What did Philip and Kathleen Hancock, Bible Training College students, do with the training they received from Oswald Chambers?
Sitting under OC’s teaching and living it out in their lives, resulted in a ministry that ultimately spanned three continents.
Philip and Gertrude Ballinger Hancock; 1920’s Persia
Like many missionaries, they had to die to themselves and give up dreams.
More than once.
Philip Hancock
Born in Wales the oldest of thirteen children, the 5′ 4″ Philip went to work as a cleaner for the railroad at age fifteen.
His passion for God may have been the result of the 1904-1905 Welsh revival; he yearned to be a missionary.
A missionary society sponsored him at the Bible Training College in London, starting in 1913.
World War I erupted in August 1914. Philip joined the YMCA following the fall 1914 semester and spent several months among the troops on the Salisbury Plain.
(Unverified, but Philip joining the YMCA may have inspired OC to do the same). When Philip’s orders came for Egypt, he gave up plans for a future with another BTC student, Kathleen Ballinger.
Philip and BTC/YMCA friend and colleague Jimmy Hanson arrived in Egypt a week after Biddy Chambers in December 1915.
YMCA director William Jessop used Philip as a roving secretary, particularly along the Suez Canal and on the Sinai Peninsula‘s front lines.
Philip went with the YMCA when the Egyptian Expeditionary Forces took Jerusalem. You can read the story of Philip, stores, and camels here.
Kathleen Ballinger
Gertrude Kathleen Ballinger grew up 70 miles away from Philip in Gloucestershire, the daughter of a farmer.
A comely beauty two inches taller than Philip, she arrived at the BTC in 1913 for a few weeks of “spiritual refreshment.”
Kathleen quickly “caught” what OC taught, and decided she, too, had a calling to serve Christ.
With his penchant for nicknames, OC called her “Woodbine”–which helped differentiate her from his wife and daughter! (Woodbine means generous and devoted affection).
She and Philip fell in love, but Philip had no money and a calling.
They gave up their dreams of marriage in 1915 when he sailed for Egypt.
Kathleen applied to work with the YMCA in Egypt and returned home to wait.
Egypt
Jimmy Hansen (seated) with Philip Hancock
Kathleen received orders to join the YMCA with her BTC friends Gladys Ingram and Eva Spink in September 1916.
The trio sailed to Egypt together in what OC called the “BTC expeditionary forces.”
Once in the country, they journeyed to Alexandria where they joined Miss Ashe to work at a Soldier’s Home along the Mediterranean Sea.
The BTC students often gathered at Zeitoun during their free time.
Whenever Phillip knew Kathleen would be there, he made sure he had business in nearby Cairo so he could visit as well.
Kathleen and Miss Ashe eventually ran a small YMCA hut alongside the Benha railroad station about an hour north of Cairo.
OC visited and wrote about the experience with admiration.
“The hut there is the nucleus of any amount of possibility. They are really roughing it more than any of us, and as usual, are appearing no end encouraged with the very difficulties.”
While at Benha, Kathleen came down with a life-threatening illness and Miss Ashe sent her to Zeitoun for recovery.
Biddy nursed Kathleen back to health and Phillip, realizing how easily he could have lost her, wrote to Kathleen’s father asking for her hand in marriage.
In September 1917, OC noted in his diary:
“Woodbine and Philip Hancock came to see us this afternoon–engaged to be married! So that is how things are done in Egypt. God bless them, it did us all good to see them.”
The couple wed the following spring (after Oswald’s death), with Kathleen Chambers as flower girl. The couple took up OC’s former ministry at the YMCA hut in Ismailia.
They repatriated to England in 1919.
Off to America and Persia
In 1920, Philip and Kathleen traveled to California where Philip attended San Francisco Theological Seminary.
Philip standing behind William Jessop and Kathleen, with Kathleen Chambers as flower girl and Biddy. (Wheaton College)
Their daughter Mary was born there.
Following ordination in 1925, the Hancock family moved to Persia (current day Iran) to work with the East Persia Mission of the Presbyterian Church in America.
Their children Donald and Evelyn were born in Persia during their twelve years at Hamadan and Kermanshah.
Kathleen worked with the women. She wrote about the experience several years later for the BTC Journal, circa 1938.
“The Moslem field, as you know, is not an easy one to work in. But we do praise God for those whom have seen come to Jesus and who have found He makes all things new.
“When you actually see the barriers fall down, superstition, fanaticism and fear give way and peace, hope and joy take their place because of our Lord Jesus, then you wish that at least you had one more life to lay at Jesus’ feet.”
Philip served as an evangelist among boys at a Christian school.
“It was always a great opportunity to rub shoulders with the boys and young men in our schools–to have them come to our home for a discussion class based on the Gospels and the teachings of Jesus.”
He worked in the men’s hospital wards, taught Bible studies, and preached in Persian at evangelistic meetings.
The Hancock family’s dream of serving in Persia for the rest of their lives ended in 1935 owing to ill-health. They returned to England where Philip spent the rest of his life pastoring Presbyterian congregations.
Back in England
The Hancocks were the only people whose family I was unable to trace during my research while writing Mrs. Oswald Chambers.
A curious series of events, however, enabled me to trace their life to the former St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Middlesex from 1947-1956.
Using Google maps, I discovered the current name of the church and wrote a letter.
Even though Kathleen and Philip left Middlesex 60 years ago, the church secretary found several people who remembered them. They provided me with some of the facts above.
Ultimately, the Hancocks retired to Bath to live near their daughter. Kathleen died in 1977.
Philip, the youngest of the BTC regulars, was the last one to die in 1985 at the age of 93 years old.
Their lives epitomized what OC sought at the BTC.
A 1940 article in the parish newsletter wrote about Philip’s time at the BTC:
“The year and a term in the college under the Principalship of the Rev. Oswald Chambers meant more to him that he could ever express. It proved to be a vital Christian experience that remained with him all his life.”
Well done, good and faithful servants.
Tweetables
How did Oswald Chambers’ students end up in Persia? Click to Tweet
Oswald Chambers students serve God on three continents. Click to Tweet
Every month in 2017, I related the stories about God’s leading and my blessed–and astonished–reactions while writing Mrs. Oswald Chambers
Thoughts? Reactions? Lurker?