Harold was born into a Christian family in New Zealand and was saved very early in his life. His family had a godly heritage. Two of his aunts were missionaries; one with the South Seas Evangelical Mission1and the other with the China Inland Mission2. He also had the opportunity to hear many missionaries speak about their work during his teens. On one such occasion, he decided to serve the Lord as a missionary. As preparation, he studied at the New Zealand Bible Training Institute in 1936 and 1937. At that time, he became interested in the closed land of Tibet. He enrolled under the Central Asian Mission.
In August 1939, Harold sailed to India. He landed at Bombay and travelled by train, truck and foot to Shigar, Baltistan3. There he learned Balti and helped the missionaries who were already there with their work. World War 2 was going on and Harold received orders to join the British/Indian army. The next five years of his life were spent at various war fronts, mostly the India-Burma border4.
Doris was born in New Zealand. Her parents were farmers. When she was 19, she went for a meeting to Tory Street Gospel Hall, Wellington. Convicted by the gospel message, she received Jesus Christ as her personal Lord and Saviour. She also attended the New Zealand Bible Training Institute and became acquainted with the Central Asian Mission. She enrolled and was assigned to North India. She sailed to India in 1941. While she was on a break in Punjab, she received a letter from Harold asking for her hand in marriage. She wrote several letters replying “NO” but did not post them. She became convinced that God wanted her to marry Harold and so she agreed. They were married in 1943 at Subathu5 but had to live in different places because of their war duties. After the war, both of them were discharged and sent to New Zealand.
Harold and Doris returned to India in August 1947. Their train journey from Bombay to Rawalpindi took them through burning villages and other scenes of partition related violence. They spent time in several places in Kashmir and Pakistan before settling in Srinagar and working with the Central Asian Mission. While in Srinagar, they realized the inappropriateness of working for a mission. Here they and several other missionaries were supposedly serving God, but taking orders from the CAM director at London, who knew nothing of the ground realities of war-torn Kashmir. They decided that if they were serving God, they should depend only on Him for guidance and provision. So, they resigned from the mission, although this meant that there would be no regular supply of money for them.
In 1948, shortly after resigning from CAM, Harold and Doris went to Delhi to work alongside the McKenzies who were also missionaries from New Zealand. They would travel to different places in Delhi, instructing the believers and selling gospel portions on the streets. Harold would also go to the villages and start conversations with people at teashops. He also witnessed to many pilgrims returning from pilgrimage sites in North India.
The McGregors came to Bombay in 1951 where they ran a bookshop for GLS. Later they also used the premises for outreach meetings. God blessed their efforts, and in a few years, Bethel Assembly was born. Helping him with this work were Desraj and Florence Jacob, and also C. V. Baby. Some of the members of the assembly were Tamil speakers from Dharavi, Asia’s largest slum. Harold had the vision to suggest that they start their own Tamil assembly in Dharavi. Along with others like Alfred Chote, N. C. Paul and Sundaram, he laboured for the growth of Dharavi assembly.
In 1952, Harold got an opportunity to broadcast on Ceylon Radio. This proved to be a wonderful opportunity to reach people in Malaysia, India, East Africa and Arabia. To ensure that the work continues, he formed a trust that continues to this day. When Christian broadcasting was banned in Sri Lanka, he helped form the Indian channel of Far East Broadcasting Associates (FEBA), which broadcasted with the help of Far East Broadcasting Corporation, Manila. In Bombay, the McGregors also ran a hostel for Christian young men. Harold McGregor then felt a burden for Rajasthan. He tried to challenge missionaries to go to Rajasthan and helped those who went. He also helped establish a number of Christian schools, Bible training institutes and orphanages in Rajasthan.
Through the latter part of 1950s, he encouraged and helped Br. D L Jeeva Ratnam and other Brethren from Andhra to come together and form a Telugu Assembly and by 1961 the assembly got established at Worli. (Subsequently at Chembur, Ghatkopar, Goregaon…). He used to lead Telugu Brethren in open air meetings through the streets of Worli where Telugu people resided. He preached the gospel in Hindi tastier than one could hear from any of Bombaywallas those days. He cautioned Telugu brethren not to belittle other’s faith while preaching the gospel but to talk only about Lord Jesus Christ and close the meetings by inviting listeners to come forward to know more for accepting Christ as the Saviour. A few came forward during the course of many such meetings, got saved and witnessed in the Assembly.
