A number of years ago, the missionary Catherine Rew did an oral history with her daughter Kathryn Rew Van’t-Wout. This is part two of the transcript. Part one is here. See here for a biography of Catherine. I have added explanatory information in square brackets [like this].

When I was finishing school and had I sat my exams for my Higher School Certificate, I wanted to be a nurse. My mother said I wasn’t strong enough to be a nurse but it would be better for me to train as a teacher. Well, in the morning I had to say if I was going to be a teacher. So, on the Sunday night I got out of bed and knelt down and gave my life to the LORD Jesus. I asked Him to show me what He wanted me to be and I went to Teachers’ Training College. I was 16 when I completed my Highers which was a year younger than usual. Usually people were 17 when they finished school, but I was 16.

So, I started Teachers’ training when I was 17 years old. The course was a three year course. It was there that I met Isobel Rew, your Dad’s [William Rew] cousin. I didn’t know anything about your Dad, but I knew that Isobel’s Uncle and Aunt were missionaries and that the family were there. I knew that 2 of her cousins were married to missionaries and that they were all out there in Africa.

I thought the thing to do was to be a missionary and I bought books about India. I thought, if I go to India my parents won’t mind. So I got books and read about Indian village life and so on. Then a missionary from Angola came. He was speaking at the half yearly conference in Glasgow and he said how that David went forth to the battle and that other people tarried by the stuff. And when they came back some of the people, the not very good people, said that what they gained had to go to those who went to the war and that the people who tarried by the stuff hadn’t to get anything. But David said that whatever there was had to be shared by those who stayed behind to look after the things and by those who went forth. He said that that meant that the people who stayed at home in Scotland and prayed for the missionaries would share with those who went forward and did the work. And it just seemed to me that the LORD said to me that to go out, as a missionary, wasn’t the important thing. The important thing was to do what He wanted me to do. So I gave up the idea of going to be a missionary.

Well, just about a year and a half later, there was a farewell meeting for Mr and Mrs Knox who were in our Assembly at Albert Hall. He said that his mother was 90 and since he was going away, he didn’t know whether he would ever see her, if she would still be here when he came back. He knew he would see her when the LORD came, but he didn’t know if he would see her down here. He said that that’s what it costs to be a missionary. You have got to count the cost. And he said, there are young people here, perhaps God is going to call some of you to go and serve Him in the mission field. I wondered about me. I thought, well, there are other young people here as well as me. It might not be me that God is speaking to. When we were shaking hands with them at the end of the meeting, Mrs Knox said to me, “Well, Cathie, you’ve heard of the need. What are you going to do about it?” I thought, “Well, that is God telling me. He wants me to be a missionary.” Years later, after I was married and had a family, I was speaking as I am doing just now, telling how the LORD called me. Mrs Knox said, “Oh, Cathie, I would never have said that to anyone.” So I said, “Well, you did! It must have been God who put the words into your mouth, because that was why I became a missionary.”

I thought I couldn’t tell anybody what I felt God was saying to me, so I told my parents in case they heard it from somebody else. I said to Mum, before I went out to the Bible class one Sunday, that when I grew up, I was going to be a missionary. I was still at Teachers’ Training College. She said (crossly), “What are you talking about?” But I left her and went to the Bible class. After that I went to my friend’s house for tea and then went to the Gospel meeting. When I got back in at night, there was Dad, ready for bed and he said, “What’s this you are talking about?” I said, “I just told Mum that when I am old enough, I am going to be a missionary. I just thought that I should tell her.” So he said, “You don’t know what you are talking about.” I said, “Well, I am just telling you. Not just now. I have got to do my teachers training, but some day, I am going to be a missionary.” So he went off to bed and that was that.

Part 3 appears next Wednesday.

Katie Barclay marvels at the determination of Cathie Rew. She is a historian at the Queen’s University, Belfast.