NCEM: In Focus Training

Howdy all,

As you know, our MDP training (Scheduled for April - June 2009) has been postponed until next year. NCEM has a training program, In Focus, that was slated to happen the week prior to MDP. This training is still going ahead, so Liz and I will be travelling to Prince Albert, SASK to attend a week of meetings from April 20 - 24. Our travel expenses have been taken care of already, which is a tremendous blessing. We are looking forward to meeting the folks at head office and putting faces to voices and names!

Elizabeth and I will be on the road this coming Monday. Please keep us in prayer as we travel to Shediac, New Brunswick. We will be sharing with a Women's Mission Society our excitement about NCEM and upcoming ministry at Arrowhead Native Bible Center. It is always a blessing for us to be able to share with others.

Several months ago a friend of mine, a crown attorney, gave a book to me. She had been given it at a conference and thought that I might find it of value. The book was written by the Confederacy of Mainland Mi'kmaq as a learning tool, outlining Mi'kmaq culture, society, politics, history and people. It is well organized, clear and in a very readable way outlines a great deal of information. This book has helped give me a better understanding of just what it means to be a Mi'kmaw person in Nova Scotia. It saddens me to realize how very little I've understood about my neighbours here in Nova Scotia. The great commission tells us to share the love of Christ with "All the World", yet our own neighbours are almost complete strangers to us.

The big move has begun

Well folks, we've finally begun to move our things to New Brunswick. Our house is yet unsold, and we've had just one viewing, but the opportunity arose to send a truckload of things to New Brunswick this weekend so we sent the first load on Saturday.

Marcia Strout was coming to Nova Scotia on Friday to visit friends and, coming to our vicinity, brought the camp truck so we could begin the big move. As we were preparing the house to list we had been packing and labeling things and storing them in the attic - so they were all ready to be loaded on Saturday morning and off they went. Perhaps a small thing, but it's a great encouragement to us to at least begin the move.

Thanks so much to all of you for your prayers as we've been making all of the preparations to finally be at Arrowhead. It is certainly shaping up to be a wonderfully exciting year.

Kingston Baptist Church

Elizabeth and I have just returned from a wonderful weekend with family, friends and fellow believers in the St. John, New Brunswick area. We left on Saturday morning from home in Windsor, enjoyed lunch with Elizabeth's parents in Annapolis Co., and caught the Ferry to St. John in Digby at 4:30pm. It was a stormy day, the roads were snow covered and the wind howled - making the open water a giant, rolling, sloshy froth. Needless to say it was a rough 3 hour Valentine's Day cruise. I washed down a couple of Gravol with a nice heaping plate of Poutine and slept the pitching and rolling hours away. Elizabeth was more or less unperturbed by the motion of the boat. My sister and her husband were kind enough to put us up for Saturday and Sunday evening, we had a great time visiting with them over a tumultuous game of Monopoly.

Sunday morning we were so blessed to be able to be among the believers at the Kingston United Baptist Church. We were warmly welcomed and enjoyed worshiping and fellowshipping with them. We were given the opportunity to share our excitement with them about what lies in store for us at Arrowhead and beyond. It was a blessing to visit with and be encourged by the people there.

Sunday afternoon we had the opportunity to spend time with some of Elizabeth's family as well. Elizabeth's uncle is very involved in camp ministry and is a great encouragement and source of wisdom and experience. And no visit to the Corkum home would be complete without watching some of the old Super8 footage of days gone by.

We returned to Nova Scotia on the ferry this morning and back home this evening after lunch with Elizabeth's brother and sister-in-law. While we were on the ferry home we received a call from our realtor - he was hoping to have a viewing immediately on our house. We were not expecting a viewing today, but as we were away and the dog was at Lizs' parents, we told him to go ahead. This was our first viewing and we're prayerful that something exciting will come of it. Once our home is sold we will be moving to Cumberland Bay and getting into the thick of things.

This evening I had a nice visit with our Pastor. It was great to catch up with pastor Jeff, I was quite excited by what he brought for me to read. As I may have mentioned in the past, our church has a history of involvement with ministry to First nations people. One of the pastors of the congregation, a man by the name of Silas tertius Rand, was instrumental in language study and developing a written language for the Mi'kmaq people. He is well known for having translated the bible. I now have a biography of this mid-nineteenth century missionary to enjoy. I am quite looking forward to reading about just how he impacted ministry to the Mi'kmaq.

Preparing Missionaries: For Intercultural Communication

I just finished re-reading a book from my Bible School days. I had completely forgotten about it and came across it last week as I was tidying up my office. The focus of this book is cultural anthropology, and although it takes a very practical approach to the subject, some very interesting points are made throughout. The author makes a point of communicating that our Western Culture, and our self centered view of the world can adversely impact our ministry. If we are not careful to consider the culture of those we wish to reach, we may alienate them with our own cultural milieu. One does not have to be like a 'Westerner' to be a Christian.

