I left this morning from the Wishart Point wharf, just downriver from Tabusintac. There were a few fishermen around, but they were not very receptive to receiving Bibles. For quite a while I paddled past uninhabited peat bogs. It worked out that I pretty much always had a current behind me, and sometimes also the wind. It was an interesting and beautiful coastline, and underscored the sense of isolation from village or river system to the next. At the one point where I could access the outer beach, the sea seemed much calmer than the day before.
There were no boats nearby until I got close to Neguac. It was overcast and a bit foggy again, as I landed ahead of schedule on Hay Island (Ile aux Foins). I found the Vances and we killed some time as we waited for my appointment with local contacts. The cool damp breeze didn’t exactly bring crowds of people out to enjoy the island. The Vances had had some providential encounters with people while they were in Neguac, including one of the Micmac fishermen. At around 3:00, Lloyd Augustine (from the Burnt Church First Nation) and Mark Foresight (a lay pastor from Oak Point) showed up to visit and pray for the area.
Just as I was leaving Hay Island, it started raining, and came down pretty heavy until I got close to our camp for the night. The paddle actually only took about thirty minutes, and the Vances weren’t there when I reached Diggle Point. So I kept on paddling to see more of the Burnt Church reserve from the water. Eventually we converged at the tribal powwow grounds where Lloyd had given us permission to spend the night. Both Kevin and the oldest boy (Kobee) paddled around in the kayak some from the campsite, for their first time in some small waves. It was a great privilege to be here with our tents under a large wooden shelter, looking across the water to the village that has seen so much controversy and tragedy. Only a couple weeks before, the school burned to the ground. Lloyd told us that they now have had three churches burn, three schools burn, and three administrative buildings burn in their history. A few years ago the community was also involved in confrontations, protests, and legal/political dissension over native fishing rights. The need for prayer and spiritual breakthroughs is huge here.
Being at a primitive campsite, I found myself in trouble when I noticed that my cell phone battery was dead. Just before it died completely, I managed to get a call in to Lloyd and was suggested to go visit the house of a friend of his up the road to charge my phone. I stayed a while and left thinking that the phone was charged enough, only to find a couple hours later that it was low again. So this time I drove into Neguac to see if I could find a place to charge it. I wound up at the town wharf. There I explained my problem to the night guard, who showed me where I could charge. Since we were both stuck at a lonely wharf in the middle of the night, we got to talk a while. It turned out that he had gotten a New Testament from Kevin while they were at Tim Hortons (restaurant), but he’d given it away to someone else because he couldn’t read. It was really sad to think of.
Partner church: Victory Worship Centre
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