Gitanyow VBS 2023

Road trip!

We are impressed with how well the daily devotionals (that members of LAMP provide us) fit our circumstances. Example: We forgot to read the 1st devotion on the first day, so read it the next day, and were amazed (all of us) on how strangely fitting it was to what had been our experience. Praise!

We learned that there had been a power outage throughout the town since the day before. That made settling in and getting dinner a bit challenging. Gitanyow is as far north as Ketchikan, Alaska, so it stays daylight until 11pm(!). However, many of the rooms inside are quite dark without power, some completely so. We used the flashlight on our phones to get around, and managed to do quite a bit of cleaning and setup that way. Finally we gathered in the library to have a snack for dinner and discuss contingency plans for the next day’s beginning of VBS. We also began to seriously consider driving quite a ways to buy more ice to keep our food from spoiling. But the power came back on before we had finished deliberating (and praying). Praise!

The next day (this morning), Monday the 10th, we were having breakfast in the kitchen when we received the news that a member of the Gitanyow community had passed away this morning. That meant VBS had to be cancelled for today at least, because when a death in the community happens, everything else stops so they can make preparations, mourn, tell others, comfort each other, etc. Prayer walks are a tradition within the Gitanyow group, so in the latter part of the morning we set out in small groups (pairs or three’s). During that time, some of us ran into a couple of the youth, who we invited to join us for lunch. They did. We were happy to share a meal and companionship with them, knowing that it was a respite for them as they were facing this sad and solemn time. In the afternoon we went for a walk (the whole group), and saw several people who most often greeted us with smiles and waves. Some came out to visit with us. The weather was very pleasant. (There had just been a thunderstorm and things were cooling off nicely.)

Nathan is optimistic that we will be able to start VBS tomorrow. We hope so! We’ve got some really good news to share. 🙂 Thanks for your prayers.

A beautiful day. Deep blue sky, white clouds. Temperature in the 60’s.

We met Wayne on our morning prayer walk. We waved to him sitting out on his porch and he came down to talk to us. Wayne had lived in Edmonton, Alberta for 35 years. He had recently come back to nearby Kincolith to take care of matters after his father’s passing. He is here in Gitanyow visiting his sister. Wayne is 65 years old, but he wanted to come to the school and observe and help with VBS. He’d once gone to a Bible School in northern Colorado, just over the Canadian border, and had good memories of being there. He had a wonderful time, and plans to return tomorrow.

Today the focus was on creation and the fall, so we put apples on the tree with the verse Psalm 139:14 “I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” (The team made a “tree of life” on the back wall of the stage to reflect our theme for the week. Each day we hang a different symbol on the tree, with the day’s verse written on it.)

After the lesson we split the kids into two teams for relay races with true false questions on the lesson they’d just heard. Today they had to “crab walk” down and around a cone and back. The quicker the answer to the question, the quicker they got off the starting blocks. Fun ensued. Afterwards it was time for craft and games. We split our 22 kids into two groups and had craft and games simultaneously for 20 minutes, and then switched for another 20.

The craft was tracing the upright hand with fingers spread to form the branches of a tree, cutting it out and pasting it on white paper and then decorating it with bright colored paint dots representing the fruits on that tree. (Some paint dots ended up on the tips of noses.) One little guy didn’t want to donate his hand to be traced, so Tyler volunteered his own.

The game was “four corners” but with a twist – instead of the corners being named 1, 2, 3 and 4, the kids were asked to give each one the name of a fruit, in keeping with the tree theme.

The puppets helped to instruct and entertain the kids during the opener and the closer. (Karyn made her debut as a puppet…and nailed it!)

Kristen and David are seeing to it that we eat very well, which the more justifies our going for both morning and evening walks. This perfect evening (72 degrees and sunshine), we saw and visited with several people, including some old and dear friends from years past. (CTV’s relationship with the people of Gitanyow started 18 years ago!) We also visited the totem poles and Tyler gave us an explanation of their significance and construction, including about the one the team actually helped with several years ago.

Back home and to bed. Thank you for remembering us. Already looking forward to tomorrow.

Another perfect day.

On this morning’s prayer walk – our devotional was “God Will Work Through You” based on Philippians 2:13 – “It is God who works within us to will and to act, to fulfill his good purpose,” and written by…Nathan Schmidt! A favorite passage: “Don’t be discouraged by what might happen during the day. Others might need your support, so be ready to listen. If we are ready to listen, we are putting others first….Even in our weakness, God is able to work through us.”

