as I speak. But it's a joy for us to be with you in Calgary. We've never been to Canada before and we probably wouldn't have been here only for the family are here and it's lovely to be able to meet up with them again but above all with the church family. here in Calgary. We've often heard of Calgary, we've often prayed for you, but it's lovely to meet the people and to be able to put all the names that we've heard over the last nine or 10 months to the faces that we've heard about. So we're thankful to the Lord that we're able to be here, and above all, have a testimony to give to the saving and keeping power of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you have your Bible with you, you wonder, could you turn with me, please, to Isaiah chapter 43? Now, I am not the preacher tonight. You know, within the free church, we don't have women preachers, but I think it's important that we turn to God's Word. Isaiah chapter 43, some of these words we actually sang in our hymn this morning, How Firm a Foundation, and I thought, there's God sealing the Word for me here. Isaiah chapter 43, verse 1. But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, fear not, for I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy name, thou art mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee, and through the rivers they shall not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee, for I am the Lord thy God. the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior. And that's one of my favorite passages in Scripture, and often I've turned to that, and what comfort the Lord gives His people with these promises. What peace and confidence we can have in Christ when we know Him as our Savior. I'm sure some of you'll know that there are 365 fear nots in scripture, one for every day of the year. And each day we can claim those promises. But the part I love the most in that verse was one is, I have redeemed thee. We can be sure of our salvation. It's not, well, it's a might or a maybe. As I grew up in our home, we were often told, well, you might get to go there, or maybe we'll get doing that. And that always frustrated me. But our confidence is in God. He's not a God of mights and maybes. He said, I have redeemed thee. And that's so important that God's people remember that. When they've asked the Lord to be their savior, if they've asked him to wash away their sin, they can depend on him. They are redeemed. And so what a delight it is to be sure of our salvation. Well, I'm the youngest of four. I mightn't be young anymore, but I'm the youngest of four. And I was brought up in the west part of Northern Ireland in County Fermanagh. My parents were both saved in a gospel mission when I was just eight months old. And therefore, I can testify that I was brought up in a Christian home. I wasn't born into one, but I was brought up in a Christian home. At some time during my sixth year, my parents started to attend Lisbon Free Presbyterian Church. And I'm sure some of you are thinking we've never heard of that one. Well, Lisbon was the beginning of the Free Presbyterian Church in County Fermanagh. It started in a little bee hut, believe it or not. I don't actually remember what the outside of it looked like. I was very young. And there, that was the first of the little work there in County Fermanagh. All I remember is they had a basement. It was great fun to go downstairs to go to Sunday school. And I suppose it's something similar to here. And it was there at the age of six, just a few months after we started in that church. that one Sunday morning after Sunday school, I asked my Sunday school teacher if I could be saved. She was a dear sister in the Lord, Miss Ivy Lone, and she's now gone to be with the Lord. But for many years, she taught the boys and girls, a very quiet, unassuming lady, just went in and faithfully taught the word of God and was through her Faithful bringing off the word that Sunday morning that I got saved as she led me to the Lord and showed me my need of salvation. It didn't matter that I was only six years of age. I was still a sinner. I had been born in sin and therefore I was on the way to hell and I knew I needed to be saved. It didn't matter that I had never took any bad drink, as we might call it. I'd never smoked, I'd never gambled, I'd never been involved in the things of the world, but I still needed the Savior. And you might wonder, well, is this the end of your testimony? Well, for me, it's only the beginning. I was saved, but perhaps my testimony is more about how the Lord has kept me and how the Lord has led since that time. The work in Lisbon grew numerically and spiritually, and it was decided that a bigger building was going to be needed. And so they decided to go five miles down the road. Sorry, I forgot to calculate that one in kilometers, but we went five mile down the road to the capital town, as it were, the county town of Enniskillen, and their Bethel Free Presbyterian Church started in 1972, when that new