Faith stories - Ian
Tell us a little about yourself:
There are numerous ways by which we identify people. I learned once in a training course that when introduced to someone new it is not enough to simply say your name – it is more memorable to add a fact that will identify you.
We can be identified by numbers, by relationships, by activities, by likes & dislikes and no doubt many other things. I won’t try to include them all so as to keep this account brief.
Numbers (the boring bit)
01/02/19** (the last 2 digits not significant!).
14/02/1972 our marriage.
5/2/2022 - @05.15 heart attack – ambulance arrived within 10 minutes, blue light trip to ERI, stents inserted on 7th. This was my first time in a hospital bed.
15/07/2023 Nan, my dear wife of 51 years was called home.
Golf handicap maybe 22 if I was serious enough to apply for an official handicap.
Membership in BEC about 42 years.
Relationships
I started research around year 2000 into the family tree, based on a list prepared by my mother for the purpose of sending birthday cards to family. It was a frustrating exercise, but I gradually built up a tree of about 1,000 people, most of whom I obviously did not know. Trying to research back into history usually hit a dead end around 1840 which is when registration became compulsory. However, a cousin with similar interests employed a professional researcher and recently sent me evidence of links back to 1277 - to the birth of one of Scotland’s national heroes. Suffice to say I have visited his grave in Dunfermline Abbey. His heart is interred in Melrose Abbey (that’s on my bucket list). I don’t know whether to be proud of this link – it is difficult to imagine life in those days and the motivation and ruthlessness he needed to achieve his ambitions.
Another link is to someone more suited to be a role model – Professor F F Bruce (1910-1990) was my mother’s cousin. He has been described as “the greatest Bible scholar of our age” (Laurel and Ward Gasque in their tribute in the Harvester magazine of November 1990) and “the greatest New Testament scholar of his generation and one of the humblest and wisest Christians I have known” (Michael Green in his forward to “The hard sayings of Jesus”). A graduate of Aberdeen University, his path ultimately took him to Manchester University where he was to become the John Ryland Professor of Biblical Criticism and Exegesis. He was a prolific author, and I can recommend his books to any serious Bible student. I am currently reading his book “The hard sayings of Jesus” , having completed “The spreading flame”, “The New Testament documents – are they reliable” and “The Real Jesus”. Next will be his autobiography “In Restrospect”. His knowledge and understanding of life, language and literature at the time of Jesus is unsurpassed. His knowledge of Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic are just 3 of the many languages he knew. Sadly, I never had the opportunity to meet him.
My final “hero of the faith” would be my father-in-law, Sam McVee. Probably little known to today’s generation but as a popular gospel preacher and teacher he was often asked to speak at Brethren meetings. His story deserves to be told. He enlisted in the army during WW2 and after serving in North Africa his regiment was shipped over to Crete to oppose an anticipated invasion by the German army. When the Germans invaded resistance was futile and he was taken prisoner. He was imprisoned in a POW camp in Germany, where he searched out other Christians and together, they requested permission from the camp commander to hold gospel meetings in the camp. The camp hall was often packed out. His wife arranged for hymn books and Bibles to be sent to the camp, and there in the most unlikely of circumstances, a great harvest of souls was won for the Lord. He told me once that he had been challenged by a fellow Christian about joining the army rather than take the more common route for Christians of being a conscientious objector. His answer was in the form of question – “do you think there is any sphere of life where God does not have His witness?”. There was no answer to that. He lived near us and together our families attended the gospel hall in Dalkeith, before joining BEC. He was my principal adviser on which books to acquire and read. I married his daughter, Nan, in 1972. We had the privilege of providing accommodation for him to come and live with us for a few years after the death of his wife.
I cannot finish this section on relationships without including my dear wife, Nan. She was a friend of our family for a few years before we married, which meant she was part (a big part) of my life for almost all my life. In writing this I have just remembered that, as she had passed her driving test in the USA, she sat beside me on my first drive in the family car when I got my provisional licence, aged 17. She survived the experience and I passed the test 3 months later! When we moved to BEC she became involved in running the mothers and toddlers’ group and especially excelled in providing hospitality in our home. New students, visitors and church members were all made welcome for a meal, and all went home satisfied. For much of her life she suffered from osteoporosis but never let it hinder her. Latterly she developed a lung disease which necessitated the use of an oxygen machine provided at home by the NHS (who even paid for the electricity to run it). During her last week at home the family gathered round, including my three granddaughters who flew in from Switzerland. A lasting memory is her reply to Naomi who tried to encourage her to eat. She said *I don’t want to eat, I just want to go home,” and that is what she did on 15 July 2023. We had been married for 51 years.
