Difference between revisions of "John Spreeman"

Latest revision as of 22:48, 4 November 2020

John Spreeman may not have been the very first of the pioneers to come to Quebec but he was the first such to arrive from New Testament assemblies in Ontario which, for many years, had so loyally supported the work in francophone Quebec. Born in 1901 and converted at the age of fourteen, he early on manifested a desire to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. Concerned for the spiritual plight of French Canadians, he applied himself to learn the French language. At the same time, he became involved in the activities of his local assembly, Pape Avenue Gospel Hall in Toronto which would eventually become Victoria Park Gospel Hall. This assembly was the outgrowth of the labours of Scottish brethren such as Donald Munroe and others who had evangelized and planted assemblies in southern and central Ontario beginning in the late 1800s.

On the very last day of December 1926, Mr. Spreeman, virtually unknown, arrived in Montreal, commended to the work by the above-named assembly. He was welcomed with open arms by brethren at Ogilvy Gospel Hall, where he found himself surrounded by a significantly large number of believers who continued to be an encouragement for him throughout his many years of labour in the province.

In an unpublished article entitled Early Days in Quebec, Mr. Spreeman recounts his conversion and call to serve the Lord among French Canadians:

"Saved by God’s grace at Orillia when not yet 14, by late teens I had become exercised regarding making the gospel known. Beginning around home, I felt drawn to some mission field; could it be Venezuela where my eldest sister, the then Mrs. G. G. Johnston was? A remark one day by an older brother was used of God to decide this question. Said he, 'I believe that some Christians from our assemblies should move down to Quebec Province where they are nearly all French-speaking Roman Catholics without a worker from any assembly among them.'

"After moving back to Toronto, about 1921, I was, by various events, further confirmed in this exercise. For instance, as I arrived one evening at a prayer meeting in the old Broadview Gospel Hall, I asked God to confirm my exercise if it was really from Him by causing some brother to pray specifically that evening for Quebec. Within minutes our dear brother Mr. A. W. Joyce rose and prayed most fervently for Quebec, that God would send the gospel there. Thus further assured, I attended evening classes during three winter terms to study French.

"Should I now tell my exercise to the elders at Pape Avenue assembly? My eyes lighted on that word in Acts 12:17, 'Go show these things unto James and to the brethren.' Now ‘James’ was the first name of the oldest brother there at the time, i.e., Mr. James Mahaffy. Still I hesitated until it was drawn out of me by this same dear brother. They heartily commended me to serve the Lord in Quebec; I was quite overwhelmed." 

We know relatively little about his earliest activities in Quebec. In addition to applying himself assiduously to the learning of the French language, he apparently spent those early years in colportage work around the province, giving out tracts and New Testaments and sharing the gospel with any and all who would lend a listening ear. He spent a good deal of time in Montreal itself. Perhaps it was at this time that he worked to organize tract bands in the neighbouring province of Ontario, involving believers, both young and old, in mailing gospel tracts to persons in Quebec whose names and addresses were culled from telephone directories. As a result of requests being sent in for New Testaments which this literature offered, thousands of these were sent out by a Montreal brother, Mr. W. R. Atkinson.

It was in March 1933, that he, along with fellow-worker, Noah Gratton, arrived in Girardville, in the northern Lake Saint-Jean region of the province. This would be the principal scene of his labours throughout most of the rest of his life. They were not well-received and soon found themselves kidnapped and driven out of town. The story is admirably recounted by Edgar Doucet in his work, La Déliverance. In spite of threats, the two men were back again the following year, at which time the first French assembly in the province was established at Girardville, sometimes referred to as Albanel in the pages of News of Quebec.

Three years later another francophone assembly was begun on Masson Street in the Rosemount section of Montreal and in 1941, Mr. Spreeman was also instrumental in the beginnings of a third assembly at Rollet, in northwestern Quebec. These were the only French-speaking assemblies in existence in Quebec until after the war.

In the meantime, in 1936, Mr. Spreeman met and married Miss Ellen Martin of Guelph, Ontario, affectionately known as Nellie. Miss Martin was born in Northern Ireland in 1898 and had come to trust Christ as Saviour at eleven years of age. Down through the years, she proved to be an admirable helpmeet alongside her husband. Though they had no children of their own, John was apparently gifted in sharing the gospel with boys and girls. As for Nellie, many were those in the province who would have risen up and called her blessed. She was a real “mother in Israel”.

The year 1947 was a very significant one in the life of Mr. Spreeman. It was in that year that he completed his work on and published Mes Combats. This was an abridged combination of two earlier works by Father Charles Chiniquy, the converted Quebec priest who had gained much notoriety following his departure from the Roman Catholic Church. The two books in question were Fifty Years in the Church of Rome and Forty Years in the Church of Christ.

It was in the same year that he began the work in Thetford Mines, in the Eastern Townships of southern Quebec. During the season of Lent he encountered stiff opposition, including another kidnapping incident not unlike that which he had first met with in Girardville. This resulted in a complete nervous breakdown from which he never fully recovered. He was publicly branded as “a preacher of the false doctrine of the Witnesses of Jehovah” and called an “unfortunate maniac” by the press. It was not until two years later that the Spreemans were able to return to Girardville from Guelph, Ontario, where John had been recuperating. Five years after the disturbing event, while still a long way from the state of health enjoyed previously, he was once again able to do a certain amount of travelling, visiting and preaching in various parts of the province. This, he apparently continued to do, along with caring for the work in Girardville, throughout the remainder of the fifties and into the mid sixties.

The decade of the 1960s was a mixed bag for the Spreemans. They relocated to Quebec City for the years 1961-1962. In the latter year, John was back in Girardville to complete the rebuilding of his house which had been destroyed by fire that spring. The area around Girardville being pretty well evangelized and the assembly well known, Mr. Spreeman was absent from there most of the time now.  By 1966, he had joined a handful of believers, some of whom had moved from the Lake Saint Jean area, in an effort to evangelize at Farnham, in the southern part of the province. The following year, Nellie underwent surgery in Toronto and, in spite of what at first appeared to be an encouraging recovery, passed away on December 16, 1967. Her death had not at first been expected, but when it began to appear that such was likely, she suffered patiently and maintained a bright testimony for the Lord whom she loved. Two years later, in 1969, John remarried, taking Eileen Grainger as his second wife. Eileen had long served in the work of the Lord in Quebec, beginning as far back as 1944 when she arrived in Rollet to serve as houseparent to the children boarding with Mr. and Mrs. Vincent Davey and attending the Protestant school there. She and John had known each other for many years.

The couple settled in Farnham in 1969, where he continued to help until his voice gave out. He also suffered from Parkinson’s. He apparently continued to travel extensively throughout the province, visiting scattered contacts and ministering in many of the smaller French assemblies. It was during these years that the author had the privilege, once or twice, of meeting John Spreeman. He also visited him and his wife on one occasion at [[Bethany Lodge] in the greater Toronto area where they took up residence in October 1983. Referred to as “the real father and pioneer of the testimony of Brethren assemblies to the people of French Canada”, John passed away on October 12, 1989. He is buried in Toronto’s Pine Hill Cemetery.

SOURCES

Strout, Richard E.  Ebb and Flow: A History of Christian Brethren Churches in French Canada, 1926-2010