Message of the Month by Pastor Paul    April 2021

This  Easter  I  am  at  the  International  Bible  Training  College  where  I  am  a lecturer. I have been here for the last six weeks so I thought it would be good to talk about the Founder of the College, the Reverend Fred Squire. He is one of my heroes and by the end of this message, I think you will see why.

 

Fred Squire was born in 1904 and as a boy of 10 years old he started playing an instrument in the local Salvation Army band. As a young man he went on to train as an officer in the Salvation Army where he served for several years. He met a number of Pentecostal believers and when his mother was healed of cancer, he joined them and became involved in evangelistic and revival meetings throughout England.  In 1931 he married Dorothy and they had one daughter.

 

Evangelist and Church Planter

 

In 1932 brother Squire began his own crusade meetings starting in Northampton and the surrounding area where churches were planted and 2,000 people saved in 5 months. He was then invited to hold evangelistic tent meetings in Fleetwood.A six-week crusade began in July and a large tent that could seat 500 was put up on some spare ground at the end of the High Street.

 

On July 16th a local man who had not spoken a word for 9 years –and who had been told byhis doctors that he would never speak again –was healed.The next evening 1,000 people packed into the campaign tent.Twice the tent was blown down in a storm and replaced each time with a bigger one, which was very appropriate because in the end the nightly congregation had grown to 3,000.

 

The  news  of  this  and  other  healing  miracles  was  reported  in  the  local newspaper  and  was  even  reported  in  Canada  which  resulted  in  Fred becoming  an  international  preacher  with  invitations  to  preach  in  Canada, Belgium,  Holland  and  South  Africa.  As  a  result  of  his  evangelistic  ministry about 80 churches were planted -some of which remain today.

 

World War II

 

With the outbreak of war in 1939 Fred and his family moved to Leamington Spa where he was exempt from military service because of being a Pastor, but  he  also  served  the  Civil  Defence  in  his  town  as  a  night  time  officer  in charge of the Report and Control Centre.

 

The  churches  in  Canada  that  Fred  had  visited  before  the  war,  on  hearing about  the  terrible conditions  for  people  in  Britain  because  of  the  Nazi bombings,  began  to  send  clothes  and  food  and  the  church  in  Leamington Spa became a distribution centre.

 

This was the beginning of a ministry known as “Operation Relief” which was recognised  and  highly respected  by  the  British  Government.  This  ministry continued  to  develop  during  the  war  with  contributions  being  sent  in  vast quantities from Rev Squire’s contacts in South Africa, the USA as well as Canada. These were distributed to people and families in need, regardless of their beliefs.

 

When the war ended in 1945 the need for aid in the devastated countries of mainland Europe was even greater.  Because of the high regard in which he was  held  by  people  in  high  places  who  knew  of  his  work,  Fred  was  givenpermission  to  travel  over  to  the  Continent  at  a  time  when  no  travel  was allowed.  

 

As  he  visited  churches  in  Holland  what  he  saw  and  heard  there  broke  his heart.  He  was  told  of  how  the  people  had  been  so  starved  that  they  were eating tulip bulbs and families who wanted to come to his meetings could not come together because they only had one pair of shoes between all of them.

 

Bible Training School

 

Fred Squire wrote: “About the time of the cessation of hostilities in Europe my mind had been a good deal exercised concerning the need for training young men and women in the work of evangelism.” This resulted in buying a ten roomed house in Leamington Spar for this purpose in 1945.

 

In May 1947 Fred attended a conference in Switzerland for church leaders from across Europe, Canada and America. Pastors from Italy expressed how they  were  grateful  for  practical  aid  but  felt  that  the  spiritual  need  of  their people was even greater.

 

Fred felt moved to offer these Italian Pastors the possibility of sending some of their young people at no cost to themselves or their churches, as students to his Bible School in England. He said, “Our vision then was to train them in the word of God and evangelism and send them back to their own countries.”

 

His own ministry had very limited resources but Fred was a visionary and a great man of faith.  A bigger building called ‘Southbank’ was purchased early in  1948  to  accommodate  the  growing  number  of  students  but  this  soon proved  to  be  too  small  so  by  7thDecember  1949  the whole  ministry  was transferred miraculously debt free, to Burgess Hill where the College remains to this day.

 

The vision was for the training of nationals, men and women who know the language and mentality of their own nations with no cultural adjustments to face  and  to  then  send  them  back  to  their  own  people.  The  first  overseas student to come was Francesco Toppi who eventually became the President of the Assemblies of God churches in Italy from 1977 to 2007. He has been followed by thousands of others over the years, from every continent in the world, many of whom are still serving God around the globe today.

 

International ministry

 

In the 1950’s Fred Squire travelled extensively in Europe and the Middle East where he met King Abdullah of Jordon and Queen Frederica of Greece. In 1954  he  preached  in  the  USA  and  Paris  (where  4,000  were  saved)  and where he met with Billy Graham. The international TIME magazine featured his work in an article in June 1950. Fred Squire wrote a number of books and the words and music of over 100 hymns.

 

In 1962 Fred was diagnosed with cancer. In the summer of that year there was a Camp Meeting, in the grounds of IBTI which was an annual event that Fred had held for many years and was attended by hundreds of people who came fora time of spiritual refreshment.

 

I met a lady a few years ago who had been at that event and she told me how everyone knew that Fred was dying but that he went around the Camp saying to people “I still believe in Divine Healing.” He was only 58 years old and although hundreds of people had been healed under his ministry –he was not.

 

I was thinking about that the other day as I was walking near the college early one morning and it struck me that although he went to be with the Lord so young, his vision and his faith live on to this day through all the men and women who are already serving across the nations and those young people who are here today. The College will be celebrating its 75thanniversary next year. His ministry did not die when he did, his legacy lives on!

 

Jesus said:“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”  John 15:5

 

By  this  My  Father  is  glorified,  that  you  bear  much  fruit;  so  you  will  be  My disciples. John 15:8