Sunchild News - November 2006

This is our Bible College Student Ministry Team. From the left side: Tim, from Northern B.C. Allan & Dawn with two of their five children. Jessica, part Native from Alberta. Chris from East Germany. Samuel, from Ontario & has 12 brothers & sisters. Rob from the U.S.

Dear Friends,

Last month I told about our Student Ministry team of Bible College students and our services at Sunchild. I just want to emphasize what a wonderful team we have and what a blessing they are on the Reserve. There is little Christian influence on Sunchild/O'Chiese, and we are the only church of any kind among 3,000 people. We can not make right choices for people, but we are there to stand beside them and encourage them to make right choices. We are with them in their homes as much as possible, working together with their conscience to help them do what's right. We have a good group coming to the church on Sundays and after the classes are over, a lot of the people stay for as long as we can be there just to fellowship, play with the kids, and enjoy being with the team. Last Sunday we were with some of the people in the Chapel for four hours and they would have stayed longer but we wanted to visit as many homes as we could before the team had to leave. We can see that much progress is being made toward helping to direct peoples lives in the way of the Lord and giving them the opportunity to have personal relationships with other Christians. No doubt you can tell how thrilled we are to work with this team and have their influence on the Reserve.

A couple weeks ago the furnace went out. It was so old and worn out that it couldn't be fixed and we had to get a new one. The Lord worked it out for us to get a new furnace for ¼ of what others have to pay to get a new furnace in this area. I had to install it myself, and spent most of the week getting it finished. We have a work crew coming from the Leslieville church this Saturday to work on the church. We had a good adult class in church this Sunday and they were planning on getting together for a Christmas dinner.

I'm adding a room onto the trailer house here at Three Hills so we can have a wood stove. I'm always cold in a house that doesn't have a wood stove, and we can save a lot on the cost of heating because we can get all the fire wood we want on the Reserve. As much as I wanted to get it closed in while the weather was nice, I didn't make it, and now have to work in the cold and snow. This year we are having what is consistent with what used to be a normal winter. We've had snow for several weeks now and it isn't melting at all, especially on the Reserve which is closer into the mountains and colder.

I'm putting this letter on our website with pictures of the Ministry team and a letter that Karen has written so you can get her perspective of things as well.

Jennifer, our son Reuben's wife, had her baby yesterday. It was a few weeks early, and everyone is doing fine. We've had some special offerings sent in that have helped with the extra expenses recently. The Lord knows what the needs are and is so faithful to see us through. Please keep us in your prayers!

An Article by Karen Rinker

I was thinking maybe you would like to know how the Sunday school got started on the Reserve, and what is happening now. When Rodger and I moved to Sunchild we started having fun times singing and doing action choruses and telling Bible stories in the yards of people who had children. Eventually at certain houses more children would gather than belonged to that family. Those places we decided to make our regular circuit. But as the weather got colder we wondered what we would happen. Then at a certain time the kids said they wanted us to come inside. All the adults vacated the house or just disappeared from the room. This went on for months finally one Sunday a bedroom door opened a crack, but no adult appeared. The next Sunday the door was opened half way. I began talking a little louder and praying the adult or adults there would begin to understand the salvation message.

We went to many different key homes and had services. At one time we had five Sunday schools each Sunday three on O'chiese, which is a larger Reserve than Sunchild and two on Sunchild, plus a regular Sunday evening preaching service. Through out the week we also had Bible studies in homes. Of course as every missionary knows this began to take a toll on our bodies, and so we tried to bring the groups together in a fellowship at the new little church. This started working but then different tragedies hit and we didn't have the strength to do this alone. But when we felt so helpless God would send us an encouragement. First to let us know we were in the center of his will because He loved the dear people here in Alberta, and second no labor done for him in love would fail to produce fruit.

So in 2004 when we moved to the Prairie Bible school campus and God opened up the door for the college students to go out and minister with us. We again knew we had not stepped out of His will even though some paths we had taken seemed so "out of the box". The first year at the college we had two faithful students who won the hearts of the people. Even last Sunday I could tell a mother on the Reserve Rebekah, one of the students from last year, sends e - mails asking about her. Before the team went there that family never knew anyone cared about them. Now this year God has multiplied our team from two faithful ones to a family of five and five other college students. We wondered about taking this large of team into the homes but the people immediately felt their love and the crowded houses took on a cozy family atmosphere.

But to close this article I want to share what is happening now in the growth of the Sunday school. A grandmother came to pick up her grandkids from Sunday school and when the team gathered around her and invited her to the adult Sunday school class she said, "I will work on Saturday so I can come next Sunday". I knew then that the prayers of God's people were bearing fruit in a deep way. This lady understood there is price to pay to be part of the kingdom of Light. She did come last Sunday and immediately experienced the wonder of being part of a fellowship. She suggested having a Christmas dinner and others agreed. I knew that for this to be their church these suggestions must come from them. Now on Dec. 10th there is to be a Christmas play and caroling around the Reserve and on Dec. 17th a dinner. This is a start of a fellowship and I ask you, as readers to really pray that God will build a fellowship of believers here that will be strong to dispel the darkness. Isn't it awesome what God can do if anyone would be willing to just sit where people are, in the grass, on the snow, under a brush arbor just anywhere and sing songs and tell stories about Jesus.

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