Whether by Life or by Death

What a blessing our recent Annual Arrowheads Ladies Retreat was. We were a small group of ladies, but that did not diminish the richness of our fellowship. We were so richly blessed by what God laid on the heart of our speaker, Carol Keuhner. The theme of our weekend was Whether by Life or by Death (Phil 1:19-20). Carol challenged us to live for Christ, no matter the gravity of the circumstances. We examined examples from Scripture looking at the lives of women that God used for His glory, some by life and some by death. What a honour to be used of God in such a way!

Thanks to Reta McCready who led our worship time. Singing is a very special part of our worship and Reta helped to keep us focused on the Lord!

We also enjoyed games of scrabble, a craft and our yearly "high tea" and luncheon. We are thankful to Irene Van Asperen for once again baking some very tasty treats for our tea. This will be her last time with us, as she and her husband are moving out West. We will surely miss her!

Every year we always experience much anticipation for our ladies retreat, wondering how many will attend, preparations, fear of it not being a success. But every year, no matter how many attend or how prepared or unprepared I am and feel, God works it all out and it is always such a blessing. Each of us comes away from the weekend with a richer understanding of our Lord in His Word and encouraged in our walk with Him.

-Liz

Reta McCready sharing with us her gift of music.

Carol Kuehner encouraging us from the Word.

Everyone enjoyed time of fellowship Saturday afternoon.

Some of the missionary ladies dueling over words.

Puzzling fellowship!

It was a beautiful day for visiting on the deck.

Our little craft.

A little vacation on the way.

Well, we're home. After over 116 hours behind the wheel; and nearly 8900 kms on the road. We had the privilege to enjoy our NCEM general conference in MB; visit with friends, family, supporters and churches and take some time vacationing on the return trip! Now, to rest up from vacation.

The 5 day, NCEM general conference at Wilderness Edge Resort was a special blessing. Not only was it a refreshing time but it was wonderful to be able to spend time in fellowship with our fellow labourers from across the country. We are thankful that our mission takes the time and effort to organize such a conference and make it available to us. This is something that we will look forward to every three years as we serve with NCEM.

There were a lot of great opportunities to enjoy special events during the conference.

It is always fantastic to come together in worship as a family.

We were always well fed during the conference.

For some reason I caught several pictures of Carl eating... Carl Sonnichsen and his wife Laura, serve the Lord faithfully in Goose Bay, Labrador.

The conference ended on Friday at noon and we headed out from Pinawa. We took the opportunity on our return trip to take a little over a weeks vacation together as a family and visit friends and family in Ontario - as well as a chance to be in a couple of Arrowheads supporting churches. It would have been nice to be able to connect with everyone, unfortunately we weren't able to get everywhere. But we very much enjoyed our time together and found our vacation to be refreshing and relaxing - just like a good vacation should be. We had a lot of fun traveling back as far as Sudbury with NCEM missionaries Len & Lorrayne Breen and Harvey & Evelyn Everett. It was great to be able to fellowship along the road. 

In Sudbury we were able to get together with the Gingerich family. We took our mission training together and have stayed in touch since then. Seeing them made us wish that we lived closer!

 We spent a few days in Newmarket and had the opportunity to visit with friends and family.

 We took some time to visit the town where I spent some of my early teen years.

As a family we were able to go and see Niagara Falls, Ivy loved the misty boat ride!

It was great to be able to spend a couple of days in Ottawa with Liz's Cousin and her husband, Cheryl & Dave Van reenan.

On the road home we stopped off in Old Quebec for a night. It was beautiful; a great way to finish up our vacation.

It truly was a blessing to both be able to attend conference and take some vacation time as well. It has been some time since we've had an extended vacation together and we valued it very much. It was a great way to recharge after the challenges of the summer and prepare ourselves for a fall and winter of ministry.

Harvest Fest Corn Boil & Turkey Fry

As many of you know Liz and I are expecting baby number two in November. We are over the moon excited to meet this little person and welcome her to our family. It has presented us with something of a housing concern though, and we have found that it will be necessary to do an addition of some sort to the mini-home that we live in. In order for us to have enough living space we are planning on a 16' x 16' addition. Lord willing this will be done by a volunteer team (or two) during the last week of October.

So with all of that in mind, on September 19th, Arrowhead will be hosting a Harvest Fest Corn Boil & Turkey Fry to raise money for this necessary addition. The meal will be by free will offering, and we are planning a silent auction and a pie auction in conjunction with the meal. So drop by anytime between 4 and 8 for some great food and an opportunity to help out Arrowhead with this project!

