PrayerPaddle 2009 Recap

I’ve been with my family in Bathurst for over a week now. For over five weeks, my health remained remarkably good, only to get a sore throat the day that I got back to Bathurst. I’m only now starting to feel well again. Besides resting, I’ve finished reading three books, helped with the market garden, done some roofing, helped move hay to the barn, and done some unpacking. On Sunday, I was able to visit two Baptist churches and one Pentecostal.

For the statistically minded, my best estimate is that I ended up actually paddling about 560 miles (930 km). Between Tidehead and Tatamagouche, there are about 170 more miles that went unpaddled. About half of that was along the coast itself and half would have been additional sections of the tidal rivers. A more significant statistic is the more than 300 New Testaments and Scripture portions that were distributed, a little over half of which were in French. More than 25 local churches and ministries (from at least eight denominational affiliations) were involved as partners with the PrayerPaddle, including a few from the sections beyond Tatamagouche.

As I look toward the expected resumption of the PrayerPaddle in summer 2010, there are three primary areas to work on: 1) lining up partner churches; 2) recruiting volunteers; 3) determining what route to paddle. Concerning the route, there are questions whether to go beyond Pleasant Bay, how much to try to do sections that had to be skipped this time, etc. Other things of interest over the coming weeks include the outreach that will take place during the Acadian Congress, website development, and how to encourage the partner churches to continue in passionate prayer for revival in the communities.

Personally, I will be in Bathurst for only a few more days. On Friday morning I fly out to my grandmother’s memorial service in Arizona (a four hour drive and then four flights). After getting back to Bathurst on Monday night, we will be leaving the next day to drive back to Mississippi. Hopefully we’ll be able to do a little bit of sightseeing on the way back, and arrive home on Saturday. As we did on the way up, we’ll have two vehicles and be camping along the way. I then have one week in the office before I have to start teaching my Fall semester classes.

Day 41: Antigonish, NS to Bathurst, NB

Once I tore myself away from Antigonish, I headed up to scout out the area from Antigonish to Cape George to Sutherlands River. I mostly found good accesses, beautiful scenery, but few if any evangelical churches. During a late lunch in New Glasgow, I was able to connect with the pastor of Munroe Avenue Baptist Church at the A&W restaurant. It was nice to have restaurant food for the first time in a week, as well as to find an enthusiastic supporter for next year’s PrayerPaddle continuation.

I reluctantly decided to take the Trans-Canada to New Brunswick instead of looking more along the coast, since I knew that it was getting late. When I got to Shediac, I went on a quest to figure out where the French “Brethren” Salle de l’Evangile was. Just as I was about to give up, I found the church. There was someone mowing the grass who was a member. I shared with him about what I’d been doing and concerns for a return to Biblical Christianity along the North Shore.

Continuing on, I had one more stop to make. I’d hoped to be able to meet up with Ron Burning, who was arriving into Rexton this evening to begin the week of outreach at Elsibogtog reserve. After failing to get ahold of him though, I still stopped for a sandwich at Tim Horton’s and visited a bit with Raymond Vautour. I didn’t manage to make it to Bathurst before dark, but followed another car through the “moosey” sections. Finally I pulled into the driveway at 10:35 pm, after being away for nearly five weeks. I intend to spend the next few days making some more phone calls, catching up on the blog, reading, and resting. Well, at least I’ll try to rest a bit. I’ll probably move to about once a week blogs now that the PrayerPaddle is basically completed for this year. May God bless my little offering of faith and prayer. And keep working on me to conform closer to His Word in so many areas where I know I fall short.

Partner churches: Grace Community Church; Munroe Avenue Baptist Church; Victory Baptist Church

Day 40: Inverness, NS to Antigonish, NS

As I was getting ready to leave the campground, I finally managed to strike up some conversation with my neighbors and give them New Testaments. Then I headed up to Cheticamp for the 10:30 worship service. I didn’t exactly make it on time, but close enough. Although they only had a small space, it was the first time I ever recall seeing a Canadian worship service that pretty nearly ran out of seats. Cheticamp is mostly an Acadian community, but English is widely used and the worship service was all in English. I was able to visit during the social time afterwards, and surprised to find a couple visiting from Ontario who many years ago had felt the call into ministry after not being able to find an evangelical church in northern Nova Scotia during their honeymoon.

