the religious event of the year in Toronto. TBC (as most people referred to it) graduation ceremonies featured inspiring music from the well-trained college musical groups (mass choir, duets, quartets and solos) and soul-stirring congregational singing by the thousands of people in attendance. Ceremonies at my graduation were no different, except for one thing: I had been chosen to deliver one of the valedictorian addresses. What a thrill! For the first time in my life I would face three thousand people and declare what my years at the college had meant to me and more importantly what God’s Word and the Lord Jesus Christ meant to me. What an additional thrill it was to have my mom and nine siblings in the audience praying for me—and probably praying that I wouldn’t forget any of my lines! I was just as comfortable in front of thousands as I was in front of the 100 or so in my parish in Hamilton. It was also a joy to have a busload of parishioners from my parish in Hamilton in attendance.
Toronto Bible College was founded in 1894 as an interdenominational training centre for Christian young people who were considering full-time Christian service as a minister or foreign missionary and also for those who simply wanted to further their knowledge of the Bible and related subjects. In 1906 John McNicol became the principal of the school, and he continued in that position until 1946. However, Dr. McNicol continued his lectures until 1954, which meant that I was blessed to sit under his Spirit-filled ministry. He lectured from the series of books he had written, entitled Thinking Through the Bible, taking us students verse by verse through the Word of God. What a joy it was to take in his lectures!
On the occasion of Dr. McNicol’s 40th anniversary as principal of TBC, William Lyon Mackenzie King, then prime minister of Canada, wrote, “In our days at the University of Toronto, no undergraduate stood in higher esteem than John McNicol. That regard for his attainments of character and scholarship has grown with the years and today is recognized throughout Canada and the world.” No wonder Dr. John McNicol had such a profound influence on my life, both as a student and as a Christian leader, as did all the many professors of the college.
REACHING YOUTH
When I commenced my student pastorate, the congregation numbered around 30 (mostly older people). However, by the time I completed my three-year full-time pastorate, the attendance had more than quadrupled, with the majority of those being young couples and youth. Reaching youth for Christ has been one of the strongest aspects of my pastoral ministry. I have always believed that if a parish is to have a future ministry, it must reach out to youth in the present. I did so at this parish, my first, by holding gym nights in the local school during the fall and winter, playing softball with youth during the summer, and teaching a youth Bible class on Sunday mornings. What a thrill—in this parish and in all three of my parishes—to look out over the Sunday morning congregation and see so many youth, most of whom I had the joy of bringing into the church and, more importantly, into a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus.
MY ORDINATION
It was in this church that I was ordained to the Baptist ministry. How lovely that my mom (who had been diagnosed with cancer at that time) could be present for such an important milestone in her son’s ministry and hear her son introduced as the Rev. Ernest Nullmeyer. It sounded good to me too!
Marion was very active in the church, leading a monthly women’s group, teaching a teenage girls’ Sunday school class and visiting the sick and shut-in on her own and also accompanying me. Everyone in the congregation loved her. She was in excellent health at the time and had no idea—thank God—what was ahead in regards to her health.
MINISTRY TO YOUTH PAID OFF
Many years following my ministry in my first parish, I was preaching at an anniversary service in Toronto, and after the service a tall good-looking young man came up to me and said, “Do you remember me?”
I looked him in the eyes (eyes never change, even though other physical features do) and replied, “I think your first name is Ron.”
Well, that brought a big smile to his face, and he responded, “Yes, from Normanhurst Baptist. I came to Christ under your ministry there, and now I am an elder in this church.” That brought a huge smile to my face! He then introduced me to his lovely wife and children. Yes, I had through my preaching, teaching, and activities with the youth sown the seed of God’s Word, the congregants had watered it with their prayers, and God had brought it to fruition (1 Corinthians 3:5–7). Praise be to God!
A NEW PASTORATE
As I was approaching the end of three years at my first parish, I received an invitation to preach for a “call” (as Baptists call it) to a little downtown church in Barrie (Collier St. Baptist). The pulpit committee had visited my parish in Hamilton and liked what they heard and saw, particularly impressed, I am sure, with so many youth in the congregation. After hearing me preach, the members voted 100 percent in favour of issuing a call to me, and in March 1953 Marion and I moved to Barrie.
It was not long until the little sanctuary couldn’t accommodate the number of people that were attending. It was time to start looking for property outside of the downtown area. We purchased a property, and soon construction began of an edifice that would accommodate our large and growing Sunday services, Sunday school and weekday youth groups. While our new building was under construction we moved our services to a large Independent Order of Foresters (IOOF) hall. Dances were held there on Saturday evenings, so we had to have a large crew of volunteers turn up early on Sunday mornings to clean the place and set up 300 chairs. We then moved to an elementary school around the corner from our new location, which enabled us to use the classrooms for Sunday school classes.
The day we held dedication services in our beautiful new church building was one of the most exciting of my pastoral ministry, and what a joy to have my mom, brother and all eight sisters present for the grand opening!
During my nine-year ministry at what was now called Emmanuel Baptist, I had the joy of seeing the congregation grow exponentially from 40 to over 400. Much of the growth was due to my radio ministry on Wednesday mornings (Good News Broadcast) and our Sunday Evening Gospel Hour and maybe a little to my dynamic preaching style and also my appeal to youth. As occurred in my first parish in Hamilton, we witnessed amazing growth in that area of our church life. As I was still in my twenties in my early years at Emmanuel, I had the physical energy and stamina to be involved in all kinds of activities with the youth, including sports. What a joy to have many of our youth go into full-time Christian service and for many to go on serving our Lord in congregations wherever they settled!
While I was the pastor at Emmanuel, we were blessed with three boys coming into our lives: Barry, whom we adopted at six weeks of age, and Kevin and Bradley, sons that Marion gave birth to. Marion was a devoted mother to our three boys, taking an interest in every aspect of their lives and giving them the most important gifts a mother (or father) can give to their children: attention, acceptance, affirmation, appreciation and, above all, affection.
STORM CLOUDS APPEARING
While I was pastoring at Emmanuel, I began to notice radical changes in Marion’s health. She was showing signs of severe lethargy when trying to carry out her responsibilities as a homemaker and a pastor’s wife. We made a visit to our family doctor, which became the first of a long series of visits as he tried to diagnose what Marion’s health problem was. When he became stymied he sent us to an internist, who also was unable to ascertain the underlying cause of her continuous decline in energy.
Marion also had problems with breathing due to nasal polyps, and she had to go through eight miserable surgeries to remove them. It was yet another health challenge for her to deal with and dragged her down physically and emotionally.
Marion was seen by numerous specialists to try to diagnose her underlying medical problem, and she was prescribed many powerful medications to help lessen the pain she
