I was anxious to learn more about the Bible. The P.B.I. (Prairie Bible Institute) Christian

worker encouraged me earlier in the summer to attend the school during the winter

months. So it was that I applied and was accepted as a Bible school student. This

would be a new and thrilling experience for me. In mid-September in 1940 I was off to

Prairie Bible Institute. In doing so I was to pass through Calgary. My sister Francis

lived there with Victor Latimer, whom she married a year or so earlier. It was a great

privilege to have their home in Calgary as a place to visit. They always made me welcome.

Vic usually picked me up from the bus depot, or took me there. When I became acquainted

N.E.)

It was September, 1940. On arriving at Three Hills, we were met by a welcoming

committee. Our belongings were taken to the school from the bus depot. We were assigned

to our dormitory rooms. A student of the same year was assigned as my roommate. This

young man happened to come from Yorkton, Saskatchewan. This was rather nice to have

someone from my home province and really my home town.

The first year of Bible school was a tremendous emotional and spiritual experience to

me. So many things were so very new. To be in a Christian community of students of all

ages, representing many churches, many countries and different walks of life was very

exciting. To be in classes taught by Christian teachers of vast knowledge and experience,

made me feel very humbled and thankful for the Lord’s guidance and goodness.

There were a few days of orientation. Class designation was according to the

programs selected. My course of studies was a four-year Bible school course. The first year

a number of introductory courses were taken. These included Bible 1, the Pentateuch,

Church history, Personal work and other related subjects.

Each weekday one and a half hours (and four hours on Saturday) of gratis work was

required to be done by each student. This was part of the school training and discipline. My

studying at

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Personal Archives

first year of gratis work was in the cow barn, milking cows by hand, with a crew of four men.

The milking was done twice per day, every day, 4:00 am and at 4:00 pm including the

weekends. I was a seasoned milker, with previous experience, and I didn’t mind the work.

However, in the second half of the year I became very tired of having to rise so early in the

morning and began to sleep in. The alarm would go off, but I would not hear it. I needed to

transfer to some other work.

On Saturday, four hours of gratis work was required of the students. A variety of jobs

were undertaken as the need arose. I was asked to unload trucks of lumber being hauled in

for building projects at the Institute. Truck loads of cement, during the war years, was scarce

and had to be picked up wherever available. I remember one Saturday, going with a crew and

two trucks to Leduc, to pick up bags of cement donated by a faithful supporter of the School.

This was a long day from very early in the morning to very late at night. The extra time on

such outings was taken note of and added up to a good grade at the end of the school year.

During the Christmas break in my first year at Prairie, I remained at the school. Some

students who lived nearby were able to leave the campus. The break was a welcome change

from the daily classes. The gratis work, however, continued to be done.

At the close of the school-year the Annual Missionary Conference was held.

Hospitality to visitors was freely provided. The students moved out of their dormitory rooms

into classrooms or some other place to make room for guests. A number of foreign

missionaries presented picture slides of their work and the people among whom they worked.

I had never before been exposed to such dramatic portrayals of spiritual and physical

conditions in the lands of Africa, China and other places. Some of the pictures were horrible

and gave me the shivers. It seems these things did not give me a desire to ever be a foreign

missionary.

When the conference was over I went back to the farm to work for Nick and Marion.

Summer on the prairie farm was a busy time. You were no sooner finished with one job, and

another was waiting. In the spring, to prepare the field for seeding, Nick often operated the

cultivating machinery at night. I would be out early for the day shift. When the weather was

calm it was a pleasure for me to operate the Case tractor. Round and round the fields I would

go, hour after hour. After cultivation, the field would be planted with seed grain. This

usually went a little faster. The completion of seeding gave one a sense of accomplishment,

and probably a day or so of a change of pace.

Summer fallow came next. As well, one of us would be out on the seeded fields

gathering the larger rocks by hand. This was done in order to clear the fields of protruding

objects that would damage the combine during harvest. This was a very labor intensive job.

Some days both Nick and I would be out doing rock picking.

This was wartime. News of Germany’s conquest of European countries was reported

daily. British activities of the war with Germany were regular news items. Most evenings I

was too tired to listen to the evening news.

