presents the Boy & the Cabin series 1
Series 1
A true story about a boy and the cabin he learned about God in.
Written by Vaughan Durston, Founding President of U.B. David & I'll B. Jonathan, Inc.
Lesson 1: I Want to Find God
To hear this story read by the author, click the play button:
Many years ago, as a young boy, I wondered about God. Could God see me? Would I get to heaven when I die? Sometimes I would go outside at night and look up at the stars. I would see the Big Dipper, the Little Dipper, and the North Star, and wonder where heaven was. Tears often rolled down my cheeks as I thought and wondered about these things.
God saw me and sent a man on horseback from 20 miles away to my father's farm. This man asked my father a very important question: "Could I start a Sunday School down in the little schoolhouse three-quarters of a mile across the field?"
"Yes," said my father. The man on horseback was Hugh Campbell. He and his wife answered my questions about God. I put my faith and trust in God and in His Son Jesus Christ. I learned about heaven and what I needed to do to get there.
Mr. and Mrs. Campbell thought that they should move closer to the little schoolhouse, instead of riding forty miles each week, so they moved into a little cabin next door to the schoolhouse at the foot of Riding Mountain. It was in that cabin that they taught the Word of God to my twin brother, Con, and me, and a few others every Friday night.
The Campbells didn't have any electricity or running water, any telephone or TV.
They did have Bibles and we all sat around the kitchen table with an oil lamp, listening to the Bible stories of the great men of faith such as Abraham, Joseph, Moses, and David. When it was over, we were given a cup of hot chocolate and a cookie, and sent on our way back home.
Before I tell you more about what went on in the cabin, I must tell you how it affected my life. I felt that the things I learned in Hugh Campbell's cabin were so important that I have spent my life developing cabins, places where people like you can be taught about God, learn how to become a Christian, and learn how to experience God's blessing in your life.
Today Campbell's cabin is gone and the Campbells are in heaven. Situations have changed, and over the years many cabins were found where the truth that was taught to me in that cabin have been passed on to others. At one time, there were two hundred and twenty cabins (homes) around our province where children were invited to hear the good news in what was called Good News Clubs. In the summertime, thousands of children were invited to another unique type of cabin in backyards, called Five-Day Clubs. These cabins were used and are still being used to some extent. For many years, there was no need to find another cabin because these were meeting the need just fine.
Times change and whether it was because of a leaky roof, walls caving in, or finding it hard to keep the door open so the children could come in, we came to realize that we probably needed to find a different type of cabin. Through prayer and consideration of the ways of the Lord, we decided on using the mailbox for a cabin where we could talk to children about the ways of the Lord. We would put Bible lessons in their mailboxes and they could respond by putting their answers to the lesson questionnaire in our mailbox. It certainly has been a remarkable cabin, and since 1985 when the U.B. David & I'll B. Jonathan program was started there have been nearly two million lesson questionnaires completed and returned to our mailbox. This cabin is continuing to expand even beyond our provincial and national borders in a marvelous way.
We are now living in a much faster-paced world than we were years ago, and this is especially true in the area of information. As a boy, I had to walk three-quarters of a mile across a field to get to the first cabin mentioned in this story. Today, the cabin has come closer and closer so that I don't even need to leave my house to talk to thousands of children, youth, and adults about the ways of the Lord.
One of the latest cabins that has been found is the Internet. Literally millions of children, youth, and adults can come to this cabin and we can teach them the ways of the Lord. They are coming from all over the world, from our computer screen to their's and vice versa. We are finding that they are receiving Christ in this cabin as well.
Since I grew up, I have been looking all over the world for cabins. (Cabins are places where people like you can be taught about God, learn how to become a Christian, and learn how to experience God's blessing in their lives.)
We have not created new cabins that were not needed. In fact we would have been more comfortable staying in the cabin we were in than in finding a new one. It has taken a great deal of faith and creativity. Each time God has given us a new cabin, the potential for doing what we did in the first cabin has increased.
Hugh Campbell had the idea to invite children, youth, and adults into his cabin (a place where we could be taught about God) and my friends and I have taken the ideas that God has given to us to develop other cabins, such as this one for you. Please come to this cabin often, and hopefully someday you too could become a person who finds cabins where others can learn about God.
