Canada 1965-1968:  Canada had been reached; the family re united but the challenge remained as to what to do from here. By this time we had thought that the Mission group to join which best fitted our outlook and interests was the BMMF, the Bible and Medical Missionary Fellowship. We had good friends and contacts and were well enough known but the question still remained of finding support and backing. The major spin off from these connections was to gain the interest of Bob and Mollie Brow who gave us the use of their basement apartment for the period of around 3 months until we found our feet and were able to get going once more.

I had ideas of going to school and taking some more studies. I did have an opening into a Mennonite College in the States but with no finances and little prospects then with 3 relatively young children this dream had to be postponed for this period. It was out job hunting. In the beginning I had to take a Christmas rush related job slot in a bookshop W H Smith at the retail sales end. Not my first skill! In mid January I was approached by the management and asked if I would be interested in an Assistant Manager's job in Cloverdale Mall. As I was paid only $45 for the sales assistant and this was offered at $90 it did look like a great opportunity.

By this time the grape vine and the network were also beginning to produce results. An old contact from Pakistan days heard that a pastor running a Christian Bookshop needed a manager. I was contacted and offered instead of $90, $100 to come and run this bookshop. I did not know too much about it but moved along with the stream. This was the right thing to do even though it was not trouble free.

Covenant Book House turned out to be an idealistic venture of a Pastor dedicated to Puritan theology. He saw this as an outlet to get these kinds of books out within Canada. This was much more vision than business sense. He had found a partner in a young single electronics engineer who with him put up some capital. The -venture was not a business success as I was saddled with a large debt which I was able to whittle down from $7000 to $500 over the 2.5 years but this was not enough to really salvage the business. I was not very well up on how business was run in Canada although did learn a lot from being in the situation and by the end of the period much more experienced in the whole operation.

The future lay though not in the Puritan theological emphasis. In time this went to Discounters who run their businesses from warehouses rather than store fronts. The future as the trade has shown lay in my Calcutta formula of building up the Holy Hardware and other accessory side of the operation.

The bookshop was a mixed operation with stationery and other things as part of it. Much to the chagrin of John Reisinger what success I had was in building up this other side. I could not do much with the Christian book business as there was no capital to add to the stock, I was not encouraged to deal in the light frothy paper back type material which was popular. It was a no win situation. John wanted me to buy him out and saw it as a good small business for a husband and wife team. Gladys had great interest in personal ministry to individuals but was little interested in the book selling business. I was not going to be drawn into that line. Our sights remained on overseas and finding some way to get to Afghanistan.

A roof over our head was the first priority. Rentals were very hard to come by, nothing was available. We needed to buy but with what. I scraped up every penny I had and arrived at $1000. John Reisinger went out and on his one name borrowed another $1000. We were in a duplex valued at $16,000 with a deposit of $2000 and two mortgages! Both of us went out to work I at the bookstore and Gladys in the evenings or the off times between when the children were not at school. Over the two years we paid off the $1000 second mortgage and kept up the first mortgage payments enabling us to sell the house when we left in 1968 for $20,000 taking back the $2000 we put into the house and adding in a $5000 capital gain. It was to be the beginning of a nest egg which would rise to $30,000 twenty years later.

Afghanistan was to prove a distant goal but it was always in our sights and prayers. Finding a Church home was another need. The local Brethren group in Erindale were fine people but somehow we did not really feel at home there. In the end we settled for the Baptists at Kenmuir Ave. Many leads were followed to find a way to Afghanistan but none of them matured. For the time being we were settled there in Erindale keeping the Bookshop open and attending the Church. Responsibility in the Church grew until I was taking both Adult Bible Classes. Kenmuir was not an ideal church. Within it there were strong views and opnions. The pastor, a young American, Ross Lyon was a follower of the Puritan ideology like Reisinger. The teaching was strong stuff and in its own way good material but it offered little real support to the congregation in living their daily lives. In reality this material come from the Bible Class where I shared thoughts hammered out in the hurly burly of that Bookshop existence.

