A Busy and Fruitful Start

It might be an old cliché but it’s nonetheless true, especially for the few weeks of 2018.  “Where has the time gone?”  

With only 5 days in the books for 2018, I flew to Cross Lake, Manitoba and met 13 members of the team there that conduct the summer VBS.  It was a whirlwind weekend packed with activities focused on the children.  This would be the third winter trip for this team.  You might recall that the first trip revolved around the winter 2015 suicide epidemic that hit Cross Lake hard.  That trip set the stage for continuing winter trips to the community to support the children and their families.

The Montana team with kids at a community hockey game the first night in Cross Lake.

This team comes well prepared for just about anything.  One area of ministry is to deliver “Hope Notes” and gifts to several dozen of the children and families.  These notes are ways to encourage some of the children who have been going through tough times with the hope of Jesus as their Savior

The prayer walkers going from building to building

Members of the team who participated in the prayer walk around the elementary school buildings

We did a prayer walk around the building that make up the elementary school praying over them for the children’s safety and peace.  During the evenings, the gym was opened for the children to come and hang out with us.  It was full of fun and noise.  

One of the gym nights with the children.

Montana team member B.J. Shaw did a devotion at the end of our second gym night.

I conducted a worship service for the community at the school on Sunday.  The team had planned Sunday school after worship with a presentation of "The Three Trees", a craft time, and scavenger hunt in the school.  It was a great time of worship and learning for the children and their families who attended.

Pastor Dennis conducting worship on Sunday at the school

There were lots of hugs and tears after gym night the last night we were there.  The connections to the community and the children are strong and continue to support and encourage them in the faith of Jesus Christ.

The next community trip took me even further north to Shamattawa, Manitoba.  This is my third winter trip there with team members.  I met the team of 4 in Winnipeg.  Then we flew up to Shamattawa for our visit.  

We had just a little bit of excess cargo...like 280 pounds worth!

We flew up Sunday afternoon and stayed at the school.  We were a little apprehensive as there had been a lot of staff changes recently and we were meeting people we never worked with.  However, the Lord opened doors for us in so many ways.  The new Vice Principal met us at the airport and transported us to the school.  His wife, who is also the Home Economics teacher gave us keys to the canteen so we could store food we brought.  We were off to an encouraging start.

Monday morning, be began our visits to the classrooms.  We sang VBS songs and brought booklets on "Learning to Pray".  Pastor Dennis talked about it with the older children and read it to the younger children.

The team also prepared a craft for the younger children.  They used wafer cookies and icing to make cookie LAMP airplanes.  They were fun to make for the kids (and quite tasty too!).

The children "flying" their LAMP cookie airplanes

Two churches donated gloves and knitted hats we distributed.  We were amazed at how many children didn't have hats and gloves with them.  They enjoyed getting them and we saw several of them wearing them the next day.

The hats and gloves laid out for sorting by size for each of the classes.

The older children enjoyed picking out their hats and gloves.

The big event was hosting (and cooking) a chili supper for the school staff.  They had a difficult and challenging year with teacher shortages and rotating classes.  The new administration also was settling in.  So we decided to do something special for them.  The big event would be putting on a chili supper for the entire school staff and families.  We spent two evening in preparing the food.

Shawn is making cornbread muffins

Leon was our master chili chef

 We gave gift bags to teachers, assistants, bus drivers, and administrators that included Tim Horton gift cards and a 365 day devotion book.

The team put together a “Saran ball” game that everyone played after supper was over.  It was a huge hit.  One of the administrators said they hadn't heard the staff laugh so much in a long time.  Nothing like sharing the joy of Jesus with others!

The Saran Ball game was a huge hit!

It was too soon that we had to leave to head home.  Our good byes included many hugs from the children and teachers.  They even presented us with a homemade card with their signatures and notes of thanks.  The Lord blessed us beyond expectation and our relationship with the people of Shamattaw is even deeper than before.

My old friend Mylee came up and gave me a giant hug before we left for the airport and our flight back to Winnipeg

There was just a short 8 day window for me before my next trip north.  This one would be to Kingfisher Lake, Ontario.  It was also to carry out a different aspect of LAMP ministry to the people.  I was going to be conducting a training session for First Nation pastors at a semi-annual ministry school organized by Bishop Lydia Mamakwa at Kingfisher.  (Steve Dreher, our sainted pastor/pilot had been a participant in the past and taught theological classes.)  This workshop was arranged with Bishop Lydia last fall and is a way for the information on family and parenting to be taken back to more communities.

I stayed at the Mission House which also doubled as our accommodations and classroom.  The interesting aspect of this training is that there were a number of people attending whose language was Cree only.  I had an interpreter (James, Bishop Lydia's husband) and things worked out really well.  It was a good experience for me as I was able to learn some English words that would be easier to translate into Cree.

The people attending were deeply involved with note taking and participating in much discussion of culture and families and how things are changing and affecting them both.  In a way, it wasn't much different than what's happening in our own communities in the US and Canada.  

The workshop was 4-1/2 days of intensive work.  At the end of the workshop, the consensus was that the group would like to have it again in the summer where they could absorb it again along with more pastors who would attend who couldn't attend this winter session.  So I'll be sandwiching another week of training at the summer ministry school between VBS teams and community visits the first week of July.  The pastors and Bishop Lydia are excited that LAMP is once again supporting the ministry school.  It's truly another way to encourage people in the faith and life of Jesus Christ.

This is most of the attendees of the ministry school.  It included pastors and elders from surrounding communities

This is me wearing my new moose skin hat that was a gift of appreciation for conducting the workshop

Trips like these to take the love and Gospel of Jesus to northern communities is what your prayers and continued financial support are allowing LAMP to do.   I can’t express my thanks for your partnership enough.  You are truly touching lives for Jesus in northern Canada.