DISAPPOINTMENT / HIS APPOINTMENT

Serving God in the West Indies had been my goal for about twelve years or more.  I am going to briefly review some of what I have written in previous posts.  My desire or call to serve in the West Indies began when I was in my teens at a young peoples meeting in The Salvation Army.  This led to preparing myself for missionary service.  So off to Prairie Bible Institute, Columbia International University, Missionary Internship, six weeks of candidate school at the West Indies Mission headquarters, now married and in my second year of pastoral ministry. As a couple we were anxiously awaiting the letter from WIM informing us as to where we would be serving.  Finally, the letter arrived.

As the two of us sat at our kitchen table and opened the letter, we were devastated.  That long awaited letter said, in so many words, we were rejected.  The mission was not interested in us. Why all this preparation, only to be told that we were not wanted?  Within an hour or less, we packed a bag and were off to Lacombe to see Leona's Mom and Dad.  

Once we were over the initial shock and back at Lac La Biche, we wrote to the mission asking to know the reason why we were rejected from serving with them.  No answer came.  About four months later, in June, we received a letter from Elmer Thompson, the General Director.  His letter encouraged us in that he said that he did not agree with the decision made by the Board of Directors.  He had been in the West Indies at the time of the decision and was not present for the directors meeting.  He could not reverse the directors decision and if we were still interested, we would have to re-apply. We would reapply, but first we wanted the mission to inform us as to the reason why we were rejected.  No answer ever came. As time went on I had an idea as to the reason why we were rejected.

We resigned and left the Lac La Biche and Hylo churches the end of August and headed to Ontario, spending the next two and a half months with my folks.  We both got some employment.  Leona became a clerk in a pharmacy and I got a job working in a toy factory.

Leona wearing her pharmacy uniform

We were not there long before we were restless to be back in ministry and sent letters to the Western Canadian District of the Christian & Missionary Alliance, Prairie Bible Institute and Berean Bible College.  As a result, we had two leads and so the last week in November headed back to Alberta. I preached on  December 4th at a community church in Delia and the following Sunday at Lousana and Bellgrove, a country church near the resort of Pine Lake.  Two days later, Tuesday the 13th,  we received a phone call from Lousana and Bellgrove inviting  us to be their pastor. We accepted their invitation. Delia phoned three days later.  In our hearts we preferred Lousana and Bellgrove over Delia.  We moved to Lousana between Christmas and New Years.