Would you like a CAICW ministry team to visit your community?

Please Contact Us At:

Christian Alliance for Indian Child Welfare

Box 438, Caroline, AB T0M 0M0

writeus@caicw.org

LOUIS BULL RESERVE, ALBERTA CANADA

We were invited in late July 2005 to help the Louis Bull Church with their Vacation Bible School on the Louis Bull Reserve, in Alberta, Canada. Our first morning, our host family asked us to share in their family devotions. She began by playing a tape of Heidi Baker praying (Heidi and Roland Baker have had an amazingly fulfilling ministry in Mozambique over the last ten years) and it was wonderful. It set our hearts right where they needed to be.

On Monday there were 25 children attending the VBS. On Tuesday, there were 47. And many needy children. One little girl told me that her parents had left her alone for 7 days and she was very afraid. She slept on the floor without blankets. She feared they would never come back.

An 8-year-old girl had been packing her baby sister around for months. The baby was her charge. When I suggested she allow my Sarah to take the baby for an hour, the 8-year-old became angry, and then cried. I asked her what was wrong. She said that she has to watch the baby. I asked her if we could help her, so that she, the 8-year-old, could relax and have fun. She stopped crying and looked straight ahead, as if thinking. Then she finally nodded her head, and allowed Sarah to take the baby into another room while she stayed and made a craft.

An angry ten-year-old was not only unable to look at my eyes or face while I spoke to him (about some bullying he had been doing) but was even unable to turn his body toward me, or come within three feet. But finally he told me, while looking away and at the ground, that he didn't like the kids he was bullying because they had tried to stab him two days earlier.

Now - whether or not these other kids had actually done that, I don't know. What I do know, is that this is little boy in a tremendous amount of pain.

We also visited a home and prayed for a 6-year-old girl that needs eye surgery. The home much like homes in Cass Lake: needed repair and paint. Lots of children ran to and fro, including one little boy whose mother "just wasn't around" and he needed a place to stay. But they were so glad we had come, and smiled as we prayed for the little girl.

The children all danced around and then stood on the porch and waved and waved as we pulled out.

On the last day of the VBS, several children asked Jesus into their hearts. The family that organized and carried the burden for these children and the VBS, along with their church, are determined to continue the outreach and minister to these children at their homes. In the weeks since the VBS, the Abt family has visited many of the children. Mrs. Abt has learned that the little 8-year-old in charge of her baby sister lives with their grandmother, who is in a wheelchair. There is no other adult in the home. Please continue to pray for this reserve, these families, and these children. Please also pray for the Abt family as they minister according to God's direction.

We have so much to learn. I pray God continues to teach us and use us. I praise and thank him for what he has already taught us and will continue to teach us. I praise and thank him for what He is doing through the church on this Reserve. I praise and thank Him for these children and for having given us this opportunity to be with them and meet them and hug them and talk to them. I pray that He continues to give us opportunities to serve, and that we have the strength, wisdom and faith to follow where ever He leads and do what ever He asks. In the words of Heidi Baker, "love the one in front of you." Whomever that is.

Please Contact us at
Christian Alliance for Indian Child Welfare
Box 438, Caroline, AB T0M 0M0

or

writeus@caicw.org