MY CONVERSION AND CALL (83)

by Sid Mountstevens (England)

When considering the work of the Lord in my life I feel I must go back to 29th. January 1929, the day of my birth in the little village of Westonzoyland in Somerset. My arrival was unexpectedly early, almost 3 months premature I weighed in at 2.5 pounds (about 1 Kilo.) Wrapped in cotton wool and placed in a shoebox I was sent home to die.

My parents were poor indeed and it was not a happy marriage and therefore it was not a happy home for my brothers and myself. We were always waiting fearfully for something to happen, usually destructive. My Father was a farm labourer, about the lowest paid section of the community at that time. Educated in the little village school I did not take my schooling very seriously and awaited with much impatience my 14th birthday when I could leave school. One of my greatest achievements was to grab the head teacher's cane and sort him out before he did so to me.

My father insisted that I should learn a trade and I served an apprenticeship as a bricklayer, much against my will as I always had a desire to be either a bus or lorry driver, a desire that remains with me to this day, albeit too late. Parents were to be obeyed in those days, in my case very reluctantly.

One of my brothers and myself attended a little Church of England Sunday school for a while but cannot recall anything remotely to do with faith being taught. Also I became a campanologist, I also pumped the old church organ for a while. The "church" was conveniently sited beside the local inn, the haunt for the bellringers during the church services.

I took my first drink in that inn and remember it was an innocuous mixture of beer and lemonade. My mother remonstrated with me warning me of the dangers of drink, but of course I thought I was in complete control. A mistake indeed as I would like others to know. Very soon I was hooked on drink and became a drunkard. "Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging; and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise" Prov.20.1.

The nearby town of Bridgwater provided the largest one evening carnival in the country. The folly of drink was evidenced one such night as some friends and I cycled the 4 miles to town determined to take a drink in every pub. It is doubtful that we managed it, as there were 99 public houses in the town in those days. It was a shameful night as I beat an elderly lady to the ground as I objected to a song she was singing. Hurried off by my associates I remember awakening in the centre of a main road 3 miles out of town, my bicycle lying on top of me as I gazed up into the headlights of a car stopped in front of me. Oh, the foolishness of the drunkard. My own dear mother was unceremoniously shoved away when she questioned the wisdom of my drinking habits. Despite the unsettled atmosphere in the home my mother abhorred alcohol and my father was just a moderate partaker of it.

For 16 months I was called up for national service, this did not allow for heavy drinking as the pay was unrealistic. I received the occasional 10 shilling note (50p) from my mother to help me with food, needless to say I spent it on drink.

On my discharge I resumed life in the local community and in my early twenties one or two individuals became concerned about my welfare. One was the vice - captain of the local cricket team of which I was the captain. He lived opposite the pub. He and his wife were concerned as they watched from their bedroom window as I crawled home on hands and knees. (This, I cannot recall). The local grocer, a believer in the assembly at Bridgwater told me the same after he had baptised me as a believer. He was afraid that I would hit him if he came out to speak to me. I was introduced to the relatives of my friend the vice-captain of the cricket team. Although he was unsaved at the time he was anxious that I should meet relatives on his wife’s side. (He did get saved subsequently). They were believers, and fine people too if only I had acknowledged it. I was dumbfounded when they gave thanks for food, my only desire was to escape and get back to the local pub.

However, I could not keep away from these dear saints even though I wanted to do so. I was drawn to them as I saw a love toward me that was not in the hearts of others I knew. I had to cycle 12 miles to see them and this I did regularly week after week and going to a gospel meeting and being tortured within. Not assembly believers but believers indeed. The preaching was powerful and I was sure the only person in the speaker’s sight was myself, I felt I was the only one being preached at. Always I returned to the pub to drown my sorrows, but such sorrows will not stay drowned. The Scriptures preached tortured me, especially an oft repeated verse "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me, it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks". Acts 26.14.

This, kicking against the pricks, fighting against God continued for 6 years or so. Night-time was agony, no sleep came upon me as I tossed and turned in my bed realising that one-day I would have to meet God. Lying in bed I would count up the years that might be left for me. There was no guarantee and I was not prepared; I was going to Hell and it frightened me. Alcohol could never help me I knew that much, yet I stuck to it. It gave me a few happy hours until the time came for bed.