In 1968, health reasons forced the McGregors to get back to New Zealand and they spent their time teaching God’s word in schools and assemblies. Just when they felt settled and comfortable, they got an offer from Brisbane, Australia, to take over an old age home. When both of them were convinced that this was God’s will for them, they moved to Australia and spent three years there, followed by a smaller home in New Zealand. By now, the McGregors were aged and they retired from their work at the old age home. But even after they were retired, they were not idle. Doris started a Bible Study for women and also did outreach work. After one such outing in 1985, she took ill and passed away.
The Lord apparently had a lot more work for Harold to do. He returned to India in 1981, visiting and preaching in many cities. He was also able to go on a worldwide excursion, meeting God’s people in various countries and encouraging them.
Harold McGregor passed away on 11th August 2003 in New Zealand. Garry Oster writes about the incidents recalled in his funeral service, “God was given the glory in these reminiscences…great thanks was given to the Master for Harold’s faithfulness, commitment and drive”.
The following are some remarkable features that stand out in the life of Harold McGregor:
One way to summarize the life of the McGregors is using Frances Havergal’s words: “They who trust Him wholly find Him wholly true”. In a time when most of us Indians want to go to the West for a “better” life, people like the McGregors, who left their country and preached the good news in our poor, war-ravaged country ought to be a challenge for us.
(Endnotes)
1 This Sydney-based mission was formed in 1904 to evangelize the Solomon Islands
2 Hudson Taylor, pioneer missionary to mainland China, started the China Inland Mission . It is now called Overseas Missionary Fellowship
3 Present day Pakistan Occupied Kashmir
4 Present day Myanmar
5 A small town about 25 km from Shimla; it was from Subathu that Sadhu Sundar Singh set out for Tibet and never returned.
This article first appeared in the Harvest Times magazine in the January 2014 edition.
Harold and Doris returned to India in August 1947. Their train journey from Bombay to Rawalpindi took them through burning villages and other scenes of partition related violence. They spent time in several places in Kashmir and Pakistan before settling in Srinagar and working with the Central Asian Mission. While in Srinagar, they realized the inappropriateness of working for a mission. Here they and several other missionaries were supposedly serving God, but taking orders from the CAM director at London, who knew nothing of the ground realities of war-torn Kashmir. They decided that if they were serving God, they should depend only on Him for guidance and provision. So, they resigned from the mission, although this meant that there would be no regular supply of money for them.
In 1948, shortly after resigning from CAM, Harold and Doris went to Delhi to work alongside the McKenzies who were also missionaries from New Zealand. They would travel to different places in Delhi, instructing the believers and selling gospel portions on the streets. Harold would also go to the villages and start conversations with people at teashops. He also witnessed to many pilgrims returning from pilgrimage sites in North India.
The McGregors came to Bombay in 1951 where they ran a bookshop for GLS. Later they also used the premises for outreach meetings. God blessed their efforts, and in a few years, Bethel Assembly was born. Helping him with this work were Desraj and Florence Jacob, and also C. V. Baby. Some of the members of the assembly were Tamil speakers from Dharavi, Asia’s largest slum. Harold had the vision to suggest that they start their own Tamil assembly in Dharavi. Along with others like Alfred Chote, N. C. Paul and Sundaram, he laboured for the growth of Dharavi assembly.
In 1952, Harold got an opportunity to broadcast on Ceylon Radio. This proved to be a wonderful opportunity to reach people in Malaysia, India, East Africa and Arabia. To ensure that the work continues, he formed a trust that continues to this day. When Christian broadcasting was banned in Sri Lanka, he helped form the Indian channel of Far East Broadcasting Associates (FEBA), which broadcasted with the help of Far East Broadcasting Corporation, Manila. In Bombay, the McGregors also ran a hostel for Christian young men. Harold McGregor then felt a burden for Rajasthan. He tried to challenge missionaries to go to Rajasthan and helped those who went. He also helped establish a number of Christian schools, Bible training institutes and orphanages in Rajasthan.
