1931
Lillian's dream of a summer Bible school became a reality just a few
short months after she and Frances Black first talked about it during
that Easter vacation in 1931. If you remember, they took the train to
Minton to discuss the idea with Wilfred and Pearl Orr who were also
very enthusiastic about the idea. They said, "Have it here!"...... and
immediately offered their house as the focal point.
So, at the age of twenty, Lillian, along with Wilfred, Pearl and others
waded in to the monumental task of making that vision take form.
She sent letters to the young people in all the congregations in
Saskatchewan inviting those over fourteen to come to Minton for
three weeks of intensive Bible study. There would be no charge; it
would be financed entirely by donation.
The physical preparations that had to be made might have daunted a
less determined group! Just recently Lillian and Clarice Hurlburt
(Mooney) reminisced about that summer. Wilfred was still building
the house they were going to use. The basement was dug and the
house sat on it, but there were not yet any partitions between the
rooms or finished stairs to the basement.
They decided that classes would be held upstairs and that the
basement would be the best place to have the kitchen for Bible
school. There was a dirt floor and the opening for a window was the
top of a rather primitive outdoor stairway down to the kitchen! Poor
Clarice was starting to teach that fall and had bought some lovely,
stylish, high-heeled shoes. She thinks maybe some of her later foot
problems came from trying to walk on that uneven dirt floor in her
high-heels as she helped with the cooking that summer!
So on July 13, 1931, the first summer Bible school of churches of
Christ in Canada opened with great excitement and anticipation.
Classes were from nine to four; after that there was recreation such
as ball games, followed by sermons on week day evenings and
concerts on the weekends. Lillian attributes much of her Bible
knowledge to the intensive study of those summers. In addition to
taking classes and working diligently at her own studying, Lillian
was treasurer, bought whatever food wasn't donated, arranged work
schedules, and did some teaching of English. When children's classes
were added later, she also taught some of them.
What an adventure! The students brought their tents and lived in them
for three solid weeks. Some of those girls still remember sleeping on
the ground and in the morning, wriggling into their clothes in their
little tents and attempting to come out looking presentable. Some also
remember a late night boat ride when Cecil Bailey, who made his
first appearance at a Saskatchewan church gathering during the
second week of that Bible school, had to wade out into the lake to
rescue some girls from the sinking boat! Lillian was usually ready for
a funny incident, but she was also responsible for the girls, so she
didn't see much humour in that incident that night! Lillian and Clarice
remember another night when Cecil was up to his usual high-jinks
and ran into a page wire fence while chasing an imaginary bear!
The Bible study was rigorous indeed, but those young people just ate
it up. In addition to classes all day long they had heavy homework
assignments, including memorizing whole chapters of the Bible.
Some of the original staff and students of those summer Bible schools
are fond of saying that the vacation Bible schools of today grew out
of those early schools, but they grew a long way! Summer Bible
school was great fun, but it was definitely no vacation!
Summer Bible school was a great thing for Lillian. Holidays were
still a restless time for her, as they had been in her childhood. Two
months without anything significant to do was too long, so for the
next seven or eight years her summers were well taken care of with
the preparations for, the actual three weeks of Bible school and the
clean up after. She slept little, ate little and lost about ten pounds each
summer during Bible school!
It was during the 1932 Bible school that Lillian became reacquainted
with Ivy Ratcliffe (Pawlak). Ivy was still living in the Vellhaven
School area. Signe Jelsing (MacLeod) was the teacher at Velhaven
and she and Ivy had become friends. Signe knew that Ivy read her
Bible every night and she encouraged her to go to to Bible school that
summer. And who should she encounter there but her old friend,
Lillian, who had brought her that birthday cake so many years ago!
Ivy was baptized at that meeting and a bond was formed between her
and Lillian that is still there today. Although they have seldom lived
in close proximity, their paths continued to cross and they were
always delighted to be able to pick up their relationship where it had
left off, probably because they share like professions, like interests
and like faith.
