Visiting and Rejoicing

After worshipping Sunday morning in Antigonish with Grace Community Church (at the Claymore Conference Centre), I went about 45 minutes west to visit at Sutherlands River. Alan Klein pastors Freedom Bible Church, under the sponsorship of Village Missions. They just recently entered a new stage when they finished remodeling the church building, which was converted from a barn 20 years ago. It's also encouraging to hear that this rural church near New Glasgow is now self-supporting and that there is a network of five evangelical pastors from the region who meet regularly for prayer and encouragement. Please pray for their Vacation Bible School ministry next week.

As I headed west to New Brunswick, the light rain intensified, not letting up until I got to outskirts of Bathurst several hours later. So much for the forecast of no rain at all in northern New Brunwick! I later found out that some of the areas I drove through got about 45 mm of rain (nearly 2 inches). At least I was dry inside the van.

Instead of heading directly back on the highway, I decided to check out a lead from someone in Antigonish about a Mennonite church at Loch Broom that I was unaware of. Sure enough I found it, and also came across a nice historical re-creation of one of the original log Presbyterian churches founded in 1787 by the Scottish settlers of Pictou County. I left a Gospel of John with the somewhat bored young lady who was being paid to welcome visitors to the site.

When I got up to the main road along the north coast, I immediately happened upon the remains of (apparently) a recently burned out church building near Caribou River. In the Tatamagouche area I was surprised to come across the sign of the Northumberland Church of God in Christ Mennonite. I had talked with pastor Bruce Isaac by phone last summer, but not actually met him. Since there were several cars at the church, I decided to drop in for a visit. It turned out that they were celebrating the 25th anniversary of the congregation. I had a great visit with brother Bruce before I reluctantly had to move on. Of course they insisted on me taking some food and drink with me (yummy sweet tea!).

And today I got the wonderful news of someone being led to trust in Christ in the Acadian village of Grande-Anse, New Brunswick. Pray for this man. On Wednesday I'm planning to go to a baptismal service by the French Baptist church from Tracadie, NB. On a more worldly note, you can also pray as I take the van in tomorrow (Tuesday) to find out why the Check Engine light is on.

Summer Heat

Well, it warmed up quite a bit the last couple days. Though the wind was blowing hard as I drove through eastern New Brunswick, yesterday was sunny and in the low 30s Celsius (90 Fahrenheit) here in Antigonish. I sweated my way through lots of water during a short hike yesterday at Cape George. But at least I was able to hand tracts to some people and get some nice photos.

The team from South Carolina pulled out early this morning to head home. Due to a misunderstanding about the date of the big parade, that left me and Pastor Martell to pass out as many tracts as we could this morning. It was a fairly impressive parade, and we were able to share around 500 tracts with people. Some good bagpipe music around, but sure not much Christian witness. During the week, Gospel packets were taken to about 3/4 of the homes in town. Pray for fruit!

I'll probably stay around to sing in the morning worship service here tomorrow before working my way back west.

Back to Acadia

We arrived in Bathurst on Friday evening. No kayak, and no definite plans. In general terms, I want to follow up on last year's PrayerPaddle and look for opportunities to build partnerships. But how that will be done is not yet clear. Since I did not have a clear vision for this year, I did not ask anyone to sponsor me financially. I also am limited somewhat by not having the second family vehicle with me this time. Obviously 2010 will be very different from last year.

On Sunday morning we got to worship in the new building that Gospel Light Baptist Church was able to buy last fall. In the afternoon I visited with the French Baptist "Assemblee Evangelique Baptiste Nepisiguit". Besides renewing acquaintances from last year, it was also a joy to witness the church's first baptism in at least 3 years and to meet the new pastor. Pray for the harvest to come in! Tonight began the Vacation Bible School of Gospel Light Baptist. There were more than 30 kids on the first night, much more than last year.

Later this week I plan to help out with the outreach that Grace Community Church is doing in Antigonish, NS during the Highland Games. A church from South Carolina has come up to help them out with this major unprecedented undertaking.

As I have more news and prayer requests, I'll try to share them regularly through the blog.

By the way, for the folks down in Mississippi: It's been pleasantly cool so far. Today was foggy/drizzly, temperatures in the low-to-mid 60s Fahrenheit. Not like the freeze warning that we had this time last year.