A critical point was reached after two years at the end of 1967. One evening a delegation from the Church arrived to say that the Deacons and Pastor had been praying about Missions. Their decision was that one of the congregation should go out from the Church. They had come to see if we were the couple with that sense of calling. It was a real bolt from the blue a totally unexpected answer to prayer for Afghanistan. The Brethren with whom I had grown up eulogized about Acts Chapter 16. It seemeth good unto the Holy Ghost and us ... and they laid hands on them and sent them forth. But it never happened that way. Howard and I had approached the Elders in our church as had almost all others. Here was the literal happening in the Biblical way! The Elders said they would hold a Missionary Conference over a weekend and see to raise 50% of what was needed to send us out with whatever Mission group we elected for. In the event 67% was pledged and we were on our way. A dramatic turn of events and one we rejoiced in and praised God for. We began the process of moving out of the Bookshop. The business being eventually sold to another woman. By April I was free of the responsibility and able to move on. Like my Dad there was a certain amount of idealism about. The Mennonite heritage has great appeal even though I knew little about it. We decided Gladys should take the children and go to Hepburn and stay there for the 6 months. This proved to be a rather herculean task as accommodation out there was in old abandoned farm houses. But the tough pioneer spirit of her fathers stayed with her and Gladys looked after the children through a tough winter on the Prairie. The experiment did not succeed not due to lack of effort but to language. The children in the school were taught in English but the patios was Plautdeusch the low German dialect of Gladys' people. Our children did not understand this so were left out of much of what happened in the playground and after school activities. The other adventure was to make a trip to New Zealand. Gladys was determined that this was to be a sea voyage so set out to pray for a berth in the Oriana a Peninsular and Orient liner leaving from Vancouver on a Pacific cruise calling later in Auckland. But there were no berths available. Gladys told them to keep her name on the list for cancellations and sure enough just a few weeks before leaving a berth became available! I proceeded Gladys to New Zealand our first visit there for 10 years since those eventful days of 1958. We now returned after having survived those tough six years of 'faith mission endeavor'. In New Zealand and Australia we had a sponsoring organization. The memories of the time spent visiting around are rather vague. It was the adventure side that I remember. I was always interested in squeezing the maximum out of any opportunity so on the way down from Vancouver I stopped off in Tahiti. On my budget the hotels in those places were out of range but I did find a small upper room type place in the market area booking in there. I then hired a motor scooter and circumnavigated the island. All went well until I ran out of gas about a mile or so from the end which saw me pushing the bike for that period until I reached the nearest pump. The other adventure was to sail on a ship from Australia up to Papua New Guinea. I wanted to meet up with the New Zealand missionaries there some of whom had been my companions in the late 50s. The ship called at Port Moresby where I disembarked and then took an MAF flight up to Wewak and into the interior. My further plan was to fly over into Indonesia and then down through the islands but this scheme was thwarted by the suspension of flights for the period. As Providence and the goodness of God would have it there was another boat coming into Moresby taking a winter cruise up to Singapore and back. I was able to board this and travel through to Jakarta. Indonesia in 1968 was in a turmoil with curfews and Military control. The captain warned people not to get off or if they did to take great care of pick pockets and the like. It was not a good place to disembark they said! But I was determined to go to Malang and meet up with another old mentor who was making radio broadcasts from there. I checked into a Christian Council Guest House run by an Indonesian who had married an Australian. There was not too much doing due to the curfews and military government activities. The fellow as lonely his wife being off in Australia. He proved to be most helpful. A memorable event was going to a Chinese restaurant down at the docks. A very unimposing place but true to type with great sea food! With his help I was put on an air conditioned express for Surabaya and then took the bus up to Malang to find Keith Liddle. The power situation was not good so Keith was doing his taping during the wee hours of the morning when the supply was better. In Malang there was a Bible College with WEC antecedents training young people in heroic endeavour. Malang like Bandung and near to Jakarta was higher in the hills serving as a more pleasant location than hot Surabaya. From there I made a trip around the back side of the island to Jogjakarta and then on to Bandung and back down to Jakarta. This was done in the train and staying at local Indonesian hotels which I found to be serviceable and cheap. Jogjakarta, the capital of the old Javanese Hindu kingdoms retained a lot of the former influence, the bazaar being full of handicrafts which testified to their Hindu and animistic origins. Jakarta by plane to Singapore where I met up with a old New Zealand missionary, Mat Finlay. Mat had not succumbed to the temptation of taking the easy way out by going in with the Chinese speaking ministries. He was more iconoclastic and stayed within the Malay language group seeking to influence Muslims. His major contributions were in the area of Bible translation in which he was quite an authority. The Assembly was smaller and peripheral. From there on to Delhi and eventually to Kabul. Howard was quite impatient with my wanderings feeling that there were much more urgent needs in Kabul to take on administrative responsibilities and so relieve him to get on with the needed medical challenges. So began a rather turbulent period from 1968-1974.

