Letters & Stories
WITH THANKSGIVING by Arthur Wilkinson – Oct/Nov 1993 Issue
82 years ago, I came into this world by the grace of God and a very loving mother. Many enormous events have transformed humanity during that time, especially the two Great Wars. Looking back over those years has convinced me of the awful social damage to our people in Australia and elsewhere. Millions of oUr own people have no knowledge of God’s lessons to his people given to us in the Ten Commandments and the Lord’s Prayer, each part of which fits every need of our life. My dear mother was my teacher of that blessed thought. For myself, I can only say that I have been richly blessed. My mother and dad nurtured 11 children and I was number 9 and we were all guided along the right paths of life. Through my marriage in St Bede’s to my dear wife Marjorie (nee Lyall) we were blessed With four children – two sons and two daughters. One of our grand-daughters and her husband left for Thailand as misionaries in October 2003. The years of working life was filled as a salesman in a leading engineering supply warehouse which took me through a very interesting study of abrasives for a 3 month school in America. This enabled me to serve industry in South Australia as an Abrasives Specialist and to retire as the manager of that department. When I was 9 years of age I began to use God’s gift to me of music as a choir boy at St Cuthbert’s, Prospect, and then to St Alban’s, Largs Bay, where I was confirmed. Since my marriage I have tried to serve St Bede’s, Semaphore. I joined our choir in 1946 and was a member until 1986. I was organiser for 2 years, a lay reader since 1946, attended to services each month at St Margaret’s Hospital since 1948, and with St Laurence’s Home for the Aged since 1984. For 9 years I was Superintendent of our Sunday School, spent many years on parish council and for 12 years took care of our banking and recording of envelope offerings. It is now good to sit with my dear wife and with our many friends and to continue to enjoy the lovely services in St Bede’s. We have all been richly blessed. Thanks be to God.