My Story Talk 23 Improving the College facilities
The Urgent Need for Action
When we arrived at Mattersey it was abundantly obvious to all concerned that, to say the least, the facilities on campus were far from satisfactory. Set in seven acres of beautiful grounds the setting was certainly picturesque, but the old mansion, Mattersey Hall, was in constant need of attention, as were the other two buildings.
Before AoG acquired it, Mattersey Hall had most recently been used as a Preparatory School for young boys. A Memorial Hall had been erected over the road by Mrs. Sowerbutts, the widow of the previous principal, but this was no longer being used as David Powell had thought it too expensive to heat. There was also a building adjacent to the old mansion that had been erected, I think, in the 1930s to provide dormitories for the prep-school boys.
During Powell's principalship, our male students were housed in these dormitories which were poorly heated – one of them the students called 'the icebox' – and another which accommodated ten men who each had a bed, a small wardrobe, and a chair. Another two dorms had no internal access to the toilets and, in the snowy winters Mattersey was experiencing at the time, visiting the toilet at night was a far from pleasant experience.
The conditions for the ladies, though limited, were somewhat better. They were housed in three upstairs rooms in the old mansion. Each room had its own washbasin and provided accommodation for five students, but, as with the men's dorms, there was no private personal space.
What's more, the heating system was far from adequate, there were no recreational facilities, and the laundry facilities were a couple of twin-tub washing machines, suitable for a private house, but not for 40-50 students living together for 40 weeks of the year. The classrooms had chairs but no desks. There was no chapel and virtually no library. By contrast, Eileen and I were very grateful for the beautiful new house that was built for us in the College grounds during our first year at Mattersey, but we were naturally very concerned about the conditions for the students.
Needless to say, we dealt with these problems as quickly as we could. The twin-tubs were replaced with two industrial quality washing machines. We made a start on getting the books in the library classified and turned a large hut in the grounds that had been used for storing junk into a games room with facilities for table tennis, darts, and snooker, though I was conscious that in those days some of our pastors would not approve of such things!
But to make the major changes that we really wanted to see meant erecting in the College grounds a hall of residence that would cost hundreds of thousands of pounds, and, as I have already pointed out, although the College was officially owned and controlled by AoG, it was not funded by AoG! There were occasional gifts from churches, but these amounted to less than 5% of what was needed to run the College. Apart from that, our only other source of income was what the students paid in fees. And what the students could pay in fees was largely dependent on whether or not they could get a grant from their Local Education Authority (LEA). And that depended on where they lived as grants for courses at colleges like ours were entirely at the discretion of the LEA.
It became clear to me that, if we wanted to be able to pay for the improvements we needed, we would need either to upgrade the standard of our courses so that our students would be more likely to get grants, or to receive a miraculous injection of cash which only the Lord could provide.
In the end it took both. Our finances became much stronger when we finally received validation for degree courses in 1992, but until then any major improvements would only come through faith in God's ability to supply the need miraculously. And that would require faith – but not just mine. The College was not mine. I knew I would need the full backing of the Board of Governors to go ahead.
The need was obvious to all concerned, but the Board rightly felt that the matter was so big that we should seek the advice and approval of the Executive Council, and at a joint meeting it was decided we should not proceed without the backing of the AoG General Conference. But first we needed to gather sufficient information about the specific cost and details of the project, and my first task was to establish whether to not we would be likely to get planning permission.
The Hall of Residence – a leap of faith
On contacting the Bassetlaw District Council early in 1979, I was delighted to hear that they foresaw no objection to our building and recommended we apply for outline planning permission, and, with the help of Mr Jeffery, a brother recommended by Pastor Eddie Durham who was a member of the Board, outline planning was approved in January 1980.
Meanwhile, Hedley Palmer, another member of the Board recommended that we consider as a builder PJ Whitehurst who had done some excellent work in constructing several of our churches. His representative, Mr John Grice visited the college and, understanding our requirements, recommended that we adopt a rather different plan designed by PJ Whitehurst at a cost of £524,560. This would provide 120 individual study-bedrooms, and a new dining hall and kitchen all under one roof.
The Board met with the Executive Council to discuss this proposal, and it was agreed that we should go ahead subject to the approval of Conference and that as Principal I should write a letter to be countersigned by Keith Munday as General Secretary and sent out ahead of Conference to give time for the delegates to consider the matter and pray about it.
During the debate, as was only to be expected, a wide diversity of views was expressed, ranging from a comment by David Powell, the previous Principal, that he had a grave sense of foreboding about the whole matter to those who were enthusiastically in favour. The difficulty was that there was no money to pay for the project! Perhaps that's why for me what proved to be the most significant contribution to the debate was what George Parrott said. For him the only important issue was whether I as Principal had heard from God about the matter. And, to be honest, I had to say that I had not, but that did not alter the fact that we desperately needed these new facilities. If God was in it, I was sure that he would provide the money. Finally, the matter was put to the vote and to my relief received the necessary two-thirds majority.
Once the decision was taken, my friend Brian Quar, who was not only a pastor but also a Civil Engineer and a Director of a Design and Construct Contracting Company, wrote to the Board expressing his delight at the decision made at Conference, but also pointing out two areas of concern. He explained these in some detail and recommended an appropriate course of action offering to be of help in any way he could.
As a result, he was coopted onto the Board of Governors for the purposes of the building project and two years later moved to Mattersey to take up the combined roles of College Bursar and Pastor of the AoG church in Mattersey. I will always be grateful to the Lord for sending Brian and Audrey to us. He relieved me of any responsibility of overseeing not only this building project but also the construction of our new chapel and classrooms in 1998. Brian is now with the Lord, but I take this opportunity to express my gratitude for his friendship and help without which much of what was accomplished at Mattersey would not have been possible.
