Mission Trip to Canada

Since I haven't posted in over eight months, I thought the conclusion of our mission trip was a significant event so I would put a little note.

Mom and I went on a construction mission trip to Doaktown, New Brunswick Canada. The trip was scheduled to leave on Aug. 1 and return on Aug. 7. We decided to add a couple of days on the end for some personal time. We went to Prince Edward Island to visit where Anne of Green Gables was filmed.

Our mission trip purpose was build a portico over the entrance of a church and put a steeple on top. We originally thought the church was going to buy a steeple but they didn't have the money so we said that we (not me) could build one. We arrived in Fredericton, NB on Wednesday and were waiting for our bags when we were surprise by a lady asking us where we had come from. This was Lisa, the pastor's wife. She had come to help us with people and luggage. We had 8 people to put in a 7 passenger van. Mom and I got the joy of riding to Doaktown (about an hour away) with Lisa and getting to know her and two of her kids.

The church in Doaktown, Miramichi Valley Church, is a CSBC (Canadian Southern Baptist Church) church plant that has been in existence for about One and 1/2 years. They just bought this building about 1 year ago. Building was listed for 300K + but the church got it for 50K. God miraculously working. We heard this and many more great things that God was doing for this church and the people in it while we were there.

This is what the church looked like when we got there:

This is what the church looked like when we left:

We stayed in some cabins owned by a couple in the church, Keith and Janet. One of the cabins was right on the Miramichi river and the other was about 5 min. away. Unfortunately or fortunately we stayed next to the owner's home. Below is our cabin. We had 5 people in here. 3 bedrooms and 1 shared bath. Our luxury was that we could stand on the pouch in the morning while we were waiting for the girls to finish getting ready and watch the salmon jump out of the river. Our other plus was that we got to know the owners a little bit better.

Weather was HOT the first two days. Unseasonably hot 90 deg. F. One of our guys prayed for clouds on Friday. Storm came through just as we were finishing up. Down side was that our cabins were without power for 6 hours. Sponge baths to go out to eat with the pastor and family that night. Saturday, our prayer warrior, Tom, prayed for overcast and no rain. God delivered and what a blessing because Saturday is when we put the shingles on the roof. We had asked for younger guys to help us on the roof. We only had one person that could go up on the roof (me). I had a younger guy, Gerald in his 50's , working with me in the morning and then in the afternoon, I worked with Pastor's father, 63 and another guy, Joe, who had just had surgery on his shoulder 4 weeks before. Monday, was steeple day. Here is a picture of us raising the cross. I sent this picture to the pastor and they are going to use it for their grand opening service on Sept. 9. Looks like the Iwo Jima picture.

Our last big adventure in New Brunswick was to see a Moose. On Monday night we went moose hunting and we were successful after only about 5 min from our cabin. We saw two baby moose crossing the road. (Sign Added for fun):

Tuesday, most of the team left to fly home. We stayed with one other couple who had driven up from Florida. We went to Hopewell Rocks in bay of Fundy (Southern part of New Brunswick) on our way to go to Prince Edward Island. Highest tide in the world. 14 feet difference between low tide and high tide. I got to walk on the ocean floor when the tide was out:


Lastly we went to Prince Edward Island and visited Avonlea. This is not the real place where Anne of Green Gables was filmed but it had many original buildings. Also some people playing characters from the movie/book. One last picture with Mom and Pop: