Recently, I was on the phone talking to a good friend in Ontario, and he mentioned our days at the Western Fair in London, Ontario. While it was fresh on my mind, I felt I should write about it.
The year was 1969, in the early Fall, September. I was pastoring a Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada church in Ridgetown, Ontario. I had been there almost 5 years and the Western Fair in London was coming up. The Lord had laid on my heart that we should have some youth outreach at the Fair (they are better known as Exhibitions in the Maritimes). I had inquired as to what was required to obtain a booth at the Fair and was told it would cost $120.00.
The previous Sunday, I had talked at length about this at the church, and a good friend of mine was there that morning. The deadline came when I was to let them know if we would need the space or not. The Fair was going on at Ridgetown at that time and I had been helping out with a booth run by the Bible Society. I was just leaving to go home to call the Western Fair and tell them I wouldn’t be coming when, at the entrance, I ran into my friend who had been in church the previous Sunday. He had no idea I was heading home to call the Western Fair and cancel the space. He mentioned how last Sunday I had been quite burdened about doing something at the Fair. I told him if we don’t go I have to call today and cancel. At the same time that I am talking to him, he is reaching in his wallet and asking how much I needed and I told him $20 and he gave me $20 to pay. No need to telephone now.
My next move was to write a letter to some friends who I thought would like to help. Then one day when I was in London, around noon hour, I phoned a good friend who was the pastor at a church in London to tell him about what we were considering doing at the London Fair. He asked me where I was calling from and I told him the street and he wanted to know if there was a restaurant nearby where we could meet for lunch. I told him there was one and in 30 minutes he was there. We talked it over and definitely felt it was the leading of the Lord and he agreed to help me, along with members of his church. On Sunday, he invited me to the church and I explained to the congregation what we were doing, and they gave me an offering of $85.00.
Another good friend helped us with painting and fixing up the booth. One day when I arrived at the Fair, he was all excited. He had been to a men’s meeting the night before and told a friend what I was doing, and his friend said if he is doing that then he will need money and gave him a cheque for $100.00. The name we chose for our booth was “Youth Challenge”.
The Western Fair attracts thousands every year and hundreds stopped by our booth to purchase books. We also handed out several hundred pieces of free literature. It was one of the few Christian witnesses at the Fair. We continued this ministry from 1969 to 1973, five years in all. Our first year was 1969, and in 1970 we were at the Fair again with twice the space from the previous year and double the staff.
Regarding finances, a family who ran a nursing home sent me a cheque for $1000.00 We set up a miniature theatre where every half hour we would show slides on some of the problems youth were facing and our outreach to them in order to help. London was facing quite a drug problem at that time. The Vice President of the London Rescue Mission arranged the videos and a minister friend of mine was the narrator. I remember our oldest son, who was 14 at the time, manually operated the slides. I remember he phoned his mother all excited at what we were doing. In later years he suffered from Parkinson’s and in November of 2015 he passed on to be with the Lord.
At that time, we also had a telephone counselling service. This was a brief gospel message and prayer (24 hours a day). Early in this ministry we were receiving approximately 300 calls every day. A good friend of mine also helped us set this up at the Fair.
Surely God was blessing this ministry but, as with most Christian projects, we had people who didn`t think we should spend all that money and asked me not to go to the Fair another year. Therefore, some who were on the committee let me know they were not in agreement of what we were doing. Regardless, we felt we were doing what the Lord wanted us to do and continued on at the Western Fair until 1973.
Leslie Jobb