Sharing our Hearts for Longlac: July 17, 2008

Clear sky, warm weather - Today was Ryan’s turn to do devotion and I really appreciated what he shared with us, especially when he got to the part about being the fisher of men. Thank God for putting this unique team together, we learn from each other.

After the devotion and some time praying together, Daniel and Wilson went to get the minnows while we prepared for lunch. Pastor Roland got a red truck with a wooden board at the back that was used as a cutting board to fillet the fishes. Like last year, we had a fish derby for the kids on the reserve today.

We arrived at the bridge to get ready while Daniel and Nadine went to the clinic. The boys slowly arrived and most of them were experienced ‘fisherboys’. Some of them even knew how make a trap that could be used to catch minnows, others knew how to fillet the fresh fish caught. These are skills that we as adults don’t even know, not to mention our children. However, I’ve noticed that there was not as many children as there was last year, especially girls…we just wondered where they were. We found out later that there’s another program was going on at the Day Care. With that in mind, we still haven’t seen that many girls as we did last year. It’s good in a way so Pastor Roland got some breaks in between as he also enjoyed some fishing. (He was not able to stop filleting the fishes last year.

We’re able to talk to the kids and we found out that some of them learned fishing from their uncles, as their fathers were not around as much. There are still a few others that learned the fishing and hunting skills from their Dad. We noticed a difference between these kids as they are more stable and gentle, yet the others were more rowdy, rough and angry. I’m really thankful to have our young brothers on the team, I’ve noticed that these boys are just naturally drawn to them… they are hungry and in need of male figures that can be their role models to look up to. It really brings grief to my heart as these boys already have experienced such brokenness in their young lives – they are like little lost sheep. One of the boy ‘K’ was so disappointed because he didn’t catch any fish. I tried to encourage him to focus on the process and not to give up, for he’ll always have another chance. He finally caught a pretty ‘big’ fish and I could never forget that big smile on his face. The smile of hope and victory… I hope he’ll find the eternal hope and victory in God’s time.

After the fish derby, we all headed to the clinic to cook the freshly caught fishes as planned. Priscilla and Genevieve and others were already there and they had prepared their famous cultural food for us to enjoy – the moose soup and bannick (and it was very good!). I helped Pastor Rolland cook the fish fillets and it was really tasty. Umm... To our surprise, we were invited to breakfast on Friday. I praise God for the good relationship we’ve been building.

After the clinic, the boys asked us to go swimming with them at the Long Dock. We were really surprised to see them there, it’s unusual. We were giving out lollipops to them. One of the boys tried to threw his lollipop stick to the container but he missed it and I picked it up and gave him back the stick so he could put it in the container. We were so glad that we went to spend time with them there. This provided us more opportunities to interact with them. We are really blessed to have seen some changes that have already taken place - they are showing more respect to us now. This was the same group that were at first a bit rowdy and rude, but now they are saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’. This is the work of God, for we know that we couldn’t have done it on ourselves. May He be glorified.

The poor and needy search for water,
but there is none;
their tongues are parched with thirst.
But I the Lord will answer them;
I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. ( Isa.41:17)

Posted by Shirley

Kid's Fishing Derby - WHAT A BLAST!!!