I had a good bit that I had to do online before doing some more scouting of the coast from Cheticamp to Margaree Harbour. Next, I spent some time visiting with Pierre Chiasson about the PrayerPaddle and church planting strategies for Cape Breton. I wanted to get back to Antigonish tonight, but also wanted to visit the evening service at the Margaree Valley church. Since it was such a beautiful day, they brought chairs out for an outdoor evangelistic service. It was nice to see that type of flexibility compared to so many times in the States where it seems that nothing can depart from what was planned a month in advance. As they were getting set up for the service, I asked if I could borrow one of the guitars. You’ve got to realize that Cape Breton is like a paradise for someone that loves traditional country, and Scottish, and Acadian music. It had been a joy when they did one of my favorite Hank Williams songs in the morning service. So I ended up singing “Boat of Life” and “Jesus Savior Pilot Me” during the service. I was also asked to share my testimony since the lady that had been asked to was not able to come. I really hated to leave this little valley, but knew that I needed to be heading back west. The similarity between “Margaree Valley” and “Maggie Valley” (the center for traditional music in North Carolina) seemed appropriate.

After going over the rollercoaster sidewinding road to Whycocomagh, I was able to make pretty good time on the Trans-Canada to Antigonish, with the exception of a stop in Port Hastings to make some phone calls to family.

Partner churches: Margaree Valley Baptist Church; Grace Community Church

Day 39: Antigonish, NS to Inverness, NS

It was a bit hard to leave the Martells. But I got all packed up and began my trek again. The storm lasted all night and into the morning, with the wind waking me up a few times during the night. It was such a blessing not to have a wet tent to deal with! So I went about looking for boat ramps, campgrounds, and churches. When I got to Cape Breton Island (usually just called Cape Breton), the Port Hastings/Port Hawkesbury area was just as confusing as I’d remembered it. So I went back and forth trying to find churches, gas, and a place to buy more minutes for my cell phone. Along the way I ate a picnic lunch overlooking Canso Strait, and was surprised to see a bald eagle swoop down nearby. Besides the Gaelic translations, there were some other queer signs as I got up to Cape Breton. A stop sign in the middle of the water. And “flying stones”. Yeah, I realize that there were some loose rocks from the road constructions, but it still sounds funny for stones to fly.

Going up the west side of Cape Breton, the views were more and more gorgeous. I didn’t expect there to be many beach accesses or wharves, so I wanted to make sure that the ones I did expect were really there. Not only were there wharves at each place where I expected one, but I also discovered that a Ceilidh Coastal Trail had been built as part of the national Canada Trail “rails to trails” program. Some of the trail accesses helped provide access to the shore. When I told Pierre Chiasson that I was heading up to Cape Breton, he suggested that I come visit the worship service tomorrow at the new CNBC church plant in Cheticamp. I figured I could at least get close to there this evening. As it started getting later, I realized that I’d better call ahead for a campground since it was a weekend and the weather had turned out nice. Sure enough, my first choice in the Inverness area was full. I managed to get in to the next campground, but the sites were going fast.

It’s really a change being in a more touristy area in peak season. In the New Brunswick campgrounds I hardly ever saw an out-of-province license plate. Here there are people from all over, even a fancy camper from Germany. At the same time, people seem a lot less friendly. I’ve never exactly claimed to have the “gift of gab”, but I definitely have found it harder to interact with campers over this way. Even when I was at Brule Point (where the staff were extremely friendly), no campers would say more than a few words to me and nobody offered to help me with loading up the kayak.

In spite of clear skies when I arrived, there still ended up being a few sprinkles of rain later in the evening that I didn’t appreciate. And just enough wind to cause some concern for my poor pitiful tent.

