Fort Chip

 My time spent in Fort Chip was much more relaxed than the travel experience. I was able to get to see the area by snow mobile. The main highways there are the rivers and Lake Athabaska that are traveled by snow mobile by winter and boat by summer. The area is made up of beautiful islands surrounded by water or delta. I am not capable of giving you a written tour of the area so I will not even try.

My over all schedule of the 6 weeks spent there consisted of speaking on Sunday mornings 3 times, leading music 2 Sunday mornings, speaking once for a communion, singing a special music on Good Friday, and meeting people in the community and making friendships with them. My day usually was spent studying and practicing Guitar in the afternoons and visiting people in the evenings. Towards the end of my stay there I was able to get in on some drumming songs and bbq/cook outs with some of the young people in the community. I did a lot of picking people up and dropping people off for Church and Bible studies so I was able to talk during short drives as well.

As I was going to Fort Chip my prayer has been that God would give me a greater passion for those who do not know Him as their personal Savior, that I would have a better understanding of missions, and I would have more of a passion for missions. God answered all three of those requests and He felt it necessary to add more lessons of faith with that as well. The entire time I was there I never was able get my new debit card so I was unable access my funds besides the cash that I had on hand. The day I left Fort Chip my card arrived a few hours after I was gone, but God provided for all of my needs. Well my mind is drawing a blank but if you have questions you can contact me and chat for a while. TTFN  

Canada Travels in Hind Sight

 Hey all! Thought that I would let you in on a little of what has happened with my adventures to Fort Chipewyan, AB., Canada. I would have to say that the adventures definitely started before I even left Montana. I was redirected from the first border crossing I tried to another because the first was not able to issue me the visitor's permit that I was unaware that I needed. On my way to the other crossing I received a phone call from the bank saying that my Debit card was being used in France so I had to have it closed out before they spent more than the $500 of my traveling that they were so kind as to take from me. So I now no longer have access to what was supposed to be the money I was going to use for fuel (I now only have $500 Canadian and $500 US cash). So at this time I pulled over to clear my head (or eyes) and get a hold of Dad so as to see what could be done at that point. After 30 min of delay I was back on the road headed to the border (the decision was to see how far I could go on what I had). When I got to the border they decided that in order for them to issue the visitors permit I needed a letter of invitation and expectation from Arlyn (In my research of requirements to get to Canada none of this was mentioned). They would not allow me to use their Fax so I then drove back 30 miles so I could receive a fax at a gas station. Now with that done I then started back to the border where they finally allowed me to continue on my way. All of this took place between 9:00am and 7:00pm on the 21^st of March.

Now that I was across the border the snow storm that had been brewing since that afternoon had hit its worst. The roads all seemed to be melting as fast as it was snowing but I had slowed down for the conditions anyway. At 60 mph the back end of the car felt that the last shall be first when I hit a patch of black ice, but I tried to resist the car's stupidity. With the back end being so light I lost control and started concentrating keeping the car upright as I was spinning circles toward the ditch. The Car remained upright the whole time, but I think that was more due to God answering the repetitious “God, help me!” rather than my own skill. After several tries of get back on the highway I was back in business and on my way down the road. I had made contact with the people that said they would allow me to stay at their place for the night and they said they would leave the door of the house open so I could find a place when I made it to that point. As the night went on the storm got worse along with the roads, so I had to chain up sometime around 2:00am. I finally made it to my destination at 3:45am for the night. So due to poor road conditions what should have been 4 hrs in Canada was closer to the 8hr side of things. It is now the 22^nd of March.

After my 4hr nap I was up eating with my wonderful hosts until I left at 8:45am. The roads were still quite slippery, but after an hour and a half and a piece of chain later I was able to remove the chains and be on my way to the plane I was supposed to catch later that day. I made it in time to have my car dropped off at a former pastor's house and to be waiting for the plane. I arrived at Fort Chip by 7:00pm on Tuesday 22^nd of March.

On Wednesday I caught up on some sleep. We then looked around the village more so that I would better know how to get around and have a better understanding of the different people in different sections of the village. We then went to visit an old man named George Wandering Spirits. He is one of the men from the church there.

On Thursday we sat down for some prayer and planning for the next 6 weeks. Later that day we went out on the ice bridge before it was closed for the season. Friday was Annette's birthday, so that evening there was a handful of people that came over, This is when I was able to meet Edward, and play some guitar. He decided we needed to get together again so we could jam some more (His wife goes to the church but he does not). We did end up singing and playing before everybody left that evening.

Sunday was my first day in church, but I acted as their guest the first day. That evening I was settled into the house I am to be staying at the rest of my time in Fort Chip. We walked around in the evening so I could meet my new neighbors. We were able to talk to 2 people before it got to late.