Onion Lake Community Log Church – A Living Witness to God's Provision

Today was our last Saturday on this north Alberta reserve.  Since every person we met raved about this special restaurant, we voted to have our lunch there in S.P. The buffet lunch was good and it reminded us of home!

After lunch, we drove to Frog Lake to visit a family.

Onion Lake, Alberta/ Saskatchewan border

The Frog Lake reserve is a richer community than other reserves as it has oil under ground. The family we visited told us that Frog Lake just finished building fifty new houses.

However, the reserve is also affected by the sluggish oil economy, and many are unemployed. We prayed for the family and the community's needs.

We continued and drove to another reserve close by in Onion Lake. Unknown to us, we drove across the border to the province of Saskatchewan when we passed this corner!

We visited the a church Onion Lake, Community Log Church – a spectacular church built with logs from British Columbia!














We met the pastor – a native Christian whose life has been dramatically been changed by accepting the gospel.

The church is built with  logs from British Columbia

Looking at the size of the church building and how beautiful it was built, we knew that it cost a lot to have this place of worship constructed.

Interesting architectural design

They must have a very large congregation to support a church this size, I thought.

The size of these logs were huge!

No, the pastor told us that his church congregation was not  large at all.  He shared with us the vision he had to build a church and how he started raising fund for it.

The offering box at the church

It was a miracle how the spirit of God stirred and moved people's heart.
The church building fund was miraculously  provided by God through the donations of non Christians!

Staircase leading to upper level of the church

Because of the Residential School Policy, indigenous children were forcibly removed from their parents for over one hundred and fifty years and were educated so that schools could " take the Indian out of them.."

Overlooking the church from the second level of the Onion Lake Community Log Church

Since the Residential Schools were managed and run by the churches who did not do a good job, many indigenous people have a negative view towards the church.
Due to past history, being a pastor would not be easy among the native people these days.

Other consideration also makes the pastor's job difficult in the area. Because of their religion, some pastors would have nothing to do with things or ceremonies related to native spirituality such as sweat lodge, sweet grass for smudging, pipe ceremony etc. This would make the pastor harder to be accepted by the people.

We listened to the pastor's sharing and learned about the challenges of being a pastor in the reserve.

We prayed together and asked God to give him strength, stand fast and bless the ministry and the church.




R.T.
At the Border of Alberta / Saskatchewan
May 14, 2016

The Best Time We Had on a Canadian Native Reserve

Visiting another family in this northern reserve

The Last Friday on this northern reserve was a really busy day for us. After our visit to S.P., a small city nearby we went back to the Youth Centre by late afternoon.

 I was surprised that the Centre was quite quiet because the high school kids would be here playing sports after school.

P. sharing with the family

But I was told that the reserve usually would be quiet on the weekend. The Centre aslo closed at 7pm and few kids come as they know the early closing hours.











As we were invited to another home for dinner,  we  did some cooking at the Centre, and took it to J.'s house.

We had a marvelous time meeting J. and his family, Br. and To., An. and the granddaughter.

It was kinda like a potluck as everybody brought something.

There were excellent food - the BBQ pork ribs were fantastic!

Yummy Bannocks served at a lot of aboriginal  dinner gathering

Off course you have to have freshly home made bannock
( a must at a native gathering), Indian taco and various kinds of  decadent desserts.

The food was great, but the fellowship following our dinner was even better!









We sat around, talked and shared, then prayed for the family and the community.

Our young people led us in a couple of songs. We were clapping, singing and having a great time. 











L., one of our team members, encouraged Au. who was standing in the living room, to join us. He did immediately.

I think he also enjoyed the singing. I saw his expression of surprise when he saw us having such a great time just singing and sharing together.

Yes, Christian fellowship is a lot of fun! We can always have a great time without any alcohol, drugs or other illegal activities. Just good clean fun with each other in the Lord!



