-“Wherefore brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.” Acts 6:5, 6 GOD AT WORK! Developing leaders (#4 in #45) Ephraim Freake, who was born and raised in the community of Joe Batt’s Arm on Fogo Island, moved to St. John’s after the war was over. As a young man before the war, he was visiting an older brother at Norris Arm in Notre Dame Bay, and while there went with his brother to hear the Gospel preached in a Pentecostal church there. Convicted that he was a sinner, that night he began to weep under the striving of the Holy Spirit. His brother Eli who was sitting by him said to him, “Salvation’s not in tears, Eph; it is one look at Christ.” When he looked to the One who suffered for his sins on the cross, Ephraim Freake was saved that night. Shortly after that, he went into the British Navy in 1939 and spent all the years of the war on warships. He was under fire from enemy planes and ships many times, but the Lord preserved him.
During the war, he travelled to many parts of the world on warships and had seen many hard sights. Experiencing battle day after day is very hard on a man, but in grace the Lord had saved him before he went into the British Navy, and He kept his young servant all through the difficult times and testing of faith and of courage. He heard the Gospel being preached in the open-air in England and it was there he came in contact with some assembly believers. It was also there he met the young sister who was a believer in Christ and in the assembly there, so he went there and met with the saints gathered in the Lord’s name. It was there he was accepted into fellowship although much of the time he was at sea during those hard times.
He met and married his wife Pearl, who was a believer living at Ipswitch, England. Then went to the assembly there and it was there their first child, Sheila was born. When the war was over, Pearl and Sheila came across to Canada on a ship with many other war- brides and the Freakes came to live in St. John’s. Walking the road one night they saw the Gospel tent and met Mr. Harris and Mr. Howard. They both knew from the first night that what they were hearing in St. John’s was what they knew was the same as they had been a part of in Ipswitch.
A letter to the brethren in Ipswitch, and the reply he received, assured Mr. Harris that Mr. and Mrs. Freake had been in happy fellowship in England, and they were commended to the saints at St. John’s even though there was no breaking of bread meeting at yet at 47 Smith Avenue. From then on, they associated with the assembly work started in the capital city. Mrs. Mercer, Mrs. Blackwood and other women professed to be saved at that time. Mrs. Carrie Barbour and soon after Raymond Barbour were saved, and the assembly began to break bread in remembrance of the Lord Jesus Christ in 1948. Albert Barbour and Ephraim Freake were raised up by the Holy Spirit to give leadership and guidance to the saints who gathered there in a former “wet-canteen” that was made into a
Gospel Hall. There are still a few vestiges of that original building around which the present hall is built. Instead of facing the street as originally, Mr. Harris wanted the building moved to be sideways to the street and a basement under it. Then a few years later an entrance was built, and the building has been rebuilt twice since then.
Mr. Harris had contacts on the west coast of Newfoundland at Corner Brook, so in 1950 he took the “Newfie Bullet,” a narrow-gauge train across the island to start a new work. He could see that both Mr. Barbour and Mr. Freake were shepherds at heart and they had a care for the Lord’s people even though they were still in their twenties. Mr. Barbour, my father-in-law said to me often, “I had an awful sinking feeling in my stomach when I saw Mr. Harris get on that train. I knew he wouldn’t be coming back very often.” The weight of responsibility for the assembly was heavy that day, and it still was on his heart until the Lord took him home over 60 years later.
At that time there was no road all the way across the island so there wasn’t much coming and going between the west and east coasts. There were a lot of schooners that still carried freight, coal and other supplies to stores that started out from Nova Scotia or St. John’s and went to all the small settlements around the coast. Captain Jack Blackwood, the husband of Mrs. Blackwood who was in the assembly in St. John’s, had a schooner of his own and carried a lot of coal from North Sydney to all parts of Newfoundland and Labrador. When he was older, the Blackwoods moved to Toronto where he was a captain of the ferry that went to Toronto Island. When He was in Toronto, God saved him by his grace when he was convicted by the Holy Spirit working on a ladder on the outside of his house. It is not often one who has heard the Gospel for many years and put off salvation, is born again as an older person. That should assure us all in our witness to others, that while there is life, there is hope.
From Clarenville to Whitbourne if you had a vehicle, it had to be put on a flatcar and taken by train through that section. There were “coastal boats” that travelled from St. John’s to Corner Brook and back, stopping at all the major communities all around the shores of Newfoundland. Mail, food supplies, passengers and all kinds of freight was taken to villages and off-loaded into scows, motor boats, dories and sometimes they were able to tie up at a wharf in the two-week journey.
