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The Conversion and Call of
David A. Jones
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A LOOK AT THE SECOND FLOOR
I eased my uncle's car into a position so that we could have a clear view of
a narrow space between two old houses. He looked quizzically at me
wondering what fascination a space between two houses might have. "Do you
see that window on the second floor?" I asked. Tears came to my eyes as I
told him that back in 1942, as a child of nine years, I came to know Christ
as my Saviour. A note of gratitude rose silently from my heart to God the
Father in Heaven. Then we drove away.
That was in the 1980's when I visited Winnipeg, Canada. My uncle had been
recently saved, so could enter into my joy. He had loaned me his car so I
could relive the most important event that anyone can have in life. |
PARENTS WITH A CONCERN
It was a cold night that 15th of February as my parents led me and my two
sisters along snowy Harbison Ave. Little did they know that something in
the Gospel meeting which had just finished in the East Kildonan Gospel Hall
had caused me concern about my soul. Father and Mother were active in the
local assembly, and Dad was an elder there. He also preached the Gospel
and ministered the Word in other halls. Sometimes I would go with him.
Both parents had a great desire that their children come to know Christ as
Saviour.
As I lay in the darkness in my bedroom on the second floor and, I was
concerned about my soul's salvation. I don't know who preached that night
but I was made aware of my personal need. I called my mother who thought I
wanted milk and cookies. She told me to go to sleep but I continued to
call.
Something in my voice transmitted a sense of needing more than food to eat.
Mother stood in the doorway of the bedroom and asked what I wanted. "I want
to be saved," was my reply. It must have been a thrill for her to hear
those words. |
JOHN 14:1-6
Bringing her Bible to my bedside, Mother turned up various Scriptures.
There was no need to "prove" I was a sinner and needed salvation. She read
the opening words of John 14 where the Lord Jesus speaks to troubled hearts,
as was mine. "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No man cometh unto
the Father but by Me." (vs.6) The simplicity of the words were
understandable to a young mind and right then and there I trusted Christ as
my Saviour.
A lady known as Auntie Dartnell was visiting my Mother one afternoon of that
same week and Mother called me to tell her what had happened in my life.
I fled downstairs to where my father was fixing something in his shop. My
Mother later expressed her disappointment that I had been reluctant to tell
what the Lord had done for me. "That won't happen again," I promised and
soon I was explaining the way of salvation to my sister Gwyneth. To my
surprise, she believed the truth and was saved. |
A TRAINING GROUND
At age fourteen, I had dreams of becoming a pilot, or a radio announcer, and
thought it would be nice to travel. I consciously shelved the idea of a
pilot for he had to work on Sunday. Radio announcing of worldly songs was
incompatible with Christian witness.
My parents moved from Winnipeg to Vancouver when I was fifteen. Later I went
to work at the Canadian National Telegraphs. Mrs Tom Hay (of Japan) would
periodically took me along with her sons for a car ride. She would drive
out to Deep Cove, a community about 15 kilometers from Vancouver. A desire
to start a Sunday School there was born in my heart. Deep Cove is nestled at
the foot of the mountains with a natural harbour for pleasure craft. Along
with Bill Hague, now my brother-in-law, we started a Sunday School work and
it proved a good training ground for several of us. We went door to door
with invitations to the Sunday School, and on numerous occasions were called
upon to defend our faith in Christ. It was a test of fire for young people,
having to respond to hard-bitten agnostics as well as to the main-line
church members who saw us as intruders in their closed society. |
A CONSTANT EXERCISE
With parents who supported missionaries and workers in a practical way,
serving the Lord was considered a privilege and the Lord's work was always
before our mind. Years later I realized that the letters read during family
Bible Reading when I was a child were in fact letters of acknowledgement
from workers.
While still in my teens and working for the Telegraph company, I sought a
transfer to the province of Newfoundland, on the opposite side of Canada to
Vancouver, British Columbia. Gospel work was taking hold in that province
and I was willing to go there to work and be a help. However, three
business offices I wrote all answered negatively, so I concluded that
Newfoundland was not in God's plans for me.
Evelyn and I were
married
in 1954. We had agreed that should the Lord call us into His
work, we both were willing to go. We were in fellowship in the South Main
assembly and continued to work in Deep Cove.