After dinner, singing and praying together, we went outside and To. showed us how to post in front of the tepee like a real western cowboy!

He also told us that every tepee has thirteen poles. I learned something new today. I loved it!









To. saw us around and introduced us to the horses.
We saw the little pony! This was my  first time I saw a pony. How tiny was it!

This was the best time we had in this northern remote community!  We always treasure the opportunity to interact and get to know the local people !



R.T
A Northern Reserve
Alberta

Eagle's Nest Healing Lodge, Alberta

A Healing Lodge, Alberta

During our trip to this northern reserve, we have met a number of the aboriginal people from the community who as young students personally experienced a lot of hurt by the government of Canada under the Residential School Policy.

The government entrusted the education of the native children to the church which ran and managed the Residential Schools across Canada - Roman Catholic (60%), Anglican (30%) and United (10%) churches. 

During this dark era, aboriginal  children were forcibly removed from their parents, punished for speaking their language and were isolated from their communities.  As a result of the ill treatment, out of a total of 150,000 children that went through the residential school system, 6,000 died.  A number of them were subjected to torture and abuses.

The Canadian government has literally caused a cultural genocide of the aboriginal people many of whom have lost their culture, language and identity.  

The Residential Schools existed over a hundred years, however, the victims would need a lot of support and assistance and a long time to recover from the damages. 

The Eagle's Nest Healing Lodge is a place where native people with problems can self refer or be referred by agencies to get help.

Our group visited this facility in  Alberta,

   


 We also learned about their programs, culture and customs such as the use of the sweat lodge by the aboriginal people.

Native artwork decorated the place

We found the Healing Lodge a comfortable and welcoming place decorated with artwork of aboriginal themes.

The big room where meetings and workshops are held

A Sewing Room at the Lodge

The Lodge offers a number of programs to participants such as workshops, counselling, suicide prevention program, relaxation techniques and various other programs.

We started our tour at the big meeting room where workshop meetings are held.






We had a good tour of the facility escorted by the director of the Healing Lodge.

We saw a number of counselling rooms where individual counselling would take place for their clients.

There was a sewing room too!

The Daycare Room for little ones while their parents attending the programs

For women coming to the Healing Lodge with children, they can leave the kids in the daycare room where they will be looked after.

A spacious dining room with a spectacular view of the lake

What we really liked was the beautiful spacious dining room with a spectacular view of the lake!

The Eagle's Nest Healing Lodge is a beautiful lakeside retreat 

An indoor sweat lodge at the Eagles' Healing Lodge for  the cleansing ceremony

There was even an indoor sweat lodge right on the premise of the Eagle's Nest Healing Lodge for those who wish to participate in the cleansing ceremony while they are here.

Chopped firewood ready to be used for the Sweat Lodge 

The firewood were piled right outside the Sweat Lodge and ready to be used for the ceremony.

Our team and the Director of the Healing Lodge

After the tour, a staff sang a native song for us in the big meeting room and he even taught us a simple dance!


We learned a lot about the Eagle's Nest Healing Lodge and gained a better understanding of the challenges facing the native people.

R.T.
Eagle's Nest Healing Lodge
Alberta

St. Paul - A City Ready For Alien Visits from Out of Space!

We visited the city of St. Paul in Alberta

Though a town of about 6000 residents, with its main industries being agriculture and oil, St. Paul is a bustling town with a lot of business and economic activities as it serves many surrounding smaller communities.

Though a small town, St Paul has a lot of economic activities

We brought our laundry with us and found a laundry mat in the downtown area and made use of the facility there.

We ate at the UFO Pizza Place

P. and A. were waiting for us for lunch at the U.F.O. Pizza Restaurant. This was not your usual fast food pizza joint with just a few choices from which to choose.

The pizza at UFO was just out of this world!

There were more than thirty different pizzas with so many choices of toppings to choose from that some of us were having difficulty making up our minds. Good thing P. ordered for us.

