Great Faith, Little Things

One of my ongoing tasks is to update and reintroduce several volumes of stories of significant

people who are part of the history of the movement known as The Fellowship of Evangelical Baptist Churches in Canada.

I would not normally publish one of those edited stories on my website, but I absolutely love the one I worked on today and just had to "tell" it to you.

I didn't have the privilege of knowing Arthur and Hazel Bateson, though back in the day when I was travelling among our Fellowship churches as a missionary I did meet their daughter and son-in-law, Elizabeth and Doug Trigg who provided the information that follows.

What is most significant to me is the humility and faith of this couple. See if those qualities strike you as well.

Arthur was born in England on March 6, 1910, to missionary mother Elizabeth (McLelland) and army father Thomas Bateson. Arthur’s mother died when he was just six weeks old, and he was taken in by his grandparents and his father’s sister, Aunt Mary. Mary was a devout woman, a widow whose husband had been called to war on their wedding day and died in action six months later. She carried Arthur to bed each evening and taught him to say the Lord’s Prayer. When Arthur was ten, his father remarried, and Arthur immigrated to Canada with his father, stepmother, and elder sister Nina in search of a better life. It was the era of the Great Depression, and Arthur helped with the family income by becoming a bicycle delivery boy in Toronto for a meat market. In his teens, he displayed an aptitude for art and harboured dreams (which remained unfulfilled) of becoming a commercial artist. At one point, he fell in with dissolute friends and began to drink.

One day, at age 20, he had a business appointment at a restaurant with a man named Bud Wright. The conversation later turned to spiritual matters. Arthur was invited to dinner the next Sunday, followed by an evening evangelistic service. There he committed his life to Christ, marking a profound turning point. He put away his old habits and began a new life. At first he had no idea how to pray, but the words of the Lord’s Prayer came back to him from so many years before, and he began by using it. When he tried to witness to his father, he was kicked out of the home. Having nowhere to go on a cold January evening, he went to a Chinese restaurant he used to frequent, sat down, and began to read his Bible. The owner, seeing this, remarked that he hadn’t liked Arthur coming to the restaurant in former times because of his bad behaviour. Now that he was one of God’s children, would he like to come home for fellowship and stay the night? Their reading took them to Psalm 27:10: “When my father and mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up.” That was exactly what had happened. So he began a life dedicated to Christ, and God provided for Arthur’s needs over and over again.

Recognizing the call of God on his life, Arthur enrolled at Toronto Bible College, where he completed his studies in 1934 in preparation for full-time Christian ministry. During this time, he became a youth leader at Forward Baptist Church in Toronto. While there, he met Hazel Salisbury, who was destined to become his wife and partner in ministry. She was preparing for a life in God’s service through studies at Toronto Bible College and through nursing training. The two harboured a desire to serve in China, but Hazel was pronounced medically unfit for foreign service. Arthur began work with the Shantymen, ministering to seamen on the docks in Montreal. Eventually, he responded to a plea for help from the Associated Gospel Churches to begin a work in the small community of Blind River on the north shore of Lake Huron. Part of the plan was to reach out to lumbermen who were isolated in the woods for months at a time in the winter. When Arthur arrived at the outskirts of the town, feeling overwhelmed by the task before him, he stopped by the side of the road, below the water tower, and knelt by the running board of his car to pray for God’s blessing on the ministry about to be undertaken. He began by holding meetings in Blind River itself. After freeze-up, he also hiked far into the bush by snowshoe to various logging camps to conduct services. In 1936, Hazel and he were married and established themselves in Blind River as church planters.

Their work expanded to include holding meetings on week nights in five or six tiny outposts, including Sprague, Hooverville, Thessalon, and native communities on Manitoulin Island. These latter would show their appreciation in part by periodically leaving beaver tails on the Batesons’ doorstep. They lived by faith alone; there was no such thing as a salary. If money was left over after the church’s expenses were met, then Arthur and Hazel would be given something. People from the little congregation would drop off fish, food, or clothing from time to time, and a bit of money would come from supporters “down south” in Toronto in the form of sporadic love offerings. When the finances became more reliable, a regular stipend of $12 per month was gratefully accepted. Somehow God helped the money stretch, and the little family, which now included David (1941) and Elizabeth (1943), fared as well as their friends and neighbours in those hard times. Meanwhile, the little church in Blind River grew to eventually become self-sufficient. God blessed the efforts of Arthur, Hazel, and others in the north, and among the many who were saved, several became missionaries.

Many inspiring stories were told about the Blind River days, including the following.

A group from the Salvation Army called to announce their plans to visit the congregation and stay with the Batesons. At the time, there was no food of any kind in the house, and Hazel wondered what to do next, as she had no money to buy any. She and her good friend Doris Wilkinson, or “Aunt Do,” who lived in the home, were studying their Sunday School lessons with their feet propped on the oven door for warmth when there was a knock at the door. Opening it, they found no one there, only bags of groceries. They contained everything needed to put together a Sunday meal for the guests. Coincidence? Hazel knew it was not. God had answered prayer yet again.

Another time, Arthur had to pay the electricity bill, but he was ten cents short (a not-insignificant sum at the time). He set out to walk across town with the money he had, wondering how to make up the shortfall. As he walked, a glint of reflected light caught his eye. There, embedded in the ice along the sidewalk, was a coin. It was not a nickel or a penny, but a dime. Once again, God had provided for a need through the unexpected and honoured those willing to trust Him to provide for their needs.

