The changing world (10) 1968 second quarter and vacation - All Nations

In the Easter vacation I did my first retail pharmacy locus, a three assistant shop in Runcorn. In those days one had to decipher doctors writing, no computerised or typed prescriptions. Our labels bore no drug names unless instructed to write them. No quantities, no dates, no warnings on the labels, no patient leaflets. Labels written by hand. I stayed in a hotel expenses paid. £9 for four nights
   Bought the engagement ring, sapphires round a diamond, £44. I asked for her hand and Mr Overend agreed. Mrs O said Katy would never stand the African heat. But we were now officially engaged. ANMC had us do regular PE and sometimes a cross country run. 
   Took London Dip.th. exams at Alexandra Palace but walked out in Comparative Religion. I refused to be examined by unbelievers who think one is dealing with mere intellectual debate not truth and lies. You cannot say what the Bible says and leave it at that. It is as if I did pharmacy but for every question you could not only give the allopathic remedy but you had to give homoeopathic or Ayurvedic alternatives too. My message to the examiners would be Isaiah 66:2 - But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word. The examiners did not tremble but judged God's word. 
   A three day college campus under canvas in the grounds of or next to the house of John Profuma the disgraced former Minister of War who devoted his later life to charitable work after his affair with Christine Keeler back in 1963.
   Three week's locum in Wood Green with four part time assistants. Stayed at Overends. Then Irish Evangelical Trek college team together with Katy for two weeks. Train to Holyhead. Ferry to Dun Laoghaire. Train to Athlone. Our base is with a Protestant farmer in a mouse infested farmhouse. The second day ten were trapped. We took a Bible study in a modernist RC seminary. Open air meeting in Galway. Visited Knock and was sickened by the idolatry of The Virgin of Knock with holy water on tap. We used evangelistic questionnaires in Athlone. At Croagh Patrick we climbed the 2510' mountain with thousands of pilgrims some barefoot. It moved me to be bold and preach that evening in Athlone in the shade of the IRA memorial. A drunk disturbed our ladies. Colportage door to door in Roscommon. 
   Locus at Frodsham near Bedford, dispenser and three assistants in the most modern pharmacy yet. Visited the home of Bryan Boddy,ANMC student, agriculturalist who would spend all the rest of his working life in Nigeria. Also visited Uncle Steve, my grandfathers brother in law, a widower shepherd. Found the Bunyan museum very good indeed with his flute and violin. Visited Elstow Abbey, the Hill Difficulty and the House Beautiful. After a week there one back in Runcorn. Visited Chest and walked the walls. Then via home to Hull staying with a Methodist couplefor two weeks. Dispenser plus two assistants. Watched rugby league, Hull Kingston Rovers 10 Leeds 17. Sad that Russia invaded Czechoslovakia to put down rebellion. Visited Wilberfoce and Transport museums.  
   My old flame Margaret married Keith my classmate. Saw a dull Yorkshire v Surrey game at Harrogate. We won and should be champions. Met Mr Cullam the millionaire businessman who bankrolled the banner. Ezekil from Nigeria visited and we visited the Scots. John was ex-Nigerian forestry but now headmaster at Breckenbough School where they boarded boys from troubled home backgrounds. An earthquake killed 20,000 in Persia. I lodged in a hotel for a locus in Bletchley. My first colour TV. £9.10/- the week. Two assistants in the shop.
   Next a  two week locus in Barking. Dispenser and four assistants. MCC tour of South Africa called off after D'Olivera, mixed race picked for us.  Another week in Runcorn then Southend with three assistants.