Sunchild News - April-May 2005

Dear Friends,

As we have mentioned before, the house we are renting at Carstairs is for sale and we will be moving soon. We have found a place on the Three Hills Bible College campus, where our children can finish high school and have the option of college as well. We feel confident this is where the Lord wants us at this time. It is about the same distance from Sunchild as where we are now, so we will be able to continue with the same program of ministry on the Reserve as we have been doing from Carstairs. The property is large enough for our outreach supply buildings, garden, and even to board an international student, for which the school pays, and would be a source of income for us. Right now we are trying to come up with a $5,000 down payment and financing for the remaining $18,000. The bank doesn't consider our missionary support to be 'employment income',so although we have good credit they won't finance it, and we are looking for another source of financing. The land belongs to the Bible College, but we will own the buildings. We had Len Patterson, who works in financial services in Red Deer, go to Three Hills and evaluate the property and all the business stuff, and he assured us it was a good investment.

The Lord is working this out, we have half the down payment and the owners will finance it for now, so we will be moving in the second week of May. Please use our new address effective now. For those in the U.S. be sure to remember to include CANADA in the address, or your post office won't know what country to send it to.

The last few weeks have been difficult on the Reserve because a 16 yr. old girl was found dead, an apparent suicide, next door to the home of one of the families we are working with every week. She was found by small children, five days after she died. She had been in our VBS's and her sister was with a group of young people that stayed at our home for several days recently. All of the dynamics are too involved to explain in a short letter, but these families need much prayer.

A family from Ft. McPherson stopped to visit us a couple days ago, and while we were all eating supper the phone rang and it was someone from Old Crow! There has been no missionary at Old Crow or Ft. McPherson since last August, so people still look to us in spite of the distance.

Last week we had a teenage girl in the service who had never been in a church service anywhere, in her entire life!

We just got word that another teen, a 16 yr. old boy died on the Reserve, so Karen went up today and I'll be going up this weekend. Monday I'll be meeting with the Band council concerning the mission property being returned for our ministry. Please keep us in your prayers, especially for the summer VBS evangelism and the finances.

In His Service, Rodger & Karen Rinker & Family