HOW GOD LED JIM TO NORTHWEST UNIVERSITY
(WITH QUOTES FROM CONVERSATIONS WITH
JIM)
It
is always wonderful to hear how the Holy Spirit draws people to Christ
and uses other Christians to mentor them, and Jim’s story is no
exception. Since his testimony is taped, it is possible to
include some direct quotes.
After Jim’s high school
graduation, at the age of 16, he accepted a teaching position in
Spotted Island, Labrador due to a shortage of qualified teachers.
He said, “The place was very bleak…It was like going back 100 years in
time. The only amenity at all was the fact that there was a small
U.S. Air Force base on the island where people could go to see a movie
or borrow books.” He was given a dog team to use for
transportation and had 25 kids in his class, ranging in age from six to
fifteen.
Jim said, “After I was there a couple of months,
the Church of England minister showed up and since I was the teacher,
he appointed me lay minister. Every Sunday, I was given a sermon
and we would go to the schoolhouse and sing some hymns and I would
preach (even though I was not a Christian at this time).”
When
the school year ended, Jim stayed there a little longer and then
returned to Newfoundland. After spending a couple of weeks at
home with his family, he headed for St. Johns, the capital of
Newfoundland, in search of a job. He worked for Woolworth for awhile
and then was hired by Newfoundland Fiber Ply. At that time, he
was
living in a boarding house and there was a young man named Terry who
also lived there and was a committed Christian, He kept
talking to Jim about how Jesus could change his life and how much joy
he could give him. This infuriated Jim and he said unkind things
to Terry; and said he felt like rearranging his face. But, Jim
shared, “Terry would just smile at me and walk away and would talk to
me more about spiritual things the next day. After several weeks,
I began to realize that there was something about Terry’s life that was
different from anything I had ever seen before, with the exception of
some Christian girls who I had worked with at Woolworth. I
thought, ‘Either this guy really has something that I need or he’s
crazy.’ So, one Sunday I decided to attend church with him and
God began to deal with me. I went home and asked Christ to come
into my life. The next Sunday I went to church with Terry again…I
found myself with my face down on the altar, just weeping. People
prayed with me and God gloriously saved me! I’ll never forget how
fantastic I felt on the way home from church. I felt like I was
flying! I had never had a feeling so wonderful in my whole life
as I experienced God’s peace, God’s deliverance and God’s
forgiveness.” A few months later, during a revival
service, Jim was filled with the baptism in the Holy Spirit and
received a call to the ministry.
Jim then went to Alaska
to earn money so he could attend a Christian college, although he
didn’t know yet what college it would be. He quit his job after
he had saved about $1,400 and headed south on the Alaska Highway.
He stopped in Ft. St. John, British Columbia where he met the Phillips
who were pioneering a church and holding services in their home.
John Phillips was an alumnus of Northwest University and recommended it
to Jim.
Jim said, “I hadn’t been there more
than a few days when I was praying one afternoon and felt led of God to
take all of my traveler checks, sign them, and give them to Pastor
Phillips for the work there. He just looked at me, kind of
surprised, and didn’t say a word…The next day he came to me and said,
‘Jim, that’s a lot of money and I know you’ve saved it for
college. You should really pray about that.’ I told him I
had prayed and knew in my spirit that it was not some whim, but was
something that God was telling me to do. Then, he told me that
they had been negotiating on a piece of land to build a church and the
money I had given him was the exact amount agreed on for the down
payment. Word got out about what I had done (only it wasn’t me,
but was the Holy Spirit) and within a matter of weeks, an extra $10,000
was donated and it wasn’t long before they had a very attractive little
church building.”
Jim also related how he believed
it to be God’s will for him to attend NU and had sent in the
application that John Phillips had given him, but he no longer had any
money – not even enough for transportation to Kirkland, WA.
It took several weeks before he was accepted and, during that time, Jim
found a job in a store, selling by commission. He prayed
diligently that he would make some sales, but nothing happened until
his last day there when, just before closing time, a young couple came
in and he made a $2,500 sale.”
Jim began college at NU in the
fall of 1962 and graduated in the spring of 1966. The Lord
supplied jobs and met his needs throughout his college years and the
rest of his life as he put his faith in Him.