Wilfred Grenfell's Collection

For forty years Wilfred Grenfell, a British doctor, traveled up and down the coast of Labrador, in the summer by steamer, in the winter by dogteam, treating the poor inhabitants. On one occasion he was stranded on an ice floe with his dogteam and soaking wet he almost froze to death. He finally decided that he should make one further attempt to extend his life by a few hours and killed and skinned three of beloved his sled dogs and wrapped himself in their fur. He was rescued a few hours later.

Here is an another incident he describes in his autobiography, Forty Years for Labrador. 1933. It gives you some idea of what kind of man he was and the work he did.

We had anchored among a group of islands to give the people a chance of coming aboard the hospital ship. Suddenly a boat bumped our side, and a woman climbed over the rail with a bundle under each arm. On my chartroom table she laid the two bundles and proceeded to untie them.

'There is something wrong with them, sir,' she explained. Examination showed that, although their eyes looked right, both chldren were as blind as kittens with congenital posterior polar cataracts.

'Have you any other children?' I asked the mother.

'Yes, four.'

'Where is your husband?'

'Killed by a gun accident three months ago.'

'Then how do you manage to keep food for the babies?'

'Indeed, I can't.'

'Whatever are you going to do with them?'

'I'm going to give them to you, Doctor.'

When we got under way it was rough, and the babies made such a noise that the helmsman stuck his head into the chartroom, which was directly behind the wheelhouse, to see what could be the matter.

'What are you going to do with those, sir?'

'Shh. They're blind and quite useless. When we get outside. we'll drop them over the rail.'

He stared at me for a second before he turned back to his wheel. A few minutes later in popped his head again.

'Excuse my being so bold, but don't throw them over the side. We've got eight of our own, but I guess my wife'll find a place for those two.

I did not throw them overboard; neither did I send them to the home of that modern saint. I simply added them to my collection.

In various ways my adopted family grew at an alarming rate, once it became known that we were acting the role of unofficial residuary legatee for derelict children.

And so the story goes, as Grenfell and his sailors enter the houses of the poorest of the poor. He continues,

Curiosity led us to peep inside, though there were no signs of life. Suddenly one of the boys, looking up at a hole in the low ceiling, exclaimed, 'Why, there's someone looking down at us through that chink.' In a trice he was up on the lofting. 'There are four naked kiddies up here,' he called down.

Once again a mother was found with her baby and she begged the doctor to take and feed her starving children,

Vermin, the inevitable accompaniment of poverty and squalor, had not been avoided even though the children had no rags to cover them. How could we take them back in our jolly-boat, over the seven miles of open sea, without clothing? In a second every boy with me had his coat off, and a well-clad child in his arms. What a credential of modern youth that act was! When we left, the poor mother brought up the rear of our procession carrying the baby. Today that little family is fed, clothed, going to school, and started on the road to a useful life. Forty Years For Labrador. page 153

The poverty of Labrador during those years is one of Canada's saddest stories. Grenfell rescued those children he could, but many died of malnutrition.

Wilfred Grenfell spoke at the Inter Varsity Fellowship at McGill and Gordon Thomas (PDF) a young medical student at the time, never forgot what he heard. Eventually he and his wife Patty took over the adminstration of the Grenfell mission. When I was little they used to visit my parents and tell stories of the mission and orphanage.

Teacher Tag: for Aristotle

I have overall tried to maintain a balance here in writing about both men and women, and writing about books by both men and women. Here are two of my favourite autobiographies, one by Archibald Fleming and the other by Wilfred Grenfell. I have written about some women whom I admire here, here and here.

In response to a request by Kurk to write about great teachers, I will write about some of the Christian men who have been my professors. It is ridiculous to even state that these men treated women as equals, there was no question of anything else.

But, just in case someone wanders on this site who is in danger of believing that egalitarians diminish manhood and womanhood let me say, these men are not diminished by their egalitarian views. Actually most of them don't even know what the word "egalitarian" exists because they have not been informed of the existence of "complementarianism," so I apologize to them in advance.

Here's to great men I have studied with:

Al Gleason an exceptional linguistics professor and a great storyteller. He taught me that the writing system is a worthy object of pure linguistic research.

