“And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul… and with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all.” Acts 4:32a; 33
GOD AT WORK! Growth and Grace
In a later account of the work, we will speak of other things that happen in new work, but in a brief way, it is important to say that there were two different baptisms that year in Parsons Pond. Gospel preaching came first and continued nightly for a long time. After a few souls were saved, we began teaching people privately in their own homes and then had meetings on the Lord’s Day and at different times from the Gospel meetings, at the meeting hall. There were a lot of people to be baptized and each one had a huge crowd of people attend. There had never been a baptism by immersion on that area of the coast, and people came from all directions to the “dipping frolic.”
In the summer of 1961, the boat went first to Port au Choix, then back to Cow Head, and then on up to Rocky Harbour. I was called away by the U.S. army for part of July, August and part of September. A work opened up in Rocky Harbour that summer so when I got back, to Parsons Pond in October, I started taking people in a van to Rocky Harbour to the nightly meetings there once or twice a week. It was about two hours each way depending on the barge ferry at St. Paul’s. Mr. and Mrs. Buckle and Mr. Dellandrea were there with Mr. Harris; preaching first in a gas station and then in a “parlour,” the Newfoundland term for a hangout for kids.
In October, after teaching about baptism at Parsons Pond, the first baptism was held in the Moulting Pond. It is quite shallow so we had to go quite far out to get enough water to get people completely under, but that was good because there were a lot of people around the pond to see the “dipping frolic.” To many people on that shore, it was a cause for bitterness because it indicated that those who were baptized were different now, than the rest of those who had only been sprinkled when they were babies. They had been taught that infant sprinkling was when they got their name “written in heaven, and became a child of God and an inheritor of the kingdom of God.” Baptism by immersion seemed to be to many, an insult to their religion and to them.
There were a few physical blows struck by those who were opposed and had some liquor aboard of them, but for the most part, that first baptism had a big impact on that part of the coast. Mr. Joyce with his son John, came in his airplane from Red Bay. The loud speaker was hooked up to the van battery, so all the people could easily hear the preaching before the baptism, and the scriptural explanation of the meaning of baptism. Mr. Harris, Mr. and Mrs. Buckle, and some others from Rocky Harbour were there for the baptism. On the way back, one man who was under the influence of liquor, said quite a few bad words to Mr. Harris when they were on the ferry-crossing at St. Paul’s.
Later that fall, my father came for a while, and did a lot of personal teaching from house to house about what an assembly is. As an assembly elder, that probably did a lot better, than if I had been teaching it as a 22-year-old. In November we rented Shearer’s D6 Caterpillar tractor and dug out a basement for the hall to be built on land from Simeon Payne’s garden.
In December, another baptism was held in a portable, plywood tank in Arthur’s Parlor. We had to break ice in the pond to get water to carry down and fill that tank, so it was really cold. I had a lot of people heat water in kettles and slowly poured on to the cold water so that it would feel warm on the top few inches. Below the first foot or so, the water was cold enough to take people’s breath away, but they went ahead anyway for the Lord. The next Lord’s Day we broke bread for the first time in remembrance of our Lord, and to show His death until He comes again. There were fourteen of the Lord’s people from the area at the Lord’s supper in the upstairs room of Mr. Wentzel’s house that first Lord’s Day. Others there were Wallace and Olive Buckle; Herb Harris; Ralph Goff and Gaius Goff and perhaps another one or two who were from other areas. Within a short time, others who had been saved and baptized became part of the assembly.
One brother came to me after the first breaking of bread meeting with tears on his face saying, “Mr. Goff, in my wildest dreams, I would never have imagined something like this could ever happen. You don’t know what we were like and what we did in the past. But to see (and he mentioned a number of people by name) us all sitting down together and taking the bread and wine from the same plate and cup, and singing and worshiping, (and he paused for a long time before continuing with a shaking voice) is beyond belief. This could only be done by God.”
The first weekend in January 1962, was the first Sunday the believers there carried on the meetings without any of us who had been preaching the Gospel being in attendance. No one in the meetings or taking part, had been saved more than a year and a half. When I returned a week later everyone thought they were the best meetings yet. During the spring of 1962, some more from Parsons Pond, and from Daniel’s Harbour and a number of young people from Belldowns Point and Three Mile Rock were saved. Mr. Theodore Williams from Chicago came following the Easter conference in L’Anse au Loup, and we held another series of meetings in Mr. Wentzel’s house. I believe that was the last series held in that location.