Kabul Days: Gladys arrived later with the three having been through New Zealand. Alister obliged by falling off a rock on the sea coast near Dad's home and breaking some bone in his ankle. He was a hero on crutches, no long term damage. By this time I was into a house with furnishings and learning a little about the ways of the BMMF and things in Kabul.

Kabul was quite different to anything we had experienced before. The Aid style establishment was a new milieu. Thanks in part to the influence of Americans within BMMF the living standards were much higher than anything we had known before. In fact we found that on the allowances given we could live quite cheaply and so began saving. This dynamic was pleasant enough after all the years of scrimping and getting on with little. In reality we did not change our life style very much. The local nan shop at the end of the street was well patronised making for breakfasts. The Afghan cook that we retained for a period would make local food at midday with lots of nan. The nan was very wholesome low budget food. Others stayed with the Western style diets and paid high prices for Western style goods partly recycled by servants and others from the American Aid establishment. For us these were marginal interests. The other big plus was the use of vehicles procured as cast offs from the American Aid mission. These were gifted to the Afghan Government and came through to us in the protocol agreement.

Family Life in Kabul : For the children Kabul is a happy memory. They were blissfully unaware of the other dynamics of the situation. Ahlman Academy, the international school run for the children of missionaries was a happy experience with good teachers and small classes. Kabul was a safe place with little challenge or interference. The children would take off on cycles and go up the back road to the school. Some Western style were taken in vehicles to school but ours were brought up in a hardier school and either cycled or walked for much of the time.

In the beginning we had both Friday, the Muslim holiday off, as well as Sunday the Christian day making for a strange weekend with a work day between. But in reality a very good arrangement as we took Friday off for a family day and devoted Sunday to the needed Church situations. With a vehicle and a hinterland that has lots of mountains and valleys for much of the year we were able to go out on very good picnics. During the fruit season there were lots of melons, grapes and other luscious goodies. It was our custom to go out and buy at the kebab shops nan and kebabs which along with a melon made a great if somewhat indigestible meal. In this way many happy Fridays went by with visits to many picnic places around the city.

In addition we made a number of trips out of the town to different spots. Up to Mazar e Sharif, to Bamian and the Buddhas carved into the cliff, to Salang Pass area as well as down to Peshawar to Lahore holidays in Swat and Kaghan in Pakistan.

On memorable trip to the Kaghan Valley when we stayed in the Dak Bungalow at Shogran high up on the hill above the valley. Great vistas looking down into the Himalayn valley. The jeep took you up then returned a week later to take you back to Balakot at the entrance to the valley. For the family a great time of happy events and sharing together.

Noor Dynamics : NOOR began by Howard Harper and Christy Wilson was modeled on the United Mission to Nepal ; a Protocol agreement with the Government of Afghanistan which was to establish an Eye Hospital in Kabul and then other programs in the provinces.

Howard found this kind of arrangement at first very beneficial as it established an opening and opportunity. However, his highly individualistic style soon ran counter to the bureaucratic format that emerged. It was a troublesome relationship which finally ended when Howard had his permit cancelled by the Government in 1973.