Partner church: Grace Community Church

Day 38: Brule Point, NS to Antigonish, NS

I finally got hold of Mason Van Tassel in Pictou early this morning. I felt we needed to meet in person to figure everything out. I had been under the impression that he had a team of about six college students helping out for the whole summer. It turned out that there were only a couple helpers at a time who rotated in and out, and sometimes nobody. When I put that together with the lack of contact with churches in the area, a forecast that looked like it would bring pretty strong east winds, and other factors, it seemed that God was clearly saying that I’d paddled far enough, for this summer at least. I had prayed occasionally over the last several months that God would make it clear to me if He wanted me to stop before my planned end at Pleasant Bay. I didn’t want it to devolve into an egocentric drive to reach a personal goal. The focus was always for the PrayerPaddle to glorify God, not me. And to do it on His timetable.

I spent a little time visiting before leaving the campground, and a couple of people gladly accepted Bibles. Then I went over to visit with Mason in Pictou and discuss my plans. I feel like I should take some time now to get to know the Nova Scotia shore better, try to make more contacts in the area, and consider the possibility of continuing on from Tatamagouche next summer. New Brunswick had been different since I was much more familiar with the region and had been able to scout out much of the coast when I was up last summer. The Vances were also a huge help of course. After looking over some access points and campgrounds (and discovering some points that would have been problems), I headed east on the Trans-Canada to meet up with Harvey Martell in Antigonish.

Harvey has been working with a CNBC church plant for about a year now. He shared quite a bit about the struggles they have faced, gave me something to eat, and offered a place to stay for the night. He agreed with my plans to suspend paddling and look the area over more closely. I’m hoping that I would be able to get the support of another full-time ground crew next year like I had with the Vances in New Brunswick. That really did make all the difference for me to be able to do the PrayerPaddle at all. Also, it will be nice to actually be able to have some vacation time now with my family before having to rush back to work in Mississippi. And I will be able to make it out to my grandmother’s memorial service in Arizona now. All the pieces are just coming together. Finally, it sort of makes sense now why I was unable to raise enough support money. Hopefully now I will be able to finish up without being too far in the red.

Partner church: Grace Community Church

Day 37: Malagash, NS to Brule Point, NS

My wake-up call went off around 6:00 this morning. Not the alarm clock that I’d set for 7:30, but the rain that got me out of the tent again. I figured if God wanted me to go ahead and get up, then there wasn’t much use arguing. Shortly afterwards, it not only quit raining but the sun came out and the skies cleared so that I could cook a hot breakfast. Once I managed to get my wet mess all packed up again, I drove over to the Malagash Wharf. I figured the tides were liable to be pretty low in the morning and that the wharf would be a much easier put-in in spite of the small backtrack. I was a little aggravated as I drove by to see that the tidal flat was actually covered with water this time!

I had prayer with my contacts from Sunrise Baptist (in Tatamagouche) before launching from the wharf. There was a northeast wind blowing at maybe 15 kt, which made for good time going southwest. At Emery Island, I began my one mile southward crossing of the inlet. It was a wet ride but not bad, and I made pretty good time. Near the Tim Horton’s children’s camp (why so many camps around here?) I started going southeast toward the Waugh River and Tatamagouche. At Nelson Park, I was surprised to find people building a small boat dock. I got a nice welcome from the director of the park and found out that he'd had an encounter many years ago with someone “walking for Christ” across Canada. I thought it might have been Evan Morgan, but it didn’t fit.

In Tatamagouche, I had some trouble figuring out where the “wharf” was. I saw a platform with picnic tables, but with a locked gate and no obvious place for boats. When I found nothing else, I came back and did the best I could to pull the kayak and myself up. There were a lot of people who kept coming by to see the “Patterson Wharf Park” as I ate my lunch there. It was explained to me that it had been built by the men of the town as part of a reality TV show called “The Week The Women Went Away”. Unfortunately, they forgot to request enough money to actually put in a dock. Maybe they would have done better with some women around to point out such details?