(#46 on # stick45) Quite a number of the same preachers who helped Herb Harris in other places, also came to preach the Gospel and teach the small assembly in St. John’s. A number of women professed to be saved and some of the children of the families of believers were saved and added to the assembly. Others were saved in the meetings in St. John’s as other preaching brethren came to participate in that work. Douglas and Muriel Howard and their young family moved to St. John’s for a few years. Donald Moffat and his family moved into St. John’s from Ontario and he began a radio broadcast called the “Newfoundland Gospel Hour.” He would go down to the radio station and give his Gospel message live on CJON. Donald Jamison was the owner of the station and He and Don Moffatt had a good many talks together in relation to what Mr. Moffatt preached. Before too long, Mr. Moffatt got a good tape recorder and the messages were taped. That program was well received all across the island on a private radio network. He asked a brother in Los Angeles, California, Alex Morrison, who had a beautiful tenor voice to make recordings of Gospel hymns that would appeal to people who lived by the sea. Many people found “Will your anchor hold in the storms of life;” “Throw out the lifeline;” “I was drifting away on life’s pitiless sea;” and other old-time favorites, a reason not to miss the Newfoundland Gospel Hour. It soon found acceptance in many places beside Newfoundland and Labrador so the name was changed to “The Family Bible Hour.”
Bible conferences were held in St. John’s and believers from the assemblies “around the bay” would come into St. John’s for fellowship and teaching. Then when the conference was held at Burnt Point or Western Bay, believers from St. John’s and Carbonear would go there to at the time of the conferences there.
An interest was found in Bishop’s Cove in Conception Bay about fifteen miles from Carbonear. Actually, the first connection there was made through the radio broadcast, “The Newfoundland Gospel Hour.” Mr. Don Moffatt contacted Mr. Harris who made Corner Brook the place he worked out from at that time, and Herb Harris went to Bishops Cove to seek to open up another outreach with the Gospel.
Newfoundland and Labrador had just come into confederation with Canada, and was now aligned with Canada, not Great Britain. A portable hall was built and put up in Bishop’s Cove across the road from the home of Tom and Emma Lynch. Their large family was grown up and gone on their own to different parts of Canada including other places in Newfoundland. Harvey Lynch had been saved hearing the Gospel in the People’s Church in Toronto. Then his step-brothers, Archie Sharp and Cron Lynch, and a step-sister, Emma were saved. So, the Lynch’s had a connection with the Gospel, although Uncle Tom couldn’t read the Bible. Both he and Aunt Emma knew the Bible was true and had confidence in the truth preached from it.
Uncle Tom was plowing with his horse in a small field where he grew potatoes, and was under real conviction of sin. Finally, he could stand it no longer and he stopped the horse, took off his hat and put his pipe in his pocket. He told me, “I said to the Lord, Lord this is Tom. They told me in the Gospel meeting that you are willing to save bad sinners, and that your Son died for their sins. Well, I am certainly a sinner, and that means He died for me. Thank You very much.” He had responded just like the Bible says, “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved.” Aunt Emma Lynch was burdened about her sins and was saved that day in her home. They rejoiced together over salvation even though they were well up in years. God in His mercy took them both home to heaven the same day, and they were buried together in the same place at the same time.
There were others the Lord saved in Bishop’s Cove over a number of years, but there was not the number of saved men there to be able to have an assembly. Mr. Ernie Dellandrea spent a lot of time over the years working in the Gospel at Bishop’s Cove and the surrounding areas. He had open air meetings each summer in many areas within fifty miles of Bishop’s Cove.
Ken Taylor and I were having Gospel meetings in the old Bishop’s Cove hall in the mid 60’s. We were staying with Uncle Tom and Aunt Emma Lynch. During the day we were visiting around the area of Upper Island Cove and Bishop’s Cove but weren’t getting too many people out at night. Uncle Tom was always out around talking to people he knew. One evening Ken and I came back to the house around suppertime and were a bit discouraged with the lack of interest. Uncle Tom on the other hand, was as high in spirits as could be.
“How did it go today, brudders,” he asked? “Did you get any good talks around?” “We had a few good visits Uncle Tom, but can’t get people to say they will come to the meeting.”