building was erected for the work there. It was a very, very hot day. You'll know for Northern Ireland, that was very unusual. It was very, very hot that August day, and Because, again, I was only just over six, near seven at the time. I don't remember much of that day, apart from the huge crowds that gathered. The church was overflowing. The balcony was overflowing. And, of course, our members and ourselves, we were outside. We were old, hard pews that we sat on for two or three hours. And they had metal legs and were so hot. the metal legs sunk into the new tarmac on the ground. So that's my memories of that opening. And you might think, well, that's not very spiritual, but at that age, I can remember that so clearly. And the Lord moved that day and has moved since then. I have many fond memories of Bethel Free Presbyterian Church in Enniskillen, as God used his servants to preach the word. And so I just want to bring some highlights, you might say, or times of leading from the Lord, times that I can testify how the Lord has been so good to me and to us as a family since that time. During the summer that I was 12, Dr. Paisley came to our church in Inniskillen. He usually came on an annual visit. And on that Sunday, he preached on Romans chapter 12, verse 1. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. God's word pierced my heart that day. I realized my life was not my own. It had been bought with a great price. And God wanted me to be a living sacrifice. He didn't just want me to go to be in heaven when I died. He wanted me to serve him here. something or someone who was going to be useful to him and for him. And so that day I surrendered my life to the Lord. During the summer that I turned 15 years of age, the Whitefield College students came to Enniskillen, Whitefield College of the Bible. I was sent out with my piano accordion to accompany them. And I greatly admired these young people as they sang and testified around the different parts of County Fermanagh. I was in tow with my accordion. And there we had many wonderful times with those young people. I greatly looked up to them, the fact God had chosen them. I thought that must be something really special to be chosen of God in that way. And they must be really extraordinary people to be in that position. But you know, one of those evenings that I'd been out with them, when I come home, I opened my Bible, and there, as I did my reading that evening, the passage that I came to was Matthew 9, verse 37 and 38. Then saith he unto his disciples, the harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few. Pray ye, therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest. And as I read those verses, I thought, yeah, those are good verses, but they wouldn't be for me. He wouldn't want me to do such a thing. And so I thought, right, I don't particularly want to read those verses and to hear them if it is speaking to me. And so I turned over. I tried to run away, as it were, from those verses. I turned over to Luke 2. And I don't need to go down to verse 2 when I read the words and my heart sank. Therefore said he unto them, the harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth laborers into his harvest. And I thought, the Lord is definitely trying to speak to me here, and I'm closing the door, I'm turning my head away. And that night, and I still remember it clearly, I wrestled with God. Yes, I had surrendered my life to the Lord three years earlier, But surely he wasn't wanting me to go to the Whitefield College. You see, I'd really been counting down the years. and to when I would leave school. I had planned that, well, I had my life. Yes, I had surrendered my life to the Lord, but really what I was saying was, Lord, I'll do what you want me to do as long as it's the thing I want to do. And so that wasn't really making a lot of sense, was it? And I wanted to work with children. And I thought, well, I didn't like the thought of going to the college. I thought, really? I'm not really enjoying the studying part at school. I liked school. I liked, as my brothers would have said, I like break time, lunch time, and home time. I wasn't that keen on the studying part. And so the thought of two extra years in Bible college, I thought, hmm, would the Lord really make me do that? But you know, that night the Lord challenged me and he said, have you forgotten Romans chapter 12 verse 1? Have you forgotten that you've surrendered your life to me? And so that night I said, I'll do what you want me to do. I'll go where you want me to go. And the battle was over. The battle was fought. I never told anyone of that night. I felt I'm a bit young yet to tell anybody of those things until a certain young man started to appear at our church and in a skill. I tried to put him off as best I could. I was determined to follow God's will. Now that I was on the track, for sure, I was certain I wasn't going to be swayed to the left or to the right by anyone or anything. I couldn't seem to get rid