Edward Lennard Minchin (February 2, 1904 - February 24, 1987)
A Life Sketch
Edwin Lennard Minchin was born in Cotesloe, West Australia, on February 2, 1904.
Now a suburb of Perth, Cotesloe lies on a lovely peninsula between the ocean and the Swan River. John Minchin, a vineyard keeper, and his wife Ellen Hitchcock Minchin, kept a fruit store there. Len was the youngest of their six children. The family moved to Hillcrest farm at Dangin, a wheat and sheep district where Len spent his childhood riding his pony "Dolly" to the village school.
His mother and his two older sisters were among the first to become Seventh-day Adventists in West Australia following Edward Hilliard's Evangelistic meetings in Perth in the early 1900s. Along with his brother, Gerald, Len spent four years at Darling Range School, where he worked in the dairy and was always proud to remember how the farm manager used to say, "I look at the milk shed in the dark, early morning. I see a light, and know that Len is down there milking. I can always depend on him."
When his father died in 1917 and his beloved mother less than a year later, Len was left a forlorn boy of 15. His two married sisters, Florence and Ruby, and his older brothers gave him the family environment that he so much needed. But his loss still affected him deeply. His sensitive and profoundly spiritual personality was already evident, and these characteristics would uniquely mark his ministry for the rest of his life.
At the same time, Len had a keen sense of humor. Almost to the end he was able to retell a sparkling story, try a witty pun, and relive an embarrassment, all with the familiar, innocent glint of mischief in his eye. His good humor meshed with his love of people, his own absent-mindedness, and his propensity for getting himself into humorous situations.
In 1923, when Gerald had gone on to further studies in America, Len went to Avondale College in New South Wales. When he graduated from the ministerial course in 1924, Len was appointed to work in South New Zealand on the evangelistic team of Elder J. W. Kent. Evangelism was to be only a stepping stone to the work he did the rest of his life.
A few months later he joined the staff at New Zealand Missionary College. There, he served as Dean of Men and Music Teacher. Meanwhile, May Pocock, another Australian, had become dean of Women and supervisor of the dining room. Under the benevolent, but ever watchful eye of the college president, Elder E.E. Cossentine, a courtship blossomed between the two deans - certainly a challenging and delicate enterprise back in 1927. Just before the marriage, back at May's home in Avondale. Australia, an accident almost prevented Len from getting to his own wedding on time.
While refurbishing the little college apartment to which he would bring back his bride Len knocked a gallon of paint over himself. The resulting lead poisoning made him extremely ill, but even worse, the very short haircut which became necessary left him looking somewhat like a marine recruit, as the wedding picture may testify. For a man always fastidious with his dress and grooming, this was truly a trial when he married on February 8, 1928
During the next three years in New Zealand, two little ones came into the Minchin home. First Kelvin Lennard. Len's enormous love and pride in his children began right there with that little boy. It was fitting, therefore, that there would be four more children upon whom he could lavish his wealth of devotion. Also, he loved in a very beautiful way the gentle, steadfast little nurse who was the mother of those children. Although his hours of travel often kept him away from home for weeks at a time, the absences seemed only to secure the love bond more firmly. For decades, hundreds of letters crisscrossed the earth keeping the family unit secure and bridging the gulf between Len's public ministry and May's efficient, uncomplaining management of the home.
Kelvin's little sister, Joan Marie, arrived just before their transfer back to Australia. Now Len became youth leader in the South New South Wales Conference in 1931. The ultimate shape of his life was forged in the next five years in this work. His sense of mission for young people demonstrated clearly where his real talent lay. Meanwhile, another baby arrived, Yvonne Mae. Then, in 1935, came twin girls, Valmae Joyce and Leona Grace. While Kelvin bemoaned the fact that among all these girls there could be found no little brother for him, his father threw up his hands in mock distress, saying, "Here I am the father of five and I'm only thirty."
Beginning in 1936, Len served for the next 10 years as Secretary of the Missionary Volunteer Department for the Australasian Division as it is known now. His work now took him not only to Australia and New Zealand but also to the mission fields of the South Pacific. These years before World War D were marked by great religious revivals among the young people of Australia, as they responded eagerly to Len’s earnest soul searching sermons.
The name of E.L.Minchin has long been associated with Adventist Youth Congresses. His first one, held at Avondale College in 1939, has remained a landmark in that country. The intense experience of, listening to the preaching of a godly man, learning the meaning and power of prayer, witnessing the vital operation of the Holy Spirit, and making a new start in life, has never left the minds of those who were present at that congress.
Len also had a lifelong love affair with music. It had begun in his childhood home in West Australia where the chief evening entertainment was singing around the old piano. In later years Len's appreciation of the value of a song augmented his ministry. He often counseled young people late into the night and then formed friendship teams to further cement the bonds of Christian fellowship among them. He played games with them, but he always loved to use music and spiritual choruses to lift the soul on wings of praise.
Len's appointment as a delegate to the General Conference in 1946 forecast the wider field of service that was about to open up. At that time he received a call to serve as Youth Director in the British Union. Finally, travel opportunities included the whole family, and the excited children boarded the Britain-bound ship with scarcely a backward glance at their Australian homeland. Four years following World War II, the British Union was restored to the Northern European Division, and Len's work expanded further. He particularly cherished his visits to Scandinavia, savoring the cool nights camping under the midnight sun. Or again, he might be down in tropical Nigeria helping a jungle doctor with his surgery.
His work had endless variety. But the great Paris Youth Congress of 1951 went far toward healing the wounds that war had left upon the church in Europe. But having proved his ability in youth ministry, it was time again to move. In 1954 Len was called to the General Conference MV Department. As a result, the entire world became his parish. Everywhere people felt Len's deep and lasting concern for the needs of young people, and they responded unfailingly to his infectious enthusiasm for God.
Through the years Len kept up correspondence with many hundreds of his young friends. He never willingly broke contact with lives he had touched so deeply.
On one occasion in England, two German young people excitedly greeted him. They couldn't break the language barrier; neither could he speak German. But then they cried out, "He lives, He lives". Instantly, a song service scene from one of the European congresses was recreated, and fellowship was renewed. Len's capacity for compassion and sympathy often wore him out. Wherever he went, he involved himself unreservedly in whatever problem he found. No matter how difficult the situation he never spared himself to make it better with the help of God. And when Valmae, one of his precious twinnies, contracted severe diabetes at the age of 12, the sorrow almost killed him. No one could believe that the battle with viral pneumonia just after arriving in England would have had such devastating effects. After Valmae's untimely death in August 1986, Len's own health deteriorated steadily and rapidly.
So after 16 years of youth evangelism and revival meetings worldwide, Len retired in 1970. Still, constant requests came for him to preach and give devotional talks, and even after he could no longer do any of those things he dearly loved, he still felt the fires of zeal for the saving of young people. He never lost the vision for even a single moment. Almost to the end, seeming strangers would approach him and say, "Oh, Elder Minchin, don't you remember that Week of Prayer in Oregon, Minnesota, Jamaica, Buenos Aires, Amsterdam, Australia. I remember every word you said; they changed my life."
And so countless people, all over the world, trace their own conversion experience, their call to the ministry, or their victory over great temptation, to one of Len Minchin's sermons or weeks of prayer. Who could estimate the great number of those whose lives have been moved, motivated, and changed, by a vision of the beauty of Jesus which he so ably portrayed. In the years of time we will never know, but in the golden years of eternity we shall discover the power and effectiveness of the committed life of Edwin Lennard Minchin.b