I wondered if Africa might be a place to which the Lord might call us, and
used to cull addresses from a list appearing in the Pen Pals wanted column
of the local newspaper. I wrote friendly letters and sent tracts. There
were interesting responses but none which resembled a call. |
 CHILE
COMES INTO FOCUS
Mr. Stenhouse visited Vancouver and he spoke of the need in Chile. The year
we were married, I transferred to the Meteorology office, and later became
an Air Traffic Controller at the Vancouver airport. The future was secure,
the pay was good, and from the world's standpoint, I was set for the next
twenty-five years at which time AT Controllers could retire.
Early in the 1950's, brethren Bill Funston, founder of HORIZONS magazine,
and Basil Boyd started a missionary prayer meeting in Mr. Funston's home.
If no missionary was visiting the city, they asked different brethren to
obtain information and give a report on some mission field. Argentina was
first, then Brazil and then they chose Chile as the next country. They
asked me to do the presentation. I used missionary magazine reports as a
data source to speak of the land that would become our adopted home. This
caused an increase in our missionary exercise.
Later, brother William McBride, who laboured in Chile, visited Vancouver and
brother Funston invited people to his home to have a visit with him.
Brother Funston insisted on us staying for a while to chat and left me alone
with brother McBride in a room. "Is there work for Air Traffic Controllers
in Chile?" I enquired. It was not a logical question, for such sensitive
positions are in the hands of nationals and furthermore, I couldn't speak
Spanish. "Anyone going to Chile goes to work full-time in the Lord's work",
was the clear reply.
Further contact with brother McBride produced an exercise of soul. He asked
me to pronounce some Spanish words and once he left Vancouver, he bought a
self-help book called Hugo's Spanish Simplified. He sent it to me by mail
with a note saying "Perhaps this book will be of some interest to you".
Were we being nudged towards service for the Lord in Chile? We had
purchased a home and our first daughter was soon to be born and these were
considerations we would have to take into account. |
PRAYING FOR GUIDANCE
My wife and I had been praying for some indication from God, and had set a
time limit as we waited upon God. If there was no guidance by a certain
month, we would conclude that our labours were to continue in the Vancouver
area. The book arrived about four days before the time period ended.
Different texts of Scripture seemed to speak to us but Exodus 33 was
particularly precious. It was when Moses was faced with a decision. He
said, "(13) Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight,
show me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy
sight: ... (14) And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will
give thee rest (15) And he (Moses) said unto him (Jehovah), If thy
presence go not with me, carry us not up hence." This seemed to sum up our
feelings.
Around this time, brother Funston asked me how long I was thinking of
staying at the airport and counseled me about serving the Lord abroad. I
told him of some indications I had received so he urged us to make our
exercise known to the brethren at South Main Gospel Hall. We had to sell
the house to pay the fare for the boat trip down to Chile. We would feel
confirmed if the house sold, and if it didn't sell by the end of August,
1959, we would take it off the market. On the second last day of the month,
a Greek man with a Russian wife who had arrived the day before from
Australia purchased our dwelling and by October, we obeyed the different
indicators God had given us to leave homeland, loved ones, and job
security. We arrived November 14th, 1959 at the port of Valparaíso. |
IN CONCLUSION
In the Conversion of an individual and a Call to the work, God uses
different circumstances to make His will known. I thank God for godly
parents, exercised elders, and an interested missionary whose input into our
lives helped us detect God's will as He called us to serve Him. Working
with others in Gospel activities in the local assembly also contributed to
our spiritual formation and experience in serving with others.
We thank God that our four children are all saved and along with their
spouses, are active in local churches. During the forty years we have
served the Lord in Chile, we recognize the value of the lessons learned
before we left and for the counsel given. Arnold Adams, who had served the
Lord in Cuba, wrote, "I am glad that you have decided to stop directing
people from the heavens to land on earth, and now will show people the way
to leave earth and go to Heaven". And the decision about being a pilot, or
a radio announcer, and traveling? The Lord allowed me to work in Air
Traffic Control and I also obtained my private pilot's license. Instead of
worldly music being presented on radio, the Lord has given me the
opportunity to produce a 15-minute daily gospel program which has been on
the air since 1963 in Chile. Furthermore, we traveled to one of the two
countries in the world considered to be in the "uttermost part of the earth"
from Jerusalem. May God be praised. |
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