You can visit an event listing for the Corn Boil by clicking HERE.

Summer Camps 2014

The gang at the beach during the Cape Breton Camp Out.

It has been a big summer, and I must apologize for not posting regular updates throughout. After our power outage week, we spent a lot of time playing catch-up; so I thought I'd give an overview of the entire summer in one post here.

Some of our team serving during the week of Day Camps!

This year we once again offered a week of day camps in communities. These day camps included, face painting, bouncy castle, a BBQ, puppets, music, games and a sketch board Gospel presentation by Kirk Hubick. These events were well received and gave us great opportunity to connect with campers and moms & dads as well. Lord willing we will plan to do two full weeks of day camps next year!

Gathering time in the dining hall during the power outage.

Our Teen Camp was quite eventful; although the after affects of the hurricane turned out to be relatively minor, New Brunswick suffered mass power outages that in some cases lasted for weeks. At Arrowhead we were without power for 128 hours. This made for some interesting changes to our approach to the week - but our volunteers felt they were up to the task, so we proceeded with the camp. A generator arrived with one of our volunteer teams from Ontario - and although it had not been in service for about 10 years, Jerald Hayden was able to keep it running long enough for us to save our 6 freezers and one fridge full of food for the summer. Thanks to the kind gifts of a couple of donors we were able to afford a new generator as well, so now ANBC is equipped with two generators going forward. Initially we had a bucket crew hauling water from the lake for washing dishes and flushing toilets - but when it became evident that the outage would last indefinitely we ordered in porta-potties. We saw the Lord work and we heard the Gospel preached by Kirk Hubick; our efforts were more than worth the while!

Junior Camp #1 saw campers come from a number of different communities. It was encouraging to make inroads into some communities that we have not had at ANBC for some years. Although this week saw a number of trips to the hospital - the Lord offered His protection and there was no one seriously injured. It's amazing to me to see how God uses what appears to be bad for His own glory. This seemed to be a theme this year as He taught us to rely on Him in everything. Micah Hiltz was with us this week and once again it was awesome to hear the Gospel clearly and fully declared for the young people.

This year we changed our approach to the Cape Breton Camp Out; our intent was to engage in a family camping experience for our campers. With a mindset of doing those things that we would do with our own families were we to go tenting in Cape Breton. It was a rousing success - we saw amazing opportunities in spending time with the kids and genuine relationships sprout as we enjoyed our time together in Cape Breton. The trip included whale watching, a visit to the Fortress of Louisbourg, hiking, tenting, BBQ, swimming and of course smores. Kevin Strout and I (Grant) shared the devotional times - he shared from the Word in the morning and I shared for evening devotions. We were very pleased to hear the kids asking excellent questions and really wrestling with just what it means to repent and believe!

We had planned a Junior Camp #2, but unfortunately due to a lack of committed volunteer staff we were forced to cancel the week and revamp some of our scheduling. It can be discouraging to think about it in human terms as a failure - but it certainly does not fall outside of God's Sovereignty and He knows exactly why and with what purpose He saw fit for it to be this way. This week break gave Liz and I a couple of days to recuperate and prepare for the next week.

Tie dye this year fro crafts... was a big hit... if a little messy...

This last week of camp was our smallest, but by no means any less important. Andrew Ardern came and shared the Gospel chronologically with the campers through the week. We saw a large staff emerge (somewhat unexpectedly) and once again hear the young people engaged in confronting the issues of repentance and faith in their own lives.

Although we did not have a lifeguard this summer, I didn't hear one single complaint from camper or staff about not swimming. The attitude and focus of our team was contagious and the atmosphere at camp was excellent throughout the summer. I am truly thankful for the wonderful teams that arose each week for the sake of the Gospel and for the honor of the Lord. It is humbling and exciting to see and hear such dedication to Gospel clarity.

We are looking forward to an interesting fall - you can pray for us as we drive to Pinawa, Manitoba at the end of this month for the NCEM General Conference. This conference occurs every three years and it is a requirement of the mission that the entire mission body be in attendance. We're looking forward to seeing everyone, but are not sure what the 40 hour journey will be like for Ivy.

This September will also bring our annual ladies retreat, we are excited to have Carol Keuhner joining us for the weekend and look forward to her messages "So that Christ may be exalted!" We encourage you to join us for this excellent weekend of fellowship and time in God's Word. 

We will also be hosting a charity fundraiser banquet at ANBC in September - more information on this will follow very soon. But with Fawcett baby #2 on the way it has become necessary for us to re-evaluate our living situation. In order to accommodate another bedroom and give us some space for storage, a home office and guest room - we are looking at a small building project this fall. We will need to complete it before the snow flies in order to be ready for Ivy's baby sister.

