LAC LA BICHE HIGHLIGHTS
During my years at Lac La Biche, there were times of encouragement and discouragement. I write today about some of the encouragements, which I've called highlights. Within a few weeks of arriving, I managed, through a church member, to find some extra employment. One hundred dollars monthly salary was tough sledding, even for a single guy. I paid my tithe, board and room, operated my car and made a 480 mile round trip to Lacombe, about every three weeks, to see Leona. So, I was hired as a secretary by the Lac La Biche Health Unit, working three mornings a week. At one dollar an hour, that gave me an extra nine dollars each week. That compensated for the promised subsidy from the EFC district, which never ever materialized. Also my Mom and Dad sent $25.00 to me each month. With all that income, or little income, I managed to get married.
A retired school teacher, the man who donated the old garage which was made into a house for us, shook hands with me about a month before I was married and in the palm of his hand I felt some money. He gave me $70.00 and told me to go buy a suit for my wedding. I bought a shirt, a tie, a pair of shoes and a suit, which still hangs in my closet. Maybe I'll try on the suit for my 60th wedding anniversary. I wore it at our 25th anniversary.
Another highlight during my twenty-two months in Lac La Biche was directing the Canadian Sunday School Mission's Little Egg Lake Camp in the summer of 1959 and 1960. The camp property was leased from the government and CSSM held a one week camp with boys and girls ranging from eight years of age into the teen years.
In anticipation of our going to the West Indies sometime in the fall of 1960 or early 1961, we wanted to have a commissioning service. So, I planned a missionary conference for March 1960. Such a conference had never been held in that area before. We invited four missionaries: Leslie Crawford with SIM in Nigeria; Mona Sperling with CEF, France; John Tiebe with YFC India and Henry Werner, the Western Canadian representative with the West Indies Mission, the mission we were hoping to serve under.
We held simultaneous services in the two churches, Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings. Sunday afternoon was the big event when both churches came together. We rented the Lac La Biche community hall. Some two hundred people attended. We even had the mayor of Lac La Biche, a Roman Catholic, who attended the service. For special music, we had invited a male quartet from Beulah Alliance Church in Edmonton. We had mission displays, a great service and one person prayed to receive Christ.
We also had some good fellowship and fun times in Lac La Biche. Visiting with the one young couple in the Lac La Biche church one night, we decided about 11:30pm to go skating on Lac La Biche lake. So we four crazy people, we were young once, all of us in our twenties, went skating in the light of the moon. I have no idea how cold it was. We did witness the temperature one day dipping to 50 below zero, Fahrenheit.
One summer evening the two of us went with another couple and a teenager fishing in Burnt Lake, west of Lac La Biche. We arrived about 6:30pm, fished from the shore for a half hour, without a single bite. Then it seems that a whole school of fish suddenly arrived. Reminds me of the disciples who fished all night without catching any until the Lord came and told them to cast their nets on the other side. They caught 153 fish. In this case, I think the Lord must have told the fish to come our way. In the next hour and a half we caught 75 fish. We two men spent much of our time using pliers to get the red devil lures out of the northern pike that the ladies were catching. We threw fifteen back and came away with sixty. We took two fish home and our friends gave most of them to their relatives, who fed them to their hogs. A few months later, we were given a half slab of bacon by their relatives. We could not stomach the bacon as it smelled and tasted like fish. Well, there were other encouragements along the way. These few are some that come to mind.
A retired school teacher, the man who donated the old garage which was made into a house for us, shook hands with me about a month before I was married and in the palm of his hand I felt some money. He gave me $70.00 and told me to go buy a suit for my wedding. I bought a shirt, a tie, a pair of shoes and a suit, which still hangs in my closet. Maybe I'll try on the suit for my 60th wedding anniversary. I wore it at our 25th anniversary.
Another highlight during my twenty-two months in Lac La Biche was directing the Canadian Sunday School Mission's Little Egg Lake Camp in the summer of 1959 and 1960. The camp property was leased from the government and CSSM held a one week camp with boys and girls ranging from eight years of age into the teen years.
Little Egg Lake Campfire
I should interject here that if you live long enough you will probably hear some stories that will be a real encouragement to you. In April 2016, I was invited to be the devotional speaker at the Northern Canada Evangelical Mission's workers (missionaries) conference at Dallas Valley Bible Camp near Regina, SK. It was a four day event and I spoke once each day. The first night I was talking with a missionary couple after the meeting and the lady said something to the effect that I might not remember her family that traveled thirty miles or more every Sunday afternoon to the Hylo Church service. When she told me the name, I remembered them well. She then continued and said, "In 1960, when I was eight years old, I prayed to receive Christ as my Savior at Little Egg Lake Camp. 1960 was one of the years that I was director.
The camp dining room
In the fall of 1959, the year that we were married, Frank Wilson and Billy Jackson, missionaries working with First Nations people south of Lac La Biche, felt led of the Lord to start an Indian Bible School. Leona and I were asked to teach one morning each week in that school. It was a delight to teach. We felt it was one more learning experience in our preparation for the mission field. Frank passed away several years ago but Billy is still going strong and is a regular Bible teacher on NCEM's television program, Tribal Trails.
In anticipation of our going to the West Indies sometime in the fall of 1960 or early 1961, we wanted to have a commissioning service. So, I planned a missionary conference for March 1960. Such a conference had never been held in that area before. We invited four missionaries: Leslie Crawford with SIM in Nigeria; Mona Sperling with CEF, France; John Tiebe with YFC India and Henry Werner, the Western Canadian representative with the West Indies Mission, the mission we were hoping to serve under.
We held simultaneous services in the two churches, Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings. Sunday afternoon was the big event when both churches came together. We rented the Lac La Biche community hall. Some two hundred people attended. We even had the mayor of Lac La Biche, a Roman Catholic, who attended the service. For special music, we had invited a male quartet from Beulah Alliance Church in Edmonton. We had mission displays, a great service and one person prayed to receive Christ.
We also had some good fellowship and fun times in Lac La Biche. Visiting with the one young couple in the Lac La Biche church one night, we decided about 11:30pm to go skating on Lac La Biche lake. So we four crazy people, we were young once, all of us in our twenties, went skating in the light of the moon. I have no idea how cold it was. We did witness the temperature one day dipping to 50 below zero, Fahrenheit.
One summer evening the two of us went with another couple and a teenager fishing in Burnt Lake, west of Lac La Biche. We arrived about 6:30pm, fished from the shore for a half hour, without a single bite. Then it seems that a whole school of fish suddenly arrived. Reminds me of the disciples who fished all night without catching any until the Lord came and told them to cast their nets on the other side. They caught 153 fish. In this case, I think the Lord must have told the fish to come our way. In the next hour and a half we caught 75 fish. We two men spent much of our time using pliers to get the red devil lures out of the northern pike that the ladies were catching. We threw fifteen back and came away with sixty. We took two fish home and our friends gave most of them to their relatives, who fed them to their hogs. A few months later, we were given a half slab of bacon by their relatives. We could not stomach the bacon as it smelled and tasted like fish. Well, there were other encouragements along the way. These few are some that come to mind.
The sixty fish we hauled away
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