In 1948, Arthur accepted a call to Beulah Baptist Church in Toronto, a young, struggling congregation. The church met in a rented building in Mimico but had a parsonage available for the Bateson family to live in. That work also progressed to the point that a building project was launched. The time came when Arthur felt he needed to demonstrate God’s faithfulness in his own life. He advised the Beulah congregation to sell the parsonage and apply the proceeds to the building project. He and his family would live as other members of the congregation did, paying their own accommodation expenses. The new church building was erected, and the congregation became well established in their new quarters.

Arthur and family, after years of renting, prayed for a way to become homeowners. In answer, one day they received $500 from friends in the USA, which they used to buy land and begin construction of a house, another act of faith. Friends brought other friends, and a “house-raising” began. The men were housed in the church basement, and the ladies of Beulah helped by feeding the work crew. A great setback occurred when Hurricane Hazel hit the city. The basement filled with water, destroying the new cement floor, while the oil tank floated away down the street. The floor was repoured, the house was completed, and the family moved in for the rest of their stay in Toronto. Arthur ministered there for eight years. Once again, several pastors and missionaries were sent out from a relatively small congregation.

In 1956, Arthur was diagnosed with throat cancer, forcing him to stop preaching. He made a down payment on a lodge at McKeller Lake near Parry Sound. The family moved there and ran the lodge with the dream of creating a Christian retreat for families, pastors, and missionaries. It was strenuous work and not especially profitable. Hazel’s health began to suffer. It soon became clear that other means of service were needed. Fortunately for the whole family, the cancer diagnosis was wrong, and Arthur’s throat healed, leaving him able to consider pastoral duties again.

The next phase of ministry began in 1959 as an area representative for the Leprosy Mission. British Columbia was the location, and Arthur really enjoyed this work, as it involved travel all over beautiful B.C. A highlight of this time was the opportunity to take a trip around the world, visiting mission hospitals and communities of lepers so he could more accurately portray the plight of the people the mission was endeavouring to help. That, too, was a life-changing experience, and Arthur threw himself into the cause with renewed vigour when he returned. He inspired many in British Columbia with the good work being done by the Leprosy Mission, and they responded by giving generously. Meanwhile, Hazel was in demand as a speaker to ladies’ groups and spearheaded a women’s auxiliary for the mission. The ladies met regularly to roll bandages, package bundles of stamps gathered to generate revenue for the mission, and pray.

While living in B.C., Arthur drove one day with his daughter, Elizabeth, into town to do some banking. When they met again, he told her he had just borrowed a year’s salary. He would give it as an offering to the Lord, trusting that his own needs would be met. Although Elizabeth thought that irresponsible at the time, she can only look back now and marvel at the level of faith. It has served as an example for us to build on in our own family life and that of our children. Arthur served in British Columbia until 1967, before being called back to Ontario to take on similar responsibilities for eastern Canada. It was difficult to leave his beautiful British Columbia, where so many lasting friendships were made while travelling for the mission. Some of those folk corresponded with Hazel for years after Arthur’s homegoing, even though she had never met many of them.

Arthur finished his career in this Christian ministry in Ottawa in 1972, where he and Hazel retired. Shortly thereafter, the Blind River church invited Arthur and Hazel back to join them in thanksgiving for God's blessing on the fortieth anniversary of the church's founding. As they drove into town, Arthur suggested to Hazel that they take the old road rather than the new highway. When they reached the spot where Arthur had knelt to pray beside his car in 1936, over 40 years earlier, they were overwhelmed to discover that the new church building had been built at that very spot, just below the water tower. Here was another illustration of how God indeed answers prayer in ways we can never foretell.

In 1982, God called Arthur, His faithful servant, home to be with Him in glory. Hazel, though crippled by arthritis, continued in ministry. This was demonstrated by her love for and thoughtfulness toward others, and by her characteristic cheerfulness, and was attested to by a large number of people who wanted to be near her in church and in her home. They were irreverently called her “entourage.” Hazel joined Arthur once again in 1998. She was mourned at her funeral by an overflow crowd. One feature during the service was a pair of red shoes, which Pastor Gordon MacLeod had tracked down and arranged to be fastened on top of the casket. Those in attendance listened spellbound as he described the following event in Hazel’s life of faith, in the large as well as the small things of life.

Arthur and Hazel had bought a van and decided to travel from Ottawa to B.C. to holiday and visit friends. Hazel had severe arthritis, which had badly deformed her hands and feet. She had vainly shopped everywhere she could think of for very wide, size-six shoes that would fit and be comfortable. She prayed about shoes and, specific as she always was in prayer, added, “Red shoes would be nice, Lord.” En route to B.C., she tried every store she could find, especially the “Sally Ann,” where she thought she might find a pair already broken in, but the search was futile. In Vancouver, they had dinner with old friends, Elsie and Joe. At the end of the evening, Elsie said, “Oh, Hazel, could you use a pair of shoes? Margie (a mutual friend from the women’s auxiliary) gave them to me, but they don’t fit.” Hazel, with a confident smile, replied, “I surely do need a pair, and if they are red, they will fit!” Yes, they were red, and they did indeed fit. Hazel completely wore out those shoes. Then she hung them over her washing machine to remind her of God’s faithfulness.

Throughout their lives, Arthur and Hazel Bateson had an impact on many lives because they exemplified the Christian life lived well and faithfully followed God’s calling wherever He led. A number of those Arthur won to the Lord went on to full-time Christian service. Many others established Christ-centered families, and we today rejoice to see the faith passed down from generation to generation.

This story is from Trailblazers Book Two.