CANADIAN EXECUTIVE SECRETARY

 Missions Booth at Briercrest Bible College - Dan on right

We arrived in Calgary, July 16th, 1969.  We drove to the Janz Brothers office/home and were greeted by two or three teens, children of some of the quartet members.  Since the quartet was out of town and these teens had no idea where we were to stay, we stayed in a motel that first night.

My first task at this new job was to prepare and publish a manual that could be given to a church or committee that would be showing the film Downbeat.  I believe it was in August that I flew to Winnipeg and then Regina to begin to solicit help in putting together a local team in each city that would do the ground work for the showing of the film.  I will never forget that first flight, arriving in Winnipeg, renting a car and driving to a shopping mall where I parked. I sat in the car wondering where I should start.  What was I to do, now that I had arrived?  I had no experience in what I was about to do and wondered what I had gotten myself into.

Over the next few weeks, I managed to connect with people in various cities and give some direction to the planning committees.  I was responsible to show Downbeat in the major cities and in a public auditorium.  The first showing that I had was in Regina, the end of September, in a high school auditorium.  Over the next few months, I showed this film in Victoria, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon and Winnipeg.  I don't remember the names of all of the auditoriums in the various cities, except in Calgary and Edmonton where we rented the Jubilee Auditoriums.  I also showed the film in the predominantly Mennonite towns in Southern Manitoba.  Steinbach, Altona, Morden and Winkler had strong supporters of the Janz Brothers Gospel Association.

Another area of my ministry was to visit some of the financial supporters of the ministry, mainly those that were big contributors.  In addition, I set up a missions booth at various Bible College campuses at the time of their spring conferences.  I also had some opportunities to preach in various churches.  In January 1970, Roy McIntyre, the District Superintendent for the Western Canadian District of the C&MA asked me to preach at the Lethbridge Alliance Church.  Their pastor had just resigned and returned to the USA.  So I preached there one Sunday in January and again in February.  When I was there in February, I was asked whether I would consider coming back in March and be a candidate for the senior pastoral position.  I agreed and within days of that March Sunday, I was extended the invitation to be their pastor.  They were willing to wait until my year was completed with the Janz Brothers.  Following our commitment to be their pastor, we drove down to Lethbridge most Sundays, preaching morning and evening and returning late Sunday evening to Calgary.

In May Leona and I went to Seattle to attend the Institute In Basic Youth Conflicts with Bill Gothard.  The lessons learned that week made me wish that I had attended such a seminar a year or so earlier and maybe my decision to leave Vernon the year before would have been different.

The sessions in Seattle finished Saturday night.  We left Seattle early Sunday morning, drove to Chilliwack and preached at the morning service at the Chilliwack Alliance Church.  We drove to Vernon in the afternoon in time for the evening service at the Vernon Alliance Church.  Following the service we were invited to a home where several of the folks gathered for coffee.  We left early Monday, which was May 18th, the Victoria Day holiday and headed for our home in Calgary.  Between Lake Louise and Banff we were in a car accident.  The two of us spent five nights in the Banff Hospital followed by a week recuperating at home.  We completed our remaining five weeks with the Janz.  The car accident put a halt to our Sundays preaching in Lethbridge.  We moved to Lethbridge June 30th.

We survived, praise the Lord, but the car didn't


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