of him. And I eventually sent him to my father, because if any Melissa would remember my father, he was not one to be fooled with. And so I thought, well, this is the way out. But somehow he managed to charm my father and charmed his way around him. And therefore, that's how we came to be together. And I told him straight from the start, look, I've given my life to the Lord. I feel the Lord is calling me to the Whitefield College and therefore I can't have any obstacles in my way. But he was very quick to reassure me that he would not be a hindrance to me going there or to serving the Lord. and I'll come back to that shortly. We were married three years later, and due to my husband's work, we were moved away from our families, from our home church, and that was our first time stepping out, as it were, on our own. But, you know, not only had we a free Presbyterian church close by, but a free Presbyterian family who lived beside us. The Lord just brings all things together for us. And they, we were very young, We thought we were probably older than what we really were. When you step out, you should think we're able for this. But we ended up having like adopted parents next door to us and that free Presbyterian family. One of the families in that church owned a children's clothes shop. I hadn't been able to get a job. And so he said, when you come work for me, you'll still be with children when they come in with their parents, when they're kicking and squealing, when mommy's trying to try things on them, you can try and calm them down and sell them some clothes. So that's what I did until Melissa was born. And I stayed at home with her. As I said, I had a great love for children. I thought, what's the point of me going out to work and leaving my child that the Lord has given me? to look after children when I'm not going to look after my own. And so I stayed at home with her and she was joined by our eldest son, Malcolm, two and a half years later. And so as the time drew near for Melissa to go to school, we were unsure as to what we should do. We had a local primary school, which we could walk her to. We could go to the local town school, was just a short distance down the road as well. But we were very concerned about her spiritual welfare. Our nearest Christian school was some 39 kilometers or 24 miles away, and that was going to be a long jaunt to bring her there, come home again, go again in the evening, come home again with a toddler in tow as well. And so we prayed for the Lord to give us a definite sign. We asked the Lord as Manoah had, how shall we order the child? Well, God answered that prayer in a very definite way. And just before her fourth birthday, she told us one evening that she wanted to get saved. And that evening we led her to the Lord and we knew we couldn't send her in under ungodly teachers. It was our duty to protect her by providing a Christian family, whether at home or at school. And so we started those long journeys down the road to Kiskeri Independent Christian School. And you know, the Lord sometimes will test us to see, well, how genuine are we? But after six months of starting school, the Lord provided a way for us in that we were able to move within 10 kilometers or six miles. off that Christian school. We were back to Fermanagh, back to our home roots you could say. And there Reuben was born and it seemed we were settled back, we were near our families and at our home church. And some of you met Reuben back two months ago here when he was here with his wife and their little one. While the children were small, I stayed at home. I did childminding. We did fostering. But as Ruben came the age to start school, I prayed the Lord would show me what to do. What would he have me to do? And the Lord had given me a great love for Christian education and for teaching and therefore I had qualified before we got married of a classroom assistant. And so I said to Mrs. Foster, the principal in Kilskerry, I'm a qualified classroom assistant. Would you have any position for me? I'd felt the Lord was leading me that way. I'd also a desire to help children with needs, but I wasn't sure which direction the Lord would have me to go. I knew Kilskerry had never had a classroom assistant before. And so I realized I'm sticking my neck out here a wee bit, we might say, but I felt, well, if the door's to open, well, then the Lord will open it for me. And so she went and spoke to the board members in her back, said, we want your testimony, we want your qualifications, and that I did. And so I started to work there part-time. I had the privilege of working under Mrs. Foster. Some of you, especially Northern Ireland people, might remember her, a lovely godly lady, a lovely example of a Christian mother and a godly teacher. And as a classroom assistant, I had the privilege of being under her teaching and seeing her way of working with those children was such a blessing to my own heart. You might ask, well, what about the Whitfield College? Has it