“Karen, if you don’t mind the Lord you’ll never go anywhere” were some of my mother’s favorite words when I would talk about traveling the world as a young girl. How true those words were! Since I have been a Christian I have had opportunities to travel and share the Gospel. This summer was no exception. After an awesome Vacation Bible School at Sunchild where God gave such team unity and blessed with an enrollment of about 100, I packed by bags and headed with another team for the North. An organization called On Eagle’s Wings had a team member that couldn’t go and I was asked to go in her place. I accepted and as the team assembled to pray and prepare I asked if I could teach the Bible stories and the memory work. This responsibility I was then given and I felt the burden for the souls of those children. Then just 2 days before we were to leave there was a definite spiritual attack on our team. Rumors and confusion about the dependability of one of the members made it questionable whether we could even go. But the group immediately knew this was from the enemy and we banded together in prayer and believed God wanted to do something special in Fort McPherson that week. And that is exactly what happened! We had 75 children and there was such unity in the group as we taught and as we presented the truth, that Jesus truly does love children.

It was so exciting to see children that were little kids when we lived there come and be so eager to hear the Bible stories. There were many special high lights in being back in the village since not returning for over 3 years. One special time was going out to 8 Mile a place on the Peel River and visiting a grandma in her cabin. She was so happy to see me. Often times when we lived in Fort McPherson I would go to Grandma Elizabeth’s and share things I couldn’t understand and she would help me to see it like the people there saw it. That night she was all alone at her cabin and a dog had torn up her screen and the mosquitoes were coming in. I was so happy we could get word back to the owner of the dog to come get their dog and that her screen wouldn’t get torn any worse. The mosquitoes were bad that night. We prayed together and that first night in the village I felt right at home. I spent my evenings during the week walking around and visiting homes of people who were going through some tragedy or praying that God would answer prayers that weren’t being answered for relatives caught in the grip of alcoholism. I knew I was supposed to go and God truly helped me to tell the Bible stories in a way that even amazed me after doing this for over 30 years. We could see why the enemy was trying to bring confusion and stop me from going, but God is always the victor if we truly believe what He said, when we read the words” Go into all the world and preach the Gospel…”

I returned home from that experience with a deeper appreciation of working with a different denomination and stepped right into another VBS. In Three Hills there is an organization called Blue Chip Kids. It was established to have some special spiritual time with unchurched and churched kids after school, but in the summer it holds a VBS that is free financially. Paying to go to a VBS is one thing that has blown my mind since we moved to Southern Alberta, but it is very common in this part of the Province. Anyway, this VBS was free and a lot of kids in our neighborhood were going to go, so I decide to take my grand children. That week we had also brought a young lady from the Reserve home to visit us, so she also attended the classes. I just naturally got involved and before the week was over I had attended and helped every day. It was a good experience and they had over 150 kids. In August I again picked up my two ESL classes that I had dropped the month of July. This means every Tuesday I go to a meat slaughtering plant and teach 21 men how to express themselves better in the English Language. Twenty of them are from the Philippines and one is from Sudan. This has been a real challenge but this week I found out there are some evangelical Christians in the group who were looking for a place to worship. I know I have been put there for a reason. They all have wives and children that they left behind and we spend time in each class praying for their families. I feel this very deeply is not only a class but a special ministry God has given me at this time. Please pray for me as I do this. Then every Wednesday, I work with Chinese people who run a restaurant in town. They have brought over a young man who is really trying to learn the English language to be able to communicate with the local people around him. He is catching on very quickly and I am thrilled to assist in his learning. I don’t believe he has accepted Jesus as his Savior and the restaurant owners and I are praying this happens. You can pray with us about this.

But I must tell you what my greatest joy has been and that is to just spend time with my 3 grandchildren. I share with them what is happening on the Reserve with the Sunday school children and we take walks and make cookies. Yes, my summer has been full and it isn’t over for one week yet, but I have loved being in God’s will.

Thank you for praying for me and my family, Karen Rinker