walk into the water until your hat floats, and you are where I live.” He meant that he spent more time on a fishing boat than he did at home!

Dutch to English translation work

We were urgently in need of additional resources because of an extreme devaluation of the US and Canadian dollar compared to European currencies. Thus, on September 1, 1978 I obtained the necessary business permits to start doing freelance Dutch to English translation work. I continued preaching full time, and burned midnight oil for the translation work.

During the 42 years since, I have completed more than 2000 translations. I specialize in data processing, but many assignments are simply business correspondence. Along the way, I have translated a comic book, a book for a professor of architecture and books for a major Belgian publishing company.

Translating is a good part-time job along with evangelism. The work is done in my own office at times of my own choosing. Almost all assignments come via translation bureaus, so when I am offered a job I can accept or reject it, depending on my workload. Translating has helped me master Dutch, which has improved my preaching and writing.

The “Christian Church” in Genk

On Sunday morning September 3, 1978 I preached for the “Christian Church” in Genk. They had invited me to preach now and then since I moved to Flanders in 1965. This congregation used instrumental music but otherwise was quit close to the New Testament pattern. Because they knew I did not approve of the instrument, they would not use it when they invited me to preach.

On a later occasion, however, (which was the last time I spoke for them) the young woman who played the piano disobeyed the elders and went ahead and played anyway! She even played while the Lord’s supper was being served and hardly missed a note as she popped a piece of bread into her mouth! She did have to pause playing briefly to gulp the cup. Rita and I did not sing. The elder who invited us home after services apologized. It is sad when people love unscriptural worship so much that they are willing to cause division.

The New Testament prescribes singing as the music for the church. Instruments were first introduced by the Roman Church in 600 AD. The Orthodox Church still does not use instrumental music. That is why singing without instrumental accompaniment is called “a cappella,” which means “as in the chapel.”

The Anglican church was the only Protestant church that used instrumental music before 1750.

When churches of Christ were established in Canada and the US in the 19th century, they followed the New Testament pattern and did not use instruments of music. In the late 1800s, however, some big-city churches started using instrumental music and the “Christian Church (Disciples)” denomination was formed when they set up a central organization.

About 80% of the congregations joined the organization, so most of those who continued as churches of Christ lost the buildings and had to meet in homes or rented halls. Within fifty years, however, they grew to twice the size of the apostate denomination.

Around 1900 there were some congregations, however, that introduced instruments but did not join the central organization. The congregation in Genk was established by someone from those churches.

At the end of the twentieth century, some churches of Christ once again left the New Testament pattern and introduced instruments of music. This was usually accompanied by a renunciation of the restoration ideal and of their identity as churches of Christ. Many of them changed their name but some wanted to still be recognized as churches of Christ although they departed from the basic principle required to be a church of Christ, namely by limiting church teaching and practice to what is authorized by the New Testament.

Once again division has been caused by the introduction of instrumental music! Unity is possible when we sing. Singing is prescribed in the New Testament, so no one can object to that! They who introduce instrumental music sometimes accuse those who object of causing division. This is ridiculous because they are just continuing to do what the first Christians did. Those who want to worship in some other way are the ones who cause division.

Continued evangelism in Hasselt

From March 2 to April 6, 1979 we had another series of Friday night meetings in Hasselt. We invited various brethren to present lessons on topics of general interest. The topics and speakers were: “The authority crisis” Johan Huyghebaert, Roeselare; “Divorce” Justin Mulkers, Hasselt; “The problem of suffering” J. Van Dessel, Boortmeerbeek; “Violence” Tony Geens, Hasselt; “Abortion” Richard Amssoms, Antwerp; and “Homosexuality” Roy Davison, Hasselt. The average attendance was 35 with an average of 12 visitors. Brethren from other congregations supported the meetings.

We rejoiced when our daughter, Tonia, was baptized on June 28, 1979!

[To be continued, Lord willing.]

Published in The Old Paths Archive
(http://www.oldpaths.com)