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.