www.arcticoutreach.org --- e-mail rinker@arcticoutreach.org --- phone 403-989-3715
Dear Friends,
Well, I announced in our last update that the mail strike had ended...sort of. It's taken a while, but the Post Office in Rocky Mt. House, has finally opened for business. We even got our first, and so far only Christmas card on Dec. 31st! For those of you in the States, if you were able to successfully mail a letter to Canada in the last 3 months or so, we will probably receive it eventually. Nothing has come through yet from the Eastern U.S. Anyway, the Post Office in the U.S. should now be accepting mail for Canada again.
This year we were able to post an update every month with the links on our website home page. My knee has healed up very well from the knee replacement I had in July. The only side effect is some numbness in my foot. Our regular weekly services, Sunday School, and youth ministry carried on throughout the year with lots of help from teams coming in from time to time. We had 4 VBS camps and a team from Child Evangelism Fellowship worked with Karen on three more held in the area.
We are planning out our summer activities now, so pray we will be able to schedule events at the best time when there will be the least scheduling conflicts. Probably our greatest need is for volunteer help. There are two categories of help needed. One is for help that can work with Karen in her Sunday School classes, youth groups, midweek ladies meeting, and other activities she needs help with. We do have teams and helpers come, but that is not help that we get every week, so between the teams coming she often has to do it by herself, and this is quite a load on her. The other need is for volunteers that can come and stay here at the mission so we can get away for outreach or a break. The priority in this would be simply to house sit so someone would be living on the property for the several days or weeks we would be gone, or if I (Rodger) would be away, then someone could stay with Karen so she would have help. If someone is interested in helping with this, let us know and we will see if we can help arrange transportation to get here.
Earlier this year we had a good number of tanned hides donated to the mission by Mr. Harry Stelfox from Edmonton. His desire was for the mission to sponsor a class for the local people to learn traditional leathercraft skills with these hides. So this month we began the classes with Cecilia Daychief as the instructor. The plan is for the classes to continue until the hides are all used.
In this picture below, Cecelia is teaching Darcia the next step in making a pair of moccasins.
The Korean Gospel Dispersers, from Calgary made the trip up to Sunchild twice this month. In this picture they are holding a Saturday event for Sunchild youth.
This is the team holding a debriefing before they head back to Calgary.
This is Sunday School helpers for Karen's class on Sunday.
The next two pictures are working with the youngest class in Sunday School.
Crafts are a big part of the Sunday School.
And of course the Bible lesson is the most important part.
On Christmas Eve we had a church time of games and devotions for families.
We also had a variety of things to eat.
In the Christmas program we had crafts to keep the little ones busy.
After Christmas a team from the Caroline Nazarene Church came to hold a youth night for us.
These are the team members from Caroline.
The Korean Gospel Dispersers came back after Christmas for both the Sunchild and O'Chiese Reserves. Below is a group picture before they left.
Just before Christmas a lady died who was a part of our mission fellowship almost since the beginning of the mission. Her funeral was held after Christmas and she was buried on the O'Chiese Reserve.
