A Revelation

By this time, I had been singing in the choir at Rosedale Presbyterian Church for a few years. As often happens, even though you hang out with folks for a while, you don't always get to know them fully.

A case in point was Sandy Johnston. I knew she was an English professor, but that was the extent of my knowledge. When I mentioned my educational predicament to someone at Rosedale church, they said "Talk to Sandy, she might be able to help." So I talked to Sandy. Or, more accurately, I spoke to Dr. Alexandra Johnston, who just happened to be the Principal of Victoria University, University of Toronto, the very school I had attended and failed years earlier. After nearly four years of having sung with her in the Rosedale choir, eaten with her at assorted parties and even talked to her about assorted life and faith issues, I found out the one vital thing I had never before learned about her: she was the one that would help me make one of the biggest moves in my life. Well, all I can say is wow, God certainly has a way of arranging things so they work out in His time! When I told Sandy my dilemma, she looked a bit shocked that nobody had told me that if I had already been accepted at the U of T, I was in for good; Even if I had failed all my courses, all I had to was sign up for another semester of courses. The school would put me on probation, and as long as I passed, I could carry on with my education.

What a revelation. All those years I thought I couldn't go back to school. All those years being told my grades weren't good enough. And all the time, nobody every said anything about simply re-registering and being put on probation. Only when I talked a lovely woman in my choir, who happened to be the Principal of my school, did I learn differently. God surely had a plan, and that plan was for me to get back into university, but only when I was going there to become a minister. Wow!