I timed it so that I would be going out with the tide from Tatamagouche. That definitely helped, but it’s still not much fun going against the wind. After crossing over to Brule Point, I again had campground issues. I paddled through lots of shallow water to line up with where I’d been seeing campers, walked across a broad tidal flat to look up over the embankment, and found only a big grassy area. The campground was past the grassy area on the other side of the point! As if that weren’t bad enough, this point happened to have a long tidal reef that extended out from it. So I had to go back to the kayak and paddle all the way around. I was so tired. After I went around the reef to the campground, I not only found a long distance between me and the high tide line, but this time the distance was mostly steep, jagged, and slippery rocks. Especially with the strong spring tides this time of the month, it really is not good to arrive at camp near low tide! I hope I’ve learned my lesson.

The campground staff were extremely nice, and I made sure to get the tent put up right away so that it could dry out in the sunshine. As my energy level improved a bit, I gradually got stuff out of the kayak and moved the kayak up above high tide. Only after that was done did I change into more decent clothes. I continued playing phone tag with the church planting team in Pictou, wondering what my shuttle prospects might be for the next few days. I also had some minor struggles getting online. Just another case of me not reading instructions fully.

Partner church: Sunrise Baptist Church

Day 36: Gulf Shore, NS to Malagash, NS

It ended up being another rainy night. With the tarp over the tent and having shelter near the trees, I managed OK for most of the night. But apparently the wind shifted around 6:30 AM so that the trees didn’t provide shelter and the tent started to collapse. So I got mostly dressed, took everything out of the tent, and let the poles down so that it could go flat without getting any more stressed or wet. The rain let up shortly afterwards, so that I could eat some breakfast, pack everything up, and get my paddling clothes on.

I had arranged with Jason Burke at Camp Pagweak to move my car to a campground near Malagash. In consideration of the tides and another wet morning, the plan was to start from Wallace Bridge near high tide. Jason had assured me that there was a place there that I could launch from, but I didn’t feel so sure once I got there. I drove around into Wallace itself trying to figure out what to do, and ended up stopping at the museum to call up to the camp (which I had forgotten to get the phone number for). Jason explained that the launch at Wallace Bridge was actually on someone’s property and that he would make a call to make sure there was no problem.

By the time I got on the water, a light rain had started again. The outgoing current was a definite help, although it never seems as strong as I would like. After going past the actual village of Wallace, I skipped past Lazy Bay (‘cause I was too lazy) and took my first break at Horton’s Beach. At times the waves breaking where the channel cut past the end of the beach looked dramatic due to a bit of a tide rip, but I didn’t have any significant waves to paddle through. I had also been concerned that conditions out the bay might be rough with the strong east wind that was forecast. Although I did hit some heavy rain showers for a while, the wind didn’t turn out to be all that bad. It was surprisingly beautiful to see the large raindrops splashing into the sea all around me. I wish I could have taken a picture.

When I got to the Malagash Mines area (the salt mine has been closed for several years), I was surprised to see a big group of kids playing at the beach. And then I remembered that the Pattersons had mentioned a Bible camp that the Brethren have in the Malagash area. They said that I “couldn’t miss it”, and that I really should drop in to visit. Well, this certainly seemed like it fit the description, and I was ahead of my paddling schedule. So I paddled on in, confirmed that it was Malagash Bible Camp, and started the process of finding who was in charge. It turned out that the full-time director was in town taking care of business. But I was able to visit some with the week’s spiritual director and share about what I’m doing with the PrayerPaddle. When I was about to leave though, the actual camp director came back and we talked for a few minutes.

As I got close to end of the peninsula, I was faced with two concerns: a rumble of thunder to the south and wondering if it would be possible to get through between Saddle Island and the mainland on such a low tide level. As I was trying to decide, I heard a splash near the rocks to my right. I was surprised to see the face of a seal moving his way into the water. We kept playing peek-a-boo for a while as he would watch me and then dive back under. Finally, I had to move on and opted to go around the outer side of Saddle Island. It was a pretty paddle; my only concern was that there might be less shelter in case the thunderstorm came closer. I ended up seeing a couple more seals once I got around the island and started going toward the actual Malagash Point.