In the late spring, the “Christmas Seal” boat came into Parsons Pond and tied up at the wharf for a few days to test the people for TB. Before the boat left, twenty-two people were identified as having TB and had to go to Corner Brook to the sanitorium. Some were there for two years before they got their clearance from that disease. Late in May of 1962, Mr. Albert Barbour came over from St. John’s to head up building a Gospel Hall “along the lines” of the one in St. John’s. Mr. Harris liked the windows on the side and over the top of the door idea. Also, he wanted an entrance with steps up to the auditorium and down to the basement. After that, he didn’t really mind too much what the shape, lay-out or size it was. He just didn’t want it too big because he liked a hall to look full. He also wanted clay bricks, not cement bricks. He said, “I’ve always wanted to build a brick hall and this year we are going to build two so we’re getting bricks.” A schooner brought them over from Shaw Bricks in Halifax and landed them at
Norris’ Point. Then they were trucked down the coast in a dump truck. So, before they were laid, they had been handled six times. That’s why quite a few of them had pieces (spalls) out of them by the time they got laid on the outside of the building. Brethren from Rocky Harbour came and helped pour the cement walls. Then with lumber that men sawed in the woods nearby, and that was sized to the right width with a little gas driven saw, the hall was built in just about two months.
Mr. Barbour stayed until the roof was on, and then handed Mr. Peter Mathews, who came from Langley, BC for the summer, a piece of brown paper from the inside of his hat as a token blue-print before he went back to St. John’s. Ellis Payne and Wilson Caines helped the brick layer, by mixing the mud and carrying the bricks. Mr. Mathews did the finishing inside. All the other brethren from the area worked as much as possible even though it was the the lobster season and other fishing was going on as well. I have a picture of Sim and Carl Payne putting the top on the hand rail the day before the building was opened for the use of the assembly. Sandy Payne hung the doors and the assembly moved in to have their meetings in the first hall built at Parson Pond in July of 1962.
That same year, a month later, the hall in Rocky Harbour was begun. It was completed in October and meetings were held in both of these buildings that fall. The first conference was held in Parsons Pond in the fall of 1962. Visiting preachers were Mr. Albert Ramsay and Mr. Arnold Gratton. The roads were bad at the time and I think Mr. Gratton had second thoughts about driving his big Oldsmobile down the unpaved coast road. The meals were excellent fish and potatoes, fresh homemade bread, excellent moose and homemade pie. A few came up from the Labrador; some came down from Corner Brook and Rocky Harbour. The ministry was good and it was also a time of salvation. A year later, they changed the conference in Labrador from the spring of the year, to be held the week after the one at Parsons Pond. Then the St. John’s assembly had theirs after that. A few years later that order was changed because it was harder to get from Labrador to St. John’s, then it was from Parsons Pond to St. John’s in the fall of the year.
At the first conference though, we knew we had made a mistake. The building was too small. The little rooms at the side of the platform had people in it during the meetings and they couldn’t see the preachers. The entrance had people in it down to the doors. It was okay for most regular meetings but even for special Gospel meetings, the building filled up and the seats had to be so close together, it was really quite uncomfortable. A few years later the brethren decided to put an addition on the hall.
Mr. Ernie Dellandrea laid the bricks on the new section. For about ten years the assembly also had an Easter conference. This was started because there was a series of meetings going on at the time and for fellowship’s sake, people from Rocky Harbour, Corner Brook and Flowers Cove were invited along for Friday, Saturday and Lord’s Day meetings. As the work grew in central Newfoundland, other conferences started. St. John’s assembly wanted to have an Easter conference for a few years.
When the assembly in Gander was formed in 1982 and they later finished their own building, the Easter conference went there. The Parsons Pond Gospel Hall has been used continuously for 60 years at the time of this writing. If we were to figure out the number of people that have entered the door of the old hall, including the regular meetings, +special meetings, conferences, funerals etc. – the door has opened over a million times to receive people into the building that was expressly used for preaching and teaching the word of God.
