Day 4: Petit-Rocher, NB to Bathurst, NB

Today was supposed to be the easy day, and in some sense it was. I only covered about half the mileage of yesterday, but had lots of rain to deal with. It started as a light drizzle last night, and continued with varying intensity all day. By the time I was getting up in the morning, I had puddles in the tent. So I had to put away the wet tent and sleeping bag along with everything else. I also still had to figure out arrangements for moving the car. Though I got a late start, it was easy to make up since I had scheduled long stops. It didn’t take long to discover that it was not only rainy but relatively windy and wavy. The roughest conditions, with waves and swell of a couple feet, were in the area of the Petit-Rocher wharf.

Poor visibility, raindrops on my face, and more challenging paddling made it more difficult to concentrate on praying specifically for the homes that I was passing by. Most of the time there were pretty much continuous houses, cottages, and campers along the shore as I got into the most populated section of the Bay of Chaleurs. I figured that I would make it to my destination on Youghall Beach at least 30 minutes late, but was shocked when I pulled the kayak onto the beach and looked at my watch. I was 32 seconds early! Wow, it’s amazing when God provides in little things like that. We had hoped to have a sizable gathering to pray for Bathurst and have a barbeque, but the miserable weather was not conducive to crowds. Nevertheless there were four (all lay people) who did come out to pray, in addition to the three people who I had prayed with at lunchtime in Beresford.

Although I was a little disappointed that the weather did not clear up for the meeting on Youghall Beach, it occurred to me that it was symbolic of the spiritual darkness that especially seems to pervade the area and of the spiritual battle that we need to be engaged in daily. At one point, I was talking to the Lord about how I realized that there was a spiritual battle all around me. But then I restated it that the battle was mostly to my right, where the land was. The “prizes” in spiritual warfare are not fish and lobsters and ocean water, but the souls of people created in the image of God. People who are held captive to the enemy by false religion, self-righteousness, ignorance, and self-gratification.

Tonight I get to stay with my in-laws and my wife and kids. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to dry out the camping gear and get organized for the next week. It will of course be hard as I start going away from where my family is.

Partner churches: Centre Evangelique de Beresford, Assemblee Evangelique Baptiste Nepisiguit, Evangel Pentecostal Church