Activities
In Mum & Dad’s home in Dalkeith we had a piano. I never had the patience to become proficient, but my sister, Doreen and Nan were good enough to accompany singing. Often after a meeting we would gather round the piano with all the young people and just sing our heads off, mostly from Sankey’s Hymns & Solos. This activity evolved into 4 part and even 5-part harmony singing with my elder brother Stewart, my sister, Doreen, my wife to be, Nan, a friend Alex Brady and myself. Music was not written in 5-part harmony but Alex wrote his own line of music. It became known that we sang and we were deemed good enough to be invited to churches, mission halls, gospel halls to sing and preach. So the Eskvalley Quintet was born. We also split and three men formed a trio and the ladies sang duets. Singing became a large part of our winter activities. Saturday night tea meetings were popular in some places, and we were invited to places ranging from Kelty in Fife, to Paisley in the west, Galashiels and Hawick in the south and many places in between. Singing therefore became a big part of my life. When I started work, I joined the Edinburgh Gospel Male Voice Choir – a branch of a larger movement started by James McRoberts of Glasgow which had become a nationwide movement and even extended to Canada and Australia. We sang a capella, and extended our range beyond church halls to include HM Prison at Saughton, and homeless hostels in the Grassmarket . On one visit to the prison, we actually recognised an inmate! There were many memorable events as each region held an annual Festival of Male Voice Praise to which all other MV choirs were invited. Particularly memorable was one visit to Carlisle where the Festival was held in the market hall, seating 1,200 people in the audience. The choir was about 100 men, and on this occasion a soloist had been invited. The chairman for the evening obviously did not know him – he was Hugh Davidson from Coatbridge, a former opera singer. When Hugh took his place to sing his first solo he stood about 6 feet back from the microphone and the chairman encouraged him to stand closer to the mic. Hugh politely declined and when his powerful voice sounded out the chairman almost fell off his chair in surprise. Locally, singing and preaching opportunities also presented themselves in hospital wards and nursing homes. On one occasion at a hospital, I was asked to speak and took as my subject John chapter10, the good shepherd. Unknown to me an uncle was in a side room on his death bed surrounded by his family - my cousins and their husbands. My cousin later told me that when I started to speak, he became calm and listened. She asked me how I knew that was her father’s favourite Bible passage. Needless to say, I didn’t know, but our Heavenly Father did. Other occasional singing activities included singing at Murrayfield and Celtic Park in the Billy Graham choir at Mission Scotland in 1991, and the memorable opportunity to sing Handel’s Messiah in Geneva. After a morning and afternoon rehearsal and the evening performance before an audience my voice was completely gone. Music is addictive so sometimes holidays were organised around it and in the USA I always looked for places to buy Christian music. A visit to Bill Gaither’s music store and recording studio in Indiana was special. We once attended a Christmas performance in Morriston, Kentucky by Greater Vision, an outstanding group who sang Southern Gospel music. We also attended the National Quartets Convention in Louisville, Kentucky – an evening of singing when groups each had a 20-minute slot to sing their music on a revolving stage in the centre of a 7,000-seat auditorium. Lots of cds for sale there and an opportunity to meet the singers.
To my surprise my singing voice disappeared three years ago. I found I could not hit a note, far less sing a tune. Perhaps I needed the rest. It is coming back gradually, I can now quietly sing a tune to my satisfaction, though maybe not to the people in front of me at BEC.
Outside of singing I used my accountancy training when opportunity arose. I acted as treasurer of BEC for more than 40 years. I have also been a trustee and treasurer of the Edinburgh & District Missionary Home since 1984, a charity which owns a house in Edinburgh and makes it freely available to missionaries on furlough.
Hobbies / likes / dislikes
I am a bit of a butterfly when it comes to hobbies (not that lepidoptery has ever interested me), but I’ve tried many things before losing interest and moving on to something else. Thus photography, lapidary, ornithology (still an interest), philately, numismatics, family tree research, collecting paper knives (I don’t know what it is called – probably insanity) have all been an interest at some time or other. Currently cooking, housework and gardening take most of my time. I have a greenhouse in which I grow a vine, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and bedding plants It also contains a passionflower plant which produces the most amazing flowers.
Tell us about some big events that you have lived through that has defined you:
The biggest personal events would have to be my wedding and bringing up the family. We were married on 14 February 1972, Elaine arrived in 1975 and Jamie in 1978. Watching them grow and mature has been a wonderful experience. They are my best friends.
