Evelyn's grandfather, Robert Henry Hall, was a missionary who loved open-air evangelism. She has faithfully prayed and donated to the mission for decades, and on her 100th birthday, she gave her birthday money to the work of Webber Street.
Evelyn says the 1920s and 1930s were a peaceful and happy time.
“I feel as though I belong in the ancient past,” says Evelyn. “It all feels very different these days.”
Her family would head into the city for London City Mission’s Thanksgiving Service once a year and meet with her extended family.
“It was a wonderful time to see my uncles and aunts. We’d go out for a meal after the service. I was very sheltered back then. I didn’t know people had salad cream until I discovered it during one of these outings!”
Evelyn lived in Hounslow during the Second World War. She would see empty German planes slowly drift across the sky, then float down over the fields, followed by a big explosion. Her family lived near military barracks, but their home was mercifully never hit.
“I did, however, see the skies near St Paul lit red from the fires one evening,” Evelyn recalls.
“I also remember hiding under the stairs of our house as the air raid sirens rang out. You couldn’t do anything about it. You just had to rely on the assurance that if you followed Jesus, you’d be safe in him.”
Evelyn was serving in the Land Army during that time. For her 21st birthday, she invited all the land army girls for tea and to stay for a gospel service.
“I invited London City Mission’s General Secretary, George Andrews, to speak and he came. I was so glad he did because a friend of mine was wonderfully saved that night,” Evelyn says.
“She served in the Land Army with me and was the hardest nut to crack. She came from a difficult home quite hostile to the gospel. Her family turned her out once they found out she became a Christian. I helped collect her things, and she lived with me until she found her feet.”
After marrying and raising three boys, Evelyn faithfully supported the Mission through monthly prayer meetings.
“Anyone was invited to these meetings,” says Evelyn.
“Once a month, a group of us from church would meet up to pray for the needs of the mission. I would pray for the missionaries and their families. Especially their children who’d go to school in areas of London that were challenging.”
Evelyn came from a Christian home. She knew about Jesus since she was a little girl. But she recalls the moment when she was saved.
9 October 1937. She was 14 years old.
She followed her father to a mission hall to hear the evangelist Gordon Thomas speak.
“It was a rainy, horrible day,” Evelyn remembers.
“I don’t know why I had followed my father there. But I was glad I did. Because an evangelist named Gordon Thomas preached the gospel. And I felt like I was hit between the eyes with a bright light.
“Christ died for me! I realised that Jesus died for me, and by God’s grace, I was saved that day.”
Evelyn met Gordon Thomas again that Wednesday to talk through what had happened. She followed him to the vestry, where he handed her a hymn book. She took it.
“He then asked me why I took the hymn book. And I answered it was because he gave it to me,” she says.
“And that is what happened to you, he said. God has offered you the gift of salvation, and you have taken it.”
And since 1937, Evelyn’s passion for Jesus has been burning brightly.
We thank God for her life and the faithful support she has given to London City Mission in one form or another for a lifetime.
Most of all, we rejoice that the impact of partnerships in the gospel like Evelyn’s will be known for all eternity in the lives of those who heard the saving message of Jesus.
Light Up London
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