building Messenger III. It was after World War II with inflation at its highest. The contract for building the boat was let for an estimated $14,000. When only the hull was complete, the contractors had spent $ 10,000 and insisted that they could not keep their
gave him a Bible. He felt that it was a poor present but while aboard ship, having nothing else to do, he opened the Bible to read it. It fell open at the story of the prodigal son. Spratt was greatly moved by what he read and continued to read the
some tracts there and one was given to an Indian girl who read it and was converted. Due to her testimony the atmosphere of the entire hospital has been changed. In each ward there are those who listen to gospel pro grams on the radio and read their Bibles. Spratt has tracts and gospels in 23 languages. When a foreign ship comes into Victoria, he goes to the dock and gives the crew gospels in their own language. When displaced persons came to Victoria, he was able to give them gospels in German and English. Always, the quiet steady work of the Shantymen goes on. Typical of it is this incident from the ministry of Percy Wills. He was tramping the back woods, going from isolated shanty to shanty. He knocked at a cabin door. A woman opened it and asked, “What do you want?” “ I’m a missionary and wondered if there was anything I could do for you.” “ Nope, we don’t want no help from no missionaries.” Wills turned away, then he heard a man roar, “Missionary is he. Send him in.” “ Come on, then,” the woman nod ded, Wills followed her into a semi- darkened room and saw a hulk of a man, sprawled in an easy chair. He had a jug of beer in one hand and tobacco in the other. He began rail ing against God. He told how he had been a soldier in His Majesty’s Army, a shell had exploded in his face, blinding him and ruining his sense of smell. Wills silently prayed for wisdom to reach this man in his bitterness. He opened his Bible and read, “Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities” (Ps. 51:8,9). “ Read that again,” the man de manded. Wills reread the scripture and talked to the man until, broken in spirit, he confessed Christ as Saviour. A few days later, Wills received a letter from the man, saying, “My heart is different for the first time and today, I was out in my garden and could smell my roses.” Surely, William Henderson, back in 1905, when he saw the need of lonely men had no idea that the work of the Shantymen would someday be so widespread. Now, each year, many thousands of lives are touched by the Shantymen’s Christian Association of North America. Canada and the United States unite in an effort to reach men in the backwoods for Christ. END.
Where there's navigable water the Shantymen go by boat.
contract. The hull was turned over to the Shantymen, who, with the aid of volunteer labor, finished the boat for about $18,000. The Shantymen follow the general rule of “no debt.” Nevertheless, when building a boat, it is impossible to pay for each dimes’ worth of nails as needed. The practice was to run a bill for 30 days and then pay it. The month the engine was installed the bills were especially high. Percy Wills was in charge and when he went home to Victoria for the week end, he was especially burdened about high costs. On Monday he returned to the base where the ship was being built. That night, at eight o’clock, his wife, Mar garet, phoned him. She said, “ Percy, were you burdened for something over the week-end? For what did you ask the Lord?” “ Two thousand dollars.” “Well, you’ll be interested to know that a man was just here and he left two one thousand dollar C.N.R. bonds on the table.” When a man in the backwoods makes a Christian profession his name is turned over to Jack Spratt to fol low up. Spratt was born in England and when he left for Canada, a friend
Bible until he understood the gospel. One day, after his arrival on Van couver Island, while walking across an open prairie, he lifted his heart to God, receiving Christ as Saviour. Spratt was a busy Christian lay man for many years, being mayor of Albemi in 1936 and ’37. In 1947, he became burdened with the need of reaching men and women for Christ. He joined the Shantymen, moved to Victoria and is in charge of the gos- pel-by-mail department. Shantymen turn in the names of converts, or in terested men, and he writes to them. He mails out over 800 copies of The Shantyman each month. He has sent tracts to his friends, to his friends’ friends and to names in the tele phone book. By getting a post office guide, he sent tracts to the box hold ers of every village of 65 or less in British Columbia. He writes to those who advertise for foreign stamps. He even corresponds with a man in Tris- tandas Cunha, an island which re ceives mail only twice a year. He finds there are many ways to get names if one is alert. There have been many interesting results from his work. One was at the Miller Bay Hospital, a government hospital for TB patients. He sent
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