“Well boys,” he started in, “I was on me way down to the Post today when I sees coming toward me a strange car. Every now and then ‘e stops and lets out two people with some packages and then comes on and shortly lets off two more. ‘Ah ha,’ sez I to me self, ‘Russellites.’ So, I slows me steps until I meets two women coming off one bridge and coming out through the gate to go to the next house. ‘Good day ladies,’ sez I, ‘You’re strangers in our town. What are you selling today?’
‘Oh, we’re not selling anything, although we have these papers for 10 cents. If you don’t have the 10 cents, we can give it to you.’ ‘What are the papers about? Are they some kind of catalogue,’ sez I although I knew what they were? ‘Oh no, this is not a catalogue. This tells about the Bible and about the kingdom. This tells how you can be a part of Jehovah’s kingdom and escape Armageddon. Would you like to have one?’ ‘No, me ladies; I have a Bible, so I guess I don’t need a book about the Bible. Tell me, have you been born again? Are you saved from hell and are you going to heaven? You know the Bible says you have to be born again to enter the kingdom of God. You know the Bible says you have to be saved or you will be in hell.’
And so, Uncle Tom got into a real preach with these ladies who tried to talk to him. He didn’t let them get a word in edgewise until he wanted. By this time a lot of people had gathered around and was encouraging him on. Finally, having got the audience he wanted, he stopped his preach and asked, ‘Now ladies you haven’t answered the question; are you going to heaven or hell?”
The two JW women replied by saying no more people were going to heaven and hell was the grave but if he would just listen to them, they would clear all these things up for him. Then if he would read this book, it would tell him how he could be a part of Jehovah’s kingdom. And they tried to take over the conversation but Uncle Tom was having none of it.
“Now listen ‘ere ladies. You comes into our town and tell us that heaven’s full and there’s no hell and all of us here know that there is a heaven where saved people go and there is a hell where unsaved people go. You are here to deceive us. You are not telling about the Bible but about some other book. Now everybody here knows you are wrong. You two women need to be saved. You need to repent of your sins.” And Uncle Tom was off on another lengthy preach with people all around saying, “That’s right, Tom.” “You tell them Tom.”
Mr. Lynch wouldn’t let the two women go on down the road but kept the road blocked with people until the Jehovah’s Witness car driver came along and squeezed through the crowd so the two women could get in. He had been able to preach the Gospel to a whole crowd of people in his own town, while they considered he was telling the Gospel to the two women.
God uses any person who is available and ready to do his work even though he may not be able to read a word. Every Christian needs to look for opportunities to witness for his Lord. If we are looking for them, we will usually find them.
(#3 on stick #45)
The believers who met at the Smith Avenue Gospel Hall were quite active in the Gospel. When the weather was suitable, they had open air meetings on Barters Hill on Sunday. There were a few times when they went up on “The Brow” of the southside hills for open air preaching but it wasn’t listened to as well there as other locations. When I first went to St. John’s, most of the open-air meetings were held on the new waterfront that had taken the place of individual piers previously owned by each major business. Mr. Freake had a voice well suited to open air preaching and he loved to reach out in that way with the Gospel. Those who knew him and heard him speak, will remember him clearing his throat and saying loudly, “Ladies and gentlemen…” and away he would go with his Gospel message.
Quite a number of young people were saved by God’s grace in the 1950s. Albert Barbour picked up a hitchhiker named Bob Harvey and invited him to a meeting. He eventually came and then his friend, Hezekiah Hewitt and the work of God continues through many of those same people today in various places where the influence of people who were saved when they were young still has an impact.
A loudspeaker system helped all of the brothers to be able to reach out to the people who would stop to listen as well as those who passed by. Most of the young brethren of the assembly got their start in Gospel preaching in the open-air meetings. These still continue in Conception Bay South each summer. A trailer that opens up to provide a preaching platform, now makes it easier for people to drive up in their cars and park and listen to the Gospel each Lord’s Day evening after the Gospel meeting in the Gospel Hall.
Other assembly activities were hospital visiting at the Old General Hospital. In earlier times, patients were usually in wards. There was a men’s ward and a women’s ward, and there was an open opportunity to give out tracts and Gospel literature and speak to the people. Young and older sisters would go to the wards on Sunday afternoon, and found a lot of times there were people anxious to see them and take the tracts and have someone talk to them.
