Bible school class 57.
From left to right:

Bill Williams, Winston Mason, Ron Pazdzierski, Hubert Laing.




Ted Hilton's Car
May 1957






Back row:
Ron Pazdzierski, Bill Hauge, ........, Dave Jones ........,
......., ........, ........., .........., ............, ..., .............,



If you know the names of the folks missing let me know
Wayne Smith
email: wsmith@shaw.ca

The first Deep Cove Gospel Hall School, held in the old Fire Hall building

As told to Wayne Smith by:
Bill Hague and David Jones
April 5th. 2008


Wayne Smith – Phone # 1-206-855-3180 wsmith@shaw.ca

Bill Hague – Phone # 604-850-9535 email: None

David Jones – Phone # 563-451-0573 dajones@terra.cl


I was recently asked by Jannet Pavelick, an avid local historian, and member of the Deep Cove Heritage Society, to provide some pictures and memories of the Deep Cove Gospel Hall's history.

The purpose in collecting these memories is to preserve some of Deep Cove's history in a new book. There are only a couple of month's left to collect the information before the work begins editing the masses of work already submitted, on the areas history.

If you have, any images, negatives or further information to ad, you can send it to me, Wayne Smith at wsmith@shaw.ca or call me for more information, the pictures will be returned to you. Your help will be a lasting contribution to our local history. Thank-you for your input,





Names of the kids and adults: inside picture of first Sunday school class in the Deep Cove Fire Hall

1 Bill Hauge	21 Kris Pedersen	41 ? Andrews
2 Hubert Laing	22 Ron Pazdzierski	42
3 Harvey Dryhurst	23 Jim Pazdzierski	43 Brian Pazdzierski
4 Ian Verdiel	24 Eddy Dryhurst	44 Yvonne Boutilier
5 Ian Bleasdale	25	45
6 Jim Kean	26 Gwyneth Hague	46 Linda Williams
7	27 Leona Bell	47 Barbra Hall
8 Georgie Bell	28	48
9	29	49
10 Bob Haws	30 Stanly Bowels	50
11	31 Leslie Jones	51
12	32	52 Donna Pedersen
13 Ron Boutilier	33 Ken Kean	53
14 David Andrews	34	54 Linda Pedersen
15 Richard Pazdzierski	35 Mrs. Mary Jones	55 Colleen Verdiel
16 Jeoffry Bowels	36 Marilyn Collis	56
17 Dave Jones	37	57 Darlynn Simpson
18 Lorne	38 Norma Bell	58
19	39 Leona Campbell	59 Cathy ?
20	40 Shirley Williams	60 Evelyn Jones

The first Deep Cove Sunday School class

David Jones and Bill Hague were the founding members of the Deep Cove Gospel Hall. It began in 1952. David told Bill one day he felt there was a need in the Deep Cove area for a Sunday school. Bill agreed to help him with the work. They made inquiries and rented the Community Hall which was beside the Fire Hall. They paid the sum of two dollars a Sunday for use of the building from 2 to 4 p.m.

Bill and Dave were living in Vancouver in the early 50’s and traveled out to Deep Cove weekly. After a few young people living in Deep Cove professed their faith in the Lord Jesus as Savior. It awakened a desire in these two men to have a permanent building to teach and guide these young men in a pathway of faith. Amongst those present at the beginning were Hubert Laing, Bill Williams, Ron Padzierski, Harley Dryhurst, and others.

Bill Hague moved out to Deep Cove around 1955 to seek out and help support these new followers of the faith. His first home was at 280 Myrtle Ave. in Deep Cove.

David discovered through inquiries the existence of three lots together on Cove Cliff Road, an investment made by a farmer in Saskatchewan years before and which he had not developed. David obtained his address and after consultation with his father and Bill, David wrote a letter offering him the sum of One Thousand dollars cash which he readily accepted. The entire transaction was handled by mail to the entire satisfaction of all involved. The little group of Sunday School workers was now in possession of three lots.

At the outset, it was a Jones family undertaking for Bill Hauge married Gwyneth Jones, and David Jones married Evelyn who was also involved. Soon others joined like Miss Anne Reid, Mr. Gordon Kirkpatrick, Mr. Ted Hilton.

Bill decided he might like to build his house next to the church and bought the lot on the left from the church for the $900. Thus the church paid a sum total of $100 for their two lots.





New Gospel Hall
Built on Cove Cliff Rd. around 1954

Construction began, and under the leadership of Norman McCurrie along with David and Bill, numerous men came from the Main Street Gospel Hall in Vancouver to help with voluntary labor.











The new Church hall finished

I remember attending Sunday school in the new hall as a boy of about five years old, that was in1956.

Bill Hague remembers the new hall had been opened with special Gospel meetings given by George Campbell of Newfoundland and Wallace Cudmore. From these meetings several new people trusted in the Lord Jesus and joined in the work. Some names remembered are Marjory Bruce, Winnie Petersen, Maysy May, Hubert Laing, Ron Padzerski, Winston Mason, and others.

