Norman Tew, a long-standing member of Thornleigh Seventh-day Adventist church (Sydney, NSW), expressed that “if I have not studied the lesson enough to be able to teach it, I have not studied it properly”.
Norman Tew is 95 years old, but he does not view serving God as something which he can retire from after dutifully serving for many years. Instead, Norman continues to serve each week at Thornleigh church as the Sabbath school leader, consistently delivering a detailed and biblically rich lesson to church members. Norman has been teaching the Sabbath School lesson for around 75 years, beginning when he was in college studying to be a teacher. His knowledge and understanding of the Bible provide a valuable resource to those who listen to his lessons each week.
Norman was born into an Adventist family in a cottage on Stanborough College Farm, England, and first encountered God at a very young age. Even from his youth, Norman has always had a heart for serving others, becoming a Junior Missionary Volunteer as a youth before becoming involved in Adventurers and Pathfinders. Even into his late 80s, Norman was serving as a District Adventurer leader!
When Norman finished his studies, his first officially paid role was working for the Seventh-day Adventist Church as a teacher in England. After a few years, Norman and his wife Isobel moved to Ethiopia as missionaries to continue serving as a teacher for the Church. While in Ethiopia, Norman became involved in numerous different positions serving the Church, taking on the role of treasurer, college business manager, and Union Conference assistant treasurer during the 15 years he was a missionary there. But during all this time, Norman said, “no matter what I was doing as a paid worker, I was always teaching Sabbath school”. Week in and week out Norman taught the lesson without fail.
After returning to England from Ethiopia, Norman and his wife found it very crowded and decided to move to Australia in 1973, where they would receive better education for their children. On their first Sabbath in Australia, a friend brought Norman and his family to Thornleigh church, and there Norman has been ever since. In Australia, Norman worked in treasury and management roles before being asked to work on a specification for the first computers installed at Sydney Adventist Hospital. He became involved in the selection of the computers and was then employed in computer programming and management.
From school teaching to finance and computer management, Norman stated that “whatever your skills or interests, they can be used to serve God (whether paid or voluntary)”. God gives each individual skills and abilities and will place us in positions where we have the opportunity to serve—we need only be willing. Galatians 6:9,10 says, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.”
Norman is 95 years of age, but he continues to serve each week at church, demonstrating that we should not allow anything to prevent us from serving God. He commented that “the Christian life is all of life, not just at church”. The entirety of our lives—not just the few hours we spend at church—are to be a reflection of our faith and lived out in service to God. As Colossians 3:23 says, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord . . .”
Olivia Fairfax is an assistant editor of Adventist Record.