Quite a number of young people were saved near the beginning of this work. After a short time, a nice group of young people were part of the assembly. But because of the economics of the area, and the fishing restrictions, some who came into the assembly fellowship, moved away for schooling and then moved further away for work as the fishery was diminished significantly. Some went to Toronto and to Alberta and other provinces of Canada. A good number are in fellowship in assemblies in various places today. Others from Newfoundland and Labrador assemblies are in other places which is to be expected in all church groups in out-ports or rural areas. It happens all over Canada and is part of the dynamics of present-day life. Many young people will find their way to cities and will make their living there, raise their children in the cities and the outport will gradually die. Hopefully, what they have learned and experienced where they were born again, will be helpful to them wherever they are. We trust they will be willing to use their God-given gifts for the benefit of the Lord’s people and unbelievers in the places where the Lord leads them.
There have been areas of outreach in the past from the Parsons Pond assembly. I recall in the early months of 1961 that while seal hunting by day down near River of Ponds, the brothers were willing to help in cottage meetings at night. Open air preaching has been done in towns nearby as well. From Port au Choix to St. Paul’s, there have been outreach works from the Parsons Pond assembly. The outreach in Daniel’s Harbour was maintained for years by the brethren from Daniel’s Harbour helped by Carl Payne, Robert Goosney and others who went to Daniel’s Harbour to help the Perry’s, the House’s and the Biggin’s as often as they could. Those families were in fellowship in the assembly at Parsons Pond, but had Gospel meetings and mid-week meetings in Daniel’s Harbour.
When the road was upgraded a number of years ago, the Parson’s Pond Gospel Hall ended up being dangerously close to the high road for traffic access on and off to the hall, and for pedestrians as well. That, coupled with the deterioration of the roof, problems with the windows in the basement, leaks in the basement and other structural damage; made it a reasonable conclusion to draw, that the best thing to do was to make another building. The first logs were cut in 1994. When they were sawed there was 22,000 board feet of lumber for the new building. This was the first step of faith in what turned out to be a whole lot of steps of faith. The Lord knew when the needs were there and arranged in His own way, that everything and the finances to meet the needs, were there at the right time.
In the winter of 1998, a lot of the brethren from the assembly were able to work together to put up the strapping and gyprock and the underlay. So, over the last number of years the work has been done and no money is owed to anyone. The Lord knew, and met the need and when that the work was done, the money needed stopped coming. God knew what was needed, He supplied the need and we marvel at the provision of God. Some of the men spent time working on the new hall alone, and other times there were two or three older men working on the building. Harvey Parsons, Garland Caines, Fred Caines and Ellis Payne spent months working on the building. With the help of some of the brethren from other places who were there in the summer when the assembly moved into the new building, and brethren who helped when they were able; the job was finished. July 18th, 1999 was the date of the last Gospel meeting in the old hall. Mr. Albert Barbour and Sterling Payne from the Mimico, ON assembly, who came from this area, were the last two speakers in the first hall.
The first breaking of bread meeting in the new hall was Sunday morning, July 25th, 1999. Mr. Arnold Adams had ministry at that meeting. The first Gospel meeting in the new hall was July 25th, 1999. The speakers that night were Mr. Carl Payne and Mr. Arnold Adams. The Lord of the harvest; the great Shepherd of the sheep; the Bishop of our souls keeps records as to all that has been done for His glory alone. The building is a credit to the assembly and commendable to the Word of God and the Lord Jesus Christ who the assembly represents. It has served both the assembly and the community well as a testimony to the Lord’s name. An assembly hall is a stewardship, given by God to be used for His work. Use it well and use it often. Let all understand it needs to be cared for, for the Lord’s sake, and is used for purposes that represent our Lord Jesus Christ in these times of increasing departure from practices taught in the word of God.