The point itself was less scenic. The bigger problem was that the tide was very low and the current was against me now as I worked my way westward. One blessing around this time was confirmation of my shuttle for tomorrow. It felt like I would never reach the campground, and it was only when I reached the Malagash Wharf (about a mile away) that I really could be sure of how far I had left. I was both concerned and disgusted when I got close to the campground. The Subaru was on the side of the road, the only sign of a “campground” was a trailer up on the hill, and there was a long wide foreshore of tidal flats separating me from the road. Obviously I had to get the kayak up to the road to be above high tide. So I dragged and dragged and dragged. By the time I got near the road, someone from a house just up the road had come down to check on me. Mr. Treen helped me with the final carry over rip-rap to the Subaru, and then I loaded the kayak on top. We talked briefly about the Lord, but didn’t get very far. He told me about his days as a fisherman and working in the salt mines before he retired.

There really was a campground across the road. It didn’t exactly have water access or any fancy facilities, but the owner was friendly and helpful for his one customer. The starry skies and relatively light winds reassured me that it would be a restful and dry night. Meanwhile, I took a surprisingly long drive into Tatamagouche to get online for a while. I thought the forecasters were messing up again when I saw mention of light rain overnight. Driving back though, I found myself in a light misty drizzle. The tent was wet, the wind was picking up . . . here we go again.

Partner ministries: Camp Pagweak

Day 35: Amherst Shore, NS to Gulf Shore, NS

Today was my first day that I could not get a vehicle shuttle. So I decided to take some time trying to find churches and get to know this new area. One of the first orders of business was to get my kayak up from the beach. The park staff told me that it would be possible to paddle up the creek to the highway on a high tide. So at 10:00 or so I made the surprisingly easy paddle up and then loaded the kayak on the car.

I stopped at a couple of provincial park beaches, handed out a few New Testaments, made a few calls, and then spent some time online in Pugwash. When I got into Pugwash, it was clear that I was no longer in New Brunswick: street signs were bilingual English and Gaelic. Besides having a funny name, the town is known as having played a role in peace negotiations after World War II and having a large salt mine. At one of my beach stops, I met a couple by the name of Haggerty who were from New Brunswick and were interested in the kayak. They said they would be willing to shuttle the car for me, but it was already getting late in the day and I felt that I had other things I needed to do. Unfortunately, they said they had given up on religion and were not the least bit interested in reconsidering.

I drove out to my campground for the night in Gulf Shore to get set up, then came back into town for grocery shopping and to make phone calls. The area seems to be more agricultural than most coastal areas in New Brunswick, although Mr. Haggerty said that most farms in the area are being worked by “new Canadians” who immigrated from Europe after World War II. Along the way to the campground there was a golf course with lots and lots of cars. How can people get so excited about chasing a little ball and care nothing about having a vital relationship with a holy God?

My phone call to an elder at the Port Howe Gospel Hall was unusually productive. Mr. Patterson was happy to suggest more people in the area that I should call. In particular, he reminded me about Camp Pagweak, the United (Atlantic) Baptist youth camp just outside town. So I decided to go pay a visit to the camp. I was enthusiastically received by the camp director, invited for supper, and offered a place to stay. After supper with the kids, we took some time to pray for the area and the camp, then made arrangements for them to move my car tomorrow.

Next I followed back up with Mr. Patterson, who invited me to visit with him at home. The “gospel halls” in this part of the country are associated with what is commonly referred to as the Plymouth Brethren. It turned out that Port Howe is the oldest gospel hall in the Maritimes, dating back to 1885. Mr. Patterson was a goldmine of information not only on the Brethren in the area, but the ministries of several other churches as well. He gave me samples of evangelistic calendars that he takes around door-to-door in the area, as well as a book on revival and a book on the early pioneer church planter of the Brethren in the region. He also helped me with more phone numbers of local pastors. Finally, the Pattersons also encouraged me to drop by the Brethrens’ children’s camp near Malagash tomorrow.

When I got back to the campground (well after 11:00), I found the tent already wet from a light rain. Since more rain was forecast, I threw the tarp over as well. Incidentally, it was probably a good thing that I didn’t paddle to the campground since it’s at the top of a high bluff with no easy way up or down. One other odd thing was that I kept hearing a sound in the trees that sounded an awful lot like a bullfrog. Surely they don’t make it all the way up to Nova Scotia, right?