gone by the wayside? No, it hadn't. I wondered that too, as we, were together as a couple for those couple of years. And I thought, well, we can't leave the Lord out of this. I had promised the Lord I would go and yet no voice seemed to come again. And at times I knew, well, the Lord hasn't spoken to me again. And yet I've clearly said to him, I'm still willing to go. But all was silent on that front. And it was after I went into the teaching and I, Then, just almost a year done in the school, when Mrs. Foster said to me one day, she says, Ruth, would you not think of doing the teacher training program? And I looked at her in amazement. As far as I was concerned, I was quite happy coming in and out each day. I was doing what I love doing, helping the children to read, to write, to do their maths, and do different things within the school. And I was quite content. And so when she said to me, Ruth, would you not consider teacher training? I just looked at her and I said, oh no. I was just so sure, no, no, that's not for me. But that Easter time, the Reverend, One of our ministers, the name's gone from me now, I wasn't intending on saying this, only for I happened to tell someone about it at lunchtime, and I thought, well, maybe I should include it. Porter, that's the name, come back to the name there. And he preached on, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. And he spoke there of how sometimes we can be serving the Lord, but are we really putting our shoulder to the plough? Are we really doing all we can for the Lord? And as I saw myself, I said, yeah, I doodle in and out of the school. I do my bit and I come home and I say to the family, but am I really giving my all? Could I give more to the Lord? And so that verse had really stuck with me. And so I back in to Mrs. Foster after Easter time. And I says, look, you spoke to me about that. The Lord has spoke to me about it since. I feel I should start the teacher training program. And so I started a part-time degree through Queen's and Strandmillis. They do a joint degree there in Northern Ireland for teacher training. And so I started that on a part time basis. And guess what? Part of that training was through our Christian Education Board. You went one week each year for four years to the Whitefield College of the Bible. And it wasn't until I was in the college, the first night, you had to stay over there, and it just hit me. This is the Whitefield the Lord was talking about. And I hadn't failed him after all. He hadn't cast me off. I was in the Whitefield. And I remember saying to Mrs. Foster afterwards, and she said, sometimes Ruth, the Lord tests us, brings us to the brink. Are you willing to do it? He might necessarily ask us to go there. He might make us go there as it were, but he'll test us to see, are we willing? How are we going to keep to that promise of surrender as we had once said? And so the Lord makes no mistakes and we're so thankful that we can be in the Lord's will. The year 2000 was a tough one for us as a family. We had two very difficult circumstances. And one of those was my mother's diagnosis of cancer. and subsequent deaths. In 2002, my niece died suddenly in a road traffic accident just 10 days before her wedding. In 2004, my father passed away after being diagnosed with cancer for the third time. But through all of those difficult circumstances, I was very conscious, and we are very conscious of the Lord's presence and help. And even though so many years ago, it's hard when you lose a mom. In 2002, my husband had also started to teach part-time in Kilskerry after completing his degree. And that meant going to school was a family outing. That was mom, dad, and three kids all went in the car to school. And just before Easter 2005, My husband had been going up and down to Bangor and County Down to help out. They were short-staffed at that time. And he rang me one evening just before Easter holiday break. And he says, I think you need to sit down till I tell you what I've been asked. So I said, okay. And he says, we are being asked, would we be willing to leave Enniskillen and to go to Bangor? They need two teachers there and one to be a principal. And to us, that was mind-boggling. Number one, we just got back to, as it seemed, our hometown, our home church, our family again. And another thing, to go there, to a strange part of the country, and to take on this responsibility, to us, well, it really rocked us, as it were. And so, We agreed to pray about it, and over the next few weeks, the Lord clearly guided and directed us saying, this is the way, walk ye in it. So in August, 2005, we left our hometown again in the West to move to the East of Northern Ireland, to the town of Bangor, as it was at that time, almost 160 kilometers, 100 miles away. Now to us in Northern Ireland, that's a long, long way. I know to you folk here, It's only a little run down the road, but to us back there, it's a long distance. And we were sad to leave our family and friends, but