I had become very friendly with a dear man I will never forget, Alex Trafford. A lovely man, in assembly fellowship, the father in law of my friend the vice-captain of the cricket team. He was deformed and suffering much from polio at birth, but his lovely face, and inner joy made me long to be like him. I did not want his infirmities or disfigurement but my, how I longed for his peace and joy. I also longed for His Saviour.

At that time it was a regular feature of my Sundays to cycle 15 or so miles over the Polden Hills and push start his little Morgan three wheeler car, jump in beside him and go to hear him preach. I could hardly sit in the seats as he sang often "It is well, it is well, with my soul". I knew it wasn’t right with mine but I knew he really meant it, and lived it too.

My new-found friends had long since given me a Bible which I ungraciously took and placed on my bedside table, ignoring it while my agony of soul remained. One evening in 1957 I struggled home from the pub and lay on my bed in uncontrollable discomfort of heart, fearing death. My hand stretched forth and fell on this little Bible. The page opened at 2 Tim.2.11. "If we believe not, He abideth faithful, He cannot deny Himself". I knew that God would save me but for about six months I consciously ran away from God and tried to drink my way out of trouble. There was no escape; I could only turn. On the eve of Whit-Monday 1958 I crawled home drunk, lay in my bed agonising as usual.

At 2 am. that morning in desperation I rolled out of my bed and prayed earnestly, "Lord, I’ve made a mess of my life, You take it".

My chains fell off, and my heart was free. I was saved and my drink problem disappeared, He is a mighty Deliverer. There was no problem with separation from the world as far as my former friends in the local pubs were concerned; they did not want anything to do with a man with "religious mania" as they saw it. Over the years that hasn’t been a bad complaint, praise the Lord.

My parents cared little about my faith and suggested I left home, they preferred a drunk man about the place, not ashamed to shove his mother around. Yet, my mother was saved at the age of sixty years, and my father at the age of seventy years, I had the joy of baptising them both and shall see them again in Heaven. I well remember my mother saying this after her conversion; "I never had any love for your father until the Lord saved me. My two brothers are not yet saved despite ill health. They witnessed a mighty change in our parents when they were saved and also, one trusts, in my conversion. Prayer will be valued for them, and their families. He IS the answer to every need.

For 10 years after conversion I remained in the building trade and during that time the Lord gave me a life partner for which I rejoiced greatly and still rejoice.

The desire in my heart was to serve the Lord in a full time capacity. For 3 years or so I remained unattached to any "church" and gathered with the believers who gave me such help before I was saved, they were evangelical believers who gathered in a little congregational chapel. A few Methodist friends crossed my path but even in those days they disliked my fundamentalism and mocked at some of the things I already held dear.

Very soon I sought out a company of believers that believed the whole of the Bible and my search ended in a Gospel Hall in Bridgwater, Somerset where I was baptised and welcomed into fellowship by a godly brother, Cecil Ingleby. In 1968 I joined a non-denominational association and engaged in Colportage work for 10 years until, deeply convicted of my association with what I could see as error I left this and sought the Lord earnestly for guidance. During those 10 years I was engaged in beach work at Margate for 5 weeks each summer. This gave me a strong desire to work among children.

Lessons were learned indeed as many of my brethren endeavoured to dissuade me from leaving the "umbrella" of an association but I knew it was better to obey God than man, and this has proved so true through the many years since.

It was not an easy matter to engage in the work of the Lord in a full time capacity, not a thing to be grasped at. If the matter of conversion brings deep conviction so also does the ascertaining of the mind of God regarding His call. Jeremiah, Moses, and others hardly jumped at the opportunity but rather shrunk from it. Yet the Lord’s purpose is in it all, Jer.1.5, "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee …..". Was not the hand of my God upon me long before I knew Him?

In 1978 the assembly in Margate, Kent commended me to the work of the Lord, supported by several other gatherings in the locality. Sadly some are no longer in existence.

It has been one's joy to serve the Lord by His grace over the years, mainly among children, and one can praise Him that He has gloriously saved some and we give Him the glory, it is His work. I am not prepared to say that I have led souls to the Lord but through the foolishness of preaching the Holy Spirit has done the leading and salvation has been wrought by the grace of God.

Through His provision ALL needs have been met and never has an appeal been made — that would certainly spoil the blessing and my wife and I give Him all the glory.

"And when life’s journey is over, and I the dear Saviour shall see,

 I’ll praise Him for ever and ever, for saving a sinner like me."