Partner churches/ministries: Camp Pagweak, Port Howe Gospel Hall

Day 34: Cape Tormentine, NB to Amherst Shore, NS

Today was my first day to actually have to turn back from a paddle. I managed to fight my way against wind and current for about four miles, around Cape Tormentine to Cape Spear. The main problem was the strong current going against me at 2 to 3 kt, and little chance for improvement. That’s a major issue when you’re trying to make 18 miles by lunch time. And I really did not want to miss my appointment for lunch and prayer in Port Elgin.

After surprising my family back at the campground, I made arrangements for the change in plans, spent some time writing, and let the kids have one last swim at the beach (with the jellyfish). My wife informed me that the strong winds had split one of the tent poles. So it wasn’t clear how usable the tent would be now. Then I had to say goodbye to my family again.

I had plans to meet for lunch with the Morgans from the Maritimes House of Prayer ministry (in Moncton) and a friend of theirs from Port Elgin. I found the restaurant and was soon joined by the Morgans, another couple from Moncton, and the family from Port Elgin. We shared about how God is moving in the area and then went out to Fort Gaspereau to pray. It was a great encouragement to see how God was putting a burden in the hearts of the LeCoeur family to put down roots in Port Elgin and trust Him to bring revival. In particular, Sarah brought a small map of the town that she had painted showing the homes and businesses to pray for. She also told about how Port Elgin had developed its reputation as a worldly drinking town for sailors during its heyday and had declined with the changes in industry over the years. The Morgans are also an inspiration. Besides their current prayer ministry and missions trips, Evan made an epic prayer walk all the way across Canada about 10 years ago, taking 209 days.

The LeCoeurs showed me a boat ramp in town that would give me better access to the water with the very low tide level. Then I rode the tidal current out into the strong southwest winds that were still blowing. I had a fairly hard paddle for a couple miles across shallow open waters to get near the last point of New Brunswick before the provincial line at the Tidnish River. After that, I was able to finally cruise along with the wind at my back. When I crossed the staked channel entrance to the Tidnish, I figured I had made my entry to Nova Scotia. I kept paddling until I got to the ruined breakwaters at Tidnish Dock Provincial Park. It’s at the site of a failed attempt to marine connection between the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Bay of Fundy. Although the engineering challenge seems small compared to many other projects, it was stopped due to financing problems. I’m glad that God’s work is not dependent upon the whims of a few self-important financiers.

When I finally pulled in to the beach at Amherst Shore Provincial Park at 7:43 pm, I was tired and apprehensive. I had a long 15 minute walk to get up to the campground (which I expected). It was nice to see the Subaru, find out that my campsite was already paid for, and find that the park staff were ready to bend over backwards to help me. The staff even offered to secure the kayak and bring my paddles up for me. I was frustrated though that I had two voicemails I needed to check and there was absolutely no cell service in the area. I quickly set up my site (a handicapped one), and started driving to find where my phone would work. The tent worked better than expected with the broken pole, but did look a little awkward. After several kilometers of driving, I was able to get through and discover that both calls were just my wife saying hi. Still no contact with any pastors in Nova Scotia and no shuttle for tomorrow. I resolved that there was nothing more I could do under the circumstances. Some hot supper (as the propane ran out) and a nice shower finished off the evening. I really feel like I’m starting from scratch now in this new province. I’ll try to use tomorrow to get my bearings and figure out what God has in store.

Partner: Maritimes House of Prayer (Prayer Mountain)

Day 33: Cape Tormentine, NB, Port Elgin, NB, and Moncton, NB

The wind is still blowing. At least I’m not paddling in it, there are no mosquitoes, and the skies are clear. We decided to visit Timber River Pentecostal Church for morning worship since it was the closest evangelical church and my wife had gone there sometimes when she was in university. We had no idea what time the service was and were not expected. So in some ways it was kind of nice to be relatively anonymous at a worship service for a change, though we mentioned afterwards about what I’m doing. We ate a picnic lunch at the Fort Gaspereau historic site in Port Elgin where I plan to meet for prayer tomorrow. The kids had fun running around and found some yummy strawberries to pick.

