LOUSANA & BELLGROVE

Sunday, January 1st, 1961, I preached my first sermon at the Lousana Gospel Mission and Bellgrove Community Church.  The sermon that day was about new beginnings, dealing with Bible characters who had failed and were starting afresh. It was also the first day of the week, the first day of the month, the first day of the year and for me, it was the first day of a new ministry.  

Lousana was a hamlet of about 65 people with two grocery stores, a service station, post office and three churches, Anglican, Presbyterian and the Lousana Gospel Mission.  LGM was an independent church, as was Bellgrove Community Church.  LGM was started by Fergus Kirk, the  farmer that invited L.E. Maxwell to teach the Bible to some Three Hills area students back in 1922, ultimately becoming Prairie Bible Institute.   I do not remember or whether I was ever told how BCC was started.  It was ten miles west of Lousana or about two or three miles northeast of Pine Lake.

Lousana Gospel Mission & Parsonage 

We lived in a parsonage next to the church in Lousana.  It was very convenient and also served on Sundays as a nursery for young mothers.  The house was much bigger than what we had at Lac La Biche and we figured we had really climbed the ladder.  There was a good size kitchen, living room, two bedrooms, a room for a bathroom, but we had no water or plumbing.  That room served as my study until Dan Jr. was born and then it became his bedroom.  Also we had a full size basement and a coal furnace.  I believe that it was in our last year that a well driller, who lived in the hamlet, drilled a well and all the households in the hamlet contributed about one hundred dollars and we all got running water.

We enjoyed our 32 months as pastor of these two churches.  We started Sundays at 10:30am with Sunday School in Bellgrove followed by a worship service.  Each service was about 45 minutes.  In the early months of my ministry I would shake hands quickly with the Bellgrove people and then hurry to Lousana where I taught the adult class.  Sunday School in Lousana started at 12:00 about the time that Bellgrove's service ended.  About the end of my first year a couple moved from Calgary, both graduates of Berean Bible College.  They moved to the wife's old home, living with her mom and started a printing business.  Fortunately for me the husband soon became the adult Sunday School teacher.

Bellgrove Community Church

These congregations were a little bigger than Lac La Biche and Hylo.  The young peoples meeting was a combined event.  A few couples also used to attend some of the young peoples gatherings.  Over the span of many years, several young people from these two churches went to Bible school, either Berean Bible College in Calgary or Prairie Bible Institute in Three Hills. Upon graduation some of them became missionaries and others pastors or a pastor' wife.

Though the church congregations were not large, we did have a Vacation Bible School.  This was held in the Lousana church.

Daily Vacation Bible Sschool - Lousana 1963

A highlight during my time there was the big celebration that we had in Lousana for their 20th anniversary. We had a combined morning service followed by a picnic lunch.  One hundred and twenty-five people attended, twice the population of  Lousana.  We had two speakers that day, both of them former young people, who following Bible school graduation had gone as missionaries,  One of them served in Nigeria and the other was a missionary to Australia's aborigines.

I should add that while in Lousana this city boy expanded his knowledge of farming.  I picked rocks out of the field; drove tractor doing summer fallow; helped with thrashing; branded a calf and saw a calf born.  I still have not milked a cow.  We also had two gardens our first year.  Did the same in Lac La Biche. 

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