David Jones had been so inspired with the new church and in 1959 he gave up his work as an Air Traffic Controller at the Vancouver airport to become a missionary to Chile. His daily Christian radio broadcast has been on the air for 45 years and ranks as the longest running daily Christian program on Chilean radio.




Some other important names involved in leading the new church were Leslie and Mary Jones, Dave’s parents. Leslie was a typesetter and had worked on merchant ships before he made his way to Canada.

 

Pete Pedersen and his wife Winnie plus their family were early members. Pete was an avid hunter and fisherman as well as a cabinetmaker for BC Hydro: Aubrey Copp and his wife Beryl. Aubrey was a well-known shoe dealer and both he and his wife Beryl loved to travel. These men and women with their sons, and daughters, helped to build Sunday school attendance to over 100 children by 70’s.

My parents, Dave and Nina Smith, joined the Gospel Hall about 1960.
The Smith family has grown over the past fifty-seven years to about twenty people. Some have left the church, but the Smiths still remain as the lasting main support of the Deep Cove Gospel Hall.

For a while in the 70s and 80s an extra Sunday school was held in the Seymour Heights area to accommodate the overflow, as the Deep Cove Gospel Hall could hold no more. I remember hobby classes once a week, we made endless things like leather belts, and pencil holders, and I still have mine. We raced electric cars on a track.

My Father, Dave Smith, started a sports club on Monday nights at Burrard View Elementary School. Dad had us all hoping with calisthenic exercises remembered from his Army training days in Britain. Afterwards we played floor hockey, followed with a message based on the Bible.

I remember wonderful church picnics to Bellcara Park. An old wooden tour boat, The Scenic, would pick up all the children on the Government dock in Deep Cove. There would be a great day of races, with lots of food. I remember Bill Hauge provided all the cold cuts for our picnic sandwiches.

The Church picnics are still going on today. They usually take place at the Water front-park near the Ferry landing on Bowen Island and make a great day out. Today I enjoy watching the children of children running races, their faces covered in custard pies. I see them falling in a heaps during sac races. I see happy faces finding buried treasures. I remember raw eggs being tossed incredible distances only to break in our faces, ripe juicy watermelon and spitting the seeds as far as we could. I remember dry ice thrown into the sea and watching great boils of vapor rise as it melted. Yes, I still look forward to church picnics.

My father is a builder, now in his eighties, and still active with his company Eladavina Construction, which means (God, Dave, & Nina). He and my younger brother Graham have been employed by the church at various times to make improvements when needed. They raised the hall to give the building a second floor level, adding red brick facing and square columns to the exterior. He also hired a West Vancouver architect, Dave Wiser to design a new look for the interior, for which Mr. Wiser received considerable acclaim for his design.

Another improvement my father is credited for was an extension to the back of the hall, which provided more space for meetings and a baptism tank.

The baptismal tank nearly took my mothers life just the other day. Now in her 80’s she doesn’t see well, and had gone down alone to the hall to get something. The church was having a baptism the next day and the lid was off the tank in preparation for the event. Mother reached behind the stage curtain where the baptism tank is and not realizing the lid was open fell into cold deep water. She banged her leg badly against the concrete. It took a tremendous effort to lift herself out with wet clothes, but she finally saved herself, if you’ll pardon the pun, and got home unassisted. Dad upon seeing her condition feared a fractured leg and took her to the hospital for a check up. She is fine. And so is the story.



My mother Nina Smith with her Sunday School class of 1976.

David Jones, founder of the Deep Cove Gospel Hall and Missionary to Chile comments:


Dear Wayne:

Thank you for your note.

There are other stories about the Cove but of a more personal nature, such as when Bill and I started clearing the lot and felt bushed by the afternoon under a relentless sun. Ron Padzierski came and told us he was saved and it changed the whole panorama for sure.

Also, one of the incentives to get the property was that Mr. Cecil Copp told me personally that if we ever had the chance to get a lot on which to build, he would contribute half the purchase price. When I told him about my arrangements, he didn't hesitate in giving me Five Hundred dollars! I am sure you Dad would like that information also. Cecil was a brother to Clarence Copp, Aubrey's father. Cecil was the one who either purchase or built the old Woodland Drive Hall. I can still remember Mr. Coppy talking to me about the purchase as I stood on the steps of the Woodland Hall.

I might come across some photos of Deep Cove here in Chile if there are any, they are probably lying down deep under hundreds of others. But I am not sure. However, my direct relationship with the Cove was only until October, 1959, which was the month we came to Chile. I think it was around that time that Pete Pedersen was saved listening to Merv Rosell preach in the old George Auditorium. But you would have to check that out with him. Winnie's conversion is also interesting for Evelyn was babysitting her three children so she could go to meeting the night she got saved. As I say, these are stories more to do with the assembly than with a book which is more community oriented.