we were excited to have had such clear guidance from the Lord. We felt humbled that God should choose us and call us to serve him in such a way. Because working in the Christian school, it is a service. I know out here, you're used to having Christian schools. Back at home in Northern Ireland, there's only five of them in the whole province that are under the Free Presbyterian Church movement. And it's not what you call a popular place. Sad to say, many parents don't want Christian education. We don't know all the reasons behind that. Some maybe think it will not bring them to the standard of other schools. Well, God honors them that honor him. And we've seen that with our own children. Two of ours have went to Queens and Belfast and managed through it. Melissa being one of them. And our other boy, well, he was more a hands-on guy. He didn't want any university. So the Lord doesn't hold back on his people when we give to him. And so we, as they say, felt humbled that the Lord should call us. And that is now 20 years ago next month. And the Lord has been so good to us. He's provided our every need. Our children have all grown up and we are thankful that each one of them are saved and have godly spouses. At present, we've eight grandchildren with a ninth on the way that you all know about. And there have been those times where there have been difficulties, which I have mentioned some of them there. You know, it was great to have that solid rock that we are on, that we can trust in the God of our salvation. We are still teaching in Bangor Independent Christian School, and I still really love working with the children. And it's lovely to see so many children in the congregation here, Sunday by Sunday. I have on occasion said to the children in Bangor, don't be too eager to leave school. The Lord might call you back in to work there for the rest of your life, because that's what happened to me. But he gives you a joy in what he wants you to do, doesn't he? He doesn't ask you to do something that you're going to regret or hate or think, oh, I have to go and do this today. I really love my work with the children. And we can truly say as a family, the Lord have done great things for us. We're off. We are glad. The move here to Calgary has brought about some changes for us all. We've been left with a very quiet house, a very, very sad house at times as we miss all the little people next door. But it's always exciting to hear the call of God. And we could hear that in Melissa and Nathan's voices as they talked about their move to Calgary. It was evident that the Lord had called them with the excitement that they had and by the Lord's leading. And so we're so glad for the church family. When we went to make our move to Bangor, it's good to have a church family you're going to. A cousin of mine, an unsafe cousin, said to an aunt of mine when we went to move across the province, she always called me wee Ruth because I was the youngest in the family, how is wee Ruth going to cope away so far from home and from her family? My aunt said to the unsafe cousin, sorry, and my unsafe cousin says, but you in the free church, you are a family of yourselves. And I thought, is that wonderful that an unsafe person can see that? And that often came to mind as the family were leaving to come here, that you were going to be their new family as it were here. And we are so thankful that you've been such friends to them, such helpers to them. You've brought great comfort to them. You've brought comfort to us knowing that they are being looked after. And we have seen evidence of that even in the past week. Some people think that life as a Christian must be dull. Some people might think, well, that's not a very exciting testimony you have. Well, to me, it's exciting because I'm in the Lord's will and he saved me and he's kept me. God's will is, God's way is a perfect way. As for God, his way is perfect. He doesn't make any mistakes. And it's wonderful to know if we're in the will of God, well then that way is the way God wants us to be. And what I wonder tonight, how do you stand before the Lord? Do you know him as your savior? Have you that assurance that you are the Lord's If not, why not come tonight and seek Him as your Savior? Ask Him to forgive you of your sins. We're so thankful for that promise in John 6, verse 37. Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. For those that are saved, it's good to remind ourselves of Romans 12, verse 1, that we are to be that living sacrifice. Holy, acceptable unto God, which is our reasonable service. He doesn't ask us way above that which we're able to do. He just asks us for a reasonable service. Young person, older person, have you not just given your heart, but have you given your life to the Lord? The Lord gives you a love for that which he calls you to do. I'm reminded of that hymn, I have only one life on this earth, and as vapour is passing away, I must labour for treasures of worth ere toil ends at the close of the day.