FLIGHT FOR PATHWAY CAMP MINISTRY TO BLOODVEIN FIRST NATION AND BERENS RIVER FN

Thursday May 19th, I again had the privilege to fly Rick and Eliz Greer, the Directors of Pathway Camp Ministries into two First Nation Fly-In communities - Bloodvein River and Berens River.

We flew to Bloodvein and Berens River First Nations (both on the East side of Lake Winnipeg, about one hour north of Winnipeg by small plane) to confirm plans with local leadership and promote the upcoming kid's camps in these Communities.
PCM will held week-long Day Camps in seven Manitoba Communities this year.
From 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. daily, Monday-Friday in each community.  The day is jam-packed with sports, games, crafts, skits, and small group times.  We provide the campers with a hot lunch and a snack daily.

More info about this wonderful Ministry here:

http://pathwaycamp.com/?page_id=4

We missed seeing the children in Bloodvein as someone attempted to burn down the school last Sunday (only 2 portables were destroyed) and the school is closed while they clean all the surfaces to attempt to remove the smoke damage.
However, we have acquired the Band Hall for our mealtimes and some other activities for the week of camp. This is a huge improvement in facility for cooking and serving and we are thankful for its availability.


On the way back to Ashern we flew over some Interlake communities we serve with camps, gym-nights and clothing sale like Little Saskatchevan and Lake St. Martin.
Both communities are in a desperate state as the floodwaters continue to rise and swallow many of their homes. LSM has completely evacuated their community and a large number have left from Little Sask.

FLIGHT FROM WINNIPEG INTL. TO FIRST NATION COMMUNITY PIKANGIKUM ON

We recently installed a belly pod underneath the plane which gives us room for 300 lbs of cargo

Part of the cargo for this trip - two cases with 90 bibles, donated from LifeLight Ministries Winnipeg, one for Fort Hope and one for Pikangikum, available for the women ministry during the weekend.

On Thursday May the 5th, we flew into Winnipeg Intl. to pick-up Native Singer and Evangelist Cheryl Barnetson and her three teenage boys (they have their own band to reach out to the youth) and their music gear, flying them to Pikangikum (1.5 hrs NE of Wpg) for  Ministry together with New Mercy Ministries Piper Aztec

Friday (again together with New Mercy Ministries) we fly a Ministry Team of 8 ladies (5 in the Aztec and 3 with me in our Cessna 185) from Thunder Bay to Pikangikum (2.5 hr flight).

We had max. load with 4 people aboard and almost 300 lbs cargo - thanks to the cargo-pod.

The flight must have been a little rough on one of the ladies.

Here we have Linda Klein and Colleen Estres, Cheryl with her three boys and the three ladies I picked up in Thunder Bay.

After dropping off the ladies in Pikangikum, I flew back to Red Lake to pick up building material for the "Living Hope native Ministry's Drop-In Centre" in Pikangikum.

Here some info about this Minsitry:

Colleen Estes and Linda Klein serving Pikangikum First Nation with "Living Hope Native Ministries" for years,  running a Drop - In for the youth and also teaching christian values at the school.

Colleen Estes; Pikangikum First Nation,

“He sets the solitary in families.” The Lord has had me be part of the lives of the families here: facilitating weddings, welcoming new additions to the family, birthday celebrations, sharing moose meat, and being with them in times of heart-wrenching loss.

Linda Klein, a committed coworker and skilled teacher, has taken most of the children's ministry responsibilities such as Sunday School and primary Christian Education classes.

Forty-one from here attended the Warrior Leadership Summit native youth discipleship conference this past summer. All were impacted at the conference, but now most are “weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd.” My heart’s desire is to re-gather and feed these and many others who have open hearts

http://www.livinghopenativeministries.org/documents/Hopelines12.10.pdf

My flight back to Winnipeg/St. Andrews was a smooth one and ended with a night landing.

On Monday, I loaded the plane with supplies and donated food for Pikangikum - the weather was a little bit marginal but manageable.

Arriving in Pikangikum, I learned that the Barnetsons had to go back to Winnipeg right away, because of the worsening weather we had to expect for Tuesday. 

We took off (the weather hadn't changed much) and headed for Red Lake to refuel. From there we had a gorgeous flight till about 20 miles before landing, where the weather got challenging - we made it "Just In Time" into St. Andrews. I drove the Barnetsons into Winnipeg to their hotel and we called it a day.