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It was in June 1957 that I came to Cork with the commendation of the Leeds Assemblies. Wendy and I were married a year or so later, so in the will of the Lord, next June will be a special anniversary as we will have been serving the Lord for 40 years. Although we have been engaged in various activities our main work over the years has been the Postal Bible School. The name was changed some ago from Postal Sunday School to Postal Bible School, our main aim being to teach the scriptures which are able to "make wise unto salvation". The change of name also opened the door to day schools where teachers welcomed the lessons as an aid to the teaching of Scripture. In 1957 we were concerned about the need of rural children throughout the south of Ireland where we were working. We became aware of the need of families who would have liked to attend a Sunday School but there was none in their district. We did much research into the provision of suitable lessons, and sought help from George Hall and others in producing a magazine containing articles of interest to children and details about the proposed Postal Sunday School. |
The first issues of the magazine appeared in March 1958 and by the end of that year about 25 children were enrolled.
The numbers doing lessons increased steadily, and after a few years over 1,000 pupils of all ages were enrolled. As some of these pupils were in Northern Ireland we felt that the time had come to divide the work into independent areas and John Waterson of Omagh, Jim Balmer of Enniskillen and May Bingham of Bangor, along with many helpers took on the work in their areas. Others in Great Britain started showing an interest in what was happening in Ireland and Postal Bible Schools started in several other Centres. As we had no desire to control an international organisation we continued to encourage each other to operate independently.
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By
the 80's, the work or Postal Bible School had spread to many
parts, thousands of young people and even adults had done, or
were still doing lessons. Some continued as PBS students for
several years, and many came to know the Lord. We did not
visualise this growth when we started, and we rejoice in what
the Lord has done. We felt the time had come to make
improvements in the format and content of the lessons and
formed an editorial committee of interested and capable
brethren to help in this task. This has also resulted in
greater cross cultural acceptability and usefulness.
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Packed up and Ready to Go! |
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Hiking in County Sligo |
We also felt the time had come to pray for a younger couple to share the responsibility of the work. When the Lord called Noel and Liza McMeekin in the early 90's, we were happy to pass onto them the full responsibility of the Southern Ireland PBS leaving us free to concentrate on the publishing of the lessons for all the Postal Bible Schools and to help and encourage the development of the work elsewhere. We have since been able to visit other countries and rejoice now in seeing the lessons being translated, and used in other languages.
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Windlands, County Down Northern Ireland - Home of Many Camps |
As we retrace our steps over these 40 years we can exclaim "Ebenezer, Hither to hath the Lord helped us".
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Camping - The Early Days! |
To God be the Glory, Great Things He has Done