A PRAYER ANSWERED chapter 130

With the help of Lorraine Willems, Melanie Boldt and my vague memories, we have pieced together many of those who went from University Drive Alliance Church off to Bible College and many who entered ministry. The problem with any list is that it is always incomplete. Names are accidentally missed. What thrilled me is that Mrs. Bowker and I were happy to know the results of prayers far exceeded the ten we were praying for. After four years in Saskatoon there were eleven at Bible College. But it did not stop there. It snowballed. From 1966 until I completed my teaching career at Canadian Bible College I counted over 50 from Saskatoon. I tried to count only names I remember or recognized. They may all have been from University Drive.

This is our partial list of students from Della and my Saskatoon days who were or are in ministry:

Joan Ardell - married Darrell Schultz and they pastored in SK and BC,

Wayne Boldt - pastoring in Moose Jaw (CMA) 2012

Holden Bowker – Bowker Brothers and currently director Haven Ministries 2012

Carol Doerksen - served at Circle Drive Alliance as bookkeeper.

Ken Driedger and Melaine (Boldt) - Western Canadian District Superintendent, Calgary, AB 

Tom Fehr and Audrey (Thiessen) - pastored in Cold Lake, AB

Dorothy Hildebrandt – was married to a minister

Lynette Miniely married a pastor and may be in Montana 2012

Bob Peters – Canadian Midwest District Superintendent, deceased

Kevin Peters is a professor at Prairie Bible College 2012

Diane McCombs - married Garth Froese. - Was youth pastor at Circle Drive

Errol Rempel – Pastor Seven Oaks Alliance Church, Abbotsford, BC

Ken Siemens pastored in Nunavut NWT.
Lorraine Willems married Murray Boldt - pastor in BC

If you know of others who were or are in ministry and were high school youth from University Drive between 1966-1971, please add their names in the comments.

I do not share the belief that a full time ministry must be for life, nor do I believe that any one person is ever the sole one responsible for impacting any one life toward following and serving God. We all are where we are because of the influence of many. When I turned 50, I tried to write as many as I could of those when had a major impact on my life. I wanted to thank them for helping me become the person I was. I did not reach all, but many.

While some whose lives we touch fall away, we rarely know the final story, and may not even know it at the end of life. We rise, we serve, we fall, we fail and the pattern may repeat several times. “For all have sinned.” That includes those of us who are and have been in ministry. I have been angry, impatient, demanding, overbearing, controlling and other things some of you may know and things I don’t want to put in writing, but I love the Lord and am grateful that he loved even me. Isn’t Gods grace wonderful?

I am proud as punch of all the youth from this, my first full time ministry. I am grateful to have had a very small part in their lives as they have pursued their walk with God. I am just glad to have known them. I am grateful that we basically got along. I didn’t know anything. I just love ‘em and longed to see them find and walk with God.

Only those youth from those days will remember that the great revival that hit Saskatoon in 1972 began with the youth. They came to prayer meetings, they poured their hearts out to God. He was present at camps long into the early mornings. I remember the year Les Hamm spoke at camp and we both stood in awe around the campfire watching Gods hand move around the circle. I have never seen anything like it since.

We were living in Vancouver when the revival broke out and one of those kids wrote to say some adults seemed concerned that the revival was not having the affect on them that it was on the adults. That person wrote, “God had already come to us.” It was true. The large number who went off to Bible College and those who entered ministry as just a small indication of what God had done.