What I Think About Him

Camden Aitken in the city of sin

━━ Camden Aitken was born in Edinburgh on 22 November 1973. His father was a Baptist minister and his mother a Sunday school teacher.

Camden was only fourteen years old when he received his call to serve God full-time. However, in his college days he had befriended a fellow student, Elijah Fintch, who believed that a man's destiny was determined by himself, a doctrine condemned by the conservative Christianity in which Aitken had grown up. Thanks to Fintch, Camden was no longer satisfied with his father's faith.

A few years before he could graduate in psychology, Camden returned to his hometown; there he opened a publishing house and published two books of his own which were received with much success. But he was not happy.

Despite his parents' pleas, Camden travelled the world with the proceeds from his book. He travelled to Rome, hoping to become a playwright and, a few weeks later, returned to Scotland; depressed and frustrated.

While in New Orleans, Camden met a little boy selling handmade dolls outside the hotel where he was staying. The kid offered Camden a free pair of his most exquisite dolls, in exchange for teaching him how to add at his homework that day . Camden was furious at the thought of all the times the child had been swindled before for his lack of education and taught him all sorts of operations, plus he paid him for five of those dolls he sold and a special dinner. 'God bless you', the kid said and waved goodbye. That same night, there was a shooting right in front of the hotel. The next morning, Camden came across news that changed everything for him; the life of the doll boy had been taken during the attack. 

With a heart full of confusion and a bitter emptiness, Camden returned to Edinburgh.

With the support of his father and other pastors, Aitken wanted to return to the truth. Shortly after his vow of consecration, Camden was admitted as a student at Christ Rock Church Baptist Institute.

A year after graduating, Camden had begun a purposeful friendship with Martina Bellarus. Martina had a fervent desire to evangelise and she insisted that she would go to New Orleans with complete conviction in her calling. This was a strong enough push for Camden to know that she was the woman God wanted him to spend the rest of his life with.

Camden and Martina were married, and fifteen days later they travelled to New Orleans. Both spent many hours in Bible study and prayer. The small Christ Rock Baptist Church in a busy New Orleans neighbourhood grew, and by its first summer it had fifteen baptised believers. From the beginning, the new believers played an active role in evangelism.

Martina suffered from heart problems and had already experienced two severe crises at her young age. She already knew that death was a very real threat. Her firstborn, Catriona, was born a year after their arrival in New Orleans and filled their lives with joy and hope for two months before Martina suffered a heart attack and died instantly.

Although the unconverted people of the neighbourhood balked at the idea of having a pastor without a wife at the helm of the church. The actual members of the church were adamant that Camden remain its leader. 

During a visitation trip to a nearby church, Camden met Lorna Archundia, a young Mexican painter who depicted Bible verses in landscapes from around the world. The two became good friends for two years until Camden received God's command of giving Catriona a mother.

The decision to marry Lorna did produce some controversy among his church members; but Catriona needed a mother figure present and there was no reason to believe that Lorna could not be a good wife for Camden. But Aitken was considered a saint and so much was expected of him. Still, Lorna was a good mother to Catriona and a good wife to Camden.

Fifteen years later and with three more members in the family, Aitken and his wife received a call as new leaders of a church that had recently lost its pastor in a Scottish village that had been frozen in time. Camden left a young man, a recent graduate of the California Bible Institute, in charge of the church in New Orleans and with his family made the journey to Pledisburg.

Pledisburg. That is not where our story ends, but where it begins.

This book is the moving autobiography and biography of a family on the mission field, written by a young daughter of missionary parents who wants to encourage other young people and adults to follow God's commandment.

Aitken family, missionaries to Scotland.