Later Childhood: God's Protection during Bombing
Len: Welcome to A Willing Heart to Please the Fa ther! This is Len Lacroix, and I'm here tonight with Dr. Andrew Stenhouse, and we're going to be talking about his later childhood experiences tonight. So I want to welcome you back, Andrew, to the program.
Dr. Stenhouse: Yes…
Len: So when you were back in England, being raised there, any other things that you want to talk about, regarding your Christian upbringing or about any of the wartime experiences?
Dr. Stenhouse: Wartime was a miserable time. Then we were evacuated next to Scotland, where my grandparents lived—my grandmothers. And with this going on, the train that we went on was being bombed. And I tried to reassure my mother and sister that it was going to be all right, that Jesus was going to take care of us. And sure enough, nothing happened to the carriage or to the engine or the train. We got through all right from London to Scotland.
And I was able to go up and down corridor of this long carriage and tell people, “It's going to be all right. Jesus is with us. He’ll take care of us.” That was the way we did in getting into Glasgow.
Len: Yeah, very interesting
Dr. Stenhouse: When we arrived in Scotland, where there were a lot of things going on over the water, there were planes crashing into each other—pushing and getting things taken care of in the air. Because across from where we were staying in Scotland, there was a loch (lake) called the Holy Loch. And the submarines were being produced in the Holy Loch, and Germany was anxious to get rid of them, and so that was a trauma for us.
When I went to school, we would see planes from Germany and planes from England and Scotland, fighting each other as we were going to school, over the waters of the west coast of Scotland. And so, it was quite interesting and not very nice to see ships being bombed and planes falling into the water.
And at the time, it was difficult for me to understand what was going on, in a way. But I was very close to the Lord; He was very close to me, and it was just a joy to do anything in regard to serving Him or in any way pleasing Him. And during this time, we were offered the opportunity to win a Bible by memorizing Psalm 1 and Psalm 145; and a wonderful Jewish gentleman said he would give us a Bible when we were able to do this. And so anyway, being a bit of a bad guy, in a way—no, not a bad guy, but a guy that wants to do things in a hurry, I went into the bathroom for the Sunday school class and started to learn Psalm 1. So, I can really remember Psalm 1 well. And so, Psalm 145 was a little more difficult and took me several weeks to learn that. And as a result of that, my mother got my Bible. I got a Bible and I gave it to her, and she used it as her favorite Bible for the rest of her life.
Len: Wow!
Can you share about how you came to know the Lord?
Dr. Stenhouse: Yes, I’d like to share that. To me, it was a very special thing when I came to know the Lord. It was really earlier in my life that I had a love for Him and a trust in Him and a faith in Him that couldn’t be explained on a natural means. And so, when I came to know the Lord, I didn't get baptized until I was a little later, but then I realized the importance of being baptized, and that was what I did. And, I can still remember the details of my baptism. It seems to me that a baptism for some is a most important part of their salvation.
Len: Definitely.
Dr. Stenhouse: Not that you won't be saved if you don't get baptized, but if you are disobedient to the Lord about baptism, it seems to hold back your relationship with the Father.
Len: Yeah, it does. So, was it in a baptismal fount or outside in a lake or river that you were baptized?
Dr. Stenhouse: I was baptized inside the church. And I was totally immersed in the water, and came up and felt quite different. It was something very special.
Len: Yeah, and like you said, there's nothing more important than an individual having a relationship with the Lord.
Dr. Stenhouse: Yes, you know, today as you look around the world, the world is not in any way relating itself to the Heavenly Father or to our Creator or our Redeemer or the Holy Spirit.
Len: Right.
Dr. Stenhouse: And this is different than it was even fifty, sixty years ago, or even when I was baptized. And my concern today is for everybody to have a relationship, not with religion, but with the Heavenly Father and with His Son the Lord Jesus Christ and to come into a knowledge of the Holy Spirit through the Lord Jesus Christ.
So this is the reason really why I would like to just explain a little bit about my life and about the way the Father takes care of us, Jesus takes care of us, and the Holy Spirit takes care of us all through our lives, no matter what we do. We’re not perfect, but if we have a desire to please Him, then that’s what He wants.
Len: That's right.
Perhaps you could tell us that story about your favorite hymn in Sunday school. Can you talk about that a little bit?
Dr. Stenhouse: Well, yes, I was asked during a Sunday school class that we had by a visiting preacher.
And he said, "Any of you kids got a favorite hymn?"
And of course, I put up my hand and said, "Yes, sir! Yes, sir, I do! ‘There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emanuel's veins, and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.’” And so, we were able to sing that hymn; and I just felt so lovely about the Father and about Jesus shedding His blood for us all.
Len: Hallelujah. Well, that is excellent, and that's going to conclude our second segment on your later childhood. I want to thank you for sharing these things with me tonight and with our audience, and I look forward to our next talk together, when we talk about your teen years. So until then, thank you very much. And, have a good night, Andrew.
Dr. Stenhouse: You too, Len. Thank you.