MY CONVERSION AND CALL (85)

by Leslie Wells (Canada)

I began life in San Felipe, Venezuela, where my parents, Mr. and Mrs. W. John Wells, had gone as missionaries eight years before my birth. From early life my brother, Stanley, and I were taught the Scriptures and learned that we needed to be "born again" to be ready for heaven. I remember clearly Mr. William Williams preaching from his two-ways chart. He pointed to hell, vividly painted on the chart, and left on my heart a certain fear of that place of woe.

However I have no memories of ever being troubled about my soul until I was 14 years of age. By this time we were living in Northern Ireland as my mother’s health had broken down in Venezuela. It happened this way. We were taken now and again to Gospel meetings in Annesboro, Co. Down where the late Mr. Robert Curran was preaching alone. The first night we attended he preached on Rev.6, the pouring out of judgments on earth after the Lord had raptured the Church to heaven. He spoke with such conviction and power that for the first time I was troubled and fearful that the Lord would come and I was not ready. My trouble faded as we were not able to attend more than once a week through lack of transport.

From then onwards, I was troubled often about my soul in various Gospel meetings. However, I developed a spirit of procrastination and I thus arrived, still in my sins, to 20 years of age. I had become a heavy burden to my parents.

In the second year at University in Belfast, I had just started staying near the University with some assembly Christians. They were in the fellowship of the Kingsbridge assembly. Almost simultaneously, two brethren arrived there to hold Gospel meetings. They were the late Mr. Tom Campbell, then a man in his eighties, and Mr. Harold Paisley. Pressed by my parents, I started attending and felt the weight of their solemn preaching. I was a little troubled from the first night. Later on, my brother started coming to the meetings as he was now staying elsewhere in Belfast where he was working. We attended right to the last night of that series when many souls had professed faith in Christ. The very last night, a Sunday evening, my brother came out and told my mother that he had been saved during the preaching. That came to me as such a shock that I hardly knew where I was! I had considered that he was more taken by the attractions of the world than I was and that he was therefore further from salvation.

The next morning I heard the news that a young man, slightly older than I, had been suddenly killed in a motorcycle accident. He lived in the village of Dundrum, (near Newcastle, Co. Down) outside of which we had lived since coming from Venezuela. I knew him somewhat and indeed I had seen him the morning of his death. This news really turned my world upside down, coming right after my younger brother’s salvation. I knew then that God was speaking to ME. The awful thought pressed itself on my consciousness that this was the last time the Lord would call. It was now or never! The university term was over but I had continued studying. So I suspended all my studies. I refused to read anything that would distract me from what now filled my thoughts, "How could I be saved and know it?"

Our brethren Mr. Campbell and Mr. Paisley announced three nights of ministry at Kingsbridge hall for those who had just professed faith in Christ. I drove my mother to those meetings. The third evening Mr. Paisley preached the Gospel. I had been going through a dark experience before that but what I heard increased my trouble. Going home in the car, there raged in my soul an awful battle. The question that haunted me was, "What will I do now? I would need to settle this matter." Half way home I came to the decision that I was going to put salvation first and go to Gospel meetings until I was saved even at the expense of losing my scholarship at the University though absence. At last my soul became more important than everything else. On reaching home, I told my mother about my desire for salvation and for the first time in my life I broke down. She tried to help me with many Scriptures, but I was in the dark. I remained in my room until the weekend reading the Bible, tracts and the hymn book without any ray of light to illumine the path to Christ. It was then that I realised more clearly my state and danger and desired to turn from the old life.

We attended another Gospel meeting at Kingsbridge the following Lord’s Day with the same two preachers. After the meeting I ventured to stay behind to speak to them. They spoke tenderly to me and presented many Scriptures. I was still in the dark. After some time though I saw the way of salvation. However the next morning I took the Bible and closed the door of my room. I kneeled down at my bed and opened it at Jn.1. I started reading slowly from verse one. When I reached verse 10 or 11, I stopped, realising I had not understood very much. I glanced over at the right hand column of the Bible and my eyes fell on verse 29, "Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world." That verse had never meant much to me in the past. I had, however, heard it applied in the Gospel. In an instant I understood the meaning of the work of Christ on the cross. I realised it was for sin. It was for me! It was so simple and clear that I did not remember having seen the work of Christ like that ever before. I grasped for the first time — He is my Saviour and I received Him at that moment. I bowed in prayer; moved with thankfulness that provision had been made for me even before I was born. I felt my heart go out in worship for the first time in my life. That was the 10th June 1957.