Al Pietersma editor of the New English Translation of the Septuagint, an encourager and a friend. He taught me to translate without a crib.

R.T. Lutz who made introductory Hebrew truly enjoyable. He is a very patient man. He taught me that learning Hebrew does indeed open up a new understanding of the scriptures.

Richard Longenecker serious and funny at the same time.

Gordon Fee inspiring and constantly confused as to whether he is lecturing or preaching. Maybe he is offering you conspiratorial personal confidences, but to the whole lecture hall at once. Very personable.

Ellis Deibler Truly one of the nicest people I have ever met. But he still disapproves of students' not doing their homework.

Kurk's tag is for 13 teachers. This will have to do for now. I can't say anything profound about this except that I am fortunate to have known these men, and being a feminist does not mean that one does not appreciate men and learn from men.

Note: I think I may pass on elaborating on various members of my family in this meme for now. Of course, this would include many women, my mother, my aunts and sisters, and my beautiful daughter. There are many exceptional women teachers in my family.

John Piper and Inter Varsity

I have appreciated Mike Bird's response to Stiles on Inter Varsity. I won't deny that the ethos of Inter Varsity has changed in ways that would be unfamiliar to me since I was last involved, some time ago. I won't defend every aspect of Inter Varsity, but I always did appreciate the interdenominational communion. It was the place where I first learned that Anglicans and Catholics - and even Baptists - were also Christians.

I notice that one recent debate which really grates for some is that N. T. Wright is welcome as a speaker by Inter Varsity, while John Piper is not.

Yet IV seems to have forgotten why it exists. Bad theology of the gospel and weak ecclesiology are undermining IV's mission. Increasingly, IV's tendency is to take on issues which should be neutral in IV and left for gospel-centered churches to decide. Such secondary doctrinal issues (such as paedo- vs. craedobaptism, Arminianism vs. Calvinism, charismatic vs. cessationist) should ultimately be decided within churches; that's the place to agree or agree to disagree, not IV.

Not only that, but InterVarsity seems more and more willing to partner with churches that do not hold to the gospel, from liberal protestant churches to the Roman Catholic church. At the same time, IV is breaking fellowship with people who are solidly evangelical: John Piper, for example, is a persona non grata because of his view of women in ministry. Yet N.T. Wright, who's book Justification opens the door for a quasi-Catholic view of justification, speaks regularly at IV conferences.

I don't remember taking on issues which should be left for the churches. We were an oddball mix of charismatic, and paedo-baptist, as far as I can remember.

However, I firmly agree that John Piper should be kept as far away as possible from InterVarsity. In 1939 Grace Koch Belden went down to Philadelphia to become one of the first InterVarsity workers in the USA. In 1939, my mother was the president of the InterVarsity chapter at McGill, at the time when Charles Troutman was there, as well as Gordie Thomas who went on to become the director of the Grenfell Mission. It was not until 1941 that InterVarsity USA was founded.

Will someone please let John Piper know why he is not wanted in InterVarsity. "Women in ministry" was not the downfall of InterVarsity but its founding strength. Yes, we see Stacey Woods' name a lot, but I always think of them as Stacey and Yvonne. I last visited them in 1976 in Lausanne. Cathie Nicoll was also an important Canadian leader and established InterVarsity in Jamaica.

John Piper, on the other hand, is the master of the toddlerhood of Christianity. He wants leadership in the church, which has - for the most part - always been male, to continue to be male. He also wants leadership in parachurch organizations, which historically has employed more Christian women in leadership, to become male.

It is important to realize that John Piper does NOT approve of female leadership in parachurch organizations. This would be a significant reason why he would not be invited to speak at any parachurch event where women are in leadership.

N.T. Wright, on the other hand, is considered iffy in certain areas of his doctrine of justification. The simple truth is that while everyone can identify the gender of chapter leaders in Intervarsity, not everyone can articulate whether they agree with Piper or Wright on justification. That's just the way it is.

The sad thing is that InterVarsity, since it is open to women, also acts as a switch and bait foil for the church. Young women can worship as equals in university, and then later they find themselves in an evangelical church where they have to be trained into submission, broken in, so to speak.