Tuesday, December 4, 2018


          So far in my short career with LAMP every trip that I’ve taken north has been a little different. This pass fall was a little different for several reasons. First, I had a chance to fish with my friend Ray in Kitamaat. Ray is in his 80’s and loves to fish. Ray also just had a knee replacement about five week before our fishing trip. I don’t know a lot about knee replacements but I’m guessing five weeks is a little early to fish but nothing was going slow him down. What made this fishing trip “different” was the weather was nice! Weather in Kitimat is normally rainy, and coming from Portland it rains a lot in Kitamaat.
        My visits to the different communities I found half my contacts were gone for different reasons. Normally this time of year, people tend to settle in for the fall. But for whatever reason people were out. So I manage to visit with different people. I visited with on of the principles at the local high school. Walking the halls with the principle, I recognized several faces of the high schoolers from the different communities that LAMP serves. After visiting at the high school, I left to visit Gitanyow and meet with the new health worker. I was excited to see and hear all the things she was doing with the kids in Gitanyow. The gym was open most nights during the week, allowing kids and older youth a place to run around. The younger kids played earlier in the gym and after they left, the older kids took over the gym. It was also good to see her not just watching from the bleachers but she would also monitored their behaviors. Even though she lived in Kitwanga, she knew most of the kids and this backgrounds. She had heard of LAMP from the other communities but not much about our time in Gitanyow. I mentioned that we would be back in the spring and that we looked forward to working with her.
          The next day I met with teacher Jane who teaches second grade at the school in Old Hazelton. On Monday evenings during the school year, she teaches Gitsanimx to adults in the community. I picked up a couple books she had written and then helped her setup a web camera so that I could start to learn Gitsanimx. I would be part of the bluebirds, the beginner group and the eagles are for the more advance students. To be honest I’m a bluebird still in the egg, Gitsanimx is very hard to learn, 
Now normally I head home after my trips but again, this was a little different. I wasn’t going home just yet but I went to visit a church in Pembroke, Manitoba. Like most of you I had no idea where Pembroke was but think of where New York is located, go to the coast and head north and just to the west of Canada’s capital, Ottawa you will find Pembroke. The church St.John Lutheran is part of the English district of the Missouri Synod church. For many year’s St.John has faithfully supported LAMP and I was asked to share with them my work in British Columbia. Where St.John was located, was in an older part of Pembroke with very old brick houses. The church itself was very old and everything reminded me of Hickory North Carolina where I was born and where my father served for the first seven years of his career. The people of St.John were very friendly and it was a real treat to worship with them and lead the children’s message with a puppet skit. In between Sunday school and the worship service, an older gentleman asked if I knew of a Jeffery Kranich. As you can tell by the name, there aren’t too many people with the last name of Kranich especially in the Lutheran circle. Yes! There is only on Jeff Kranich who happens to a DCE I look up to and was the leader of a camp I attended in high school. I learned that Jeff started his career at the church, coming from Concordia in Portland, Oregon. Jeff was in Pembroke for a few years before returning and continuing to serve as a DCE in the Northwest district.
        Once I was home it was a quick turnaround for the board meetings and staff retreat in Edmonton. I was also able to visit with two church's that send teams for the summer. I presented at another Lutheran Church, the group from Barrhead where one of the team leader's husband drove a 1996 Dodge diesel. I was also able to have dinner with most of their team and catch up with them. Their church also donated over a hundred quilts and knitted blankets to take up north.


I came home to elk hunt with my two younger kids before leaving to visit with two churches looking to send teams this summer. Pray that plans come together for both these churches and that God will provide more to help bring the gospel message to people in first nation communities.

As the season of Advent is upon us, I ask you to join me in prayer as we thank God for sending His son Jesus and we look forward to when Christ returns again. Pray that up north and around us hear the true meaning of Christmas.

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