Things became more real and closer to home when all males 18 years and over were

required to register and carry a registration card. Nick and I went to Medicine Hat to do our

registering.

Many Canadian men and women were joining the armed forces. Some were already

trained and on their way to England. I was well aware that some in our family would be

called. I was not in a position to know what the older brothers would do when they would be

called. I was sure however, that my turn would soon come.

The summer of 1941 quickly passed. Harvest came early in August. It was difficult

to hire good help for harvest. However, Nick needed a truck driver to haul the grain from the

field to a grain bin and off load the truckload of grain before the combine hopper was full.

We did the harvesting with a John Deere combine equipped with a table for straight

combining of the ripe grain. It was a two person operation. I operated the Case tractor while

Nick operated the combine. His operating platform was up above the front in the forward

section of the combine. From this position he could lower or elevate the grain platform as

necessary. The low areas of the field were where the grain was taller and at the top of the

hills it would be shorter. It became necessary to be alert so as not to plug the threshing

operation of the machine and expel unthreshed grain out the back end with the straw. I liked

harvest time. The days were long, and if the grain was dry, we worked.

Imagine working from 1 p.m. to 10 p.m. day in and day out. The only respite was

when the fields were wet. Sometimes we would jokingly say, "More rain, more rest". There

usually wasn’t much rest – just something else to do.

The long hours were hard on me, but I never remember complaining. I do remember

very vividly the old threshing days at home on the farm. The farmer’s wife or some one else

prepared a mid morning or mid afternoon lunch for the threshing crew. It consisted of a cup

of warm or even cold tea and biscuits, and they tasted so good. You could have all you

wanted - or as much as you could get away with.

Some days I wished for a lunch like that during harvest time, particularly during the

long afternoons.

There was another thing about harvest time. The chores still needed to be done, but

these had to wait until we stopped for the night, and they seemed to be harder at harvest. The

pigs were hungrier and the cow was overdue for its milking. Bossy, the cow, was a good

milker, but at harvest time she seemed to take forever to milk. There was no one else to do

the chores. Marion was busy with housework and caring for a new baby.

The meals were great on the farm. It seemed though that at my age I couldn’t hold

enough food to last to the next meal. I never complained however.

When things went well on the farm you just did the work, had your meals, and usually

went to bed dog tired. I looked forward to the weekend, which meant a day of rest and

attendance at church on Sunday. On Mondays, we were back at the harvest again.

Fuel for the tractor was very reasonable. During the summer, on summerfallow work,

crude oil was used in the Case tractor. The tractor had less power and it smoked quite a bit

but things went alright. There was one thing that was a must during this operation. The oil

level in the crank case had to be checked regularly. While using crude oil, the tractor

accumulated additional oil in the crankcase. This additional amount had to be drained off

twice per day or even more frequently on long work days, to return it to the operating level.

During harvest, Nick changed to a cleaner burning fuel called distillate. This

probably had more than one purpose. It gave the tractor more power, and reduced the amount

of black smoke that the tractor produced. When using distillate, the engine crankcase oil was

slowly consumed, so the level and oil pressure needed to be watched carefully. I, being not

too acquainted with what might happen, and being busy with the operation did my best to

check as we went along. In spite of that, and when things seemed to be going so well, one

day the level of the crankcase got down too low. The engine made a banging sound, and was

promptly shutdown. Upon checking the oil level, sure enough it was low on oil.

The sun was hot that day – perfect harvest weather. Nick knew what needed to be

done. Nick was probably angry, but not a cross word was spoken. I felt horrible and sad.

We pulled the tractor into the yard with the truck and began the repair work. First the engine

was opened up to see what happened, then Nick went to Lethbridge to pick up the parts

required. The reassembly was made the following day. We lost almost two days of good

harvest weather, but the tractor ran well now using very little oil. You know what? Since

that experience, I check the oil of any engine I use very regularly. I take no chances about oil

in the crankcase. Oil level in the engine is top priority for me.