We thank you all for your ongoing prayer and financial support as we seek to serve the Lord at ANBC - we are excited to see where the Lord is taking the ministry of NCEM in Atlantic Canada and are so pleased to have you be a part of it with us.

You can look at a fantastic library of pictures from this summers camps by visiting our Facebook Page, simply click HERE.

Some lessons in God's Sovereignty at ANBC

It can be easy to slip into the mindset that we are in charge of our ministries — to forget that, in fact, God has everything well in hand and most certainly under control.

This past week was a challenging one for us here at Arrowhead, and it served to be a stark reminder that, in fact, no matter how much we may strive to be fully prepared and equipped for our summer camps; God can, and does, have farther reaching plans. So, with this reminder we are encouraged.

We would ask you to join with us in prayer for a number of issues that have arisen with respect to our summer camp ministries.

• We are still awaiting permission and a venue to host a day camp in one community. We ministered there last summer, and were well received - we are still waiting for social services to confirm our attendance there.

• We were informed this week, that a community that we normally have a large number of campers from has made the decision to not fund any summer camping activities for the youth excepting that which originates from their own recreation dept.; this has the potential to have a dramatic impact on the ability of campers to come from that community to summer camp. We have received some sponsorship funds, this may help to some degree.

• We found it necessary to cancel the second of our junior camps (July 28 - August 1) due to an almost complete absence of volunteer staff. We are making arrangements with communities that had been scheduled to come that week to come on the other weeks.

• We had to cancel our 3rd annual Charity Golf Classic that was scheduled for yesterday - due to low attendance. This has generated several thousand dollars of income for ANBC in years past, which has been very helpful to our summer programs. Although this was initially discouraging, we have seen the Lord providing in amazing ways this summer that far outweighs what we may have lost to the tournament.

• We found out this week that the lifeguard that we had lined up was unable to re-certify for her waterfront lifeguarding qualifications. She will, thankfully, still be able to join us for our summer camps, but not in the role of lifeguard. We have made some new inquiries about finding lifeguards for even just one day for each week of camp. New Brunswick has a dramatic shortage of lifeguards, so this is also a prayer request.

• As we enter our last week prior to the camps, there is a great deal of work to be done here at the Center. Please pray for energy and wisdom as camp hurtles toward us.

W.M.S. and dustings and camp prep...

It was our pleasure last Tuesday to visit Jacksontown, NB and share with the ladies of the W.M.S. group from Jacksontown Baptist Church. It is always a blessing and encouragement to be with them; it is amazing to see the heart they have for mission and the work that they accomplish as a small group. It is humbling to see and be with them as they read letters from missionaries and pray together for the various needs around the globe.

This is always a busy time of year - and as we prepare the Center for our summer camp programs it was a huge blessing to have my mother and sister come for several days and help us with cleaning and sorting and organizing in the main lodge. I can't even imagine that we would have been able to get those things done at all without their help.

We are always grateful to have people come alongside and labour for the Lord here at Arrowhead. Time is getting short and I think we are ready in most respects for camp. Now a huge prayer request is for the Lord to bring those kids that he would have here with us. We are also hopeful to see a number of teens to go with us to Cape Breton this year! Please continue to keep ANBC in prayer as the summer rapidly descends...

Bridgewater Open Bible

It was a tremendous blessing, this past Saturday, to be able to be in Bridgewater, NS at Bridgewater Open Bible Church to meet with a team that they have put together that will be serving at ANBC this coming summer during one of our Junior Camps. It was a full day and we took the opportunity to go over a large amount of material. It's always a full day with lots to think about - but we had some good discussion and challenged Worldviews just a little bit. It's great to see young people who are interested in things of the Lord and communicating that in discipleship to others!

It was exciting to discuss the Gospel with these teens, and to see that they have a firm grasp of it already! We look forward to having them join us this summer.

Fair Havens Community Church

Last week we had a ministry team join us from Beaverton (and greater Beaverton), Ontario; from Fair Havens Community Church. They came ready to work, and work they did. It was their primary intention to complete the "adopt a cabin" project that they had begun last year, and not only did they accomplish that, but they helped complete several other projects as well. I had been feeling the pinch to get the property ready for camp - but by the time the team was ready to leave everything looked fresh and ready for campers. It has been a wonderful blessing to have them join us this year.

Heather & Ashley never seemed to stop working... and they became experts in a wide variety of jobs this week!