Don’t expect a few of the older saints to do all of the maintenance work. Keep it as presentable as possible and use the building as often as possible for an outreach to your families and friends and the citizens of the community in which you live. I have held over 20 Gospel series of meetings at Parsons Pond over the 60 years I have been going there. We remember with joy the work of God and sometimes there has been sadness. However, God has been faithful to the Lord’s people and we look with anticipation as to what He is going to be doing there, and in all the assemblies of this province, until our Lord returns. Most of our brothers and sisters who were there in the beginning of the work, are now gone to be with the Lord. They were not well-to-do people but had vision for the work and appreciation for what God had done for them. Hebbert Goosney, quiet as he was, was the first man in the area to take public part. He did that in Daniel’s Harbour in the portable hall, a few days after he was saved. Robert Goosney saw the value of inter- assembly fellowship and in his later years could be found at any conference on the island. He would take very acceptable part in ministry or Gospel as the Lord opened the way. The last time I heard him speak was at a Seal Cove conference. Rhoda Caines was a real mother in Israel here for years before she went to be with the Lord. Violet Payne, her father Edward - the whole group whose memory we cherish, whose remains are out in the cemetery behind the hall, have all had their day of service and have served their day and generation.
Mr. Albert Barbour and Mr. Ephraim Freake were hard working family men who had assembly responsibilities in St. John's right from the beginning of the work there in 1946 when they were in their 20’s. Both of these men took time to have Gospel series in
Parsons Pond. Both attended conferences here when they could, knowing that others were taking their que from the leadership they were giving. Their ministry and counsel have been important to the work all over this island. Now even though they are gone, they still have an impact on the work of the Lord because they were participants in it all of their lives.
Now is the time for men and women of vision and enthusiasm to step up and take labour responsibilities and ultimately, leadership responsibilities. Don’t stand back and wait for others to make things happen. Talk over the work of the Lord constantly with each other and be willing to act for God as the Holy Spirit directs you. In the early church they used the assets God gave them to carry out work that God gave them. They had sanctified bodies; some had houses, some had certain freedoms that allowed them to move about from place to place and country to country. They had the indwelling Holy Spirit; they had each other and the fellowship that is so important to the work of the Lord.
God will not require us to do what we can’t do. He is the One who gave the commission to us and He is the One who gives the ability to carry out the work. He is the One who said “Occupy till I come,” and He is the One who gave the talents to use. Gospel work is not a new work on the coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador now. For many in the assemblies today, assembly life is all they have known. Before all the first-generation Christians leave, be sure you have learned from them all the good things you can. Study the books of Joshua and Judges and learn from God the benefits and dangers associated with a new work. Learn from the mistakes of God’s people in the past, and resolve not to do them.
The Lord Jesus promised the abiding presence of the Father and the Son with us before He left. He promised the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit so that none are left comfortless or powerless. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. The Word of God is unchanging. The gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church. Our position in Christ is secure. We are accepted in the Beloved. Our voices are heard by our heavenly Father. People are still in the same condition by nature. God is still able to save to the uttermost. The spiritual powers of God’s grace; the Word of God; the Holy Spirit and prevailing prayer are still with us unchanged and unaltered. Let us therefore, move ahead in patience, in unity, in consistency, in joy, in faith, in steadfastness with vitality, vision and venture as Mr. Herb Harris used to say. God is still on the throne and we are still here, ready for use, and empowered by Him.
In the course of the first two or three years of a new assembly, it becomes obvious to most of the Lord’s people, the men who can be counted on to have a Gospel message to preach at the Sunday night Gospel meetings. They also take time to prepare a word of devotional ministry to give after the breaking of bread meeting and in the afternoon teaching meeting. They make it a point to be at the prayer/Bible study meeting in the middle of the week, and come prepared.
Pointing out elders was one of the things Paul and those with him did as they went back to the new assembly works in Asia Minor and other places where new assemblies began gathering in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. There are those who seem to be able to gain the confidence of the Lord’s people without making a great demonstration of themselves, or pointing to their accomplishments as a reason for them to be leaders in assemblies. The care and interest in other believers are in the heart of those who the Holy Spirit raises up as shepherds of God’s people. In a new work, those who bring the Gospel are responsible for shepherding and feeding at first. As they do what they are supposed to do, the gifts God gives to all His people become obvious. They mesh together in a good way so that an orderly, scripturally functioning company of people, in a local area can practice God’s truth in God’s way without some distant group telling them what to do or believe. Local people, know those who live there, and God gives then a heart for their own people.