This country of Chile is very different in its culture to Canada, but then it's history goes back much further. The city where we live has been a city for close to 280 years, double the age of Canada. In fact, there is an old church that is a national monument built by the Franciscans in the 1700s. The Aconcagua valley where we live has been inhabited since the 1600s. Even the house we live in here in San Felipe was built in 1884, that means it is 124 years old and the thick walls are of mud brick.

Speaking of cultures, we just returned from an interesting two weeks in the Patagonia which spans both Chile and Argentina. We were in Ushuaia, Argentina, on the island of Tierra del Fuego. Ushuaia is called the City at the End of the World. It is 4000 kms. from where we live. We also visited Punta Arenas in Chile which is called the most southerly city in the world, but Ushuaia is bout 600 kms. further south. You can see their relative location in the attached map.

In Ushuaia we came in contact with the Bolivian culture for many of the Christians had their origins there. Then we were with the Argentinean culture in a developing city on the Atlantic called Rio Grande. And finally we had the Chilean culture in Punta Arenas. They are all very different and most interesting for they certainly are different than our Canadian culture.

I shall send a copy of this to your Dad also for interest's sake. He might find it interesting to know that John and Patsy Crowe are due to be with us from next Wednesay to Sunday, God willing.

God bless you there and I trust that gathering all this information about the Hall will bring to your memory much of what you learned and especially that our God is a patient God and willing to save all that come unto Him by Jesus Christ.

Now you would expect that kind of comment from me, wouldn't you? But it is said with sincerity.

Thanks again for writing.

David Jones




Some interesting photos and comments regarding the early Sunday School class in the old Fire Hall.

A bible presented to Peter Peterson for Sunday School attendance in 1953.

Dave Jones remembers the early days of the Gospel Hall in Deep Cove.

Thank you for this interesting picture. Imagine! Fifty eight years ago and he still has the NT.

I remember him and it seems he pronounced his name, Pet-er-son, with the Pet as in “my cat is a pet”.

When we first started in Deep Cove, I don’t recall if it was Bibles or New Testament we gave out for attending five consecutive Sundays, which he did obviously. You will recall I mentioned the other night in Deep Cove how when we were laboring in Deep Cove at the start, the South Main assembly gave us $15.00 a month to help with expenses. I mentioned we paid $2.00 a Sunday for the rental of the Community Hall and usually bought half a dozen oranges for any kids who were sick.

When Deep Cove celebrated their 40 years as an assembly, someone had on display a little book in which I kept the accounts with a record of what the participants contributed to cover the expenses. We tried to do everything correctly even then for it was the Lord’s money we were using.

It is my writing back then and both Bill and I signed. I will print the picture up and show it to Bill and Gwyneth. It has a very special significance to me. It is a lovely reminder of the past. Thank you for sending it.

I have edited the picture to make it more manageable.

God bless you all.

David Jones.



Stanley Bowels comments regarding his Sunday Class photo 1950s and his family history.

Hello Wayne,

My wife Christine was trolling the net when she came across the picture on your blog of the fist Sunday School in Deep Cove.

She phoned me right away and I can update the picture for you.......No.16 is my elder brother Jeffery Bowles and I am No. 30 - Stanley Bowles

We moved away to the Island in the late 50's ending up in Victoria. I went back to England in 1968 to Join P&O as a deck officer on passenger ships. My Father Stanley L. Bowles had two houses in Deep Cove between 1950 and about 1957/8 on Panorama Drive and Cove Cliff Road. The family consisted of Margaret, Kathleen, Jeffery, myself, Vivienne and Christopher during that time. We ended up being 9 children, all apart from Jeffery are all still alive and living on the Island and Exeter England (Margaret). Jeff was killed in a car accident 5 years ago.

I now live in the Windsor Park with my wife and son Christopher - we have 4 children - the rest live in the Lonsdale area.

Its a small world and so please to see you are working to preserve the Deep Cove heritage.

Ken Kean comments on his photo, memories of Hobby Class's, and picnics.

Hi Wayne

I took a good look at the picture and I'm sorry I couldn't help with any other names, but I did find me. # 33 is me Ken Kean. I read through some of the articles and it brought back numerous memories for me too. Bill would drive around in the 1952 Plymouth to pickup all the kids. Friday night hobby classes produced things like: Bottle Cap Shoe Scraper, Bird Houses, Foos Ball Games etc. Yes the Picnics were great, and the early ones were at Queens Park- New West. Don't forget the trips to your families cabin on Ruby Lake on the Sunshine Coast. I was in Ron P's Class and he took us on numerous outings. Bike tour from Deep Cove to Lynn Valley and back, Hikes to Garabaldi. Ron also would invite us to his house for bible class and barbeques. Great times!

Thanks for your time and efforts that you put forth for the Blog.Great Job.

P/S That first house where Bill Hague lived on Myrtle (Banbury), he rented from my parents.

Yours Truly Ken Kean