Q: Tell us about some of your early experiences.
A: I was saved on May 3, 1918, and two weeks later was baptized and received into the assembly at Donegal Road in Belfast. I was sixteen years of age at that time. In that same year I went to Harland and Wolf Shipyard and contracted for a five-year apprenticeship as a shipwright. But at the same time, during the five years I was in that apprenticeship, there was a Bible reading carried on by two men. Both of them belonged to area assemblies. For five years, every working day, I was at that Bible reading at lunch time.
At the same time I engaged in Sunday school work and open air gospel work. That was where I learned to preach. A group would go off to the villages around Belfast and have open air meetings.
Q: Did you have feelings then for the mission field?
A: A short time after I was saved, I committed my life to the Lord for full-time service. I was very interested in pioneer gospel work. As a young Christian I heard Fred Lane give an account of a journey just before coming home on furlough. He told about an unreached tribe in Angola and asked for prayer that someone might be raised up to go to that place. That was the first seed planted in my heart about going to Angola.
Q: What happened then?
A: In October, 1923, I told the brethren of my exercise and shortly afterward they gave me a commendation to the work. I made preparations and booked passage to Portugal for language study. When I was getting on board ship to go to Portugal, Tommy Robinson was at the dock, bidding me goodbye. As he was shaking hands, he put two gold half sovereigns in my hand and said, “If you are ever down to your last penny, there is something to fall back on.”
Q: What was a sovereign and what was it worth?
A: It was the equivalent of one English pound and was then worth five American dollars. At that time, there were several books that made a deep impression on my life. One was the book on George Müller written by A.T. Pierson. I was impressed that he had never asked for money even though he had all those orphans dependent on him. I felt that I would like to follow that example. I made up my mind then that never would I mention money needs. I was not known to anybody except a few people in the North of Ireland, mostly just those at the Donegal Road assembly, and it was just a small assembly of working-class people.
After eleven months in Portugal, I had been able to gather the camping equipment I needed—a cot and a little tent. I also bought a case of sardines that were very cheap and thought that at least with sardines and African “mush,” I would not die of starvation. With £24 pounds that Donegal Road had sent me, I bought a third class ticket for Angola.
Q: Now it is seventy years later. Do you still have the two half sovereigns?
A: Yes, I still have them. They are over one hundred years old now.
Q: Don’t you think Tommy Robinson would be pleased to know that God has so cared for you that you have not needed to use them?
A: Yes, in all that time, I have never been in debt for one penny and I have never asked or even hinted about money to anyone. During World War II, there was eleven months when the Portuguese would not handle our mail. During all that time we never missed a meal. As I said, in seventy years, we have never been in debt for one penny to anybody.
The story of the sovereigns was not known until at our fiftieth wedding anniversary. Mr. Fred MacKenzie had heard of it and asked me to tell the story. I was able to put my hand in my pocket and produce them for all to see. That night Dr. Bier was there, too, and he presented me with a tin of sardines. It is good to be able to look back and remember the faithfulness of God.
Written by Tom and T. E. Wilson