Thumbs up from Chris & Joe! Everyone worked so hard to complete these cabins!

Marilyn & Melanie kept everyone well fed for the entire week!

Andrew, Chris & Joe... put some finishing touches on the staff bathrooms - now we can use them again! (Don't tell the staff...)

What a fantastic week we had with these servant hearted folks!!

The team from Fairhavens Community Church. We had a fantastic week having these faithful folks with us!

Andrew did a mighty lot of yard work this week... betweel he and Marilyn they raked most of our leaves on the property!

a new camp out wagon!

It is with great thanks that ANBC has received this custom made trailer for camp outs and canoe trips. Thanks to Jamie Weber and Weber Welding in Wroxeter Ontario for making this wonderful tool a reality for ANBC camping programs. The racks on the side will carry our camp out barrels and there is space for 4 canoes on the top. Inside of the trailer is more than sufficient room for the remainder of our camping gear!

Last summer when Jamie was with us at camp we discussed the possibility of this trailer - and just what it might entail. On our behalf he acquired the base trailer and spent his own time and shop time and supplies to bring it to life. We are so very grateful for this wonderful gift.

Stan, Samuel & Jamie building the trailer for ANBC!

This is the crew that worked so hard to build the new camp out trailer! Left to Right is Jamie Weber, Stan Skipper and Samuel Cook.

Cabin Leadership and Discipleship

Well, here we are — in that final stretch before our summer camps. June 1st... it's hard to believe it's here already!

There are (what at times seems overwhelming) numerous logistics to consider when it comes to planning our summer camps. It is during this time of year when we really feel the crunch of seeing all of these moving parts come together. It is certainly a process that has taught us the importance of relying on the Lord! One of the areas in which we strive diligently is in connecting with Gospel grounded and Gospel committed people who are available and qualified to serve as volunteers during our summer camps in any number of areas. As seems most often to be the case, it can be quite challenging to find enough qualified volunteers who are willing to serve as cabin leaders. This is not a role we fill lightly at Arrowhead, serving as a cabin leader is one of our most key roles; and it is not simply a job we assign randomly. Ideally, as challenging as it might seem, we like to see an adult serve as the senior cabin leader; committed Christians of 20-50 years of age are most effective in this discipleship capacity. It's no secret, it can be very draining to keep up with a cabin full of energetic youth, but this shouldn't scare you away from this opportunity to build into the life of a young person and actively share the Gospel of Jesus Christ. You might be amazed to discover just how much energy you really have when it comes to camp.

We've begun to strongly encourage families and adults to come and serve during our summer camp programs; and we've seen great results in both the ministry and in the stretching opportunity it gives to the family as they serve together; and there are a number of ways that a family can come and serve together.

This year at Arrowhead we do have a number of volunteer teams coming and are excited to see folks coming out to partner with us in ministry. But we're still in great need of some cabin leadership for some of our camps. We need some male cabin staff for our teen camp (July 7-11); as well as a need for both male and female cabin staff for our last two junior camps (July 28 - August 1; and August 4 - 8).

We have a wonderful (and mandatory) volunteer training component that will help to prepare you for serving at Arrowhead; and hopefully challenge you with some of the aspects of communicating cross culturally in an effective, God honoring way. This training is taking place here at Arrowhead from June 27-29, accommodations and meals are provided. If, however, you are entirely unable to be here for this weekend - please don't let that discourage you. We are going to be offering modules of the training throughout the summer and may still be able to accommodate you.

It is a sacrifice to give up some of your summer vacation, but what better way to do that than for the sake of the Gospel; seeing it communicated clearly to young people; and building new relationships grounded in discipleship.

another little Fawcett...

Well, I suppose now that the announcement has been made on Facebook we can call it official. Liz and I are excited to announce that sometime near the end of November, Ivy will be a big sister. It will mean lots of changes and some exciting months ahead for all of us. For now we remain excited and eagerly anticipate little Fawcett's arrival!

mawio'mi: the gathering, ANBC Men's Retreat 2014

This past weekend we hosted our fourth annual men's retreat at ANBC. It was a bit of touch and go there for a bit; registration for the event was down quite significantly this year. In communicating with the executive we decided to go ahead with the event for this year. But with the low attendance we will be re-evaluating the event for next year.

I am pleased that we were able to move ahead with the retreat, I always find it a refreshing and encouraging time. Once again this year we were blessed to have a speaker who held high the Gospel and challenged us as men to strive to honour God in our very lives. pastor Bill Emberley from Grace Baptist Church in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia was with us for our four sessions in the Word - and what a blessing it was. We were further blessed to have several men join us from Chapel of the Living Water in Tracey, NB; along with their pastor, Josh Cameron - who led us in worship for the weekend.

