I was born into a family of six, four girls and two boys, in the district of Clonkeen, Northern Ireland, where there was a testimony for God which had been established in the year 1861, just after the great 1859 revival in Ireland. My parents and grandparents were all saved and in assembly fellowship and so we were brought up in the fear of God, in a home where the Scriptures were read daily and where father prayed for the family on our knees each morning. The home was always open for the Lord's people and the Lord's servants were frequent visitors. We attended Sunday school, Gospel meetings and special meetings and in early years there were Cottage meetings in our home. I can remember having serious thoughts about my soul in special meetings conducted by Mr. Tom McKelvey in 1947, then in 1948 was deeply troubled when Mr. William McCracken and Mr. Albert McShane were in Ballybollen. The following year Mr. William Bunting came to Clonkeen for meetings. Awakened to my need as a sinner unfit for heaven and deserving of hell, after deep soul trouble, in true repentance, I cried for mercy and the Spirit of God revealed to my darkened mind, through Jn.3.16 and 1Pet.2.24, the wonderful truth that when the Lord Jesus Christ died upon the cross, He died for my sins and so I accepted Him as my Saviour and immediately dropped upon my knees, to give God thanks for giving His Son to die for a sinner like me. I was saved on the 18th December, 1949, and I knew it, and can thankfully say that I have never had any reason to doubt the reality of my conversion. Resting alone upon the person and work of Christ to meet my need, the Word of God gave me the assurance of everlasting life.
Next day going home from school, my school friends asked, “are you coming for a game of cricket,” of which I had been a keen player, but I told them, I would not be going with them any more, because I got saved on Sunday night. The day following I had opportunity to witness before a class of 30 boys and girls, when the teacher asked us to sing a song or recite a poem. I sang the hymn I was enjoying, “Settled forever sin's tremendous claim, Glory to Jesus, Blessed be His name.”
My baptism was delayed for a few months because of illness. In the month of May, 1950, I was baptised and received into the fellowship of the local assembly at Clonkeen. We enjoyed all the meetings and were so thankful for the privilege of sitting at the feet of godly men, who taught us the truth of God, which we value and with the Lord's help continue to hold precious.
It was a joy in early teenage years to visit the neighbours with Gospel tracts and invite them to come to the Gospel meeting. This we did alone, as there were no other young brethren in fellowship until brother Alex Rainey got saved and came home from Canada in 1953, when together we door-knocked the homes in the district. The assembly carried on two Sunday schools, one in the Gospel hall with approximately 90 children and another two miles away at Kilnock with approximately 70 children. This work was very demanding for a small assembly, so at an early age I was given responsibility in the Children's work at Kilnock, where most of the children had no assembly background. We continued with the brethren at Clonkeen until 1972 when for health reasons we came to Australia. After a few years we returned to Ireland to sell the business, and during the last five years at Clonkeen we had the joy, with the brethren there, of seeing 26 local people saved, baptised and added to the assembly, which was truly a work of God, in which we rejoice and give God the Glory.
While our main interest was the spread of the Gospel and helping the Lord's people, I never had any intention of giving my full time to the work of God, but felt my work was to encourage and support others more gifted. It has been our privilege to entertain and help many of the Lord's servants from overseas who visited Australia and we have also sought to encourage brethren in this land, whom we considered gifted and qualified, to give their full time to the work of God, but no one seemed prepared to take the step. The burden of the need weighed heavily upon our hearts as we prayed earnestly that God would send forth labourers. Often when I was driving around in the car on business, I saw the so called ‘Jehovah Witnesses’ knocking the doors, my heart was condemned and I wept, knowing that I should be spreading the truth and it grieved me that these people were so zealous in spreading their evil doctrine.
We took some time off work and had meetings in different parts, but we felt we were doing so little and the burden of the great need continued to weigh heavily upon my heart. We prayed earnestly for the Lord to send others, then the Word of God came home with convicting power to my soul, “whom shall I send and who will go?” After much wrestling, I bowed to the Will of God and said, “here am I, send me,” yet feeling like Moses, very inadequate for the task before us.
I still had business responsibilities, but to my surprise, in a time when the economy was slow and it was even difficult to sell property, the business sold. Now what shall I do? I had no peace in my soul to commence another business, then I thought that I better talk with the brethren. Until this time only my wife knew of my exercise. I arranged to meet with them and we talked about the meetings and other things and I came away without saying anything in relation to my exercise. I felt I must be absolutely sure before the Lord, so like Gideon putting out the fleece a second time, after another night on my knees, I met the brethren again and this time told them of my exercise. Their immediate response was, “We were wondering why it has taken you so long,” and were happy to give me the right hand of fellowship.
Soon after, with my wife Olive (whose support and help have been invaluable) we drove out to remote areas with our caravan (trailer). Each town to which we came where there was no assembly, we remained there until we covered every home with Gospel tracts and preached the Gospel each day in the open-air, we also posted our literature to the property owners. In this way we have covered the greater part of Queensland as well as other parts of Australia.
The work has been slow, but we thank God for the liberties we enjoy in this land and as we look back, we do so, without regret, feeling unworthy of the honour of carrying such a wonderful message to our fellow travellers to Eternity. We thank God for those whom we have known who have trusted Christ, yet have to acknowledge that we are unprofitable servants, we have done just what was our duty to do. We know that soon the call will be heard, “give account of thy stewardship,” we do trust the Lord will help us to be faithful the remaining time He is pleased to leave us here.