CHATHAM COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE

A few ISCF'ers that turned up for a photo

 I am at the right, Leighton Ford next to me

What impact does high school have on the spiritual life of a student?  I am not aware of what is happening today, but let me share about my high school years (1945-1949) and what contributed to my spiritual growth during those years.

At Chatham Collegiate Institute (CCI) we had a weekly Bible club which met in the library.  I should say here that we had a 90 minute lunch break.  Most of the students went home for lunch.  Very few mothers worked out of the home and so they were at home and my mom always had a good hot meal fixed for lunch.  Dad came home from his work for lunch and so did we kids.  

There was a cafeteria at the school but it was mostly used by the students from the country who came by school bus, or a basketball team that had a practice.  So, as I said, we had a weekly get together as Christian kids to study the Bible.  With a 90 minute lunch break, we would eat our lunch, a brown bag lunch, in the cafeteria and then head to the library about 12:30 and have 45 to 50 minutes together to study the Bible.

Our group was known as Inter-School Christian Fellowship, a division of Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship.  ISCF was for high school students and IVCF was for the university students.  Once a week, a young lady, in her twenties, would come to the school and meet with us.  Her name was Jean Cornelius, a sister to Rev. M. F. Cornelius who conducted a half hour Bible teaching radio ministry called Echoes Of Truth on CFCO, Monday to Friday.  Jean served as his secretary.

I should interject this thought here.  Rev. Cornelius used to offer books to listeners that would write in and support his radio ministry.  Since these books were in the Echoes Of Truth office it was also open to the public as a small Christian book store.  When Jean went off to Africa as a missionary, my Mom and Dad bought the stock and opened it up afternoons and Saturdays as a Christian Book Store.  Mom worked each week day afternoon and my sister, Barbara, worked there on Saturdays.  The folks operated it for two years or maybe a little more.  They purchased it in 1950 and sold it either in late 1952 or early 1953, at which time they sold out to Gospel Text Publishers.  GTP continues as one of the few Christian book stores in existence today.  They have large facilities and have had a good ministry in Chatham and the surrounding area, celebrating their 65th year since buying out my folks stock.

One fall our ISCF group received permission to use the school gym and our small group hosted the new grade nine students.  There were five classes of grade nines, so it was a goodly number.  We had a good turn out.  Had games, food and Don Lonie, a Christian comedian from Detroit, was our speaker.  We were disappointed that after all of the effort put into reaching these new students, not one of them ever attended any of our meetings.

For me, ISCF was a great encouragement during my high school years.  The few of us that did attend supported and encouraged each other in our walk with the Lord, amidst the hundreds of students who appeared to have little or no interest in spiritual things.  I don't remember whether it was in my latter years at CCI, but for a period of time, we were able to use the library for a weekly morning prayer meeting before classes began at 9:00am.  I also remember three or four of us fellows getting together in a home for a prayer meeting.  It may have been when we had the event for the grade nine students.  Whatever it was for, it reminds me of the sincerity and interest in spiritual matters that we had as high schoolers.  None of us had a youth pastor or youth sponsor, apart from the help received from Jean Cornelius.  We were on our own.  I remember the longing of my heart was that there was someone, like a youth pastor or sponsor who would mentor and guide us.  We were also not very vocal in our witness.  I remember passing out gospel tracts on King Street along with a neighbour, Mr. Meinzinger, but that was about the extent of any witnessing that I did.  We also passed out invitations to our Youth For Christ rallies.  I'll have more to say about Youth For Christ in the following post or two.  However, I think that our support for each other helped contribute to the fact that all of us continued our walk and spiritual journey on in to adulthood and some of us in full time Christian ministry.