~
It was during summer Bible school that Lillian was introduced to a
new idea that expanded her view of Christianity greatly. One of the
teachers, Bro. Petch, emphasized that one of the main qualities of the
Christian was love; God loves us and we should love one another.
This was something new for her to think about. Partly because of her
upbringing, but also because of what had been emphasized at church,
she had a very legalistic idea of what Christianity was all about - "Do
what is right in doctrine and worship, and live correctly morally."
As she grew older, she realized that she had probably heard it before,
but this was the first time it really had an impact on her. To
emphasize love added a whole new dimension to her Christian life.
There was more depth to the Christian message than she had ever
realized, and it became her aim to grow in that quality of life. Her
thinking became more centred on love, compassion, kindness and
service; caring about people, and sharing the beautiful fellowship of
the church became much more important to her.
~
The Hungry Five made its first appearance during those summer
Bible school years. This was a self-named group of young teachers
who loved being together and especially loved eating together, hence
the name! The group consisted of Lillian, Signe and Lavine Jelsing,
Mary Curtiss and Clarice Hurlburt. They came to Bible school to
study God's word, which they did with intensity, but they also did
most of the cooking, cleanup and supervision.
One of their delights was to, after everyone was settled down for the
night, get together for a midnight snack. Their association with each
other was a wonderful serendipity. They all taught at schools in
southern Saskatchewan but their times together as a fivesome were
usually limited to summer Bible school.
However, there were a few times when they managed to get together
during the school year; several remember one very special weekend
they spent along with some other young Christian women. Perhaps
this was the first Women's Retreat in Saskatchewan?? They all
congregated at Norge School where Ellen Black taught. None of them
had cars, so all were brought there by accommodating friends. Earl
Jacobs was one who picked up several of the girls and brought them
over. Ellen lived in the basement of the school. The girls brought bed
rolls, just as at Bible school, and they had a wonderful weekend of
fun as well as more serious fellowship. Clarice took charge of the
Lord's Supper. They all returned to their respective classrooms on
Monday refreshed and reinvigorated.
1932
Summer Bible school moved to Radville the next year because Orrs
had moved to Peace River. They used the church building for classes;
the Hurlburt home was the girls' dormitory and a small house near the
church building was rented to use as a dining room.They set up tables
for twenty eight and fed more than a hundred! Of course they couldn't
afford to hire a cook, so along with everything else they did, the
teachers helped with the cooking. They all had a marvellous time,
teens, twenties, visiting preachers and wives.
Practical jokes were almost routine with these young people and the
Bible school of '32 was the setting for one of the best. A certain
young man who was that year's heart throb made amorous advances
towards several of the young ladies and while some of them
welcomed it, others, including Lillian, were rather indignant about it.
Shortly after Bible school ended, Cecil Bailey was visiting at the
Jacobsons and he and Lillian got into a discussion of this. She let him
know how disgusted she was with this fellow's assumptions, and
Cecil, always the wit, told her she'd better be careful whom she talked
to about it, because they might think she was just jealous he hadn't
shown an interest in her. That really set her off and the conversation
went pretty much like this:
"You know Cecil, men really ARE more conceited than women."
He teasingly responded, "Prove it."
"Most men think that when a girl looks at him she's in love with him
and all he has to do is say 'come' and she'll come running."
"Well," said Cecil, "You'll have to be more specific."
"This young man we've been talking about, HE certainly has a very
good opinion of himself! He thought all the girls liked him, but I
doubt if there's more than one who thought he was so great."
"Maybe, but I know that if I get friendly with a girl, she usually takes
it too seriously."
By this time, Lillian was beginning to seethe, "I wouldn't be a bit
backward in saying you have somewhat the same opinion of yourself
as he does!"
By this time, Cecil, always the tease, was in his glory and laughingly
said, "Well, I wouldn't doubt it at all that I could get quite a number
of 'yes' answers to the delicate question."