Through the latter part of 1950s, he encouraged and helped Br. D L Jeeva Ratnam and other Brethren from Andhra to come together and form a Telugu Assembly and by 1961 the assembly got established at Worli. (Subsequently at Chembur, Ghatkopar, Goregaon…). He used to lead Telugu Brethren in open air meetings through the streets of Worli where Telugu people resided. He preached the gospel in Hindi tastier than one could hear from any of Bombaywallas those days. He cautioned Telugu brethren not to belittle other’s faith while preaching the gospel but to talk only about Lord Jesus Christ and close the meetings by inviting listeners to come forward to know more for accepting Christ as the Saviour. A few came forward during the course of many such meetings, got saved and witnessed in the Assembly.
In 1968, health reasons forced the McGregors to get back to New Zealand and they spent their time teaching God’s word in schools and assemblies. Just when they felt settled and comfortable, they got an offer from Brisbane, Australia, to take over an old age home. When both of them were convinced that this was God’s will for them, they moved to Australia and spent three years there, followed by a smaller home in New Zealand. By now, the McGregors were aged and they retired from their work at the old age home. But even after they were retired, they were not idle. Doris started a Bible Study for women and also did outreach work. After one such outing in 1985, she took ill and passed away.
The Lord apparently had a lot more work for Harold to do. He returned to India in 1981, visiting and preaching in many cities. He was also able to go on a worldwide excursion, meeting God’s people in various countries and encouraging them.
Harold McGregor passed away on 11th August 2003 in New Zealand. Garry Oster writes about the incidents recalled in his funeral service, “God was given the glory in these reminiscences…great thanks was given to the Master for Harold’s faithfulness, commitment and drive”.
The following are some remarkable features that stand out in the life of Harold McGregor:
- 1. The alacrity with which he would recognize and obey God’s will. When he was reluctant to leave the comforts of a fully furnished house in New Zealand for the old age home in Brisbane, a single reading from the Daily Light Devotional – “a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses” was enough to convince him that God wanted him to go to Brisbane.
- 2. God’s guidance and protection: On one dark evening, he was stopped by a tug on his shoulders when walking through long grass. He turned back but found no one. When he stepped forward, a snake crossed his path. If he was not stopped by the tug on his shoulders, he would have stepped on the snake and been bitten. On another occasion, he was traveling in a hilly region by bus at night. At 11 pm, the driver halted for a break at a place where the restaurants had closed for the day. When the passenger sitting next to him returned to his seat, he told Harold, “That was a most important stop”. His mouth smelt strongly of liquor and he fell asleep. Harold prayed that the driver would not do the same! The bus reached the destination at 1 am. With great difficulty, Harold managed to find a hotel with a vacant room. It later turned out that this was the same hotel in which the believers there had booked a room for him.
- 3. The long-lasting influence of the work: The people in whom Harold invested his efforts have gone onto great fruitfulness in ministry. For example, two teenage boys, George and Roy Mathai, who got saved in Sunday school during their ministry in Bombay went on to start a flourishing assembly in Alibaug and were able to lead several doctors to Christ.
- 4. The readiness to use new methods to spread the gospel: Radio may be old fashioned today, but in the early nineteen fifties it was very new. Although McGregor did not have any expertise in radio, he seized the opportunity in faith, and the radio ministry proved to be fruitful.
- 5. His life gave occasion to demonstrate the truth of many Bible verses: Psalm 91:11-12, 23:1, 37:4, Isaiah 43:2, Mark 10:29-30, etc.
One way to summarize the life of the McGregors is using Frances Havergal’s words: “They who trust Him wholly find Him wholly true”. In a time when most of us Indians want to go to the West for a “better” life, people like the McGregors, who left their country and preached the good news in our poor, war-ravaged country ought to be a challenge for us.
(Endnotes)
1 This Sydney-based mission was formed in 1904 to evangelize the Solomon Islands
2 Hudson Taylor, pioneer missionary to mainland China, started the China Inland Mission . It is now called Overseas Missionary Fellowship
3 Present day Pakistan Occupied Kashmir
4 Present day Myanmar
5 A small town about 25 km from Shimla; it was from Subathu that Sadhu Sundar Singh set out for Tibet and never returned.
This article first appeared in the Harvest Times magazine in the January 2014 edition.
– Johnny Varghese