Elaine decided to join YWAM as soon as she graduated – married Richard Leakey and moved to Burtigny , Switzerland. Together they have raised Naomi (1999), Rebekah (2000) and Emma (2006). Naomi married Nathaniel and has 2 boys (Eliott (2022) and Gabriel (2023)). Rebekah married Loic in 2025. All live in Switzerland. Elaine recently completed a project in which she led a team which acquired a Royal Navy supply vessel which was docked in Paisley, sailed it to Conwy, Wales where it was converted into a hospital ship, renamed MV Island Reach, and has now sailed to Madagascar and been handed over to the YWAM team there and is being used to reach previously unreachable villages around the coast of this, the second biggest island in the world and one of the poorest countries. For example there is I dentist on the island for 150,000 people!
Jamie married Ali after meeting her at a BEC party. They have 3 children. Rachel (2007) Brooke (2013) and Joni (2015). They moved from BEC to the local church in Bonnyrigg where they could be more effective witnesses in their community.
Globally the big events I have witnessed include the destruction of the World Trade Centre in New York. I was working at a client in their back office, and someone had the television on and we witnessed the second plane fly into the building. A few years later when we were on holiday in Washington D.C., we visited an exhibition featuring that tragedy.
The next big event I would mark is the Ukraine invasion – (2022 – ongoing).
Isn’t it sad that the biggest events are those of destruction and death – evidence of the depravity of man.
What’s the hardest thing you’ve experienced in your lifetime?
My heart attack on 5/2/2022 at 5.15a.m. was a wakeup call. I had never even been in a hospital bed and never had to take medication regularly. Now I am much more aware of my frailty, and together with the passing of my wife I know that “I do not know what a day may bring forth”. Eyesight is failing, hearing is failing, memory is unreliable and health is fragile (not so much as to stop me from golfing though!)
What is the greatest thing you’ve seen the Lord do in your lifetime?
The privilege of helping both Elaine and Jamie to put their trust in the Saviour, because of its eternal significance, can never be surpassed. Elaine, as a young girl, one day watched for me coming home from work. She ran up the path and said, “Daddy I want to go to bed!” That was the last thing I expected. I asked why and she said, “because I want you to read from my Bible book and tell me how I can be saved” Reading was a nightly routine. So, I read to her about the two men who went up to the temple to pray, and one called out “God be merciful to me, a sinner” and I explained that everyone needs to repent and turn to God for forgiveness. Her later life has given ample proof that she understood and that her conversion was real.
A few years later Elaine was baptised. That evening, I was sitting in the dining room thinking about the next day’s work when about midnight Jamie appeared at my elbow. I asked if he could not sleep and he said he wanted me to tell him what I had told Elaine the day she was saved. Again, I had the privilege of explaining the gospel and again his life has proved his understanding and his commitment to the Lord.
Events such as those are valuable beyond measure. They lay foundations for future generations. All six grandchildren have now trusted the Saviour and four have been baptised. I went to Switzerland when Naomi was to be baptised and had the privilege of praying publicly for her and the other young girl who was baptised at the same time.
What one lesson would you want to pass on to the future generations of BEC.
This is the hardest of these questions to answer. Not because of a scarcity of suggestions, but because I don’t feel qualified to dictate what someone should do with their lives.
Personally, I tried to follow the Lord’s words recorded by Matthew chapter 6 “seek first the Kingdom of God and all these things will be added unto you”
Elaine had bookmarks produced for her wedding guests “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” – Joshua’s life choice recorded in Joshua 24 verse15.
Another suggestion might be “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”.
My suggestion? Don’t follow me or anyone else – develop a love for God’s word, read it and obey it. and follow the Lord. He has a plan for you, (Jeremiah 9v11) and He will reveal it in His own time.
But what now for me?
As I lie in bed at the end of the day, the loneliest part of the day, with my permanent wheeze in my chest and sleep evading me, my thoughts range over the events of the day. That dripping tap still hasn’t been fixed – what if I started it and couldn’t fix it? More painting needs to be done - I’ve started so I’ll finish. Gardening season coming up – should I grow tomatoes from seed this year and get far more plants than I need, or wait till plants come into the nursery and hope they are good varieties and in a good condition?
I think about the things I should do tomorrow and try to establish priorities.
I pray for each member of the family individually,
- and often the words of Stuart Hamblen’s hymn, “Until then”, a frequently sung favourite of the Quintet, come to mind and I sing them over quietly …….
“My heart can sing when I pause to remember
A heartache here is but a stepping stone
Along a trail that’s winding always upward,
This troubled world is not my final home.
But until then my heart will go on singing,
Until then with joy I’ll carry on
Until the day my eyes behold that city
Until the day God calls me home.
The things of earth will dim and lose their value
When we recall they’re borrowed for a while.
And things of earth that cause my heart to tremble
Remembered there, will only bring a smile”
And I know that in His hands I am in good hands.
