Open Writing

An old-school well-respected preacher was informed by one of his admirers. “I would give half my life to know the Bible as well as you do.'' The old preacher replied, "That's how long it took me.''

The work load was excessive. I was totally unprepared for what I had let myself in for. Four years' study would be crammed into two years. The brochure said nothing about that.

I had to be up every morning before 6 am, attending classes throughout the day until 4 pm. Then I returned home to study until midnight. The work was gruelling. We had to memorise chapters from the Bible, even whole books.

On my second day at the school I ran into a giant of a man, David Aycock. He immediately grabbed me in his bear hug. "When you run out of money son, you come stay with my wife and I,'' he said. "You can work for me.''

Seemed like every other day we would meet. "Are you out of cash yet?” he would ask.

“Not yet,'' I replied. I was fiercely independent. Still am, I guess.

I got on really well with David. Over the next couple of weeks we became real good friends. After about three months I was flat broke. David and his wife Dorothy took me into their home as though I was a long lost son. And now my work load really escalated. David was a building contractor. In exchange for food and accommodation I had to do manual labour.

Now I would be up at 5 am, wheeling barrow-loads of concrete. Then I would clean up and attend morning chapel at 8 am. David would collect me from the school at 4 pm, then I would lay roof tiles on houses until it got too cold and dark to work any more.

Then home to study, often until 2 or even 3 am. After a short sleep another day began. At weekends I wheeled tons of concrete.

David was a great guy to hang around with. He sang all the time and worked long hard hours. Luckily for me he worked on projects which were completed in a couple of weeks, then he would rest for a couple of weeks. Every now and then I managed to get more than three hours sleep.