Howard went off to Meshed where he wrote a book on Ophthalmology doing other things before moving back to England and taking up a Private Practice in Tumbridge Wells later to develop another form of the Noor initiative in Central Asia this time on his own terms and with himself firmly in control. Howard and Christy saw themselves as Apostles in the Afghan situation. They were the pioneers who had forged this bridgehead. To them was given a form of apostolic authority which required that others who joined them should recognize their status and fall into line. For many brought up in the establishments of denominations this may well have been a valid claim even if not formally recognized. Many were quite happy to fall into line and march to the tune. But others found this lack of participation galling and difficult.

There were significant areas of conflict. If there had been consultation and participation it might have been possible with some adjustments on both sides to achieve a much more amicable result, But as long as Howard and Christy took the authoritarian high ground there was going to be tension. Howard had his own ways of doing things. He was capable and knew his way around the situation. It was often easier for him to go and unilaterally do things and get them done. Tension grew around this kind of arbitrary action since he was pushing his own Agenda which did not always fit with others. Often it was not so much what he was seeking to do but the means and ways he used to implement things that caused problems. Culturally what he was doing may well have been acceptable but to many it seemed very Muslim, Afghan and not very Christian. A similar situation developed at the Church. Christy and many with him saw the erection of a Church building as a priority. This was an ideal to be realized. It was tangible and had many overtones that were political and jingoistic. To me this scheme was a fatal one which would lead to real problems ahead. I was unable to make much headway locally as the Elders and others were quite ready to go along with these plans.

The Church was a mixed group with people from the Aid establishment and the more missionary minded people of the International Afghan Mission. For the Aid people there was limited interest in raising up an Afghan Church. They saw things much more in terms of a form of jingoism which was to establish a building here as the Muslims in Woking in UK and Washington in the USA. In various ways I sought to oppose this development from seeking to influence those who were behind the appointment of Christy in the Church to petitions and other more local happenings. In the end I was not successful. I had to await the erection of the building and then in a period around 1973 to see its dismantling by the Government as an illegal building. In the end the stance I had taken was vindicated but after I had gone from the scene. Few understood what I was seeking to do. I was given no backing by the BMMF establishment, Mr Norrish, the Director being a person from military and Anglican background who did not countenance opposition to the recognized establishment. I was forced to shut down and be quiet so laying the foundation for our moving on from Kabul in 1971. Kabul for Gladys was a good family situation but not good for her gifts and ministry. Gladys needed a large flow through of people and the opportunity to contact many people. Kabul was in reality a small place with limited opportunity for people coming through. The Christian community was small with no real local Afghan group that she was able to make contact with. In time this pressure built up giving rise to limited opportunity to use the gifts that she had. I realized she was slowly 'dying' from within and knew that in time it would be important to move on to some place where there was more scope for her to operate. In time this proved to be Delhi where there was a large number of people coming through all the time. Further there was opportunity to travel within India. This became even more feasible when the children went off to Woodstock. The larger Christian community also gave scope for contacts across the city and in the country as a whole. Vocationally Kabul was successful, I had abilities in organization and management which were useful to Noor and IAM. Facility with language and the ability to work with locals saw me supervising building of the Blind School in Kabul working with a team of Afghans who were previously with US AID. Then another man to look after the visa and government related work and in time an Administrator for the small Noor hospital which emerged in the Blind School buildings. If they wanted something done then they would call on me as I has ways of getting things accomplished.

Study Program : An active idea when I went back from Calcutta in 1965 the study concept lay dormant due to other pressures. This was revived in Kabul by looking into external studies from the U of London. Much to my chagrin London U took no account of New Zealand University entrance or even a year in Auckland University. I was quite mad with them over this but in time realised that they had the initiative and if I wanted to go ahead with this I would have to go back and meet their requirements of completing A levels. This I was able to do in Kabul sitting the examination at the British Council. Thankfully these results restored my confidence in passing examinations and found me enrolled in a B Sc (Econ) external program. This plan was furthered over the next five years to sit the first half in Delhi in 1972 and the second part in Toronto in 1975. The results were not dramatic being just 3rd class honors. But when I found that no one in the correspondence group obtained better than 2nd class I did not feel so bad. The advantage was that now I had an undergraduate degree and could proceed on further into the future. At that time quite unknown. Pressures though gradually built up and after three years it was time to move on once more.