My parents impressed us early with one thought. The only thing that counted, now that we were saved, was to live for the Lord who had died for us. Early I had the desire to serve the Lord in some way. After graduating from the University in 1958 I visited France, as one of my main subjects of study had been French. I stayed in the Paris area with an aged missionary couple, Mr. and Mrs. William Taylor and helped in the distribution of tracts. Three years later I had to stay in France for two months in connection with my employment as a teacher. I was back in 1963 to assist in tract distribution. They expressed their interest in seeing me come to France to labour in the Gospel. I had a certain response in my heart to that thought, but I would have liked to know the Lord’s will. I am of a hesitant nature and feared taking a step without being sure that it came from God.

I had a developing interest in speaking in public since 1958. I held a series of Gospel meetings in a tent in 1964 with my brother. The next year a brother working for the Lord in Brazil asked me to consider coming to Brazil. I felt the Lord was calling me but now I was unsure as to where — France or Brazil. Looking back on it, I realise that I ought to have been before the Lord in deep exercise for guidance. However my work dominated too much of my time and I was still undecided. After some time I sensed that I had missed responding to the Lord’s call. I felt so discouraged and disappointed.

By 1970 we had been ten years in the assembly at Derriaghy. I had visited France several times with various brethren including my father. We distributed tracts and I still maintained an interest but not as ardent as before. The elders at Derriaghy asked me to join them in responsibility and discharge the work of the correspondent. I wondered now if that was what the Lord wanted me to do. But in 1974 my father decided he wanted to move to the Dromore, Co. Down area and as I lived with my parents, I had no choice but to leave Derriaghy. We settled in the little assembly at the Lough Road, near Dromore. I gave myself to all the assembly meetings, engaged frequently in Gospel preaching on Sunday evenings and took an interest in spiritual activity.

Desires began surfacing again such as I had had in the sixties. I was before the Lord, at times with a deep burden. I told no one of these thoughts. But in 1978 I visited the south of France where Mr. Dennis O’Hare laboured in the Gospel. I had been there before and I had known him since 1967. One day I accompanied some visitors from Wales and brother O’Hare to visit another Welsh brother who was working in the Rhone valley among Moslems. The latter started asking me if I had any interest in giving myself to the Lord. I admitted that I did have in the past, but did not divulge my more recent thoughts. He started to speak to me very directly and pointed out the need to be exercised definitely before the Lord. He really stirred me up and on returning home I came more often before the Lord as to what He would have me do. I told no one, as I did not want either to be pushed or to be hindered by a human hand.

My exercise was increasing and I came in 1980 to bear a greater burden than I ever had experienced. I was asking the Lord to show me whether He really wanted me to go full-time into His work. On a previous visit to France brother Dennis O’Hare had asked me if I had never considered coming to France. I did not tell him that I had often had longings to go to that land. I gave him no answer, as I desired guidance that I was convinced came from God.

In October 1980 a brother working in another land came from Canada with encouragement to seek someone who might be interested in the Maritime provinces. One day my father and I were invited to a brother’s home to be with this missionary brother for the evening meal. The latter started to describe the need in the Maritimes. He looked over at me and said pointedly, "I think, brother, you should think about this need." I knew no one present had the slightest inkling as to my exercise. This set me thinking whether this was not the Lord speaking to me. I had longed to work in France but could find no clear confirmation.

The missionary later that evening told me of New Brunswick, where work was starting among the Acadian French. He encouraged me to think seriously about it. And I did. I did not want to repeat what happened before, though I had not considered Canada as I felt I could not stand the cold. The next morning my reading was in 2Cor.3. In ch.2 the question was asked, "Who is sufficient for these things?" That morning I read in 3.5, "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves … but our sufficiency is of God." That Word from God spoke loudly to me. I should leave the question of how we would cope with the climate in the Lord’s hands. Thus I was enabled to contact the brethren in Canada and express my interest. I then spoke to the brethren in the assembly at the Lough Road. They agreed with the exercise, though disappointed that I would not be staying and helping them locally. Thus I gathered assuredly the Lord was calling me to a field I would never have chosen myself. Delays in receiving a visa put me much to the test and it was even suggested that I should go into the Lord’s work in Northern Ireland. However my exercise was to put what knowledge of French I had to use in the Lord’s service. Finally in 1985 the door opened for me to come to New Brunswick to work among the Acadian French. Three other assemblies locally joined the Lough Road assembly in the commendation. Our first meetings were in Tracadie where I now live.

The prayers of the Lord’s people for the progress and preservation of the work will be much appreciated.