The weekend is always a great time of fellowship and discussion.

And of course it wouldn't be a men's retreat without a little healthy competition.

This year the guys competed to build birdhouses; which we are auctioning off for a project at ANBC.

These fine gentlemen served faithfully in the dish room this year!

a few details

After the unfortunate incident with the moose, it was necessary for us to look for a new truck for ANBC. We now have this 2000 Sierra on the road; and as usual, Darren Goodfellow from River Signs in Miramichi, is keeping us sharp looking. Thanks so much for the details Darren!

First Volunteer Training of the Year

On Mothers Day weekend we had the immense privilege of being in Lisbon Falls with our friends at Lisbon Falls Baptist Church. They had asked us to come and offer the volunteer training program for anyone coming to ANBC as well as those in the church interested in looking a little more closely at cross cultural communication. We had more than a dozen folks out and it was great to be able to look at the material with them.

We will be having a couple of different groups from Lisbon Falls join us this summer throughout the summer and are very much looking forward to ministering alongside them this summer.

It was nice to be in Maine for the holiday and spend some time together as a family for Mother's Day. Some friends made their home available to us and we were very comfortable while we were there.

A touch of First Aid

This week Kevin and I went for our First Aid course in Sussex at the Saint John's Ambulance building. It was our year to re-take the program and we felt it additionally important with the Cape Breton Camp Out program. We will have an RN on our staff with us that week - but the more understanding in the group of First Aid the better. So, we spent two days practicing and addressing the basic techniques and injury scenarios. Let's hope we don't need to use any of them.

Getting ready for the CPR training.

Kevin getting into the AED training.

a little road trip.

On Sunday, I had the privilege to travel to Prince Edward Island with Kevin Strout. We are working on developing our summer camp programs and would like to make our programs available to the two First Nations communities on the Island. In the past there has been young people come from the island for our summer camps, we'd love to see this relationship revived. Kevin took me to the Island with the hope to introduce me to some of the believers there.

It was a good opportunity to spend some time with Kevin, who is working building relationships in communities in New Brunswick and PEI. It was also great to meet some of the folk on the Island. Lord willing we will see some young people at camp - there is even the possibility that we may be holding outdoor clubs there early in July. Details of that are underway, but in the meantime you can pray that this opportunity might come to be a reality.

Plans for camp continue to develop. Staffing is coming along, but we are still looking for ministry teams to come and serve for the first two weeks of August, most notably for cabin leaders. It is a great opportunity for families to come and serve together; it is also an excellent ministry opportunity for college and career and youth groups.

The men's retreat is upon us as well, prayer is appreciated as we plan and prepare; we'd love to see a great turnout. This is a fantastic opportunity for discipleship and ministry and we'd love to see it grow into it's full potential.

Spring Work Week 2014

Every Spring we hold a Spring work week to help us in completing some maintenance and repair as well as property clean up from the Winter. This year we were unable to do any yard work, as the yard is still much buried in snow. It is finally clearing, so we will begin with the leaf and windfall clean-up over the next few weeks.

It was so wonderful to have our friends from Victory Baptist Church, Newmarket, Ontario with us this past week; we had a wonderful week of fellowship and labour together as final renovations to the speakers cabin were done as well as finishing touches in the bookshop and a new tile floor in the staff washrooms.

One of the most vital ministries that people share with us in is practical hands on work here at the property. Without these faithful servants of the Lord we would not be able to maintain our physical property.

 Daphne was always helping everywhere, doing the dishes was a huge help in the kitchen.

Martin worked hard at completing the mudding.

Roger kindly loaned us his tile saw so we could lay tile in the staff bathrooms.
 

It was great to get to know George & Barb this year - they did some great work in our staff washrooms.

The team from Victory also did some finishing touches on the painting in the bookshop.

 Paul doing drywall prep.

We'd love to adopt these lovely folks!! What a blessing it was to have them with us this week.

The Speakers Cabin renovation has been a project undertaken by our friends at Victory Baptist Church Newmarket, Ontario for two years now. It is wonderful to see it come to completion. Although the "after" picture is beautiful - it does not do justice to the amount of work the team did to achieve it. After the demo, the building was completely re-insulated and plumbed; a wall was moved and a new window and door installed, new flooring was lay and the walls all freshly painted! It has been a huge blessing to get to know and work alongside these hard working folks!