While out walking some of us met three linemen installing fiber optic cable. The community will soon have high speed internet service! Up until now it has been satellite service only, which can slow considerably when conditions are cloudy. Most of the surrounding communities already have this, though in winter the lines are often damaged and have to be repaired.

Today VBS was all about David and Goliath. Tyler presented the Bible story with an engaging powerpoint presentation (as he always does). Once again David felled the arrogant Philistine with a single stone. The Spirit filled him with such zeal that he *ran* toward his enemy, closing the distance before dispatching him. “Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome.” was the day’s scripture from Nehemiah 4:14. It is the Lord God alone who is truly great and awesome. No matter the giant problems that face us or how small we feel, as we remember the Lord, he will guide our steps in battle.

Today’s test relay on the story and the verse was a potato sack race. The true/false questions were read out while the contestants stuggled into sacks, and once answered (correctly or not) they took off across the gym floor, showing remarkable bounce and occasional hilarity.

Afterwards, as usual, we broke into small groups for prayer, each of us seven gathering with a few kids in separate places in the gym. Here is where we remind them that God knows who they are, and wants to hear from them – that he loves them and knows their needs. Then we pray.

After snack (mmmm… snack…), there were simultaneous crafts and games. For craft, each selected a smooth stone and used special ink pens and cutouts to decorate them. For game, there was a relay race between two teams where each competitor ran into battle to sling(shot) nerf stones into a black plastic bin.

At 3pm VBS was over, and precisely at 3:30, the team piled into the van for the 1 hour and 20 minute drive to Terrace. Here we did some shopping at Sandpiper’s Boutique for souvenirs, and some shopping for needs at Walmart, Save-On-Foods, and Mr. Mike’s Steakhouse (more of a want actually).

After the drive back to Gitanyow, we all gathered to watch another episode of a fascinating documentary called “First Contact” that Tyler and Nathan had told us about. A TV crew follows a handpicked group of six skeptics on a carefully designed journey into the lives of Canada’s First Nations people. To quote Wikipedia: “…the show profiles six Canadians who are challenged over a period of 28 days about their pre-existing perceptions of First Nations peoples by experiencing indigenous Canadian life firsthand.” These six live with their hosts. They listen to their stories, and are allowed to respond with their own, and to disagree and discuss. They work alongside them, eat with them, go hunting and fishing with them. Some of the places they are taken are places that LAMP ministers. The show really resonates with us. It gets a lot of things right. You have to be in Canada to stream it, but Tyler wonders if there might be a DVD out there for purchase. We want others to see it, so stay tuned!

To bed! (－_－) zzZ

Hazy with some upper level smoke, but cool and calm.

Woke up slowly over a cup of coffee this morning, but only after conquering the coffee maker. The coffee maker has a personality. The on/off switch is a sometime thing. Plus the water tank needs to be lifted slightly out of its base before the display registers “ready”. With the tank still lifted (but not too much), the “brew” button can be pressed. This is just too much processing before one has had any coffee. You appreciate the conundrum.

On our morning prayer walk, a car stopped and an individual called out to some of us not to go down to the river. A grizzly and three cubs had been spotted there. We thanked him and headed back the other way. Unfortunately the mosquito’s following us did too.

Once back, Tyler and I huddled to discuss the upcoming day’s story, and how best to explain it to the kids. We take comfort that with God all things are possible, and that his Word will not return to him void, but accomplish that which he pleases.

Today they were in for a shock. As they processed up the stairs onto the stage they could see the Tree of Life had been destroyed! It lay in ruins along the bottom of the wall and on the floor, with clouds and rain and lightning bolts above it. Something terrible had happened. Against this background Tyler told of the death of Jesus on the cross.

Our verse of the day was: If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). Our explanation was that He is just, and so required atonement for sin, but he is also faithful and will never leave us or stop caring about us, and so he made the ultimate sacrifice to cleanse us of unrighteousness in order to forgive our sins. (We used simpler and fewer words…)

For craft everyone received a cross with a small built up edge around the perimeter. Into this space they mixed sand and cement and water, forming grout in preparation for the placement of many small colored glass chips. The scarred and gritty crosses were inset with “stained glass” to show what Christ did for us there. It all worked beautifully.

Today’s game was called “Trees and Stumps”. Within a large square of the gym floor, outlined in red, two “lumberjacks” stand on the centerline facing all the rest of the kids who are lined up in front of the bleachers facing them. These then try to get to the other side of the gym without being touched by a lumberjack. If touched, they join the lumberjacks on the centerline and the game continues until all but two have been caught…who then become the next round’s lumberjacks. It doesn’t take much to create 20 minutes of fun and exercise when you’re young.