When the grain was all off the field, the straw was collected in piles by the use of a

special attachment to the combine. The straw was then hauled to the yard for use in the

winter. This was no easy task. Hay bailers had not been invented yet so this was done by

hand, using a hay rack to haul the straw into the yard. On a windy day it was impossible to

work, so we would wait for calmer conditions to finish. Now that harvest was finished, I

began preparing for another term at P.B.I.

Early in September, I was off by bus to Calgary for a few days. I visited Victor and

Frances Latimer each time I passed through Calgary. They were kind to me in providing a

place to sleep and wonderful meals. They lived at this time in a small rented house in north

east Calgary. After a few days, I was off for Three Hills by bus. The distance from Calgary

is about 80 miles. On arriving at Three Hills we were met by a welcoming committee, to

help us with baggage to our dormitories. The rooms were quickly assigned to us. Our stuff

was moved into the rooms and we would settle in with a new roommate. My roommate was

an older man who had lost his right arm in an industrial accident.

There was a couple of days of preparation for class registration, purchase of text

books and program oritentation. I loved preparing for classes. The feel of new books gave

me a feeling of anticipation and purpose. Then there was the monthly school tution and

board and room to pay.

Gratis work assignment was by preference and choice. It was not unusual however,

for the supervisors to ask for certain students to work in a specific area because of skills that

they had. This term my work was in the kitchen area where food was prepared in large

quantities for staff and students.

The daily schedule of bells was part of the routine for students. There was a bell in

the morning to rise and shine. The next bell was for devotions. Then came the third bell

which was for breakfast. At 8 a.m. through 4 p.m. you would hear class bells, and meal bells.

In a few days a student knew by memory their class routine and other time schedules. I loved

my classes, gratis work, prayer session and chapel time. To me it was such a rich spiritual

exercise. I enjoyed being able to absorb the teaching of the word of God, to be with the

community of God’s people and doing God’s will in preparing young lives to serve the Lord

wherever He would have them go.

Messages from missionaries home on furlough impressed me greatly. The dedication

of men and women entering a foreign country which was not evangelized and unfriendly, was

amazing. Students were required to join prayer groups for specific foreign fields. Specific

prayer would be engaged in for a list of prayer requests, read out by a group leader. This was

doing business for the Lord in a systematic and intensive manner.

A fall conference was held around Thanksgiving time. It was a three day affair.

Dynamic conference speakers would be engaged at this time. It was a break from classes, but

it was enrichment for the soul and spirit. I loved the conference time, but it passed so

quickly. Tests came so often that a person had no time to be bored or homesick. In early

December, we were given pre-read material for tests in some subjects. Extra study hours

were needed to prepare, by reviewing the work that had been covered. Much study made one

weary and nervous.

war on the United States of America, by raiding Pearl Harbour. The USA Pacific Fleet was

greatly damaged by the sinking of several battleships at Pearl. The US declared war on Japan

as well as on Germany, and was no longer neutral. It was at war on two fronts – across the

Pacific and the Atlantic.

In my studies I enrolled in a Child Evangelism course, and later in the year in a course

offered by the Canadian Sunday School Mission. The Lord seemed to be preparing me to do

evangelism in the rural part of the province of Alberta. I prepared diligently by studies in

personal work and general evangelism.

This year again I spent Christmas at the school. My brother, Bill, came to visit me at

Prairie in December, and he stayed for a few days. He was working in Rocky Mountain

House at the lumber camp. Earlier he had broken a leg and was hospitalized for a while in

Rocky, but now he was getting around on crutches. While there he had met a lady at the

hospital, I had learned. She was later to become his bride and lifetime companion. I think

that he liked the visit. My roommate kindly gave up his bed for Bill to sleep in.

The winter of 1942 was cold, with lots of snow. Day after day we longed for a let up

in the cold. Some days it was necessary to keep our outdoor clothing on in classes, because it

was so cold. Then, a severe storm came with blowing snow that blocked roads throughout

the prairies. The road to the coal mine near Three Hills was blocked with drifts so high that

no available equipment could clear. The school provided their truck and student labour with

shovels to haul away the snow from the road in order to restore access to the mine. This was

extra work, but no one complained.

Term papers on Bible subjects were a major part of our test points. These had to be

handed in by March for grading. It was tough work, but marks were generally high on my

papers.