GO WEST YOUNG MAN, GO WEST
The day after Billy Graham's opening day in his Los Angeles Crusade, I had my first day of classes at the Prairie Bible Institute, Three Hills, Alberta. It was Monday, September 26th, 1949 that I found myself in a Bible Class, Bible One, a class of 300 Freshmen.
Prairie Bible Institute Campus - 1949
First, let me back up two or three years. One night at our young peoples meeting at The Salvation Army, we had Rev. & Mrs. Harold Depew. Mrs. Depew was a sister to Dr. Oswald J. Smith, the speaker at Blue Water Bible Conference, under whose ministry I dedicated my life to go wherever the Lord should lead me.
Mr. & Mrs. Depew were missionaries with the West Indies Mission. As they shared at that young peoples meeting that night I began to think that maybe that might be a place where I could serve God, as a missionary, and fulfill my commitment that I made to God at Blue Water. Thereafter, The West Indies was always before me as a place where I would serve the Lord.
Bible school faculty were sometimes the speakers at Blue Water and one college quartet, from a Mennonite school in Nebraska was present one summer. Dr. Bedford, president of the London Bible Institute, London, Ontario, Dr. Roy Aldrich, president of the Detroit Bible Institute and L. E. Maxwell, President of Prairie Bible Institute are three that I remember. These schools were new to me as The Salvation Army Training College in Toronto was all I had ever heard about. I had two aunts, as I mentioned in a previous post, Aunt Lilly and Aunt Ruth, who had attended there and were both Salvation Army officers. Later, two of my cousins attended and became officers.
The summer of 1948 was Mr. Maxwell's first appearance. My Mom and Dad were quite impressed as he shared about the school and showed slides. There was one other option put before me. My folks offered to buy a car for me so that I could commute to the Detroit Bible Institute. DBI only had morning classes and they did not have, at that time, any residences. I opted for PBI in Three Hills, Alberta. I remember one of my deciding factors was, if I didn't like PBI then I would at least have had a trip out west. That was appealing. In April 1949 I applied to PBI and was accepted. That summer, Mr. Maxwell returned to be the Bible teacher for another week at Blue Water and this time he was accompanied by the Janz Quartet.
So, after a 72 hour journey by train, on the CNR, I arrived at Three Hills on Monday, September 19th, 1949. I went early so as to accompany a young high school student, who was going from Chatham to PBI's high school. His parents did not want him to travel that far by himself. Since I arrived three or four days early, because of this high school student, I did some work on campus, in the carpenter shop, to pay for my board and room for those early days.
I believe that saying "Go west, young man, go west" proved to be God's leading in my life as far as it concerned some Bible school training. Prairie Bible Institute was in the west. It was one of the largest Bible schools in North America in 1949, probably in the world. There were 900 Bible school students on campus in September 1949. I was one of them and Bible One, September 26th, I was in my first class. What followed, I'll share in my next post.
Bible school faculty were sometimes the speakers at Blue Water and one college quartet, from a Mennonite school in Nebraska was present one summer. Dr. Bedford, president of the London Bible Institute, London, Ontario, Dr. Roy Aldrich, president of the Detroit Bible Institute and L. E. Maxwell, President of Prairie Bible Institute are three that I remember. These schools were new to me as The Salvation Army Training College in Toronto was all I had ever heard about. I had two aunts, as I mentioned in a previous post, Aunt Lilly and Aunt Ruth, who had attended there and were both Salvation Army officers. Later, two of my cousins attended and became officers.
The summer of 1948 was Mr. Maxwell's first appearance. My Mom and Dad were quite impressed as he shared about the school and showed slides. There was one other option put before me. My folks offered to buy a car for me so that I could commute to the Detroit Bible Institute. DBI only had morning classes and they did not have, at that time, any residences. I opted for PBI in Three Hills, Alberta. I remember one of my deciding factors was, if I didn't like PBI then I would at least have had a trip out west. That was appealing. In April 1949 I applied to PBI and was accepted. That summer, Mr. Maxwell returned to be the Bible teacher for another week at Blue Water and this time he was accompanied by the Janz Quartet.
So, after a 72 hour journey by train, on the CNR, I arrived at Three Hills on Monday, September 19th, 1949. I went early so as to accompany a young high school student, who was going from Chatham to PBI's high school. His parents did not want him to travel that far by himself. Since I arrived three or four days early, because of this high school student, I did some work on campus, in the carpenter shop, to pay for my board and room for those early days.
Grain elevators were a familiar sight in the west
I believe that saying "Go west, young man, go west" proved to be God's leading in my life as far as it concerned some Bible school training. Prairie Bible Institute was in the west. It was one of the largest Bible schools in North America in 1949, probably in the world. There were 900 Bible school students on campus in September 1949. I was one of them and Bible One, September 26th, I was in my first class. What followed, I'll share in my next post.
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