Carl Payne was one of those men the Lord raised up to guide, feed and guard His people. His wife was a support to him and was given to hospitality. He had a “parlour” in partnership with another relative, but not long after the Lord saved him, he realized that they couldn’t continue in business together. With a firm commitment to the word of God, Carl made his point to his business partner, who accepted his decision and why it was necessary. The result was the business was closed, and the income from that was gone. However, through the years following, God met their needs. From the time I met Carl and Annie Payne, August, 1960 until they went home to heaven, I have counted them among the list of close friends. I was at their home until late in the night, the night God saved Carl, and Annie was saved the next day. Their hospitality was extended wherever they were, whenever you arrived and included whatever they ate. I recall a meal of moose and bread in a canvas tent covered with browse that was completely snowed over, when Carl and Sam were cutting wood on the Bellburns barrens. When they were sawing logs down at 5 Mile before there was a 5 Mile Road there, Annie would go into the slab cabin and cook for the men. The meals she cooked up seemed to taste better there.
For some reason, Carl wouldn’t take part in the Gospel meetings for quite some time after he was saved. However, when I was gone for a week and inquired upon my return how the meetings went, the believers said, “Carl took part and we had the best Gospel meeting yet.” He didn’t stop taking public part since. The interest of Carl and Annie in the work of the Lord, was apparent right from the time they were saved by God’s grace. Herb and Russell Harris, two preachers who were natural brothers, each had a great and strong influence on the young couple: Herb for his enthusiasm and Gospel zeal; Russell for his patience and shepherding instincts. Russell and Ruth Harris spent quite a number of years as they got older, seeking to guide the Lord’s people in Parsons Pond, Flowers’s Cove and Buchans.
It was a special joy to me, when Carl and Annie were called to preach the Gospel. They came to Bonavista Bay to help in the Gospel work about eight years after they had responded to the Gospel themselves. They put the same vigor into the work of the Lord that they had put into their efforts to make a living in the woods.
The most touching thing I shared with Carl and Annie, was in Dr. Hannah’s office in St. John’s when the doctor came to where Carl and I were sitting waiting, while Annie was examined, and told Carl, “Annie has breast cancer. I would suggest that you stay here and I will do the surgery right away. Do you want to tell her she has cancer, or do you want me to?”
Carl asked me to go into the examining room with him and tell her. She was a woman who was willing to accept what happened, as part of God’s plan for her life. Many years have passed since then and other health crisis have come. Annie who seemed as strong in spirit as a steel cable, has been with the Lord for many years. Their confidence in God has been a strong influence for good on many who knew Carl and Annie and have benefited by their ministry.
For quite a few years, Carl’s second wife, Gertrude, shared with him in the work of the Lord. In many parts of Newfoundland, Carl was known as the man with the bus. People remember getting Bibles, texts and Gospel literature as well as the Gospel from the “Gospel Bus” that came to their village. Sowing the seed of the word of God does not always bring immediate results, but the Word of God will never come back empty.
Over the 60 years since I have known Carl and Annie, and then Carl and Gert, we have had a number of Gospel series together and we have rejoiced to see people saved. Christian workers always are made glad when we see those God has saved during meetings, going on for the Lord. We preached often in Bonavista Bay and Gander Bay together. One time we had a fruitful series in Clementsville, NS. I met a man in Lethbridge, AB who had attended those meetings as a teenager and since sought to get away from Gospel influence. God followed him and when we were in Lethbridge in a Gospel series he came out and the Lord saved him. Even though he suffered from the effects of sinful living, he was a part of the assembly there until he died at comparatively young age.
Carl and I were asked by Don Wardell who was in the Dunkerton assembly at that time, to have a Gospel series in Evansdale, IA as an outreach between the Waterloo and Dunkerton assemblies. A middle-aged couple who the Lord saved at that time went on well for the Lord. The man lived only a few years before he died. How glad they are that they were reached in time. During those meetings, the Lord saved a nice number of people, but it was hard on Carl because a form of cancer he had, began to make its effects known to him. From then on much of his work had to be suited to his physical condition, but he kept at doing what he could do all the way through his life.
God has His people for the right time and place. Carl and Annie were the right people, in the right place, for the right time in their generation. Gertrude was of the right personality to help him along in the latter part of his life. She knew when it was right to go ahead, and when it was right to stop for a while.