This afternoon the team made cards as gifts for each child, with a hand drawn tree of life and the words “Rooted in Christ’s Love”, VBS 2023 on the front. On the back is printed John 3:16-17: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him”. The seven of us signed each card.

The team then strolled over to the gas bar (what all Canadians call a gas station) to get a soda and see who we might see. On the way there and back we met 4 or 5 teens on 4 wheelers driving around. They stopped to talk to us, and before they took off again we invited them to an evening sing along and devotional at 7:00 pm. Tyler played his cello, and Nathan his guitar while everyone sang. The gym is resonant so the sound was full and satisfying. Nathan gave the devotional/testimony. His talk was heartfelt and engaging. In attendance besides the team were four teens, two young adults, and a family. It was apparent that it had been four years since the last time there was a VBS evening devotional. So many of the children were now teens, and the teens adults. The changes they experience as adolescents are so fraught. It’s hard to see what becomes of some, but wonderful to see the transformation in others…such as Taylor Russell.

Taylor was a part of VBS for many years. Quiet, quick, and confident, he has done well. Taylor has brought joy and satisfaction to those of our team who watched him grow over the years. Nathan recently traveled up to Vancouver especially to be at his graduation. While in school there he at the same time held down a union job installing sprinkler systems. Now back home in Gitanyow, he supervises construction projects in the village and exercises leadership in other areas as he is needed.

When we consider the ripple effect that Taylor’s positive example is bound to have on those around him, especially those who come after him, we praise God!

Cooler. Smoke everywhere but Gitanyow(!)

It’s the last day of VBS, and we are leaving immediately after the kids are dismissed this afternoon. We’ve decided to spend our “free time” packing up and cleaning. Nathan got up 2 hours early just to drive to Hazelton and back just to bring us treats. The Skeena Bakery there is amazing. He brought us lighter-than-air ginger snap cookies and local homemade chocolate.

(Sidebar: The library mouse met his end last night. The men sleep in the school library. David and I sleep on cots. Tyler chooses to sleep on the ground. Guess who set the mousetrap.)

Later, Nathan and Tina went to get gas and saw residents of the village lined up to fill up their gas tanks and to lay in food and supplies to last in case the power is shut down. The fires aren’t anywhere near us, but shutting down the power could happen anyway out of an abundance of caution. Doing so is a proactive move designed to prevent blown transformers from spreading the fire. Thing is, once off, the outage would last a week. Hence the trips for supplies.

Today’s story was Mary Magdalene seeing the risen Christ at the empty tomb, and obeying his command to tell the disciples of his resurrection. All that remained of our Tree of Life was a stump. But out of the stump grew a green shoot. The kids noticed right away and were pointing it out to each other as soon as they came up on the stage. Today’s verse was John 3:16. The love of the Father sacrificing his own Son, the love of the Son in becoming one of us, suffering and dying for us, all showed that we are truly precious in his sight.

For the T/F question and answer relay afterwards, the task was to skate on furniture-moving disks up to and around an orange cone and back. The disks have felt on the bottom, as they are designed to slide heavy furniture over a smooth floor. Many interesting skating styles were on display. Everyone got in on the action for this one – teens, adults, and team members. Oh, a toddler thought it was a great idea to kick the cones away as soon as we set them up. Seeing his determination and hearing his delighted laughter, we had to agree. It was all good.

Today’s craft was a customized mirror, with sticky cutouts to decorate the frame. Looking into the mirror at their reflection is to be a reminder that we are the messengers of Christ – the ones to obey Christ’s directive to Mary to go and spread the Good News of the Lord’s resurrection.

Today’s game was “cat and mouse”. A 20 foot brightly colored parachute with handles surrounding the perimeter is tossed up and down and ruffled with air in order to hide the mouse moving underneath, while the cat on top tries to spot and tag the critter. In this game, everyone becomes a five-year-old. (ツ)

At the closer, we handed out the cards we’d made yesterday to each child to take home. Then they all were out the door and gone. Our goodbyes had been cheerful and light hearted, the same as usual, but… it will be a year before we’ll see them again. (´～`) God bless them and keep them in the meantime.

A quick trip to the gas bar to have a group photo taken underneath a favorite totem pole, and we were off to Prince George. Five and a half hours of travel through thick smoke and we’re ensconced in a hotel for the night. Tomorrow we’ll be up and out of here at 8am, drive 8 or 9 hours to Abbotsford (just above the border) for another overnight, and then 6 hours more home. Piece of cake!