I found the book very insightful, and although I may not entirely agree with the author's views regarding group evangelism, the insights here are very valuable and thought provoking.

I am off now to Martock to make some Beaver Tails for the day. Have a blessed day!

MDP

Howdy friends,

It is Missions Month at Windsor Baptist, and Elizabeth and I had the priviledge of taking part in the service today. Elizabeth shared with the children before they headed off to Sunday School. She shared with them about the great commission and, using candles, illustrated to them how they can share the love of Jesus with their friends. I was asked to read from Jonah chapter 3, and we learned about how marvelous it can be if we simply seek to follow the Lord's will. As part of the message today Pastor Jeff shared about some people in the past from Windsor Baptist, who have been influential in missions. I was very interested to learn about the Rev. Silas Tertius Rand, pastor of Windsor Baptist Church in the mid 1800's. He was instrumental in translation and language study with the Mi'Kmaq people. He worked etensively in this area and has some papers written on the subject, many of which are available at the Acadia archives. I am looking forward to a trip with Jeff to the archives to look up some of these materials.

A lot of you have been wondering about MDP (Missionary Development Program), just what it is and how it impacts us, just when it is and where. I'll preface this by saying that, it has been
postponed for this year. It was scheduled to run between April 26 and June 30 of this year in Timber Bay Saskatchewan.

MDP is operated by IMCO (Inter Mission Cooperative Outreach), and exists "to provide training toward the equipping of believers in Christ in trans-cultural, interpersonal and leadership skills for maximum effectiveness through lives dedicated to fulfilling the Great Commission". Training at MDP is intended to equip missionaries for cross cultural communication. We found out very recently that due to circumstances beyond our control, IMCO has felt it necessary to postpone the 2009 schedule until 2010 - at which point we will be taking part in the training.

FYI - This coming weekend Elizabeth and I will be speaking at the Kingston Baptist Church, on the Kingston Peninsula in New Brunswick. The service is at 11 am, if you are in the area and would be interested in coming out - you can find directions etc. on the church website: www.kingstonbaptist.com we'd love to see you!

Foreign to Familiar

Foreign to Familiar:
A Guide to Understanding Hot - And Cold - Climate Cultures
by Sarah A. Lanier
McDougal Publishing

This little book was given to us by Alan and Esther Giesbrecht, our Eastern Field directors. It is a concise, easily understood work - written from vast experience. It shares some very valuable insights into the differences in cultures and the way in which they interact. 'Foreign to Familiar' is a very practical break down of basic cultural anthropology and an invaluable resource to anyone who might encounter individuals of another culture.

I would encourage anyone to read this who might be considering any type of ministry work - or any travel abroad for that matter. It is surprising how much about our own culture that we taken for granted.

Various cultures interact with those in their group differently. Our perspective as North Americans is based on our own cultural system - without actively seeking to do so, it can be difficult to grasp anything other than that which we currently understand as 'normal'. Throughout the book it is explained clearly that there are numerous ways in which people of different cultures relate. Some cultures are relationship oriented, some are task oriented - and the way in which they communicate can vary greatly. Simply understanding that these differences exist and how we can recognize them will allow us to be much more sensitive and prepared to interact with people from other cultures.

Crabtree Cottage | Home For Sale

Our little home quietly awaiting it's next family.

Well folks,

It seems like it's been forever in the coming, but the house is now for sale! The sign went on the very snow covered lawn on Monday. Now we have simply to wait for the happy new home buyers to come along an buy it up. We are very hopeful that we'll be able to sell it and get everything taken care of before we are scheduled to leave for MDP (Missionary Development Program) training in April. Please keep us in prayer over the next few weeks as we endeavor to sell the house and step into the next part of preparing to minister at Arrowhead Native Bible Center. If you'd like to have a look at our home listing you can see us at either of the following links:

Here is the link to our MLS listing:
http://tinyurl.com/crabtreecottage

Here is the link to our FaceBook ad:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=48416312919

I've just been on the phone with the NCEM bookstore and we should be receiving some of our required reading within the next few weeks (hopefully sooner than later). As part of our training there are several books which we will need to read and prepare written reports for prior to going out west. I'll post my written reports here for you to read as they are ready.

It was necessary for Arrowhead to aquire a new camp truck, and the Lord has provided a wonderful new vehicle for use at camp. This will be a welcome addition to the camp equipment.

2002 Dodge Ram 1500 4X4 Quad Cab

Please keep Kevin and Marcia in prayer as well over the next few weeks. They are both very busy, as well as preparing to go to MDP in April. Marcia is busily getting the books up to date; there is an upcoming event at the camp that they will have to prepare and facilitate, Kevin will be going to Burnt Church to assist with some ministry there and they are busily readying things for Camp this summer as we will all be away during the regular shoulder season for MDP training.