Many people came into St. John’s from the out-ports because that was the place where most major surgeries took place, and patients were alone with no one they knew to visit them. There was also a TB sanitorium in St. John’s because in those early years of the assembly, TB was the major sickness in the whole province. People would be in “The San” for a year, and sometimes two years, before they were able to go home. At that time, it was a very communicable disease being spread in the water people drank from communal wells, or in the milk of untested cows that were free to wander all through the villages. Mr. Fred Holder was having Gospel meetings in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Mr. and Mrs. Janes were coming out to those meetings regularly. Mr. Janes was a religious man who had been a church sexton; the man, who rings the bell, adjusts the seating and other duties before a church service begins. He had been working on a schooner when a rope wrapped around his leg, tightened and cut his leg off just below the knee. He was able to get around fairly well on his wooden leg. One night after the Gospel meeting, he indicated to Mr. Holder he would like to talk to him. He wanted to be saved. He also assured Mr. Holder he wanted to be saved now.
“What do you want me to do?” Mr. Holder asked him. “I would like you to pray with me so I can be saved.”
So, the two of them knelt down in the auditorium and prayed. When they finished praying, Fred Holder turned to Mr. Alan Janes and asked, “Are you saved yet?” “No,” came the answer, “Not yet.” “What else do you want me to do?” “Would you read the Bible to me?”
So, Mr. Holder took out his Bible and for quite some time read and explained scripture verses to the anxious man who wanted to be saved. After the reading, Mr. Holder turned to Mr. Janes and inquired, “Are you saved yet?” “No, not yet” came the answer once again from the earnest seeker. “What else would you want me to do?” “Well, I guess the only thing left to do is sing a hymn.”
So, the two of them took hymnbooks and sang a hymn there in the hall. When the last notes of the hymn were sung, Mr. Holder turned to Mr. Janes and asked, “Are you saved yet?” “No, not yet.” “What else do you want me to do?”
Mr. Janes responded quietly, “I guess there’s nothing else you can do.” “That’s right. There’s nothing I can do. There’s nothing you can do either. Everything has already been done by the Lord Jesus Christ alone. He now offers you a finished work. He expects you to accept what He has done without adding anything to it. Salvation is offered freely, fully and completely finished.”
Mr. Alan Janes finally understood the truth that eternal life is a gift. It is not earned. It is not the result of his efforts. It is the life God gives to any person who accepts the gift that the Lord Jesus Christ paid for with His life on the cross of Calvary.
Over the course of years, a number of tent outreaches have been made in the St. John’s area in an attempt to reach out from the Gospel Hall to people who don’t even know about the Gospel Hall or are more willing to come into a meeting in a more neutral setting. There was a recession during the 1970s when there were spaces to rent in the Village Mall, and the assembly rented an empty store location and had a Gospel booth where people could get literature, come and talk privately and look at the displays that were linked with various Gospel subjects. Some who were saved as a result of that effort prompted another assembly outreach to Mt. Pearl.
A number of changes of doctrine and practice took place in the late 1960s and the 1970, that disturbed a lot of religious church people in Newfoundland and Labrador. In one church, hymns that made mention of the “blood” of Christ were removed. A Sunday School curriculum down-played or tried to explain away the miracles in the Bible, including those our Lord Jesus Christ performed to authenticate His authority and proof His deity. A number of young men from an athletic club in St. John’s had made contact with Mr. Harvey Lynch who they knew was a Bible-believing Christian. He in turn wanted a Gospel effort in Mt. Pearl which happened in a short time. A number of those young men professed to be saved as well as some who were acquainted with them. Before long there was a good number who professed to be saved including Tony Ennis and his wife who live in Mt. Pearl at the present time and are part of the assembly in St. John’s.
Souls were saved over quite a period of years though efforts in Mt. Pearl. Marvin Derksen spent a lot of time working that part of the St. John’s metro area. Those efforts included tent meetings in the summer, and on-going Gospel meetings. Children’s meetings and Bible studies were held in a building in that nearby community. A building was purchased and used for a number of years, but the work didn’t expand to the place where a second assembly was planted in the capital city area. A lot of Seed Sowers activity happened over the years and the seed of the word of God has been planted in outlying communities as well in St. John’s itself.
Certain days in the year stand out as days of special importance. They are not all government holidays, but may be holidays with a difference. One of those is Armistice Day. On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, the treaty ending the First World War was signed. Since that time red poppies have been sold and worn in lapels as a reminder of people who died in that war. A lot of Newfoundlanders died in that war.
When we lived in St. John’s, we were in a city that was a jumping off place for North Americans to cross the Atlantic on route to European wars. A War Memorial was erected between Water Street and Duckworth Street that is very impressive. The different military services are represented there and every November 11th a special parade comes down Duckworth Street traveling east past the memorial and then swings down to Water Street, coming to a halt in front of the War Memorial.
