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History Of The Elim Gospel Hall, Ipoh (1913 - 2003) - Part 02 - The Wilson Era In Ipoh
Around 1900 a young adventurous missionary named George Wilson arrived in Penang from Britain. He soon settled down in Taiping to do the Lord’s work. In 1902 he married Elizabeth Dron and they lived in Taiping for a while. Through visitation and preaching, the testimony was established there and soon the Wilsons moved to Kampar (about 1906-1913), at that time an important tin mining town. They lived in Kampar for several years where later a small hall was built.
Mr. George Wilson travelled about on his trusted old fashioned bicycle which had fixed solid tyres. In 1912 he rode for hours from his house in Kampar through Ipoh to preach the Word in Batu Gajah. As he passed through Ipoh he eyed a piece of rubber estate land for sale. It was actually a “belukar,” overgrown with undergrowth and lallang and covered a large area at the intersection of Chung Thye Phin Road, a small winding dirt road with the main road Hugh Low Street. Mr. Wilson had the foresight to sense that here was the ideal location for the siting of a new gospel hall to facilitate assembly work in this new developing township of Ipoh. Mr. Wilson knelt down on the land and asked God to provide it for the Lord’s work. The Lord answered his fervent prayer. Before he went back with his family to England on furlough in 1913, he was able to come up with the money for the purchase of this piece of land. Eventually two more lots were acquired.
Mr. Wilson and his family returned to England on furlough in 1913 when the First World War (1914-1918) broke out in Europe. While the Wilsons were away, Sarah Shirtliff and her colleagues took charge of the work in Ipoh.