Lillian exploded, "You conceited man. I dare you to propose to five
girls, and I wish I could be there to see the beaten and humbled look
on your face when the answers arrive. Then you'd change your mind.
So come on, take up my dare! We'll prove which one of us is right!"
"Give me a list of the names."
And so she gave him the list headed by Lavine Jelsing and including
Signe Jelsing, Clarice Hurlburt and Mary Curtiss. And to her
knowledge that was the end of the story... Not so!
They joked about the dare a few times during that winter, but she had
pretty well forgotten it by the time the next summer Bible school was
in session in Radville. On the morning of the first day, Cecil came to
Lillian and said, "You've really gotten me into trouble!" He looked
upset, but said that he couldn't tell her then, because there were so
many people around. This happened several times during the day and
he looked increasingly distraught. She was worried about him, and
finally insisted they go for a walk so he could tell her what was
wrong.
He told her that he had taken up her dare and had written a letter of
proposal to one of the five girls she had listed, Lavine Jelsing. The
problem was, she had accepted! And he handed her the letter from
Lavine. As she read it, she thought it sounded a little flowery for
Lavine, but certainly it was in Lavine's handwriting. Cecil said, "You
got me into this mess and I have no intention of marrying her, so
you'll have to get me out of it!"
Lillian was disturbed to say the least. Her dear friend Lavine, so
proud and so reserved, was going to be humiliated when she told her
it was all done on a dare. But she knew she had to tell her. Sleep
eluded her that night as she agonized over how she was going to
straighten this mess out.
The next morning she asked Lavine to go for a walk with her, and as
they walked she tried to explain the situation - that Cecil's proposal
was not real, only a joke, a result of a dare. Lavine never said a word,
just looked mournful, then turned around and headed back to the
dorm. When Lillian came into the room where the Hungry Five slept,
there was Lavine, face turned into her mattress, quietly sobbing.
Lillian felt dreadful that she had brought her so much unhappiness,
but she was unable to console her and after a few minutes left.
Dinner was served about fifteen minutes later, and lo and behold,
there was Lavine serving and looking quite composed. "That was a
quick recovery." Lillian thought. After the meal, Cecil, Signe and
Lavine steered her into an empty room, Cecil closed the door and
Signe said, "It's all a joke!" Bewildered, Lillian said, "What's a joke?"
It took quite some time for her to absorb what had really happened.
She said to Lavine, "But you were crying!" and Lavine replied, "No,
I was laughing!"
Signe and Cecil had cooked up the joke and Signe had talked Lavine
into copying the letter that she and Cecil had written. She finally
agreed, and her superb acting had put the icing on the cake! Signe
and Cecil loved to play jokes on Lillian because she believed people
so easily and because she was such a good sport about it. This one
did take a while for her to recover from though; she had trouble
sleeping for several nights after! In retrospect, Lillian thought that the
most amusing thing about the whole escapade was that this was the
beginning of a relationship between Cecil and Lavine that eventually
resulted in marriage!
~
Lillian continued her responsibilities regarding summer Bible school
until the Spring of '38, and loved every minute of it. She was teaching
in Robsart and her superintendent was encouraging her to start taking
university classes during the summer, but she was too committed to
summer Bible school to consider doing anything else.
But then a letter arrived from a friend. You remember she had the
responsibility for handling the money and buying the food? He
suggested that maybe it would be a good idea if someone else took
over the responsibility of handling the money because he had heard
some criticism of her. It was reported that she was buying treats for
herself and her Hungry Five pals with Bible school money. She knew
right away what they were talking about because she had bought
cinnamon buns at the bakery - but with her own money!
She was hurt so deeply she couldn't even discuss it. She was hurt that whoever saw her buying the buns didn't know her well enough to know that she would never use Bible school money for her own pleasure; she was hurt even more deeply that the brother who wrote to her, and did know her, would even consider the possibility of her doing such a thing. So she quietly resigned from all of her Bible school duties and enrolled in university summer school. And so began another new phase of her life.
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