www.arcticoutreach.org --- e-mail rinker@arcticoutreach.org --- phone 403-989-3715
Dear Friends,
At the end of this month of May, Karen is in Tennessee and North Caroline with family down there. She went for the graduation of our granddaughter and is spending time with family. I'm holding the fort here at Sunchild, but she is only gone for about 10 days. The public school here at Sunchild has a good number of Christian teachers this year and they have come to have a special prayer meeting here at the chapel several times now! This has been a special blessing. This month the annual Native Youth Conference had well over 200 teens and 30 were bussed up to the camp from Sunchild! A number of special teams came to help this month including teams from Drayton Valley, Caroline, Koreans from Calgary, and often locals from here stepped up to help.I will repeat our special request for help, because, although we often have help come in for ministry events, the work this puts on Karen to prepare everything for these events is a very heavy load together with all the other daily activities. We want to emphasize how much Karen needs help with Sunday School, youth groups, ladies meetings, and all the preparation for these groups, as well as all the personal work she's involved in. If you have to come from a distance and can stay for awhile we can raise your travel expenses, and you will have everything provided while you are here. If you can commit to staying for a period of time, we can raise funds to pay for your time here. If you know anyone who might be interested, please pass on this information. (Contact info is at top of page)
We had a fire on the south edge of our property at the beginning of this month. Someone had to start it, but it was probably just carelessness from a passerby. Karen & I fought it for nearly an hour trying to keep it from burning our fences and spreading to the buildings before fire trucks finally got here and stopped it. I still have issues from breathing the smoke fighting it.
It burned right up to our fence and you can see mission buildings. A neighbor's house was real close behind me in this picture.
In this picture the bus is loading teens here at the mission to go to the Native Youth Conference at Lake Makanum. 30 teens and a number of chaparones are loading here. Several other vehicles were needed for everyone including all the luggage. Karen went and we had good reports of the spiritual tone of the camp this year.
Karen took this picture, so couldn't be in it. This is our son Reuben and his family when she got to North Carolina. We all know how fast the kids grow up, and being so far away, we don't get to see much of them.
On Mothers day the ladies are painting flower pots and got to take home a flower in them.
The next two pictures are a friday teen night with a team helping that came from the Caroline Nazarene Church.
On Karens birthday, Rhonda made a special supper and helped us celebrate.
Below is a special Wednesday night service that was for everyone instead of just the ladies.
In this picture below two ladies came for the first time all the way from Drayton Valley to help for Sunday. They were a special blessing in both the service and Sunday School.
Special prayer requests are for the summer Bible camps which will be held here at Sunchild and O'Chiese, and Karen is taking a team up to Old Crow in the Yukon to hold VBS there. I'll be leaving in late June for the States to have my one year exam for my knee replacement, visiting along the way, including back on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota. So please keep us in your prayers. In Jesus, ...Rodger & Karen Rinker