Tony Barratt –   

Memories of a Truly Great Christian Leader and Mentor

Long before we ever met Tony and Peggy Barratt they were for us missionary legends.   I still recall Tony’s opening words at the Los Picaflores concert that packed the large Matlock Bath Pavilion, Derbyshire in 1971,   “We have not travelled over 4000 miles just to entertain you.”   Choosing his text from Luke.15:11-31, he preached with passion and conviction on the elder brother, issuing a vigorous, and unforgettable challenge, from the Two Thirds World to our Western churches in the process.   

You could have heard a pin drop when he finished.      

I little knew then that within some 15 years I would have the immense privilege of working with him when he and Peggy “retired” from South America to England.  

Tony was an amazing man to work with.  He had been a great athlete and cricketer and had qualified and worked as a veterinary surgeon before being called to the ministry.   I have rarely met anyone else with such a combination of enormous intellectual capacity and drive, yet at the same time such a wonderful and kindly mentor.  

Tony’s  consuming passion was for the gospel, and with it a belief that God was able to raise any man or women  into effective  service for Jesus,  no matter how poor or  humble or under privileged his or her circumstance, or how demanding the daily tasks – hence the vision and birth of SEAN in Argentina.    

On his return to England he worked from a modest office in his and Peggy’s bedroom. There was nothing half-hearted about anything Tony did. He always gave his all.   For him his remarkable academic achievements were just enabling tools to be used but never to be paraded or pursued.  He had no time for pretence or havens of academic superiority.  Over the years I have experienced many people, including lawyers, chemistry lecturers and theologians, who have the uncanny knack of being able to make simple concepts complicated.  However, Tony’s gifting was that of breaking down complex teachings into their simple understandable components – SEAN is still strong meat, but cut up into small manageable portions for busy, working people..  

Tony had a wonderful ability of recognising the enormous potential in people that others would pass by.  Whatever gifting they might have, however modest, Tony would encourage it to grow and develop.    For example, back in the 1980s a young unknown art graduate was invited by Tony to illustrate Paul’s Life and Letters – many of you will have appreciated her lively and helpful drawings whilst studying the course.   Later Sir David Attenborough was to write this of her, “One of our most talented and up and coming wildlife artists.”  She is, of course, Elaine Franks 

I was one of the people Tony lifted up..  That is another story that must not serve as a distraction.  It is enough to write that on becoming aware of some Biblical research I had undertaken, Tony generously invited me on to his team.  I had  no TEE experience, so, to quickly rectify that, Tony put me on a “stretch and survival” course that not only included understanding  books still very precious to me like  Robert F. Mager’s Preparing Instructional Objectives and  Fred Holland’s Teaching Through TEE, but, also, in true healthy SEAN tradition, Tony, of course, included a practical assignment, that of setting the objectives and programming for a course on the Biblical Teaching on Work using  my previous research on the subject.     

I learned the practical side of TEE studying and tutoring through the excellent tutorage and example of Joan Newton, of TAFTEE, who thought she had retired from India to a quiet life in the UK until Tony discovered she was living close by.    

Developing the Work Course was a great experience.  Tony, in his usual generous nature, gave me far more credit for it than I deserved. It became very much a team effort as each week my programming was severely tested and sharpened by Joan and Tony, himself.    

I quickly learned that one apt illustration could save many teaching frames.  Tony would brilliantly act out his suggestions.    My eventual sketch of a  rather superior  pastor and  a  gnarled gardener (Work for All, lesson 2a.7) in no way does  justice  to Tony’s original hilarious portrayal of the two  characters concerned  - a dramatisation that at the time  earned him two encores and more than deserved an Oscar  

Much time was devoted to honing the text of the SEAN courses through the feedback received from study groups.   Tony was always careful over space when formatting the books   He wanted the courses to be affordable to the very least, so sought always to reduce costs by economical use of each page.  One illustration he asked me to undertake was that of Jesus’ return, a picture that would show every tribe and tongue there to confess Him as Lord.    I asked him how much page space this could have.  Despite my protests that Michael Angelo was given vast areas of the Sistine Chapel ceiling to illustrate Creation, I was allotted  5 ½ centimetres   X   5 ½ centimetres to illustrate Jesus’ Second Coming. 

I witnessed  also  how Tony so appreciated,  valued, and encouraged the work of others, and would be happily willing to draw in the resources of SEAN  where needed  - help that has led to the Train and Multiply programme,  and valuable additional training material  published by SEAN such as Abundant Light, The Bible Encounter Manual.  Spirit World, Community Health and Feed My Lambs.  

Tony was a man too of very deep emotion and compassion.  Once, moved to tears of joy by a letter from a South American Indian leader, he urged Joan and me to read it.  His emotions changed rapidly to that of  deep disappointment through  our apparent inability to share his excitement as we looked at the letter – until Joan patiently explained something that he had overlooked  in his excitement,  that the letter was  written in Spanish, a language which neither she nor I understood.  Tony had a warm and ready sense of humour and greatly appreciated a good tease, such as when the following week Joan enthusiastically presented Tony with a letter she had received from a TAFTEE student in India – it was written, if I recall correctly, in Tamil!   

Tony would never allow his own name to be written on any of the SEAN courses. The only name he wanted to magnify was that of Jesus.  Moreover, he believed that these TEE courses were the result of inspired team work and the glory must go always to God.  I once tried to get around this by basing the teacher figure on a SEAN course I was illustrating on Tony himself, but when in his forties.    But my intrigue never got past the observant Tony.     

I mentioned at the beginning the talented Los Picaflores concerts that were used so effectively in South America (and the UK on tour) in the late 1960s and 1970s.  Tony had recognised then how  bringing the beautiful indigenous South American music into the churches would help  to draw people to the gospel  - so he produced this very gifted Spanish guitar and Paraguayan harp group complete with vocals.

To form such a group Tony, like Moses of old, looked at what God had placed in his hand, so his four elder children, Terry, Rosemary, Hilary and Patti became the talented and popular Los Picaflores  (the Hummingbirds).      

One regret is that I was never able to bring Tony to Russia. As my Russian colleagues will willingly testify, I am terrible at mastering another language.  However, knowing the man, I am sure that within a week in St Petersburg or Vladivostok Tony would have   thoroughly mastered the language himself, then also within two weeks he would have prepared a special course to help me, “Russian, Learn as You Read.”    

I thank God for such happy memories and the enormous privilege He gave me of being able to work with Tony, Peggy and Joan, and in cooperation with Terry and the SEAN team at the headquarters in Vina del Mar, Chile.  

Tony’s continual enthusiasm and vision was always a great incentive.     Interestingly enough, the amazing uptake of SEAN around the world came as a total surprise to him.  His focus, his passion, was for the training of indigenous leaders and workers in native Indian churches in Chile, Paraguay and Argentina where SEAN originated. How fitting it is that donations in his memory will be devoted to that purpose. 
 
 

Michael Huggins,

January 10 2009