I wanted our girls to see the significance of that place, so at times we took up a place on Duckworth Street and watched the parade. A few of years ago, we were back in St. John’s on November 11th so I went down as in times past. Up the street I could hear the marching bands playing. By and by the police cars came by clearing traffic from the street. Then came the colors being carried by people from the different military services flanked by gun-carrying servicemen. After them came the first of the bands playing marching songs. Interspersed between the bands marched the cadets; boys and girls wearing uniforms like miniature soldiers, sailors and airmen. Following them came the real military with some military vehicles and marching people doing the “eyes right” as they passed behind the memorial.
Then there was a big space and up the street we could hear the sound of a single drummer playing a broken cadence, and a single piper. The bagpipes had gone by, all the noisy part of the parade passed and now came a hush over the crowds lining the sidewalks.
Quietly, a line of people walked by. Some were on crutches, some were in wheel chairs, some limped and some marched proudly along in short steps so they didn’t outdistance those who couldn’t move easily. People started to cry, men pulled handkerchiefs out of their pockets and wiped their eyes. And then everybody clapped.
A little child sitting on her father’s shoulders asked, “Daddy, who are those people?” He answered, “Those are the people who were in the war.” After a few moments she again questioned, “Daddy, what is war?” He hesitated and so I answered, “I hope you will never have to really find out because people get hurt bad in war and some people die.” That seemed to satisfy her but she watched with rapt attention until all the marchers passed by. I thought to myself, “Isn’t that wonderful when a child has never heard of war.”
We all waited until the parade came to a stop in front of the memorial. Then all went silent as a bugler played. When he finished, a woman picked up a wreath and walked to the memorial and laid it there. Then she went back and got another; then another; then another. Four times she laid a wreath there in memory of a husband and three sons who died in the Second World War. Everyone there was moved to silence because of the cost to that woman and her family to make it possible for others to live in freedom.
I wonder if it moved very many people to think how much it cost God to give His Son to die in our place. I wonder how many even thought of Him – period. It certainly made an impression on me. “The Son of God – loved me and gave Himself for me.”
One beautiful late summer day, our family took some visitors to Signal Hill that overlook the entrance to the St. John’s, Newfoundland harbor. On the top of that hill is Cabot Tower where the first Trans-Atlantic message was received from Marconi. As we looked over the city and then turned to look out over the sea, we noticed vessels coming into the harbor for as far as our eyes could see. Large and small, they were all making for the port of St. John’s. I had never seen that before on a nice day so I asked one of the people in the Tower why all the ships were coming in.
“There’s a hurricane warning out,” he replied. “The hurricane is expected to pass by anywhere from 50 to 100 miles offshore.”
Before the night came and the hurricane passed along a few miles off shore from St. John’s, the waterfront was lined with boats of all sizes tied to the wharf and to each other. They were there four and five deep all escaping the coming storm. Even though all seemed calm to us, the wise captains of those ships made sure they were in a safe place before the winds came and the waves got so high that their ships were not manageable.
At least one ship was lost in that hurricane with 33 men aboard. They had heard the warning; they knew that the harbor was not too far away, but in the interest of saving or making money, they tried to outrun the hurricane. They lost the race, the ship, the cargo of grain and their lives.
After one severe storm came up the Atlantic seaboard from the south toward the end of the hurricane season, we heard on the radio that there was a ship sinking, and then we heard it broke in half. The Search and Rescue Helicopter and Coast Guard boat went to the aid of the crew who were stranded on the front of the ship that was still afloat, and were able to rescue them all. I went down to the harbour and when those men came off the Coast Guard boat, one after another they knew down and kissed the ground. I was not able to connect with them or give them Gospel papers, but I certainly prayed for them that day that they would think about their eternal destiny after they died.
Since the early 1970s until this present time, preachers who have lived in St. John’s and spent time there working in the Gospel are Gaius Goff and his family, Marvin Derksen and his family and Wallace Buckle and his wife. There have been Gospel series annually in the Gospel Hall on Smith Avenue over the years, and quite a number of people have been saved by God’s grace. University students have come into St. John’s from many parts of the world as well as from Newfoundland and Labrador, and have become acquainted with students and professors whose home assembly is the one that meets in the Smith Avenue Gospel Hall. From that school of learning, people have gone to many parts of this province and to other parts of Canada and the world. The sowing and reaping process has continued from the assembly in St. John’s for over seventy years.