 I was wondering about the name of the restaurant when someone told me that  a launch pad was built in St. Paul, awaiting and welcoming the arrival of the extraterrestrials from space. Really???

The pizza was out of the world! I had never tasted such delicious pizzas! There were Caesar Salad Pizza, Alfredo chicken pizza, shrimp and olive etc.. We loved it!

We did a prayer drive and prayer for the local church

After our pizza lunch,  a missionary couple drove from Edmonton and joined us for a prayer drive around St. Paul.

Our friend took us to seven different sites including churches and business sites where we stopped and  prayed for each of these places.

Our friend explained some of the non profit business in St, Paul with its goal to build up the city and provide employment to benefit the people.

 Impressed by the companies engaging in social enterprise business, we all prayed earnestly for these companies to succeed and asked for God's blessings upon them.

After we finished our prayer drive, we were ready to explore the world's first U.F.O.landing pad in the town of St.Paul.

The town of St. Paul built the world's first landing pad for UFO's

Why did they build a landing pad for U.F.O.?

Are they not afraid of aliens?

I was really curious about this landing pad for UFO.

St. Paul welcomes the out of space visitors and here is where they can  land

We learned that this world's first landing pad is a symbol of  the great faith which the people of St. Paul's have placed in mankind.

The citizens believe:

1.In the future all space travels will be safe for all intergalactic beings, be it earthlings or from out of space.





2. All visitors from earth or elsewhere are welcome to the town of St, Paul.

Wow! That's a lot of faith in human kind and in the beings from out of space!

We did not see any traces of UFO's but we did enjoy our visit and took a picture under the landing pad built for future visitors from out of space!

Our team visited the world's first U.F.O. landing pad in St, Paul, Alberta

R.T.
World's First UFO Landing Pad
St. Paul, Alberta
May, 2016

Blue Quills First Nations College - Turning Something Negative into Positive

Aboriginal stone sculptures greet visitors as they drive into the college. 

Today we visited the first native college - Blue Quills First Nations College, located in northern Alberta, about a three hour drive north of Edmonton.

The Blue Quills First Nations College was granted university status in September of 2015.

Blue Quills First Nations College,  Alberta, Canada

This is a good news story as the aboriginal people had "turned a negative into a positive".

 They had turned  one of the  notorious Residential Schools into a  First Nation College!








We have been visiting a northern Alberta Reserve for the past few days and learned a number of things of the Residential School Policy and how cruel and inhuman the Canadian Government had treated our indigenous people by forcibly removing children from their parents starting in the late 1800's.

The displays inside the Blue Quills First Nations College explains the history of the Residential Schools

We were fortunate to have G. ( a former student at that school) as our tour guides during our visit of the college,

A former church chapel is now a library

We toured the library which used to be the church where aboriginal children had to attend service each morning.

The boys' and girls' dormitory rooms, the classrooms and various rooms that once housed the aboriginal children had all been transformed into offices and meeting rooms.













The history and past of the Residential School were painful experiences for their former students.

Priests and nuns had their separate bathroom on the third floor

Much efforts had been made to erase the memories of the school,

We saw very few traces of the past in the current building, except for the bathroom exclusively used by the priests and nuns of the school.

The kitchen area where food was prepared for the children

       The Kitchen

Dining area for the children is now a cafeteria for college students

        Dining Hall

The College now offers a number of programs to students such as  Psychology, Early Childhood Education and Arts.

Beautuiful artwork reflecting native themes by students from the Arts Department were displayed everywhere in the College.

Many of us paused  to admire  these wonderful art pieces.

The university is expanding and new buildings have been added to the college.

New buildings are added for the college

The Blue Quills University is open to aboriginal students as well as all Canadian students.

Tepee tents were being set up on the college ground for an upcoming cultural camp for aboriginal students

Visiting the university was one of the most inspiring experiences we have had on this trip out west!



R.T.
Blue Quills University
Alberta
May,  2016