For the afternoon, we drove into Moncton to visit with Nancy’s aunt and cousin. They filled us in some on what’s going on with churches in their area as we shared about what’s been happening with the PrayerPaddle. While we were there, we got a phone call from Bathurst to let us know that the newspaper article about the PrayerPaddle from over a week ago was reprinted in full yesterday in the province-wide Telegraph Journal. I had hoped to be able to make it to the evening prayer meeting at Providence Christian Church in Riverview to share about what God’s been doing through the PrayerPaddle, but we decided that we needed to get back to the campground to take care of laundry and get ready for tomorrow. It's amazing how even rest days can feel so exhausting sometimes.

Partner churches: Timber River Pentecostal Church, Providence Christian Church

Day 32: Cap-Pelé, NB to Cape Tormentine, NB

Today’s forecast had another high wind warning. Sometimes these warnings really seem like overkill, or just issued for much too broad of an area. But I try to restrain myself from ridiculing them since sometimes they can really bring miserable paddling conditions. For most of today I was sheltered enough from southeast winds for it to be fairly nice. Of course, it was a little different starting off the day by myself. I was looking forward to seeing my family later in the day. Meanwhile, the Vances were to take some time to go across to Prince Edward Island for their last day. Then we would meet up to trade off the car. And I finally thought I had a better grasp of my contacts for next week, as I head into Nova Scotia.

Besides my logistical transitions, today was also a day of cultural transitions. The heavily populated resort area of Shediac changed into a much more rural area with more farmland mixed in with a few cottages. The Acadian French (and their flag) became much less common, and the shores began to look somewhat like Prince Edward Island. Tidal flats in the harbors seemed to be a lot more extensive, and sometimes got in my way. After passing Little Shemogue Harbour I managed to get in contact with a pastor of one of the Canadian National Baptist (Southern Baptist) pastors in the Moncton area. As he corrected my pronunciation, I was reminded that I need to stop trying to pronounce everything in French now. Nevertheless, I don’t believe that I ever would have thought to say Shemogue as “shih-MUG-uh-wee”! I had thought it might be possible to meet up with my family at Murray Beach Provincial Park for lunch, but they were unable to get off from Bathurst early enough to make it.

Thanks to the cloudy and somewhat showery weather, I had to get fairly close before getting a good view of the Confederation Bridge to Prince Edward Island. Even once I got under the bridge I still could not see clearly to the end of it. It’s always an amazing sight though. The last couple miles to the bridge was a relatively difficult struggle against wind and tide. When I stopped underneath the bridge, I was surprised at how dirty this beautiful bridge is up close after only ten years. To a casual visitor, the churches in these areas may appear beautiful as well. But as you look closer at them, you’re likely to find that they’re empty or devoid of young people or spiritually compromised. In the entire area northeast of Shediac, there are actually no evangelical churches at all.

After passing Cape Jourimain at the bridge, my destination was the campground at Cape Tormentine. Cape Tormentine was the big transportation center to the “Island” before the Confederation Bridge was built. So it’s unclear right now if the community will become essentially a ghost town or develop into a new summer cottage area. In any case, it’s a long ways from any evangelical witness. To get to the campground, I had to make a long detour out into the strait to get around the old ferry wharf. The only comparable sized wharf that I’ve had to go around was at Belledune. But this time I had enough wind and current against me to make me really wish for a shortcut. Sometimes we feel like God should provide shortcuts for Christian ministry, but for some reason He makes us do things the hard and slow way. When I finally got out to the end of the wharf (and didn’t find nearly the improvement in sea conditions that I’d hoped behind the breakwaters), I was surprised to see several people fishing. This is only the second time I’ve seen people fishing off a wharf in New Brunswick, and was the first time to actually see them catch a fish.

Pulling up to the campground beach, I was happy to find my family and the Vances. I was not so happy however to see how the winds were beating up on the tent. It was really blowing out there. After changing clothes and visiting some, we all headed into Cap-Pelé to take the Vances to their motel, get gas, and say goodbye. It all happened so fast. It’s just hard to process it all emotionally, but I’m really thankful to have my family here to help me transition into this next phase.