Progress seemed relatively slow over the next few months, but that was probably a good thing because although AoG had voted to go ahead with the project, they had not promised to pay for it! After the vote had been carried by so large a majority, I fully expected the money to come pouring in. But very little came! Everyone seemed to be leaving it to everyone else! As the time for the signing of the contract drew near we still had very little money, and I began to be anxious. Who has to sign the contract? What happens if the money doesn't come in? Who goes to prison if the money doesn't come in?!
These were serious questions that were troubling my mind, and I kept remembering George Parrott's question: David, have you heard from the Lord?
Eventually, in desperation I said to Eileen,
I need to hear from God about this. I'm going to pray all night, and if he doesn't speak to me, I'm going to phone the Board of Governors and cancel the whole thing.
So I began my night of prayer . After several hours, at around 2am, I began to feel like giving up. God wasn't speaking and I really didn't know what to do. I decided to take a break, so I sat down on the settee and picked up a copy of Redemption Tidings magazine.
As I opened it the title on the editorial page struck me forcibly: FAITH. So I began to read. Now if you have ever been in desperate need to hear from God and have been in a meeting where someone has brought a prophetic word which you have known was just for you, you will understand just how I felt as I read that editorial. Every single word of it came as Thus says the Lord to David Petts. I knew that God had spoken. I knew that we were to go ahead. I knelt down by the settee and sobbed into the cushion and asked God to forgive me for my lack of faith . Then I went to bed. From that moment I never doubted that God was behind our building project after all.
But that is not the end of the story. The next morning I went down to the College and walked into the office. Ernest Anderson was standing there and I excitedly told him what had happened.
That's wonderful, David, he said, I was praying all night too.
I thought it was strange that we had both decided independently to pray all night and I could not imagine why he had decided to do so.
Oh, I said, What were you praying for?
I was praying for the same thing, he replied, I knew that unless you, as the Principal of the College, heard from God, the thing would never happen.
Oh, thank you Ernest, I said, but you could have gone to bed at 2 o'clock!
I immediately telephoned Colin Whittaker, the editor of the magazine.
Colin, I said, you have written the greatest editorial you will ever write,
and I told him what had happened.
Then he told me that he had known when he was writing the editorial that he was writing it for the College, but of course he could not be that explicit in print.
Jesus said that every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses (Matthew 18:16) and, although the context in which he said it was not to do with guidance, I knew beyond doubt that this matter was established. I had received faith through hearing a word from God. Over the next year I went around the AoG District Councils telling them how the Lord had spoken to me. People began to be convinced that God was really in this project and at last the money began to come in.
Much of it was gifts from churches, but it sometimes came in rather unusual ways from individuals, like the cheque for £1000 I received through the post with a piece of wedding cake from a couple who had just got married, or like the supermarket bag that was handed to me anonymously containing over £4000 in cash!
It was through the kindness of such people that we were able to get started. There was not enough to complete the whole building, but in September 1981 we were able to complete the shell of the whole building and erect 32 new bedrooms in the first wing. This, of course, was not enough for all 85 students, but it did mean that the 3 ladies' dorms in the old mansion could be released for other purposes. They were to become an excellent facility for the library which had previously been housed in one of the classrooms, which was far from ideal.
It was not until September 1983, however, that we had sufficient funds to complete the second phase of the building. We now had over 70 bedrooms, which meant that all our residential students could now be accommodated in the new building. There were also a dining room and kitchen and a student common room, which meant that the old kitchen and dining room could now be converted into a student coffee bar and tuck shop.
All this was wonderful, and we really enjoyed our new facilities, but the job was not yet complete, and the next few years were a real test of our faith. The next phase of the building was not complete until 1989 when the first floor of the entire building was eventually finished and two new classrooms were constructed on the ground floor of the final wing. These, however, were converted into 16 bedrooms only two years later when in 1991 the new building was finally as we had originally planned.
Why had it taken so long? Ten years from start to finish! Only God knows, but I was certainly learning important lessons from the experience. Faith for the impossible only comes by hearing a word from God. It is through faith and patience that we inherit God's promises. And God usually only provides things for us as we need them. We didn't need the whole building immediately, but by the 1990s we had the facilities we would need for the great increase in the number of students that the Lord knew was coming when the college received validation to provide degree courses and the students were able to get mandatory grants.
More of that next time, but no account of the improvement in college facilities would be complete without mentioning that in 1986 we were able to double the size of the campus by purchasing the seven acre field adjacent to the campus which proved a valuable asset for student recreational activities and for the Summer Praise Bible Weeks we ran for several years. And in 1998 we erected a beautiful, new chapel and classrooms in the college grounds, this time funded by a mortgage because our financial position had become so strong.
So the Lord provided for us in a variety ways, not, as I had originally hoped, through the supernatural provision of half a million pounds right at the start – which, by the way, would be the equivalent of at least five million today – but gradually, as he knew we would need it, through gifts, through the hard work we put in promoting the college and making the need known, through the help and expertise we received free of charge from people who caught the vision, and, as we shall see in the next talk, through our producing a curriculum that was both thoroughly Pentecostal and at the same time was of a high enough academic standard to achieve validation for degree courses that made us more attractive to applicants because of the grants they attracted.
God does provide for our needs, but he does not always do it in the ways we expect or want him to!
Next time: Developing the curriculum and choosing the faculty
