BLUE WATER BIBLE & MISSIONARY CONFERENCE

Blue Water located by the Snye River

July 1st, 1946 saw the opening of a family summer camp, Blue Water Bible & Missionary Conference, about twenty miles north of Chatham located on the beautiful Snye River, three miles west of the town of Wallaceburg.  You could spend a week, few days, one day or a few hours there soaking in the relaxed setting and fellowship with God's people.

Roy Martin, a chartered accountant and President of the Christian Business Men's Committee in Chatham, was the man that had the vision of establishing Blue Water Conference.  The property, consisting of about ten or more acres, had been a park, Merwin Park.  It's main attraction was the hotel with a popular tavern.  Well, the hotel burned to the ground and the property was now up for sale.  Roy solicited the backing and support of the Chatham CBMC, plus London, Windsor and Detroit CBMC's.

The property was purchased, a main building consisting of guest rooms, kitchen and dining room, the dining room large enough that it also served as the main auditorium, plus a lounge and offices was built.  Several small cabins were also built which would easily sleep four people.  A family of five or six could squeeze into a cabin, providing you didn't mind close fellowship.

The day's schedule would include a morning Bible Hour and an evening service.  A different Bible teacher and a missionary would minister for one week.  Over the course of the summer, from July 1st through to and concluding with Labor Day Weekend, there would be about twenty different speakers, including Bible teachers and missionaries.  The Bible teachers were usually pastors or Bible conference speakers.  Some of the teachers included Ralph Neighbor, an evangelist at that time, later a pastor; P.W. Philpott who had been the pastor of the famed Moody Church in Chicago; L.E. Maxwell, the first principal and founder of Prairie Bible Institute; David Allen, a wonderful teacher and pastor of Hazel Park Baptist Church, Hazel Park, (Detroit) Michigan, and Oswald J. Smith the founding pastor of The People's Church, Toronto.  Missionaries included Harold Germaine and Tommy Titcombe, both serving in Nigeria with Sudan Interior Mission.  As for musicians, they were tops: Adam Lutzweiler with his marimba; Howard Schoff, a great song leader and musician from Detroit and Oscar and son Jack Van Impe with their accordions, plus so many more speakers and musicians.

I have to say that it was a thrill to hear Dr. Philpott. This man was born and raised in Dresden, about 15 miles from the grounds. Here was a home town boy who had become a well known pastor and it was my privilege to be able to sit and hear him speak.  He told how he used to skate as a young boy on the Snye River.  The conference property was an apple orchard when he was young.  That explained why there was the odd apple tree here and there on those grounds.  What I also found interesting was that he said as a child he used to hop on the horse drawn wagon driven by Rev. Josiah Henson.  Rev. Henson is the character around which Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin is written.  Dr. Philpott was in his 90's when I heard him.

 Jack Lenover & Roger Martin fishing in the Snye River

Blue Water hired a man who had a homemade school bus and would make round trips from Chatham to Blue Water three or four times a week, in time for the evening service.  Since Dad did not own a car at that time, we were regular passengers.  

In the first month of operations, July 1946, Dr. Oswald J. Smith, not only the founding pastor of The People's Church, but a great missionary statesman and author of many books and hymns, was the Bible teacher.  It was a hot night and the main auditorium was not yet completed so we crammed into the room, which later became the lounge and office.  Dr. Smith gave a missionary message that night, challenging young people to dedicate their life to the Lord to serve Him wherever He would lead.  He asked that if we meant business with God to stand to our feet.  There were four of us young fellows there that night who stood.  I remember who three of us were that stood.  I have an idea who the fourth was, but not sure if I am correct.  If it is who I think, he became a pastor.  As for the three of us, one, Jack Patton, became a medical doctor in London, Ontario; Leighton Ford was another one and in due time became a well-known associate evangelist and brother-in-law of Billy Graham.  I was the fourth.

The next summer, 1947 Mom was hired as one of the cooks.  I was hired at one dollar a day and cut grass, cleaned washrooms, and whatever general clean-up or tasks that needed attention.  I worked with Wayne Gingrich, who got married that fall and he and his bride moved into a house across the street from us, 20 Cornhill Street, the house my parents had rented in my first year and where I learned to climb stairs.

Dad was home by himself as Barbara, who was ten looked after our two year old brother David during the day time.  Dad managed to come out many evenings on the bus, which I referred to earlier.  He often came out and spent the weekend with us in the cabin.  That year I was able to take in all of the evening and Sunday services.  There were some other young people, mostly girls, that worked in the kitchen and did some cleaning, ladies washrooms, etc.  At night after the service we often got together.  Jack Van Impe and his parents were there again with their turn at ministering in music.  I'm sure it was more than one week as on more than one occasion they and others of us would go in to the town of Wallaceburg for a Saturday night street meeting.  The Van Impes attracted the crowd with their accordion playing.  We young people would give out gospel tracts and Oscar Van Impe would give his testimony.  Though they were from Detroit, Oscar was well known in the area because he used to play his accordion in the hotel tavern that once sat where Blue Water Conference was.  It has been great to follow the life of young Jack, my age, and what he became.  He, too, like Leighton, became well known evangelists.  Today Jack, who was 86 in February, is still conducting a weekly television program, heard around the world, Jack Van Impe Presents.

Blue Water Bible & Missionary Conference played a big part in my spiritual journey and I look back with gratitude to the summer of 1947 when I worked there and the many other years when we attended meetings there.

My sister Barbara being baptized in the Snye River